HAPPY NEW YEAR —

Greetings Curious Human 👋

Welcome to Issue #95! I'm keeping things brief today as my wife and I are about to leave for a vacation to Nosara, Costa Rica, to host our own self-guided partnership retreat‚ and explore a tropical corner of the world I've heard so many great things about.

I hope the first six days of 2025 have been treating you well, and wish you all the best with whatever intentions you're stepping toward this year.

Stay Curious Out There,

Jonny

p.s. early-bird applications for Nervous System Mastery are open for our Spring cohort, so if you have any intentions of cultivating calm and emotional resilience this year, this cohort might be for you​

NEW PODCAST EPISODE —

[Podcast] Minimum Viable Woo, Trusting Curiosity & Navigating a Dark Night of the Soul with Tom Morgan (listen)

In this episode, I'm speaking with Tom Morgan — who after 15 years on Wall Street and experiencing what he describes as a "hellish midlife transition" (which is putting it mildly) has emerged with profound insights about human development and — especially relevant for this podcast – the nature of curiosity itself.

"No one addresses their shadow and almost everyone's shadow appears to be the left hemisphere recapturing all of their spiritual practices" ​ ​— Tom Morgan

In this conversation, you can expect to learn:

🧠 How we might navigate the delicate balance between intellectual understanding and embodied wisdom, especially for high-achieving individuals seeking deeper meaning in their lives
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🏔️ An insight about what he calls "intellectual recapture" — which is the tendency, especially among highly educated or successful people, to turn spiritual or embodied practices into yet another achievement to conquer.
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⚡ Practical insights about designing personal experiments and the importance of what he calls "minimum viable woo" — finding ways to engage with transformative practices that don't require abandoning our critical thinking.

FUN STUFF TO CLICK ON —

Et. Cetera ​

Intimate Explorations: My new favorite Substack is from Daniel Thorson, which he kicked off with a banger of an essay titled 'Spirituality is Secure Attachment with Reality' Read.

Ponder: This thought-provoking piece explores the idea of money being a Nervous System and finance being its motor cortex. Read.

Body Futurism?:​ A fascinating talk by Toby Shorin covering trauma release, sperm rates, longevity protocols, gene therapies, mystical states... and much more. Watch.

The Return of Magic? It seems that we are amidst a vibe shift towards taking magic more seriously, and as usual, Packy M is ahead of the curve with some flaming hot speculations to expand our worldviews. Read.

Zen Goes Mainstream: I've been enjoying Henry Shukman's new meditation app "The Way" (no affiliation), it is the most gorgeously designed + approachable introduction to zen practice I've ever seen. Try it​

Upgrade chatGPT: like most people, I've been integrating chatGPT into so many areas of life, and feel like I significantly upgraded my experience using this set of custom instructions. Copy​

$100k Fellowship: OS Ventures have just opened up their 2025 Fellow applications (which I intend to apply for myself), if you have bold dreams for an ambitious project this year, it's worth checking out. Apply.

FREE THINGS I'VE MADE —

PARTING WORDS —