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Baba Brinkman has been touring and performing as an independent rap artist since 2004, posting regular updates along the way about his adventures bringing literature and science to the masses. Several of his scholarly articles have been published in science and culture journals, and his first book of poetry, The Rap Canterbury Tales, was published by Talon Books in 2006.
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September 14, 2019

Making History off-Broadway

Making History off-Broadway For the first time ever, I will be performing an off-Broadway production that consists of five (5!) different shows in rotation. In fact, I’m pretty sure I…

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April 5, 2019

Freedom Ain’t Free Lyric Video

I recently heard Mayor Pete Buttigieg on the Pod Save America podcast arguing that Democrats should reclaim the word “freedom” because of the freedoms afforded by government support, civil rights,…

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March 12, 2019

Feelings for Reasons

Show-Score.com is often described as the Rotten Tomatoes of New York Theater, and when they recently published their “Trending Shows off-Broadway List” I was proud to see three of the…

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January 21, 2019

Redemption – New Music Video!

View on YouTube | View on Facebook | Download from Bandcamp For those of you who follow my video releases, you will know that I worked with Wesleyan University Environmental…

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December 3, 2018

RAP GUIDE SERIES OPENS OFF-BROADWAY DEC 27

Starting on December 27th 2018 the Soho Playhouse is launching a new off-Broadway encore series featuring three of my Rap Guide shows in rotation for an initial run of nine weeks. Check out…

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November 30, 2018

SEE FROM SPACE – NEW MUSIC VIDEO

My latest music video features a rapping alien assessing the biological diversity on yet another planet, ours. Do we qualify as an “intelligent civilization”? And what evolutionary processes produced the odd technology-using apes…

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November 5, 2018

CONFESSIONS OF A SKEPTIC

I BELIEVE IN THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD… Watch “Confessions of a Skeptic” on: YouTube  |  Facebook The timing of this release might seem odd since it isn’t explicitly about the most important election…

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October 9, 2018

SENESCENCE – NEW MUSIC VIDEO

SENESCENCE HAS ARRIVED With my 40th birthday coming up later this month, it’s high time for a rap music video about the evolutionary biology of aging. Why do our bodies…

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July 7, 2018

off-Broadway Until August

Bill Nye’s Hot Take on Rap Guide to Consciousness After fifty-five off-Broadway performances in New York since March 1st, I took a short break over the past few weeks for some…

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April 19, 2018

Extending Consciousness

Deepak Chopra and Freestyle Battles… Oh My! Broadway World just announced a one-month extension for Rap Guide to Consciousness at the Soho Playhouse, with off-Broadway shows added until May 31st. If you have a…

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March 31, 2018

Adventures in Consciousness

Consciousness in New York Two weeks ago I performed my favourite gig since moving to NYC in 2011. The venue was BAM, a 2,200 seat concert hall in Brooklyn, and…

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March 4, 2018

Opening Weekend off-Broadway

Three performances into my off-Broadway run of Rap Guide to Consciousness and the crowds have been a blast, with over 100 people in the house last night for my Saturday…

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February 18, 2018

Rap Guide to Consciousness Opens off-Broadway

I’m currently hard at work on the script, music, visuals, and stagecraft for Rap Guide to Consciousness, which opens at the Soho Playhouse on March 1st for a two month off-Broadway…

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September 29, 2016

Upcoming Gigs

Baba Brinkman tour dates

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August 25, 2016

New Release – The Rap Guide to Climate Chaos

NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER The Rap Guide to Climate Chaos is the seventh instalment in my “Rap Guide” series, exploring big ideas from science and human behaviour. This one dives…

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May 4, 2016

Rap Guide to Climate Chaos Extends!

Initially scheduled for an eight week run at the Soho Playhouse, Rap Guide to Climate Chaos is now extended until June 11th. Tickets and showtimes here. For more about the…

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January 25, 2016

Join the “Climate Chaos” IndieGogo Campaign!

