Casey Rae

Author, Buddhist / interfaith chaplain. Books: William S. Burroughs and the Cult of Rock ‘n’ Roll (UT Press); Music Copyright: An Essential Guide for the Digital Age (Bloomsbury); Dead Dharma (Oxford, 2026). Certified trauma-focused IFS and DBT.

comedy

Committed to the Bit

Australian comedy and the virtues of taking nonsense seriously.

artificial intelligence

Care Before Code

Artificial minds, mammalian bodies and the conditions for compassion.

play

Pleasure in Presence

On play, curiosity and the feelings we often overlook.

nostalgia

Creature Features

The things we loved as children can still show us who we are.

Roblox

Playing Along

What I learned by joining my daughter inside Roblox.

toxic masculinity

Tending to Toxicity

On anger, acceptance and meeting men where they are.

Green Lantern

On the Spectrum

Contemplating the luminous possibilities of the multiverse’s strangest superhero.

science fiction

Building the Torment Nexus

Science fiction keeps warning us about the future, and we keep proving it right.

anger

Angry at Anger

There’s plenty to be pissed about right now. We don’t have to fight ourselves for feeling it.

television

Main Title

In search of the greatest TV theme song of all time.

William S. Burroughs

Mind Junkies

William S. Burroughs’ language virus has found a strange new host in generative AI.

aging

Prior Worlds

The longer we live, the more our past loses the context that once made it seem solid.

media

Tape Delay

The future arrived, but not exactly as advertised.

anxiety

Too Much World

Sometimes staying present means cutting out the noise.

refuge

Ordinary Refuge

Small moments can remind us that the world is more than what we’ve learned to fear.

Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton, Bodhisattva

She made generosity look like the most natural thing in the universe.

accountability

Ego Tripping

The allegations surrounding Reggie Watts reveal an old problem with mistaking psychedelic experience for spiritual attainment.

Self-care

Benevolent Distractions

When full attention has to wait, self-kindness can take other forms.

film

Bad Directions

For a generation that inherited an unreliable map of reality, horror lives in the spaces between certainty.

AI

Beyond the Goal

New research into how purpose shapes experience points toward a more ancient understanding.

acceptance

Free to Be Free of Me

When the familiar self goes missing, nothing needs to take its place.

music

Beat Detective

Reopening the triumphant and tragic case of one of Britain’s finest bands.

AI

Authenticity in the Age of Slop

Even disposable culture used to require someone to give a shit.

aversion

Flying by Instruments

It’s not always easy, but it is possible.

contemplative practice

Fire on the Mountain

An unexpected lesson in body memory—and a long-awaited update on Dead Dharma.