Becky Garrison on Muck Rack

Becky Garrison

Verified
(Me)
Pacific Northwest
As seen in: The Grapevine Magazine, Medium, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Green Entrepreneur, Substack, The Daily Beast, Salon, Paste, AlterNet and
Covers:  Focus on sustainabilty, community, and spirituality. Specialize in PNW craft culture (beer, cider, distilled spirits, wine). Also, unpacks spiritual narcissism, #churchtoo abuses.
Doesn't Cover: I veer away from advertorial/sponsored content.
Author Roger Williams' Little Book of Virtues, The Humanist, American Atheist, The Revealer, etc.
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Articles by Becky Garrison

Viewing the Epstein files through a DARVO lens

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By Becky Garrison 
| Strange Customs with Sasha Sagan
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Epstein's unspiritual connection to the Templeton Foundation

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By Becky Garrison 
| Strange Customs with Sasha Sagan
A philanthropic foundation that lavishes money on scientists who praise religion also has ties to the Epstein class.
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Drinking wine in a time of war

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By Becky Garrison 
| Strange Customs with Sasha Sagan
This is not one of those pandemic-inspired rants where someone hits the bottle while in a state of existential despair, hoping against hope to drown out their sorrows. True, as we approach the United States Semiquincentennial, the partisan programming surrounding freedom250.org should give any sane person pause. But my writing about the Pacific Northwest craft culture suggests that perhaps wine grown using organic and sustainable means can help connect us at a deeper level.
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Cheers! Discover Vancouver Island’s Wine Regions

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By Becky Garrison 
| Northwest Travel & Life Magazine
With its abundant green landscape, ocean breezes and intimate and often family-run wineries, Vancouver Island has emerged as a rising destination in the British Columbia wine scene ideally suited for those wine connoisseurs seeking a laid-back yet elevated wine experience. Currently 321 planted acres with 22 licensed grape wineries comprise Vancouver Island GI.
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Beyond Mysticism: Authenticity in an AI-generated world

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By Becky Garrison 
| Strange Customs with Sasha Sagan
While I've become intimately connected to the craft culture of the Pacific via the region's brewpubs and tasting rooms, which have fulfilled the community connections I once experienced through church, I confess to lacking a similar familiarity with Puget Sound's artistic community.
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Chopra and Epstein: Breaking the cycle of guru dependency

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By Becky Garrison 
| Strange Customs with Sasha Sagan
The revelation of a close bond between the late Jeffrey Epstein and  Deepak Chopra, dating from 2016 to 2019, has sent shockwaves through the spirituality and wellness industry. How could the man responsible for introducing Eastern consciousness and Ayurvedic medicine to Western spiritual seekers engage in a friendly relationship with a convicted pedophile? In public, Chopra has cultivated an image as a wise, benevolent spiritual figure.
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Persian hospitality: Connecting cultures through wine

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By Becky Garrison 
| Strange Customs with Sasha Sagan
As the United States and Iran spiral into the abyss of war, the gap of mutual hatred, suspicion and incomprehension that separates our cultures looms larger than ever. If we're going to bridge this divide and imagine a future of peace, we need to find something that unites us. Where better to start the conversation than over a bottle of wine?
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What's the Oldest Bar in Washington State?

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By Becky Garrison 
| Northwest Travel & Life Magazine
According to State of Washington Tourism, the answer would be the Brick Saloon in Roslyn, a town in Kittitas County with a population of 950 (as of the 2020 census). As documented in Distilled in Washington: A History, this saloon touts itself as the oldest saloon in Washington, dating to 1889, when John Buffo and Peter Giovanni opened a saloon the same year Washington State achieved statehood.
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Are parasocial connections helpful or harmful?

