The Institute of Applied Metatheory (IAM) presents A Sociology of Big Pictures: Network Strategy for a 21st Century Worldview by Robb Smith, an in-depth exploration of how grand integrative frameworks emerge, compete, and evolve within the modern attentional landscape. As we enter the Transformation Age — marked by rapid geopolitical, technological, ecological, and epistemic shifts — Smith argues that the need for a coherent, integrative worldview has never been greater.
Polarization and the Algorithmic Undertow: Integral and Critical Realist Perspectives
Bruce AldermanBruce Alderman explores how our rapid transition into a globally networked information environment has created unprecedented challenges for human cognition, social cohesion, and collective meaning-making and sensemaking.
What Were They Thinking?!? Decoding the 2024 Election
David Arrell and Keith Martin-SmithDavid and Keith explore how individuals intersect between different vertical developmental stages (Amber, Orange, Green) and cultural value stacks (traditional, modern, and progressive) in order to make meaning and navigate complex electoral decisions, with a specific focus on the 2024 U.S. election, unpacking the interplay between cognitive development, cultural alignment, and systemic factors in understanding the diverse rationales behind people’s voting behavior.
Breakdown of the World System: Q&A with Robb Smith
Robb SmithRecorded on Election Night 2024, this Q&A session with Robb Smith offers an in-depth exploration of the profound challenges facing America in the wake of the election results. As the nation grapples with critical questions about the future — such as choosing between reform and revolt, addressing increasing polarization, and recognizing the urgent need for evolved leadership — Robb offers a deep exploration of these complexities through the lens of integral theory.
An Integral Metatheory of Conservatism
Robb SmithIn a time of political upheaval and societal change, understanding the deeper currents that shape our worldviews is more crucial than ever. Join Robb Smith in this enlightening presentation recorded during our recent election watch party, where he delves into the rich tapestry of conservatism through the lens of integral theory.
SALT for Climate: Redefining Urgency and Transformation in Climate Leadership
Josh Leonard, Lisa Gibson and Gail HochachkaJosh Leonard sits down with Gail Hochachka and Lisa Gibson, leaders of the SALT for Climate initiative, to explore their pioneering approach to climate action. They discuss the often-overlooked psychological and social dimensions of climate work, share insights from their work on collective sensemaking and leadership training, and explain why a focus on human dynamics may be the missing piece in our response to the climate crisis.
Faces of X: Making Peace with the Culture War
Corey deVos and Stephanie LeppStephanie Lepp talks with Corey deVos about her Faces of X project, which models how we can transcend culture wars by integrating opposing perspectives. The discussion explores how the polarization we see in society mirrors unresolved polarities within ourselves, and emphasizes the need for both personal and social integration. This discussion highlights the limitations of binary thinking and the importance of synthesizing conflicting viewpoints to create more inclusive, nuanced solutions.
The Myth of Evil: Why Polarities, Not Villains, Drive Injustice
Barry JohnsonBarry Johnson introduces the concept of polarity thinking, offering a revolutionary framework for addressing complex societal issues like poverty, racism, and climate change. Rather than viewing problems as having singular solutions or evil sources, Barry explains how mismanaged polarities—such as justice vs. mercy and freedom vs. equality—are at the heart of many dysfunctions. By adopting a both/and mindset, we can break vicious cycles, foster balance, and create more sustainable solutions in our personal and collective lives.
Introducing the Cultural Complexity Index
Brendan Graham Dempsey, Robb Smith and Josh LeonardThe Institute of Applied Metatheory recently chose to organize, fund and incubate a significant new Applied Metatheory Initiative called the Cultural Complexity Index, which we see as holding the potential to act as a high-leverage project for long-term social emancipation.
How America Got Here: A 50 Year Journey to Polarization
Robb Smith and Josh LeonardRobb Smith and Josh Leonard look at the deep structures — in the form of actual events, policies and decisions between 1970 and 2024 — that radically shifted America from one form of system “regime” and associated equilibrium, that of relative national coherence in the early 1970s, into a new, radically- and qualitatively-different regime and equilibrium of extreme polarized decoherence of 2024.
Healing the Infosphere: How Integral Journalism Can Elevate Public Discourse
Stefan Schultz and Corey deVosCorey deVos talks to Stefan Schultz, a journalist at Der Spiegel magazine, about his model for integral journalism that he has been developing over the past few years. This model, staggering in both its depth and its breadth, examines journalism and media literacy through a developmental lens, looking at how the infosphere shapes society and how journalism can positively influence this process.
The Psychology of Climate Change
Gail Hochachka, John Dupuy and Roger WalshClimate change researcher, sustainable development expert, and activist Gail Hochachka works on the front lines of climate change research, asking—and answering—questions like: How does the way we make meaning, at all our different stages of development, relate to the ways we act on climate change? How can we foster more engagement with climate change? Is climate action scalable? And how are we going to show up for the people who are facing the greatest impacts?
Bringing Soul and Integrity to American Politics
Marianne Williamson, John Dupuy and Roger WalshMore than a political talk, Marianne reveals a psychological and spiritual portrait of the United States, referencing the brilliant vision of our founding fathers, Martin Luther King’s goal of Beloved Community, and telling a stirring story of the way Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration reflects the high morality of the populace at that time.
Meta-Ideological Politics: Bridging the Gaps Between Us
Ryan NakadeRyan’s presentation delves into the complex nature of ideology and its profound impact on our perceptions, interactions, and behaviors. He underscores the human brain’s inherent tendency to seek patterns, elucidating how ideologies aid us in deciphering the world but can also misguide us. Ryan describes the three definitions of “meta” he uses to elucidate the concept of meta-ideological politics: “meta” as transcending, “meta” as between, and “meta” as self-aware or self-referential.
Diversity, Empathy, and Integration: Reframing and Reclaiming a Movement Toward Healing and Wholeness
Brad KershnerBrad Kershner offers a deep and detailed criticism of standard DEI approaches (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), highlighting the complexities of ethnicity, race, and cultural evolution. He challenges prevailing educational metaphors grounded in the postmodern perspective, advocating for a more universal application of modern liberal values, and emphasizing the need for a nuanced understanding to forge a more genuine and generative path forward for social justice.
Is Metamodernism Integral? Is Integral Metamodern?
Brendan Graham DempseyMetamodernism and the integral paradigm share a lot in common, yet also differ in important ways. To what degree should these terms be conflated or kept apart? What unites them, and what constitute the meaningful distinctions? What role do things like sensibility, generation, emphasis, and epistemology play? This gathering provided an opportunity to dig into this topic. To this end, metamodern thinker Brendan Graham Dempsey offers some history and a bit of compare/contrast perspectives on the topic.
Sex, Identity, Gender: Beyond Wokism and Trumpism
Corey deVos and Keith Martin-SmithJoin us as we push even further into the front lines of the culture war skirmishes that have become so plentiful over the last several years. Corey deVos joins Keith to discuss how our notions of sex, gender, and identity apply to some of the most contentious and pressing issues of our time, and how they can be integrated into a more integral dialectic.
The Integral Way of Jean Gebser
Jeremy JohnsonIn this two-part introductory series, Jeremy Johnson and participants explore a brief — if experiential — journey through the structures of consciousness, discovering how they continue to live in and through us and our world.
Illuminating the Integral Vision: A Metatheory for Understanding Self, Life, and the World
Corey deVos, John Dupuy and Roger WalshCorey gives a terrifically lucid explanation of what the term Integral encompasses: a stage of psychological development, a description of Ken Wilber’s life’s work, and a comprehensive map that comes alive for people, guiding their way and making sense out of enormously complex issues. Corey also describes Integral as a gateway between two massive phases in human history — the “adolescent” phase of collective development now starting to fall behind us, and an integrated phase quite possibly ahead.
Transform the Police: A More Integral Approach to Law Enforcement
Chris Orrey, Mark Fischler and Corey deVosMark and Corey are joined by Chris Orrey, a retired police lieutenant with over 30 years of service with the Hayward, California Police Department, to discuss the abuse and resulting death of Tyre Nichols, who was severely beaten and ultimately killed by five Memphis police officers after a routine traffic stop. What allowed this tragedy (and others like it) to take place? What sorts of personal, cultural, and institutional transformation are necessary to prevent something like this from occurring again?
Ranked Choice Voting: A Path Toward a More Integral Politics
Jim AnestRanked choice voting (RCV) is a practice that offers considerable promise by creating and protecting a more civil commons where more perspectives are included, respect is encouraged, coercion and distortion are minimized, and intersubjective bridging is rewarded.
