ReTribalize Podcast

Today we compare the main subcultures creating their own communities and cities outside of the mainstream: the spiritual folk vs homesteaders vs networkstate tech people. The strengths and weaknesses of each, and why I think we need to go beyond mono-cultures.

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A century ago, fraternal networks like the Freemasons, Odd Fellows, and Knights of Pythias were the backbone of society — uniting men through shared values, mutual aid, and purpose. In this episode, I explore how these forgotten brotherhoods shaped culture, resisted tyranny, and why rebuilding them today might be the key to restoring freedom, community, and meaning.

In this episode:

The rise of centralization and how it weakened men’s communities

How 1 in 23 men once belonged to a fraternal network in early America

The hidden social, moral, and spiritual role of lodges and brotherhoods

Why tyrants always fear strong friendships between men

What Freemasonry once represented — and how it lost its spiritual fire

How salons, societies, and brotherhoods birthed the Enlightenment and the American Republic

The modern rebirth of fraternity: building high-trust, mission-driven men’s networks

How The Men’s Academy is creating a new model for global brotherhood and community-building

Join the Movement:→ Apply or learn more at The Men’s Academy

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Today we are talking about rebuilding social structures, reviewing an article by the Meta Project. This is a guide for the founders of new tribes and counter cultures.

Join our app, meet your team: https://retribalize.ai

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f you wanted to build a new town on an infinite frontier, what matters most — genius plans or great people? The answer: attract top talent. Everything else follows from that. In this episode, I break down why this is the single most important law in founding a tribe, business, or civilization — and how to do it.

Key Points:

The #1 goal of any founder: Attract top talent.

Every other principle — vision, culture, profit, inspiration — should serve this one.

Top talent solves every problem: money, ideas, building, systems, and spirit.

For tribes, top talent = mature, capable, inspiring people — not just skilled workers.

Great culture attracts more great people — it’s exponential.

To attract the best, you need at least 2 of these 5 traits to start: Vision, Charisma, Credibility / Groundedness, Resources, or Other top talent

The first 1–2 are hardest — no social proof yet. But talent attracts talent.

Build credibility: become valuable, develop real skills, and lead by example.

👉 Find your co-founders and tribe: https://retribalize.ai

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Everyone’s trying to build the future — but they’re doing it from opposite ends of the spectrum. On one side: the Network State crowd, coding new civilizations on-chain. On the other: the Return-to-Nature tribes, dancing barefoot in the mud. Here's what we discuss in this episode:

1. Code can’t replace culture - Network States start with blockchain, but real civilizations start with myth, ritual, and shared meaning. Software without soul won’t hold.

2. Scale means nothing without depth - A 100,000-member DAO is weaker than ten people who’ve eaten, built, and suffered together. Embodied trust is the true currency.

3. You can’t buy belonging - When citizenship comes with a token price, loyalty dissolves. Brotherhood isn’t a market transaction.

4. Egalitarian communes heal—but rarely build - Eco-villages create intimacy and healing, but without hierarchy, vision, or execution, they stall in idealism.

5. The next phase is integration - We need the discipline of startups and the soul of tribes—ritual grounded in capital, code rooted in soil.

6. The next great city starts small - Not as a DAO or commune, but as a team—a living prototype. Culture first, structure second, tech last.

Come find your team: https://retribalize.ai

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit retribalize.substack.com/subscribe

A manifesto for rebuilding culture through archetypes — rediscovering our roles, dharma, and tribe to create the next civilization.

Key Points:

Civilization’s Crisis: The modern world decays not from lack of technology, but from loss of identity, purpose, and communal archetypes.

Archetypes as Blueprint: Thirteen universal roles — like King, Warrior, Healer, Builder, and Lover — form the foundation for any thriving tribe or culture.

The Archetype Map: A framework plotting the forces of Daimon vs. Soul and Heaven vs. Earth to locate one’s natural essence and purpose.

Dharma & Fulfillment: True happiness comes from discovering and living your dharma — your inner law — and expressing it in harmony with others.

Tribal Synergy: Mature souls align around shared purpose; a complete community balances all archetypes working in synchronized flow.

Mission of Retribalize: To guide emerging leaders and builders in forming the teams, villages, and cities that will shape the next civilization.

👉 Find your team: https://retribalize.ai

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit retribalize.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, I break down the archetypal map behind ReTribalize — the framework for building real tribes, not just businesses or online communities. These are the lessons from traveling the world building a team to launch an app, an academy, and eventually a town.

