Dear friends,

We’re excited to announce the launch of Integration, a new podcast featuring thinkers forging connections across domains, traditions, and levels of analysis in pursuit of deeper coherence and actionable wisdom. In particular, it unpacks and promotes the work of scholars contributing to Integration: The Journal of Big Picture Theory and Practice, a peer-reviewed, inter-, trans-, and archdisciplinary journal committed to advancing the integrative study and applied use of metatheory and systems thinking for engaging with the unprecedented complexity of the 21st century. It also features scholars whose work is making vital contributions to this broader field.

In the first episode, Brendan Graham Dempsey and Dr. Clément Vidal discuss the work coming out of the Evo-Devo community and Dr. Vidal’s contributions to theorizing the concept of worldview before unpacking the core aspects of a so-called “cosmic evolutionary” worldview, whose ideas resonate deeply with the integrative worldview being developed by the Institute of Applied Metatheory. They unpack his ideas around cosmological artificial selection and its connection to various forms of metaphysics, as well as how value(s) relate to this cosmic picture.

0:00 Introduction
0:58 What is the “Evo-Devo” Research Community?
5:05 The Problem with (and Promise of) “Progress”
11:51 Evo-Devo Research Questions
14:53 Evolutionary Philosophy and the Question of Worldview
20:59 Criteria for Comparing Worldviews
26:05 The Nature of an Evolving Universe: The Origins of Fine-Tuning
34:33 Cosmological Artificial Selection
52:04 Cosmological Variation in a Multiverse?
55:25 Evolution, Development, Complexity and Value
1:08:47 Worldview Competition and Cultural Evolution
1:14:10 Conclusion