Against Everyone with Conner Habib: Recent Episodes
Against Everyone With Conner Habib
Against Everyone with Conner Habib features conversations with countercultural thinkers and presents complex philosophical, political, and spiritual ideas in an engaging and accessible way. It's big, deep, good, fun. Hosted by your fav author-performer-occultist-philosopher, Conner Habib. Support the show via patreon.com/connerhabib
I talk with intellectual historian, A.J.A. WOODS , author of the excellent and very readable The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy: Why the Right Blames the Frankfurt School for the Decline of the Weston to the show to discuss all this.
In their book, A.J.A. traces the great movement of blaming everything good and bad - from trans liberation to sexual abuse, from religious plurality to totalizing Satanism, from fighting state violence to supporting gulags - on something called cultural Marxism.
If it sounds incoherent, that’s because coherence is not really the point. The illusion of coherence is. And the illusion is created by noise and density.
I have my own shaky relationship to the Frankfurt School, and I'm so happy to share this exploration with you in hopes that it will inspire you to rethink and/or revisit these philosophers.
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Friends, “The hour is late. It is time for unwanted guests to leave.”
That's a line from this episode's guest, MITCH HOROWITZ, in his latest book, Esoterika: Formulas Against the False Self.
The book as I see it, is a book of ethics. And its central question is: how do you navigate who you are and what your ethics are when you touch the continuously transformative fires of spiritual pursuits?
In that sense, it is a book for anyone exploring their spirituality.
In it, Mitch traces his own inner (and outer) conflicts with spiritual maxims. Particular to Mitch is the conundrum of: How do I get what I want, yet retain my integrity? What do I do when there's a conflict? And where does magic come in?
This is a great discussion and one where we navigate our own tensions of belief and disbelief; will and surrender.
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On this episode of Against Everyone with Conner Habib, I talk with esoteric author and scholar MARK BOOTH (AKA Jonathan Black), whose excellent new book, THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE: HOW ANCIENT WISDOM MADE THE WORLD, traces the occult influences found in modern science, especially the science of physics.
Mark’s book is not just an outline of confluences.
In other words, it’s not one of many books already available which seem to validate spiritual wisdom with modern science. Instead, it is something more singular and more needed for our time. It shows how esoteric ideas and thinkers, seers and magicians, intersected with scientists as they developed the theories that live in our own scientific worldviews.
Mark is also the author of one of the best introductions to real esoteric perspectives, The Secret History of the World , as well as The Sacred History: How Angels, Mystics and Higher Intelligence Made Our Worldand the ebook, The Secret History of Dante: Unearthing the Real-Life Mysteries of the Inferno.
Mark has been a dream guest for me since I started this show over eight years ago. Although we spoke a few times in the intervening years, I'm so excited that we finally got to talk in this capacity, for the podcast.
But we weren't alone! In a perfect example of spiritual entanglement, when Mark brought up the physicist Wolfgang Pauli - famed for the so-called Pauli effect or shorting out technology wherever he went - our recoding crashed completely, and we had to restart the call.
Luckily, it's still all intact for you!
Using AEWCH 317-320 as a starting point, I talk with JOSHUA RIVERS, poet and host of the excellent BUSY BEING BLACKpodcast + frequent AEWCH guest, SHULI BRANSON (host of the podcast THE BREAKUP THEORYpodcast, and translator of Guy Hocquenghem's Gay Liberation After May '68.) about the small task of remaking the world.
At the center of the episode is a thought that's something like: We have to lose - via transformation - so much to gain the world.
The last time Shuli was on the show was a conversation with a third person, too, with Dean Spade on AEWCH 277 thinking through how to think bigger than the state.
On that episode, we each brought a question for the other two guests, and we do that again - but this time prompted by Josh.
These are the questions:
JOSHUA: How do you care for what you love?
CONNER: If you let go of the set of capitalism vs communism (or socialism) what’s left in your view of how to change the world?
SHULI: How do you open things up so that you have a new and altered view?
Along the way we talk about poetry, science, occultism, politics, and...well, so much else. And the episode ends with dancing. I'm so excited to share this episode with you.
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Like many people, I often feel that I don’t understand economics, but, like everyone, I have my own role to play in the economy. So do you. So does everyone. We are all in economy, so we all have something to offer in understanding it.
AEWCH 24 guest Erin Ryan once joked that “Economics is astrology for dudes”
Economics feels intentionally mystified, filled with untruths and abstractions, and hopelessly complicated. Those who claim they do understand it are usually people (certain kinds of men, as per Ryan’s joke) who use the economy in a certain way, and are therefore limited to a certain view of it.
Because we are kept at arms length from economic understanding, we have to resort to questions like, “Why is this piece of paper worth something?” or , “Why do numbers moving from one account to another mean something?”
If we're not outright ridiculed for asking, we are often left without much more than broad answers that are detached from history and that lead us away from doing anything about whatever we’ve learned.
But these are the questions we need to ask, and we need to come up with new answers.
This is fourth episode in my series of episodes called A New Spiritual Society, working through how to renew, revitalize, and re-engage with culture, politics, and economics by looking at their spiritual heart.
This episode stands on its own - but you can also enrich the listening by starting with the introduction to this series on AEWCH 317, if you want to hear more about how and why I’m approaching. AEWCH 318 is on culture, and AEWCH 319 is on politics.
I hope you find this look at the spiritual heart of economy gratifying, and a help in circulating new perspectives that are closer to the truth.
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Friends, we might not feel up to the task, of changing the world, but not only are we up to the task, but we are all engaged with it already. Shaping the world is part of being alive and we all contribute, whether we know it or not.
This episode is part of my series on the social art of renewing, rethinking, and revitalizing the social organism:
A NEW SPIRITUAL SOCIETY
This time, I talk about POLITICS - why politics in our time is about so much more than elections, political parties, protests, and laws. It's about time, utopia, and connection.
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Friends, we might not feel up to the task, of changing the world, but not only are we up to the task, but we are all engaged with it already. Shaping the world is part of being alive and we all contribute, whether we know it or not.
Welcome to my new series of episodes on the social art of renewing, rethinking, and revitalizing the social organism:
A NEW SPIRITUAL SOCIETY
This time, I talk about CULTURE, what culture really is in our time and what we're being called to do to renew this sphere so it can be strong in its own right and withstand the pressures of politics and economics.
Support the show today via patreon
or
Make a one time contribution.
Want to work with me on your creative, business or everyday life? Click here for a list of services.
Friends, We might not feel up to the task, of changing the world, but not only are we up to the task, but we are all engaged with it already.
No one who has ever lived, even briefly, has not altered the earth by contributing their own destiny to it, and the way in which that destiny radiated out to affect everyone.
Shaping the world is part of being alive.
We all contribute. This is often broken down into a clunky simplistic and fundamentally flawed statement that “everything is political.” But the truth is everything in our lives - individually, with each other, and with the whole of humanity not to mention the earth itself - is connected to natural, human, and spiritual laws.
How do we bring ourselves out of the automatic everyday ways we shape the world just by merely existing, and into the intentional, purposeful, and true activity of developing a newly spiritual society?
Welcome to my new series of episodes on how to start to renew and recreate the social world in our time:
A NEW SPIRITUAL SOCIETY
Over the coming episodes, I'll be looking into the spiritual heart of culture, politics, and economics, to see what's living there, and how we can bring ourselves to the task of nourishing it.
With Rudolf Steiner's concept of social threefolding as a companion along the way, we'll move past old ideas and into essential, living concepts to move forward.
On this first episode, I introduce what I'm up to, define the terms, set the direction, and invite you along.
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In an episode that is at once political, spiritual, and intensely personal, I talk about why we need to see the Epstein files in the right light to understand what's at stake: for survivors, for abusers, and for the world at large.
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I talk with author, teacher, and cohost of Weird Studies, J.F. Martel about how art is the only way out of our predicament.
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Listen to Weird Studies.
Asad Haider, the political theorist and philosopher, whose book critiquing identity politics from a (non-class-reductive) leftist perspective, Mistaken Identity: Mass Movements and Racial Ideologyremains a powerful contribution and who was on AEWCH 26, died suddenly in December of last year.
I’ve reproduced that episode as AEWCH 314*, with a new introduction.
To plant a tree in Asad's memory, go here.
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In conversation with Pilar Lesko about change, Christianity, the dead, and more.
Happy New Year!
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Friends,
Happy New Year! And welcome to the New Year’s Resolution episode of Against Everyone with Conner Habib, featuring my conversation with esoteric scholar and writer,
MITCH HOROWITZ.
But this show is filled with special guests, including:
- Philosopher and writer FEDERICO CAMPAGNA
- Esoteric teacher ALAN CHAPMAN
- Bestselling author and death expert CAITLIN DOUGHTY
- Mystery and horror novelist SARA GRAN
- Christian Community priest and esoteric christian PATRICK KENNEDY
- Cap'n Jazz, Joan of Arc, and Kinsella & Pulse front person TIM KINSELLA
- Spiritual teacher and abundance explorer PILAR LESKO
- Rapper and cultural theorist VIC MENSA
- Artist and journalist UNA MULLALLY
- Writer and Team Human host DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF
On this episode Mitch and I talk about the resolutions sent in by these past AEWCH guests, and I hope our discussion inspires you to come up with a meaningful resolution for yourself, whether you’re listening to this before the year turns over to 2026, or in the days, weeks, and months that follow.
A New Year’s resolution is an expression of vulnerability. They reveal how we see ourselves, our strengths, and our failings, in relationship to the world.
So I (and Mitch!) encourage you to make them, and offer thoughts on how and why.
May this episode be a small well to draw nourishment from whenever you need to access some resolve.
With love, always with love,
CH
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Sign up for a yearlong tarot reading, The Year of Light, with Conner by January 5 2026 and get a discount when you use the code: brandnewyear
At AEWCH.square.site
In this double-length and in-depth episode, I look at the social-political project of the late 19th early 20th century occultist, philosopher, and social reformer Rudolf Steiner with scholars and academics Aaron French and Henry Holland, who are writing Steiner's biography for SUNY Press, and have just offered the keynote at Harvard University's conference on Rudolf Steiner's life and work.
On this episode, we attend to a question Henry asks:
“Is a leftist reading of Steiner possible?"
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Friends,
This is the fourth episode* in a series called The Spirit-Era and Its Aftermaths in which I look at the way spiritual, technological, and occult flourishings at the turn of the 19th into 20th century are still with us today, and in fact, being echoed by our own time.
This time, we’re moving closer and closer to our present age, away from the Spirit-Era and into its aftermaths, tracking the ways that paranormal investigations, and paranormal phenomena themselves, changed as they emerged from that era.
And I look into all of the with my guest, journalist BEN MACHELL, author of the compulsively readable and also illuminating book Chasing the Dark: A 140-Year Investigation of Paranormal Activity.
One thing I’ve noticed again and again in researching and recording this series of episodes is that the so-called esoteric, the miraculous, the paranormal are all common.