Good things are happening with “Rap Guide to Climate Chaos”. After successes in Edinburgh and at the Paris conference, the show will soon be starting an off-Broadway run, opening exactly one month…

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December 18, 2015

Religion Evolves – New Music Video

Religion Evolves I just released a new music video which I’m very excited to share with you. The digital animation is by Steven Fahey, who is a full time animator…

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December 10, 2015

Keep Up With The COP

Click here to read my latest blog from the COP21 conference in Paris: https://www.patreon.com/posts/3893828

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December 7, 2015

Live From Paris

Click here to read my new blog from the COP21 conference in Paris: https://www.patreon.com/posts/live-from-paris-3882429

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December 3, 2015

Join Me On Patreon

Every year or so since 2010 I’ve reached out to my friends and fans asking for help with a Kickstarter or IndieGogo campaign to fund my latest album or video project. Well…

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October 29, 2015

New Release: The Rap Guide to Religion

RELEASED OCT 23, 2015 iTunes, Bandcamp, Amazon The Rap Guide to Religion is a hip-hop concept album about the evolution of religious instincts, featuring production from Mr. Simmonds, Soulful Spider,…

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September 3, 2015

Baba Brinkman and Heather Berlin Live at The China Cloud, Vancouver, Sept 9th

Upcoming Concert: Sept 9th 2015 @ The China Cloud, 524 Main Street, Vancouver Doors 7:30pm, showtime 8pm, $15 cover Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/384580741739215/ Baba Brinkman & Heather Berlin just finished a critically-acclaimed…

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August 16, 2015

What’s Beef? (Climate Change Version) – Music Video

My new show “Rap Guide to Climate Chaos” is now playing at the Edinburgh Fringe. For those of you who can’t come see it live, here’s a music video for…

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May 6, 2015

Drama Desk Award Nomination!

I’m excited to announce that Rap Guide to Religion was recently nominated for a Drama Desk Award in the category of “Unique Theatrical Experience.” Director/Producer Darren Lee Cole and myself…

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April 30, 2015

The Rap Guide to Medicine Album Release

ASU CENTER FOR EVOLUTION AND MEDICINE COMMISSIONS A “PEER REVIEWED” RAP ALBUM TO COMMUNICATE SCIENCE April 30, 2015 (New York, NY) – The Center for Evolutionary Medicine (CEM) at Arizona…

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February 20, 2015

NY Times Review and Extension

Rap Guide to Religion continues its successful run at the Soho Playhouse, with an awesome new review and “critics’ pick” designation by the New York Times. The show is now…

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January 8, 2015

Rap Guide to Religion Extends

  My latest off-Broadway production, “Rap Guide to Religion,” begins its extended run this week, with shows confirmed until the end of February. Check out the brand new website for the show, with…

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December 4, 2014

Religion and Wilderness

My new album, The Rap Guide to Wilderness, is about to drop, and my off-Broadway play, The Rap Guide to Religion, continues its off-Broadway run here in New York, so…

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November 14, 2014

Wilderness Sneak Preview

Here’s an exclusive sneak preview of my new album: The Rap Guide to Wilderness. The project is a celebration of wild nature and its impact on human wellbeing, commissioned by the Wild…

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November 4, 2014

Rapping for Wilderness

Support The Rap Guide to Wilderness on IndieGogo I’ve been working full-tilt on my new record, The Rap Guide to Wilderness, which will premiere at the World Parks Congress in less than…

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October 14, 2014

Rap Guide to Wilderness Coming Soon!

