Hi there,
I come to you today with something I’ve been preparing with much care these last weeks. I interviewed one of my favorite writers last year,
, and our conversation is finally out.I first stumbled upon Pinchbeck’s work about six years ago. I was exploring the mindful streaming platform Gaia, and discovered his show Mindshift, where he sits with different profiles—intellectuals, mystics, cultural superstars—to discuss topics like the future of civilization, technology and spirituality. I haven’t stopped devouring his stuff ever since.
Perhaps what I most appreciate about Pinchbeck is how masterfully he weaves personal narrative with collective issues. His writing is some of the most honest I’ve come across, as well as fun, relevant, and always provocative.
I loved, for example, how in How Soon Is Now, he describes being at the Burning Man festival, convinced he was about to catalyze a global transformation—literally, in that moment. Tripping, he fantasized about bringing together many brilliant leaders attending the event to draft a planetary constitution, and build a social network and media platform to support the rapid transition to a regenerative, post-capitalist society.
“I saw it all in a flash. One group of Burners – legal experts, software engineers, social scientists, anthropologists, financial analysts, workers at NGOs and more – would gather at the Center Cafe each day, to design and build the prototype for a new social infrastructure through a cooperative, consensus process. This networking platform would include tools for democratic decision-making, sharing resources and alternative instruments for exchanging value, designed to first complement and then supersede the current money system. Another group of Burners – filmmakers, journalists, poets and artists – would document the unfolding process as we wrote the planetary constitution, demanding a world based on ecological and social justice, equality, peace and righteousness. Rather than making incremental and fitful progress, humanity as a whole would make a sudden forward leap.” Excerpt from How Soon is Now
I loved too, the candor with which he described failing at this endeavor, which, in his words, remains one of the proudest and most humiliating events of his life.
Or have you heard of Deep Zero? The play where he tells a darkly comedic tale of apocalypse, skewering technocrats and new agers alike.
Anyway, I tell you more about Pinchbeck and our episode below. I hope you enjoy it. Maybe I’ll return soon, eventually, with more episodes and thoughts that have been alive lately—AI and art, intentional communities as solutions to our polycrisis, to name a few.
In the meantime, let me know what came up for your throughout the interview, if you feel called to listen.
Warmly,
Carlota
Podcast Episode
If there’s a central inquiry to the Waking Youth podcast it’s this: How might we consciously initiate ourselves—as individuals and as a species–into the next stage of our evolution? Turn our ecological emergency, our polycrisis, into an opportunity for global transformation?
has dedicated his life and career to living this question.
Author of Breaking Open the Head, 2012 The Return of Quetzalcoatl, How Soon Is Now, and more recently, the Substack newsletter Liminal News, Daniel’s work explores consciousness, politics, mysticism, and social change.
He has spent decades not just writing about change, but actively seeking it through projects like the Evolver Network,
, and online courses on the ecological emergency.In this episode, we unpack Daniel’s story of becoming—from his early days as a child of the Beat Generation in New York, to his awakening into a more mystical paradigm.
We talk about writing as a tool for transformation, how to catalyze social and environmental shifts, the war between the genders, and the connection between non-normative relational models and societal healing.
Last but not least, we listen to Daniel’s words of wisdom for the younger generations, coming of age in this pivotal evolutionary moment.
References
Credits
Music Audio Producer & Editor: Carlos Sierra
Producer, Writer & Host: Carlota Guedes
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