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The Parent and the Pendulum

May 30, 2025

Description

In a culture driven by achievement, autonomy, and digital distraction, our sense of identity is often shaped by performance and external validation. Yet beneath this surface, many carry unseen psychological imprints from childhood and culture alike. What happens when we begin to examine these layers and imagine healthier ones?

In this week’s Frankly, Nate explores the themes of attention, awareness, and the psychological impacts of modern life. Through poetry and reflection, he examines the pull toward validation and control that shapes many of our behaviors. Building on the Ideal Parent Figure Protocol developed by Dr. Daniel P. Brown, he expands the concept to explore what ideal cultural and ecological figures might offer in addressing our deeper collective needs.

What are the qualities of a healthy culture — one rooted in belonging, continuity, and shared purpose? How can we reconnect with ecological kinship and wisdom? And finally, where is your branch of stillness, the one place the pendulum of this world doesn’t reach?

(Recorded May 12, 2025)

Show Notes

PDF Transcript

00:19 – Attention and Awareness (Frankly 94 Social Overshoot?)

00:52 – Philip Glass

00:54 – Brian Eno

04:58 – Supernormal Stimuli

04:59 – Carbon Pulse

06:05 – Wide Boundary Framing

07:13 – Imprinting

07:24 – Mahamudra Retreat

07:34 – Dan Brown

08:19 – Nervous System, Co-Regulating

11:58 – Cortisol

12:00 – Immune System

12:50 – 10 Million Other Species (Frankly 92 Artificial Intelligence – In Service of Life?)

13:03 – Evolutionary Tree of Life

Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens is the Executive Director of The Institute for the Study of Energy & Our Future (ISEOF). Allied with leading ecologists, energy experts, politicians, and systems thinkers, ISEOF assembles roadmaps for understanding how human societies might adapt to lower-throughput lifestyles.

Nate hosts the podcast The Great Simplification, where he has conversations with experts in energy, ecology, government, technology, and the economy to provide a systemic view of the world around us.

After ten years in finance, Nate left Wall Street to study the interrelationships between energy, ecology, and economics—and the implications for human futures. He was the Managing Editor of The Oil Drum, one of the most respected websites for analysis and discussion of global energy supplies and implications of the upcoming energy transition.

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Moo Foo Bay
Moo Foo Bay
1 year ago

Well done Frankly, again. Got thinking about my past parenting and future efforts. I ask if I've done enough to include the ecological practices in the latter part of your podcast. One offspring shared an essay she wrote for a Sustainability course and she highlighted growing up in an environmentally aware home. So not a complete failure on that front! But I struggle with finding the right balance between listening to their concerns and trying to instruct my college age+ offspring on what I think they should know. I'm leaning toward the listening part as they get older.

On another note. I too have listened to Eno and Glass for many years. An all time favorite along these lines is Steve Reich's "Music for 18 Musicians". Mesmerizing.