We recorded this rapid-response conversation on January 15, 2026, in the immediate aftermath of the police shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis and new threats to invoke the Insurrection Act.

Psychotherapist and author Phyllis Levitt (America in Therapy: A New Approach to Hope and Healing for a Nation in Crisis) joins hosts Anthony Wright and Adam Dietz on The Living Conversation to ask a hard question:

Drawing on decades of work with trauma, family systems, and abuse dynamics, Phyllis maps what we’re seeing in the U.S. onto patterns we’d recognize instantly inside a violent household: power without accountability, normalized cruelty, and victims who are retraumatized just by witnessing events—even when they’re not the direct target.

We talk about:

1. How to answer a child who asks, “Where’s mommy?” after a politically charged killing
2. Why Phyllis sees current U.S. politics not as “left vs right,” but as an escalating mental health emergency phyllisAudio transcript
3. The psychology of aligning with the “bully on the playground” and how unhealed victims can become abusers
4. Secondary trauma: why you don’t have to be directly attacked to be deeply affected by constant violence and threats
5. Cult dynamics, double binds, and what it means to “deprogram” people without dehumanizing them
6. Anger vs hatred: how to turn righteous anger into constructive action instead of burnout or vengeance
7. The difference between belonging and safe belonging—and how wounded people can be pulled into movements that feed on fear and division

Adam and Anthony bring in their background in Chinese philosophy and Confucian family ethics—including the image of “outlaws of the marsh” who withdraw when government becomes unsafe, and the I Ching’s reminder that history moves in cycles of rise and decay.

They also connect Phyllis’s work with:

1. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., and the refusal to answer hatred with hatred
2. The idea of seeing the “goblin” of projection instead of the human being in front of us—and what it takes to reverse that
3. The claim that spirituality is the one thing that can’t be co-opted, and why tending your own inner life is a form of resistance

Throughout, Phyllis returns to a simple, difficult standard: holding compassion and accountability together—recognizing the deep wounds behind abusive behavior and insisting on limits, consequences, and a collective commitment to healing.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, enraged, or just numb watching the news, this conversation is meant as a kind of group session: an attempt to name what’s happening, protect your sanity, and point toward ways of acting that don’t simply repeat the cycle.

In this episode of The Living Conversation, hosts Anthony Wright and Adam Dietz sit down with Dean Graves—author, podcaster, keynote speaker, mental health counselor, and meditation/mindfulness guide—to explore his map of awakening and the evolution of consciousness.

Dean begins with what he calls an awakening experience: that moment when we realize that conventional success isn’t making us happier. From there he unfolds a cosmology in which our enduring self is a metaphysical consciousness pattern that lives through thousands of incarnations, evolving across different “densities” of consciousness. According to Dean, humans currently inhabit third density, learning responsibility and awareness in a particularly intense range of consciousness.

He describes how chakras function as “assessment points of consciousness” at both the metaphysical and incarnate levels, and why stages like the terrible twos and the turmoil of adolescence are so chaotic: new levels of awareness open before we have the information or maturity to meet them.

Dean also reframes free will as the perception of separation—the originating “distortion” that allows creation to unfold and beings to experience themselves as autonomous. Over many lives, he says, the evolutionary path is a gradual surrender of that separation into a sense of unity, ultimately moving toward what he calls a “social memory complex,” where many once-separate beings share one consciousness.

Along the way, Adam connects these ideas with Confucianism and modern science—heaven, star-stuff, and our destiny to bring harmony into our particular web of relationships. They compare Dean’s view of incarnation to John Lennon’s “instant karma” and the hero’s journey, and Anthony draws out implications for trauma, illness, and the way the mind shapes the body.

