Adventures Within: 2014 episodes
Episode 27: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Racist?
I think it is safe to say (although not altogether accepted) that everyone has or has had racist or racially discriminatory thoughts and beliefs or, at the very least, maintained a racial stereotype. We cannot help it. Whether we like it or not, we have all been fully absorbed and integrated into a white supremacist system, a system based on hierarchies and binaries and a system that is essentially racist. This system has seeped into the way our genes express themselves so we automatically and continually place things and people within our own personal hierarchical systems in order to help us feel safe in a world built on classification, rank, status, and authority. If we wish to realize true equality and democracy, the entire system has to be questioned. And in order to question the entire system, we have to reveal the parts of ourselves that are wholly influenced by it. Join me and guest co-host, Lauren Martinez, as we begin exposing our own racist thoughts, our own stereotypes, our own discrimination, and our own judgments of other people in order to move beyond them, revolutionizing our internal systems and, consequently, the world. Robert's race playlist. Broadcast date: 12/21/14.
Episode 26: Fuck Privacy
The concept of universal individual privacy is a modern construct associated with Western culture, British and North American in particular, with roots in capitalism. The earliest legislative development of privacy rights began under British common law, which protected "only the physical interference of life and property." Privacy rights gradually expanded to include a "recognition of man's spiritual nature, of his feelings and his intellect." Eventually, the scope of those rights broadened even further to include a basic "right to be let alone", and the former definition of "property" would then comprise "every form of possession—intangible, as well as tangible" (Privacy, Information, and Technology, pp. 9-11). We go through great lengths to protect our privacy as our right, our property, our possession, our essence as an individual, but what is it that we are really protecting? What is it that we are really afraid of? It's time to adventure within privacy, notions of security, safety, protection, and, ultimately, our shame. We fight for our right to privacy but are we really fighting for our own repression? As Mary Lambert sings in TSWST, "I don't care if the world knows what my secrets are!" Robert's privacy playlist. Broadcast date: 11/16/14.
Episode 25: I Want My Cells to Love Me
Capitalism has co-opted desire to the point where it can no longer be used to produce truly revolutionary modes of being. In order to create a new world beyond binary and dichotomous understandings, we need to act from a place of abundance rather than a place of lack. But how do we do this when capitalism has thoroughly seeped into our biological makeup, dictating how our genes express themselves in each one of our 100 trillion cells? We essentially have capitalist cells that continually drive us to seek acknowledgment, reassurance, fulfillment, value, and love from things outside of ourselves. How do we change our gene expression to adventure within, to bring that love inward, to know wholeheartedly that we are enough for the mere fact that we exist so that we may finally engage in a revolution beyond our current imagination? Every day our cells die off and we have to replace and re-engineer one to two percent of our molecular being. Let's make these cells revolutionary! Robert's desire playlist. Broadcast date: 10/19/14.
Episode 24: Profundity in Motion
David Foster Wallace once wrote an essay, "How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart." In the essay, he describes our fascination with great athletes: "There is about world-class athletes carving out exemptions from physical laws a transcendent beauty that makes manifest God in man." When I first discovered professional skateboarder, Lacey Baker, I was captivated by her keen psychokinetic abilities. It was radical, profound, inspiring, so intensely beautiful that, as Wallace writes, I wanted "to get intimate with all that profundity... to know how it feels, inside, to be both beautiful and best." While Wallace goes on to argue that "Great athletes usually turn out to be stunningly inarticulate about just those qualities and experiences that constitute their fascination," Lacey has only proven to increase my admiration as she consistently moves beyond binaries and stereotypes, understanding the limitations of assuming fixed identities and adhering to capitalist systems. Lacey's is an inspiring story of depth that allows us all to question our relationship to established systems, beliefs, and ways of being, to encourage each of us to get intimate with our own profundity and feel the beauty and best within all of us. Broadcast date: 9/21/14.
Episode 23: The Practice of Political Pursuits
What does it mean to be an activist? What does activism look like? What is a political artist? What is the difference between a militant, a radical, and a revolutionary? How does one create an ethical politic? What is the nature of what one believes is radical? These are questions A.L. Steiner is often asked and questions she asks in her video project, More Real Than Reality Itself, and questions Steiner and I ask of ourselves and of each other throughout this dense yet delightful episode of AW. The "multi-conversing, tangent-oriented discussion" between Steiner and me often leads to contradictions and paradoxes. So the question becomes, as posited by Rita 'Bo' Brown featured in Steiner's More Real Than Reality Itself, how to embody contradiction and paradox and still move forward and tell the world the way you want it to see you. Perhaps the combination of Steiner's drive to lessen our distance from oppressive systems and my blueprint for things that don't yet exist will provide a ripe environment to create a new world of visibility and impossibility! Robert's prison playlist. Broadcast date: 8/17/14.
Special KCHUNG TV Broadcast: Late Night with Adventures Within
Adventures Within, the revolutionary radio show, made its debut as a television show on KCHUNG TV! Late Night with Adventures Within follows the popular late-night talk show format complete with a topical revolutionary love monologue, a revolutionary love sketch, a revolutionary musical love performance, and revolutionary love-guest interviews with life coach/writer Michael Blomsterberg and writer/curator Michael Ned Holte. PLUS, an emotionally moving The Song We Sing Together! How can we learn to love and accept all people? How can we change predetermined outcomes of art? Watch and let love lift us up to where we belong: FAR FROM THE WORLDS WE KNOW! Late Night with Adventures Within is a production of KCHUNG TV for Made in L.A. 2014 at the Hammer Museum. KCHUNG TV is a syndicate of kchungradio.org. Broadcast date: 8/16/14.