Whether it’s a haunting, someone who is able to accomplish a feat of endurance, or the ways in which the world is simply very strange if we just look at it without taking it for granted: these are not aberrant occurrences. We have all experienced them, or heard about someone who has, or have shared stories about them, or have found some evidence for them or theorized about them.
So when we tell stories about the paranormal, we are really just telling stories about the normal world.
In Ben’s book, he takes a long and thoughtful journey following the life and work of paranormal investigator Tony Cornell, a member of the Society for Psychical Research who appeared on TV, wrote books, and even was featured in a computer magazine for building a device to try to detect paranormal phenomenon. But unlike the performative ghost conjurers of the late 19th century or the fakirs in the early 20th, Tony (1924 - 2010) wasn’t trying to create spectacular performance, and wasn’t motivated purely by egotistical posturing as a debunker either. Rather he sought to understand what was really happening in people’s lives.
Through following Tony, Ben depicts a fascinating alternate history of the everyday: people simply living their lives, but then experiencing something they don’t understand and can't explain, something that feels out of place to reality itself. Sometimes the unexplainable isn’t the phenomena, but a feeling, a need to cry for help.
So a picture begins to emerge - the paranormal as the presence of motivators - whether in our own behavior or in furniture and dishes flying through the air that we can’t grasp, that we need help with.
What a change from where the Spirit-Era started, with the frightening glamour of the table rapping spirits and the ectoplasmic bonds of spiritualist gatherings. And what a difference, also, from the spiritual thinkers who sought to create coherent theories. Here, the theories fell away in the face of spontaneous phenomena for which there were no experts. But if there were an expert, Tony Cornell would be the best of them; and his approach was to live with the uncertain, the unknown.
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This is the third episode in a series called The Spirit-Era & Its Aftermathsin which I look at the way spiritual, technological, and occult flourishings at the turn of the 19th into 20th century are still with us today, and in fact, being echoed by our own time.
The Spirit-Era is marked by occultists, paranormal investigators, and magicians... But it is also marked by performances of all kinds: stage magic, but also actual magic. Stage magic passing as real magic, real magic posing as trickery. There were the performance of spiritualism, of charismatic theologians, and of feats of incredible endurance.
As in our own time, People had difficulty parsing out what was real and what was illusion. And there was no shortage of advice on how to attain magical aptitude and ability, or promises of unlimited health and vitality.
Beyond this difficulty distinguishing truth from fantasy, there was a thrilling draw to the ambiguity, and whatever power might be there, in the spot in between what was and what might be. This negative space, this open area of reality, affected people all over the world, including the middle east.
These tensions - between genuine and the spectacular, strengthening and the seducing, are the themes of this installment in the series - on Fakirs & Fakers with DR. RAPHAEL CORMACK, Assistant Professor in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University, and author of the highly readable, eye-opening, and excellent book Holy Men of the Electromagnetic Age: A Forgotten History of the Occult
Raphael’s book, and our discussion connects us to two figures who were emblematic of their time:
The performer-fakir, Tahra Bey, an Armenian performer who achieved fame in the 1920s as a man of incredible talents; not only to drive sharp objects through his skin, to be buried alive and survive, or to lie down on a bed of nails; but also to beguile huge audiences. Tahra Bey, who fooled the world into thinking he possessed both heritage and secrets from Egypt, and that he could teach anyone to do what he did.
The other figure is Dr. Dahesh, Palestinian-born mystic and teacher, founder of the spiritual current known as Daheshism, which still has adherents today. Dr. Dahesh was said to be able to take off his own head, to spring back to life after execution, and to understand the workings of the cosmos. He was also an art collector, for whom a museum in New York is named. He remains a well-known figure in Lebanon where he was both celebrated and persecuted, but eventually moved to Connecticut, where he died in at the age of 74 in 1984.
As Raphael says in this episode, “Writing a history of the occult is writing a history of something that doesn’t quite fit into the box of history, even on its on terms.”
So how do we interpret the performance from the truth? And what does it mean to desire not just the miracle because it astounds us, but the lack of miracles because it allows us to be complacent?
I’m so excited to share this episode with you.
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This is the second episode in a series called THE SPIRIT-ERA & ITS AFTERMATHS in which I look at the way spiritual, technological, and occult flourishings at the turn of the 19th into 20th century are still with us today.
In the second installment in the series, I talk with ALLAN JOHNSON Professor of English Literature at University of Surrey, meditation coach, and author of the excellent book, The Sacred Life of Modernist Literature: Immanence, Occultism, and the Making of the Modern World
In that book, Allan states: “The occult has always walked the perilous line between desiring a textual form while resisting the possibility that this form can ever be completely achieved.”
One of my big frustrations with spiritual influencers is that most of them don’t seem to have a good grasp of art, but particularly literature. They do something like this: they read literature that has magical CONTENT and create metaphors and analogies that - all-too conveniently - mirror the lessons of their own esoteric view. And they generally reach for the usual suspects: Tolkien, Le Guin, Coehlo, etc.
But the location of esoteric strength in literature is less in the content and much more in its FORMS and STYLES. These forms were brought to us most prominently in modernist fiction - in James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Franz Kafka, and more. But also by poets like TS Elliot, Ezra Pound, and WB Yeats.
In the works of modernist writers, the reader’s involvement is demanded to complete the text. These are writers who initiate us as we read their works.
This conversation with Allan offered the chance to explore ideas I'd been longing to talk about for years, I'm so excited to share them with you here.
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This is first episode in a series called The Spirit-Era and Its Aftermaths. Across the next few installments of AEWCH, I’ll be investigating the way the spiritual, technological, and occult flourishing at the turn of the 19th/20th century is affecting our lives to this day.
The Spirit-Era was a time marked by spirits, of course. But also miracles, hucksters, paranormal investigators, and genuine spiritual teachers. There were seances and fakirs, performances of incredible feats in private and on stages both which were thought to be revelations of different worlds, or worlds that could be possible.
The intelligentsia of the time might go to see spirits materialize in dark rooms. They might write novels inspired by meeting notorious occult figures. Or maybe they would decide to form societies to investigate the afterlife. Many of the Spirt-Era's most famous artists and writers found themselves inspired by and even joining occult orders. New occult organizations and forms - some with anarchist aspirations, others connecting to labor rights movements, still others taking fascist turns, - were rising and falling.
Like in our own era, new technologies emerged and others became popularized. The telephone became more available, and so, later, did the car and motion picture with sound. But also there was the fortune cookie, bringing a sort of precogniostic levity to the everyday. These innovations marked changing experiences of time and space across the planet.
Plagues, wars, sinking ships. It seemed like there was never a moment of rest.
I’m sure you can relate.
Two themes ran through the Spirit-Era: the shifting relationship of the spiritual and material, and the deep understanding that everything was changing, so anything might be possible.
In these episodes, we won’t just be trying to learn from history to avoid repeating it, but rather to deeply consider the Spirit-Era and conjure its best aspects.
Because within the spectacle, there were many revelations to be had. Some of them we take for granted in our everyday lives, and forget they were handed to us by people who took the great risk or the absurd plunge into the era's spiritual possibility.
We’ll look at the ways paranormal investigations pushed on science, how esotericism informed advancing literature and performance. We’ll even investigate whole world views with their own coherence, that developed at the time, and see why we can learn so much from them.
And we'll look at why so many of these boundary-pushing advances are stigmatized today. One reason I’ll mention now:
The Spirit-Era is difficult for us because it isn’t part of the past, but something beyond us.
A future where we allow ourselves to think in ways that dissolve the material realm as we know it, and try to understand the forces - whether social, dialectical, economic, or spiritual - fully anew.
The Spirit-Era reflects the past and the future through smoke and mirrors. Yes, the tools of illusionists and frauds. But amongst the trickery, the truth of light and surface is there. In the aftermaths of the Spirit-Era, we continue to use its insights and gestures to figure out what we think is real, what is solid, and where illumination comes from.
Welcome to this series.
On the first episode, I talk with ALICE VERNON, author of Ghosted: A History of Ghost Hunting, and Why We Keep Looking. The book is vast in scope, and considers the many emotional resonances we have with paranormal investigation, ghost-hunting, and why it is important to us. We start in the 1st century, and go all the way to AI in this wide-ranging conversation about the topic.
But the Spirit-Era here is unavoidable. People grieving, hustling, debunking, and believing all surround the seance tables, inviting new presences, new technologies, and new methods of investigation.
I’m so happy to present this series and episode.
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Friends,
When I was on my book tour for Hawk Mountain, I did an event with Andrea Lawlorwhere we spoke, at length, about horror. In the Q&A, someone raised a hand and asked:
WHAT IS HORROR?
Andrea and I both laughed. We found ourselves at a loss.
Horror :
Once you consider it, it’s not clear.
There’s the assumption that horror is scary. Sometimes that’s true. But obviously what’s scary for you might not be scary for me, and vice versa, so that can’t define the genre. We say horror has certain elements, but there are different kinds of horror to define its contours, whether it's body horror, slasher horror, cosmic horror...
We might turn to the familiar face of horror - the monster - to see what they reveal to us. But while vampires, werewolves, zombies express, through their differing powers and weakness, different theories about horror, they can't give us a picture of what it is really. They're contained by it.
Horror: Always on, always available, always around us. So… what is it?
I asked my friends PHIL FORD and J.F. MARTEL - the cohosts of the WEIRD STUDIES PODCAST - onto the show to walk into the dark - or is it the blinding, malevolent light? - with me, and with you, to see what we would find there.
Weird Studies is, in my experience of it, anyway, a horror podcast. In fact, my last conversation with Phil and J.F. was on Weird Studies and about horror: on Weird Studies 144, we looked into Clive Barker's Hellraiserand the book it's based on, The Hellbound Heart.
But it's not a horror podcast because it’s always focused on horror; many episodes are about topics and artworks that seem less than horrific (their series on each card in the major arcana of the tarot, for instance, or their episode on Herman Hesse’s novel about enlightenment, Siddhartha).
But there is a quality on each episode - a quality which we discuss in this conversation - of the threat of art, philosophy, image and sound. The way they invade our lives. Rearrange our organs Destroy the world we knew.
In other words, we might think of horror as a position in time, something approaching or orbiting. Or as something creates shadows by blocking the light, or by creating a void where an object once was.
You can hear me going in many directions again. Conversation with Phil and J.F. inspires that in me - being pulled in many directions at once. That's another way of thinking of horror: horror as blob; as spreading epidemic, as destroying giant, vaster than the safety of our shelters.
This is what I love about talking with Phil and JF and about Weird Studies, and also why I often think of their podcast as the only true sibling to mine. In conversation with them, everything a springboard for everything. A web of connections. Or maybe better said, a transforming activity, everything metamorphosing into everything else through membranous, visceral, and expansive moves.
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You can also find an almost complete list of the books, movies, etc we mention on this episode there.
Friends,
Is there any ghost lore in your town or where you grew up?
