Lifeworlds

This Lifeworlds episode is a devotional journey into the work of Rainer Maria Rilke, the lyrical German poet of thresholds and embracing transformations.

Through readings of his most luminous poems and writings, we explore how Rilke guides us deliciously in reconciling suffering and turmoil with tremendous beauty. It’s an offering for anyone standing in the in-between, for those moving through sublimation, and longing for those secret, dazzling encounters with primal life forces.

Rilke’s words are an invitation in. To move towards. His poems are prayers…. “to go out into our hearts as onto a vast plain, so that life can feel us as it reaches for us.”
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In this episode, we explore the role of theatre and empathy in transforming worldviews. Dr. Dylan McGarry is one of the founders of Empatheatre, a South African theatre-making company and methodology that turns research and storytelling into living social sculpture. Their plays create what they call amphitheatres for empathy - spaces where art, ritual, and dialogue help people listen across difference, from mining conflicts to ocean governance to human-wildlife coexistence.
Empatheatre’s productions have brought together communities, policymakers, and activists that rarely meet, showing how imagination can transform civic life. The process of creating the plays generates profound potentials for restorative justice. As Dylan says, empathy is not about agreement, but about creating a vessel strong enough to hold our differences while keeping us in relation.
We will cover:
Empathy as a creative act
Theatre and storytelling as Trojan horses that open conversations that traditional politics often can’t
How to design spaces that allow lifeworlds to touch and the practices that help us shift into another’s perspective
How empathy, when practiced collectively, becomes a form of governance: a new infrastructure for democracy and care
Episode website
Links:
Share your input for the whale production
Empatheatre
Dylan’s PHD
5min Empatheatre doc
Indlela Yokuphila: The Soul's Journey (ZULU) film & the radio play used in the court case
Lalela Ulwandle Trailer
Umkhosi Wenala doc about Zulu musical on indigenous traditions & animist relationships
Steiner’s 12 senses
MOTH
Project CETI
Karen Bakker
Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals
One Ocean Hub
dylanmcgarry.org
Instagram: @dylan_mcgarry
Photo Credit: Casey Pratt. It captures a significant moment in a collaborative theatre-making & storytelling project titled "Umkhosi Wenala"
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In this episode, I sit down with Bill Plotkin, founder of Animas Valley Institute. Over the past 40 years, Bill has developed intricate, nature-based models of human development and education that challenge dominant psychological frameworks and invite us into a maturation process rooted in wholeness, wildness, and the more-than-human world.
We explore their three major maps of a person’s “soul-centric journey” and cover topics including:
Why most modern humans remain developmentally stuck in early adolescence
The 8-stage Soulcentric Developmental Wheel and how it mirrors nature’s rhythms
The four cardinal facets of the psyche, and the inner protectors that distort them
Whether other species undergo their own versions of soul initiation
Why the path to a mature culture will not come from the strategic mind, but from descent, mystery, and imagination
This is a deep-dive into a body of work that’s revolutionizing the lives of thousands of people, and how to think about adulthood, education, and healthy human cultures.
Episode Website Link
Links:
Animas Valley Institute
Animas Valley Offerings
Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche
Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World
Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche
The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries
Parable of the Tribes
Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes.
Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock & Ellie Kidd
Photo Credit: Midjourney
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Almost 40% of Earth’s land is degraded, meaning that the natural cycles that sustain biodiversity, water, food, and livelihoods are breaking down. This degradation is an ecological crisis, and, it also lies at the root of massive social breakdown, displacement, and conflict. And it’s accelerating.

In this episode, I speak with Dutch ecologist and entrepreneur Willem Ferwerda, founder of Commonland, one of the leading global initiatives tackling land degradation via large-scale holistic landscape restoration. Their work spans over 20 countries, with projects restoring millions of hectares from South Africa to Spain, Australia to the Netherlands. We get into their unique 4 Returns Framework - a powerful, intuitive model that integrates ecological, social, financial, and inspirational/spiritual returns.

We talk about:
Communities building long-term visions together across sectors
The importance of meeting different audiences where they are
The role of storytelling, spirituality, and local leadership
How restoring land helps restore meaning and purpose
And how, ultimately, all this work is about regenerating life

Episode Website Link

Show links:
The 4 Returns Framework in Practice
4 Returns Framework Publication
4 Returns Framework for Landscape Restoration
4 Returns Diagnostic Tool
The Meaning of Laudato Si for a Landscape Ethic
Towards financing large-scale holistic landscape restoration in Europe
The Trillion-Dollar Promise Of A Landscape Restoration Industry, Forbes
We must tackle global risks in an integrated way – here’s how
How the Ecosystem Approach supports “Cooperation in a Fragmented World"
Albania landscape project
Look out for meditations, poems and readings in between episodes.
Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock & Ellie Kidd
Photo Credit: Commonland
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What if the next shift in planetary consciousness didn’t come from looking back at Earth from space, but from listening deeply to the voices already here? In this thought piece I propose the “inworlding effect” as the overview effect of our time: one where developments in science, technology, law, and many other disciplines are revealing our entangled presence within a multispecies world.

Medium Article Link
Episode Website Link
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