Conversations with Myself

The final confrontation between the forces of Cayman and Jaguar. For now, at least... We hope you've enjoyed the story! If so, please leave us a rating and review and help other folks find the podcast as well.

The jaguar and cayman clans meet once again, albeit in a very different environment than the ancient surroundings of Chavin de Huantar. Still rushes to escape with his new core followers, while Answer, Collie, Luz and Coordinator join forces to try and stop him...

All parties rush towards the final confrontation at the Longbones' new mountain compound. But surprises await the Newtown and Kollectiv warriors...

A surprising decoy plot is revealed to the Newtown crew from a shocking source. Meanwhile, Answer departs in his own usual stealthy way, heading directly for the point of conflict.

The Newtown crew prepares to confront the threat of a restored Cayman clan, while Answer slips away on his own, keen to understand the meaning of the pouch Luz gave him from the shaman Ramon...

Arimichi Mikio makes his way into Newtown, albeit by an unexpected route. What he wants with Collie and the crew is unclear, but as events swirl towards a reckoning with Still and the Cayman, strange allies may prove to be a welcome surprise...

Answer intervenes in the probe of the Longbones warrior, to shocking effect. A new Indu manager appears on the scene, complicating matters for Collie just as he needs to focus on finding Still/Kohler...

Answer finally rejoins the group in Portland Newtown, and Still gets even closer to recreating ahmati. Jaguar has an immediate impact on a tense setting as Answer arrives...

Everything converges on the Portland Newtown, as the crew prepares to use the Pusher EPROM tech on the captured Longbones warrior. And not far from there, Kohler gets closer to his goal...

All parties move towards the Portland Newtown, with one glaring exception: Answer. His path is diverted, at least temporarily...

Still-as-Kohler explores his new domain, while Collie, Pillhead John and Hedda Bjornlee ponder the minefield of how to use their new devices on less-than-willing participants. Everything, it seems, is moving towards Newtown...

More of the Criminal Magic story will be coming soon, we promise! We're switching back to some other, non-fiction storytelling for this release. Hope you enjoy the conversation!

Coordinator, Answer and Luz clean up after the tragic conflict, while Collie keeps searching through Dana's memories, connecting some very surprising dots...

The Longbones come down, seeking to catch their enemies gathered all in one place. But there are still mysteries even their leader does not understand, and surprises all around for both sides...

Coordinator finds ways to dip further into the mysteries surrounding Raif Kohler, as Collie starts to put the pieces together between his old friend Answer and the memories they saw from their journey into Dana's memories...

The Newtown crew begins seeing inside the unconscious mind of the amnesiac Dana, while Answer, Coordinator and Rene fall deeper into the dark passage being crafted by Raif Kohler. They don't see the whole of it yet, but all of them in their own ways feel that a conflict is coming...

Luz and Ramon connect in a shaman space outside of time, and the Newtown geniuses work on a way to see all the things that their new resident has forgotten...

Answer, Coordinator, Luz and Rene fly north towards an uncertain meeting with the forces swirling around the traditional land of the U'wa.

Raif prowls his lab in the middle of the night, musing on the double life he leads. Back in Colombia, the trio of Answer, Coordinator and Luz decide on a trip north, and Answer calls in Rene Taul for a bit more pilot duty to get them there...

Luz joins Answer and Coordinator in Colombia, much to Coordinator's annoyance. And her cryptic but seemingly psychic pronouncements definitely aren't helping. Meanwhile, we get a bird's-eye view of an ecotage effort just over the border in Venezuela...

Answer finds a rude reception after working so hard to make his way home, and we are introduced to Raif, who worked as a young adventurous scientist trying to discover western medical value in the deep knowledge of the U'wa shaman Ramon...

Answer slowly makes his way back to Colombia, while Coordinator heads back to Portland in an effort to see if Collie can help her find Answer before the dark forces pursuing them do. The INDU mob finds out the hard way that the people of Newtown are a little harder to displace than they might have suspected...

Answer returns home to an uncertain welcome, while Coordinator seeks out his old friend, Collie Grey back in Portland. She may not be exactly welcome, but Collie has his own reasons why she may be useful...

Answer recalls more of their first adventures with the shaman, Luz, while Coordinator is confronted with some unwelcome news back at House. Her mentor Kiranjit Singh has a mission that is tailor-made for her, however objectionable she may find it...

