

Episode 107: Jon Alexander | Dancing with Collapse
What does it mean to live—and act—when the dominant stories of our time are collapsing?
This conversation with Jon Alexander was recorded in July on the land at Ghostwood Down, just before he set out on an overnight solo.
It is raw, intimate, unplanned—full of the wild energy of two men wrestling with collapse and possibility in equal measure.
Jon, author of Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything Is All of Us, co-founder of the New Citizenship Project, and long-time mischief-maker of beautiful change, has spent years helping communities and movements remember that all of us are smarter than any of us. But in this fire-side exchange, the themes stretch beyond politics or strategy.
We talk of:
🌑 The collapse of the “consumer story” and the dangerous rise of authoritarian certainty
🌱 The emergent “citizen story” rooted in participation, connection, and response-ability
⚡ Dancing with panic, grief, and rage without leaving the dance floor
🌳 Ceremony, community, and even oaks as companions in uncertain times
🔥 How to become fully available—to the work, to the world, to each other
It’s an honest, vulnerable exploration of how to stay human, relational, and creative amid breakdown. And it feels even more urgent now, as violence, oppression and absurdity intensify around us.
Links
Overnight Community Solo Autumn Equinox Weekend
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