Recently, I went to a No Kings demonstration. As I approached the rally, the 1969 Rolling Stone’s (Jagger & Richards) hit, You Can’t Always Get What You Want , echoed in my ear… “ I went down to the demonstration, to get my fair share of abuse ..." 57 years later, this lyric stands strong. My third No Kings demonstration in eight months, and today as I’m walking in a crowd of mostly baby boomers, carrying hand-made signs, I’m thinking, didn’t we already do this? There was something so...

In preparing my upcoming book, I endeavored to explore the autonomic nervous system as integral to the increasingly bigger waves of stress and anxiety forming within our culture. What I discovered was that sound and primarily breath were strong remedies, principally through the tonification of the vagal nerve ( aka the vagus nerve). My go-to guy for just about everything sound is Dr. Tomatis. When looking at the vagus nerve, I realized that Steven Porges and his Polyvagal Theory, was also...

At an Asheville concert, a rap group lifted the crowd in a way classical pieces didn’t. It reminded me that rhythm isn’t intellectual—it’s embodied. In anxious times, predictable beats ground us, entrain us, and help the nervous system settle. Music matters now because it connects, calms, and brings communities back into themselves.