The Daily Evolver

My longtime friend and integral comrade Terry Patten and I have argued for many years about the state and trajectory of the world. And though we both strive to bring an integral perspective to the question, we do see it differently, and in ways that I think reflect differences of views within the integral community, and maybe within your own psyche. In this episode, we share the latest of our ongoing discussions. We enjoyed the heck out of it and, as always, finished a little bigger than we started. We hope you do the same! This episode is a co-production of The Daily Evolver and Terry’s new podcast, State of Emergence.

President Trump’s drone assassination of Iran’s General Qassim Suliemani has dramatically increased the tensions between the US and Iran. It also raises concerns about Donald Trump’s motives and judgment in carrying out a U.S. President’s most deadly option, and what the ramifications may be. In this episode, I attempt to shed some integral light on the situation.

Today my guest is Bence Ganti, the driving force behind the upcoming Integral European Conference, a major six-day event for the Integral community which will commence on May 26th at the Azur Resort at Lake Balaton in Hungary. This fourth biennial conference will be the biggest and most comprehensive yet, with over 700 participants from 50 countries. Titled Global Integral Awakens, the conference will offer 250 programs on a wide range of integral issues, from contemporary politics to organizational development to art, culture and spirituality, in a potent goulash of presentations, workshops and experiential processes. And there’s goulash night too, the Hungarian specialty cooked in cauldrons over an open fire … then trance dance … then a firewalk! To extend your integral immersion, consider the pre-conference training on human development with Dr.Robert Kegan, as well as a post-conference 3-day sightseeing tour by bus. Click here to find out more about the Integral European Conference.

Integral philosopher Steve McIntosh helps us usher in the new year (and decade) with a fresh look at an ancient formula for living a happy, productive and meaningful life. In this episode he explains “the virtues”, a philosophical concept with living roots reaching back to antiquity, including Plato and Confucius, as well as modern validity in the findings of positive psychology and social science. Virtues practice is a powerful means of personal growth, and Steve gets us started by introducing The Character Exercise, an eight-minute internet quiz that helps us clarify our highest ideals and create a personalized “portrait of the good”. You are invited to do the quiz midway through the podcast … your answers generate a printable chart that serves as a practice tool for cultivating happiness and fulfillment. I took the quiz a few months ago and I can honestly say that it has significantly changed my life for the better. I am surprised at its power and trust it will be helpful to you too (let me know!). (let me know!). Later in the podcast, Steve imagines the virtues as illuminating the path through our hyper-polarized political culture, a prospect he explores more fully in his upcoming book, DEVELOPMENTAL POLITICS, How America Can Grow Into a Better Version of Itself. 

In this episode, I point out some integral insights bursting forth from the world of comedy: * Bill Maher, who ended his season of Real Time on HBO with a surprising sort-of-integral message * Joel Stein, author of In Defense of Elitism, Why I’m Better Than You and You’re Better Than Someone Who Didn’t Buy This Book * Eliza Schlesinger, who dissects her wedding – and worldview – in her Netflix comedy special, Unveiled PLUS a quick visit from the Comedian-in-Chief himself. Enjoy the episode!

“The harmony and order that we associate with the word ‘organism’ indeed has a movable boundary that can be expanded to include biological ecosystems, human societies, and conceivably the entire earth. There is no master navigator for our journey. We must be the navigators, consciously evolving our collective future, and without the compass provided by evolutionary theory, we will surely be lost.” – David Sloan Wilson In this episode, Dr. Keith Witt and I discuss evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson’s latest book, This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution, where he challenges mainstream science to broaden its inquiry to include cultural and consciousness evolution, two pillars of integral theory. While Keith and I agree that Wilson’s thesis remains anchored in materialism, which is probably essential for credibility in the intelligentsia, his book nevertheless represents progress into exciting new territories that are increasingly seen as topics of legitimate scientific study. He writes specifically of worldview integration, the “religious/spiritual imagination” (hey, I’ll take it) and calls upon both individuals and cultures to realize our power to “participate in our own conscious evolution”. It’s an exciting message with some strong integral currents, and Keith and I enjoyed our conversation fully. We hope you do too! David Sloan Wilson is a Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences and Anthropology at Binghamton University and co-founder of the Evolution Institute.

