In Correspondence #5

Borderland, New Moon Gathering & ICONOMI

Welcome to the fifth instalment of In Correspondence!

What I’ve been up to

The Borderland

• I moved into my new apartment in Totnes. It was totally unfurnished, so I’m in the process of kitting it out.

• I put myself forward to South Devon Green Party as a potential candidate for the Totnes parliamentary constituency

• I had a great time at Noisily Festival, Stir to Action (which enabled me to explore Frome for the first time) and especially the Borderland

• I released a new podcast with Alnoor Ladha on Mystical Anarchism

• I made a whole load of updates to Autopia– it now includes Habits, Places, Rooms, Dating and Groups. I’m rather proud of it, please do check it out! (Most of it is pretty straightforward but it’s a priority of mine to make some tutorial videos for the less obvious features, particularly the Groups feature which is geared towards real-life co-created gatherings.)

• I started a crypto fund on ICONOMI (a platform for investing in managed crypto funds) called the Decentralised Cooperation Fund. Right now it’s invitation-only: let me know if you want one.

• I released a new t-shirt design: TRY LSD

My plans

• 14 Aug: The Psychedelic Society’s DAOstack Community Onboarding

• 20 Aug: DAOfest (I probably won’t make it, but I expect it will be great!)

• 22-25 Aug: Conversation with Gail Bradbrook of Extinction Rebellion on Psychedelics, Extinction and Social Change on the Imaginarium stage at Shambala Festival

• 29 Aug - 1 Sep: Totnes New Moon Gathering (a decentralised co-created gathering to mark my first new moon in Totnes)

• 3 Sep: in conversation with David Luke at Juju’s

• 14-20 Sep: ISTA Level 1 in Devon

• 21-24 Sep: The World Transformed 2019 (probably)

• 27-29 Sep: Metamodern Arts Festival (perhaps… it’s a long way…)

• 4-6 Oct: Green Party Autumn Conference

• 7-19 Oct: Extinction Rebellion’s International Rebellion

• 24-27 Oct: Apple Land Festival at Three Pools Permaculture Farm

• 1-3 Nov: The Psychedelic Society’s 5th birthday celebrations

• 29 Dec - 3 Jan: Nettlecombe

What I’ve been reading, watching & listening to

YouTube

• Deep Code: Jordan (Green)Hall Documentary

• Future Thinkers & Rebel Wisdom

Spotify

• State of the DAO Panel Discussion

The Guardian

• Labour’s best tactic to beat Boris Johnson? A popular front

• Ethiopia plants 350m trees in a day to help tackle climate crisis

• Greta Thunberg to sail across Atlantic for UN climate summits

• Carbon calculator: how taking one flight emits as much as many people do in a year

• True cost of cheap food is health and climate crises, says commission

• Sadiq Khan calls for new powers to impose London rent controls

The Independent

• Huge swathes of the Arctic on fire, satellite images show

• Costa Rica to completely ban polystyrene due to environmental impact

• Cigarette butts causing ‘serious damage to environment’, study on impact to plant growth reveals

Elsewhere

• Climate change: 12 years to save the planet? Make that 18 months bbc.com

• Green Swedes shun holiday flights for lure of the train bbc.com

• The dystopian lake filled by the world’s tech lust bbc.com

• Which darknet sites are online? dark.fail

• UN rights chief ‘appalled’ by US border detention conditions, says holding migrant children may violate international law news.un.org

• Healing Crystals and How to Shoplift Them newyorker.com

• With Boris Johnson, the Rules Have Changed. Now Labour’s Leadership Must Step Up novaramedia.com

• The Weird, Mystic Pull of Southwest England nytimes.com

• Bitcoin Is Smarter Than Politicians And Central Bankers offthechain.substack.com

• Taking mushrooms for depression cured me of my atheism theoutline.com

• Red-hot planet: All-time heat records have been set all over the world during the past week washingtonpost.com

• This is how trees could help solve the climate crisis weforum.org

• In India, toddlers are already coding weforum.org

• A 550 km-long mass of rotting seaweed is heading for Mexico's pristine beaches weforum.org

• This image of how the world has warmed is so effective it's appearing on clothing weforum.org

• Rise of the Emergentsia(2): Feeling ‘Gobschmacht’ Yet? whatisemerging.com

Ways to support this newsletter

• I’ve been using ICONOMI for a couple of years now and it’s the best platform I’ve found for crypto investing, offering managed crypto funds featuring a range of currencies. I receive a % of the modest fees charged by ICONOMI when you sign up via this link.

• Favourite nootropic: I've been taking Mind Lab Pro for just over a year now and can thoroughly recommend it. If you’d like to try it whilst also supporting my work, I receive a % of all sales made via this link.

• You can check out further recommendations on my recommended products page.

• You’re welcome to follow me on Facebook and Autopia and join the Stephen Reid In Dialogue Facebook group.

Until next time, with love,
Stephen