#185: Eleusis in the Spring (Vernal Equinox Special) feat. Joseph Campbell - The Eleusinian Mysteries, the Rites of Orpheus, Fertility and Persephone, the Descent into Hades, and the Resurrection

Hemlock #49: Three Passions feat. Bertrand Russell WARNING CONTAINS SOUNDS OF HUMAN BODY DRINKING

A few reflections on Bertrand Arthur William Russell, Third Earl and author of some of my favorite books.

Hemlock #48 Peace in Iran: Jack Kennedy from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists talks Strait of Hormuz, Petroyuan, Albert Camus, Strategic Bombing, French and Israeli Nuke Programs, Kissinger

Nuclear Risk Editorial Fellow Jack Kennedy https://jackkennedy.ie/about/ [https://jackkennedy.ie/about/] comes back for the second time to talk Strait of Hormuz, Israel's nuclear option, NATO proliferation risks, Nixon, Kissinger, and Vietnam. "Belt of radioactive cobalt" mentioned. By the way, ships are already paying in Yuan to access the Strait, and the IRGC has confirmed control of a working route through the Strait - if you pay in Chinese money... [https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/iran-running-a-toll-booth-regime-in-strait-of-hormuz-getting-paid-in-yuan-experts-say/] Follow Jack on Bluesky [https://bsky.app/profile/jackkennedy.ie] Follow Will on Substack [https://williamengels.substack.com/] - by the way, if you haven't rated the show on Spotify or Apple, please do so. The algo is suppressing my ratings to some degree. The Patreon version of this show [https://www.patreon.com/c/HemlockPatreon] has better music. Sources Mentioned: * Iran’s Parliament working on bill to impose fees on ships in Strait of Hormuz (March 26 2026, AP) [https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/iran-parliament-on-fees-on-ships-in-strait-of-hormuz-bill/article70789044.ece] * Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski (Carter Admin, Operation Cyclone) admits to using Mujahedeen fighters to create quagmire for Soviets [https://www.marxists.org/history/afghanistan/archive/brzezinski/1998/interview.htm#:~:text=B%3A%20Regret%20what,the%20Soviet%20empire.] - Jan 1998 * Poland seeks as much autonomy as possible in terms of nuclear arms, Tusk says [https://www.reuters.com/world/poland-seeks-much-autonomy-possible-terms-nuclear-arms-tusk-says-2026-03-03/] (Reuters, March 3 2026) * Not One Inch - M. E. Sarotte [https://a.co/d/08rVLscA] * Governing From the Skies by Thomas Hippler [https://a.co/d/05VXWiTv] * The Samson Option by Seymour Hersh [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option#:~:text=The%20Samson%20Option%20(,retaliation.%5B4%5D] * WAS IT OBLITERATION? The US attack on Iran may not have wiped out its nuclear ambitions but it did set them back years by Seymour Hersh [https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/was-it-obliteration] * Camus editorial after Hiroshima (Aug 8th 1945) [https://williamengels.substack.com/p/the-world-is-what-it-is-which-isnt] * In The Loop (2009 British Diplomatic Comedy) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Loop] * The Thick of It (Also British Political Comedy) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thick_of_It] * Inside the Kremlin's Cold War by Zubok and Pleshakov * 1890 treatise Alfred Thayer Mahan The Influence of Sea Power on History [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Influence_of_Sea_Power_upon_History] Music and Image Credits: * Didn't Know What I Was In For by Better Oblivion Community Center [https://youtu.be/CJU6k9QfCiY] * Curb Your Enthusiasm Song Cover (YouTube) [https://youtu.be/UeNyf6QSbUw?si=VlqVlRUMb5BstuZq] * Cover Image: by Domiri Ganji [https://domiri.eu/galleries/ceilings/](permission requested) General * Operation Unthinkable (Churchill) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable] * Arkangel Intervention / North Russia intervention [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Russia_intervention] * Human Remains in Space over Navajo Objections [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-remains-are-headed-to-the-moon-despite-objections/] * The Algiers Putsch 1961 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algiers_putsch_of_1961] * Operation Vulture (US Nuclear Negotiation with France over Dien Bien Phu, 1954, Dulles and Radford) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Vulture#:~:text=The%20plan%20included%20an,nuclear%20option%20his%20backing] * 1979 Vela Incident [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vela_incident]

Hemlock #47: Teaching Nagasaki feat. Franco Castro Escobar - Disaster Storytelling, Youth Antinuclear Education in Japan, Militarism and Nuclear Abolition, Iris Chang, & The Bells of Nagasaki

