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Business Models for Human Flourishing
Businesses are the primary vehicles through which technology enters society, but the pressures of competition, profitability, investor expectations, and the drive to amass greater wealth and power, can shape how technologies are designed and deployed, sometimes at the expense of human well-being.
Through the case study of the attention economy, this interactive session explores the tensions between commercial success and social responsibility, asking what distinguishes business models that support human flourishing from those that undermine it.
Reduce Until Identity is Challenged: What American Society Forgot About the Guru
In modern American culture, the word guru has become a catchall term for experts, influencers, and self-proclaimed authorities. Yet in the Indic traditions from which it originates, the guru has historically played a far more profound role—as someone who takes on tremendous responsibility for their students’ psycho-spiritual growth. In this interactive session, we'll explore the original significance of the guru and trace the influence of Eastern spiritual traditions on American culture through figures like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Chögyam Trungpa, Steve Jobs, and Rick Rubin. Through presentation and discussions, we’ll consider what America has gained, lost, and transformed in its encounter with these traditions.
Legacies of Copper: The Story of Butte, Montana
Once the world's largest producer of copper, Butte, Montana helped power America's rise as an industrial nation. Through a presentation and guided discussion, we'll explore what Butte's history can teach us about the future of mining in the United States. And we’ll discuss how the country should balance economic resilience, environmental stewardship, and national security in the years ahead.
Who Gives Better Advice? The People vs ChatGPT
Interactive session exploring the emerging role of AI in emotional regulation and personal guidance.
The Fragility of Borrowed Intelligence
What subtle risks may creep in with AI dependence? And how can we manage them?
Paradigms of Environmental Stewardship: How Should We Treat Our Natural Landscapes
In 1903, John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt camped together in Yosemite, helping shape a national conversation about how America should relate to its natural landscapes. In this outdoor session, through a presentation, group activities, and group discussion, we'll explore the competing philosophies of preservation, conservation, and restoration, and what they can teach us about environmental stewardship today. One part history lesson, one part reflection on how we can best relate to our natural environments.
What Makes a Neighborhood Livable: The Systems we Stand On
Through interactive sessions and group discussions we’ll attempt to raise our awareness of the various systems of infrastructure that our lifestyles depend upon. Systems that are critical to our well-being, but are often taken for granted as we navigate the more pressing problems of the day.
The Laity Doth Protest: Cultivating Inner Peace While Engaging with Societal Challenges
How do we balance the pursuit of individual, inner transformation with the need for collective, outer transformation? Following a short presentation on the topic, we’ll move into guided discussion and reflection on how to pursue both inner and outer forms of change in an age marked by polarization, distraction, and social fragmentation.
Perspectives on AI and Employment: Collapse and Evolution
This session explores competing perspectives on how AI may reshape the economy—from fears of a “productivity shock” and widespread job loss, to the idea that markets will adapt through new forms of work, to more radical claims that AI represents a break from historical patterns altogether.
Ancient Approaches to Anxiety: Insights from Yoga and Stoic Philosophy
Exploring the philosophies of Karma Yoga and Stoicism to gain insight into the perennial challenge of anxiety. Session will include a combination of the study of ideas, discussion, and guided reflections.
Theory and Method of ‘Attention Activism’
Featuring Peter Schmidt of the Strother School of Radical Attention - discussion, Q&A, and guided attention practices exploring the burgeoning idea of “attention activism” and the challenge of reclaiming our attention in an age of constant distraction.
Winter Seminar: Life in the Scroll Age
Featured a combination of Q&A, discussion, lecture and workshop, exploring topics related to our recently released collection, ‘Life in the Scroll Age.’