The Daily Evolver

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 into a sleek political populist taking on a system that he sees as rigged against the people." Jeff puts Bernie's extraordinary rise into a larger evolutionary context that includes culture, politics and economics. He draws on the work of integral economist Said Dawlabani to describe the way value systems of different developmental stages oscillate between a focus on the individual and a focus on the collective. "The polarity is indestructible," says Jeff, "but as the clock moves forward, these values are expressed in newly emerging ways." Sanders is an authentic, committed expression of the green, postmodern value system. With its emphasis on the collective, green is a proponent for a strong safety net, highly subsidized or even centralized hea

As we see with integral theory, art is often the leading edge of cultural and consciousness evolution, and jazz today continues to lead the way. In this two-part series, "The soul of jazz", Greg takes us through the history of jazz from its roots in the magic, mythic and traditional interiors of African Americans at the turn of the last century, through the modern and postmodern strains of the mid and late 20th Century, to the more wild wooly contemporary scene. He points out the evolutionarily potent and ultimately integral qualities jazz conveys as it confronts enduring human polarities such as the individual vs the group, tragedy vs comedy, competition vs cooperation, and structure vs freedom. This is part two of a two-part series. Send your questions and comments for the show to jeff@dailyevolver.com. Record a voice memo on your smartphone or use the Speakpipe button on DailyEvolver.com.

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.

By Jeff Salzman I’ve long enjoyed music critic Greg Thomas's insightful posts on Integral Life, where he write about jazz. Not that I like jazz music. Truth is, I've always found jazz to be annoying. I can't tap my foot to it. I can't sing it in the shower. Like a lot of artforms, when we don't understand them, jazz has shown up to me as noise. Of course like all good integral practitioners, I want to turn toward the object of my annoyance. I know it's not the fault of jazz that I don’t get it. Millions of people are ecstatic over it, and I want to have what they're having. So I was thrilled when Greg came to one of my programs at the Integral Center last summer, and I invited him to stay with me. During downtimes we had some great one-on-ones where Greg did his best to initiate me into the jazz idiom. He explained how jazz expresses American culture. He told stories of various artists and songs. He played some of his favorite pieces and schooled me in what was going on. He turned out to be just th

One of the blessings of an integral consciousness is the ability to embrace the gifts of earlier stages of development. In this short holiday message, Jeff encourages us to practice being enchanted, once again, by the beauty and goodness of the world.

The popular picture of the midlife crisis is the man in his 40's or 50's who's lost his job, his wife or his health. He's dyed his hair, bought a Porsche and is dating a much younger woman. We feel sorry for him, maybe in the same way we would feel sorry for an active alcoholic, a mentally ill person or anyone who is out of touch with reality. Losing your job or your partner, having major health issues or just the general feeling of existential ennui can be terrible and even traumatic, but they are not necessarily unique to midlife. The midlife crisis has a flavor all its own. It kicks in with the realization that you’ve crossed the halfway point of your life and are on the downward slope. To make it worse, you may discover that the things most important to you -- your relationships, your career, your purpose in life -- have begun fraying around the edges if you haven’t put in the effort to sustain them. We negotiate one transformation after another during our lifetimes, beginning with birth and extending

In a world in which there are no mess-free options, says Jeff, "I'm so happy to have an evolutionary view" when trying to make sense of things like the killings in San Bernardino, the first terror attack on American soil with the fingerprints of ISIS. While it's objectively true that violent deaths in the U.S. (and the world) are declining steadily, public shootings have become horrifyingly common here (26 mass shootings just during Obama's two terms in office). These create a special kind of anxiety and terror, one that we are evolutionarily programmed to pay outsized attention to. In this podcast Jeff looks at the range of responses that we've seen in the weeks following this most recent attack--responses that tell us a lot about our country, our candidates and ourselves. A predictable (and evolutionary potent) controversy is underway as to what the U.S. role should be in responding to ISIS, and how we should fight back militarily, culturally, even in cyberspace. Donald Trump called for a halt to Musli

The higher divorce rate likely indicates our changing expectations of a primary partnership. We’re living twice as long as we did a hundred years ago, women have more power, and the standard of marriage is a fulfillment standard now more than a stability standard, which is more demanding.

In this conversation on marriage, Dr. Keith shares intimate insights on topics such as what questions to ask as you consider marriage, how to deal with conflict and infidelity, progressive bonding, passion and friendship, and above all, the challenge of supporting each other’s mutual development.

