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PODCAST

the rohn report

dissertations on almost anything about being human / contemporary and humorous observations / bulletins and notifications / tips and quips / sermons rohn.substack.com

All Episodes

5:44

love in the trees

the rohn report ·

2025/04/15

My half dead Pecan tree has come back to life. The Hollys and the Hackberries have bloomed forth their full leaves waving in the breeze. The Spanish Oaks, oh my, and their serrated twig tips full of greenness. A leaf is a twig tip as a nut is a tiny tree. Brain shaped pecans for example. The BB sized Sugar Hackberry seeds that the Squirrels love and drop all over the ground after devouring their flesh. I find it easy to praise these stalwart sentinels reaching high into the sky, connecting

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7:59

Nine Stories

the rohn report ·

2025/04/03

“‘Nothing in the voice of the cicada intimates how soon it will die,’” Teddy said suddenly. “‘Along this road goes no one, this autumn eve.’” “What was that?” Nicholson asked, smiling. “Say that again.” “Those are two Japanese poems. They’re not full of a lot of emotional stuff,” Teddy said. He sat forward abruptly, tilted his head to the right, and gave his right ear a light clap with his hand. “I still have some water in my ear from my swimming lesson yesterday.” he said. He gave his

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16:01

Happy birthday van Gogh

the rohn report ·

2025/03/30

“A great fire burns within me, but no one stops to warm themselves at it, and passers-by only see a wisp of smoke.” wrote Vincent in a letter to his brother Theo.Then I will stop, Vincent, and warm myself at your fire. I know you had great struggles and turmoils and equally great transformations and victories. I know that you came into your highest powers while the depression and madness worked on you the most.And I know that you took your own life in the end, succumbed to the relentless sadness,

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16:10

I feel like acting out.

the rohn report ·

2025/03/22

Well this is a break through. Not only am I riffing on Donald Trump, something I vowed never to do but I’m doing it in my own rhythm. No more Thursday morning deadlines, every rohn report being published precisely at 7 AM on the morning of . . . (you may or may not have noticed). Just a simple catch and release. Who knows when the fish will bite, it’s still early or it’s too late, they bite when they want to bite. This post is ready when it’s ready. So, yep, it’s about Donald Trump. I had to

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9:20

Ants

the rohn report ·

2025/03/13

I’ve got ants in my kitchen. I don’t kill them, I watch them. They come out of the electrical outlet next to the refrigerator and begin their foraging, forming trails of small black bodies, scouting out the premises to see what’s to eat. If they don’t find anything on the butcher block table they trek over to the sink and see if I left the honey out. If there’s nothing there, I guess, I dunno, maybe go back to the outlet and take a nap, wait for debris to accumulate which inevitably happens in

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13:14

chaos

the rohn report ·

2025/03/06

This post first appeared in August of 2020, just before the presidential election. It was my first post on Substack. There have been 267 posts since then, on everything from nuclear war to wildflowers, from supernovae to the murals that decorate my city and I’m feeling an urge to return to the place of my origin, revisit the garden of intention and the spirit of that very first post. It was called ‘chaos’. It went something like this.My very first post began as a seed, as most of them do, an

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12:49

some trees I have known

the rohn report ·

2025/02/27

I was thinking that maybe the rohn report should be more journalistic. It is a report after all. Write about current events in contemporary society, real things. So with that in mind I searched around for something more real, journalistic, and came up with ‘some trees I have known’. There’s something. I know alot of trees. Trees in various neighborhoods and various guises that stick in my mind. Trees that I visit all the time, companions of mine. Trees that have a story to tell. I assembled

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12:29

elation

the rohn report ·

2025/02/20

We don’t talk about it much as if it were a mysterious disease or a taboo, maybe a little weird.I asked my cat about it the other day. I thought she might know something but she just looked at me as if to say what a stupid question. I realized that I was on my own.elated | əˈlādəd | adjective: ecstatically happy, exhilarated, delighted, overjoyed, joyous, gleeful, excited, animated, jubilant, beside oneself with happiness, exultant, euphoric, rapturous, enraptured, rapt; walking on air - the

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14:37

four post cards

the rohn report ·

2025/02/13

I’m into Hiroshi Yoshimura these days. I go through phases with music. It’s my job, listening to music and writing stuff, so I hear alot of it. YouTube. Then something gets inspired and it starts to flow. Only then does it quicken and get deep. And isn’t that what it’s about? Don’t we want to get quickened? Especially if we’re late driving the kids to school and there’s been an accident. I think so. There always seems to be an accident somewhere. We’re accident prone. We can’t seem to

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18:19

supernova

the rohn report ·

2025/02/06

Every time I start out with this newsletter I try not to deliver a sermon, but I usually fail. I guess it’s my genre. Or maybe my fate. Supernova!Stars get old and die, just like everything else. Some stars are so huge (eight times the mass of our sun) that when they burn out and collapse, it causes them to explode in a rare and glorious event called a supernova. In these glorious explosions the entire star turns inside out, or rather outside in; having no more fuel to burn it collapses and

