As I travel through the urban sprawl and colorful cultural montage that is mid-city LA I come to a huge Victorian style house where Charles Shaw, the king of the new generation of gonzo-journalism is staying. This is where we do our podcast. Charles and I sit in a sweaty musty corner of this amazing artist complex maze and discuss a wide array of conspiracy theories, reality theories, political contradictions, personal roadblocks, the global security threat and how our own personal relationship got off on the wrong foot. I don't agree with everything Charles says but he is wonderfully intelligent, seductively articulate and exhaustingly well researched. I can't wait for the next one!
Charles Shaw is the author of the critically-acclaimed memoir, "Exile Nation: Drugs, Prisons, Politics & Spirituality" (2012, Counterpoint/Soft Skull Press) and the Director of the documentary films, "The Exile Nation Project: An Oral History of the War on Drugs & The American Criminal Justice System" (2011), "Visurreality" (2013), "WHITE PANTHER: The Legacy of John Sinclair" (2013) and "Exile Nation: The Plastic People" (2014 Cinedigm Films: Executive Produced & Narrated by Edward James Olmos). He is currently in post-production on SOLDIERS OF THE VINE, a documentary series about healing war trauma with plant medicine.
His work has appeared in Alternet, Grist, Guardian UK, Huffington Post, openDemocracy & The New York Times. He was a contributing author to Planetizen's Contemporary Debates in Urban Planning (2007, Island Press). In 2009 he was recognized by the San Diego Press Club for excellence in journalism.
He is the former Editorial Director of Conscious Enlightenment Publishing (Conscious Choice, Common Ground, Whole Life Times, and Seattle's Conscious Choice), and the founder and publisher of Newtopia, former head writer for the nationally syndicated radio show Reality Checks.
He holds a BA in English and Creative Writing from Boston University. A native of Chicago, he lives on the West Coast.
Please support his crowd fund campaign for his latest project Soldiers of the Vine:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/soldiers-of-the-vine-cannabis#/