Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan

Tangentially Speaking with Christopher Ryan Spencer Grey (Japan/Travel) 1× 0:00 Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -1:21:00 -1:21:00 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Spencer Grey (Japan/Travel) Originally from South Africa, Spencer has lived around the world. He’s been in Japan long enough to learn the language and get real insight into the cultures. I’ve never been, but I’m fascinated by the place. Follow Spencer’s modeling on Instagram.

Monthly Newsletter October, 2026 “What’s Up, Doctopher?” is a free occasional newsletter. To gain access to all that juicy bonus content including ROMAs, TOMAs, AROMAs, travel updates, AMAs, What Makes this Book Great?, the DJCPR series, and an exclusive forum where you can interact directly with others in the Tangentially Speaking community, please consider becoming a paid subscriber for $5/month or $50/year — less than a buck a week! If you’ve already subscribed, much obliged.

Shane has spent the past few years building out a schoolbus, and now he’s taking it out on the road. His first stop was Crestone. Our previous podconvo was ten years ago. Follow Shane’s travels on his Instagram. This has been another commercial-free episode, financed by folks who toss a few bucks into the hat every month here. If you don’t want to subscribe, but would like to support this podcast with a one-time donation, please click here. Intro music “Brightside of the Sun,” by Basin and Range.

1× Preview 0:00 Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -2:47 -2:47 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. ROMA 9.28.26 Is “genocide” the right word? Does it matter? Are our “leaders” psychopaths? Is it possible to do what they do and NOT be psychopathic? Continue reading this post for free, courtesy of Chris Ryan. Or purchase a paid subscription.

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -2:47 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Is Super El Niño gonna kill us? Is AI gonna kill us? Is Donald Trump or Putin or Iran gonna kill us? Are lettuce and blackberries gonna kill us? Are things really as out of control as they seem, or is this just what happens when attention becomes a commodity and everyone is clamoring for it? What’s happening inside AI?

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -1:49:39 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. James grew up in suburban Chicago, studied philosophy in college, and after trips to Tanzania (living with the Hadza) and working on farms in New Zealand, he moved with his wife to Colorado’s San Luis Valley.

Chris (right) with David, another model who lived in the compound, back in the day. Chris and I are old friends, from back in the 90s, when I lived in a mansion in Barcelona infested with fashion models. He and his lingerie-model girlfriend were my next-door neighbors. One night in Paris, Chris was drugged and raped by a man who moved in the same circles as many of the powerful, wealthy predators associated with Jeffrey Epstein. You can hear more of the specific details of Chris’s experience here.

“What’s Up, Doctopher?” is a free occasional newsletter. To gain access to all that juicy bonus content including ROMAs, TOMAs, AROMAs, travel updates, AMAs, What Makes this Book Great?, the DJCPR series, and an exclusive forum where you can interact directly with others in the Tangentially Speaking community, please consider becoming a paid subscriber for $5/month or $50/year — less than a buck a week! If you’ve already subscribed, much obliged.

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -46:48 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Lloyd, by his artist neighbor, Dieter Tremp. Somehow, my mic never got turned on, so this one is all-guest. The perfect episode! Lloyd is a builder, a writer, a photographer, a publisher, an athlete and a great friend. And he has interesting things in his freezer. Check out Lloyd’s Substack. It’s fantastic. Here’s Shorty’s Bunkhouse, the radio show Lloyd recommends.

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -2:02 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Always choose the photo in which the woman looks good — even if you look like a grumpy weirdo. We dig into what it feels like to come of age under a permanent sense of "the world could end any moment," comparing Cold War duck-and-cover anxiety to a millennial generation shaped by 9/11, economic collapse, and climate dread.