CHAPTERS
- 0:03 – 0:36
Mic check and the unexpected connection: The Culture High
Joe gets Howard set up on the mic and they jump in immediately. Howard reminds Joe they previously appeared together in the documentary The Culture High, alongside big names like Richard Branson and Snoop Dogg.
- 0:36 – 2:22
Fifteen years bedridden: ME/CFS and the day everything changed
Howard describes a severe case of ME/CFS (formerly framed as chronic fatigue syndrome), including years of being too weak to speak or tolerate another person in the room. He recounts the sudden onset on March 10, 1988 and the rapid collapse from normal functioning to disability.
- 2:22 – 12:24
Rebuilding a self online: computers in bed, writing, and identity
Unable to sit upright, Howard adapts by working horizontally with a custom computer setup. He explains what he means by “rebuilding a personality” through online communities and writing—creating a functional existence when his physical self couldn’t perform.
- 12:24 – 21:06
Trial-and-error recovery: doctors, protocols, shots, meds, and sleep strategy
Howard outlines how little mainstream medicine could offer and how he and another patient searched for workable treatments. He details his daily injection mix (including oxytocin), key medications like gabapentin, and a lifestyle system built around split sleep, movement, and controlled stimulation.
- 21:06 – 24:03
A mind that refuses one lane: space work, many projects, and being ‘typed’
Howard describes his present-day intensity: multiple simultaneous projects spanning books, film, and space advocacy. He explains why specialization feels like a trap and why he needs many domains at once to build a “big picture.”
- 24:03 – 40:36
The mechanics of mass ecstasy: Hitler rallies, rock concerts, and human longing
Howard connects his lifelong interest in ecstatic experiences to the forces that shape history—using Hitler’s rallies as a disturbing but instructive case. He argues these states can be engineered through performance, symbolism, and supernormal emotional triggers, and parallels them to rock concerts.
- 40:36 – 46:32
PR as ‘secular shamanism’: authenticity, shaping narratives, and critic groupthink
Howard reframes his music PR work as a process of locating an artist’s authentic self and translating it to the public. He tells stories about intense interviews (notably John Mellencamp) and describes how rock critics enforced conformity and reputational contagion.
- 46:32 – 52:54
Michael Jackson up close—and a detour into Howard’s always-on tech life
Howard describes Michael Jackson as uniquely awe-filled and hyper-perceptive—seeing “the infinite” in small details. The conversation briefly shifts to Howard’s gadget-heavy workflow, headphones, phone frustrations, and how tech supports his constant intake of information.
- 52:54 – 1:02:41
Reusable rockets and private space: Bezos vs. Musk and why NASA is stuck
Joe and Howard compare Blue Origin and SpaceX’s achievements in landing and reusing rockets. Howard argues political incentives and legacy contractors have trapped NASA in expensive, disposable systems that slow real progress.
- 1:02:41 – 1:05:43
China’s big vision vs. America’s: the ‘highway in the sky’ and space mining
Howard broadens the lens to geopolitics, arguing China’s scale of infrastructure ambition could dominate the century. He frames a space economy—mining, lunar resources, and orbital industry—as a strategic counter-vision that requires more than just reusable rockets.
- 1:05:43 – 1:22:59
Physics heresies: entropy, anti-entropy, and why ‘The God Problem’ argues science is off
Howard challenges conventional framing of entropy and argues the universe shows persistent order-building—from particles to galaxies to life. He explains why he thinks certain scientific “priesthood” concepts become shibboleths, and positions his book The God Problem as a corrective.
- 1:22:59 – 1:35:44
Nothing is isolated: quantum assumptions, the ‘global brain,’ and social cosmos thinking
Howard argues both physics and biology are fundamentally relational: no particle, organism, or human mind exists in isolation. He builds a “global brain” view using examples from gut bacteria, parasites, and beehive collective intelligence, where cooperation and competition generate emergent behavior.
- 1:35:44 – 1:43:20
Energy engineering through routine: restrictive diet, cheat days, and sleeping after meals
Howard explains a tightly controlled diet and schedule he designed over decades to stabilize energy, mood, and concentration. He details his two-meal structure, nocturnal rhythm, and the logic behind planned indulgence and immediate sleep after eating.
- 1:43:20 – 1:53:23
Searching for Satori to Berkeley nudism: the road to ‘Accidentally Started the ’60s’
Howard recounts dropping out of Reed College to find beatniks, Zen Satori, and a new kind of community—only to arrive early, before the decade “knew it was the ’60s.” He describes forming his own group in Berkeley and later turning those experiences into a book first drafted while he couldn’t speak.
- 1:53:23 – 2:53:52
Coast to Coast ‘human computer’: UFO skepticism, supernormal stimuli, and climate as a modern dogma
Howard describes being an on-call generalist for Coast to Coast AM, while personally dismissing UFO culture as credulous. He then ties mass persuasion to “supernormal stimuli,” connects it to religion and apocalyptic narratives, and closes with a controversial framing of environmentalism/climate discourse as dogma—arguing for tech-driven climate stabilization and human responsibility.
