The Kainos Podcast

Helena Norberg-Hodge, author and filmmaker, is a leading advocate for the localisation movement and founder of Local Futures. She discusses the pressing need to focus on local communities as a counter to globalization’s negative impacts. Helena explores how monoculture harms mental health and community ties while emphasizing the importance of local economies and food systems. She highlights the power of community action in overcoming bureaucratic challenges and engaging younger generations with elders to foster sustainability and healing.

Iain McGilchrist, a psychiatrist and philosopher renowned for his work on the divided brain, shares profound insights on cultural upheaval and the significance of genuine relationships over technology. He explores the contrasting functions of our brain hemispheres and the limitations of over-relying on logic, advocating for intuitive understanding. The conversation also delves into the interconnectedness of consciousness and matter, the potential for AI consciousness, and the balance between collaboration and competition in society.

I’m on my way to Australia for a tour hosted by Small Giants Academy! We’re kicking off with a preview screening of the upcoming Kainos documentary ‘Crossroads’ and a talk at the Byron Bay Theatre on Saturday 22nd of March - get your tickets here.Having been ‘woke critical’ since 2016, in recent years I’ve felt increasingly vindicated as mainstream culture has pushed back against the institutionalisation of social justice theory. The publication of the Cass Report in 2024 felt like the straw that broke the camel’s back here in the UK, and I wrote a piece about its implications which I think has stood the test of time.However, I’ve felt increasingly uncomfortable with the recent pushback against DEI and other initiatives in the US. Not because I disagree with the need for reform, but because it feels like a new form of authoritarianism that throws the baby out with the bathwater. So I was relieved to read Helen Pluckrose’s recent articles about the rise of the Woke Right, in which she points out that ‘…a stark division is revealed between those who opposed wokeness primarily because it was authoritarian and being institutionalised and those who opposed it because it was the wrong kind of authoritarian and wanted to institutionalise something else…"As a Classical Liberal and one of the masterminds behind the Grievance Studies Affair, Helen is uniquely placed to make these critiques, and we had a great conversation on Substack Live delving into this topic.You can join conversations like this and participate in the Q&A by signing up as a Founding Member, or get early access as a paid member. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beiner.substack.com/subscribe

Thank you Tom Morgan, Ed Prideaux, Chuck Lynd, j juniper, Will hodgins, and many others for tuning into my live video with Abi Millar! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beiner.substack.com/subscribe

Nora Bateson, a systems theorist, poet, and filmmaker, shares her insights on navigating uncertainty. She discusses the need to adapt our perspectives as old governance structures fade. The conversation highlights the importance of interdependence in human relationships and advocates for deeper communication in polarized environments. Bateson connects personal struggles to systemic failures, introducing the concept of 'warm data' for relational understanding. Ultimately, she emphasizes embracing complexity and the vital role of trust in building a more beautiful world.

There are just two places left for our breathwork and sensemaking course ‘Breathing in Culture’ which begins on 13 November - join here. Trish Blain and I are also offering a free ‘NonOrdinary Sensemaking’ session around the US election on 14 November which you can sign up for here and read more about at the end of this page.In my recent pieces, I’ve been making sense of the US election through the lens of where we get our news from, exploring the growing split between the legacy and alternative media. This has been a big focus of my work since 2016 and I think this election marks a turning point, one the legacy media may never recover from. But even though we now get our news from social media and alternative journalism, we’re also seeing a cultural backlash against our online lives. Jonathan Haidt made waves this year with The Anxious Generation, which looked at the negative impact of social media and screens on children and adolescents. Many of us have been addicted to our phones for years, and I’ve had a lot of conversations recently with people who feel a sense of emptiness and exhaustion in their online lives; it’s certainly something I’ve felt.  Two of my favourite thinkers on these issues are Peter Limberg and Katherine Dee, who are my guests in this episode. Peter writes a brilliant Substack (Less Foolish) and heads up a platform called The Stoa, while Katherine is an internet historian and journalist who also writes a great Substack (default.blog) and has written for The Spectator, Unherd and Tablet. They’re running a new series together called Internet Real Life, looking at the changing cultural value of ‘being online’ and the new countercultures that are unplugging from the endless cycle of content creation.  They’re also guest teachers on Breathing in Culture (along with Peter Boghossian). Both are full of unique insights into how our online lives are evolving, and how to navigate our fractured media landscape. ‘NonOrdinary Sensemaking: US Election’ with Trish Blain and Alexander BeinerWhether you are thrilled, devastated or somewhere in between about the US election, it’s clear that civil discourse, consensus reality, and non-partisan cooperation have become nearly impossible. And yet, how do we move forward if we can’t work together? In this free session we’ll be offering a space to make sense together using techniques that help us tap into our implicit knowledge, combining Trish Blain’s frameworks with Alexander’s sensemaking techniques to help you reach deeper levels of insight, connect to hope and imagine a ‘Hell, Yeah!’ future in the midst of chaos. To support more audio content and free events on The Bigger Picture, and to access exclusive pieces, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beiner.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode I speak with Nicola Price who runs the breathwork school Inspirational Breathing. Breathwork has exploded in popularity in recent years, with some people calling it ‘the new yoga’. But what is it exactly, and how can we reconnect to ourselves, come up with new ideas and process emotions just by breathing? I’ve been training as a breathwork facilitator with Inspirational Breathing for the past year, and in November we’re launching a new course, Breathing in Culture, where you’ll have the opportunity to dive into this practice, working with a trained facilitator in small groups for weekly breathing sessions, while developing your own personal breathwork practice. Breathwork is the most effective practice I’ve found for ‘breaking frame’, processing my emotions and gaining perspective on my inner world and the culture. Because it’s such a powerful way to expand perspectives, the course also includes sessions with though-leaders like Peter Boghossian, Katherine Dee and Peter Limberg to provide inspiration and new ideas. To draw on Trish Blain’s Four Forces model, the breathwork fills you with life force to provide Growth energy, while the sensemaking sessions provide Purpose to help you to channel and direct that growth into your life. If you want to learn more, have a listen to my conversation with Nicola or check out Breathing in Culture.   This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beiner.substack.com/subscribe

