About Grokkist

What happens here?

We are an interdisciplinary, intergenerational, and international learning community made of multi-dimensional misfits, creatives, and change-makers who love the world because somebody has to.

Our mission is to help every grokkist unlock their grok.

Are you a grokkist?

When your insistence on curiosity and care leads you into wonderful, terrible trouble only to guide you safely home again, you are walking the path of a grokkist, where curiosity and care are both the question and the answer.

GrokkistDanu Poyner

Curiosity and care: the essence of being a grokkist

A deeply reflective exploration of how an insistence on curiosity and care can transform our engagement with the world by re-enchanting our attention, deepening human connection, and challenging the transactional nature of modern society.

GrokkistDanu Poyner

Our 3 Pillars of Action

Grokkist Press

For grokkists to publish high-quality articles, videos, podcasts and other creations that we care about too much to cast into the void for a handful of likes.

Grokkist Network

We create spaces and opportunities for grokkists to connect and collaborate, and to be mirrors for each other in which we can all become more accurate reflections of ourselves.

Grokkables

Our answer to the question – “what would it look like to create a radically accessible and inclusive educational curriculum focused on practical wisdom that ignites the soul's passion, rather than just passing tests?”

A brief-(ish) introduction to Grokkist

In this video, Danu (Founder of Grokkist) gives an overview of who we are, what we do, and why we exist. [Recorded at our May 2024 Town Hall event.]

00:00 | The why of Grokkist
03:16 | Danu's personal journey
08:01 | We are a learning community
09:28 | We help every grokkist to unlock their grok
11:12 | Interdisciplinary. Intergenerational. International.
13:33 | We are a regenerative business
16:30 | 3 Pillars of Action
19:25 | The story so far
24:58 | What we offer
28:34 | Where to from here?

Our operating model

Grokkist is a member-supported social enterprise – everything we do is driven by purpose before profit. We want everyone to have access to what we offer, regardless of their ability to pay.

A lot of what we offer is already completely free.

For all of our paid offerings, we take a dignity-first, no-questions-asked approach to providing affordable pathways as part of our commitment to radical accessibility and inclusivity – see our "Forget About the Price Tag" policy.

Our Grokkist Full Members help us keep things that way. We call this unlocking the commons.

Grokkist Ltd is proudly registered and headquartered in Aotearoa New Zealand.

🔖 Become a Grokkist Full Member

As a full Grokkist member, you’ll directly contribute to our social purpose while also enjoying a range of additional benefits as part of a grokking community of practice.

GrokkistDanu Poyner

“Forget About the Price Tag” Policy

We want everyone to have access to what we offer, regardless of their ability to pay.

GrokkistDanu Poyner

Our team

Danu Poyner

Founder
Auckland, New Zealand.

Danu is a writer, thinker, and enthusiast of human systems who delights in facilitating others towards flourishing. He brings these threads together as a social entrepreneur and founder of Grokkist. [LinkedIn | Grokkist Network]

Nathan Dufour Oglesby

Co-Founder
Brooklyn, NY.

Nathan is a rapper, philosopher, writer and video artist operating in New York City. His work aims to synthesize Art and Education in a seamless whole, reintegrating what he sees as an original unity that has been cleft apart by the modern commodification of both. [YouTube | Grokkist Network]

Kendra Fee-McNulty

Director, Marketing and Communications
Rochester, NY.

Kendra is an intuitive marketing communicator and Founder of Raveloe+Co, which helps purpose-driven organizations and individuals better weave their own stories, connect with their communities, and do more good. [LinkedIn | Grokkist Network]

David Thomas

Manager, Community and Memberships
St Louis, MO.

David enjoys connecting with others and finding out what lights them up. He is enthusiastic about direct action, mutual aid, understanding how the world works, and discussing the ways we can work together to make it better. [Grokkist Network]

Our educational ethos

These offerings from the Grokkist Press will give you a good flavour of how we think about education.

Old School School

Redefine School: not a tool of the state, but a movement that arises from those who create. Whose mode of exchange isn’t monetary wealth, but Relationship and Wisdom as an end in itself.

GrokkistNathan Dufour Oglesby

27 gifts of life-changing learning and one radical conclusion – an audio essay | S3E9

If you could gift someone a life-changing learning experience, what would it be and why? We discuss the combined wisdom of 27 of my podcast guests and what it means for how we approach the practice of education.

GrokkistDanu Poyner

Critical Thinking or Careful Thinking?

Is it possible that our prized tool for dissecting truth—critical thinking—might actually be sharpening divides rather than bridging them? Peter Gilderdale confronts a paradox at the heart of a cherished intellectual tradition: are we merely critiquing, or are we truly considering?

GrokkistPeter Gilderdale

"You never change things by
fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model
that makes the existing model obsolete."

– Buckminster Fuller