Thinking Ahead with Carter Phipps
Your world is evolving—find out how with Carter Phipps, co-author of the Wall St. Journal bestseller Conscious Leadership. He’s an optimist, a generalist, and an integrative thinker. Now he has an excuse for his insatiable book-buying habit—a show that explores the movements, trends, people, and ideas that are shaping the future. Phipps is also author of Evolutionaries, and cofounder of the Institute for Cultural Evolution. Through in-depth interviews and occasional rants and reflections, the show explores the many subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways that the world is changing and developing across a vast array of domains—from business and politics to science and technology to consciousness and spirituality.
Episodes
48 episodes
Keith Thompson: How UFOs Challenge Our Worldview
On this episode of Thinking Ahead, we return to the fascinating subject of UFOs, or UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon) as they are sometimes called. I've already done a couple of podcasts on this topic (if you’d like a more introduc...
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Episode 46
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1:42:22
Wayne Pacelle: The Campaign to Save Colorado's Big Cats
Regular listeners of this podcast may know that I have a special affinity for cats—house cats, certainly, but also the magnificent wild cats that still roam the American West. So when I learned recently that in my home state of Colorado, it’s s...
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1:08:33
The Business and Spiritual Journey of John Mackey
John Mackey, cofounder of Whole Foods Market, is one of the great entrepreneurs of our time. But the story of how he built the iconic grocery store is just one thread in the tapestry of his rich and interesting life, which he discusses candidly...
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Episode 46
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2:07:37
Sean Lawlor: Navigating the Psychedelic Renaissance
Today, we are in the middle of a sea change in the perception and use of psychedelics unlike anything that has occurred in recent decades and probably going back many centuries, at least in Western history. In fact, one probably has to go back ...
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Episode 45
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1:54:45
Bobby Azarian: The Beauty of Evolutionary Thinking
On this episode of Thinking Ahead, we’re discussing one of my favorite subjects, evolution. Bobby Azarian is a cognitive neuroscientist, a science journalist, and a true evolutionary. His book
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Episode 44
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1:36:49
Amiel Handelsman: Race and Maturity in the American Experience
The topic of race is never far from our lips when we are talking about the American experience. And yet, the complexities, confusions, minefields, and missteps that often confront those who work to overcome America’s racial legacy can make this...
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Episode 43
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1:19:04
Brad DeLong: Are We Slouching Toward Utopia?
Too often, the questions that we ask about our own time-period reflect a limited understanding of history. For example, consider the question: why is there still poverty and inequality? It’s a worthy question, but an even better one might be: H...
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Episode 42
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1:15:59
Steve McIntosh: Does Human Nature Evolve?
Steve McIntosh is already a regular guest on this podcast, and that’s no accident. Steve and I have been collaborating for many years, and we even cofounded the Institute for Cultural Evolution almost a decade ago. Steve is the President of the...
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Episode 41
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1:15:06
Integral Conversations: Culture Wars and Human Progress with Jeff Salzman
As my regular listeners will know, I’m deeply influenced by the perspective known as Integral philosophy, and in particular, the insights it affords us into how human culture has evolved—and is still evolving today. This perspective in...
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Episode 40
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1:37:12
Edward Chancellor: Money, Financial Bubbles, and the Price of Time
Inflation. Recession. Bubbles. Interest rates. Sovereign debt crisis. Today, everyone’s financial portfolio is falling and that makes people upset about markets and economics. But being angry or frustrated about the market is easy, understandin...
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Episode 39
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1:15:16
Tom Mustill: How to Speak Whale
What would you do if a whale landed on top of you—and you lived to tell the tale? That’s exactly what happened to wildlife biologist and filmmaker Tom Mustill in 2015, when a breaching humpback whale came crashing down on his kayak in Californi...
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Episode 38
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1:21:29
Diana Pasulka: Religion, UFOs, and the Experience of the Uncanny
In the 2019 book American Cosmic, scholar Diana Pasulka offers a surprising and original perspective on one of my favorite topics: UFOs. She proposes that UFOs and the obsession with them has become a type of post-secular religion. She...
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Episode 37
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1:19:36
Meredith Angwin: Energy, Carbon, and the Growing Fragility of our National Grid
When we think about energy, we often forget one critical element—the grid. Most of us depend every day on our national grid to supply the energy we need for our life and work. And our need for electricity continues to grow and is likely to incr...
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Episode 36
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1:11:11
Christopher Leonard: Did the Fed and Easy Money Break the American Economy?
If you’ve followed this podcast for a while, you’ll know that I’m something of an economics nerd, and occasionally I indulge this passion by choosing guests who can offer insight into our past, present, and future through a financial lens. I wa...
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Season 1
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Episode 35
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1:29:40
Darryl Jones: Roads, Wildlife, and the Future of Conservation
Why did the leopard cross the road? Well, because he had to. He might have been searching for food, or a mate, or a new territory. But if he made it safely to the other side, it just might be because someone built him a bridge. And today's gues...
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Season 1
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Episode 34
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57:48
Chris Bache: LSD and the Exploration of the Inner Cosmos
Psychedelics are having a moment. There’s never been a time in which we’ve seen more research into, experimentation with, and acceptance of the use of psychedelics—for therapy, for inner exploration, and for spiritual awakening. Of course, psyc...
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Episode 33
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1:26:22
Steve McIntosh: Reconciling American Pride and Shame
Regular listeners of this podcast or those who have followed my work over the years will recognize the name Steve McIntosh. Steve and I have been collaborating for almost two decades, including as coauthors (with John Mackey) of
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Episode 32
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1:14:02
Gary Lachman: The Esoteric Undercurrents of Putin's War on Ukraine
In our modern world, we often think of history as being mostly driven by international politics and economics and technology and demographics and the movement of money. Much of the time, that’s true. But every so often, events transpire that re...
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Season 1
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Episode 31
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1:28:15
Gregg Easterbrook: Promises and Perils of the Blue Age
When was the last time you remember a significant battle on the high seas? If you’re like me, such an event may well be hard to recall. I’m old enough to remember the Falklands war, but that’s about it. Today’s guest on Thinking Ahead, author G...
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Season 1
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Episode 30
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1:00:22
Mariana Bozesan: Integral Investing in a World of Abundance
Mariana Bozesan, author of Integral Investing: From Profit to Prosperity, has l...
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Season 1
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Episode 29
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1:19:50
Greg Thomas: How Jazz Can Help Us Think About Race
How do we think about race in America today? This question continues to be core to the evolution of our national experiment. And it has come even further to the forefront in recent years, as the progressive social justice movement in American p...
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Season 1
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Episode 28
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1:11:51
Ross Coulthart: UFOs—Is the Truth in Plain Sight?
UFOs. Or to use the current in-vogue acronym, UAPs. It’s a topic rife with conspiracies and strange complexities. Many people just want to avoid it altogether. But it’s also an explosive story, with huge implications. And it’s gained enou...
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Season 1
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Episode 27
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1:36:37
Sergey Young: Are You Ready For Radical Longevity?
Would you like to live a bit longer, maybe a lot longer? Do you think it’s possible? Do you think it will be possible in the future? In this episode of Thinking Ahead, I want to introduce you to an individual who believes strongly in the potent...
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Season 1
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Episode 26
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1:08:59
Steve McIntosh: Building a Post-Progressive Movement
For this episode, I’m happy to welcome back one of the first guests on this podcast, my longtime collaborator and cofounder of the Institute for Cultural Evolution, Steve McIntosh. Since that earlier conversation (which you can check out
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Season 1
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Episode 25
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1:20:46