Showing results by author "Jordan Blake" in All Categories

Welcome to Utah, where wagon ruts meet billion-dollar malls, and sacred prophecy collides with PR campaigns. This is not the version you got in seminary. From red rock petroglyphs and Spanish explorers to polygamist raids, forged scriptures, and ski resorts, Zion in the Desert tells the strange, scrappy, and often uncomfortable history of a state that was never just one thing. The book dives headfirst into the contradictions that shaped Utah: faith and resistance, empire and exodus, miracles and cover-ups.

Mississippi is a state of contradictions. It is the birthplace of the blues and Elvis, yet also the epicenter of America’s ugliest battles over race and equality. It ranks last in nearly everything good, but first in cultural influence. Mud, Magnolias, and Mayhem: An Irreverent History of Mississippi takes you on a wild ride through the Magnolia State’s tangled past, from Civil War chaos and Jim Crow laws to tamale festivals, Elvis impersonators, and casino barges.

Every empire has its capital. Ours happens to be built on a swamp. In Swamp, Suits, and Shenanigans, cultural essayist Jordan Blake Carter digs through two centuries of ambition, hypocrisy, and hope to reveal the real Washington, D.C. From its mosquito-ridden origins to its modern brunch-and-barricade reality, this is the capital as you have never seen it: brilliant, broken, and always under renovation.

For the spiritually hungry but institutionally burned-out, Wild Faith is a tender, raw, and fiercely honest invitation to rediscover the sacred beyond the walls of religion. Part memoir, part meditation, this book speaks to those who have wandered, questioned, grieved, and hoped, often all at once. Through poetic storytelling, cultural reflection, and grounded spiritual wisdom, author Jordan Blake Carter explores what remains when dogma falls away and certainty runs dry. Wild Faith reimagines prayer, community, and belonging through the lens of mystery, embodiment, and radical grace.

New Mexico has always lived between extremes. It is ancient and futuristic, sacred and absurd, breathtaking and infuriating, a place where thousand-year-old pueblos sit down the highway from a spaceport, where UFO museums coexist with world-class art, and where chile is a state religion. Enchantment and Exasperation is a romp through thousands of years of survival, reinvention, rebellion, and weirdness.

America tells itself it was born in freedom and perfected through progress. The truth is harder to look at. For more than two hundred years, the government has used its own armies and laws to control the very people it claims to protect, from the soldiers who crushed the Whiskey Rebellion to the police who fired on students at Kent State. Friendly Fire is a fearless and often darkly funny exploration of how power in America defends itself.

Step into a chilling true-crime mystery where the deadliest clues sprout from the earth itself. Erin Patterson never imagined she would become the architect of a quiet town’s darkest secrets. Secrets hidden in mushrooms. When a series of bizarre murders involving poisonous fungi shakes the community, Erin’s cunning use of nature’s deadliest gifts weaves together cults, forensic science, and deadly folklore in a web no one suspects she controls. From microscopic spores to shocking ritualistic killings, follow Erin’s descent into obsession as she turns the natural world into her most ...

In this clear, compassionate guide, Jordan Blake Carter offers practical tools and research-based insight to help you better understand the impacts of CPTSD—and begin the slow, steady process of healing. This audiobook combines trauma education with actionable strategies to support nervous system regulation, emotional resilience, and long-term recovery.

What can a cactus teach you about boundaries, survival, and thriving in a world that wants too much of you? More than you think.

Gumbo and Grit: A Not-So-Polite History of Louisiana dives into the state’s layered past with equal parts candor and wit. You’ll meet conquistadors and Cajuns, pirates and populists, enslaved laborers and jazz legends, all stirring the pot that made Louisiana what it is today.

In Corn, Caucuses, and Catastrophes, Jordan Blake Carter takes listeners on a rollicking ride through Iowa’s past and present. From the Honey War fought over beehives to penny auctions that defied the banks, from floods that drowned cities to butter cows that drew crowds, Iowa has always been equal parts resilient and ridiculous. This is the state that feeds the nation, humiliates presidential candidates at the State Fair, and rebuilds after every disaster with casseroles in hand.