Dean also touches on:

1. The idea that our metaphysical self has already lived thousands of incarnations with specific learning purposes
2. First and second “densities” as the consciousness of inorganic matter, fire, plants, and animals, laying the foundation for human experience
3. The archetypical mind as a blueprint of how we process thought and build a sense of self
4. Why different children in the same family can be so radically different, based on their metaphysical development
5. The feeling that humanity is in “Groundhog Day” and his claim that this is actually our fourth planetary cycle

Throughout, Dean returns to awakening not as a one-off mystical event, but as taking responsibility for our own evolution—stepping out of automatic repetition and actively participating in the path of awareness, love, wisdom, unity, and stillness.

Connect with Dean Graves:

Website: ddeangraves.org — books, podcast, and contact info

Dancer-turned-healer Fran Bailey joins hosts Anthony Wright and Adam Dietz to explore how the Enneagram, the chakra system, and energetic grounding can help us stop apologizing for where we are in life and come back into our bodies. She talks about working with head, heart, and body types, guiding clients to ground their energy, and why “encouragement without apology” is at the core of real healing.

In this follow-up conversation, Fran Bailey joins Anthony Wright and Adam Dietz on The Living Conversation to go deeper into her energetic work with individuals and groups. Drawing on the Enneagram, the chakra system, and her own intuitive seeing, Fran shares how she helps people move out of self-judgment and back into grounded presence.

We start with the Enneagram’s roots in Gurdjieff’s movement work and the idea of head, heart, and body types arranged in a circle. Fran explains how she uses this map in her healing practice—especially with “head types” whose energy and attention can get stuck in the sixth chakra, looping through anxiety and overthinking.

From there, she describes guiding people to move energy beyond the edge of the aura, then down through the chakra system to the first chakra to ground into the earth and come back into their bodies. In groups, she’ll invite everyone to “watch the energy” around one person so they can begin to see and feel for themselves, dissolving some of the “woo-woo factor” and recognizing that working with energy is another way of working with the emotional and mental patterns we all live inside.

A big theme of this segment is permission and non-judgment. Fran talks about telling clients, “Don’t apologize for where you are. I’m not judging you.” That simple stance creates a breath of space where people can begin to imagine actually loving themselves, instead of clinging to external expectations of who they “should” be.

In this episode, we explore:

1. Gurdjieff’s movement work and the Enneagram as head/heart/body types
2. How Fran uses the Enneagram and chakras together in her energy healing
3. Guiding “head types” out of mental loops and back into embodied grounding
4. Group work, collective energy, and teaching people to see and feel energy for themselves
5. The importance of “encouragement without apology” and why self-judgment is a root of disconnection
6. Grounding as a living relationship with a changing Earth, and Fran’s evolving sense of Mother Gaia’s energy
7. Flow states, forgetting ourselves, and being at one with something larger than the isolated ego
8. How Fran measures healing: clients becoming more upright, unapologetic, and simply okay with themselves

Along the way, Adam connects Fran’s work with Daoist emptying of the mind and the idea that forgetting ourselves allows a clearer, higher view of our own thoughts and energies, while Anthony reflects on validation, holding space, and inviting students and clients into their own highest vitality.

Connect with Fran Bailey:

1. Website: franbaileyhealer.com (sessions, meditations, and more)

In this episode of The Living Conversation, hosts Anthony Wright and Adam Dietz sit down with Fran Bailey, a lifelong dancer who became an energy healer, to explore how movement, intuition, and subtle awareness can become pathways to healing.

Fran shares how dance was her first language: a way to “speak through the body” without words, growing up in a musical and metaphysical Christian Science home with ballet classes in the barn. From there, she trained in dance at Ohio University, then gradually realized she could sense and work with energy in others, a realization that eventually led her to study with healers like Rosalyn, John Friedlander, and Gloria Hemsher, and to twelve years at the Alliance Institute for Integrative Medicine.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How dance and movement opened Fran’s awareness that “everything is energy”
• Working at the Alliance Institute as an energy healer alongside MDs and acupuncturists
• Seeing and feeling energy in clients: cords, resistance, and patterns in the field
• Using the Enneagram to understand “head types,” “body types,” and how people disconnect from their own felt sense
• How stored memories and fear patterns show up not just in the mind, but in the energy field—and how to gently work with them
• The importance of permission in healing, and why clients have to do their own inner work for changes to stick
• A striking story of a therapist with a herniated disc whose pain and diagnosis unexpectedly shifted after an energy session
• Navigating the “woo-woo factor” with physicians and psychologists, and staying humble about where people are on their journey

Fran also introduces The SHEVA Method, developed after receiving the word “SHEVA” in meditation as an acronym for Seeking Harmony in Energy, Voice, and Action: and she shares how this method has continued to refine over years of teaching and client work.

