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Is a zombie just a mindless reanimated corpse cursed with an insatiable hunger for warm brains? Or are their pained groans an attempt to tell us something real about consumption, imperial extraction, plantation capitalism and the loss of bodily autonomy under oppressive settler-colonial regimes? Modern audiences may have forgotten this, but zombies, in their proper cultural context, didn’t eat flesh. In the original Haitian folklore from which the zombie arises, the monster is metaphor for the horrors of transatlantic chattel slavery. Signaling the ultimate, tragic horror of resurrecting a body—removing it from its final resting place—and condemning it to a frightful fate of forced labor for all eternity. Enslaved not just in life but also in death; a total denial of freedom. Everything that has come to be understood as monstrous to the modern mind arose alongside—and in relationship to—Western colonial expansion and Enlightenment thought. Today, much of what’s perceived of as frightening isn’t merely biological, but rather culturally constructed. These constructs haunt us. They lurk and linger in the shadowy recesses of our synapses; whispering words from the dark alleys we’d rather not walk down. They invite us to sit with deep discomfort, existential dread, grief, numbness, hopelessness and despair, the terror of unmitigated malice. The monstrous is unboundaried, unpredictable, illogical, illegible, incorrigible, inexorable. French Philosopher and author Michele Foucault had this to say about monsters: “The monster is the fundamental figure around which bodies of power and domains of knowledge are disturbed and reorganized.” We do not invent monsters out of thin air; we construct them out of what our culture refuses to face. Let’s take a good look at some monsters.

Mary-Jane Rubenstein is a philosopher of religion and science, and the author of numerous books, including Pantheologies: Gods, Worlds, Monsters. In this episode, we discuss her work on pantheology, the idea that the world itself is divine. We talk about how certain ideas and bodies become monstrous. Not only is the title of this book absolutely wicked, it’s one of those books I couldn’t put down and couldn’t stop thinking about once I did. It weaves together medieval heresies, Ancient Greek Gods and philosophies, general relativity, quantum mechanics, nonlinear biologies like Gaia Theory, multiverse and indigenous cosmologies, ecofeminism, animal and vegetal studies, and more. You can find Mary-Jane and learn more about this book and her work at https://www.maryjanerubenstein.com.

Listen to this episode with caution. The themes are more explicit than usual; they concern the Cornell 7 rape allegations and the larger societal forces which enable sexual violence and harm. There are two corrections I wanted to make since recording the audio. First, that not every one of the students had to write an essay as punishment. It appears only some students did. Additionally, I mentioned that women are were responsible for most of the labor in the world, and I want to clarify that my point was about UNPAID labor. This episode digs into how we talk about women under modernity, and how we think of men and masculinity. I explore how our thoughts and perceptions contribute to forces that literally govern bodies. These are racial forces, gendered forces, political forces, cultural forces that run so deep they pierce the marrow of our bones. Swell and pulse in the throbbing reproductive organs of men. I also ask what's happening when we describe other people as monsters. Does this language and framing reproduce the very systems they seek to dismantle? Perhaps it's a learned tactic of the oppressor; a linguistic tool purposed to dehumanize and explain problems away in isolated, reductionist terms which lend themselves to carceral systems and punitive thinking. What does accountability look like when we have to sit with the monster instead of locking it in a room with other monsters?

I'm leaving Spotify, and I've setup a Patreon. This is the last and only episode of this show you should see listed here. If you want to find this podcast, search for it wherever you listen to podcasts, or check it out at www.thepassingthroughpodcast.com. You can find it on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Castbox, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, iHeartRadio, and most other places you listen to podcasts. This episode is sponsored by SWILK. It's what bones crave!

I'm back after a bit of time away. Join me for a chat about what I've been up to, where I was, and what's next for the podcast. I also talk about some of the things I've been reading, and share a few thoughts on the state of the world. This episode is brought to you by Defecation Desecration.

I'm leaving for a little while for a brief adventure. I'll be back again in about a month. Enjoy the down time!

