Conversations in Process

In this conversation, Darren Iammarino shares his journey into process philosophy and theology, describing how he was first drawn to Whitehead’s ideas and how these concepts have shaped his teaching and spiritual practice. Darren and Jared then turn to questions at the intersection of AI and process metaphysics, considering whether artificial intelligences can truly be conscious, how parasocial relationships with AI complicate our notions of self and society, and what Whitehead’s philosophy might contribute to these debates. Finally, they delve into theological questions about novelty, divine creativity, and the role of eternal objects, envisioning a cosmos where creatures participate in the ongoing creation of new possibilities.

In this episode, you'll hear:

What happens when the boundaries of the self dissolve? In this profound episode, theologian and Unitarian Universalist minister Thandeka joins hosts Jay McDaniel and Jared Morningstar for a vulnerable and wide-ranging conversation exploring spiritual experiences of no-self, the impact of trauma on identity, and the philosophical power of nothingness.

Through deeply personal stories and philosophical insights, the conversation weaves together:

Together, they ask: What is the role of community in reclaiming our whole selves? Can traditions like Buddhism, Islam, and process theology offer resources for healing in a fragmented world?

In this rich and wide-ranging conversation, philosopher Andrew M. Davis joins hosts Jay McDaniel and Jared Morningstar to explore how process philosophy, aesthetic values, and spiritual formation intersect across theology, science, and personal narrative.

Raised in an evangelical context, Davis shares how thinkers like Whitehead, Hartshorne, and Max Scheler helped him move beyond deconstruction toward a renewed vision of reality shaped by beauty, truth, and goodness.

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In this episode of Conversations in Process, hosts Jay McDaniel and Jared Morningstar sit down with guest Matt Segall to reflect on the relaunch of the podcast and the broader vision of process philosophy for the 21st century.

This episode explores:

In this episode of Conversations in Process, host Jay McDaniel speaks with Jared Morningstar about how they first encountered the world of process thought. Through Alfred North Whitehead's work, they share their journeys into the intersections of 20th-century philosophy, metaphysics, theology, and spiritual inquiry.

Together, they explore:

In this episode of Conversations in Process, Jay interviews renowned podcaster and process theologian Tripp Fuller, digging into the more personal side of his faith and theology. Tripp is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Theology & Science at the University of Edinburgh. He received his PhD in Philosophy, Religion, and Theology at Claremont Graduate University. For over 13 years Tripp has been doing the Homebrewed Christianity podcast where he interviews different scholars about their work. In 2020 he published Divine Self-Investment: An Open and Relational Constructive Christology.

In this conversation, Jay asks Tripp to trace his theological development from his formative years, asking what influenced his perspectives and how he grappled with issues such as the authority of sacred texts. Jay then asks of music, and what religious or spiritual role this played and continues to play in Tripp’s life—a topic which led to a number of insights about religious pluralism, the function of symbolism, and the logic of the one. In closing, Tripp talks about how he shares his faith with his children in light of their various phases of life, and the importance of the religious virtue of friendship which he sees as core to the message and life of Jesus. 

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In this episode of Conversations in Process, Jay sits down with Sufi scholar and musician Ali Hussain to discuss potential points of contact between Islamic mystical theology and process thought. Ali Hussain has a Ph.D. in Islamic Studies from the University of Michigan, Department of Middle East Studies. His research focuses on the image of Jesus AS in the writings of Muslim polymath Muhyiddin Ibn Al-Arabi and later Muslim scholars. His other research interests include Islam and Sufism in America, art and creativity in Islam and the creative engagement that Sufi mystics have with Arabic through the mediation of the Quran. He has published a number of books and articles, including “The Art of Ibn Arabi,” “The Metaphysics of Creativity: From the Qur'an into Ibn al-'Arabi,” “Ibn Al-Arabi and Joseph Campbell: The Metaphysics of Creativity and Mythology of Contemporary Art,” and most recently “A Nostalgic Remembrance: Sufism and the Breath of Creativity.”

In this conversation, Jay and Ali explore the similarities and contrasts between the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabi and Whitehead’s cosmological and theological perspectives. They discuss issues of immanence and transcendence, negative theology, the problem of evil, and much more. Ali shares the intellectual roots of Islamic mysticism, which draws in part from the same Platonic traditions in which Whitehead himself finds inspiration. Jay discusses common process perspectives on the vulnerability of God and the openness of the future, which Ali thinks can fit into a Sufi perspective as well when considered in relation to particular Divine Names. In closing, they discuss the centrality of beauty in both Sufi traditions and Whitehead’s philosophy, connecting the ideas of harmony and intensity with Divine Mercy and an open future. 

