Fractal Friends

Bill Shireman is a republican environmentalist and activist dedicated to supporting solution-based politics. He is the co-author of In This Together: How Republicans, Democrats, Capitalists and Activists are Uniting to Tackle Climate Change and More and the Founder and CEO of Future 500.

We talk about how our political system is designed to be i...

Major Jim Uhlmann is a former green beret commando, father, neighbor, gardener, citizen and libertarian. He is a stewardship consultant and a full stack human system(s) engineer. 

In this conversation we talk about facing the fact that we are humans who are living in a biological reality, with a drive to avoid pain and fear and move towards what...

This is part of series of episodes where I interview forward-thinking people from the conservative side of the political spectrum in the spirit of cultural healing.

Michael Brodeur is a minister and proud follower of Jesus. Michael was raised in the heart of 1960s counterculture in San francisco, Michael is not your typical minister and this is not y...

In this episode I talk with Alixa Garcia, a musician, poet, visual artist, filmmaker, activist, and educator. She is a visionary and radical solutionary of our time. Along with Naima Penniman, Alixa co-created the amazing duo Climbing Poetree. For 17 years, Alixa and Naima have dedicated themselves to “harnessing creativity as the antidote to destruction” through music, poetry, and popular...

In this episode I talk with Mansi Kakkar. Mansi is a Pattern transcriber, mindset weaver, warrior goddess ad she is human fireweed.

Mansi convener in complexity for regeneration. She is also a performing artist for the revolution and social transformation.

In this conversation we talk about the power of ritual to help us mark transitions and call in forces that are beyond us. We talk about the proc...

Wendy Wood is a conflict transformation colleague of mine. She's one of the co-founders of The Karuna Center for Mindful Engagement, the co-author of the book Do No Harm: Mindful Engagement for a World in Crisis, and a founding member of the Democracy Politics and Conflict Engagement (DPACE) Initiative of Mediators Beyond Borders International.

Wendy's has worked on trauma healing and reconciliation in Rwanda...

Cheryl Davila is an elected member of the Berkeley City Council. Councilmember Davila is currently up for reelection and this conversation provides an intimate window into the experience of an elected representative who is working at the local level to address global and national issues while also communicating directly with the people she represents, who are also neighbors, family and friends.

In this conver...

Austin Willacy is a musician, producer and musical mentor. Austin is a member of the Thrive Choir of Thrive East Bay, and The House Jacks.

In this conversation we talk about finding your passion and then doing the work of growing into your best self. We talk about the role of mentorship and developing resilience through vulnerability.

We talk about the power of music to connect our minds and hearts...

Pablo Lumerman is a conflict transformation colleague from Argentina.

In this conversation we talk about the power of living in the present moment, the importance of remembering deep history and enacting our visions for the future. We discuss a comparative history of colonialism, race and racism between Argentina and the United States.

We draw parallels between colonialism and gentrification and p...

In this episode I talk with Alla Weinberg. Alla is my business partner, and we are the co-founders of Spoke & Wheel the workplace relationship experts.

In this conversation we talk about our vision of a future of work, where people are excited about the work they get to do and nourished by the people they get to work with. We talk about how teams, companies and organizations are constantly a balance betwe...

David Brubaker is a Professor of Sociology, and Author of a new book called When the Center Does Not Hold: Leading in an Age of Polarization

In this conversation we talk about polarization and what happens when conflict reaches its highest levels: people stop caring about the issues and the conflict turns personal. When this happens people start to b...

Sunshine Michelle is a spiritual leader, a visionary, an academic and a poet who is deep into her doctoral dissertation about Authentic Self-Expression of Black and Brown Women.Her academic inquiry is based on a sacred sister circle that she has been conducting over the last year in Berkeley, California.

In this conversation we talk about finding and expressing your authentic self and the powerful rippling ou...

In this episode I talk with AddieRose Mayer and Ei Ei Samai. AddieRose is the Executive Director at SEEDS Community Resolution Center. Ei Ei is a Culture Designer at Samai Group.

This conversation is grounded in reality-based optimism that’s rooted in our lived-experiences that show that not only is it possible to communicate across our differences, it is sure to create growth and healing for everyone invol...

Steve McIntosh is a political philosopher and an author. His most recent book is called Developmental Politics: How America Can Grow into a Better Version of Itself. Steve is the founder of the think tank Institute for Cultural Evolution.

Steve was on Fractal Friends in 2016. That conversation was called "Transcending Political Polarization."
In this conversation we talk about the cultural challenges of c...

The guest in this episode is Ashok Panikkar. Ashok is committed to helping develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions that are vital to strengthening the culture of democracy in the face if the eroding of confidence in liberal democracies and the rise of illiberal and authoritarian regimes. This episode promises to get us to question everything we thought we know about democracy, rights and freedom.

In th...

Jeremy Lent is an author and an integrator. He is the author of The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity's Search for Meaning. His work is to weave together knowledge from across disciplines, cultures and time. The conversation offers a vision for the future of humanity while also looking at the difficult reality of the times that we're living in.

In this conversation We explore the dance betwe...

Welcome to Season three of Fractal Friends.

Kazu Haga is a teacher of Kingian Nonviolence, and in this episode he offers up the wisdom of the great leader of nonviolence, Dr. Martin Luther King. The wisdom here is as important today as it was back in MLK's time, and this episode gives us a real taste of what it would like. This conversation doesn't just say that we need to work together, it shows us how to do...

I'm excited to be bringing you a new season of Fractal Friends.
Website: Fractalfriends.us

The line up of upcoming guests for Fractal friends is amazing. They will offer us perspectives for understanding our interdependence, discovering paths to transformation, while preserving what's best of the past and actively cultivating new & ancient approaches that can bring us into a sustainable and collaborati...

Decriminalizing Nature Oakland (DNO) is a grassroots organization in Oakland, California with the mission to improve human health and well-being by decriminalizing and expanding access to entheogenic plants and fungi through political and community organizing, education and advocacy. In 2019 they successfully led a campaign to get psychoactive plants and fungi decriminalized in Oakland. They have since become a model fo...