SHOW LINKS:

Sarah Louise’s shop Crystal Garden in Port Costa
Bryan Lovett did the synth interlude
Waking Up to the Dark by Clark Strand (and Perdita Finn, though not credited on the cover)
The Gospel According to the Dark, full text lives here. The Way of the Rose (Perdita Finn & Clark Strand’s work)
Shoutout to the birdsong of Tāwharanui Regional Park, New Zealand
and we are led out of the episode by a live performance of Dream (When You’re Feeling Blue) performed by The Cups, recorded by Ruby at their show in 2017. A heartfelt thank you to Tracy Walton and Chris Webster for allowing me to include it in this episode. Love you guys <3

Thank you so, so so so very much for listening and supporting us in this creative endeavor. It warms the cockles of our hearts to make this show and share it with you. Art making is absolutely essential always, but especially in a time like this. All support of our show is deeply meaningful (and useful!) to us. Thank you.

With a big hug as we slide into 2026,
Ruby & Elliott

Ruby discusses the work of Perdita Finn - dreams, ancestors, and the dead - the dead really want to help us.

magical-spiritual-energetic delights.

people who are different are magic/create magic → the construction isn’t working for us, there’s so much more and we know it.

Ruby dreams HARD,
she doesn’t dream about not having shoes in public but she dreams richly and lucidly.
meanwhile waking-life still struggs.

Robert Moss dreamwork

arts practice as a tie to sun, moon, earth, dreams - gotta go backwards to go forwards, the ancestors knew but we forgot (or were separated from it intentionally??? (yes)).

reenchantment through dragonflies :
author Brooke Williams and his recent book ‘Encountering Dragonfly’
Interview with ecologist Chris Morgan
Chris Morgan is delightful

Have you seen lilly of the valley’s racemes? phew.

Elliott takes his first bodywork class after a synchronicity post meditation.

Thanks, Jim Gilkeson for a profound experience. You’re a true Wiz in the deepest sense - an incredible practitioner and teacher.

cords and cables, we don’t like them. ordinary facets of modern life can be quite bewildering and befuddling.

shout out Rock Shop, shout out Vacaville, CA:
we touched all your rocks, you are fun and you smell good, like rocks.

YOU need a weighted vest and a pocket rock.
Sulfur slaps, though.
turn over a stone, delight.

Ross Gay, delight.

✨

Voice memo correspondence:

Elliott sees a great horned owl, it is auspicious

(Mike Clelland’s owl research)

Ruby stands on the back fire escape at work and watches a magical fiery sunset. It is how she wants her heart to feel, and it’s possible.

✨

Thank you all so much for listening. It’s a pleasure and honestly VERY fun to make this for you. Please share this show with people in your life who you think would feel seen and understood by it.

xR&E

✨

RIP Apollo and Pearl
That they were dogs is really baffling

RIP D’Angelo
Send it on harmonic bell 5’11-12’’ → shoutout Pino Palladino

The most important and interesting people in human history have not been normal

Ruby & Elliott are on the autism spectrum

Substances/neurodivergent burnout “Restless, irritable & discontent”

The little kid on home improvement JOHNATHAN TAYLOR THOMAS
Shoutout JTT

Elliott worries about catching AIDS at age 8/9

Elliott updates about medication

Ruby worries about self worth regarding her bodywork practice and implements Vagus nerve exercises to self-regulate before sessions
Description of Vagus exercises
(Please note, Stanley Rosenberg’s book Accessing the Healing Power of the Vagus Nerve is what Ruby meant to refer to here)
Book here [please buy your books locally! Check out Libro.fm app for ebooks and audiobooks]
Yawn tummy gurgles farting sighing means it’s working
Box breathing
Helping Pearl regulate

Temple Grandon cattle compression

Weighted quilted jacket

Diaphragmatic breathing
Self-hypnosis guided meditation

No promises on timelines
Is there a deliverable? Undelivered.

✨

Voice memo correspondence:

Ruby is in Trader Joe’s making a show suggestion about camaraderie re: overstimulation

Elliott tried to get to Trader Joe’s but lost steam after the library. Elaborates on overstimulation. He is funny.

✨

THANK YOU <3 <3 <3

-R&E

«The opinions expressed in this show are our own or that of any guests, are not to be taken as medical or mental health advice, and should not replace medical or mental health care from a qualified professional.»

The cold intro references Pump Up the Volume (a Christian Slater classic), please watch it if you haven’t seen it before. Re-watch it if you have.

*Addendum:

In this episode (and quite frequently outside of this episode), Elliott questions why we brutalize children with math when AI is going to replace us all and for the worse but only to perform math much better than anyone (certainly better than him). Elliott believes in equal access to high quality education in all subjects for all people and does not intend in any way to conjure the racism or rhetoric of segregation in U.S. public education with this discussion. What he’s arguing is that the primacy given to STEM over creativity/art/music/nature/play/exploration is integral to the capitalist machine which cares nothing about anyone’s well-being, interests, or gifts (every single one of us is gifted, no matter our math or verbal ability), and the advent of AI makes this all the more tragic, absurd, and deeply harmful. Unless genuinely interested, why force young people to graph hyperbolas or calculate the surface area of impractical shapes as a requirement to graduate high school?! Learning the tuba or interpretive dance is time much better spent, especially if motivated by innate curiosity and joy. Xo.

Personal Note from Ruby:

Understand that my memory of my youth is fragile and fractured AT BEST, so I’m sure I got the ages wrong that I state in this episode. My mom probably wouldn’t have let me scooter alone in the cemetery at seven, though maybe she did. I’ll have to ask her how old I was. Do these facts matter? I don’t know. It happened and I was a kid so it is what it is!

Show Notes:

I will fill this in eventually but guys, real talk, it was a feat to even get this episode published at all. Please see show notes for Part 2 when it drops. We love you thank you so much for listening <3

Oh, one thing! Brian Woods records at Bubuzuki Studios in Crockett and he’s the literal best. Patronize his offerings, please. You won’t be disappointed.

Show Notes:

Jim Gilkeson
Here

Robin Lassiter
Here

This is an offering to you and we hope you feel seen, are humored, and possibly feel less alone in the landscape of Our Dear Earth & Humanity 2025.

Be excellent to each other, and party on.

x Ruby & Elliott

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