The Momentous Leap to Integral Consciousness
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosKen Wilber and Corey deVos explore some of the unique challenges that come with the transition to Integral stages of development — “the momentous leap” as it is often called. Watch as Ken and Corey try to bring a little bit more light to this particular path of transformation, and maybe leave a few signposts for fellow travelers along the way.
Abortion, Freedom, and the Sanctity of Life
Cindy Wigglesworth, Corey deVos and Mark FischlerWatch as Cindy Wigglesworth, Mark Fischler, and Corey deVos take a careful look at the Supreme Court’s deeply controversial decision to overrule Roe vs. Wade, and the subsequent banning of abortion access in dozens of states across the country. How does something like the sanctity of life change from one developmental stage to another? How do integral “metaphysics of wholeness” inform our views? Watch to find out.
Beyond the Culture War: Consciousness Evolves, Politics Can Too
Steve McIntosh, Roger Walsh and John DupuySteve McIntosh outlines an extraordinary framework to make sense of our political conflicts—extraordinary in that it points to ways through and out of our persistent polarity consciousness. Steve convincingly argues our opportunity is right now: to create a synthesis, a cooperative agreement space, that transcends and includes thesis and antithesis, left and right, individual and community.
Integral Journalism in the Disinformation Age
Stefan Schultz and Corey deVosStefan Schultz is a journalist for Der Spiegel magazine since 2008, and a student of integral theory since 2018. In this fun and far-ranging discussion, Corey deVos talks to Stefan about his own integral approach to journalism, taking a careful look at the primary methods and motivations of journalism we see at each major stage of development. They then go on to suggest what a more integral form of journalism might look like, while also exploring a number of related topics — the role of art and aesthetics in journalism, the distinction between orthodox and heterodox sources of information, the collapse of legitimacy in our media institutions, and much more.
Ramping Up Human Evolution in Time to Avert Disaster
Jamie Wheal, John Dupuy and Roger WalshIn this riveting, mind opening (and bending) conversation, philosopher and peak performance expert Jamie Wheal takes our existential metacrisis head on, asking and often answering the biggest questions we, the human race, face today. More than inspirational, this conversation is like an infusion of the energetic, coherent, transpersonal potential of human beings. Guaranteed, you won’t see things the same way after listening.
Russia Is Catalyzing the Transformation Age
Robb SmithRussia’s invasion of Ukraine is not just a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty, it is a coordinated attack, with China’s cooperation, on the dominant late Information Age global network, especially the US dollar as global reserve currency. And while it likely counts on a devastating financial counterattack from the western alliance—after all, Putin is a Judo master and wants to use his opponent’s weight against them—it underestimates the global values coherence of the “Green” structure of sociocultural evolution that will yet hamper a serious bipolar Russo-Sino block from gaining momentum. But it may come to represent a signal opportunity for the US to lead much-needed reform in the global order in the very areas continuing to be exposed as structural flaws, including the power of UN’s peacekeeping mission, total nuclear disarmament, the US dollar’s role in foreign policy, and the structure of the UN security council.
Justice Breyer, Originalism, and the Engine of Enfoldment
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosMark and Corey take a look at the life, legacy, and retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, and what distinguished his judgements and legal philosophy from other Supreme Court Justices. We then examine the legal doctrine of “originalism” — the idea that our founding documents should only be interpreted according to the specific contexts and understandings of the time they were written.
Finding Resilience in a Flood of Disinformation
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith and Corey explore multiple strategies to help us maintain our mental and emotional well-being as our informational terrains become increasingly disrupted and distorted by a constant flood of disinformation.
Inhabit: Your Humility
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeCorey and Ryan discuss the importance of cultivating and inhabiting a “confident humility” with relation to our own physical bodies, mental processes, and spiritual health. We also have a fun segment at the end designed to put your own humility to the test, by looking at 10 common integral caricatures — stereotypes that many of us fall into at one point or another during our Integral lives.
The Forgotten People: Restoring Justice for Indigenous Cultures
Magdalena Smieszek, Mark Fischler and Corey deVosJoin Mark, Corey, and special guest Magdalena Smieszek as they take a careful look at the many indignities and injustices that have been inflicted on indigenous populations in North America and around the world over the last several years, decades, and centuries.
Inhabit: Your Entertainment
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeCorey deVos and Ryan Oelke explore how to more fully inhabit our art and entertainment. We tend to think of “recreation” as a passive activity, but we actually share an active symbiotic relationship with our art and entertainment, both personally and culturally. We create art, which in turn re-creates us.
Israel/Palestine: Where Do We Go From Here?
Magdalena Smieszek, Mark Fischler and Corey deVosWatch as Magdalena, Mark, and corey explore the long and complex history of the region, offer their own thoughts on whether Israel qualifies as an “apartheid state”, and suggest some next step solutions in order to inch ourselves closer to genuine peace, stability, and justice for the men, women, and children on all sides of this seemingly intractable conflict.
Inhabit: Your Wokeness
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeRyan and Corey invite all of us to inhabit our own most embodied “post-woke” leadership, allowing us to recognize and rescue the most important babies of “social justice” from the bathwater of political extremism.
What’s Wrong With Policing in America?
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosWhy do we see so many cases of apparent police abuse being recorded so frequently, but punished so rarely? What are some possible solutions that can help create more social trust for our police organizations, and a more peaceful society for all of us? Watch as Mark and Corey take a careful look at the Derek Chauvin verdict — and at the state of policing itself in America — as they offer their own personal views and try to sort through the conflicting narratives surrounding this tragically controversial cultural fault line.
From Woke to Awake: An Intersectionality of Perspective
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosMark and Corey have a rich and far-reaching discussion about our present political realities and challenges, dedicating the first half of the discussion to some of the major headlines from the last few weeks, and then exploring ways to elevate “woke culture” into a genuine “post-woke” integral sensibility.
Hope as Process: Being and Becoming in the Great Integration
Brad KershnerHow do we expand our horizon? How do we learn to see through our current forms of construction and break through into broader, deeper vistas of awareness and understanding, so that we may envision a richer and more nuanced context of possibility, and enact a way of life that forms the shape of our deepest potentials?
Inhabit: Your Game
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeIn this continuation of our “integral media” series, Ryan and Corey take another look at the major stages of human development, this time using a series of 33 video games in order to illustrate the qualities and characteristics of each stage. All of this allows you to not only observe these stages within you, but to actively inhabit, engage, and play with them as well.
Biden’s First Month, Trump’s Second Impeachment, and Cancelling Cancel Culture
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosHow is the Biden Presidency going so far? Will Donald Trump be convicted in the Senate for his impeachment trial? Now that the political left has regained tentative control of our government, what do we do about “cancel culture” and other illiberal tendencies coming from the left? Watch this latest episode of Integral Justice Warrior as Mark and Corey shine a light upon these three questions.
The GameStop Revolution Has Started. It Won’t Be Televised.
Robb SmithThe revolution won’t be televised, it will be Reddited. And it has started. In a four year run of incredible, historic events, it’s hard to objectively recognize which and when the most significant of them occurs. But I think it possible that one of the most important events of the past several years is playing out as we speak: the deep structure of society has just phase-shifted into a state of conditions necessary for Teal to emerge and without which it cannot: the GameStop Revolution is putting in place a demand by the crowd that will force Green-platform power holders to either evolve to Teal or become increasingly irrelevant.
Inhabit: Your Inner Theatre
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeCorey and Ryan take you on a cinematic journey through the stages of human development, a tour of your own inner theatre, using a series of 21 carefully-curated film clips to illustrate some of the most important qualities of each stage.
Insurrection, Censorship, and Madness
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosMark and Corey take an in-depth look at the heart-breaking events at the Capitol, offering their own full-spectrum response to this American travesty. They also discuss the response coming from corporations such as Google, Twitter, and Facebook, who are now beginning to purge their platforms of far-right voices and Q anon supporters. Is censorship ever the right thing to do? If you think you have a simple answer to the question, you might be missing something important.
Inhabit: Your Trust
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeRyan and Corey take a deep dive into the wicked problem of social trust, looking at this meta-crisis through each of the four quadrants while suggesting some key practices and perspectives within each quadrant that can help us restore our trust in each other, in our institutions, in ourselves, and in the grand evolutionary unfolding itself.
Supreme Court, Systemic Racism, and Sea Monsters
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosMark and Corey discuss the state of Trump’s challenges to the election results (e.g. “The Kraken”), the recent Supreme Court decision around religious liberties in the face of a pandemic, and what it says about Amy Coney Barrett’s future tenure as Supreme Court Justice, and whether Joe Biden’s plans to address racial justice are coming from healthy liberal values and methods of enforcement, or from unhealthy illiberal (woke) values and enforcement.
