The Wonder Dome Andy Cahill

Max Gladstone has a “galaxy brain” - he is deeply and widely read, he has thought deeply about many different dimensions of life and existence, and he has a remarkable gift for transmitting his insights in the form of wickedly smart stories that are equal parts devastatingly beautiful and laugh-out-loud funny.

His recent novel Last Exit serves as the centerpiece for our conversation today. It asks: What happens when there's no other place to go? When you have come to the end of the road for the life you once imagined for yourself? What lies beyond that threshold?

Last Exit is a wild road trip that offers a glimpse of what comes next when your life has fallen to pieces: though it comes with great risk, you might discover beautiful possibilities beyond imagining just past the threshold that marks your current ideas about the world.

Connect with Max
maxgladstone.com
instagram.com/max.gladstone
twitter.com/maxgladstone
maxgladstone.substack.com
Last Exit by Max Gladstone
Dead Country by Max Gladstone
Hyperobjects and Timothy Morton
Demiurge
The Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold
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O.B. Amaechi is a Nigerian-American author, entrepreneur, fashion designer, educator, and coach whose “purpose is soaked in beauty.” Our conversation delves deeply into the themes evoked by that phrase: Why does beauty move us so? And what does it have to do with our soul, our calling, our orientation in life?
O.B. has walked the walk in many different contexts: working with young people and teachers, working with organizations who want to make their culture more beautiful by becoming more inclusive and equitable, and working one-on-one with people who are trying to find their own path in the world. All while pursuing his own creative projects as a writer, explorer, and lover of beauty.

Connect with O.B.:
wakeupthesoul.com
facebook.com/VERGECIRCLE
instagram.com/ob_connected
linkedin.com/in/obamaechi
The Intentional 5: VERGE - Confessions of a Disciplined Thought by O.B. Amaechi
#04 Healing the World through Conscious Leadership (with Dr. Annice Fisher)
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Jeff Lieberman is the co-founder of Sleepawake Camp. A play on the “sleep away camp,” Sleepawake is a boot camp for the body, heart, and mind. The summer program is geared towards people ages 18 to 27 who are ready to learn all of the things that are never taught in school: conflict resolution, emotional regulation, mindful communication, and so much more.

Jeff, along with his co-founder (and former Wonder Dome guest) Cat Tweedie have run the camp for a year, and it was amazingly successful in its first season. It is a powerful container for young people who carry a sense that something's missing from our culture, that are maybe looking around going, is this it?

Over the past 15 years, Jeff’s been training in meditation, personal development, and group dynamics for well-being. He creates spaces where others can tap into their own wisdom and insight, using art to inspire wonder and awe. He also beautifully and authentically speaks to the decade-plus he spent navigating deep depression despite seemingly having it all together from the outside.

This year, Sleepawake Camp runs from June 17 to July 16, 2023. If you’re between the ages of 18-27 and long for that kind of depth and connection to life, to your sense of purpose and well-being, submit an application online. There are many, many others who are asking the question, “Is this all there is?” and finding the answer to be no. There's so much more.

Episode Notes:
linkedin.com/in/jeff-lieberman-a00873
https://sleepawake.camp/apply
Ep #98 Camping in the Heartlands (with Cat Tweedie)
Learn more about Jeff’s art: https://bea.st
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Paul Dunion has been working for decades to help people of all ages - especially men - step more fully into their maturity, their identity, and their potential. And to do so in a way that engages, integrates, and heals the shadow sides of our lives: the parts of ourselves that we don't want people to see. The parts that others may have told us is unacceptable.

Paul writes and speaks beautifully about the nature of life and about the ways in which so much of our experience is outside the scope of our control. As Paul says, We're not here to get life “right.” But if we're open and willing to let it, life might get us “right.”

That idea sits at the heart of his book, Wisdom, a wonderful exploration of what it truly means to become wise. Paul is not only a wordsmith. He's also a heart- and soul-smith. Our conversation today explores these patterns of maturity, masculinity, shadow work, inviting us to be blessed by life; to be initiated into life's mysteries and humbling wonders; and, perhaps, to live into a world where we are, each of us, a blessing walking.

Connect with Paul:
pauldunion.com
facebook.com/pauldunionauthor
linkedin.com/pub/paul-dunion/33/ba0/609
pauldunion.com/books/my-days-with-emma
pauldunion.com/books/wisdom
amazon.com/Hazards-Being-Male-Surviving-Masculine/dp/0965762874
jameshollis.net
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My guest today is Reggie Mara, author of the new book Healing America's Narratives: The Feminine, The Masculine, and Our Collective National Shadow. It provides a deep look at how we could build a country actually rooted in wisdom, equality, and possibility as imagined in our founding documents.

Overall, Reggie’s work is about helping people become more fully human. He embodies the recognition that we’re no more and no less than the way we treat each other. And he shares the insight that by changing ourselves we become the possibility for changing our society.

In our conversation, we tap into what it might take for us to actually talk to our fellow Americans, breaking the downward spiral of zero sum competition, political polarization, burnout, and escapism that defines our current socio-political landscape.

So if you're here for an America that actually lives up to it's ideals, then listen in. Reggie's vision for Healing America's Narratives delves into the history that has shaped us and the path we might walk ahead.

Connect with Reggie:
reggiemarra.com
facebook.com/reggie.marra
linkedin.com/in/reggiemarra/
healingamericasnarratives.com
Enough with the… Talking Points by Reggie Marra
Killing America: Our United States of Ignorance, Fear, Bigotry, Violence and Greed by Reggie Marra
View all of Reggie’s books here
American Nations by Colin Woodard
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Tlotlo Tsamaase is a remarkably talented author of speculative fiction. Her novella The Slience of the Wilting Skin - a provocative, psychedelic, heartwrenching novella that explores the devastating impacts of colonialism - served as the centerpiece of our first conversation. Tragically, something went wrong with that recording and the audio was unlistenable. We had a great time, but we couldn't share it with you.

We decided to pick up where that conversation left off, exploring the ineffable nature of creativity. It’s hard to put into words, but you might imagine rather than saying “I am writing something,” you say instead, “something is writing me.” It’s an elusive and incredibly powerful state, one that infuses Tlotlo’s work with visceral and vital energy.

So we start there and wind our way into the ways in which the stories that repress us - colonialism, sexism, and systemic racism - have shaped so much of what’s written, and all the ways that Tlotlo’s working to unpack that, offering stories that might set us free. Stories that challenge us to see truths about our world that we may not be ready or willing to see.

Her debut novel Womb City comes out in the Fall of 2023, and I can promise you that it will be a potent one. Tlotlo also offers beautiful insights about how to make a space for your own singular artistic voice when you're repeatedly told by gatekeepers that there is not a seat at the table for you. She’s carved her own beautiful path. Perhaps it will inspire you to carve your own.

Connect with Tlotlo:
tlotlotsamaase.com
facebook.com/tlotlo.tsamaase
instagram.com/tlotlotsamaase
twitter.com/TlotloTsamaase
The Silence of the Wilting Skin by Tlotlo Tsamaase
Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
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