The Naked Life

FKK, or Free Body Culture, (Freikörperkultur in German), emerged in the 1800s as a method for health optimization and later became a homage to nature. Eventually, it was used as a radical act of freedom that the Nazis and police tried to suppress. The social movement carried on, and over time what went counter culture entered the mainstream.  

Why were Germans into nudity back then? What did it symbolize at the time, and what does it mean now? 

Here’s why nudity is a form of liberation and a political stance. 

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The inner citadel is a mental fortress one creates against adversity. The inner citadel can be destroyed through external pressures if it is not built into the folds of the mind and discipline of the body. For the stoic Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, the soul was his guide, and the mind and body acted as his protector. 

He communed with the soul inside of him through writing, and the philosophical spiritualized diary Meditations was born. Today we will discuss teachings from this book. 

Aurelius built his inner citadel by erecting three fundamental rules. In this episode we will talk about these rules and why they are essential for living a life rooted in wisdom. 

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Eugene Leonard was addicted to cocaine, gambling, and drinking. He was kicked out of Iraq for his behavior and lost his job in China. He found himself at an ultimatum, suicide or change.

This discussion is on how huge changes are possible. Eugene talks about self-forgiveness, faith in a higher power, and regaining trust in life. It is an ongoing process. 

Well after rehab, Eugene got into spiritual practice, did a one-month Vipassana, and lived with monks. 

The practice of 18-hour daily meditations, silence, and solitude changed Eugene’s relationship with pain and allowed him to see the nature of the craving mind. 

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This monologue is a call for freedom of expression. 

Amid woke culture and political correctness, there is rampant censorship. This sanitization of speech, this defilement of art, is a world in which significance is lost. By avoiding controversial and difficult topics, we dumbly regurgitate common thoughts and superficialities.

Here, imagination is castrated and complexity is numbed. The nuances of life and inner contradictions all humans embody, don’t have sufficient room to express. Reality is reduced to a duller state and culture is threatened.  

The words of literary geniuses shouldn’t be banned or neglected for being “too dark”, or “politically incorrect”. Here’s why. 

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Ruby Roth, is an LA-based artist and author with a focus on the feminine spectrum through painting solitary female figures in spiritual dimensions. Her style is a mix of surrealism and pop art. She’s also published her newest book Boss Inside which is a reclamation of the feminine. 

Today we discuss what it means to reclaim the feminine and how to give space to feminine rage which has a different texture than anger. Ruby gives insight into handling men’s anger without taking it on as our own.

From years of painting and writing, Ruby encourages using instinct and intuition in relationships and art. 

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Today I speak to Jascha Renner, co-founder of Set and Setting, a psychedelic retreat company and author of the newly released book Psychedelics. 

This conversation touches on the impact psychedelics have on the four energy bodies; the physical, the emotional, the mental, and the spiritual. 

The beginning of many spiritual journeys is focused on self-development through the four energy bodies. Psychedelics takes us a bit further, we transcend the self momentarily and are suspended in a space beyond the smallness of our egos. What happens after such an experience? 

We discuss the changes in self and methods of integrating those changes in the humdrum of daily life. Psychedelics prove beneficial for self-development, self-transcendence, and healing. But what about play?  Can the process of healing happen through celebration and joy? What is the future of our society with psychedelics on the rise? 

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If God is dead who do we worship? Who takes his place? In China, God was replaced by Mao. In the USSR, God was replaced by Lenin. In the West, what do we worship?

St Thomas Aquinas talked about the four false idols from his Summa Theologica. They are money, power, pleasure, and fame.

Everyone is guided by one or more of these false idols that function as an endless black hole. We chase it and we are not gratified.

In connection to the divine, there's a feeling of wholeness through faith, but a false idol perpetuates dissatisfaction. Learn what your false idols are, so with awareness, you can lessen their grip on you. 

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In the beginning of the Red Book, Jung is pulled by two forces. He names them, the spirit of the times and the spirit of the depths.

The spirit of the times speaks to the zeitgeist and the current-day reality you live in. This is the culture you’re part of and what the environment has fed you. The spirit of the times speaks to current trends and issues. Your participation in a political side. Your involvement in current-day matters including your daily affairs and personal goals.