Putting the Pieces Back Together
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosCorey and Keith discuss the psychological and cultural aftermath of the 2020 Presidential Election, and the integral work ahead of us to help put the fragmented pieces of our society back together in the post-Trump era.
Inhabit: Your Election
Ryan Oelke and Corey deVosWatch as Ryan and Corey reflect on the results of the 2020 Presidential Election, exploring its implications for the world and within our own hearts, while also creating a space where we can begin to release some of the fears and anxieties many of us have been struggling with during these chaotic and uncertain times.
Integral Panel: Post-Election Wrap-Up
Corey deVos, Jeff Salzman, Cindy Wigglesworth, Mark Fischler and Ryan OelkeJoin Corey deVos, Jeff Salzman, Cindy Wigglesworth, Ryan Oelke, and Mark Fischler as we explore some of the deeper implications of the 2020 election results through a more integral lens.
The Fierce Urgency of Now
Mark Fischler and Corey deVosWelcome back to Integral Justice Warrior! Watch as Corey and new co-host Mark Fischler kick off a new season of IJW, exploring how the spirit of integral justice moves through us, and how it has moved through some of the most significant justice warriors throughout history.
Overcoming Racism: What Is Ours To Do?
Diane Musho Hamilton and Corey deVosDiane and Corey continue their in-depth exploration of race and racism, focusing on the actual four-quadrant work that needs to be done in order to begin to truly overcome these personal, cultural, and social challenges.
Mindfulness, Psychotherapy, and Politics
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith and Corey lead a fascinating discussion that brings us to the heart of psychotherapy, mindfulness, and spiritual awakening, and then apply this transformational wisdom to the social and political challenges we are surrounded by.
The Metacrisis is Giving Rise to the Transformation Age
Integral Life and Robb SmithHow can we contribute to the rise of the Transformation Age? We first need to understand what’s driving the emergence of the Transformation Age out of the Information Age: a global metacrisis, occurring amidst a great release of global power, which as it becomes more acute is exposing the limitations of the current era’s structures, sensemaking, key contradictions (all pluribus, little unum), scarce resources (meaning), and the sources of power themselves (convening power).
Inhabit: Your Resistance
Justin Miles, Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeSpiritual conversations often emphasize the importance of overcoming our resistance and accepting the world for what it is, exactly as it is. However, there are times when we don’t need to overcome our resistance, we need to fully inhabit our resistance. We can’t simply accept what is, we need to put ourselves on the line for what can and should be. How can we bring more mindfulness, skillfulness, and embodiment to our resistance, even while seeing everything as always-already perfect?
The Transformation Age: America Burning
Robb SmithAmerica has been on fire these past few weeks. A nation struggling with its racist past, its contemporary racial shadow, its deep political and cultural polarization, and a divisive president who will never be capable of leading a nation, we continue to find ourselves in the heart of The Great Release (and this time, not from an economic depression or disease pandemic, but from our deep and terrible racist heritage). In this brief article, I want to use a few lenses of integral metatheory—concepts you’ll be familiar with, but applied in ways you’ve never seen before—to see if we can get a broader view of what’s happening.
#EnoughIsEnough: Overcoming Racism in America
Diane Musho Hamilton, Greg Thomas, Mark Palmer, Gabe Wilson, Rob McNamara and Corey deVosIn light of the recent violent deaths of three black Americans — Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd — at the hands of current and former police officers in the United States, we wanted to deepen our discussion of race and racism and how we as Integralists can contribute to change by becoming powerful anti-racists in our own circles of influence.
Inhabit: Your Truth
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeRyan and Corey devote an episode to the theme of fully inhabiting, embodying, and enacting truth — how to find it, how to wield it, and how to avoid the false certainties fed to us by both mainstream and fringe media. They don’t try to tell you what to believe, but rather try to help you avoid overly identifying with the contents of our views and to liberate yourself from your beliefs, whatever they happen to be.
Conversations From the Road
Robb SmithIn my travels, I’ve been privileged to sit down with members of the Integral Life community and talk with them about their lives, their growth and what’s on their minds. You are invited to listen in to those conversations we have received permission to publish.
Coronavirus: Making Sense of Our Sense-Making
Beena Sharma, Susanne Cook-Greuter and Corey deVosWatch as Beena Sharma and Susanne Cook-Greuter offer a must-see presentation to help us understand the many healthy and unhealthy responses we are seeing to the coronavirus pandemic, all the way up and down the spiral of development.
Coronavirus and a Course in Anti-Fragility
Corey deVos and Ken WilberKen and Corey respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by suggesting a far more comprehensive approach to health and healing. Watch as we take a tour through all four quadrants of healthy living — a much-needed guide to integral anti-fragility in the 21st century.
Deeper Into the Great Release
Robb Smith and Corey deVosLadies and gentlemen, the Great Release is truly and fully underway. That earthquake has now begun. Nanoscopically small and quietly transmissible, Covid-19 would be almost laughable as a catalyst for the great release if it weren’t so deadly. But as it stands, it is in fact the perfect spark to alight the ample tinder of total system irresilience.
Love in the Time of Corona
Diane Musho Hamilton, Gail Hochachka, Rob McNamara and Corey deVosJoin Diane, Gail, Rob, Corey, and special guest Cindy Lou Golin for a very special discussion about the coronavirus pandemic and how to manage the tremendous fear, anxiety, and uncertainty that can arise from it. We also explore some of the hopeful opportunities and wisdoms that are being brought to the surface by our new set of global life conditions, as well as some of the possible paths toward anti-fragility that our society can take in the wake of this pandemic.
A Plague Arrives (And How Integral Practice Helps Us to Meet It)
Jeff SalzmanJeff takes a look at the Coronavirus pandemic, humanity’s response to it, and how the integral lens helps us see more clearly the myriad forces and opportunities rising out of this crisis — which increases our wisdom, compassion, and resilience while dealing with it.
Integral Preparation for a Time of Rapid Social Change
Robb SmithA lifetime of practice has prepared integral people to carry the world through the trying and rapidly-changing times we are entering.
Corona, Climate, and Crashes: Welcome to the Transformation Age
Robb Smith and Corey deVosRobb Smith and Corey deVos explore the rising disruption caused by a brand new set of global life conditions emerging across the planet, why only an integral sensibility is capable of managing these many challenges and crises, and how we can begin to cultivate the inner resilience and anti-fragility we need in order to endure and even thrive in the midst of extreme volatility.
Inhabit: Your Politics
Ryan Oelke and Corey deVosRyan and Corey explore ways to bring more embodied awareness and skillful discernment to our political lives, overcoming the corrosive and often paralyzing effects that both our cynicism and our idealism can have upon our political decisions and our willingness to engage our most fundamental civic responsibilities.
Climate Change: From Alarmism to Anti-Fragility
Diane Musho Hamilton, Gail Hochachka, Rob McNamara and Corey deVosIn this fascinating episode of Integral Justice Warrior, Diane and Corey are joined by Gail Hochachka and Rob McNamara to explore anti-fragile approaches to climate change. We are also joined by fellow integral enthusiast Deb Collins, who offers her own perspectives around the tragic wild fires that swept across the Australian continent.
Climate Change Solutions: Adapt or Transform?
Diane Musho Hamilton, Gail Hochachka, Rob McNamara and Corey deVosWe are joined by special guests Gail Hochachka and Rob McNamara to explore some of the critical strategies to climate change — some of which emphasize a total top-down transformation of our political and economic systems, and others that emphasize a more incremental and adaptive approach.
Engaging Climate Change in All Four Quadrants
Diane Musho Hamilton, Rob McNamara and Corey deVosIn this episode of Integral Justice Warrior, Diane and Corey are joined by Rob McNamara, integral teacher and author of The Elegant Self, in order to take a closer look at climate change through all four quadrants.
Judge Judy: Evolution’s Warrior
Jeff SalzmanNow in its 23rd year, Judge Judy attracts 10 million viewers a day who are eager to watch the 76-year-old grandmother transform into a Valkyrie for Justice, laying waste to the mendacities of cheating lovers, thieving landlords, lying teenagers, and meddling mothers-in-law.
Integral Social Justice
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosIn this stunning 3 hour discussion, Ken Wilber offers his own views around healthy and unhealthy forms of social justice, praising the healthy and legitimate efforts to enact social justice over the generations while noting how much of today’s broken discourse around social justice is helping to perpetuate multiple forms of injustice.
Inhabit: Your Digital Life
Corey deVos and Ryan OelkeHow do we better manage the inherent fractures and fragmentations of the digital world while bringing more embodied wisdom and compassion to our online interactions? Watch as Ryan and Corey provide some fairly simple perspectives and practices that might help you inhabit and engage your digital life with more skillful authenticity, resilience, and kindness.
