Walking Between Worlds: Poetry, Metaxis, and the Poison in Our Food

Jul 13, 2025

This is a different sort of newsletter. Rather than a deep dive into one subject, I’m sharing a few things currently alive in my mind.

First: the NYC Poetry Festival is this weekend, and Scientists and Poets is proud to be a sponsor. My son Conor, my friend Amanda, I and read at 2 PM Saturday on the main stage. Conor made his debut with his new book, It’s never been we, just me. I read from State to State and Months at a Time. Amanda read a new long poem, and it was incredible how she was able to maintain attention for her whole session. It’s a momentous weekend. We’ll be there again today, which means it won’t be possible to do a live meditation this week, but we will pick up again next Sunday and I’ll upload an audio recording today.

(Photo credit Kim Barke. Shown from top left clockwise: Stephanie Snider and Tyler at our table, Amanda Boekelheide reading, Conor and Amanda at our table and Conor Monahan reading on the stage).

If you weren’t able to make the festival and would like to purchase one of the books, you can find them all here.

I’ve also been taking a class with J.F. Martel (author of Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice) and Phil Ford (co-creator of Weird Studies). That podcast has been a steady thrill: improvisation, David Lynch, evil, dream logic, ontological vertigo. The class itself is about walking. Or really, the metaphysics of walking. The way a walk can become a portal—a drifting between worlds. We’re talking about metaxis (Plato’s word for the in-between), Benjamin’s Arcades, Baudrillard, Marx, dérive, event scores, the avant garde. I have very limited knowledge of philosophy so I relish learning as much as I am. For a very long time have been stuck on some of the basic tenets of post-modernism, not that I don’t understand it as much as I think it goes against the very essence of the scientfic method. I went down a deep rabbit hole after reading an excerpt from Delueze’s writings on cinema and a reference he made to crystallography. My thinking and research are coming together in an essay to come on on the unintended consequences of post-modernims toward fostering anti-intellecturalism, but I need a co-conspirator with a strong understanding of post-modern philosophy. If that’s you, and you’d like to collaborate, please reach out.

Now for a sharp pivot: canned fish.

I read a recent ConsumerLab report on canned fish (it’s paywalled, so I won’t quote it directly), and it stopped me. I known for decades that mercury was a concern. What I didn’t know is how much arsenic also shows up—especially in sardines, mackerel, and some of the most popular brands of tuna.

Mercury enters our waters through coal burning and other industrial emissions. Once in rivers, lakes, and oceans, it transforms into methylmercury—a neurotoxin that builds up in fish over time. Bigger fish (like albacore tuna) accumulate more. Mercury crosses the placenta, damages developing brains, and in adults can trigger tremors, memory loss, and sensory changes (EPA, 2023; WHO, 2017; CDC, 2023).

Arsenic is also environmental—released from mining, fertilizer runoff, and industrial waste. It leaches into water and accumulates in fish. Most of the arsenic in seafood is considered “organic” and less toxic, but up to 10% may be inorganic, a known human carcinogen (EFSA, 2009; Taylor et al., 2017). Chronic exposure is linked to bladder, lung, and skin cancers, as well as vascular damage, immune dysfunction, and skin thickening (Speer et al., 2023; Health Canada, 2021).

Seafood is healthy with its protein and omega-3s, but what about this quiet dose of arsenic? Granted it isn’t the inorganic kind found in rice and water, but compounds shaped by seaweed and plankton: arsenobetaine, arsenosugars, arsenolipids (Taylor et al., 2017).

These molecules have long been classified as “non-toxic,” but that assumption is based on limited data. Studies show that up to 85% of total arsenic in seafood can be in the form of arsenobetaine, often excreted unchanged. But the remaining fraction—arsenosugars and arsenolipids—is absorbed and metabolized, producing dimethylarsinate (DMA), a compound that induces oxidative stress and may promote tumor growth in animal models (Taylor et al., 2017).

Some arsenic metabolites cross the blood–brain barrier. Others alter gene expression or immune signaling at concentrations as low as 1–10 µM in vitro—levels achievable through diet. Yet no regulatory agency requires routine testing for these forms. Risk is assessed by total arsenic, not by what the body actually absorbs or transforms.

We’ve assumed these forms of arsenic are harmless for too long. The evidence now points in another direction.

What ConsumerLab found is that many canned fish products—especially albacore tuna—are contaminated enough to warrant strict limits, particularly for pregnant people and children.

StarKist albacore, for instance, had both high mercury and high arsenic.
Kirkland, Chicken of the Sea, and Bumble Bee were also high in arsenic.
Among sardines, Wild Planet and Fishwife tested worst.
Even King Oscar mackerel, rich in omega-3s, had elevated arsenic.

By contrast, salmon came out shining.

Both sockeye and pink salmon (especially from Trader Joe’s, Kirkland and Wild Plant) had no measurable mercury or arsenic at all.
Wild Planet Skipjack Tuna had low contaminants and decent omega-3 levels.
King Oscar sardines offered a good ratio of benefit to risk
Wild Planet mackerel had no quantifiable mercury or arsenic—making it a better everyday choice than King Oscar.

Omega-3 levels varied wildly. Some servings had just 119 mg, while others topped 2,400 mg per 85 grams. Sardines and mackerel were the most potent sources, followed by salmon. Tuna lagged far behind. And here’s the twist: some of the cheapest products per can ended up being the most expensive per 100 mg of omega-3s. On that scale, Wild Planet sardines and King Oscar mackerel offered the best value.

So: no, you don’t need to stop eating canned fish. But you do need to choose like it matters. I’m sticking with pink and sockeye salmon and Wild Planet mackerel. The rest? Maybe a once-in-a-while thing, if that.

Walking Between Worlds: Poetry, Metaxis, and the Poison in Our Food

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