List of Interviews with Clickable Links

The following are podcast interviews I have done, beginning in early May of 2022. The interviews can be heard by clicking the links provide.

(I am grateful for the help of my friend, Forest Jones, in preparing the summaries of the various interviews.)

OneConsciousness Deep Conversations Podcast – Jeff Krisman – A Conscious Conversation with Andy Schmookler – May 10,2022.

Topics covered / questions answered:

• How a personal revelation began a lifetime of research into the human condition.
• Why the move into civilization unleashed forces that humans did not choose and still do not control.
• The difference between biologically evolved ecosystems and human civilization.
• The kind of character that prevails in intersocietal anarchy where there is no possibility of any order to govern the interactions among the “actors.”
• The four choices that the peaceful have when confronted with an aggressive neighbor, the Spirit of the Warlord.
• How the trauma and brokenness repeat in societies without control or restraint for generations.
• Why our capacity for innovation combined with this trauma assured that we would eventually create the capacity to destroy ourselves.
• Why we continue to be unable to see and confront these patterns of power and brokenness to create the good world we can envision.
• How these forces can be seen in all of our patterns of intersocietal and interpersonal behaviors today.

 

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The Salon—Deep Conversations – Jeff Krisman – A Deep Conversation with Andy Schmookler May 27, 2022.

Topics covered / questions answered:

• How the movement to civilization unleashed forces of anarchy that humans did not choose and still do not control.
• How in the 1990’s the GOP gathered together two streams of brokenness into one party: White Supremacy and Corporate greed.
• Why this is unlike any other time.
• How good people are pulled into service of brokenness and the will to champion wholeness is lost.
• GOP forces of wholeness and good character are now unable to confront the forces of brokenness that has taken it over.
• The two forces that must be seen as systemic and in play since the beginning of civilization.

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The Salon–Deep Conversations – Jeff Krisman – 3rd Conversation With Andy Schmookler–His Experiences And Reflections On The Human Experience Of Realm Of The Sacred – June 03,2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• What Andy means by the Realm of the Sacred
• Integrating and explaining the unexplainable, an evolutionary, deep time perspective.
• How humans have had these capacities for revelation and how those capacities add value to societies and humanity overall.
• How three experiences impacted life’s work.
• How these revelations continue to provide insight and fruit still.
• Discussion of the many efforts by Andy to develop rationally the substance gained from these revelations to convey to a secular audience.

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The Salon—Deep Conversations  – Jeff Krisman – 4th Conversation With Andy Schmookler -A Deep dive into the  Systemic Nature of America’s Crisis – June 10, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• How the Republican party moved political divisions from differences fomented with half-truths to pure political warfare based on lies.
• The many efforts Andy made to bridge the divide and guide conversations that would heal.
• How the choice for antagonism as political speech moved from the top down and poisoned our political discourse.
• Why evil rises among people.
• How we all are impacted by this turn in political discourse.
• The need for Liberal America and Democrats to hold the Republican Party to account.

 

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The Salon—Deep Conversations  – Jeff Krisman – 5th Conversation With Andy Schmookler – June 17, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• Why Anarchy and the dynamics of the selection for power dominate our histories and our current choices.
• How Anarchy begets war and war begets trauma and brokenness that perpetuates generation after generation.
• Four ways brokenness is spread through a culture.
• How adherence to a Constitution controls power by limiting who, how, and how long officials may exercise power.
• How the need for certainty explains irrational behaviors.
• The two things that any civilizing creature need to realize to assure its future success.
• What perspectives and choices are needed by as many people as possible right now?

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The Salon–Deep Conversations – Continuing The Conversation With Andy Schmookler–The Reality Of The Spiritual Dimension – July 11, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• Why it is a fact that humans demonstrate a capacity to receive inspiration that is beyond explanation.
• How evolution likely has selected for this capacity.
• How we use the term spirit to explain many experiences both positive and negative.
• Why the crises of our time should be labeled as part of a spirit of brokenness.
• How brokenness begets brokenness and a force behind it should be known as evil.
• Examples of inspiration that changed whole cultures.
• The biggest return on investment by the forces of brokenness in our time.
• How our preconceptions and brokenness can distort the expression of inspiration.
• How the Spiritual Realm is the best source for the passion needed to confront the forces of brokenness on display in our time. 
• Why the notions of Evolution, Emergence, and Experience help us see things whole.

