Something (rather than nothing)

SRTN's visiting Philosopher, Jakub Ferencik is back! We first heard from Jakub in Episode 60. Since then, Jakub has written another book (!) entitled Beyond Reason: Why We Fail at Understanding Each Other.   Our discussion here ranged through many issues but focused on the primacy of reason as an arbiter of truth. Jakub and Ken engage in a lively conversation that is timely but steeped in the historical tradition, which they interrogate.   About Beyond Reason -   Why is it that everyone around us professes certainty amidst so much confusion, extremism, and polarization? Everyone has answers and yet so few questions are truly resolved. Academics debate endlessly, politicians manipulate desperately, and parents misguide in the same way that they were misled. In this book, Ferencik argues that the only way to come close to resolving our ideological battles is to assume that we are fallible; he claims that certainty is the enemy of progress. For much of history, dogma restricted the progress our ancestors hoped for. Today, we are similarly threatened by dogma. But in our case, we have tools we can work with to become more balanced, tolerant, and kind to those who disagree with us. If we are to truly aim at objectivity, we must read widely, disagree kindly, rethink voraciously, and move beyond reason.    

Steph Littlebird is an artist, writer, curator, and registered member of Oregon’s Grand Ronde Confederated Tribes. Steph earned her degree in Painting and Printmaking from the Pacific Northwest College in Portland, Oregon, she currently lives and works in Las Vegas.  Her work frequently touches upon issues of contemporary tribal identity, cultural survivance, and responsible land stewardship. Aside from her work as a visual artist, Steph is a full-time tech writer and freelance arts columnist for Oregon Arts Watch magazine.  Steph has received three creative grants from the Art + Science Initiative and is the 2020 N.O.A.A. National Artist Fellow. She is also the recent recipient of a writing grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust, and her work has been featured by brands like Luna Bar, U.S.P.S. the Wild and Scenic Film Festival, and Wells Fargo. 

Ellen Adair is best known as Bess McTeer in "The Sinner" and Janet Bayne in "Homeland," but they have additional recurring roles on "Bull," "Billions," the NBC miniseries "The Slap," "Veep," "The Family," and "As The World Turns." Other television credits include guest-star appearances on "The Good Fight," "NCIS: New Orleans," "Chicago Fire," and "Brotherhood." Ellen also starred opposite Omar Epps in Trick, directed by Patrick Lussier. Upcoming, they will appear in Netflix's series "Archive 81," and the films Cryptid and Love and Communication. As an author, Ellen's book Curtain Speech is available from Pen & Anvil Press. They have appeared numerous times as a guest analyst on MLB Network, and on dozens of well-known baseball podcasts, including their own, "Take Me In to the Ballgame."

Nancy Houser-Bluhm has lived in the foothills west of Denver, Colorado for over 20 years with her husband and miscellaneous pets. She hails from Michigan but always had a longing for the mountains after growing up watching Bonanza. Their current piece of heaven is called the Bluhmerosa.  For some years she and her husband, Jon traversed the country moving from Michigan to Oregon, back to Michigan and then to Colorado. Once a rock climber, she now spends time with biking, skiing, camping, enjoying nature and yoga; oh yes and with writing.   Nancy received her first monetary writing award of $3.00 for a poem submitted by her middle school. Coinciding with the late 1960’s it pertained to war.  About the same time, she won a statewide essay contest which took her to a presidential inauguration.  She realizes she has outted herself and can never again use attending a presidential inauguration in the party game One Truth, Two Lies.   Like the character in her first novel, Nancy’s pursuit of personal growth and awareness, led her down numerous paths. In the 1990s, Journey Seminars was her effort to bring entry level knowledge on such topics as dreamwork, Feng Shui, and homeopathy to her community.   Authentic communication with herself and others has been an ultimate life quest, sometimes to the chagrin of others. A lifelong journaler, Nancy produced her own journal with excerpts from her past journal wisdoms and her husband’s art. She offered classes highlighting the power of the practice through gathered techniques. Nancy has had numerous prompted memoir-based articles in a local mountain newspaper. After working forty years as a Speech-Language, both in the schools and health care, she retired from being a full-time worker bee. It was then she began a blog and ventured into the arena of writing her first novel, Whispers For Terra.