Have you ever seen a ghost?
What are ghosts, anyway?
Three questions, three different ways to approach (or be approached by ghosts).
Ghosts are at the heart of our folktales, our fears, and our fiction. And belief in them is almost universal. Unlike aliens, UFOs, cryptids, and other strange entities, belief in ghosts cuts across all demographics and borders. We're afraid of ghosts and fascinated by them.
As you probably know from listening to this show, or if you’ve read my novel Hawk Mountain, horror is deeply important to me: in forming my imagination, my way of thinking, and even my lens on spirituality. To that end, this is one of two podcasts on the topic.
This time, I just wanted to be personal, to have fun, to explore the pleasure of horror and the many springboards it gives us for conversation. To that end, I invited the hosts of my favorite movie podcast (maybe favorite podcast ever) THE IMPORTANT CINEMA CLUB onto the show, JUSTIN DECLOUX and WILL SLOAN.
This marks the second crossover between our shows, as I appeared on episode 422 of The Important Cinema Club to talk about working with director Joe Gage.
We ask the three questions up top, and explore three completely different representations of ghosts in movies:
- A Chinese Ghost Story (1987 dir. Tony Ching Siu-Tung)
- The Eclipse(2009, dir. Conor McPherson)
- I Am A Ghost (2012, dir. H.P. Mendoza)
We summarize each movie, and then go in... tons of directions. I loved recording this episode, and I hope you do too. Next time, onto the more theoretical-serious kind of fun.
Aside from The Important Cinema Club, Justin and Will have many projects.
Justin is the author Radioactive Dreams: The Cinema of Albert Pyun, and has a Blu-Ray distribution company, Gold Ninja Video. He's also the director of films including Impossible Horror, which Will is in, and Teddy Bomb. Will's new book is Ed Wood: Made in Hollywood USA, and he has a great substack here.
An episode that ties into this one, and that has more of my ghost stories in it than this one is AEWCH 138 with Edward Parnell, talking about ghosts embedded in the landscape.
And I mention a great book towards the end, Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture.
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On the second of two back to back episodes on christianity in the world today, I talk with my sister, LAURA SCAPPATICCI, host of the podcast THAT GOOD MAY BECOME.
We ask each other three questions about how christianity came into our lives, even though we were raised with no religion... and how that christianity is sometimes at odds with our communities and even, absurdly enough, at odds with the way christianity is itself of perceived today.
This is a very personal episode, and I'm so happy to share it with you.
Laura was last on the show on AEWCH 225 when she interviewed me about Rudolf Steiner as part of my series on esoteric christianity.
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On the first of two back to back episodes on christianity in the world today, I talk with writer LAMORNA ASHwhose latest book, Don't Forget We're Here Forever: A New Generation's Search for Religionchronicles her conversations with christian converts and the newly faithful in the still-secular UK.
In the process of writing the book, Lamorna has her own reevaluations of christianity and her own beliefs as a queer person. Of these conversations, Lamorna writes, “They taught me how to believe the belief of others.” It’s a beautiful sentiment and means that Lamorna is untangling the many ways to believe and understand.
But it raises questions, too.
How to believe others’s beliefs if they are threatening? If they are aimed against you? And what about when those beliefs are aligned with powerful political forces… can they be said to even be beliefs then, and not just coerced behavior?
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I'm so excited to welcome philosopher and author Federico Campagna back to the show! Together, we find the magic in defeat and the strength that it offers, using his new book, Otherworlds: Mediterranean Lessons on Escaping Historyas a springboard for our wide-ranging and empowering discussion.
Federico gives many potent examples of the hidden strength in defeat. Whether it’s through Egyptian gods or the writer Joseph Roth, esotericists or people who felt the mythic effects of being defeated by Alexander the Great. We witness again and again options that become available for seeing and creating new worlds only when - as Federico writes of the people in the book:
“Instead of clinging to the values of a vanishing world, or embracing the new rising power, they dared to migrate to the grand zero of the imagination where ideas and values can be extracted anew from the infinite virtuality of the possible.”
May this episode bring you strength and magic, even in the most unexpected of places and conditions!
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Friends: We need ideas which are not just radical or "revolutionary." We need ideas, feelings, and actions that work on many levels; that are systemic; that have multiple potentials for realization, and have enough points of articulation that they can touch on their own fabric and maneuver to witness themselves.
And what better place to start then the ground beneath your feet: where you live?
After all, you see the place you live every day. It's entered you as a daily language of patterns. It's become a set of expectations for your feet as you move through the morning. It lives in your lungs and gives your eyes nourishment. And I'm sure it also frustrates you sometimes, makes you feel blocked and angry. You might feel threatened there or bored. But I hope you also find joy, surprise, and feel held by where you live, greeted by each of its days.
When my friend and collaborator - the artist, organizer, and journalist UNA MULLALLY - released her new 10-part podcast series SAVING THE CITY , I found in it a perfect representation of that transformative ideal we need.
I also knew that Una and I had different ideas of what we wanted from cities. I like cars, I have trouble with a lot of bigger cities that Una loves. I even like an area of Dublin that Una has... let's say, different feelings about. But this is exactly right for transformation of a place- discussing with your neighbors what you want, what your concerns are, but most importantly what would bring you joy, piece of mind, excitement, potential, opportunity in the city
This is a long episode, and like a city, it encourages a sort of wandering. Stop along the way any time you want, think about how it will apply to where you live whether it's a city or somewhere else. I'm so excited to share this episode with you.
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Friends, When I started Against Everyone With Conner Habib, there were a few guests I wanted to have on more than just about anyone.
Happy to say, now, on episode 300, one of those central figures to my imagination has arrived for the conversation.
GRANT MORRISON doesn't need much introduction. He's* a rebel artist, spiritual visionary, comic book writer, magician, novelist, and nonfiction writer.
The first time I ever heard of Grant Morrison was here, over twenty years ago.in a talk he gave. And then I met him shortly after (I tell you the story in the intro to the episode). His work, and just his being, has been a guidepost for me since I encountered his work.
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GRANT'S WEBSITE
A note on Grant's pronouns: I talked with him after the episode about his preferred pronouns, and he said that the "they/them" pronouns were often used by other people when identifying him, but that he found himself using he/him just as much because both gender expressions seemed to limit what he felt his identity was.
Friends,
After writing my previous episode, AEWCH 298, where I laid out my thoughts on how to reflect on A.I. to get to beyond the basic, boring conversation, I read ADAM BECKER's excellent book, More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity .
I immediately invited him on the show, and I wish I would've read it before. Even though there is plenty of overlap, Adam's vantage point offer a full vision of tech culture, and reveals just how deeply anti-science is is.
That impact comes from the fact that Adam is great writer but also an astrophysicist, and author of the excellent popular book on quantum physics, What Is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics.
We talk about how we got here in science and technology, why technology has been conflated with science, how conspiracy and science intersect, and what physics has to do with all of this.
Of course the conclusion is that A.I. is not super smart, not supported by smart people, that the fantasies of tech billionaires are bonkers, and that the singularity is not near because it's not even a thing.
SUPPORT THE SHOW ON PATREON: patreon.com/connerhabib
Friends,
One reason I started this show eight years ago was to have big talk instead of small talk, to get us past surface conversations and into thinking more deeply. I hate small talk is because it’s so algorithmic or pre-programmed. It's limited by its connection to the past and expectations. I don’t want to have conversations that could be produced by just anyone in any context with predictable results.
I wanted something more living, surprising, vitalizing; conversations that nourished pushing my thoughts and feelings and actions forward.
So the mission of this show has always been, in a way, to address to algorithm.
The conversations on AI in the public sphere have been so dead and dead-ended even when they’re well-meaning. My big problem is not that people aren't saying brilliant things about A.I. -- I'm not sure I'm up for that task either -- just that everyone is saying the same stupid things over and over. There are phony debates held with unearned urgency, wild projections based on investment fantasies, and anxieties produced by deliberate mystifying hype.
On this episode, I go over 11 thoughts I have on AI to get to where we need to go for a better base level conversation. My hope is this clears out some debris and helps us to start thinking about in new directions.
In other words, this is more about the discussion about AI than AI itself - . I don’t have a “side” on AI - but I want to talk beyond some of the most repeated points
I hope this offers a fruitful new starting place.
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Friends,
Welcome to this massive double-length episode on religion in our time with Diana Young-Peak.
You may not know Diana, or if you do, it may be from exactly 200 (!) episodes ago on AEWCH 97: DIANA YOUNG-PEAK or THE GREATEST STRIPPER OCCULT PRIESTESS YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF. That episode was recorded BEFORE I had a podcast - back in 2011, when I was part of her small esoteric church, the Church of the Living Christ Order of Melchizedek.
That episode is at the end of this one - it gives all the context and background. If you want to listen to it first, you can jump ahead to about 2 hours in.
But you can also listen to our latest conversation first. It's both a spiritual assessment of where we are in the world now, and also an assessment of the growing presence of religion and spirituality in people's lives.
Two growing presences that are destined to meet: the presence of mutual aid community building, and the presence of RELIGION. I've never, in my lifetime, seen more interest in spirituality and its most accessible & durable pathway, religion, as I do now. And I've also never seen this many people coming together in new groups of belonging, with the aim of making safe and loving community and making the word a better place,
In my understanding, this is a convergent evolution that is destined for intersection. In eight years doing the podcast, I've noticed time and time again that activists, organizers, anarchists, leftists, and more want to talk about their religious and spiritual thoughts. And I've also gotten the sense that we have crossed into a territory where it is newly allowed.
My observation on this is that it's because new people have been allowed into organizing spaces and communities, and it's not just leftist atheists or white christians. Religious and national plurality has given rise to new assemblages and new belongings that call for new spiritual ways of seeing.
In some ways this is nothing new: spiritual movements, particularly small spiritual movements, are mutual aid movements. They provide space for conversations about how to consider reality, the self, the other, and the all. That necessitates action, and coherence. Feminist movements have roots in 19th and 20th Century spiritualism and magic. There were anti-slavery magic movements. The White Rose, inspired by anthroposophy, resisted the Nazis. But more than that, there's the many many groups living right next door to you and me and everyone holding small meetings. organizing for the sake of a sense of a greater good and full connection to the real.
Diana's group - passed to her from her mentor and founder of the group, Grace Hooper Pettipher - is one of these groups. Meeting together, when I was an active participant, in a small hotel room in San Francisco (now they mostly meet online), there was community building, connection, growth, and attenuation to freedom. I don't attend these days, for the most part, but I have great respect for what Diana and the group do with the religious impulse. And I hope this new conversation will inspire you to think towards or even begin your own path with community-based religion and spiritual practice.
I hope you enjoy this double-length episode.
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Lory Widmer Hess is the author of When Fragments Make a Whole, as well as a caregiver and spiritual direction facilitator in Switzerland. Her book chronicles her healing journey with the gospels - through various illness, medical procedures, and emotional and soul challenges - from an esoteric viewpoint.