Kosmos: An Integral Voyage
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosKen Wilber and Corey deVos ponder the evolutionary mysteries of the universe, speculating on how abundant life might be in the kosmos, why we haven’t met any of our galactic neighbors yet, and what might happen if a UFO landed on the White House lawn. It’s a fun conversation — and one that takes its subject matter more seriously than you might expect. Whether you are a true believer of UFO phenomena or an iron-clad skeptic, you don’t want to miss this fascinating and far-reaching exploration.
Campaign Closeup: Marianne, Bernie, and More Mayor Pete!
Corey deVos and Jeff SalzmanThe Democratic field for US president is taking shape fast. Today I have a freewheeling conversation with Corey deVos of Integral Life about our impressions of the emerging landscape, with a special focus on Marianne Williamson, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg.
The Many Ways We Grow
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosHuman development is uneven, which means that we are better at some things than we are at others. Some skills come more naturally to us, and others are more difficult to acquire. Watch as Ken and Corey explore each of these developmental capacities in detail, offering a powerful summary of human potentials, talents, and intelligences — a comprehensive map of the territory of “you” that will help guide your own ongoing growth and development.
Mayor Pete’s X-Factor: Could It Be Integral Consciousness?
Jeff SalzmanIn less than three months, Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend Indiana, (population 102,000), has gone from political anonymity to the top tier of candidates in the Democratic race for president of the United States. What accounts for Mayor Pete’s blast out of the political gate?
Rebel Wisdom: Integral Meets the Intellectual Dark Web
David Fuller and Jeff SalzmanToday’s guest, David Fuller, is at the center of the intellectual Dark Web (IDW) having founded Rebel Wisdom, a YouTube station that has attracted over 60,000 subscribers in less than two years. David Fuller is committed to the further evolution of the intellectual dark web and enthusiastic, as I am, about what integral theory can bring to that project. I hope you enjoy our conversation!
Growing Up: A Guided Tour
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosIn this episode of The Ken Show we explore one of the most central elements of integral metatheory: growing up through multiple stages of developmental maturity. Watch as Ken and Corey offer a guided tour through each of the major stages on the Path of Growing Up — an exploration of your own greatest, deepest potentials — and offer some simple practices to help you actualize those potentials.
What’s Missing in the Intellectual Dark Web
Ken WilberKen Wilber takes an in-depth look at the Intellectual Dark Web though the lens of Integrative Metatheory, celebrating their contributions to political discourse while also pointing out what they’ve been missing in their analyses.
Taking Aliens Seriously
Sean Esbjörn-Hargens and Jeff SalzmanIs there intelligent life beyond Earth? Is it possible that alien beings have already contacted us? What do we make of the thousands of testimonials of human-alien contact, including from scientists, diplomats and astronauts? Yet… where’s the proof? And if there is proof, why is alien contact not the biggest story of the millennia?
On the Front Line of the Culture War — Give Me Some Real Examples, Not Just Theories!
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosWatch as Ken and Corey offer their views on some of the most controversial policy debates of our time, each of which has become a battle line in our constantly escalating culture wars.
Is Masculinity Toxic?
Jeff Salzman and Dr. Keith WittJeff talks with Dr. Keith Witt about an evolutionary approach that liberates masculinity and femininity into a new integration that features the best of both and makes them available to all.
The Baby and the Bathwater: Saving Liberalism
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosIn this episode of The Ken Show we explore five themes near and dear to the liberal heart — tolerance, nonviolence, power, privilege, and gender — celebrating the healthy aspects of each that we want to include in a more integral embrace, while weeding out the unhealthy regressive narratives that most of these have devolved into.
Angry and Vulgar: The Fruits of Incivility
Jeff SalzmanDonald Trump’s coarseness has proven to be more powerful than most people thought possible. In act two of his presidency he is being met with reciprocal incivility from his opposition, exemplified by newly-elected Congressperson Rashida Tlabid, who promised at a rally to “impeach the motherf*****”. In this episode I explore where and how this “new incivility” is arising, its evolutionary potency, and how it can be – and is being — engaged with more wisdom and intention.
Beyond the Nation-State: Globalism, Plutocracy, and the Integral World Federation
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosKen and Corey explore how today’s transnational challenges and realities may be hastening humanity’s eventual growth toward increasingly inclusive and global forms of governance, what government might look like at the level of the global holon, and how we might actually be able to get there from here.
The Major and Minor Scales of Integral Politics
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosKen Wilber and Corey deVos take an in-depth look at the “major and minor scales” of integral politics — an inventory of the most critical elements, polarities, and patterns of self-organization that are at play within all of the major political systems across the world, from the rise of civilization to today.
An Integral Look at Happiness (with Dr. Keith Witt and Jeff Salzman)
Dr. Keith Witt and Jeff SalzmanDr. Keith Witt and Jeff Salzman take an in-depth look at the art of happiness, exploring some of the central perspectives and practices that can lead to a more happy, wise, and fulfilling life.
Integral Politics: Its Essential Ingredients
Ken WilberKen Wilber offers a summary of his integral political model, exploring the “major and minor scales” that inform and influence our major political orientations while suggesting a revolutionary path toward a far more integrated approach to politics and governance.
Today’s Next-Level Organizations
Frederic Laloux and Jeff SalzmanEach stage of human development features a unique way of organizing work. So what’s next? Frederic Laloux‘s blockbuster book, Reinventing Organizations, offers compelling answers to that question.
White Pride vs. White Guilt in the #MeToo Era
Terry Patten and Corey deVosThere is a hidden subtext lurking behind the Trump reality show, US political gridlock, and the Kavanaugh confirmation showdown. Yes, it’s certainly a clash of worldviews. But it’s also about racial and cultural tribes. And it’s even about gender roles and identities.
Judging Kavanaugh
Jeff SalzmanJeff shares his insights into the testimony presented to the Senate Judiciary Committee by both Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing him of attacking her as a teenager.
Amir’s Story: From Islamic Fundamentalism to Radical Humanism
Amir Ahmad NasrHow much do you care about your deepest held ideals, freedoms, and spiritual awakenings? Enough to put your own life at risk? Watch as Amir Ahmad Nasr, author of My Isl@m: How Fundamentalism Stole My Mind — and Doubt Freed My Soul, shares his inspiring story.
The Deconstruction of the World Trade Center
Ken WilberKen Wilber explores the many sorts of reactions people had to the tragedy of 9/11, and offers a theoretical framework within which a genuinely Integral approach to politics and governance might emerge.
From Polarization to Integration
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosKen Wilber and Corey deVos explore some of the causal factors behind so many of the regressive tendencies in our culture and politics these days, from new social pressures coming from social media technologies like Facebook, to the historic evolutionary trends that have formed and informed our major schools of political thought in the first place.
Immigration, Postmodernism, and Feminism: An Integral Reckoning
Ken Wilber and Corey deVosKen Wilber responds to questions about immigration, the dangerous excesses of the political right, and the regressive tendencies we are seeing in the postmodern left. Ken and Corey then offer a fascinating exploration of feminism and the need for both men and women to better harmonize the public sphere of politics, career, and religion with the private sphere of family, hearth, and home.
What’s MY News?
David RiordanIn this series of dispatches I’m going attempt to give you a basic premier about what is changing about the news. Then I am going to continue to track this story as it continues to emerge.
Can the Intellectual Dark Web Save Western Culture?
Robb Smith“The question is, will the IDW be more than a counter-balancing force to the dominant intellectual ideology of Green postmodernism? Can they synthesize enough, in time, to articulate positive, coherent and integrative modes upon which culture might be reorganized as it enters the fourth phase in a few short years?”
The Intellectual Dark Web: An Integral View
Robb Smith and Mark FormanMark Forman and Robb Smith discuss the Intellectual Dark Web, the loose counter-cultural band of intellectuals recently profiled in the New York Times.
The Roots of Integral Theory
Steve McIntosh and Jeff SalzmanSteve McIntosh takes us on a tour through his view of the origins of integral theory, starting with Georg Friedrich Hegel, who first explained the mechanisms of evolution in human history, and on through a stream of philosophers who unified the evolution of matter, consciousness and spirit.
Big Data in Little China
Robb Smith, Ross Hostetter and Jeff SalzmanAre there fundamentally different ways for countries to progress into and through modernity? After all, the western model has been dominant for 200 years because of its success in doing so. But might Big Data — as controlled either by strong central states, private monopolistic businesses, or both — allow new forms of social regulation that can drive the evolution of non-western societies into modern values and beyond?
