The Daily Evolver

Hey Folks, This week we're looking at Maestro, Bradley Cooper's new movie about Leonard Bernstein. Bernstein has been a favorite of mine since I happened upon a lecture he gave in the 70s charting the development of music from a single note to the full musical polyphony we have today, as well as the two polarities in nature that transform sound into art (The Greatest Five Minutes in Musical Education). Maestro tells the story of Bernstein in three distinct periods, each rendered with the perspective and language of the time, quite literally in the first segment which is filmed in 35mm black and white and spoken in the Mid-Atlantic accent. It's one of the best attempts I've seen at resisting interpreting the past through contemporary sensibilities. As such we get a palpable transmission of the evolution of not only the artist himself but also the culture at large. This episode is edited from my live Fireside Chat, hosted by the Integral Life practice community. Nomali Perera, the founder of the community (and lover of Maestro), and several listeners weigh in too. I hope you can join us for the next Fireside Chat on Wednesday, February 21, at 1pm PT, 9pm GMT, where we look at culture and politics through an integral lens. I hope you enjoy the episode and check out Maestro on Netflix and in theaters. Jeff Salzman

This week I'm sharing a terrific conversation I had with Nomali Perera and Lee Mason reviewing 2023 from an integral perspective. Through a series of lightning-round questions — greatest surprise, greatest disappointment, etc — we tour the evolving culture, politics, art and the integral movement itself. I hope you enjoy it and best wishes for the New Year! – Jeff Salzman Lee Mason and Nomali Perera – Practical Integral 

A year away from the US Presidential election, Ankur Delight and I ponder the spectre of Donald Trump being the odds-on favorite to win. Our muse this week is Rick Wilson, the founder of the Lincoln Project, who sounds the “Never-Again Trump” alarm in his recent Substack article, Red Caesar and the Next Regime. As Wilson points out, “Red Caesar” is a term used by “the New Right, to mean a leader whose post-Constitutional rule will restore the strength of his people.” Ankur and I discuss an integral perspective, which would categorize Trump's ruling philosophy as pre-Constitutional but no less “Red”. It looks like we are fated to live a very interesting next year. Enjoy the episode! — Jeff Salzman Ankur Delight: 10,000 Heroes Podcast

Is America really getting stupider? Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt makes the case in his influential essay in The Atlantic Magazine titled “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid”. I challenge his thesis from an integral perspective. Growing from a cultural conversation dominated by a modern worldview to one where many perspectives are online may feel like going backward (kind of like a sweet 12-year-old becoming a sour 13-year-old). But every new stage of development looks like a regression to the stage it is emerging out of. In this episode I make my case. Enjoy!

In this episode, I take another look at the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once in light of its popularity and controversy – including in the integral community. I also consider how taking one new perspective on the play, The Realistic Joneses by Will Eno, turned it from infuriating to infatuating. And more on the ongoing saga of pronouns. Enjoy the episode! From a Live Fireside Chat at Integral Life, this recording is from earlier in the summer of 2023.

On today’s Daily Evolver Live (every Thursday @ 10am PT on YouTube) Ankur and I discussed the new Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson. He’s a fundamentalist Christian who supports Trump and the election deniers. He’s also for Covenant Marriage and against porn, two views that may be evolutionarily potent. Ankur and I tease apart what is good and what is retrograde in his views.

If a debate isn't about facts and arguments, what is it about? In this episode I look to a high school debate Tournament of Champions for the answer. As you will hear this next generation is Green, they're mean, and they are discovering new territories of being human that are essential for the coming Integral stage.

Ankur Delight and I talk about the major new deal the UAW struck with the Big Three automakers in the US. The three pillars of the deal are 1) a 25% wage increase, 2) equalized pay for the same job, and 3) the ability to strike in response to plant closings. All represent a further move into green postmodern culture. But, Ankur objects, did we need to be enemies to get here? That’s when the discussion gets really interesting.

