The Beige Room: a podcast
A three-part podcast out now on "The 11th", an anthology by Pineapple Street Media
A Podcast
Here is a new project that just launched after many years in the works:
With some stellar collaborators, I co-reported, wrote and produced a podcast called “The Beige Room”, out now as part of the anthology series “The 11th” by Pineapple Street Media.
It's a three-part documentary tracing the stranger-than-fiction history of the Landmark Forum, an organization with roots in the 1970s Bay Area consciousness scene that grew into an influential part of mainstream business culture in America- and reflecting on what its philosophical legacy means today.
With my frequent collaborator Kelly Loudenberg and our producer Eric Mennel, along with the fantastic team at Pineapple, we have been working on this project since 2019 and are glad to finally share it. It's an honor to be part of "The 11th", a magazine/anthology podcast that has previously featured writers I admire like Hanif Abdurraqib and Sarah Viren.
Listen to all three episodes of The Beige Room here or wherever you get your podcasts.
Addendum Ampersand Etc.
I am writing a book, and will be sharing more on my research and related topics in future mailings (which I would like to make more regular, but let’s see)
Reading
There’s so much to read, and rage over, in regards to the COP26 climate summit, but here’s one very moving piece not to miss, out in The Atlantic.
In “A Climate-Change Anthem for Oceania” by Julian Aguon, an Indigenous Chamorro lawyer and activist from Guam reflects on the struggle of Pacific Islanders in the climate crisis, particularly in Micronesia where many low-lying coral atoll islands are quite literally on track to disappear - horrifyingly soon. Micronesia is an indescribably special part of the world where I’ve been lucky to spend time (via a research grant in college), and a place that, you might even be able to guess, has some of the LOWEST carbon emissions in the world while being among the first to face the catastrophic destruction wrought by wealthier countries’ emissions, greed, and unconscionable inaction (also in particular: the complex history of U.S. colonialism and exploitation of the land and sea for military use). The existential threat to its people, cultures, and ecosystems is one that urgently deserves more attention, which Aguon poetically illustrates here, and I look forward to following his crucial work (his recent book “Properties of Perpetual Light” also looks phenomenal, and is now in the queue)
In the Marianas, many indigenous Chamorros and Carolinians of Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are fighting the destruction of our lands and seas by the single largest institutional producer of greenhouse gases in the world: the U.S. military. On land, these activists are opposing the construction of a massive firing range, which they say will destroy a limestone forest and imperil a whole host of nonhuman life. At sea, they’re challenging the Defense Department’s attempt to militarize a section of the ocean almost the size of India.
All this to say, if my corner of the Earth had an anthem, it’d be this: To hell with drowning.
Read the whole piece here
Listening
For some music that lives up to its name, I have been enjoying Corntuth’s “Music to Work To”. Also not to miss their recent “The Desert is Paper Thin” which has a beautiful album-length visual accompaniment.
Stay safe and well,
shc