Tag Archives: joseph matheny

Academia, Appearances, Audio, Folklore, Hakim Bey, Interviews, Legend Tripping, Links, Ong's Hat, Podcast

Decoder Ring: The Incunabula Papers

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What lies at the heart of Ong’s Hat?

Listen to this episode of Decoder Ring: 

LINK TO DECODER RING PAGE

Decoder Ring is a podcast about cracking cultural mysteries. Every month, host Willa Paskin, Slate’s TV critic, takes on a cultural question, object, idea, or habit and speaks with experts, historians and obsessives to try and figure out where it comes from, what it means and why it matters.

On the early internet, a conspiracy theory known as Ong’s Hat flourished. It combined real physics, speculative science, mysticism, and radical politics, to tell a tale about a secret cult of interdimensional travelers. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, clues would emerge about the travel cult: brochures, book catalogs, mysterious interviews, buried artifacts, and more. For years, users worked together to solve the mystery of Ong’s Hat and the man who masterminded it all.

Decoder Ring talks to those seekers and the man behind the curtain, to find out the truth: What is Ong’s Hat?

Download the art for this episode.

Links and further reading on some of the things we discussed on the show:

• Michael Kinsella’s book about Ong’s Hat: Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat

• “Interdimensional Portal” on YouTube

• Audiobook version of The Incunabula Papers

• Scans of the original Ong’s Hat mail-art

• Joseph Matheny’s website

• Joseph Matheny’s interview on Coast to Coast AM

Email: decoderring@slate.com
Twitter: @willapaskin

This episode was co-written and edited by Willa Paskin and Benjamin Frisch. Benjamin Frisch produced the episode.

*SPOILER ALERT* In case anyone missed it, here is the game that was embedded in that episode: https://www.reddit.com/r/trustaleph/ 

Audio, Incunabula, Legend Tripping, Ong's Hat, Video

Ong’s Hat: The Original ARG – Sex, Drugs & Quantum Physics

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Ong’s Hat, also known as The Incunabula, is the original ARG and laid the ground for all future experiments in transmedia storytelling. Join me as we take a brief look at the tale of a ghost town in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey…

FOLLOW THE WEIRDNET: TWITTER: @theweirdnet GAB.AI: @THEWEIRDNET FACEBOOK: @welcometotheweirdnet INSTAGRAM: @theweirdnet MINDS: https://www.minds.com/THEWEIRDNET ALTERNATIVE VIDEO SITES BITCHUTE: http://bit.ly/weirdnetbitchute OTHER PROJECTS: IDENTMUSIC/TOMMY SINGS: https://www.youtube.com/user/IdentMusic THE SCOTTISH STORYTLLER: http://bit.ly/TheScottishStoryteller

Audio, AUDIOBOOK, Robert Anton Wilson

Cosmic Trigger Audiobook

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Here is a reading I did of  a segment of the late Robert Anton WIlson’s book: Cosmic Trigger. This reading was done at the bequest of the people putting on the play: Cosmic Trigger, currently showing in the UK.  There are other people reading chapters, I believe with the intention of there being an audio-book assembled out the pieces.

I hope you enjoy.

cm-listen-icon_0https://soundcloud.com/cosmic-trigger-play/05a

To see all the Robert Anton WIlson freebies available from this site, go here.

Announcements, AUDIOBOOK, Incunabula, Ong's Hat

Audiobook- The Incunabula Papers: Ong’s Hat and Other Gateways to New Dimensions

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Above image used with permission of the artist.  Courtesy of James Koehnline : http://www.koehnline.com/

Available now:

A professional version of The Incunabula Papers: Ong’s Hat and Other Gateways to New Dimensions is currently available for Audible.com, Amazon.com and iTunes.com. (coming soon) It is narrated by the inimitable James Lewis.

REVIEWERS: Contact me for a free review copy. Just let me know what podcast/show/blog you intend to review it for.

Note to creatives reading this: If you have any audio v/o projects and you want to work with a consummate professional and all around nice guy, you can’t do better than James.

Of course, the free radio play version P. Emerson Williams and I did years ago remains and will always remain available for free in the commons. 

Here’s a sample of my conversation with Nick Herbert, read by James, so you can get a sense of the quality (Click the blue “Listen” button below to hear the sample).

Listen

Appearances, books, Incunabula, Ong's Hat

2014 Literary References to Ong’s Hat in Other Works: A Collection

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A few collected Ong’s Hat literary references from 2014. Other references pre-2014 can be found on the Reviews page. I only include the ones which directly relate to the legend as told in my works, not the historic references about the lost town itself.