Matt Hall grew up on a small farm in rural southern Oregon where he spent his time drawing dinosaurs and shoveling snow. He moved to Portland in 1997 to attend The Pacific Northwest College of Art as a painting major. His current work is an assemblage of rebuilt found objects and processed natural history ephemera. Exploring themes of loss, memory, mending, re-use and magical thinking. His work has been shown in numerous west coast galleries and and as far away as Germany.  He can currently be found living in North Portland, repairing old taxidermy, going on walks with his two children, and waving at neighborhood cats.  

Eleanor Wells was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is a writer and filmmaker with an avid interest in history, art, fashion, and nature. She has written and directed two short films, Feature Presentation (2017) and Eagle Rock (2019), as well as writing the screenplay for The Harpist (2014). She lives in Milwaukee and loves Grace Kelly, Diana Rigg and Disney.

There are many great bass players in the world, and many that reside in the Pacific Northwest.  One bass player that stands out in particular is Portland, Oregon’s Matt Brewster. Sometimes known as Phunky Brewster, he has been called for countless studio sessions and has played for many bands throughout his time in PDX with no end in sight.  He has toured through several states and has taken stages both big and small.  While perhaps not being known for exceptional technicality, he is known for exceptional feel, pocket, time, and groove that are woven together to create melodic and thoughtful bass lines.  If his playing isn’t enough, consider that he plays with a handicap on both hands!  Matt’s fretting hand has 2 fingers that have fused knuckles while his plucking hand is missing four fingers, leaving only his thumb!  He is living proof that through love and dedication to your craft, anything is achievable. Brewster also plays the cajon in a very unique way, making the Peruvian percussion instrument at home with multiple genres from folk to hip-hop, pop, and soul.  In addition, he is also a capable producer.  While mostly producing for his own projects, he sometimes will be found creating songs for other artists.  Brewster’s current main affiliations are Laryssa Birdseye and Hiroki which can both be heard wherever you consume your music.

Caitlynn Abdow Velasquez was born and raised in the rolling hills of Western Massachusetts and spent her childhood exploring the outdoors, dusty old art history books, and illustrated dictionaries. In 2008 she achieved a degree in Painting and Art History at the University of Massachusetts. That same year she moved to Portland, Oregon where she now resides and works. Caitlynn Abdow is an award winning and published artist having shown in over 30 fine art gallery exhibitions nationwide. Her art focuses on a visual language of ancient and contemporary symbolism while featuring a limited naturalistic color palette. Caitlynn works primarily with oil paints and watercolors to render figurative and narrative works.  She also does beautiful tattoos that transform the human body into a new piece of art.

Heather Dean is a self-taught artist living and working in her hometown in the San Fernando Valley with her dog Jimi Hendrix. Her work deals chronically with subversion, the dreamworld and the absurdity of life and death.

Kola Shippentower-Thompson is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation. She has co-founded and is the Director of The Wisáwca Project - Enough Iz Enough, a non-profit organization working together for change, for better communication and involvement. Kola has developed a Safety Plan to be utilized by anyone in identifying safety methods, contacts, and procedures to keep one safe whether in an abusive relationship or a plan to track a missing person. She is a professional fighter and brown belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Kola is wife and mother to three children and takes personal safety to heart and especially in advocating for MMIWP. Kola also co-hosts a weekly podcast. Kola can be found on Instagram @kolashippentower

“‘Ivizia is a gorgeous-witty-wild-flower plucked from the fields of Mars for our astral entertainment.” - An awestruck podcast host “The episode is shockingly cryptic about whether it was recorded in the nude or not’” - An awestruck podcast listener Ivizia Dakini is your rabble rousing roller girl! She is 2016 Miss Exotic Oregon, and won “Most Extreme Show” in 2017 EDI Awards. You can watch Ivizia on the Netflix documentary “Burlesque: Heart of the Glitter Tribe”. Specializing in fire performance, roller skating & puppetry, Ivizia has become one of the premiere variety entertainers around the US, calling Las Vegas her home.  

