The archive
Aldous Huxley is known for his novels like “Brave New World” and “Island.” This is a recording of Aldous talking about heaven or the transcendent experience. Why are precious stones precious?
March 8, 2025
September 23, 2013
Aldous is reading from his poems and stories from Folio Two – recorded in 1949
Alex Randall traveled with Nina Randall and Pam Wesson to interview Albert Hofmann at his home outside Basle Switzerland in 1973. The topic is LSD.
September 8, 2024
No, he is not talking about drugs. Timothy Leary was also a computer maven and this is a lecture about the social impacts of computers… Before the Internet was popular. The Monastary as the mainframe of the Middle Ages and the democratization of technology. Delivered to the Boston Computer Society October 22, 1986
Edmund Carpenter talks to ZBS Media about ideas in culture that are beyond translatability.
She had opinions on almost everything and she had done research, studied and thought about it all too. This is Margaret Mead talking about sleep and how cultures around the world deal with the universal experience – we all sleep every night.
It is 1976, Margaret Mead is President of American Association for the Advancement of Science. She took the occasion of her keynote address to talk about field research and what Anthropologists do in their research. February 20, 1976.
Who invented the first computer? No question that chief engineer Presper Eckert was the “sparkplug” of the ENIAC project. This is a 5 hour conversation with Eckert about his childhood inventions, his early work with counting circuits and the steps that led to the development of ENIAC. It was the first all electronic computing machine. (1991)
Listen to what he has to say about who took what ideas from whom.
Kenneth Boulding was a Quaker Economist and general Systems Theorist. For me this was a trifecta. Three reasons to go to his home and talk. This is a recording of our discussion about the Economics of peace and Love.
This is for people who don’t like church religion but are interested in what Jesus said. Remove all the arguments about how he arrived and how he left, and take away all the things people said about him, and the stories about miracles, remove the Greek myhts that got woven into Christianity and what’s left is JUST what Jesus SAID. Just the words. It is wonderfully refreshing. Like meeting a very wise man. Listen to what he said.
This is charming… What would an archeologists say about us? If they dug up New York or Washington, what would the scientists say about modern Americans… The Weans. excellent perspective on who WE are.
“R. Buckminster Fuller – A Talk over Lunch – November 20 1975” Margaret Mead answered my question about creativity by saying, “You need to talk to Bucky.”
“But I don’t know him…” I responded.
“Just call him and tell him you want to have lunch. Ask his secretary to send ‘one-of-everything’ in his reprint room, read it all, and read all of his books before you go… Just tell him I said so.”
This was how Margaret organized my education… Call up a wizard, ask for an appointment, then read all their stuff, then have lunch, or stay for a week or camp out at their office. This recording is my conversation lunch with Bucky – November 20, 1975.
“How do you feel when you find out that someone else is developing one of your ideas?”
“Intense relief!” he answered.
This is a radio documentary on the experience of being insane, with text drawn from the autobiographies of schizophrenics. The music showcases the hallucinations and delusions of madness as the speakers describe the world of insanity – from the inside out. This was Alex Randall’s undergraduate thesis at Princeton University in 1973.
August 12, 2024
September 28, 2013
This is for people who don’t like church religion but are interested in what Jesus said. Remove all the arguments about how he arrived and how he left, and take away all the things people said about him, and the stories about miracles, remove the Greek myhts that got woven into Christianity and what’s left is JUST what Jesus SAID. Just the words. It is wonderfully refreshing. Like meeting a very wise man. Listen to what he said.
September 28, 2013
This is a live report – from Moscow. Alex had just been to visit ANI – the Agency for News and Information – a tiny news enterprise, the first free media business in the new Commonwealth of Independent States. The Soviet Union had ended and the giant TASS news agency was still delivering the “official” news to millions of people in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the nations that were part of the Soviet Empire. ANI was tiny – a handful of people, operating with dial-up 300 baud modems, cassette recorders and they were facing down TASS – armed only with news and information that did not have the government’s official imprint. ANI was the first breath of freedom of information in the former Soviet Union. “This is Alex Randall reporting on the freedom technologies on the Voice of America.”
September 17, 2013
The Berlin wall had just been pulled down. The Soviet Union had collapsed. The absence of totalitarianism does not automatically give rise to democracy. How can Americans stimulate the formation of democratic institutions in these countries where freedom of thought had been so restricted, where every typewriter and copy machine was state property? Send them computers! We created the East west Foundation to solicit donations of used computer hardware from Americans, refurbish them, consolidate whole systems and distribute them to organizations that would help build a Civil Society. This is Alex Randall as Keynote speaker at the COMDEX computer trade show in 1991.