The spirit of the depths is the ancient part. The creative part, the wild part. The part that no matter how much you obtain, the spirit of the depths won't be satisfied.

What happens when we live in each of these parts? What did Jung define as the soul? How can these spirits merge so we can be whole? What do they mean for art and creation? Why do they matter, and what do they dictate? 

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In this episode, I speak to Viv Kan, a mindful intimacy coach, and TEDx speaker. Viv helps women and couples deepen their connection through normalizing and educating the practice of intimacy, female pleasure, and desire.

What keeps relationship alive? What creates strong communication? How do we become better lovers? Why have some women never had an orgasm? What allows other women to be multi-orgasmic? 

We discuss the foundation of intimacy, what creates and destroys it, how to become more vulnerable, and tools for connection in the bedroom. 

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Dreams are the bridge between the conscious and the unconscious world. According to Jung, the more we can understand the symbolic matter of this “swamp land of the soul” the more we become whole individuated human beings.

Today I will talk to dream interpreter and guide, Ty. We’ll discuss the importance of remembering dreams, to then integrate the lessons into waking life. 

Lucid dreaming brings greater mental clarity and attention to subtlety. Even nightmares are a way to process the things the conscious mind rejects. In sleep paralysis, we learn the art of relaxation instead of resistance. Dreams are a tool to understand ourselves. Many artists even use the astral realm for creative problem-solving and generating new ideas. 

Dreams are a storehouse of symbolic matter that is valuable material for spiritual growth and creativity. 

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Alain de Botton is a modern-day philosopher who tackles the timeless issue of love in longevity, and what a committed romantic relationship truly entails. Today’s talk will dissect the lessons from his book “The Couse of Love”.

Plenty of literature talks about the romantic beginnings of love, but few talk about what love means over the duration of years.

De Botton argues that love is not just an emotion, but a skill to refine, and an art to practice. How can we love the other in a way that leads to mutual understanding and growth in partnership? 

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We hear about privilege all the time; from white privilege to patriarchy, to nepotism, to trans generational wealth and classism. We do not come into this world on equal footing. Life is fair because it’s unfair to everyone, but there are levels to this game. We all suffer but to various extents based on the unique package of self, we came into this world in.  

The denial of privilege is dangerous because it neglects something real and alive, and strange enough, it can often be used for good. 

If we make the privileged feel like the oppressor, then they can’t be our allies for change and become our enemies. When we shame or guilt trip them, it makes them defensive and protective. This is not the way to growth.

How can we all utilize our privilege instead of pretending it doesn't exist? How can we be aware of privilege and power dynamics to work with it? How can we extend our gifts outward instead of feeling guilty for what we have? 

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Emotions are a natural derivative of thought and arise spontaneously in consciousness without our control. However, if our lives are driven only by how we feel in the moment, we are tossed around by the external forces that create the inner emotion.

How can we use our emotions to get what we want rather than be at the whims of our fluctuating feelings? When is it beneficial to be rooted in feeling and emotion and when is it best to override what we feel? How can we navigate the complexity and contradictory landscape of the emotional body with grace?

The practice of neutrality helps to see life clearly without attaching to a feeling so we can respond rather than react to a given situation. Neutrality knows that feelings are transient and not part of the self, for the self is just watching them come and go. 

This is an equanimous space where we can be at peace with what we feel rather than cling to or neglect a certain feeling. We can then use our emotions with intelligence rather than them using us.

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One of the most contemporary heated discussions is around trans people and questions of gender and gender fluidity. After watching the documentary ‘What is a Woman’ I comment on Matt Walsh’s approach to the matter, his points, and his faults.

Many conservatives like him are opposed to pronouns and medical intervention for transitioning genders. Why? 

Many liberals are pushing for a more fluid and wide view of gender and playing with biology and aesthetics. Why?

I argue both sides of the debate and the beauty and perils of each. The progressives and conservatives need each other, for they take such contrasting approaches to life, all valid. One side pushes for change, while the other is set on tradition. Both of these parties are necessary for the greater balance of things. 