Support AEWCH on patreon: patreon.com/connerhabib
Lory's website: https://enterenchanted.com/
Lory's book: When Fragments Become A Whole
Friends,
Against Everyone with Conner Habib is eight years old today! Not many media projects last for eight years or make it up to nearly 300 episodes at this point.
To celebrate, I talk here about conversation; what it means to all of us.
After all, if I asked you if conversation had changed your life, you’d probably say yes.
A conversation that set you down a career path, or a new place to move to. An argument that went haywire and ended your relationship. A flirtation that led to the great love of your life.
But we forget, too, that other people’s conversations change our lives. What does it mean to do a podcast, and how has the landscaping of podcasts degraded, fallen apart, as well as grown, in the past eight years? What have I noticed?
As a bonus, I've attached my very first episode at the end. It's clumsy, personal, filled with insecurity and uncertainty.
Please support the show - all eight years and 295 (free!) episodes of it - on patreon.
Patreon.com/connerhabib
Episode Description
I'm joined by author, teacher, and theorist, Douglas Rushkoff. He’s one of the most important intellectuals of our time, some people call him a futurist, but he's always a step ahead of the future.
The is the part 2 of the conversation we had on Doug’s podcast, TEAM HUMAN called "LIVE UP TO YOUR FOOL POTENTIAL". But of course, it also stands on its own and you don't have to listen to them in order.
This show is supported through listeners. No ads!
Please do support it via Patreon: patreon.com/connerhabib
Conner's Website: connerhabib.com
Conner's Instagram: https:/www.instagram.com/againsteveryonewithconnerhabib
And please also consider supporting Team Human on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/teamhuman
Douglas's website.
I talk with co-hosts of the Light in Every Thing podcast, Rev. Jonah Evans & Rev. Patrick Kennedy about meeting the world not as a "problem" to be solved, but as a realm already overcome by spiritual love.
From the archives - I talk with Italian philosopher and author FEDERICO CAMPAGNA about the urgent task of our time... which is nothing less than the recreation of reality itself!
I talk with writer, author, and esoteric health practitioner ARE THORESEN.
The language of inevitability is upon us, and it is a cruel language, one that allows no discussion of freedom or our ability to direct things. The future - a terrible future - is filled with AI, the effects of climate crisis, fascisms, and wars. And our present - a terrible present - is only going to get worse.
In other words, we're given a unified picture of where we're going and what's happening and how to feel about all of it.
Of course, the language of inevitability can only show us relatively little. A narrow look at presumed (or manipulated) outcomes.
The future is as wide open as ever.
Difference and mutability is closer to the truth: whatever happens will happen differently, to different places, and to each and every one of us.
Why? Because material laws and spiritual laws flourish differently in each person's life. We all have our own levels and areas of understanding, aptitude, capacity, and education. We all express differing variations on one theme, but that theme is the cosmos.
This is the starting point for my conversation with occultist, veterinarian, and author, ARE THORSEN. Are has been on the show many times, most recently on AEWCH 243, when we talked about illness, health, and the end of materialism. Also on AEWCH 205 on Ragnarok, and AEWCH 116 on demonology & nothingness. His most recent books, The Four Doors and Fading and Merging are available via Amazon. Other recent books (which you can order via independent bookstore through the links here) include Meeting Michael: Further Communications from Spirit Worlds and Travels on the Northern Path of Initiation: Vidar and Baldur, the Three Elemental Realms and the Inner and Outer Etheric Worlds.
On this episode, we discuss the technique of connecting with the spiritual world, and more specifically why meditation isn't enough... we need to walk into the spiritual world. And how?
My guest this episode is writer, scholar, teacher, and astrologer, RONNIE PONTIAC. I've been impressed and informed by Ronnie's esoteric work for awhile now, and finally, we got to have our first conversation. And it's a profound one...
We talk about the need for a spiritual path in our moment, and how the alternative is... well, quite grim. We talk about how spirituality can lead us into a path of hatred and personal gain. We talk about my suspicion about astrology, how I think it works, how I think it does’t work, why so much of it is wrong (and why Ronnie is so often right!). And there's so much more on this episode (Including my extended intro on the esoteric aim of being a Friend To Humanity.)
Ronnie was a key figure at the Philosophical Research Society founded in 1934 by Manly Palmer Hall. The PRS is still around, and promotes, teaches, and offers research opportunities into the esoteric & philosophical of all societies; with the values of freedom, community, objective study, and inclusiveness at its core. He's the author most recently of American Metaphysical Religion: Esoteric and Mystical Traditions of the New World. His forthcoming book, which can preorder now, is The Rosicrucian Counterculture: The Origins and Influence of the Invisible Society.
I talk with spiritual teacher and author Lisa Romero about the challenges that are facing us today and an unlikely key to progressing through them: the esoteric mysteries of Ireland.
This is the is the sixth and final episode in a series of episodes on How To Live in 2025, focusing on the thoughts, feelings, and actions we need to thrive, develop, create, and resist. In other words, tools that don’t merely deaden us in the frantic pursuit of survival, but that assist us in nourishing ourselves, each other, and the world, all together.
This time, the theme is READ
and my guest is ALEXANDER CHEE.
At the end of this episode, the exercise is a little different. First we do a reading for you, the listener, in the world and its anxieties and challeneges. We consider what they are, how to approach them, and how not to approach them. Then, Alex and I do a reading for what you could be reading... We draw a tarot card and let it give book recommendations.
Alex the author of three books, most recently his essay collection How To Write An Autobiographical Novel, and also two novels, Edinburgh and The Queen of the Night.
This is the fifith in a series of episodes on How To Live in 2025, focusing on the thoughts, feelings, and actions we need to thrive, develop, create, and resist.In other words, tools that don’t merely deaden us in the frantic pursuit of survival, but that assist us in nourishing ourselves, each other, and the world, all together.
The theme isPEACEKEEP
and my guest isCHEYNEY RYAN.
Cheyney works withThe Oxford Consortium for Human Rights. He's a a researcher; professor; founder of the Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict at Oxford; and author, most recently, of the excellent book,Pacifism as War Abolitionism and also ofThe Chickenhawk Syndrome: War, Sacrifice, and Personal Responsibility, as well as many articles on peace activism, pacifism, Marxism, and nonviolent action (you can find links to plenty of the here).
PEACEKEEP was a word I had to invent for the show because we have such an undeveloped language of peace. While the lexicon of war is extensive, the act of creating true peace in the world doesn’t exist in an active word.
That is in part because thewar system - as Cheyney calls the autonomous, seemingly inexorable network of war activities, sites, motivations, and contracts - has instead on the articulation of its own anatomy. It's entranced us into detailing its every contour so that we become more and more convinced of its reality and density.
This is the third in a series of episodes on HOW TO LIVE IN 2025, focusing on the thoughts, feelings, and actions we need to thrive, develop, create, and resist. At the end of each of these episodes, I’ll offer an exercise - a thought exercise, spiritual exercise, or practical exercise - that brings an experiential dimension to what I and the shows guests talk about.
This episode’s theme is DIE
and my guest is bestselling author and host of the Ask A Mortician YouTube channel, CAITLIN DOUGHTY.
This is the third in a series of episodes on HOW TO LIVE IN 2025, focusing on the thoughts, feelings, and actions we need to thrive, develop, create, and resist. At the end of each of these episodes, I’ll offer an exercise - a thought exercise, spiritual exercise, or practical exercise - that brings an experiential dimension to what I and the shows guests talk about.
This episode’s theme is CONNECT
And my guest is organizer, activist, and writer, DEAN SPADE
Our disconnection from each other is the negative space that power thrives in. It's a void that threatens to overtake us with its heavy unfeeling emptiness.
Connection is the remedy, but more than that: it's the great meaning we all seek.
The connections we form with each other can create networks of mutual aid, solidarity, safety, love, pleasure, and happy engagement with the challenges of our time.
Dean's new book, Love in a F*cked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell Together offers a powerful look at connection. And it gives everything its title promises: a wealth of practical steps you can take to learn how to live well in this world through what you learn in relationship with others.
It’s a book about relationships that takes nothing for granted from the dominant narratives that rule our lives.
Rather than trying to fit society as it is, the book asks us what it would look like if our relationships were built out of our desires, including our desire to create a better word through better relationships.
This is the second in a series of episodes on HOW TO LIVE IN 2025, focusing on the thoughts, feelings, and actions we need to thrive, develop, create, and resist. At the end of each of these episodes, I’ll offer an exercise - a thought exercise, spiritual exercise, or practical exercise - that brings an experiential dimension to what I and the shows guests talk about.
This episode's theme: PRAY
and my guest, BASTIAAN BAAN.
Bastiaan Baan is a teacher, author, and was a Christian Community priest in the Netherlands. His many books include the just-released Trust in the Future: Facing Uncertain Times With Confidence; his book on the relationship between Christianity and the elemental beings, Lord of the Elements: Interweaving Christianity and Nature; and his exploration of christian paths of meditation, Ways into Christian Meditation. He also speaks around the world on spiritual topics.
This is the first in a series of episodes on How To Live in 2025, focusing on the thoughts, feelings, and actions we need to thrive, develop, create, and resist. At the end of each of these episodes, I’ll offer an exercise - a thought exercise, spiritual exercise, or practical exercise - that brings an experiential dimension to what I and the shows guests talk about. That way, you won’t only be participating by listening, but you can actually bring some of the vitality of the conversation forward.
The theme and action of this episode is ENVISION.
And my guest is ROB HOPKINS.
Rob is the author of From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want and the forthcoming Falling in Love with the Future. He's also the host of the excellent 100-episode podcast, From What If to What Next which features a different conversation with big thinkers on each episode. He's also a founder of the Transition Network, which works via multiple initiatives (planting trees, local food sufficiency, alternate modes of transport, mental health support, and more) to usher towns and communities out of their entanglement with cultural, political and economic death, and into thriving and healthy sufficiency.
The task ahead is daunting: We must totally recreate economy, politics, and culture. How can we move forward with help from the three gifts of the magi: gold, frankincense, and myrrh?
I talk with money teacher and listener favorite PILAR LESKO about the spiritual realities of making, spending, and gifting money in challenging times.
Our inner lives do matter, more than ever, in this moment. But how do they matter, and how can we offer them up to the tasks of our time? And what if some of us get those inner conditions properly oriented to the spiritual work of the world we're in, but most people don't? Will any of it make a difference?
To discuss this, I welcomed author and teacher Lisa Romero back to the show.Lisa and I talked about these themes before on the show, on AEWCH 257, but now we develop them more deeply here, particularly in relation to how the world is unfolding.
Friends,
In the wake of Donald Trump’s second election win, amongst those who didn’t vote for him at least, calls for mourning and grieving have been issued all around. The idea being that something has been lost, that it may be irretrievable, that a brokenness must be felt and that we should honor that feeling.
