Kempner tells a convoluted story with sympathy and respect, adding her personal experience to solid research.
A compelling account of the promise of psychedelic drugs to treat crushing pain.
Kempner, a sociology professor at Rutgers University, has a special interest in chronic migraine, so when she heard of an underground network that was working toward effective treatment options to treat a related disease, cluster headache, she began to investigate. This led her to Clusterbusters, a support group that advocates and organizes the use of psychedelic drugs, especially mushrooms, that give relief to many. However, this is not a stereotypical tale of zoned-out acid trips of New Age wandering. Kempner notes that most of the people in the group “would blend in at any suburban mall. There’s not a hint of spirituality to be found….Not a single namaste.” The author traces how the group began and progressed, held together by online communication but also via annual in-person conventions. Even though “magic mushrooms” are illegal, the authorities often look the other way. Most Clusterbusters members take only small, calibrated amounts, and the success rate has been encouraging. A near-universal complaint is a lack of help with chronic migraine from conventional medical professionals, and the pharmaceutical companies show little interest in undertaking research into the area. The Clusterbusters developed their own protocol to standardize doses and treatment methods, but they realized that more in-depth research is needed. Kempner explains how they garnered support for clinical tests from academics at Harvard and Yale, but legalization of therapeutic psychedelic drugs is a long way off. She concludes: “The path to heaven from hell starts with hope….Pain isolates, but knowing you are not alone can make all the difference.”
Kempner tells a convoluted story with sympathy and respect, adding her personal experience to solid research.Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9780306828942
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Hachette
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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