Zoe Nightingale

My friend Zander called me on a Monday and said, hey do you want to drive to Pittsburgh and check out a 15,000 person reenactment of the byzantine empire tomorrow morning...and of course I said...YES! I had literally no idea what I was getting myself into. I have done many weird things in my life, all the cons, festivals, but nothing prepared me for this. This place, is magic. It's a breeding ground for SUPER nerds, who are all experts on some totally niche forgotten aspect of centuries past. Started by the SCA, or the Society for Creative Anacronism, this history buff wonderland is beyond description. Crafts, foods, drinks, dance and battle all done as realistically as possible and quite frankly they do judge you if you aren't authentic. I had the very very best time. Also, they don't do drugs, and barely drink, they get their rocks off battling one another on giant battle fields to protect their specific fiefdoms! Its insanity. So here is a small amount of what I found, in two parts. In no way does it do ju

HELLO! How are we everyone? I'm BACCCCCK, bigger, better, longer and after this.....uncut. (This joke will make more sense after you listen.) So one year after Richard Spencer and the genius think tank behind the White Power movement threw a super fun march that was a complete shitshow that ended in the tragic and untimely death of Heather Heyer, a beautiful young woman who was there protesting...these super brains thought, I know what we'll do... Let's throw an anniversary march of this dark terrible day, and that way we can show how "united" the White Power movement really is.....But this time, let's do it in...Drumroll please....Washington D.C.! D.C....The Chocolate City, my hometown. A city full of beautiful people from all colors of the rainbow who do NOT take kindly to hate groups, a city so full of cops, military and special services that any move we make will be safeguarded by thousands of hard working police officers, all on the tax payer's dime! So.....Of course, completely hung-over, I decided to h

Basse - the bwiti word for truth, is what Iboga is all about. It is this search for truth - that creates such drastic results for it's partakers. The tricky thing is, in order to find this truth, Iboga insists that one must start in the the hardest place of all, inside your own mind and soul. Iboga is like a hunter, that helps you seek and destroy all the lies growing and twisting around garden inside of your brain. When it finds them, it hands you a nuclear powered weed wacker and forces you to plow your entire consciousness with it. It's not pleasant, and it's not pretty, but it's fucking honest. We are have a past, we all have a movie of our life that is playing silently in the background either filling you with shame or pride...I had a confusing Molotov cocktail of both. Basse - it is now the solitary goal of my life to live, without lying to myself or anyone else, for the rest of my life. Thank you Iboga, for that gift. Singa wherever you are, I miss you. xx

Now...Iboga is not for everyone. Iboga is a hardcore psychedelic that can send you on a universe transversing adventure inside of your mind...or make you confront lifelong trauma you've protected yourself from...either way, my first time, I called lovingly, the infinite loop of pain...A loop where I got to revisit millions of little moments that made up the fabric of my personality, sexuality, self esteem, and sense of self... some good some bad, some down right ugly. I also had some pretty serious conversations with a giant antelope and hung out with a very large African man wearing a crown...but that's pretty normal...no? We will get to my musings about my experience but for now, here is Marika, a fabulous gorgeous curly haired French vixen who spoke 5 languages and wore a striped black and white flowing dress the first night of our ceremonies that made my eyes do fucking backflips all night, but I digress. Next up we have Chelsea, one of the providers there who had dealt with hardcore issues of anxiety whi

Yesterday, I returned my best friend and eternal life partner Singa back to the stars from which she came. This is a song written for her, by one of her dear friends Jimmy, who always took exceptional care of both of us, and I am so grateful for this song he made for her that perfectly captures how I felt about her. I adopted Singa 14 years ago, when I was 19 and she was 1. I fell in love with her the moment I saw her. The day I picked her up, I put her her in my VW convertible I had at the time and I remember looking at her perfect angelic face and her long white eyelashes, and I said to her, well, what do you want to do now...? She just licked her nose and stuck her face out the window and we rode off into the sunset together. Every morning since, we woke up together, ate breakfast, went for a walk and started a new adventure. She lived with me through college, 15 different roommates, 9 different homes, 4 different cities, went on road trips with me, has been in private planes, yachts, beaches, jungles, for

