addiction
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On trust and money.
In economics textbooks, the origin of money is often described as a replacement for barter. Silly examples are given: if you raise cows and need a hammer, you have to find someone who has an extra hammer and specifically wants cows. You might travel all across town with a cow in tow, searching for someone…
addiction, barter, Braiding Sweetgrass, Buterin, community, consumption, cryptocurrency, currency, Ethereum, Frank Bidard, gift economics, Hernan Diaz, hoarding, late fees, Magic the Gathering, monetary exchange, money, money versus barter, non-disclosure agreement, origin of money, overconsumption, Price of Crypto, promise, reparations, resource transfer, Robin Wall Kimmerer, social contract, social network, Third Hour of the Night, tragedy of the commons, Trevor Jackson, trust, Trust novel, vampire bats, wealth, Windigo, Windigo economics
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On self-importance.
We aren’t the stars of other people’s stories — and that’s okay.
addiction, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, anxiety, Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom, Blake Crouch, career, caretakers, caretaking, children or career, clone battle, clones, dark matter, decoherence, drug, drug addiction, drugs, Exhalation, family, family or career, family versus career, Hugh Everett, infinity, jail, love, macaques, many worlds, many worlds theory, many-worlds interpretation, Nezhukumathil, opiates, postponing children for career, prioritizing caretaking, prioritizing family, Pulp Fiction, quantum decoherence, quantum measurement, quantum mechanics, Quentin Tarantino, rehab, sci-fi, sci-fi thriller, science fiction, taking care of family, Ted Chiang, thrill, World of Wonders
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On gambling.
An unexpected gift on my birthday.
2d6, addiction, bipolar, bipolar disorder, birthday, birthday celebrations, birthdays, book bans, celebrating birthdays during coronavirus, celebrating birthdays during covid, coronavirus, Covid-19, craps, D & D, D6, dice, disease exposure, dope, Dungeons and Dragons, gambling, germs, gift giving, homelessness, houselessness, human connection during covid, human connection during Covid-19, human connection during the time of coronavirus, incarceration, jail, mass incarceration, meth, methamphetamine, nail polish, prison, prison book bans, public gathering, teaching in jail, virus
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On Constantine Cavafy’s ‘Body, Remember,’ and the mutability of memory.
Would your life be better if you mistakenly believed in past triumph?
addiction, alcoholism, Aliki Barnstone, assault, beer, Body Remember, Boltzmann brain, brain, Brett Kavanaugh, CBT, cognition, cognitive behavioral therapy, consciousness, Constantine Cavafy, drinking problem, episodic memory, Exhalation, failed seduction, Flirtation, incarceration, jail poetry, jail poetry workshop, Kavanaugh, Last Gods, mass incarceration, memory, misremembrance, missed connections, mutability of memory, opiate abuse, opiates, poetry, problem drinking, recovery, recovery from addiction, Remember Body, risque poetry, seduction, sexual aggression, sexual assault, sexy poetry, sultry poetry, Supreme Court, teaching in jail, Ted Chiang, Truth of Fact Truth of Feeling, violative assault
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On translation.
Translation is imperfect, and dangerous, and we should all do it. The act of putting another’s thoughts into our words will bring us closer.
addiction, Cathay, Cherry, Christopher Logue, drug addiction, Ezra Pound, Hayden Pelliccia, Homer, imperfect translation, incomplete equivalence, Iraq, Iraqi translators, literal translation, literary translation, literature in translation, Mark Polizzotti, military interpreters, military service, military translation, mistranslation, Nico Walker, Perry Link, Sympathy for the Traitor, The Iliad, translated literature, translating literature, translating poetry, Translation, War Music
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On national borders and the disappearance of our universe’s only known habitable planet.
We all share one planet, but selfish decisions made within a single nation’s borders could destroy it.
45, addiction, Amazon, Amazon Rainforest, Animal Man, biological abundance, biological diversity, biological fecundity, Brazil, Brazilian presidency, caterpillar, climate change, climate refuges, David Wallace-Wells, DC comics, deforestation, Donald Trump, environment, environmentalism, falling insect populations, fatherhood, fossil fuels, GBI, global warming, global wealth tax, Grant Morrison, guaranteed basic income, immigration, immigration crisis, inequality, insect populations, Jair Bolsonaro, Mexico, Michael McCarthy, Michoacan, Midwest, milkweed, mining in Michoacan, mining in the Amazon, Molly Crabapple, monarch wintering sites, national borders, oil, oil companies, parenting, pesticides, President Trump, raising caterpillars, raising monarch butterflies, raising Monarchs, refugee crisis, renewable energy, solar energy, The Moth Snowstorm, The Uninhabitable Earth, Trump, vegan, vegan comic books, vegan comics, vegan superhero, vegan superheroes, veganism, vegetarian comic books, vegetarian comics, vegetarian superhero, vegetarian superheroes, vegetarianism, Where Else Can They Go
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On drugs and drug laws.