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As a collective, we are under the psychic weight of global suffering where it's easy to feel small and powerless. The greatest help we can give others is by examining our own lives and seeing what is being asked of us moment by moment, and what situations are being presented to us in which we can act as a vehicle of good. 

This talk provides personal stories and examples of people who have created big change on a local level, and the significance of the seemingly small actions that have a ripple effect. Power starts within and expands outwards, it's not about the system, but how we play a part in it.

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Seduction is a word with a negative connotation, but in practice, it does not have to be. The etymology of the word seduction is not about manipulation or sexual deviance, but about bringing a person off a set path.

So many men are on the path to self-annihilation. Since the 1950’s American men have committed suicide three to five times more often than females. Why?

Men are met with demands and expectations within capitalistic systems and are emotionally illiterate purposefully. They have to turn off their feelings in order to work and produce like a machine. This creates a numbness and deadness of the spirit. 

Neo tantra is a practice to bring people back to eros, aliveness in the body. Seduction can be subtle, and by using a few basic principles from neo-tantra, men can reconnect to presence and beauty through the sensuality of the feminine. 

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Nudity and naturalism are practices that go way beyond societal misinterpretations and false perceptions of hypersexuality. In many ways, it is the opposite. Nudity and naturalism are ways of life that bring humans back to the roots. 

This talk travels into the historical aspect of nudity in Berlin, and the values that were birthed from the free body movement. 

I myself have been a nudist and lived in nude settings for years during my travels, as well as in community. This talk explores why I’ve witnessed nudity as a fundamental to connecting to the Earth, the self, and as an antidote to consumerism. The essence of nudity is freedom. 

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Noam Chomsky once said "If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion.” We are already living in this world, where sound bites have become news and complexity and nuance is reduced to click bait extremism. 

Media literacy is one of the most important things we can learn for weeding through the rampant bullshit. Apart from the quest for truth, media literacy allows for sovereignty. It is the refusal to be controlled by propaganda machines that fuel polarization and fear, and the ability to come to one’s own conclusions.  

This talk will provide you with the tools to:

• Focus on content instead of the messenger of the content

• Dig for nuance and subtlety instead of simple slogans and reductionist info

• Notice suggestive language which pulls us into another’s bias

• See how disagreements are functional for public discourse

• Allow freedom of speech especially for those we disagree with

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On a road trip through Turkey, I met an old fisherman who was living off the land on a beach near Demre. He invited me to live with him in a tent and we spent a week fishing, smoking weed, gathering wood, watching the stars, and living a simple wholesome life. 

The fisherman renounced all his previous desires, he let go of worldly endeavors, academia, materialism, and striving for more, but there was one desire he could not let go of. 

This is my episode on a story about what it means to be a simple human, yet still have fundamental needs. 

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Sofia Cossar is a political advocate for feminism. From her career in human rights and international law, she has a focus on gender equality and inclusion. Sofia works in both government and tech as a young woman in highly competitive male dominated industries. 

Today we will break down what feminism actually is, from the first to fourth wave, and assess where we are at this point of time with the internet age. 

Sofia will provide insights on:

• Methods to enact intersectional feminism.

• The failure of cancel culture: How we can hold men to humane standards without exiling them, and practice redemption instead of solely punishment. 

• Creating open conversations led by curiosity  within polarizing ideologies.

• Being heard and recognized for work in male dominated spheres. 

• Navigating predatory behavior in the workplace.

• Redesigning the grammar of the economy towards a post capitalist feminine shape.

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In the wake of the war in Ukraine, and the recent terrorist attack by Hamas, it seems that progress has halted and we are in a state of perpetual violence that may result in a World War III. In the age of nuclear arms, this is not to be taken lightly, we are already our own destruction. 

There’s so much worldly suffering and the constant stream of news and disheartening information can paralyze the psyche. We seem too small to make a difference. 

The personal is political, brings a sense of responsibility to the individual, and states that the way we live, from what we choose to wear, to how we love, to what we eat, is all a political act.

Man creates the political system through his consciousness, and the more that consciousness can widen, the less damage we will do. 

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For the last eight years, I have been traveling the world and primarily living abroad in Southeast Asia. In my return back to the States, I underwent culture shock in my homeland. 

