In this conversation with Rebel Wisdom's David Fuller, Ken Wilber reflects on the turbulent dynamics of the last few years, and particularly the trajectory of the figures in what was called the Intellectual Dark Web (IDW) including Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin. This is released shortly after a recent Substack piece by David Fuller called 'What Happened to Jordan Peterson?': https://rebelwisdom.substack.com/p/what-happened-to-jordan-peterson  Ken Wilber is the creator of Integral theory, it attempts to place a wide diversity of theories and models into one single framework. The basis is a "spectrum of consciousness," from archaic consciousness to ultimate spirit, presented as a developmental model. This is a follow up to conversations we recorded back in 2019, which were published as: Ken Wilber: 'Jordan Peterson and the evolution of thought': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDjCnFvz11A  Ken Wilber: The Intellectual Dark Web, an Integral Conversation? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2XK812tSmM 

A wide-ranging conversation on the experience of sensemaking during the pandemic, with Zubin Damania (ZDoggMD). Zubin first came to my attention with a viral video at the start of 2020 where he channelled some righteous anger at the medical establishment's response to the pandemic, and said he hoped that the crisis would be the trigger to “burn this broken system to the ground”. For years he's been arguing for a significant change to the medical system, away from treating people as interchangeable parts in a machine and towards a more holistic vision of what he calls Health 3.0. During the pandemic we compared notes on what we were seeing, through shared frameworks like Ken Wilber's Integral Theory and Jonathan Haidt's “moral tastebuds”. He argues for nuance and complexity, and dubs his political perspective as “alt-middle”. 0:00 - The Pandemic & the Information Ecology 04:02 - Zubin & Health Care 3.0 08:09 - The USP of Rebel Wisdom, curating a conversation 10:09 - The pandemic was a stress test that we failed 14:03 - The internet leaking out into the real world 16:37 - The religiosity of the Covid debate 19:53 - The rise in conspiracy narratives 22:56 - Questioning our own thinking 29:33 - Public intellectuals going off the rails 32:48 - The hermeneutics of suspicion 39:00 - A culture of bullshit 44:14 - Conspiracies thrive in the gaps of the mainstream 46:31 - The pre/trans of the insurgency after 2018 53:34 - Paradox of being outside the institutions - audience capture 58:27 - Warping effects of the tech platforms accelerated on creators 01:00:37 - Attention hijack as opposite of mindfulness 01:02:41 - The tragic arc of Jordan Peterson 01:06:55 - The return of the repressed 01:14:14 - The return of psychedelic medicine 01:18:57 - The limitations of psychedelics 01:22:51 - Meditation & Awakening 01:29:36 - Ayahuasca 01:32:14 - Culture War 2.0 & the memetic tribes 01:43:06 - Post Pandemic Awakening 01:46:39 - The English Taboo Against Earnestness 01:49:30 - Mutual Appreciation Society

This was a special in person dialogue between the cognitive scientist John Vervaeke and the symbolism expert Jonathan Pageau. They reflect on what each finds valuable about each other's work, the nature of the conversation that they have been part of, good and bad criticism, the nature of symbolism and much more.  It was recorded in Toronto during the making of the forthcoming Rebel Wisdom documentary about John Vervaeke's thought. Some behind the scenes pictures, and a second part of this film is available for subscribers on the Rebel Wisdom Substack: LINK HERE John Vervaeke's YouTube channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpqDUjTsof-kTNpnyWper_Q  Jonathan Pageau's work can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtCTSf3UwRU14nYWr_xm-dQ  Timecodes for the conversation: 0:00 - What does Jonathan appreciate about John's work? 3:55 - What does John appreciate about Jonathan's work? 9:35 - What is the nature of the wider conversation you are both part of? 16:10 - The nature of criticism & "civility porn" 24:09 - The need to go beyond the political layer of analysis 26:19 - Paranoia fuelled by the 'Hermeneutics of Suspicion' 35:16 - Dialogue, Curiosity & Wonder 48:25 - How Symbolism breaks the frame and rewires our thinking 54:36 - A parable is to a narrative what a koan is to a question 57:35 - "I want to help people fall in love with Being again" 01:05:23 - The moral of Socrates and Alcibiades 01:12:56 - Patterns of Being; love, faith & beauty 01:21:32 - Freedom cannot be absolute

For years the journalist Oliver Burkeman became obsessed with productivity and personal growth, documenting his explorations in a weekly column. Finally it struck him that this attempt was a deeply religious quest, tied into ideas of perfectibility and salvation. When he realised this, he was finally able to find more peace. "For me, the obsession with productivity was totally tied up with this weird self-worth question. [There's] this whole notion that it's all focussed on some moment when everything's going to be alright…there's something about that feels like it's got something to do with justification and salvation, and that feels very religious to me."  Oliver is someone who has had a similar path to Rebel Wisdom’s founder David Fuller, working for the legacy media, and also very interested in personal growth, and they sat down for a wide ranging and fascinating conversation which we are releasing now as a special preview for all Rebel Wisdom subscribers. Check out Oliver's latest book 'Four Thousand Weeks', a sobering allusion to the average human lifespan: https://www.oliverburkeman.com/books 