When you think of plant medicine, one of the first things you think of is probably ayahuasca. An Intensely psychedelic kaleidoscopic weekend of hallucination and vomiting hopefully accompanied by profound shifts in consciousness. You may know someone who’s attended an ayahuasca ceremony, you may have even attended one or more yourself, but you probably haven’t heard the stories of someone who’s studied with indigenous Shipibo people of the Peruvian Amazon. This week’s guest spent 5 years in the jungle, embedded in an animist culture, undergoing plant dietas while learning medicine songs called icaros as she deepened her understanding of both plant intelligences and the ancient practice of Amazonian Curanderismo. Skye has also spent three years apprenticing with Chinese medicine, she’s a Grief Ritualist, a facilitator in Experiential Deep Ecology. Skye currently co-facilitates Josh’s yearlong study group The Mythic Body, and leads her own events focused on reclaiming animist perception, developing mythic imagination and helping people reconnect to the living, breathing, more-than-human world all around us. She leads various study groups on Practical Animism and Grief work, as Nature Connection Mentor, Folk Herbalist, Plant Medicine Ritualist, Naturalist and as someone who spends a lot of time outdoors, in ritual or in focused practice on the land. Honestly, I can’t think of a more fitting guest than Skye. This is one of my favorite conversations on this show and I hope you enjoy it too. Skye’s Website Blogs Curanderismo Plant Dieta Icaros Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy Skye's Upcoming Events Skye’s Upcoming Workshop on Plant Intelligence References Robert Johnson’s Inner Work Stephen Harrod Buhner’s Plant Intelligence And The Imaginal Realm Josh Schrei’s The Emerald Podcast — Animism Is Normative Consciousness Previous Episodes John Seed Francis Weller Josh Schrei Bayo Akomolafe

On July 12, Funkadelic's Maggot Brain turned fifty-five. Mommy, what's a funkadelic? Join me for a very quick reflection on this enormously influential psychedelic funk rock album. Frontman George Clinton and guitarist Eddie Hazel are musical heroes, and to commemorate this special anniversary George Clinton landed the mothership in New Orleans at the Essence Festival. If you too share visions of one nation under a groove, then sit down, tune in, free your mind, and your ass will follow. Links https://funkadelic.bandcamp.com/album/maggot-brain https://funkadelic.bandcamp.com/album/funkadelic https://funkadelic.bandcamp.com/track/biological-speculation https://funkadelic.bandcamp.com/track/i-bet-you https://funkadelic.bandcamp.com/track/good-thoughts-bad-thoughts https://georgeclinton.com

This week John Seed is Passing Through. A pioneering environmentalist, musician, activist and writer, John has played a formative role in shaping Deep Ecology globally. Beginning back in 1979 he began putting his life on the line to defend rainforests and would later found and direct The Rainforest Information Center to continue this important work. Since then he’s initiated projects protecting rainforests in South America, Asia and the Pacific, providing sustainable development and working with indigenous inhabitants to protect their forests. During his more than 40 year career John has worked alongside prominent figures such as Vandana Shiva, Starhawk, the late Ram Dass and Joanna Macy to name a few. In 1988 John, writing with Joanna Macy, Arne Naess and Pat Fleming, published their seminal deep ecology book Thinking Like A Mountain. In collaboration with Joanna Macy he created a ceremony aimed at reconnection called The Council of All Beings, which we’ll talk about in our conversation. I speak with John about a landmark court case involving the Los Cedros rainforest in Ecuador. In a groundbreaking move for legal and environmental history, the MOTH (More Than Human) Life Collective is submitting a petition to Ecuador’s copyright office to recognize the Los Cedros cloud-forest as the co-creator of a song titled "Song of the Cedars,” composed in collaboration with musician Cosmo Sheldrake, writer Robert Macfarlane, field mycologist Giuliana Furci, and legal scholar César Rodríguez-Garavito. It will be the first legal attempt to recognize an ecosystem’s moral authorship in the co-creation of a work of art. This case aims to disrupt traditional anthropocentric copyright frameworks by granting creative rights to a non-human natural entity. This is the first known attempt in any jurisdiction to establish the 'moral authorship' of an ecosystem as a co-creator in a work. John is an absolute legend who’s dedicated his life to protecting animals, endangered species and rainforests, while writing, lecturing, facilitating workshops and campaigning & petitioning governments all over the world to protect ecologies. It was a true honor to speak with John, and if you want to learn more about him and his work you can find him at johnseed.net, or https://www.rainforestinformationcentre.org/. John’s Links https://linktr.ee/gaiaseed Los Cedros https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ9eKB8mlyu/?img_index=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HH_timp2S3E Thinking Like A Mountain https://bookshop.org/p/books/thinking-like-a-mountain-towards-a-council-of-all-beings-arne-naess/304b0d83848eb74e?ean=9781897408001

