The Metagame

Aaron is an entrepreneur, writer, and coach. He famously founded one of the first legal psilocybin retreats and has spent over a decade navigating inner and outer frontiers. He works with founders and leaders, writes about inner work, psychedelics, and contemplative practice, and curates referrals to trusted practitioners and resources. In this episode we discuss the process of “going upstream” to the root of your patterns and speculate on why different inner work modalities are effective.Here’s Aaron’s excellent article on the same topic. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Jessica is the first American-born woman to graduate as an Ayurvedic Physician and practice independently. She studied for 8 years in India completing Bachelor of Āyurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS). She’s also the founder of myayu.com and has been healing many of my friends. In this overview, we discuss what western medicine misses, archetypal ways of knowing, personal empiricism, the doshas and some counter-intuitive Ayurvedic practices. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Guy is an independent researcher, author, Emergent Ventures Fellow, and hands-down the most prolific/insightful shit-poster I know on twitter. If you’ve been around long enough, you’ll know him as “Rival Voices”. Among many things, he’s an expert on Adversarial Epistemology: finding truth in an environment designed to deceive you. You can learn more from his book Alignment Gone Strange . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Kati Devaney is a neuroscientist and meditation teacher with over 25 years of practice. She earned her PhD in 2018 using fMRI to study attention and prediction updating in experienced Vipassana meditators and completed a postdoc at Harvard Medical School. She’s now the Chief Scientific Officer at the Consciousness Foundation , co-founded the Berkeley Alembic and the SF Dharma Collective , advises Jhourney on the neuroscience of jhana, and has been quoted on the brain and meditation in The Atlantic, National Geographic, and TIME. In this episode we talk about weird stuff like cessation, jhanas, and non-duality. We also explore how the brain quietly constructs your sense of reality moment-to-moment, and how to (re)start a meditation practice. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Elena Lake is a bodyworker and former mathematician. After studying math, CS, and physics at MIT and two years doing ML at Meta, she left tech to study touch. When her early massage sessions started producing results she couldn't explain, she trained across Esalen, craniosacral, fascia, ScarWork, BoneWork, and visceral manipulation. In 2024 she developed her own modality: Regenerative Touch . Elena now sees billionaire clients, teaches tactile anatomy classes, and writes on Substack . In this episode we talk about her path from MIT to massage school, how to take care of yourself, what it’s like to see fascia with your hands, and some of the weirder aspects at the frontier of bodywork. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Alex Olshonsky is a coach, somatic therapist, and writer. After a polysubstance addiction nearly killed him during his Silicon Valley years at Twitter, Salesforce, and Slack, he found freedom in somatic psychology and contemplative practice. He now coaches founders and people in recovery, co-founded the psychedelic-assisted addiction nonprofit Natura Care , and writes the Substack Deep Fix . In this highly practical episode, we talk about his life a “professional drug addict” and his beautiful article You’re probably addicted to thinking. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Richard Ngo is one of a handful of people who've worked on AGI safety at both DeepMind and OpenAI. After three years as a futurist on OpenAI's Governance team, he left to pursue independent research on coalitions, virtue ethics, and the foundations of cooperation. He’s also a science fiction author ( The Gentle Romance: Stories of AI and Humanity ) and writes at Mind the Future. We talk about virtue ethics, egregores, academic fraud, memeplexes, cooperation, parts-work, and what it was like to work with Sam Altman. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

"Nothing human makes it out of the near future." - Nick Land Matt Southey is a leading expert on the philosophy of Nick Land with a PhD in Religion from Rice University. He is also the founding editor of The Latecomer , an online magazine which publishes essays on the long-term future. Matt's excellent piece on "A Brief History of Accelerationism" can be found here . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Michael “Valentine” Smith is a co-founder of CFAR (the Center for Applied Rationality) and the author of influential LessWrong essays including The Hostile Telepaths Problem , Kenshō , and The Intelligent Social Web . He’s also been described as “one of the most powerful wizards in the Bay Area.” In this conversation, he explains why your brain creates fog and self-deception to survive social situations, what it actually takes to find clarity, and why "working on yourself" might be the wrong frame entirely. We also do a live coaching demo debugging my own procrastination. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Jake Orthwein is the creator of Frame Problems , a video essay channel on science, art, philosophy, politics, and culture. In this episode, Jake talks about his upcoming film for Sam Harris ‘s mindfulness app Waking Up. We explore the latest neuroscience on consciousness and how it might explain the psychedelic experience, religious phenomenology, meditation and what it all means for a good life. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Alex Zhu is a math olympian and researcher exploring the convergence of analytical rationality and religion. He’s also the co-founder of AlphaSheets . He’s currently working on a rigorous framework for bridging AI alignment and mysticism. Romeo Stevens is one of co-founders of the Qualia Research Institute and the founder of Mealsquares . He writes extensively about buddhism, pedagogy, skill development and psychotherapeutic modalities. You can find his work on his blog , Lesswrong and Twitter . In this episode, Alex and Romeo explore their disagreement around perennialism . The idea that all the world’s major religions are pointing to the same thing. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Pranab Sachi is the co-founder of Attention Copilot , a service that blends meditation and therapy techniques with real-time productivity support. He applies non-dual teachings, IFS, somatic awareness, and emotional processing to help people experience deep work on demand. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Max Shen is a pain researcher with a background in computational cognitive science and degrees from MIT. After developing severe RSI in grad school, he devoted himself to understanding pain from the inside out. Remarkably, his pain was cut in half just from reading Dr. John Sarno's Healing Back Pain . Max’s work blends active inference, non-dual teaching, and Pain Reprocessing Therapy to create practical, self-guided tools for lasting pain relief. He’s also the creator of DebugYourPain.org. Resources: * Max Shen’s Substack (Debug Your Pain) ' * To find out about Max’s coaching, see here This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Connirae Andreas is a living legend in the world of personal development and NLP. She’s best known for creating Core Transformation , a parts-work modality that follows troubling feelings to discover what they ultimately want for you. This leads to “core states” like peace or wholeness and allows change to unfold naturally without effort or control. YouTube: Resources: * Core Transformation * The Wholeness Work * Related Episode: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Michael Stroe ( @Plus3Happiness ) is a phenomenologist and “happiness concierge.” Through a combination of the Buddhist Fetters & somatic practices, he’s allegedly reduced his suffering by ~90%. He claims to consistently live at 9/10 life satisfaction and has skillfully guided others into similar transformations. Today we demystify his journey and discuss concrete practices for oneshotting procrastination, reducing reactivity and permanently raising the floor of your happiness (seriously). Watch on YouTube: Transcript — Michael Stroe ​[00:00:00] Daniel Kazandjian: Michael Stroe, welcome to the Metagame. Michael Stroe: Well, thank you for having me. How you doing? Daniel Kazandjian: I’m doing great. I’m really excited for this conversation. You famously, through a combination of Buddhist practices and somatic practices reduced your suffering by around 90%, which Michael Stroe: Even more these days. Daniel Kazandjian: And now you’re teaching other people how to do that, which is fantastic. How did you figure that out? Like what, what’s the story there? Michael Stroe: As many great things happened by mistake, it’s a total mistake. I was on a more or less sabbatical in like 2023 in Barcelona. Uh, not in a great place in life, honestly. Daniel Kazandjian: Hmm. Michael Stroe: and towards the end of the trip, someone actually, someone that, someone being Frank Yang , which you might be familiar with, Daniel Kazandjian: Mm-hmm. [00:01:00] Michael Stroe: Shared, Kevin Schanilec’s website , which I’ve messaged, and he was very succinct as like, “try Liberation Unleashed ” being a Liberation Unleashed being this forum for, for these practices Daniel Kazandjian: Can you say that again? Liberation Michael Stroe: unleashed. Yes, Daniel Kazandjian: Unleashed. Yeah. Michael Stroe: Yes. And very quickly realize that the way they’re doing it is one practice at a time and it’s months of work. My ADHD Mind, uh, was like, yeah, but what if we do everything all at once? Um, instead of doing one practice at a time, I basically did eight of them daily for a couple of hours.’cause that’s how you do it. Uh, in a bunch of days I had a perceptual shift, which was very interesting, and a bit of a honeymoon for like two days. Uh, that was something that I found funny that um, some people speak of these, uh, awakenings