Pheaturing Feist

 

Hey, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Wednesday. How are you doing? Dr. Phil McGraw, the host of the "Dr. Phil Show," revealed his stance against smoking weed by explaining why he believes it’s actually bad for you. According to Vice, the world’s favorite American unlicensed psychologist (he does, however, actually have a doctorate in clinical psychology!) believes that cannabis use will fry your brain, comparing it to “opening your computer and pouring water inside.” The topic came about on his talk show when the mother of an 11-year-old boy named JJ, described the preteen as having violent behavior. He also was allegedly smoking marijuana, and his mother described how JJ had once even threatened her with a steak knife. Dr. Phil took the opportunity to make some misleading claims about marijuana use that Vice disproved through Michael Verbora, a doctor with Aleafia Total Health Network, an organization that helps Canadians access medical cannabis. Let’s see what they said: Dr. Phil: “Your brain grows until you’re 25 at least and it’s constantly changing. When you get to be 18, 19, 20, it’s actually pruning itself back. When you smoke marijuana it’s like opening your computer up and pouring water inside, a lot of things short out and it connects where it’s not supposed to and really creates problems.” Dr. Verbora says that although “weed relaxes some of the chemicals secreted by the brain that cause anxiety or pain, ‘there is no evidence that any type of rewiring is taking place.'” Dr. Phil: “Even occasional marijuana smokers will look at a multi-point drop in IQ, even with just occasional use like once a week or two or three times a month. You’ll see IQ drop and motivation will drop across time.” Dr. Verbora referenced three separate studies that revealed that cannabis use had only a little effect on cognitive function or IQ decline in teenagers and that that tiny effect on cognitive function actually went away when the marijuana user stopped smoking for 72 hours. He told Vice, “That’s been debunked.” Dr. Phil: “For a 10-year-old child to be smoking dope, he’s self-medicating his anxiety. So you understand why I said this child can’t go home.” He went on to threaten JJ’s mother by saying that if she refused to send him in for treatment, that he would, “have to report it within 24 hours and the child will be removed.” Dr. Verbora explained that young people smoke weed for mental health issues such as anxiety or depression. And although advising other treatment options for mental illness would be more appropriate, he called out Dr. Phil’s ignorant use of the word “dope” in referring to cannabis, saying that it negatively brands weed smokers. “No intelligent physician or doctor would ever use the word ‘dope’ to describe cannabis,” he said. David Juurlink, head of clinical pharmacology and toxicology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, also explained how Dr. Phil should be drawing his attention more to other substances, saying, “Maybe Dr. Phil should redirect hyperbole to alcohol, tobacco, opioids, and benzos, all of which are considerably more harmful, as is exploiting your troubled preteen on national television.” Dr. Phil: Vice pointed out that he framed “JJ as a ‘gun toting, pot smoking’ kid, along with the photo of him smoking weed and holding a gun seem to imply that cannabis is tied to his violent tendencies.” Dr. Verbora explained that he found no evidence that smoking weed causes aggressive behavior, saying, “I’ve treated 5,000 patients and 5,000 out of my 5,000 say cannabis makes them feel relaxed and calm.” Rebecca Haines-Saah, a public health policy expert and professor at the University of Calgary, also explained that clearly JJ and his family have other complex and behavioral issues besides marijuana use. In noting that it’s concerning that Dr. Phil was naively linking violence to marijuana without the proper data behind his conjecture, she said, “Kids with complex problems drop out or don’t succeed in school because those problems are not addressed. Occasional cannabis use is not the risk here.” Dr. Verbora added in commenting on JJ’s case, “We don’t really have those pieces to the story. We don’t know if this is causal use, episodic use, or whether it’s actually causing harm.” 