Travel helps shed the social myths of this culture I unconsciously adopted as my own, and returning was a reminder of how much I’ve changed. I left this way of life for a reason, and now I was being tested, would I become like my environment?

America is known as the land of dreams, but at what cost?

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Today’s episode is with feminine embodiment coach Kin Tennant. After working at Facebook and for the founders of YouTube, she left the hyper-productivity of the West to live in Southeast Asia and reconnect to her body. Now, she helps women tap back into their feminine essence which predatory capitalism and the patriarchy have dimmed.

Kin and I met in Thailand on an island where we were both dating the same man. In the beginning, we didn’t like each other. It was due to competition and insecurity. Now, we are best friends staying together in California. Kin and I will discuss what we’ve learned about sisterhood, and letting go of notions of competition that are pressed upon by the male gaze. 

From holding women’s gatherings in Mexico, Bali, Thailand, and the United States, Kin has a love for uniting women. She will provide us with tools she has learned for women to connect with their femininity and softness in a masculine dominator culture. 

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Joachim was a classical composer and singer for twenty years in Belgium before he became a guide for helping people relate more deeply to themselves. From our experience, listening is fundamental in both the creative act and inner life.

Today, we will discuss the importance of active listening and the various shades of listening, from reading the emotional body to perceiving nuance and subtlety, and absorbing content.

We will study the importance of silence and explore the messages of composer John Cage and the insights of producer Rick Rubin. We will also touch upon various schools of thought, from emptying yourself in Taoism to hearing with your whole being in Zen. The quality of presence and attention that listening demands, changes life as a whole.

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My first Burning Man came with resistance. I thought that the social media influencers, models, and bourgeoisie had already diminished its essence. Luckily, I was wrong. Burning Man is a place for everyone. There were old-time Burners who had attended 26 times; there were hippies, anarchists, and billionaires. Everyone coexisted in an absurdly beautiful paradise.

Burning Man felt like the mecca of creativity and self-expression. In this episode, I will discuss all that I witnessed that gave me a surge of inspiration and reframed reality into a waking dream. I will discuss the adventures we went on, from psychedelic weddings to sacred intimacy workshops, and dancing under a UFO in the mud.

The national and international news labeled the event a national disaster due to the two inches of rain, but the majority of people made the best out of it. There was even more giving, more civic responsibility, and more aliveness.

The principles seemed to expand in action during the extreme weather. And the most important thing was that it was still fun. The news was sensationalizing the event with fear-mongering tactics, as the news always does. It was not a disaster.

Burning Man held seemingly contradictory meanings; it was both playful and profound.

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During my last week in Berlin, I interviewed a wide array of people in this post war city about the concept of freedom and if it even exists. 

Berlin, a haven for outcasts and eccentrics, possesses an indomitable spirit that defies convention. It is a city that has endured the ravages of war and division, standing as a testament to resilience.

Amidst the backdrop of this metropolis, one can't help but sense an air of openness, distinct from the rest of Germany. Intrigued by the narrative of Berliners, I ventured into their homes to unearth their stories.

I spoke to people who've had basic freedoms stripped from them by external situations. I went into the home of Golden, a dominatrix who was sex trafficked as a teen in Prague and went to Berlin for a new life. 

I spent two days speaking with Mohamad, a Syrian refugee and political activist who fled the iron fist of Assad and the totalitarian regime in Damascus to Libya then Europe.

I heard heartbreaking stories about the cost of freedom, which is often our own dignity. There are sacrifices and consequences for what we think we want. So what do we actually want when we say we want to be free?

My other interviews were with sociologists, musicians, novelists, and thought leaders, regarding what makes us feel free and what hinders our liberation. These talks led to a metaphysical place, and spurred a few philosophical debates. 

I have come to the conclusion that freedom does not exist. But this is not a bad thing. 

This episode is a short synthesis on a few findings from my last week in Berlin and revelations I've had through the fascinating humans whose worlds I had the privilege to dig into.

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The castration of creativity is in seeking perfection. ‘Perfect’ implies a solid end, but the end never arrives. We are evolving, and the work gets better as we do but it’s seldom perfect. 

Art must have room for play and spontaneity. It has fewer consequences than being a doctor or lawyer, there is more room for expression and possibility. In a culture of rigidness and uptightness that claims everything matters, art laughs.  