or whatever in terms of like, oh, months of bliss. And I just had two days and on the second day I was in an airport delayed for like five hours, which I was chill about. [00:02:00] But that wasn’t necessarily like, whoa, I’m so alive. They’re like, yeah, that’s not happening. It was a bit better than usual. That perception shift coincided with a bit of a, what should I put it? Less? Uh, stress, let’s call it initially. ‘cause I didn’t know what was happening. Just less stress, less, uh, overthinking, less, chatter. And actually one of the, one of the few things that I found really interesting somehow coincided with great sleep. I don’t know how to explain it seconds to sleep. Daniel Kazandjian: Wow. Michael Stroe: I found it very interesting because I used to get like one hour, two hours, three hours to get to sleep. And I just have ideas and sit in bed for just 30 seconds. I was out and I’m like, okay, this is an interesting benefit. Not gonna lie. Uh, I don’t even care about all these benefits, I’m sleeping. Like that’s, that’s enough. And from then on I sort of returned to simply the scene, the, the initial website where I was guided, uh, to Liberation Unleashed . And I’ve done the practices on attachment and version. Okay. [00:03:00] And I should mention that immediately after stream entry, which would be the first shift that I had where it kind of, you notice that there’s just the body mind, there’s no little guy driving this, uh, body around. Um, you start to be aware of the fact that you kind of don’t like a lot of the things that are happening. You’re trying to pull out experience to such an extent. And, I had 10, 15 years of anxiety and other things on and off. Um, when I started looking at them, uh, I sort of noticed that I had a sort of a version towards so many things even after the first shift in like two more weeks had another one where, oh, like I, my, my, like that was the point where anxiety got reduced both in size and intensity and that was a big deal, even more of a big deal than the first one. ‘cause the first one is, like I said, it was nice, I was sleeping better, but also realizing how much you hate your experience, [00:04:00] let’s call it, put it into a certain perspective and realize that from whatever anxiety I used to have or whatever intensity, it went down by like 60, 70%, at least in duration. Michael Stroe: One of the things I’ve noticed is actually, I used to have anxiety for days and weeks at a time about some stupid thing, or in general, like a generalized anxiety. And I realized that I couldn’t. Get anxiety going for more than 30 minutes. As in, if someone distracted me, I forgot I had anxiety, and I’m like, huh, don’t understand what’s happening. Why do you mean like, I forgot I had anxiety. What do you mean? Like that makes no sense. And sort of like this continued, uh, after a bunch, uh, more time, a few other shifts, but this one especially, were like, oh, there’s a dare there. Which for me, there were years of trying self-development, failing at meditation, um, or is nothing working actually. You sort of like, you do all these self-development things. [00:05:00] You, you’re gonna do your finances and orders, like you’re not happy. You’re gonna get a great job, not happily encouraged to do these things. It’s like, okay, but like what works? Um, and I had a notion that there’s a debt there, but I didn’t have a notion about what’s possible. It’s sort of like more of a faith, even though I’m not religious, more of a fate that it’s possible. I didn’t Daniel Kazandjian: Yeah. Michael Stroe: I feel like maybe some of the people that I was following were somewhat trustworthy in this sense. Daniel Kazandjian: So, you just, so to recap, you had 10, 15 years of suffering with like, maybe above average levels of anxiety, is that what you’re saying? Michael Stroe: Yeah. Daniel Kazandjian: Yeah. Michael Stroe: Were months at a time where I was to be okay. And the, the moments where I was okay were just the moments where I wasn’t doing anything. As you know, I was mostly taking sabbaticals, which is not necessarily a great thing in the sense of like, if you’re not active in society, you’re feeling great. It’s like saying, oh, I’m feeling great on vacation, but I hate my job. Daniel Kazandjian: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So from that, the practices at On Liberation Unleash, the first thing, [00:06:00] Daniel Kazandjian: the thing that allowed you to sleep fast and stuff was, was that stream entry. Michael Stroe: Yes. That would be stream entry. Yeah. And Daniel Kazandjian: So just, Michael Stroe: Obvious. Yeah. Daniel Kazandjian: Just to bring people on board with that, what is stream entry? Michael Stroe: Stream Entry , if I am to take away from the woo stuff, it’s like realizing there’s no self, but the problem with realizing there’s no self, it’s so, uh, abstract, but we, no one, no one know what it means, but it’s provocative. But if I’m to be a very mundane phenomenologist, it’s just the sense that I’m no longer the little guy in the behind the eyes. I used to call it behind the eyes or behind