Eden Pearlstein: Why Nothing Really Matters

I’m happy to kick off a new feature in Both/And this week: Both/And Conversations. Not quite a podcast, but not not a podcast, this occasional series of conversations will circle around some of the same Both/Ands that I play with every week: politics and the mind, the worldly and the other-worldly, mysticism and ethics. My hope is to eventually start doing these every week, if subscriptions make posting twice a week feasible.

My first conversation partner is Eden Pearlstein, a longtime musician, rapper, editor, educator — and now poet. Plus, I should add, friend and fellow neo-kabbalistic postmodern mystic, a consciousness in full glow in Eden’s first collection, the pun-entitled Nothing Is for Everyone, which was published last week by Deuteronomy Press.

As I suspected when I first got my review copy, the Nothing in question isn’t a nihilistic meh but a pregnant nothing, a generative absence, and maybe God. (It’s also the name of the press Eden co-founded, Ayin, which published my book of short stories last year.) Accordingly, we talk art and spirituality, the meaning of the creative act, Fernando Pessoa, psychedelics, and the value of a good double entendre.

Here’s the brilliant poem Eden reads during the episode:

esc/art

In order to become engaged,
art first had to learn betrayal.
            Boris Groys

i’m working on becoming
              invisible.

disappearance is
             more than an act;

for shamans, spies, and snitches—
             it’s initiation.

an artist is a thief who
             longs to be caught;

reissuing a limited run
             of fine fingerprints.

winning is for
             losers.

fame is fake
            for real.

poetry is the perfect
            crime—

nothing is for everyone

And again, here’s a link to buy his book. Which I encourage! Enjoy the listen.

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Meanwhile, I’m Septembering hard over here, which means being back at work while still hiking on the weekends. I’m planning my courses and a conference on psychedelics & law, for Harvard Law School, where I’ll be in the spring. And I’m trying to do what I can to help inform folks about what’s at stake in the election.

For example, this Thursday, I’ll be giving a free talk on Project 2025, focused on the American Jewish community. You can register here.

And meanwhile, here’s a clip of me on CNN last week, debating what Trump meant by “fine people on both sides” of the Unite the Right rally with Coleman Hughes…. Full clip is on YouTube here.

Thanks for your support — see you next week.