Alum Bill 'Reverend Billy' Talen: Founder of the Church of Stop Shopping

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- Born Bill Talen in Rochester, Minnesota, he grew in the Midwest, attended Franconia College in New Hampshire and has a Master’s degree in Theatre Arts from San Francisco State University. He and his wife, Savitri D., live in Brooklyn with their daughter, Lena. “In the Church of Stop Shopping we are recovering from various kinds of religions. Shopping is one of them. It controls our behavior and the dreams of our children,” he says. “We have wires in our ears, and we talk to each other much less than before. Everyone is performing the same gesture, bending over a small, square glowing screen. Consumerism makes us passive and stupid.”