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 of empathy, the role of meditation, Sam Harris's “presentism” error and more. Enjoy the episode! Jeff Salzman Jeff Salzman – The Daily Evolver Ankur Delight – 10,000 Heroes TWO WAYS TO JOIN ME LIVE: Fireside Chats with the Integral Life Practice Community First and Third Wednesdays of every month @ 1 PM Pacific / 8 PM GMT It's a relaxed and free-flowing discussion of current events and cultural evolution. Zoom link to join Join other live events at Integral Life. The Daily Evolver Live, with Ankur Delight Thursdays @ 10 AM Pacific / 5 PM GMT Join here on YouTube Live For the last few Thursdays, my buddy Ankur Delight and I have been quietly showing up on YouTube Live to “talk integral” about what's happening in the world. It's been fun and fruitful, and we love for you to join us!

Transcending the dueling perspectives of history, politics, religion and race, the insights of cultural development offer a more integrated, evolutionary understanding of wicked geopolitical problems like the conflict in the Middle East. PART 1 of this podcast is my talk to the Developmental Alliance, a monthly Zoom group sponsored by the Institute for Cultural Evolution. PART 2 is a more personal chat with my weekly conversation partner Ankur Delight, host of the 10,000 Heroes podcast. Thanks for tuning in! – Jeff Salzman Join the ongoing conversations … The Developmental Alliance, every 2nd Wednesday of each month at 7pm ET. My chat with Ankur Delight is live every Thursday at 1pm ET on the Daily Evolver YouTube Channel. Live Fireside Chat with the Integral Life Practice Community, every 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month, 4pm ET. And follow me on Twitter/X!

Ankur and I take an integral look at the Russel Brand sex scandal and how it is raising consciousness. We talk about: Presentism: a moving target * The power (and limits) of consent * Green sexuality's great contributions and what it keeps in shadow * Cancellation, big media, and the evolution of collective consciousness * The emerging practice of holding multiple opinions. Enjoy the podcast!! Jeff Salzman, The Daily Evolver Ankur Delight, 10,000 Heroes Announcements Check out my Twitter feed for up-to-the minute observations.  My friend Ankur Delight is hosting an in-person coaching event in Seattle this fall (December 7th-10th). It’s called The Night Vision Summit and the point is to help every participant make major breakthroughs towards their personal and professional goals. You’ll get personal coaching from Ankur in a deeply supportive community environment of authenticity, connection, and delicious food. For more info, check out his description here, or email ankur@momentumlab.com NEXT LIVE FIRESIDE CHAT: October 4th Join me for a live look at current events and culture through an integral lens. Free Zoom link here Join other live events at Integral Life – many free events open to all.

We saw a powerful eruption of red warrior consciousness in the recent saga involving mob boss Vladimir Putin and his renegade enforcer, the late Yevgeny Prigozhin. Rudy Guiliani is also playing with fire. Ankur Delight and I find the integral threads. – Jeff Salzman

Hey folks! The New York Times has published two major columns by columnist David Brooks criticizing the modern meritocracy and the postmodern therapeutic culture. What if We're the Bad Guys Here? Hey America, Grow Up! It's always interesting when somebody stops and tries to see the world of their opponents and I deeply appreciate Brooks and the New York Times for doing it. New stages of culture seek to dissolve the value structures of the stages they are emerging out of. Brooks helped me understand how he, I and our cool friends have participated in deconstructing the values of traditionalism with little regard to the price paid by the people who hold them. Based on the readers' comments, I appreciated Brooks' columns a lot more than the NYT's subscribers did. But oh how Brooks and his argument would benefit from an evolutionary view, one that sees culture and consciousness becoming more mature in all its beautiful but not pretty ways. I make my case in the podcast. Enjoy! – Jeff Salzman PS: The next Fireside chat will be on September 20th. Here’s the Zoom link. Check out other Integral Life Live Events here.

In this episode, Ankur Delight and I reflect on the power and purpose of emergence in our own lives and culture. For Ankur, this conversation was sparked as a result of a recent road trip. For me, I contemplate what I am drawn to as I enter semi-retirement. Hope you enjoy!

