LIFE ITSELF, THE SECOND RENAISSANCE, AND HUMAN TRANSFORMATION IN A TIME OF META-CRISISFor episode 14, Layman sits down with Rufus Pollock and Sylvie Barbier to talk about the Life Itself and Second Renaissance communities and organizations, the importance of mapping the meta-communities, the role of art in cultural transformation, and the upcoming Harvard conference on the meta-crisis.Rufus Pollock is a Founder of Open Knowledge, an award-winning international digital non-profit. Formerly a Shut...
Jun 30, 2025•1 hr 27 min
We continue our exploration of the backstory and intellectual journey to "Cosmo-erotic Humanism" with a further exploration of the relentless Rabbi's book on Tears . This time we focus on questions related to God's Voice, Laughter in Hell, Bondage & the Abraham/Isaac tale.
Jun 28, 2025•1 hr 17 min
Chapter #4. The Sulking Werewolf .
Jun 25, 2025•36 min
In our third minisode we explore the Christmas Morning installment of Alyssa's substack series on disenchantment, re-enchantment, sexual fatalism, intimacy FOMO, Christmas parties, kinds of kissing, the deep entanglement of forgetting & remember yourself -- and what does she listen to when she writes this stuff?
Jun 18, 2025•42 min
For the 50th (?) episode of the Integral Stage's Author Series, Layman meets with novelist and linguistic philosopher, Lisa Maroski, to explore her ideas around the enactive power of language and speech, and her experiments in finding new forms of language to more deeply embody liminal and nondual sensibilities.From the book's description:In Embracing Paradox, Evolving Language: Expressing the Unity and Complexity of Integral Consciousness, L.E. Maroski proposes that humanity is poised on the cu...
Jun 13, 2025•1 hr 26 min
A MONK, A SHAMAN, AND A SCIENTIST WALK INTO A BAR AT THE EDGE OF THE APOCALYPSE... Layman sits down with meditation and planetary dharma teacher, John Churchill, to enjoy a Double Venti Alchemist's Elixir and a rich, wide-ranging conversation exploring the shape of emergent integrative spiritualities at the edge of the Apocalypse.Born in London, Dr. Churchill's interest in psycho-spiritual development, Integral theory, Contemplative studies, Western Esotericism, and Mahayana Buddhism began in hi...
Jun 13, 2025•1 hr 33 min
This is a special series of mini-episodes only on the Integral Stage audiopodcast. Each discussion -- with "metamodern housewife" and avant-garde anthropologist Alyssa Allegretti --will reflect on the installments, themes and context of her recent (and explicit) Substack series entitled Wallflower at a Sex Party . Alyssa's second installment is from her substack Adaptive Daydream . And the philosophical questions raised in these conversations with then inform the next upcoming article o...
Jun 11, 2025•42 min
My upcoming Parallax course Integral Theory for Idiots starts July 6th. I thought it would be intriguing to compare the audio of a course description that I wrote and the alternative descriptions put together by three different free online AIs -- Claude, Deepseek & Perplexity. The tone they favor and the particular elements they "chose" to emphasize are very interesting...
Jun 09, 2025•10 min
This is a special series of mini-episodes only on the Integral Stage audiopodcast. Each discussion -- with "metamodern housewife" and avant-garde anthropologist Alyssa Allegretti --will reflect on the installments, themes and context of her recent (and explicit) Substack series entitled Wallflower at a Sex Party . Alyssa's first installment is from her substack Adaptive Daydream . And the philosophical questions raised in these conversations with then inform the next upcoming article on my ...
Jun 05, 2025•39 min
The Liminal Café is where the locals of the liminal web gather for coffee and conversation. In this new series, Layman chats with the people and patrons who, for some curious reason, find themselves drawn to this sketchy corner of the internet...NAGARJUNA, DELEUZE, AND WHITEHEAD ADVANCED RHIZOMATICALLY INTO A BARFor episode 11, Layman joins Kazi Adi Shakti in the Amaravathi branch of the Liminal Café for a wide-ranging, paradigm- and continent-crossing exploration of the development of a Process...
May 27, 2025•1 hr 25 min
It might be totally appropriate, and even wise, to fear integral postmetaphysics. But in this inaugural episode of our new Integral Stage series, Who's Afraid of Integral Postmetaphysics?, Layman and Alexander Love will try to convince you otherwise...Alexander Love is an acupuncturist, life coach, and craniosacral therapist. With gentleness, lightness and depth, he invites us to listen to the voice of our inner wisdom & potency and allow that to move us outward into the world and make a dif...