The WILD Foundation is commissioning a new hip-hop album entitled “The Rap Guide to Wilderness” which I’m in the process of producing now! The songs are about how we relate to wild…

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September 25, 2014

The Rap Guide to Religion off-Broadway

The Rap Guide to Religion Premieres off-Broadway   Announcing a new off-Broadway theatre production, written and performed by Baba Brinkman, directed by Darren Lee Cole, and produced by Soho Playhouse…

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September 6, 2014

Kickstarting A New Record

My Kickstarter campaign only has 58 hours left and it’s tantalizingly close! In the past week we’ve had more than 60 new backers and we’re now well over the 2/3 mark, 217 backers…

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August 16, 2014

5 Rap Songs That Could Be Fringe Anthems

Here’s my recent Scotsman blog outlining the five rap songs that capture something distinctive about the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

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June 16, 2014

A Brief History of Rhyme

In early May I gave a talk at TEDxNavesink in New Jersey, entitled “A Brief History of Rhyme,” detailing the emergence of polysyllabic rhyme patterns in both hip-hop and traditional…

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May 25, 2014

New Shoots

Yesterday Jamie and I performed at the Octagon Theatre in Perth, the third stop on our nine-city Rap Guide to Evolution Down Under tour, including the Sydney Opera House June…

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March 29, 2014

Evolution and Inequality

I get emails from creationists occasionally, mostly good-natured ones rather than hate mail, but always disputatious in nature (of course). Recently I engaged in a dialogue with a family friend…

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February 28, 2014

Darwin Day (Video)

A rap tribute to the countless biology teachers in the trenches of science literacy, teaching evolution to millions of students even in the face of religious objections. Nothing in biology…

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January 31, 2014

Darwin’s America

We’re Making a Movie! You heard it here first: we’re making a feature documentary about the Rap Guide to Evolution. The film, provisionally titled “Darwin’s America,” will be produced by Creative Chaos Ventures, a New York company whose most…

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January 10, 2014

Verbal Bling, Homicide, and Afrocentricity

When I was commissioned to write The Rap Guide to Evolution and challenged to communicate the key ideas behind Darwin’s theory in hip-hop form, my first thought was to go…

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January 1, 2014

The Rap Up

What a year 2013 was! With your help we completed two crowdfunding campaigns, funding the first-ever three show hip-hop theatre cycle off-Broadway and a music video for the Darwin-inspired peace-anthem “Don’t Sleep…

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October 16, 2013

Rap Guide to Evolution in Vancouver

In two and a half weeks I’ll be performing my first-ever public theatre run in my hometown of Vancouver, BC, and the first run of any kind there since the…

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September 12, 2013

New Album: Irregular Spirits

Back in 2005 while I was performing at the Brighton Fringe Festival I met and made friends with a network of ridiculously talented UK rappers. Several of them were in…

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August 24, 2013

Thunderclap With Me!

This post has one request and one request only: please join my thunderclap! Link to join: http://thndr.it/14qcq7C Thunderclap is a social media amplifier that will blast out a message via Twitter…

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August 17, 2013

Sleep With Whoever You Want, Jeremy Yoder

From a gene’s eye view, is it better to be in the body of a machiavellian psychopath or in the body of a socially-responsible nice guy? The answer to that…

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July 31, 2013

JY’s Five Finger Discount

In his recent blog post, evolutionary biologist and sleeping-with-mean-people advocate Jeremy Yoder tries his best to win an argument by shoplifting the conclusion rather than paying for it with good…

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July 24, 2013

I Want Jeremy Yoder’s Money

In a recent blog post, U of M biology post-doc Jeremy Yoder takes a hatchet to my campaign to promote “Don’t Sleep With Mean People” as the new Golden Rule…

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July 22, 2013

Bedroom Eugenics

When I posted the crowdfunding video for Don’t Sleep With Mean People last week, the first comment on it was: “What is this, eugenics?” The answer is yes, in a…

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July 4, 2013

Rap Guide to Evolution in London

Performances in London | Sept 17 – 29 2013 The Wellcome Trust is currently considering a funding application to bring The Rap Guide to Evolution to a West End theatre in…

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May 29, 2013

Three Show Cycle

Evolutionary Tales Starts Friday Greetings from the Player’s Theatre! We’ve spent the past two days setting up not one but three shows here, preparing for the world’s first-ever hip-hop theatre…

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May 1, 2013

Evolutionary Tales

I’m excited to announce the world’s first-ever hip-hop theatre cycle, running off-Broadway May 31st to June 23rd. “Evolutionary Tales” combines three original shows that each celebrate the evolutionary view of…