Episode 22: My Body and Me
Anti-fat bias refers to the prejudicial assumption of personality characteristics based on a visual assessment of a person perceived to be overweight or obese. How many of you make judgments about people based on their weight? Are you even aware of it? If you think you don't, how many of you would be okay if you woke up one day eighty pounds heavier or even twenty pounds heavier? If the idea of becoming fat scares you or is even a bit undesirable, then this is the show for you. How do we work with our deeply ingrained beliefs and assumptions about fatness, shaped by mass media and the medical industry, to learn to accept and love all people of all shapes and sizes? It begins by learning to love my own body, no matter what it looks like. And learning to love my body, no matter what, means identifying and acknowledging what my specific prejudicial assumptions are around fatness. Join me and special guest co-host, Lindsay Tunkl, as we adventure within our own judgments of our bodies in order to discover how to love and cherish our bodies beyond our beliefs! Robert's body playlist. Broadcast date: 7/20/14.
Episode 21: Contact Celebration
Made in L.A. 2014 is finally here! The time has come to celebrate our hard work and the results of our labor! In anticipation for the opening weekend of celebration, I started thinking about celebration and what it means to me. How do I use celebration? What does celebration look like for me? How often do I allow myself to celebrate? And how often do I celebrate me? Well, it turned out celebration for me looked like not working on this episode of AW. Fortunately, Carol Cheh was in the studio and offered to be my impromptu guest! Listen in as Carol and I recap the euphoric opening night of MILA 2014 and discuss things like profound connection, balancing energy, emotional hangovers, identity vs. connecting, expectations, desire, fantasy, and the differences between joy and happiness and enthusiasm and excitement. It's time to celebrate, Jennifer and Carol style! Robert's celebration playlist. Broadcast date: 6/15/14.
Episode 20: Courage in Cowardice
According to Wikipedia, "cowardice is a trait wherein fear and excess self-concern override doing or saying what is right, good and of help to others or oneself in a time of need—it is the opposite of courage. As a label, 'cowardice' indicates a failure of character in the face of a challenge." Are there moments in your life where fear has taken over and drastically changed your character? I know there has been in mine and those moments are far from being my finest. I know what it's like to be a coward and, today, I can say that I am grateful for that. Listen as I share some of my more unsavory moments of my past and how I got to the point where I can say, with a strong measure of integrity, that, today, my life is propelled by fervent courage, unadulterated love, unfaltering faith, and a resolute refusal to live a life based in any form of fear! Robert's fear playlist. Broadcast date: 5/18/14. (Note: the terrible fan noise ends at 3:30)
Episode 19: The End of Death
Death is the cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include biological aging, predation, malnutrition, disease, suicide, murder, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury. Out of all these manners of death, which are acceptable and which are not? Besides physical death, what other forms of death are there? And what emotions do you associate with death: sadness, loss, fear or maybe it's relief, hope, and promise? Whatever feelings you experience in relation to death probably depend a lot on what you think happens after death. Currently, there is no convincing scientific evidence that suggests consciousness survives the death of an organism but there are numerous and varying religious and philosophical beliefs that purport an afterlife, rebirths, or eternal oblivion. It's time to adventure within our beliefs about death and what happens after death because these beliefs largely inform how we live today. How ready are you for death? Listen and find out! Robert's death playlist. Broadcast date: 4/20/2014.
Episode 18: An Anxious-Free America
According to the Internet, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States and America is the most anxious country in the world. Anxiety and stress have become almost a natural way of being for many Americans. It is part of our everyday emotional vocabulary to say things like, “This situation is giving me anxiety.” or “You are about to give me a panic attack.” or simply, “I am so fucking stressed out!” But what do we really mean when we make statements like that and what exactly is anxiety and stress? We often use those words interchangeably but there is a difference between the two. Listen as I unpack the definitions and sources of stress and anxiety and adventure within my desire for control, my lack of trust, my thoughts, fears, and beliefs that create my moments of anxiety. We may not be able to eliminate the world of external stressors but let's work towards an anxious-free America! Robert's anxiety playlist. Broadcast date: 3/16/2014.
Episode 17: A Love Affair
What is love? The ancient Greeks identified several forms of love: kinship or familial love (storgē); friendship or comradely love (philía); sensual, passionate love (érōs); and a selfless, unconditional form of love (agápē). Modern authors further distinguish varieties of love to include playful love, obsessive love, pragmatic love, and love of self. This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of feelings associated with love, makes love difficult to consistently define as well as wield as a transformative force for revolution. Listen as I adventure within love in its many forms and manifestations. Can I differentiate unadulterated love from love that is diluted with other motivations and emotions? What forms of love do I practice or value over others? Is there a hierarchy of love? If love is to become the political force to thoroughly transform society, it's time we really understand what love truly is. Robert's love playlist. Broadcast date: 1/19/2014.
