A Developmental Take On The News

The Daily Evolver live on Integral Radio

The Daily Evolver live on Integral Radio

Tired of the same old left /right arguments? Want to throw your shoe at the shouting heads on cable news? Then join Jeff for a look at current events from an integral perspective. Each week he explores emerging trends in politics, economics, science and spirituality, all with an eye toward spotting the evolution and up-flow of human consciousness and culture. Tune in to Integral Radio, Tuesdays at 6PT/7MT/9ET.


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What Really Helps? The Kosmo-centric View

What Really Helps? The Kosmo-centric View

Hey folks, In this episode, Ankur kicks off our discussion by asking: “What can we do for Israel and Palestine? What really helps?” We discussed a Kosmo-centric view and how it transcends (and includes) the world-centric view of green postmodernity. Also the evolution...

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Trump versus Clinton: the roller derby begins

Trump versus Clinton: the roller derby begins

Jeff begins the podcast by playing an excerpt from a commencement speech given by President Obama at Howard University recently, which has a distinctly integral feeling to it. Before challenging the graduates, Obama puts their place in history in context: "If you had...

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First tier food fight: Red Trump to Green Sanders

First tier food fight: Red Trump to Green Sanders

Jeff often talks about how politics offers us opportunities to do integral practice, because politics has a lot of juice. "It really reaches down to our lower strata of development, down to our power and security chakras, which determine how we see the world,” he...

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Bernie Sanders: Catalyzing the politics of Green

Bernie Sanders: Catalyzing the politics of Green

Bernie Sanders started his campaign to be the Democratic nominee for president back in April, “as a 74-year old rumpled, grumpy, self-described old school democratic socialist,” says Jeff. “Today he has included and transcended those qualities to transform himself...

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Political correctness and the evolution of culture

Political correctness and the evolution of culture

There is political correctness, it turns out, at every stage of development, from the capitol crime of blasphemy at the traditional/amber stage to the prejudices and microaggressions you may not even know you’ve inflicted at the postmodern/green stage. Jeff shows how they are pushing humanity into new, ever more humane and compassionate territory. Also, Obama’s last State of the Union address.

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Towards a trans-rational theory of the soul

Is there any part of us that survives this life? Ken offers an argument for the affirmative, and Jeff shares how experimenting with that idea illuminates his own developmental path. Plus, the soul of conservatism.

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Clinton, Carson, and the American political landscape

Clinton, Carson, and the American political landscape

This week, the sudden animation of Hillary Clinton and the ascendency of Ben Carson, what their presence tells us about the deeper currents flowing under the surface of culture. Also, the poetry of Brooke McNamara, from her new book “Feed Your Vow: Poems for Falling into Fullness”.

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Is the Pope integral?

Is the Pope integral?

Beyond the desert of criticism, we wish to be called again.  ~Paul Ricoeur The recent supermoon/lunar eclipse gave Jeff a chance to wonder about the way we interpret such events at different stages of development. When the world was alive with spirits and omens a...

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The drama and karma of refugees in Europe

The drama and karma of refugees in Europe

The refugee crisis in Europe, Africa and the Middle East is testing the status quo between the so-called first, second and third worlds. Jeff looks at the policy arguments being made on the liberal and conservative sides of the issue, and we get a first hand report from our friend Bence Ganti in Hungary.

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“Meditation for militants.” A conversation with Justin Miles

Jeff talks about integral activism with Justin Miles, founder of the Miles Center for Integral Living in Baltimore. Justin is a former member of the Black Panther party, Buddhist meditation teacher, and therapist. Jeff also looks at the role of cynicism in our political discourse, and takes a couple questions from listeners.

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The Iran deal: Traditionalists vs. modernists on both sides

The Iran deal: Traditionalists vs. modernists on both sides

The traditionalists in Iran and in the US want to dig in their heels and fight the good fight. Meanwhile, the modernists are engaging with sanctions and diplomacy. Can this deal delay Iran’s progress towards a nuclear weapon long enough for cultural evolution to deliver a decisive political tilt toward modernity?

