Once a month, I share the best of what I’ve been reading, watching, and exploring. Enjoy!
Quick note: Only a few spots remain for The Awakening, the intimate in-person experience I’m hosting at our home in Portland from June 26-28. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event designed to help you shed the life that no longer fits—and step into the one that does. If you’ve been feeling the itch for change in your life, grab your seat here—before it sells out.
Books
Being Ram Dass by Ram Dass. This isn’t just a memoir—it’s a psychedelic portal into one of the wildest personal reinventions of the 20th century. Ram Dass (once Richard Alpert, a Harvard psychology professor) goes from tenure-track academia to tripping on LSD with Timothy Leary, then disappears into India and reemerges as a barefoot mystic. If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to burn the map and still find your way, this one’s worth the trip.
Films
A Nice Indian Boy (2025). [Amazon Prime | Apple TV+] One of the best rom-coms I’ve seen in recent memory. Predictable? Yes. But also funny, heartfelt, and moving. It follows Naveen, a buttoned-up Indian-American guy, whose parents assume he’ll marry a “nice Indian girl.” Instead, he brings home Jay—a white guy with irresistible charm and zero filter. It made me laugh and cry at the same time.
Girl, Interrupted (2000). [Amazon Prime | Apple TV+] Yes, it’s 25 years old. And yes, it still works. Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie (who won an Oscar for this role) are brilliant in this film about a young woman sent to a psychiatric hospital in the late ’60s. It’s dark, nuanced, and surprisingly funny in moments.
Reservoir Dogs (1992). [Amazon Prime | Apple TV+] Before Pulp Fiction, there was this: a heist film where you never actually see the heist. Just the aftermath—which is somehow even more brutal. A group of criminals unravel in a warehouse after a job goes sideways. What follows is an explosion of paranoia, loyalty, and the most uncomfortable ear-related scene in film history. As always with Tarantino, it’s not for the faint of heart.
Music
“Golden Age” by St. Lucia. This upbeat song feels like the last golden hour of summer. Dreamy synths, crisp drums, and a melody that makes you want to drive with the windows down.
My new tattoo
It’s my second tattoo from the incredibly talented Alessandro Capozzi.
And it’s not just a tattoo—it’s a map of my becoming. A barefoot boy walks forward, no longer following maps that weren’t his. A dog walks beside him—equal parts guardian, joy, and long-lost childhood wish.
Above them, a goddess rises—not from the heavens, but from the space the boy cleared inside. Her heart cracks open, not from breaking, but from holding too much light.
The boy, the divine, the animal—they’re all one living thread. A story of reclaiming space and walking a path that didn’t exist before the first step.
Related
Bold
