Grokkist Newsletter #65

Hey friends,

“There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask ‘What if I fall?’
Oh but my darling,
What if you fly?”
– Erin Hanson

Douglas Adams, in Life, The Universe, and Everything, says the knack to flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

That’s how Grokkist has felt lately.

Three years in, I don’t feel like I’m soaring.

Some days I feel like I’m still very much in freefall. Other days, it feels like I’m hovering a few inches above the ground—weightless, a little bewildered, trying not to think too hard in case I suddenly remember gravity.

Most days, though, there’s just a quiet thrill: I haven’t crashed yet.

We just held our latest Town Hall, where I shared what we’ve built, what’s working, what’s coming next, and how the Grokkist ecosystem ties together—Press, Network, Academy, Projects. Hard numbers, soft dreams.

The recap is a transparent look under the hood if you’ve been wondering what it looks like to build something like this in real time.

I also reflected on how all this got started—not as a product, or even a plan, but as a response to an ache. The ache of being in spaces where my care had nowhere to go. The ache for context. For coherence. For places where it’s safe to be curious again. Where care isn’t ornamental—it’s foundational.

I didn’t want to freelance. I didn’t want to job-hop. I wanted to build a context around myself that made sense of who I was—and then invite others into it.

That’s still what I’m building. Grokkist isn’t the result of a business strategy. It’s me, trying to fly. A public experiment in living with alignment, without needing to hustle, extract, or pretend.

And Find Your Red Thread is the love letter to that project.

It’s not just a course—it’s a worldview. A way to gently tug at the threads of your story and discover what’s been quietly tying it all together. Not to fix you, but to offer a frame where the shape you already are begins to make sense.

I’ve explored this territory before—First Sparks, the Generalist to Grokkist journey—but Red Thread is where it all comes together.

We just wrapped a new live cohort, and for the first time, I feel like I’ve landed the form.

This is my PhG—my Groktor of Philosophy. The grokkist equivalent of a PhD, but more holistic, more embodied, more relational. Everything I want to say about coherence, creativity, and reclaiming your life as a meaningful story you get to tell.

So I’ve made a self-paced edition that I’m proud to share. It’s beautifully produced and available now for USD$99.

If you’re at a threshold moment—wondering what’s next, or what’s true, or why you’re so tired of making sense of yourself through everyone else’s eyes—Red Thread is for you.

And if the suggested price doesn’t feel like the right shape for you, that’s okay. Use one of these codes and pay what feels good:

PRICETAG30 → 30% off
PRICETAG50 → 50% off
PRICETAG70 → 70% off
PRICETAG100 → 100% off (yep, entirely free)
👉 Forget About the Price Tag policy

I don’t mind how you get there—what matters most is that it reaches the right people, especially if you're scraping together more courage than cash.

And if you’re about to do Red Thread, or you’ve just finished it—I’d genuinely love to hear from you. I’m looking for real, grounded conversations with people who’ve gone through the experience—what landed, what didn’t, what surprised you, what shifted.

Your voice will help make the course better, and more importantly, help others see themselves in it. Just book a time here. We need more faces and voices to tell this story besides mine.

The more I do this work, the more I care about the business side—not business as usual, but the possibility of a regenerative business.

Not one that merely sustains itself by offsetting its mess—but one where doing the work is the work of creating the kind of world I want to live in.

Money isn’t an awkward afterthought—it’s part of the pattern.

And part of what I’m trying to figure out is: Can you build something economically real without selling out your soul or anyone else’s?

I think you can. I’m trying to find out. And you’re watching me try.

And maybe that’s the best explanation I have for what Grokkist is right now. It’s the story of someone throwing themselves at the ground… and beginning to miss.

With curiosity and care,
Danu

Fresh from the Press

"More Fun, Less Stuff": Living on Earth as if we Want to Stay

By Mike Nickerson (28 min read / 93 min watch)

How to grow up as a species without letting go of joy.

This article began as a Grok Talk — a Grokkist gathering where longtime systems thinker and cultural evolutionist Mike Nickerson shared stories drawn from decades of practical work in sustainability and social imagination.

