The idea for the name came from Waking Life, by Richard Linklater. Like the film’s protagonist, who wanders from dream to dream, engaging in a series of philosophical conversations with strangers while discerning whether his experience is real or just another layer of dreaming, I too felt called to converse with human beings to pose, aloud and together, the question of what it means to live a waking life.

Since Waking Life was already the name of the film and a festival in Portugal, I went for Waking Youth. I saw—still see—myself as part of a new generation who’s seeking to live by more conscious social scripts than the ones handed down by most of the elders of our western civilization.

The more I grew up, the more I realized that my living questions had less to do with age and more to do with a way of being; with a practice of existential curiosity, of intellectual courage and spiritual discernment. Why are we alive? What life am I here to live? What work is mine to do? And who are we being called to become as a collective?

I tried, for a moment, to resignify the podcast’s name. The “youth” part of Waking Youth could be a metaphor, yes. I’d heard the idea before and liked it, that as a civilization we are in a developmental stage akin to adolescence. Even now, I read the tweets of some of the leaders of our institutions and think to myself: Are these guys thirteen?

I pitched this new meaning of Waking Youth to listeners and guests: we are the ones in our western culture seeking to live into our wiser maturity; the ones who think it’s time grow up. And each time, I felt a little more contracted, a little less convinced. Too… complicated. Too… disrespectful to thirteen year-old boys! Plus, most people still assumed it was a youth-focused project.

Six years after I started Waking Youth, the time has come to evolve it’s name. I brainstormed. I reached out to friends. I distilled the essence of what I feel drawn to research again and again, through podcast interviews, through writing, through educational programs, through life in community: consciousness? maturity? self development? social transformation? One word kept coming to mind: wisdom.

After many lists, conversations with humans and robots, and domain checks, the name became obvious: Wiser Now. Like me, Waking Youth is older and a little wiser. It’s more careful with terms like “waking” and “awake”, which have not only become clichés, but also carry cultural baggage in a polarized society quick to dismiss (when not mock) anything that sounds “woke”. It’s curious about people’s stories of becoming: how they became wiser than yesterday, and how they continue to be invited to mature. It longs for a wiser collective reality, a wiser civilization, a wiser world. In other words, it’s most interested in cultivating the kind of presence, authority, and compassion necessary to navigate the pain and paradox of life without growing cynical, detached or insane. Wiser Now. What do you think?

Leave a comment

What to Expect

The name of this project has changed, the work I feel called to do hasn’t. Even though I believe a wiser life is one of less expectation and more surrender, you can expect to see more of what you’ve seen here until now:

• Podcast interviews with human beings I consider wise in some way; conversations to accompany us in our pursuit of wisdom. I’m currently preparing a series of episodes on the topic of community, including a conversation with former member of Tamera and activist, Martin Winiecki, as well as with the wide community of .

• Essays, or what I’m now naming Field Notes, my lived and written experiment with truth and wisdom. Expect musings on life in community, writing, collapse-readiness, culture, and more.

• Online Integral Yoga classes held every Wednesday at 8.30am Portugal time and Saturday at 9am, where we ground our pursuit of wisdom in the body.

• Online and in-person programs where we explore the questions that connect and animate us together. In the past, I hosted a book club around ‘Letters to a Young Poet’, and an in-person retreat based on the book ‘Let Your Life Speak’. I’m now sketching an online program that brings some of my favorite books into conversation with one another, combined with introspective communal practices to help us listen louder to our inner teachers. I’d love, for example, to put Rilke and Parker Palmer in conversation: about vocation, about solitude and community. Let me know if it resonates.

What else? I’m currently living in—and helping set up—Mosaic Village, a small intentional community of eight adults and six children, all of us called to create a culture more courageously grounded in love as practice. It’s not always easy to show up for all my personal and professional commitments when so much of my energy is invested here—strategy and governance meetings, work on the land, emotional circles that are both confronting and deeply life-giving. I’ll be sharing more of this journey, sometimes in writing, sometimes through audio or video, as a way of making sense of my experience, for myself, and anyone who’s curious to join me.

If you’d like to follow this community adventure more closely, and to have access to more intimate essays and news from me, please let me know by leaving a comment or writing me an email. In addition to offering monthly podcast interviews and written updates, I’m testing a paid subscription and would like to offer it for free to founding subscribers like you as I figure out exactly what is valuable to share.

Subscribe now

Excited to step into this next chapter of Wiser Now with you.

With love,
Carlota

I read it in solitude, in 2024, while retreating in the northern Portuguese countryside to focus on the writing of my first novel. I thought I was retreating to write. I didn’t realize that I was also stepping into another kind of initiation (read essay I wrote about Breaking Together here).

Chapter after chapter of Breaking Together, my mind and heart broke more and more open. I learned about Jem’s story and the money system, about global food supply chains and the latest climate science with no sugar coating. I learned why our modern civilization is structurally bound for collapse, and how unlikely it is that our political institutions will save us. I also learned about the lives of the “doomsters”, those of us who have accepted the inevitability of collapse and are seeking to live our most meaningful, beautiful life not despite our predicament, but because of it.

The permission that Breaking Together gave me was simple: go wild, be free. Don’t pour your energy into chasing the illusion of success inside a crumbling system—whether that is a shiny career, a fancy house and life in the city, or even a huge social media following. Focus on what truly matters: radical social transformation through direct action, community resilience, art, creativity, and real spiritual development.

So, when I heard Jem Bendell was coming to Lisbon for the launch of the Portuguese edition of Breaking Together, I had to try to interview him. What I didn’t expect was to end up co-moderating the book launch itself, alongside researcher & activist Pedro Macedo, and the wonderful team at , the publisher responsible for bringing this book to Portuguese-speaking readers.