the, an experience that sort of looks like a watches experience from afar a bit. Daniel Kazandjian: Mm-hmm. Michael Stroe: So realizing that, oh, I guess there’s nothing separate from the body, mind world. There’s just the body and mind. And my identity is more so that of a witness, uh, not of the tour, let’s call it. And it’s very simple. Like it’s mundane. One of my, uh, most treasured experiences, right? When someone says, uh. [00:07:00] Is it almost disappointing that there is not more there? Because that’s what you kind of know. Like, okay, like yeah, they got it. And it’s like, of course, like after enlightenment, it’s just, just ordinary experience. Um, and yeah, basically just the sense of no longer identifying as the doer. It’s Daniel Kazandjian: Mm-hmm. Michael Stroe: There’s no one moving the body mind, just the body mind moving itself. Uh, it doesn’t need a do or it’s all conditioning. And so, Daniel Kazandjian: Yeah. Michael Stroe: freeing. Daniel Kazandjian: So, so, uh, we might get into more details on this, but what’s interesting to me is what you said after that was when you realized that you had a lot of aversion to things. Michael Stroe: Yes. Daniel Kazandjian: So is it that stream entry kind of brought awareness to the suffering that was already, like, you weren’t feeling your suffering fully, and then something shifted in terms of Michael Stroe: Yeah. Um, what happens prior to stream entry? You take all these things as identity. This is mine. Then through stream entry, [00:08:00] You start seeing them as more of an objective, uh, phenomenon or objective processes. Basically what I used to call, uh, um, what I was seeing afterwards as, oh, you know, like some contractions and so on, it used to be like my anxiety, my social, whatever. And it was, it was getting, uh, caught up as identity. And once I was able to see these processes, just those objective processes that I’m able to watch, uh, there is, uh, a subtle detachment. I don’t mean detachment in, uh, sort of like going away, but they’re actually going towards them. What I’m able to see them for whatever, which is a bunch of thoughts and sensations and that has a very interesting side effect of actually realizing that these are happening, these are conditions and they’ve been happening for so long. And if beforehand they used to be like, oh, uh, it’s me, it’s, I’m, I’m bad like this. I’m bad like that. I’m not good enough for whatever. It’s like, oh, there’s this process. Of these sensations appearing and this story about not being like this or not being like that? [00:09:00] Daniel Kazandjian: Do you have a personal anecdote about that? really illustrates this point? Michael Stroe: Uh, yes, actually, I can tell you how, uh, we, the weakening of a version happened. Daniel Kazandjian: Hmm. Michael Stroe: Uh, there was this particular day I was in my parents’ house in the countryside and for some reason, some of my friends, not just one, were not answering my messages. And I used to have anxiety about this thing for, uh, both relationships and of both kinds of friends and, and anyway, about people not responding. And I used to have three friends and it’s like they were not answering my messages and I was kind of going in a loop. What did I do? What did I say? Did I say something? And I was just, I had the moment of watching. I was like, okay, there’s this weird process. There are some sensations that are kind of like, not pleasant, but I’m going through all these thoughts. And what happens is that I’m making it worse, but what is this? I was like, there are some sensations I had the moment. The sensations are not that bad. And also, I don’t know how I’m making this. Like they’re just here. [00:10:00] And that was the moment, like, oh yeah. It’s like, why, why am I, what, why am I doing this to myself? And I was moments like, ah, yeah, it’s okay. Oh, it’s like, I best I’m gonna like if, if this is how bad it feels not to, uh, receive, uh, attention or whatever it was at the time. Like, I don’t even remember fully what I was like, it’s not that bad. was like, huh. A bit of like, oh, this is no big deal. Yeah. I can just go about my day. Like, I thought it was gonna be worse. The anticipation of this being so bad was what I was amplifying but the sensation themselves was like some amount of contraction in the stomach area. Like, uh, one out of 10. Not a big deal. Daniel Kazandjian: Yeah, so it’s almost that there, the raw sensation itself is relatively benign, but then there’s some sort of mental content, some story at adding to it. Michael Stroe: Yeah. The mental tension. Like a rat, like basically a rat in a cage. [00:11:00] Michael Stroe: Um, and going through all these stories, going through all these machinations in order to, and this is very important in order to seemingly try to change the sensation, like what should I say for this person to respond to me? Michael Stroe: And then it dawned on me that actually I was not trying to have them respond. I didn’t think it was gonna sound bad, but also I didn’t necessarily care about them responding. I actually cared about me not having the