Ep 202  |  Samantha Sweetwater

Reimagining Ourselves at the End of Our World: Kinship, Interconnection, and Spirituality in the Metacrisis

Check out this podcast

The Great Simplification

Description

Over the past decade, the world has become increasingly chaotic and uncertain – and so, too, has our cultural vision for the future. While the events we face now may feel unprecedented, they are rooted in much deeper patterns, which humanity has been playing out for millennia. If we take the time to understand past trends, we can also employ practices and philosophies that might counteract them –  such as focusing on kinship, intimacy, and resilience – to help pave the way for a better future. How might we nurture the foundations of a different kind of society, even while the end of our current civilization plays out around us? 

In this episode, Nate is joined by guide and author Samantha Sweetwater to explore how separation is at the root of the metacrisis and how nurturing interconnection, relationships, and ecological maturity act as foundational components for systems change. Samantha delves into the distinction between power of life and power over life, emphasizing the need for personal transformation that aligns with collective evolution. She also describes how we could shift our cultural focus from the hero’s journey to a kinship journey through the practices of remembering, reconnection, and tending to collective emergence.

How might we reimagine humanity’s ecological role as that of stewards, rather than domination? Could focusing on reconnection, rather than separation, help us bridge the polarizing divides that currently prevent many of us from working together? And how might this work of remembering, which begins with ourselves, ripple out into stronger connections with our loved ones, communities, and ultimately to humanity and life as a whole?

About Samantha Sweetwater

Samantha Sweetwater is a wisdom guide, author, and founder of One Life Circle—a ministry of remembering. She works at the fertile nexus where unraveling systems make way for emerging forms of kinship, leadership, and value. For over three decades, she has facilitated individuals and organizations across five continents through journeys of personal, cultural, ecological, and spiritual emergence. She mentors leaders in business, technology, and finance, helping them to navigate awakening, develop systemic wisdom, and align impact with regenerative futures.

Founder of Dancing Freedom and Peacebody Japan, she sparked a global movement of embodied awakening and has trained hundreds of facilitators. She has also been a seed farmer—a practice that taught her the rigors of tending the real. She holds an MA in Wisdom Studies, a BA in Social Theory and Dance, and has been initiated into indigenous lineages of Africa, Latin America, and Turtle Island.

In French, we have a motto that says that a simple drawing is often better than a long explanation. Jean-Marc Jancovici Carbone 4 President

That’s very understandable because with left atmosphere thinking, one of the problems is that you see everything as a series of problems that must have solutions. Iain McGilchrist Neuroscientist and Philosopher

We can’t have hundreds and hundreds of real relationships that are healthy because that requires time and effort and full attention and awareness of being in real relationship and conversation with the other human. Nate Hagens Director of ISEOF

This is the crux of the whole problem. Individual parts of nature are more valuable than the biocomplexity of nature. Thomas Crowther Founder Restor

Show Notes & Links to Learn More

Download transcript

The TGS team puts together these brief references and show notes for the learning and convenience of our listeners. However, most of the points made in episodes hold more nuance than one link can address, and we encourage you to dig deeper into any of these topics and come to your own informed conclusions.

00:00 – Samantha Sweetwater

03:42 – Metacrisis

04:16 – Polycrisis

09:23 – Whales and dolphins often have bigger brains than humans

11:01 – Daniel Schmachtenberger on TGS discussing the age of separation

11:09 – Development of agriculture, Fiat currency

12:30 – 1790 census showed 9 in 10 Americans lived on farms, Today farming makes up 1.2% of U.S. employment

12:55 – Many youth are not knowledgeable about where their food comes from

13:16 – Anthropocene

13:24 – Ecozoic, Symbiocene

13:50 – Manifest Destiny

14:10 – Evolution is not a hierarchy with humans at the “top”, Additional info

14:30 – Monocropping

14:43 – We could feed more people if we had smaller, more diversified farms

15:38 – Interdependence (ecology), Interbeing

16:25 – Co-regulation

16:51 – Thích Nhất Hạnh

18:10 – Game theory

21:28 – Patriarchy and racism as ways of organizing power

22:47 – Hockey stick economics

23:15 – Soul ecology

23:55 – Complexity of Fin Whale song in North Atlantic

25:12 – Song Sparrow

26:40 – David Bohm – Wholeness and the Implicate Order

27:19 – Greek concept of cosmos

27:43 – Implicate and explicate order

29:15 – Arthur Koestler, Holons

29:23 – Nature is a system of systems

29:44 – Matryoshka dolls (Russian nesting dolls)