▶️ Prefer to watch? Jump to the full video recording
📖 Like stories? Read on for a prose adaptation of Mike’s talk
🔗 Want to go deeper? Explore curated resources, references, and rabbit holes

Explore the episode ↗

A Flower or a Weed?

By Peter Gilderdale (5 min read)

What thrives in one place might be unwelcome in another. Sometimes it’s not who you are, but where you are that decides — what blooms in one garden gets pulled up by the roots in another.

Read the article ↗

Upcoming Events

🟢 Solarpunk and the power of visionary fiction

🗓️ Wed 23 Apr | 7–9pm UK time (view in your timezone)
Facilitated by Alan Raw

The future is not something we inherit—it’s something we create. Solarpunk invites us to imagine otherwise: a world where people and nature thrive together, where resilience is built from the ground up, and where technology serves community, not the other way around.

In this special themed café, we’ll explore what makes a story solarpunk—what kinds of futures it envisions, how it differs from dystopian and techno-utopian narratives, and who is shaping the genre. Then, we’ll step beyond theory and into practice, experimenting together with storytelling as a form of world-building. What happens when we start writing the futures we want to see?

Event Details and RSVP ↗

🟢 Open for Whom? A grokkist's guide to accessing Open Access

🗓️ Thur 1 May | 9–10.30am Melbourne time (view in your timezone)
Facilitated by Eleanor Colla

Join librarian, researcher, and knowledge-connector Eleanor Colla for a Grok Talk that unpacks the hidden politics of academic publishing and the Open Access movement. We’ll explore why so much scholarly work is locked behind paywalls, how colonialist gatekeeping still shapes who gets to know what, and why even ‘free’ research can’t always be accessed, let alone be accessible.

But it’s not all doom and jargon! Eleanor will also share practical ways to access and use academic research without a university ID, from Open Access repositories to clever workarounds. And because Grokkists are more than just readers, we’ll discuss what it means to reclaim our role as knowers—intellectually curious people making meaning beyond institutional walls.

Event Details and RSVP ↗

Other Upcoming Events

• 1 May | 🟣 Grokkist Members Meetup [May '25]
• 5 May | 🟠 Neurographica: Colour and Coherence
• 7 May | 🟢 Grok Cafe [#3 in 2025]
• 21 May | 🟢 Creative Expression through Focusing

Featured Course

Comparative Meditation:
New Live Cohort Starts 29 April

Explore the richness and depth of meditation in an experiential journey that weaves together the philosophical underpinnings and transformative practices of Shamatha, Vipassana, Tantra, and Non-Dual meditation.

The next live cohort runs Tuesdays for 5 weeks, starting 29 April 2025, from 4–6pm ET.

Each live session includes:
• A guided meditation practice led by Jude
• Context and explanation to deepen understanding
• Time for group discussion and reflection

See the full schedule in your timezone on the Grokkist Academy Live Calendar.

Self-Guided Access: explore at your own pace
🔖 Suggested Tuition: USD$99* (30% off for Grokkist Members)

Live Cohort: go deeper with others
🔖 Suggested Tuition: USD$275* (30% off for Grokkist Members)

(*Can't afford it? Don't worry. Our Forget About the Price Tag policy ensures this course is open to everyone, regardless of budget.)

Full Course Details ↗

#1 - My beautiful tiny laundrette

Mozu Studios, the Japanese miniature art studio run by Kiyotaka Mizukoshi, specialises in crafting tiny rooms packed with absurdly meticulous detail. You only need 30 seconds of this video to be transported to their latest creation—a pocket-sized laundromat glowing light from a filament bulb, rotating machines, delicate signage, and little baskets filled with teeny-tiny clothes. The rest of the video shows the process—3D printing, laser cutting, hand-finishing—a mix of serious play, precise craftsmanship, and a reverence for the tactile.

#2 - Telling the bees

Telling the Bees – Emily Polk

Bees have long been witness to human grief, carrying messages between the living and the dead. Finding solace in the company of bees, Emily Polk opens to the widening circles of loss around her and an enduring spirit of survival.