Below you can watch the full book launch of Juntos na Rutura, so you can feel into Jem’s vital book and message:

The following day, Jem and I met in a more intimate setting to record the conversation you’re about to hear. My angle, as usual, was personal. Beyond asking Jem about societal collapse—which he’s spoken about widely elsewhere—I wanted to meet the human behind the thesis: Who is Jem Bendell? How did he become who he is? How did he get to do this important work? And what does it mean for him to live with more consciousness and wisdom, now?

Listen to find out :) And let me know what came up for you in the comments section.

With Love,
Carlota

Subscribe now

Guest Bio

Jem Bendell is a world-renowned scholar on the breakdown of modern societies due to environmental change. For decades he worked in Sustainable Development—as a researcher, NGO manager, professor, and consultant to businesses, political parties, and UN agencies.

In 2012, he was recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and has since become one of the clearest critics of the globalist agenda on sustainable development.

In 2018, after a sabbatical studying the latest climate science, he published Deep Adaptation—an academic paper that went viral and is credited to inspiring the Extinction Rebellion movement.

Since then, Jem has stepped away from the sustainability industry. He published Breaking Together in 2023, moved to Bali, opened an organic farming school, became a singer-songwriter, and, in his own words, a militant mysticist.

Links

• Buy Breaking Together: a Freedom Loving Response to Collapse

• Buy Juntos na Rutura, the Portuguese edition of Breaking Together

• Download Breaking Together for free

• Subscribe to Jem Bendell’s blog

• Join Jem’s monthly Metacrisis meetings

Credits

• Music Audio Producer & Editor: Carlos Sierra

• Producer, Writer & Host: Carlota Guedes

The impulse to write had visited me months prior, when I didn’t know where to turn with my existential restlessness and desire, other than the blank, non-judgmental page. Where to turn with a more gluttonous part of me who wanted what I wasn’t supposed to want. I was in long-term partnership with a man back then, a man I still love and with whom I had a wonderful, life-affirming relationship. Still, I found myself fantasizing—in my mind and on the page—about my best (woman) friend and former lover, knowing that both of us were in monogamous relationships.

From that impulse was born a short story. One which I shared with my former (woman) lover, who shared it with her partner, which made me want to be honest with mine and share the story with him too. To say the least, it was awkward. Not only had this impulse thrown me into a rabbit hole of difficult conversations and the study of alternative relational models—it wanted me to keep digging.

I tried to find a way out. I tried to convince myself of my lovely life: my lovely stable communication job, my lovely monogamous relationship. But that impulse began revealing itself as the voice of my truer self. A voice that kept whispering. And then not only whispering. Eventually, it spoke through the vocal cords of a human being—a man. A cocky and sensitive and unfairly sexy creature I wasn’t supposed to want; I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with; I wasn’t supposed to risk my entire life with my lovely partner just to try and discover what damn assignment I had with this other man, who had kids, a mess of a relational life, who lived in another country. Why, voice? Why, impulse to write? Why me?

By then I knew I couldn’t not listen. I couldn’t not keep writing. Its will surpassed my own, and it was my task to move through this unfolding—alongside myself, my partner, my almost-lovers—and document it as devoutly as I could. So I did what I had to do. In January 2023, I didn’t leave my job to write what the voice was showing me wanted to become a novel. But I didn’t search for a new one because of it. It was time to put the writing thing at the center of everything and discover how this long fantasy—of being a writer and living a truer life—felt in not-so-fantasy-like life.

Subscribe now

I’d heard interviews about the time it took to draft a novel—a couple of months for some; for others, a couple of years. Sally Rooney drafted her first in three months. Rachel Cusk, two crazy weeks. I anticipated falling somewhere in the middle. Sure, I was a non-native English writer. Sure, I was a twenty-five-year-old business school graduate who’d never read the classics. Sure, I was the daughter of engineers, military officers, and public servants with little connection to the arts. But if there was one thing I knew, as a former volleyball player competing above my age level, it was discipline: showing up, doing the work.

The first draft took seven months, from January to August 2023. During this time I lowered my expenses to the minimum. I relied on the generous support of my family, my partner (the same partner with whom I was risking my future to write this book). I set my alarm before dawn every weekday and brought my yawning self to the keyboard even when I had no idea what I was doing—which was most days. I began couples therapy with an expert in CNM. I worked on my relationship—both with my partner and my self—which meant neither leaving him nor abandoning my need for relational freedom. I listened to every writer interview I found on the podcast. I read more than I ever had. I studied. I realized how little I knew about the craft I wanted to integrate as my own beyond vomiting cheesy half-truths onto the page, half-truths that despite my incompetence still wanted to be expressed through me—me—why me? At least I had a manuscript now. Not so much a good one. Not one I could show a living soul. Not one that was true—for I hadn’t yet lived enough—but it was something.

The second draft took eight months: from September 2023 to May 2024. I was more confident then: about my creative process, my vocational choices, my semi-open partnership, my identity as a writing apprentice. I began taking some freelance communication gigs, realizing that if I wanted this novel to be any good, it would probably take time. My partner encouraged me to spend some months in the Portuguese countryside, in solitude, focused, since I was privileged enough to do so. It was a good idea. After the Christmas holidays that’s what I did. I brought my favorite books and Mrs. Coruja with me (meet her in the image below). I surrounded myself with printed drafts, fluorescent highlighters, Post-it notes on the walls to keep me motivated. I spent nearly half a year like that. I wrote until one day I was finished: the day I cried rather dramatically on the grass outside, kneeling into the sunset, for I could not believe I’d crossed to the other side whole—and still partnered, still in a lovely, even better relationship, now open. I sent the manuscript to trusted writer friends, and . I send it to an experienced editor, . I returned to the Spanish capital where I was based. I waited for feedback.

