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Religion & Spirituality

Another World is Probable

Another World is Probable

I blog every Monday at www.anotherworldisprobable.com and this podcast is me reading those posts.

For years people asked me whether I had a blog and the answer was always "no," until one day it was, "yes."

I started "Another World is Probable" as a nod to the World Social Forum's annual theme, "Another World is Possible." There's also that quote from Arundhati Roy who says, "Another world is not only possible, she's on the way and, on a quiet day, if you listen very carefully you can hear her breathe."

In my opinion, we've moved beyond the cusp of possibility and into the realm of reality.

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  • 20 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 4 min
  • English

Episodes 20

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  • Monday · 3 min

    What if We Are the Giants?

    I’ve seen a few posts on social media about planting trees because it helps future generations, and it got me thinking about how there are other examples of that too, particularly in social justice movements. What follows is a post from December 2017 about the #metoo movement. While the struggle continues, we aren’t in the pre-2017 world because the legal and structural architecture of the workplace has fundamentally changed. The movement successfully passed systemic protections that cannot be easily undone. And essentially it asks, what if we are the ones making things better for future generations?

  • September 21 · 4 min

    We are Not Doomed

    I don’t work in AI, so I haven’t felt qualified to weigh in on Evan Hubinger’s post on X about the risks of AI. As a refresher, he’s a top safety researcher at Anthropic, and he said AI is advancing so quickly he believes there is a greater than 10% chance it "could kill all humans" within the next decade.Again, I don’t work in AI, but I have opinions too, and they’re based on research, observation, and lived experience.

  • September 13 · 4 min

    What Are You Doing with Your Suffering?

    I’m not a true crime or horror kind of gal. I don’t enjoyblood or guts or gore. I don’t derive pleasure from other people’s suffering so it was curious to me why a new friend sent me a podcast about the wreck of the Grafton. The Grafton was a ship that crashed onto one of the islands near New Zealand in 1864 resulting in four men becoming stranded.

  • August 31 · 4 min

    Kindness Counts

    It’s been interesting to see the public discourse around Dolly Parton’s death. As much as people are lamenting the loss of a great songwriter – she wrote around 3,000! – they’re mostly speaking about her kindness and lamenting how we lost someone almost saintly.

  • August 24 · 4 min

    You Matter, Even if You Think You Don't

    Sometimes I get in a nihilistic mood and think it doesn’t really matter that I’m alive, that I exist. In the grand scheme of things, I’m a speck, a peon, a flash in the pan of life. Furthermore, I think of myself as expendable and exchangeable in the sense that if I wasn’t here, someone else would accomplish what is required of me; that the universe would work through someone else. The other day, though, I read something in Richard Tarnas’ book Cosmos and Psyche that had me rethink my perspective.

  • August 17 · 3 min

    Maybe It's Not Dead

    I have a funny story to share since my last post. I wrote that I have a juicer that’s been languishing on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist for months. I did all the right things, included all the right keywords, posted the right pictures, and even published the ad at a time when I “should” have received the most traffic. People would message me about it and then disappear. I kept my hopes up, kept renewing the listing, but eventually I just gave up because it had been months and I still had the thing. Weeeeeell. . .

  • August 3 · 3 min

    Following the Whims

    If you’re on social media, you may have noticed that “whimsy” is trending. It’s become a thing where people share videos of themselves wearing long, flowing dresses and fairy wings while shopping for groceries. Or they’ve begun sending postcards or scrapbooking. Some people are encouraging adults to build forts.As a super serious lady, I love whimsy because it’s the counterbalance that I need.

  • July 26 · 4 min

    What to Do When the Present Moment Sucks

    You can’t throw a rock without hearing someone or something say, “Be present. Stay in the moment.” It’s one of the most frequent pieces of advice. There are books about it. Courses. Practices. I, myself, have written about it. I find it’s a lot easier for me to stay in the moment when I enjoy the present moment, but what about when I don’t?

  • July 19 · 4 min

    A Raspberry-Flavored Universe

    I am charmed by an article I read in the Guardian recently about a fascinating discovery. Scientists detected a natural sugar found in raspberries in an enormous cloud of dust and gas that’s near the heart of the Milky Way. I know I’m the one making this leap and this isn’t how chemistry works, but I imagine that if I were in space, and presuming I wouldn’t freeze to death, I could stick out my tongue and the air would taste faintly like raspberries.