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The Salon–Deep Conversations — Continuing The Conversation With Andy Schmookler–The Fate Of Human Civilization – July 16, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• Why the fate of civilization is now a 50/50 toss-up on thriving or total destruction.
• The many signs that we are heading for self-destruction.
• Why it is inevitable that any civilizing creature would find itself facing this challenge.
• How a cosmic historian might assess the fate of other civilizing creatures.
• Why sufficient attention must be focused on this clear threat.
• How Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi are not acting like they see the challenge.
• How conservatives have aligned themselves with ideas and forces that are contrary to the values they espouse.
• Why Andy is looking for prominent thinkers to wrestle with these ideas.

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The Salon–Deep Conversations -Continuing the Conversation with Andy Schmookler–The Ugliness We See In Human History Is Not Human Nature Writ Large – August 31, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• Why civilization must be seen in the context of the evolutionary process out of which it emerged.
• How civilization inevitably led to the selection for power in our cultures.
• How plasticity and creativity are the truth of human nature.
• The choices of a society when faced with an aggressor.
• How the brokenness inflicted by power shapes out culture and limits our choices.
• Why non-violent efforts by Gandhi, Mandela, and Martin Luther King succeeded in persuading the powerful.

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The Salon–Deep Conversations – Jeff Krisman – Continuing The Conversation With Andy Schmookler-Deficiencies In American Contemporary “Thinking” World – August 8, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• How Andy’s early insight and experience led to new perspective on Academia unlike the one demonstrated in his upbringing.
• What experiences led Andy to the unique PHD program and the publishing of The Parable of the Tribes.
• How specialization led the Thinking World to struggle to see things whole.
• What are the reasons liberal culture remains incapable of understanding and confronting the roots of evil?
• Why is it important to see things whole?
• Why is it important to wrestle with big ideas?
• Andy’s hope for his body of work.

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The Salon–Deep Conversations – Jeff Krisman – Continuing The Conversation With Andy Schmookler–The Battle Between Democracy And Fascism – October 3, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• How examples of the rise in popularity of fascism are visible in many recent elections world-wide.
• Why fascism is always dependent on lies and restraint of opposition.
• How the evolutionary perspective is helpful in seeing clearly the causes of imperialism and now fascism.
• Why anarchy was the only possible outcome of the foundations of civilization and why the ‘Spirit of the Warlord’ or ‘Gangster’ has an outsized role in shaping inter-societal interactions and choices.
• How cruelty, lust for power, lying for power, tyranny, and subjugation are all aspects of the ‘Spirt of Gangster’ – seen in fascist leaders.
• Why democracy was an evolutionary response to harness the power of governance for the good of all of the governed.
• Why liberal America will not see this for what it is and is weak in defending democracy.
• Why Andy for so long tried to reach across the aisle and still does.
• Why using ‘life serving’ as good and ‘life denying’ as evil may help secular liberals see that they are in a struggle between good and evil as profound as any story ever told.
• Examples in world leaders and also industry leaders acting from brokenness as evidence of this ‘Spirit of the Gangster’.
• How brokenness begets more brokenness and embodies itself in systems and cultural norms.
• Why seeing clearly and acting in a healing manner are the course correction needed.
• How making effort to relate an integrative vision to see what we are up against is enlivening and rewarding for Andy.

