I took a controversial and largely feared hallucinogen to understand more about Near-Death Experiences.

Earlier this year, I began podcasting. The subject of choice for my initial limited series podcast was something I had been interested in for years: cults and thought reform.

I loved working on it, and one of the things I liked the best about it was talking to people about the things people don’t talk about in polite company.

So, I decided my next podcast would be about the biggest taboo: Death and grieving.

I have as messed up a relationship with death as most people…

On Legal Threats

Since March, I’ve been working on a limited series podcast called On Belief: A Podcast About Cults. It has been uniquely rewarding as a project: I have learned new things every day, I’ve been the recipient of endless generosity, and I’ve been given a unique opportunity to help people tell their stories about either covering or surviving groups which engaged in coercive thought reform.

About a month ago, I received a message in the show’s inbox: One of the groups that make up this week’s topic, Large Group Awareness Training, sent me a Cease and Desist.

Among…

Building furniture is a lot like building business partnerships

Since December of last year, I have been working on a new business venture with my former co-worker and friend, Renée.

It has been a busy year with a steep learning curve. Once you make the transition from coworker to business partner, you have to re-negotiate your approach to one another, because for a business to survive, you need to achieve consensus.

We had been looking for ways to work with non profits since day one, and we have done that, and continue to do it (one of our first ever…

Panera Bread Resistance Turd Ed has a Problem With Women

You may know the Krassenstein Brothers from “endlessly being retweeted by kind democrats” in your Twitter timeline. They are the brothers who have built sizeable Twitter followings off such brave “resistance” tweets as this gem:

They run a website called Hill Reporter, which I will not link to because I do not want them to receive any ad revenue.

They’re also famous for a book called “How the People Trumped Ronald Plump” notable for both the use of the left version of “Barfsack O’Crumbo” and for a weirdly buff Robert…

In the four years that we’ve allowed John Tory to carry out his mandate of “not being a Crack Mayor” he has accomplished exactly that one thing.

BUT!

• Smart Track has not materialized.
• John Tory voted against “the data” on several occasions when they stood to benefit him politically (like over the Gardiner East.)
• John Tory had to be dragged out of his literal mansion to open up the Armouries last year when homeless people were dying on the street from exposure in the dead of winter.

John Tory’s response to the Ford administration’s railroading of the Toronto election was…

If someone said you could take a simple drug that in five hour’s time would not only reset your brain, erasing years of depressive and anxious feelings, but also generally lift your mood, seemingly permanently, would you do it?

I did.

I suffered from anxiety and resultant depression on and off for years, ever since childhood. I have been on SSRIs twice, with limited results and plenty of side effects. I found that while I could get out of bed in the morning, my sleep was disrupted, my cognition was generally lower, and I had the dreaded sexual side effects.

…

Listen up, dipshits:

Barely any of you can review food.

Sorry, but it’s true.

No one cares that you got a 96 one time on an English test in your final year of High School. You suck at writing food reviews.

Here’s how to write a good one.

1. BE BRIEF! If you start telling me about the weather on the day you went, you can fuck right off! Nobody cares. Keep it short.
2. DO NOT TELL ME ANYTHING THAT ISN’T ABOUT THE FOOD OR THE WAIT TO GET THE FOOD. Oh, you think the decor is a bad example of…