The Daily Evolver

It’s subtle but some of you have noticed: I’ve changed the tagline of the Daily Evolver to “A post-progressive look at politics and culture”. It used to read “Integral insights into politics and culture”, which still describes what I attempt to do in this podcast: to point out what I see as the emerging edges of human and cultural evolution, and to foster new habits of thinking for people who wish to embrace multiple worldviews. So when my pal, neighbor and integral philosopher Steve McIntosh, used the term post-progressive in one of our evening hangouts, my integral chimes rang. Steve and I both paused to ponder. Post-progressive … is it a term? Are people using it? A quick google search showed that it describes a genre of rock music. How about politics? Yes, there was one prominent article that had the term post-progressive in its title; the author used it, however, to describe certain combative streams of leftist politics. But how about the next stage in the evolution of political thought? While Steve and I have both happily identified as progressives for decades, we have also begun to chafe at the hardening of its orthodoxy, especially in the age of Trump, and to feel an evolutionary pull forward. We notice this is true of many other folks in the integral community and the culture at large. If we and integral theory are correct, the post-progressive move forward will, in part, involve integrating the best of progressivism and the best of its conservative opposition. But unlike centrism, which seeks to compromise competing ideals of the status quo, post-progressivism represents a vertical move that will expand the political playing field to embrace emergent thinking and policies. In this episode, Steve and I explore the new terrain of post-progressive political thought, as well as its “felt sense”. For more, check out Steve’s new article, Toward a Post-Progressive Progressive Political Perspective, published in Aero Magazine online. Many of the core ideas are also expressed in his new book Developmental Politics: How American Can Grow Into a Better Version of Itself – and of course in the Daily Evolver podcast archives.

I’m a big fan of The Integral European Conference (IEC), which has become the leading event in the international integral community. The fourth and latest IEC, Global Integral Awakens, was scheduled for the end of this month at Lake Balaton in Hungary. Then came COVID-19 and reluctant cancellation. But the show will go on – online! Founder Bence Ganti and his conference team have risen to the challenge of reimagining the conference on the Zoom platform, complete with over 70 presenters and a full range of activities including workshops, games, even live concerts and dance. In this short episode, Bence shares some of how the online conference will work and how you can participate. See IEC ONLINE. Bence and the team are also planning the next in-person event in May 2021. For more on the goals and spirit of the conference check out our earlier conversation.

Human beings have evolved – and continue to – within the domains of first-person, second-person, and third-person reality. In first-person (I-space) we integrate ideas and worldviews. In third-person (it-space) we create new systems and technologies out in the world. This episode is about evolution in the domain of second-person (we-space), where we develop in relationship with others. My guest is my longtime friend and colleague, Diane Musho Hamilton, who discusses the ideas behind her new book, Compassionate Conversations, co-authored with Gabriel Menegale Wilson and Kimberly Myosai Loh. She explains how, by simply talking and listening to other people more consciously, we can enact our own – and humanity’s – evolution into the Integral Age.

Dr. Keith Witt and I have way too much fun discussing the consequences, in all four quadrants, of life in the time of COVID-19.

Consider, friend, as you pass by, as you are now, so once was I. As I am now, you too shall be. Prepare, therefore, to follow me. This famous epitaph from a Scottish tombstone sums up the central dilemma of human existence: it ends in death. But is death the end? All peoples throughout history have intuited that there is more to this life than meets the eye. And they (we!) have created endless practices and art forms to invoke reality beyond time and space. In the spirit of preparation and good cheer, I share some ideas and poetry that have come in handy for me.

This week I take a look at the Coronavirus pandemic and humanity’s response to it. The integral lens helps us see more clearly the myriad forces rising out of this crisis, which increases our wisdom and compassion in dealing with it. The situation is changing day-to-day and I will no doubt comment further in future podcasts. Let me know what you’re thinking at [email protected].

As a psychotherapist, I have conducted over fifty thousand therapy sessions with men, women, couples, teens, kids, and families over the last thirty-seven years. And I’m here to testify that secret affairs literally screw everybody up. So says Dr. Keith Witt in this fascinating exploration of infidelity in marriage, which arises out of human beings’ two competing sexual drives: to pair-bond and to cheat. From an integral perspective, affairs arrest the development of both the couple and each individual partner. Keith explains the reasons people have secret affairs (and how they justify them), how to recognize and derail the cascade of behaviors that lead to infidelity, and how healthy couples recover and move forward in its aftermath.

What a difference a Super Tuesday can make! Last week I and many others wrote off Joe Biden’s candidacy as hopeless. Now he is the front runner for the Democratic nomination in a two-man race with Bernie Sanders. What happened? And what might it reveal about the race going forward? To ponder these questions, I invite onto the podcast two of my favorite Integral political pals, Diane Musho Hamilton and Terry Patten.

It’s the high political season here in the U.S., and like all good citizens I am called on to cast my vote. My fellow Coloradans and I are part of Super Tuesday, where one-third of the Democratic electorate will decide who we want to go up against President Trump in November. In this podcast, I attempt to bring an integral sensibility to my decisions on the six major candidates, and to share how I’ve come up with my own final three.

In the lineage of Integral philosophers, Jean Gebser is a mystic. Famous for delineating the structures of human consciousness as archaic, magic, mythic, mental and integral, he regarded them as arising not just sequentially in history but also vividly in an ever-present now. “While it is clear that adults possess various mental and physical capacities not possessed by children, and modern cultures possess scientific and technological capacities unknown in primal cultures, it is equally clear that children possess profound imaginal capacities greatly diminished in most adults, and primal cultures take for granted a deep connection with, and intimate knowledge of nature that is impossible to achieve in modern cultures, a connection and knowledge for which many of us harbor a profound yearning.” – Jean Gebser (1905-1973) My guest, integral philosopher Jeremy Johnson, president of the Jean Gebser Society, explains how Gebser’s vision is uniquely relevant to contemporary life, and how it offers an integral spiritual transmission that seeks to be manifested through practice. Jeremy is pioneering this practice, and in this episode he shares the themes of his new course, Seeing Through the World – Integral Consciousness and the Ever-Present Origin, starting this Sunday, Feb 23. Check it out and I hope you enjoy the podcast! Jeremy Johnson has a degree in sociology from Fordham University, the Jesuit College in Manhattan, and a Masters in Consciousness Studies from Goddard College. He is the founder of Nura Learning, and author of the book, Seeing Through the World: Jean Gebser and Integral Consciousness.  Gebser portrait by Nina Bunjavec