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Oh, my God.

You are not alone.

You have found other people.

You and I have a friend in common.

Every stupid thing that a writer could do I've done.

I think it's really beautiful.

Jesus, I did it what a struggle, you know?

It was incredible.

It was like your head exploded, seeing what was really there.

And now here's your host, Brad Listy.

All right, everybody, here we go again.

This is it.

This is other people.

This is me pretending to be on the radio.

This is you holding your mobile phone like it's an injured bird. How's it going? I'm Brad Listy. I'm here in Los Angeles, California. I'm sitting here. Where are you? How's everything going for you? My guest today is Claire Hoffman. Her debut memoir is called Greetings from Utopia Park. It's available now from Harper. It's all about her childhood in Fairfield, Iowa, which is home to an intentional community founded by the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I think I said that correctly. The Maharishi, you guys know who that is, right? He's the guy who started TM. He's the guy behind Transcendental Meditation. He's the Beatles meditation teacher. That guy. I think most people

know about that. What you might not know is that he bought a defunct college in Iowa many decades ago

and created an intentional community. He invited or summoned his devotees to show up there

...