In the spirit of Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Bryan Richards has written a novel, Triopia, which expresses a powerful synthesis of ideas that help us understand the various, conflicted cultures of our world. This presentation introduces elements of Middle Eastern history, his novel, and some suggestions for how to proceed in the current Middle East-Western conflict The focus in all these threads will be to help explore who we are, as individuals and Americans, in this world of ever-growing complexity.

Bryan Richards, Glenn Cornett