After seven months away from the main feed, I’m back with an update and a peek behind the Patreon paywall.
Over the course of this podcast, particularly the ‘cult’ure series, we developed shorthand for something that’s hard to name: “the drift” — the way ordinary cultures, well-intentioned ones, gradually erode personal agency without anyone intending harm. Not bad actors. Just systems that reward compliance and quietly punish deviation.
After years of documenting how the drift happens (in wellness spaces, workplaces, intimate relationships, and political movements) I kept hitting the same wall. Understanding it isn’t enough. There has to be an alternative. And it can’t just be try harder or find better people.
In this episode, I use a recent social media pile-on as a jumping-off point to unpack why the conversation keeps collapsing into two bad options — hyper-individualism on one end, identity-fusing collectivism on the other — and why neither one actually answers the question.
I’m not ready to share the full direction of the research yet. But I’m getting closer. And I think you’re going to recognize what I’ve been finding when you hear it.
If you want to follow along in real time through the end of the year, join us at patreon.com/thedeeperpulse.
July 29, 2026
