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Jeffrey J. Kripal holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair in Philosophy and Religious Thought at Rice University, where he chaired the Department of Religion for eight years and helped create the GEM Program, a doctoral concentration in the study of Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism that is the largest program of its kind in the world. He is presently serving as Associate Dean of the Faculty and Graduate Studies in the School of Humanities. He is also the Associate Director of the Center for Theory and Research at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Jeff is the editor-in-chief of the Macmillan Handbook Series on Religion (ten volumes) and the author of eight monographs, including, most recently, The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities (Chicago, 2022). He is presently working on a three-volume study of paranormal currents in the history of science and American metaphysical literature for the University of Chicago Press collectively entitled The Super Story. His full body of work can be seen at http://jeffreyjkripal.com

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Walking the Middle Way

Robert M. Ellis and I explore the Middle Way as a practical way of moving beyond rigid beliefs and navigating uncertainty with openness. We discover fascinating overlaps with the Third Attractor, while also challenging each other on metaphysics, ethics and AI.

64 min · 12 Sep 2026

A Really Regenerative Future

The Third Attractor emerging through a return to place, relationship and the principles of living systems. We explore why a truly regenerative future requires more than new technologies and economic models: it asks us to transform how we think, collaborate and understand our place within the living world.

77 min · 4 Sep 2026

Darwin Beyond Biology

What does it take to build a truly pro-social world? In this conversation, evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson brings Darwinian evolution into dialogue with the vision of the Third Attractor.

86 min · 26 Aug 2026

The Sapient Cosmos

What if consciousness is not produced by the universe, but is the ground from which the universe emerges? In this conversation, physicist and author James B. Glattfelder explores ideas from The Sapient Cosmos.

67 min · 24 Aug 2026