sensations. And this is one thing that I usually show to people, which is like, if this sensation would be the same, but you were happy, you wouldn’t care about the sensation. If you were content with how things are. Whatever happens, happens, you can still be pretty, pretty okay with it. But the problem for me was not the situation, which is like all these people not responding to my messages, like the, the, the anxiety or the amplification was just happening. It’s like, I just don’t like how I feel right now. I hate this and probably this is the reason why. It’s like, is this the reason why it’s like, not just some conditioning there. But Yeah. [00:12:00] Daniel Kazandjian: And so what were the practices that allowed you to create a little bit of distance with those sensations and stories? Michael Stroe: I think at, at, at the time I didn’t necessarily like I had the materials, right, but the materials were something like, oh, notice in this moment that what you’re trying is to look for some other reality than the one you have. Basically that moment I had these people that were not responding to my messages, and the thing that I was was like, oh, I don’t have a reality where they’re responding to my messages. In current practice, I would frame it like, oh, I didn’t get a response from my friends. It’s like, oh, I’m looking for this reality somehow. It feels differently and things are different. So it’s like, not necessarily that I wanted things to be different, I wanted to feel differently. Oh, I don’t have friends that respond to my message quickly. So like, sure. I guess.But when, when, when we were seeing that actually the practice was just seeing things and just feeling a bit to it, it’s not a big deal. [00:13:00] And definitely, my practice was a bit different from the one I, uh, show to people right now. Uh, at the time I was doing more inside Heavy, which would be staying that mental tension and seeing that it’s just a sensation that we can do something about it.Right now. I ask people to do both that, but also like just sitting with a so-called pain and letting it dissipate. For me it was just sitting in that tension. It’s like, okay, I’m sitting in that tension. So what? And it’s like, okay, it’s not that pleasant, but also. There’s no other reality available. There’s no other Michael. Sometimes I, I, when I see people being stuck in, it’s like, what is your quantum duplicate that somehow has some other sensation? They’re not. It’s like, okay, so I guess this is what you have right now. Is it that bad? And sometimes I make these weird analogies, which is like, imagine you’ve hit your leg very badly in the furniture. Would you trade these sensations for those sensations? Like, no, you go. Then sit with these ones. Maybe you appreciate them more, [00:14:00] Daniel Kazandjian: Hmm. Um, I wanna get back to your story, but one thing I’ll, I’ll, highlight is what your practice wasn’t. It wasn’t trying to understand why you happen to be so sensitive to people texting you and it, and like going into the deeper reasoning for your emotions. It wasn’t that at all. It was focusing on the sensations themselves. Michael Stroe: Yeah. And what I found is there are cases where the, let’s say the story unbundling, which I would call it, is helpful.For the sake of reducing suffering, there is minimal need for that. You need to see that the story is a story, which is a bunch of thoughts, and the sensations are conditioned, arising and the like. The impression is that, oh, this anxiety, for example, right now for me, it’s happening because of what’s happening. But the reality, no, it’s happening because all the baggage from the back, all my priors that are being, uh, involved in this particular situations, out of which, let’s call it this gate out, which, the anxiety comes up is through this situation, [00:15:00] it’s actually the baggage that’s to blame, let’s say for this. One of the things I usually do, um, lately is, uh, to ask people to, okay, has some meaning, whatever story, right? My story, I was like, there’s meaning, and my friends are not pointing my messages. Okay, why is there more meaning to that particular thought compared to my body? 70% water? It’s like. Uh, somehow one is more meaningful than the other, but they’re both, let’s say language markers. They’re both tokens and somehow one has more meaning than the other. It’s like, is it the meaning or they’re just both neutral, but the charge is just because of the conditioning and it helps a bit putting on the per circuit. Like you have two stories or you have two sentences. is charged, one is not charged. It’s like, how exactly is the story charged experience wise? What exactly is the charge? Oh, some sensations. Yes. So it’s not the story. And through just sitting with them, they eventually were like, oh, I guess the story. [00:16:00] It was the sensations that I was resisting. Daniel Kazandjian: Yeah. maybe it’d be worth spelling this out a little bit more. It’s like there’s a story Michael Stroe: Yes. Daniel Kazandjian: And then there’s a sensory experience in the body, like some, some knot in your