Description
In a culture driven by achievement, autonomy, and digital distraction, our sense of identity is often shaped by performance and external validation. Yet beneath this surface, many carry unseen psychological imprints from childhood and culture alike. What happens when we begin to examine these layers and imagine healthier ones?
In this week’s Frankly, Nate explores the themes of attention, awareness, and the psychological impacts of modern life. Through poetry and reflection, he examines the pull toward validation and control that shapes many of our behaviors. Building on the Ideal Parent Figure Protocol developed by Dr. Daniel P. Brown, he expands the concept to explore what ideal cultural and ecological figures might offer in addressing our deeper collective needs.
What are the qualities of a healthy culture — one rooted in belonging, continuity, and shared purpose? How can we reconnect with ecological kinship and wisdom? And finally, where is your branch of stillness, the one place the pendulum of this world doesn’t reach?
(Recorded May 12, 2025)
Show Notes
00:19 – Attention and Awareness (Frankly 94 Social Overshoot?)
00:52 – Philip Glass
00:54 – Brian Eno
04:58 – Supernormal Stimuli
04:59 – Carbon Pulse
06:05 – Wide Boundary Framing
07:13 – Imprinting
07:24 – Mahamudra Retreat
07:34 – Dan Brown
08:19 – Nervous System, Co-Regulating
11:58 – Cortisol
12:00 – Immune System
12:50 – 10 Million Other Species (Frankly 92 Artificial Intelligence – In Service of Life?)
13:03 – Evolutionary Tree of Life
Nate Hagens
Nate Hagens is the Director of The Institute for the Study of Energy & Our Future (ISEOF) an organization focused on educating and preparing society for the coming cultural transition. Allied with leading ecologists, energy experts, politicians and systems thinkers ISEOF assembles road-maps and off-ramps for how human societies can adapt to lower throughput lifestyles.
Nate holds a Masters Degree in Finance with Honors from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont. He teaches an Honors course, Reality 101, at the University of Minnesota.