Learning how to come to our senses and connect to our bodies is essential in an information landscape that highjacks our attention and pulls it away from what matters to us.  Our new course 'Embodiment and Flow' helps you reconnect through breathwork, mindfulness, cultural embodiment, movement, rhythm and flow training. In this launch film we play clips from the course faculty - John Vervaeke, Schuyler Brown, Nicola Price, Roger Jackson, Dr. Shama Rahman and Tom Morley - as they explain different ways we can connect to our bodies and get into a state of flow. Read more and sign up here: https://www.rebelwisdom.co.uk/courses/embodiment  Learn practical embodiment tools you can apply to your life, and to making sense of culture in a completely new way. Learn how embodiment makes it easier to tap into a flow state - that space of being 'in the zone', where time slows down and we move seamlessly with your environment, performing at the best of our abilities. Find out what your unique embodiment needs are and learn how to meet them with the support of world-class teachers and participants from around the world.

John Lloyd is a legendary comedy producer, who produced some of the biggest comedy hits of the 80s and 90s, including Not the Nine O Clock News, Spitting Image, and all four series of Blackadder. After a mid life crisis he realised that his success wasn't making him happy, and this led to a lengthy search for meaning and wisdom.  This conversation with Rebel Wisdom's David Fuller covered everything from comedy, to the nature of creativity, and the meaning of life.  They also discuss his relationship with his former flatmate and writing partner Douglas Adams, the creator of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.   00:00 Intro 05:17 Personal Life 11:59 Knowing Nothing 16:32 Religion & The Origin of Ideas 26:11 Quite Interesting 30:01 Depression & Focusing on the Other 38:34 Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy & Douglas Adams 45:29 Religion & Secular Rituals 54:02 Science & Spirituality 01:02:44 Intelligence, Comedy & Wisdom  01:12:01 Paradigm Shift 01:20:17 Closing

This is a wide ranging conversation about conspiracy theories, the occult, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and more with the writer Daniel Pinchbeck.  Over the years Daniel has spent a lot of time investigating alternative narratives including conspiracy, and has been critical of Rebel Wisdom in the past for not taking these seriously enough.  Alongside this conversation we are publishing a long written piece about the subject of conspiracy theories, with special focus on the recent high profile interview of Maajid Nawaz on the Joe Rogan podcast: https://rebelwisdom.substack.com/p/conspiracy-criticism-and-the-case?s=w  We also talk about Daniel's high profile sex scandal and 'cancellation'.  You can find Daniel's writing on his Substack here: https://substack.com/profile/2728693-daniel-pinchbeck 

In one of the most important developments in the dynamic between big tech, free speech and media in many years, Elon Musk is buying Twitter for $44bn. Much of the commentary online has devolved into the predictable political shouting matches, and there has been very little engagement with the key questions that this brings up about the nature of moderation, of how to create healthy dialogue and what problems Elon will have to wrestle with in taking Twitter forward. Jim Rutt is the former head of the Santa Fe Institute, and has been involved with online communities since the birth of the internet. He believes that Elon has not fully wrestled with the problem of moderation that he will be taking on with Twitter, a view he explained in his new piece for Quillette, 'Musk & Moderation': https://quillette.com/2022/04/27/musk-and-moderation/  This is a sometimes robust debate and disagreement with Aaron Rabinowitz, a moral philosopher and host of the Embrace the Void podcast. Aaron has spent time wrestling with these same issues, in particular in a famous experiment he ran during the Trump election of 2016 when he created a completely unmoderated discussion group, called Monster island: https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2020/10/monster-island-free-speech-experiment/  Check out Jim's podcast, the Jim Rutt Show: https://www.jimruttshow.com/  And Aaron's podcast Embrace the Void: https://voidpod.com/podcasts 

"This is like The Matrix written from the point of view in which Agent Smith is the good guy, isn't it?" — Paul Kingsnorth Mary Harrington and Paul Kingsnorth are two of the most intriguing thinkers we’ve featured on Rebel Wisdom. Despite substantial overlap between Paul's concept of "the machine" and Mary's idea of "luxury Gnosticism", they have never been in dialogue with each other.  This was a fascinating and wide ranging conversation where Paul and Mary pushed back against the modernist fervor for transcending the limits of the natural world — they want to remind you that meatspace is not going away, and that it can be quite lovely! Mary and Paul are returning soon to the Rebel Wisdom Digital Campfire to talk more about this topic, asking the question, 'What Do We Do?'. To join that conversation become a RW member: https://www.patreon.com/rebelwisdom  Check out Paul's newsletter 'The Abbey of Misrule': https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/  And Mary's work for Unherd: https://unherd.com/author/mary-harrington/ 

This is a conversation that was originally posted on Meghan Daum's 'Unspeakable' podcast as 'Talking Sense Into Sensemakers'. David and Meghan talk about their shared history exploring the 'heterodox' space over the last years, and their impressions of what needs to come next. Unspeakable podcast: https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com/