Tag Archives: Against Everyone with Conner Habib

AA and D&D, art and reality, conspiracy and curation: Listen to me, esoteric scholar Peter Bebergal + countercultural pastor Barry Taylor talk about the uses of fantasy!

6 Dec

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor • Patreon

SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

Give via patreon – Patreon.com/connerhabib – this is the best way to support the show. You can also:

  • Tell people about the show and, if it feels okay, to support it on patreon (especially if you already know your pals are fans of the show but don’t support it).
  • Give the show a 5 star rating and positive review on Apple Podcasts.
  • Share on social media (you know the deal with this one)
  • And if you want to explore my other main creative output – writing fiction – you can buy my debut novel, Hawk Mountain (and if you’ve bought it and loved it, give it a great review on Amazon and/or Goodreads!). All my creative projects end up supporting each other!

Friends,

The world accumulates new fantasies about itself, and as it does, it changes. We develop these fantasies, we curate them, alter them, cling to them, and mark what counts as “reality” by them. Reality is an aggregate of fantasies.

So…what fantasies serve us? How? And who are the best curators?

Well, I’d say two I know are my guests on this episode.

First, occult scholar Peter Bebergal, editor of Appendix N: The Eldritch Roots of Dungeons and Dragons and author of Strange Frequencies: The Extraordinary Story of the Technological Quest for the Supernatural (which we talked about extensively the last time Peter was on the show – back on AEWCH 112 ).

Second, countercultural pastor and artist, Barry Taylor, who is also the author of Sex, God, and Rock ‘n’ Roll: Catastrophes, Epiphanies, and Sacred Anarchies. I met Barry through my friend and frequent AEWCH guest, Peter Rollins. Ive been wanting to have Barry on for a long time, and finally, needing to have discussion of art and fantasy and reality and religion, knew that this was the exact right moment.

We go all over the place in this one. From Dungeons & Dragons to Alcoholics Anonymous, from the problems with Graham Hancock to our acid trips. This is a great episode friends.

SHOW NOTES

WHAT BOOK YOU SHOULD READ?
I can’t say I’ve read Susanna Clarke’s epic British magic fantasy, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, but I trust Peter’s curatorial sense. Since he recommends it, I may go read it now. Let me know if you read it too! If you want a book I’ve read on some of the themes here, read Grant Morrison’s excellent nonfiction book, Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us about Being Human.

WHAT OTHER AEWCH EPISODE YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO?
AEWCH 47 features the psychoanalytic philosopher we talk about quite a bit throughout the show, Todd McGowan!

MORE ON PETER and BARRY
Peter is also the author of Season of the Witch: How the Occult Saved Rock and Roll. And here’s another interview with Peter, on RPGs and Appendix N.

Support Barry’s work via his Patreon! Here’s Barry’s website (you can also get his book from there if it’s sold out on bookshop.org), and a short profile of him in the Guardian. And do follow Barry’s Instagram – @UKBloke – for the great collages he makes and posts almost every day.

Until next time, enjoy your quest!
CH

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

White magic after Ragnarok. Are Thoresen returns to AEWCH!

29 Nov

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

Give via patreon – Patreon.com/connerhabib – this is the best way to support the show. You can also:

  • Tell people about the show and, if it feels okay, to support it on patreon (especially if you already know your pals are fans of the show but don’t support it).
  • Give the show a 5 star rating and positive review on Apple Podcasts.
  • Share on social media (you know the deal with this one)
  • And if you want to explore my other main creative output – writing fiction – you can buy my debut novel, Hawk Mountain Obivously, all my creative projects end up supporting each other!

Friends,

You might have noticed that lately I’ve been wary of magic, but of course, spiritual development and practice are essential in the new territory we find ourselves in. So what paths of development? What practices?

I’ve asked writer, occultist, veterinarian, and acupuncturist Are Thorsen back on the show to discuss all of this.

Are was last on the show back on AEWCH 116 for what was the most directly occult and spiritual episode of the show. We shared some of the intense spiritual experiences we’ve had, and it was a vulnerable but very helpful episode for me (and one of the most popular show for listeners).