It’s January 2026. The third and current draft has taken me, so far, one year and four months. I had finished the manuscript in the Portuguese countryside but the story wasn’t done with me yet. My alpha readers had enjoyed the ending but it wasn’t my ending. The voice wanted me to leave my lovely open relationship. It wanted me to leave my home in Spain. To return to my country of origin. To end alone (or as a dear friend likes to put it: all one). What began as a short story in 2023—and a call to open my relationship—has since become an initiatory journey to open my entire life. I’m still grappling with what that means. I sense it has something to do with control, or more specifically, with its release. I sense it has something to do with a spiritual kind of authority—the one hard-earned through direct experience, courage, surrender, discernment, failure, more failure, and self-reflection. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that authority and author share the same root. Perhaps, at the deepest level, my call to write—to be an author—is a call to become the authority of my own life.

The plan for the novel—yes, because I’m still into planning—is to finish before the flowers begin to reveal their colors here in Alentejo where I’m now based. That’s how I’ve motivated myself over the years: setting a deadline, pretending I’d be over then, working hard, occasionally distracting (or motivating) myself with a Substack post, defining the next deadline, and failing again. But the other thing this writing journey has been teaching me is to focus less on the object—the lover I can’t have, the perfect open relationship, the finished manuscript, the agent I haven’t landed, the publishing deal—and more on who I’m becoming through the process; trusting that what belongs to me is already strolling, equanimous and unbothered by my impatience, in my direction. However long that takes.

That’s it for today. In case you’re searching for ways to motivate yourself to keep writing—or listening to the voice of your life—here are some books that have kept me company along the way:

Letters To a Young Poet
Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Several Short Sentences About Writing
The Situation and the Story: the Art of Personal Narrative
To Show & to Tell: The Craft of Literary Non-Fiction
On Becoming a Novelist
Mornings with Mailer: A Recollection of Friendship
A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course In Miracles”
Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative

With Love,
Carlota

The retreat will revolve around a question that has been alive for me in the last years: what does it mean to life a true life? In others words, how might I let go of projections (mine and other people’s) of what my life should be about, to really open myself to the life that wants to live through me?

In my case, living a truer life, has meant embracing radical honesty with compassion as one of my guiding values. Also, letting go of a more conventional career in corporate communication to pursue the call to write a novel, carry forward the Waking Youth project, and join a group process with others who feel drawn to creating an intentional community—even if all these choices come with less financial security, material comfort, and at times, social validation!

What does a truer life look like for you? I don’t know. Maybe it’s about caring less about what other people think. Or being more honest with your partner. Or starting an art project you’ve dreaming about for years but never dared to. Whatever that is for you, my invitation is that you join us, so that we explore these questions together.

Leave a comment

And for those curious about my—sometimes considered controversial—views on relating and romantic love, particularly novogamy, I’ll be speaking about that as well—which happens to be the central theme of the novel I am still, patiently, editing.

Besides that, there will be lots of yoga, yummy meals, sharing circles, and group reflections. We’re not really into lectures or pedestals, and prefer instead to create spaces where we learn together, from the wisdom alive in the group.

To check the venue, a beautiful villa surrounded by nature, and learn more about the retreat’s program, click the button below.

Learn more about retreat here

One last thing: we’re offering scholarships to make sure the retreat is as inclusive as possible. So if you feel called to join us but can’t afford the full price, send us your best application here.

With love,
Carlota

P.S. Just one private room is still available, along with three spots in a shared two-bed room.

I come to you with a few updates today, all of which I’m excited to share. Let’s get to it:

Interview Jem Bendell

On September 5, Jem Bendell will be at Casa do Comum, in Lisbon, launching the Portuguese edition of his book Breaking Together: a Freedom-Loving Response to Collapse.

I wrote about how deeply this book touched me early last year. And as I write this now, looking back, I realize just how much it has shaped my life and work since—though I won’t go into that today…

In it, Jem argues not only that our civilization is bound to collapse, but that this process has already begun. Beyond diagnosing why, he offers a vision of how we might live meaningfully once we accept this reality.

I’ll be attending the launch, and interviewing him shortly afterward. So, if you’re in Lisbon around that time, I invite you to join us.

Also, if you’re already familiar with Jem’s work, I’d love for you to send me questions to pose him on the day of the interview. I’ll do my best to cover them. You can do this by replying to this email or leaving a comment below.

Leave a comment

And if you aren’t yet familiar with his work, well, maybe this is a good opportunity! In 2018, Jem wrote Deep Adaptation, a paper that greatly inspired the creation of Extinction Rebellion and set the stage for Breaking Together.

Integral Yoga Classes

In other news, on September 15, I’ll be opening an Integral Yoga group class—both online and in person, in Alentejo, Portugal.

Integral Yoga is a practice I’ve loved and shared for the past four years. It was created by Sri Aurobindo in the early 20th century, alongside his fascinating theory of consciousness.

Unlike most classical yoga systems that aim for union with the divine through an ascetic path, seeking liberation from material existence, Integral Yoga takes a different approach. It invites us to, first, divinize the world of matter. In other words: to create here on Earth the heaven our hearts so often long for.

By the way, and in the spirit of Waking Youth’s latest research on communities, Sri Aurobindo’s vision inspired the creation of Auroville, one of the world’s most renowned intentional communities.

