David Shorter
David Delgado Shorter
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Mother Jones | Politics Desk • April 5, 2022

"According to Shorter, if humanity only views other planets as potential resources, science could miss out on deeper levels of understanding, such as the recent discovery that forests on Earth think or communicate. SETI researchers might also miss the presence of intelligent alien species if they assume that such species would necessarily prioritize technological advancement, Shorter said." To read the full article, click HERE. 

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Tune In to Coast to Coast AM on Monday, March 14, 2022! Coast to Coast AM airs on more than 600 stations in the U.S., as well as Canada, Mexico and Guam, and is heard by nearly three million weekly listeners. With hosts George Noory, it is the most listened to overnight radio program in North America. A media phenomenon, Coast to Coast AM deals with UFOs, strange occurrences, life after death, and other unexplained (and often inexplicable) phenomena. Coast to Coast AM is overnight talk radio with daytime ratings.

Professor of World Arts and Cultures / Dance at the University of California Los Angeles, Dr. David Delgado Shorter has been interviewing psychics, mediums, and ufologists for the last decade, joining others to expand our definition of truth and knowledge. He'll discuss his work on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, as well as the subjects of his popular UCLA course "Aliens, Psychics, and Ghosts."

Click HERE to tune in!
Alien Artwork by Joanne Barker
Dr. Shorter joined others for a Special Event to announce the publication of the Special Issue of American Indian Culture and Research Journal devoted to the study of Settler Science and the Ethics of Alien Contact! You can see the recording of that event on YouTube by clicking HERE or on the image to the left.

​To order your copy of this collection of essays about the search for extra-terrestrials, you can click HERE. 



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UCLA professor David Delgado Shorter has launched The Archive of Healing, one of the largest databases of medicinal folklore from around the world. The site aims to preserve Indigenous knowledge about healing practices, while preventing that data from being exploited for profit. Much of the entries involve food with healing properties, from traditional remedies involving ginger and turmeric, to others using salt cod and goosegrease.

Shorter speaks with Good Food about the archive’s history, the conversations it has sparked, and the herbal discoveries within.

To read or listen to Dr. Shorter's interview with Evan Kleiman, click HERE.

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​This episode of Perfume on the Radio explores practices, stories and experiences that lie in the outer limits of human  perception, from trance states to witchcraft, from hauntings to abductions to sensorial trickery. Click HERE to listen to the podcast.

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David joined Dr. Sharon Stills to talk about healthcare and structural inequality in addition to a range of issues pertaining to non-Western ways of of thinking about health: dreams, object-orientated thinking, and how we are related. Click HERE to listen to the podcast. 

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From Between the Worlds podcast page: "We are SO EXCITED to present to you this very special episode with guest Dr. David Delgado Shorter where we discuss the Flower Worlds of the Yaqui people of northern Mexico. In this cosmology there are nine interlocking worlds filled with magical creatures. Reality is danced and sung into being. Flowers are messengers from Spirit. In the Western Mystery traditions, the suit of wands relates to the wisdom flowers and trees, and in this episode we get to hear a radically different perspective on these beings." Click on image to the left to listen to the interview.

David Interviews Ioanna Gick

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I had just arrived to Son of a Gun restaurant on West 3rd Street expecting to have another “business dinner” with associates of my then partner. I ordered a cocktail thinking of what sort of small talk I could make with this, Whoa, incredibly enchanting woman who just sat next to me. We started chatting and the hairs on my arms stood on end. My frequency was rising; someone from the other side was telling me “this one, pay attention.” And how could I not? 

Ioanna Gika does not really walk on our earth; she seems to float a half inch above it, riding the planet’s aura, making it easier for her to shape shift through dimensions, appearing here and there at will. And the last few years she has in fact been here and there. She can be spotted on ABC’s drama “Stumptown”; her voice a trembling strength on “Gone,” the vexing song from “Snow White and the Huntsman” soundtrack; or perhaps you saw her last year on one of her two (!) tours, opening for Garbage on one and for Chelsea Wolfe on another. [To continue reading, click on the image to the left and download the QuaranZine app].

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Against Everyone with Connor Habib: February 9, 2018
Connor Habib has David on his podcast to discuss ally work particularly when considering the ways that non-Indigenous people seek to benefit from Native People's religiosity. Connor and David discuss the very real need for all people to recognize the dangers of objectivism and capitalism without having to consume other people's cultures. To watch this episode, check out this link HERE.

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Check out Casa Apocalyptica with biophiliac land stewards Chris and Kory, who dismantle the nature/culture divide in their urban landscape.

The second half of the show will begin with the beautiful and mysterious California native plant, Sacred Datura, and open into a larger discussion of the cultural and academic implications of plant medicine with Dr. David Delgado Shorter, UCLA Professor and Director of the Archive of Healing and, and Hamilton Morris creator of the TV show Hamilton's Pharmacopeia.

Click on Poppy Hour to the left to see the Interview!


​"Dr. David Delgado Shorter spoke to the UCLA Arts podcast “Works In Progress” about traditional healing practices that can benefit us, especially in a time of widespread sickness and anxiety."
April 2020.  Click Photo on Left to Hear. 



