Rebel Wisdom

John Vervaeke is a cognitive scientist - a good friend of RW - and the creator of the cult hit - awakening from the meaning crisis series. A couple of weeks ago he travelled to the UK for a series of talks - and we took the opportunity to film this excellent dialogue with the philosopher and chess grandmaster Jonathan Rowson, the co-founder of Perspectiva. They cover a lot of ground, including John's passion for transformative speech - or dialogos, questions like the existence of God, and much more. We had our own brilliant event with John - which is listed as a member film - and you can see by signing up for our Substack newsletter: https://rebelwisdom.substack.com/p/an-evening-with-john-vervaeke-live-9cd?s=w  John's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/johnvervaeke?app=desktop  Jonathan's project, Perspectiva: https://systems-souls-society.com/ 

Alex Kaschuta is the host of the Subversive podcast, where she hosts controversial thinkers exploring the 'post-liberal moment'. She used to work in media in London, where she described herself then as a classic rationalist atheist and feminist. In the last few years she's moved back to Romania, become a mother, and has been exploring more traditionalist perspectives, in her life, and through the conversations on her podcast. In this conversation with Rebel Wisdom's David Fuller we cover her recent journey, and how it mirrors many others making the turn from rationalist to traditionalist, and what that says about the cultural time we find ourselves in. Alex's Subversive podcast: https://alexkaschuta.com/subversive-podcast

Chris Kavanagh is a cognitive anthropologist, and the co-host of the increasingly popular and influential podcast 'Decoding the Gurus'. This is a podcast that critiques many of the new breed of public intellectuals, including some who have been featured on Rebel Wisdom. Together with co-host, psychologist Matt Browne, they analyse the methods and messages of what they've described as 'secular gurus'. This is an important conversation, about the necessity of criticism, of what counts as good and bad faith, and how truth seeking gets warped. It's a controversial project for many, and in this conversation, Rebel Wisdom's David Fuller puts many of those criticisms to Chris directly.  Alongside this video, David Fuller has written a detailed and exhaustive analysis on Substack, highly recommended to read: https://rebelwisdom.substack.com/p/decoding-the-gurus-and-the-necessity?r=ye9pq&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web Also referenced in the conversation are: An earlier recording with Chris 'Criticising the IDW': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByZCCmQVPdg Chris's presentation of the 'Gurometer' at The Stoa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EazLoBk9gA Peter Limberg's 'Memetic Tribes of Culture War 2.0' piece: https://medium.com/s/world-wide-wtf/memetic-tribes-and-culture-war-2-0-14705c43f6bb

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is now over a month old. Konstantin Kisin is a comedian and the host of the Triggernometry show, he is also a Russian immigrant with family in both Ukraine and Russia. In this conversation with Rebel Wisdom's David Fuller he talks about his emotional journey over the course of the war, and how he has struggled with the way the conflict is portrayed in some areas close to home.

How can we relate authentically in a world that's tearing itself apart? What skills do we need to truly understand perspectives that differ from our own, and in turn, how can we invite people to consider other ways of thinking?  In this conversation with authentic relating superstar Sara Ness we go from the personal to the cultural, asking how do we have a different kind of conversation; one that isn't about winning, but about authentic connection that takes us somewhere new. We are launching a course with Sara starting on 5 April called 'The Art of Difficult Conversations', where we’ll give you tools to help you resolve some of the biggest communication questions of our time. For example: “How do I even start talking about my perspectives and ideas?” “Why does every conversation I have about current affairs turn into a fight?” “How can I relate with people who don’t make sense to me, and don't want to hear me out?” Check out more details on the course here: https://rebelwisdom.co.uk/courses/conversations

How will Russia's invasion of Ukraine shape the world for decades to come? Samo Burja is a geopolitical expert who has developed a reputation for bucking the conventional wisdom.  In this conversation he makes his predictions for the future, explaining how he believes we are misunderstanding Russia, how China is playing an economic long game, and the lessons from history in understanding what will happen next. Bismarck Analysis: https://www.bismarckanalysis.com/ Check out Rebel Wisdom's deep dive newsletter on Ukraine: https://rebelwisdom.substack.com/p/sensemaking-russia-and-ukraine-rebel?s=w

What are the deeper religious and philosophical currents informing Vladimir Putin and the Russian invasion of Ukraine?  Gary Lachman is the author of the recent book 'The Return of Holy Russia: Apocalyptic History, Mystical Awakening, and the Struggle for the Soul of the World'. In this conversation he argues that we have to understand the deep well of Russian philosophy and understand how Putin sees himself and Russia's historic mission.

Integral philosophy has been a big influence on many of Rebel Wisdom's guests over the years. So we brought together three key figures, meditator and mediator Diane Musho Hamilton, the host of the popular Daily Evolver podcast Jeff Salzman and the author of the book Developmental Politics, Steve McIntosh. They talked about how the integral map can help make sense of the responses to the pandemic, we discussed Jordan Peterson and the Intellectual Dark Web, and also responded to recent critiques of developmental thinking from the likes of Nora Bateson. This was a dialogue and Q&A with Rebel Wisdom members in our Digital Campfire.

All the arrayed forces of the sensemaking crisis, cancel culture, censorship and the ethical dilemmas of truth seeking seem now to be focused on one man, the podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan. These questions were already brought into a heightened focus by the pandemic, and the question of accurate medical information or misinformation taking on a life or death importance. It was into that context that Rogan stepped a few weeks ago with two interviews with highly controversial medical figures, Peter McCullough and Robert Malone.  The medical question is the key one, and taps into all of the key questions about the warping of the information landscape that Rebel Wisdom has been focused on for the last few years, and it's this aspect that we recorded a conversation with the doctor and podcaster Zubin Damania (ZDoggMD). This conversation was recorded before the recent "n-word" controversy erupted around Rogan.

A few months ago we put out a brilliant conversation about the deep mythology of the new Dune movie with the sci fi writer and podcaster Damien Walter - looking at what the stories we tell through science fiction tell us about who we are and where we're going. This is a dialogue with the host of the Symbolic World, Jonathan Pageau, about the religious and mythological symbolism and role of sci fi.  They cover a vast amount of territory, from The Matrix to Star Trek, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg - and end by predicting the next stories we'll likely see over the next years. https://thesymbolicworld.com/  https://damiengwalter.com/category/podcast/  To see all our written content, check out our new Substack, where you can also find our newly released free Sensemaking Companion: https://rebelwisdom.substack.com/  Our groundbreaking Sensemaking 101 course is starting again in February: https://rebelwisdom.co.uk/courses/sensemaking-101-page