Hiroshima rages while Nagasaki prays. FULL EPISODE DESCRIPTION ON PATREON [https://www.patreon.com/posts/hemlock-47-feat-153891693?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link] I'm joined for a second time by friend of the show Franco Castro Escobar [https://www.fcastroescobar.com/], a PhD researcher at Keele University in the UK. This time we discuss life in Nagasaki before, during, and after the nuclear attack, trauma and education, the developmental origins of youth antinuclear activists, hibaku Maria and the destruction of the Urakami Cathedral, Iwo Jima and the Pacific Theater, disaster storytelling and kataribe, militarism in San Diego, efforts to rewrite and suppress history in Japan, Iris Chang and Nanking, and American imperial activities vis a vis the dreaded "counterproliferation" - empowering allies to acquire nuclear weapons or attack adversary states with nuclear breakout potential as an alternative to diplomacy. We also talk about the beautiful camphor trees in Nagasaki, many of which are still alive today despite being charred and cracked by nuclear blast, the longstanding commitment to nonviolence and prayer as an alternative to hatred in Nagasaki, and some important poetry and theology connected to the hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor) movement that expresses the 'ultimate aspiration' of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be the last cities attacked by atomic bombs as we transition to a more peaceful world, one that must be free of nuclear weapons and threats of their retention and use. This episode aims to answer a few questions that ought to be important to all of us, namely: How can children be taught the truth about the historical effects and current reality of nuclear weapons proliferation? Why did the United States really attack Hiroshima and Nagasaki? How do religious beliefs (and the lack thereof) influence how people interpret collective tragedies and respond? SHOW NOTES * Franco's article Youth antinuclear socialisation in Japan: early encounters with the concept of nuclear weapons [https://igjr.org/ojs/index.php/igjr/article/view/8781] * Urakami Cathedral, largest Catholic cathedral in Asia * Book: The Bells of Nagasaki [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bells_of_Nagasaki]by Takashi Nagai [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bells_of_Nagasaki] * Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition [https://www.recna.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/recna/en-top?doing_wp_cron=1774426752.7496581077575683593750] * Kataribe Storytelling * Disaster Storytelling * Minamata Mercury Poisoning Scandal [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease] * Barefoot Gen (Best Hiroshima teaching resource for kids, acc to Franco, genre: Anime and Manga) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_Gen] * Book: Nagasaki by Susan Southard * Book: Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_and_the_Thousand_Paper_Cranes]by Eleanor Coerr [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako_and_the_Thousand_Paper_Cranes] * Book: Flags of Our Fathers [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_Our_Fathers]by James Bradley [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_Our_Fathers] * Book: When We Say Hiroshima: Selected Poems [https://press.umich.edu/Books/W/When-We-Say-Hiroshima]by Kurihara Sadako [https://press.umich.edu/Books/W/When-We-Say-Hiroshima] * Book: Command and Control by Eric Schlosser * Book: Nuclear War: A Scenario by Anne Jacobsen * Book: The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang * The 1971 Blood Telegram [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_Blood#The_Blood_Telegram:~:text=Our%20government%20has,free%20world.] (Bangladesh Genocide/US State Dept) Music Credit (Fair Use Asserted by Author): 福山雅治 - クスノキ-500年の風に吹かれて-（KUSUNOKI PROJECT ver.） https://youtu.be/JumRmUwmOgs [https://youtu.be/JumRmUwmOgs]

#185: Eleusis in the Spring (Vernal Equinox Special) feat. Joseph Campbell - The Eleusinian Mysteries, the Rites of Orpheus, Fertility and Persephone, the Descent into Hades, and the Resurrection

Happy Equinox. The Beginning, is at last: beginning. Music Credit: Beethoven / Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor" Gernot Schmalfuss / Music Director and Chief Conductor Gwhyneth Chen / Piano Evergreen Symphony Orchestra National Concert Hall, Taipei, Taiwan 13 Nov. 2020 (Creative Commons). [https://youtu.be/txJmJFFSpq8] Percy Bysshe Shelley Hymn to the Spirit of Nature (1820).from Prometheus Unbound (Act II, Scene V): Life of Life! Thy lips enkindle With their love the breath between them; And thy smiles before they dwindle Make the cold air fire; then screen them In those locks, where whoso gazes Faints, entangled in their mazes. Child of Light! Thy limbs are burning Through the veil which seems to hide them, As the radiant lines of morning Through thin clouds, ere they divide them; And this atmosphere divinest Shrouds thee wheresoe'er thou shinest. Fair are others; none beholds Thee; But thy voice sounds low and tender Like the fairest, for it folds thee From the sight, that liquid splendor; And all feel, yet see thee never,— As I feel now, lost for ever! Lamp of Earth! Wheree'er thou movest Its dim shapes are clad with brightness, And the souls of whom thou lovest Walk upon the winds with lightness Till they fail, as I am failing, Dizzy, lost, yet unbewailing!

#184: Gaza, or How to Normalize Genocide: Keynote Speech by Chris Hedges at The Sanctuary for Independent Media

You can find the full talk from March 2025, officially-titled "Normalizing Genocide and the New World Order" at the link below [https://youtu.be/z1iW2dm48_w], via The Sanctuary for Independent Media, which Chris has lectured at for years. Chris also writes on Substack [https://chrishedges.substack.com/] "The Chris Hedges Report" and has a podcast of the same name. [https://chrishedges.podbean.com/] Hedges also wrote something like 12 books, which I've read about 9 of, personally. Each was life-changing. I would start with "Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison" [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Our-Class/Chris-Hedges/9781982154448] (2014) by Chris Hedges. Rest of episode description available free on Patreon. [https://www.patreon.com/posts/153557476?pr=true]