Humans have long restricted access to spiritual sacraments. Perhaps its not surprising that psilocybin is illegal, whereas the drugs that harm other people are easy to come by.
access to drugs, addiction, Against Life, alcohol, alcohol consumption, alcohol is the most harmful drug, alcoholism, antibiotic, antibiotic resistance, antibiotics, antibiotics in animal agriculture, archaeology, Ayelet Waldman, ballot initiative, Bay Area, Brett Kavanaugh, cocaine, Daddy Wake Up, Denver, dimethyltryptamine, DMT, drug crisis, drug laws, drug trip, drug use, drug use in the Bay Area, drugs, entheogens, hallucinations, hallucinogen, How to Change Your Mind, human drug use, incarceration, jail, jail poetry, jail time, Josh Rathkamp, Kavanaugh, magic mushrooms, mass incarceration, Michael Pollan, most harmful drugs, mushrooms, narcotics, opiate addiction, opiate epidemic, opiod addiction, opiods, opioid crisis, poetry in jail, prehistory of human drug use, prison poetry, psilocin, psilocybin, psychedelic, psychedelics, psychedelics as medicine, psychedelics drugs, psychedelics for depression, psychedelics in psychiatry, racism, racist drug laws, selective drug enforcement, selective law enforcement, sexual assault, spiritual experiences, spirituality, Supreme Court justices, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, therapeutic drug trip, Travis Combs, U.S. drug policy, vegan, veganism, War on Drugs
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On Brett Wagner’s “Apocalypse Blaze.”
Nuclear fallout is a killer. But my friend was felled by the apocalypse that’s already upon us.
addiction, alcohol, Apocalypse Blaze, apocalyptic fiction, Bird Town TN, Bloomington, Brett Wagner, drinking, exposure, futurism, handgrith, hangrith, homelessness, incarceration, jail, jail poetry, meth, methamphetamine, nuclear apocalypse, nuclear fallout, poetry in jail, post-apocalyptic fiction, prison, prison poetry, sobriety, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, unfinished novels, writing in jail
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On storytelling and social justice.
By telling powerful stories with integrity, we might inspire people to help change the world.
activism, addiction, Bloomington, consciousness as storytelling, Dave Eggers, death in jail, emotions, emotions to compel action, framing your own story, Frans de Waal, free will, incarceration, Indiana, jail, jail poetry, Lindsey Badger, mass incarceration, Max Smith, Michelle Brekke, narrative consciousness, neuroscience of consciousness, neuroscience of free will, New Leaf, New Leaf New Life, overcoming trauma, poetry in jail, prison poetry, rationality, restorative justice, storytelling, storytelling and incarceration, teaching kids to be activists, The Bloomingtonian, The Dimension Mill, the neuroscience of storytelling, The Parade, trauma, writing and incarceration, writing and social justice, writing in prison
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On happiness and mind control.
We could change our brains enough to feel happy with the world as it is … or we could use our unhappiness as a motivation to fix things.
abusive research, addiction, America, animal emotions, animal empathy, asylums, bad medical advice, bioethics, biomedical ethics, brain modification, brain parasites, brain stimulation, brain’s pleasure center, Carl Elliott, cat shit, chemically modulated happiness, cocaine, consciousness, conversion therapy, DCS, deep brain stimulation, depression, direct current stimulation, dopamine, drug abuse, drug crisis, drug use, eating cat shit, electrical brain stimulation, electrochemical stimulation of desire, empathy in rats, evolutionary rationale for pleasure, fighting depression, Frans de Waal, free will, happiness, homosexuality, human choice, human free will, Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal, induction of empathy, Lone Frank, love potion, Mama’s Last Hug, mind control, nucleus accumbens, opiate use, painkillers, parasites, parasitic mind control, psychiatric patients, psychiatric wards, psychiatry, psychological crisis, psychology studies, psychosurgery, rat empathy, rats free their friends, research ethics, research subjects, review of The Pleasure Shock, Robert Heath, science, scientific ethics, scientific progress, sex in a laboratory, suicide, toxo, toxoplasma, toxoplasmosis, unethical experiments, unethical research, unethical science, United States
Frank Brown Cloud 