The Metagame

This is the first in person Metagame episode! Be sure to check out the video.

Jonny Miller is a writer, nervous system coach and podcaster. We met at Edge Esmerelda where he facilitated a surprisingly psychoactive breathwork session. This episode is about the practicalities of feeling your feelings and unlatching patterns that have been governing your personality since childhood.

Resources:

* www.jonnymiller.co

* www.nsmastery.com

* “Secure attachment with reality”

* Mike Johnson’s Latch Theory

YouTube:

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Chris Barber is an entrepreneur/researcher. He co-founded an executive coaching marketplace for startups, and a place for engineers to discover good startups to join. His primary focus is AI preparation & emotional regulation.

He’s the inventor of a simple but highly effective method for processing emotions called Resonance. It’s a way of speaking that helps others regulate their emotions and feel better. In this episode he teaches us how to do it.

Resources:

* Chris Barber’s twitter (DMs encouraged!)

* A guide to Resonance

YouTube:

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Dr. Tucker Peck is a meditation teacher, clinical psychologist, and bestselling author. He studied meditation with Sharon Salzberg and Upasaka Culadasa (John Yates). Tucker’s first book, Sanity and Sainthood, debuted as a #1 bestseller in 2025. A former professor, he is the founding director of the scholarship fund Open Dharma Foundation, and co-host of the podcast Teaching Meditation. He lives in Alameda, California, an island in the San Francisco Bay. You can read more about Tucker here.

Resources:

* Sanity and Sainthood: Integrating Meditation and Psychotherapy

* Tucker’s Twitter

YouTube:

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Daniel Thorson spent 5 years in residential training at The Monastic Academy with 2 years in cumulative silent retreat. He has decades of deep engagement with contemplative practice, systems theory, and transformative work. He’s also the beloved host of The Emerge Podcast and writes at The Intimate Mirror, where he’s exploring how people can develop a secure attachment with reality.

Resources:

* Spirituality is Secure Attachment with Reality

* AI for Emotional Unfolding

* Steve March on Self-Improvement vs Self-unfoldment

* https://x.com/dthorson

YouTube:

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Rich Bartlett helps people grow high-trust communities & decentralized organizations. He’s the co-founder the community building network Microsolidarity, and non-hierarchical management consultancy The Hum. He also co-runs Fight Wise an online course about developing courage in your relationships, standing up for yourself, skillfully navigating conflicts, and asking for what you want.

Resources:

* Improvise for Real

* Keith Jarret

* Fight Wise: Find Your Backbone

* People mentioned: Guy (RivalVoices), Visakan, Romeo Stevens, Vivid Void

YouTube:

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Brooke Bowman is the founder of Vibecamp. She also runs events to help foster connection and social cohesion such as Ms. Bowman's School for the Socially Inept, and The Network Society Camp. For nearly a decade before that, she was in an affair with heroin. Her mental and physical health declined slowly at first, then plummeted, leaving her sleeping on the streets of Los Angeles for two and a half years. Then came a series of insights that led her to essentially rewire her own brain.

Resources:

* Brooke’s Twitter

* vibe.camp

* Brooke’s talk at The Network State Conference

* Bowman’s School for the Socially Inept

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Romeo Stevens is one of co-founders of the Qualia Research Institute and the founder of Mealsquares. He writes extensively about buddhism, pedagogy, skill development and psychotherapeutic modalities. You can find his work on his blog, Lesswrong and Twitter.

Resources:

* Romeo’s Twitter

* Neurotic Gradient Descent (Romeo’s blog)

* Math Academy

* Practiceopedia (out of print music practice book)

YouTube link 👇

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Dr. Tataryn is a long-time meditator (47+ years) and founder of the Bio-Emotive Framework. He conducts seminars in integral theory, sports psychology, and the integration of psychology and spirituality. He also hosts emotional clearing workshops intensives around North America. His is presently working with advanced meditators and spiritual teachers on balancing life after enlightenment, using his own version of the Four Facets (integral) Model of Human Transformation.

Resources:

* The Bio-emotive Framework

* Doug’s viral pinned Tweet

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Stephen Zerfas is the CEO and cofounder of Jhourney — a startup that targets specific meditative states known as jhanas using novel teaching methods and technology. Their first product is a week-long meditation retreat that’s won hyperbolic testimonials from tech executives and engineers (e.g. OpenAI, DeepMind). Most participants learn to enter states previously thought to require thousands of hours of practice in under 40 hours.

Resources:

* jhourney.io

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Soryu Forall is an ordained Zen Buddhist monk and the guiding teacher at the Monastic Academy for the Preservation of Life on Earth (MAPLE) in Vermont. With over two decades of intensive monastic training, Forall was ordained in 1998 by Zen Master Shodo Harada at Sogen Temple in Japan. He has since trained in monasteries across India, Tibet, and China, and draws on various spiritual traditions, including Buddhism, Native American practices, and Quaker teachings.

Resources:

* The Monk Who Thinks the World is Ending - The Atlantic

* Buddhism for AI Course

* monasticacademy.org

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com