On this episode of Conversations in Process, Matt Segall returns to continue the discussion of process philosophy, this time with emphasis on how process ideas can help us navigate contemporary political, cultural, and ecological issues. Matt is Assistant Professor in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco where he teaches graduate level courses on process philosophy and German Idealism. His recent book, Physics of the World-Soul: Alfred North Whitehead’s Adventure in Cosmology, puts Whitehead’s process cosmology into conversation with various contemporary scientific theories, such as general relativity and quantum theory.

Matt begins by sharing a bit about his own political orientation and how he feels politically “homeless” in the current political scene in the United States. He mentions that he was a supporter of Bernie Sanders, and even as he lives in a very progressive region of the country, he puts effort into getting out of that bubble and pursuing dialogue across various political lines. 

Jay points out that despite political differences, people are still able to come together in community and share joy in the right contexts, citing his own experiences performing music at Toad Suck Buck’s restaurant in a deeply conservative area. Matt adds that many of our contemporary conflicts are worsened by fixating on the political level, and specifically looking to the federal government to adjudicate disagreements. Instead, he suggests that re-localizing politics and attempting to work through cultural issues outside of the political arena would be a step in the right direction, though this can often be a blindspot for liberals and progressives. 

On the topic of liberalism, Matt dwells on some of the issues of the anthropology of early liberal thinkers like John Locke, which can give the sense that human beings are blank slates able to be molded into anything. Matt is critical of this view and shares sympathy with conservative thinkers that emphasize we are born into certain traditions and institutions which provide a much needed structure for human society, and that it can be a great risk to not acknowledge the real benefit of these inherited goods. 

Beyond liberalism, nationalism is also an ascendant political ideology of our day, and Matt suggests that process thinking can help offer a measured response to this phenomenon. Here he suggests that the nationalist impulse isn’t fully off-base, as there does need to be some collective substratum on which a society grounds itself, but at the same time this can easily become oppressive and lead to worrying constraints on individual autonomy and the persecution of certain groups considered outside the bounds of how the nation defines itself.

Matt proposes that Whitehead’s thought provides resources for balancing between individuality and collectivism. Through emphasizing the interconnectedness of reality, those seeking a deeper aspect of community find encouragement in Whitehead’s philosophy or organism, while at the same time the self-direction of the actual occasion towards its subjective aim encourages those looking for a justification of their individuality beyond communally-defined roles.

Jay and Matt wrap up this conversation with a discussion of “earthism” and the contemporary climate crisis. Matt thinks that unfortunately the situation is likely to continue worsening before humanity really commits to a holistic and thorough response to ecological issues, but this will require a deep reorganization of the structure of post-industrial societies. However, Matt is confident that the earth community at large is deeply resilient and that out of this crisis creativity is likely to flourish, and perhaps in this wake humanity will be able to establish new modes of living and social organization that are earnestly grounded in ecological realities.

On this episode of Conversations in Process, Jay McDaniel and Jared Morningstar are joined by Brendan Graham Dempsey to discuss metamodern spirituality and possible connections with process theology. Brendan is a podcaster, author, community-builder, philosopher, and poet whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity. He has a BA in Religious Studies from the University of Vermont and an MA in Religion and the Arts from Yale University. Brendan lives in Greensboro Bend, Vermont, where he runs the holistic Sky Meadow retreat center and hosts metamodern gatherings.

In this conversation, Jay, Brendan, and Jared discuss metamodernism and its relationship to various other intellectual/philosophical modes—such as modernism and postmodernism—and also consider its relationship with process thinking and contemporary religiosity.

The discussion begins with Brendan’s own journey with metamodernism and how this was intricately intertwined with his own spiritual path of deconstructing and eventually reconstructing a religious worldview. Based on his work in his pseudonymously authored book Building the Cathedral: Answering the Meaning Crisis through Personal Myth, Brendan explains the centrality of narrativizing and personal myth-making in a metamodern spiritual project.

