Grokkist Newsletter #43 (Scholé Supplement)

Hey friends,

And a special welcome to the new faces who have joined us recently via the Comparative Mediation course and/or our recent Town Hall event!

People often ask me what I mean when I say Grokkist is a learning community.

"You mean like courses and matching people with tutors and that?"

And I reply, "well, sort of." We do have courses, and yes, it's very likely we can help you find someone to learn from.

But it's also a learning community in a much deeper way – less transactional and more relational.

Here's how some of the folks at our recent Town Hall celebration put it:

"It's a reflection board for me where I can see parts of myself that aren't immediately visible because I'm looking in a different direction. I'm looking at a disco ball of mirrors – each conversation is an opportunity to see a different corner of myself, or see how my light shines off you guys and vice versa." – Jonny

"It's a very egalitarian space. There's a little bit of flow and structure and some start and end goalposts, but everything that happens in between is generally emergent, and I really enjoy the unpredictability of that." – Brittany

"Stepping into this community felt like I was intellectually home. Pretty much every time I log on there's somebody new in some corner of thought or practice, doing something that I didn't even know was a thing, and teaching me something new just in that their area even exists. It continues to surprise me in the best ways." – Colin

"There's an enormous amount of heart and kindness in this group, and I really think that's what the world most certainly needs more of. There's not really many places that I feel valued in my life, in the world, but Grokkist is one of those places." – Amanda

"I'm 30 minutes in but I can already see that this is definitely a change of pace from the normality that we've gotten used to." – Mason

Everyone has wisdom inside them and something they can teach others. But no-one here is interested in telling you what to believe, how to think, or what the outcomes of your learning should be.

What you learn is up to you.

If you're lucky, you might learn something that sneaks in by surprise and cracks you open.

You might learn something that cleans you out and returns you to the curious sponge you once were before the world got to you, ready to absorb anew.

Or you might learn how to unforget the things you already knew all along.

We know we have something pretty special going on here, and we're working on helping people find more ways into it.

If you haven't found your way in yet but you want to, hit reply and drop me a quick personal note – I'll be sure to see it and respond as soon as I can. Or check out the other options at the bottom of this email.

Grok on!
- Danu

Embrace your inner outlier: going full desert weirdo with Brittany Cole Houston | S4E3

by Danu Poyner (6 min read / 85 min listen)

Brittany is a silversmith, non-traditional educator, and the creative force behind Full Desert Weirdo. Together we rethink the edges of normalcy, illuminating how our quirkiest traits not only shape an ever-changing personal identity but also hold the potential to remake the world around us.

Explore the Episode ↗

Meditation Primer: Part 1

by Jude Star (13 min read)

Navigate the rich landscapes of meditation by grokking various practices, from Shamatha's calm abiding to Vipassana's insightful mindfulness.

Explore the Full Story ↗

Featured member profile

Through our Featured Member portal, we like to showcase the efforts of fellow grokkists who are shaking up, re-imagining or re-enchanting their own fields of practice with an insistence on curiosity and care.

Kendra Fee-McNulty – Raveloe+Co

Through empathy-driven marketing and communications, Raveloe+Co helps impact-driven organizations and individuals better weave their own stories and connect with their communities so they can do more good.

I founded Raveloe+Co to help others harness the power of story as a catalyst for positive change. Sharing authentic narratives can move people in a way that facts alone rarely can. By tapping into our shared humanity and cultivating empathy, a well-told tale can ignite passion, inspire action, and carry a message far beyond its point of origin.

In fact, Raveloe+Co’s name is inspired by a story. George Elliot’s novel Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe tells the story of a misfortunate man who retreats to a solitary life of work and wealth, only to rediscover the power of human connection, the importance of community, and how doing good begets good fortune.

My goal is to to take the "ick" out of marketing by helping to provide my fellow grokkists with the support they've shown me in launching this venture, to be a partner for the difficult work of shaping stories that do justice to your disruptive ideas, to help you share your work, and to connect with those who can appreciate and most benefit from you, your business, your newest grokky venture or creation.

Explore my full member Profile ↗

Featured events and meetups

Neurodivergence and Embracing Your Inner Outlier

🗓️ Thur 23 May | 7–9pm ET (view in your timezone)
Hosted by Brittany Cole Houston
🟢 Free and open to all. A donation is optional (but appreciated!) Donations are shared 70/30 between the workshop host and Grokkist respectively.

What’s in a norm? How do these various generalizations and labels impact us and our ability to thrive? Could it be more useful to acknowledge our variances in a sociological context rather than an individual one? Why does it matter? 