Trish Blain introduces 'consciousness agility', discusses turning wisdom into action, collaborating difficulties, and creativity as a force of reality. The podcast also unveils 'NonOrdinary Impact', a self-discovery process for creative energy and collaboration with others.

The best conversations unravel new threads with every turn of phrase. You’re left with a tapestry, not of answers but of new possibilities. I had a feeling that a dialogue with Josh Schrei might weave that kind of tapestry, and I wasn’t disappointed.If you haven’t heard of his podcast The Emerald, I’d highly recommend it. It’s gained a dedicated following over the last few years, and is as much an endeavour in ‘mythic sensemaking’ as it is an artistic expression. The Emerald “explores the human experience through a vibrant lens of myth, story, and imagination … drawing from a deep well of poetry, lore, and mythos to challenge conventional narratives on politics and public discourse, meditation and mindfulness, art, science, literature, and more.”There are overlaps with Josh’s work and my own, so we covered a lot of terrain; AI, the meaning crisis, the return of ritual, and why an animate worldview might be essential if we’re to make it through the meta-crisis. You can find the episode above, or on the Substack app, Apple podcasts and most other podcasting platforms. Tripping on UtopiaThank you to everyone who read and commented on Nora Bateson’s piece ‘Communication is Sacred’ - it’s had a wonderful reception and felt like a positive way to launch guest pieces on The Bigger Picture. As I mentioned in my introduction to her essay, I’ve also been in touch with Benjamin Breen and he’s sent me a couple of paragraphs to give context in response to Nora’s piece, which you can find below: I wrote Tripping on Utopia because I believe that history has important lessons to impart for anyone interested in the present and future of psychedelics. I did not try to glorify or to condemn any of the historical figures in my book; rather, I wanted to just understand them in the context of their time. The New Yorker’s review of Tripping noted that Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson were "the most sympathetic figures in the book,” but it also noted that they are presented as part of much wider history which emphasizes the optimism and idealism of early psychedelic researchers during a period of enormous challenges. As I explain in a recent piece for the online magazine Nautilus, one key intervention I make is to retell the history of psychedelic therapy from the perspective of women in the 1940s and 1950s (not only Mead, but also pioneering therapists like Betty Eisner) rather than men in the '60s and '70s. Another goal was simply to understand early psychedelic researchers on their own terms, which meant casting a wide net and thinking deeply about the intellectual foundations of their work. This is why the main theme of the book is utopian yet applied science — an approach that Mead in particular did more than anyone else to elevate in public discourse, and one that informed the work of everyone from the most well known figures in the history of psychedelics (Humphry Osmond, Aldous Huxley) to the less well known (like Eisner). As you can perhaps guess from this summary, Gregory Bateson is an important figure in the history I tell but this is not a biography of him. It’s a comprehensively researched history of the first generation of psychedelic scientists, the product of over five years of daily work and careful research in well over a dozen historical archives. If you’re interested in the science and culture of psychedelics, I think it’s worth your attention.  You can buy Tripping on Utopia on the US Amazon here or the UK Amazon here. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beiner.substack.com/subscribe

There are only 6 live tickets remaining for my course New Ways of Knowing, which kicks off in less than a week. Join a collective inquiry into the ideas and practices that help us thrive in a time of upheaval, with a world-class faculty and participants from more than 20 countries.Where’s the vital edge in culture today? How do we find art to shove us into the abyss, taboo conversations to open our minds, and shards of wisdom to open our hearts?For Peter Limberg, this is a question we have to take seriously, but a tricky one. In his view, there is no culture any more. Drawing on the idea that we’re living through an era of cultural stagnation, what art critic Ben Davis calls ‘the after-culture’, in this interview he explains why the solution to this predicament may be buried where we least expect it. Many of you will be familiar with Peter’s work; he’s the steward of an in-person and online community called The Stoa, and writer of the brilliant Less Foolish Substack. In my view he’s one of the most creative and incisive voices exploring the meaning crisis, the culture wars and the application of ancient wisdom traditions to the complexity of modern life. He’s also a teacher on New Ways of Knowing, and this marks the third and final instalment in my audio series interviewing faculty. Dive in to find out what it means to make day to day life an artistic practice, new insights from his influential essay ‘The Memetic Tribes of Culture War 2.0’, and how you can drink a Stoic Smile. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit beiner.substack.com/subscribe