Clinton, Carson, and the American political landscape

This week Jeff talks about the sudden animation of Hillary Clinton, both in the recent Democratic debate and in the eleven-hour grilling by the Republicans on the House Benghazi committee.”I want to know who took our boring old school marm Hillary away and replaced her with this sparkling, confident, fluid and flowing woman,” says Jeff. Perhaps Hillary needs to be facing down an enemy for us to remember what we like about her.

On the other side of the political spectrum there’s the ascendency of Dr. Ben Carson, the supremely mellow African-American neurosurgeon who recently surpassed the supremely unmellow Donald Trump, in the polls to become the frontrunner in the Republican primary.  What do people see in this man?  How does the fact that he’s black factor into his appeal — especially among the most conservative of conservatives? Jeff weighs in.

“Although Ben Carson would hate this description, I think he’s the recipient of soft affirmative action by conservatives. I’m not complaining, I think it’s good. It’s all heartfelt, it’s voluntary, and it represents an impulse to wholeness that was literally not available to earlier generations of traditionalists.” ~Jeff Salzman

While the inherent human drama of a presidential bid draws us in, it’s also interesting to look at the current frontrunners and see what their presence tells us about the deeper currents flowing under the surface of culture. Looking at Clinton and Carson in particular, through an integral/evolutionary lens, we can touch into some enduring polarities that we oscillate between: left and right, male and female, and black and white. Pretty juicy.

Then, closer to home, Jeff talks to the beautiful and talented Brooke McNamara about the experience of writing the poems in her new book, Feed Your Vow: Poems for Falling into Fullness. “I feel like my physical body, but also the central energetic channel of my body, was literally ripped open by the process of giving birth. Through that space, this book fell out.” We close with her reading one of her favorites.

Due to a busy schedule, there is no transcript this week