 

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The Salon–Deep Conversations – Jeff Krisman – Continuing The Conversation With Andy Schmookler–How Civilization Inevitably Gives Rise To A “Battle Between Good And Evil” – October 27, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• How a great chain of brokenness has existed since the emergence of civilization. A force spreading patterns of brokenness through time.
• Why using the word ‘force’ is helpful.
• How important it is to see the nature of the thing in order to confront it correctly.
• Historical efforts Andy has made to find a moral champion to lead liberal America in this battle.
• Why the ejection of GOP members that have stood moral ground should be cause for serious alarm.
• How Churchill was an example of the style of leadership needed now. How Joe Biden is not that man.
• Examples of how the GOP battle for power has been ongoing for several decades.
• Why our secular worldviews need to be expanded and how this integrative vision and history needs to be communicated.
• How we now face a hard question of whether humanity can order its societies well enough before they destroy the planet we depend upon.

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ONEConsciousness Deep Conversations Podcast– Jeff Krissman – A Conscious Conversation With Andy Schmookler–Realities That Emerge Through the Evolution of the Experiential Realm – November 8, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• How it is possible to use a secular worldview and evidence-based reasoning to show the existence and importance of the Spiritual dimension.
• Why evolution must have brought forward and selected for Spiritual experience.
• The impact of Spiritual experiences on individuals and societies.
• Why there are problems with both blind faith and rigid reason that will not acknowledge subjective Spiritual experience.
• How the impact of the 1968 and 1972 photos of Earth from Space illustrates scientific minds Spiritually transformed though the “Overview effect” looking at our “Blue Marble”.
• How Value, Morals, the Sacred, and Spiritual experience are linked.
• Why moral and Spiritual passion is supportive (perhaps required) in finding the strength to fight the battle we now face between Democracy and Fascism.

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The Salon–Deep Conversations – Jeff Krissman – Continuing the Conversation with Andy Schmookler – December 01, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• How looking at the Civil War illustrates the nature of evil in society and inter-societal conflict.
• Ways that the current GOP resembles the ruling class of the South at the time of the Civil War
• Why the Confederacy was an insurrection and why there is support for the insurrection of January 6th 2021.
• How disinformation and misinformation used at the time of the Civil War is similar to GOP misinformation today.
• Why society must address the vulnerability of masses to be manipulated and misled to champion causes that do not reflect their values or serve their needs.

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The Salon–Deep Conversations – Jeff Krisman – Continuing The Conversation With Andy Schmookler–The Importance Of Seeing Things Whole – December 12, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• Why the word wholeness suggests “the way things should be”.
• Examples of seeing things whole that have changed human understanding for the better.
• Andy’s history of chronicling his integral vision.
• How the problems with George W Bush’s presidency created a need to see things whole.
• The various techniques employed to invite readers and listeners to see things as part of an integrative vision.
• Why the crises we face are evidence that we need to gain control of forces that are likely to cause our demise.
• How those forces are an inevitable dynamic that emerged when humanity left their biologically evolved niche and created civilizations.
• How evolution has selected for intelligence and behaviors that support surviving, then thriving, and eventually a sense of individual and societal fulfillment.
• How seeing things whole proves that Value and Spiritual experience are real, important, life serving, and must be respected.
• Why we must harness the forces of wholeness to meet the challenge of ordering civilization.

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The Other Side of Potential — Sharon Spano — A Better Human Story, with Dr. Andrew Bard Schmookler — September 2, 2022.

(Summary by the Host):

A few highlights from this week’s podcast: ·         Andrew illuminates his journey towards questioning the world around him more deeply. ·         Unpacking the societal evolution that humankind embarked on and the implications of this. ·         The hopefulness that permeates a lot of Andrew’s work. ·         Charting the societal rise of what Andrew calls the ‘spirit of the warlord’. ·         The ordering of civilization; debating the root causes of recent conflicts. ·         Bringing hope back into the conversation in light of the competing forces in the world. ·         The deficiencies of the secular culture of the modern, Western world. Individual actions in the broader context and getting away from the idea of being right.

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The Other Side of Potential — Sharon Spano — Fixing a Broken Civilization (With Dr. Andrew Bard Schmookler) — December 7, 2022.