But what if instead of making room to mourn, we notice that we’ve already aide plenty pof room for feeling — too much, in fact — and that feeling has been expressed in ways that became part of the problem?
On this episode, I look into the problems with our feelings about politics when they don't meet our thinking and action correctly. Rather than make lots of predictions about what's next. or try to figure out who to blame, or even assume that anyone who listens to the show voted one way or the other, I consider
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The problems with the intense expressions of emotion.
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How Trump was elected again anyway (with as little speculation as possible).
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Why the political realm is dead in its current form.
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Where we can draw strength from to create a new political life that can adapt to individuals and economies.
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What to do about the fact that a lot of people are our "enemies."
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The path that we're on in the world and in our own development.
Together and in each of our individualities, we will create a new way.
I talk with Faroese songwriter and performer Eivør about music, water, The Faroe Islands, and myth!
I talk with authors/teachers/organizers DEAN SPADE (Mutual Aid) & SHULI BRANSON (Practical Anarchism) about how to get out of the mindset of the state as the election approaches, and how to think about creative and real engagement with the political instead.
On the heels of the release of their first album in 20 years (!) I talk with Karate frontman GEOFF FARINA about music as a conversation with ideas, and how music creates a lens for life.
Michaelmas is the esoteric christian celebration of the Archangel Michael. How can connecting with the impulses of the holiday show us how to co-share their burden of those who are suffering; strengthen love through our will; and leave the path of empowering violence?
Why is white magic so ill-defined? And why is it vital for our spirituality today AND if the occult is going to continue to matter? This is the second episode in a two part series on white magic, and on this one, I strive towards a definition by giving seven points.
Why is white magic so ill-defined? And why is it vital for our spirituality today AND if the occult is going to continue to matter? I begin this short series of episodes by looking at Saint Brendan the Navigator and how his seven-year voyage from Ireland to North America, as well as my encounters with him, can help us understand what white magic is.
Part two in a two part series on figuring out - from a spiritual rather than materialist starting point - how to live in our moment.
Part one in a short series on figuring out - from a spiritual rather than materialist starting point - how to live in our moment.
Friends,
How does music become meaningful? How does it become meaning? And what can we learn about reality from music without reducing music to its function?
Rudolf Steiner said “The music of the spheres is a reality. As soon as we come into the spiritual world which lies beyond the soul-world, we are in a world which lives altogether in sound and song, in melody and harmony, and harmonies of spoken sound. Out of these inner relationships of sound the human ear is formed. “
I invited guitarist and songwriter BEN CHASNY AKA SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE on the show to discuss all of this. Ben last appeared on the show way back on AEWCH 45 when we talked about Rudolf Steiner and the spiritual aspects of intervals. Well... sort of. Ben's actually been on every episode for quite some time because we recreated the AEWCH theme song (originally co-composed with AEWCH guest, Jeb Havens) together. On this episode, he plays the song live and we discuss writing it together. We talk about the essential aspects of music, if there are any. And we look at the spiritual influencer culture of podcasting that has eroded its credibility over the years.
At the end, Ben plays "The Mission" from the recent Six Organs of Admittance album Time Is Glass, which is, as it turns out, about me and my boyfriend.
Why is transforming time the most urgent task? I examine this through the works of Jean Gebser, Rudolf Steiner, Byron Katie, Jeff Vandermeer, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Emmanuel Swedenborg, and more.
I talk with legendary experimental pop musician and philosopher TOM KRELL, AKA, How To Dress Well, about art, spirt, and connecting with each other in the vast distances between us.
Hope is dead. Long live hope! Whereas once hope was simply an audacious wish that we turned over to representatives of power, hope now can be a radical act through which we erode power.
But how? How do we leverage hope to help us direct and engage rather than simply wish and spectate?
To investigate this, I asked one of the most exciting and influential political thinkers of our time, JOHN HOLLOWAY.
John is the author of many influential and internationally recognized books, including Hope in Hopeless Times (the last in a series of books about how to find new strategies of flourishing and living away from capitalism, starting with Change the World Without Taking Power: The Meaning of Revolution Today and its sequel, Crack Capitalism.) He teaches sociology in the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, and has worked with the Zapatista movement.
In this episode, we talk about hope without delusion. Dreaming big without forgetting to act, acting small without forgetting the big vision, how and why we need to get rid of money, and more. I'm so happy to have spoken with John and to share this with you!
“The study of movement is a science of the imperceptible...” In the final episode of my series on scientific concepts, I talk with historian of science and culture, Janina Wellmann, about the mystery of motion, movement, and stillness.
I talk with author of The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt's New World and Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self, Andrea Wulf about the meeting point of science and art... and why it matters so much. Episode six in my series on how science intersects with our lives!
I talk with Predrag Slijepčevic, biologist and author of Biocivilisations: A New Look at the Science of Life about the radical potential of biology and symbiosis! This is the fifth episode in my series on how scientific concepts intersect with our lives.
I do a deep dive on the work of scientist, psychoanalyst, Marxist, and criminal, Wilhelm Reich... both on my own and with Dr. James Strick. It's a whole episode examining Reich's theories and experiments, as part of my series of episodes on how science intersects with our daily lives!
I talk with cultural theorist and nature philosopher ERICA BERRY, author of Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell about Fear.
This is the third episode in a series of episodes about how science and scientific concepts intersect with our lives!
I talk with wildlife biologist and the co-host of my favorite podcast, Tooth & Claw, about what happens when animals attack people, and why it makes for such a good story. The second episode in my series of episodes on how science and scientific concepts intersect with our lives.
In the first episode in a series of episodes about how scientific concepts intersect with our lives in surprising ways, I talk with author of In Light Years There's No Hurry, Marjolijn van Heemstra about the way that conceptualizing space differently can heal and transform us in the face of the challenges that confront us today.
On this challenging episode, I talk with author and psychoanalyst Avgi Saketopoulou about how to reframe what trauma is, and how to think beyond consent.
On Thursday, March 28, myself and journalist & organizer UNA MULLALLY, presented the event THE BEGINNING IS NEAR in Dublin, where we talked about the end of the world and what comes after that. It marked in person with frequent AEWCH guests, philosopher and activist SREĆKO HORVAT, and cultural critic and writer MARK O'CONNELL.
The event marked Srećko's first speaking engagement in Ireland, and also my first attempt at creating an "AEWCH event" in Ireland. I'd love to do many more.
The night was broken into halves: first, we talked about apocalypse. Then we had a short break and spoke about renewal. What arose was a challenging set of indications and prospects, failures and pathways.
Some questions that came up:
- Is the apocalypse always happening?
- What does the esoteric tell us about how to live beyond apocalypse?
- What is the role of art in renewal?
- Why is it important to evade the political realm?
- What is the use of hope?
Enjoy the episode!
On this personal, spiritual, and worldly episode, I talk with spiritual teacher and writer Lisa Romero - using events in my own life - about how turning point in our lives, and our relationships, can offer opportunities to help the world's development... if we work through them properly.
I talk with novelist, essayist, playwright, and organizer Sarah Schulman about bringing utopianism and reform together in the political and cultural realms.
I talk with journalist, activist, and artist Una Mullally about what happens after collapse and how we can learn to draw strength from the destruction of who we once were.
After a short break, we're back - and AEWCH 228 guest SHULI BRANSON returns to discuss anarchism, spirituality, and peace. This is a special crossposted episode with Shuli's excellent new podcast, The Breakup Theory!
I talk with author of BIG FICTION: HOW CONGLOMERATION CHANGED THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY AND AMERICAN LITERATURE, Dan Sinykin, about how the aesthetics of what we read is shaped by big business decisions.
I talk with fantasy and horror novelist Sarah Maria Griffin about what it takes - and what it takes from you - to be a working writer.
I talk with Rev. Jonah Evans about what "spiritual work" is, how it differs from other kinds of work, how it differs from spiritual practice, and why we probably can't just call everything spiritual work.
Friends,
Leftists and progressives more broadly are becoming increasingly aware of the lie of "loving what you do." And we're also becoming more aware of the ways corporations try to ameliorate real reflection and demands for higher wages via "perks" like organic cereal dispensers and "funny hat day" and other forms of glitzy dross.
But conversations about all the above, as important as they are, can sometimes reduce fuller conversations to a political/rights dimension, which don't consider feeling, culture, the individual, or even economy. One of the sites of labor where this is evident is the "dream job." That's a category that includes YouTube "stars," writers, podcasters, adult performers, and more.
My friend - regular AEWCH guest, the bestselling author and mortician and YouTube star of Ask A Mortician - Caitlin Doughty and I have been "making content" for over a decade. We talk about how the landscape has changed, where it's going, but mostly how this particular form of work is emblematic for the "dream job" that is at once elevated and belittled in our society, free and exhausting, life-giving and soul-killing.
My hope is that you'll reflect on your own work and dreams as you listen. And that we'll all talk more about how to make our artistic efforts more free and easier to engage with, while at the same time dissolving the "grind" of it.
Happy 250 episodes to this crazy, exhausting, fun, enlivening thing. Thanks for being along for the ride.
XO
CH
Why would anyone start a podcast? Doesn't everyone have a podcast? Is podcast work actually work? Is there a spiritual aspect to podcasting? (And also, why do we all have to work, even with all this crazy stuff going on in the world?)
Is peace possible? If so, is it possible or even okay to find it in a time of extreme conflict and violence? Is it ethical to work towards your personal goals in a time of crisis? I look at this from a spiritual perspective on the first episode of the year.
Happy Holidays, friends!
Track List
Elk River by Ben Chasney/Six Organs of Admittance from AEWCH 45 • Boomer Class by Dick Diver • What Have I Done by Anna Ternheim (live) • Sudden by Jeb Havens • The Speeding Train by The Van Pelt • The Land of Spirit and Light (Part 3) by Michael White • Galway Girl by Daoiri Farrell with Geoff Kinsella and Robbie Walsh live at the airport • TNT by Wye Oak • Ulna by Feathers • Steely Dan by Geoff Farina • Live Till You Die by Emitt Rhodes • AEWCH theme (Ronson-y version) by Conner Habib, Jeb Havens, and Ben Castle • You Forgot by Railroad Jerk
I talk with visionary artist and front person of Lungfish, musician Daniel Higgs about friendship, perceiving spiritual beings in a spiritual landscape, the way a presence appears in the middle of a concert, and the role trust plays in relationship and creating art.
Political philosopher of empires and subversions, Michael Hardt returns to the show to discuss how to walk on water when we're drowning.
I went to the island of Vís in Croatia to talk with visionary philosopher, author, and organizer Srećko Horvat about living a good life in the midst of madness, and his new project (with Bifo Berardi and Pamela Anderson), the Island School of Social Autonomy.
I talk with Lisa Romero about the esoteric answer to the question of our time: What is to be done?
I invite my favorite Norwegian occultist acupuncturist veterinarian, Are Thoresen, back on the show to encounter materialism and see where it falls short. Time, space, physics, animal communication, healing... nothing is off the table in this episode.