The recent terror attacks in Paris brought to light, once again, the difficulty in reconciling the values of modern, secular societies like France and premodern societies such as those in much of the Arab world. This relationship is complicated by the past sins of the West, from the Crusades all the way up to the wars after 9/11, which, Jeff explains, "took the lid off Iraq, which has put the Muslim world in arrested development and even in a functional regression since". It may be tricky to claim the moral high ground when you've been alternately toppling and propping up regimes to further your own ends for decades, but between the attacks on Paris and the stream of refugees into Europe, the West cannot ignore what’s happening. Jeff sorts out the cacophony of voices and gives us some perspective. The practice that's available to us is to put ourselves in the shoes of "the other," the hawks and the doves, the refugees and the terrorists. ISIS is not just a pack of psychopaths that want to see the world bu

How does a nice Jewish girl from Burbank, California become a Buddhist mendicant nun -- with integral proclivities? Listen in as Jeff talks with with Amma Thanasanti, a Buddhist teacher in the Ajahn Chah Forest Tradition, who has been deeply influenced by Ken WIlber and integral theory. Amma was traveling through Boulder a couple weeks ago, and stopped by for a spot of tea and a chat about her unusual life and her beautiful, integrally-informed teachings on love, sex and awakening. Amma is conducting a virtual retreat (you attend via skype or phone), over Thanksgiving weekend, 11/27 - 11/29. The topic, appropriately, is gratitude. Find out more at awakeningtruth.org. Some highlights from Amma: "It's not fashionable right now to live a life of alms mendicancy, or renunciation, or a life of simplicity. But in terms of their potency as a tool for clarity I have not seen anything that comes anywhere close. Once I became a celibate my understanding about sex and sexuality increased logarithmically." "One

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.

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".

Jeff takes us on a brief tour of the history of polarization in the US as far back as the Revolutionary War, and describes the silver lining to the conflict and legislative gridlock. Also, Full Spectrum Mindfulness and the practice of evolutionary spirituality with Steve McIntosh.

Today we’re reposting a conversation that I had last year with Said Dawlabani (author of MEMEnomics: The Next Generation Economic System) about integral economics. I think his ideas are more relevant today than ever, with even Republicans decrying the disproportionate flow of money to the top 1%. And Democrats, through the candidacy of Bernie Sanders, are challenging the very foundations of capitalism in favor of democratic socialism as we see practiced in Northern Europe. This is all right on schedule. In terms of social evolution, economics is a lagging emergent, one of the last things to transform as cultures move forward.  According to Dawlabani we are just now moving from the orange modern economy to the green postmodern economy, a move where the pendulum swings from a focus on individual freedom to one of collective responsibility. (And remember, as the pendulum swings the clock moves forward.) As I wrote at the time: “I like Dawlabani’s thinking because it helps us understand that de

Steve McIntosh’s new book explores evolutionary spirituality as a distinct emergent that includes the great scientific truths of our age. In this conversation, Jeff and Steve discuss the nature of spiritual experience and a cultural analysis of the different kinds of spirituality.

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 total lunar eclipse would be a sign saturated in meaning and mystery. We leave this behind as we embrace a logical, scientific worldview. "Then there's a stage that's post or trans-rational," Jeff says, "where that enchantment can be brought back into a new, sacred world that is not limited by a magic or mythic belief system. It's also not limited by the modern scientistic worldview that says if something can't be sensed and measured it doesn't exist." Here we open up once again to dimensions of life which are beyond our full comprehension and explanation, a place of enchantment that includes and transcends reason. Speaking of including and transcending, Pope Francis has been traveling around the world, defying expectations. There is a sense that he is touching people across party lines and ideologies—not an easy

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.

Since Hungary is at the epicenter of the refugee crisis currently engulfing Europe, we called our friend Bence Ganti to get an integral, European perspective. In his conversation he highlights the differences between the response of the Hungarian government versus the general populace.

After taking the summer off from the live show, Jeff dives into the Fall season with an analysis of the American political scene, currently dominated by The Donald, of course. Could he really be president? Jeff says “no, but he is performing a great evolutionary service”. Much is made of the problem of the polarization of the left and right in American politics, and Donald Trump may be part of the solution. After all, polarization is a stage on the path of development. As Jeff says: The interesting thing about polarities is that once you get your thesis and antithesis well clarified then the next step is to create new synthesis. Thus you have Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders coming from opposite sides of the political spectrum arriving at two similar political goals. The first is a tax hike for the rich; the second is an end to cheap labor and trade deals. The other Republicans, financed by the wealthiest Americans, will not take these stands.  [NOTE: since this recording, Jeb Bush has said he is o