Notice: Inclusion in this list in NO WAY IMPLIES AN ENDORSEMENT 

Ong’s Hat spin off novels by other writers:

Other references (non-fiction)

News and Popular Media

  • A political post from Salon, , AUG 26, 2010 which has the quote: “The summer of 1963, then, was marked by graduation from the liturgical approach of loose, liberal Christianity to the crazy quilt Moorish Orthodox Church of America, my natural next home. An offshoot or perhaps incarnation of the Moorish Science Temple, the MOCA comprised a group of jazz musicians, poets, artists, improvisational comics and a few deeply weird people like the guy with the mustache and cape (that’s all I ever knew of his identity — he much resembled Brian Stack’s “The Interrupter” from the Conan O’Brien show decades later). As an acolyte of Salvador Dali (along with one of my close friends from school, who also taught martial arts and built explosive devices), the MOCA was a natural magnet for someone like me. It’s served me well off and on over the years as it has waxed and waned as a force. The nominal headquarters still operate in Ong’s Hat, N.J., in case anyone might conceivably be interested.”
Incunabula, Ong's Hat

Destinations Across Paranormal America 2

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Chapter dedicated to Ong’s Hat in Destinations Across Paranormal America 2  by Hugh Mungus

Excerpt:

It’s a widely held belief the legend of Ong’s Hat is the fictional brainchild of author Joseph Matheny. Matheny posted his saga on the Internet in the early 1990s, in attempts to insert the story into the collective consciousness of the then-burgeoning World Wide Web. If you’ve ever watched the lonelygirl15 webisodes on http://www.youtube.com, you’ll understand this anecdotal blending with online reality. To those not familiar with lonelygirl15, it was the precursor to Destinations Across Paranormal America 20 vlogging, videotaping oneself rambling about various subject matter, and posting it on the Internet for the world to view. Debuting in 2006, lonelygirl15 was created by a group of young filmmakers. Although fictional, the show was initially believed by its audience to be fact. The story followed the everyday existence of a teenaged girl named Bree. As the production gained popularity, and its fanciful nature was revealed, two derivative series — centered around conspiracy theories — were produced.

Back to Ong’s Hat, baby! There are those who claim Matheny’s legend is true. Whether or not one believes the Ong’s Hat saga is beside the point, contends its creator, who asserts his work stemmed from an actual written narrative known as the Incunabula Papers. To be certain, it’s a lot of information to digest. Reading Ong’s Hat: The Beginning, listening to the Incunabula Papers on-line (see the Bibliography) or visiting southern New Jersey, would be great initial steps to unraveling this mystery.

Much more in the book! Read it all on-line (Ong’s Hat chapter is  chapter 13)

or get it at Amazon

Academia, Incunabula, Interviews, Legend Tripping, Ong's Hat

The Rise Of The ARG: games™ investigates alternate reality games and what the future has in store for the curious experiment.

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Game magazine: Issue 135, available now at newsstands, print or digital. The article runs about 6 pages, with citations to Incunabula/Ong’s Hat and myself throughout.

pdficon_largeComplete article here: The Rise Of The ARG: games™ investigates alternate reality games and what the future has in store for the curious experiment. 

Here is a small excerpt (used with permission) from that article:

Excerpt: 

“But what exactly is an ARG? For the community, that definition is largely rooted in the ‘this is not a game’ aesthetic. ARGs are games that do not acknowledge that they are games; they pose as alternate realities hidden away in streams of dormant internet code. Their stories exist not in unified narrative, but are spread across phone lines, email addresses, websites and any other forms of media that the puppetmasters – that is, the game’s creators – deem to be useful. ARG’s exist in real-time as constantly evolving, potentially boundless storytelling experiences.

Continue reading The Rise Of The ARG: games™ investigates alternate reality games and what the future has in store for the curious experiment. →

Academia, Announcements, books, Folklore, Legend Tripping, Links, Magazine-Ezine, Ong's Hat

The Surprising Online Life of Legends – Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat

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A very interesting article/review of Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat.

From The Chronicle of Higher Education: Now, from the you-can-learn-something-new-every-day files, comes Michael Kinsella’s Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat.

Read it here: http://chronicle.com/blogs/pageview/the-surprising-online-life-of-legends/29221

From the article:

The response of Joseph Matheny to Legend-Tripping Online suggests the success of Kinsella’s read on the Incunabula Papers. On his Web site, Matheny wrote that Kinsella “did an excellent job and only missed the mark with two or three of his conclusions,” which Matheny said he would clear up by writing a complementary account.