Okay, enough for now. I’ll tell you more about this yoga offering soon. In the meantime, if it sounds like something you might be interested in, I invite you to answer a short survey below. I want to design a thoughtful experience that is suited to your needs and wishes.

Answer survey here

‘Let Your Life Speak’ Retreat

Last but certainly not least: I’m facilitating my first retreat, ever, from October 8 to 12. It will take place in northern Portugal, in Vila Nova de Cerveira, my second home ever since I was a kid.

To be frank, I didn’t think I’d facilitate a retreat so early in my life. But when my dear friend Nata—who will be co-hosting with me—challenged me, I thought: why not? After all, Waking Youth’s very reason for being (and mine) is to explore what it means to live into maturity more wisely, as individuals and as a species. And what better way to do that than together, face-to-face, in a place I love?

We drew inspiration from Parker Palmer’s book, Let Your Life Speak, which explores the life-long journey of discovering one’s vocation—and, of course, our own unfolding paths.

Over five days, we’ll sit with questions like: What is the life that only I am meant to live? What does purpose feel like—not in theory, but in my body? And what would it mean to show up in my relationships as myself—no masks, no pretense, no people-pleasing?

I’m looking forward to diving into themes that have been accompanying my life and this project for years:

• Discovering one’s calling (aligned with my conversation with Ashanti Kunene);

• Radical honesty with ourselves and others (building on my exchange with filmmaker Caveh Zahedi);

• Conscious relating and new relational models, like novogamy (expanding on my interview with transpersonal psychologist Jorge Ferrer).

There’s much more that I want to share about this experience. I’ll write more about it soon. For now, you can check out our landing page below, and write to me if you’re curious or have any questions.

Learn more here

With love,
Carlota

Subscribe now

And while these stereotypes can sometimes hold a grain of truth, they can also fail to capture the multitudes people hold. What if someone could be deeply spiritual and grounded? Sensitive and strategic? Connected to something higher while fully engaged in the messiness of life?

Today, I bring you the story of Elad Kaspin—someone who shatters not only the stereotype of a ‘hippie’, but also that of an ‘Israeli man,’ ‘father,’ and ‘entrepreneur.’

Born in Israel, son of a military man, Elad grew up dreaming of becoming a combat pilot. Due to a health condition—or as Elad calls it, a divine intervention—that path closed, and he became a computer engineer instead.

After that, he began asking deeper questions about the world he’d inherited. He left Israel in search of ways of living that didn’t reduce people or business to profit machines, eventually landing in the south of Portugal, in Alentejo, where we met.

In this conversation, recorded from the cozy caravan extension Elad calls home, we talk about his early life, from his sensitivity to subtle energies to his once-ambitious military dreams.

We explore his experience living in community—both the one he created with friends, and at Tamera, a 30-year-old intentional community in southern Portugal known for its radical explorations around peace, love, and sexuality.

We also talk about Elad’s embodied perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian war, as well as the business he co-founded with a Palestinian friend—Canhamor—a sustainable hemp-block producer revolutionizing the construction industry in Portugal.

Last but not least, we hear what it means for Elad to live a wiser, more conscious life.

Enjoy!
Carlota

Leave a comment

Credits

• Music Audio Producer & Editor: Carlos Sierra

• Producer, Writer & Host: Carlota Guedes

Organized by the Everybody Media Collective, this award has been steadily gaining traction in the podcasting industry, drawing support from sponsors like Amazon Music and BBC Sounds, and connecting a vibrant network of both pro and indie podcasters from around the globe.

While I prefer to place more value on internal alignment than external applause when it comes to my creative pursuits—regularly checking in to ensure that what I share here arises from the most honest, integral parts of both myself and our guests—nominations like this one offer a pleasant reminder that what we co-create at Waking Youth resonates beyond us.

In the spirit of celebration, I want to express my gratitude to guest for disclosing intimate details of her private and inner life with such candor and thoughtfulness. It has her contribution to the podcast that earned us the nomination in the category Insight from a Role Model. You can listen to our conversation below, if you haven’t yet.

I want to emphasize that I find Hannah’s work extraordinary. Whether in the form of an image, written piece, or social media post, her art emerges from a profound, quiet place. It moves the stuff of the spirit, and invites us to question who we are and what we’re really here for. I’m particularly curious to watch her debut documentary Islandness, which will be released soon.

I also want to give—not a shout-out, since I’m more of a quiet type—but a heartfelt note of appreciation to Carlos Sierra, the sound editor and music composer of Waking Youth. His talent has elevated this podcast to professional heights. And his good spirits and kindness and presence often give me the nudge I need to keep going—keep recording, keep writing, keep listening to this calling of mine… even when trying to stay consistent feels like building a sandcastle while the tide of everything else in my life rushes in to wash it away.

What else? I admit that I feel conflicted about Waking Youth’s pace. It’s been slow, slower than I’d like to be. The paradox is that I’m more connected to its purpose than ever before.

I’m writing to you from El Molino de Guadalmesí in the early morning, a 20-year-old community project in southern Spain, with Morocco shimmering on the horizon—across a body of water that barely separates two continents. I’m here with a recently formed group of five souls who are brave (or delusional) enough to be seriously contemplating starting an intentional community together.

We’re treating the months ahead as a sort of group initiation—a trial by tents, and compost toilets, and as many hours of field work as of visioning and emotional processing—after which we’ll decide whether to find land of our own and continue this adventure together, or not.

Motivated by a shared longing to get to the root of the illnesses that plague our modern civilization—separation from nature and one another, fear (isn’t it always about fear?)—our intention is to co-create a space, both literal and symbolic, whose purpose is to evolve together: to continue the long transition from the adolescent stage of development our mainstream society is stuck in toward a wiser, more mature way of being.