33:52 – Economic superorganism

34:04 – Frankly #108 The Influence of Psychopaths: Why Humans Are Better Than We Think

34:59 – Maximum power principle

36:33 – Daniel Schmachtenberger – “existential tech” is omni-lose

37:02 – Dark triad personality traits, TGS Episode + Frankly Episode

38:24 – The Light Phone

42:02 – Iroquois Confederacy and its influence on current systems of democratic governance

43:28 – Pol.is (Audrey Tang TGS Episode)

45:40 – Diatoms, Winnemem Wintu’s relationship with salmon

48:20 – The three bricklayers story

49:55 – Dr. Dan Siegel, Dr. Siegel discussing Mwe, Dr. Siegel – IntraConnected: MWe (Me + We) as the Integration of Self, Identity, and Belonging

50:38 – Hero’s journey, Kinship

52:34 – David Sloan Wilson and Edward O. Wilson –  Rethinking the Theoretical Foundation of Sociobiology, TGS Episode with David Sloan Wilson, Chicken experiment, Frankly #104 Ducks and Blueberries

54:28 – Project Interdependence

1:05:21 – About holotropic experiences, Stanistlov Grof, Transpersonal psychology

1:06:49 – Holotropic breathwork

1:07:20 – Being in awe has the same self-transcendent brain effect as being on psychedelics, Dacher Keltner and the science of awe, Dacher Keltner – Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life

1:09:45 – Psychedelics as a non-specific amplifier

1:10:12 – Role of mindset and setting with psychedelics

1:10:40 – Psychedelics can help with accessing deep memories, a deeper state of empathy

1:13:30 – Joanna Macy’s framework of systems change, TGS Episode on The Work That Reconnects

1:19:00 – Dave Snowden – As through a glass darkly: a complex systems approach to futures

1:21:47 – Nora Bateson (TGS Episode #10, #20, RR #2, RR#10, RR #20), Warm data 

1:22:24 – Citizen science

1:22:53 – Increasing satellites

1:24:27 – Shimbhala Warrior Prophecy, Joanna Macy on the Shambhala Warrior Prophecy, 

1:28:03 – Wendell Barry – “Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”

1:30:23 – The tradition of the Bwiti people is to “be a student of life”

1:31:40 – David Sloan Wilson (TGS Episode), Daniel Schmachtenberger (TGS Episodes Playlist, RR#10), Luke Kemp (TGS Episode #153, #194)

Back to episodes
Fighting for a Livable FutureWith Kelly ErhartThe Great SimplificationEp 204 | Kelly Erhart

While current conversations about global heating tend to center around a few well-established pieces of science, we don’t often hear about the scientists and leaders working at the frontier of what is still unknown about Earth’s systems. This includes unpredictable tipping points and cascading effects of our rapidly changing climate, as well as the unconventional adaptation strategies that might help us maintain a stable planet. What is the newest climate science being researched right now, and what areas are we still needing to explore as we fight for a livable future? 

Watch nowDec 10, 2025
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone DiesWith Nate SoaresThe Great SimplificationEp 203 | Nate Soares

Technological development has always been a double-edged sword for humanity: the printing press increased the spread of misinformation, cars disrupted the fabric of our cities, and social media has made us increasingly polarized and lonely. But it has not been since the invention of the nuclear bomb that technology has presented such a severe existential risk to humanity – until now, with the possibility of Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) on the horizon. Were ASI to come to fruition, it would be so powerful that it would outcompete human beings in everything – from scientific discovery to strategic warfare. What might happen to our species if we reach this point of singularity, and how can we steer away from the worst outcomes?

Watch nowDec 3, 2025
Two Ways of KnowingWith Rosa Vásquez EspinozaThe Great SimplificationEp 201 | Rosa Vásquez Espinoza

For centuries, modern science has relied on the scientific method to better understand the world around us. While helpful in many contexts, the scientific method is also objective, controlled, and reductionist – often breaking down complex systems into smaller parts for analysis and isolating subjects to test hypotheses. In contrast, indigenous wisdom is deeply contextual, rooted in lived experience, and emphasizes a reciprocal, integrated relationship with the rest of the natural world, viewing all parts of the system as interconnected. What becomes possible when we combine the strengths of each of these knowledge systems as we navigate humanity’s biggest challenges? 

Watch nowNov 19, 2025

Subscribe to our Substack

The Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future (ISEOF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, founded in 2008, that conducts research and educates the public about energy issues and their impact on society.

Support our work
Get in touch
x