Continue reading The Surprising Online Life of Legends – Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat →

Academia, Folklore, Incunabula, Legend Tripping, Ong's Hat

Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat

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Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat

My review: I was expecting to hate this book, but I didn’t. Michael Kinsella did an excellent job and only missed the mark with two or three of his conclusions. Of course, this is forgivable since he wasn’t in possession of all of the facts from behind the scenes. As a remedy to those few slight errors, and in interest of keeping the record straight I will issue a free companion guide to this book in a few weeks.  Since the book is primarily about myself, my friends, my project and my methods, I do admit to being  somewhat close to the subject.  However,what colors my decision to release the guide is simply that I’d like the record to be as clear as possible if this is to become a subject of “study” by academia.

Other than a few forgivable gaffs (and I do mean a very few), this book is quite enjoyable, insightful and entertaining.  I’m glad someone in academia was able to decipher many of the the objectives and methodologies of this project and I highly recommend it (with the soon to be released companion guide, of course).  If you choke at the price of $55 USD, you may want to wait for the paperback (if they publish one) or the inevitable ePub that’s sure to show up in the wild. (added 8-12-11: Looks like it showed up on Google Books.)

Continue reading Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat →

Academia, Folklore, Incunabula, Legend Tripping, Ong's Hat

Monoskop Log reblog – Michael Kinsella: Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat (2011)

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Source: http://monoskop.org/log/?p=8717

On the Internet, seekers investigate anonymous manifestos that focus on the findings of brilliant scientists said to have discovered pathways into alternate realities. Gathering on web forums, researchers not only share their observations, but also report having anomalous experiences, which they believe come from their online involvement with these veiled documents. Seeming logic combines with wild twists of lost Moorish science and pseudo-string theory. Enthusiasts insist any obstacle to revelation is a sure sign of great and wide-reaching efforts by consensus powers wishing to suppress all the liberating truths in the Incunabula Papers (included here in complete form).

In Legend-Tripping Online, Michael Kinsella explores these and other extraordinary pursuits. This is one of the first books dedicated to legend-tripping, ritual quests in which people strive to explore and find manifest the very events described by supernatural legends. Through collective performances, legend-trippers harness the interpretive frameworks these stories provide and often claim incredible, out-of-this-world experiences that in turn perpetuate supernatural legends.

Legends and legend-tripping are assuming tremendous prominence in a world confronting new speeds of diversification, connection, and increasing cognitive load. As guardians of tradition as well as agents of change, legends and the ordeals they inspire contextualize ancient and emergent ideas, behaviors, and technologies that challenge familiar realities. This book analyzes supernatural legends and the ways in which the sharing spirit of the Internet collectivizes, codifies, and makes folklore of fantastic speculation.

Publisher University Press of Mississippi, 2011
ISBN 1604739843, 9781604739848
208 pages

  • review (Peter Monaghan, Chronicle of Higher Education)
  • review (David J. Puglia, Journal of Folklore Research)
  • review (Óli Gneisti Sóleyjarson, Folklore)
  • Legend tripping at Wikipedia

publisher
google books

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Download (alt link)

Announcements, Ong's Hat

THE BUSINESS OF STORYTELLING: PRODUCTION OF WORKS, POACHING COMMUNITIES, AND CREATION OF STORY WORLDS

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THE BUSINESS OF STORYTELLING: PRODUCTION OF WORKS, POACHING COMMUNITIES, AND CREATION OF STORY WORLDS
by Bakioglu, Burcu S., Ph.D., INDIANA UNIVERSITY, 2009, 402 pages; 3373494

Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

pdficon_largeA paper [PDF] that uses copious quotes from This is Not a Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming and has  section about the Ong’s Hat project.

Abstract:

My study is an analysis of the divergent ways the materiality of works affect the process of meaning-making across various media and investigates how it influences the production of works. A work born in media convergence inevitably elicits hybrid forms of story-telling that offer immersive and interactive environments in which users are expected to perform certain activities. In such an environment, I argue that storytelling becomes a collaborative, and more importantly, a participatory process. My dissertation, ultimately, interrogates the nature of performativity and collaboration in works that extend across various media. I develop the model of performative narratives to refer to works that encourage and rely on such activities for the formation of their texts, such as experimental novels, YouTube videos, Alternate Reality Games, and multi-user virtual environments that are based on user-generated content such as Second Life. As such, my study investigates how works become sites of struggle because the stories that they narrate are in a state of constant negotiation between its producers/creators, the medium of the work, and the communities that these works mobilize.