Neurodiversity looks at how pluralism is our reality, an interdependence that understands that no one does it alone, and that self care is birthed through collective care. Join us for a discussion about how we can expand the narrow focus of learning from the compliance-based classroom to a psychologically safe and naturally nurturing environment for our multiplicitous and dynamic body-minds.

Event Details and RSVP ↗

Design Thinking for grokkists

🗓️ Thur 30 May | 7–9pm ET (view in your timezone)
Hosted by Colin Kohl
🟢 Free and open to all. A donation is optional (but appreciated!) Donations are shared 70/30 between the workshop host and Grokkist respectively.

Design thinking is both a mindset and a way of working that recognizes the power of creative, playful, exploratory thinking. It’s built on a value system that is human-centered, not profit centered. Design thinking has played a role in innovations in many sectors, from building disruptive products like the iPhone to tackling complex social issues like poverty and sustainable energy.

Join us to explore the what, why, and how of design thinking. We’ll examine the types of problems design thinking is best suited for, why it works, and how to implement it in your own projects. No prior familiarity with the topic is necessary, only curiosity and an interest in exploring new ways of problem solving.

Event Details and RSVP ↗

Other Upcoming Events

• 21 May | 🟠 Divinatory Drawing Workshop
• 23 May | 🟢 Grokkist Network Office Hours
• 4 Jun | 🟢 Grok Café
• 11 Jun | 🟢 Connecting Lines: competitive conversations for a more humane world

Featured Grokkable

Intro to Philosophy for Ecological Action (Ecosophy) C5

led by Nathan Dufour Oglesby (5 week cohort-based course)

Join us in bridging the gap between philosophy and action to address the ecological crisis.

Explore the concepts underlying environmental thinking, gain practical tools and strategies for taking action towards a more sustainable future, and cultivate a sense of community while gaining knowledge and confidence.

>> Next cohort (C5) starts 18 June

Explore the Course ↗

#1 - Falling in love with metal and pushing silver to its limits

"You have to listen to the metal as you're hitting and enjoy the rhythm of the making." A 6-min tour of Manchester-based silversmith Ndidi Ekubia's studio and the process and meaning behind creating 'functional silverware'.

#2 - Re-enchanting empty, ugly, and unwanted public spaces

Graham Coreil-Allen is a Baltimore-based public artist and organiser working to make cities more inclusive and livable through public art, placemaking, and civic engagement. New Public Sites is a way of exploring the history, design, and poetry of place while inviting you to practice “radical pedestrianism” – traveling by foot through infinite sites of freedom while testing the limits of and redefining public space. Also featured on the 99% Invisible podcast. (🙏 Tracy S)

#3 - Values, Education, AI and the Metacrisis - Zak Stein

Deep and wide-ranging interview with educator and futurist Zak Stein, who argues that all our present global crises have their roots in a crisis of education. Long, but engaging throughout. Particularly interesting highlights include how 'testing ruins lives' (18:25), why our broken education system depends on heroic teachers (53:30), the voluntary and time-bound nature of 'teacherly authority' (55:10), and what alternative distribute educational hub networks could look like (1:04:15) – sure sounds familiar... (🙏 Jude S)

#4 - A scientific study on patterns of social media toxicity

Persistent interaction patterns across social media platforms and over time - Nature

Long conversations online consistently exhibit higher toxicity, yet toxic language does not invariably discourage people from participating in a conversation, and toxicity does not necessarily escalate as discussions evolve.

NatureMichele Avalle

Nature published an in-depth study of rude, disrespectful or unreasonable conduct (toxicity) in online conversations across multiple platforms and multiple decades.

The patterns are strikingly consistent. Regardless of platform or period of online history, the biggest factor shaping the health of online discourse is how polarised people's opinions are. Toxicity does not seem to make people leave conversations, but it can discourage others from joining them.

"The persistence of these patterns across three decades, despite changes in platforms and societal norms, underscores the pivotal role of human behaviour in shaping online discourse." Stay curious, friends.

#5 - Take my hand and read a little poetry

Read A Little Poetry

Read A Little Poetry is a passion project that holds poets to the light side-by-side personal experiences of joy, loss, grief, and more.

Read A Little PoetryT.

A thriving collection of hundreds of great poems, lovingly curated by Manila-based author and poet T. De Los Reyes. Each selected poem draws from experiences of gratitude and joy, grief and loss, and the deep well of being human. It also includes annotations and ruminations by the curator who finds herself 'in conversation with the poem on the page'. You can subscribe to get a little poetry in your inbox or simply select a random poem.

A pair of parting thoughts...

"The buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching towards infinity." 
― A. Edward Newton

"I fear the man of a single book." – Thomas Aquinas

🔖 Become a Grokkist Full Member

As a paid 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.

Explore Membership Options ↗