Bookings are now open for the Soulstice Summer Activation on June 19-21 at Pitchcott Farm, the annual retreat staged by the Resonant Man international men’s initiative I co-founded with Jacob Kishere. We have a stellar line-up of men’s work leaders co-creating what is sure to be a phenomenal weekend. To find out more and grab a ticket click here. Do drop me a line with any questions!
Resonant World #183
When I started a new job as climate correspondent at Reuters almost exactly seven years ago, I couldn’t have been more motivated. “Crucial job at a crucial time,” came the one-line congratulatory note from one veteran of global climate negotiations. Although I’d started out in journalism at Reuters, I’d never had much opportunity to write about the climate and nature crises — which, since childhood, had always been the closest themes to my heart, albeit occluded in my earlier career by an impulse to cover war (which, years later, I can now trace to unresolved cycles in my ancestry). This unexpected opportunity to bring my adult journalistic persona into alignment with my younger self by writing about climate politics on behalf of such a globally significant news organisation felt like destiny calling.
Suffice to say, it didn’t quite work out in the way I’d imagined.
I’ve written before about my reasons for quitting Reuters (and contributed this video to TraumaAwareJournalism.org on moral injury and climate coverage). It was a jarring period, but also one of the most formative of my career — initiating me into some of my own shadow material, and the ethical and relational complexity that arises when personal and organisational values clash (a topic Anya Kamenetz and I discuss in last week’s edition of Resonant World).
Leaving Reuters liberated me to pursue the kind of inquiry into the deeper roots of the climate crisis that still lies far outside the scope of conventional news coverage; embrace my calling to put my media skills into the service of the global trauma healing movement; and train as a collective trauma facilitator.
Four years on, I now like to play with the idea that some deeper creative current may have been flowing behind the surface-level challenges, and operating far below the level of my conscious awareness, all along. Like a mycorrhizal web, this hidden source of aliveness has increasingly produced fruiting bodies in the form of various projects and initiatives that I’ve tended to imagine as largely unrelated and even in tension with one another, but which — when viewed from a certain perspective — perhaps betray signs of some degree of conscious design, albeit not my own.1
I’m therefore delighted to present an offering that brings together several of these key themes: an online event on May 28 investigating the relationship between masculinity and the metacrisis, hosted by the Centre for Climate Psychology in collaboration with The Resonant Man and DeSmog, the nonprofit climate newsroom where I work as an editor. (For details and to book your spot, click on this event page and scroll down to the green button that says ‘Secure Your Ticket — Free or by Donation’).
Myself and Resonant Man co-founder Jacob Kishere will be in dialogue with three guests who have been deep sources of inspiration to me throughout this period:
Indra Adnan: a psycho-social therapist, political thinker, and co-initiator of The Alternative Global, a platform dedicated to democratic innovation and the emergence of new forms of citizen power. Indra is also the author of The Politics of Waking Up: Power and Possibility In The Fractal Age. (I wrote a profile of Indra some years back here).
Amy Westervelt: is an investigative journalist with over 20 years of experience focused on climate, land, and environmental reporting. As the founder of Critical Frequency, she uses the power of storytelling to amplify the voices fighting for climate justice, with her award-winning podcast, Drilled, shining a light on corporate accountability and environmental truth.
Cadell Last is the founder of Philosophy Portal, and author of Global Brain Singularity; Systems and Subjects; and Real Speculations. His background includes undergraduate training in anthropology and history, a master’s in evolutionary anthropology, and a doctorate in complexity/interdisciplinary studies.
With traditional conceptions of what it means to be a man so closely entwined with the roots of the metacrisis, we’ll be exploring:
What role have existing models of masculinity played in creating the systems pushing us to the brink?
How can men and women come together to tend to their collective wounds and learn to relate in new ways?
What new visions of sacred masculinity are capable of integrating, the masculine, the feminine, and ancestral wisdom in service of the whole?
Join us to address these questions and more at a warm, welcoming, and lively event with ample opportunities for audience participation and small-group sharing.
Date and Pricing:
Thursday, May 28, 7:00pm-9:00pm BST (check your local timezone)
This event is free to attend with a recommended minimum donation of £5.
To book your spot, click on this event page and scroll down to the green button.
Call for Submissions
We’re also inviting your written contributions, essays, and poems under the umbrella of Masculinity in the Metacrisis to be published as part of a special series on The Resonant Man Substack. For details, please click here.
Thank to everyone who is supporting these initiatives, the What Is Collective Healing? podcast, and the global healing movement more broadly. I very much hope to see you at Masculinity and the Metacrisis on May 28!
If you found this post valuable, I’d be very grateful if you would consider becoming a paid subscriber, which confers membership of the Resonance Council of core supporters, and helps Resonant World to thrive. Thank you!
I borrowed this image of the mycorrhizal web from this note by Jeremy D Johnson.