In part two I continue to prepare for my first ceremony of Iboga root bark. I get my heart checked at the Hospital, (EKG) I check in with some of my fellow participants at the Iboga Wellness Center, and we go through orientation, and try to calm the tidal wave of nerves that have been building since I decided to try it. Cool and calm and I am not, and you can certainly hear my anxiety throughout this episode. People take Iboga for many reasons, but for me it was so I could try to let go of some excruciating pain from my past that was rotting me from the inside out. So I used Iboga to try to break free of my past in order to move on to a happier future. Other people were there to move on from childhood trauma, drug addiction, lack of a spiritual core and were longing for a reconnection with their souls... Wherever you are in this world I send you love and white light and hope you're having a beautiful sunny day full of cold puppy noses and warm long hugs. Don't forget it's almost firefly time!! Edited by Emily

They say that old ways won't open new doors...so I decided to do something new and open the scariest and most elusive door of all, the one that leads directly inside of my mind. I had heard about Iboga for years, first when my girlfriend used it successfully to rid herself of alcoholism. Iboga is traditionally used in West African countries including Cameroon, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to induce deep hallucinogenic trances where profound healings take place. Iboga is now being used in specialized clinics in Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Africa, and New Zealand with astonishing results. For reasons I don't understand, Iboga like all plant medicine is a schedule 1 narcotic and will send you to actual pound you in the butt prison if you're caught with it. My purpose in doing this podcast is to show that this is not a drug, it's a tool and a guide to help you overcome trauma and live in the present free from the shackles of addiction and pain. It is one of the only truly effective tools that c

The numbers are horrific, the statistics are devastating, the senseless violence and death is incomprehensible, but there is hope. Because teenagers have had enough, and they're finally using the tools they've been given since birth to organize and scream for change. This is everyone's issue. We all have to take the small steps to help secure a safe future for everyone on this planet. Gun drills in schools, no background checks for automatic rifles, massacres happening all around us, it's up to you to keep organizing, keep shouting, keep signing petitions, keep supporting members of congress who protect us. VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE. Get up off your tuchus and do whatever you can to drain the mother fing swamp. I am from Washingon, and I know full well how rigged the system is. But we can change it, and for the first time in my life I saw the determination in peoples eyes, and how far people are ready to go to make sure that their children and the future is safe. It's just awe inspiring. Here are links I've found i

Meet Morgan Moves around the creator of "bad art." I met him playing a chess game against Mopar, the wonderful wizard of East Jesus. Morgan is so lovey, bright, thoughtful and a has a degenerative eye problem that doesn't allow him to really see faces so he's dedicated his life to making real time drawings of them. He made one for me, and it was certainly charming. He has many tricks up his sleeves and a wonderful outlook on love and monogamy. Find him @morganmovesaround Don't forget to write me a review on iTunes! itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/zoe-n…id886045028?mt=2 Don't forget to join my Patreon campaign for secret episodes www.patreon.com/zoenightingale Don't forget to check out all my writing on the www.cools.com cools.com/author/zoe/ New episodes from The Iboga Wellness Center start next month and until then I have MORE Slab City for you, Hurray!!! Music: Pink Moon: Nick Drake Slab City Song: Randall from Slab City Edited by Emily Brodtman (www.emilybrodtman.com)

Gun Control is a sticky, tricky, very bad no good topic and I feel like we're up to our necks in quicksand and the NRA and special interest groups are shoveling my sand in our face as we try to dig ourselves free. I grew up with a bunch of Jews reading books, who could barely hook up a VCR to the TV if their life depended on it, let alone kill a deer, so far be it from me to understand the kind of mentality one would have to need to protect the right to personally own something that can kill. I don't like guns because I am the kind of nit wit who would accidentally remove herself from the gene pool by shooting herself, and end up looking like Goldie Hawn in Death Becomes Her. Listen, I get it, they're sexy, and they make your clit tingle just a lil bit, but that doesn't mean I think that anyone should have them. I'm not going to even toss my hat in the ring and voice my opinion more than say they scare me and I think that any kind of automatic ANYTHING should be off the market and carry heavy penalities in a

