The Daily Evolver

This is a sequel to last year’s popular Valentine episode featuring Dr. Tom Habib. An integrally-inspired clinical psychologist specializing in couples therapy, Tom has mapped what he calls the “couple’s line of development,” which describes the predictable stages a couple typically grows through — and where they may get stalled. The adventure of love generally starts with sexual chemistry and ill...

The drama surrounding the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court is proving to be a seismic event in cultural and consciousness evolution. This week Jeff shares and reflects on listeners’ response to last week’s episode: Judging Kavanaugh. Like his listeners, Jeff focuses on the emerging recognition shared by many of gender dynamics that had previously remained unseen. A common tr...

Each stage of human development features a unique way of organizing work. From hunting and gathering, to agriculture, to industry, to the Information Age, each emergent represents a radical evolutionary expansion of capacity, and each remakes the world in its turn. So what’s next? Frederic Laloux‘s blockbuster book, Reinventing Organizations, offers  compelling answers to that question. A McKinsey...

The political firestorm surrounding the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is a juicy case for an integral analysis. Today Jeff shares his insights into the testimony presented to the Senate Judiciary Committee by both Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman accusing him of attacking her as a teenager. He considers: How do we process two perspectives that are in diamet...

by Dr. Keith Witt Suicide has been in existence as long as self-aware consciousness has been in existence. The gift of self-aware consciousness included the capacity for humans to anticipate and understand the inevitability of their own deaths, and all gifts come with a price. One price of awareness of death is the capacity to choose it. In some tribal cultures, the choice of suicide was considere...

Today many pioneers of consciousness are experimenting with new ways for people to form more powerful, fulfilling relationships with each other. Some are focused on mutual spiritual growth while others are more interested in practices and processes that help people in workgroups be more effective together. Today’s guest, Llyod Fickett, is dedicated to the latter. Through his company, The Collabora...

Dr. Keith talks to Jeff Salzman about Integral Life’s recent “Tap Your Power” event in Denver, CO, which featured exquisite teachings from himself, Ginny Whitelaw, Beena Sharma, and Ken Wilber on the many facets of power in today’s world — interior and exterior, individual and collective, all the way up and down the spiral of human development.

Today I’m sharing my I my guest appearance on Radio Evolve, a German podcast hosted by Tom Steininger. We talked world politics, and focused on neoauthoritarian movements that are challenging the neoliberal systems that have been in place for decades. Are they entirely regressive? Or are they also doing the work of progressive emergence? Join Tom and me as we try to sort it out.

Today we take a look at a significant new installation in the American cultural landscape: The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opened in Montgomery, Alabama on April 23. The museum memorializes the legacy of America’s Jim Crow era, where black people were systematically oppressed and often terrorized, most tragically in over 4400 public lynchings. Our guide is Curtis Mitchelson, a D...

It seems that last week, during my “staycation,” I wandered my way into a five-day food fast. What started as a low-commitment experiment on Monday morning ended on Saturday with me in appreciation of some surprising and powerful results. I was inspired by friends and motivated by a book they recommended, The Complete Guide to Fasting, by John Fung, MD. The book focuses on the physiological benefi...

In this episode integral philosopher Steve McIntosh takes us on a tour through the origins of integral theory, starting with Georg Friedrich Hegel, who first explained the mechanisms of evolution in human history, and on through a stream of philosophers who unified the evolution of matter, consciousness and spirit. He also considers a line of developmental psychologists, such as Jean Piaget and Cl...

It is an ironclad principle of human development: you can’t skip stages. Each stage of development builds upon the gains of the previous stages, and if the previous stages are not well installed things don’t work right. Unstable and uneven growth is a feature of today’s world, where four or five stages of development are online competing for dominance. In some places we see people with traditional...

In this episode Jeff takes a look at three towering examples of postmodern art, and how they can aesthetically “move us” forward. Cirque de Soleil – a thrilling display of surface without depth The Seinfeld TV Show – a show not “about nothing”, just nothing meaningful The Saatchi Gallery in London — fine art that dares us to say it’s not fine art One is pretty, one is aggressivel...

