Eating Cake

This is a strange conversation: R & N ramble on about the equinox, earth-based spirituality. Then we head into a strange turn into how hoarding works on a societal level in the United States.  Trust us, we're on to something here!

R&N discuss the "insurrection" (or whatever you want to call it) in D.C., political polarization, and how chickens are coming home to roost. Fun times! 

N loses track of episode numbers.  R and N dive into the world of mundane astrology and discuss the upcoming solar eclipse on December 14  and the Great Conjunction coming up December 21.  How do these strong planetary energies influence us on the individual, collective levels, and especially the world of politics (and Biden getting a hairline fracture in his foot)? Join us and find out -  mundane astrology FTW! 

What is Mundane Astrology? http://www.exploreastrology.co.uk/mundaneastrology.html

This turned out to be a really long one! R and N touch on some politics, but spend most of the time discussing their perspectives on earth-based spirituality and how to be artful in one's everyday life.  We are all artful co-creators in our existence. 

Episode Notes:

The Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address: https://americanindian.si.edu/environment/pdf/01_02_Thanksgiving_Address.pdf

Druidry: www.druidry.org

We have an ax to grind today! R and N discuss the "housing crisis," why it is not really a "housing crisis" and instead is a crisis of capitalism. N discusses housing issues and the local Occupy City Hall in Bellingham. N and R eventually describe internal colonies in the United States,  discuss a Chris Hedges clip and end with an excerpt from Franz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth. 

Chris Hedges - The Politics of Cultural Despair: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxSN4ip_F6M

Franz Fanon - The Wretched of the Earth: https://bookshop.org/books/the-wretched-of-the-earth-9780802141323/9780802141323

Belingham's 210 Camp: https://www.makeshiftproject.com/kzax-blog/2020/11/21/ds43rx40e380pz22tfm1eddapr1fz8

Ending music by Sodium Bicarbonate from his track, Art Reel. 

R and N talk about wearing masks, both literally and metaphorically (mostly metaphorical), reflect on being present in the moment, and discuss their strategies to avoid media propaganda. N shares a story about getting defriended by a former friend because she quoted the Bible to him in the context of redistribution and collective action. We get pretty silly! 

Email us your questions and comments at: weeatcake9@gmail.com

References: 

Thomas Berry: Recovering a Sense of the Sacred: https://bookshop.org/books/recovering-a-sense-of-the-sacred-conversations-with-thomas-berry/9780988392809

Franz Fanon: The Wretched of the Earth: https://bookshop.org/books/the-wretched-of-the-earth-9780802141323/9780802141323

R and N discuss the long election and how it lasted days...and is still being counted! We also discuss how both parties participate in stealing votes and elections.  We discuss oligarchs, the US as a failed state, and the tired old trope of "back to normal," laugh at "brunch liberals," and touch upon the departure of Glenn Greenwald from the Intercept for actually DOING HIS JOB. R talks about Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon and it's important lesson at the end of the movie - a brilliant analogy, really. N reads a passage from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States - from the 23rd chapter, "The Coming Revolt of the Guards," and the hope/warning that Zinn had for the future.  N talks about the Biden win as "the calm before the storm"  and how Democrats love to use rhetoric but to little to improve the conditions of suffering people.

Special thanks to Sodium Bicarbonate for the opening and closing music, "Art Reel."

Howard Zinn: A People's History of the United States: https://bookshop.org/books/a-people-s-history-of-the-united-states-9780060838652/9780062397348

Glenn Greenwald on his departure from The Intercept: https://greenwald.substack.com/p/my-resignation-from-the-intercept/comments#comment-667948

Dave Chappelle 

Post-election SNL Monologue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un_VvR_WqNs&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1IprkMkfjAzrxiSPj7SNvL-lxO9VcyC_KpjpnYFIzDYI3xmONmHgc-5bY

8:46 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tR6mKcBbT4

What a wild ride! R and N talk about many things that they didn't anticipate discussing: the vile "health care" system, media games and the chattering class, living a life with dignity within an abusive system, the deceptive phrase "job creators," strategizing ways to be social while staying safe, and even touch upon conspiracy theories. N closes with reading the poem "Do not Feed the Monsters," by 2019 Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo of the Muscogee Creek Nation. 