This episode has just as much spiritual adventure: Do gnomes actually wear hats? Why do some people spiritually develop through sudden revelation and others through practice? What evil beings begin to proliferate in 2019? What do the stories of the Elves and the Shoemaker and the Little Mermaid tell us about spiritual realities?

Are’s two most recent books in English are Travels on the Northern Path of Initiation: Vidar and Baldur, the Three Elemental Realms and the Inner and Outer Etheric Worlds and Encounters with Vidar: Communications from the Outer Etheric Realm: From Clairvoyance to Clairaudience , two books that draw on Norse mythology and find where it meets with the Christian mysteries of today.

SHOW NOTES

WHAT BOOK YOU SHOULD READ?
May as well go to some (sort of) source material – The Poetic Edda translated by Carolyne Larrington in this lovely-looking edition. You can also read

WHAT OTHER AEWCH EPISODE YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO?
To get a little perspective on some of these spiritual beings and what we’re talking about when we talk about the archangel Michael, listen to AEWCH 126, which is where I explore Michael from many different directions.

MORE ON ARE
Here’s another interview with Are, in which he goes into the foundational ideas a bit more. And Are’s spiritual autobiography is in the book Transforming Demons: The True Story of How a Seeker Resolves His Karma: From Ancient Atlantis to the Present-Day. And of course, you can always listen to us in our first conversation.

Until next time, friends,
CH

Tags: , , , , , ,

The Problem with Magic, Part 2. (And what to do instead of magic!) WEIRD STUDIES hosts on AEWCH 203!

9 Nov

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

If you don’t already, please do the following to keep AEWCH going:

  • Give via patreon – Patreon.com/connerhabib – this is the best way to support the show
  • Tell people about the show and, if it feels okay, to support it on patreon (especially if you already know your pals are fans of the show but don’t support it).
  • Give the show a 5 star rating and positive review on Apple Podcasts.
  • Tweet and Insta quotes from and thoughts inspired by episodes (with a link!)

Friends,

Let’s ask ourselves a question: What if the appropriate worldview now is neither materialistic or magical?

What if the task is to do is move on and bring forward – through our own individualities – the world from these opposing positions?

I started this conversation with (Though this is a standalone episode!) Phil Ford and JF Martel, hosts of the Weird Studies podcast, on the previous episode, AEWCH 202.

Now we offer our first indications of what we think works here in the face of our challenges and opportunities in this world. What are they?

Vow, prayer, gathering.

This is the second part conversation but it stands on its own. So excited to be walking through these uncharted landscapes with you! X CH

SHOW NOTES

WHAT BOOK YOU SHOULD READ?
For a great book on shifting the groundswell of being from scientific “facts” to the imaginative experience, read Meaning by Michael Polanyi and Harry Prosch.

WHAT OTHER AEWCH EPISODE YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO?
I talk about Christian principles from an esoteric standpoint on the excellent episode AEWCH 181 with Rev. Patrick Kennedy.

MORE ON PHIL & JF/WEIRD STUDIES
You can support Weird Studies via their patreon . You can also sign up for the 8 week course, WEIRDING. Even though it’s already started, you can still jump in and get the previous lectures via recording. If that’s calling to you, go for it. Also, Phil and JF were on the show back on AEWCH 166, and I was on Weird Studies 107 (on which we talk about Joy Williams’s great novel, Breaking and Entering).

Tags: , , , , , , ,

The Problem with Magic: A two part conversation with Conner Habib + Weird Studies hosts, Phil Ford & J.F. Martel.

2 Nov

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

If you don’t already, please do the following to keep AEWCH going:

  • Give via patreon – Patreon.com/connerhabib – this is the best way to support the show
  • Tell people about the show and, if it feels okay, to support it on patreon (especially if you already know your pals are fans of the show but don’t support it).
  • Give the show a 5 star rating and positive review on Apple Podcasts.
  • Tweet and Insta quotes from and thoughts inspired by episodes (with a link!)

Friends,

As we enter into this weird world on the other side of the Viral/Trumpist/Nationalistic Collapse/Aesthetic/Opportunity Shock Portal (or, uh, whatever you want to call it), we find ourselves mapless and confused.