Announcements, Appearances, Interviews

Thriving Underground Website Anonymously Markets Illegal Drugs

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I’m cited as an “expert” in this article by my old friend David Jay Brown. It’s about Bitcoin and Silk Road.

Read it here: The Silk Road website uses an anonymous browser, untraceable currency, shifting servers and an encrypted Web address to allow for a thriving illegal drug trade on the Internet.

To learn more about Silk Road, and about the Bitcoin economy that fuels it, I interviewed transmedia writer/artist Joseph Matheny, who is an expert on computer encryption and the underground Internet economy. According to Matheny, ordering from Silk Road is generally safe, if you know what you’re doing and take the proper precautions.

Announcements, Ong's Hat

Now see me blather and spew on Kindle as well!

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Just an update: Some titles I wrote and/or contributed to are now available on Kindle.

Announcements, Audio, Robert Anton Wilson

Robert Anton Wilson Remembered

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Robert Anton Wilson Remembered [Unabridged] [Audible Audio Edition]

get it on:

UPDATE: This collection is now availabe on Archive.org

by Douglas Rushkoff (Author, Narrator), Antero Ali (Author, Narrator), Tiffany Brown (Author, Narrator), David Brown (Author), Zac Odin (Author), Joseph Matheny (Author, Narrator), Alan Meridian (Narrator)

 

Announcements

New Book Coming Out: Rebels and Devils

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Rebels & DevilsRebels & Devils

The Psychology of Liberation

edited by Christopher S. Hyatt, Ph.D. introduced by S. Jason Black foreword by Nicholas Tharcher contributions by William S. Burroughs Joseph C. Lisiewski, Ph.D. Timothy Leary Ph.D., Robert Anton Wilson, Austin Osman Spare, Genesis P-Orridge, Aleister Crowley, Joseph Matheny, Peter J. Carroll, Israel Regardie, Jack Parsons, Phil Hine, Osho, and many others.

I feel honored to be included in such rebellious company. Available Now.

GSpot, Interviews, Podcast

The GSpot: Mark Mallman

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Joseph Matheny in conversation with the diversely creative spirit, Mark Mallman.

Listen here

“Criminally under appreciated” and “The greatest indie songwriter you’ve never heard” are both phrases written in the past 12 years of Mark Mallman’s professional career.  He’s opened for the likes of Donovan, Of Montreal, Cat Power, Green Day, Howie Day, Linda Ronstadt, Tegan and Sara, and Guided by Voices to name a select few.  His songs have been featured on This American Life, MTV, VH1, MSNBC, Current Television, and Public Radio International.  In Minneapolis, he boasts a star on the side of First Avenue Nightclub.  He is also featured contributor in the book “Music Theory for Dummies”.

As front man for Kindercore records electro/house/rock act, Ruby Isle – or composer for major motion picture trailers such as 10000bc, Adventureland, The Hitcher, and The Haunting of Molly Hartley – Mark Mallman has accomplished more creatively than most artists twice his age.  Unlike ANY other artist, he’s performed the longest rock song ever written, a piano solo with the rear tire of a full sized motor scooter, and for 10 hours inside of a refrigerator box.  His newest release, “Invincible Criminal”, was released  fall of 2009 on Badman Recording Company (My Morning Jacket, Starf***ker) .

www.markmallman.com
www.markmallmancomposer.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Mallman

GSpot, Podcast, Uncategorized

The GSpot: Yony Leyser

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Joseph Matheny in conversation with filmmaker Yony Leyser director of the documentary “William S. Burroughs: A Man Within”

Listen to or download show here

Yony Leyser is a twenty-five-year-old filmmaker living in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He has directed several short films. After being kicked out of film school, he moved to Lawrence, Kansas, and began his passionate first feature film, William S. Burroughs: A Man Within,  about one of the most interesting icons of
the 20th century,

He also works as a curator, video artist and photographer, documenting people who are outside the mainstream of society. His photograph series have included Ida, a utopian transgender commune in Tennessee; Christiana, an anarchist village in Copenhagen; Kopi, Berlin’s largest
squat, and naked bike rides in the US. His work has been shown work in galleries and theaters in Chicago, New York, London, Berlin, Paris,
Vienna and Los Angeles. Yony Leyser brings a more personal perspective to Burroughs’ legacy, examining the private versus the public personae
of Burroughs and the effect this may have had on his most intimate
self.

http://www.burroughsthemovie.com/

GSpot, Interviews, Podcast

The GSpot: Richard Nash

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special-g-spot-interlude-mtw-in-the-studio-part-2-32433919-250

Joseph Matheny in conversation with Richard Nash about publishing/e-publishing past-present-future.