Barry Morphew may not have wanted his wife to remain alive, but he did want her vote for former President Donald Trump to be counted. After his wife Suzanne Morphew disappeared in May last year, the Colorado man cast a fraudulent vote on her behalf in November’s 2020 presidential election, according to court documents obtained by the Associated Press. Morphew was arrested on May 5th on charges of first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence, and attempt to influence a public servant. Now, in addition to first-degree murder charges, the 53-year-old has been charged with felony forgery and misdemeanor offenses related to mail ballots, court records say. Suzanne Morphew, age 49, disappeared on May 10th, 2020, near Salida, in Chaffee County, Colorado. The mother of two daughters was last seen on a bike ride on Mother’s Day. A week after the disappearance of his wife, Morphew posted a video on Facebook promising to do “whatever it takes” to get his wife back. “We love you, we need you, your girls need you,” Barry Morphew told his wife Suzanne in the video. “If anyone is out there that can hear this that has you, please, we’ll do whatever it takes to bring you back,” Morphew said. “No questions asked...  however much they want... I will do whatever it takes to get you back. Honey, I love you, I want you back so bad.” Morphew offered a $100,000 reward for his wife’s safe return, and the reward amount was doubled to $200,000 by a friendly friend. For a year, state, local, and federal investigators... including Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the 11th Judicial District... searched for Suzanne without any luck beyond uncovering a few personal belongings. A year of more than 135 arrest warrants, 400 interviews, and 1,400 tips finally lead to an arrest: Suzanne’s husband himself. One incriminating clue submitted by the Chaffee County Clerk’s Office was a voter ballot in the mail for missing person Suzanne Morphew. The ballot did not have the required signature but was signed on the witness signature line by Barry Morphew on October 15th, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. After the county clerk turned the ballot and envelope in as evidence of voter fraud in March, Morphew reportedly confessed to submitting his wife’s ballot in an interview with FBI agents. “Just because I wanted Trump to win,” Morphew allegedly said in a transcript of conversation included in the affidavit. “I just thought, give him another vote.” “I figured all these other guys are cheating,” he allegedly added, claiming his missing wife was Republican and “was going to vote for Trump anyway.” According to court documents, Morphew told the agents: “I didn’t know you couldn’t do that for your spouse,” he allegedly said, according to the affidavit. Morphew is being held in the Chaffee County Detention Facility for the death of his wife. Bond has been set at $1,000 for the ballot offense, but he’s being held without bail on murder charges, according to Fox 31 in Denver. He is next set to appear in court on May 27th and will be represented by public defenders. Investigators believe Suzanne Morphew is dead but have not found her body.

