A Solstice Celebration for 2024 w/ Manda Scott and Nathalie Nahai

Dec 21, 2024

Manda Scott, a prolific novelist and host of Accidental Gods, and Nathalie Nahai, a behavior science advisor and author, celebrate the winter solstice by reflecting on the past year and envisioning the future. They discuss navigating the intersection of AI and eco-socialism, revealing ethical concerns and the need for systemic change. The conversation also dives into emotional resilience and collective healing, emphasizing self-exploration. With insights into anti-capitalist strategies, they highlight the importance of community connections for a more equitable future.

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Intro

00:00 • 3min

Celebrating the Solstice: Reflection and Future Intentions

02:37 • 3min

Navigating the Intersection of AI and Eco-Socialism

05:43 • 14min

Exploring Psychedelics and Democracy

19:47 • 2min

Navigating Anti-Capitalist Strategies

22:02 • 28min

Wealth, Isolation, and the Fragility of Ecosystems

50:19 • 5min

Emotional Resilience and Collective Healing

54:55 • 29min

Embracing Right Livelihood for a Sustainable Future

01:23:29 • 6min

Hospicing Modernity

Facing Humanity's Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism

Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti

This book critiques the modernity narrative as a single story of progress, development, and civilization that is expiring. It argues that modernity, driven by expansion, colonialism, and resource extraction, has created significant harm and imbalance. Andreotti calls for 'hospicing' modernity, offering palliative care to its decline while nurturing new, potentially wiser systems. The book includes thought experiments and exercises to help readers reimagine learning, unlearn harmful behaviors, and expand their capacity to handle difficult and painful issues. It emphasizes the need for humility, accountability, and a deep understanding of the interconnectedness of human and natural systems.

God, Human, Animal, Machine

Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning

Meghan O'Gieblyn

In this book, Meghan O'Gieblyn delves into the complex relationships between technology, human consciousness, and the search for meaning. She examines how the rise of science and technology has transformed our understanding of the world, from the materialism introduced by Descartes to the modern digital age. O'Gieblyn draws on her personal experiences as a former fundamentalist Christian and her studies in philosophy to navigate topics such as artificial intelligence, the hard problem of consciousness, and the blending of scientific and religious thought. The book is a hybrid of history, criticism, philosophy, and memoir, offering a nuanced and thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be human in the face of technological advancements.

The Deluge

The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916–1931

Adam Tooze

In 'The Deluge', Adam Tooze provides a panoramic view of the struggle for global mastery from the battles of the Western Front in 1916 to the Great Depression of the 1930s. The book explores how the Great War reshaped the global order, leading to the collapse of empires, the emergence of new nations, and the rise of the United States as a dominant global force. Tooze argues that the war marked the beginning of an American-centered world order, which would be challenged by leaders like Hitler, Mussolini, and those of Imperial Japan in the subsequent decades. The book also delves into the economic and political implications of this new order, including the role of Woodrow Wilson's 'peace without victory' and the global economic instability that followed[2][4][5].

LSD and the Mind of the Universe

Diamonds from Heaven

Christopher M. Bache

In this book, Christopher M. Bache chronicles his systematic journey into a unified field of consciousness that underlies all physical existence. Following protocols established by Stanislav Grof, Bache conducted 73 high-dose LSD sessions over the course of 20 years, which drew him into a deepening communion with cosmic consciousness. The book makes a powerful case for the value of psychedelically induced spiritual experience and discusses the challenges of integrating these experiences into everyday life. It also explores how psychedelic experiences can lead to collective transformation and help birth the future of humanity. Bache's journey reveals a spiral of death and rebirth, taking him through the collective unconscious into the creative intelligence of the universe, and ultimately to a realization of Divine Oneness and the Diamond Luminosity that lies outside cyclic existence[1][3][5].

Feeding Your Demons

Tsültrim Allione

In 'Feeding Your Demons,' Tsultrim Allione adapts the revolutionary wisdom of Tibet’s greatest female spiritual master, providing a powerful method for coping with inner enemies. The book outlines a five-step practice for recognizing, giving form to, and feeding your 'demons,' which are negative emotions, relationships, fears, illnesses, and self-defeating patterns. This approach aims to transform these challenges into allies, promoting inner peace and applying to both personal and global issues. The book is enriched with detailed examples of how others have transformed their demons, offering insights and tools for achieving inner peace and resolving inner conflict.

Any Human Power

Manda Scott

The Serviceberry, Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Down the Rabbit Hole, The Misadventures of an Unlikely Naturalist

The Misadventures of an Unlikely Naturalist

Charlie Bennett