A Year in Review
Falls, Farewells, and Apprenticeships (oh, and Books!)
A month ago, a good grip on my bicycle turned into no grip at all. As my back wheel flew up off the pavement, I followed suit in what I can only remember as one of those super-slow-mo moments that you see in the movies. As I lay writhing in the middle of a major intersection here in Oaxaca, a motorcyclist stopped to help me up and over to the curb. I couldn’t feel my arm and my entire right side throbbed like the searing afternoon sun. As I walked my wrecked bike and body home, all I could do was pray and give thanks that I was still alive, that I didn’t have any broken bones or a concussion.
This last year looked a lot like that: praise, provoked by the memory of all the little deaths that have led me to today, and humble reckoning for all the near misses. In more quotidian terms, it started off as a long, casual yet careful encounter with unemployment and metamorphosed into an ever-deepening scope of apprenticeship with land, labour, and legacy.
I’ve peppered this post with what I’ve been graced by this year, alongside a smattering of best books, combined with what’s to come in the coming months, including a return of the pod and a focus on original essays - largely psychedelics and tourism. Here we go. (Oh, and I feel compelled mention that I drove through a rainbow in the summer. Not under it or beside it, but through the bow herself!)
The Land
As some of you know, I’ve been involved (alongside some dear friends and incredible human beings) in a long-term project to court and conjure water and soil regeneration on a beautiful piece of land here in southern Mexico. Following a number of medical emergencies, this little team launched a GoFundMe campaign a few months ago to help us meet the financial burden of purchasing the land, which we are ever so close to know. As we come to the end of the year, if there are any among you or your people who might feel called to contribute, you can do so below. We are also looking for those who might be willing to contribute their expertise, experience, time and love to this project. If that’s you or someone you know, please let us know.
https://www.gofundme.com/manage/rio-copalita-nos-llama/donations
The Pod
2025 saw the release of The End of Tourism’s second Spanish-language season. In those episodes, we discussed the ecological consequences of modern tourism in Latin America with Cesar Pineda; sex and drug tourism in Medellin, Colombia with Proyecto NN’s Sofia and Carlos Montoya; modern pilgrimage in Esquipuilas, Guatemala with Anny Puac and Jairo Lemus; the rancorous failure of rigid radicalism with Alf Bojorquez in Mexico; psychedelic tourism and indigenous wisdom in the Amazon with Claude Guislain; the possibilities of post-capitalist tourism with Alba Sud’s Ernest Cañada; media ecology with Carlos Scolari in Spain, and finally the right to not migrate with Aldo Gonzalez and Gloria Lopez in Oaxaca.
It seems to me that 2026 will see the beginning of the End of Tourism (although, perhaps not the kind we might be hoping for). The pod has long been a labour of love, and while necessary in so many ways, it’s place in the world has meant other projects and possibilities remained on the backburner. So, this next year will culminate with the final season of the pod, still focusing on the themes of wanderlust and exile, while leaning deeply into the myriad radical hospitality traditions around the world, and how our travels could take on a fundamentally different character. There are some deep musings in the works about what is to come of these many deep dialogues. I would love to release something in the form of a text-based “best of” series. Lots to consider.
For now, here’s the first episode of the new/final season:
The (Other) Work
Speaking of this dear friend and mentor above, it just so happens I got a call sometime in April asking if I’d be willing and able to lend my days to a project whose principle goal is to transcribe, translate, index, and archive much of Stephen’s live audio recordings (the majority of which have never been released to the public before). I replied by saying it would be an honour, and an honour it has been. Much of my textual time-in over the rest of the year was spent in a kind of mythic, cultural, and storytelling bootcamp, tending to the creation and deepening of the Orphan Wisdom Scriptorium. Bookmark the page, and when you can, please head over and take a look at the incredible project that Stephen’s wife and colleagues have put together in his name and in the name of all that he’s given himself over to.
I did get a number of essays published this past year. The first was by Modern Farmer, who recognized the need to set some of the record straight as far as “ceremonial-grade” cacao is concerned.
The second was released by the independent Spanish tourism research org Alba Sud and featured my first Spanish-language essay. A big thanks to the editorial team there for their assistance.
It was a delight to once again collaborate with Gods & Radicals’ online journal A Beautiful Resistance on a piece about music, listening and resonance in our time.
And finally, it was a real honour to be listed among esteemed authors in Kosmos Journal, a publication I’ve long since respected and read.
The Cultural Communion List - 2024 Edition
The Books (Mine and Theirs)
Much of my reading list this year revolved around psychedelics. I finally finished a book-length manuscript on the dark side of psychedelic culture, which is currently being pitched to anglophone publishers (if you have any of note, please let me know in the comments below or via private message). Here is a quote from that carefully folded forest:
The provocations proposed in the following chapters were written by an ex-addict and ex-spiritual tourist who received a second chance, in part, through psychedelic medicines. Through the lenses of history, culture, myth and personal experience, this book explores the underbelly of our cultural hallucinations, stripping away the layers of glory in the march toward healing at all costs. It was written for those who long to conjure worlds where such medicines, health, healing and wholeness are honoured, rather than colonized and commodified. These pages illuminate the dark side of the counterculture, leading us out of the underworld with the necessary seeds to plant sanctuary and solidarity in our neighbourhoods, repairing the damage done in our names.
While working on both the Scriptorium and my own writing, I managed to sneak in some time to read a number of amazing books, the following that come highly recommended:
Byung-Chul Han - The Disappearance of Rituals
“Magic and enchantment – the true sources of art – disappear from culture, to be replaced by discourse. The enchanting exterior is replaced with the true interior, the magic signifier with the profane signified. The place of compelling, captivating forms is taken by discursive content. Magic gives way to transparency.”
Graham Harvey - Animism: Respecting the Living World
Stephen Jenkinson - Matrimony: Ritual, Culture and the Heart’s Work
“Hospitality of this radical kind is culture in its finest moments. Matrimony, I’ll try to show you, is radical hospitality’s Godmother. And hospitality is matrimony’s alchemy at work.”
Art Spiegelman - The Complete Maus
Michael Taussig - Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man: A Study in Terror and Healing
“It is a simple-sounding social function. The magic invested in the Indian by the civilized assuages the envy that comes from inequality among the whites. The shaman's daughter puts it in a slightly different way, that her father tries to make enemies into friends.”
Music
Given all of the unexpected work this year, I didn’t listen to much music. However, I did get to see TV on the Radio play live this past summer (a band I had always wanted to experience, but never did). And finally, there were some gems that made it into my aural arena this year. Here they are:
Jairus Sharif - Basis Of Unity
Brìghde Chaimbeul - Sunwise
For now, that’s what’s up. New episodes of the pod have been recorded and are flowing through post-production. Original essays will be coming throughout the new year, all starting in January. All-willing, there will be news of at least one book making its way into the world.
Finally, if you’re reading this, I imagine it’s because we share something that’s not so easily evident (besides screens and email). I wouldn’t pretend to know what it is. For now, all I know is that I’m deeply grateful to still be alive, to imagine that this little work might be worthy of being in the world. Thank you for reading, for listening. To you and the ones you hold dear, living and dead, many blessings upon your path in these dark days.
Sincerely,
Chris Christou
I am casting my gratitudes in the direction of the Travel Mercies who may have a hand in you smiling today.
Blessings to you Chris, and gratitude for all you share and all you give to the world. Take care, my friend.