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By Becky Garrison 
| Strange Customs with Sasha Sagan
The wedding performed during the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show embodied Bad Bunny's message of "love over hate." Apparently, the couple connected so strongly to the artist's music and message that they wanted his energy to be present at their wedding. They extended an invitation to Bad Bunny, who responded by inviting them to get married during his performance. He even served as an official witness and signed their marriage certificate.
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Pulitzers and Pinot

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By Becky Garrison 
| Northwest Travel & Life Magazine
In their book Tightrope (Penguin Random House, 2020), Pulitzer prize-winning authors Nicolas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn describe how they replaced Kristof Farm's cherry orchard with pinot noir grapes and cider apples. This switch created jobs that helped bolster the economy in the struggling rural town of Yamhill, Oregon, where Kristof spent his formative years.
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MAGALand Religion Stories You May Have Missed

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By Becky Garrison 
| Religion Dispatches
Trying to cover every religious racket connected to the Trump administration proves to be an exercise in futility. Here are a few of the stories that seemed to fly a bit under the radar.
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Drink to a Sustainable Future with Oregon's B Corp Certified Wineries

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By Becky Garrison 
| Northwest Travel & Life Magazine
When settlers to the Oregon Territory began planting grapes in the 1840s, they demonstrated a commitment to the land and the creation of a community that continues to this day. Hannah Guth, Communications Specialist for the Stoller Wine Group, says, "Oregon wineries have always been at the forefront of sustainability and regenerative efforts. We have some of the most productive land use policies. We were the first state to enact bottle recycling laws.
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Raising a Glass to PNW's Female Distillers

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By Becky Garrison 
| Northwest Travel & Life Magazine
As reported in Distilled in Washington: A History (The History Press, 2024), colonial-era women produced spirits made from locally sourced grains and fruits. As the distilling industry became increasingly commercialized, these women disappeared. While most women in the distilling industry focus on the business side, a select number of women work as distillers. Here are their stories.
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How narcissistic collapse explains Trump's temper tantrums

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By Becky Garrison 
| Strange Customs with Sasha Sagan
The toddler-like outbursts of someone who can't stand criticism or disapproval.
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Styles of Sparkling Wine That Aren't Champagne

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By Becky Garrison 
| Alcohol Professor
Other Styles of Sparkling Wines Pét-nat Forced carbonation Charmat or tank method While there are many varieties of sparkling wines, the most common types of other sparkling wines are Pét-nat, forced carbonation, and charmat. Pét-nat (also called Pétillant Naturel or Méthode Ancestrale) involves bottling the wine and sealing it with a crown cap before it finishes the first fermentation. The bubbles result from the additional fermentation that happens inside the bottle.
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Purity Culture and Jeffrey Epstein

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By Becky Garrison 
| Religion Dispatches
Editor’s note: This post mentions child sexual assault and underage marriage. Please be advised. International media outlets and even an actual teenager slammed attorney and media personality Megyn Kelly for claiming (31:40) that the late Jeffrey Epstein was not an “actual” pedophile because there’s a significant difference between girls who are five years old and girls who are 15.
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Searching for signs of goodness

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By Becky Garrison 
| Strange Customs with Sasha Sagan
In Gaslighting for God: A Satirical Guide to Save Yourself from Spiritual Narcissists (January 2026, Lake Drive Books), I explore how, too often, spiritual leaders who touched so many souls proved to be not profound, but predatory. I cite the late Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader and founder of Shambhala Buddhism Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
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Many Happy Returns

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By Becky Garrison 
| Edible Seattle
IMAGES BY SARAH MCARTHUR They say to achieve a dream, you have to visualize what success looks like. Vincent and Tyla Nattress dreamed of a venture that would combine Vincent’s impressive experience working in European and Napa Valley kitchens with Tyla’s expertise pairing wine as co-owner of their restaurant Roux in St. Helena, California. Using crayons and poster board, their family created a vision board for a restaurant that embodied their shared values of connection, place and seasonality.
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Do we dare journey into our AI future?

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By Becky Garrison 
| onlys.ky
After attending three South by Southwest (SXSW) conferences over the years, two in person and one virtual, I concluded that I should remain unplugged from the seemingly fanciful—and often farcical—promises offered by AI. As messy as reality might be, I find myself gravitating more toward communities that are grassroots and genuine, not a more enhanced, glitzy, glamorous representation.
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To Those Familiar with Purity Culture, Megyn Kelly’s Comments About Epstein and 15-Year-Old Girls isn’t Such a Surprise

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By Becky Garrison 
| Religion Dispatches
International media outlets and even an actual teenager slammed attorney and media personality Megyn Kelly for claiming (31:40) that the late Jeffrey Epstein was not an “actual” pedophile because there’s a significant difference between girls who are five years old and girls who are 15.
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Will the Democrats squander the 2025 progressive surge?