September 5, 2013
Where do novel ideas come from? How do the move through society? What is the Diffusion of Innovation?What role does the second person hearing a novel idea play? How can this process be stimulated and enhanced?
September 4, 2013
Ambience. It is all about the sound of nature. This is an hour of the ocean waves crashing on the rocks at Beavertail Rhode Island. Recorded in 1972.
Spring of 1973… Just finished recording the interview with Albert Hofmann… Driving through the Swiss Alps. In a valley with no cars, nor houses, nor any signs of the outside world, there are hundreds of cows… each cow has a bell around its neck and each bell is a different size, as they move, the bells ring. Is it a symphony, or cacophony? Is it chaos or is there a melody? This is an hour of the cow bell symphony…. Very relaxing.
Dreams. Adventure. Audio.
Experience the Dream Wizard universe through immersive audiobook adventures filled with mystery, imagination, hidden worlds, and unforgettable dream journeys.
April 3, 2025
April 3, 2025
March 10, 2025
Who invented the first computer? No question that chief engineer Presper Eckert was the “sparkplug” of the ENIAC project. This is a 5 hour conversation with Eckert about his childhood inventions, his early work with counting circuits and the steps that led to the development of ENIAC. It was the first all electronic computing machine. (1991)
Listen to what he has to say about who took what ideas from whom.
January 25, 2024
A movie from my High School era. It is 1967. I am struggling with alienation, individualism and conformity. Ruth and I spend a lot of phone time talking about how we don’t feel like we fit in. So we made a movie. The media teacher, Dusty Stiles, does the camera work. Ruth runs around our school where everyone is a conformist. I have no idea how we talked so many people into wearing bags. The story is so poignant and reminds me of the struggles of LGBTQ people and anyone who struggles with who we are. Are we our own people or just puppets dancing to the crowds tune. “Let me be to think like I want to…” The songs by the Turtles were hits in 1965. The words ring now too.
January 24, 2024
A New Year’s Take by Vladimir Dudintsev
I’m excited to share the recording of last night Literary Café event at the Centre for Modern Aging Princeton. In this session, you’ll find me reading ‘A New Year’s Tale’ by Vladimir Dudintsev. Dive into the enchanting world of storytelling and let the narrative take you on a journey. Here is a link to the audio file: https://fb.watch/pMbROkJ0K
#CenterForModernAgingPrinceton #LiteraryCafe #VladimirDudintsev #StorytellingMagic
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2036720833367810&ref=sharing
Kenneth Boulding was a Quaker Economist and general Systems Theorist. For me this was a trifecta. Three reasons to go to his home and talk. This is a recording of our discussion about the Economics of peace and Love.
April 9, 2018
Dreams. Creativity. Action.
Author, professor, inventor, and internationally recognized researcher in the psychology of dreaming, creativity, and visionary experience. For decades, he has taught the Psychology of Dreaming to audiences around the world, inspiring thousands of people across more than 40 countries to explore the power of imagination, dreams, and creative thinking.
Dr. Randall is a Professor of Digital Media Communication at the University of the Virgin Islands, where he also serves as faculty adviser to the university communication laboratory and radio stations WUVI, “The Voice of the University.” His teaching includes courses in the Psychology of Sleep and Dreaming, Creative Problem Solving, communication, and innovation.
His work extends far beyond the classroom. Randall is credited with envisioning the world’s first e-commerce business, Boston Computer Exchange, years before online commerce became part of everyday life. He also founded the East West Educational Development Foundation, an initiative that recycled computers and supported democratic development around the world following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Throughout his career, he has explored how dreams, imagination, and visionary thinking can become practical tools for innovation and real-world change.
Randall is the creator of the Dream Wizard fantasy adventure series, including Dream Wizard Conquers His Knightmare, Dream Wizard ESCAPES, Dream Wizard Pirate Gold, and the forthcoming Dream Wizard at Altered State University. His stories combine fantasy, mystery, adventure, creativity, and dream-inspired worlds that encourage readers to think beyond ordinary reality.
He earned his doctoral degree at Columbia University under the direction of legendary anthropologist Dr. Margaret Mead, researching the origins of novel ideas, the diffusion of innovation, and the psychology of sleep. His dissertation was a field study among a tribe of dreamers. He also holds two additional master’s degrees from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Princeton University, where he studied sleep and dreaming with Dr. Henry Reed and psychedelic research with Dr. Humphry Osmond.
Today, his work continues to explore the connections between dreams, creativity, entrepreneurship, visionary experience, innovation, and the unexplored edges of human imagination.