It’s apparent that we’re occupying something like a new world, or a new level in a game, or a new stage of development. So… what do we do? More and more people are turning to magic. Astrology, witchcraft, spellcraft, alchemy. But are these the right tools or do they simply feed into materialism more? (Hint: the latter)

I’m so happy to have two of my favorite supernature/strange times thinkers back on the show for this two part exploration of the problem with magic. Phil Ford and JF Martel are the hosts of the Weird Studies podcast, which I consider a sort of sibling podcast to AEWCH. They were on the show back on AEWCH 166 and I was on Weird Studies 107 (on which we talk about Joy Williams’s great novel, Breaking and Entering).

This is a two part conversation: part two will be released shortly, in which we talk about what tools we can use, if not magic, in the new landscape. 

So excited to walk through these uncharted landscapes with you!
X
C

SHOW NOTES

WHAT BOOK YOU SHOULD READ?
For another exploration of this topic from a very different angle, I recommend a book I don’t fully get on board with but is nevertheless a classic: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism by Chögyam Trungpa.

WHAT OTHER AEWCH EPISODE YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO?
AEWCH 148 with anthropologist Stuart McLean expresses the ways that the magical bursts through into the world to contour reality. 

MORE ON PHIL & JF/WEIRD STUDIES
You can support Weird Studies via their patreon . You can also sign up for the 8 week course, WEIRDING. Even though it’s already started, you can still jump in and get the previous lectures via recording. If that’s calling to you, go for it.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I talk with Memorial author Bryan Washington about process, identity, curation, and fiction on AEWCH 190!

17 Jun

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

Against Everyone With Conner Habib is funded exclusively by listeners like you.
Do you find value in this show? If so, support the podcast.
SUPPORT THIS PODCAST via Patreon

Friends,

As I get ready for the release of Hawk Mountain, I find myself wanting to talk to writers more and more. For advice, for good company, and honestly just because I’m so excited.

So for this episode, I talk to the much-celebrated author of the novel Memorialand story collection Lot, Bryan Washington! Memorial is a sort of negative universe version of Hawk Mountain – it uses time in a similar way (but different!) and examines the unsaid in a similar way (but different!) and the outcomes for the characters are very, very different (but similar!). After reading it, I felt enlivened and heartbroken at once. So then I read his story collection, Lot. Then, right away, I invited him onto the show. 

Bryan and I talk about desire, identity in fiction, the way writers are asked about process all the time, the productiveness of marginalization, movies, and more. This is one of my very favorite episodes.

What a great conversation.

SHOW NOTES

WHAT BOOK YOU SHOULD READ?
Bryan and I are both deeply influenced by film. One filmmaker I bring up on the show is Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the notorious and deeply driven melodramatic auteur. I love his work, and I love this book of interviews with him, The Anarchy of the Imagination.

WHAT OTHER AEWCH EPISODE YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO?
There are some deep parallels on this episode with themes touched on on AEWCH 149 featuring Carmen Maria Machado, although Carmen and I go at it in an entirely different way!

WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK INTO FURTHER?
I talked with Samuel Delaney about fiction, sexual identity, and philosophy years ago, before I had a podcast. Here’s the whole conversation! 

MORE ON BRYAN
Bryan’s website has a ton of links to his essays, including one we discuss on the episode, about the Montrose neighborhood in Houston. Memorial is being made into a TV show, and here’s a podcast featuring Bryan talking about it with poet and novelist Ocean Vuong. And here’s a video (one of several) of Bryan cooking and talking about food. Finally, here’s his essay on going to gay bars.

Until next time, friends, I suggest reading Memorial in the park on a sunny day like I did!
CH

Tags: , , , , , , ,

How to live in 2022 using the 7 Hermetic Principles – Me + Mitch Horowitz on AEWCH 175

4 Jan

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

Against Everyone With Conner Habib is funded exclusively by listeners like you. SUPPORT THIS PODCAST via Patreon

Friends,

Happy New Year! Welcome to the first episode of 2022, which is also the first episode of a series of episodes on How To Live in 2022. To kick off the year, and the series I’ve invited Mitch Horowitz back on the show to talk about how to live using the 7 Hermetic Principles found in the occult book The Kybalion. Mitch is a paranormal and occult scholar, and a great writer. He’s been on the show before, most recently at the top of 2021 on AEWCH 137 when we talked about why self help matters in the middle of a global crisis.

