John Zerzan is a primitivist philosopher and author. His works criticize agricultural civilization as inherently oppressive and advocate drawing upon the hunter-gatherers' way of life. In the first half, he discussed his philosophy and contention that technology does not make for a higher standard of living. He considers himself to be part of the green anarchy movement, which is an indictment of industrialization, and focuses on environmental issues. "How much humanness are we allotted?" he ponders in his new book of essays. "It's the technology in a general sense that has caused every problem that it claims to...solve," he argued. For example, we might have wonderful cars, but they bring us congestion, pollution, and traffic jams.

Of late, crises seem to be morphing into each other in terms of things like the pandemic, heatwaves, wildfires, and the opioid epidemic, he commented. He talked about visiting Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), back in the 1990s, when he was initially on trial in Sacramento. While Zerzan was not an advocate of Kaczynski's violent methods, he found his manifesto compelling, which suggested that the more society becomes technologically driven, the less meaning and freedom there is for the individual. Zerzan praised the lifestyle of indigenous people who lived in simpler and smaller communities with more coherence than our dispersed and frenetic existences.

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Often referred to as the Psychic Professor, Paul Selig experienced an awakening in 1987 that left him clairvoyant and able to channel guides from a higher level of consciousness. In the latter half, he shared the latest insights from his spirit guides, who have dictated a number of books through him. Selig said that while his personality recedes during the channeling, he is conscious of what they're saying rather than in a trance state. One of their main messages is that there is an inherent divinity in all of manifestation, and we enter into the "kingdom" when we become aware of this. Humanity's main problem, the guides have told him, is that we live in denial of this divinity, which is our birthright or inheritance.

This divine spark or monad within us knows itself as being of the whole, Selig continued. The guides, whom he described as a group or collective of teachers, sometimes go by the name of Melchizedek. They explained that humanity's conception of separation from each other reached such a level that people also believed themselves to be separate from their source, which they are not. While change and a reckoning are upon us, he noted, "the road is lit only as we walk it." The pandemic is a part of this change, and offers an opportunity to know who we are, and examine how we treat each other, Selig added. During the last hour, he provided readings for callers, consulting his guides to access perceptions.

News segment guests: Lauren Weinstein, Steve Kates