The Whole Social

Seth Jordan
  • 5.0 (1)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE

A project dedicated to exploring the integral nature of society. With every article we try to take current events and drop below their surface to the deeper, more fundamental dynamics of social life. thewholesocial.substack.com

  1. JAN 13

    Listen (21 min): Approaching Rudolf Steiner's ideas on organizational development

    The 20th century spiritual researcher Rudolf Steiner is known for his work in many fields — education, agriculture, medicine, economics, religion, etc. — but his work in the field of organizational development is almost entirely unknown. In this talk (given at Harvard Divinity School on December 15, 2025), Seth Jordan shares an overview of those ideas, bringing together the advice that Steiner gave to individual institutions with Steiner’s social ideas more broadly. You can find a written version of this talk (though by no means an exact transcript) here and a video version here. Yes, writers have to eat, but paywalls just punish low-income people, and why shouldn’t they have access to the writing and ideas they want? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thewholesocial.substack.com

    21 min

  2. 11/10/2025

    Is it possible to "threefold" an organization?

    Seth Jordan, Nathaniel Williams, and Omri Elaad discuss how Rudolf Steiner’s social threefolding insights pertain to organizations. They look specifically at two texts that can be found here: https://thewholesocial.substack.com/p/possible-to-threefold-an-organization At the end of WWI, Steiner worked tirelessly to wake people up to the threefold nature of society, to the fact that it has distinct realms — political, economic, and cultural — and that each require independence in order for society to be healthy. But in all his books and lectures, he rarely spoke about the threefold nature of organizations, even though, as he said, “we can only work and act as modern people through and within organizations,” and even though, as he also said, every organization is itself threefold: “We divide social life into these three parts best when we comprehend that all of life’s institutions implicitly contain a threefold nature, and when we understand how to organize individual things so that the threefold impulse underlies them.” But how should we organize our initiatives so their threefold nature can express itself in a healthy way? Over the years, some anthroposophists have tried to threefold organizations by distinguishing and dividing up governmental, economic, and cultural activities (often in the form of committees overseeing agreements/bylaws, work, and learning/inspiration). But Steiner himself never suggested this to the organizations he worked with, in fact he ridiculed it when members of the Anthroposophical Society brought it up. So how should we think about it? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thewholesocial.substack.com

    1h 30m

  3. 08/25/2025

    Listen (21 min): How can we overcome prejudice? By "mapping" our differences.

    This is a recording of an article from July 12th, 2025 (you can find the written version of the article here, and a brief description of the article here). Pictures from the original article, which are referred to in the audio article, are below. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thewholesocial.substack.com

    21 min

  4. 06/11/2025

    Listen (11 min): The Supreme Court thinks it should decide what kids read

    On April 22nd, 2025, the nine justices of the Supreme Court discussed a number of children’s picturebooks being taught in the nation’s schools and asked, What concepts are age-appropriate? What’s content neutral and what’s pushing a certain agenda? The justices felt responsible to answer such questions — even though they have exactly no expertise in this area — because of a fundamental and widespread misunderstanding of the constitution’s first amendment. This is a recording of an article from April 30th, 2025. You can find the written version of the article here. Yes, writers have to eat, but paywalls just punish low-income people, and why shouldn’t they have access to the writing and ideas they want? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thewholesocial.substack.com

    11 min

  5. 05/16/2025

    Listen (14 min): The dying throes of a terminally ill country?

    More and more it feels like our political life is driving us to the breaking point. But if we look a little more closely, then the illness can point us towards its cure — specifically, to the two constitutional changes we need to turn things around. This is a recording of an article from April 4th, 2025. You can find the written version of the article here. Yes, writers have to eat, but paywalls just punish low-income people, and why shouldn’t they have access to the writing and ideas they want? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thewholesocial.substack.com

    14 min

  6. 04/22/2025

    Listen (16 min): The first major takedown of "The Telepathy Tapes" only exposes its own magical thinking

    The recent hit podcast The Telepathy Tapes gives a fascinating description of what appear to be telepathic abilities in non-speaking autistic children. How to understand this phenomenon is a vital question, but unfortunately, one that most mainstream scientists and journalists will likely never ask. Instead, most will ignore it while a few will dismiss it, which is what we saw in early March with the publication of “The Telepathy Trap” in The Atlantic. But such dismissals are still incredibly important. They are a form of engagement, and they demonstrate just how confused, how lost at sea, the mainstream scientific community is when it comes to such questions. But not only that — the flaws in their logic can be doorways for our own thinking, bringing us deeper into the phenomenon and, in the process, helping us to better understand it. This is a recording of an article from March 15th, 2025. You can find the written version of the article here. Yes, writers have to eat, but paywalls just punish low-income people, and why shouldn’t they have access to the writing and ideas they want? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thewholesocial.substack.com

    16 min

  7. 03/20/2025

    Understanding "The Telepathy Tapes" in the light of Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy

    On Tuesday, March 18th, I sat down to discuss The Telepathy Tapes and Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy with three longtime teachers — Gleice da Silva, Jan Göschel, and Becky Rutherford — all of whom have worked extensively with children with developmental disabilities. We had a delightful, wide-ranging conversation where we explored some of the possible reasons why the children described in this podcast are reporting such extraordinary experiences, and also how many of these experiences are actually much more common amongst “neurotypical” individuals than is normally thought. I hope you enjoy the discussion as much as I did! Some relevant resources: * A look at some of the controversy around The Telepathy Tapes: https://thewholesocial.substack.com/p/telepathy-tapes-telepathy-trap * The Camphill Academy, which offers adult training in anthroposophic Inclusive Social Development, and where Gleice, Jan, and Becky all currently teach: https://camphill.edu * The Camphill School, where Gleice, Jan, and Becky all taught in the past: https://camphillschool.org * The Section for Inclusive Social Development at the Goetheanum in Switzerland: https://inclusivesocial.org/en * Larry Bisonette (mentioned at 16:04): https://www.wretchesandjabberers.org/bios/larry-bissonnette Yes, writers have to eat, but paywalls just punish low-income people, and why shouldn’t they have access to the writing and ideas they want? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thewholesocial.substack.com

    59 min

  8. 02/28/2025

    Listen (28 min): John Steinbeck, social mystic

    John Steinbeck was one of the great novelists of the 20th century, winning both the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. His works are multifaceted — one can find scathing social critiques, rich humor, and gentle humanity between their covers. But I wasn’t aware of his spiritual leanings until reading one of his earliest works, In Dubious Battle (1936), where he speaks about the reality of spiritual possession, as well as a kind of ‘group soul’ that emerges whenever a mass of men are gathered. This is a recording of an article from January 7th, 2025. You can find the written version of the article here. Yes, writers have to eat, but paywalls just punish low-income people, and why shouldn’t they have access to the writing and ideas they want? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thewholesocial.substack.com

    28 min
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About

A project dedicated to exploring the integral nature of society. With every article we try to take current events and drop below their surface to the deeper, more fundamental dynamics of social life. thewholesocial.substack.com

Information

  • Creator
    Seth Jordan
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    29
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Seth Jordan
  • Show Website
    The Whole Social