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Are you weirded out by the way that some folks talk about Indigenous spiritualities? On today’s episode of Feral Visions, we’re delving into the romantic idea of ‘Indian spirituality.’ Come learn from Dr. David Delgado Shorter about some of the power dynamics thru which it’s been imagined & maintained within the dominant, Eurocentric, settler colonial US. We’ll discuss some material implications of generalizations about Indigenous spiritualities, including who & what benefits from them in our current neocolonial context."  ~From Liberation Spring
Click on image (left) to see or hear the Interview. 


David interviews The Oracle of LA

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Having been studying the borderlands of science and teaching classes on the paranormal for years, I was excited to meet a self-described “witch.” Yates Garcia not only practiced her witchery, she thought very deeply about her craft. Her feminism is communal and participatory, a hard-won standpoint that connects people across this city and, since her book came out and made a big splash last year, this globe. She is capable of connecting witchcraft to deep intellectual traditions and social theory. And her work is resoundingly political as her appearance on Tucker Carlson attests. Sitting with her is a polyglot experience. If Amanda and I are not talking about the Three of Cups, for example, we might be discussing the impact of Critical Race Theory on sex work.  If you are unfamiliar with her yet, Amanda Yates Garcia is a writer, witch, and The Oracle of Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The LA Times, The SF Chronicle, The London Times, The Millions, The Believer, CNN, Salon, Bravo, as well as a viral appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight. [To continue reading this interview, please click on the image to the left and download the QuaranZine app].

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​On March 8, 2017, David joins Rita Celli from the CBC to talk with callers about people who have "gone Native," or shifted their racial identity over time. Listen to the call-in show directly below.


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The Armory Center for the Arts is pleased to present Attunement, a group exhibition that includes paintings, photos, prints, text, and video that are prone to resonate beyond ranges of audio and visual perception. Co-produced by Leonardo Bravo, River Jukes-Hudson, and David Shorter.

Attunement pays tribute to artists who function on multiple frequencies. They flow through worlds, above boundaries, under surfaces, around obstacles and inhabit the spaces in-between. They communicate on multiple channels, and their work can be defined as exceptionally rich, layered, complex, and in some ways “off the charts.” In order to appreciate the messages fully, we must “tune in” to the ranges of expression that continue infinitesimally through space and time.  Enjoy some images of opening night below.

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Through Indian Eyes: Native American Cinema (October 5, 2014)

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In-person: Chris Eyre, Shelley Niro, Heather Rae, Randy Redroad; Moderated by UCLA Prof. David Delgado Shorter.
The scope of the cultural achievement represented by the films in this series is gigantic, but how may it be best understood historically?  Native American filmmakers have attained increasing notice in the last quarter-century, and communities and artists have been energized to create more, and more elaborate, films and videos.  Yet their aims have often been widely divergent, and differently infused with politics, cultural information and artistic ambition.  This panel will explore the individual and group achievements made by myriad artists and communities, and the place of emergent Native American cinema within the contexts of North American and international cinema culture.

You can see a video recording of the
​                                                                                                         panel discussion HERE. 




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From May 1 to August 15, 2014, the Fowler Museum at UCLA exhibited a collection of Yaqui masks. This exhibit, curated by David Shorter, featured a wide variety of mask designs, videos from the Yoeme/Yaqui communities, images from the Yaqui homelands, and musical instruments from the Pascola arts.   

Learn more about David's curated exhibit here.  

Plus:

The Daily Bruin enables us to take a virtual tour of the exhibit and hear Dr. Shorter explain some of the curatorial decisions made for this exhibit.  If you want to get a sense of the exhibit, you can watch the tour HERE.

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David demonstrated his Wiki for Indigenous Languages in Lima, Peru on April 24th, 2014 at the HASTAC conference.  HASTAC stands for the Humanities, Arts, Sciences and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory.  HASTAC remains one of the most inter-disciplinary organizations for all things related to technology, education, and social transformation. In his talk, David covered the history and trajectory of his open source indigenous language learning platform and discuss some exciting changes coming in the upcoming months to the Wiki for Indigenous Languages, including making the site more robust for users and providing a mobile site.  


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DIY Days in Los Angeles, CA

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"DIY Days" is about the accessibility of ideas, resources and networking that can enable creators to fund, create, distribute and sustain. For more information, click here. 


"The Exiles" showing and discussion at The Hammer Museum

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The Exiles
Kent Mackenzie's magnificent, long-undistributed, unclassifiable first feature, The Exiles, stands as a rare consideration of the inner and outer lives of American Indians in a big American city. – Boston Globe

The Exiles chronicles one night in the lives of young Native American men and women living in the Bunker Hill district of Los Angeles. Based entirely on interviews with the participants and their friends, the film follows a group of these urban exiles — transplants from Southwest reservations. Co-presented by the UCLA American Indian Studies Center, this program is one of the events commemorating the 40th Anniversary of ethnic studies centers at UCLA. (1961, 72 Min. Dir. Kent Mackenzie).  Join us for a conversation with celebrated indigenous filmmaker, Sterlin Harjo; noted author and scholar of Native Studies, Dr. Peter Nabokov; and indigenous studies professor and the editor of the "Indigenous Film" book series, Dr. David Shorter.  For more information, click here.