The Paradise Paradox

In the last few months, many people around have been feeling an increase in their anxiety, and may not even know the cause. If you're nervous, your mind can run away trying to find justifications, and that can lead to a downward spiral - nerves leading to fear, combining into anxiety, imagining awkward situations, and so on. You don't always need to know the causes to feel anxiety, and as it turns out, many times you don't need to know the causes to solve it either. In this episode, Kurt...

Karla Urbina is a painter living in Guadalajara, creating wonderful and unusual artworks that often portray personal and societal struggles, questions about well-being and progress in society. Karla is also an entrepreneur and co-founder of a streetwear company, Existing Is Hard. In this episode, Kurt interviews Karla about her creative process, how she comes up with the ideas for her artworks, her methods of interpreting the world to influence creativity, how looking at clouds or stains on...

In a sense, our genetic code holds the wisdom of every generation that has come before us - the keys to millions of years of survival, and even some of prosperity. Is it possible that we can tap into that knowledge? Perhaps even tap into knowledge that is hidden on a spiritual level? According to Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson, every human being and brain has the ability to access that ancient wisdom, using their own "morphogenetic circuit". In this episode, Kurt discusses some...

According to the case made in the book "The Sovereign Individual", the nation state rose to power as a natural consequence of the conditions of the industrial age. Gunpowder made obsolete the old technology such as armed cavalry, and castles. That set the stage for the efficient smelting of iron, which lead to factories. Factories are very centralised - making them vulnerable to vandalism and also to taxation. The factory owners needed the protective watch of governments to maintain...

A lot of people have been feeling anxious lately. It's hard to say exactly why, but whatever the cause, we all have to find a way to deal with it. In this video, Kurt explains five tips you can use to improve your state of mind: 1. A yogic alternate breathing exercise. 2. How giving in to your anxiety can help your anxiety. 3. Using a journal to gain a healthy distance from your problems. 4. Being aware of your body and your surroundings to stay centred. 5. How identity affects...

I didn't think I'd be welcomed into the USA by being interrogated and stuck in a small room for 48 hours, but that's life. Arriving to O'Hare airport, I was told to wait so they could ask me a few more questions. I was detained for hours and finally told I would not be allowed to enter the USA on the ESTA visa waiver program, due to my deportation from Mexico two years prior, and as a perpetual traveller, it wasn't clear where my home was. I sat and meditated quite a lot during those...

Arielle Friedman is the former co-host of the Crypto Hippies Podcast, and now a co-host of The Multiversity Project, a podcast for exploring higher-dimensional education. In this interview we talk about what got her on the path of questioning what governments told her, noticing that their stated intentions weren't aligned with their real intentions. We talk about how that lead her to take an interest in philosophy, particularly in the works of Hegel. And we talk about the future of...

Katy Kelly is one of four hosts of The Multiversity Project, a podcast for "higher-dimensional education", and is known for forming a voluntaryist meet-up in Austin, Texas, as well as in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco. Years ago, she decided to leave her comfortable life in the US and head to Mexico to explore greater depths of self-knowledge and understanding a foreign culture, and to find a less stressful life. In this episode Katy and Kurt discuss Katy's past, how she came to be an advocate...

Kurt is joined again by Chris Guida, long-time Bitcoin enthusiast and co-host of The Multiversity Project. In this episode Kurt and Chris discuss the prevailing zeitgeist of capitalism and anti-capitalism, how personal development and responsibility fit into that picture, how the structure of organisations is likely to change in the future, about how companies like Google already give their employees 20% of their hours to work on whatever project they like, and how cryptocurrency enables...

Roxii Love is an anarchist activist who loves to explore questions about how truth is being hidden, and how our health and well-being might be affected by things like poor-quality vaccines and chemtrails. You can check out her show, Roxii Love's Radio Rebellion, on Facebook. In this episode we discuss weird laws, such as penalties for carrying a fish suspiciously or voting in a cactus for mayor, how nice Mexico is and why you shouldn't trust the government when they warn you about a...