There's a heatwave passing through, and we're passing through it. At least here in Europe. I was delighted to ramble through part of it with the lovely Dan Burgess. Earthling, father, partner, and brother, Dan is a regenerative practitioner, creative strategist, action researcher, co-designer, un/learning guide, facilitator, activist, writer, speaker, podcaster and DJ working at the intersections of ecology, culture, and transformation. Dan is creator and host of The Spaceship Earth Podcast, as well as many other environmental projects like We Are Avon, Becoming Crew, and Famous For Five Miles. He's an inspiring person in this space, and he's doing good work. In our conversation we talk about weathering the storm, the importance of reconnecting with the land, of creativity and art as vehicles for feeling, the importance of community - both human and more-than-human. Dan speaks about pilgrimage, threshold moments and possible ways for us to step out from our stuckness. This was one of my favorite conversations, and I think you'll enjoy it, too. If you want to find out more about Dan and his beautiful and encouraging work, check out his links below: https://www.danburgess.earth/ https://www.instagram.com/dan__burgess https://www.thespaceship.earth

My guest this week is pioneering psychedelic researcher, Dr. Louise Hecker. Under her guidance, a team of scientists made shocking clinical discoveries for the first time in history. Studying a group of elderly mice, the scientists observed that administering heroic doses of psychedelic mushrooms conferred geroprotective benefits to their cells and appear to slow down aging. Her research is paving the way for a new understanding between the role of psilocybin in health and aging. Repeatedly giving mice hallucinogenic doses of psilocybin over tenth months produced profound, observable changes in the mice. Other studies found that human lung fibroblasts saw a similar dose-dependent relationship between psilocin (the primary psychoactive chemical compound in psychedelic mushrooms) and aging. Of course more research needs to be done, and as I type this, Dr. Hecker and her team are soon to release additional findings showing how psychedelics positively impact many of the cells and organs of our bodies — with promising outcomes concerning diseases associated with the lungs. Many more intriguing and trippy facts are shared during our conversation — like mice not only living longer, but regrowing bald spots and reversing grey hairs. So if like me you’re old, grizzled and balding, I hope you’ll find this topic as fascinating and far out as I did. Fun fact: if you take the starting letter of each of the previous sentences and line them up, it spells out the word mushrooms. Research Study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41514-025-00244-x Louise on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louise-hecker-69ba1915/

This week I'm passing through the space between your ears! Join me for a liminal stream-of-consciousness ramble into the unknown, as I hunger for your wax and comb the murky depths of what's bubbling up through my mind.

This week I had the chance to speak with Tristan Gooley — a man who’s been called The Sherlock Holmes of nature by the BBC. Tristan is the author of a series of books exploring the topic of natural navigation. Now, you may not have heard this term before. What is natural navigation? Well, to answer that question we'd have to ask, what did people do before maps and compasses were invented? Curious question. I hadn’t thought of it before. What did our ancestors do to successfully navigate the world for pretty much all of human history? They learned to listen to nature and read its signs. That’s exactly what Tristan has spent his life doing. He’s studied with indigenous trackers such as the Dayak in Borneo or the Tuareg while walking across the unforgiving landscape of the Libyan Sahara — and he’s the only living person to have sailed alone and flown alone across the Atlantic. He’s developed an extensive knowledge of bushcraft and animal tracking and meteorology, geology, dendrology, hydrology and the list goes on. I’m reading one of his books right now called The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs where he teaches you how to listen to tree roots tell you about prevailing winds, or how a patch of colorful lichen might tell you things not only about air quality and moisture, but also about which way south is. Tristan uses flowers as thermometers, and fungi both as indicators of soil pH and predictors of surrounding tree species. His work is a wonderful and enchanting bridge back to rebuilding fluency in the language our world is speaking to us all the time, if we’re willing to slow down and listen. So if you want to learn more about natural navigating check out Tristan’s website at https://www.naturalnavigator.com or read one of his many books. Tristan also offers courses and in-person workshops. You can also follow him on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/thenaturalnavigator.

