The Initiation

About The Initiation

The Initiation is a podcast for those who sense the gravity and possibility of this moment in human history - a threshold marked by converging crises and a call to rise to the occasion. As exponential technologies accelerate, the global monetary system strains, climate disruption intensifies, and geopolitical orders shift - humanity stands on the edge of something vast and unknown. Each episode unpacks the forces reshaping our world and the inner shifts needed to meet them with clarity, courage, and wisdom. This is our collective rite of passage. Welcome to The Initiation.

Publisher

Sebastian Dienst

Category

society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

29 Jul 2025

Latest episode

3 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

26 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   3 Sept 2026

   #25 Sheldon Solomon: How the Fear of Death Shapes the World

   What if one of the most powerful forces shaping human behaviour is something we rarely talk about - our fear of death?Sheldon Solomon is a social psychologist and one of the world’s leading researchers on terror management theory - the idea, inspired by Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death, that our awareness of mortality quietly shapes much of human behaviour.For more than four decades, Sheldon and his colleagues have studied what happens when people are reminded of their mortality. Their research suggests that death anxiety can make us cling more tightly to our beliefs, become more hostile towards those who are different, seek money and status, support authoritarian leaders and even become more willing to exploit the natural world.But there is another possibility.What happens when, instead of denying death, we actually turn towards it?In this conversation, we explore:Why humans are uniquely aware of their own mortalityHow terror management theory helps explain seemingly irrational human behaviourWhy fear of death can intensify tribalism, polarisation and hostilityHow existential anxiety can increase our attraction to authoritarian leadersWhy money and status can become unconscious attempts to escape mortalityThe surprising relationship between death anxiety and environmental destructionWhy modern Western culture may be particularly death-denyingWhat near-death experiences reveal about our relationship with mortalityHow meditation, mindfulness and psychedelics may change the way we respond to deathWhy awe, humility, gratitude and nature could help us become more psychologically resilientWhether today’s converging crises are forcing humanity through a collective initiationAnd what Sheldon calls the need for a new kind of existential maturitySheldon argues that we may be living in a culture saturated with death anxiety — much of it operating beneath conscious awareness. Yet confronting our mortality may offer something unexpected: a deeper appreciation for being alive.As Sheldon reflects personally, after decades of studying death intellectually, it was only later in life that he began to experience the importance of practising awe, humility and gratitude — finding meaning in something as simple as walking outside, encountering another person or planting a tree that may outlive him.Ultimately, this is a conversation about death - but perhaps even more importantly, it is about how to live.Could the crises gathering around us be part of humanity’s initiation into a more mature relationship with mortality, with each other and with life itself?If you enjoy The Initiation, please subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube, and share the episode with someone who might resonate with this conversation.

2. 

   27 Aug 2026

   #24 Sarah Wilson: How to Live Fully in a Collapsing World

   What if the collapse we fear isn’t the end of humanity — but the end of a system that no longer serves us?Sarah Wilson is a bestselling author, journalist and activist. Her latest book, I Eat the Stars: How to Live Fully and Beautifully in a Collapsing World, explores how facing the reality of the metacrisis can paradoxically bring greater clarity, courage and even joy.In this conversation, we explore: Why the crises around us may be different expressions of one larger metacrisis Sarah has moved beyond conventional ideas of hopeWhat it means to hospice the old world rather than desperately trying to preserve itHumanity’s passage from adolescence toward collective adulthoodHow to become an “island of sanity” in increasingly unstable timesWhy uncertainty, nature, community and spirituality may become essential capacities for what comes nextAnd why humans have repeatedly turned to dance and joy in times of crisisUltimately, this is a conversation about what it means to meet a moment of profound change without looking away — and to live fully and beautifully anyway.If you enjoy The Initiation, please subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube, and share the episode with someone who might resonate with this conversation.

3. 

   24 Jul 2026

   #23 Luke Kemp: Why Civilizations Collapse - and How We Might Avoid the Next One

   In this episode of The Initiation, I speak with Luke Kemp, researcher at Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and author of Goliath’s Curse: The History and Future of Societal Collapse.Luke challenges the conventional story of civilization as a steady march of progress. Instead, he traces the rise of what he calls “Goliaths”: societies built upon concentrated power, extractive resources, monopolized violence, and the restriction of people’s freedom to leave.While the collapse of these systems often benefited ordinary people in the past, Luke argues that collapse today would be profoundly different. Nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence, ecological breakdown, and our dependence on global supply chains have raised the height of the fall—potentially to a terminal level.We discuss:Why the earliest states resembled organized protection racketsThe three ingredients that allow Goliaths to emergeWhy fear makes societies vulnerable to authoritarian leadersHow inequality and concentrated power make civilizations fragileWhy collapse had a surprisingly bright past—but may have a dark futureThe growing risks posed by nuclear weapons and artificial intelligenceWhy game theory misunderstands ordinary human behaviourHumanity’s deeper evolutionary capacity for cooperationHow corporations and states amplify the darker sides of human natureCitizens’ assemblies, wealth redistribution, and the possibility of open democracyWhat meaningful action looks like in the face of systemic riskThis is a sobering but ultimately empowering conversation about the history of power, the risks gathering around us, and how we might build institutions that bring out the best—rather than the worst—of humanity.And for new listeners, Season 1 of The Initiation lays the foundation for this inquiry - exploring the breakdowns, breakthroughs, and inner transformation shaping humanity’s collective threshold.

Who has been a guest on The Initiation

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Jeff Booth
• Jeremy Lent
• Richard Heinberg
• Roberto Rios
• Bill E Rees

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.4 / 5

5 ratings

Pitching The Initiation

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting pitches.

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