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Baruch Zeichner

Producer/Host "Paradigms"

Baruch was born in 1960 in New Haven, Connecticut. Baruch’s father was a Psychologist born in Romania, who immigrated as a young child, and his mother a second generation American who grew up in New York City and became a civil rights activist and curator of fine art. Growing up in New Haven in the 1960s exposed Baruch to politics at an early age. Between the anti-war movement and the Black Panthers, Baruch was around activists starting at age 8, which helped inform his own political views.

Baruch moved to Vermont in 1974 to attend Shaker Mountain School, a free school modeled after Summerhill in the UK. After graduating from Shaker Mountain in 1976 Baruch lived in Northern California for a year working in a health food store. During that year he experienced a compression fracture in his neck while bodysurfing in Hawaii. That injury led Baruch to begin the study of anatomy, physiology, and various diagnostic and healing modalities, in order to deal with the chronic pain from the neck injury. He returned to Vermont in autumn of 1977 to attend Goddard College in Plainfield. Baruch graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Psychology and Education in December of 1980. At this point Baruch was practicing Massage and Shiatsu, which he had learned in California. In 1981 Baruch began his training in psychology, earning his Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology from Antioch New England in 1984.

Baruch practiced Psychotherapy, Massage Therapy, and Body Oriented Psychotherapy for 25 years in Burlington, Vermont. He taught at various local colleges; psychology, massage, human sexuality. During that time Baruch participated in community and political activities ranging from anti-nuclear activism, to peace activism, working with local teenagers in drug and alcohol abuse prevention, date rape & sexual assault prevention, and HIV support. In 2000 Baruch started working as a part-time DJ at WNCS in Montpelier, Vermont.

In 2004 Baruch’s mother, who had been living on a Caribbean island, met a violent death. This murder propelled Baruch to make major changes in his life. He sold his house, closed his practice, and hit the road with his dog and cat in a pop-up camper on the back of a pickup truck. He spent five months driving and camping in Canada, travelling east to west, and then returned to the United States just in time for hurricanes Katrina and Rita to hit the gulf coast. Baruch went to New Orleans and volunteered as a counselor at the Common Ground Health Clinic for six months. The next few years were spent doing Permaculture in California, and traveling and teaching in Europe and Israel; meditation tools, developing personal ritual, and group ritual for community.

Baruch returned to Vermont in 2009. During this period he started Paradigms. In 2013 Baruch moved to Central Oregon and then on to the San Francisco Bay area to help start a group home for people with traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and addiction. That project had an expiration date, and Baruch moved back to Central Oregon in 2015. In 2021 Baruch moved to northern New Mexico where he continues to work on a variety of projects.

If you, or someone you know or are aware of is doing something that you think should be on Paradigms, please let Baruch know!

For More Paradigms click here