#39 | What the Hand That Dare Seize Fire - Matthew Stillman
“The domestication of fire was a slow on ramp to both making us human, and making us forget that we’re human.”
My guest today is Matthew Stillman, a dear friend who has been obsessed with how modern humans fit into an ancient world since, forever.
He has a wildly eclectic background, from highlighting the connection between food and culture as a programming executive on the Food Network. He co-produced an acclaimed documentary on The End of Poverty. He even created a traditional skincare company, called Primal Derma, delivered from his home in Harlem, New York.
I first met Matthew as a scholar in the Orphan Wisdom School with Stephen Jenkinson, and we have spent many hours wondering about many things, from love, to poetry, and beyond.
In our conversation today however, he shares about his upbringing in the world’s most mystical bookstore. He tells the tale of sitting at the feet of Robert Bly in the time just before his book Iron John would ignite the mythopoetic men’s movement. Matthew also speaks of the divine presence in the art of improv comedy, and the rules that govern finite and infinite games.
And finally, he shares the ancient myth of Phaethon and being undone by his own awakening into fatherhood.
LINKS
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SHOW NOTES
New York during a pandemic
Growing up in Weiser’s mystical book store
Summer camp with Robert Bly
From Iron John to David Deida
A strange aggression
The absence of history and language
A cold morning, men with sticks
Undone by the consequences you don’t intend
The spirit of improvisational comedy
How the divine gets into the room
Finding Finite and Infinite Games
Caught between competition and contact
Genesis Deflowered
The domestication of Fire
The myth of Phaethon
“Do you remember the time when the darkness wouldn’t stop?”
The sperm donor and the letter
The etymology of the word daughter
