Plaedo has been planting literal seeds throughout Eugene's communities of hip-hop, community gardening and direct action activism for years. He just came on my radar after releasing his "Celebrate Tha Liberation" video, and his very collaborative new album releases this Monday, October 18th, called "Empires Die...Live Evolves." This conversation really displays a vibrant new friendship beginning in real time. 

We discuss addiction recovery without abstinence (1:58), positivity, competition and community in Eugene (6:30), potlatch and indigenous culture (11:40), Empires Die...Life Evolves (20:00), flow, style and genre (23:50), death feelings and street machete trauma (29:49), urban desensitization and public outcries of emotion (33:07), Ericka Thessen and passionate health advocacy (38:30), guns, religion and the environment (41:05), perceptions of hippies and nerds (47:46), sports (football and tennis) (51:10), a time Plaedo was bitter toward someone (55:31) is the empire dying or evolving? (1:01:18), and how to fix our broken sense of community (1:06:21).  The discussion is on video at https://youtu.be/_pUR6sPMf0k. 

Plaedo's music video: https://youtu.be/duFrglT6Zes and website: https://plaedo.com