Welcome to the Slab City Library and The Goonies Farm! All run with love and donation and sheer ingenuity by people who are fed up of trying to fit into society's whims. It's incredible to see how people can organize and create when left to their own devices. I'll let them speak for themselves but I must tell you the people who created these safe spaces are very special and the main thing I took away from it was the desire to want to learn how to grow my own food, it's insane how removed we all from the processes involved to grow things we put inside of our bodies. Don't forget to write me a review on iTunes! https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/zoe-nightingale/id886045028?mt=2 Don't forget to join my Patreon campaign for secret episodes https://www.patreon.com/zoenightingale Don't forget to check out all my writing on the www.cools.com https://cools.com/author/zoe/ Don't forget to check out The Goonies Facebook page/amazon wish list https://www.facebook.com/sustainablelivingoffgridd/ Don't forget to check out

I met this wonderful wizard wandering around the art collection of East Jesus in Slab City. This place in bananas. There's huge climbing sculptures that have boxes of free weed at the top, kinetic moving art everywhere built out of old disposed metal and plastic of every day human use. It's fucking awesome. Mopar was hanging out playing chess and drinking red wine in a goblet smoking weed out of an actual Sherlock Holmes pipe. HE IS SO COOL. The brightest blue eyes, and one of the most expressive faces I have ever had the pleasure of talking too. I love Slab City, it's full of men like him who have a heart of gold and stories until the cows come home. The main message I got here was 1. Everything is an illusion 2. We are all connected beings 3. Why would you slave your life away working to own things that provide you no pleasure? Either way go pay Mopar a visit, and tell him Zoe sent you and get one of his hugs, he hugs you inside and out. Song: Bittersweet Symphony the Verve Edited by Emily Brodtman PATREON!

So...how did I end up in Slab City...? Well..it's a long story. But the short version is a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go to an anarchy festival next door to a meth head campground where people would be exploding home made bombs and setting cars on fire and I said....maybe? But my curiosity about Slab City had started years ago because let me just give you a brief description of what it is. Slab City is a plot of land that is still technically up for grabs out in the middle of nowhere 3 hours past Indio (Coachella) in California. Travelers, veterans, retirees, anarchists, transgenders, renegades from the law, meth heads, artists, counter culture champions, musicians, families, anyone and everyone can be found here in this tiny little oasis in the desert. There is no plumbing, electricity, mail, police, or taxes. It's a perfect little ecosystem of what can happen when humans are left to organize themselves from scratch and find ways to live in Harmony with nature while having their basic food, shelt

So concludes my time at Mid West Fur Confurence 2017. I want to say a huge thank you to KP and Corey who are featured in this podcast, they are the main organizers (volunteer) and have been in the business of fandom for over 20 years. The main thing I learned from here is that when you have community, you are happy. When you have childish laughter in your heart, you are happy. When you don't take yourself too seriously, life is better. I send you so much love through the invisible airwaves this valentines day, wherever you are remember that all you need to do is love yourself and everyone else will follow suit. People come and they go, but if you really know that who you are is full of love and is constantly striving to learn more and to be a better version of yourself then fuck cupid. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY BABIES! Love Zoe Your eternal valentine Edited by Emily Brodtman www.emilybrodtman.com music: sat morning cartoons by Emily Brodtman Exit - Sing Out - Cat Stevens find all my articles https://cools.com/sing

Episode 3 is here! Today we go inside the mysterious world of the Dealers Den, where anything and everything to do with fandom can be purchased. From laminated personalized name tags, to full on fur suits to tails and ears and noses and ears and shoes and anything your little heart could desire. Something you should know: SPH - specially placed hole, this is what people in the fandom call the holes they have built into their suits so they can get jiggy with one another. Enjoy everyone! Stay warm Edited by Emily Brodtman Check out all my writing at the www.cools.com https://cools.com/sex-trends-2018/ Don't forget to leave me a review on iTunes! Don't forget you can contribute to the costs of making this show at my Patreon campaign! Find the hoof shoes at @choascostumes Find ugly puppy: @ugly_puppy Find Lemon Brat: www.lemonbrat.com @lemonbrat Find PocketWolf @pocketwolfsuits