This week Francis Weller is Passing Through! How do we work with grief? Why is it important to metabolize our sorrow in a group setting? How does grief work and grief ritual differ from group therapy or support groups? What is grief asking of us? To help us answer these questions, I’m honored to have passed through this space with someone who’s been a teacher and inspiration to me, Francis Weller. Francis is a retired psychotherapist, renowned author, and grief worker who has opened up his life to an apprenticeship with sorrow. He’s written extensively on the topic of grief in books like The Wild Edge of Sorrow and In The Absence Of The Ordinary and in this episode we go into the darkness armed with some tissues and a few moments of silence. As this is a continuation into our exploration of challenging feelings like grief, we explore sorrow as an animate force, and darkness as friend, not foe. We discuss ritual, grief-work and space-holding. I’m sure some listeners of this show are involved directly with grief work, maybe they’re death doulas, or hospice workers, or they facilitate restorative circles, or other group processes. But it’s worth noting that space-holding isn’t only applicable to facilitators of group work — space-holding is something all of us do every day. We can hold space for ourselves to get into contact with our inner world and give ourselves space and permission to feel but, sadly, in the dominant western culture we’re often not doing that; we can hold space for others when we’re there for our friends and family members who may be grieving or going through a tough time. In these times of darkness, uncertainty, despair and pain, space-holding I think is a relevant skill for us to develop regardless of who we are. During our conversation we’ll talk about what Francis calls The Long Dark. He’ll explain grief as a communal — not individual — experience, he’ll walk us through some of the gates of grief related to those places which haven’t known love, ecological grief, and how this connects us to not just our own grief, but to a shared field of sorrow. Francis has decades of experience in this work so I was truly grateful to hear his perspectives. This was an important conversation for me and I hope you can find something valuable to take away from it. If you want to learn more about Francis and his work, you can find him at https://www.francisweller.net. Books The Wild Edge of Sorrow In The Absence Of The Ordinary

This week I’m passing through southern Poland with a little preamble about grief (stay tuned for a more thorough investigation to come). This episode is a short, stream-of-consciousness exploration of the difficult emotions that we cast aside into liminal space in modern culture: inadequacy, anger, resentment, fear, uncertainty, humiliation, loss, sadness, grief. Inside any living thing there’s a hurting thing. Through attrition — a careful whittling away over time — we accumulate damage; seasoning. The longer we live, the more time polishes us; smooths the edges; fades the color. But in doing so we take on a different quality. Once we’re cracked open, hollowed, something can move through us that couldn’t before. Nature works this way. It slowly peels the paint off the south facing side of the house. It erodes the mountain. Crashing waves slowly carve cliffs into ancient rock. Our skin sags and wrinkles rake fine lines across our faces as time entrains us. I didn’t realize it at the time, but on the old palace grounds where I recorded this episode from this morning, sits a memorial to the second world war. So after sitting in the van and thinking about pain, sorrow, and shame — our collective wounds, and brokenness — I wandered through a spiraling structure that documented the atrocities of Nazi Germany and the other Axis Powers. It was a sobering walk that took probably an hour to complete. An odd thing to be doing on a sunny day perfumed with birdsong. Surely evidence of a synchronicity; an echo of the tender and mournful darkness of my pre-dawn hours. Grief takes many forms, which can make healing hard. Sometimes we grieve for the loss of that which we never had. Other times we grieve for that which was had but was taken from us — knowing full well that all we have will one day be lost. But aren’t there are more mysterious forms of grief? The wailing of the world. How does a world ravaged by extraction cry out? Through what channels does it broadcast its lament, or sink into an odious melancholy? Maybe all things embodied are fleshy receivers capable of picking up the signal. We are embedded through our relationships into a shared community of heartache. But where does the unresolved trauma of our ancestors go after they take their leave of this place? Does it leak back into our lineage? Seep directly into our DNA? You’ve got your father’s eyes and your great grandmother’s fear of intimacy. But perhaps more importantly than where it comes from or where it goes — what does it want? How do we listen to and enter into conversation with our wounded or vulnerable parts? I don’t believe I have firm answers to any of these questions — and I don’t even ask all of them in this episode — but it’s something I’m sitting with today. So pop your headphones into your earholes, close your eyes and pretend you’re with me here in the van. There’s a callback to Episode 32 in this episode. Check it out if you feel so inclined. Be good to one another, and I’ll talk to you next time.