“All of us – researchers, practitioners and activists – are all looking for what it means to meet the call for transformative change. If we can bring in developmental psychology as one of the knowledge sets, I think we’re going to have some really exciting times ahead.” – Gail Hochachka Can developmental psychology help us respond more effectively to climate change? My guests, Terri O’Fallon and Gail Hochachka, say yes. In this episode, we discuss Gail’s Ph.D. project at the University of Oslo, where she has utilized Terri’s STAGES model to gain insight into how people at various developmental stages make meaning about climate change. Her findings, using data drawn from populations in El Salvador and Guatemala, show how multiple levels of meaning appear within the traditional, modern and postmodern worldviews. * Traditional, conformist meanings are concrete, atomistic and related to the present and recent past. * Modern, expert and achiever meanings are more abstract, involving cause-and-effect logic, with time extending to the future and past. * Postmodern, pluralist meanings demonstrate contextual, network-thinking, and are the most forward and backward-looking in time. Gail’s findings were published in the prestigious, peer-reviewed journal Global Environmental Change, and have gained significant positive attention. You can read the article here. In this episode, we also hear from Terri about how climate change is viewed at the integral stages of Teal and Turquoise. I hope you will be inspired, as I was, to learn how these two pioneering women are creating a new “basic science” of understanding perspectives that will help humanity adapt and indeed transform in response to our climate challenge.

As the star of Judge Judy, Judith Sheindlin presides over the #1 show in US daytime television, where she rules on small-claims disputes drawn from real-life litigants across the country. Now in its 23rd year, Judge Judy attracts 10 million viewers a day who are eager to watch the 76-year-old grandmother transform into a Valkyrie for Justice, laying waste to the mendacities of cheating lovers, thieving landlords, lying teenagers and meddling mothers-in-law. In this episode I examine her genius and her enormous contribution to the evolution of consciousness and culture.

“While we can easily plateau in our adult development, we don’t have to. In fact, there seems to be no upper limit to how much we can grow. The latest stages of human development remain a Mystery waiting to be lived.” … so says Thomas McConkie, founder of Lower Lights, a spiritual community that is practicing a new approach to integral spirituality. Based in Salt Lake City as well as operating virtually, Lower Lights seeks to integrate the three pillars of mindfulness, adult development and the wisdom traditions to discover Universal patterns of growth and transformation. In our conversation, Thomas discusses the doctrines, practices and rituals he and his community have developed to, as he says, “address the whole human being, always in relationship to a larger whole.” I consider Thomas to be one of the brightest young innovators in the emergent field of integral spirituality. I hope you enjoy our conversation! Thomas McConkie has joined with Integral theorist Terri O’Fallen to create Spectra, a 9-month “journey of transformation” for a cohort of 20-25 people. You can find out more about the program here.

President Trump has given us a taste of his America-First foreign policy by withdrawing from Syria, and his Trump-First foreign policy by arm-twisting Ukraine for political dirt. In all of the chaos there are patterns of a new integration arising in the way US voters think about who we are and our place in the world. This is edited from my live weekly webcast, hosted on Integral Life, every Wednesday at 1pm MT, 7pm GMT. * If you’d like to participate with a question or comment, use this link: https://zoom.us/j/392949640. * Or you can watch without participating here: https://integrallife.com/live

The culture war heats up and President Trump is fighting with gloves off, trashing precedent, propriety — and apparently the Constitution. Liberals can’t fathom how conservatives have chosen a lying, cheating philanderer as the standard-bearer for traditional values. In this episode I try to shed some integral light on the subject. This is edited from my live weekly webcast, hosted on Integral Life, every Wednesday at 1pm MT, 7pm GMT. * If you’d like to participate with a question or comment, use this link: https://zoom.us/j/392949640. * Or you can watch without participating here: https://integrallife.com/live

In this week’s episode, edited from the live webcast, I focused on listener response to my earlier podcast on Greta Thunberg and the environmental movement. Enjoy these highlights and tune in live when you can!

Many integralists are fans of Otto Scharmer, MIT professor and developer of “Theory U”, a brilliant tool for activating higher stages of consciousness that has gained wide acceptance in organizations. As a leading public intellectual Dr. Scharmer also writes about politics and culture. In this episode, integral psychotherapist Dr. Keith Witt and I discuss Scharmer’s political theory as presented in a popular and much-shared article, Axial Shift: The Decline of Trump, the Rise of the Greens, and the New Coordinates of Societal Change. Enjoy the episode! – Jeff Salzman

In this episode I share some thoughts on the evolutionary power of Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish climate activist, and her visit (via sailboat!) to the UN Climate Summit.

This week I examine the roster of Democratic contenders vying to unseat Donald Trump. It’s fascinating to watch them trying to create a larger public identity and harness the cultural forces they need to stand out. For my jumping-off point I consider two articles in last week’s Sunday Review in the New York Times: * “Donald Trump Is Not A Sinister Genius”, by Ross Douthat, which makes the case that Trump is beatable, and * “Tinder the Vote”, by Eve Peyser, a comic take on each of the Democratic candidates in the form of a quick dating profile. If article #1 is correct then one of the people profiled in article #2 will be the next President of the United States. In this episode I share which of them is – and isn’t – getting my heart fluttering. Let me know what you think at jeff@dailyevolver.com!