Summary (by the host):

• Andrew’s definition of a civilization, and the problem that arises within civilizations over time.
• Crises being experienced in the world today.
• Why the climate crisis has been able to reach such a catastrophic point.
• How our economic and political systems need to change.
• A brief exploration of the evolution of our species.
• The failure of the American left to respond adequately to the opposition.
• Factors that Andrew believes have contributed to the trend of increasing fascism across the globe.
• Examples that highlight the brokenness of our systems.

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The Other Side of Potential — Sharon Spano — Spirituality and Evolution with Dr. Schmookler — May 31, 2023.

• Dr. Schmookler defines the term ‘spiritual dimension’ and shares his worldview.
• Spirituality in relation to human evolution.
• How people’s spiritual experiences align with their cultures or belief systems.
• Dr. Schmookler’s own spiritual experiences and how they have informed his life.
• An overview of evolution and what it means to be life-serving.
• Dr. Schmookler challenges the secular idea that values are simply matters of opinion.
• The impact of broken people, rather than spiritual ideology, on indigenous cultures.
• The damage of civilization and its ironic role in disorder.
• How we have internalized moralities that are, in fact, hostile to human nature.
• The ongoing battle between forces of wholeness and brokenness and why Dr. Schmookler believes “the spirit of the gangster prevails.”
• Dr. Schmooker points to the patterns of brokenness in America and how our spiritual downloads are interpreted through the lens of our culture and psychological structure.
• Dr. Schmooker’s prediction for the fate of human civilization and what it will take for humanity to survive. 

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The Other Side of Potential — Sharon Spano — On Being a Force for Wholeness — August 9, 2023.

“We talk with Dr. Schmookler about the current state of global democracy, the moral and spiritual dimensions of the human condition, and what it will take for human civilization to survive in the long term while maintaining a biosphere that is healthy and thriving. Be sure to join us for a deeply relevant conversation on democracy, morality, and how to play your part in these divisive and challenging times.”

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

• Dr. Schmookler’s view of the evolution of human civilization and the forces that are shaping it.
• Coherent forces of wholeness and brokenness and how they are playing out in society.
• How we, as a secular culture, can learn to take moral and spiritual truths more seriously.
• The crossroads facing human civilization between wholeness and brokenness.
• Subjectivity and the nature of truth in relation to fascism, democracy, and climate change.
• How the dynamics of the free market economic system have repeatedly facilitated destructive behavior by powerful industries.
• The role of American democracy in the past, present, and future of human civilization.
• Tyranny in modern times and how democracy is being threatened by forces of brokenness.
• The urgent need to ensure the survival of American democracy.
• Advice on how to focus on what you can do as an individual in these challenging times.
• Dr. Schmookler’s parting message and why he believes there is reason to be hopeful.

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The Other Side of Potential — Sharon Spano — Compassion and Vengeance with Dr. Andrew Bard Schmookler — November 22, 2023.

• The innate destructive force of civilization and why Andy advocates for compassion.
• Changes that are taking place in our society and the hope for a “more ordered” future.
• Why it’s important to acknowledge that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
• Differentiating between the role of human nature and systemic forces in our broken world.
• Sources of goodness we can draw upon, including spiritually transformative experiences.
• Insight into the battle between democracy and fascism.
• The developmental movement versus the battle between brokenness and wholeness.
• How war generates a self-perpetuating system of brokenness by creating trauma.
• Why “solving the problem of war” is critical for our survival as a species.
• The paramount importance of saving democracy and the rule of law.
• Reflecting on whether it’s possible to educate people to self-govern.
• Though there are times when there are no better choices than war, there’s never a need to cease being compassionate. 

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A State of Mind – Julian Royce – A Better Human Story with Andy Schmookler – January 5, 2023

Topics covered / questions answered:

• The origins of Andy’s path and how he found that his integrated vision was not welcome in the marketplace of ideas.
• How to understand human nature as requiring a healthy environment to create a healthy human.
• Why the advent of civilization inevitably led us onto a path where the search for power and the Spirit of the Gangster wields an outsized influence over our potentials.
• How our current dangers demand an elevated obligation to work harder at this time to establish inter-societal order that controls our life destroying impulses and activities.
• Why liberals must see the forces of brokenness and realize that building bridges is not the solution, a battle must be waged. Truth is no longer a thing we can find common ground upon.
• How the debate over the 2020 election illustrates the capacity of a destructive force to overtake a culture and transform individuals to conform to lies.
• How the realms of the religious and the spiritual are not impervious to being shaped by the reign of power and forces of brokenness.
• Why it is wise to see that it is not individuals that are evil, the environment makes them so.