In this episode of The Shrink and Pundit, Dr Keith Witt talks with Jeff about how to better support children’s development. Dr. Keith argues that the healthy expression of a person’s type (their preferences, gifts and built-in challenges) is based largely on their early relationships. The earlier in development we go, the more impactful the biological and social factors are in determining a...

Today Jeff is the guest for another in a series of “Integral Chats” with Stephen T Harper, creator of the What’s Your Theory podcast. In this conversation, Steve and Jeff discuss the enduring values of postmodernity (the green altitude of development). Postmodern thought gained traction after World War II and achieved fruition in the 1960’s, as a counter-culture arose to challenge the grand narrat...

Today Jeff talks with Stephanie Lepp, creator of one of his favorite new podcasts, Reckonings, which explores the evolutionarily-charged question: “how do we change our hearts and minds?” Stephanie’s guests are people who have shifted their political worldviews, overcome bigotry, and make other kinds of transformative change. In every case these folks have come to some sort of reckoning, a stuck p...

Today Jeff is joined by his dear friend and colleague Diane Musho Hamilton for a fascinating conversation about the changing nature of spiritual practice. Together they look at what is emerging in terms of: 1st person practices: how spiritual and psychological methods have integrated to boost the power of both 2nd person practices: the creation of a committed sanga that can move beyond pseudo-comm...

“Looking to Future Generations, there is no cause to fear that the social instincts will grow weaker, and we may expect that virtuous habits will grow stronger. In this case the struggle between our higher and lower impulses will be less severe and virtue will be triumphant.” — Charles Darwin Today Jeff talks with Dr. David Loye about his new book, Rediscovering Darwin: The Rest of Darwin’s...

“Logic is the beginning of wisdom, not the end.”Mr. Spock, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Today Jeff is joined by fellow integral nerds Cindy Wigglesworth and Corey deVos in this warmhearted appreciation of the venerable Star Trek franchise, one of the oldest and most robust pop culture franchises in existence. Spanning more than 50 years, 741 episodes across six different series (The Orig...

Today Jeff is joined by Dr. Warren Farrell, who has co-authored (with John Gray) a new book, The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It. The book illustrates how boys are falling behind girls in crucial metrics of well-being: in academics (61% of college degrees will go to females by 2020), in mental and physical health (boys commit suicide at six times the rate of gir...

Today Jeff talks with Scott Ford, author of Integral Consciousness in Sport: Unifying Body, Mind and Spirit Through Flow. Scott, an elite tennis coach for decades, is at the leading edge of thinking and practices for enhancing athletic performance. He has mapped out a five-stage developmental sequence of athletic performance, the first three of which are familiar: Learn the rules, tools and techni...

Today Jeff visits with integralist Tom Curren, who has launched a new non-profit initiative with the goal to Change the Rules of the American political system. Tom has identified four structural problems in American politics that exacerbate the electorate’s most tribal impulses: How the election system sorts for a “lesser of two evils” choice Why the most extreme ideologues have disproportionate p...

Today Jeff and Corey take a close look at an fascinating new article by Valerie Tarico, published on Alternet with the title “Here’s Why Some Progressives Are Tearing Each Other Apart”. In the article Tarico argues that today’s political left is largely split into two major conflicting factions, each of whom are operating with two very different narratives around social progress. The first of thes...

Today Jeff’s guest is Bence Ganti, the creator of the 3rd Integral European Conference, which will commence on May 22nd at the Azur Resort at Lake Balaton in Hungary. This third biennial conference will be the biggest and most comprehensive yet, with over 600 participants from 50 countries. Titled Allies of Evolution, the conference will offer 250 programs on a wide range of integral issues, from...

The Integral stage of human development reveals a thrilling new view of reality. It starts at the Teal altitude where we are able to see and map the movement of evolution in history and in our own lives. We develop the ability to hold paradox and appreciate the beauty of all previous stages who have been so long at war. It matures into the Turquoise altitude, where we experience a more unified kos...