Nick Meador's blog

Jack Kerouac's experiments with mescaline, ayahuasca, and psilocybin mushrooms influenced his 1962 novel Big Sur, just as earlier trials with peyote shaped his trademark  "spontaneous prose" style. So why does the public still think he scorned psychedelics? (more)

Over the last decade the cultural figure known as the “hipster” has increasingly turned into a target of scorn, despite an apparent disagreement over what the term means and to whom it refers. This semi-mythological character reveals our own compliance with barbaric totalitarianism, a fault we’ve been projecting onto others. (more)

Perhaps it hit me when Time Magazine named their 2006 Person of the Year. You. It was so simple, so obvious. The decision must have been based largely on the runaway success of YouTube. Much else was changing about the ways we communicate and spend our free time and energy. But even that simple switch from passive to active media consumption was one that, I felt sure, would forever transform our society. (more)