{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Episode 291 - Ru Marshall's American Trickster: The Hidden Lives of Carlos Castaneda","description":"This episode is really a trickster triptych! Just in time for trick-or-treating, we look at three tricksters in popular media right now: Holmes, Patterson, and Castaneda. First, an old friend has some thoughts on the Department of Health and Human Services gathering data on potential EMF harms. Celestia is giddy about how the new documentary &quot;You Can See Everything&quot; pushed all her buttons, and Matt Crowley stops by to talk about Marq Evans's film &quot;Capturing Bigfoot,&quot; newly out in limited release and on Amazon Prime for streaming. Then Ben and Celestia have an in-depth talk with author Ru Marshall about their comprehensive biography of Carlos Castaneda, a literary hoaxer who took the psychedelic generation by storm and later inspired what appears to be a bizarre cult suicide near Pahrump, Nevada in the late 1990s. His books purported to share indigenous wisdom from a &quot;Don Juan&quot; figure that could unlock immortality, a fiction Castaneda presented as anthropology to eager academics in Southern California. His propensity for power, control and never-ending lies has eerie parallels with the Trump era we are now facing. ","author_name":"Squaring the Strange","author_url":"http:\/\/squaringthestrange.libsyn.com\/website","html":"<iframe title=\"Libsyn Player\" style=\"border: none\" src=\"\/\/html5-player.libsyn.com\/embed\/episode\/id\/43432289\/height\/90\/theme\/custom\/thumbnail\/yes\/direction\/forward\/render-playlist\/no\/custom-color\/88AA3C\/\" height=\"90\" width=\"600\" scrolling=\"no\"  allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen><\/iframe>","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/assets.libsyn.com\/secure\/item\/43432289"}