As Coordinator dives deeper into the mystery surrounding Harrison Lin, Answer drifts back to an earlier time when he and Collie first met Luz Kawabi and began their journey of discovery...

As Answer does his best to simply disappear once again, Coordinator heads back to the relative safety of House, eager to put her tools to work finding out who or what is behind her recent difficulties. Answer finds assistance from an old ally...

After the failed exchange, everyone is on the run. But that doesn't mean they're out of the woods...whoever or whatever is after them seems to have a very long reach indeed. But Coordinator and Answer both believe in that old adage: it isn't paranoid if they're really out to get you.

The four participants in the initial kidnapping of Target all head their separate ways, each finding themselves hunted in one way or another. Although they don't yet know why everything went off the rails, they all try to seek safety as best as they know how, with whatever resources they can quickly and quietly find...

Chapter Two of Criminal Magic: In the future, society is broken into two groups: government run for and by transnational business, and a citizenry left to foot the bill. To survive in this world, crime has grown its own political structure. The Kollectiv movement specializes in outsourcing crime. It's a cranked-up tribe of anarchists, activists and adrenaline junkies. In short, anybody with an eye toward adventure and an aversion to office work. The cash available for social programs all over the world now comes almost exclusively from the Kollectives, forming an intersection between compassion and crime. It's Robin Hood by any means necessary. Answer contracts for the Kollectiv, but he's not in it for the people. For him it's the adrenaline. He's a specialist who brings a certain magic to the job--the inspired magic of San Pedro, the ancient cult of the jaguar. But lately he's been feeling bored. A Kollectiv kidnap goes wrong, leaving Answer and Coordinator, a hardass, technology-drive Kollectiv organizer, running for their lives. This isn't right. Nobody gets killed over a little renewable resource job. There's an ethic, even in this work. Answer and Coordinator know that. But somebody's changed the rules. Who? There are forces--dark mystical energies and well-heeled transnational executives--hard at work reshaping the world twenty-four seven. It's a dangerous time to be ambivalent about your purpose or power, and Answer's growing uncertainty about what his magic means makes him vulnerable. Luz, the strong Peruvian shaman, knows all about Answer, and the ancient evil that's chasing him. She is his mentor, and has a vision of his future, even if he does not. The question is: will she be able to keep her student alive long enough for him to become the teacher in her dreams?

Chapter One of Criminal Magic: In the future, society is broken into two groups: government run for and by transnational business, and a citizenry left to foot the bill. To survive in this world, crime has grown its own political structure. The Kollectiv movement specializes in outsourcing crime. It's a cranked-up tribe of anarchists, activists and adrenaline junkies. In short, anybody with an eye toward adventure and an aversion to office work. The cash available for social programs all over the world now comes almost exclusively from the Kollectives, forming an intersection between compassion and crime. It's Robin Hood by any means necessary. Answer contracts for the Kollectiv, but he's not in it for the people. For him it's the adrenaline. He's a specialist who brings a certain magic to the job--the inspired magic of San Pedro, the ancient cult of the jaguar. But lately he's been feeling bored. A Kollectiv kidnap goes wrong, leaving Answer and Coordinator, a hardass, technology-drive Kollectiv organizer, running for their lives. This isn't right. Nobody gets killed over a little renewable resource job. There's an ethic, even in this work. Answer and Coordinator know that. But somebody's changed the rules. Who? There are forces--dark mystical energies and well-heeled transnational executives--hard at work reshaping the world twenty-four seven. It's a dangerous time to be ambivalent about your purpose or power, and Answer's growing uncertainty about what his magic means makes him vulnerable. Luz, the strong Peruvian shaman, knows all about Answer, and the ancient evil that's chasing him. She is his mentor, and has a vision of his future, even if he does not. The question is: will she be able to keep her student alive long enough for him to become the teacher in her dreams?

Rusty and Seneca discuss the will of the mind versus the will of the heart. Can we have much more of one and a whole lot less of the other? and was Descartes the most regressive piece of emotional technology ever invented? Give a listen and see!

Nothing is ever lost in the house of self. Explorations on how we can live in emotional abundance, rather than staying camped out with fear.

Felsenfeld, and the Harvard Business School of Adrenalin

Conversations with Myself: Episode 2 The one where we talk about art and culture and violence

The one where we start talking