So: what is the Kybalion? What are the 7 Heremetic Principes? And how do the Principles help us live?

Of course, this is Against Everyone With Conner Habib, so we also get deeply philosophical (so, uh, apologies for my rant on Dune, homeopathy, and water) as we talk about the principles. Listen, take them in, and comment below. And also, check out the new show notes format below!

SHOW NOTES

TWO FAVORITE MOMENTS
• From Mitch (re: the Heremetic Principle of Vibration): “If you say the word ‘please’ it can be a cordial request or sarcasm, it all depends on the tone… When we read something on digital media, we are hearing it… This is killing us, this sarcasm… We’re writing it so it keeps us at a kind of remove, but the consequences are felt, they are absolutely felt. We are killing ourselves as a human species with the continuous use of attack speech…”

• From me: “A paradox is a polarity that sees itself.”

WHAT BOOK YOU SHOULD READ?
Well, it’s pretty obvious: You should read the The Kybalion. It’s a great and quick, but profound read.

WHAT OTHER AEWCH EPISODE YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO?
It’s an older episode that’s not available on most podcast platforms but you can still listen here AEWCH 34 (or it’s still on Stitcher). It’s a solo episode called ARE BODIES OUR SELVES or HOW SEX CONFRONTS MATERIALISM.

WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK INTO FURTHER?
I love that Mitch brought up the profound impact the works of the Russian mystic G.I. Gurdjieff has had on his life. This site has a great review of Gurdjieff’s teachings, as well as their practical application.

MORE ON MITCH
Support Mitch’s Patreon here. I’m a patron of his patreon so I can say from experience, you get so much from pledging there – lots of writing, musings, and more. For more on Mitch, listen to our episode at the top of 2021, and his discussion with Duncan Trussell. His film with director Ronni Thomas, The Kybalion is out out January 11, and The Kybalion Study Guide by Mitch, which is the film’s companion book is available now.

Until next time, friends!
CH

Tags: , , , , , , ,

What happened to us in 2021? I talk with Ask A Mortician host Caitlin Doughty about the year that’s about to die.

22 Dec

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST
Against Everyone With Conner Habib is free for everyone, but it only exists via of support of listeners. If you like this show, if it has meaning for you, support it by using Patreon! Thank you so, so much.

Buy Caitlin’s books and all the books mentioned on/related to this episode via my booklist for AEWCH 174 on bookshop.org! The site sources from independent bookstores in the US, not a big corporate shipping warehouse where the workers are treated like machines. Plus when you click through here to order, the show gets a small affiliate kickback!

Friends,

On the final episode of AEWCH in 2021, I turn to my friend, the queen of endings herself: death expert, Ask A Mortician Host, and Caitlin Doughty We look back on the year about to die, and see what died (and should die with it). We also take stock of where we stand now as we face the year ahead.Thank you so much for listening all year, and I’m looking forward to the adventure ahead.

SHOW NOTES

• Caitlin has been on the show multiple times, but the last time was AEWCH 134, and that was the last time we hung out in person too (aw). And here’s Caitlin’s patreon.

• The series of episodes on love were:

• Here’s the video Caitlin released when the death toll skyrocketed in Los Angeles, where her funeral home is.

• And here’s AEWCH 143 & 107 guest Srećko Horvat talking with Richard Sennett.

See you in 2022, friends!
CH

The card for 2021.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Conspiracy! Stigma! Loneliness! I talk with Jon Ronson on AEWCH 163.

14 Sep

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

FRIENDS: Do you find this podcast meaningful? Support it! This podcast is only possible because listeners like you support it. Do contribute to my mission by supporting Against Everyone With Conner Habib on Patreon!  Thank you so, so much.Buy the books mentioned on/related to this episode via my booklist for AEWCH 163 on bookshop.org!

Bookshop.org sources from independent bookstores in the US, not a big corporate shipping warehouse where the workers are treated like machines. Plus when you click through here to order, the show gets a small affiliate kickback!

Friends,

I’m so excited to share this episode (and its long intro about revolution and violence!) with journalist, author, and filmmaker Jon Ronson.

