The Periphery

NEW PODCAST GUEST - Seeking Your Questions

There is a growing community of scientists and enthusiasts who believe we can reverse aging.

🧐 Is immortality in humanity's future? 🤔

- What are your thoughts when you hear this?
- What would you like to ask an expert on the topic?

Next week, I interview a researcher and COO for a longevity biotech company. It'll be a video for this channel, and it'll be a discussion in two parts:

1. New tech such as DNA editing, AI integration, and health science
2. The social movement and philosophy behind all this

What motivates this drive for immortality? What are the spiritual beliefs of such folks? What pushback do they receive in their pursuits?

Let me know your questions for this researcher out of the Netherlands, and I'll pass them along during our conversation on the "One Hour With" podcast.

Thanks!

#biotech #aging #humanity

1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 1

The Periphery

Happy Autumn, friends.

(or spring if you're in the southern hemisphere:)

1 week ago | [YT] | 4

The Periphery

Today I had coffee with a local leader of a gun violence prevention group. Gun rights folks: I know what you’re thinking, “Oh boy. What did that gun-grabber activist have to say?”

She reached out to me following my piece in the Star Tribune www.startribune.com/mn-school-shooting-mental-illn…, wanting to discuss the ideas presented and others we might bring up in conversation. One such idea I did with her was to try and reduce the stereotype of groups such as hers being “gun grabbers.” She actually tried dispelling that early on, saying they believe in gun rights for hunting, self-defense, and (I assume) other recreation.

I replied, though, that that’s not enough if getting gun rights folks to soften up a little is the goal. And I think it should be because some agreement is needed or we’re just at a continual stalemate. Concessions are unpopular these days with sides being so adversarial and far apart, but I suggested to her to come out and recognize that any additional gun control will reduce effectiveness of some extreme self-defense scenarios. (I just saw security footage of a single jewelry store owner having his storefront driven into by a car and then two more pulling up, seeing eight thieves barging in. They assaulted the owner and took whatever they wanted. A six round clip may not be enough here, as people in the comments stated.)

Yet, I also shared with her that I believe gun rights folks could make concessions as well if spoken to plainly about the trade-offs of reducing a villain's ability to fire off 100 rounds in a school. While it’s unfair to take good people’s freedoms away because of what dangerous people do, I think gun folks would live with a clip-size restriction and perhaps a cosmetic one as well, given the desire to see such “assault weapons” prohibited. And prohibited guns and clips that already exist? They're grandfathered in. It’s nothing new to see freedoms restricted because of general safety concerns. Despite the off-cited Ben Franklin quote “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety," freedom-oriented folks live with speed limits and building codes.

From my conversations and current understanding of the issue, these two regulations could pass. But also, as my article stated, they're not going to help much—thus my criticism of the focus on guns in the first place. Pistols and self-inflicted gun shots comprise the vast majority of gun violence. And, unless activists are then going to try to take away pistols, hunting rifles, and shotguns—something gun rights folks suspect, reducing their desire to give an inch—the inevitable reality gun control activists (and all of us) will face is the ugly one before us: We live in an increasingly disordered era.

Rebuilding some order and hope is how we reduce violence (gun or otherwise), and this probably doesn’t begin to be resolved at the Capitol. It happens with each of us, in our families and communities.

She and I talked for a while, she sharing her passion to see her children grow up in a safer society. Don't we all. We just need to look far beyond the guns to see that happen.

1 week ago (edited) | [YT] | 0

The Periphery

Based on my posts on the Annunciation tragedy & response, I drafted this commentary that made it in today's Star Tribune.

Basically, it says that the current calls for gun control wouldn't have made a difference in this tragedy. Thus, the immediate focus on guns as the culprit misses the bigger picture at the root of these episodes and isn't helpful in our desire for a safer society. The root lies in the breakdowns within our society.

#minnesota #minneapolis #guncontrol #safety #society #community

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 2

The Periphery

Photos from Annunciation in Mourning

Saturday, I visited the memorial for the shooting victims at the front of Annunciation Church in Minneapolis.

In addition to all the people there, the impact of this event shown through the scores of buckets-now-vases creating a floral garden radiating the sentiments of the many who've visited. More direct, were the messages written.

