Finding my voice and a future; the strange trip and the heroes
by Jon Rappoport
May 10, 2022
(To join our email list, click here.)
I’ve wanted to do this one for some time.
The beginning. 1982. Going from writing fiction and poetry to journalism in the blink of an eye, with the recommendation of my friend, LA Weekly writer Rockie Gardiner.
And after that, nothing was the same again.
So go to my substack page, throw in a few bucks, subscribe, and listen. Your support makes all the difference.
I explore a number of issues as I tell stories in this podcast. What is journalism supposed to be about? What were editors telling me? What was I advised about “the dead end” called investigative reporting?
The world of news is filled with strange characters, and now and then heroes show up. People who pass on a piece of crucial advice, put a piece of boggling evidence on the table, force you to evaluate what you’re really doing. Relentless people who don’t back down.
I talk about these people. I give them their due.
For example, Bill Perry, one of my earliest interviews in 1982. Bill fought his way to top of the food chain in the public relations field, and then one day walked out on the whole show. I can still remember, all these years later, how he told me that story. How he explained WHY he quit the game. You don’t forget moments like that, no matter how many years pass. You don’t forget something called morality.
There was a story I wrote in 1984, about nuclear security at the upcoming Olympic Games in Los Angeles. And after publishing it in a major magazine, I decided I had to tell somebody about what I’d found. The lack of security, and the potential threat. But who the hell do you talk to about that? Who can you trust?
As I was recording the podcast, I remembered the whole episode. So I describe it. Me, trying to deal with the federal government.
I discuss the field of so-called alternative journalism, as it was then—and still is, to a degree, now. I was mostly writing for those alternative outlets, but I discovered there were limits to what they wanted to cover. And there was the boredom, too.
The mind and soul numbing boredom of taking writing assignments that were so limited, I might as well have been working for the Washington Post. What are you supposed to do about THAT?
It was a key turning point for me. The fact is, every reporter is supposed to experience that exhaustion. Yes. Because it then forces him to make a decision about WHY he’s doing what he’s doing.
And then he takes one of two roads. He either gives in, or he goes further OUT. In my case, I lit the fuse on an explosion that is still reverberating for me.
In the podcast, I discuss my first flash of education about toxic corporate chemicals and life-destroying vaccines—a lesson that came from the unforgettable Ida Honorof. NO ONE who’s ever met Ida forgets her.
She was about 4 feet 10, about 50, skinny, with gray hair, when I ran into her in Los Angeles. A non-stop fireball. It took her about a minute to press into my hands a large sheaf of documents revealing corporate knowledge of pesticides resembling deadly Agent Orange. She commanded me to go home and read the documents. I obeyed. You could say my mind was then permanently blown.
I tell the story of another relentless character who came out of nowhere and practically forced me to go on the radio and reveal what I was finding out about AIDS. He told me he’d been Lenny Bruce’s agent. I think he pretty much existed on nuts and seeds. In his forties, he looked fit enough to get in the ring and fight for a world title.
These are people the normal world would retreat from. People who single-mindedly pursue a course of action whose limits are only defined by THEM.
They teach you something. Something realer than real.
In this podcast, I do my best to give you the shapes, the colors, the people, the decisions, the sensations of FINDING A WAY in a profession that, despite its claims about “the free press,” doesn’t want to make room for a writer who breaks the rules—
—Which ultimately led me to start a one-man news outlet 22 years ago.
But I did that only after having gone through some important years of grabbing a seat in the journalism bus and taking the ride.
Have a listen to the podcast. I believe you’ll find something valuable there.
— Jon
(To read about Jon’s mega-collection, The Matrix Revealed, click here.)
Jon Rappoport
The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.
My latest commentary column in the local paper:
>How I plan to beat Food Inflation and Supply Shortages<
“Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what’s for lunch.”
― Orson Welles
Food inflation and food shortages are looming. The ‘experts’ are telling us, as is the media, that the effects could be quite severe and will really hit home later this year. Sticking to my contrarian instincts….I smell a rat! I believe that these conditions have been engineered so that they can help stimulate public support for the long planned transhuman ‘reset’ culminating in the rise of a totalitarian New World Order. They plan to starve us into submission! ‘Let them eat cake!’ Marie-Antoinette famously proclaimed. You’ll be lucky if you can even get a hostess tastykake at the supermarket.