Change the Rules: New Structures to Drain the Swamp
Jeff SalzmanJeff visits with integralist Tom Curren, who has launched a new non-profit initiative with the goal to change the rules of the American political system.
The War Among Progressives
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosToday Jeff and Corey take a close look at an fantastic new article by Valerie Tarico, published to Alternet with the title “Here’s Why Some Progressives Are Tearing Each Other Apart”. In the article Tarico argues that today’s left is largely split into two major factions, each of whom are operating with two very different narratives around social progress and our collective wellbeing.
Integral European Conference: A Preview from Bence Ganti
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Integral Liftoff: Listeners Share the View from Second Tier
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosIn today’s episode Jeff uses your reflections to chart out some of the landmarks of the new integral territory, as well as characteristics of the pioneers who seek to inhabit it.
Conspiracy in the Age of Aperspectival Madness
Corey deVos and Terry PattenCorey deVos and Terry Patten attempt to navigate to the endless web of conspiracy theories with some degree of wisdom and discernment, and to bring a small dose of sanity to the dangerous epidemic of aperspectival madness that is flooding through our world.
Trump’s War Cabinet Drops a Developmental Level
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosToday Jeff and Corey consider the choice of John Bolton to become Donald Trump’s national security advisor (replacing Gen. H.R. McMaster), as well as the promotion of Mike Pompeo to be Secretary of State (replacing Rex Tillerson). The shakeup represents a major worldview shift from orange modernity to amber traditionalism in the war cabinet of a President who often operates from the red power stage.
Peering into the Post-Privacy World
Dr. Keith Witt and Jeff SalzmanToday Jeff talks with integral psychotherapist Dr. Keith Witt about the arising of big data and its effect on our individual and collective psyches. They share their insights on the fascinating new book, Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are.
What Jordan Peterson (and His Fans and Foes) Can Learn from Integral Theory
Jeff SalzmanThrough subsequent postings critical of “leftist radicals,” Jordan Peterson has become a hero for advocates of free speech, and a idol to people who are opposed to the postmodern promulgation of multiculturalism and gender fluidity. So where does Peterson fit in the integral schema? In these two episodes of the Daily Evolver Jeff examines Peterson’s message as expressed through his book and his most popular lectures and interviews.
Star Trek: Discovery and the Moral Arc of the Universe
Corey deVosThe soul of Star Trek isn’t optimism or idealism or a roadmap to utopia. All of those are byproducts of the actual moral core of the series: exploring post-conventional morality, and owning the consequences of decisions made from that stage.
Can Virtual Reality Create a More Virtuous Reality?
Corey deVos and Jeff SalzmanJeff and Corey explore the exhilarating emergence of virtual reality technology and the far-reaching implications it has across the full spectrum of human experience, from entertainment to education, to medicine, art, journalism, spiritual practice, sexuality, communication, and any number of other exciting and potentially groundbreaking applications.
The Black Panther: A Hero for Humanity
Jeff SalzmanJeff Salzman talks to Steve Harper about the superhero film The Black Panther, which illuminates the struggle of growing beyond a retributionist victim identity to a larger sense of responsibility for one’s self, one’s people, and the whole of the world.
Two Integral Eggheads (Try To) Watch the Olympics
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosToday Jeff and Corey take an anthropological look at the Olympics, noting how they express multiple stages of human development, how one’s type and kosmic address influences how you experience sports, how athletes at the peak of their performance can transmit powerful state experiences, and much more.
Guns, Madness or Evil? The Roots of Mass Shootings
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosIs America’s rate of gun violence, which multiplies that of other developed countries, an immutable part of our character and culture? How do we respond to the steady news of mass shootings and the senseless killing of innocent people? And how about the perpetrators: are they mentally ill or just plain evil?
You Are the Hero of Your Own Story
Jeff SalzmanToday we share Jeff’s guest appearance on Steve Harper’s “What’s Your Theory?“ webcast. Steve and Jeff explore the interior qualities of traditionalism (amber altitude), and how to recognize, respect and nurture their power in one’s self and others.
The Beauty (and Baggage) of Traditionalism
Jeff SalzmanJeff looks at the deep structures of traditionalism and how we can nurture its most healthy expression in our culture, and in our own minds and hearts.
Are We Seeing the End of American Football?
Jeff SalzmanIt was Super Bowl Sunday last week, America’s great secular holiday where the nation’s top two football teams go to battle to prove who is the ultimate champion. All the attention and hoopla does not, however, hide the fact that football’s popularity is waning in American culture….
Ralph Ellison’s Integral Insight into Race and Culture
Greg Thomas and Jeff SalzmanTo kick off Black History Month, Jeff connects with Greg Thomas, an integral thinker who is pioneering a new way forward in race relations in the U.S. Greg advocates transcending the postmodern emphasis on racial identity in favor or embracing what is a broader American cultural identity, of which all Americans are an inextricable part.
The State (and Stages) of the Union: 2018
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosIn this episode we look at President Trump’s State of the Union address, where he made opening moves toward a grand bargain to overhaul the U.S. immigration system and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure. What are the policy and political ramifications? Can we trust the guy who brought us birtherism? Are Democrats willing to give Trump victories they themselves want (and Republicans would never give them)?
Trump’s First Year
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosDonald Trump has just completed the first year of the most unlikely, outrageous presidency in modern history. What do we make of it?
Is Integral Arrogant? Jeff Responds to Listeners.
Jeff SalzmanDoes the integral project have a problem with arrogance? Jeff explains how integral theory itself helps to answer the question.
The #MeToo Reckoning: A Conversation with Diane Musho Hamilton
Diane Musho Hamilton and Jeff SalzmanDiane and Jeff look at the upside of the #MeToo movement, as well as its inevitable overreach. They look at how it heals historic patterns of abuse, and what it is blind and hostile too. And they look to integral consciousness, the ability to hold multiple perspectives, as a way forward.
New Year, Less Fear: Renewing Our Faith in Progress
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosToday Jeff and Corey welcome 2018 with the recognition that in terms of human flourishing – nutrition, health, lifespan, peace, freedom – we are living in the best of times.
Never Been Better, Never Felt Worse: Inside the Rise of an Integral Global Operating System for the 21st Century
Robb SmithIntegral Life CEO Robb Smith puts the tumult of 2016 into historical perspective and looks ahead at the “momentous leap into the transformation age” that he believes is underway right now. Taking a long view of history, evolutionary dynamics, culture and economics, Robb argues that we’re at the peak of a Green, pluralistic global operating system, with Orange modernism slipping into our rearview mirror, and Teal integralism just beginning to emerge, holding all the promise of overcoming the evolutionary contradictions that gave rise to populism and leaders like Donald Trump.
Lessons from Alabama and Puerto Rico
Jeff SalzmanJeff looks at the victory of Democrat Doug Jones over Republican Roy Moore in the special U.S. Senate election in Alabama. Jeff starts the episode by checking in on Puerto Rico, as political and business forces align to create a state-of-the-art, low-carbon power grid.
Why Can’t Wedding Cakes Be Gay?
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosToday we look at the case, heard last week in the U.S. Supreme Court, of the Colorado baker who refuses to bake a cake for a gay couple’s wedding — a case that pits competing American values of freedom of speech (and freedom from compelled speech) and the principle of tolerance and equal access in the public spheres of life.
The Shadow Side of Technology
David Riordan and Jeff SalzmanJeff talks with David Riordan, Vice President of Media for Integral Life, about some of the ways we can inhabit the virtual world more safely and intelligently.
The Last Gasp of Late-Stage Capitalism: An Integral Look at the Republican Tax Plan
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosThe rise of capitalism, starting a couple hundred years ago, has been a spectacularly positive development for humanity, creating enormous material weath that raised billions of people out of poverty. In the last 40 years, however, it has been tuned so that the vast majority of economic growth flows to the elites who own and manage the systems of wealth creation. The Republican tax plan doubles down on that trend, reducing taxes for corporations and the rich at the expense of social programs that help the poor. Jeff and Corey discuss the ramifications.
Ann Coulter’s Piece of the Truth: Critiquing Trump From the Right
Jeff SalzmanWe in integral land often say stuff like “everyone is right” and “no one is capable of being wrong 100% of the time.” But what about Ann Coulter? What is her piece of the truth? Listen to find out!
The Path Ahead: Politics, Globalism, and You
Ken WilberKen Wilber offers an extensive presentation to help us better understand the evolutionary pressures that led to the rise of Trump and the backlash against progressivism, and offers his own ideas around the future of the global economy.
