Back to Human - A Root Astro Production

When AI can write the strategy, the board memo and the performance review by Monday morning, what is a leader actually for? Root Astro co-founders Lee Arthur and Marsha Prospere sit by the Bashakill marsh and work it through: what AI reveals about leaders, why will cannot be simulated and why will alone is not enough, what has gone soft and blunt in the people who lead, where the human edge lives, and why it is built in two places: strength through chosen hard things, and stillness through rest and attention.

Full transcript, chapters and links: https://www.rootastro.org/journal/back-to-human-ep-1-what-is-a-leader-for?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=bth-ep01

Watch the video episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/anKV9JTVLJg

Chapters

0:00 What is a leader for?

3:35 What AI reveals about leaders

8:43 Will, and where it runs out

13:52 What’s going soft

17:26 Not broken, blunted: Lee’s story

22:49 Answer machine or sparring partner

25:39 Where the human edge lives

29:10 Why does it have to be hard?

32:46 Rest that fortifies

34:46 The fully present leader

40:01 Leading through the cuts

45:25 Who looks after the leader

49:06 Going device-free

55:06 One thing this week, and a year from now

60:02 The question to sit with

Mentioned in this episode

HARD: Building Your Inner Citadel, by Lee Arthur: https://www.rootastro.org/book

The Fieldstone Letter, the Root Astro newsletter: https://www.rootastro.org/subscribe

Andrew Huberman with David Goggins on the anterior mid-cingulate cortex and willpower (Lee refers to it at 8:43): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imXzK9XcfZc

Gloria Mark’s research on interruption and refocus time

Back to Human is a Root Astro production. Root Astro runs device-free leadership retreats on 7 acres of private land within the Shawangunk State Forest, 90 minutes from New York City. First cohorts from May 1, 2027. https://www.rootastro.org

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.rootastro.org

A hundred seconds from the first episode of Back to Human. Root Astro co-founders Lee Arthur and Marsha Prospere, by the Bashakill marsh, on the first thing they disagreed about: Lee says AI can simulate intelligence but cannot simulate will; Marsha says will is finite, and that is exactly the problem. The full hour, recorded on October 31, 2026, arrives Sunday November 8. Back to Human is a Root Astro production. Root Astro runs device-free leadership retreats on 7 acres of private land within the Shawangunk State Forest, 90 minutes from New York City. https://www.rootastro.org

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.rootastro.org