The Lorecast

"I'm xx years young." Why do we fear the approach of old age? Is it because we fear death, or because we fear life? This podcast offers a few glimpses at some age-related learnings as we move inevitably forward through the cycle of life. (Recorded less than two weeks before a milestone birthday.)

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The news is buzzing with dire warnings about how artificial intelligence (AI) will destroy us all. What are the actual dangers, and why are they so seldom mentioned? How is the psychology of hysteria involved? What might ancient cautionary tales tell us about when autonomous beings we create get out of our control?

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Writing when treated as commodity production gets disparaged, especially in relation to other occupations. How do you write with soul under capitalism? How do you have good money boundaries about writing even while approaching it as a sacred calling? 

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If human beings are good at the core, how can we explain the ongoing presence of harm, deception, and evil we do? And what do we mean by "good"? We will enlist some help from the Chinese sage Mencius (Meng Tzu), who pondered such questions long before anyone else seems to have and came up with insights that speak clearly to our time. 

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Sometimes it seems like con artists, hucksters, and deceivers are everywhere. Certainly they can be found in many arenas of life: politics, business, religion, elsewhere. How do we spot these negative tricksters? What exactly should we look for in order to protect ourselves from them? 

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At some level, conscious of it or not, we all feel the distress of Earth as climate chaos accelerates. And this distress is spiritual, perhaps the deepest spiritual distress of our time. How is it spiritual, if not about religion or belief? How can we begin to address this planet-sized trauma within us? Recorded on Earth Day 2023. 

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"The technology that got us into climate crisis can't save us - it will only make things worse!" We will examine this assumption and also include examples of how a technological approach to climate mitigation is making a positive difference right now. 30

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Talk it over, talk it up, talk it out. Work through it. Process it. Get it off your chest. But what about the need to just be quiet in the midst of this manic overemphasis on talking, talking, and more talking? How do we make room for dwelling with ourselves instead of incessantly sharing? 

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Badly organized or unnecessary meetings, micromanagement, and unneeded secrecy are three wasters of time we will discuss as we ponder how to be more conscious as managers. What are some alternatives to these irritating time- and morale-squanderers? 

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Personal change, social change, political change, change elsewhere: Why is it so seldom? Why does so much time and money and effort spent on change go nowhere? The same old corrupt leadership, traffic, scandals, bad news. Why? What is missing from our attempts to shift things? And when do they change deeply, for ourselves and for others? (I'm thinking about offering an online class on this topic for practical visionaries and for people who haven't given up.) 

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