(By the way, if you’d like to follow our group process more closely, leave a comment on this newsletter with the word “COMMUNITY” or privately reply to this email and I’ll add you to our Telegram group)

Leave a comment

So, over the next few weeks and months, I’ll be turning Waking Youth’s focus toward the question of community: What does it mean to live in community? What models are out there? What mistakes can we learn from—and what are the new ones to be made about? Can community truly hold some part of the solution to our polycrisis—or is just another utopian mirage?

The next episode I’ll share soon is with Elad Kaspin, a friend who lived for four years in Tamera, a 30-year old community in southern Portugal best known for its radical work around love, sexuality and peace. Born and raised in Israel, Elad offers a precious and embodied perspective, not only on the Israeli-Palestinian war, but also on how Tamera, as a largely German community, articulates its activist rhetoric around this heart-shattering topic.

Warmly,
Carlota

I come to you today with something I’ve been preparing with much care these last weeks. I interviewed one of my favorite writers last year, , and our conversation is finally out.

I first stumbled upon Pinchbeck’s work about six years ago. I was exploring the mindful streaming platform Gaia, and discovered his show Mindshift, where he sits with different profiles—intellectuals, mystics, cultural superstars—to discuss topics like the future of civilization, technology and spirituality. I haven’t stopped devouring his stuff ever since.

Subscribe now

Perhaps what I most appreciate about Pinchbeck is how masterfully he weaves personal narrative with collective issues. His writing is some of the most honest I’ve come across, as well as fun, relevant, and always provocative.

I loved, for example, how in How Soon Is Now, he describes being at the Burning Man festival, convinced he was about to catalyze a global transformation—literally, in that moment. Tripping, he fantasized about bringing together many brilliant leaders attending the event to draft a planetary constitution, and build a social network and media platform to support the rapid transition to a regenerative, post-capitalist society.

“I saw it all in a flash. One group of Burners – legal experts, software engineers, social scientists, anthropologists, financial analysts, workers at NGOs and more – would gather at the Center Cafe each day, to design and build the prototype for a new social infrastructure through a cooperative, consensus process. This networking platform would include tools for democratic decision-making, sharing resources and alternative instruments for exchanging value, designed to first complement and then supersede the current money system. Another group of Burners – filmmakers, journalists, poets and artists – would document the unfolding process as we wrote the planetary constitution, demanding a world based on ecological and social justice, equality, peace and righteousness. Rather than making incremental and fitful progress, humanity as a whole would make a sudden forward leap.” Excerpt from How Soon is Now

I loved too, the candor with which he described failing at this endeavor, which, in his words, remains one of the proudest and most humiliating events of his life.

Or have you heard of Deep Zero? The play where he tells a darkly comedic tale of apocalypse, skewering technocrats and new agers alike.

Anyway, I tell you more about Pinchbeck and our episode below. I hope you enjoy it. Maybe I’ll return soon, eventually, with more episodes and thoughts that have been alive lately—AI and art, intentional communities as solutions to our polycrisis, to name a few.

In the meantime, let me know what came up for your throughout the interview, if you feel called to listen.

Warmly,
Carlota

Leave a comment

Podcast Episode

If there’s a central inquiry to the Waking Youth podcast it’s this: How might we consciously initiate ourselves—as individuals and as a species–into the next stage of our evolution? Turn our ecological emergency, our polycrisis, into an opportunity for global transformation?

has dedicated his life and career to living this question.

Author of Breaking Open the Head, 2012 The Return of Quetzalcoatl, How Soon Is Now, and more recently, the Substack newsletter Liminal News, Daniel’s work explores consciousness, politics, mysticism, and social change.

He has spent decades not just writing about change, but actively seeking it through projects like the Evolver Network, , and online courses on the ecological emergency.

In this episode, we unpack Daniel’s story of becoming—from his early days as a child of the Beat Generation in New York, to his awakening into a more mystical paradigm.

We talk about writing as a tool for transformation, how to catalyze social and environmental shifts, the war between the genders, and the connection between non-normative relational models and societal healing.

Last but not least, we listen to Daniel’s words of wisdom for the younger generations, coming of age in this pivotal evolutionary moment.

Subscribe now

References

• TAZ: The Temporary Autonomous Zone

• Techno-Feudalism: What Killed Capitalism

• Why Materialism is Baloney

• Morphogenetic Fields, Rupert Sheldrake

• Manifesto for the Noosphere

• The Myth of Male Power

• The Red Pill

• The Outrage Machine

• Sexual Personae

• Existential Kink

• Eros Unredeemed

• The Case Against the Sexual Revolution

• Internet for the People

Credits

• Music Audio Producer & Editor: Carlos Sierra

• Producer, Writer & Host: Carlota Guedes

Hannah has recently launched a crowdfunding campaign for ‘Islandness’, a documentary exploring the profound connections between people and place in a world in crisis. I trust it will be a great one—like all the other stuff I’ve read or seen from Hannah—and can’t wait to see the final result.

Set in the Scottish Hebrides during this pivotal period of unrest, the story follows a diverse group of islanders as their ways of life are shaped by change, asking some of the most pressing questions of our times. This story reveals what ‘islandness' can teach us about togetherness and our connection to the natural world in times of upheaval, and what this shows us about meaning in a meaning-starved culture. The film explores identity, community, and spirituality, as well as practical aspects of island life, journeying through an elemental landscape steeped in history, hardship, and wisdom.

