Existential Tetherball

Rachel Fell & Gordon Smith

Existential Tetherball invites complex thinkers and sensitive souls to explore nuance, meaning, and the wonder of the embodied subjective. Dynamic guests join dynamic hosts, Rachel Fell and Gordon Smith, for fun, deep, and provocative existential play. Each episode begins with an idea, a phrase, or even just a single word – our tether. Together, we explore the worlds within these words and ideas; the connections, associations, and meaning-making made meaningful by lived experience and co-creativity.

Episodes

  1. 17 HR AGO

    Ep. 3 - Humanity (Bee Mayhew)

    Our THIRD episode of Existential Tetherball is our FIRST episode with a guest! We're so stoked to have Bee Mayhew (https://missnomer.substack.com/) join us on an expansive co-exploration of "humanity." To start, we dive into foundational definitions of humanity, taking the time to parse subject from judgment/imbued definitions of value. Bee also tells us a really funny story about getting hit in the face with a tetherball when she was a kid.Rachel, Bee, and Gordon go on to discuss: sense of self, meta-identity of self and self as interrelatedness, as well as interrelateness beyond the "individual" – humanity as a collective of humans, humaning (in what context/s)? From there, Bee introduces concepts of ecology and stigmurgy, nodding to bees and ants and their intelligent collective coordination. The group riffs. From there, it gets weirder (and more awesome?) as Rachel applies the idea of stigmurgy to the self (the ecosystemic individual through time). Then Gordon goes on to connect this idea to the the internal collective unconscious. We all take a breath and laugh about how to spell "metric shitton." (Shitonne?)And there's more: dynamic living systems, stewardship of aliveness, and core values as human yet unique in their meaning and context – pragmatic to explore together, no? ::winkyfaceemoji::Allegiance to aliveness, stigmurgy, and community emerge as key takeaways. The conversation delves into the concept of ethical social intelligence and its impact on humanity, exploring healthy individuation and the reimagining of societal systems through a paradigm that honors the influenced-influencing process. The conversation concludes with a focus on giving a shit, self-attunement, reciprocity, and connections as essential elements of a thriving society. Takeaways Fundamental Question: Who are We?Morality and Collective Self ConceptAllegiance to AlivenessStigmurgy and Collective Coordination Ethical Social IntelligenceHealthy Individuation for Healthy Collective (nod to Neurodiversity) Chapters 00:00 Interrelatedness and Self-Understanding19:03 The Internal Collective Unconscious and Dynamic Systems24:16 Stewardship of Aliveness and Core Values29:25 Ethical Social Intelligence40:08 Reimagining Societal Systems51:45 Community Resilience and ReciprocityThe video Bee mentions in this episode: https://substack.com/@sequencebycosmos/note/c-197456719?r=4n4qq

    55 min

  2. 6 DAYS AGO

    Ep 2. - Exploring Existential

    Episode 2! In this episode, Gordon and Rachel dive into the squish and form that is the subject matter of this entire series – EXISTENTIAL. (So this episode is entirely meta-existential, tbh).They start at the intersections of neurodiversity/neurodivergence and existential, exploring the relationship between academic philosophers, embodied subjective experiences, and fundamental questions of existence. They also dive into frameworks of intelligence and living processing (meaning-making), touching on the relationship between direct experience, symbolism and language, and structure/certainty. Along the way, they drive by and nod to uncertainty, safety, and identity, as well as expectations of others related to questioning and existential inquiry. That's not all, though! They talk about existential health and the importance of auto-exploration of meaning, developing awareness practices, uncertainty tolerance, and the exploration of one's own "emotional interface." Bringing up the end of the convo is a jam on co-creating mutual understanding as necessary skillset, and the invitation to explore meaning via regular "existential hygine" for better relationships – self with self and self with others. (Just a few) takeaways Neurodiversity paradigm and neurodivergence in relationship to existential intelligence and healthyThe embodied subjective experience The exploration of existential questions as a fundamental aspect of the human experienceExistential hygiene is the process of updating the operating system and its contents Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Neurodiversity and Existentialism07:02 Exploring Meaning and Subjectivity15:04 Fundamental Questions of Existence22:48 Uncertainty, Safety, and Identity51:02 Existential Hygiene

    53 min

  3. 30 JAN

    Ep. 1 - Neurodiversity & Neurodivergence

    In this, our very first full episode of EXISTENTIAL TETHERBALL, Gordon and Rachel explore the concepts of neurodiversity and neurodivergence. They explore neurodiversity as a biological truism, a philosophy, a methodology, and a lens through which to understand human intelligence and unseen diversity. Together, they explore a living, full-body definition of intelligence, and speak to the importance of contextualizing neurodivergence through the neurodiversity paradigm. Exploring simultaneous sameness, difference, and distinction at the meta level, they offer a practical way to go beyond dualisitic and power over ways of seeing, understanding, relating with ourselves and each other. Rachel and Gordon also explore going beyond reductionism: – the medical model in relationship to the neurodiversity paradigm, self-acceptance and liberation at the identity and relational levels, the lived experience of neurodivergent people, inner and outer authority, and healthy individuation for a healthy ecology. Takeaways Neurodiversity as a philosophy and methodologyFull-body intelligenceLiving definition of intelligence Neurodivergence as a living expression of uncommon human processing and intelligenceThe liberation offered by the neurodiversity paradigmGordon and Rachel are pretty awesome

    48 min

  4. SEASON 1 TRAILER

    Welcome to Existential Tetherball

    Hi! Welcome to Existential Tetherball – a series of conversations designed to (playfully) explore a multiplicity of associations and perspectives in relationship to a word, a topic, a 'tether.' In this intro episode, hosts Rachel Fell and Gordon Smith share a bit about "the what and the why behind" this new series, touching on themes of curiosity, untapped creativity, openness, full-body intelligence, the pragmatism of shared exploration, and the possibilities generated through the embodied subjective and real, relational co-creativity.

    9 min

Trailer

About

Existential Tetherball invites complex thinkers and sensitive souls to explore nuance, meaning, and the wonder of the embodied subjective. Dynamic guests join dynamic hosts, Rachel Fell and Gordon Smith, for fun, deep, and provocative existential play. Each episode begins with an idea, a phrase, or even just a single word – our tether. Together, we explore the worlds within these words and ideas; the connections, associations, and meaning-making made meaningful by lived experience and co-creativity.

Information

  • Creator
    Rachel Fell & Gordon Smith
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    4
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Rachel Fell & Gordon Smith
  • Show Website
    Existential Tetherball
  • Provider