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By Becky Garrison 
| onlys.ky
On November 4, 2025, holiday cheer came early for the U.S. Democratic Party. Democrats scored blowout victories in the New Jersey and Virginia governors' races, as well as a multitude of local elections across the country. Zohran Mamdani became New York City's youngest and first Muslim mayor. California voters approved a plan to temporarily redraw the state's congressional map to add Democratic-leaning districts. Then two days later, Rep.
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Poured with Purpose: A Look at Washington’s Sustainable Sips

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By Becky Garrison 
| Sip Magazine
Washington is well-known for creating an atmosphere where the state’s breweries, cideries, distilleries and wineries can focus not only on creating great products, but doing so while utilizing cutting-edge sustainable initiatives.
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How to heal after trauma

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By Becky Garrison 
| onlys.ky
While researching my book Gaslighting for God: A Satirical Guide to Save Yourself from Spiritual Narcissists (Lake Drive Books, January 2026), I noticed that a number of former pastors and survivors of #churchtoo abuses are now promoting themselves, especially on social media, as religious trauma healers, Christian deconstruction life coaches, and the like.
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The Northwest Whiskey Trail

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By Becky Garrison 
| Edible Seattle
Launched in 2023, the Northwest Whiskey Trail stretches from Oregon to British Columbia—the first distillery trail to cross an international border. Sampling the spirits along this trail affords whiskey aficionados a unique opportunity to savor award-winning whiskeys with the unique characteristics of Pacific Northwest single malt. Each of these whiskeys speaks to both the distiller’s signature style, and the terroir of their region.
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Female empowerment or forced labor?

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By Becky Garrison 
| Medium
In 2004, Nicole Daedone founded OneTaste, a business teaching and promoting the practice of orgasmic meditation (OM). In OM, one participant - usually male - strokes the clitoris of another participant for up to fifteen minutes at a time.
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OneTaste: Female empowerment or forced labor?

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By Becky Garrison 
| onlys.ky
A high-profile conviction may signal a shift away from the victim-blaming mentality.
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Becky Garrison: Gaslighting for God

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By Becky Garrison 
| Substack
As I was researching current spiritual abuses for my forthcoming book Gaslighting for God: A Satirical Guide to Save Yourself from Spiritual Narcissists, this headline from the BBC popped up in my RSS feed on March 18, 2024: “Christopher Brain: Sheffield Priest in Court to Face 34 Sexual Abuse Charges.” After his trial began in July, on August 20, 2025, Brain was found guilty of at least 17 counts of indecent assault against multiple women with the Church of England issuing statements...
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Raise a glass to America's immigrant winemakers

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By Becky Garrison 
| onlys.ky
Moe Momtazi views wine not as a commercial commodity, but as a living spirit that springs from the marriage of the sun and the earth. Momtazi is the founder of Momtazi Vineyards and Maysara Winery in McMinnville, Oregon.
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Becky Garrison

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By Becky Garrison 
| Sip Magazine
get the latest SIGN UP FOR THE SIP MAGAZINE NEWSLETTER. By subscribing online, you are opting in to receive our Sip Magazine Insider e-newsletter— with the latest coverage in Pacific Northwest beverage scene, product reviews, libation destinations, events + more.
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Farm to Table - Dirty Spoon

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By Becky Garrison 
| The Dirty Spoon Radio Hour
by Becky Garrison Becky’s article appears in episode 22 of The Dirty Spoon Radio Hour. The Pacific Northwest restaurant scene gained a well-earned international reputation for their locally sourced sustainable food and beverages. However, starting in mid-March, restaurants laid off staff and either shuttered or shifted to take-out service, and restaurant sales all but vanished for local farmers.
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American Single Malt — Blog Posts | Alcohol Professor

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By Becky Garrison 
| Alcohol Professor
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"Distilled in Washington: A History" Garners A Spirited Nomination

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By Becky Garrison 
| Substack
My book Distilled in Washington: A History (The History Press, 2024) was selected as a Top Ten Spirited Awards 2025 Nominee in the category of Best New Book on Drinks Culture, History, or Spirits by the Tales of the Cocktail Foundation. In reviewing the other media nominees, I believe I’m the only one with a Pacific Northwest focus. This award confirms that my decision to move to the Pacific Northwest in 2014 proved to be spot on. Finally, I can breathe and be. Just me.
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Spiritual Narcissism Case Study: Unpacking Mars Hill Church's Missional Madness