Oregon isn’t tidy. It’s moody, messy, and gloriously contradictory. This is the state that bans Styrofoam but worships chainsaws, that rails against Californians while happily selling them real estate, and that brags about recycling while secretly hoarding sticky six-packs in the garage. In this sharp, funny, and unapologetically honest history, Oregon struts onto the stage as the Pacific Northwest’s moody teenager — rebellious, misunderstood, and always dramatic.

From ancient myths to modern rituals, Jordan Blake Carter uncovers the shared values, moral codes, and deep questions that unite spiritual traditions across the globe. You’ll travel through history, meet prophets and sages, and see how faith, in its many forms, points toward compassion, justice, and hope.

Puerto Rico is more than beaches and postcards, it is a centuries-long experiment in survival, rebellion, and rhythm. From the first Taíno villages to the sugar empires, from Spanish fortresses to American bureaucracy, the island has been conquered, taxed, forgotten, and reborn more times than anyone can count. In Rum, Revolution, and Resilience, Jordan Blake Carter uncorks five hundred years of history with equal parts humor and honesty. The result is a portrait of an island that keeps rebuilding itself, through hurricanes, politics, and colonial hangovers without ever losing its flavor.

If America is one big dysfunctional family, Idaho is the cousin you forget about until something bizarre drags it back into the spotlight. Potatoes? Sure. But also Ruby Ridge, Nazi compounds, hippies in hot springs, and a six-ton spud on wheels. This isn’t the glossy brochure. Irreverent Idaho tells the state’s story with sharp wit and a wink: Indigenous ingenuity, gold-rush chaos, vigilante “justice,” Mormon pioneers, mining strikes, and Boise’s eternal identity crisis. Idaho is where contradictions thrive — prophets and paranoids, farmers and miners, militia bunkers and music festivals.

Unlock your path to vibrant health and enduring wellness, even if you're juggling busy schedules or challenging hormonal changes! Have you been searching for effective ways to manage weight, boost energy levels, and regain mental clarity, but feel overwhelmed by all the conflicting information out there? Are you struggling with time constraints, trying to incorporate healthier habits into your life without sacrificing your social and professional commitments? Or do you find it challenging to address hormonal imbalances, wishing for a roadmap that guides you through the complexities of ...

From the outside, it looks easy to explain. Rain. Trees. Coffee. A few volcanoes. People in fleece jackets who pretend they are not staring at the mountains even though they absolutely are. But that version of Washington leaves out nearly everything that matters. This is a history of a place built on contradiction. Rain forests and deserts. Ports and wheat fields. Counterculture coffee shops and irrigation canals. Fierce environmental protection alongside relentless industrial ambition. A state that argues constantly with itself and somehow survives stronger for it.

From online outrage to everyday indifference, modern life can make compassion feel naïve or even impossible. Compassion in a Cynical World is a guide for holding on to your humanity when it would be easier to shut down. Drawing on real-life stories, research, and the author’s own journey through burnout and disillusionment, this book offers practical tools for staying open-hearted without being overwhelmed.

Delaware: the First State, the Forgotten State, and the strangest little powerhouse you never paid attention to. This is not your high school history textbook. From Lenape fishing villages to Dutch and Swedish turf wars, from Caesar Rodney’s wheezing midnight ride to the explosive rise of DuPont, Delaware has been shaping America while pretending to be invisible. Along the way it perfected the art of being indispensable without being noticed: chickens, chemicals, corporations, and boardwalks all rolled into one.

Master Your Adulting SkillsYou're standing at the edge of adulthood, a swirl of excitement, fear, and a little confusion washing over you. Remember that moment when you stared at a recipe and wondered how to turn those raw ingredients into a meal? Or when you tried to figure out how to make your monthly allowance stretch while still enjoying life? These experiences can feel overwhelming, but what if you had a toolkit to tackle these everyday challenges with confidence? This book is here to guide you through those uncharted waters, demystifying the skills you never learned in school. In a ...