Roy Moore Wants to Date Your Daughter
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosAmerican politics is riveted on bombshell accusations involving Judge Roy Moore, who is running for U.S. Senate from the state of Alabama. In a story reported in the Washington Post, he is accused by five women of molesting them when they were 14 – 16 years old. Watch as we explore this extra-icky story, and try to provide a more integral point of view.
Beyond Race and Victimhood
Greg Thomas, Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosToday we are joined by Greg Thomas, who has thought and written extensively on one of the most vexing conundrums in our culture: race relations. Greg attempts to chart a new course, one that includes the postmodern insight into oppression and its effects, but challenges its fixation on racial and victim identity.
Our Postmodern Personality
Doshin Roshi and Jeff SalzmanJeff is interviewed by Doshin Michael Nelson, founder of Integral Zen, about the nature of Green and the Integral way forward.
The Daily Evolver Q&A: Deep Listening, Helping People Grow, and Geopolitical Shades of Grey
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosJeff and Corey answer some questions from our listeners in this special Q&A episode of The Daily Evolver.
Saudi Arabia’s Wild Weekend: Corruption Crackdown or Power Grab?
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosOn Saturday, Saudi Arabia’s 32 year old ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, arrested dozens of the country’s most influential political and religious figures, including 11 of his royal cousins. It was, according the the New York Times, “the most sweeping transformation of the Kingdom’s governance for more than eight decades.” In this episode we bring an integral lens to the unfolding situation.
The Mean Green Fever Dream: Climate Urgency vs. Alarmism
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosWhen trying to communicate about climate change and sustainable initiatives, how can we find a way to convey the tremendous urgency of the problem without falling into the sort of overwrought alarmism that only ends up tuning people out of the conversation?
An Integral Response to Terror in the 21st Century
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosJeff and Corey make an effort to wrap their integral hearts around the tremendous pain and sadness of yesterday’s tragic terrorist attack in New York City (and all other terrorist attacks around the world) while trying to ground the very real fears, anxieties, and resentments these attacks generate into a much more hopeful and optimistic enactment of our world.
The Art of Being Unique (But Not Special)
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosToday Jeff and Corey take a look at a paradoxical move in vertical development: where we embrace our own radical uniqueness and express it in relation to other beings who are also utterly unique. It’s a new and more vivid integration of the individual and collective realms of reality, and out of it emerges a possibility for a more fruitful, happy and fulfilling life. Once again we are helped out by Sarah Silverman!
Mueller, Trump & Collusion: The Rule of Law Pushes Back
Robb Smith, Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosIn today’s Daily Evolver Jeff, Corey and Robb look at today’s groundbreaking headlines to explain how Red and Amber-centered populism, led by President Trump, gained power in order to combat the stagnation brought on by too much cultural and economic power consolidated in too few hands. Today, with indictments being leveled at three people working for the Trump campaign (one of which confirmed collusion with the Russian government), the Orange, Constitutionally-centered rule of law fought back.
Building Bridges: How to Talk to Trump Supporters
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosIn the wake of the Trump election, many progressives are realizing that one way forward is to reach out to their political opponents, at least to establish a basic human connection. Today Jeff looks at four recent attempts to do that: by comedian Sarah Silverman, philosopher George Lakoff, Vox political correspondent Liz Plank and New York Times columnist David Brooks. Corey also adds some of his own integral tips for good interpersonal hygiene.
“The Witch” and the Evolution of Horror
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosJeff offers a review of the film The Witch: A New England Folk Tale, noting how much it resonated with his own integral sensibilities. He and Corey then turn the discussion to a broader discussion of the evolution of horror as a genre and its utility as a “release valve” for both cultural anxieties and the persistent existential dread we are all born into. SPOOOKY!!!!!
How to Vote Integral
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosIn a political system that is so polarized and seemingly rife with conflict between irreconcilable views, how do we make the best and most integrally-informed choices possible?
Politics, Addiction, and Mental Health: The Path to Recovery
Chris Grosso and David RiordanIn this interview Chris recounts some of the surreal feelings he’s having as the Trump administration continues to disrupt the social, political, and cultural status quo. He speaks to the impact Trump is having on the mental health communities that he serves — as safety net budgets for social services are eliminated, those with mental health issues are often the first to feel the pain.
Cryptocurrency for Newbies: The Evolution of Money
Ryan Oelke, Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosIn this very special episode we take a close look at one of the most exciting and disruptive new technological forces in society: the rise of cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies.
Trump-Sick? Try This.
Jeff SalzmanJeff shares his thoughts on how to navigate in an era led by a man who he too agrees is unfit for the office of the Presidency. He ends the episode by sharing 15 minutes of a video of spiritual teacher Byron Katie as she helps a woman metabolize her distress at Trump.
When Buddhists Go Bad: The Tragedy in Myanmar (And Why Development Trumps Doctrine)
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosJeff looks at the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas in Myanmar at the hands of the Buddhist majority, and stoked by militant Buddhist monks. What’s up with the religion of peace and compassion? Let’s shed some integral light.
Dunkirk: The Art of War
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosDoes the film Dunkirk qualify as integral art? What the hell is “integral art”, anyway?
Harvey Weinstein and the Fall of the Patriarchy
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosFeminism collects yet another head as stories of Harvey Weinstein’s abuse of women flood the airwaves. Watch as Jeff and Corey explore the dignities and disasters of the feminist movement.
The Republic Fights Back (And Even Some Republicans!)
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosHave American conservatives finally had enough of this Donald Trump guy?
The Gun Problem
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosAmerica finally faces a challenge it can’t shoot its way out of.
The Acceleration of Crazy
Terry Patten and David RiordanTerry touches on what he calls the “acceleration of crazy” as our current reality show unfolds. He also has some interesting insights on how he is navigating the chaos, while noting that major stage transitions like the one we are currently living in are, by their very nature, revolutionary, calling us to a higher, richer, and more sustainable human commons.
The Morality of Meat
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosIf God didn’t want us to eat animals, why did He make them out of meat?
Monkey Mind (And Other Kinds of Animal Intelligence)
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosHow much consciousness do animals possess?
Move Fast and Break Things: Are Facebook, Amazon, and Google Hacking Our Democracy?
Jonathan Taplin and David RiordanA hot topic in the 2016 election was the business and targeting practices of the tech giants Facebook, Google, and Amazon and their possibly corrosive effects upon democracy. One of the excellent new books on this subject is Jonathan Taplin’s Move Fast and Break Things – How Facebook, Google and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy. Jonathan’s book does a really great job tracing the motivations of their founders as they morphed from startup tech innovators to dominant tech monopolies.
Beyond Polarization and White Nationalism: Embracing Our Deeper American Identity
Greg Thomas and Mark FormanGreg Thomas and Dr. Mark Forman dive more deeply into the unique perspective of Ralph Ellison (renowned author of Invisible Man) and his unparalleled value in our time of national crisis.
Do Rivers Have Rights?
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosRivers are people, my friend. And they’ve lawyered up.
Don and Kim’s Big Red Rumble
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosTensions are rising as toddlers squabble. What is a more integral view?
American Psycho
Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosWhat does childhood psychosis have to do with Donald Trump?
What’s Your Story NOW?
Jeff Salzman and David RiordanJeff Salzman and David Riordan discuss many of the topics we will be exploring at this year’s What NOW conference at the end of the year.
The 4th Spinning of Hip Hop
Justin MilesHiphop is largely studied from the outside in. We enjoy the music, the art and the dance. We judge, argue, evaluate and rank it, but not much attention is paid to what happens inside the artist. The 4th Spinning is an attempt to look at Hiphop from an Integral perspective, which simply means exploring the inside-and-outside of individuals (behavior, psychology and spirituality), and the inside-and-outside of groups (culture and society), to not only understand but to manifest Hiphop in all of its fullness.
The Debt Collective
Douglas RushkoffDoug Rushkoff interviews Astra Taylor and Thomas Gokey, co-founders of Strike Debt, Rolling Jubilee and most recently the Debt Collective. The Debt Collective is a direct action campaign that leverages the collective power of debtors, united together, against exploitative for-profit education and lending institutions in the US. Astra and Thomas give Team Human listeners a template for hacking real world systems and tapping into the power of solidarity.
WTF is CryptoMind?
Corey deVosWhat exactly is “cryptocurrency”, and why should you care? In this inaugural episode of the new CryptoMind podcast, our good friends Ryan Oelke (from PowerUp Productions) and Vincent Horn (from Buddhist Geeks) answer these questions, offer their own big-picture reflections, share their stories, and talk about the larger significance of the cryptospace as they see it.
Inside the Great Release
Robb SmithJoin Integral Life co-founder Robb Smith as he explains the current historical moment as a natural and predictable backlash against the twin dominance of the right-leaning Multinational Capital Holon in economics and the left-leaning Multicultural Culture Holon in culture since the 1970s.
