Author talk with John Malkin "Punk Spirit! -

An Oral History of Punk Rock, Spirituality, and Liberation"

Punk Spirit! presents a wide cast of musicians and artists who provide surprising and thought-provoking insights into punk rock through the lens of spirituality and liberation.

Punk Spirit! - An Oral History of Punk Rock, Spirituality, and Liberation is based on interviews with 200 punk activists, artists and musicians and includes a foreword by Penny Rimbaud of Crass and a blessing/invocation
by Rev. Billy Talen of the Stop Shopping Choir. Punk Spirit! is a sequel to the 2023 book Punk Revolution! and explores more deeply that ways that punk rock has resisted authoritarian, organized religion while also sometimes combining punk music and fashion with spiritual, religious and philosophical ideas from Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, anarchism, science, atheism and other ways of being in the world. 

Punk Spirit! is an oral history that brings together well-known and cutting-edge bands including Sex Pistols,  Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, The Ramones, Gang of Four, Crass, Propagandhi, The Slits, Bad Religion, Shelter,  Rebel Riot, Blackfire, and many others. John Malkin ventures into the emotional and personal experiences of punk  artists and spiritual practitioners from around the world and highlights intelligent, thoughtful, and humorous discussions  on liberation, spirituality, and living free. Chapters dive deeply into many interconnected realms of punk such as the  subgenres of straight edge, Krishnacore and Taqwacore, evangelical punk concerts in southern California churches,  illegal punk concerts in East German churches, anti-religious sentiment within punk, and the myriad ways punk has  been combined with spiritual and religious traditions to illuminate ideas from atheism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism,  Islam, and other ways of being in the world.

The interviews in Punk Revolution! and Punk Spirit! were originally broadcast on John Malkin's programs on Free Radio Santa Cruz, San Francisco Liberation Radio and KZSC at UC Santa Cruz, where he continues to host a weekly radio  program called Transformation Highway on Thursdays at noon.