Elevating Consciousness

Kyle Kowalski is an ex-marketing executive turned solo-preneuer. After experiencing an existential crisis he left the corporate world and founded Sloww - a digital knowledge base and community which shares insights into the art of living for students of life. He is an interdisciplinary dot collector and synthesizer who creates in-depth book summaries, e-books, and a wisdom-packed weekly newsletter. His work integrates slow living with meaning, purpose, money mastery, transformational learning, and human development. The breadth, depth, and consistency of the content he produces are a rarity in today’s 3-second world. In this episode, we explore the topics of intentional & slow living, happiness, purpose, the synthesizing mind, financial freedom, learning, reading, free will, and psychedelics all through a developmentally aware lens. 

Frank Yang is an artist, content creator, bodybuilder, and coach. He’s built an impressive following on youtube by creating provocative, grotesque, and visually alluring videos. His eccentric and bizarre style is also reflected in a wide-ranging portfolio of artwork including drawings, sculptures, and photography. These creative abilities don’t stop there as he is well-versed in playing the piano and violin. In recent years he has become most well-known for being open and outspoken about his spiritual attainments and his journey into awakening which he documents in mind-expansive videos and detailed writings. In this episode, we speak about Frank’s creative journey into awakening, structure vs spontaneity in meditation, the impact of awakening on sexual desire, pros and cons of being open about spiritual attainments, psychedelics, bodybuilding, and integrating awakening through traveling & being in the world.

Andrew James Taggart is a practical philosopher and meditation teacher. After finishing his Ph.D he completed training with the American Philosophical Practitioners Association (APPA) in philosophical counseling. Over the past ten years, he has helped countless individuals inquire into the most fundamental questions of life. His ideas have been featured in Quartz, The Guardian, Big Think, TEDx, and The Washington post. He partakes in a vigorous meditation practice of four hours each day, including a one-day meditation retreat each week, and a monthly 5-7 daylong meditation intensive. Using an approach of analytical rigor and compassionate openness he teaches meditation to individuals who have an earnest desire for awakening. In this episode, we speak about the pros and cons of different spiritual paths, why philosophy is important, how to choose which philosophers to read, the process of philosophizing together, the fundamental question of existence, and the end of suffering. 

Gregg Henriques is a clinical psychologist, professor, and theorist. He teaches courses on integrative/unified psychotherapy as well as personality, social, and cognitive psychology at James Madison University. He also regularly engages in pro bono clinical work and supervises doctoral students in their development. Most notably he has spent over twenty years developing an integrative framework of psychology which he outlined in his 2011 book “A New Unified Theory of Psychology”. His most recent book “A New Synthesis for Solving the Problem of Psychology” further builds on his work and introduces UTOK (Unified Theory of knowledge). In this episode, Gregg explains what the problem of psychology is, gives an overview of his Unified Theory of Psychology, diagnoses the meaning crisis, and grounds his theory in the real world. 

Brendan Graham Dempsey is a writer whose work focuses on the meaning crisis and the nature of spirituality in metamodernity. He earned his bachelors in religious studies from the University of Vermont and his masters in religion and the arts from Yale University. He is the host of the Metamodern Spirituality podcast where he interviews leading thinkers in the metamodernism, integral, synthesist, and Game B spaces about the topics of meaning-making and spirituality in today's world. He is also the author of a series of books including the most recent “Emergentism: A Religion of Complexity for the Metamodern world”. In this episode, we speak about the meaning crisis, the problem with spiritual but not religious, four levels of complexity, evolving our concept of God, and transcending nihilistic spirituality.

Adam Aronovich is a doctoral candidate at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Spain, focusing on Medical Anthropology and Cultural Psychiatry. He is an active member of the Medical Anthropology Research Center (MARC-URV) and part of the Ayahuasca Community Committee at the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. Adam spent over four years conducting research and extensive fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon, where he also facilitated Ayahuasca workshops in the context of shamanic and medical tourism. He is the creator of Healing from Healing, a social media platform that casts a critical, skeptical, and humorous gaze at Healing Culture. Adam is currently the director of therapy and integration for Rē Precision Health, a wellness centre in the Pacific Coast of Mexico. He also facilitates preparation and integration processes in private practice, helping clients reframe “Healing” within relational and recreative frameworks using a secular, humanistic, grounded, open-ended interpretive, and epistemic orientation. In this episode, we speak about applying Medical Anthropology and Cultural Psychiatry to mental health, examining our culture’s dominant metaphysical assumptions, the dark side of psychedelics, the illusion of radical independence, and pathology-free psychedelic integration. 

David Elliott is a psychotherapist, professor and expert on attachment. He received his PH.D. in Psychology from Harvard University and shortly after completed his post-doctoral fellowship at McLean Hospital. He is the co-author of “Attachment Disturbance in Adults” one of the most comprehensive works that address attachment repair. He holds workshops teaching the methods detailed in his attachment book to mental health professionals internationally. In this episode, David masterfully unpacks what attachment is, how we can discover our attachment style, attachment insecurity’s impact on mental health, and the five conditions that contribute to secure attachment.

Daniel Gortz is a political philosopher, sociologist, and metamodern thinker. He is one of the two direct contacts that we have with the mythical metamodern philosopher Hanzi Freinacht. Daniel is an expert on Hanzi’s work which includes the listening society, Nordic Ideology, and his upcoming controversial book that challenges Jordan Peterson’s best-seller “12 Rules for life” and offers a potentially more nuanced and comprehensive philosophy. In this episode, we discuss why hanzi’s rules are much better than Jordan Petersons', denial of death and immortality projects, religion, wisdom, and finding the right therapy for you.   

Zak Stein is a writer, educator, and integral thinker. He studied religion and philosophy at Hampshire College and then later educational neuroscience, human development, and educational philosophy at Harvard. His works spans various fields from sensemaking, ethics, education, and integral meta-theory. He is also the author of “Social Justice and Educational Measurement” as well as” Education in a Time Between Worlds.” In this episode, we speak about Zak’s model of human development, understanding intelligence & wisdom, bridging power and ethics, and integrating science with religion. 

John Thompson is a transformational coach and facilitator. He is also a co-founder of “Circling Europe” an organization that has helped spread the practice of circling to over 25 countries. Prior to working with circling he was an elite tennis coach specializing in psychology and pioneering new ways to help the sport become a vehicle for personal growth. Today he teaches the practice of circling to leaders and organizations worldwide. In this episode, we speak about the approach of surrendered leadership, integrating therapy & circling, collective shadows, psychedelics, embodiment, and so much more.