Race, Rooted Cosmopolitanism, and Hope in the 21st Century
Greg Thomas and Mark FormanThe political storm that has visited the United States over the past few years have exposed a number of crises: cultural, political, and environmental. One of these crises is our society’s ongoing struggles with how we define and treat one another according to our ideas of “race.” The moment is ripe for bringing together healthier understandings of ethnic identity that can replace the largely toxic idea of race from our past. In this episode of Psychology Now, special guest Greg Thomas joins co-host Mark Forman to discuss these issues.
How Zen Can Provide Leadership in a Post-Truth Trump World
Ginny WhitelawGinny Whitelaw offers some valuable advice on how presence, resilience, and centeredness can help us illuminate a better path forward in the midst of the “post-truth” collapse.
Making Sense of Trump’s Exit from the Paris Accord
Gail HochachkaLast week, Trump stated his decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement regarding climate change. Trump announced that the USA will withdraw based on the sense that it will negatively affect US jobs. To explore this, I turn to Integral Theory, which is a comprehensive transdisciplinary theory developed by contemporary philosopher Ken Wilber and applied by others across several professional fields. We can draw upon these ideas regarding the dynamics of social groups to make sense of Trump’s exit from the Paris agreement.
Hardcore Spirit: Wisdom for a New Generation
Chris Grosso and Ken WilberChris Grosso and Ken Wilber explore a radical new evolution of the spiritual life — one that is so all-inclusive, nothing gets left out. So all-embracing, it literally has no opposite. So all-pervading, even sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll can find their rightful place on the altar of transformation. This is not your grandma’s spirituality. These aren’t the crusty moralizations of traditional religion, or the saccharine pablum of New Age narcissism. This is Hardcore Spirit.
The Great Release
Robb SmithRising populism and the election of President Trump are symptoms of massive irresilience that has been building in the U.S.-led world state since 1945, and may reflect the end of the fourth cycle of economic hegemony of the past 800 years. The Great Recession of 2008 was just a tremor. We wind toward a coming global breakdown, a great release that threatens regression across our lives.
The Bannon Doctrine: Demolition Ahead
Jeff SalzmanSteve Bannon is Donald Trump’s favorite philosopher. Trump sometimes jokes that he doesn’t know “whether Bannon is alt-right or alt-left,” but either way Bannon has given voice to the visceral impulse of populist nationalism that Donald Trump has expressed for decades. So what does Bannon actually believe? Listen to find out!
What Is the Integral Movement?
Corey deVosCorey deVos offers a brief overview of a new cultural, artistic, and philosophical movement that is currently taking shape all across the planet. Features dozens of breathtaking images from the Integral Life Art Gallery, as well as music by our own Stuart Davis.
Trump: The Anti-Green Backlash Begins
Ken Wilber and Jeff SalzmanJeff Salzman interviews Ken Wilber about how the Trump phenomenon arose, and how an integral sensibility can help us respond to the unique challenge of Trump’s political and cultural movement.
Pre-Truth, Post-Truth, and Beyond
Jeff SalzmanJeff Salzman takes a look at how integralists can understand and relate to the fight over pre-modern, modern and postmodern conceptions of truth, and how a new integration of the three can help us build a more authentically inclusive world.
The State of the World 2017: The Wake of Trump
Jim Garrison and Ken WilberJim Garrison and Ken Wilber offer a post-election report on the rise of Donald Trump and the implications for the future, as well as the many failures among the liberal leading edge that contributed to Trump’s election.
Zen Leadership and Putting the “Happy” in Happy New Year
Ginny WhitelawWelcome to the New Year! In the Chinese system, we’re entering the Year of the Rooster and, my, doesn’t it already feel like a wake-up call?
Trump and a Post-Truth World
Ken WilberThe election of Donald Trump is an evolutionary self-correction that has been decades in the making, a backlash against the failure of the leading edge of consciousness–postmodernism and pluralism–to acknowledge the lie underlying the progress they’ve pursued: it’s not equal, it’s not consistent and it doesn’t make room for everyone. But a new integral force is emerging that can move beyond the narcissism and nihilism of political correctness to offer genuine leadership and a move towards a developmental-based wisdom of greater wholeness.
We’ve Elected a Wartime President
Robb SmithI’ll get to the point. The United States has just elected a wartime president, a Commander in Chief who is already on a wartime footing and was on a wartime footing from the moment his campaign began last year. And he won because a significant portion of the country were the war’s first casualties and they wanted a president who could help them stop losing. This isn’t a military war. It’s a jobs war.
Right Bucks: Money and Spirituality
Ken WilberIn dealing with this issue of money and Dharma—or money and spirituality in general—there are at least two very different items that need to be teased apart and addressed separately. The first is the appropriate monetary value of any relational exchange (from medical care to education to goods and services in general); and the second is, should monetary exchange ever be linked to Dharma teaching?
From Rationalism to Nationalism: How the Internet Ruined Everything
Corey deVosWe no longer enjoy a “shared reality” in any meaningful sense. We now live in a time-shifted honeycomb of mediated views and values, a flat and fragmented reality that has completely changed the shape of our consciousness, our culture, and our conduct in the public sphere.
The Trump Era: Day 1
Jeff Salzman, Diane Musho Hamilton and Terry PattenJeff, Diane, and Terry try to come to terms with the victory of Donald Trump, like millions of other people around the world.
The Morning After
Robb SmithAmericans have just elected Donald Trump as President-elect of the United States of America. I know that a few of you are elated and many more are terrified. I can understand both emotions. I am far from a natural-born Hillary Clinton advocate, but during the course of the campaign there was simply no possibility that I would be voting for Trump, a man who who speaks against many of my deepest principles. And yet he won — by the slimmest of margins — but a clear win nonetheless.
Campaign Fever: How We’ve Turned Indignation into a National Pastime
Ginny WhitelawIt seems we have caught a kind of fever, where anger and indignation are becoming an art form, where one-sided views are called news, and where we can get stuck in a place of no progress. That place could be called coping, as opposed to transforming, and it precedes what I call the “first flip” of Zen Leadership…
The 500 Lb. Gorilla Raging Through the World: Demographics
Robb SmithAvailable below is an adjustable data visualization for Europe. Adjust the year of analysis and retirement ages to see how the population shifts and worker:retiree support ratio changes.
The Integral Vision
Ken WilberIntegrative metatheory is arguably the only credible global philosophy of the 21st century. Ken Wilber’s The Integral Vision is one of the finest introductions to integrative thought and practice you can find.
Cleaning Up the Future with Phil Toledano
Robb SmithIn this fascinating New York Times Op-Doc, noted photographer Phil Toledano takes us on precisely this 3-year journey within himself, confronting all the various ways he can grow old, disease, wither, and die. At first blush it seems like Mr. Toledano’s project was custom-designed to address only his deep fears and neuroses. But don’t blink, or you might miss the ways his project speaks to what is universal in each of us.
Is the System Rigged? (Yes, and It’s Coming Along Nicely…)
Jeff SalzmanIf there’s one thing that people on both ends of the political spectrum can agree on, it’s this: the system is rigged. But an integral view asks, “which system?” In this episode Jeff explores what corruption actually looks like, and how it relates to the US presidential election.
What is Transformational Learning?
Robb SmithTransformation is the process by which a person “grows their mind” by building a broader worldview, deeper skills, better habits and expanded perspectives. Integral Life is a member community designed to offer experiences, media and practices that help you grow your mind and evolve your life.
Everyone Culture: A Radical New Model for Work, Career, and Leadership
Robert Kegan and Ken WilberNext to our love, the most precious thing we give to another is our labor. Now you can give both at the same time. Discover a new set of breakthrough approaches to work, career, and leadership that fully honors and accepts its people for who they are, while also encouraging them to use the workplace as an ongoing source of personal growth, inner meaning, and self-improvement.
Trump, Hamilton, and the Zen Leader Walk Into a Bar…
Ginny Whitelaw…the Zen Leader would want to learn from these two cultural phenomes how to message in a culturally resonant way — how to inspire people to pause in their busyness, connect with what is, to resource their lives and leadership from a place of centered connectedness.
Wicked and Wise: Climate Change, Democracy, and Integral Theory
Alan Watkins and Jeff SalzmanAlan Watkins, co-author of Wicked and Wise with Ken Wilber, talks to Jeff Salzman about climate change, the problems of globalization and democracy, getting CEO’s to do the right thing, and that pesky Donald Trump.