I turn to my favorite money-worker, Pilar Lesko, for a spiritual perspective on quantities, financial integrity, and spiritualizing money beyond "abundance."
I talk with Duncan Barford and Alan Chapman - authors of the Baptist's Head trilogy and co-hosts of the WORP FM spirituality/magick/paranormal podcast - bout misunderstanding magick, spiritual development, and practice...and how to re-connect to destiny and peace.
I talk with scholar and author Mitch Horowitz about why the occult matters in a time of chaos. We talk about the radical possibilities it might offer today, the ethics (and the unethical) of esotericism, and more.
To cap off my episodes on music, here's a mix tape for you of some of my favorite songs and some stories about them, too. It includes rarities, songs you might not know, live performances, and more.
TRACK LIST
Persevere by Dave Le'Aupepe/Gang of Youths (live/acoustic) from AEWCH 31
Purple Haze by Ris Paul Ric from Purple Haze
Before You Go by Sarah Jaffe (live/a cappella)
When the Breakers go Back on Fulltime by Daoirí Farrell
As Long As I Live by Bruce Penninsula
Absence by Antarctica
Josh Has A Crush on a Femme from Reed by The New Bad Things
Swan Swan H by REM (early version)
Jesus Christ by The Pupils
The Rest of the Day by Bedhead
Here Comes the Flood by Peter Gabriel from the 1979 BBC Xmas Special
Special Diamonds by Geoff Farina
Oscillator by Satisfact
People Die by Travis Morrison
Now You Are Free by Augustines
I talk with my favorite live singer, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, about earworms, songs we sing at home, the power of singing, and more in the third episode in my series of eps on musicians talking about music.
In the second episode in my series talking about music with musicians, Ian Lynch (LANKUM + FIRE DRAW NEAR podcast) and I discuss how traditional Irish music pulls from the earth and horror and rebellion to vitalize itself and its listeners, both boozy and sobered.
Kicking off my series of episodes talking about music in our lives and world with musicians is prolific musical artist Will Oldham AKA Bonnie "Prince" Billy!
Concluding my series on HORROR, I talk about horror's offerings to the world - which go much deeper than most people (even horror scholars!) suggest.
In the fourth of my episodes on horror, I talk with new horror star CJ Leede (Maeve Fly) and seasoned master Paul Tremblay (The Cabin at the End of the World, The Beast You Are) about the burdens and pleasures of writing such dark material.
In the third episode on HORROR, I talk with two award winning horror authors - John Langan (The Fisherman) and Sophie White (Where I End) - about the way horror inheres in places and in the bodies of everyone we know!
In this second episode on a series on horror, I talk with masters of the genre Sara Gran (Come Closer, The Book of the Most Precious Substance) and Nathan Ballingrud (North American Lake Monsters, The Strange) about creating forceful and frightening art, the fear of not knowing the truth (and the fear of investigating), why horror films scare us in a different way than horror novels/stories, and more.
Kicking off a series of episodes on horror, I talk with cosmic horror writer and scholar Matt Cardin!
How to identify and avoid false spiritual paths, and how to cultivate true ones (without judgment!)
I talk with journalist, artist, and activist Una Mullally about how catastrophizing helps keep things on the wrong track, and how to face four challenges of our time - fascism, climate change, AI, and the groomer moral panic - with new ways of thinking/feeling/acting. This is a transformative conversation!
Is academia beyond mere reform? How do we engage with wisdom, knowledge, and learning without the shibboleth of "education" - I talk with all of this and more with radical and researcher Eli Meyerhoff!
I talk with author and teacher Scott Branson about the kaleidoscope of anarchism and how to imaginatively and actively change the entire world for the better.
I talk with author Mark O'Connell about how we think of murderers - and how horrific crimes bend reality and change us - using Malcolm MacCarthur's murders. and Mark's new book on him, as the starting point.
I talk about developing a spiritual anchor in the face of material goals and political chaos with T.K. Coleman of The Minimalists!
In the last installment of my esoteric christianity series, I talk with my sister, Laura Scappaticci, about my encounter with the works of Rudolf Steiner, why they matter now... and also how not to encounter them.
In the fifth episode on esoteric & occult christianity, I talk with Lisa Romero about why connecting with love is essential going forward, meditative techniques and pictures to help you along the path + new articulations of true but vague tropes including what "all you need is love" means, anyway.
In the fourth episode in a series on occult esoteric christianity, I talk with Daniel Joseph & Aki Toshimitsu of the Researchers of Truth about the stream of esoteric Christinaity expressed by Cypriot healer and teacher, Daskalos. Plus. a beautiful meditation at the end from Aki.
In the third episode on my series on occult & esoteric christianity, I talk with writer and researcher David Lorimer about one of esoteric christianity's lesser known but most profound figures, Bulgarian teacher Peter Deunov (1830 - 1918), also known as Beinsa Douno.
In the second episode in a series on occult & esoteric christianity, I talk with Rev. Patrick Kennedy - cohost of The Light In Every Thing podcast and Christian Community priest - about how esoteric christianity and religion meet.
In the first in a series of episodes on occult & esoteric christianity, I talk with Rev. Jonah Evans - cohost of The Light In Every Thing podcast and Christian Community priest - about why esoteric christianity matters now more than ever.
I talk with writer, podcaster, and spiritual practitioner Duncan Barford about his path of spiritual development, the Baptist's Head work (with Alan Chapman), and the pitfalls of magick.
I ask spirtualism and AI researcher and professor Simone Natale: Why does anyone want AI, anyway?
I talk with an old friend of mine for the first time in 20 years - punk musician Ted Leo - about the ethics of the punk scene that informed our ethics, morals, and creativity... and why we need them now. Plus, Ted plays two songs live.
I talk with The Minimalists' Joshua Fields Milburn about how to see the world through a sense meaning, not a desire for objects.
Gang of Youths frontman Dave Le'Aupepe.returns to the show to talk about wrestling with the angels of music and time.
A special episode companion to the course Mysteries of the Tarot on March 11 - with RACHEL TRUE and SARAH MARIA GRIFFIN - On which I ask the question 3 times: WHAT IS THE TAROT?
Listener favorite Peter Rollins and I talk about 6 pivotal moments in our own spiritual development, and what they might mean from the other's perspective!
What is love? What is death? How do they walk hand in hand? Join me and my favorite mortician, Caitlin Doughty, to think about it all. Happy Valentine's Day!
In the fifth How To Live Beyond episode, I talk with spiritual trailblazer, early developer of Findhorn, and navigator of subtle realms, David Spangler about moving past materialistic and shallow spiritual ideas of nature and its beings.
In the fourth How To Live Beyond episode, writer and artist Fariha Róisín and I discuss the problems with wellness, and what radical wellness would look like - less tracking on your fitbit and more connecting with God.
In the third How To Live Beyond episode, I discuss the perils and benefits of abundance/manifestation/mindset tactic stuff with my favorite journeyer into business and money, Pilar Lesko. We consider how to get past money magick and how to de-commodify money.
In the second ep of my How To Live Beyond series, Lisa Romero and I talk about moving past entheogens and magic without condemning them + why they're not up to the challenges of our time... and what to do now instead.
In the first ep of my How To Live Beyond series, Mitch Horowitz and I discuss the good and bad of the new age movement; what to bring with us from it in 2023 and what to leave behind!
On the last episode of 2022, I talk with meditation teacher and listener favorite, Michael Lipson (prev. on AEWCH 139) about: meeting strangers • on being afraid of spiritual reality • jouissance • keeping individuality while meeting the other • longing for connection • what happens when out desires conflict with our ethics • needs vs wants • the spiritual being with a TV for a head • magic and the Moon • why every life matters even though we reincarnate • the three loaves of bread as an occult secret • Simone Weil and affliction •
Talking D&D, AA as mystery school, fantasy, curation, Lovecraft, conspiracy, and psychoanalysis with occult scholar Peter Bebergal and countercultural pastor Barry Taylor!
Norwegian occultist/veterinarian/acupuncturist Are Thoresen returns to the show to go deep into the spiritual experience and challenge of our time.
I talk about UFOS with Diana Walsh Pasulka & Doug Rushkoff + ask whether or not spiritually enlightened tech is possible. The answer: Kinda? But it's not going to come from the people running it now.
Part two of my conversation about why magic may not be the best tool for us in developing a spiritual perspective in our time, featuring Phil Ford & JF Martel of the Weird Studies podcast!
I talk about why magic may not be the best tool for navigating the world we're in with the hosts of Weird Studies, Phil Ford & JF Martel. Part one in a two part conversation!
I talk about the occult significance and spiritual offerings of horror fiction and film (with lots of recommendations!)
The conclusion of my 3 part series celebrating 200 episodes of AEWCH, featuring mystic podcaster Duncan Trussell in conversation with occult teacher Lisa Romero on Spirit, and new age scholar Mitch Horowitz in conversation with anarchist organizer Dean Spade on hope.
Mark O'Connell and Peter Rollins talk with me about immortality and God + Sara Gran & Una Mullally talk with me about art and integrity on part two my 3 part series celebrating 200 episodes of AEWCH!
Mortician Caitlin Doughty talks with paranormal investigator John E.L. Tenney + therapist Chris Donaghue talks with religion critic and journalist Caelainn Hogan as I kick off my 3 part series celebrating 200 episodes of AEWCH 200!
Mortician Caitlin Doughty talks with paranormal investigator John E.L. Tenney + therapist Chris Donaghue talks with religion critic and journalist Caelainn Hogan as I kick off my 3 part series celebrating 200 episodes of AEWCH 200!
I talk about the esoteric pathway of my hometown with powwow practitioner Robert Phoenix!
I talk about the esoteric pathway of my hometown with powwow practitioner Robert Phoenix!
I talk with anarchist philosopher of magic, Federico Campagna, about recreating reality as our most urgent political project.
I talk with anarchist philosopher of magic, Federico Campagna, about recreating reality as our most urgent political project.
I talk about all things gay and queer with the hosts of the Bad Gays podcast and author of Bad Gays: A Homosexual History, Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller!
I talk about all things gay and queer with the hosts of the Bad Gays podcast and author of Bad Gays: A Homosexual History, Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller!
I talk with psychotherapist Charlotte Fox Weber (author of What We Want: A Journey through Twelve of Our Deepest Desires) about why therapy matters, and about what our desires/fantasies can and can't give us.
I talk with author of My Sister The Serial Killer, Oyinkan Braithwaite, about crime fiction and pursuing all your dreams at once.
I talk about horror, fiction, and transhumanism with Catilin Doughty and Mark O'Connell live in Dublin + Offer a contemplation on the podcast and the value of novels (including Hawk Mountain!)
I talk with Swedish journalist and author Marit Kapla about her chronicle of everyday life in Sweden.
I'm the guest on my own show to celebrate the publication of my debut novel, Hawk Mountain! Irish writer/artist/journalist Una Mullally interrogates me for what is one of the best interviews of my life.
