More than twenty years ago, as I was nearing graduation, I instigated a protest against Harvard’s commencement speaker, then Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Not because I vehemently opposed his politics, or anything specific he’d done, but because he was a banker. Who I expected would bore the hell out of me with some sold-out […]

In James Howard Kunstler’s 2008 novel, World Made by Hand, the people of the Hudson Valley are struggling: vast numbers have died of influenza; others have succumbed to encephalitis; still others have left Union Grove (a fictitious town in Kunstler’s own Washington County) in search of something better, and—in the absence of telephone, postal, or […]

Hey, humans—how’s it going? Oh, right. Badly. And you blame it on me. It’s true, I am a nasty little fucker (I had to be, to fight my way out of the bat world and into yours). And, yeah, I would love to destroy your way of life. But I’m not actually out to get you. […]

Undercurrents Episode #3 (5 February 2020): Quantum Divining with Brandon Dey If you’ve ever dabbled in metaphysics, you’ve probably heard someone say, “You already know everything you need to know; the answers lie within.” And you may have replied, if only silently, “Great. Thanks. Now how do I get them out?” In this episode of […]

[This is my January column for Livelihood magazine, which recently appeared in print. Enjoy!] As soon as I heard about Jenny Odell’s new book, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy (Melville House 2019), I put it on hold at the library—only to find that I would have to wait in an unusually long line. Apparently, […]

When I received my copy of Sanction’s second installment, on September 26, 2019, I was immersed in two other books: Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, by Diana Gabaldon (the eighth book in the Outlander series—aka Sanction for chicks?), and Climate: A New Story, by Charles Eisenstein. I knew I’d caught Sanction fever—again—when I shoved […]

[This is my December column for Livelihood magazine, which recently appeared in print and may eventually show up on the Livelihood website. Enjoy!] When I first started visiting Earthaven Ecovillage, in Black Mountain, North Carolina, nearly four years ago, I found the term “work party” mildly Orwellian. Huh? I thought. I’m not only supposed to […]

Here’s the long-awaited second episode of my podcast, Undercurrents! Enjoy! Episode #2 (12 December 2019): The Beauty of Bar Fights with SANCTION Author Roman McClay Roman McClay holds forth on Sanction as mind virus (and decoder ring for the sigma male); the beauty of forest fires and bar fights; decluttering the world (so God can […]

[This is my November column for Livelihood magazine, which recently appeared in print and may eventually show up on the Livelihood website. Enjoy!] It’s Friday morning. I step out the front door of my house and climb the bluestone steps up to East Main Street, to check the Gift Library for new offerings. Sure enough, […]

[This is my October column for Livelihood magazine. I’m posting it here, temporarily, until it appears on the Livelihood website. Enjoy!] In past columns, I’ve purported to know what I’m talking about. This month, for a change, I’d like to explore something that remains mysterious, perhaps to you as well: how to create and maintain […]