I could blame the current administration for these food related problems and you know what I will because they certainly bear a good portion of the responsibility for they have done much to exacerbate the problem. Honestly, though, this situation has been brewing for a long time. When you rely on mass production and global systems, with high energy and resource requirements you are bound to suffer when they fail and all things must fail due to the force of entropy, a thermodynamic law that guarantees that any system will fail over time. Luckily here in North Carolina we have a robust local farm to table economy. This will help us greatly where others in big cities, for example, will be left with few options for buying food.
Just the other day I had an epiphany that has helped me to understand how I can beat food inflation and the looming supply shortages. As I walked up and down the aisles of my local grocery store I came to realize that about 90% of what was for sale is processed food with very little nutritional value. The calories in calories out myth has been proven wrong many times and all calories are not the same. Taking it a step further I realized that the vast majority of the food sold in the local grocery store is actually bad for my health. It is important to note that much of our food is now genetically modified, the consequences of which are unknown. How does it feel to be a lab rat once again? As the ancient Chinese proverb says, ‘may you live in interesting times.’ My variation of the proverb would add ‘though not too interesting.’
What we need to do is to change our understanding of what food really is. The standard American diet consists almost entirely of nutritionally deficient processed foods. I am going to plan my menus around nutritionally dense, living foods that are organically grown from our local farms. This type of produce is not likely to increase as much in price because it is grown very close to market. The cost of processed foods is set to skyrocket because the inputs in the form of energy, fertilizer, pesticides and transportation are increasing dramatically. The products of large agribusiness companies are going to increase. Most of the produce in the grocery store comes to us via huge agricultural operations from around the country and the world. Supply chain issues may actually cause severe shortages of certain foods including produce. Food that comes from far away will increase in price. You may have to give up those wonderful grapes from Chile and Alaskan salmon if you can even get them. This is significant because much of our food and produce is grown elsewhere. I suggest you trade in those grapes for apples and the salmon for local trout. We need to eat produce that is sourced as close to home as possible.
I have chosen, for myself, to eat an essentially plant based diet. Occasionally I will eat meat that is local, free range, organically produced, grass fed and humanely raised. I can, if need be, survive without it. I eat very little sea food because of the relatively high levels of mercury that it contains. Obviously to the extent that we can produce our own food we are going to be much better off. Check with your neighbors and see if you can create a community cooperative garden. This is a critical point. We need to work creatively together to solve this problem. It would be best for us and the environment to grow food according to organic/biodynamic and regenerative principles. Healthy soil means a much higher level of nutrition pound for pound. Here is a short checklist of how I plan to beat both the looming supply shortage of food and the attendant price inflation.
Key points of my plan are as follows:
Eat less (seems kind of obvious).
Focus on only what you need to survive nutritionally (Not so obvious because most people don't know what is good or bad for them and have been misled by the food industry).
Shift to a plant based diet (It is the optimum diet for human health).
Eliminate processed foods (They are laden with chemicals and harmful artificial ingredients).
Eliminate snack and junk foods (same as above).
Buy local & organic produce when possible (It is grown naturally without deadly pesticides and herbicides).
Stock up on local food that has been canned, pickled or otherwise soundly preserved.
Eat more fermented foods that you can make naturally with low cost starter cultures.
Buy meat very occasionally, Locally produced organic, grass fed, free range etc.
Learn to produce some of your own food (sprouts, microgreens, herbs, some veggies and you can do this right in your kitchen and on your front porch).
Stock up on legumes, nuts, seeds and grains (They pack a nutritional punch for their size).
Drink only pure filtered water or spring water.
Work in community with neighbors to produce some of your own food.
Establish relationships with local farmers.
Join the food revolution! Avoid the global food supply system, eat and or grow your food locally!
If you drink filtered water to point it’s distilled, or reverse osmosis, for drinking water add a quarter tsp of sea salt to a gallon.