Key Points:

Every tribe needs both business and culture — most fail by focusing on only one.

You need builders (who create value) and culture carriers (who hold the vibe).

Failed models: tech bros, activists, eco-villages, crypto bros — all too one-sided.

A true tribe needs diverse archetypes: builders, artists, warriors, shamans, merchants.

Recruit for alignment and maturity, not just talent.

Ask: “Would I trust this person to raise my kids?”

Keep your inner circle sacred — the wolfpack must be strong and balanced.

The Retribalize app helps you find your people — schedule calls, build trust, meet IRL.

Leadership = harmonizing archetypes and recruiting toward a shared vision.

👉 Find your team: https://retribalize.ai

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit retribalize.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, I explore the myth of Romulus and Remus — not as a legend, but as a blueprint for building new civilizations. The founders of Rome were young men, exiled from the old system, who gathered loyal comrades and started a village with their friends. This story reveals a timeless pattern: when society creates space for the young and ambitious, vitality and new culture emerge.

Key Points:

Romulus and Remus were abandoned by the old world and raised outside the system.

They gathered a band of comrades — loyal shepherds, hunters, and outlaws.

After overthrowing the corrupt old regime, they chose to build their own settlement near the Tiber.

Their followers were exiles, wanderers, and restless youth—the raw material of every new civilization.

Youth revolutions happen when talented young people are blocked from leadership.

History proves it: Napoleon (25), Alexander (21), Jefferson (30s)—all rose fast when the frontier was open.

Stagnant societies suppress youth; vital ones promote and empower them.

The lesson for tribe builders:

Create space for the young and talented to rise.

Build frontiers, apprenticeships, and real communities with stakes.

Fuse tradition and innovation—like Rome, like America.

👉 Join the movement: https://retribalize.ai

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit retribalize.substack.com/subscribe

This is a lecture about building the cities of the future. More specifically: the core principles behind social cohesion and long-term success - What makes a society actually work? We’ll draw from Ken Wilber, Aristotle, the American Founding Fathers, and good old common sense.

I. Integral Thinking (Ken Wilber)

I was recently talking to my aunt about a woman who became a “trad wife.”A stay-at-home mom making sourdough and proclaiming how natural it is.

My aunt was disgusted.

“Women telling other women they should be small, and housewives?”

Now personally—I think trad-wiving is mostly a larp. A reactionary response to modern chaos. But I still get it. And I respect the instinct to return to tradition.

But my aunt? She can’t understand anything that looks like it’s restricting a historically oppressed group.

This is the Green Meme—a term from Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory. It’s a stage of psychological development that centers on inclusion, equality, and sensitivity to injustice.

In this worldview:

* What’s good? Equality, justice, and compassion for marginalized people.

* What’s evil? Hierarchy, exclusivity, or any return to traditional roles.

That lens is valuable. I lived in it. I was once a Marxist too.But it’s only one layer of truth.

Integral thinking—true higher-order thinking—asks bigger questions.

“What creates the maximum flourishing in society, at every level?”“How do we transcend and include each stage of development?”

This means including boundaries, hierarchies, tradition, and differentiation—all of which are seen as evil by the Green Meme. But they are foundational to a healthy society.

II. What Is the State For?

An intelligent person starts by asking the highest question:

What is the purpose of the state?

Plato asked this. So did Aristotle. So did the Founding Fathers. And their answers laid the groundwork for the most successful societies in history. Think of it like designing a ship. You can’t decide on the size or layout without knowing the ship’s purpose.

* Is it crossing oceans?

* Is it for rivers?

* Is it a warship?

Without a clear purpose, every design choice is just guesswork.

Likewise, every political debate is meaningless unless you define what the state is meant to do.

So what is the purpose?

To promote the flourishing of its citizens.

That’s it. That’s the goal.If a state fails to do that, it’s a failure—period. That brings us to what the classical thinkers got right, and what most modern discourse misses.

III. Civic Virtue & Social Cohesion

Aristotle viewed the state as a partnership for virtue—a collective agreement to promote the good life. Jefferson echoed this, framing it as the state’s duty to protect the natural rights of its people:Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

A regime—Athens, America, or anywhere—is simply how a group organizes itself to live well together.

But to hold that together, you need civic virtue.

Civic virtue is when people put we before me.It’s the glue that holds a republic together.

Every great thinker on politics understood this—Plato, Aristotle, Jefferson, Franklin. And anyone who understands teamwork.