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Fifty shades of shadow work: What happens when integral gets kinky

Fifty Shades of Grey may be a terrible movie, but its popularity is indicative of a new friendliness in our culture towards the kink community, (formerly known as perverts). Jeff talks to New York author and theater producer Robin Reinach, who is an integrally informed explorer herself in the world of BDSM, and together they unpack the evolutionary potency of kink.

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Conservatives evolve: how American Sniper and Fox News integrate liberal values

Conservatives evolve: how American Sniper and Fox News integrate liberal values

This week Jeff takes a look at the movie American Sniper and Fox News’ rising star Megyn Kelly, to make the case that conservative culture is evolving by taking on the best of green altitude values. And it’s not just a one way street. The left also evolves by taking on the best values of amber altitude traditionalism, such as the gay rights movement’s argument for marriage and military service. This year’s Super Bowl commercials also moved the ball…

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Obama leads from the front: an integral president promotes postmodern values to a modern nation

Obama leads from the front: an integral president promotes postmodern values to a modern nation

This weeks Jeff looks at President Obama’s annual “State of the Union” address to Congress. He makes the case that Obama is pushing for the developmental move from an Orange modern economy to a Green postmodern economy. Obama’s policies won’t prevail, at least in the short term, but they will spark the conversation (okay, fight) between the advocates of freedom vs security, right vs left and Republicans vs Democrats that will lead to more integrated solutions.

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Am I Charlie Hebdo? An integralist considers the events in Paris

Am I Charlie Hebdo? An integralist considers the events in Paris

In this week’s podcast Jeff explores the Muslim/Western fault lines exposed in the Charlie Hebdo massacre, where twelve people were killed in an attack on the satirical magazine by Muslim extremists who were offended by their depictions of Muhammad. In the 2nd half of the show, Jeff is joined by special guest Amir Ahmad Nasr, author of The Future of Islam In the Age of New Media, and My Isl@m: How Fundamentalism Stole My Mind–And Doubt Freed My Soul.

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A Great Year for The Daily Evolver!

A Great Year for The Daily Evolver!

It’s good to be back in the saddle for another season of the Daily Evolver Live. 2014 was a growing year for the podcast and blog. In our fall season alone we had over 20,000 downloads, a number that astonishes me. I’ve always seen the Daily Evolver as something I did more to be faithful than successful, but it’s great to have it catching on.

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More pain, less suffering

More pain, less suffering

In this thirteen minute excerpt of a conversation from September, Jeff  speaks with Ken Wilber about the pain and suffering inherent in a human life, which begins with the nature of emergence itself. The more we develop, the more aware we are, and the more capacity we...

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Love is as real as a rock

Love is as real as a rock

This week Jeff looks at Interstellar, the new movie from Christopher Nolan that explores love as a force in the kosmos akin to the force of gravity. Bringing love to Earth, Jeff comments on the spirit of the holiday season, and how we may be able to create a more generous and meaningful experience.

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Gay pride, white privilege

Gay pride, white privilege

This week Jeff looks at the process by which historically oppressed people, such as women, racial minorities and gays gain full acceptance in the culture. It’s not just a matter of changing laws, but hearts and minds. This process starts in modernity and becomes one of the main projects of post-modernity. What is the integral view?

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The mother of First World problems: an integral look at capitalism

The mother of First World problems: an integral look at capitalism

In this week’s podcast, recorded on election night in the U.S., we explore some thoughts on the big Republican gains in Congress and what might be next. Also, Jeff responds to Joe Corbett, a critic who published an essay making the case that Jeff, Ken WIlber and the integral community in general lack an appreciation for social justice.

