TAKE BACK YOUR MIND (FROM THE MACHINE)! 

WIth social media clamouring for our attention and machines promising to do our thinking for us, it’s more important than ever to develop and protect our minds. Join mindfulness coach Dr. Michael Roberts and philosopher Dr. Noah Gabriel to learn:

• why we use distraction to hide from our thoughts

• the importance of exclusion in cultivating attention

• how thinking preserves our autonomy

COMING IN MAY

​​

 

SEXISTENTIALISM: THE DIALECTIC OF LOVE

When we talk about togetherness, community, and love, it brings up warm, fuzzy feelings. But being together rarely brings harmony, and expecting things to be easy just makes us blame ourselves.

In this playshop, we’ll look at some fundamental sources of conflict in the tension between two incompatible things we need from our relationships:

• A need for safe, dependable people we know will never leave or challenge us

• A need for people who are always free to walk away

Understanding this tension at the core of our own desires for each other can help us understand our own conflictedness, and relate to each other more honestly.

COMING IN JUNE

​​

​

DECODING THE ANTHROPOCENE 

It’s not just cowardice that keeps newspaper editors from calling Musk’s Nazi salute what it is—it’s a refusal to decode the meanings of what people do and say.

This refusal to admit that symbols mean something leaves us vulnerable to propaganda, because meanings still affect us even if we don’t have the tools to completely understand them.

This playshop will help you learn how to read symbols (using semiotics) and interpret meanings (using hermeneutics) so that we can understand what’s being told to us and push back against it.

COMING IN JUNE

​

​

RE-EVALUATED VALUES: A PLAYSHOP

Most value chatter is bland and meaningless. For example, Northrup Grumman, BP, and Lockheed Martin all talk about ‘doing the right thing’   

That’s because they’re not trying to communicate something, they’re trying not to offend anyone!

But values should be controversial! If no one could disagree with your values, they're probably meaningless.

Join coach Christos Papaioannou and philosopher Dr. Noah Gabriel to learn about shadow values through Carl Jung, about reevaluation of values through Friedrich Nietzsche, and to design values that don’t hide what you’re afraid to be; but express what you want.

COMING TBD