But here’s the truth:People only act with civic virtue when they feel bonded—When they share a goal.When they belong to something sacred.

The more estranged or atomized people feel, the more they revert to self-interest.Civic virtue dies without social cohesion.

Case Study: The SEAL Team

Take a Navy SEAL. He’ll die for his brothers.Why? Because of their shared purpose, shared hardship, and group identity.

Now throw that SEAL into a unit of random civilians, a few foreigners, maybe even someone who resents him—He’ll be confused. Suspicious. He won’t risk his life.Because the tribal bond is gone.

Social cohesion only works when:

* The team shares a goal.

* Outsiders must earn their way in.

* And the internal culture is strong and sacred.

If not, the team resents outsiders. The mission collapses.

Same with your business. You wouldn’t let just anyone into your company.Not even if they went to Harvard.

You’d want people who:

* Share the vision

* Elevate the team

* Take the mission personally

This is obvious on the small scale. But many “green-memers” ignore it at the national or civilizational level.

IV. The Foundation: Citizenship

So what creates true social cohesion?

Citizenship.

Not in the modern bureaucratic sense. But in the ancient sense:A citizen is someone with a real stake in the long-term project.

For Aristotle, citizenship wasn’t for everyone.It was for people who participated in political life—especially landowners.

Ownership is everything.

When you don’t own land, don’t see your family’s future in the community, and don’t feel pride in your town—you’ll disengage.

Renters don’t maintain their yards.Employees don’t go the extra mile without a stake.And disconnected people don’t vote or lead well.

Ownership aligns self-interest with group interest.

This is why ancient citizens were landowners.They cared. They showed up.They governed themselves, in ways far more direct than modern voting.

Even if they disagreed, they felt personally responsible for the whole.

And that kind of civic engagement gives men pride, meaning, and clarity.

V. Recap: A Republic Only Works If It’s Bonded

To recap so far:

* A republic thrives when people feel bonded and invested.

* The more you feel this is your people, your town, your future — the more you give.

* And that was the original vision of America: diverse but tightly-knit communities who governed themselves and participated in something greater.

This is the vision behind ReTribalize Projects.

We are filtering the world for high-alignment teammates.We are building real villages—with our friends.We are restoring pride in place and people.“This is our tribe. This is our aim. We go together.”

VI. Community + God = Virtue

The final piece is virtue itself.

There is no better recipe for a healthy tribe than:

* A shared spiritual practice

* A shared mission

These two things automatically grow virtue.

When you feel connected to a group—and the group depends on you—you rise.

You grow stronger. You heal. You give more.Because they need you. And you love them.

In battle. In parenting. In leading.Honor becomes natural when you have a reputation.When your tribe watches you. When there is myth, pride, and a sacred aim.

Virtue isn’t a moral code. It’s a by-product of tribal life.

And that’s the final piece that ties this all together.

And if you want to join our noble brotherhood, to meet the best friends of your life and help build what comes next—

Apply to the Men’s Academy:https://kristianbell.com/mens-academy-apply

We are building the future. Together.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit retribalize.substack.com/subscribe

There is a very real dating crisis today.Men feel it. Women feel it too.

Some of you did well back in high school or college — maybe you were attractive, mildly popular, or solid in your circles. But now? Even with enormous effort, you can’t get a decent match. The few that do come through often aren’t right… or are downright catastrophic.

Why?Because of community collapse.

And this will spark a new kind of revolution — not centralized, but decentralized.Let me explain.

PART I: Community Solves the Dating Crisis

Superficial Status vs. True Status

In tribal society, people saw you. A woman might see a man win — see how he leads with strength and love. She sees how younger men respect him. That man is attractive. Admired. Respected. His honour and opportunities grow.

That’s how it worked for hundreds of thousands of years.

But now?How many people actually see your wins, your virtues?How many even know you beyond the surface?

Most people only catch a glimpse — on a dating profile, in a checkout line, at a party.No depth. No reputation. No context.

Without community, we are all living in unfamiliar worlds.

The Unfamiliar World

Outside of college or the workplace — it’s all unfamiliar now.

I never had either of those.

So we’re left with shrinking peer groups, disconnected lives.We “date” through:

* Bars

* Clubs

* Dating apps

* Cold approaches

And we try to make friends through:

* Networking events

* Gyms

* Sports

* Brief interactions

But it doesn’t work.Social dynamics break down in unfamiliar environments.

We no longer have the time or context to really know one another. This creates a world ruled by superficial status — and that is destroying dating, friendship, marriage, and the future of civilization.

