Tangentially Speaking with Christopher Ryan

Manvir is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of California, Davis. He holds a bachelor’s degree in human biology from Brown University and a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He has studied Indigenous psychedelics use in the Orinoco river basin of Colombia and, since 2014, has conducted ethnographic fieldwork with Mentawai communities on Siberut Island, Indonesia, focusing on...

Eric Czuleger is an author and geopolitical analyst who has lived, worked, and traveled through 47 countries including conflict zones like Iraq, Lebanon, and Somalia. His book You Are Not Here: Travels Through Countries That Don’t Exist covers a year of living in unrecognized countries to find out what a nation is in the first place. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit chrisryan.substack.comSome of the topics discussed include the fact that I was an illegal immigrant for years, some recent personal health issues, prepping for our trip to Montana, two spots that just opened up for women in the upcoming retreat, avoiding audience capture, seeking beauty in pain and destruction (the life and work of...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit chrisryan.substack.comLet’s get into it! Issues discussed include: Scott Galloway on the sickness of money, David Sedaris on the sickness of fame, Why some people sacrifice intimacy for attention, and Was it hard for me to transition out of my “adventure years” into “settling down?”

Everyone should have a friend like Josh. Solid dude who knows how things work on both sides of the law. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit chrisryan.substack.comOn principled thinking vs tactical thinking. Is AI coming to “save” us or “destroy” us? Is there a middle ground? Can it love us? Comfort us? Thinking of relationship issues in terms of new shoes. Break-in pains or wrong size pains?

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit chrisryan.substack.comIn which I rip Fareed Zakaria a (new) new one, talk about the abject stupidity of the intelligensia, play a song sung by a bunch of cool alley cats, applaud a Scott Galloway rant on the hypocrisy of the American ruling class and ponder “Dover Beach,” a poem by Matthew Arnold.

David was raised in a conservative Christian reality that he eventually came to question, without questioning his love and respect for the people around him. How do we negotiate that kind of growth, where we step away from a shared reality without hurting the people we were sharing it with? That’s an eternal question of the highest order. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this...

Jeff Mauer is the brains behind I Might Be Wrong, here on Substack. He was head writer for Last Week Tonight, with John Oliver and before that, wrote speeches at the EPA. He’s smart, funny, and thoughtful — and savvy enough to shut the fuck up when Chris Rock walks into the room. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit...

When I first came across his Instagram account, I assumed he was a comedian of some sort, as he is so deft at taking the piss out of the New Age, Shamanic, Mother-Aya nonsense. Then I read his essay on Substack and realized that this dude is very, very smart and his humor — like all the best humor — is fueled by wisdom, compassion, disappointment, and rage. This is a public episode. If you'd like...