140 - Pandemic Perspectives with Erik Davis, Tony Blake, and Mitch Mignano

FUTURE FOSSILS

We’re extra lucky to have not one but three amazing guests this week: culture critic and religious scholar Erik Davis, philosopher and author Tony Blake, and trickster historian Mitch Mignano.

We planned to have a completely different conversation but due to the overbearing reality of the COVID19 crisis it ended up being a deep dive into the mythic and mystical dimensions of our moment — including nonhuman agency, the virus as teacher, Pan and panic and pandemics, solutionism isn’t the solution, the danger of efficiency logic, and a media diet for meditation on the darkness of nature.

We talk Marshall McLuhan, G.I. Gurdjieff, Tanya Harrison, J.G. Bennett, Weird Studies, Acyuta-bhava Dasa, Santa Fe Institute, and a whole lot else. I would ordinarily make more of an effort to provide an exhaustive list of the books, people, and other resources mentioned in this episode, but there are so many — and I am so eager to make this conversation available while it’s still fresh and gooey. Besides, last week’s show notes were heroic in scope.

Feel free to tweet at me (@michaelgarfield) if you want more info to help you follow up on anything.

For more Erik Davis, check out episodes 99 & 132. For more Mitch Mignano, check out episodes 57 & 98.

Erik’s latest book High Weirdness is now available as an author-read audiobook.

Support this show on Patreon for secret episodes, the Future Fossils book club, and more awesome stuff than you probably have time for.

Grab the books we talk about on Future Fossils and Amazon will chip me a little of the proceeds, at no cost to you.

Theme Music: “God Detector” by Evan “Skytree” Snyder (feat. Michael Garfield)

Additional Intro Music: “Lambent” by Michael Garfield

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