Hey folks, Barbie tells the story of the cultural evolution of women in three stages. In the traditional world girls play with baby dolls, practicing the sacred roles of domesticity and motherhood. The Barbie doll, introduced in 1959, represents a modern sensibility, first as a fashion doll with which girls could express themselves, then as a feminist trailblazer who could do anything and go anywhere, including the moon and the White House. A billion dolls later, Barbie, the movie, tells this developmental story in a thoroughly postmodern way. It's a frolicking, hot-pink, meta-mishmash of feminist critique, teenage angst, existential dread, gender-fluidity (asexuality featured), power-dynamics and a perpetual war on the patriarchy. All of which gets us … not very far. Margot Robbie is perfection in the role. More in the episode – enjoy! Jeff Salzman

Evolving your consciousness means enlarging your circle of moral consideration. Who is inside your circle and who is “the other”? In this episode, Ankur Delight and I look at the moral development of humanity, and the integral challenge of including people of different worldviews.

Taking a little summer break from the news, Ankur Delight and I turn our attention to a subject that has fascinated – and terrified – human beings since day one: what happens when we die? What might the integral answer to that question be? Enjoy the episode! Ankur Delight – 10,000 Heroes podcast Jeff Salzman – The Daily Evolver podcast _________________________ Join me at the live Fireside Chat I do two Fireside Chats a month, on the first and third Wednesday. The next one is on Wednesday, August 2nd at 2pm MT, 4pm ET. Join us – it's freewheeling integral fun! Zoom link here. You can also add it to your calendar here. Join other events at Integral Life here – many free events open to all.

Hey folks! In this episode, I look at the evolutionary significance of our emerging mediaverse, with its gusher of entertainment coming to us from all over the world. How do we navigate it? We ask our friends! In that spirit I offer: My favorite TV series of all time My least favorite movie of the year, and why it's my fault The Flintstone Effect: projecting modern consciousness onto premodern times The battle (in my head) between Robert Eggers (yay!) and Taylor Sheridan (boo!) This episode is edited from the regular Fireside Chat I host with the Integral Life Practice community. Check out all their offerings on integral living at www.integrallife.com/calendar Join me for the next live Fireside Chat I do two a Fireside Chats a month, on the first and third Wednesday. The next one is this coming Wednesday, July 19th at 2pm MT, 4pm ET. Join us – it's freewheeling integral fun! Zoom link here. Enjoy the episode! Jeff Salzman

This week Ankur and I share our 4th of July experiences and chart the different routes we took to a more integral appreciation of America. Enjoy! – Jeff Ankur Delight – 10,000 Heroes podcast Jeff Salzman – The Daily Evolver podcast Lee Mead’s Anthem (for a taste of integral patriotism)

Hey folks, welcome to another episode of The Shrink and the Pundit, where Dr Keith Witt, integral psychotherapist extraordinaire, joins me to take a look at our next generation: the kids, teenagers and people entering their twenties. Are they okay? Dr Keith and I explore this question through the lens of cultural development. I hope you enjoy! Jeff Salzman And check out a new transformational offering, The Elephant in the Room, from my friends at Momentum Lab … 

In this short episode, we bring an integral lens to a controversial New York Times story, “Nazi Symbols on Ukraine's Front Lines Highlight Thorny Issues of History”. Jeff Salzman, The Daily Evolver Podcast Ankur Delight – 10,000 Heroes podcast

In this episode, Jeff Salzman and Ankur Delight look at the culture war and explore exciting new insights Ankur has gained from training with mediation master Ken Cloke.

In this episode, Jeff Salzman and Ankur Delight look at some of the questions involving the emerging workplace: Will artificial intelligence be able to create? How do we integrate the goals of achievement and growth with the goals of equity and sustainability? What is the role of people who can't or won't fit into the system?