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March 31, 2013

The Science of Rhyme

Soho Playhouse Inc in Association with Thinking Animals Inc The Science of Rhyme: An Evening of Neuro-Lyricism April 16th, 7-9pm 218 E 25th Street RSVP: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/store/29885/donate/21805 In an exciting merging…

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March 18, 2013

Final Week

Darwin Was Right Only seven days left to help me spread the word! I wrote the Rap Guide to Evolution to help people achieve a better understanding of Darwin’s theory, including how…

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February 26, 2013

Reasons and Actions to Support Joyce

Here are five reasons to support Joyce Murray for Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada: She is the only candidate with a strong track record of success across multiple…

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February 25, 2013

Insult to Injury

Tree planting skeptics really get under my skin. In general I’m in favour of skepticism, but only the well-informed, intellectually curious kind, not the knee-jerk “it doesn’t sound intuitively realistic…

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February 22, 2013

Cooperation Time

I recently recorded a rap song for my mother Joyce Murray’s campaign for Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. If you don’t know what she’s about, go to her…

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February 11, 2013

Ingenious Nature (Live)

I’m writing this from a tour bus, en route from Williamstown, MA to Providence, RI, sloughing through Nemo’s wake on a national tour of the Rap Guide to Evolution. In a few…

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February 11, 2013

Supporting Joyce Murray Is Easy

I normally use this blog to talk about my own projects and events, but this one isn’t about me, it’s about my mother, Joyce Murray. She’s running for leader of…

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January 26, 2013

Darwin Meets Chaucer Off-Broadway

Crowdfunding An Extension, and A Unique Experiment Three weeks ago we finished up the initial run of Ingenious Nature, and immediately an offer came up to extend not just that…

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January 10, 2013

Still A Chaucerian

Yes, I’ve been focussing on science a lot lately, but I’m still a Chaucerian. Two days ago Jamie and I performed The Canterbury Tales Remixed for a group of Juniors…

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January 4, 2013

End Game

Ingenious Nature’s Final Weekend NY Times Publishes a Review and Video Ingenious Nature moves into its final weekend tonight, with only three shows left in our run, and things have…

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December 17, 2012

Ingenious Responses

Jamie Simmonds and I have now co-written and performed three (3!) off-Broadway shows in the past two years, and today, two weeks after the official opening of our newest, Ingenious…

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December 5, 2012

The Calm Before the Storm

After eight previews over the past two weeks, Ingenious Nature is set to officially open its five-week off-Broadway run tonight. This means the critics have already been in to see…

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November 20, 2012

Ingenious Nature

Premiering Friday November 23 at the Soho Playhouse. Click here for tickets! INGENIOUS NATURE is a new off-Broadway show set to premiere on Friday at the Soho Playhouse. In the…

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October 24, 2012

Mr. Infomatic & Ingenious Nature

The Infomatic EP has arrived! Click here to stream or download it. This album began during our one-month songwriters-in-residency position at NIMBioS in Knoxville, Tennesee back in April/May of this year, and took shape over…

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August 3, 2012

Living on Earth Interview

Here’s a recent segment on the Public Radio International show “Living on Earth”, featuring songs and a wide-ranging interview about the project. What do hip hop and Darwin have in…

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July 11, 2012

Communicating Evolution via Creationist Cousins

In the course of my travels I get to talk to all types about evolution, from professional biologists to journalists to open-and-curious members of the public to died-in-the-wool creationists. I…

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June 10, 2012

Artificial Selection

This entry is a cross-post from the World Science Festival blog I am pleased to unveil my newest Rap Guide to Evolution music video, “Artificial Selection”, the final in a series…

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April 24, 2012

Tennessee Monkey Trials

On Wednesay Jamie and I performed the Rap Guide to Evolution for a group of 120 students and teachers at Union County High School in East Tennessee, and I’m proud…

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April 15, 2012

The Canterbury Tales Remixed – Album Release

The Canterbury Tales Remixed premiered off-Broadway in November 2011 and ran for eleven weeks, and now the album version is finally complete! If you think you’ve heard my rap interpretations…

