Bruce Wagner is a novelist, former student of Carlos Castaneda, and author of fifteen books, including his latest, "Amputation."

This conversation explores his use of Hollywood as a laboratory for human behavior, crafting transgressive fiction that skewers the desperate while searching for transcendence. We discuss his decade with Castaneda, writing "Amputation" after the LA fires, the relationship between suffering and art, Buddhist and Sufi wisdom, and why fiction is our most potent vehicle to truth.

He describes inhabiting his most malevolent characters with the same proximity as his saintly ones—because we're all interchangeable, all searching for transcendence.

Bruce is infinitely fascinating, one of the most interesting people I've ever met. Enjoy!

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Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand

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