8 Profound Podcasts on the Meaning Crisis, Sensemaking, & Game B

There are some relatively “new” concepts floating around this corner of the internet everywhere you seem to look—on podcasts, videos, articles, you name it.

Perhaps you’ve seen terms like “meaning crisis,” “sensemaking,” and “Game B.”

These ideas seem to be mostly associated with an “online intellectual awakening”—curious minds and deep thinkers finding each other digitally and beginning to converse about humanity’s ultimate challenges.

I’m intimately familiar with the meaning crisis—given my own existential crisis—but the other two are somewhat new to me.

The podcasts compiled on this page are the best introductions to each concept that I could find online. If you’re new to any of these concepts, you’ve come to the right place to start.

8 Profound Podcasts Introducing the Meaning Crisis, Sensemaking, & Game B

What is the Meaning Crisis?

You can’t search for “meaning crisis” and not come across John Vervaeke’s incredible 50-part YouTube series called “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis” (also highlighted in the post 4 Existential Crisis Videos to Help You Find Purpose & Meaning in Life at any Age (on the 4th Anniversary of my own Crisis)

“The meaning crisis is an intersection of perennial problems that human beings face and some specific historical circumstances that we’re in (in the West) … The cognitive processes that make us adaptive—that give us our intelligence—also are the very same processes that make us continually prone and liable to self-deceptive, self-destructive behavior … While we have tremendous knowledge and information progress, we have very much a wisdom famine … We don’t have a worldview that tells us how our wisdom practices should fit together.” — John Vervaeke

The Meaning Crisis Overview

(135 mins | John Vervaeke on YouTube)

Awakening from the Meaning Crisis Introduction

(60 mins | John Vervaeke on YouTube)

What is Sensemaking?

As you may expect, there’s some natural overlap between the meaning crisis and sensemaking.

“Sensemaking is about the exploration into what is real, and what is meaningful is bound to what is real. We find that we at least have the experience of having choice, and we’re trying to find out how to orient our choice. And, so sensemaking to inform choicemaking is: what is reality, what is my relationship with reality, what is fundamentally meaningful as a basis for how I can make choices that are more aligned with what I find meaningful.” — Daniel Schmachtenberger

“Sensemaking or sense-making is the process by which people give meaning to their collective experiences.” (Wikipedia)

“Collective intelligence (CI) is shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration, collective efforts, and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making.” (Wikipedia)

Collective Intelligence Introduction

(50 mins | Rebel Wisdom Podcast on YouTube)

Making Sense of Sensemaking with Daniel Schmachtenberger, Jamie Wheal, & Jordan Hall

(160 mins | Rebel Wisdom Podcast on YouTube)

The War on Sensemaking with Daniel Schmachtenberger

(110 mins | Rebel Wisdom Podcast on YouTube)

What is Game B (or GameB)?

When you search for “Game B,” you’ll quickly come across names like Jim Rutt, Bret Weinstein, Jamie Wheal, and Jordan Hall (previously Jordan Greenhall).

If you’re looking for a good article to read, check out Jim Rutt’s introduction titled A Journey To GameB (Medium):

“So what is GameB? First, it is not ‘GameA’ — the Western Civilization status quo. That’s a good start for those of us who find the status quo a grim place that seems headed for self-destruction. GameB is conceived of ‘What Comes Next’, the social operating system that replaces GameA.”

“In short, the goal of GameB is a metastable society emphasizing human wellbeing built on good values that we will be happy to call home and we will be proud to leave to our descendants.”