I was glad to hear today that the campaign reached its target. Still, there are a couple of hours left to donate, and I felt called to share it with you. Maybe you feel like supporting this film too. You can find the trailer as well as the link to contribute below:

Support Hannah here

As a creator and communicator interested in social transformation, I’m often critical of our digital landscape, not to mention mainstream social media—something Hannah and I touched on in our conversation. That said, if there’s one thing that is truly awesome about life behind the screen it’s how easily we can help each other’s creative dreams come to life. I love what Hannah creates, and I wish that her vision comes to life as beautifully and successfully as possible, however she defines success.

I’ll be back very soon with a new podcast episode. Until then, I invite you to listen to my conversation with Hannah below, if you haven’t yet.

Warmly,
Carlota

Her words have appeared in publications such as the Dark Mountain Project and Evolve. While her images, since she’s a brilliant photographer too, have been featured in the Guardian, The Telegraph, the Times, among others. 

With a Ma in Engaged Ecology from Schumacher College, where she created the visual philosophy project ARCHIPELAGO: A Cartography of Relation, Hannah is currently making Islandness, a documentary expanding on the theme of islands and what they can teach us about resilience, togetherness, and our connection to the natural world.

Beyond her artistic pursuits, Hannah is curator. In 2018 she founded Experimental Thought Co, a network that convened events on culture change. More recently, she partnered with the transformational learning platform advaya (whose co-founder Ruby Reed I recently interviewed) to curate several courses, among them Contemporary Spirituality: Meaning and Mysticism in the Modern Age.

At the moment, Hannah lives between South West England, where she’s from, and a wild Hebridean island where she occasionally hosts sailing residencies.

I invited Hannah because, to me, she embodies the pursuit of wisdom and wholeness. Her art—whether in the form of an image, written piece, or Instagram post—emerges from a profound, quiet place. It moves the stuff of the spirit, and invites us to question who we are and what we’re really here for. 

Together we unpack her early life as the daughter of a 17-year old mother in a working class household that revered flatscreen TVs and honest labor. We listen to the waking up moments that let Hannah to eventually commit to her artistic pursuits. We also talk about her reluctance to personal branding, and the subversive role of creativity in a consumerist culture. And, last but not least, how Hannah attempts to live her most waking life.

Enjoy!

Leave a comment

Credits

• Music Audio Producer & Editor: Carlos Sierra

• Producer, Writer & Host: Carlota Guedes

I’ll be hosting the first session of the Rilke Book Club today, from 7 PM to 8.30 PM WEST.

You can still join us, we have 3 spots left! If you’re interested learn more by clicking the button below.

Rilke is calling me!

Here’s some practical info:

☀️ Sessions will take place every Sunday from September 29 to November 10, between 7:00 PM and 8:30 PM WEST (Lisbon time) / 2:00 PM and 3:30 PM EDT (Atlanta time).

☀️ Our text of focus will be Letters to a Young Poet.

☀️ Each week, we’ll explore and discuss one or two of Rilke’s letters, reflecting on how their insights align (or not) with our personal experiences. Themes will range from solitude and love, to nature, art and spirituality.

☀️ What’s included: 7 live Zoom sessions, weekly invitations for deeper engagement with the letters, access to recordings of each session, and access to a Whatsapp group.

☀️ We'll also be joined by special guests, each offering their own distinct wisdom. Among them is James Murdock a brilliant writer and author of the Madbird Newsletter.

Warmly,
Carlota

There are only 4 spots left for the Rilke Book Club I’ll be hosting in exactly one week, on Sunday, September 29.

If I were to follow traditional marketing strategies, I’d tell you that THE TIME TO ENROLL IS NOW!

But I’m not really into all that. Not today at least. I trust that you know how to manage your time, and that you don’t need me or anyone to tell you what to do with it.

Maybe what feels right for you, at this moment, is to commit to this 7-week program with me and nine other thoughtful human beings, willing to reflect on… life, love, solitude, sorrow, nature, art, god, and more.

Maybe it feels more right to spend your Sundays hiking, cozying up with Netflix and a bowl of sweet crunchy popcorn—or a jar of peanut butter, or whatever your guilty indulgence might be. Maybe you don’t really have a choice: you have little ones demanding your care and attention.

I get it. No pressure. No expectation.

This said, if you feel called—if your being feels animated and curious and maybe even a little nervous about the prospect of joining this book club, I would love for you to be present in our virtual room, on Sundays, from 7 PM to 8:30 PM WEST (Lisbon Time), starting September 29 to November 10. I would love to know how Rilke’s words moved you or not—how they relate to and inspire your life now.

Rilke is calling me!

From this side of the screen, I’m already diving into the book we’ll be focusing on - Letters to a Young Poet — in preparation for our sessions. I’m pretty excited. I think no other piece of writing has transformed me more than this tiny book has.

Here’s one of my favorite quotes:

“I ask you, dear sir, to have patience with all that is unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves, like closed rooms, like books written in a foreign language.

Don’t try to find the answers now. They cannot be given anyway, because you would not be able to live them. For everything is to be lived.

Live the questions now. Perhaps you then may gradually, without noticing, one day in the future, live into the answers.”

Warmly,
Carlota

P.S. If you're a paid subscriber to Waking Youth, or decide to become one by clicking the button below, you can join the book club at a 40% discount.

Just send me an email at carlota@wakingyouth.org, and I'll provide you with a separate enrollment link.

Your generous support allows me to dedicate more time and energy to this labor of love, ensuring its continuity and flourishing for years to come. Paid subscribers also receive special offers like this one, along with occasional bonus content.

Get 20% off for 1 year

Just a gentle reminder that there are only 3 days left for you to take advantage of the Early Bird price for the Rilke Book Club taking place from September 29 to November 10.

If you feel called to join an intimate group of lovers of words to delve into the exploration of our human existence, click on the button below to learn more about the initiative and guarantee your spot (there are only 6 left).

