Season 10. Episode 4: Meaning in the 21st Century with Ellie Hain | Greenpill Podcast

8 snips

Nov 5, 2025

In this engaging discussion, Ellie Hain, a writer and co-founder of the Meaning Alignment Institute, sheds light on our modern-day search for meaning. She explores the deep disconnection many feel in society and how attunement to life, community, and ritual can restore a sense of purpose. Ellie highlights the 'meaning crisis,' the importance of balancing personal sovereignty with interdependence, and how embracing challenge can lead to growth. She also emphasizes that meaning is our birthright, ready to be rediscovered through shared practices and values.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Meaning As Attunement To Life

Meaning is deep attunement and connection to the whole web of life, not just individual purpose.
Ellie describes purpose as a co-created role we play with tribe, community, and the more-than-human world.

ADVICE

Practice Attunement With A Recent Moment

Recall a recent meaningful moment to practice presence and attunement.
Use small daily instances to rebuild sensitivity to life's guiding signals.

INSIGHT

Meaning Crisis From Institutional Decay

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

New @greenpillnet pod out today! 🌍 Kevin chats with Ellie Hain writer, facilitator, and co-founder of the Meaning Alignment Institute (MAI) about how we can rediscover meaning, presence, and purpose in the 21st century.

Ellie explores why so many people across modern society, tech, and culture feel disconnected, and how re-attunement to life, community, and ritual can help us restore the sacred in our everyday lives. Together, they discuss the meaning crisis, why it's emerging now, and how new institutions might integrate purpose, beauty, and values into the systems we're building for the future.

🎧 Links: 🌐 greenpill.network

🐦 @ellie_hain | @owocki | @greenpillnet 🎥 Exit the Void: by Ellie Hain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqB-1ABZJSM

🌿 Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome to a new Greenpill season: exploring technology, coordination & Protopia 01:00 – Introducing guest Ellie Hain, co-founder of the Meaning Alignment Institute 02:20 – How Ellie began her journey into meaning, mysticism, and systems 04:30 – The tension between inner experience and societal expectations 05:30 – Exploring meaning as attunement to life 07:00 – Sovereignty and interdependence: dancing between individuality and the web of life 09:40 – What attunement feels like presence as a lived experience 11:00 – Exercise: reconnecting to meaningful moments 13:00 – Embodiment, resonance, and listening to life's signals 15:00 – Why meaning is our birthright, not something to earn 17:10 – The "meaning crisis" why so many feel disconnected today 19:00 – From numbness to re-sensitization: healing modern disconnection 21:00 – How modern systems desensitize us to what's sacred 22:40 – The resilience and strength in seeking meaning 25:00 – Designing extitutions: new systems that embed meaning and purpose 27:30 – Moving beyond homo economicus: building for homo sapiens 30:00 – Institutions as reflections of human nature and sensitivity 32:40 – The concept of containers for meaning and how they become corrupted 34:10 – What new containers for meaning look like in the 21st century 36:00 – Community, ritual, and story as ancient technologies for belonging 38:30 – Raves, festivals, and modern rites of passage 40:10 – The search for a new unifying narrative in the digital age 41:30 – Why the quest for meaning is the defining work of this century 43:00 – Facing pain and shadow as part of transformation 44:20 – Allocating meaning and capital together through rituals & community 46:00 – Meaning alignment as the next frontier of institutional design 47:00 – Closing reflections: finding beauty, purpose, and connection in everyday life