Episode
E8: Chorus; S8: Dissociative Heaven/Hell
- Podcast
- Danger, Vicious Dog
- Published
- Jun 29, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1264
- Processing state
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Summary
This episode surprised me. I thought I was going to introduce an old song I wrote in 1993. Instead, somewhere in the middle of talking about Alcoholics Anonymous, AIDS, immigration, bowling, a retired schoolteacher named Rich (formerly Richard… formerly Earl), and why it’s possible to enjoy something for absolutely no reason… …I accidentally wandered into a conversation about dissociation. Not clinical dissociation, necessarily. The much more ordinary kind. The possibility that consciousness itself is a kind of dissociation—a useful model that lets us navigate a world far too complicated to experience directly. That we all construct versions of reality that work well enough to keep moving. That maybe artists, lovers, recovering alcoholics, immigrants, teachers, dogs, AI… everybody is improvising inside some beautifully imperfect simulation. I didn’t sit down intending to make that argument. In fact, I don’t know if it is an argument. It’s just where the conversation went. That’s one of the things I’m enjoying about making these episodes. I start by pulling on one thread—usually a song—and discover I was actually attached to an entirely different tapestry. So if you decide to listen, don’t feel like you have to agree with anything. I certainly don’t know if I do. Just wander into it the way I did. Maybe we’ll both discover what it’s about around the same time.