One mother watched on as her young children wrote chalk messages on the sidewalk, while others kneeled in prayer, stood in embrace, or just wandered silently.

Off to the side of the crowd, I talked to a priest who said there's been no date set for reopening the church--that they need to order some new pews. Yesterday's Mass, however, was still being held and moved into the school. I'm betting it was as overflowing as these buckets of flowers.

#minneapolis #memorial #humanity

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1 month ago | [YT] | 1

The Periphery

Evil grows through the cracks of fragmented communities, families, and individual lives. And we're living through an era of such disruption. The resulting chaos is the evil peaking through like the barrel of that rifle pointing into the school church in Minneapolis this morning, taking the lives of two and injuring many more.

I saw these lilly flowers today and thought of two precious souls separated from us.

#minneapolis #education #society #violence #community #rip

1 month ago | [YT] | 6

The Periphery

Tomorrow afternoon, former Vikings coach Brad Childress and I are sitting down for a conversation for The Periphery.

**What would you like me to ask him?**

For my Minnesota friends (and Vikings' fans in particular), you'll remember Coach Childress led the team to the infamous 2009 NFC title game against the Saints.

Whether it's about his time coaching, his thoughts on the NFL today, or whatever, let me know what you're curious about. I'll try to work them into our conversation!

#minnesota #minnesotavikings #nfl #podcast #football

1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 2

The Periphery

It's gonna be a good day. I'm on a panel and later giving a presentation here at the Culture Covergence art+tech festival in Minneapolis.

My presentation is about my visit to Honduras, the  @prosperahn255  development zone, the  @InfinitaCity  community, and what these "startup societies" indicate about the future of societies in general.

This presentation premieres my video story "The Future of Societies?" which will also be posted right here on this channel.

Want to come to this festival? Info and tickets here: Culture Convergence 2025 | Innovation, Culture & Technology Event share.google/V5RBJSXUJf7r1GKMH

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1 month ago | [YT] | 2

The Periphery

My friend, Peter, is in hospice care.

Visiting him several times inspired this poem.

I thought of how seeing someone off on a journey is usually an act of support and recognition. But here, when embarking on this greatest journey of all, we're faced with a person in no shape to be going anywhere.

But maybe that's where the lessons come in...

***

"Embarking"

See him before he leaves,
Recognize this milestone.
He’s off on a journey,
He’s embarking all alone.

His loved ones go see him,
Support his solo flight
Into a vast unknown,
Unsure when they’ll reunite.

Most journeys are exciting,
Some faced with nervousness.
All usually taken
For one’s life improvement.

So goodbyes are balanced
With congratulations,
Received with hearty smiles
Of him whose time here is done.

But no smiles on this man,
Nor on his visitors.
It’s not his life's next journey,
But his one beyond this world.

Silence from the thinning man,
Broken with heaving wet cough.
We’d rather not recall
Him here as he sets off.

So while the final time,
A difficult paradox:
All the reason to be here;
all the reason to not.

No wonder we fear going
From this life to the next.
Such an ugly experience!
Witness: life’s antithesis

Seems inappropriate
For our life’s final show,
To be marked by a display
So pitiful and low.

But maybe that’s the point,
Being stripped down to our breath:
the core aspect of life,
Not status, looks, or wealth.

To see what’s last to go,
When stripped of his ego,
Just with that without which
We have nothing at all.

And lest we leave in our prime,
A lingering will be our end.
Not just pain, but lessons
For our family and friends.

Loved ones present as we
Bridge this life to the next,
See the vastness of it all.
What an experience!

Not a bad way to embark,
Leaving something to give.
Loved ones not just seeing death,
But learning how to live.

2 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 4

The Periphery

Thanks for having me on The Chills Podcast, guys!

It was fun talking about the stories and issues dear to my heart--and the places those stories have come from (geographically and internally).

One area we focused on: technology's influence on society. This brought up topics like startup societies and our work at @MNblockchain

William and Brent at @AllWeatherroof have a great production here in the Twin Cities. Watch for this episode (and watch back episodes) here:

youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq...

2 months ago | [YT] | 2