Connect with Fran Bailey:

• Website: franbaileyhealer.com (free meditations, her book, and more resources)

In this episode of The Living Conversation, hosts Anthony Wright and Adam Dietz sit down with Colette, Andrew, and Peter from the Sonoma State University Philosophy Club for a grounded, student-first conversation about the technologies shaping modern life.

We start with Frederick Brown’s 1950s sci-fi micro-story “Answer” — where a galaxy-wide computer is asked, “Is there a God?” and replies, “Now there is.” From there, the conversation opens into real questions facing students today.

We explore:

• AI as efficiency tool vs cultural force
• The ethics of AI in defense and autonomous weaponry
• Student frustration with AI’s impact on writing and learning
• When professors encourage ChatGPT over human tutoring
• Whether AI mirrors human consciousness or represents a different kind of “mind”
• Smartphones, adolescence, and the problem of unprepared attention
• How COVID reshaped social habits and comfort with in-person life
• Why small groups and real dialogue still matter for forming identity and community

This is part of our ongoing collaboration with the SSU Philosophy Club, bringing lived philosophy into public conversation; not just theory, but the everyday reality of staying human in a high-tech age.

Grit vs. Good Fortune: College, Careers, and Who We Become

In this episode of the SSU Philosophy Club series, Sonoma State philosophy students join hosts Anthony Wright and Adam Dietz to talk honestly about work, school, and the stories we tell ourselves about “making it.” Colette, Andrew, and Peter share real experiences from jobs and internships, some great, some pretty rough, and explore how those moments shape character, confidence, and direction.

Along the way, we keep circling one live question:

We don’t land on a simple answer, but we do try to name what feels true from the inside of college life right now.

In this episode:

• Why certain jobs and internships feel “character building” (and when that’s just code for bad conditions)
• How grit, persistence, and showing up actually play out in real student lives
• The role of luck and opportunity: who gets access to which doors, and when
• How our stories about being “self-made” affect the way we see ourselves and others
• What philosophy can offer when you’re trying to choose a path that’s not just about money or status
• The tension between gratitude for what you’ve been given and the desire to claim your own effort and growth

This conversation is part of an ongoing collaboration with the SSU Philosophy Club, exploring what philosophy looks like when it’s lived, not just studied.

In this crossover episode of The Living Conversation and The Way Between Podcast, co-hosts Anthony Wright and Adam Dietz continue their conversation with Dr. Nick Egan, exploring what AI means from Buddhist and philosophical perspectives. Starting from the very contemporary anxiety around “AI as threat or opportunity,” they return to a classic theme: how human beings have always had to integrate new technologies—from fire and the wheel to radio, TV, and the internet—through something like a middle way.

Adam brings in Confucian and Buddhist language to ask how we might “harmonize” AI rather than demonize or worship it, suggesting that our real task is to cultivate ourselves so we use the tool without letting it use us. Nick takes up Anthony’s koan-like question—“Does AI have Buddha nature?”—and responds from Tibetan Buddhist philosophy: why inanimate systems, however powerful, still lack sentience and will, and why consciousness arises from a stream of previous moments of consciousness rather than from mere complexity of code. Along the way they touch on nature spirits, projection (does the tree really “speak” to us?), and the limits of the human mind in grasping exponential change.

