This Podcast is a Ritual

If you've been feeling lately like life is an unfair game, you're not alone. And game designer, author, and anti-fascist scholar Max Haiven knows why. In his latest book, The Player and the Played: From Gamed Capitalism to Twenty-First Century Fascism, Haiven uses games to explain how financialized capitalism recruits us into our own exploitation, seeing ourselves as "players," rather than people, who would be winning and succeeding... if only someone wasn't cheating us!—and how fascist polit...

Using chance to make choices has a long magical history, from complex divination systems to mythologies that imagine the gods gambling and throwing dice to determine human affairs. By taking a simple coin toss as our starting practice, we can learn to let go of the heavy burden of contemplation and let the fates take a more collaborative role in our decision making process. So flip a coin and learn whether you should join the Patreon where you'll find the full bonus episode where I share the ...

In the tiny fishing village of Rif, out on the coast of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula in western Iceland, you'll find an unlikely cultural hub: The Freezer. Built in a former fish freezer, this hostel / performing arts venue is the work of Kàri Viđarsson, a local Icelander who left his village and returned having changed... only to change the cultural landscape of his community in the process. Tune into the Freezer's magic (or book a stay!) at: https://www.thefreezerhostel.com/ The Freezer also p...

Sometimes things suck. Sometimes we feel bad, can't get what we want, or just plain don't know what to do. And that's hard. But there's a cultural narrative that often makes it way worse, the insidious idea that "it shouldn't be like this." That somehow, feeling this way is a personal failure. That's why the Wizard is here to remind you that sometimes things really do suck! And it's okay to feel bad! And you don't even gotta feel bad about feeling bad. And sometimes, remembering that can help...

Magic can be a lot of work. But does it have to be? What if there was a way to use magic, not to bend the world to one's will, but to transform reality into an open field of possibility? Thus, life's stage becomes a board on which we can enjoy a myriad of complex and fascinating games, all experienced through the strange and delightful mode of being known as "Play. This episode builds on the metaphysics laid out in What's the Point? (theory), What is a Person? (theory), and What is Power? (th...