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April 6, 2012

Survival of the Usefully Beautiful

David Rothenberg is a friend and fellow appreciator of the evolved beauty of nature, and in February he hosted an amazing event called the Survival of the Beautiful Wonder Cabinet…

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April 6, 2012

Rock Beyond Belief & Darwin’s Acid

Rock Beyond Belief Last weekend Mr. Simmonds and I traveled to Fort Bragg, NC for Rock Beyond Belief, the historical first on-base rock concert for military non-believers. The day got off…

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March 20, 2012

Get It From Reading

About a week and a half ago I got an email from an editor at the New York Times with an intriguing request: “I wondered if I might interest you…

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February 18, 2012

I’m A African!

Happy Darwin Day! Okay, so I’m a bit late. Darwin Day was last Sunday, which found me and Mr. Simmonds and the rest of the off-Broadway team in Iowa City…

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January 28, 2012

End of An Era

Okay, a hard closing date has now been announced, February 5th, for the Canterbury Tales Remixed off-Broadway. That means we got extended yet again (woop!), but the open-endedness has ended,…

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December 13, 2011

How to (Objectively) Succeed as a Rapper

Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman has the best concept of all time for a talk show, and in the coming Nerd-topian future he will be bigger than Oprah. To prepare, he…

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December 9, 2011

Off-Broadway Redux

The Canterbury Tales Remixed is now up and running off-Broadway after a very frenetic period of writing and re-writing and rehearsing, and ten days of previews concluded with our official opening…

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November 1, 2011

Worst Comes to Worst (My People Come First)

Happy Halloween to All My People! We now have only one week left of the Rap Guide to Evolution off-Broadway, after nearly five months of performing the show six nights…

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October 12, 2011

The Canterbury Tales Remixed

News news and more news! First, I have good friends in need of your help. Aaron Nazrul and the Boom Booms are an amazing Vancouver-based band I helped to launch, and their…

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September 21, 2011

We Are Made of DNA

The Wellcome Trust Music Video Project continues to bear fruit, if perhaps a bit behind schedule. Earlier this year we completed a Crowdfunder.co.uk drive to fund the post-production phase of…

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September 13, 2011

Playful Like Bonobos

Last night I had the pleasure of meeting the Chilean bonobo researcher Isabel Behncke at a CD launch event hosted by the novelist Amy Tan. Isabel regaled me with tales of…

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August 31, 2011

Web Wizards

Those of you who pay attention to my online presence will have noticed a sea-change over the past six months, so this is a quick post to acknowledge the creative…

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August 3, 2011

Summer in the City

The Rap Guide to Evolution is going strong off-Broadway with 52 performances in the past six weeks, and now we enter week seven with some awesome news: the run is…

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August 1, 2011

Looking for ‘God’ in the Female Orgasm

I recently wrote an article for The Evolutionary Review called “Finding ‘God’ in the Female Orgasm,” which is an attempt to synthesize two previously unconnected concepts from human behavior and…

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July 4, 2011

Album Release and Review Round-up

First thing’s first, I have a new CD out! The Rap Guide to Evolution: Revised is a brand new 14-track album produced by Mr. Simmonds. It started out as a…

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June 17, 2011

Beat the Drum!

Greetings from New York! Jamie (Mr. Simmonds) and I arrived two weeks ago, and after a weekend of performing at the World Science Festival we got settled into our new…

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May 4, 2011

Rapconteur at the Rio (Post-Election Smut)

Here’s a moment of hilarity to take the edge off. My last Canadian performance before I depart for New York and London and beyond is on Thursday night at the…

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April 20, 2011

Countdown to Launch

Here’s a quick update about my recent goings-on for your amusement. Upcoming Gigs and Tours In about two and half weeks I’ll be leaving for New York (six days), London…

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April 12, 2011

Don’t Vote For Mean People – Press Release

Press Release: “Don’t Vote For Mean People” Sums Up the Election in Rap April 11 2011 Vancouver rap artist Baba Brinkman, the son of a Liberal candidate, has released a…

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March 24, 2011

Shiny and New

I don’t usually do headings, but this is a heady update. Each headline could have been its own email. I didn’t want to carpet bomb you though, so here goes….