The Soul of Jazz
Greg Thomas and Jeff SalzmanArt is often the leading edge of cultural and conscious evolution, and jazz today continues to lead the way. Listen as Greg Thomas takes us through the history of jazz — from its roots in the magic, mythic and traditional interiors of African Americans at the turn of the last century, through the modern and postmodern strains of the mid and late 20th Century, to the more wild wooly contemporary scene.
Sex, God, Rock ‘n Roll
Stuart DavisSex, God, Rock ‘n Roll is sort of a mashup of Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, and standup comedy monologues, all with a decidedly Integral twist. Stu has assembled some incredible talent—not to mention an incredibly talented production team—and together they have put together one of the most bizarre, unique, and consistently hilarious programs on television.
Meditation for Militants
Justin Miles and Jeff SalzmanJeff talks about integral activism with Justin Miles, founder of the Miles Center for Integral Living in Baltimore. Justin is a former member of the Black Panther party, Buddhist meditation teacher, and therapist. Jeff also looks at the role of cynicism in our political discourse, and takes a couple questions from listeners.
The State of the Integral Art
Roger WalshRoger Walsh explains how we can bring the Integral vision into our personal and professional lives and use it to make a meaningful impact in the world.
Tracking The Transformation Age
Robb SmithLadies and gentlemen, the Great Release is truly and fully underway. That earthquake has now begun. Nanoscopically small and quietly transmissible, Covid-19 would be almost laughable as a catalyst for the great release if it weren’t so deadly. But as it stands, it is in fact the perfect spark to alight the ample tinder of total system irresilience.
FUCT: A Love Story
Stuart DavisSome love stories are simply timeless. Titanic. Romeo and Juliet. And now… FUCT: A LOVE STORY joins their ranks. This unforgettable, magical masterpiece absolutely must be made, and when you see this short promotional video, you’ll rush to be a part of this crowd-funded blockbuster of love and loss among divergent species.
Dude, Where’s My Body?
Stuart DavisStuart loses his body, and enlists some deadly sins to get it back.
Becoming Human
Stuart DavisWhy would a cosmic nomad want to incarnate as a human being? Learn the mysteries of corporeal manifestation!
A Tribute to Ken Wilber
Ken WilberThey say we are all standing on the shoulders of giants. In this video we celebrate one of the biggest and most important giants around: the one and only Ken Wilber. This was our chance to say thank you for all the truth, goodness, and beauty that Ken continues to bring into the world. Ken’s work has ignited the hearts and minds of so many, and we are honored to walk this path with him.
In The Belly of The Whale: Joseph Campbell and The Hero’s Journey
Dr. Keith Witt and Jeff SalzmanIn this conversation with Dr. Keith Witt and Jeff Salzman we explore the gift of Campbell’s formulation of The Hero’s Journey — Campbell’s name for the basic pattern of the great myths, which turns out to be a guide for our own lives.
The Shape of Things to Come: A Singularity in All Four Quadrants
Corey deVosIt seems clear is that we are seeing a general pattern of accelerated returns in at least four irreducible dimensions of our lives. It is a “singularity in all four quadrants” — Post-Humanism, Post-Scarcity, Post-Irony, and Post-Metaphysics. Let’s take a brief look at each of these dimensions.
The Future of Consciousness, Culture, and Technology
Ken WilberWhat future we are imagining for ourselves, for the integral movement, and for the impact of the integral vision on our shared future? With all the emphasis we see in spiritual communities about the importance of being in the NOW, it can be easy to forget how important it is to keep a careful eye on the future. After all, aren’t our thoughts about the future just another way to distract ourselves from connecting to our true selves in this present moment?
Brave New Future? An Integral Look at Super Artificial Intelligence
Michael E. ZimmermanThese days, discourse about intelligent robots—thinking machines—is as widespread as discourse about zombies. Both have been the subjects of recent bestsellers, which are the basis of two forthcoming films. Popular culture’s depiction of humankind under attack by either the undead or by the never alive (autonomous machines) suggests widespread anxiety about and fascination with technical developments that may generate a future out of human control (as if the future ever were under our control!)
The Meaning of the Earth
Jacob Needleman and Ken WilberWhat is our purpose? Why are we here? What does the Earth need from us? Listen as Jacob and Ken take an in-depth look at The Unknown World, framing man’s role on the planet in a completely new and fresh way and moving beyond the usual environmental concerns to reveal how the care and maintenance of a world is something vital and basic to our existence as authentic human beings.
Six Varieties of Christians and Their Churches: From Tribal to Integral
Paul SmithChristians and their communities of faith exist in rich diversity today. Why are there so many different kinds of Christians and churches? There are historical aspects, political factors, matter of taste, and personality types. However, from an integral perspective of evolutionary stages we can see a quite remarkable tendency for churches to fall into one of perhaps six different altitudes of understanding.
A Brief History of Integral: The Story So Far
Ken WilberKen Wilber chronicles the emergence of integral consciousness and culture in recent decades. Ken describes this emergence as the latest in a historic series of transformations stretching all the way back to the birth of humanity, bringing humanity through several distinct stages of consciousness — namely archaic, magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, and integral stages.
Tipping Points and the Eye of Contemplation
Ken WilberKen Wilber explores the profound changes that occur when a newly-evolved set of visions, views, and values reaches a cultural tipping point and begin to saturate the rest of society. He then turns his attention to the question of how we come to know Spirit, and how that ‘knowing’ differs from other forms of knowledge.
Responding to the Death of Osama bin Laden
Corey deVosOsama bin Laden did not just attack the American people or the American economy, he attacked the American subconscious. Even as we can breathe a sigh of relief that justice has been served and this monster has been finally eliminated from our world, the fabric of our shared American mythos remains as tattered as ever.
Bringing Legitimacy to UFO Research
Leslie Kean and Stuart DavisLeslie Kean talks with Stuart Davis about her book UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go On the Record, the result of a ten-year investigation into one of the world’s most mysterious (and most marginalized) phenomena. Whether you “want to believe” or you want to roll your eyes at the mere mention of UFOs, we invite you to open your mind, open your heart, and allow yourself to sit in the radical, unknowable Mystery for just a little while. The universe is so much bigger and darker than we can ever imagine. Good thing we’ve got a flashlight.
Spirituality, Purpose, and Meaning in Higher Education
Alexander Astin, Helen Astin and Ken WilberAlexander and Helen Astin are the some of the most widely-quoted authorities in the field of higher education—as Ken alludes early in the dialogue, whenever these two talk it’s generally a good idea to pay attention. Listen as Ken, Alexander, and Helen discuss the complex role of spirituality among college students, the important differences between religion and spiritual life, and the effects religion, spirituality, and academics have upon our worldviews and political ideologies.
The Art of Tribal Leadership
Dave LoganIf you really want to fulfill your dreams, one of the best ways to improve your chances is to do a bit of work to understand and upgrade your culture. Author Dave Logan talks to Ken Wilber about the five levels of our professional tribes, offering a glimpse into the values and strategies of the world’s most effective leaders—and some of the ways you can become one of them.
Religulous: The Baby and the Bathwater
Ken WilberWhen we face religious fundamentalism with scientific fundamentalism and dismiss religion altogether, we are also dismissing history’s greatest source of liberation, compassion, and transcendence — the powerfully transformative practices and interpretations of spiritual reality that form the esoteric core of all the world’s religious traditions, East and West. Listen as Ken Wilber explores what Bill Maher (and the rest of the “New Atheist” crowd) are missing in this otherwise provocative and entertaining film.
The Integral Movement: Past, Present, and Future
Roger Walsh and Ken WilberRoger Walsh offers one of the finest overviews of the integral movement that we have ever seen — where we’re at, where we’ve been, and where we’re going. Now more than ever, the integral movement is poised to make a tremendous impact upon the world.
Integral Trans-Partisan Politics
Ken WilberWe do not live in two Americas, but in a single America composed of at least four or five different sets of values, all crammed together into a two-party political system that is becoming increasingly incapable of representing these wildly different perspectives. Many are beginning to recognize this systemic inadequacy and are searching for a genuinely integrative “Third Way” politics.
Indigenous Cultures in the Modern World
Tim Black and Ken WilberA published author in the areas of trauma, group counseling, and applied Integral theory in counseling ethics engages Ken Wilber on why it’s so difficult to find Integrally-minded individuals in the indigenous peoples of his native British Colombia—an issue experienced globally, but expressed here as deep interest and care for those living in a modern Canada.
The Integral Vision: Origins and Applications
Ken WilberGaspar Segafredo, the Editor-in-Chief of Argentinean cultural magazine Myriades 1, interviews Ken Wilber on the origins of the Integral approach, how it applies to important real life issues, the dangers of post-modernity, and the mechanics of growth and development.