January 2026 Newsletter
Welcome to our January 2026 Newsletter. This month, we’re announcing the Life Itself UK Summer Gathering, and sharing updates from Second Renaissance, Over the Mountains, and Life Itself Research.
🌅 Second Renaissance 🌅
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:
🚀 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.
💡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.
🌱 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