June 2025 Newsletter
Welcome to our June 2025 Newsletter. Here you will find our community, research, Second Renaissance, and the Bergerac Praxis Hub updates from the month of June.
🚀 Upcoming Explorations 🚀
From Metacrisis to Second Renaissance: A 4-Week Exploratory Journey – Live Sessions in July
Starting today, on Wednesday July 2nd, Rufus Pollock and Sylvie Barbier will be hosting the live From Metacrisis to Second Renaissance: A 4-Week Exploratory Journey running 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.
Second Renaissance Proto-Festival
This summer, on Sep 4-7th we’re hosting the first-ever Second Renaissance Festival in prototype form at the Life Itself Farmhouse Hub in Bergerac.
We’re imagining a small, intimate gathering filled with music, dance, storytelling, shared practice, and self-organised workshops - a space to connect, co-create, and envision what a wiser, more compassionate world might look like.
The plan is to come together for 3 days at the end of summer - late August/early September (date to be confirmed). The weekend will be largely shaped by the participants themselves and we’re looking for 20–40 participants for our first party. Read more and register interest here.
Sensemaking Summer School taking place in September
The final month to apply for the in-person Sensemaking Summer School 2025: Exploring the Metacrisis and a Second Renaissance, September 17th-24th 2025 at the Bergerac Praxis Hub.
This is a week-long gathering for 10-20 researchers, practitioners and changemakers coming together for an intensive exploration of the Metacrisis, the Second Renaissance, Complex Systems, Wicked Problems and Collective Transformation. Apply by June 31st or read more here: https://news.lifeitself.org/p/sensemaking-summer-school-exploring
🌻Conscious Collectives🌻
Manda Scott: Weaving Thrutopias Beyond Climate Crisis and Capitalism’s Collapse
In this episode we explore author Manda Scott's journey as bestselling fiction author into the realms of the shamanic and her subsequent search for new and ancient narratives that can lead us through and beyond collapse. Listen here.
🌅 Second Renaissance 🌅
At the Oasis, and Collab-a-thon update
This month we dived into MiniCases inspired by Theory U, practiced deep Noticing of both our inner and outer worlds, and co-created discovery spaces around strengths, passions, and contributions. From talent-mapping circles to playful perspective-taking exercises, June invited us to see both ourselves and our ecosystem more clearly.
Also hosting two extended editions of our Collab-a-thon (June 10th and July 1st), two barn-raising-style mapping sessions focused on reviewing and refreshing the Second Renaissance Changemaking Ecosystem Map. It was a many-hands effort and we’re looking at next steps this coming month.
Our June Oasis Tents Included:
🌀 Field Building
🧠 Research & Sensemaking
🧭 Givewiser
🌍 Mapping & Wiki (Pop-up)
🧨 Red World, Blue World (Pop-up)
To learn more about the tents visit here.
Gratitude to all who showed up with presence, play, and purpose in June, and we hope to welcome more of you in July.
The Second Renaissance Events Calendar and Registration can be found here: https://lu.ma/second-renaissance
Mythos final opportunity to submit
Our once yearly magazine has extended its submission for Issue 2 - Mythos until Monday 7th July.
Issue 2 - Mythos, is a desire to explore how myths can help us bring forward a Second Renaissance. Myths are traditional narratives that explain natural phenomena, cultural beliefs, or divine origins. They typically feature supernatural beings, gods, or heroes, serve to explain fundamental aspects of the world or human nature, and hold cultural or religious significance. They, therefore, hold immense power over us, because as human beings we live by stories; shaping our understanding of human nature and influencing what we believe is possible and what we should pursue. This makes myths an essential tool for societal transformation.
You can read more about the issue and submit works here: https://secondrenaissance.net/art/magazine-submission
Seeds Issue 5
Second Renaissance Forum
Some of our top forum posts over the past month have included:
What should a new university look like and how would we build one?
New Experimental Research Paper from MIT shows cognitive debt from using AI
London Meet Up
On Monday, 23rd June, the third Second Renaissance London meet up took place at Newspeak House in Shoreditch. Twenty Second Renaissancers came together to connect and explore Joanna Macy’s work through paired and small group dialogue. As is now the tradition, the evening ended in the local pub for more conversation and connection sparked from the event. Join the Second Renaissance luma events calendar to hear about the next meet-up: https://lu.ma/second-renaissance
💡Life Itself Research💡
In a new development designed to streamline and focus its research outputs, the Life Itself Research collective now has its own substack which you can subscribe to separately.
The collective continued with an active programme this month, including a poetry reading, further discussion with Brandon Norgaard on his report on ecosystem mapping tools sponsored by the Institute of Applied Metatheory, and a presentation on Zygmunt Bauman’s concept of Liquid Modernity.
🌳The Bergerac Praxis Hub🌳
Apply Now: 3-month Practicum at Life Itself Bergerac
We’re looking for people who may one day work with us – or in the broader field of inner-led change. To that end, we offer a three-month Practicum at our Life Itself Hub in southwest France. Participants receive full room and board and, in exchange, contribute approximately 20 hours per week to Life Itself’s ongoing projects and initiatives. Read more and apply here.
Autumn Praxis Residency
Live Call in July
Join Valerie’s in the Life Itself Research Call on July 11th 2025 5pm CEST as she speaks about Conscious Coliving Praxis Ecology and Food Design. To join visit here: https://research.lifeitself.org/#how-to-join-in
Ahead of the call you can listen to Valerie talk about the Hub’s beginnings and the Praxis Ecology here:
🌱 Help us to create a weller, wiser world together, to support the movement, you can:
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