Emergence MagazineEmily Polk

Emily Polk traces the ancient practice of “telling the bees” when someone dies—a ritual likely 600 years old, born of the belief that bees carry messages between the living and the dead (when Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022, the royal beekeeper informed the palace hives.)

Polk weaves her own grief into this broader tapestry of myth, memory, and interconnection. With reverence and curiosity, she follows a Yemeni beekeeper through Oakland, explores the history of bees as sacred messengers across cultures, and asks what it might mean for bees themselves to grieve.

Do bees feel sadness? Do they scream? (Apparently, yes.) Polk speaks with scientists studying “emotion-like states” in bees, with one describing how bees respond to trauma with pessimism—refusing food they once accepted, expecting bitterness in the future. That discovery lands alongside Polk’s own story of unimaginable loss and the way animals, perhaps more than humans, can hold grief without needing to explain it.

#3 - Dissecting Kendrick’s 'Die Hard'

Dissect is a music podcast for people who like to listen with their whole brain on. Every season, host Cole Cuchna takes apart a single album, song by song, line by line, exploring themes, context, and composition with forensic care. It’s a masterclass in music appreciation as critical reflection.

This season turns its gaze to Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, and in this episode on “Die Hard”, we’re offered a surprisingly gentle detour—a love letter, a prayer, a reckoning with Kendrick’s inner demons and emotional fragility. Die Hard is, in the episode’s words, “the feminine yin to an album that has been dominated by masculine yang.” Dissect reveals how the track samples a children’s lullaby, draws from biblical Seraphim, and wraps all of this around Kendrick’s questions about trust, growth, and being worthy of redemption.

#4 - Patient Capital, Zebra Companies, and the tools of Regenerative Finance

- Impact Terms Platform

A free curated library of innovations in impact investing terms and investment structures, available to entrepreneurs, investors and impact professionals Impact Terms offers: Latest Content

Impact Terms Platform

As more founders and funders seek alternatives to extractive growth models, a new financial vocabulary is emerging—one that prioritises sustainability, shared prosperity, and long-term impact over rapid exits and exponential returns.

This is the world of patient capital, referring to investments that are willing to wait for returns, accepting greater risk and longer horizons to support businesses tackling deep social challenges. Alongside this philosophy are zebra companies—businesses that are both profitable and purpose-driven, favoring resilience and mutualism over the unicorn pursuit of blitzscaling.

If you’re building or backing ventures like these, ImpactTerms.org is a valuable resource. It’s a curated library of real-world financial structures—like revenue-based financing, community notes, and self-liquidating equity—explained in plain language with examples and open-source templates. For instance, revenue-based financing allows businesses to repay investors through a percentage of their revenue, aligning repayment with actual performance and avoiding the pressures of fixed debt or equity dilution.

#5 - WikiTok: infinite curiosity, one swipe at a time

WikiTok

WikiTok

WikiTok is a TikTok-style interface for exploring random Wikipedia articles. Each swipe reveals a new article, complete with images and excerpts, inviting you to dive into topics you might never have sought out. Created by developer Isaac Gemal, it’s a minimalist, mobile-friendly web app that turns idle scrolling into an educational journey without tracking your preferences. As Gemal told Lifehacker, “We’re already ruled by ruthless, opaque algorithms in our everyday life; why can’t we just have one little corner in the world without them?”

If this already feels like home, membership is just making yourself comfortable.

As a Grokkist Member, you’re part of a circle of active grokkists walking the grokkist path. Find out more here.

Membership benefits include:

• 🟣 Member-Only Gatherings
• 🚪 Unlock Your Grok - Self-Paced Course
• ❤️‍🔥 30% Discount on Courses & Ticketed Events
• 🎭 Featured Member Profile
• 📣 Post Calls & Invitations
• ✨ Early Access & Prototypes
• ▶️ Events Recording Library
• ⭐️ Digital Member Badge

Become a Grokkist Member - $75/yr

A pair of parting thoughts...

“Of all men’s miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing” ― Herodotus

“If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way” ― Seamus Heaney