The Integral Stage METAPODCAST

Layman is joined by Joe Lightfoot, the host of the Lightfoot Podcast and author of the book, A Collective Blooming.  They reflect on the implications of various overlapping integrative podcast universes for the emergence of a global culture, and explore the dynamics of community, neo-tribalism, intergenerational trauma and communication gaps, shadow work, the principles of a metamodern solarpunk movement, and much more.   Joe Lightfoot spends his time between Melbourne, Australia, and Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he hosts open mic sessions, and the Lightfoot and Meta Village podcasts.  He also published A Collective Blooming: The Rise of the Mutual Aid Community in 2020.   Joe Lightfoot professional website https://www.joelightfoot.org/ Podcast PODCAST | joelightfoot.org A Collective Blooming: The Rise Of The Mutual Aid Community: Lightfoot, Joe: 9798682352647: Amazon.com: Books Please consider supporting The Integral Stage on Patreon to make more of these conversations possible! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage

Layman is joined all the way from Bali by Damien Walter, a writer, science fiction critic, and the host of YouTube and podcast series on science fiction and 21st century myth-making.  Together, Layman and Damien explore the social and spiritually enactive potential of science fiction and fantasy; the great story archetypes like the hero's journey in popular media; the power of world building; the difference between "escape" (or liberation) and "escapism" (or avoidance); the role of science fiction, fantasy, and horror for preparing us to encounter the uncanny; the transformation of concepts (and experiences) of time that science fiction affords; and some of Damien's thoughts on Integral Theory, Spiral Dynamics, and the strengths and shortcomings of Hanzi's metamodernism.   Damien Walter's website and podcast link https://damiengwalter.com/  Damien Walter's YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/DamienWalter  Please consider supporting The Integral Stage on Patreon to make more of these conversations possible! https://www.patreon.com/theintegralstage

Layman is joined by Carter Phipps, the host of the new Thinking Ahead podcast and the former editor of What is Enlightenment? magazine.   They discuss the value in taking a 'wide lens' in podcasting, and the skills needed to talk to people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives; the increasingly prominent topics of UFOs and high strangeness; doomer optimism and the metacrisis; the question of the plurality of the self; Joe Rogan and postmodern conservatism; the role of the shaman; Carter's current practices, and his internal experiences and transformative work over the years; the nature and value of state training and development; and much more.   Carter Phipps is an author, speaker, and thought leader who works at the intersection of business, personal development, and culture. Carter’s books include Conscious Leadership (Portfolio, 2020), coauthored with Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey and Steve McIntosh, and Evolutionaries (Harper Perennial, 2012). Carter hosts the Thinking Ahead podcast, an in-depth interview show that reflects his broad-ranging and integrative perspective on business, politics, science, technology, consciousness, and more; and he is also the co-founder and Managing Director of the Institute for Cultural Evolution, a nonprofit social policy think-tank based in Boulder, Colorado.   https://www.carterphipps.com/

Layman welcomes Stephanie Lepp back to the Integral Stage to talk about winning two Webby Awards for her Deep Reckonings series (in which deep-faked public figures, like Mark Zuckerberg or Alex Jones, have a moment of awakening and a change in conscience); the social risks and creative, shamanic opportunities we face in our new, highly networked, digital demi-reality; "hard facts" vs. "pragmatic fictions," and masculine and feminine modes of knowing; the fractalicious nature of isness; the unpretty beauty of evolution; remorse and leaning into shadow; and much more.  Stephanie Lepp has a track record of launching cultural hits. She founded the KALX radio show, "The Graduates," brought the global show-and-tell event Pecha Kucha from Tokyo to Providence, and scaled DAYBREAKER from an NYC-based morning dance party into a global dance movement. She’s the producer of Infinite Lunchbox, a YouTube channel & podcast helping people make sense of this moment, and Reckonings, a podcast telling the stories of people who’ve shifted their political worldviews, transcended extremism, and made other kinds of transformative change. https://www.deepreckonings.com/ https://www.reckonings.show/about.html https://www.infinitelunchbox.com/