There is more room for mistakes and this allows the artist to have a lightness of being. Making art eludes to the human messiness of life, our shared humanness. 

How can we loosen the need to control? How can we allow our mistakes to be interesting? How can we allow perfectionism to strive for quality without mutilation of the work? 

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Kanishka grew up as an  “untouchable” in the caste system of a small Indian village, facing extreme discrimination. Now, Kanishka is an anthropologist at Harvard University. 

From his childhood being outcasted and through his studies on caste at an Ivy League school, Kanishka has firsthand experience and academic insight into the caste system and classism.

Today, we will discuss the history of the caste system and Kanishka’s studies on the implications of caste in Indian politics. His research at Harvard is about how caste and class relations in India, particularly in elite educational and corporate workspaces, are being reshaped by the growth of free-market economic discourses.

We will see the way in which systematic oppression is maintained and what is necessary for disassembling it. Kanishka had internalized his marginalization but learned to witness it and lean into a space of resilience and self-belief.

Education was his route out of poverty and into empowerment. This is a story of personal will and the necessity of disobedience within systems that suffocate our shared humanity.

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At age 22, Sofiane was diagnosed with MS and did not have function over the movements of his arm. Prior denial and avoidance of his autoimmune disease then evolved into a discovery of the foundation of health. 

Sofiane silenced his MS through studies in anti-inflammatory diet and holistic nutrition. He is now a nutrition science coach that has helped thousands of people find specific diets that nourish them. 

Through consciously choosing to experiment with what foods suit us best, and knowing how to handle our emotions, health is stabilized. Food is the information for the body. Thoughts are the information of the mind. Illness is a message. Sofiane listened to this message and by consciously responding to the lessons, his life is more vital than ever. 

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Keke and G are Yale graduates and founders of PREY, an artist collective in Berlin bringing together improvisers, pleasure activists, musicians, and movers. In today’s talk, we discuss one of their latest performance pieces, “I Love You” done partially nude in a war bunker with the general public as their witness. 

In a city so heavy with post-war grief and separation, demonstrating love is an essential message of our shared humanity.

What does it mean to choose love, and to practice it daily? How can art be a space for what the world needs emotively? How can we live lives of vulnerability and open-heartedness in the face of fear?

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Sabrina Vasquez is a visual artist who celebrates the varying forms of sensuality through her paintings that merge the ethereal allure of women and the wholeness of nature. Her latest practice is ‘The Yoni Portraits’ that connect women to the power of their yoni’s as a portal to creation.

Yoni is the Sanskrit word for vagina, and Sabrina makes unique naturalistic portraits for her clients through guided meditation and intuitive painting.

In this episode, we will discuss the synergy between sexuality and creation. We will give tips on how to harness the vitality from sexual energy outside of the bedroom and form new worlds. We will unravel how to allow intuition to guide us into new fresh ideas and how to gently transcend creative blocks.

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Maanee Chrystal is a somatic psychotherapist and founder of the Somatic Institute for Women. Maanee works to provide women with a trauma informed reorientation toward feeling and re-connecting with the erotic. Her last summit, the Shadow Side of the Feminine received 30,000 participants.

Maanee has also worked as a stripper and investigated the repressed, denied and hidden parts of self and society. Maanee openly shares her experience in sex work and consciously choosing to enter into the sensual sphere and receive the male gaze.

Today we will be discussing the ways in which we as women have internalized misogyny and how to reclaim eros as a core aspect of the natural feminine. 

Kostya Kairo formed his first band at age 14 in Novosibirsk, Siberia. Years later, Kostya's lo-fi/punk project "Отстой" was among the first New Russian Wave bands of the 2010s that brought Russian lyrics back to local indie music. He is currently a song writer and singer in the psychedelic-pop band "дÿра".

Today we will talk about how to use the material from our daily life in our art, so that the world becomes a source of infinite inspiration. Kostya will unravel his creative process, from curating an environment where work flows easily, to the importance of travel, and sensitizing oneself in this age of information overload that numbs the psyche.

Art is feeling, and we feel the most when we can observe life around us and metabolize our experiences consciously.  

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