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April 7, 2024 59 mins

So...how did I end up in Slab City...? Well..it's a long story. But the short version is a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go to an anarchy festival next door to a meth head campground where people would be exploding home made bombs and setting cars on fire and I said....maybe? But my curiosity about Slab City had started years ago because let me just give you a brief description of what it is. Slab City is a plot of land that is still technically up for grabs out in the middle of nowhere 3 hours past Indio (Coachella) in California. Travelers, veterans, retirees, anarchists, transgenders, renegades from the law, meth heads, artists, counter culture champions, musicians, families, anyone and everyone can be found here in this tiny little oasis in the desert. There is no plumbing, electricity, mail, police, or taxes. It's a perfect little ecosystem of what can happen when humans are left to organize themselves from scratch and find ways to live in Harmony with nature while having their basic food, shelter and water needs met.

Slab City has a Library, a farm, a Internet cafe, a hotel, a hot springs, a art collective, a stage with live music, people selling crafts and jewelry spread around and a fully functioning meth lab. Some plots are beautiful, with a well organized set up, some are actual garbage dumps, with questionable humans living in ways you wouldn't want to imagine. It is full of some of the most colorful humans you could imagine, and for someone like me, it's kind of a paradise. No one here has anything to lose, and nothing to hide. They have faced the elements and themselves by living out here alone in the desert and they seriously don't give a fuck. It's WONDERFUL. Before you get the Slab City is the amazing "Salvation Mountain" Leonard Knights 28 year sacrifice to God. It's insane. Primary colors pop in all directions turning a once mud light colored desert floor into a giant work of technicolor art. It's truly something everyone should see once in their lifetime. I spent four days living in an RV and trying to get people to talk to me. It wasn't easy. People rightfully so are a bit cautious when a loudmouth jewess rolls up demanding friendship and community. But I eventually won a couple over and then the doors to Narnia were opened and I fell head first into this very specific slice of the planet with it's own militia, rules and regulations.

love Slab City, it's full of men like him who have a heart of gold and stories until the cows come home. The main message I got here was

1. Everything is an illusion
2. We are all connected beings
3. Why would you slave your life away working to own things that provide you no pleasure?

I've got a months worth of episodes coming your way. Check in every Sunday

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all my info and episodes are on my website www.zoenightingale.com

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