Layman is joined by Brandon Norgaard, the co-founder of The Enlightened Worldview Project (TEWP) and member of North America Bildung.  Brandon discusses the mission of TEWP, to develop sensemaking tools and promote the integration of inner and outer worlds through various multimedia projects; and then he and Layman explore some of the philosophical foundations of Brandon's work, such as cross-cultural understandings of enlightenment, phenomenological and hermeneutic inquiry, Kahneman's slow and fast thinking, and the efforts of the Consilience Project.  What more can we do to streamline and translate the powerful concepts of Metamodernism, the Bildung Movement, and Integral Theory into forms that are more publicly accessible and impactful?  Brandon is the creator and founder of The Enlightened Worldview Project. Brandon has always possessed an interest in understanding how things work and appreciated learning about philosophy, religion, history, politics, science, and technology.  Throughout his life, Brandon wanted to better understand why there is so much conflict and injustice in our world and what, if anything, people can do to work toward greater peace.  For several years, Brandon worked as a software developer while continuing his study of philosophy and social sciences in his spare time.  From 2007 to the present, Brandon has spent many hours writing and developing content for this project. Brandon is also the founder of the Sacramento Politics and Philosophy Group and Sac Dilettantes, organized through Meetup.    The Enlightened Worldview Project https://www.enlightenedworldview.com

Layman and Bruce are joined by Ryan Nakade, former host of Talking with Teal and co-host of the Growing Down and Meta-Ideological Politics podcasts, to talk about his past and future media projects, his work on developing actionable integral communication and epistemological tools, and his thoughts on the evolutionary necessity of difficult conversations. Beyond the steelman, what is the titanium man, the vajra man, the polarity man?    Ryan Nakade is a trained mediator, rapper, host of multiple podcast projects, diaphanous goat whisperer, and integrally informed progressive activist.  Ryan grew up in a Buddhist temple in Hawaii, and was introduced to the works of Wilber at the age of 15. Ryan’s dream is to start the worlds first Integral political party, and eventually launch an Integrally informed campaign for president. He now lives in Gresham, OR, with his girlfriend and goat herd (including the infamous goat siblings, Layman and Bruce). Meta-ideological Podcast:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIuhGOD1cknRPV3HymQQhpA  Growing Down Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ugiVZnmQA&list=PLpjSZOAzmmtwQmTj-3Vr2i-WfhoQ4VNQl

Layman is joined by Tada Hozumi, the host of the Tea with Tada podcast.  Tune in as they dip their crumpets in an arousing blend of topics:  animism and its modern manifestations in digital culture; ritual sexuality; memerotics, or the erotics and somatics of meme propagation; philosophy and pornography; play, combat, and the fight-fuck spectrum in the meeting of tribes; cancel culture; the role of the fool; style vs. content, and the liberation of symbols from their traditional associations; dance, the dan tian, and the cultural anthropology of energy centers; rap battles and "dance offs" in the podcast realm; and much more.  At the end, they drop their crumpets and throwdown on the mat.   Tada Hozumi launched his career in 2017, when he started doing coaching work around undoing racism through somatic approaches. This piece of work evolved into something he referred to as ‘cultural somatics’, which is an approach to both individual and cultural change that posits that cultures are in fact bodies made of bodies. Because of this, individual change and collective change are necessarily embodied processes that have a fractal relationship. One of the great benefits he saw in this kind of ‘cultural-somatic’ approach was that it showed us that everything we learn about our own somatic process can be applied to an understanding of how to work with social transformation. Through these efforts, he met Dare Sohei, who had a great impact on his work as they introduced him to foundational concepts of what he could call contemporary liberatory animism, which led Tada to develop a cultural somatic framework that saw the ancestors and other intangible presences our cultures speak of as beings that live in the ‘cultural nervous system’ of our ‘cultural somas’. https://tadahozumi.com/

For episode 28, Layman is joined by Chinese medicine practitioners and hosts of the Apricot Jam podcast, Taran Rosenthal and Lukas Wolf.  The Apricot Jam podcast we explores "interdependence and consciousness through conversational jazz ... and brush(es) up against the intersections of art, movement, medicine, philosophy, and spirituality."  With Layman, they discuss the conversational aesthetics of the emerging meta-discourse community; their discussions with Tyson Yunkaporta, Jim Rutt, and other leading voices in these spaces; the role of their training in Chinese medicine and philosophy in their approaches to life and their podcast venture; spirituality, healing, and embodiment; subtle energy; social justice work; the art of forgiveness; and much more. https://open.spotify.com/show/4RAMF7o2OwOGlQ2kXP94FU

For episode 27, Layman Pascal is joined by Matthew Riddle, the creator and host of the YouTube channel, Consciousness Matters.  Matthew recently engaged David Long in an enjoyable debate on idealism vs. emergentism (linked below), so we decided to have him on The Integral Stage to talk about his experiences with consciousness, and the inspirations behind and intentions for his YouTube channel; and to explore fundamental questions about the nature of consciousness and its place in the universe. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS6T9SVpxt0ko-r45jIEyAw