  • July 13 · 4 min

    A Physicist's View of Death

    Members of my spiritual community are at the age where they’re starting to die. It seems like every three months or so, someone passes away. Some people I’m closer to than others, but regardless, each death leaves an impact. More in this week's post.

  • July 6 · 4 min

    Is it Good Luck? Or Bad Luck?

    I keep thinking about the cycle of luck. If you take a snapshot of an event, it might initially seem like bad luck. But if you widen your lens, so to speak, that unlucky event can become lucky.

  • June 28 · 3 min

    How to Satisfy the Craving for More

    I’m finally watching The Wolf of Wall Street because I’m doing research for my next book. It’s safe to say the movie is a study of excess. The characters want more, more, more. More money, more power, more prestige, more sex, more drugs. They are never satisfied. It’s easy to believe that’s only true for the likes of greedy capitalists, but not so.

  • June 22 · 4 min

    What if Nature Wasn't an 'It'?

    I’m still entranced by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass and am thinking about how animacy/animism dovetails with a concept from philosopher Martin Buber. He wrote a book called I and Thou, which I haven’t read, and I only conducted a cursory search on the internet about it, so my apologies to the philosophy nerds who know way more about this than I do.

  • June 14 · 4 min

    So, a Wealth Cap?

    I can’t not talk about how Elon Musk is the world’s first trillionaire. He’s a trillionaire, but in the U.S., 47.9 million people lived in food-insecure households in 2024, the highest since 2014, according to the Washington Times. He’s a trillionaire, but 181 million children will only eat one meal today, according to a UNICEF report. You and I are much closer to being homeless than we are to being a trillionaire. For context, someone earning $50,000 per year would need to work for 20 million years to become a trillionaire, and that’s assuming they don’t spend any of the money they earn.

  • June 8 · 3 min

    Hello to Beauty

    I planted a “fairy meadow” mix in a pot outside my front door and the first flowers to bloom are California bluebells. I am utterly enchanted by these royal blue, purple flowers. Is the fact I’m so enthralled a happy quirk or is it by design?

  • June 1 · 3 min

    Trusting Our Own Inner Wisdom

    The other week, I had a conversation with a friend who told me instead of following conventional wisdom and keeping his part-time job to pay the bills, he devoted himself completely to his own business and went into debt. And now, years later, his business is taking off and turning a profit. I love stories like this because they remind me there isn’t only one way to do things.

  • May 25 · 3 min

    Nothing Changes Until We Accept it First

    I first wrote this in 2019 so I’m not struggling with the same things but the concept of acceptance is relevant at any time.There’s a reason why it has staying power in 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous. Enjoy. One of the things I’m grappling with right now is acceptance. It’s easier for me to fantasize about the future when things aredifferent. When I have a job again, when my body feels better. It’s much harder for me to stay in the moment and accept my current reality. The present moment sucks sometimes. Who wants to accept something crappy? I sure don’t. However, I’m reminded, as I often am, of a passage from the Big Book ofAlcoholics Anonymous on this topic.

  • May 18 · 4 min

    You Can Hate God

    The typical discourse from mystics and saints surrounding their relationship with God, the Divine, Source, whatever name they have for it, is one of unconditional love, deep devotion, and reverence. Hafiz, Rumi, and the rest wax poetic about dancing mad in the streets with a love like they’ve never felt before. You know what’s far less common? Unbridled hatred. More in this week's post.

  • May 11 · 4 min

    Honoring the Feral Queen

    Maybe this concept has always existed and the internet just makes it easier to find, but there’s such a thing as “Wife School.” Wife School molds women into smiling, attentive, submissive wives. Contrast that with another form of femininity, that of a feral queen or a dark goddess. More in this week's post.

  • May 4 · 3 min

    You Are the Center of Every Rainbow

    I love rainbows. Even if I’m the one making a rainbow appear with a gardening hose, every time I see one, it feels like a gift. They speak to me of joy, promise, and beauty. The other week, I learned something about rainbows that makes me love them even more. I'll tell you about it in this post.

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