May 24, 2025•1 hr 26 min
For the forty-seventh episode of the Integral Stage Author Series, Layman meets with Dr. Nava Israel to discuss her "Cone" model, which describes a common pattern through which often well-meaning solutions to problems end up transforming into dogmatic systems that rob individuals of their freedoms and worsen their problems. Layman invites Dr. Nava to unpack the inner workings of the systems that oppress and control individuals under the guise of wisdom, necessity, kindness, greatness, unity, or ...
Jan 18, 2025•1 hr 30 min
Layman continues the discussion with Marc Gafni and Zak Stein about their jointly authored book, First Principles and First Values , this time focusing on some of the core philosophical arguments. They are publishing the book pseudonymously under the name, David J. Temple.
Jan 11, 2025•1 hr 48 min
For episode 10, Layman sits down again with Ēlen Awalom, this time to talk about unhealthy and healthy gender models, and the roles of attachment, trauma, and development in contemporary gender relations. Ēlen Awalom is an Eritrean-American Somatic Experiencing practitioner, writer, entrepreneur and cultural commentator. She lives and works in DC where she is the founder of The Almaz Institute, an organization that provides trauma-sensitive leadership and communication trainings steeped in the m...
Jan 04, 2025•1 hr 8 min
In this special episode, Layman meets with human woman, Jill Nephew, to explore the intricacies of projection and shadow, image and truth, public identities and dopplegangers, in our highly mediated, complexly entangled, and increasingly manipulable digital information spaces. Jill Nephew is the founder of Inqwire, PBC a company on a mission to help the world make sense. The Inqwire technology is designed to enhance and accelerate human sensemaking abilities. The designing of the system required...
Dec 28, 2024•1 hr 31 min
For the thirteenth episode of The Soul of AI, Layman sits down with shaman and spiritual teacher, Evelyn Paul, to explore a shamanic take on the emergence and nature of AI, and to discuss some of her shamanic journeys that have shaped her insights into the topic.
Dec 21, 2024•1 hr 14 min
For episode 9, Layman sits down with Alexander Love for a rich conversation about his life and healing journey, love and forgiveness, creativity, integral and Taoist thought, and a book he is working on on what he calls the five evolutionary gestures. Alexander Love is an acupuncturist, life coach, and craniosacral therapist. With gentleness, lightness and depth, he invites us to listen to the voice of our inner wisdom & potency and allow that to move us outward into the world and make a dif...
Dec 14, 2024•1 hr 30 min
For the forty-sixth episode of the Integral Stage Author Series, Layman sits down to talk with John H. Buchanan about his new autobiographical and philosophical meditation on process thought, death, psychedelics, and the journey from addiction to sobriety and meaningful living. John H. Buchanan received his master’s degree in humanistic/transpersonal psychology from West Georgia College and his doctorate from the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts at Emory University. He has been trained and...
Dec 07, 2024•1 hr 34 min
Layman meets with Alyssa Allegretti, to talk about her Substack-published book in progress, The Only Constant: How to Stay (Somewhat) Stable & Organized During Times of Transition & Grief. Dubbing her the Meta-Marie Kondo, Layman invites Alyssa to share her insights into the art of internal housekeeping, and the transformational significance of everyday tasks. http://www.whatisemerging.com/opinions/the-post-tragic-art-of-liminal-housekeeping https://adaptivedaydream.substack.com/p/the-on...
Oct 29, 2024•1 hr 21 min
Our research into the philosophical premises of whatever is going under the names of "Cosmo-Erotic Humanism" and "David J. Temple" continues with a first pass into Tears -- a book that uses the Jewish Rite of Rosh Hashanah to explore the necessity of the return of ritual and the importance of that religion plays beyond philosophy and spirituality.
