The Daily Evolver

In this segment I review my new favorite horror film: “The Witch: A New England Folktale”. Created by young filmmaker Robert Eggers, it feels like something new in the genre, no only in how it was made, but it also in terms of where it takes the viewer. I nominate it for consideration as a work of integral art — as well as for your Halloween horror movie weekend (but watch it with the subtit...

In 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?

In this episode I review the movie “Dunkirk”, a wonderful new film by Christopher Nolan which I offer for consideration as a work of lntegral art. As I say in the podcast (and accompanying transcript), “Dunkirk” expresses traditional values in a postmodern voice. The resulting integration is both cool and drenched with meaning. The effect is that we lower our guard to become directly vulnerable to...

In this segment I respond to a listener who makes a urgent request for relief from a bad case of “Trumpinosis” (fear and loathing of our President). I end the episode by sharing 15 minutes of a video of spiritual teacher Byron Katie as she helps a woman metabolize her distress at Trump. It’s a brilliant integral transmission. You can see the whole thing at “I’m Afraid of Trump – The Work of Byron...

If Buddhism is a religion of peace, what explains the ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, where the Rohingya Muslims minority is being killed and driven out by Buddhist militias, incited by Buddhist monks?

The Transpersonal Workout — I think I have stumbled upon a way to transform my morning workout from something I dread and suffer through, to something that has become quite meaningful and rewarding. In the process I have upped my weights, reps and results – and leave not just physically but spiritually strengthened.

Male domination of women is nothing new. Though modernity and postmodernity seek to dismantled it, pockets of patriarchy continue to flourish in the strangest places, even liberal Hollywood. Till last week …

In 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...

Hey Folks, Today I’d like to share a conversation I had with one of my favorite evolutionary teachers, Patricia Albere, about her beautiful new book: Evolutionary Relationships: Unleashing the Power of Mutual Awakening. Patricia is the founder of The Evolutionary Collective, a group of committed integral practitioners who are investigating relationship itself as a means of spiritual awakening. I h...

In this episode I attempt once again to plumb the shallows of Donald Trump's mind. I was spurred by an article in The Atlantic magazine about children who have been diagnosed with “callous and unempathetic traits.” In many ways Trump fits the profile of these children, who to a surprising degree do not respond to disapproval or punishments, but do respond to praise and rewards. The article reports...

If God didn’t want us to eat animals, why did He make them out of meat?

How much consciousness do animals possess?

Rivers are people, my friend. And they’ve lawyered up.

This week the topic was obvious: Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the dual storms that battered Texas and Florida in the last couple weeks. In this episode we look at how the climate debate has exacerbated the polarization of our culture, particularly between traditionalists and postmodernists. How is it that the political right and left can have such radically different views of what’s happening with...

In today’s episode I am the guest of Stephen T. Harper as he kicks off his new podcast, “What’s Your Theory?” , where he interviews people who have “good answers to big questions about how the world works.” And do I have a theory for him! One of the key tenets of integral theory is that human consciousness and culture evolve, and that’s where Steve and I focus. With his enthusiastic curiosity and...

In this episode of Shrink and Pundit, integral psychotherapist Dr Keith Witt and I talk about how intimacy, longevity and happiness are programmed into the human genome, and accessible to all of us. But at a cost. Keith recently participated in an extraordinary conference called Plenitude near Sintra, Portugal. The conference brought together experts from around the world to explore a multidimensi...

In this podcast we’ve spliced together the audio from three Facebook Live videos I’ve done over the last couple weeks. I’m really liking these quickie videos as they are giving me a chance to comment on current events in real time, which is particularly handy now that the news is coming at us so fast. Here are the three topics I explore in this podcast: 02:36 Trump is Irredeemably Red 19:18 Loyalt...

In this podcast, Beena and I discuss what she and her team are learning about how adults grow through the predictable stages of adult development while still remaining true to their own journey. We examine how we can consciously participate in our own evolution and growth in a way that creates a more fulfilling, healthy, conscious and fruitful life.

In this episode I am the guest of my longtime friend and integral comrade, Jason Lange, on his new podcast Do The Evolution. We hit some juicy territory in our conversation so I’m sharing it with you here on The Daily Evolver. There are certain questions that evolutionary thinkers ask themselves and each other constantly: What does integral consciousness feel like? How is it different from the pos...

Diane Musho Hamilton is at the forefront of one of the most significant spiritual emergents in contemporary culture: the realization of the power of our everyday relationships, even troubled ones, as a means of awakening. For many progressive spiritual practitioners it no longer feels like enough to merely follow an individual meditation practice, as valuable as that is. We want to apply our enlar...

Life is wounding. For some of us our wounds are inflicted in the form of major traumas such as a serious injury, painful divorce, career failure or act of abuse or violence. More often, however, we are merely called on to suffer the slings and arrows of everyday life, which can also leave their mark. Contemporary psychology has revealed two major insights into trauma. One is that trauma is pervasi...

In this podcast I ask Integral philosopher Steve McIntosh a question on the mind of many integral practitioners: how do we relate to the nationalist passions that are arising in many developed countries around the globe? Nationalism is often expressed as “love it or leave it” nativism, or in the case of the election of Donald Trump as a promise to take America back to an era of perceived past grea...

Steve 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 believe? A pillar of his worldview is contained in a school of history called Strauss-Howe generational theory...

The Trump Presidency is an evolutionary correction for a culture whose leading edge “is in a 50-car pileup.” This is the thesis of Ken Wilber’s excellent new eBook, Trump and a Post-Truth World , and the kickoff point of a wide ranging conversation I had with Ken last week. Here's Ken's argument: Every now and then, evolution itself has to adjust course, in light of new information on how its path...

Inaugurated with bogus crowd claims and tales of voter fraud, the post-truth presidency of Donald Trump is upon us. Trump lives in a Red “warrior” worldspace alive with apparitions, rumors, conspiracies, and above all, scheming enemies. Placed in the context of cultural evolution Trump’s view actually represent a pre-truth mentality, typical of the world prior to modernity where warlor...