The Israel-Palestine conflict has raged on for decades. And now, achieving peace seems less possible than ever. Over the past week, an escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip has left more than 200 Palestinians and 12 Israelis have died. Following protests over the eviction of six Palestinian families from an East Jerusalem neighborhood, Hamas (a militant Palestinian Islamist group) launched rocket attacks in the area which were met with deadly Israeli airstrikes. Since the U.S. has always supported Israel financially, American progressives are now stepping up to condemn (disproportionate) Israeli aggression and the violation of human rights around the West Bank. That includes many Hollywood celebs. But a lot of stars are facing backlash for their comments. Unsurprisingly, it’s difficult to tweet about such a volatile situation with nuance; someone is always offended. Still, celebrities love to get political... especially on social media. Here’s what they had to say. Actor Mark Ruffalo tweeted out the hashtag #SheikhJarrah, the name of the East Jerusalem neighborhood where Palestinians are facing expulsion. Nine Palestinian children have been killed so far, he pointed out. On her Instagram, actress Viola Davis shared informative screenshots from various news sources about the situation in Sheikh Jarrah. Along with a photo of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which has been under attack, DJ Kahled wrote, “Sending love and light and prayers to my Palestinian brothers and sisters.” The supermodel and influencer Bella Hadid shared a very direct message on her Instagram, writing that “POLITICIANS STUTTER NEUTRAL WORDS IN FEAR OF BEING REPRIMANDED, WHILST THE WORLD REMAINS SILENT TO AVOID OFFENDING THE WRONG PEOPLE.” Hadid’s father, Mohamed Hadid, is a Muslim-American real estate entrepreneur of Palestinian descent. His birthplace became national news in 2020 after his daughter shared a photo of his passport... listing his birthplace as Palestine... on her Instagram story. The controversial picture was then removed by Instagram. Bella also attended a Pro-Palestinian protest in New York City this week. After posting photos, see below, the official Twitter account of Israel called her out for “advocating for the elimination of the Jewish State.” Like her sister Bella, Gigi Hadid has also utilized her social media to voice passionate support for Palestine. Her husband, pop star Zayn Malik, has too. He wrote on his own Twitter, “I stand with the Palestinian people… Free Palestine.” Though her children-focused messaging was not technically pro-Israel, the singer Rihanna is facing backlash for taking a seemingly neutral stance. The writer Jennine Khalik responded to Rihanna writing succinctly, “Hey Rihanna, Palestinians don’t have bomb shelters... we don’t have any protection. There is no shelter.” The Israeli Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot has been criticized over her allegiance to Israel before. Gadot herself served in the Israeli army throughout the violent, destructive 2006 war with Lebanon... a conflict that resulted in thousands of deaths and more than one million people displaced. After writing on Twitter, “My heart breaks. My country is at war. I worry for my friends, my friends,” she said on Wednesday, in a tweet with replies disabled. “Israel deserves to live as a free and safe nation. Our neighbors deserve the same,” Gadot’s comments went viral.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson has said plenty before to make many people upset, and even when it comes to the military, he isn’t shy about what he wants to say. Unafraid of the backlash or criticisms, he even went as far as to make sexist comments about women in the armed forces, saying that, “Pregnant women are going to fight our wars. It’s a mockery of the U.S. military.” Yikes. The Pentagon, senior military leaders, and other women in the U.S. Army were quick to condemn his comments. Carlson had specified that the new grooming standards and inclusive military uniforms for women, including maternity flight suits, were, “making a mockery of the U.S. military.” His monologue detailed how China’s military was growing with more masculinity, while, “our military needs to becomes, as Joe Biden says, more feminine.” President Joe Biden spoke about the military’s adjustments on updating hairstyle standards, allowing short ponytails to make all forces more inclusive, and also had just introduced nominees for combatant commands, which included women. They would be the second and third women to ever lead combatant commands. Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby told CBS News that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and many other leaders share the same “revulsion” on Carlson’s ignorant monologue. He said, “what we absolutely won’t do is take personnel advice from a talk show host or the Chinese military,” and explained that he hopes Carlson realizes the offense he gave in making such comments that, “essentially demeaned the entire U.S. military and how we defend and serve this country,” when asked if he believes Carlson should apologize. U.S. Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sgt. Scott Stalker, the Senior Enlisted Leader of U.S. Space Command, called out Carlson’s lack of military expertise, saying that the TV personality’s opinion is, “based off actually of zero days in the armed services.” He further called the military to basically ignore Carlson’s words, saying that they should, “get back to work,” followed by, “let’s remember those opinions were made by an individual who has never served a day in his life.” He said, “Let me offer you my opinion, my opinion is based on 28 years of actual service in the military, 28 years in the Marine Corps and combat operations out at sea and at Garrison. And so he was talking specifically about pregnant women in the armed forces today and how it makes us less lethal and less fit and less ready. Let me tell you how he’s wrong. Those decisions were made by medical professionals, by commanders and our civilian leadership that allows for women to have more time with their children, to recuperate, to get fit and ready, to take that time that is necessary that our medical professionals know is needed, which actually makes us a more lethal and ready and fit force. Ready to fit the wars of today and tomorrow.” Many female service members also spoke out against the sexism in Carlson’s comments. Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, who was one of the first women in the Army to fly combat missions during the Iraq War, was quick to rebuke Carlson, not shying away from how she truly felt with a swift “Fuck Tucker Carlson” tweet on social media. In 2004, Duckworth was piloting a helicopter while deployed to Iraq that got hit by an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade). She lost both of her legs and partial use of her right arm. She tweeted, “While he was practicing his two-step, America’s female warriors were hunting down Al Qaeda and proving the strength of America’s women.” And Heather Tregle, who is an Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) officer, explained that being a mother while serving, in fact, “does not make a mockery of the military.” She also tweeted, “I’ve had 2 children while serving in the Army, deployed to 2 combat zones, advised commanders at home & in war, and graduated from the Naval War College. I can assure you, my presence does not make a mockery of the military. If you’re looking for a mockery, look in the mirror.” And General Jacqueline Van Ovost, commander of Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois and Biden’s pick to lead the U.S. Transportation Command didn’t reference Carlson specifically, but decided to praise the female Air Force members who have served. She said, “There are nearly 70K qualified, kick-ass female #USAF #Airmen. For years we have evolved & will continue to evolve, shedding antiquated policies preventing ANY woman from reaching their full potential. Inclusion is our strength... it’ll be the difference between winning & losing.” 