For episode 26, Layman is joined on an old Athenian porch by Peter Limberg, creator and host of The Stoa. The episode begins with reflections on the failures of the academy (for generating real thinking), the value of emergent dialogical communities, and Peter's vision for The Stoa to be a place where true learning can happen at the edges of thought, and then branches in multiple directions:  Peter's experiences with Jordan Peterson; Stoic philosophy; the tension between Socrates and Nietzsche; the influence and importance of contemporary thinkers such as Ken Wilber and John Vervaeke; cross-paradigmatic conversations and the convergence of the meta-community; the myth of the Toronto Renaissance; the role of the daimon in thought; the dialectic between not-knowing and venturing responses from the edges of the unconscious; and much more.  Several times, Peter skillfully flips the tables and begins interviewing Layman.  Near the end of the conversation, Layman almost converts Peter away from Stoicism, and we had to shut the podcast down...  Peter Limberg is the steward of The Stoa, co-founder of Stoicism Toronto, a former board member of the Stoic Fellowship and an Adjunct Researcher at the University of Toronto’s Consciousness & Wisdom Studies Lab. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfI5jzpoUbwP4wkmQ6ZNqbA

For episode 25, Layman is joined by Bence Ganti to discuss the upcoming 2021 Integral European Conference, and his vision generally for the IECs as both online and in-person global events.  They discuss how Bence got involved with the Integral movement and with organizing these events, what the transition to the online format has involved, the highlights of this year's conference, the differences and similarities between European and US emerging "integral cultures," and Bence's own experience and development as a global conference host, therapist, and contemplative practitioner.  Bence Ganti MA, is an integrally oriented clinical psychologist, Vipassana meditator, and internationally known speaker on Integral Theory. He is the creator of Integral Flow Experience group process. In 2007, Bence won a green card to the USA in a lottery. He felt a calling and started participating in American integral life also. In 2011, he moved part-time to San Francisco, and since then he has split his time 50-50% between Europe and the United States. In 2016 he became a Hungarian-American dual citizen.

For episode 24, Layman is joined by Greg Kaminsky, the host of the Occult of Personality and The Freedom Place podcasts, for a lengthy, contemplatively unfolding discussion of his experiences podcasting and speaking to practitioners from multiple esoteric and occult traditions, and his thoughts on spiritual practice; the role of spiritual teachers; theoretical and practical dimensions of Buddhism, Kabbalah, and Western esoteric and magickal schools; his most influential transformative spiritual texts; anomalous or paranormal experiences; getting real about self-transformation; and much more. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/occult-of-personality-podcast/id565667141 https://www.traktungkhepa.com/podcast/category/podcast

For episode 22, Layman welcomes David Fuller, the founder of Rebel Wisdom, to the Integral Stage to discuss the troubling lack of high-level discussion and informed sensemaking around charged social or foreign policy issues, even in our purported "higher discourse" communities.  David leads with a rant on the contentious and often misinformed debates about Syria, and together they explore the challenges of informed and responsible sensemaking in our contemporary media environment -- where we all frequently suffer from the lack of access, time, and/or skill to meaningfully navigate our polluted and war-torn information ecologies.  Throughout the discussion, David also reviews the "journey" of Rebel Wisdom over the past several years, from an early focus on Jordan Peterson and the IDW to a broadened field of engagement within the 'meta-community,' and answers some common criticisms about the platform's conservative leanings.  David Fuller is a multi-skilled journalist and filmmaker - having worked for the UK's top news programme Channel 4 News for ten years as reporter, producer and director. He was the first mainstream TV journalist to cover the renaissance of psychedelic science back in 2008, and has consistently focused on the revolutionary ideas and technologies on the fringes of the culture, and attempted to shift the cultural conversation. He began making documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4 in 2011, primarily for the Emmy award-winning series ‘Unreported World’. His documentary ‘The Invisible People’, about the plight of disabled Syrian refugees in Lebanon was shortlisted for the "Royal Television Society awards in 2015. This experience, combined with his intense interest in the evolution of ideas and philosophy (he studied philosophy at University in Manchester) – led to the birth of Rebel Wisdom – through which he and his partner, Alexander Beiner, have explored philosophical, transformational and cultural topics, making films about the problems with Sensemaking, the crisis of Meaning, and the necessity for inner growth. He also blogs frequently about politics and the inner world, and has written for publications including the Guardian and Buzzfeed. https://rebelwisdom.co.uk/

For episode 21, Layman talks with actor, model, and media content producer, Sam Skalbeck, about a new TikTok series on Spiral Dynamics and Integral Theory that he has just launched.  What possibilities does this new medium open up, and what are its limitations?

In episode 20, Jim Rutt joins Layman Pascal to talk about his new Game B forum, which he created to support the Game B exodus from Facebook.  He reviews a number of the features of the forum, including changes in the UI which appear to be supporting more focused, higher quality discussion, and describes the multiple long-term aims and on-the-ground projects of the Game B community.  Later, he and Layman turn to reflections on the importance of systems thinking, the differences of Game B projects from previous intentional communities, alternative voting systems and the best means of leveraging collective intelligence, the usefulness of metatheory and 'metaphysics,' and a non-metaphysical, pragmatic approach to spiritual practice and transformation.  Jim Rutt is the former CEO of Network Solutions. The New York Times once referred to him as “the Internet’s bad boy” due to his reputation for creative mischief. He sold Network Solutions at the peak of the Dot Com boom and then went into scientific research. Jim has been affiliated with the Santa Fe Institute since 2002, serving as Chairman from 2009 thru 2012.  Currently he runs the Jim Rutt Show podcast, and is the gun-totin' godfather of the Game B movement. https://www.jimruttshow.com/

In episode 19, Layman Pascal meets with Daniela Bomatter, the creator of Andrew Cohen's new online community website, Manifest Nirvana, to talk about the inspirations behind, and her intentions for, this new project.  They discuss the relation of the Manifest Nirvana 'online ashram' or monastery to Andrew's prior community, and to his new 'Integral triple gem' teachings; the unique opportunities and challenges of a virtual platform, and online communications in general; aspirations for developing Turquoise we-space and cultivating intersubjective nonduality; the art of public outreach and marketing for spiritual enterprises and teachers; the promise of a new, value-based economy; and much more.  Daniela Bomatter is a speaker and consultant for “Second Tier Leadership”, a framework she has developed for business leaders that is based on her own experience as a leader and CEO in US and Swiss companies. Her inner journey as a student of Andrew Cohen, and her studies of Evolutionary Enlightenment, Integral Theory and Spiral Dynamics over the last 12 years, enable her to convey a leadership style that encourages growth, authenticity, creativity, transformation and trust.  She currently resides in India with Andrew Cohen and his wife and assists with the running of the Manifest Nirvana project. https://www.manifest-nirvana.com/

For episode 18, Layman talks with Adam Kennedy about The Origin Project, a (currently) online,  experiential, practice-based, and solution-focused collaborative inspired by the work of Jean Gebser.  After Adam discusses his project and his initial introduction to the thought of Wilber and Gebser, they spend the bulk of their conversation diving deep into the nature and question of time, exploring its relation to development, perception, spiritual practice, non- or a-duality, brain function, and social activism. https://exploringorigin.com/

In episode seventeen, Layman Pascal talks with Slovenian integral writer and YouTuber, Aljoša Kutnjak.  Aljoša is building a new YouTube channel and also contributes regularly to the Integral Review series with David Long.  In this episode, Layman talks with Aljoša primarily about the question of free will, but they also touch on progressive politics; the Integral 2.0 project; the question of neoliberal influence on contemporary integralism; materialism and spirituality; and his experiences with the Integral Global online community.

In episode sixteen, Layman Pascal convenes with the six witches of High Pitch -- Bonnitta Roy, Nora Bateson, Ria Baeck, Miriam Mason Martineau, Schuyler Brown, and Ece Utkucan Anderson -- to talk about their new podcast series on the Stoa.  Together they feel into just what it is they are brewing in their magical dialogical cauldron, where boundaries are porous and much of what happens, happens between.

We are pleased to be joined by the godfather of integral podcasting, Jeff Salzman.  Together, Jeff and Layman dig into Jeff's history and experience hosting The Daily Evolver podcast, and the program's recent adoption of the post-progressive label.  They then turn to a wide ranging discussion touching on such topics as integral politics and spirituality, God and emptiness, the art of integral conversation, and the differences and similarities between Integral Theory and Metamodernism.  Jeff Salzman is the host of The Daily Evolver podcast and co-founder of Boulder Integral.  He is a self-described current events junkie and delights in interpreting emerging politics and culture through a lens of consciousness evolution. https://www.dailyevolver.com/