NEW – Reflecting on big questions with essayist GEORGE SCIALABBA

Written on April 4th, 2019

NEW-ELAINE PAGELS-Why Religion: A Personal Story

Written on March 7th, 2019

https://religion.princeton.edu/people/faculty/core-faculty/elaine-pagels/





New-LESLIE CRUTCHFIELD-How Change Happens: Why Social Movements Succeed

Written on November 30th, 2018

While elections matter, a vital society demands much more. In How Change Happens: Why Some Social Movements Succeed While Others Don’t, LESLIE CRUTCHFIELD examines some movements that have succeeded — from tobacco control and gun rights expansion, to marriage equality and acid rain reduction — as well as recent campaigns that haven’t – like Occupy Wall Street, controlling C02 emissions, and gun violence prevention. Her research identifies six practices linked to success. We’ll explore them so you can put them to work.

www.howchangehappens.com





NEW – MILTON BENNETT – The Cult of Trump?

Written on September 14th, 2018

I read an interview by Dahr Jamail with today’s guest, cultural communication expert Milton Bennett, at Truthout.org. Titled Is There a Cult of Trump? It spells out the methods utilized – consciously or unconsciously – by Trump to turn his followers into a cult – impervious to outside or contrary influence and united in defense of their aims and their leader. It’s a story of tactics and behavior that transform the Trump phenomenon into something more dangerous than a simple political divide.

https://www.idrinstitute.org/





NEW – MDMA/Ecstasy Therapy for PTSD Cole Marta MD, LA’s FDA-sanctioned clinical trials Seven McDonald, journalist

Written on August 11th, 2018

Michael Pollan’s How To Change Your Mind, once as high as #4 on the NYTimes best-seller list, currently #4 in LA, tells the story of the scientific research as well as his personal experience of guided sessions with psychedelics. Award-winning LA Weekly columnist, Seven McDonald, does the same in an article for Playboy on the therapeutic use of MDMA (ecstasy) to treat PTSD. I’m joined by McDonald and Cole Marta MD, the principal investigator at the Los Angeles site of FDA-sanctioned phase II and III trials with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD.