“Divine Reality is Bigger Than God” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQl2HyciFh8&feature=youtu.be It's a rainy Tuesday morning in Poitiers, France. I'm in pursuit of profundities and purpose. I've traveled from London to interview the Episcopal priest,...
"The computer has no consciousness and no free will, but science is telling us that we are like a computer. This is the problem. This must change." https://youtu.be/nUXHVzWo1lE?si=_vyDDctsDxbMU6KM It's rare that a person can pinpoint one specific moment that changed...
"It's always been like an endless exploration: following that which can't be named and arranging my life around it. Wondering has been the engine. So, it has not felt like departures as much as just obvious next steps." https://youtu.be/U7rhplILAIg Rob Bell is always...
“I get a lot of hate mail, death threats and rape threats..I think the violence of their response to me reflects just how frightened they are by these ideas. They accuse me of blasphemy and various other things, but actually it reflects their deep seated...
"I know boundaried communities that produce good fruit. But when I look at tribalism, which is excluding and saying anybody not within this boundary is going to hell, the fruits of that aren't lovely. They aren't nourishing. I'd rather be a pantheist."...
"As a creative person you need the ability to be open to the world changing around you...There's things we did in our past that we wouldn't do now. Culture changes. People's perceptions change. And I'm totally fine with that."...
"You can be an enlightened asshole. You just haven't integrated your brokenness into the enlightenment." https://youtu.be/ymSfaKy4CPI "God does not exist," says James Finley, the renowned Catholic mystic who has dedicated most of his existence to studying, writing and...
Rocket League is just like a game of life. You're going to get teammates that are not empathetic and only see their perspective…It’s about becoming better at lifting them up even if they're making mistakes. Also, a big thing is not knowing if the other person is...
I condemn everything [Ye] stands for right now. I’ve said that from when he first put on the MAGA hat...He's one of the greatest musicians ever, one of the greatest creative visionaries, but he’s destroyed so much within a couple of months. Don’t challenge DJ Semtex...
"I dislike Trump hugely. But if he is impeached, and we get Pence, then we get a man who knows what a theocracy is and is willing to bet his life on it." Millions of Americans had visceral reactions to Donald Trump winning the Presidency. But for Mel White and...
"We’ve already had a Clinton in the White House. We know exactly what’s going to happen...This is like House of Cards. Frank Underwood doesn’t work alone, he works with his wife." Who does Abby Martin think she is? She's white. American. She has her own TV show. She's...
"Somebody claiming that I’m somehow dangerous, or I’ve wandered off the path, is just absurd...When you get through the pain of being misunderstood, your wounds begin to heal and then in some way you become dangerous. Because our worst fear that somebody wouldn’t like...
"I have regrets. Only a fool has no regrets. But on the big political issues I've been consistently right. And those who rule us have been consistently wrong." When you binge watch three documentaries about Saddam Hussein and his sons, you learn a lot. And afterwards...
"I think some of us feel there are stories that need to be told. That’s who we are and what we do. We just are compelled to do that. It may not make sense or be logical." Don’t ever call Steve McCurry a one-photo wonder. Yes, his haunting photo, famously known as...
"No one would watch me on Jeopardy! and say, 'Wow, this guy is smarter than Stephen Hawking because he knows all his state birds.' I think they know it's a different thing." If I get a few answers right on Jeopardy!, I pat myself on the back. Ken Jennings won 74 games...
"Everybody reads, but I read like a maniac. I go deep down inside the text and bind it into my heart so that it has an influence on my own writing. When I write a piece, I am making myself so close to the language that it is super intense and super exhausting." In...
"People truly believed it was impossible for women to play good chess or become a grandmaster. They really were convinced that because no other woman had done it before me it was impossible. But I learned chess quickly and it...
"One of the things that isn't right about music at the moment is that it's often too backward looking and referential. I think people should be looking to invent new things." He's been called the post-punk Hendrix. For like his acid-induced predecessor, the spiky,...
"I'm not doing charity because it looks good on my resume. I want to give people an opportunity to work. That's what the continent needs." Meeting a supermodel is intimidating. But sometimes you just have to tell yourself "we're all African" and go for it. And so,...
"If you got good people having weapons, then it's a good thing. If you have bad people having weapons, then it's a bad thing. In countries that have outlawed guns around the world, it's a proven fact that only outlaws have them." Years before the most viral video of...
"For a kid, having a Halloween birthday really makes you feel unique, and being a red-head, you are unique...From the time I could think about who I was, I felt that I was not like everyone else." Only Halloween could birth one of history's most...
"I'm happy to have been a pre-computer kid...There was a whole lot of down time when we had to entertain ourselves, and I think that's what helped me think of these stories." An awkward edge around love interests. A wild imagination. A desire to fit in. A penchant...
"L. Ron Hubbard does not have the neurological excuse for the declining quality of his work. I think it can only be attributed to the fact that he was a colossal asshole." Cory Doctorow attended four universities but never completed a degree. Today, the Toronto...
"I got messages, threats, delivered two or three times. You never take those seriously. The people who are going to kill you don’t send messages, they send bullets." Patagonia, Arizona boasts one the best bird watching experiences in the world. It's a place American...
"When everybody laughed at me for wanting to go to Africa and live with animals, my mother always said, 'If you really want something and never give up you’ll always find a way.'” Every time Jane Goodall delivers a speech she always begins with a chimpanzee greeting....
"Political art, or any art, that has a message isn't going to fix anything, but it might remind people that these things are out there." Few artists get to toggle a line between working for the man and working against the man. Photographer Jill Greenberg, however, has...
"The best artists work out of the desire to produce beauty, otherwise it's not real and something else. This intertwining of money, power, and status is a corruption of purpose." You may not recognize the name Milton Glaser, but you would most certainly recognize his...
"I used to play until my hands would bleed... It got to the point where I had to warm up on a concrete wall, or a surface that was very strong, so that I could numb my hands before I went on stage because it was that painful." Her hands are bloody, her back is sore,...
"I've come close to the possibility of getting killed occasionally...I've been mortared, I've had a house destroyed by rockets, I've been chuck bombed, I've been shot at. But whatever, it's not very frightening. " William Langewiesche is a very lucky man....
"If I don't stand and fight for change, then I'm part of the tyranny that's taking place. I refuse to succumb to being a second class citizen...You can't whitewash what God has planned for me in my life." The separation of sports and politics is a widely accepted...
"Mahatma Gandhi said it, 'I like their Christ, I don't like their Christian.' Unfortunately, when Christendom has been hijacked and made into a state religion or a power institution it gets abused... Christianity is a commitment of surrender, not of power over...
"When you're wearing a great suit you don't feel it, it fits you so perfectly because it's measured again and again to achieve a finality. That's what good writing is, it's well tailored." For the past 50 plus years, Gay Talese has been meticulously and painstakingly...
"They don't have any scruples on that, just like any other thief or burglar. A thief doesn't look at a house and think to pass it up because the family has just suffered a recent tragedy. No, he goes in and robs it anyway." James Randi is a magician by...
"I believe that it is my responsibility to use the attention I get to fight against the continuing practice of FGM. I don’t know if you can call that spirituality, but I feel physically connected to every single girl on this planet that still has to suffer...
"Celine Dion has a huge international following...So, it isn't surprising that a Senegalese man would know of, and admire, her. But, to have this come from an Al-Qaeda captor in the Sahara Desert, some weeks into our captivity, was so bizarre." ...
"How could someone be so stupid to say (Mike Tyson) could be the greatest? He had no character. He didn't have the ability to overcome controversy like Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis. They overcame personal issues...Tyson didn't have that ability." T eddy Atlas has a lot...
"Any life that revolves around me, inevitably makes me sad. That's one curious thing I've noticed...What that tells me is that, most times, happiness comes from being able to forget yourself." Within today's mainstream hip-hop culture Shad K is an...
"The higher, more distant, level of patriarchy is capitalism. This is what is represented by corporate truth. You don't see a man beating a wife, but there's a fictitious man beating all the women, children and people of the world." In a world full of powerful...
"My motto is: never let fear determine who you are, and never let where you come from determine where you are going. That's what I preach, and what I talk about. I would love to be able to give that back, and share it with anybody. I don't care what part of the...
"Who wants to do this? I never wanted to put out my story like this ... but I was so convicted by this experience I knew it was a must. I'd much rather look cool to the public, but I had to take my cool off and say, "this happened to me." B y profession and...
"The day I start believing that what I have to say is much more important than the people who I learn things from, I will be crossing a dark line." Raj Patel is many things: an author of two successful books, an academic with degrees from some of...
"'Use a condom', and 'Don't eat any salads'. I think that's the best advice you can give anyone in Africa. " After nearly 19 years reporting on some of the most dire situations in Africa, it's great to see that British journalist and author Michela Wrong still has a...
"I've had emails saying that I'm from Satan, and that I'm doomed to hell, but that goes with the territory." The Bible is one of the world's most popular, and controversial books. When you decide to dedicate your whole life to analyzing,...
"Like most researchers, I'm driven by some fundamental curiosity of how the world works...The greater goal of that is how can we use that knowledge to change public policy, and change life conditions on earth. Where that comes from, who knows?" When you finish...
"You break down every major conflict on this continent, and you'll find at the very root of it the same thing. I think that's one of the things, collectively, journalists have let the world down in. It's been lazy, cliche journalism that has led to some gross...
"My prolific and deeply flawed utterances over the decades may have perhaps found a resonance with others who can sift through the run-on sentences, and tense inconsistencies to dig where I am coming from. Perhaps they can see that they are not the only one who feels...
When you're young and impressionable, you pick your models...It's like a candy store. There's no such thing as originality. If you're striving for it, you're a bloody idiot! Save for a number of African dictators, hardly anything seems to last more than 20...
"The pretense of it just makes it false. That it is ostensibly promoting Jesus' teaching makes it even more laughable. The commodification of that message in a really unimaginative way, in which it gets sloganized over and over again, is just pathetic. I just don't...
"There's no difference between us and the golden arches of McDonald's. This is what America was built on: private enterprise, and people that want to be the two percent out there, not just the ninety-eight percent that think about it, but the two percent that get it...
"The idea that the World Bank is some sort of right-wing American institution set to serve the Western policy to crash Africa is a fantasy that collides against the reality of the people actually making these policies...It's sort of a convenient whipping boy for...
“When you’re in the ring fighting you don’t feel pain. You could get cut, break your nose, have your jaw broken; you keep fighting…You’ll feel it the next day though!” Humble. Polite. Honest. These may not typically be the characteristics one associates with...
"I'm not generally a nostalgic person, but every now and again I'll think...remember that time you got a Christmas card from Jimmy Page?'" Steve Albini might just be the most outspoken, and opinionated man in the music business. His words have been known to stir up...
"Poverty is no longer the number one challenge to Africa; it is inequality. This is the most deadly issue facing African countries because it is so easily politicized, ethnicized, and very easily militarized." John Githongo is a man you need to know about. In my...
"(In 50 years) Canada will be what it always has been, economically the 51st state, socially a place awkwardly unsure of itself and without any true national cohesion." Vaclav Smil is currently being touted as one of the world's most important thinkers, and you've...
"Look, it’s been four years and a lot has happened in my life in that time, not least of which has been rebuilding my journalism career from ‘scratch’. That’s taken a lot of hard work and sacrifice, and every day is a reminder that...