Hey folks, As integral practitioners, we have insights that help us harmonize cultural polarities, which is why it's too bad Bill Maher didn't invite me on his recent show with Elon Musk where they decried the “woke mind virus”. Woke is the activist/fanatic arm of the emerging mass culture of postmodernity. Every stage of human […] The post Maher, Musk & the Woke Mind Virus appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

A brand new iteration of “This Week in the News”. Ankur Delight, who hosts one of my favorite podcasts, 10,000 Heroes, joins me to bring an integral take to the headlines of the week. This week, we look at the big shakeup in the mainstream news media. Days ago, and within an hour of each […] The post Tucker Carlson, Don Lemon & the Evolution of the News appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

Hey folks, This week I look at a rising star in the mainstream commentariat: Peter Zeihan. To me he is a good example of a proto-integral thinker in that he is a master synthesizer, weaving compelling narratives about our world that include economics, demography, geography, politics and history. He gives me a far more integrated […] The post Peter Zeihan And The Missing Piece In Public Discourse appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

This week I look at the hubbub surrounding the introduction of large language chatbots, the latest evolutionarily-potent development in artificial intelligence. A long-time listener asked ChatGPT to write a poem expressing Ken Wilber's developmental stages. The result (below) is mind-blowing. How is it possible for a machine to create three verses that capture the essence […] The post Chatbot's Paean to Integral & Trump Goes to Court appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

The DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) movement is one of the leading edges of cultural evolution, installing green postmodern values which in part seek to correct hidden power imbalances regarding race, gender and identity in American institutions. My guest today is Diane Musho Hamilton, who has been on the front lines of the DEI movement […] The post What Integral Brings to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

Hey Folks, In this Daily Evolver I explore a variety of topics:  A telling difference between green art and integral art  – Learn more about the Lost Birds music here. Yes, stages exist but maybe the spiral is spiked Traditionalism's hot war on modernity in Ukraine Ghosts: an integrally-flavored tv comedy! This episode is recorded […] The post Green Art, Stage Debate, Ukraine/Russia appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

In this episode, I take a look at three cultural artifacts that present worldcentric ideals of sustainability, egalitarianism and gender fluidity through an ethnocentric lens of good versus evil: Avatar: The Way of Water – James Cameron's latest movie in his great green myth of Pandora, a pristine planet attacked by modernity (and a few […] The post AVATAR, BROS AND OUR SKIN appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

In this episode, I analyze Elon Musk through the lens of developmental theory, which maps the “spiral of worldview evolution” within people and cultures. There are three major worldviews currently in contention in our culture: Traditional (order and conformity), Modern (secular and rational), Postmodern (sensitive and egalitarian). They all have goodness, truth and beauty to […] The post Elon Musk: Spiral Wizard? appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

Hey folks, welcome back to The Daily Evolver! It's good to be with you again. Today's episode was initiated by my Integral colleagues, Nomali Perera and Lee Mason of Practical Integral, who invited me to share my thoughts at the end of another year in the human adventure. The integral lens reveals a fundamental force […] The post 2022: An Integral Review appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

In this episode, Dr. Keith and I take on two hot-button issues in the culture wars, each of us coming up on different sides of key issues. Hopefully our disagreements will be as illuminating to you as they were to us. Transgenderism: The ever-increasing awareness and practice of gender fluidity, particularly among young people, is […] The post Transgenderism and Abortion appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

In this episode, Dr. Keith and I notice a growing attempt in the culture to bring meaning and purpose into the realms of science. We focus on English scientist Rupert Sheldrake, who argues that “science should be set free” from the boundaries of mechanistic materialism. Sheldrake is well known for his theory of the morphic […] The post The Enchantment of Science appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

There are at least three distinct sources of human suffering, all related, and none reducible to the others. They are: Nature—the unique combinations of temperaments and constitutional strengths and weaknesses that each of us is born with. Trauma—the Big T and small t traumas that are ubiquitous in human development, and which leave us more […] The post The Three Sources of Suffering appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

Dr. Keith and I marvel at an exciting new (to us) typology system developed by Kibeom Lee and Michael Ashton: the HEXACO system. Lee and Ashton researched the popular 5-factor system and identified a new human trait, honesty/humility, which determines the adaptiveness and social worth of the other five. Briefly, the HEXACO factors are: H—honesty/humility. […] The post HEXACO: The Quality that Leverages All Others appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

In this episode, Keith introduces me to his theory of human sociability. As he sees it, human relationships can be seen on a spectrum of playing and fighting. Playing is a cooperative activity with an agreed-upon set of rules. Sometimes play is pure fun, and sometimes winning/losing dynamics are painful. But any engaged activity under […] The post Playing and Fighting: The Keys to Sociability appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

