The Parent and the Pendulum

#95 | Frankly

The Parent and the Pendulum

Check out this podcast

Nate Hagens Frankly

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?

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

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

Back to episodes
Frankly#116 | Sunk Cost and the Superorganism

In this week’s episode, Nate unpacks the pervasive behavioral pull of sunk cost as a force shaping our material reality, identities, and collective expectations about the future. Past investments – in careers, possessions, and cultural narratives – lock us into patterns of defending what might no longer actually serve us. This tendency becomes more and more relevant as the world shifts in ways that demand adaptability rather than stagnancy. Deep loyalty to former choices, even as we absorb new information about our lived environments, can limit our ability to make wiser, more future-oriented decisions.

Watch nowDec 12, 2025
Frankly#115 | Inflation, Deflation, & Simplification: The 8 Things That Influence Prices

In this week’s Frankly, Nate explores how the prices we encounter in our daily lives are influenced by not only how much money is in the system, but also by resource depletion, technology, affordability by 'the masses,' and trust within a complex global system.

Watch nowDec 5, 2025
Frankly#114 | Directional Advice for the (More Than) Human Predicament

In this week’s episode, Nate invites listeners into an exploration of what it means to navigate a growing predicament shaped by ecological limits, rapid technological changes, and shifting expectations of reality. Our complex world hosts an immense diversity of human (and non-human) circumstances, which demand responses that are adaptive, not static. Rather than offer misleadingly prescriptive answers, Nate lays out a set of “compass points” that serve to both challenge our assumptions, and to attune our values in the direction of 'better futures than the default.’

Watch nowNov 21, 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