It is my distinct pleasure to welcome back Loren Rhoads. Loren first appeared on Episode 49 of SRTN. In this conversation we discuss her new book This Morbid Life and dig into issues of how to deal with death, what it means for our life, the meaning of things, flowers, anatomy, something and nothing.

Hana Walker Brown is a Multi-Award-Winning Documentary and Podcast Creator, Composer, Writer and Creative Director. Which basically means she tells stories; really good stories. "It’s a real privilege; sitting down with a stranger and speaking until we are no longer strangers. Holding a space for someone into which they can just talk; freely, openly. Where it is safe to be vulnerable. I’m passionate about exploring the edges of vulnerability and courage, in the subtle art of holding space, in trust and how we can establish and maintain intimacy in our very modern world. I am fascinated by humans and all their edges. I have sat with their fear, their silence, with their joy, grief, courage and everything in between. In that moment, we are together. And each time I leave a little different; altered somehow. Real fucking magic."

Since forming as teenagers at the College of William & Mary in 2005, heavy rockers Caustic Casanova have experienced their fair share of ups and downs. Having weathered lineup changes, life threatening injuries and relentless DIY touring, the group’s highly eclectic sound has made them favorites in a crowded scene. Stereo Embers wrote of the Washington, DC based upstarts: “Caustic Casanova is one of the most excitingly innovative bands on the planet…the band’s at home in psych, prog, metal, punk, and seemingly every other genre in the galaxy.” 2013 saw the band almost fall apart when drummer/vocalist Stefanie Zaenker endured serious injuries to her wrists that put her ability to drum in jeopardy. However, Caustic Casanova persevered, and by 2014, Zaenker, alongside bassist/vocalist Francis Beringer and guitarist Andrew Yonki had opened for sludge titans Kylesa and were signed to their label, Retro Futurist Records, allowing them to take things to the next level. The band toured heavily in support of their critically acclaimed 2015 LP Breaks, slugging it out both with Kylesa and on their own. Between 2013 and 2018 they also released a trio of EPs for their Pantheon series, where they paired original material with classics by Pentagram, the Melvins and Weedeater. This hard work led to a deal with Magnetic Eye Records, who in October 2019 released CC’s latest record God How I Envy The Deaf, which won two Washington Area Music Awards in 2020, for best hard rock album and best hard rock song (“Filth Castle”). As CC looks to the future, they’re already recording the next album with their longtime producer J. Robbins (Jawbox) at Magpie Cage Recording Studio in Baltimore. Newly a four piece with the addition of guitarist Jake Kimberley, this relentlessly loud band is excited to see what sonic alchemies their genre mashing and off the wall songwriting will conjure up next. Road hardened rock and roll warriors through and through, Caustic Casanova plan on showcasing their “muscular, riff-roaring, bass-fuzzed blend of metal and hard rock, flavored with doses of noise and stoned psychedelia” (Creative Loafing) all across the world.

Olivia Dolphin is a driven content creator with a passion for storytelling and language.  She is up to some wonderful things. She is a musician and singer and her publication Wizards in Space is a love-creation with deep respect for creators and their imagination. "Wizards in Space is a space for wizard writers. It’s a niche community within a community, for voices and art that you don’t quite know where it belongs. This is where you belong. For wizards. In space. In this space. We’re feel makers. Let’s make people feel stuff." Olivia is a graduate  from The University of Rhode Island and makes magick in the art city named Providence, Rhode Island