Oct 22, 2024•1 hr 18 min
Layman huddles in a Finnish grove with Robin Hummel (Bassareus) to talk about his new book, Alchemy of the Psyche. Robin discusses his journey leading up to the book, and together they explore the nature of archetypes, the difference between direct and indirect approaches to interacting with the archetypes, the importance of ritual, shadow work, and much more. https://www.lulu.com/shop/bassareus/alchemy-of-the-psyche/hardcover/product-v88dkze.html?page=1&pageSize=4
Oct 15, 2024•1 hr 14 min
On The Meta-Podcast (formerly Integral Podcasters), we talk with podcasters, YouTubers, and other media producers who are trying to offer, or who can't help but offer, more integrative perspectives. Who are these people, what do they collectively understand and point towards, and how can they be interlinked, mutually supported, clarified, and amplified? For episode 41, Layman is joined again by Dr. Sally Adnams Jones and Dr. Jen Peer Rich, this time to talk about their experience with successful...
Oct 08, 2024•1 hr 25 min
Layman sits down again with Middle Way philosopher and author, Robert M. Ellis, this time to discuss his new book, The Five Principles of Middle Way Philosophy -- the second book in a planned 9-part series on the Middle Way. Layman and Robert review the essential arguments of the book, exploring how a post-traditional, universalized middle-way philosophy might show up and what it might contribute to addressing the challenges of the contemporary world. From the book's description: "This second bo...
May 16, 2024•1 hr 22 min
For the forty-second episode of the Integral Stage Authors Series, Layman meets with Richard Flyer, founder of the Symbiotic Culture Lab, to talk about his new book, Birthing the Symbiotic Age. They discuss Richard's early life experiences and influences, and together explore how, as the book argues, "we can emerge from our fragmented and conflicted social networks/silos and create sustainable, interconnected ecosystem networks consisting of local leaders, organizations, businesses, and local go...
May 10, 2024•1 hr 26 min
The question of the promise and peril of AI is a proper one for our long-running Love the System series, but we thought it deserved its own spot as a sub-series due to the rapid development and proliferation of Large Language Models and other ground-breaking AI technologies over the past six months. It may be too early to tell yet, but with the clear power of this emergent technology, its potential to take over many of the tasks we used to regard as exclusively human, and its rapid public uptake...
May 07, 2024•1 hr 23 min
For the 12th episode of Non/duality, Layman meets with nondual teacher, Leeza Edwards, to talk about her early formative experiences, her spiritual practice and transformation, and her insights into the nature of nondual realization and its relationship to or impact on growth, sense of self, relational and communication dynamics, connection to ancestry and lineage, and much more. Leeza teaches self-awareness, embodied peace and mindfulness through the “direct path” lens of non-duality -- princip...
May 04, 2024•1 hr 24 min
Several months ago, seasoned integral content creators watched with a mix of amazement and dismay as the integrally informed video, "Levels of Thinking," on a relationship and dating advice channel called Hoe_Math, blew up and got numbers in a couple weeks that no integral video in history has ever approached. Poor Corey DeVos needed to go get therapy, and I'm still recovering. So Layman wanted to find out who the guy behind the viral video is. Check it out. Hoe_math channel / @hoe_math Follow T...
Apr 30, 2024•1 hr 31 min
In Episode 25, Layman meets with Forrest Wilson, host of The Forrest Wilson Experience, to talk about healthy, generative relationships to money; the internal and external conditions needed to shift to new, more value-centered, eudaimonic economies; the importance of the cultivation of, and a living relationship with, financial intelligence; and much more. Forrest Wilson is the host of The Forrest Wilson Experience podcast. After his father passed away in his early twenties, Forrest decided to l...
Mar 05, 2024•1 hr 11 min
The Liminal Café is where the locals of the liminal web gather for coffee and conversation. In this new series, Layman chats with the people and patrons who, for some curious reason, find themselves drawn to this sketchy corner of the internet... SHADOW-WORK, DESCENT, AND DEVELOPMENT IN EMBODIED LEADERSHIP For episode 8, Layman sits down with Ēlen Awalom to talk about her experience as an activist, her spiritual awakenings, and her path of self-healing and development on the way to the creation ...
Mar 02, 2024•1 hr 3 min
This is the first episode of a new series exploring the subtle dynamics of collective shadow, narrative making & our responses to how we are perceived. In the digital epoch, it is unlikely that anyone will escape confrontation with a negative image of themselves existing in the minds of others. Do we learn from it? Fight it? Absorb it? Ignore it? And how do we evaluate anything when information itself becomes dubious? Layman is joined this time by Dr. Marc Gafni -- the world philosopher of "...
Feb 27, 2024•1 hr 57 min