Listen to or download show here
======

Utne Reader calls Richard Nash “One of 50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World.” Mashable.com ranks him him “The #1 Twitter User Changing the Shape of Publishing.” He ran Soft Skull Press, now an imprint of Counterpoint, from 2001 to 2007, and ran the imprint on behalf of Counterpoint until early 2009. Here’s why he left. The last book he edited at Soft Skull, Lydia Millet’s Love in Infant Monkeys, was just picked as a Pulitzer finalist.

Nash now runs his own consulting business (details here) and is developing a start-up called Cursor, a portfolio of niche social publishing communities, one of which will be called Red Lemonade.

The following is an excerpt of a longer, recorded conversation between Cup of TNB host Joseph Matheny and Richard Nash that occurred on March 23, 2010.

(A text excerpt of this interview ran earlier on The Nervous Breakdown)

http://www.rnash.com/
http://thinkcursor.com/
http://www.okaneirishfoods.co.uk/id26.html

Announcements

Hukilau’s Slate Application is available for the iPad and in the store today

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Hukilau SlateHukilau Slate

By RightSprite

Open iTunes to buy and download apps.

View here

Description

Version one is a simple and easy to use movie slate that allows you to type in the values for all the standard fields like “scene number”, “production name” , etc. Shaking the iPad will result in a realistic clapping sound. Version two, slated to come out in a week or so, will have a running LED clock, a scene incrementation button and few stylistic improvements. We encourge users to download it, try it out and send us ideas for features, design and improvements. (*created by Rightsprite from my idea and with my direction)

GSpot, Interviews, Podcast

THE GSpot: Nick Belardes

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special-g-spot-interlude-mtw-in-the-studio-part-2-32433919-250

Joseph Matheny in conversation with Nick Belardes about his new book, Random Obsessions and a new episode of Bound Up With Books, reviewing De Sade’s Valet by Nikolaj Frobenius.

Listen to or download show here
======
NICK BELARDES is the author of Random Obsessions (2009) a book of oddities where you will learn that Mothman might be your big brother, Napoleon had stomach aches, and Thomas Jefferson’s grandson was an ax murderer. In 2005 he released the dark novel Lords: Part One a fictional account of the mysterious “Lords of Bakersfield.” A writer, poet and author, Belardes turned TV/online journalist overnight after blogging his way to success on Bakersfield issues. His articles and essays have appeared on the homepage of CNN.com and other news sites across America. Lately, he has started to write less journalism in order to focus more on writing books and performing activist poetry that might wake up some of the lethargic brains of California’s Great Central Valley. He lives in Bakersfield, which is in the valley’s southern end. You can find Nick on Facebook and Twitter.

http://bakoarchives.blogspot.com/
http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/author/nlbelardes/

 

Cup of TNB, Podcast

Cup of TNB: GINA FRANGELLO

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Cup of TNB host Joseph Matheny talks to TNB fiction editor and author Gina Frangello.

Listen to or download the show here
====
GINA FRANGELLO is the fiction editor of The Nervous Breakdown. She is the author of the novel My Sister’s Continent (Chiasmus 2006) and the collection Slut Lullabies (forthcoming from Emergency Press). She was the longtime Editor of the literary magazine Other Voices, and co-founded its book imprint, Other Voices Books, where she is now the Executive Editor of the Chicago office. Her short stories have been published in many lit mags and anthologies, including A Stranger Among Us: Stories of Cross Cultural Collision and Connection, Prairie Schooner, StoryQuarterly, Swink and Clackamas Literary Review. She guest edited the anthology Falling Backwards: Stories of Fathers and Daughters (Hourglass) and teaches creative writing at Columbia College Chicago and Northwestern University’s School of Continuing Studies. Gina lives in Chicago and can be found online at Facebook, www.ginafrangello.com and the Other Voices Books’ website, www.ovbooks.org. She has twin daughters, a wild preschooler son, and never sleeps.

For more information about The Nervous Breakdown check out TNB in the LA Times or ABC.

GSpot, Interviews, Podcast

The GSpot: Richard Metzger

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special-g-spot-interlude-mtw-in-the-studio-part-2-32433919-250

Joseph Matheny in conversation with Richard Metzger about publishing and the future of media. Also, a new In Your Ear, reviewing the Sex is Fun podcast.

Listen to or download show here

==

Richard Metzger (born October 25, 1965 in Wheeling, West Virginia) is a British television host and author. He was the host of the TV show Disinformation, The Disinformation Company and its website, Disinfo.com. He is currently the host of the online talk show Dangerous Minds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Metzger

http://www.dangerousminds.net/