RJ Eskow

R.J. Eskow is a healthcare consultant with private-sector and public policy experience in the U.S. and over 20 foreign countries. He is also a musician and writer. He frequently contributes to The Huffington Post and maintains three other blogs: [http://sentineleffect.wordpress.com The Sentinel Effect] for health industry and policy issues, [http://futurewhileuwait.wordpress.com Future-While-U-Wait] for science, technology, and futurist issues, and [http://nightlight.typepad.com Night Light] for music, culture, and general interest. He has also been published in Common Dreams and a number of other publications, and has appeared on television and radio debating conservatives such as Tucker Carlson, Gary Bauer, and Sean Hannity. He sometimes serves as substitute host for The Young Turks, an independent radio program formerly on Air America.

Eskow is a musician turned senior executive for several Fortune 500 corporations. He currently conducts consulting work for private corporations and organizations that include the World Bank and the U.S. State Department. He is generally considered left-leaning or "progressive," although not uniformly.

He has also referred to spiritual or religious beliefs. He wrote an article about the effect of his Buddhist meditation practice on his writing for the fall 2007 edition of the Buddhist magazine Tricycle. He has defended liberal Christian movements like the National Council of Churches, suggesting they are better representatives of Jesus' message than fundamentalists, and has quoted progressive Jewish movements (as well as Buddhist and liberal Hindu beliefs) with approval. He has defended moderate and mystical Muslims against what he perceives to be the generalities and prejudicial criticisms of Islam opponents like Sam Harris and Rev. Franklin Graham. He has made oblique references to his own Buddhist and other spiritual influences. These apparently include Jesus, Gandhi, William Blake, the Sufi mystics, the Japanese medieval Buddhist figure Dogen, and contemporary Indian Hindu/quasi-Buddhist meditation teacher Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. He has described his own ancestry as half-Jewish, half-Christian. He was raised in Judaism and has described himself as culturally Jewish, but also lived with Southern Baptist relatives.

Eskow is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lifeboat Foundation, an organization dedicated to predicting and preventing "existential threats" to humanity. Other Board members include futurist Ray Kurzweil, author Douglas Copeland, and several Nobel Prize laureates. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of [http://coolourplanet.org Cool Our Planet] , a musicians' group dedicated to fighting global warming.

He is also a guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He recently signed with the independent [http://www.rcegonline.com RCEG Records] label to record a new album. He has written of past involvement with the New York pre-punk and punk scene, including appearances at CBGB's and the Mercer Arts Center in the 70's, as well as of having performed as a country/western singer. His last reported musical appearance was at a Democratic grassroots political benefit in Santa Barbara in 2006 headlined by Gen. Wesley Clark.