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Tell me Your Story – Richard Dugan– Dr Andrew Schmookler – A Better Human Story (part 1) – 10/31/22

Topics covered / questions answered:

• Does humanity deserve to continue?
• How humans use reason and an evidence-based search to find truth.
• How the evidence points to forces that sustain the thriving of life and those that harm life.
• Why it is a futile pursuit to question free will and how some choices are made for us while others are the individual’s responsibility.
• How the anarchy unleashed by the invention of civilization led to conflict and trauma, which leads to the need for certainty, which led to dogma, which is dangerous.
• Why Democracy has not been serving the common man for a generation.
• How Andy was wrong to assume that good conservative people of his area would, if given clear evidence, stop supporting the Republican he ran against and the lies that they had been sold.
• Why the removal of the fairness doctrine was partly at fault for our current polarized political circumstances.
• Why the battle we are fighting in the USA, against a fascist, minority rule, and a lie-based national conversation, puts the entire human experiment in jeopardy.

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Future of XYZ – Lisa Gralnek – Future of Democracy with Dr Andrew Schmookler – February 2, 2023

Topics covered / questions answered:

• Why Democracy is an essential tool that solves a very old problem.
• Why human wellbeing is the crux of the matter.
• The importance of assuring that power does not go to the people who succeed at grabbing power.
• Why it must be something at the spiritual or moral level that is causing the retreat in Democracies around the world.
• How greed is a systemic force related to the dilemma of controlling power.
• Why evil is a construct that should have a place in everyone’s thinking.
• Why we are in a battle for the advancement of systems that create human flourishing.
• What things we must do to preserve the future of Democracy.

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Tell me Your Story – Richard Dugan– Dr Andrew Schmookler – A Better Human Story (part 2) – 11/18/22

Topics covered / questions answered:

• How looking through an evolutionary lens reveals the need to create systems of inter-societal order that work before we destroy ourselves.
• How it will require moral and spiritual passion to stave off forces bent on our destruction.
• How the Republican party has led conservative America into a dangerous and dark place.
• How liberal America has failed to see the danger lurking and response that is required.
• How a comparison of past Republican leaders to present day leaders shows how far afield we have gotten.
• How to define the goal of “The Great American Experiment”.
• Which factors have led to the USA losing its status in the eyes of our allies.
• Why is USA worldwide leadership important.
• Why an integrative vision of human history and possible futures is helpful and possibly transformative.

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The #CoffeeTime Show – Noah Kinsey –Episode 51: Dr Andrew Schmookler, PhD – May 9, 2022.

Topics covered / questions answered:

• How the movement to civilization unleashed forces of anarchy that humans did not choose and still do not control.
• Why anarchy leads to selection for power. Why selection for power is the source of human suffering and ugliness in our history. How this is not human nature writ large, but wields outsized influence.
• Why wealth accumulation, in general, does not create bad behavior, but policies that allow money in politics do not align with human preferences at large.
• How the anarchy created by the invention of civilization requires a commitment to order.
• The two types of disorder created by civilization.
• How to face the disheartening state of US politics.

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Politics Done Right – Egberto Willies – Why Democrats Have Not Better Protected the Nation – May 11, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• Is there a sect within the Democratic Party that is stopping the progressive wing’s actions?
• What are the four problems with Liberal Culture that are standing in the way of our nation’s greater progress and success?
• What are the Democrats missing when they confront the GOP?
• Why Democratic control of House, Senate, and White House have not translated into more changes?

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Politics done Right -Egberto Willies – Does Evolution make a more Humane Human – June 12, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

·         How the movement to civilization unleashed forces of anarchy that humans did not choose and still do not control.