Here's a re-offering: instructions on creating your own autobiography of ideas, and my own lifetime of engaging with ideas and art.
I talk with Memorial author Bryan Washington about process, identity curation, and intensity in fiction. Plus: My US book tour dates!
Author Sara Gran joins me again to discuss occultism, obscurity, and the unknown in fiction.
I'm joined by geomancer, legendary artist, and founder of the OHO Movement, Marko Pogačnik, to discuss lithopuncture and elemental beings. This is one of those episodes that gets strange in the best way possible.
In the second installment in a series on Irish magic, I talk to anthropologist Dennis Gaffin about the ever-present influence of fairies in Ireland.
Kicking of my series on Irish magic, I talk with witchcraft scholar Andrew Sneddon about Irish witches and belief!
In the final episode on my series on esoteric christianity, I talk with Seth Jordan about the healing potential of social threefolding - a cultural/political/economic approach that arose from christian occultism
In which I read from my novel, Hawk Mountain, out this summer from W.W.Norton (US) and Doubleday/Penguin. I also talk about a mind-blowing bit of praise I got, my obsession with horror from a young age, and how you can preorder the book now.
I talk esoteric christianity and friendship with historian Anne Weise, whose book on Holocaust victim Alfred Bergel - and his friendship with anthroposophist Karl König - is both deeply poignant and utterly relevant. This is the fourth episode in my series about esoteric christianity.
I talk with founder of the MysTech study group, author and teacher Andrew Linnell, about a truly spiritual approach to the challenges and benefits of tech. This is the third episode in my series on esoteric Christianity.
In the second episode in my esoteric and occult christianity series, I talk with writer and spiritual teacher Lisa Romero; and she offers a potent spiritual exercise.
In the first episode of a series on esoteric and occult Christianity, I speak with Rev. Patrick Kennedy of the Christian Community and cohost of the amazing podcast The Light In Everything.
I talk with Dr. Chris Donaghue about navigating relationships in the final installment of my How To Live in 2022 series of episodes!
I talk with organizer and activist Dean Spade about spirituality in organizing on the fifth installment of my How To Live in 2022 series!
In the fourth of my How To Live in 2022 series, I talk with Jessica Dore - tarot reader, author, and mystic philosopher.
I talk with philosopher and writer Zena Hitz about the importance of learning for its own sake in this third episode in a series on How To Live,
On part 1 of my How To Live in 2022 series, I talk with occult scholar Mitch Horowitz about how to use the 7 Hermetic Principles in your daily life.
I talk with death expert and Ask A Mortician host Caitlin Doughty about the year about to die and what we need to leave behind as we move into 2022.
I'm so proud to share with you a comprehensive introduction and exploration of Irish mystic philosopher John Moriarty's work. The episode is a recording of the event I curated at the National Concert Hall, Republic of Birds, featuring me, Simone George, Mary McGillicuddy, and Dónal Ó Céilleachair.
I talk about witchcraft and magic's place in the future with authors and founders of Scarlet Imprint, Alkistis Dimech & Peter Grey!
I talk with scientific genius James Lovelock about the Gaia theory, the computer beings that will save us from climate change, and Rudolf Steiner.
A live episode with Una Mullally and Andrea Horan of the United Ireland podcast, talking exercises you can do to start creating utopia now.
I talk with archaeologist and co-author (with AEWCH 99 guest, David Graeber) of The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, David Wengrow!
I talk with master of horror Ramsey Campbell about credulity and violence in horror narratives. Happy Halloween!
I break down Jacques Lacan's psychoanalysis/philosophy with theologian Peter Rollins + we discuss how it can be applied to culture/politics/economy.
I talk with the hosts of the wildly popular Weird Studies podcast about the philosophy of the weird.
I talk with philosopher, historian, nature writer, and memoirist Philip Hoare about animals (especially whales), and nature (especially water).
I talk with journalist, author, and filmmaker Jon Ronson about walking away from snark, violence, and cruelty - even when we're anxious.
I talk about compassion and love with forensic psychiatrist Gwen Adshead, whose patients include serial killers and other violent offenders.
I talk with my best friend and (yikes!) ex-boyfriend - game designer and musician Jeb Havens - about the way love transforms us and also what a terrible boyfriend I was.
I talk with political journalist and documentarian Abby Martin about the love behind all activism and social change.
I talk with creator of The Midnight Gospel and The Duncan Trussell Family Hour, Duncan Trussell, about love and heartache.
I talk with bestselling horror author Paul Tremblay about why horror moves and repels us.
I talk with poet and editor Daniel Poppick about conversation and the way poetry evades the loss of possibility.
I talk about the problems with environmental narratives and conservationism with science writer Michelle Nijhuis.
I talk about the occult view on evolution & death, and especially what that means for our concept of extinction.
I talk timeline jumping, freedom, love, individuated spirituality, and more with energy mechanics worker Pilar Lesko.
I talk about the occult potency of James Joyce's Ulysses in conjunction with my new online book club, Ulysses for the Rest of Us, for the Museum of Literature Ireland!
I talk with occult and paranormal scholar Terje Simonsen about the uses and misuses of the paranormal.
Writer/artist/activist Una Mullally returns to AEWCH to talk utopia, folkloric animals, and the radical changes ahead.
On the 150th episode (!!!) I talk about what happens after we die from an occult perspective, and why it matters for our politics and philosophies.
I talk with author Carmen Maria Machado about the way desires always outrun us, about horror, about abuse narratives, and about genre.
I talk with anthropologist Stuart McLean about reality and unreality, and why the difference between them isn't what we think.
I talk with gender studies professor Dr. Heather Berg about my old job and her tremendous new book.
I talk with rapper and activist Vic Mensa about meditation, sexuality in hip hop, why identifying with a dream is as important as resistance, oh and that time Vic snuck into Stonehenge.
I talk with religion and UFO scholar Diana Walsh Pasulka about aliens, academia, AI, and how to stay in spiritual integrity.
I talk with philosopher and activist Srećko Horvat about why we need to liberate time & space if we want to avoid the destruction of everything we love. So, yeah, we should probably get on that.
I talk with author, tarot reader, and actress Rachel True about tarot in politics, philosophy, and practice.
I talk with religious scholar and author Jason Storm about the need for new theorizing, occultism on the left, and the wrongheadedness of "re-enchanting" the world.
I talk with Blindboy Boatclub, host of The Blindboy podcast, author, and one half of the absurdist music duo The Rubberbandits, about art, time, the Irish consciousness, and landlords that are also ducks.
I talk with spiritual psychologist and author Michael Lipson about consciousness as the foundation of action, despair as a form of hope, and psychoanalysis and occultism.
I talk about the reality, unreality, and potency of ghosts and ghost stories in our time with author Edward Parnell.
I talk with new age/self help scholar and writer Mitch Horowitz about how to envision the world we want, and why - far from being selfish and consumerist - that matters now more than ever.
I talk about the year ahead and its spiritual and political challenges from an occult Christian perspective.
I talk with cohosts of the Fundamentalists podcast, theologian Peter Rollins and Valleyfolk comedian Elliott Morgan, about the insularity of belief.
Death professional & bestselling author Caitlin Doughty returns to AEWCH to review the Year in Death, and to discuss living in uncertainty!
Paranormal investigator John E.L. Tenney joins me to discuss the wonderful supernatural craziness of the world, the rise of ghost encounters in lockdown, and how (not) to be a paranormal researcher.
What if our relationship with the State is over? A repost of AEWCH 9 with a new intro about the "election" and the global crisis.
I talk about mutual aid as the alternative to exploitative governmental politics and corporate greed with activist Dean Spade.
I talk with author, herbalist, and Travellers' rights activist Oein DeBhairduin about the life of indigenous Irish folktales.
I talk with legendary health and fitness practitioner Paul Chek (host of Living 4D With Paul Chek and founder of the CHEK Institute) about wholeness, heath, and our current crisis. This is a dizzying episode, friends.
Dan Gretton, author of I You We Them: Walking Into The World Of The Desk Killer, joins me to discuss people who murder as an act of government or corporate interest - by signing a piece of paper.
Witchcraft/Occult publishers (Scarlet Imprint) + performers & writers Alkistis Dimech & Peter Grey join me to discuss the end of the world and witchcraft's intrinsic role in and with it.
I talk with Doug Rushkoff - media analyst, prolific author, and host of the Team Human podcast - about how being human is the best strategy in an anti-human era.
I talk with gay adult performer and writer Ty Mitchell about the unilluminated corners of adult performance and the erosion of touch.
I talk with political theorist, Marxist, feminist, and philosopher Kathi Weeks about destroying work with utopianism.
I talk with philosopher, occultist, and writer Scott Elliot Hicks about why we need to do occult work to change thinking itself, not just our thoughts, if we want to change the world. This is a deeeep one, friends.
The incomparable Mona Eltahawy - author, feminist, muslim, anarchist - returns to talk masks/veiling, public/private bodies and of course we talk how to destroy patriarchy! Plus: we read June Jordan and Cavafy poems!
I talk with Michael Hardt, one of the most important political theorists of our time, and co-author, with Antonio Negri, of the paradigm-changing books Empire, Multitude, Commonwealth, and Assembly.
I talk with legendary musician, Fugazi/The Evens/Coriky frontman, archivist, and founder of Dischord Records, Ian MacKaye about punk as folk music, spirituality, and the finding peace.
I talk with musician, occult scholar, and author, Phil Legard about evoking landscapes with magical music + the trouble with summoning demons.
I talk with host of The Michael Brooks Show and author of Against The Web, Michael Brooks, about spirituality and the left. This is a repost of AEWCH 80, in honor of Michael. He died on July 20, 2020, at age 37.
I talk with author, veterinarian, Christian occultist, and acupuncturist Are Thoresen about demons, the Nothingness of Christ, and more. Deep dive.
I talk with cultural critic and internet historian, Joanne McNeil, whose amazing book, Lurking: How A Person Became A User details the internet from a user's perspective.
I talk with author of Abolish Silicon Valley & former software engineer/startup founder, Wendy Liu, about the many and horrible problems of tech.
I talk about the intersection of tech, art, magic, and the self with legendary artist/occult-tech pioneer Duncan Laurie!
I talk with writer and rogue theologian Peter Bebergal about the urgent need to view tech from an occult persopective.
I talk about why we need a global solidarity movement with protestors and what obstacles and perspectives are available to us now.
I talk with two incredible economic thinkers and activists, John Bloom (of RSF Social Finance) and Conor McCabe (his second appearance on the show, his first was on AEWCH 76!) in plain language about how we need to think about the economy as we emerge from global crisis.
I talk with legendary and real musician Stephen Malkmus about the clashes between philosophy & art, Deleuze & Guattari, and a whole lot more. What a dream come true, friends.
I talk about how to move from the crisis towards a utopia; using philosophy, occultism, breathing, and activism.
I talk with Srećko Horvat - author, philosopher, and cofounder of of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) - about the myths of our current crisis, how to break free from them, and why the occult matters for leftist politics.
