The De Langre Tapes

Me and Philippe De Langre, November 2021. Photo by Thomas De Langre

Tears Of Gratitude Podcast

Episode 1

December 23, 2022

“The De Langre Tapes”

Many years ago Philippe De Langre, son of Jacques De Langre, contacted me about wanting to pass on some audio lecture recordings that his father had done of Georges Ohsawa and of my father, Michio Kushi and asked if I were interested in them. I absolutely was but it wasn’t until November of 2021 that I was finally able to visit Philippe in Asheville, North Carolina where he dug them out of storage. His brother, Thomas, was there also and we not only recovered the audio tapes but also started pouring over the hundreds of slides that Jacques had taken at many macrobiotic summer camps over the years. I took a handful of slides of people I recognized and couple of large prints of George and Lima Ohsawa that Jacques had taken with a promise of coming back someday to go through them all. That has yet to happen.

(L-R) A friend with Jacques De Langre and Aveline Kushi (my mother) at the Big Sur Macrobiotics Summer Camp in the late 1960s

I immediately found a local video shop in Asheville able to do digital conversions of audio recordings and put the tapes in their hands. The only problem was that their reel to reel player had broken and they were searching for a new one. However, they promised that as soon they found one then they would complete the work. It took them several months but they finally finished the job. The end result was set of 5 recordings. Of these five only three proved to be valuable and interesting: the first being the 1965 lecture of George Ohsawa; the second, a lecture by Michio Kushi from 1967, and the third is the audio presentation by Jacques De Langre. The other two were either too damaged or contained information of uncertain value.

The Ohsawa lecture contained distortions in speed and pitch and had to be corrected, which I did myself to the best that I could. Michio’s lecture was in good shape. Jacques’s audio presentation was also in great condition as he was intentionally talking directly and clearly into the microphone the whole time. I am sure a professional audio engineer could greatly improve the quality of these recordings. Until then, they are of the best quality I can offer.

And so, after more than a year, I am happy to present to you, the three original De Langre recordings for your enjoyment over the holidays. You will receive three separate posts and links to the recordings. and podcasts. These are being made available to all subscribers of “Tears Of Gratitude” (phiya.substack.com) and subscribers of “The Teachings Of Michio And Aveline Kushi” (michiokushi.substack.com) for a limited time period.

Full transcripts of the George Ohsawa and Michio Kushi lecture recordings will be made available in the near future for paid subscribers only. If you wish to receive these then please upgrade your subscription to a paid subscriber status, thank you. I will also be providing a full analysis in retrospect of the nearly 60 years of transformation the macrobiotic movement has gone through since these talks were given. Again this will only be made available to paid subscribers.

Thanks again and happy holidays.