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By Becky Garrison 
| Substack
For those just tuning into this saga, here's the links to Part 1 "In the beginning: Mark Driscoll v US Emergent Church" and Part 2 "The Truth is Revealed." Graphic courtesy of https://www.megathepodcast.com Becky Garrison: Gaslighting for God is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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Becky Garrison - OnlySky

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By Becky Garrison 
| onlys.ky
As the stigma associated with psychedelics continues to wane, some serious people are asking what's next.
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All About Community: Celebrating the Spirit of Pike Brewing Company at Copperworks Distilling Company

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By Becky Garrison 
| Northwest Travel & Life Magazine
In 1989, Charles and Rose Ann Finkel co-founded Pike Brewing Company in Seattle with a vision of being a disruptor in the industry by changing the way people enjoy beer.
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Bringing Sacred Sexual Abuses within the ISTA Network to Light

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By Becky Garrison 
| Substack
Commission inquiries at Mayatoons.bsky.social The February 28, 2025 article in New York Magazine exploring abuse within the International School for Temple Arts (ISTA) network brought back memories of my experiences covering the ISTA for Only Sky back in 2022. Upon initial glance, their website appears to be full of seemingly New-Agey type jargon that comes off as more goofy than goddess-like but seems to be relatively harmless.
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Which Spiritual Gathering is Right for You?

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By Becky Garrison 
| Medium
Becky Garrison · Follow 4 min read · -- Photo collage generated via Deepai. For those looking for faith-based fellowship infested with spiritual narcissists, here’s a curated list of potential spiritual gatherings geared toward a wide range of believers. A/theism in Action Be a keyboard warrior in the rebirth and rebranding of the ongoing dialogue between believers (aka Christians) and heathens (aka atheists). Deconstruct with dudes. Create common ground by building bridges to nowhere.
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WHEN A SEXUAL HAVEN BECOMES A PRISON: A Culty Conversation with “CULT TRIP” author Anke Richter

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By Becky Garrison 
| Medium
Becky Garrison · Follow 11 min read · -- Anke Richter at the 2024 Decult Conference J.W. Ocker, author of Cult Following: The Extreme Sects That Capture Our Imaginations―and Take Over Our Lives, opines, “We all want to belong to something greater than ourselves. To be accepted by like-minded people. We all want to believe that our ideas about the world are the ultimate truth of the universe. Cults are that straightforward: purpose, community, and understanding how the world works.
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Saluting Pacific Northwest Veteran-Made Spirits

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By Becky Garrison 
| Wine and Whiskey Globe
For those looking to lift a glass in support of US veterans, here’s a curated selection of spirits produced by distillers with a military background. 4 Spirits Distillery (Corvallis, OR) In 2011, Dawson Officer established 4 Spirits Distillery with a mission to create superior craft spirits that honor all service members. The name 4 Spirits is dedicated to Lt. Erik McCrae, Sgt. Justin Linden, Sgt. Justin Eyerly and Sgt. David Roustum, who served with Dawson in Baghdad, where they lost their lives.
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a Can We Temper Political Polarization?

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By Becky Garrison 
| Medium
Becky Garrison · Follow 7 min read · -- There’s no question our the US current sociopolitical climate is completely overrun with extreme narcissistic energies as outlined in last week’s game of extreme narcissism bingo. In advance of the impending Presidential inauguration,Yale Divinity School’s Reflections posted a series of articles exploring how we can temper the spike in polarization infesting both our religious and political institutions.
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The End of Prohibition…91 Years and Counting

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By Becky Garrison 
| Edible Seattle
December 5, 2024, marked Repeal Day, the 91st anniversary of the repeal of the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages and their import into, or export from, the U.S. and all its territories. When Prohibition ended, there was a struggle to prevent the corrupt, saloon-dominated, freewheeling era of “rotgut whiskey” and “bathtub gin” from making a comeback.
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Exploring America’s Northwest Whiskey Trail