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March 24, 2011

I’m A African!

Calling all Homo sapiens! I’m currently working with a video production team in London on a series of music videos for my album The Rap Guide to Evolution, funded by…

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March 16, 2011

Rock Beyond Belief Canceled Due to Lack of Intent

> Some of you will have heard via Twitter and Facebook and other sources, but the concert that was due to be held at Fort Bragg, NC on April 2nd…

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February 13, 2011

Shows, Tours, Vids

> I’m just writing to give you a quick update, share a new music video, and put the word out about some upcoming gigs and tours, including Vancouver, California, and…

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January 8, 2011

Two Weeks’ Notice (Help!)

> Happy New Year! It’s the final two weeks of the Rap Guide to Evolution DVD Crowdfunder drive and we’re only at 81%, which is much better than I had…

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December 13, 2010

Epic Battle

>On Friday we filmed an epic breakdance battle with Darwin facing down his detractors, Michel Foucault (representing social constructivism), Sarah Palin (representing the christian right), and God (representing Himself, of…

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December 7, 2010

Gangbusters!

>The crowdfunding drive I started just over two weeks ago to increase the production value of our Rap Guide to Evolution DVD project is going gangbusters, with 143 individual funders…

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November 22, 2010

Crowdfunding Evolution

>Friends, As many of you know, the Wellcome Trust awarded me a grant earlier this year to make a series of music videos for the Rap Guide to Evolution, a…

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September 17, 2010

Fringe Science

>Friends New and Old, Well, the Edinburgh Fringe 2010 is concluded and I’m back in London, back on my grind, back on tour, reading and writing and gigging and muddling…

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September 1, 2010

My Fringe Nightmare (Part Two)

>Back in London post-Fringe, feeling dizzy with the shock of not performing multiple times every day. So quiet, so calm. Cabin fever now contends with relief and exhaustion. The nuts…

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August 29, 2010

Free Fringe Finale

>On Friday I went back to the flat for a quick nap after Human Nature, feeling like a zombie after doing three shows a day all week, and managed to…

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August 24, 2010

Tragedy Averted

>Keep calm and carry on. The fringe has an odd way of subtly adjusting my threshold of what is and isn’t worth reporting, so hopefully this blog isn’t miscalibrated. On…

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August 20, 2010

The Burlesque Brouhaha

>I’ve seen some shows I really didn’t enjoy over the past few days, but I’m not going to write about them. As far as I’m concerned, ostracism from all discourse…

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August 16, 2010

Extremophiles

>Today’s Human Nature gig was the best yet by far, despite technical glitches and an aborted ending. Sometimes the laughs just flow like wine, other times they just coagulate. Yesterday’s…

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August 13, 2010

Rewind the Tape

Stephen J. Gould was fond of pointing out that if you were to rewind the tape of evolution and play it again, there is little chance that humans would make…

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August 7, 2010

My Fringe Nightmare (Part One)

In early April I woke up from a familiar nightmare. I’ve been having the same recurring dream pretty much since Fringe registration closed back in March, a dream with varying…

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August 4, 2010

The Rap Guide to Human Nature

Greetings from Edinburgh! It’s 2am on the eve of the world’s biggest arts festival, and I can’t sleep. Actually for the past three consecutive nights it has been the same,…

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August 1, 2010

Troy

From my whatsonstage.com blog “Darwin on the Fringe”:Riding the train up to Edinburgh and the only way I can think to describe the mounting sense of anticipation I feel right…

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July 31, 2010

My Crash Course in Evolutionary Psychology

From my whatsonstage.com blog “Darwin on the Fringe”: In four days the Edinburgh Fringe previews commence and I’m not ready! A few hours ago I did my first full rehearsal…

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July 20, 2010

Rapconteur

Friends, I’d like to introduce you to my newest offspring: “Rapconteur“. The album follows on from the Rap Canterbury Tales, and includes five new rap adaptations of great literature, oral…

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June 21, 2010

The hip-hop Richard Dawkins?

