The Daily Evolver

Bill Maher kicked off a cultural meme a few weeks ago with a segment on his popular show Real Time where he skewered the cultural left for progressophobia, which he defined as “situational blindness, except what you can’t see is that your dorm room in 2021 is better than the South before the Civil War.” In this episode, I map the idea of progress in our culture. Maher’s comments were widely praise...

The Post-Progressive project proceeds! In this episode, Steve McIntosh, president of the Institute for Cultural Evolution, joins me to introduce a major new web publication created to transcend and integrate our polarized politics: The Post-Progressive Post. Subtitled, “A Home for the Politically Homeless” the Post-Progressive Post seeks to be a meeting place for integral thinkers, folks who see v...

Today on Post-Progressive Inquiries I explore the contours of the next stage of human development with psychiatrist and futurist Charles M. Johnston. Charles has just released two new books exploring an emerging way of thinking that he calls the “integrative meta-perspective”. As Charles explains, “Our work today is to bring big-picture, long-term perspectives to the human condition. While these k...

Part 1: I look at a front-page story in the New York Times about how psychedelic drugs, such as ecstasy and magic mushrooms, are poised to reshape psychiatry. I make the case that this is a significant move in the evolution of human consciousness. Part 2: I play excerpts from a fascinating conversation between John McWhorter and Bill Maher on race relations, and imagine how an understanding of dev...

In this episode, I look deeper into the Integral project of ”worldview diversity,” where we seek to befriend, appreciate, and be influenced by people and cultures who inhabit different world-spaces (altitudes of development). Topics I hit on: Alexei Navalny’s heroic, near-death fight for modern values in Russia. “Our people are not perfect, but our culture is superior to others.” Pew research on h...

This week I explore an essay published in Israel’s newspaper Haaretz that The New York Times said “shook the Israeli left like an ideological bunker-busting bomb.” In it, Nissim Mizrachi, former head of the department of sociology and anthropology at Tel Aviv University, describes what he calls the blind spot of liberals, who, he says, “do not see themselves as ‘classifiable’ from the outside.” “I...

All living processes exist in a rhythm of opposing forces which create conflict, resolving into either cooperation or domination. This dynamic of tension is the subtext of most human activity. The good news is that in the long run friending wins. In this episode of The Shrink and the Pundit, integral psychotherapist Dr Keith Witt explains how sociability is latent in most interactions, even those...

Every stage of development brings forth new territories in the evolution of human consciousness and culture. A few days ago we witnessed a move into postmodernity (green altitude) in Oprah Winfrey’s interview with Harry and Meghan, the renegade Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Harry and Meghan are exemplars of postmodernity’s most powerful creed: to relieve human suffering that has been unseen in previ...

Good rationality demystifies the world and bad rationality disenchants it. This week I look at two examples of the casual blindness of mainstream culture to all things divine. 05:44 – Amy Dickenson, writer of the popular advice column “Ask Amy” counsels a woman who is offended that her sick husband’s caregiver offered to pray with him. 17:49 – In the essay, “My Generation Isn’t Sufferi...

This week I spotlight more of what’s new in cultural evolution: President Joe Biden leads a memorial to COVID victims and offers consolation to their survivors in a way that brings on the best of “good green”. Green consciousness, “the sensitive self”, is drawn to ever-deeper levels of empathy and care, especially for those who are typically unsung in society. It is the leading edge of human evolu...

In this episode of Post-Progressive Inquiries, Steve McIntosh and I visit with economist Pia Malaney to ponder economics through the lens of evolutionary theory. We look at what is arising concerning globalism and nationalism, wealth distribution, the future of work, model economies, the culture war between MAGAstan vs WOKEstan, and why Joe Biden gets us from the fire into the frying pan. Hope you...

In this episode, recorded in the middle of the impeachment trial, I examine both the stunning House prosecution of the worst presidential betrayal in U.S. history (thank you Liz Cheney) as well as the apparent, dispiriting acquittal. It turns out that rationality and the evolution of “laws not men” are not built on solid ground, but are tethered to tectonic consciousness structures that are pre-ra...

Just when we thought it was safe to go back in the water, out of the depths arises Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon Congresswoman from Georgia who trumps Trump in conspiracy nonsense. In this episode I attempt to bring some integral context to her and QAnon, the spaces they rent in our heads and suggest how we as evolutionary practitioners can relax into a more mature engagement with our ever-mor...

