John McWhorter is one of America's most incisive, outspoken heterodox commentators on race. His latest book, 'Woke Racism', is a full frontal attack on what he considers to be a new hidden racism, coming from the left.
In Woke Racism, McWhorter outlines the workings of what he believes is a new religion, from the original sin of “white privilege” and the weaponization of cancel culture to ban heretics, to the evangelical fervor of the “woke mob.” He shows how this religion that claims to “dismantle racist structures” is actually harming his fellow Black Americans by infantilizing Black people, setting Black students up for failure, and passing policies that disproportionately damage Black communities. The new religion might be called “antiracism,” but it features a racial essentialism that’s barely distinguishable from racist arguments of the past.
This was a conversation in Rebel Wisdom's Digital Campfire, to join conversations like this, sign up as a Rebel Wisdom member: https://www.patreon.com/rebelwisdom
Why does our response to Covid seem perfectly calibrated to create maximum division and disagreement? How has it made the problems of sensemaking so much worse and dragged us all into it?
BJ Campbell is the creator of the Handwaving Freakoutery blog, focused on the crisis of finding truth, or Sensemaking.
In this conversation with David Fuller he explains his perspective on how the nature of social media has created hive minds, or 'Egregores' that are competing for space in the attention economy.
Rebel Wisdom is running our groundbreaking Sensemaking 101 course again in February 2022, with practices and techniques for better sensemaking, and live sessions from faculty including John Vervaeke, Diane Musho Hamilton, Sara Ness & Daniel Schmachtenberger.
See more here: https://rebelwisdom.co.uk/courses/sensemaking-101-page
Breathwork and Embodiment has always been hugely important to many of the practices we talk about on Rebel Wisdom. This is a conversation with breathworker Prema McKeever about the history of embodiment and breath practices, and how they are becoming ever more popular.
We are running a course with Prema beginning in January 2022, it will be five deep sessions around different holding patterns and character structures. To find out more about it and to sign up, check out: https://rebelwisdom.co.uk/courses/breathwork
What are we getting wrong with Covid, and what does it mean to adapt to it becoming an endemic disease?
William Eden is a biotech and healthcare expert who has been paying close attention to the progress of the pandemic from many different angles. He recently posted a viral Twitter thread on the topic: https://twitter.com/WilliamAEden/status/1470271294398558210
In this conversation with Rebel Wisdom's David Fuller they cover how the pandemic became politicised, how the authorities have been slow to adapt, and how the mandates are likely to backfire.
To join conversations and practice sessions with some of the world's top facilitators, check out becoming a Rebel Wisdom member: https://rebelwisdom.co.uk/campfire-events We're running our groundbreaking course in better Sensemaking, with guest faculty including John Vervaeke, Sara Ness, Diane Musho Hamilton and Daniel Schmachtenberger, starting in February 2022, find out more and join here: https://rebelwisdom.co.uk/courses/sensemaking-101-page
We've also just created a new self-study course called Essential Philosophy for Modern Life with Jules Evans. This looks at hot topics like Cancel Culture & Free Speech, or Identity, through a lens of the great philosophers of the past, find out more here: https://rebelwisdom.co.uk/courses/essential-philosophy-for-modern-life
Happy Christmas!
The Sensemaking Companion introduction film is listed on our new home on Substack: https://rebelwisdom.substack.com/p/our-christmas-gift-to-you-the-sensemaking
Register your email address to be sent the full version when it's live.
We're now hosting all our exclusive member content there, and there's a library of around 100 films - including our brilliant recent conversation with John McWhorter - and also talks with people like Iain McGilchrist, John Vervaeke, Ayishat Akanbi, Nora Bateson, Jamie Wheal - all the sessions from our festivals, unseen behind the scenes material with Jordan Peterson and more.
If you are already a member - we've registered you already and given you access, so don't worry. If you'd like to join us however - come and check it out.
Meghan Daum is a writer and journalist, and host of the Unspeakable podcast. After a long time in the heart of the legacy media, she was becoming increasingly unhappy with the groupthink and narrow perspectives. After discovering what later became known as the Intellectual Dark Web, she wrote an article that went viral called Nuance, a Love Story: https://gen.medium.com/nuance-a-love-story-ae6a14991059
In this conversation with David Fuller they discuss which conversations are still difficult to have in the mainstream, where the concept of the IDW failed, and more.
Can psychedelics change culture? In this new documentary, Alexander Beiner speaks with leaders in the field including Robin Carhart-Harris, Dennis McKenna, Bia Labate, Rick Doblin, Jamie Wheal and Kat Conour to find out if the original vision of the psychedelic counterculture - that they can radically transform society - is still alive.
In the age of psychedelic capitalism, with pharma and wellness companies driving the narrative, this piece explores what it would take for an experience of the sacred to overcome market forces and change our cultural operating system.
An essay accompanies this film. Read 'The Psychedelic Trojan Horse' on our Substack: https://rebelwisdom.substack.com/p/the-psychedelic-trojan-horse?r=ye9pq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Join us for a live with Jamie Wheal and other guests in the film by become a Rebel Wisdom Member on www.rebelwisdom.co.uk/plans Earlybird tickets for our next Sensemaking 101 online course are now available - read more on www.rebelwisdom.co.uk/sensemaking101
Web3 is the collective name for the latest wave of innovation online. Touted as much more decentralised, democratic and creative than the current web ecosystem, for its evangelists it's our best hope to innovate our way out of many our most pressing societal problems.
Jordan Hall is a tech entrepreneur and Deep Code analyst, who has been deeply involved in what is now being called Web1, the early garage innovators who created the early internet, and also Web2, when cyberspace was colonised by the the new monoliths like Google, Facebook and Apple. He's deeply invested in the success of Web3.
In this conversation with Rebel Wisdom, Jordan discusses the possible trajectory of Web3, how well developed the space is, and also the problems that are becoming ever more apparent. In particular how the early hopes that Web3 might be able to find tech solutions to the eternal problems of human beings coordinating together, seem to be failing.
We will be hosting an open discussion on Web3 and the questions raised by this conversation on Tuesday December 21st, this will be open to all, register here to take part: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0sc-mpqj4qE9XG61uH1sGi5KBUeICxwGcz
Jamie Bartlett is a writer and journalist who's been investigating our complex relationship with technology for years, through books like People vs Tech, and recently through the hit podcast the Missing Crypto Queen.
In this conversation with Rebel Wisdom's David Fuller he talked about how technology was starting to play an almost religious role in our lives, how the rise of tech was a fundamental challenge to democracy, and about his famous run in with Alex Jones.
Missing Cryptoqueen podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07nkd84/episodes/downloads
To join conversations in our Digital Campfire check out our upcoming events and membership options here: https://rebelwisdom.co.uk/campfire-events
Paul Kingsnorth is one of the most interesting voices wrestling with the deepest questions of modernity, religion and the spiritual void in western culture.
A former pagan - and long time environmentalist - a couple of years ago he had a completely unexpected conversion to Christianity, which he outlined in his fascinating piece The Cross and the Machine: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2021/06/the-cross-and-the-machine
In this conversation in Rebel Wisdom's Digital Campfire we discussed his journey, and reflected on the deep Christian story that we're all immersed in in the west - and if it's even possible to move outside it?
To join conversations like this, check out our membership options: https://rebelwisdom.co.uk/plans
Check out Paul's newsletter, The Abbey of Misrule: https://paulkingsnorth.substack.com/