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13:11

a big storm coming

the rohn report ·

2025/01/29

A few days ago I was riding my bicycle thru the park and stopped to talk to a couple of kids playing there.“Are you setting up a shop to sell stuff?” I inquired. They had groups of stones arranged on a rock.“No, we’re playing Minecraft.”“What?”“Minecraft.”“Oh. You’re using stones for Minecraft?”“They’re not stones.”“Oh. They’re acorns. They came out of the tree.”One of the kids immediately went over to the tree which was kind of leaning over where they were playing and started climbing it, the

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11:05

Danish custom in winter

the rohn report ·

2025/01/23

That was my search term: ‘Danish custom in winter’ . . . . . search result: ‘Hygge, a prominent Danish custom during winter is "hygge," which emphasizes creating a cozy and comfortable atmosphere with family and friends, often involving candles, warm drinks, and enjoying the simple pleasures of being together, essentially finding joy in the cold winter months.’ Thank you AI Overview. You are too cool. I thought it was something like that. Hygge (pronounced "hyugah") is for me. I’m not Danish

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11:39

air

the rohn report ·

2025/01/16

This podcast is about air, the thing that gives us life. Also the thing that fuels wildfires - like LA. It creates and it destroys. Both are equal for air. It’s a primordial force.Originally published last Spring, I thought it was time to revive it. It’s one of my favorites and besides I didn’t have anything else ready. So it’s a rerun. Hey, even my Baptist preacher father used to do that.Ok, so this is how it happened. I was riding my bike thru Brackenridge Park and feeling the wind on my

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11:17

San Antonio drought

the rohn report ·

2025/01/09

It just won’t rain around here. It’s disturbing.Maybe you don’t care if you don’t live around here but hear me out. The rain goes right around our town. I’ve watched it on radar. Disappointed again. Now there’s a 97% chance of rain for Thursday, the day this post will go live. I’ll bet you a dollar we barely get pissed on. Excuse the vernacular. I’m a little disturbed, discouraged, affected, dejected. Makes me mad. I need rain like the trees and the grass.My pecan tree is half dead because

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5:59

a new year's day and a new year

the rohn report ·

2025/01/01

the fireworks are over / the dogs have stopped barkingmy cats have come home from under cover hidingthe only changes I have seen so farbut all the changes will have to be in meor it will be the same old year againis what i’m thinkingand how to change myself ??that’s the hardest oneeverything else is do-ablethere’s a tool or a wayor a strategy or a precedentbut how to make your wayamong the tangled labyrinths of your own mind ??how to trim and pruneso the path is knowneven in the rain evenin the

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9:04

I'm infected

the rohn report ·

2024/12/26

I caught a viral infection, right at the height of the holiday season. Couldn’t fulfill any of my social opportunities and obligations. No parties, no get-togethers, no singing Christmas Carols at the church. Sniffling and snuffling and coughing and sneezing my way thru the night, sinuses congested, hard to breathe. Yeah, each breath was a struggle. The need to get oxygen - urgent and primal. Satisfying when you can get it, deeply disturbing if you can’t. Of course I could always breathe thru

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3:32

wet leaves

the rohn report ·

2024/12/19

I’m intoxicated by the falling leaves. Especially if they’re wet. I feel wealthy, rich with leaves.The front porch greets me with leaves.mixed among the new growth the leaves lie where they fallit’s beautiful i walk among the leavesthey have nothing to say i like that.i sit among the leavesi listen closely nothing happensi am consoled by so many leaves just lying here saying nothing doing nothingthere must be a million leaves I am a millionaire!intermixed with sticksand dirt the leaves lie

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46:32

Barista interview with Abby

the rohn report ·

2024/12/12

Originally published on August 3, 2003, I thought it was high time to revive this classic. It had come up, recently, in conversation with a cafe friend who also knew Abby and that seemed like a prompt, maybe an omen. The conversation ranges from the absurd to the sublime, from the silly to the deeply philosophical, from the hilarious to the merely delightful. I hope you enjoy it . . .Welcome to Barista Interviews. This is the third in the series. Katie from Rose Hip Coffee and Ali also from Rose

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12:30

our own healing modalities

the rohn report ·

2024/12/05

I have this weird belief that doctors don’t know everything, that there’s more to know and that each one of us can, in our own unique way, discover and utilize our own personal healing modalities.What is a healing modality? It’s a way of getting better, getting rid of illness and debility. It’s something that makes you strong and resilient, flexible even. Our species has discovered and forgotten more healing modalities than we can imagine.That’s my point. Contracting our health care out to

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8:30

john and rohn do thanksgiving

the rohn report ·

2024/11/29

So me and my buddy John decided to go to the Thanksgiving dinner downtown at the Convention Center, being the lonely solo acts that we are with nothing else to do for Thanksgiving. That’s kind of what it’s for, I guess, the Street People show up, families, all kinds of people, 25,000 of them according to the official website. That’s like a football game almost. Actually, Thanksgiving is in the tradition of the ancient Savory Feast of Autumn - when all the crops are in and before the cold winds

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