Jay builds on these ideas, introducing process ideas such as Whitehead’s “consequent nature of God,” showing how not only our own religious sensibilities are in process, but actually so is the Divine itself. However, there is still the question of communal and collective spirituality and myth-making, and Jay wonders if the collectivity involved here may even be beyond our merely human communities.

The conversation closes with a discussion of the relationship between metamodernism and the established religious traditions. Jay asks, “can a Methodist be metamodern?” and Brendan beautifully responds in the affirmative, stating that these traditions have the potential to be expressed and understood in a variety of different moods, from pre-modern to metamodern and everything in between. The goal of a metamodern standpoint, however, is to accept all of these different moods for what they are and the value they bring, and weave a coherent whole of this diversity, without losing the unique individuality of the various standpoints.

LINKS:

• Brendan’s website
• Brendan’s book Building the Cathedral: Answering the Meaning Crisis through Personal Myth
• A conversation with Brendan, Layman Pascal, and John Vervaeke: “The Artful Scaling of the Religion that is not a Religion”
• Matt Segall on Brendan’s Metamodern Spirituality podcast: “Process Philosophy and the Metamodern Metanarrative”
• Sky Meadow Retreat
• The Cobb Institute
• Open Horizons

On this episode of Conversations in Process, Jay McDaniel and Jared Morningstar are joined by Kazi Adi Shakti to discuss her provocative and nuanced essay “Buddhism is Basically Useless”. Kazi is an artist and theorist whose theoretical work primarily consists in the study and creative synthesis of process thought, Madhyamaka Buddhism, Western Marxism and Eco-feminist ethics. She graduated with a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she majored in Interdisciplinary Sculpture with a focus on computer modeling, 3D scanning and digital fabrication and currently works as a scanning specialist and digital artist in the 3D digitization industry. In addition to this, she also blogs regularly at her site www.holo-poiesis.com.

In this conversation, Kazi discusses her essay and why the idea of Buddhism being basically useless is in fact a positive. She describes that one of her aims with this piece is trying to get people to question their attachments and the identities they create—even identifying with traditional Buddhism. So to assert that Buddhism is basically useless is to acknowledge the emptiness of the religion and to resist taking it as an object of clinging.

Jared asks what kinds of Buddhists Kazi was trying to reach with this critical article, whether it was more Western Buddhist modernists, or if she meant this critique to cut against traditional Buddhists as well. In response, Kazi shows how her argument can be critical of either, even as there are important differences between the dispositions of these two kinds of Buddhists. However, she also finds inspiration among all these different ways of being Buddhist, stating that even secular Buddhism has some important insights in recognizing the emptiness of myth and traditional doctrine.

Jay then asks Kazi about an important idea running throughout the essay that Kazi uses in a number of different ways; namely, the notion of touching oneself. She charts a continuity between physical self-pleasure to intellectual self-knowledge and finally to self-reflexive gnosis—a manifestation of the awakening experience so central to Buddhist spirituality. In all of these, Kazi notes how there is no medium for the interaction beyond oneself, contrasting this perspective with views in Western philosophy such as those of Immanuel Kant where all perception and knowledge can never get directly at things in themselves. For Kazi, Buddhism is at its best when it is able to facilitate this direct self-touching in these various meanings, but none of these are ultimately dependent on the religion hence why Buddhism is useless in one sense.

Kazi’s essay concludes with a sudden switch to an almost devotional tone, mentioning the “infinite loving-compassion and boundless luminous-vision of the uncountable multiplicity of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas”—a stark contrast from the critical mood of the article up to this point. Jay notices this shift and asks about Kazi’s intent with this sudden change in direction. She explains that she tries to mix the perspective of critique which acknowledges the emptiness of all things with a more positive, constructive standpoint more grounded in a vision of dependent origination. More than just trying to balance these two perspectives, Kazi attempts to show how they are in fact inseparably bound to each other, evoking the Daoist image of the yin and the yang where both opposites actually exist within each other.

This wide-ranging dialogue concludes with a discussion of what Whitehead’s thought could potentially bring to this conversation, particularly through his aesthetic theories. This prompts Jay to consider what the ideas discussed might look like were they communicated by some medium other than language, such as visual art or music.

LINKS:

• Kazi’s Essay “Buddhism is Basically Useless”
• Kazi’s Blog Holo-Poiesis
• The Cobb Institute
• Open Horizons