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The perks of post-modernity

The perks of post-modernity

With all the attention on the war and pestilence within trailing-edge cultures around the world, it’s easy to miss what is happening on the leading edge, as developed cultures move deeper into post-modernity (green altitude). This week’s Daily Evolver Live tours a few stories that show how we are creating a more safe, peaceful, reliable, fair and sensitive world.

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Ebola. How can we help?

Ebola. How can we help?

This week Jeff takes a look at the Ebola crisis and how an integral view can help us relate and respond. He explores the function of fear and a time honored way that it can be transmuted into real helpfulness. The second half of the podcast is a conversation with Steve McIntosh, who is bringing an integral sensibility to the problem of political polarization in America, through his foundation the Institute for Cultural Evolution.

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The new autocrats

The new autocrats

This week Jeff looks at a new model of autocratic modernity that is gaining traction particularly among developing countries with weak histories of democracy, such as Russia and China. With the economically and politically stumbling West no longer held up an the inevitable example, we can see the appeal — and even some of the intelligence — behind this rising brand of development without liberalism.

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Israel and Gaza – relating to the suffering of others

The many crises of the world, most prominently the war in Israel and Gaza, evoke important questions for those of us who are not directly involved. What can we do about the suffering? What are we supposed to feel and think? How are we to relate and respond? This week Jeff explores aspects of the interior spaces of integral consciousness, especially those we experience in the face of suffering.

But first he looks at a significant new work of integral art: the movie Boyhood.

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Plane crashes in Ukraine, rockets fly in Gaza

Plane crashes in Ukraine, rockets fly in Gaza

The two global hot spots this week are, once again, Ukraine, where Russian separatists have shot down a passenger jet from Amsterdam, killing 300 people, and Israel/Gaza, where longstanding tensions have flared into a new intifada. What do these conflicts have in common and how can integral consciousness help us understand them more deeply?

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From The Big Bang to Big Brother; The Evolution of Sex

From The Big Bang to Big Brother; The Evolution of Sex

Sex evolves like everything else, so what’s next? This week Jeff looks at the amazing, creative, pervasive phenomena of sex and how it’s evolving in all four quadrants. What are the roots of our sexuality, where are we now and what is emerging? He starts with a shout out to his favorite new art form and inspiration for this week’s topic: reality TV.

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Brazil Plays, Ukraine Fights

Brazil Plays, Ukraine Fights

In this week’s call Jeff explores the issue of cultural identity from an evolutionary point of view. He uses the examples of the World Cup and the story told about Brazil by the international media leading up to it, as well as the continuing drama in Ukraine to illuminate how, even in our globalized world, culture has a unique power to move events. His special guest is Ukrainian integralist Oleg Linetsky.

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The End of Iraq?

The End of Iraq?

This week Jeff focuses on the situation in Iraq, where the jihadi group ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham) has taken over the Sunni area of the country. Their aim is to install a medieval caliphate throughout the Middle East (“we know no borders,” they say). What does integral theory tell us about these fighters and how to deal with their threat to the country America misguidedly attempted to liberate into modernity?

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Evolution In The Age of Ecocide

This week Jeff took a look at the emergence of some radical new Green ideas in the economic conversation, with an advanced peek at the influential new book “Capital in the 21st Century”, by Thomas Piketty. He also addressed the cultural issues of climate change and a striking new way of dealing with it: give up.

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When Worldview Trumps Facts

When Worldview Trumps Facts

This week Jeff takes a look at new research that reveals how worldview overrides evidence in determining one’s political perspective. He also explores the conservative view of the Russian/Ukraine situation by critiquing an essay by Robert D. Kaplan, Geopolitics and the New World Order in which Kaplan argues that “in geopolitics, the past never dies and there is no modern world.”

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The downside of modernity and upside of millennials

The downside of modernity and upside of millennials

I started the call this week by responding to a couple listeners who think I’ve gone a little soft on modernity (Orange altitude). The first, David O’Conner from Australia, critiqued me by saying, “you believe a little too much in the evolutionary goodness of Orange...

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