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By Becky Garrison 
| Wine and Whiskey Globe
As reported in my 2024 book, Distilling in Washington: A History, The Northwest Whiskey Trail has exploded in popularity, which speaks to a burgeoning interest in Pacific Northwest craft spirits. The late Steve McCarthy, founder of Clear Creek Distillery in Oregon (McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt Whiskey), ignited the “spirited” craft revolution when he distilled the first U.S.-based American single malt whiskey some twenty-five years ago.
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Pacific Northwest Wine Country: Vancouver Island’s Cool-Climate Wines

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By Becky Garrison 
| Wine and Whiskey Globe
In recent years, the Vancouver Island AVA has risen as a player in the British Columbia wine scene with a community of family grape growers and winemakers dedicated to sustainable organic farming and winemaking practices. Currently, this AVA contains 321 planted acres with 22 licensed grape wineries. Its cooler maritime climate produces fresh, crisp wines such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Ortega (a German hybrid varietal) and a range of sparkling wines.
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Are brewpubs and tasting rooms the churches of the future?

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By Becky Garrison 
| onlys.ky
They say you never forget your first. I still remember the time when I encountered that holy trinity of fly-fishing, cigars, and scotch in the ’90s. Lagavulin 16, to be precise. Given my booze-infested family tree, I learned to be mindful of my alcohol consumption. But Lagavulin 16 taught me how to savor my liquor, not swig it as was the practice among most of my extended family members. With each sip, I prayed to the peat and found my true salvation in scotch.
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Goliath Vape Pen

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By Becky Garrison 
| stonermag.com
RĒL designed their vape pens with the serious vape enthusiast in mind. They offer disposable, rechargeable, and premium Goliath models. Cannabis connoisseurs will enjoy a consistently smooth vaping experience short of any leaky cartridges, battery fails, and harsh chemical tastes that often accompany cheaper vape pens and devices. The Goliath model is engineered with a quick heating stainless steel coil.
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A Bountiful Harvest of Contemporary Wine Films

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By Becky Garrison 
| Paste
In anticipation of the bounty from this year’s wine harvest, here’s a curated list of wine flicks released over the past two decades designed to satisfy an oenophile’s palate. 1. Bottle Shock (2008) This depiction of the early days of California winemaking featuring the now infamous blind Paris wine tasting of 1976 (a.k.a. the “Judgment of Paris”) contains more than a few bits of fiction.
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Free Spirited - Edible Seattle

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By Becky Garrison 
| Edible Seattle
IMAGES BY BECKY GARRISON | ADDITIONAL IMAGES BY COPPERWORKS One might assume Kentucky native Jason Parker would be a bourbon man, but his heart lies in crafting American Single Malt whiskeys—with a decidedly Pacific Northwest twist. As the first head brewer for Pike Brewing Company, and co-founder of Copperworks Distilling Company, Jason Parker crafts whiskeys predicated on making great beer.
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Labyrinth Walking for Anxiety

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By Becky Garrison 
| Spirituality & Health
While T.S. Eliot might have described April as “the cruelest month” in his epic poem “The Waste Land,” March 2024 proved to be quite the doozy for me. I found myself unexpectedly anxious as I arrived in Seattle on March 10 to begin a week of intense networking in preparation for the launch of my book Distilled in Washington: A History.
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How These Distilleries Are Pairing Food and Whiskey

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By Becky Garrison 
| Paste
Typically, discerning connoisseurs pair their food with wine or beer. But as I learned from Jason Parker,  the first head brewer for Pike Brewing Company and Copperworks Distilling Company, pairing whiskey with food can create new sensory experiences. He conveyed to me how to pair his American Single Malts with food using the “3 Cs” concept of pairing food with alcohol, which he learned from Pike co-founder Charles Finkel.
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Unpacking The Myths Connecting Beer, Alewives And Witches

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By Becky Garrison 
| Paste
Outlets like Thrillist promulgate the myth that witches pioneered the art of brewing beer. Even an outlet as storied as the Smithsonian Magazine published a piece advancing this witch’s tale that later required multiple corrections. The truth behind this witch’s brew of a tale remains murkier than a hazy IPA. True, women played an essential role in brewing beer from its inception around 3000 BCE until around the start of the Reformation in the early to mid-16th century.
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