Welcome to The Paradise Paradox. I'd like to present this interview with my friend and co-host of The Multiversity Project, Chris Guida. Chris is an adventurer and investor. I'll always remember the first time I met him. One of the first things he said to me was "What's your opinion on the nature of objective reality?" I thought, okay, this guy goes straight to the deep questions. In this episode we talk about what it takes to form an open-minded person, how Myers Briggs personality types...

For a long time, people in the Bitcoin community have hoped that it could reach mass adoption, that everyone would start using it and abandon fiat currency. That hasn't happened yet. Is it possible that a multinational corporation could take this technology and use their existing user base to introduce it in a way that's user friendly, and dominate the whole market? And if they do, what's the worst that could happen? Let's talk about Facebook's proposed coin, the Libra. Purchase a...

Dr. Aiden Gregg is an associate professor at the psychology department of the University of Southampton, where he lectures and conducts research. Dr. Gregg has done a lot of thinking and research about psychopathy, sociopathy, anti-social personality disorder and related ideas. In this section of the interview, Dr. Gregg further explains psychopathy, and his idea of "redrawing the lines" of psychopathy, sociopathy and anti-social personality disorder, in an idea he calls "the pococurante"...

The total crypto market cap has gone up from $140 B to nearly $170 B over the last month. A lot of people out there are skeptical. They say the price is going to crash, the market is still manipulated, it's a dead cat bounce. Other people say "look at all this doubt, people are wary, the market isn't coming back." It seems like a lot of people out there still don't understand market cycles. Disbelief is a part of the cycle, and it might be a very positive one. How can you turn their...

There's a lot to know when it comes to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, but a lot of people just want to know the basics - how can I buy it and what am I even meant to do with it? In this episode, Kurt explains how to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, by purchasing from a regular exchange in your country, arranging a purchase on localbitcoins.com, buying from a decentralised exchange such as Bisq, or buying in person. He also explains the opportunities after you buy your coins - store them...

Many cryptocurrency-based sites have popped up over the last 3 years, giving content creators a chance to make money from their art. Steemit gives bloggers a chance to earn some cash, and there are several sites based on the Steem platform - DTube for videos, DSound for podcasts, songs or other audio, Dmania for memes, Utopian for open-source programmers, and even Steem Monsters the trading card game. There's also Bit.Tube, which is a very professional site for video creators and viewers,...

Dr. Aiden Gregg is an associate professor at the psychology department of the University of Southampton, where he lectures and conducts research. Dr. Gregg has done a lot of thinking and research about psychopathy, sociopathy, anti-social personality disorder and related ideas. In this section of the interview, Dr. Gregg explains his perspective on psychopathy, how it can be like looking into an abyss, how psychopaths may lack something that ordinary humans have, the link to myths like...

Joël Valenzuela is known for his work with the Dash Force public outreach program, delivering presentations, planning conferences and other events. Valenzuela writes for Dash Force News and also oversees the content creation and distribution. Joël is also known for being a man who lives solely off cryptocurrency - specifically Dash. In this interview we discuss Joël's background, growing up in Mexico and living through the peso collapse and revaluation of the early 90s, how that gave him...

Hamilton Souther is a medicine man, given the title of "master shaman" by his mentors in the Peruvian Amazon. For 17 years he has conducted ceremonies with the sacred brew ayahuasca, and used scores of other plants to help seekers find their way to forgiveness and empathy. In his 20s, Mr. Souther started to have a spiritual awakening, having visionary experiences, leading him to search for answers in shamanism, and looking for deeper understanding of healing and the human...

Dash has outperformed the cryptocurrency market over the last month, rising from $79 to $120. For people not familiar with Dash, rises in price always seem unusual, but for those who follow it closely they know that good news is always coming out. After there was a 51% attack on ETC, there was a lot of uncertainty in many smaller crypto projects. Bitcoin and Ethereum are big enough to make such attacks impractical, but for the rest of the market, they may be exposed to this exploit. Dash...