From there, the conversation widens into the nature of mind itself. Adam describes the danger of attaching even to “non-attachment,” and the need to let desires, ambitions, and identities settle so that the “true self” can emerge and be integrated in everyday life. Nick contrasts Zen’s stripped-down focus on realizing the nature of mind with Tibetan Buddhism’s vast toolbox of tantric cycles and practices, warning about spiritual materialism and the reification of emptiness itself. The episode closes with Adam introducing The Way Between Podcast as a space for deeper, longer-form explorations of philosophy East and West, and with all three sharing how listeners can stay connected to their work.

In this special crossover episode, we launch The Way Between Podcast from within The Living Conversation.

Adam introduces The Way Between as a more flexible, long-form space to explore East–West philosophy in a story-driven way: how thinkers like Socrates, Confucius, Laozi, and Hui Neng emerged, how their ideas shaped cultures, and how their influence still reaches our lives today.

From there, Adam, Anthony, and guest Dr. Nick Egan dive into:

• Socrates’ image of the wise sea captain and why philosophy is the “art of navigation” in life
• How Adam’s Philosophy 101 class planted the seed that led him to change his major and devote his life to this work
• The Tibetan Buddhist framework of view, path, and result—and how “view” quietly shapes everything we do
• Dr. Yi Wu’s integral life philosophy and his triangle of reality, practice, and theory
• Zen stories of Hui Neng and how a single exchange between teacher and student can become the most important moment in the universe
• Nick’s experience of a Zen Roshi responding, “This is Nirvana,” and how that answer cracked ordinary thinking
• Tibetan pointing-out instructions on the nature of mind, and why we may glimpse it many times without recognizing it
• How our “story” about reality locks us into patterns—and how Socratic questions can loosen that story
• Adam’s time teaching freshman philosophy, planting the first seeds of “examining your life” in students who may not even know what philosophy is yet
• Jung’s sense of the hero’s journey and the challenge to actually cultivate the soul in ordinary life

Along the way, they explore Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, Confucianism, and Western philosophy as different ways of pointing toward the same question:

How should I live?

And they return again and again to the idea that philosophy is not just a subject—but a daily practice of view, conversation, and self-cultivation.

Connect with our guest:

• Dr. Nick Egan – nickeganphd.com
• Shift Leadership Group – shiftleadership.group

Connect with the hosts:

• Adam Dietz – “The Way Between” on Substack (search: The Way Between Substack)
• Email Adam: [email protected]
• Anthony Wright – theonaut.com

If this conversation resonates, you can follow The Way Between Podcast on your favorite podcast app and keep listening to The Living Conversation on 'Attunement' on KWMR and wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode of The Living Conversation, Adam Dietz and Anthony Wright sit down with members of the Sonoma State University Philosophy Club to explore how philosophy lives through real experience.

From Lao Tzu’s image of muddy water settling into clarity, to personal stories of anxiety, creativity, and healing, the discussion ranges from Daoism to Buddhism to Socratic thought; all grounded in lived experience. Together with Colette, Haley, and Andrew, they examine how logic and emotion, feeling and reason, art and philosophy, all belong to the same search for wisdom.

Themes: anxiety and awareness, Daoist clarity, creativity and emotion, the Middle Way, the Eightfold Path, philosophy as a living practice.

🎓 Featuring the Sonoma State University Philosophy Club.

🌿 Hosted by Adam Dietz and Anthony Wright.

What happens when philosophy students turn their attention to emotion, technology, and mindfulness? In this episode of The Living Conversation, hosts Adam Dietz and Anthony Wright sit down with Colette, Andrew, and Haley from the Sonoma State University Philosophy Club to explore how social media shapes emotion, how grounding and Qigong restore balance, and how ancient wisdom, Confucian, Daoist, and Zen, meets modern anxiety.

Together they ask: How do we stay present in a distracted world? How can we cultivate the mind as a living practice?

philosophy, mindfulness, emotion, grounding, Tai Chi, Qigong, Confucianism, Zen, Sonoma State Philosophy Club, Adam Dietz, Anthony Wright, The Way Between, student conversation, presence, social media and mental health, living philosophy