SHOW NOTES

• For more on Jon, read his books, of course. But also you can go to his website, and find his series The Butterfly Effect as well as The Last Days of August on Audible. You can also watch Jon’s collaboration with Parasite director Bong-Joon Ho, Okja. And here’s Jon’s semi-autobiographical movie (featuring Michael Fassbender), Frank.

• To listen to and support the Bad Faith podcast – hosted by Briahna Joy Gray and Virgil Texas – go to their patreon.

• Here’s AEWCH 15 on anti-fascism, featuring Mark Bray.

• I was very much into the Disinfo group – Richard Metzger, AEWCH 125 guest Doug Rushkoff, Grant Morrison, and more – a sort of leftist countercultural current that lived comfortably with conspiracy.

• My former doctor, Thomas Cowan, was really amazing, but I have thought about and concluded that he lost his way in the global pandemic. His older books, however, are still quite profound.

• “If YouTube’s algorithms radicalize people, it’s hard to tell from the data

• As far as search engines’ usefulness in understanding culture, I talked about this a bit on AEWCH 115 with Joanne McNeill.

• The first AEWCH episode of the year, AEWCH 136, was about the pandemic of certainty.

Until next time, friends,

CH

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

On love in friendship and relationship with my best friend, Jeb Havens, on AEWCH 161.

24 Aug

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

FRIENDS: Do you find this podcast meaningful? Support it!
This podcast is only possible because listeners like you support it. Do contribute to my mission by supporting Against Everyone With Conner Habib on Patreon!  Thank you so, so much.

Friends,

I’ve never done an episode like this before.

Since love has been the only thing on my mind, to get to the heart of things, I invited my best friend – who was also my boyfriend for five years, to talk about love. Its transformation. Faithfulness in the other. The times I fucked up as a partner (and the times he fucked up), and more.

So I’m very happy to share this episode with my best friend, game designer Jeb Havens.

Jeb and I were boyfriends for 5 years (2002-2007), and having left that relationship became closer to each other. Jeb is more than my best friend; I think of him as my brother.

We talk about how we navigated out of a different version of love and into another, and what really being committed to a partner might look like.

I hope you find meaning in this very personal episode.

SHOW NOTES

• Jeb is an internationally recognized game design consultant; here’s his website. He’s published four board games, most recently Uk’otoa, which is set in the world of Exandria (featured on the webseries Critical Role). He’s consulted on game design for game shows, apps, and designed escape rooms. He’s also a songwriter and loves doing covers with his pal Matt Zarley. I’ve included one of Jeb’s original songs, “Sudden” at the end of the episode.

• Here’s the verse from Rudolf Steiner on faithfulness. This translation is better than the one I read.

“Create for yourself a new, indomitable perception of faithfulness. What is usually called faithfulness passes so quickly. Let this be your faithfulness: You will experience moments…. fleeting moments…. with the other person. The human being will appear to you then as if filled, irradiated with the archetype of his spirit. And then there may be…. indeed will be…. other moments, long periods of time, when human beings are darkened. But you will learn to say to yourself at such times: “The Spirit makes me strong. I remember the archetype. I saw it once. No illusion, no deception shall rob me of it.” Always struggle for the image that you saw. This struggle is faithfulness. Striving thus for faithfulness, we shall be close to one another, as if endowed with the protective powers of angels.”

Until next time
love,
CH

Tags: , , , ,

Duncan Trussell returns to AEWCH to talk about love.

10 Aug

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

FRIENDS: Do you find this podcast meaningful? Support it! This podcast is only possible because listeners like you support it. Do contribute to my mission by supporting Against Everyone With Conner Habib on Patreon!  Thank you so, so much.

Buy the books mentioned on/related to this episode via my bookshop.org booklist for AEWCH159. Bookshop.org sources from independent bookstores in the US, not a big corporate shipping warehouse where the workers are treated like machines. Plus when you click through here to order, the show gets a small affiliate kickback!

Friends,

I don’t usually do episodes lie this, but the only thing on my mind right now is love and heartache.

I just wanted to talk with a friend.

So here’s me and my dear friend Duncan Trussell, creator of the Netflix animated series, The Midnight Gospel, and the podcast The Duncan Trussell Family Hour, to talk about it all

This is a personal episode, so I’m a little hesitant to share, but here you are.

Thank you for listening with care and gentle hearts.

Love.

C

Tags: , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →