Things are falling apart. We're exploring why and what we can do, together, starting Wednesday 15th of April.

With everything unfolding in the world right now, many of us are sensing that something deeper is at play — not just a difficult news cycle, but a civilisational shift. The course Introduction to the Metacrisis and a Second Renaissance offers to meet that honestly — blending teachings with space for conversation and shared reflection — because none of us are meant to face this alone.

Through four online sessions, and material for you to explore in your own time, Rufus and Sylvie will guide the group through the roots of the converging crises — and what’s quietly beginning to emerge in response.

Join us — we start this Wednesday!

April 15, 22, 29, & May 6. 5-6:30pm CEST.

Recordings available.

Recommended contribution: €39 Sliding scale €10- €39. Scholarships available.

Register now

Mythos: issue #2 of the Second Renaissance Magazine available for pre-order

Myths are never neutral. They shape what we keep, what we remember, what we call sacred — and they carry us forward through culture, image, and memory.

In the second issue of the Second Renaissance Magazine, contributors from across our community explore mythos from many angles, through essays, visual art, and poetry : the creation of new stories, the revisiting of old ones, and the search for meaning in a time that often feels turbulent and uncertain. From ancient gods to the emerging mythologies of AI, the issue asks what stories we tell about what is real, what matters, and what endures.

Single issue available for pre-order: 40€

Yearly subscription to the Second Renaissance magazine: 35€

Find out more

Pre-order or subscribe now

Seeds of a Second Renaissance

This month’s Seeds of a Second Renaissance explores Sri Aurobindo’s vision of India’s independence struggle as part of a global spiritual regeneration — plus upcoming events and job opportunities.

Seeds of a Second Renaissance

Seeds of a Second Renaissance Issue 13 (Mar 2026) - Sri Aurobindo on the evolution of human consciousness

Welcome to Seeds of a Second Renaissance – a monthly newsletter for explorers of inner-led change towards radically wiser societies. For both seasoned travellers and those new to these shores, each edition offers a bite-sized exploration of keystone ideas, and thinkers whose work you may wish to know more deeply…

Read more

a month ago · 10 likes · 1 comment · Catherine Tran and Rosie Bell

🏔️ Over The Mountains 🏔️

An intimate discussion about personal relationships as a source of real transformation. Through the lens of their ten-year relationship, Sylvie and Rufus reflect on conventional relationship dynamics, freedom versus ownership, and how the transformation of our personal relationships is an integral part of building a more authentic and wise society.

Over the Mountains by Life Itself

Finding a path to a Second Renaissance

By Rufus Pollock

💡Life Itself Research💡

Four talks from the Life Itself Research Collective this month — on complexity science, conscious communities, spatial cognition, and technological metamodernism, with Jonah Wilberg, Simon Grant, Momcilo Mijovic, and Stephen Reid.

Life Itself Research

Jonah Wilberg on Complexity Science and Societal Transformation

In this talk, Jonah Wilberg argues that complexity science offers a set of tools that - having been designed to understand systems that are dynamic, nonlinear, and prone to radical change - are especially suitable for making sense of our current period of global societal transformation and crisis …

Listen now

19 days ago · 3 likes · Jonah Wilberg

Life Itself Research

Simon Grant on Structural Challenges of Conscious Communities

Under the heading of ‘Redeveloping Relationship’, Simon Grant develops a distinction between belongingness - the basic human need to be accepted, cared for, and feel safe within a group - and creative work - the purposeful, co-creative activity that groups undertake to make something in the world…

Listen now

a month ago · 3 likes · Jonah Wilberg

Life Itself Research

Momcilo Mijovic on Spatial Cognition and Human Connection

Momcilo explores how we understand and navigate physical space - and how those same principles might be applied to building richer connections between people…

Listen now

a month ago · 1 like · Jonah Wilberg

Life Itself Research

Stephen Reid on Technological Metamodernism

Stephen Reid presents his ongoing work on Technological Metamodernism, a book he’s developing with an unusual co-author: Hilma Church Turing, an AI-assisted fictional persona who emerged during a meditation retreat…

Listen now

a month ago · 3 likes · Jonah Wilberg

Life Itself UK Midsummer 2026 Gathering

Join us on the 17-21 June at Kelston Roundhill Barn, a quintessential English spot in Somerset England located between Bath and Bristol! This gathering is a chance for the Life Itself community to come together in a remarkable landscape: to meet each other, deepen connections, and enjoy being together on the land.

Live music on Saturday night.

Open to all.

Rates : £295 - £415

Limited capacity of 20 people. Bookings are first come first served.

Book now

🐌In case you missed it🐌

In Tech We Trust webinar discussion

At the launch of our In Tech We Trust whitepaper, we were joined by expert panellists Michael Garfield (Humans in the Loop podcast), Jenny Stefanotti (Denizen), and Xavier Snelgrove (Orbital Magazine) who discussed the importance of humility and wisdom in governance, and how we might de-centre technology in discussions about the future. Watch it here:

🌱 Help us create a weller, wiser world together. To support the movement, you can:

💬 Share your thoughts in the comments section

🎁 Share this newsletter with a friend

💸 Become a paid subscriber

Subscribe now

In Tech We Trust paper & webinar 18th March

A new white paper is out: In Tech We Trust. It examines the god-like authority of technology in the modern age – and what it means to set a wiser course.

Join us on Wednesday 18th March, 5:30pm Europe / 12 noon eastern for a live roundtable for the launch of the paper with the authors and invited panellists including Michael Garfield (Humans in the Loop podcast) and Jenny Stefanotti (Denizen).

Register for the webinar

​This roundtable will open a timely conversation on topics like: ​Has technology become a kind of modern “god”? How do modern assumptions — individualism, rationalism, materialism, and the myth of progress — shape our relationship with AI? ​What might it mean to shift from out-of-control technological acceleration towards collective restraint? Rather than focusing only on governance, the discussion will examine the cultural paradigm shaping our technological era — and the inner capacities needed to navigate it well.

Upcoming course: Exploring a Second Renaissance Together

A guided journey to deepen your understanding of this moment of crisis and renewal.

Join our short online course to explore together this time between worlds and the growing civilisational crisis and renewal – a Metacrisis and Second Renaissance.

Led by Life Itself co-founders and Second Renaissance project curators Rufus Pollock and Sylvie Barbier, this series is an invitation to those already curious about the cracks in the modern worldview — and those feeling the pull towards a more connected, meaningful, and regenerative future.

• 📆 When: 18th and 25th March, 1st April, 8th April 2026

• 🕰️ Format: 4 sessions of 1h30min over 4 weeks (recordings available)

• 🌐 Where: Online, interactive sessions

• 💶 Price: €39 / $39 (scholarships available on request)

• 🙌 Register: directly on Luma

• ℹ️ More information: visit the course landing page for further information about the programme and how to register.

❤️ Thank You, Lauren ❤️

Lauren Wigmore, our beloved Community Manager, is transitioning into a full-time role at Liminal Learning. We’d like to thank Lauren for the incredible dedication she has brought to the Life Itself team. She has been a cornerstone of our community and is a true exemplar of the values we wish to see in the world. While she’ll be dearly missed in her capacity as a team member, we’re excited to see what’s in store for her over at Liminal Learning.

Below are some reflections from Lauren about her time working at Life Itself.

🏔️ Over The Mountains 🏔️

How Authoritarian Regimes like Iran Can Fall

Last week we released Episode 10 of Over The Mountains: “You say you want a revolution”: How Authoritarian Regimes like Iran Can Fall. This episode, which was recorded prior to the recent US-Israel military intervention, explores what history can tell us about how regime change, the mass protest movement in Iran, and the possibility of systemic change in today’s world.

The Divine Whore & The Holy Mother: Reclaiming Eros as Sacred Power

Sylvie Barbier also released a new blog post entitled ‘The Divine Whore & The Holy Mother: Reclaiming Eros as Sacred Power’ which explores how the cultural shaming of sex fuels exploitation and abuse:

With the revelations of the Epstein files and the Pelicot case, we owe it to ourselves to ask: how is it that we, as a society, have arrived here? Because this is not only the moral failure of individuals — it asks a deeper question: what cultural and legal conditions have made this possible?

💡Life Itself Research💡

Complexity Science Retreat

On Friday 13th February, ten intellectual explorers arrived in Steinlands, Norway, for five days of complexity themed discussion and inquiry.

Led by Jonah Wilberg and Max Ramsahoye from Life Itself Research, the week included participant-led presentations on topics from complexity science and society, AI interpretability and network theory, as well as meditation, yoga and walks in the surrounding snow-filled landscape.

Ongoing Programme

The Life Itself Research collective also continued its active online programme in February, including a presentation by Eric Heinis on Ethical AI architectures, and from Momcilo Mijovic on ‘Rapid Bonding’.

In addition, Jonah Wilberg released the third and final part of his extended sequence on the concept of Moloch.

Life Itself Research

Eric Heinis on Ethical AI Architectures

Drawing on his work in AI alignment, Eric Heinis - design engineer and founder of Ethic LLC - argues that encoding values at the semantic level is fundamentally unstable: any intelligence capable enough to construct a narrative justifying a rule-break will eventually do so. The architecture has to do the work, not the words…

Listen now

2 months ago · 3 likes · Jonah Wilberg

Life Itself Research

Momcilo Mijovic on 'Rapid Bonding'

Momcilo explores the institutional and structural conditions of cooperation and social capital and applies this to problems faced by informal, values-aligned communities like Life Itself…

Listen now

3 months ago · 3 likes · Jonah Wilberg

Life itself Riverside Hub

Here is an article from our inner house tenzo, related to her last book Shojin, where she explores an active way of being with the complexity and suffering of our food. Inspired by the Zen tradition, it resonates with a metamodern posture.

Life Itself Riverside Bergerac Hub

Shojin, the zen temple food

I am the tenzo of the Riverside Hub of Life Itself…

Read more

a month ago · Valerie Duvauchelle

🌱 Help us create a weller, wiser world together. To support the movement, you can:

💬 Share your thoughts in the comments section

🎁 Share this newsletter with a friend

💸 Become a paid subscriber

Lauren Wigmore, our amazing Communications Manager, is transitioning into a full-time role at Liminal Learning. We’d like to thank Lauren for the incredible dedication she has brought to the Life Itself team. She has been a cornerstone of our community and is a true exemplar of the values we wish to see in the world.

Below are some reflections from Lauren about her time working at Life Itself.

After nearly three years, my formal time with Life Itself is coming to an end.

It feels like a bittersweet turning point: stepping into new pastures filled with wild flowers, while carrying the tender ache of leaving behind the roses I have tended to so intently over these years.

When I took a leap into the unknown and moved to Mexico four years ago, I was determined to align my life with work that truly mattered. I first came across Life Itself through an Upwork job ad. I didn’t get the job initially, but that didn’t matter. I wanted to be part of a community led by people who were genuinely trying to seed change. So I kept showing up. After some gentle persistence on my side, I eventually found my way in as the “Comms person.”

What followed has been so much more than just a job. I have seen a great deal of change and development, both in the organisation and in myself. Life Itself has a way of asking you to grow. I am deeply grateful for that. No flower can grow if the soil is depleted, and one of the things I most value about this team is its willingness to tend to the soil: the relationships, the honesty, the reflection, and the deeper conditions that make meaningful work possible.

It has also been a real privilege to help shape and support some of the work that has emerged over these years. I have had the chance to steward newsletters and communications, support the launch of the Second Renaissance initiative, help develop Conscious Coliving courses, and hold space for community through events, gatherings, and ongoing shared work. To play a part in bringing these projects into form, and to support the people and relationships at the heart of them, has meant a great deal to me.

I am leaving with a full heart and a great deal of gratitude for all I have learned, all I have contributed to, and all I have been lucky enough to witness up close.

This is not the end. I will still be around in the Life Itself and Second Renaissance communities, but it is goodbye from my role as the “Comms person.”

To the wider community: thank you. You have made this work feel joyful, connected, and alive. It is rare that such a diversity of people can truly co-exist with shared care and purpose, and it has been a deep privilege to be part of that.

And to Rufus, Sylvie, Catherine, Valerie, and everyone else I have had the pleasure of co-creating with over these years: thank you. Big love, and a heartfelt thank you for the trust, challenge, care, and companionship that have shaped this chapter of my life.

You can keep in touch (via LinkedIn is probably best) but don’t worry I’ll be seeing you around anyway.

Read the full paper

Watch the webinar

Modern humanity doesn’t simply make use of technology; we perceive the world in its image, and invest it with sacred authority to guide our choices. Now we’re approaching a precipice, with tech galloping ahead of our capacity to use it wisely. A new essay explores the foundations of these dysfunctional tendencies within the modern cultural paradigm, and considers the shifts in worldview and inner capacity that might support a future society to choose more wisely the forces we unleash.

This is the fifth paper in the Second Renaissance series; authored by Rufus Pollock, Rosie Bell and Sylvie Barbier (Life Itself Sensemaking Studio).

Read the full paper

Summary

As far back as we can trace homo sapiens, we find evidence that technology has been part of human existence. But the speed and scale at which it shapes our lives today is unprecedented. Once a helpful servant, tech has become a dysfunctional master; a cultural ideology in its own right. It’s no longer an exaggeration to suggest that modern technology is a god - commanding faith, reverence and moral authority, and eclipsing human values in our collective choices. A residual faith in human reason sustains the illusion of freedom, while the tools we invite into our lives distort our attention, behaviour and relationship with each other and the world.

The acceleration of AI brings this pattern into sharp focus; fuelled by a race-to-the-bottom dynamic where competition overwhelms collective restraint.

Our collective action problems are rooted in a worldview of separateness - but there are other ways to see ourselves. The paradigm shift we need is intimated in the Buddhist concept of interbeing. The understanding that nothing exists in isolation contains, by extension, a simple truth: nobody wins a competition that ends in shared destruction.

A future society that survives its own technologies will understand that freedom depends not only upon choice, but the capacity to choose wisely - grounded in a fuller account of human nature, and our radical interdependency.

Join the webinar roundtable

Join us on Wednesday 18th March, 4:30-6pm GMT for a live roundtable discussion with the paper authors and invited experts in AI and social transformation: Michael Garfield (Humans on the Loop podcast), Xavier Snelgrove (Orbital Studies Magazine), and Jenny Stefanotti (Denizen).

Register for the webinar

Watch the webinar recording

This roundtable will open a timely conversation:

• ​Has technology become a kind of modern “god”?

• ​How do modern assumptions — individualism, rationalism, materialism, and the myth of progress — shape our relationship with AI?

• ​What might it mean to shift from out-of-control technological acceleration towards collective restraint?

• ​Can a worldview grounded in interbeing — the recognition of radical interdependence — support wiser choices about the forces we unleash?

​Rather than focusing only on governance, the discussion will examine the cultural paradigm shaping our technological era — and the inner capacities needed to navigate it well.

​Join us as we ask not only what AI can do — but who we must become to live well with it.

London Meet-Up

On Friday, 23 January, Jonah Wilberg hosted the fifth Second Renaissance London meet-up at Newspeak House. This was our largest meet-up yet, with over 100 sign-ups. The event was themed around the Game B community, founded by Jim Rutt. We also had an unexpected drop-in from Rufus Pollock, who gave a captivating, impromptu talk on the prospect of civilisational collapse. As always, the evening ended in the local pub, with more conversation and connection sparked by the event.

On February 28th, Jonah will be hosting the next meet-up. The event will be run in collaboration with InnerOn, an online platform and community being created by Alina Croitoru, designed to "help people remember how to be themselves and together in real life". See more details on Luma.

Seeds of a Second Renaissance

This month’s Seeds of a Second Renaissance newsletter focused on Max Scheler’s concept of ‘Valueception’:

‘Amid growing awareness that our socio-ecological crises share metaphysical roots, a renewed discourse of value is gathering momentum. Might there be any intrinsic meaning to human existence — or beyond it? Is value more than mere opinion? If so, how can we orient collectively towards more goodness in our lives and societies?’.

See the full newsletter below:

Seeds of a Second Renaissance

Seeds of a Second Renaissance Issue 11 (Jan 2026) - Max Scheler on Valueception

Welcome to Seeds of a Second Renaissance – a monthly newsletter for explorers of inner-led change towards radically wiser societies. For both seasoned travellers and those new to these shores, each edition offers a bite-sized exploration of keystone ideas, and thinkers whose work you may wish to know more deeply…

Read more

3 months ago · 4 likes · Catherine Tran and Rosie Bell

🚀 Upcoming Explorations 🚀

Life Itself UK Gathering

We’re excited to announce that a UK Life Itself gathering will be taking place between 17–21 June. The gathering will be held at Kelston Roundhill Barn, an iconic spot in Somerset, England, between Bath and Bristol. More details coming soon.

🏔️ Over The Mountains 🏔️

January saw the release of three new episodes of Over The Mountains. In Episode 7, Rufus Pollock and Sylvie Barber discuss collective dreaming and the pursuit of wisdom. This was followed by a conversation between Sylvie and Uriel (Freak Daddy) exploring identity and the shared experiences of trans and cis bodies. Finally, Sylvie sat down with Liam Kavanagh to discuss the role of religion and spiritual creativity in the modern age.

Over the Mountains by Life Itself

Finding a path to a Second Renaissance

By Rufus Pollock

💡Life Itself Research💡

The Life Itself Research collective ran an active programme in January, including::

• A presentation by Tom Murray on the Wisdom Skills Framework, which distinguishes between "ascending" processes (building complex cognitive structures) and "descending" processes (releasing ego and trauma).

• A talk by Pavel Chvykov on how complexity science offers a conceptual bridge to core ideas in Eastern philosophy.

  Life Itself Research

  Pavel Chvykov on Complexity Science and Eastern Philosophy

  Pavel outlines how complexity science provides conceptual tools that closely parallel core ideas in Eastern philosophy…

  Listen now

  3 months ago · 3 likes · Jonah Wilberg

Life Itself Research

Tom Murray on Wisdom Skills and Developmental Models

Tom Murray shares his work on the Wisdom Skills Framework. He suggests that most developmental models focus on what he calls ascending processes: the building of increasingly complex cognitive, emotional, and social structures. These processes, he suggests, lead to greater differentiation, perspective-taking, and uniqueness—but not necessarily to unity …

Listen now

3 months ago · 8 likes · 1 comment · Jonah Wilberg

🌱 Help us create a weller, wiser world together. To support the movement, you can:

💬 Share your thoughts in the comments section

🎁 Share this newsletter with a friend

💸 Become a paid subscriber

Subscribe now

Hold the connective tissue that keeps people, projects, and life flowing.

Life Itself is seeking a Life & Studio Steward to support the day-to-day coordination of projects, communications, and practical life logistics across Life Itself and the working lives of the co-leads.

This is a context-rich, adaptive role focused on reducing cognitive load, maintaining momentum, and ensuring that both organizational and personal systems run with clarity, care, and reliability. You will work across project coordination, communications, light operations and finance, and life administration; acting as a trusted steward of flow rather than a traditional assistant

About Life Itself

Life Itself is an international nonprofit dedicated to building a wiser, weller world. We bridge inner transformation and systemic change, cultivating personal growth, collective sensemaking, and practical action toward societal regeneration. Our work spans physical hubs in Europe, research and movement-building initiatives, and collaborations that weave together philosophy, spirituality, and social innovation.

We are a small, dedicated, and experimental team: curious, grounded, and pragmatic about what it takes to build a better world.

Role Purpose

The Life & Studio Steward supports coherence across projects, people, systems, and daily life. You help translate ideas into action, keep commitments visible and moving, and ensure that essential administrative, financial, and logistical foundations are handled quietly and well.

This role blends executive support, project coordination, light operations and finance, and life logistics. It requires discretion, good judgment, and an ability to hold multiple contexts without becoming overwhelmed.

Core Responsibilities

1. Project & Task Coordination

• Maintain an overview of active projects across Life Itself and related initiatives.

• Track next actions, dependencies, and timelines.

• Proactively follow up on open loops, commitments, and decisions.

• Help translate ideas, conversations, and intentions into concrete tasks.

• Support light project management rhythms (lists, dashboards, reminders).

2. Communications & Inbox Stewardship

• Triage and respond to incoming emails and messages with clarity and care.

• Ensure collaborators, partners, and external contacts receive timely responses.

• Route information appropriately and surface what needs attention.

• Draft or refine simple responses, updates, or follow-ups as needed.

3. Scheduling, Travel & Logistics

• Manage calendars, meetings, and scheduling across multiple contexts.

• Coordinate travel, accommodation, and logistics for events, residencies, or trips.

• Prepare agendas, reminders, and practical details so meetings run smoothly.

4. Life Administration & Personal Support

• Support personal and family logistics (e.g. childcare or au pair searches, schools, housing, repairs).

• Research, coordinate, and follow through on purchases or services (e.g. equipment, vehicles, repairs).

• Hold sensitive information with discretion and care.

5. Studio, Collective & Team Support

• Support sub-collectives or project teams with coordination, payments, and basic operations.

• Act as a connector between people, systems, and processes.

• Help ensure that practical needs don’t block creative or strategic work.

6. Automation, Tools & AI Support

• Set up or maintain lightweight automations (reminders, workflows, publishing, scheduling).

• Use AI tools where helpful to reduce overhead and increase clarity.

• Apply human judgment, context, and discernment to everything automated.

Light Operations & Financial Stewardship

In a scaled-down but reliable capacity, this role also supports the administrative backbone of Life Itself and related entities, ensuring financial hygiene, compliance, and continuity.

• Payments & Cashflow

• Pay contractors, staff, and suppliers on time.

• Track invoices, expenses, and incoming bills.

• Monitor account balances and prepare simple cashflow overviews.

• Liaise with accountants and bookkeepers.

• Track deadlines for filings, taxes, and reporting obligations.

• Ensure legal and regulatory requirements are met on time.

• Systems & Process Reliability

• Maintain simple, robust ops and finance systems.

• Improve reliability and reduce friction through sensible automation.

Profile & Competencies

You might be a great fit if you:

• Have experience as an executive assistant, project manager, operations coordinator, or similar role.

• Are highly organized, reliable, and calm in complexity.

• Enjoy holding many small threads and ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.

• Can move fluidly between strategic awareness and detailed execution.

• Are discreet, trustworthy, and comfortable with personal as well as professional contexts.

• Are confident with digital tools, systems, and automation.

• Bring a service-oriented mindset without people-pleasing.

Mindset & Ethos

We’re looking for someone who:

• Sees support work as stewardship, not subordination.

• Finds meaning in creating ease, flow, and clarity for others.

• Values simplicity, reliability, and care over complexity.

• Is proactive, grounded, and able to self-manage.

• Thrives in a small, experimental, relational environment.

Working Conditions

• Part-time or full-time (to be agreed).

• Primarily remote, with occasional in-person coordination as needed.

• Flexible working hours, responsive to rhythms rather than rigid schedules.

• Competitive compensation aligned with experience and scope.

How to Apply

Email jobs@lifeitself.org with the subject line “Life & Studio Steward Application.”

Please include:

• A short note on what support as stewardship means to you.

• Your CV or LinkedIn profile.

• (Optional) Examples of systems, workflows, or coordination you’ve designed or held.

We warmly welcome applications from candidates of diverse backgrounds. Stewardship is a practice, we hire for ethos as much as experience.

Art of the Second Renaissance: Manifesto and Magazine

On Tuesday 28th January, we launched the Art of the Second Renaissance Manifesto and Magazine. Art of the Second Renaissance is a new movement aiming to redefine how art is made and to contribute to the emergence of a Second Renaissance. Its core activities include developing a manifesto, forming a collective, producing an annual magazine, hosting exhibitions, and creating projects that embody the movement’s principles. You can read more about the launch here.

In February, we launched ‘Seeds of a Second Renaissance’ - a curated, digestible, and accessible newsletter for anyone seeking to learn, participate, or collaborate in the movement. You can read all editions to date here.

🌿 Spring’s Seedlings 🌿

Human Transformation in a Time of Metacrisis (Harvard, May)

On May 2nd and 3rd, the Human Transformation in a Time of Metacrisis event took place, bringing together a global community of educators, practitioners, thinkers, and changemakers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The event focused on how education and inner development can address the Metacrisis, the interconnected challenges of our era - social polarization, ecological breakdown, and a crisis of meaning - signalling a world in transition.

Keynote speakers included Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction; Rebecca Henderson, Harvard Business School Professor and author of Reimagining Capitalism; Tyler VanderWeele, Director of Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program; and Futurist and Developmental Theorist Zak Stein. The conference also featured panels, workshops and unconference sessions led by Bonnitta Roy, Daniel Thorson, Isabela Granic, Peter Limberg, Kam Bellamy, and Brendan Graham Dempsey, exploring themes such as metamodern spirituality, youth flourishing, and collective healing. A youth-led collective session, EmpowerEd Through Arts, from students at the Boston Arts Academy also took place.

☀️ Summer Gatherings ☀️

Events

This summer also saw the first proto-edition of the Second Renaissance Festival - a small gathering of dance, music, art and ritual. It was a joyous and intimate occasion, and we’re very excited to see this project evolve in the years to come.

A few weeks later, we hosted the Sensemaking Summer School at the Riverside Hub - a week-long intensive, exploring the intersection of global catastrophic risk and cultural evolution, through the frameworks of Integral Theory, Metacrisis and Second Renaissance.

In July the ‘Inner River’ residency was hosted at the Riverside Hub, a month-long exploration of art and creative way-finding. See here for a beautiful recap written by Alexia Netcu, one of the members of the hosting team.

From Metacrisis to Second Renaissance: A 4-Week Exploratory Journey – Live Sessions in July

Rufus Pollock and Sylvie Barbier hosted the From Metacrisis to Second Renaissance: A 4-Week Exploratory Journey course in July. Bringing together 24 participants for online interactive learning, dialogue, and deeper exploration of the Second Renaissance framework.

Life Itself Research

The summer was a prolific period of activity for the Life Itself Research community, which continued its weekly programme of calls, with recordings available at the new research substack.

• Anna Riedl gave a fascinating talk on her recent work on Autopoiethics, connecting it to her previous work with John Vervaeke on Relevance Realisation, rationality and wisdom.

• Valerie Duvauchelle shared her experience of using insights from Zen monastic practice in developing a co-living framework at Life Itself’s Bergerac Hub.

• Well-known scholar of metamodernism and spirituality Brendan Graham Dempsey gave an exciting presentation entitled “Measuring Worldviews: Putting Integral Altitudes to the Test”.

• Jonah Wilberg gave a presentation on the intellectual history of the Metacrisis: discussing both the history of that specific term, and the broader history of related ideas within 19th and 20th century philosophy.

Alongside the research group, we released several podcasts over the summer featuring thinkers such as Zak Stein, Theo Dawson and Manda Scott.

🍁 Autumn Insights 🍁

Autumn Praxis Residency (Bergerac, October - December)

October 6th marked the beginning of this year’s Autumn Praxis Residency, a two and a half month-long experiment of living in deep connection, including participants from the Life Itself Practicum. Over this period, twenty-four residents, from nine different countries, practiced the art of co-living in our beautiful Riverside Hub in Bergerac. It was a beautiful and enriching experience, see here for a series of memories and reflections from the residency.

Developmental Spaces: Cultural incubators for a time of transformation (October)

On October 2nd, we released our second white paper of the year. The paper set out a policy case for Developmental Spaces: collective settings for integrated inner development. You can watch the webinar here.

This early step aims to help build an evidence-based movement for Developmental Spaces, provided widely enough to serve large segments of populations. The ultimate ambition is a replicable, scalable model with potential to influence the deepest orientation of societies towards a regenerative future - a ‘Second Renaissance’. Learn more about the white paper here.

Over the Mountains Podcast Series (November)

On the 13th of November, Rufus and Sylvie released the first edition of Over The Mountains - a podcast and a blog exploring the understandings and system shifts needed to bring forth a Second Renaissance, and to live within a metamodern reality that works for everyone. It focuses on the societal, political, economic, and ontological transformations required for such a world to emerge.

Through conversations with sensemakers and the builders of tomorrow - such as Rufus Pollock, Liam Kavanagh, Sylvie Barbier, and Jonah Wilberg - this series shares deep knowledge from sociology, economics, political philosophy, history, neuroscience, and ideological science, making these insights accessible to a wider audience.

Over the Mountains by Life Itself

Over The Mountains #1 | The Devil’s Trick: Invisible Ideology Behind Techno Oligarchy

This is episode #1 of a new sub-series Over the Mountains: Finding a Path to the Second Renaissance…

Listen now

5 months ago · 2 likes · Rufus Pollock and Sylvie Barbier

Looking back, 2025 was an exciting and prolific year for our community. We’re looking forward to continuing this work and seeing what we can accomplish together in 2026 and beyond. As a team, we’d like to extend a sincere thank you to the community for your continued support.

Subscribe now

🌱 Help us to create a weller, wiser world together, to support the movement, you can:

💬 Share your thoughts in the comments section

🎁 Share this newsletter with a friend

💸 Become a paid subscriber

“The next Buddha may take the form of a Sangha — a community practicing understanding and loving-kindness.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

Last week marked the end of this year’s Autumn Praxis Residency. With a heartfelt farewell, we said goodbye to our little family as they went their separate ways to embark on new beginnings.

In an age of fragmentation, spaces like the Riverside Hub offer the rare opportunity to live in deep connection with others. Over the past two and a half months, we embraced the full spectrum of human experience with all of its joys, challenges and beauty. For myself, what stood out the most was the sense of connection, playfulness, and humour. I feel immensely lucky to have spent this time with such caring, inspiring, and kind-hearted people.

As a team, we’d like to offer a huge thanks to all of the residents and practicum participants who joined us this year. All of the joys of these last few months came from your warm and generous participation, as well as the many lessons we’ve taken from this experience. We hope to see you all again soon.

Below are a series of cherished memories and reflections from the participants of this year’s Praxis Residency.

“I think the Praxis Hub is sort of like a little bubble of people who are willing to connect with others in a very deep way. This is a really beautiful place to do really beautiful things… I think I’m going to probably continue to heal and grow as a person on the trajectory that sort of began here and is going to continue going forward.” - Sean

“One moment that really shifted something for me was last week I held space for an ecstatic dance and I was feeling really good that day: I had made dinner for everyone and I felt joyful and connected and I found that the space that emerged with the people who were there dancing with me was just really touching and exciting and playful. And, just getting in touch with that again and the joy of connecting musically. Something kind of lingers within me because of that." - Gustaf

“Knowing that being met in community means you don’t have to do it all by yourself and you can be met with kindness and you can always pay that forward later... there’s something about having our own interpersonal struggles and then coming through it. I feel like a lot of times we have breakage within ourselves or a community and we end up alone or isolated when we’re struggling and I feel like it’s actually in community that we heal.“ - Natalia

“If you feel like in some way you are different or you don’t fit in and you see that the world is broken and you don’t want to fit in it and you want to change it, but you realize ‘I need more than me’... Then I would say this is for you. I would say this is both a place for thinkers and a place for doers.” - Natalia

“...not even every week but sometimes every day something shifts a little bit inside me… in the different ways I have been able to express different parts of myself here, spontaneously that I didn’t know I would get to express...”

“...the time here has been so so precious in the way that few things that I’ve done in my life have been...” - Cassandre

“...it’s not even surprising to me, but there’s a lot of caring people here. And a lot of love. And wanting to be better, wanting to serve the world... it’s just refreshing to be around people who are committed and do want to do something about changing the way we live.”

“...being here, you have a dozen other people that can do that [reflect meaningful, difficult things] with you. And you can be a support to them, which is also, you know, a great honour.” - Kyle

“What a wonderful mix of relaxation, friendship, music, madness, fun, food, and riverside frolicking. A beautiful place with beautiful people. Very enriching. And great food and Zen cooking tuition from Valerie! Many thanks, all. Hope to see many of you again.” - Sue

“I think I’ll be speaking to people about this time here very fondly and wanted to share with my friends who are not connected to these kinds of spaces just the potential of being in such a space. I would love to come back at some point in the future. Maybe that would be next year.” - Gustaf

“I’ve been really happy here actually. The kind of structure has just given me a bit of an anchor; the community around me so I feel connected to people… having those baselines met has been really supportive... for a grump monster like me, that’s really a plus.” - Jem

“It almost reminds me of being a teenager... it was kind of like a communal mess, but it was beautiful. And I really miss that. I feel like a lot of us now have apartments and we live alone and we have to coordinate time with friends. And so being in the hub is different in that there’s so many opportunities to just mingle with people... that feels more like I don’t know, I guess how people lived in the past.” - Natalia

“Life Itself has been truly transformational. I am not the same person I was coming in. It taught me not only to think more about others but to also ponder where the future is headed, and what authenticity looks like. The people who do this kind of thing are very inspirational and kind. Would recommend!” - Tien

Join us next year!

As we look towards 2026, we are in the exciting process of planning our events and residencies programme for the new year, and we’re looking for people to come and share the space.

If you’d like to come and stay with us next year, we invite you to fill out this expression of interest form.

We’re in the final stretch of our crowdfunding journey for the Second Renaissance Magazine. We’ve reached 85% of our £17,500 goal, and with just 3 days left, your support can help bring this vision fully to life. Our dream is not simply to publish a magazine, but to offer an experience — a doorway into another world.

Reaching our target means we can begin fairly compensating artists and writers, building a sustainable foundation, and sharing the transformative power of art with a wider audience.

Become a founding subscriber

• With £25 receive our first issue on Impermanence (available now as a physical copy), a beautiful gift of reflection and transformation.

• With £50 receive the first issue and our second issue on Mythos.

• With £100 receive an advance order of the second and third issues, helping place the magazine on a clear path toward sustainability.

We want you to feel the pulse of a living renaissance when you open the pages, and to sense art once again as a sacred, renewing force.

If this speaks to you, we would be honoured to have you join us as a founding subscriber and carry this cultural beacon into a new era of art.

Join the crowdfunding and get your copy now.

Get your copy now

🚀 Upcoming Explorations 🚀

🌻Conscious Collectives🌻

In November we presented the Developmental Spaces white paper. ​

The event included a presentation by the paper co-authors with a plenary discussion and Q&A, and community breakouts. Speakers at the event included Kam Bellamy (Springboard Foundation for Whole Person Learning); Marc Santolini (Learning Planet Institute); and Tomas Björkman (Ekskäret Foundation).

You can watch the webinar here:

Over the Mountains

November also saw the launch of our new podcast hosted by Rufus Pollock and Sylvie Barbier - Over the Mountains. You can listen to the first episode here.

🌅 Second Renaissance 🌅

Oasis Special Edition: Second Renaissance Fair

On 25th November we welcomed the community to the Second Renaissance Fair. With over 100 sign ups and 18 booths — organisations and projects showcasing their offerings to the community — the event proved to be extremely successful and we hope to curate more Fairs at the Oasis in 2026.

If you want to join us throughout December at the Oasis, we have our next call on Tuesday 16th Dec 6pm CET, you can register here.

Metamodern Mission

Rufus Pollock spoke with Brendan Graham Dempsey on a his recent podcast. Together, they discussed a new orientation to value and meaning in this time between worlds. Watch the episode here:

💡Life Itself Research💡

The Life Itself Research collective had an active programme in November, exploring topics from Moloch and Evolutionary Game theory, new research methodologies and the Freudian and Marxist traditions. You can watch the calls below.

🌳The Bergerac Praxis Hub🌳

We have entered the final week of our 2025 Autumn Praxis Residency. Keep an eye out for reflections on our time together this season in our post-residency write-up, which will be released later this month on the Bergerac Hub Substack.

As we look towards 2026, we are in the exciting process of planning our events and residencies programme for the new year, and we’re looking for people to come and share the space.

Join us: If you’d like to come and stay with us next year, we invite you to fill out this expression of interest form

We are hiring for four part-time roles: Financial Steward, Operations Steward, Communications Steward, and Graphic & Web Designer. Roles are primarily remote with some time in person at our Hubs in France. Start date: as soon as possible. Please apply early as we will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis.

UPDATE 4 February 2026: Applications for all roles are now closed.

UPDATE 10 December 2025: Applications for the roles of Financial Steward and Operations Steward are now closed. Applications for the roles of Communications Steward and Graphic & Web Designer remain open.

About Life Itself

Life Itself is an international nonprofit dedicated to building a wiser, weller world. We bridge inner transformation and systemic change cultivating personal growth, collective sensemaking, and practical action toward societal regeneration. Our work spans physical hubs in Europe, research and movement-building initiatives, and collaborations that weave together philosophy, spirituality, and social innovation.

We are a small, dedicated, and experimental team: curious, grounded, and pragmatic about what it takes to build a better world. Learn more at lifeitself.org.

Financial Steward (Part-Time)

Help steward the financial heartbeat of a community reimagining how we live, work, and relate.

Life Itself is seeking a Financial Steward to hold the coherence of our finances, ensuring transparency, care, and alignment with regenerative principles. You’ll oversee budgets, reporting, and systems across our UK and French entities, while helping shape new economic models rooted in integrity and trust.

Remote, with the option to spend time at our base in SW France.

Start: As soon as possible.

Compensation: Competitive, transparent, and cooperative in spirit.

Apply via jobs@lifeitself.org with the subject “Financial Steward Application.”

Learn more: Read the full job description.

Operations Steward (Part-Time)

Design the rhythms, tools, and relationships that help an intentional organisation thrive.

We’re looking for an Operations Steward (2–3 days/week) to coordinate Life Itself’s day-to-day flow, from events and hub management to systems and culture. You’ll weave coherence across our programs and spaces, helping turn vision into beautifully run realities.

Remote: with periodic time at our hubs (France/UK).

Start: As soon as possible.

Compensation: Competitive, transparent, and flexible.

If you find joy in systems-care, grounded collaboration, and turning ideas into lived experience, come build with us.

Apply via jobs@lifeitself.org with the subject “Operations Steward Application.”

Learn more: Read the full job description.

Communications Steward (0.6-1.0 FTE)

Steward the voice, narrative, and communication ecosystem for a wiser, weller world.

We’re seeking a Communication Steward to design, craft, and maintain coherent, meaningful communication across all of Life Itself’s platforms. This role blends strategic thinking with hands-on creation, shaping our public presence, scheduling and stewarding our channels, and supporting internal clarity and alignment.

Remote, with the option to spend time at our base in SW France.

Start: As soon as possible.

Apply via jobs@lifeitself.org with the subject “Communications Steward Application.”

Learn more: Read the full job description.

Graphic & Web Designer (0.25-0.75 FTE)

Help craft the visual language of a wiser, weller world.

We’re seeking a Graphic & Web Designer to shape and steward Life Itself’s visual identity across web, digital, and social spaces. You’ll design elegant, meaningful experiences that express our mission, bridging inner transformation and systemic change through beauty, clarity, and care.

Remote, with the option to spend time at our base in SW France.

Start: As soon as possible.

Apply via jobs@lifeitself.org with the subject “Graphic & Web Designer Application.”

Learn more: Read the full job description.

Buy tickets here

Oasis Special Edition: Second Renaissance Fair

Step into the Second Renaissance Fair, a one-of-a-kind virtual showcase where changemakers and visionary organizations share their projects in a lively, interactive format. Explore “faire market” meets “science project” style booths, connect with new and familiar organizations, ask questions directly, and discover fresh ideas shaping the Second Renaissance. You can choose to join as a fair-goer or as a presenter in a booth here: https://luma.com/7b1k9412

🌻Conscious Collectives🌻

🌅 Second Renaissance 🌅

In the Oasis calls this month we explored the dance of leadership and surrender in Lead or Follow, sharpened our awareness through the Noticing Game, and tuned into subtle alignment with Inner Resonance. As Halloween approached, Spooky Time invited us into mystery, laughter, and shared playfulness. Our tents included GiveWiser, Life Guild, Intentional Ventures, Research & Sensemaking, Greenhouse, and the Navigators Guild.

Join us in a call in November.

Some of our top forum posts over the past month have included:

• Metacrisis and AI governance - talk

• Meditations on Moloch

• Is belief in and practice of revealed religion consistent with Second Renaissance thinking?

London based? Join Second Renaissance London and Long Now London, at Shaping Wiser Futures on November 9th. A participant-led gathering bringing together aligned London-based communities — and newcomers alike — to share projects, exchange ideas, and practice together. Learn more and register: https://luma.com/wb8c77i0

💡Life Itself Research💡

The Life Itself Research group explored topics including AI, approaches to knowledge commons, and Gabriel Marcel’s concept of the ‘broken world’ (recording below).

Life Itself Research

Momcilo Mijovic on Gabriel Marcel and the Broken World

Momčilo explores the work of Gabriel Marcel, the French Christian existentialist philosopher, drawing parallels between his conception of the ‘broken world’ and recent ideas in metamodernism, including the concept of ‘metacrisis’ and the ideas of John Vervaeke…

Listen now

6 months ago · 1 like · Jonah Wilberg

The group also undertook some strategic reflection, resulting in a new rota system with regular presentations of work-in-progress, and clarified research approach.

🌳The Bergerac Praxis Hub🌳

Life Itself Bergerac Praxis Residencies

Riverside Hub October Newsletter

A word from our community manager, Finn…

Read more

5 months ago · 1 like · Valerie Duvauchelle and Finn Clancy

Life Itself Bergerac Praxis Residencies

Life Itself Spring Praxis Residency 2026 (February to May)

What does it mean to live well, together? How might our ways of being and relating transform our worlds? How can we practise living “the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible…

Read more

6 months ago · 6 likes · 1 comment · Life Itself Praxis Hub, Finn Clancy, Catherine Tran, and Valerie Duvauchelle

🌱 Help us to create a weller, wiser world together, to support the movement, you can:

💬 Share your thoughts in the comments section

🎁 Share this newsletter with a friend

💸 Become a paid subscriber

Join, John Vervaeke, Thomas Hübl and Rebecca Henderson at the Second Renaissance Online: Transformation in a Time of Metacrisis. They invite us to explore how wisdom, science, and community action can meet the complexity of our moment with depth, discernment, and heart.

Register now

Newly Confirmed Keynote Speakers

We are thrilled to share our confirmed keynotes and panelists for this three-day online gathering of dialogue, practice, and inquiry with visionary thinkers and facilitators shaping the global conversation on transformation, meaning, and renewal.

John Vervaeke

Professor, Cognitive Science and Psychology, University of Toronto

John Vervaeke, PhD, is an award-winning professor at the University of Toronto, specializing in psychology, cognitive science, and Buddhist psychology. He is Director of the Cognitive Science program and leads the Consciousness and Wisdom Studies Laboratory. Vervaeke’s teaching and research emphasize insight, consciousness, intelligence, rationality, mindfulness, and the 4E model of cognition. He is widely recognized for his acclaimed YouTube series “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis,” “After Socrates,” and authorship of “Zombies in Western Culture.”

Thomas Hübl

Founder, Academy of Inner Science

Thomas Hübl, PhD, is a renowned teacher, author, and international facilitator known for integrating wisdom traditions with science to address personal and collective trauma. He has taught over 100,000 people worldwide and authored Attuned and Healing Collective Trauma. Hübl developed the Collective Trauma Integration Process and has led programs fostering healing and dialogue around historical wounds, notably those following the Holocaust. He is a visiting scholar at Harvard’s Wyss Institute and co-founded The Pocket Project, an NGO dedicated to global trauma integration. Hübl holds a PhD focused on collective trauma healing.

Thomas Hübl and John Vervaeke join our previously confirmed speaker:

Rebecca Henderson

Professor, Harvard Business School

Rebecca Henderson is a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a fellow of both the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also has more than twenty-five years of major public board experience. Rebecca’s research explores the degree to which the private sector can play a major role in building a more sustainable economy. She is an author of a number of publications, including Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire. Rebecca is currently researching how inner capacities lead to climate action in education, business, and politics.

The Invitation

How do we live—wisely—at the end of an old world and the beginning of another?
How can we grow the capacities our time demands: emotional resilience, relational maturity, intellectual discernment, and collective presence—and apply it to transform our systems and support cultural flourishing?

Across three days, we’ll explore:

• The inner foundations of societal resilience and wisdom-based action

• The role of trauma and healing in the renewal of culture and systems

• The emergence of a Second Renaissance—integrating science, art, and spirituality

• How AI, metamodernity, and education shape the new architectures of meaning

• Practices of embodiment, co-creation, and collective intelligence

  

Featured Voices and Panels

Across the three days we also welcome 8 panels across a variety of topics including education, health, spirituality, climate, youth, art, community and AI, led by:

• Sylvie Barbier (Life Itself)

• Kam Bellamy (Springboard Foundation)

• Aterah Nusrat (Osher Center for Integrative Health - Harvard)

• Rufus Pollock (Life Itself)

• Jadzia Tedeschi (Climate Majority Project)

• James Baker (Intentional Society)

• Liam Kavanagh (Climate Majority Project)

Panelists to date include Schuyler Brown, Cheryl Hsu, Amanda Zamparo, Christine Vatovec, David Victorson and Bruce Barrett, with more to be added soon.

The Details

🗓️ December 5–7, 2025 5pm - 9pm CET | 8am - 12pm PT | 11am - 3pm EST

🌐 Online

🐧Early Bird Tickets until 7th November - only 25 remaining

🔗 Register Now - https://www.2rcon.org/events/second-renaissance-online-conference

🤫 Use discount code WISDOM25 for a further 25% off all tickets

The Unconference

The Second Renaissance invites you to participate in the emergence of a wiser, more resilient world through participant-submitted unconference workshops.

View current submissions here

What is an Unconference?

An unconference is a co-created format, using a lightly structured approach. Once registered you can start to propose your own sessions—dialogues, workshops, embodied practices, or experiments in shared inquiry. Whether you want to lead or simply participate, the Unconference is designed to support peer-to-peer exchange, deep listening, and creative emergence across the 3 days.

Join us for a one of a kind conference where connection and sharing underpins a programme designed to weave the metacrisis, wisdom, art, science, and community practice into new shared forms of response and renewal.

https://www.2rcon.org

Register now

About the episode

In this Life Itself Podcast, Jim Rutt, a complexity thinker and former tech entrepreneur, recounts his early life hitchhiking across America and his journey to becoming a senior figure in Thomson’s internet transition (1992–1999) and Network Solutions’ $15 billion sale in 2000. Rutt details his early awareness of Game A’s unsustainability and bringing his work on complexity science, markets and social systems to the Santa Fe Institute. Rutt details the founding dialogues with Jordan Hall that led to ‘Game B’ a decentralised societal model to replace Game A—a civilisational mode Rutt and Rufus trace back to the treaty of Westphalia. Rutt describes the intensity of ‘willing to die’ spirit necessary for Game B values to take root & the kinds of meditation structures needed for Game B communities to scale together.

Chapters:

• 00:01:55 – Jim’s Childhood and 1976 Hitchhiking Adventures

• 00:16:23 – Leading Thomson’s Internet Transition (1992–1999)

• 00:18:38 – Realizing Game A’s Unsustainability (1994)

• 00:27:00 – Joining the Santa Fe Institute

• 00:29:25 – Uncovering the Monetary-Finance-Business Nexus (2007–2008)

• 00:29:31 – Reflections on Money and the Debt Regime

• 00:35:35 – Planning for an Uncertain Future

• 00:36:38 – The Treaty of Westphalia and Game A’s Foundations

• 01:40:37 – Introducing Game B

• 02:02:20 – Defining Game A and Game B

• 02:19:00 – The Personal-Institutional Spiral and Game B Communities

About the speakers:

Jim Rutt is the former CEO of Network Solutions. The New York Times once referred to him as “the Internet’s bad boy” due to his reputation for creative mischief. He sold Network Solutions at the peak of the Dot Com boom and then went into scientific research. Jim has been affiliated with the Santa Fe Institute since 2002, serving as Chairman from 2009 thru 2012. Since that time he has been spearheading the Game B movement and host of the Jim Rutt Show. “Dividend Money” Everything Jim Learned about money

The Jim Rutt Show: https://www.jimruttshow.com

Substack:

“Dividend Money” Everything Jim Learned about money

Rufus Pollock is an entrepreneur, activist and author as well as a long-term zen practitioner. He is passionate about finding wiser, weller ways to live together. He has founded several for-profit and nonprofit initiatives including Life Itself, Open Knowledge Foundation, and Datopian. His book Open Revolution is about making a radically freer and fairer information age. Previously he has been the Mead Fellow in Economics at the University of Cambridge as well as a Shuttleworth and Ashoka Fellow. A recognized global expert on the information society, he has worked with G7 governments, IGOs like the UN, Fortune 500s as well as many civil society organizations. He holds a PhD in Economics and a double first in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge.

Find out more about his work on his website: www.rufuspollock.com.

Podcast Production:

Jacob Kishere of

www.jacobkishere.com

Second Renaissance Online Conference: 5-7 Dec 2025 - Transformation in a Time of Metacrisis

Just announced - Thomas Hübl to join Prof Rebecca Henderson, as two of the keynote speakers at the Second Renaissance Online Conference: Transformation in a Time of Metacrisis.

Taking place December 5–7, 2025, online, we invite you to join us — along with thinkers and changemakers including Kam Bellamy, Peter Limberg, Rufus Pollock, and Liam Kavanagh — for three days of deep inquiry and dialogue exploring transformation, wisdom, resilience, and renewal in a time of metacrisis, and the role of community within it all.

There are currently discounted Earlybird tickets available to support community accessibility.

👉 Learn more and get your tickets at www.2rcon.org

Read the full announce post here.

Visit the website or buy tickets here

From Metacrisis to Second Renaissance: A 4-Week Exploratory Journey – Live Sessions Starting 12th Nov

Rufus Pollock and Sylvie Barbier will be hosting the next live From Metacrisis to Second Renaissance: A 4-Week Exploratory Journey. The 4-week course starts on Wednesday, 12th November, and runs every Wednesday from 5pm-630pm CEST until 3rd December inclusive. It’s a chance to gather online for interactive learning, dialogue, and deeper exploration of the Second Renaissance framework.

🔗 Register here: https://luma.com/dnlu160o

Here’s what our latest participants said about the course:

I deeply appreciated the course’s embodied approach to navigating pathways toward a paradigm shift.

A wonderful connection space which inspires to keep seeking and building towards the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.

🌻Conscious Collectives🌻

Join us for the new Developmental Spaces White Paper Webinar - Wednesday 5th Nov, 6pm

Sign up for the webinar here - https://luma.com/rj11xedf

🌅 Second Renaissance 🌅

Second Renaissance Magazine

Today marks the official launch of our crowdfunding campaign for the Second Renaissance Magazine.

This is more than a magazine — it’s a cultural movement. Each issue gathers artists, writers, and performers who embody the spirit of the Second Renaissance: art as oracle, as ritual, as a guide toward new meaning.

We are raising £17,500 to bring the next two issues to life. Your support covers curation, editing, design, and printing — but most importantly, it ensures that the artists who share their vision and labour are fairly compensated.

🌟 Every pledge is doubled (up to £200) thanks to our generous private match funders — meaning your impact goes twice as far.

👉 Join the campaign here

With your support, the Second Renaissance becomes not only visible, but sustainable. Together, we can midwife this cultural shift.

Oasis Special Edition: Second Renaissance Fair

Step into the Second Renaissance Fair, a one-of-a-kind virtual showcase where changemakers and visionary organizations share their projects in a lively, interactive format. Explore “faire market” meets “science project” style booths, connect with new and familiar organizations, ask questions directly, and discover fresh ideas shaping the Second Renaissance. Whether attending to learn or presenting to share your work, this is your chance to engage, connect, and be inspired. Reserve your spot and join the fair here: https://luma.com/7b1k9412

Second Renaissance Forum

Some of our top forum posts over the past month have included:

• The Intellectual Genealogy of Second Renaissance Thought

• Converging Futures: A New Technique for Arriving at a Shared Vision

• Multiplicity and Unity

We also have a new category - Embodied Knowing - a space to explore the ways knowledge lives beyond words. Embodied Knowing is where dreams, art, movement, myth, and symbolic sense-making find a home.

This category invites us to welcome the full spectrum of human expression’, rational and intuitive, personal and collective, so we can co-create a culture that feels alive.

You can read more and contribute here.

Shaping Wiser Futures - London Event - November 9th

Co-hosted by Second Renaissance London and Long Now London, this participant-led gathering will bring together aligned London-based communities — and newcomers alike — to share projects, exchange ideas, and practice together.

Learn more and register here: https://luma.com/wb8c77i0

💡Life Itself Research💡

September saw an exciting new strand of activity in the Research group on the topic of how generative AI can be used to enhance wisdom, sense-making and collaboration. This including a dialogue and sharing circle around individual projects with AI, as well as a discussion to the Synergy Engine project, hosted by Bob Bunge, that included members of the World Systems Solutions team behind the project.

There was also a presentation and discussion on the results of the Cohere+ project (link below), and more recently, a presentation on ‘digital vigilantism’ by Momcilo Mijovic.

It is also great to be able to share the recording, in line with launch of his new book, of Brendan Graham Dempsey’s presentation on ‘Measuring Worldviews’, using the Lectica approach. As with other recordings, this is available on the dedicated Life Itself Research Substack.

🌳The Bergerac Praxis Hub🌳

The Bergerac Praxis Hub is kicking off Autumn with a full house for this year’s Autumn Residency, and Life Itself Practicuum. Follow all the latest developments from the residency here:

Life Itself Bergerac Praxis Residencies

News from Life Itself Bergerac Praxis Hub - https://lifeitself.org/hubs/bergerac

By Life Itself Praxis Hub

🌱 Help us to create a weller, wiser world together, to support the movement, you can:

💬 Share your thoughts in the comments section

🎁 Share this newsletter with a friend

💸 Become a paid subscriber

About the episode:

In this episode of the Second Renaissance Podcast, we make sense of the polarization following the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Sylvie speaks to the power and necessity of forgiveness in breaking cycles of retaliation and explores what leadership can look like amid escalating division. We reflect on the nature of speech and the importance of recognizing the power of our words. The conversation closes with an appreciation of the existential importance of becoming joyfully alive in these times.

Chapters:

00:02:11 – Erika Kirk’s Forgiveness of the Killer
00:08:00 – Why Our Words Matter
00:16:50 – Sacred Anchoring & Breaking Cycles of Violence
00:18:50 – Challenges Around “Speech as Violence”
00:26:00 – Intention in Speech
00:29:00 – Thich Nhat Hanh on Non-Violence & the Seeds of Hatred
00:31:00 – Committing to Something Greater & the Joy of Being Alive

Speakers

Sylvie Shiwei Barbier is a French-Taiwanese performance artist, entrepreneur and educator. She co-founded Life Itself to build a wiser future through culture, space and community.

https://lifeitself.org/people/sylvieshiweibarbier

Jacob Kishere is a dialogue facilitator, rapper, philosopher and writer. He is the creator of SENSESPACE podcast, author of Culturepilgrim and co-founder of The Resonant Man Initiative.

www.jacobkishere.com

Discussion about this video

Read the paper

Authored by Rufus Pollock, Boaz Feldman and Rosie Bell (Life Itself Sensemaking Studio). Developed through ongoing consultation with practitioners of inner-outer change and the broader Developmental Spaces community, we are also very grateful for financial support from LIONE and Life Itself.

Summary

Inner foundations of outer crises

Today’s interconnected crises stem from the foundations of globalised culture: the reality assumptions, values, and perspectives that shape societies. Evidence is mounting that modern civilisation is breaking down in ways that can’t simply be repaired. Renewal is needed at a foundational level – a profound shift in deep-seated, collective worldview. Ways of being and seeing that we are hardly able to imagine from a modern cultural frame.

The missing infrastructure of inner growth

In other words, if we’re serious about system transformation, we must also be serious about inner transformation. However, modern materialist culture largely treats the inner world as irrelevant - leaving us with very few robust, trusted, research-based institutions dedicated to large-scale inner growth for the common good. The potential for human flourishing and renewal is vast; but our inherited maps are fragmented. We need scaleable, integrated approaches to inner transformation – sustained by dedicated communities that can weave new cultural stories together.

In response to this need, we offer the idea of Developmental Spaces: dedicated, growth-oriented spaces that nurture multi-domain inner development and act as cultural incubators for a new paradigm.

Integrating domains of inner growth

Building on synthesis supplied by Integral Theory, we sketch several interdependent domains of inner growth: Waking Up (spiritual awareness), Cognitive Development (complexity of thought), Growing Up (worldview shifts), Cleaning Up (trauma healing and shadow integration), and Showing Up (ethical action and engagement). Together, the maps and practices within these domains can equip individuals and communities with the qualities needed to become resilient amid breakdown, and flourish into new cultural shapes.

Sustaining collective intention

For this kind of growth to take root, dedicated spaces are essential. Continuity, trust, and collective purpose require sustained practice, and safe community environments that support vulnerability and experimentation. Within these “islands of coherence,” transformative ways of being, thinking and acting can seed future ways of life.

Transformation at scale

This early step aims to help build an evidence-based movement for Developmental Spaces, provided widely enough to serve large segments of populations. The ultimate ambition is a replicable, scalable model with potential to influence the deepest orientation of societies towards a regenerative future - a ‘Second Renaissance’.

Read the full paper

Join us for the online launch event: Wednesday 5 November

On Wednesday 5 November, 5-6:30pm CET, we are offering a free webinar to present the Developmental Spaces white paper. ​

The event will feature: welcome & introductions; a presentation by the paper co-authors; comments by invited guests; discussion in breakout rooms; plenary discussion and Q&A. All interested in the field of inner development and inner-led social change are warmly welcome.

The following field experts will be speaking: Kam Bellamy (Springboard Foundation for Whole Person Learning); Marc Santolini (Learning Planet Institute); and Tomas Björkman (Ekskäret Foundation).

We look forward to seeing you there.

Register for the webinar

Watch the event recording

11 Nov 2025 update: For those of you who missed the event, here’s the recording of the presentation and guest speakers…

Across three days online in December, we’ll bring together leading thinkers, practitioners, and community-builders to explore pathways for resilience, renewal, and societal transformation towards a Second Renaissance. Together, we will examine how wisdom, creativity, and collective action can respond to the interwoven crises of our time — social polarization, ecological breakdown, inequality, and loss of meaning— fostering a wisdom-based community of practice where insight, connection, and engaged action come together to create meaningful impact..

Keep reading for full event details and tickets, what we will learn, who should attend, provisional schedule, confirmed speakers and panelists, unconference information and where to register your interest.

Event Details - Snapshot Overview

Date: 5-7 December, 2025

Time: 5pm - 9pm CET | 8am - 12pm PT | 11am - 3pm EST

Where: Online

What: 3 days: 2-day conference, and 1 day unconference structure

Who: Academics, researchers, practitioners, facilitators, artists, community-builders, and activists seeking to develop resilience, integrate wisdom into action, and contribute to meaningful community and societal transformation

Website: www.2rcon.org/

Confirmed: Prof. Rebecca Henderson — author of Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire, Kam Bellamy — Springboard, Peter Limberg of the Stoa, and Liam Kavanagh — Co-founder of Climate Majority Project

Tickets: Register today with 70% off Super-Early Bird rates - only 25 tickets available

70% Off - Register Now

A Wisdom-Based Community of Practice for Engaged Action

We live in a time of accelerating crisis and possibility: social polarization, ecological breakdown, inequality, and a crisis of meaning and connection. These are not separate problems, but interwoven symptoms of a deeper shift in our shared values, beliefs, and stories.

The creation of a weller, wiser world offers the opportunity to respond to the metacrisis with a regenerative vision: not only reform, but of a deep renewal of consciousness, culture, and collective purpose. Drawing from wisdom traditions, science, art, and activism, the Second Renaissance provides a space for integrating inner cultivation, relational resilience, and practical action.

The Second Renaissance Online conference brings together inquiry and imagination: How can we meet technological disruption with wisdom? How do arts and education nurture resilience and renewal? How do spirituality, health, youth movements, and climate action interweave into a larger story of transformation? How do communities support our values development?

After the success of our in-person Human Transformation in a Time of Metacrisis conference at Harvard University (May 2025), we’re excited to continue this global conversation with the Second Renaissance Online Conference — creating a leading edge conference of thought-leaders accessible wherever you are in the world.

Keynotes and Panelists

We’re excited to announce our first confirmed keynote speaker — Prof. Rebecca Henderson (Harvard Business School) — Author of Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire.

Rebecca Henderson is a research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a fellow of both the British Academy and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also has more than twenty-five years of major public board experience. Rebecca’s research explores the degree to which the private sector can play a major role in building a more sustainable economy. She is an author of a number of publications, including Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire. Rebecca is currently researching how inner capacities lead to climate action in education, in business and politics.

More keynote speakers will be announced soon.

Our confirmed panel facilitators include:

• Peter Limberg (The Stoa)

• Sylvie Barbier (Life Itself)

• Jadzia Tedeschi (Climate Majority Project)

• Rufus Pollock (Life Itself)

• Kam Bellamy (Springboard Foundation)

• Liam Kavanagh (Climate Majority Project)

Panels will open up cross-disciplinary explorations of areas related to AI and technology, arts and creativity, education and learning futures, health and wellbeing, youth and next generations, climate, spirituality and wisdom traditions, and the metacrisis and metamodernity. Each theme is explored in its relation to the whole, weaving together the systemic, cultural, communal, and personal.

Unconference (Day 3)

The final day is a participant-driven unconference, where the structure and agenda are shaped by attendee submissions to foster open discussions, collaboration, knowledge sharing, and workshops. This creates space for embodiment, co-creation, idea generation and collective action at the intersection of inner work and systemic change.

Why attend

This event opens inquiry into wisdom-based approaches to transformation, community, and resilience, offering a unique opportunity to:

• Connect to likeminded individuals in a global hub for those leading transformation in a time of metacrisis

• Continue the action and thought-leadership inspired by the Harvard conference

• Engage with changemakers across disciplines and continents

• Experience beyond ideas — with embodied practices, workshops, and network formations designed to integrate and transform thought into lived change

Who should attend?

• Anyone seeking to develop resilience, integrate wisdom into action, and contribute to meaningful community and societal transformation

• Academics, researchers and lifelong students passionate about personal and relational development and societal transformation

• Practitioners and facilitators looking to integrate a lens for societal transformation and a community of civic actors to further apply it

• Artists looking to meet like-minded peers for which artistic creation meets impact in the world

• Community-builders and activists seeking deeper personal and systemic strategies through resilience and wisdom

Provisional Online Conference Schedule

Daily on Friday 5th - Sunday 7th December 2025

5pm Introduction & Community groups*

5:30pm Keynote & Q&A

7pm Panel sessions & Q&A

8:30pm Community groups* & Closing

*You will be invited to join a community group which will meet at the beginning and end of each conference day to discuss questions, surprises and insights.​

Ticket Prices

We are excited to offer 25 Super-Early Bird tickets - available now.

• Super-Early Bird - £29 (Only 25 tickets available at this rate!)

• Standard - £99

• Reduced fee (students, unemployed & over 65) - £49

70% Off - Register Now

Meet the Conference Organising Team

Boaz B. Feldman – Director: Clinical psychologist, researcher, ex-Buddhist monk, and founder of NeuroSystemics.

Rufus Pollock – Strategic Co-Lead: Entrepreneur, activist, and author with a long-term Zen practice, founder of Life Itself and Open Knowledge Foundation.

Lauren Wigmore – Communications & Co-Organizer: Facilitator, embodiment practitioner, and communications strategist supporting conscious start-ups and developmental initiatives.

With the support of Harvard Alumni for Education, NeuroSystemics, and Life Itself

We look forward to welcoming you online on December 5–7 2025 to connect, learn, and co-create with leading thinkers, practitioners and community members. Register now to secure your spot at 70% off and be part of the movement for a wiser, more resilient world.

Have a question? Reach out to us at: boaz@lifeitself.org

70% Off - Register Now

About the episode:

In this interview with Layman Pascal and Rufus Pollock, Layman recounts his upbringing and the unique childhood in the Canadian Pacific Northwest that disposed him to become one of the metamodern scenes most interesting thinkers. Layman delves into the experience of the post-modern milieu of the late 1990s and efforts to find ways beyond it. They explore the value and limits of Ken Wilber's integral and the formation of his approach to dialogue and community in 'The Integral Stage' project. He closes envisioning precisely what's needed to move beyond culture war dynamics.

Chapters:

04:43 Layman’s childhood in the Canadian Pacific Northwest

15:00 From college to living in Belize

16:48 Early Spiritual Teachers

27:00 Layman’s experience of the Post-Modern and Post-Post Modern

35:00 Story of Ken Wilber, Integral and The Integral Stage

45:24 going beyond post-modernism

52:53 Rufus’s View on Integral

57:50 Integralist vs Integralites

1:02:00 What Layman looks for in communities

1:08 Culture War & What we need to build coherence

Speakers

was incarnated on a remote island in the Pacific Northwest. He used to be a meditation teacher, yoga instructor & public speaker—but he’s feeling much better now. He is a writer on themes of cultural philosophy, shamanism and organic spiritual development.

www.laymanpascal.substack.com/

is an entrepreneur, activist and author as well as a long-term zen practitioner. He is passionate about finding wiser, weller ways to live together. He has founded several for-profit and nonprofit initiatives including Life Itself, Open Knowledge Foundation, and Datopian. His book Open Revolution is about making a radically freer and fairer information age. Previously he has been the Mead Fellow in Economics at the University of Cambridge as well as a Shuttleworth and Ashoka Fellow. A recognized global expert on the information society, he has worked with G7 governments, IGOs like the UN, Fortune 500s as well as many civil society organizations. He holds a PhD in Economics and a double first in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge.