In this short episode, I am joined by Jose and Lynn Fuentes, who are producing an exciting conference for the integral community this November in Sedona, Arizona. The event is called Integral: What's the Future and What Can We Do About It? It is designed in the spirit of a lineage of powerful gatherings that […] The post Integral Conference: What's the Future (WTF?) appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

See full episode here: Psychopaths are People Too: A growing empathy for empathy disorders The post Who is Inside Your Circle of Compassion?: A BiteSize Evolver appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

Watch the full episode here. The post Left’s Split and Embracing More (6 minutes): A BiteSize Evolver appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

Watch full video here: https://www.dailyevolver.com/2020/04/some-cheery-contemplations-on-death/ The post Reflections on death (5 minutes): A BiteSize Evolver appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

In this clip is a response to a question Jeff Salzman received from listener Kathleen on the human dynamics of whether we care more for others who resemble us. This is a BiteSize clip from the full video that can be viewed here. The post People Who Look Like Me (6 minutes): A BiteSize Evolver appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

This week political philosopher Steve McIntosh joins me to discuss global warming through the lens of cultural evolution. We focus on solving the “political will problem” that is currently stymying our collective response to the climate crisis. Steve argues that the progressive agenda on climate needs an upgrade: “Preserving the health of our natural environment […] The post A Post-Progressive Approach to Climate Change appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

This week I share our collective outrage and heartbreak over the shooting of the Texas schoolchildren and teachers, and manage to offer some hope that this time it will be different, that this shooting will heighten a social pain-point – unstable young men equipped with weapons of war – sufficiently to transcend political polarities. In […] The post ARMED INSANITY: Getting real about guns and criminality appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

Frances Fukuyama is one of our most prominent political philosophers. He is famous for his argument that liberal democracy and free-market capitalism represent “the end of history,” a thesis widely criticized (somewhat unfairly, as I'll explain) in light of the rise of 21st Century autocracies, especially China and Russia. In his new book, Liberalism and […] The post Frances Fukuyama: Trajectory Without Teleology appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

Sometimes in our psychological development the way forward requires us to go back, to re-explore earlier stages of life to see what is distorted or left unintegrated. This is the theme of the work of my guest today, developmental psychotherapist Kim Barta. He discusses his approach to personal growth, which is based on the STAGES […] The post Illuminating Our Stage Structures appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

This week I address a listener's question about a fascinating subculture arising in the environmental movement: the “post-doomers”, people who, as she writes, “hold the idea that the collapse of civilization as we know it is already well underway, is unstoppable, and will be felt by us here in Comfortable Land through disruption of many […] The post APOCALYPSE ALWAYS appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

My guest today, Steve Banks, is an accomplished, integrally-inspired composer who is about to drop a fantastic new piece of music that is both classical and cutting edge. It’s called  Blue Pearl: A One World Oratorio and it will be performed for the first time in London next month. Blue Pearl is itself a fascinating […] The post Integral Oratorio Debuts in London appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

Today I'm talking with David Fuller, one of the emerging luminaries of the emerging emergence movement (whew!). David, along with his partner Alexander Beiner, founded Rebel Wisdom four years ago, and has built it into a significant, integrally-informed cultural player, managing to thread the needle between – and beyond – the warring ideologies of traditionalism […] The post David Fuller, Wise Rebel appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

In this episode of the Shrink and the Pundit, Dr. Keith Witt and I discuss a powerful realization emerging at the leading edge of culture regarding the role of trauma in our lives. Dr. Keith is writing a book on the subject and has mined various psychotherapeutic modalities to create an integral approach to using […] The post Trauma to transcendence appeared first on The Daily Evolver.

The sexual evolution continues! This week I look at the controversy raging over the dramatic emergence of transsexual identity and gender fluidity, particularly among young people. I place it in the context of the stage transformations of sex and gender through history, and even get a little personal. I hope you enjoy the episode! – […] The post Gender Fluidity: Fruitful and Fanatic appeared first on The Daily Evolver.