U.S. President Joe Biden has decided to reverse an order made by former President Donald Trump in which harshly punishes statue vandals and rioters who deface historic monuments. According to the White House Press statement, Biden also rescinded Trump’s plan Sculpture Garden in order to honor American heroes, and a proclamation barring entry into the U.S. for immigrants who can’t afford health insurance. According to the Independent, Biden commented on the measures through an official statement, saying, “My administration is committed to expanding access to quality, affordable healthcare. We can achieve that objective, however, without barring the entry of noncitizens who seek to immigrate lawfully to this country but who lack significant financial means or have not purchased health insurance coverage from a restrictive list of qualifying plans.” Donald Trump’s Executive Order was issued last year in June of 2020, which instructed the federal government to prosecute any person to the fullest extent who “destroys, damages, vandalizes, or desecrates a monument, memorial, or statue. According to USA Today, Trump commented on the measure at the time through a press statement, saying, “I will have an executive order very shortly. All it’s going to do is reinforce what’s already there but in a more uniform way. We are looking at long-term jail sentences for these vandals and these hoodlums and these anarchists and agitators. Call them whatever you want. Some people don’t like that language, but that’s what they are. They are bad people. They don’t love our country. And they’re not taking down our monument.” The National Garden of American Heroes would have included several statues of famous athletes, historical figures, and politicians. It was set to open to the public on July 4th, 2026, just prior to the 250th anniversary of the Proclamation of the Declaration of Independence. The Washington Examiner stated that Trump noted back in January 2020 that, “Belief in the greatness and goodness of America has come under attack in recent months and years by a dangerous anti-American extremism that seeks to dismantle our country’s history, institutions, and very identity.” He continued, “The heroes of 1776 have been desecrated, with statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin vandalized and toppled. The dead who gave their lives to end slavery and save the Union during the Civil War have been dishonored, with monuments to Abraham Lincoln, Hans Christian Heg, and the courageous 54th Regiment left damaged and disfigured.”

If I had a TARDIS I would go to and try to meet Al Capone but knowing my luck he'd be in his bathing suit by his pool at his Palm Springs mansion...

They tell me I'd see some odd sights in Walmart and I didn't believe it until I saw this... 

If you're looking for a graphic design job, you may want to contact whoever employed the people responsible for the following design fail. They are most likely hiring...

Any stroll through a store would have you believe that "pink is for girls" and "blue is for boys" are the associated gender roles are the very backbone of our society. Products from nail clippers to hand lotion are assigned genders when last time I checked, inanimate objects don't have gender identities.

Now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York here is...

Top Phive Reactions To J. Lo And Ben Affleck Hanging Out Again

5. I reject the return of low-rise jeans, but welcome the return of Bennifer discourse. 

4. Bennifer is a thing again? I better log into AOL Instant Messenger and tell all my friends. 

3. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez hanging out together, is not an excuse to text your ex. 

2. If Bennifer is back can we call them Jenjamin this time. 

And the number one reaction to J. Lo and Ben Affleck hanging out again is...

1. Bennifer was the first compound celebrity couple name,the girls don't even know the pop culture HISTORY. 

If you spot the Mindphuck, and you should, let me know. Okay, let's take a live look at Port Jeff, shall we?

Looks like a beautiful day there again. Okay, here's a story from...