Inspiring+++ Worth sharing! I shared to a Greta Thunberg Facebook group. – Pierre Hamel Very inspiring! Hopeful! Refreshing integral worldview in action. – Pat Veenema This is so inspiring and hopeful. I was imagining that Jeff and Steve may have felt like proud parents! These young people “get it.” – Mary Reese Folger In this episode, Steve McIntosh and I visit with...

Hey folks, here’s some commentary I did live today as the Inauguration for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris was unfolding. As always I looked for interesting integral angles, and think I found some. Also, I finally made peace with JLo! Enjoy and let me know what you think at jeff@dailyevolver.com. – Jeff                   Photo of National Mall: AP Pho...

Epic interview. Brilliant and inspiring ideas (and strategies and tactics) around leadership development and how to work with “power” in the service of cultural transformation – Accelerating Leadership Rand Stagen is well known in the integral world as founder of the Stagen leadership academy. Stagen is the gold standard for leadership training, focused on long-term, disciplined, “leadership...

Thank you for this hopeful and inspiring conversation. – Donnell Allan Thanks fellas. I needed this chat. – Mary Evans Absolutely love you guys. Tons of sense-making along with optimism for the future. It feels good to smile again. – Cee Gee Last Wednesday we saw a mob assault the US Capitol Building in an attempt to stop the certification of November’s presidential election. Fiv...

I start this week with some feisty and insightful letters from listeners and end with an idiosyncratic list of my products of the year, decade and millennium (so far). (01:34) Who’s more mean, trads or pomos? Responses to my critique of the famous “toast scene” in the movie Five Easy Pieces.  (18:39) How can the mythic impulse in religion be integrated? (22:55) My ebullient resilience, and how to...

In this episode, I look at the tensions arising among conservative Christians about how fervently to support Trump. 01:23 – Clips and observations from the Jericho march on Washington DC earlier this month featuring evangelical leaders (and Alex Jones), and the backlash it has caused with others in the movement. 21:25 – How mainstream punditry is seeking to explain the seeming paradox...

In this episode, I welcome integral thinker Sue Brightman to talk about her new book, A Call to Further Becoming, The New Declaration From Women Over 50.  Sue describes the cutting edge of consciousness being pioneered by women who are now entering – and thriving – in elderhood. Based on 100 interviews with women age 50 – 70+, Sue shares 10 themes that capture the emerging essenc...

In this episode I share some clips from Newsmax, the cable news network that is the new home for Trump people who have left Fox News for not being supportive enough of the President. Though inspired by the mendacity of his election fraud claims, the reporters hew closer to the truth than Trump does (The National Report), except when they opt for a good old-fashioned rant (Diamond and Silk). The re...

This is intellectual champagne!!! – Alexander Husum Welcome to Post-Progressive Inquiries, a new podcast series coproduced by the Daily Evolver and The Institute for Cultural Evolution (ICE). In each episode, ICE President Steve McIntosh and I explore new territories emerging in politics and culture. We are happy to have as our inaugural guest Tomas Bjorkman, an “applied philosopher and soci...

Thank you Jeff. I love your show. Thank you for this talk. I struggle with these same feelings and it was good to find some humor in it. – John & Barbara Knoops Many thanks Jeff and Keith. Your episodes are always enjoyable and thought provoking. I immediately resonated with the concepts of empathy without demanding empathy in return, re-enchantment and ceremony. I have experienced these...

As always, Jeff gives us an outstanding talk about the user of Integral Theory to understand and navigate our world. – Nils Montan On last week’s edition of CNN’s Global Public Square, host Fareed Zakaria ardently condemned Donald Trump’s attack on the election, drawing dark parallels to the rise of Hitler and Nazism after World War 1. His first guest, former National Security Advisor, Gener...

Who better to process the election with than my integral political pals, Diane Musho Hamilton and Terry Patten? After all, it was just four years ago we gathered at my place to celebrate Hillary Clinton’s victory together (Ha ha!). The next day we recorded the podcast, The Trump Era, Day 1: Three integrally-informed friends attempt to face reality. After four years of The Trump Show, we’re happy t...