This project, running from September 2022 to August 2025, was a partnership between five European organisations: Life Itself (France), Emerge (Germany), the Ekskäret Foundation (Sweden), the Institute for Integral Studies (Germany), and The Hague Center for Global Governance, Innovation, and Emergence (Netherlands).

If you’re a practitioner in the field of inner-led change, or curious to learn more about this ecosystem, read on for some of the project highlights and to access some of the essays, reports, and free educational resources created as part of this project.

Surveying the field

Mapping the ecosystem of “paradigmatic social change” initiatives in Europe and beyond

Life Itself led the research and ecosystem mapping portion of the project, creating a directory and interactive visual map of 300+ organisations and initiatives taking action for transformative, deep-rooted, or regenerative social change in Europe and beyond.

You can add or edit profiles in the map following the instructions in our contributors’ guide, or suggest an organisation to be included in future iterations of mapping here. We’d also love to hear your feedback on the map via this forum discussion.

Please note: our research team made their best effort to select and represent organisations accurately using publicly available information. We apologise if there are any inaccuracies. We welcome both direct edits and any feedback, so that the map may grow and improve thanks to collective intelligence.

Making sense of a novel and emerging landscape

Drawing on our mapping research from both this project and previous years’ work (Life Itself have been mapping this ecosystem since 2020), we wrote three essays to help newcomers and explorers begin making sense of this diverse and rapidly evolving field, supporting the ecosystem to become more recognisable and accessible:

• An overview of different names used to refer to the ecosystem

• An overview of related mapping efforts

• ‘The Second Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction’ (an introduction to “Second Renaissance” as a framing for the growing network of people and organisations who are acting to steward and accelerate a new cultural paradigm, in response to profound current crises)

Diving deeper

Research report: Investigating inner capacities needed for changemakers to respond to the crises of our times

Life Itself interviewed leaders from across the ecosystem to investigate: what inner capacities do change agents in the emerging ecosystem need to develop to enhance the ecosystem’s collective capacity to contribute to life-serving socio-ecological transformation?

Synthesising our interview findings, we identified three key ecosystem-level challenges: 1) Developing healthy relational cultures; 2) Cultivating emergent ways of working together; and 3) Reckoning with dominant cultural paradigms.

We then outlined six key “capacities for the future” that individuals and groups within the ecosystem should focus on developing:

1. Ease with uncertainty and complexity

2. Critical inquiry into existing mental structures

3. Addressing reactivity, tension, and conflict

4. Agency and capacity to implement vision

5. Acting in service of the greater whole

6. Collective inner resourcing

Read the full report here: Catherine Tran and Elisa Paka, 'Emergent Power: Key Challenges and Capacities for Paradigmatic Change Agents' (2024).

Profiles of visionary changemakers and essays on methodologies for transformative social change

Cohere+ project partner Emerge dug deeper into some of the pioneering work and rich learnings from around the ecosystem in a series of profiles and essays.

Highlights include:

• Kateryna Yasko on ‘Collective Bildung for Ukraine’

• Anne Caspari on ‘The Trouble with Participative Group Processes’

• Emily Poel on ‘Embodiment as a “Door to Presence and Possibilities”’

• Nathan Vanderpool on ‘Convening a Network for Wisdom’

• A multi-voice profile of the Cohere+ project team, ‘Reflecting Back on a Three-Year Investigation of Coherence’

See the full list of articles and essays here.

Field building

The Cohere+ project partnership convened a wide range of in-person and online learning exchange and field building activities, from: Integral Political Salons, which invited transnational conversations about more holistic ways of doing politics and explored existing case studies; to generative dialogue sessions for civic action in Germany; to hosting workshops which integrated playful creativity with dialogue to support attendees to digest a rich conference experience at the Inner Development Goals Summit in Stockholm in 2023 and 2024.

Educational resources

An online learning platform to develop “capacities for coherence”

Cohere+ project partners The Hague Center and the Institute for Integral Studies led the development of a free online learning portal to empower changemakers to develop their capacities for individual and collective coherence.

Drawing on the findings of the aforementioned research report by Life Itself, which identified key “capacities for the future” for changemakers in the ecosystem, the Cohere+ team developed self-paced mini-courses in five key learning series: Personal Coherence; Wise Relating; Communities of Coherence; Social Architecture; and Collective Voice and Impact.

A guide to coherence and its role in creating effective systemic change

The Cohere+ project team published a guide exploring the nature of coherence and its potential for supporting the global movement of paradigmatic systems change: Communities of Coherence: A Guide for Practitioners (lead author: Claudine Villemot-Kienzle).

The guide identifies factors that support or prevent coherence in individuals and communities involved in regenerative societal transformation; and offers tools and practices for building capacity to consciously design social contexts for the manifestation of coherence.

Read the full guide here.

Applying the Polycrisis & Metacrisis Frames

Our world faces overlapping crises that reinforce one another - a polycrisis. Beneath these symptoms lies the metacrisis: the deeper cultural and systemic conditions that generate them. Understanding both is key to moving from surface problems toward real solutions.

Join Rufus Pollock and Oren Slozberg on September 10th at 530pm CEST for a conversation exploring just this - the polycrisis and metacrisis frameworks - and how they can be applied to three major areas of climate breakdown, runaway AI, populism and democratic retreat.

Register here for free

Oasis Special Edition: Second Renaissance Fair

On Tuesday September 30th we'll be hosting a Second Renaissance Fair at the Oasis. Deviating from the usual being-and-building set up of the Oasis Calls, in this special edition we will be hosting a Second Renaissance Fair to showcase and share projects and initiatives within the community.

If you would like to attend sign up via the luma event page - https://lu.ma/yq9ixlgd

To host a stall also add your details here.

From Metacrisis to Second Renaissance: A 4-Week Exploratory Journey – Live Sessions Starting in October

Rufus Pollock and Sylvie Barbier will be hosting the next live From Metacrisis to Second Renaissance: A 4-Week Exploratory Journey. The 4-week course starts on Wednesday, 5th November, and runs every Wednesday from 5pm-630pm CEST. It’s a chance to gather online for interactive learning, dialogue, and deeper exploration of the Second Renaissance framework.

🔗 Register here: https://luma.com/dnlu160o

Here’s what our latest participants said about the course:

I deeply appreciated the course’s embodied approach to navigating pathways toward a paradigm shift.

A wonderful connection space which inspires to keep seeking and building towards the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.

🌻Conscious Collectives🌻

August saw the launch of the Life Itself Australia Connection Calls. In this month’s call they gathered to explore the possibility of a Deliberately Developmental Space (DDS) in Lutruwita, drawing on diverse backgrounds to imagine what transformative practice in a Tassie DDS could look like.

The next Australia Connection Call will take place on September 18th at 7pm AEST - register here to join.

🌅 Second Renaissance 🌅

Seeds of a Second Renaissance

Seeds of a Second Renaissance Issue 7 (Aug 2025) - Vanessa Machado de Oliveira on Hospicing Modernity

Welcome to Seeds of a Second Renaissance – a monthly newsletter for explorers of inner-led change towards radically wiser societies. For both seasoned travellers and those new to these shores, each edition offers a bite-sized exploration of keystone ideas, and thinkers whose work you may wish to know more deeply…

Read more

8 months ago · 9 likes · Catherine Tran and Rosie Bell

Zak Stein: Education, AI & Personhood Conferral Problem

Watch Zak Stein’s keynote presentation from the Human Transformation in a Time of Metacrisis conference held at Harvard in May here:

Second Renaissance Forum

Some of our top forum posts over the past month have included:

• Facing the Future

• System Sensing and Aiden: expanding our capacity to sense and steer well in chaotic times

• What does “hospicing modernity” mean?

• Beyond the Great Anomaly (of fossil)

💡Life Itself Research💡

The Research Group had a slightly quieter August than normal in terms of meetings, and will be going back to its weekly schedule from September.

One written output in August was a well-received overview of the Metacrisis by Jonah Wilberg.

And soon to be released is the research talk Measuring Worldviews: Putting Integral Altitudes to the Test from Brendan Graham Dempsey.

You can subscribe and keep up to date with all research talks and news here:

Life Itself Research

Life Itself Research dedicated newsletter.

By Rufus Pollock

🌳The Bergerac Praxis Hub🌳

Here is a beautiful recap of the Inner River art residency, which took place in July 2025 at the Life Itself Praxis Hub in Bergerac -- written by Alexia Netcu, one of the members of the hosting team.

Blowing in the Wind

A Whole Month of Art? - A Recap of the Inner River Residency

Earlier in July, eleven core participants and the three of us on the hosting team packed our bags and headed to the small town of Bergerac in South-West France to dedicate a month to art and creative wayfinding - the long-awaited Inner River residency. Some of us were from the US, a few from different places in Europe, and we even got someone to come fr…

Read more

8 months ago · 2 likes · Alexia Netcu

We have a few spaces still available in our Autumn Residency for December. If you are interested read more and apply here:

Life Itself Bergerac Praxis Residencies

Autumn Praxis Residency (October to December 2025)

What does it mean to live well, together? How can our ways of being transform the world? Join us for the third Autumn Praxis Residency at the Life Itself Bergerac Hub: a 2.5-month-long container for contemplative, relational, and embodied practice in community. You’ll live together with others who are asking questions like these in their lives and work…

Read more

a year ago · 5 likes · Catherine Tran and Valerie Duvauchelle

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• 💬 Share your thoughts in the comments section

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