The Daily Evolver

This week we’re bringing you an episode from the archives: Jeff’s conversation with Charles Eisenstein, visionary, activist, and author of the books Sacred Economics, The Ascent of Humanity, and The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible (love that title). Charles and Jeff agree on a lot, including that a sacred world is coming and that humanity is on an ascending path. They disagree on...

In the following excerpt Jeff asks Ken Wilber a question about magical thinking vs real psychic phenomena. Whether we’re talking about near-death experiences, precognitive dreams, telepathic communication, bizarre synchronicities…they all defy materialistic explanation, and yet they also seem to communicate deep truth and meaning. What are we to make of this when science says no, but w...

Elegance is the word that author and coach Rob McNamara uses to refer to the experience of higher, post-autonomous stages of development, or what we might call integral consciousness. Listen as he talks to Jeff about embodying elegance in life, love and leadership.   Rob stopped by a couple months ago to catch up with Jeff and tell Daily Evolver listeners about a leadership course he produced...

Theo Horesh is a Boulder social entrepreneur, philosopher and a familiar face in the integral community. Last year Theo published a series of insightful essays on the Middle East, inspired by his time spent with the Palestinians and the Yazidi refugees. I invited him over to talk about his travels, only to find out that he has also released a new book on a broader topic: Convergence: The Globaliza...

The willingness to look at the parts of ourselves that we can’t see -- or don’t want to see -- is a major milestone on the path of self-actualization. In this episode of The Shrink & The Pundit, Dr. Keith Witt tells us that the difference between a destructive shadow and a constructive shadow is our willingness to engage with it. So how do we do that?

Whether they’ve been closeted or out, oppressed or honored, Raymond Rigoglioso wants us to know that gay men are, and have always been, a powerful evolutionary force in society--with distinct gifts to offer the world. But with so much assimilation in recent decades, is there a future for gay male culture?

The Information Age is putting our evolution into overdrive, and you can see it throughout the ever-growing spectrum of worldwide popular culture. Free university classes, science blogs and TED Talks may represent the high end of what’s available, but this week Jeff looks in less obvious places.

In this podcast, Jeff looks at our relationship to the natural world and explores the significant new thinking around climate change and other environmental issues. He focuses on “An Ecomodernist Manifesto”, the newly released 25-page essay co-authored by 18 environmental scientists, activists, and scholars.

Jeff 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 long game of overcoming racism isn’t just a matter of how people are treated by the police or how the laws are written. The final piece happens in our hearts and minds. An integral take on the events in Baltimore.

Is fundamentalism fundamental? How do we encourage development? And what’s up with the whole Illuminati, reptilian alien, shape shifting conspiracy anyway? Jeff responds to these and other questions on the minds of listeners this week.

The traditionalists in Iran and in the US want to dig in their heels and fight the good fight. Meanwhile, the modernists are engaging with sanctions and diplomacy. Can this deal delay Iran’s progress towards a nuclear weapon long enough for cultural evolution to deliver a decisive political tilt toward modernity?

Jeff investigates the return of a 2nd person relationship to Spirit. Steve McIntosh joins the conversation to talk about "evolutionary spirituality" as a dialectical step beyond the progressive spirituality of the post-modern worldview. Also, the problem of evil.

Islamic culture in the Middle East is entrenched in a dialectical antithesis with modernity. Building on the work of moderate Muslim intellectuals, McIntosh argues that the Islamic cultural reform needed to overcome radical Islamism depends on the underlying reform of the religion of Islam itself.

On this episode of The Shrink & The Pundit, Jeff and Dr. Keith talk about one of the oldest and most dreaded of human afflictions. They consider not just the suffering, but also the wisdom and growth potential that depression offers. They look at the qualities of modernity that magnify the condition, the mixed blessing of pharmaceuticals and neuroscience, and how depression is experienced and...

How does an integrally informed Navy SEAL sniper relate to the job he has to do, and the people he must engage in war? What is it like to re-enter civilian society? Jeff got to ask these questions and more in this conversation with Jake Bullock.

In advance of the Return to the Heart of Christ conference, Jeff and David Riordan of Integral Life talk about the questions that arise with an integral inquiry into Jesus’s life and teachings. Also, the postmodern view of miracles, and bringing back something we thought we lost.

Fifty Shades of Grey may be a terrible movie, but its popularity is indicative of a new friendliness in our culture towards the kink community, (formerly known as perverts). Jeff talks to New York author and theater producer Robin Reinach, who is an integrally informed explorer herself in the world of BDSM, and together they unpack the evolutionary potency of kink.

    This week Jeff covers a range of topics, focusing on the controversy over Obama’s remarks about the historical sins of Christianity such as the Crusades, the Inquisition and slavery. Jeff also explores the mindset of the perpetrators of such brutalities, which we saw erupt anew this week with the immolation of the Jordanian pilot by ISIS. In other matters, Jeff notes the explosive gr...

This week Jeff takes a look at the movie American Sniper and Fox News’ rising star Megyn Kelly, to make the case that conservative culture is evolving by taking on the best of green altitude values. And it’s not just a one way street. The left also evolves by taking on the best values of amber altitude traditionalism, such as the gay rights movement’s argument for marriage and military service. Th...

This weeks Jeff looks at President Obama’s annual “State of the Union” address to Congress. He makes the case that Obama is pushing for the developmental move from an Orange modern economy to a Green postmodern economy. Obama’s policies won’t prevail, at least in the short term, but they will spark the conversation (okay, fight) between the advocates of freedom vs security, right vs left and Repub...

In this week’s podcast Jeff explores the Muslim/Western fault lines exposed in the Charlie Hebdo massacre, where twelve people were killed in an attack on the satirical magazine by Muslim extremists who were offended by their depictions of Muhammad. In the 2nd half of the show, Jeff is joined by special guest Amir Ahmad Nasr, author of The Future of Islam In the Age of New Media, and My Isl@m: How...

2014 has been described as a turbulent year in the media, but there isn't really a turbulent-free option, is there? Is there anything about turbulence that is good? Also, Jeff answers a listener's question about the moral nature of red. When is violence healthy and when is it pathological?

Frank Visser is arguably the chief critic of Ken Wilber, integral theory and the integral community as a whole. Based in Amsterdam, Frank is publisher of the website INTEGRAL WORLD: An Independent Forum for a Critical Discussion of the Integral Philosophy of Ken Wilber which hosts over a thousand essays by mostly dissenting voices in the integral scene. Contrast this to Jeff Salzman and his work w...

In this thirteen minute excerpt of a conversation from September, Jeff  speaks with Ken Wilber about the pain and suffering inherent in a human life, which begins with the nature of emergence itself. The more we develop, the more aware we are, and the more capacity we have to feel pain. If you go back thousands of years, Ken says, a person just had to get from  infrared (Archaic) altitude to magen...