That’s the title of a review article in the current issue of Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TREE), the highest-cited peer-reviewed science journal in evolutionary biology. The review was written…

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June 2, 2010

1,046,105!

Whew, So when the review by Olivia Judson came out a few weeks ago in the New York Times, one of the main points of contention in the comments section…

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May 13, 2010

Darwin Got It Going On

New York, New York, big city of dreams… Well, the day before yesterday I returned from my first off-Broadway run, landed in Vancouver, and promptly came down with a wretched…

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April 25, 2010

First We Take Manhattan…

Dear Friends with Friends in New York, Because let’s face it, everyone knows someone who lives or recently lived in New York. In less than two weeks The Rap Guide…

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April 24, 2010

The Rebel Cell in the Middle East (Part 2)

Continued from Part 1 We arrived in Cairo a few days before our show and took some time to check out the city and go over our material. We were…

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April 21, 2010

The Rebel Cell in the Middle East (Part 1)

Salaam/Shalom, Two weeks ago I touched down in the UK after twelve days in the Middle East, including Rebel Cell performances in Egypt and Palestine, and a visit to Tel…

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March 28, 2010

>20,000 Views!

>Hey y’all – my new rationalist anthem “Off That” is a blatant rip-off of my favorite song on Jay-Z’s latest album, but since I’m not selling it or profiting from…

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March 24, 2010

>Off That

>Friends, Two pieces of news, both exciting, but I’ll start with the really incendiary one. A few months ago I was approached by a science-themed UK music festival called Geek…

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February 22, 2010

>Poets vs MCs

>I’m often asked, what’s the difference between a spoken word poet and a rapper? Or, to put it differently, why did you choose to be a rapper instead of a…

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February 9, 2010

>Phenotypic Plasticity

>Fellow Bipeds, Last week I did my first tour of the Southern USA with the Rap Guide to Evolution, performing in Houston, Texas and Springfield, Missouri. Brace yourselves. Controversy was…

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January 20, 2010

>A Valediction: For Bidding Mourning

> Val•e•dic•tion from the Latin words for “farewell” and “speech”. And who or what am I saying goodbye to? My home city of Vancouver, for one, and my friends and…

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January 1, 2010

>Evolutionary Retrospective

>Neo-simians, In the final hours of 2009, let us take a moment to reflect on this: up until 150 years ago, no one had the faintest idea why we look…

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November 16, 2009

>Mission Accomplished

>November 16 2009 Bio-Brethren, This USA tour has recently provided me with some great reminders of why the Rap Guide to Evolution is a worthy project, even if I do…

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November 7, 2009

>The Devil in Dover

>November 6 2009 Science Fans, Greetings from York Haven, Pennsylvania (about six miles from Dover). The title of this message is also the title of a book by Lauri Lebo,…

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October 15, 2009

>The Tree Planter’s Waltz

>October 15 2009 Tree People, Many of you have heard about the phenomenon of Canadian tree planting culture, but for some of you it will be a completely alien concept….

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August 25, 2009

>Fringe First!

>August 21 2009 Friends, Today I won a Scotsman Fringe First Award for the Rap Guide to Evolution, which is a prize given each year to the best new writing…

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August 15, 2009

>Darwin on the Fringe

>August 15 2009 Meme Pools, The launch of the Edinburgh Fringe was one week ago, and I just finished performing my 25th show of the festival. Yes, with previews last…

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August 1, 2009

>The Rap Guide to Evolution: Free Music Download!

>August 1 2009 Human Tribespeople, Tomorrow I depart for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and possibly the greatest creative adventure of my life to date (I know, I always say that)….