Well, what can I tell ya? I love a woman with confidence! A Florida woman was arrested on a disorderly intoxication charge, but is claiming that the only reason that the cops were called in the first place while she was at a hotel pool was because the manager saw her in a two-piece and “was jealous that her body looked good.” According to the Ocala Police Department, the manager at the Country Inn & Suites spotted 42-year-old Melody Carr in her bikini at the hotel’s pool on May 3rd. She was suspicious since she didn’t recall her ever checking in to the hotel, so she asked her for her room number. The affidavit stated that Carr became heavily irritated and refused to provide her room number and stormed off. The manager said that she thought Carr was trespassing but when officers arrived she was walking with the brown dog at La Quinta Inn & Suites which was located nearby. Carr apparently became very verbally aggressive saying that the officer needed to leave her alone claiming that she wasn’t doing anything wrong. That’s when she said that police were called by the manager because she was jealous of her body in a bathing suit. Carr claimed that her boyfriend had rented a room at Country Inn & Suites but they got into a fight so she left and she was only at the hotel because her car wasn’t working. That’s when she jumped the fence to get to her white convertible Mustang and then burned the tires as she pulled into a parking spot that was directly in front of the one she was in but located on the property of a gas station. Police officers noted that the vehicle was stopped by the parking bumper because she couldn’t break fast enough. Carr then went inside the gas station to talk to the manager about keeping the car there until she could get it fixed. When the manager didn’t allow her to park the car there she got angry and stormed off. The officer then went to confront Carr when she got back in her car and noticed that her breath smelled of alcohol when she turned to yell at him, so obviously, she was placed in handcuffs. Police stated that Carr did admit to having one drink at 9 a.m. at Country Inn & Suites but couldn’t explain why she smelled of alcohol and why she was still intoxicated. She was quickly taken to Marion County Jail and was arrested on a disorderly intoxication charge. Well… you have done it again, Florida. 

The 151st book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...

Richard will be on the Phile in a few weeks.

Today's guest is a Canadian indie pop singer-songwriter and guitarist, performing both as a solo artist and as a member of the indie rock group Broken Social Scene. Her latest album "Pleasure" is available on iTunes, Amazon and Spotify as well as a podcast called "Pleasure Studies." Please welcome to the Phile... Feist.

Me: Hello, Feist, welcome to the Phile. How are you? 

Feist: Hi, Jason, you can call me Leslie. 

Me: I'll try. So, you have a podcast called "Pleasure Studies," what made you start a podcast? 

Feist: I guess I grew up with the radio on the kitchen counter. There was always a voice coming off the kitchen counter. Then radio kinda went away I guess. I guess I wasn't in the kitchen as much. Then podcasts showed up and they were really keeping me company on the road. Like I discovered "On Being," have you heard that, the Krista Tippett one? 

Me: No, I don't really have time to listen to podcasts, but I do listen to Bill Burr's one once in a while. What is "On Being"? 

Feist: It's an NPR one and Radiolab is phenomenal. I just started to get beguiled by it again, it's so disarming, I'm alone and listening to these ideas, there's new stuff coming at me and my mind is putting it together, my imagination is triggered. 

Me: I think blogs are better, Leslie. Haha. Why do you like podcasts so much? 

Feist: Because it leads a lot to the imagination. It's sort of like reading, you don't have to come up with your own. If you love a book you don't have to necessary watch the movie of it because the characters get usurped by the ones on the screen. 

Me: So, what's this questionnaire you sent out after the album "Pleasure" came out? 

Feist: Yeah, having done this a few times, make a record and go out and tour it there's that step between the two where we go talk about it with journalists or anyone that's curious about the record. It's not the easiest part because often I'm a little close to the record, I'm not exactly on top of what I was writing about. It's hard to not shell it. So I kinda had this idea, this sneaky back way that if I was to write this questionnaire out, which was sort of written on the tenants of the things that I was curious about when I was writing the record and give it to the journalist before the interview it would keep cue their mind up. 

Me: What does that mean? 

Feist: It would key their mind up to a line of inquiry that was more in line with what I wanted to talk about. It wasn't my objective story, I'd written about that and I didn't really have it. It wasn't something that I was really comfortable talking about. I thought that if I could just sort of play the idea of deeper thematic kinda tectonic plates underneath the song that are in everyone's lives including journalists lives. 

Me: So, how did the journalists take this? I'm glad I didn't have to deal with this. Haha. 

Feist: Anyway, the joke was a couple of the first journalists really responded well to it and couple were like violated... "what is this? I don't want to answer these questions!" 

Me: You wanted them to answer them? 