Some Real Examples

I was just at a retreat.

There was a beautiful Instagram-type woman there. One short interaction — I could tell immediately she wasn’t for me. But as the retreat went on, a woman I’d overlooked at first stole into my heart.

Another common example:

An office worker might be a well-liked, kind, quirky guy with depth and discipline — but he never gets a date outside the office. Meanwhile, the douchey co-worker everyone hates? He kills it on the dating apps.

Why?

Because apps reward superficial status, not true character.

Met a good friend in Mexico.Shy, reserved — not the usual type of guy I connect with. But once we lived together, I saw his intelligence, depth, and thoughtful nature.We vibed hard. Became great friends.

But he’s invisible in superficial spaces. Most girls pass him over instantly. (Yes, he could improve his presentation… but that’s not the full issue.)

The Truth About Status

🌞 The most insecure people chase superficial status the hardest.

They live outward-in:

* Bodybuilding

* Money

* Image

* Politics

* Sexual appeal

All based on what’s rewarded by the market.

They conform to the current icons of status, not to truth. I’ve seen it again and again. Old friends, lost in the sauce. Chasing "likes," chasing approval. All because they were insecure deep down.

Superficial status gets you short-term wins.But long-term? It hollows you out.

True Status looks like:

* Confidence, intelligence, virtue

* Humor, playfulness, wit

* Leadership, masculine edge

* Stories, scars, wisdom

Men of substance don’t pander.They individuate.

But gold doesn’t always glitter — and what glitters isn’t always gold.

That’s the frustration in today’s world.

Because real men are NOT witnessed.If they were, they’d naturally be seen as high-value.Because in community, status emerges.

My Own Experience

Allow me a moment of shameless arrogance:

In most communities, I become well-liked pretty fast.I’ve got social skills, talents. I’m grounded. I show up.

But dating in my early 20s was brutal.

Every community I was part of had older people.And the younger ones? They were all:

* In college

* Working

* On their phones

* Not going out

Even now, at 27, I go out constantly — to dances, parties, coworking spots, gyms. I say hi to everyone.

But where the f*ck are the other late-20s people actually hanging out?Where’s the real, vibrant community?

It barely exists.Maybe a run club, a boutique gym… but still too scattered. Too unfamiliar.

Status Filters the World — But Only In Community

Status is a natural filter.It’s how social creatures orient toward what matters.

But this filter breaks down without real community.

And when you change the icons of status, you change the kind of people we strive to become.

Sex Symbols & Masculine Ideals

If being rich is what gets women, men will chase that.If being excellent is what earns respect, men will chase that.

Status is always shaping us.

Intelligent societies design their status systems — and their dating rituals — to ensure people strive to become extraordinary.

FINAL CONCLUSION:

When good men develop themselves — their skills, virtues, wolfpacks — and still go unseen?

They leave.

They build something new.

Because deep down, we all want the same thing:

* A village with our friends

* A good queen

* A true brotherhood

* A tribe we love and take pride in

Modern life has stripped these natural elements away.

And while the average man might still manage a job or a relationship…

The great men I know — the ones who listen to this podcast — are already setting sail for new shores.

They are finding their people.They are building the new world.

SOLVING THE DATING CRISIS & ReTRIBALIZE

A) Build or Join Real Community

Good dating starts with:

* Large peer groups

* Tight-knit friendships

* Real-life environments — NOT more apps

This is crucial for women too.

Best places to start:

* Dance

* Climbing gyms

* Boutique gyms

* Run clubs

* Classes

* Craft clubs

* Favorite café or coworking space

Go consistently. Say hi.

Start a weekly dinner or event. Build your own club.Or find someone who’s building one.(If you’re introverted, align with a community-builder.)

B) Build Your Wolfpack

Forge your inner circle — the men and women capable of a greater dream.Bonded for life.

Dating has infected everything.

It weakens men.It weakens me sometimes.

Make friendships and your mission a priority over money and girls.Trust me — in the end, it’ll get you 10x of both.

Men bond shoulder-to-shoulder. That’s how it starts.

C) Start a ReTribalize Project — Or Join Me

Build your own village. Or join an existing one.

* Filter the world for aligned people

* Use content and ads to magnetize your tribe

* Connect your community with other intentional ones

* Let dating fall back into its natural place

Watch the full video breakdown of ReTribalize Projects and why, as the old world crumbles, we must find our people.

Interested in joining me? Men’s Academy Application

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit retribalize.substack.com/subscribe