Converging Perspectives

Andrew discusses with Fabio Magrini the theory of civilization being born from trauma and what is plaguing the world today and preventing intelligent dialogue is a kind of social auto-immune disease.

Rebecca D. Armstrong and Andrew Shepherd discuss the evolution of the gender wars, the mythologies that frame our gender dynamics from the ancient goddess cultures of abundance to the rise of the horse warriors and the desert cultures removing goddesses from the divine alter in favor of male gods, to the Red Pill ideas of the modern Manosphere.

Andrew talks about Non-Violent Communication with expert Kevin Alexander.

Andrew does a solo episode explaining what has gone wrong with progressivism or as Ken Wilber calls it, "the mean green meme."

Julian Marc Walker, Rebecca Armstrong and Andrew discuss spiral dynamics and how this academic synthesis of the evolution of cultural mindsets helps us understand the problem of polarization in America today.

Andrew and Rebecca reflect on what useful ideas liberals bring to the table and how to incorporate those ideas in a more effective and measured way.

Andrew and Rebecca Armstrong discuss ideological blindspots of many ideologies, the mostly emotional basis of political thinking, tribal camps around Trump and January 6th, finite and infinite games, the problem with a mindset of control, culture is downstream of biology, the biological roots of liberal and conservative mindsets, Brett Weinstein's critique on society's self-destructive evolution.

Andrew and Rebecca discuss conservative ideas and the message to liberals from the famous conservative intellectual Roger Scruton.

Rebecca and Andrew discuss talking to friends who can't be rational about certain topics because of their sacred values or trauma and how through compassionate listening we can restore justice.

Kim Perkins PHD describes DEI's pros and cons and the problems stemming from the psychology of dominator culture.

Andrew and Rebecca discuss the features of a conscious conversation that has the potential for transformation, that depends on maintaining the respectful connection between the participants. They argue that no other type of conversation is worth having.

Andrew and Rebecca dive into the religious and tribalistic nature of human thinking to understand why we are polarized and how understanding our nature can lead to a different approach to dialogue.

This episode introduces Rev. Rebecca Armstrong, professor of philosophy and comparative religion and an expert in the mythology of Joseph Campbell. She and Andrew discuss how Americans are heading toward another civil war because we've been conditioned to consume instead of create a sense of self. There is an unnamed religion of greed that manipulates us and we have over-consumed so much that we have lost our sense of identity, leaving us disgusted with each other and ultimately ourselves.

Andrew lays out his thesis for why America's political polarization is merely an illusion and how conscious conversations can heal it.