New - Opening Music! Special thanks to Sodium Bicarbonate for the use of his track, Art Reel. Art Reel was composed in 2019, days after attending an orchestra performance at the community performing arts center in Shoreline, WA. Art Reel is about experiencing humanity with a holistic perspective, more specifically a reminder that when someone retires to their bed someone else on the other side of the globe is only waking up, and despite the position of the Sun in the sky, each person will separate time by eating meals. Because we are literally motivated by hunger. We need to eat. Even after eating, we are still not complete, we will need to eat again.

Jonathan produces music under the alias Sodium Bicarbonate for two reasons: one, obscurity; he intended the name to be difficult to follow. Two, it was the remedy for his own ‘heart burn’.

Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings, by Joy Harjo: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780393353631

R and N discuss a variety of things: the U.S. election being fewer than two weeks away, how media and advertising industry,  how the ad industry affects  our states of mind, the politics of respectability, how being respectable benefits those in power, and how the current social and  political climate can rob us of of our creativity and of a vision of a  better future. We also discuss why BLM is essential and how BLM connects  to the saying of "an injury to one is an injury to all." The Alice in Wonderland image is a nod to Ruth's background on Skype. 

What is COVID teaching us at this time? R and N discuss what they have learned about the world during COVID. This discussion stems from a conversation that N participated in where a Native elder called COVID "the great teacher." They also discuss the American obsession with prolonging life, disrespecting the land, and the so-called American healthcare system. We discuss why we named the podcast Eating Cake that includes a tiny history lesson and end the podcast reflecting on Teddy Roosevelt and his worry about change being dangerous, but delaying change is fatal. Shout out to our overseas listeners: Norway, Brazil, Ireland, Australia! We love you! 

Correction: When discussing Theodore Roosevelt, N mistakenly says the 18th century. It should have been the 1800s.   Also, when discussing activism and being a "change agent," N means to address burning out on individualized activism, not collective action. More to come on that later. 

R and N start out with a long overdue land acknowledgement, discuss the importance of caring and being in community together, Maslow's hierachy of needs and its indigenous roots, vampires and zombies, and the decadence of the political realm.  N ends with reading a passage from Clark Strand's latest book, Now is the Hour of Her Return.  Jai Kali Ma! 

Podcast References:

Psychology Today article - The Blackfoot Nation (Canada) and its direct influence on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/out-the-darkness/201903/original-influences 

Correction in the Podcast  Discussion: N mistakenly attributed the Hierarchy of Needs to the Iroquois Nation.  See the above article

Clark Strand's Now is the Hour of Her Return: https://wayoftherose.org/now-is-the-hour-of-her-return-poems-in-praise-of-the-divine-mother-kali/

R & N discuss various strategies they use to stay sane, answer listeners' questions, discuss "Trump Derangement Syndrome," and why they aren't listening to the debate tonight. 

R and N discuss the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, discuss the U.S. as a failed state, and examine politics as a form of spellcasting.  We had fun with this episode and made fun of the current absurdity of life in the United States.

What does protests, the quarantine, and the wildfires have in common? R and N discuss the West Coast fires and its impact on an ecological level, a psychological level, and a spiritual level. We discuss wildfires, protests, and the quarantine as part of a planetary initiation into a different state of consciousness - both on the individual and collective levels. 

Articles and other sources referenced in the podcast:

The Intercept: Mass Extermination Method for Iowa Pigs Amid Pandemic: https://theintercept.com/2020/05/29/pigs-factory-farms-ventilation-shutdown-coronavirus/

NPR: How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled:  https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled

Book: Recovering a Sense of the Sacred - Conversations with Thomas Berry: https://www.amazon.com/Recovering-Sense-Sacred-Conversations-Thomas/dp/0988392801

Extinction Rebellion: https://extinctionrebellion.us/

R and N start off with an update about the recent news about Julian Assange. The episode takes a quick turn into environmental politics, activism, Celtic mythology, being indigenous, and the politics of genocide. We even briefly touch upon the connection between electoral politics, the politics of being "respectable," and violence. 

Ruth and N. introduce the podcast, why they decided to start a podcast, and what listeners can expect in the near future.