Enroll here

I hope to e-see you soon :)

Warmly,
Carlota

I’m delighted to announce that enrollment for the Rilke Book Club is now officially open! Over the course of 7 weeks, we’ll gather each Sunday to, together, unpack Rilke’s timeless wisdom and put it in conversation with our lives. 

Important: If you sign-up within the next 7 days—by Wednesday, September 18—you can enjoy an Early Bird discount.

Enroll here

Some practical information in case you’re feeling called to join me:

☀️ To ensure a warm and intimate vibe, the group will be limited to just ten participants.

☀️ Sessions will take place every Sunday from September 29 to November 10, between 7:00 PM and 8:30 PM WEST (Lisbon time) / 2:00 PM and 3:30 PM EDT (Atlanta time).

☀️ Our text of focus will be Letters to a Young Poet.

☀️ Each week, we’ll explore and discuss one or two of Rilke’s letters, reflecting on how their insights align (or not) with our personal experiences. Themes will range from solitude and love, to nature, art and spirituality.

☀️ What’s included: 7 live Zoom sessions, weekly invitations for deeper engagement with the letters, access to recordings of each session, and access to a Whatsapp group.

☀️ We'll also be joined by special guests, each offering their own distinct wisdom. Among them is a brilliant writer and author of the newsletter.

Enroll now

One last thing: If you're already a paid subscriber to Waking Youth, or decide to become one by clicking the button below, you can join the book club at a 50% discount. Just send me an email at carlota@wakingyouth.org, and I'll provide you with a separate enrollment link. Your generous support allows me to dedicate more time and energy to this labor of love, ensuring its continuity and flourishing for years to come. Paid subscribers also receive special offers like this one, along with occasional bonus content.

Get 20% off for 1 year

Still have questions or doubts? I’m an email away at carlota@wakingyouth.org.

I hope to e-see you soon :)

Warmly,
Carlota

On the other hand, changemakers and activists can become so obsessed about bringing forth their desired futures that they not infrequently neglect self-care, presence and even kindness and compassion towards self and others. 

Subscribe now

One of the projects bridging this divide is Advaya. They are a transformational learning platform that offers courses on ecology, spirituality, mysticism, embodiment and culture facilitated by visionaries like Vandava Shiva, Alnoor Ladha, Dr. Rupert Sheldrake and our former guest Chiara Baldini.

In this interview, I talked with Ruby Reed, co-founder of Advaya to learn more about what led her to start this platform with her sister Christabel Reed back in 2015. 

In 2019, Ruby and Christabel also started the EcoResolution campaign, encouraging people to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle in partnerships with several celebrities. This initiative eventually led them to the creation of Earthed, a non-profit that offers courses on nature restoration, covering topics from climate adaptation to permaculture and urban gardening. 

In this episode, we listen to Ruby’s personal history as an introverted girl with a fascination for all things magical. We explore her experience of starting Advaya and Earthed, as well as some of the challenges and lessons along the way. We also discuss Ruby’s views on social media as a network builder, and how she  feels about our collective future, with all its challenges and possibilities. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Leave a comment

Credits

• Music Audio Producer & Editor: Carlos Sierra

• Producer, Writer & Host: Carlota Guedes

In my last email, I shared with you a video explaining why I’ve decided to start a Rilke Book Club. As promised, today I want to share with you one of my favorite passages from the book we’ll be diving into: Letters to a Young Poet. 

Subscribe now

My intention in the video below is to give you a sense of what this book club will feel like. Anchored in Rilke’s letters, my hope is that, together, we reflect on several existential questions that accompany us in our day-to-day. 

Let me know in the comments sections how the selected passage resonated with you. Were you already familiar with it? What are your thoughts on the role of sorrow in our lives? What is your relationship to sadness?

Leave a comment

Warmly,
Carlota 

P.S. Registration for the book club will open next Wednesday, September 11 at 9am WEST. If you feel called to join me, you can already mark the date on your calendar. I’ll also send a reminder to your email. There will only be 10 virtual spots available!

In my last email, a couple of weeks ago, I shared that I was thinking of putting together a Rilke book club. Today, I’m excited to tell you that this idea won’t be one of those that ends up in a forgotten to-do list. It’s happening. Actually, I got some lovely feedback from some of you on the survey I sent out to learn more about your potential interest in this initiative (which, by the way, you can still answer in the button below).

Answer Now

When inquired what an ideal book club experience would look and feel like to them, one of the contributors answered: “To delve into the exploration of human existence through the art of writing”. Another one said: “I hope to join a club full of insightful lovers of words that can assist me in my journey towards being a better person”. 

I was delighted to read these contributions. This has been, in fact, my intention all along: to gather a petite group of lovely thoughtful human beings to unpack the abundant wisdom contained in Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet and put in conversation with what is alive in us.

Watch the video below to learn more about why I’m doing this thing and what is in it for you, if you decide to join me. 

And let me know in the comments section what would an ideal book club experience look and feel like to you.

Leave a comment

Next week, I’ll share more info, including instructions on how you can enroll. So, in case you feel called to join me, keep an eye on your inbox :)

Warmly,
Carlota 

Subscribe now

I’m currently re-reading Letters to a Young Poet, a wise little book by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke. I believe it’s my fourth time. Fifth perhaps. Certainly not the last. The thing about this book is that the more intimately I study it, the more mysterious it becomes. What I thought I understood about its substance is later revealed as the mere tip of a large iceberg I suspect is not meant to ever be fully exposed—doing so would likely melt away its integrity.