Next up we meet Orion, a wonderful 20 year old EMT who was at the midwest Fur Con with his Maker. He is a Sergal, a blended dragon character who is dopey, loving and a little like Pepe le peu. Enjoy! Music: Fantasy Mariah Carey Wanna Be - Michael Jackson Edited by: Emily Brodtman

Welcome to the wonderful world of furry fandom, a magical world where everyone looks like some version of your favorite cartoon character and you can be literally anything, or anyone you want to be. Now, I know some of you may not understand this world, and neither really do I, but it doesn't matter because its just another way for people in this world to connect, find love, find friends, and express their creativity. It's not about sex, it's not lunatics who think that they actually are a dragon, it's people who have found a "fursona" that allows them to access parts of their personality that they otherwise wouldn't have been able to. I have ALOT of interviews, and I'm excited to roll these out for you week by week, as always I'll be posting around Thursday/Friday every week, and I hope you are as excited as I am to open the door to this hidden world. Music: The Puppy Song Atomic Dog - George Clinton Born to be Wild - Stephen Wolf Edited by Emily Brodtman - www.emilybrodtman.com I have a new job at the cools

I met Caleb when he was panhandling outside 711, and I was walking my friends brand new black lab puppy (SO FUCKING CUTE) and I caught a bit of his giant blue saucer eyes beneath his hoodie and I just wanted to adopt him. Young, funny, quick, sly he's just great. I spent awhile with him, bought him a pack of cigs and gave him my card if he was ever in trouble...randomly two days later I was walking down the street and who do I see but young Caleb sitting on 6th ave trying to collect enough coin to buy a small bag of weed. What happened next is going to be an on going series where I try to get this beautiful human back on some semblance of a life track or at least find him a warm place to get high in. Winter time in NYC is brutal, and no matter how much money you have, you can be giving more, that can be clothes, time, money, food, or just eye contact and respect. There is no reason that with the insane amount of wealth floating around this great city that anyone should have to sleep on the street. Also I have

Back to basics, back to where I belong. In a broke down NJ poorly lit convention center surrounded by Porn Stars and the people who love them, and the last frontier for DVD sales. I don't know why I love places like this so much. It's full of such wonderfully weird people, and no one gives a FUCK. There is a freedom, and a overt grime that allows everyone there to relax. The moment you step inside those doors everyone is on the same playing field. Everyone's like yeah, I'm a pervert, I admit it, and so are you so let's have a great time. The thing that always gets me is the insane amount of money that is being tossed around this industry. People are making serious money, and in super creative ways. Ok, so maybe someone is going to be able to see the inside of your small intestine...but every job has it's ups and downs. I met a ton of fascinating people, and I'm going to be doing longer interviews with a Instagram influencers (1.2 million followers!!) named "lethal lips" who is famous for being one of the only

It's day 7 and I have gone to the Burning Man Lost and Found in search of my phone which I lost day 1 (duh)and I have gone to find it. This was my very first time there and I must tell you it was one of the most pleasant and organized experiences I have ever had in my actual life anywhere. I had the very best time asking people WHAT they had lost and WHERE ..somebody lost a JET PACK. I am not joking. It was just hilarious. So I was waiting in line for literally forever and was still coming down off a massive night of mushrooms and pirate ships and dance floor battles and didn't notice when a dog the bounty hunter lookin dude covered in tats with a bleach blonde hair had a tiny tea cup long haired black and brown Chihauhua sticking out of his murse. Now, this would normally not bring about such an intense reaction from me, but I have NEVER seen anything living from nature there except for one misfortunate insident with a rouge bird and one single bumble bee all which caused great confusion and wonderment for e