gut or something like that, or like a buzzing sensation somewhere. And then those two things are very tightly coupled or correlated. And so the story itself feels charged. What’s the process of disentangling those two things? Michael Stroe: Well, the first step is usually to take away from the story as in, oh, this thing happened, this thing happened, this thing happens. It’s like, okay, all those things happen, but what’s happening right now? It’s like me, I’m looking for some other reality in the one available. It’s like, okay, um, I don’t have this reality that I’m looking for where this other thing happened. So it’s like, okay, in this moment, right now, what you have, uh, this sensory reality and some thoughts, it’s like, okay, that brings you a bit further, into the present, right? So it’s like, okay, you make a sentence, [00:17:00] and that sentence is almost like a summary of what happened, but in a very factual way. Right. Like very factual. It’s like they didn’t say this, okay, so I don’t have this experience where I’m looking, I’m looking for them to be different. The next step would be putting the sensations into perspective. And actually that’s a very big one. of the things that I notice is if I ask someone, which I have a lot of track questions during my inquiries, I, I need to mention that, uh, I usually ask them, it’s like, okay, on a scale of one to 10, how bad are these sensations? And I’ve gotten some weird responses for some very meaningless situations. Like this email being an eight out of 10, right? Um, it’s like, okay, that like an eight out of 10, an email, like he, that torture, that torture level pain, right? So if you ask people, uh, in, in that way, they’re gonna, um, compare it with the ideal, how they would prefer to feel in this moment. So it’s like, okay, okay, put it in a bit of a perspective, like compared to some actual pain, which is a breaking leg, I think breaking leg is the one I use most often. It’s painful enough. And if you try to imagine it’s like. [00:18:00] That would be a bad one. It’s like compared to breaking a leg, how bad is this pain? It’s like, okay, it’s one or two. It’s like, oh, now we got some perspective. Now we got a foothold to just sit with the sensati

Alex Zhu is a math olympian and researcher exploring the convergence of analytical rationality and religion. He’s also the co-founder of AlphaSheets . He’s currently working on a rigorous framework for bridging AI alignment and mysticism. In this conversation we explore about how he got into spirituality without sacrificing his rigorous epistemics. Resources * Alex’s Twitter and Substack * C. Langan – An Introduction to the Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe (2002) YouTube: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Justin is the Chief Quant & Director of Analytics at MathAcademy.com (the best way to learn math). He optimizes learning efficiency in students’ brains with cutting edge cognitive psychology. He’s written extensively and passionately about “serious upskilling” and how to increase agency to benefit yourself and the world. Resources: * Justin’s Twitter and Website * That Paul Graham article on Identity * www.mathacademy.com * The Romeo Stevens conversation YouTube: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Ever met someone whose presence is so clean and luminous it changes the energy of the room? That’s today’s guest. Jeff Lieberman is an artist, musician, MIT-trained scientist, and former host of Time Warp on Discovery Channel. His current work is on how human beings can find genuine freedom through emotional fluidity, consciousness, and connection. He co-founded Sleepawake , a transformational program that helps people break out of isolation by cultivating authentic, heart-centered relationships. Resources: * theopensource.life * sleepawake.camp * Jeff’s website Youtube: Jeff’s Map of Consciousness This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

This is the first in person Metagame episode! Be sure to check out the video. Jonny Miller is a writer, nervous system coach and podcaster. We met at Edge Esmerelda where he facilitated a surprisingly psychoactive breathwork session. This episode is about the practicalities of feeling your feelings and unlatching patterns that have been governing your personality since childhood. Resources: * www.jonnymiller.co * www.nsmastery.com * “Secure attachment with reality” * Mike Johnson’s Latch Theory YouTube: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

Chris Barber is an entrepreneur/researcher. He co-founded an executive coaching marketplace for startups, and a place for engineers to discover good startups to join. His primary focus is AI preparation & emotional regulation. He’s the inventor of a simple but highly effective method for processing emotions called Resonance . It’s a way of speaking that helps others regulate their emotions and feel better. In this episode he teaches us how to do it. Resources: * Chris Barber’s twitter (DMs encouraged!) * A guide to Resonance YouTube: This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com