I talk with Sophie Lewis - family abolitionist, water-theorist, and author of Full Surrogacy Now - about magic, politics, and why "stay the f**k at home" is not enough.
I talk with Mark O'Connell, author of Notes From An Apocalypse, and To Be A Machine, about how apocalypses fulfill our fantasies, how tech culture is tangled up in apocalypses, and why doomsday prepping doesn't work.
I talk with Rune Soup host, magician, and author Gordon White about the importance of spirits in our strange new moment.
I talk with Kate Lister, the historian behind the ingenious Whores Of Yore account, and author of The Curious History Of Sex, about...well, what else?
I talk with author and intellectual Katherine Angel (Unmastered & Daddy Issues) about the problems with consent, and why we need uncertainty in our politics.
I celebrate the 100th episode of AEWCH (!) by tracing the history of of ideas in my life, and I show you how to do the same.
I talk with anthropologist, activist, and prolific writer David Graeber (Debt: The First 5000 Years, On Kings, etc.) about the spiritual currents that run through the political realm.
I'm joined by witchcraft and magic scholar, Dr. Thomas Waters (Imperial College, London), to talk about misconceptions about witchcraft, why we should take victims of witchcraft seriously, and his excellent book, Cursed Britain: A History of Witchcraft and Black Magic in Modern Times.
I talk religion, gods, and initiation with my friend; the priestess of the Church Of The Living Christ, Order Of Melchizedek, Diana Young-Peak.
I talk with journalist Caelainn Hogan, author of Republic Of Shame, about the mother-baby-homes in Ireland, the mass graves of children that died in them, and what to do with complex issues of oppression and power.
I talk with legendary writer and intellectual Maggie Nelson about...well, everything. But especially art and violence, compassion and algorithms, aging and desire. It's a wide-ranging and profound conversation.
I talk about the bad (mostly online) politics of the last decade and why we don't need them anymore. This is part of a three part series of me talking 2019/2020 - the first of which appears on The Duncan Trusell Family Hour, the third appears on Rune Soup!
I talk with dark young adult and fantasy writer Sarah Maria Griffin about magic, the paranormal, violence in art, and a WHOLE LOT of David Lynch.
A solo ep inspired by Lynn Margulis (from AEWCH 91) and philosopher Michel Serres, in which I look at scientific theories of the origins of sex and what they can tell us about ourselves today!
Lynn Margulis - geoscientist and biologist - was the most important thinker of the past 50 years. In this, the last recorded conversation with her before her death in 2011, we talk about symbiosis, Gaia, and why other biologists have such a hard time understanding evolution. I also give a lengthy intro to Lynn's work.
I talk with musician, TED Talker, Dresden Doll, and activist, Amanda Palmer about interconnectedness, memory, dissonance, and compassion.
I talk with Brian O'Connor - philosopher of idleness and Adorno scholar - about why we shouldn't feel bad about being leisurely, lazy comrades, and about why self-improvement is a capitalist trap.
In my first ep with another gay performer, I talk with one-time scene partner Johnny Hazzard! We present a picture of our era in "the industry," with all of its benefits and pitfalls.
I talk with journalist, activist, and podcaster Una Mullally about how to cultivate our selves, our sense of the past, and our connection with place to destroy neoliberalism and capitalism. It's such a good one, folks.
I talk with one of the greatest living writers, Kevin Barry, about witches, fairies, violence, and Ireland. Plus Kevin reads his amazing story, "A Cruelty".
On this episode, I talk about how having a job is deadening and deadly, and why we need to do away with work all together.
I talk with writer and theorist Joanna Walsh about the ways we relate (and don't relate now). Joanna also reads her amazing short story, "Vagues" from her collection, Vertigo.
I talk with one of the most important philosophers of our time, Franco "Bifo" Berardi, about the end of political resistance, poetry, meditation, magic, capitalism, socialism...really, you name it and we go there.
A repost of AEWCH 22, where I talk shit about nature for, I think, urgent reasons. The ep features a new intro and a bit on my upcoming project.
I talk with peacemaker, theologian, and writer Padraig Ó Tuama about God, loneliness, walking away from power, and All Star Superman.
I talk with the host of The Michael Brooks Report...you guessed it, Michael Brooks! Michael and I cover a lot of ground, but stay close top the topic of spirituality and the left, and why spiritual values have been the site of leftist suspicion for a long time. We also, of course, talk all about Marianne Williamson.
I talk to music legend, political rock star, and one of my heroes, Billy Bragg about the three dimensions of freedom: liberty, equality, and accountability. We also talk flat earthers, Marianne Williamson, the Billy Bragg songs I used to sing to my abusive ex-bf and more. This is an amazing and healing episode for me, and I know it will enliven you too. XO/CH
I talk how Aesop's fables fight empire with legendary Irish author Carlo Gébler! Talking animals versus Trump? The Frogs Who Demanded A King? The occult vs mythology? Lacan+Owen Barfield+Denis Johnson? It's all in here!
Yes, it's true, I sometimes go on benders and read a book a day. Would you like to, too? Here are my 11 tips on how!
Me & Caitlin Doughty talk about how to do public intellectualism without burning out, why culture has a problem with even healthy relationships with death, my dead friend Jake.
What IS money, anyway? And why is it so bound up with capitalism? I talk with writer (Money, Sins Of The Father), activist, and researcher Conor McCabe about the history and experiential dimensions of money and capitalism.
Me & comedian/writer/podcaster Pete Holmes do a spiritual experiment, talk Ram Dass, social responsibility, and God. Love this ep.
I hang with Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes The Form Of A Mortal Girl, to discuss literally every queer thing and person ever. It is a mind blowing conversation and I loved every second.
A short episode on why Ulysses should matter to occultists, esotericists, anarchists, and anyone into magic! Happy Bloomsday 2019, everyone!
On one of my favorite ever episodes, I talk with poet D.A. Powell (Doug) about the powers of poetry and how they are both occult and queer powers. Doug also reads a few of his poems, and it's just an amazing time all around. So excited to share this with you.
I talk with Irish literary giant Sinéad Gleeson about ghosts, blood, bodies, and feminism.
I talk about Susan Sontag, my mom, and cancer - including my own cancer diagnosis back in 2007; and how we conceive of treatment and illness in our culture. This episode is dedicated to my mom, who died of cancer in May of 2001, just after Mother's Day.
The first AEWCH live event featuring me talking with philosopher/theologian Peter Rollins & psychoanalytic critic/film studies prof Todd McGowan! Lacan vs Deleuze, Peterson vs Zizek, Psychoanalysis vs the Left! Recorded live in front of a studio audience (with Q&A!) in Belfast!
I talk about the labor and sexual politics of adult performance with gender studies professor Dr. Heather Berg and writer/performer Sovereign Syre!
Author & occult teacher Lisa Romero joins me to discuss what a spiritual view of sex and sexuality look like. This one goes DEEP, friends!
Daniel Joseph joins me for an in-depth conversation about Christian esotericism via the teachings of Cypriot healer and mystic, Daskalos.
Duncan Trussell re-enters the psychomanteum with me to envision utopia and talk about how we should become Gandalf or sexually fantasize about colors.
I'm joined by political journalists Abby Martin and Mike Prysner (The Empire Files) to identify and discuss how to create a moral political compass. We come up with 5 points:
- Have a big container.
- Find your lines in the sand, and beyond that, seek organizability.
- Ask if a worthwhile narrative is being presented.
- Do the dual work of individual and collective action at once.
- Hold those you empower more responsible for their actions.
Go to patreon.com/connerhabib to support AEWCH!
I talk with feminist writer and icon Laurie Penny about why consent is not enough, her new show with Joss Whedon, and whether or not Freud was right about childhood abuse.
I talk with legendary drag performer and queen ofd Ireland, Panti Bliss (AKA Rory O'Neill) about what to do when your radical resistance becomes accepted by the mainstream.
Repost of AEWCH 11, about mass shootings and why they're happening so often in our time. I felt it only appropriate to redirect attention to this episode. I hope this episode helps frame recent events.
Special solo episode of AEWCH in which I give my definitions of something I talk about all the time: the occult! I also give you an easy occult exercise so you can get on board with the crazy nonsense I'm going on about.
Conner talks with mystery and horror author Sara Gran about mysteries, psychoanalysis, the nature of evil, and why we love murder so much.
I talk about how great Ireland is, and also tell a story about how not-so-great the media is for sex workers.
Memoirist and Hole drummer Patty Schemel talk about 1990s music, the intensities of addiction, misogyny in punk, and more.
Continuing on from the latest episode of AEWCH, I talk about why Wilhelm Reich is so important in our moment, and also why Robert Anton Wilson didn't really help me understand him.
All about psychoanalyst-scientist-revolutionary Wilhelm Reich with historian of science, Dr. James Strick!
I talk with Destroyer & The Invitation screenwriter, Phil Hay, about the State of Movies, 2019!
An Against Saturdays episode recorded in my slightly echoey Dublin apartment: How The Right Seizes The Occult, And How The Left & Occultists Help Them Do It
I speak with author, editor, and queer legend Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore about all things queer in the past and future. We discuss the failures of gay marriage and truvada, the trans military ban, masculinity, and why old ways of belonging need to die. Hold onto your flowery, bedazzled hats.
I tell you 3 of my fundamental ideas about sex. A special Friday version of Against Saturdays to remind you to sign up for my online event GOD SEX DEATH with Caitlin Doughty and Peter Rollins on Sunday, 1/20! Details at connerhabib.com
I'm joined by sexologist, author, and radio show host Dr. Chris Donaghue to talk The State of Sexuality 2019! We talk about desire shaming, how our identities shape our experiences, body positivity, why "problematic" content in prn isn't problematic in the way we think, sex offenders, how to be healthier in relationships, and more!
I talk about how that dumb New York Times article on gay conservatives is an extension of homophobia, and what kind of articles we DO need about gay men.
I talk with philosopher and theologian Peter Rollins about the state of philosophy in 2019, including the psychoanalytic philosophers, the Jordan Peterson thing, Peter Sloterdijk, and more!
On AEWCH 54, I make an announcement, and also tell you about my new online course with Caitlin Doughty & Peter Rollins, God Sex Death - coming January 20th, which you can buy tickets to on connerhabib.com
I talk about my 2018 and give you some recommendations. It's a pretty simple year end round up deal, but I think you'll like the recs. So enjoy it, friends!
I do a political state of the world with Jimmy Dore, commentator, host of The Jimmy Dore Show, and stand up comedian. Jimmy and I talk about fake news, the problems that led up to Trump and that will remain after him, and the need for asking basic questions.
On this Against Saturdays ep, I talk about the occult dimensions of Christmas that we should - and should not - consider; and how they affect all of us, Christian or not.
I talk with History On Fire host, historian & martial artist Daniele Bolelli, about how history works, how so many of we podcasters are connected through Joe Rogan, and the problem with identity.