·         How does civilization differ from the natural order in flocks, packs, ant hills, and bee hives?

·         How humans were shaped by evolution to be attracted to actions and technologies that serve the thriving of live and the nature around us. 

·         How anarchy is the only possible situation when moving to create a new way of life using civilization and why it occupies and outsized influence on our history and present situation.

·         How the choices of intersocietal interaction are limited and cause a selection for power over with the emergence and perpetuation of the Spirt of the Gangster.

·         Is Capitalism itself the Spirit of the Gangster or is it neutral and impacted by this force?

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Politics Done Right – Egberto Willies – Andy Schmookler discusses keeping the central challenges always before our eyes – June 23, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• What is the central challenge to humanities future?
• The two problems that emerge from the Anarchy created by civilization.
• Why the selection for power and the brokenness it causes has had an outsized influence on human history.
• Why the Republican Party is a pure case of this ugly aspect of human culture.
• How the brokenness is passed down from generation to generation and from system to system.
• How the ‘need to be something’ within the culture shapes humans against their needs.
• Why the advent of nuclear weapons has launched us into a game of ‘Russian Roulette’ which is not a safe game to play.

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Politics Done Right – Egberto Willies – Andy Schmookler on A Secular Understanding of ‘The Battle Between Good and Evil’ – July 2, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• How to see Good and Evil, not as supernatural forces, but as dynamics created through the invention of civilization.
• Why a deep, long view of history is required to see this back and forth in our cultural evolution.
• Why the GOP is such a pure case of evil effecting a culture within our society.
• How cultural choices framed by Anarchy give us Gangsters, War lords, greed, and the lust for power.
• Why brokenness shapes lives and systems of cooperation until some countervailing force contains those behaviors.
• The main reasons liberals are unable to contain those behaviors.
• What the fight for goodness might look like.

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Politics Done Right – Egberto Willies – Andy Schmookler on Liberal’s flaw – July 7, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• The intellectual current in academic thinking that suggests that there is no value. 
• The many faces of liberalisms’ flawed approach to judgement, value, and good vs. evil.
• What is good and what is evil?
• How Fascism uses the rules to instantiate more suppressive power.
• Why Liz Cheney and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are on the same page.
• How Obama’s approach to the GOP illustrates this flaw in liberal’s behavior.
• How the failure of this awakening within Liberal America jeopardizes the rule of law and Democracy itself.

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Politics Done Right – Egberto Willies – Andy Schmookler -A-Better-Human-Story-continues–Lots-of-change–Where-do-we-go-from-here ?– Mar 25, 2023

Topics covered / questions answered:

• How the war in Ukraine reminded Europe and the USA that we have not done anything as yet to prevent one mad man from plunging the entire planet into a crisis.
• How Russia stands as an example of a people so broken by historic trauma that they cannot create a government that is not led by a monster.
• Why managing China’s rise in influence and power must be negotiated on the world stage to prevent a large-scale war.
• Why democracy must always hold the powerful to account to the people.
• Why the GOP has a large following in spite of being so far removed from facts and what the rest of us see as reality.
• Why it is important to understand that brokenness is transferred through a population.

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Politics done right – Egberto Willies – Andy Schmookler, Ph.D., discusses Fascism vs. Democracy in the context of the Republican Party – March 30, 2023

Topics covered / questions answered:

• Why the problem of fascists leaders has existed since the dawn of human civilization.
• Why we developed democracy as an answer to the age-old problem of a few inflicting their will on the many.
• How the rules limit the power and examples of fascist in the past and present breaking the rules to gain or remain in power.
• Why the hypocrisy of the writers of our constitution is not a problem we need to contend with.
• How Lincoln corrected the fallacy of Jefferson’s “all men are created equal” and other examples of maturing as a culture over time.
• Why the need to confront those who break our democratic norms in search of power is constantly among us.
• How our societal response has been weak and allowed the current GOP to become anti-democratic and leaning toward fascism.
• How democracy and liberal norms made it possible for these actors to rise up and poison the minds of 10s of millions of Americans.

