How to Reintroduce a More Meaningful Form of Community

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i think the power of most fringe and fractured movements is to acknowledge the state of play. You first move people by actually acknowledging what they feel to be truthy. Anybody who is aspiring to demagogery these days is beating the drum of collective grievance. It's not that i agree with vax libertarian godguns and guts, but all those claims do have merit. And so it appears to be a hotbed of bubbling matastic and matastic leaders asserting authority or demanding trust from others. But in fact we're talking about 90% like you're not wrong - it's important to take time in your life to find out if things really are as bad as you believe them

What helps you make meaning in challenging times? As you confront COVID, the climate crisis, and all of the challenges we discuss on this show, what helps you avoid nihilism or fundamentalism, and instead access healing, inspiration, and connection?

Today on Your Undivided Attention, we're joined by anthropologist and writer Jamie Wheal. Wheal is the author of Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex and Death In a World That's Lost Its Mind. In the book, he makes the case that in order to address the meta-crisis — the interconnected challenges we face, which we talked about in Episode 36 with Daniel Schmachtenberger, we must address the meaning crisis — the need to stay inspired, mended, and bonded in challenging times. Jamie argues that it doesn't matter whether we're staying inspired, mended, and bonded through institutionalized religion or other means as long as meaning-making is inclusively available to everyone.

What we hope you'll walk away with is a humane way to think about how to address the challenges we face, from COVID to climate — by enabling us to make meaning in challenging times.