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July 13, 2009

>Cambridge Darwin Festival

>July 13 2009 Reciprocal Altruists, Yesterday I returned from the Cambridge Darwin Festival, after six days of evolutionary bliss. Every day consisted of morning and afternoon sessions featuring top evolutionary…

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June 21, 2009

>Apocalyptic Utopian Dreams…

>June 16 2009 … in the Western Wilderness is where I’ve been for the past month, living in a tent and planting trees near Merritt, BC. And “Apocalyptic Utopian Dreams…

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March 24, 2009

>Gary Goodyear, Please Come to the Rap Guide to Evolution!

>March 24 2009 Open Letter to Gary Goodyear, Canada’s Minister for Science and Technology Dear Minister Goodyear, I will be performing a show called “The Rap Guide to Evolution” as…

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March 13, 2009

>Hate It or Love It

>March 7 2009 Symbionts, Greetings from the Fresno Rogue Festival. I have now performed “The Rap Guide to Evolution” a total of nine times, and the results are in: people…

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February 11, 2009

>Descending from Darwin

>February 7 2009 H. Sapiens, Hello from Cambridge! I’ve just returned from the Sanger Institute, and one of the most inspiring conferences I’ve ever been privileged to attend, so I…

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January 20, 2009

>The Perfect Storm

>January 20 2009 The Perfect Storm A Fond Farewell to the 43rd President of the United States This is truth and reconciliation dayI got up to watch the inauguration at…

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January 12, 2009

>2009: The Illusion of Design

>January 8 2009 Friends and Naysayers, New year’s resolutions are the personal equivalent of financial projections and business plans for companies, forever subject to the unpredictable crashes and booms of…

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October 16, 2008

>When the Night

>Aaron Nazrul just released his first video, “When the Night” from the album Butterfly Man, which is out on my Lit Fuse Records label. This is the quintessential East Vancouver…

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October 5, 2008

>Two Weeks’ Notice

>October 1 2008 Friends – how strongly can I possibly urge you to become engaged citizens and strategic voters? I find the current antipathy towards strategic voting completely baffling. Human…

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September 14, 2008

>Credits Due

>September 6 2008 Friends and Voyeurs, Back from Holland, back from Ireland, back from Scotland, back in England with the rain on the cobblestones outside the (free Wi-Fi) pub window,…

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August 21, 2008

>Reviewing the Reviewers

>August 18 2008 Punters and Quarterbacks, Greetings from the Edinburgh Fringe! As of today we have performed the Rebel Cell 19 times and we have just 8 shows left before…

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July 31, 2008

>The Rebel Cell – Free Music Download

>July 28 2008 Hello People, Thanks for all the great feedback on my Fly on the Wall episode, and now this one is about the next chapter. Yesterday Dizraeli and…

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July 23, 2008

>Fly on the Wall

>July 23 2008 Hi Lights, In the midst of all of the intended fanfare around “The Rebel Cell”, which premiers in Edinburgh in one week, with the corresponding album release…

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July 17, 2008

>Performance Therapy

>July 17 2008 Two weeks is an unforgivable hiatus when it comes to blogging, not in a moral sense, but just for the fact that anyone who might have been…

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July 3, 2008

>Three Weeks Edinburgh Quick Quiz

>July 3 2008 1. What is your 2008 show all about? It’s about politics, civil rights, capitalism, freedom of speech, democracy, tyranny, civil disobedience, revolution, terrorism, activism, dissidence, and everything…

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June 24, 2008

>Tawdry Travelogues

>June 24 2008 Attention Seekers, Name dropping is so tawdry, but so are most things that instantly capture our complete attention. Twenty minutes ago I bid goodnight to my dinner…

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June 17, 2008

>CD Baby

>June 17 2008 Email to me from Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby: Hi Baba – If this sounds like you, please let me know: * – You’ve had a…

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June 13, 2008

The Curtain

This is my favorite time. Last night Dizraeli and I finished the script for the Rebel Cell, the first draft at least, and gave it our first test-reading to clock…

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June 2, 2008

Londonium

Ironies abound. Back in treeplanting camp in Merritt, the river was rising throughout May with the spring runoff and some planters had to move their tents because the ground flooded….