 

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Politics done right – Egberto Willies – Andy Schmookler, Ph.D., discusses Who’d Kill for Money, (YouTube), April 13, 2023

Topics covered / questions answered:

• Which industries have ignored the fatal consequences of their products and business practices.
• How propaganda has been used to hide these consequences.
• Why it is important to see the dynamics of various systems’ impact on human culture.
• Which tendencies distort our market systems.
• How corporate entities socialize humans into having blind spots and ignoring harmful impacts.
• Why Capitalism has problems but should not be defined as those problems.
• Why a better human story must include building the best mixed economy that maximizes the good that the market system can do and minimize the destruction it may cause.

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Politics done right – Egberto Willies – Andy Schmookler, Ph.D., Discusses How to Expose Republican Evil in the Debt Ceiling Extortion, (YouTube), May 9, 2023

Topics covered / questions answered:

• Why this move by GOP is instructive about the dynamics that have taken over our politics.
• How Obama epitomized the problem with Democrats’ failures to see what they were up against.
• Why these goals and behaviors of the GOP is the definition of evil.
• The number one job of Democrats at this time.
• How liberals have a hard time embracing moral high ground and see the battle against evil.
• Why moral outrage is required to confront forces that are attacking democracy.
• Why seeing the damage that the GOP is causing and taking away its power is the most important task for American society.

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Politics done right – Egberto Willies – Andrew Schmookler on the importance of repairing the Supreme Court as a democracy-saving effort (YouTube) – June 7, 2023

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYHecMbpRZo

Topics covered / questions answered:

• The various problems illustrated in the reporting about this Supreme Court.
• Examples that show the morally bankrupt thinking of this Supreme Court.
• The importance of understanding the notion that “The strong will do what they can and the weak will suffer what they must”.
• Why the rule of law is the best shot we have to control our conflicts.
• Why we must question our respect for this Supreme Court.
• Why the US Constitution moved civilization forward in significant ways.
• How to go to war with the Supreme Court and restore the rule of law.

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Politics done right – Egberto Willies – Andy Schmookler, Ph.D., Discusses American Shallowness. YouTube, June 20, 2023

Topics covered / questions answered:

• Are we becoming shallower as a culture?
• Explanation of how civilization created the destructive process that we have seen over millennia.
• Why the grasping of big pictures of our human drama are required for our sense making.
• How embracing the big picture leads the way to the healthy future of humanity and helps us fight each individual battle more effectively.
• The difficulty of meeting conservatives where they are.
• How civilization is, and has always been, out of control.

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The With Jay Burke Show – Episode 12: Dr. Andy Schmookler Part 1: The Conservative Forces of Brokenness – June 21, 2022.

Topics covered / questions answered:

• The importance of seeing things whole.
• A secular explanation of the battle between the forces of good and evil.
• How in the 1990’s the GOP gathered together two streams of brokenness into one party: White Supremacy and Corporate greed.
• Why this is unlike any other time in American history.
• Why this is not like the rise of fascism in Germany or how slavery created the conditions for the Civil War.
• How conservatives naturally subordinate to top-down leadership which creates this problem where they can go off the rails together.
• Why the GOP positions on Guns and Abortion are a madness and show a desire the fight forever.
• How the current supreme court is now an adjunct of the GOP and may bring us decisions unlike any we have seen before.

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The With Jay Burke Show – Episode 13: Dr. Andy Schmookler Part 2: The Three Defects That Afflict Liberal America – July 1, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• The Three Defects That Afflict Liberal America: Aversion to conflict, Confusion within the realm of values, and Inability to see things whole.
• Why these have given the Republican Party a 30-year head start in a battle that must be fought.
• How the Supreme court actions and the January 6^th committee show promising signs of awakening the fighting spirit in liberal America.
• The lost opportunities, abuses of power, and flat abandonment of the rule of law during the George W. Bush Presidency.
• The use of fear to control politics in the George W Bush presidency.
• The lost opportunities based on the Republican Party’s complete obstruction of President Obama at a time when the nation, and particularly the economy, needed cooperation between the parties.
• The similarities in the patterns of brokenness seen in the rise of Hitler and the behaviors on the conservative right in America.
• Why we need a leader like Winston Churchill to combat these forces of fascism and authoritarianism that have consumed the Republican Party.
• The hope of podcast media to reach deeper into liberal culture to feed a hunger and make a difference.