Feist: Yeah! And I also said I wasn't going to read them. It was just about exercising that muscle inside ourselves and answer questions. It's funny, before this morning I never answered the questionnaire myself and I thought I should familiarize myself what it was and it was really interesting because I think the idea I had at the time was we have a week full of experiences and half of them are fantastic or bolstering and half of them are somehow disorienting or they irk us and we don't feel comfortable with them. Then later in the week we are itemizing them and "tinker taping" the ones that were bad. Sort of like we are reenforcing the negative at the end of every week. The questionnaire was exercising the muscle to think positive. That's pretty much it. 

Me: So, what kinda questions did you ask? 

Feist: One was describe the best memory that you hasn't yet happened to you. You're basically being asked to conjure up something aspiration, something you really want and then talk about it as it already happened. Kinda just a play on magic, you have to manifest something, envision it and then it could happen. You can't get anything you know that you already want. 

Me: Hmmm. That's a little deep, right? 

Feist: That's the key. That's kinda why I called the record "Pleasure," it was a game with myself. I have not been experiencing much of that at the time I was going mostly through there hairdryers of life blowing at me like a wind tunnel. I was quite lost at the time when I was making that record. Really confused and disoriented like life shifting around me and then I thought why don't I instead of continue dwelling on that which I have the tendency to do, what about I just call it the opposite, call it "Pleasure" and maybe I'll manifest some of that. 

Me: But you sent out this questionnaire to people, not yourself? 

Feist: Yeah, after he journalists I realized they were in a job that would maybe preclude them from being easygoing about that. Because they're the "askers," right? Then we just folded it out into the ether and I think I wrote a little letter to people explaining if they want to take a minute to answer this, I didn't know what I was looking for but if they were interested to just cue their minds to this direction. It was for their five minutes. It was for them to have their five minutes for them to lean positive, that was the exercise. 

Me: What were some of the responses you got that surprised you? 

Feist: Well, I think the main thing was there was so many and also they were all, I saw a through line that everybody was working hard to deal. Everyone was leaning negative, everyone was judging themselves. This was not all culturally about us, over here in our one percenty North American life. It was from people all over the world and there was a through line of self doubt, shame, lots of hidden secrets. One of the questions was describe a secret that does not need to be one anymore. Sort of lift he veil off that you are keeping a secret. 

Me: So, was this all because you were going through tough times and you wanted to hear other people's tough times so your burden didn't seem as heavy? 

Feist: Yeah, I think that's pretty much it. When I was in the thick of it writing I was looking around for resources. Anyone else who left crumbs through the forest, some sort of map to get me through. Other people who had been in a similar place so I was reading a lot, I was reading a lot, listening to a lot of Krista Tippett a lot which is listening to other people talking about their interior lives on her podcast. I started to see how people are talking on the flip side, on the inside unguardly there's a lot of clues and I came up with a word you'll love I hope... "accumation." 

Me: What does that mean? 

Feist: I was accumating clues. It's pretty cute, I love that stuff. It makes my world go round actually, with puns like that. But anyway I was accumating these clues, I was doing it by looking how other people have navigated their way through a difficult time, and then reading these questionnaires, everyone was so generous mainly because they knew they wouldn't be exposed to the light of day. This was very private, a lot of people did it anomalously and I just thought that they ddid was spend five minutes leaning positive. It's a hard work to lean positive, because there's a lot of details to our subjectivity. Our subjectivity becomes a sort of closed climate ecosystem, like a diving bell of our own version of reality. In there we can have impunity to justify what we are feeling and whatever tendency to negativity are just feeling over run and then all of a sudden I see everyone is going through the same thing. 

Me: So, what would we hear on "Pleasure Studies"? 

Feist: Each episode is three or four people who bring their own stories about a particular journey in their life, a particular era. Each episode touches on different themes such as loss or perseverance. For instance in the first episode Olympic hurdler Perdita Felicien, who tripped over the first hurdle in what would be her last appearance on the Olympic track. What's a real loss? An Olympic medalist, their whole life has been pointed at one thing. Somehow when we weave the stories together, or braid them together the editing is super intuitive and experimental. It's not like here's my story beginning, middle and end, here's the next story beginning, middle and end. They shed light on one and the other. 

