Charles Shaw's blog

Musings on the imminent irradiation of the West Coast. (more)

The author is invited to join a progressive coalition to monitor the 2004 election, and finds himself in the middle of the third stolen election in four years. (more)

The author moves on to New York City for the 2004 Republican National Convention, participates in the largest public demonstrations since the height of the Vietnam War, and ends up mass-arrested and stuck in a prison camp with 2000 other peaceful protestors. (more)

The author is approached by a spiritual teacher and healer who invites him to the woods of Maine to hear an interesting proposition, after which he heads to Boston to lead the protest movement at the Democratic National Convention, and finds a city under military occupation. We return to Boston for the explosive conclusion to the DNC protests, and then journey back to Maine to decompress with Wolf, with unforseen consequences. (more)

The author attends the 2004 Green Party nominating convention and is made a party official. Back at home, things are changing rapidly for him and Edie. (more)

Sasha and Ann Shulgin on phenethylamine compounds, the ‘alchemy of medicinal chemistry,’ and the Federal Analogue Act. (more)

Indignant over the discovery that his magazine was under government surveillance, the author decides to get politically active and joins the Green Party.  (more)

The author befriends indie journalist and publisher Sander Hicks, who recounts the terrifying saga of Jim Hatfield, Vox, and George W. Bush, another truth odyssey that reveals the true nature of power, and the consequences of challenging those who wield it. Along the way, he discovers there is a serious field of study lurking behind the label of "conspiracy theory." (more)

In this exclusive outtake, we are introduced to Guy Herron, a larger-than-life character to whom the book is dedicated, who baptized the author into the world of truth by shattering everything he thought he knew about his country and its history. (more)

After writing a favorable review of Richard Florida's The Rise of the Creative Class,the author is invited to attend an exclusive conference in Memphis.  (more)

The run-up to the invasion of Iraq produced a lot of bizarre behavior, but perhaps none matched the strange ideological odyssey on which the author found himself in those days.  (more)

Chapter three continues as the author begins to confront his mounting disillusionment that nothing can be done to change the system and there is no escape from the cycle of poverty and violence that engulfs the exile nation. (more)

Endorsements and Praise for Exile Nation and the "Unhead Voices" project from noted writers and activists. (more)

Evolver and Reality Sandwich are proud to present the debut of our new exclusive series, Charles Shaw's Exile Nation: Drugs, Prisons, Politics & Spirituality, which will appear in weekly excerpts throughout 2010. (more)

The Obama Administration is considering transferring Gitmo detainees to an empty prison in a struggling Illinois town, an idea Republicans hate, but the people of economically devastated Thomson are praying for. (more)

Britons are not alone in facing the kind of ‘kettling' practices deployed during the G-20 Summit. Here in the States it's also been in use for some time. (more)