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The With Jay Burke Show – Episode 16: Part 3: Dr. Andy Schmookler and The Dynamics of Polarization – August 5, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• How wisdom can be found by untangling half-truths to find common truth and build bridges between liberal and conservative thinkers.
• How Andy watched a tsunami of propaganda change political disagreements into political hostility and then into political warfare over 15 years.
• Why liberal America still does not recognize that conservative America has declared war on liberal America.
• The dynamics of the dance of polarization where each interaction pushes participants further apart to the point, they both express the opposite of the values they hold.
• Can Biden’s skills, at gaining cooperation among the willing, work with those unwilling to cooperate as the right has proven to have become?
• How to trace the roots of brokenness in the GOP to historical immoral roots of corporate greed and white supremacy.
• How conservatives tend to be good at accepting and following a leader, which has allowed them to be led astray by immoral leadership.
• What is the greatest challenge of our times?
• How the leadership during and after WWII is exemplary of what is needed now.
• How it is a moral obligation to remain hopeful and fearless in support of goodness over evil.

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Eyes Wide Open Life Podcast — In Pursuit of a Better Human Story with Andy Schmookler — June 28, 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• What happens when an insight sets a person on a lifelong journey?
• How the natural dynamic of Anarchy, caused by civilizing societies, led to the tragedies of human history.
• How we are in a time of inter-societal transition and face two possible outcomes: 1) destroy all civilization, or 2) order our civilizations to prevent that destruction.
• How market forces, and not the technology itself, determines the direction of inventive activity.
• How humanity is being undone by its own strengths.
• Why the forces of brokenness make us look worse that we are by nature. 
• Why this message does not attract a larger, more influential audience.
• What is a more powerful motivator: Anger or Yearn

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LifeBlood – George Grombacher – The Way Forward with Dr. Andy Schmookler – March 4, 2023

Topics covered / questions answered:

• How Andy was given a calling and is still at work to share a life’s accumulation of knowledge and an integral vision of the human story.
• Why that story is helpful in understanding the many troubles we have faced and how to address those we face now as a human family.
• Which questions we should focus considerable time and attention on now to find our best way forward.
• Where to find more details of the integral vision Andy has created.

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The Progressive American – Conor Kelly – America’s Brokenness: Interview with Dr. Schmookler – January 31, 2023

Topics covered / questions answered:

• How the Question “Why has the world become so destructive and tormented?” was instrumental to Andy’s life’s work.
• How a visionary experience showed Andy the fateful step that humanity took that unleashed forces it has yet to control.
• Why the GOP must be confronted to protect democracy.
• Which aspects of human brokenness, once divided, are now concentrated in the GOP.
• The damage being done by the disastrous use of propaganda by the GOP.
• The problem of our intelligent neighbors with conservative values being misled to vote against their values and interests.
• Why money is only part of the problem distorting media and messaging in the USA.
• What liberals must do to confront these problems. 

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Let’s Have this Conversation – Kevin McShan – A better human story May 23 2022

Topics covered / questions answered:

• Why Trump is a symptom, not a cause of the GOP’s war on liberals and strident divisiveness in US politics.
• How the Russian invasion of Ukraine illustrates the Spirit of the Gangster and the imposition on the whole when one actor chooses that Spirit.
• Factors of societal evolution that have led to political polarization and degradation of civil discourse.
• Three things that may change the fate of the 2022 mid-term elections.
• Why the Democrats have not achieved their goals better, despite appearing to control of all three branches of federal government.
• Why it is vital that the Spirit that has taken over the GOP be fought and defeated.

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