Me: Why did you do it that way? 

Feist: No matter what the manner of the details of what's going on for them, if they're touching on the same bedrock. That's the thing, I was feeling very tied to and what's the word? I was feeling really dedicated to the details in my life and there's something about that that I would eventually wear myself out on. The details matter much less than the place I'm living the details from. 

Me: What do you mean you were burnt out on the details of your life? 

Feist: At some point when I lived long enough I start to repeat myself where I'm back here again. Someone once said to me, "You can go round and round in circles." And I did for many years. I could work to make that circle into a spiral. I'm still spinning but I'm at a different altitude every time I go back and around. I can kinda ascend my way out with these new clues Then it becomes an extra interesting secondary life I can live where I'm wondering how I am conducting myself any moment no matter the details, where I'm acting. So when I take these three stories and they shed light on each other there's something that can be shown despite the details. Their are big things, small things, they can all pull us to some greater ideal. It's a pretty hopeful podcast. 

Me: Did it work? Did it make you feel somewhat different collecting these stories? 

Feist: Absolutely, It totally did. It was a way to make the questionnaire tangible because I wanted to respect the people's privacy when they were answering that. I was going to lift those stories out but there was something where I got a birds eye view on this, the tendency towards self doubt where I thought why don't we go around the world and find some people that can illustrate these points. It's basically just a resource to lean positive, to lean to hope. Because none of these people are in the thick of their stories, they're all on the other side so they have the information on how to get to the other side. 

Me: And you felt different?

Feist: I did and I also I always joke that writing songs and touring is kinda like a GPS for the soul or something. I'm in one place and I get to the other writing about it. I make it become past tense, I sing about it as past tense and then somehow it becomes past tense through the repetition on tour. I gain distance from my own stuff persecutive then this podcast series was pretty useful tool. It's sort of like being in a subway car and putting up thought bubbles above everyones heads. You'd think you were alone on that subway car but if you would just sort of get a look at what was going on in everyones minds you would have a lot more common than you think which I think is a pretty useful thing in this hyper-isolated way we live our lives. 

Me: Do you have friends that you can have a beer with or something that you could've talked to? 

Feist: Friendship is sort of like I'm messed up on Thursday and my friend really walks me through it and feels empathy for me then they are really messed up on Saturday. There's an equality there, it's not a one way street. I kinda have to understand that I'm the trusted one and therefore I can trust the other person. 

Me: Is the music that you're making now impacted by these stories that you have on the podcast? 

Feist: I'm pretty sure it did. I'm a little bit less curious by combing through the same territory of me and my feelings. I am a lot more curious about our common feelings. Who knows? Maybe I'll become a journalist. I'm kidding. 

Me: You can. Anyone can. I play kazoo. The barriers are low. Haha. But I'm not a journalist, I think I'm just a blogger. Are you making more music? 

Feist: Always. It'll just be from a different place. 

Me: Are you more at peace in your day to day life? 

Feist: I am. Thanks for asking for sure. I just get some distance from things and hopefully when I come out the other end I'm not just stumbling. I came out the other end and all the cliches are true, that I get forged by the fire. More resource stuff to figure out what is to come next. 

Me: Any questions for me? 

Feist: How do you want people to describe you in 25 years? 

Me: Tall. Haha. Empathetic. Kind, honest. 

Feist: That's good, that's how I feel now. 

Me: Okay, here's a good question, what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? 

Feist: Oh, man, I'd probably write a great work of fiction. 

Me: I think you could do that anyway. 

Feist: No, because when I read Heartbreaker by Claudia Day I get a reality check that looks slight of hand, it looks easy but it's not. 

Me: You'll be on the Phile again with your new mystery book. Feist, thanks for being on the Phile. Haha. 

Feist: Thanks, Jason.

That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to Feist for a fun interview. The Phile will be back on Monday with Phile Alum Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Robb Reiner from Anvil. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye. Kiss your brain.

Give me some rope, tie me to dream, give me the hope to run out of steam, somebody said it could be here. We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year. I can't count the reasons I should stay. One by one they all just fade away...