This week’s interview is with Jeremy Lent, an author whose writings investigate the patterns of thought that have led our civilization to its current crisis of sustainability. His book, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning, published last year, explores the way humans have made meaning from the cosmos from hunter-gatherer times to the present day. He is founder of the nonprofit Liology Institute dedicated to fostering an integrated worldview that could enable humanity to thrive sustainably on the earth.

Most of humanity’s ailments can be traced back to a mind virus known to some Indigenous cultures as Wetiko. Wetiko is an Algonquin word for a cannibalistic spirit that is driven by greed, excess, and selfish consumption (in Ojibwa it is windigo, wintiko in Powhatan). With Jeremy, we will unpack the history of Wetiko spirit and its relationship to capitalism- the culmination of humanity’s hyper individualistic self destruction.  Rooted in history and patterning, Jeremy explores the ancient and primeval patriarchal drive towards violence and destruction, offering us an alternative way forward based on community, collaboration and collective divestment from Wetiko through reembodying intuition and feeling sense.

♫ Music featured is "Every Piece" by Solaris.