In case you haven’t read it yet, it consists of ten letters Rilke sent to a nineteen-year-old cadet who, as an aspiring poet, sought his writing advice. Instead of criticizing his work, Rilke generously offered musings on what it means to live a wholehearted life, both as an artist and human being. It’s fascinating to me that Rilke was only twenty-seven when he wrote these letters, just one year older than me!

Since I know the book’s contents almost by heart by now, I like to cherry pick a letter each day related to what is alive in my psycho-emotional world. Today, for instance, in my somewhat melancholic mood, this passage called me:

“If it were possible for us to see further than our knowledge reaches, and yet a little beyond our intuitions, perhaps we would then bear our sorrows with greater trust than we do our joys. For these are the moments when something new enters us, something unknown; our feelings go silent in shy captivity, everything within us steps back. A quiet arises; this new thing that no one knows stands revealed in our midst, hushed.

I believe that almost all our sorrows are moments of tension that we fear might cripple us because we are no longer in touch with our banished feelings. Now we are alone with the strangeness that has appeared. Everything trusted and familiar is, for a moment, taken from us, and we find ourselves caught in what we cannot stop. That is also why the sorrow passes: the new in us, that which has come toward us, has entered our heart, is in its innermost chamber, it is in our blood. And we have not learned yet what it is. One could easily convince us that nothing has happened, yet we have changed, as a house changes when a guest has entered.

We cannot say what has entered; we may never know. But there are many indications that the future enters us in just this way, to transform itself within us long before it happens. That is why it is so important to be alone and attentive when you are sad, because the seemingly uneventful moment when our future steps in is so much closer to life than any loud occurrence that happens, as it were, from the outside. The more patient, quiet, and open we are toward sorrow, the deeper and truer does the new move into us and become our fate. Then, when it happens, we recognize it as already related to us.”

Subscribe now

Why am I sharing all this with you? Well, because the other day I had an idea. I wanted an excuse to further commit to the study of this prose and to connect with others who also resonate with it. So, I’ve partnered up with my dear friend and writer (whose I love and truly recommend) to create a Rilke book club. Actually, it’s more of a mesh between a book club and a workshop. We’re still deciding on the most fitting term.

Our intention is to dive into a letter from Letters to a Young Poet each week and explore what emerges among the group. We’re considering including other related materials too. But before we jump ahead of ourselves, we want your help.

If you’re curious about this book club, where we’ll sit with existencial themes ranging from relationships to solitude, sex, the natural world, and plenty more, we invite you to fill out the survey below. We value your feedback and intend to create something meaningful for everyone potentially involved. I promise it will only take a minute or two.

Complete Survey Here

In the meantime, if you want to give the letters a try, I recommend the translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barros. I’ve read several editions, and this is the most awe-some one.

I’ll also share with you one of my favorite podcast episodes from the On Being Podcast where the host, Krista Tippett, unpacks with Joana and Anita several passages from their co-created translation of Letters to a Young Poet.

James and I will be sharing updates about the book club in the next few weeks, including information on how you can enroll. We’re planning to keep the group small, around 10 people, to maintain a cozy and intimate atmosphere. So keep an eye on my future newsletters if you want to ensure your spot :)

Warmly,
Carlota

Leave a comment

Listen

In other news, here are my latest podcast interviews with two women I greatly admire.

1. Living from Our Intuition with Chiara Baldini

A conversation with Chiara Baldini about what it means to live from our intuition, beyond the expectations of our communities of origin. Together we talk about Chiara’s early life as a good catholic girl, and her initiation into alternative culture and transformative festivals. We listen to some of the challenges and learnings throughout her decade-long career as the curator of Liminal Village, the cultural area of Boom Festival, including her efforts to re-integrate social justice into new-age culture. And lastly, we explore what it takes to live a wholehearted life, even when it means embracing the inevitable tragedy present in love. 

Listen on Substack | Spotify | Apple

2. Beyond Limiting Beliefs with Cristina Bernardo Kullberg

A conversation with Cristina Bernardo Kullberg about how we might navigate the limiting beliefs that so often get in the way of where we want to go and who we want to be, as women, as humans, for ourselves and our communities. Together we delve into Cristina's personal history as a Cuban American with nine siblings. We explore some of the challenges and learnings throughout her career as a business and non-profit leader, and political appointee for the Obama administration. We also talk about work-life balance as a parent. And how the loss of Cristina's baby daughter Aviva, deepened her commitment to living intentionally and uplifting women across the world.

Listen on Substack | Spotify | Apple

We have a couple of new subscribers, so, before anything, welcome. I hope you find some company here at Waking Youth, wherever you find yourself in your journey toward a wiser maturity.

Today, I’m writing to you from a train. It’s noisy and crowded and the woman sitting beside me is eating a rather pungent salad, which is distracting me from the screen.

Subscribe now

Anyway, I intend to return soon with written explorations of the questions I’m sitting with, which are many. Since my stop is approaching, for now, I’ll leave you with a special podcast episode. It’s with Chiara Baldini, former curator of the cultural—aka nerdy—area of the Boom Festival, and it won us an award nomination for the International Women’s Podcast Awards (more on that, and my conflicting thoughts about prizes, later). I hope you enjoy it.

In other news, I’m testing out the podcast feature of Substack with this post. Let me know how you like it in the comments section, particularly if you listen to the episode through Substack. You can also listen on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, as usual.

Leave a comment

Warmly,
Carlota

Episode Description

What does it mean to live from our intuition, beyond the expectations of our communities of origin? This is the question that accompanies this episode. 

Chiara Baldini, the first woman in her family to attend university, was born in rural Florence, in Italy. Throughout her twenties, she took on various jobs  – waitress, translator, tour guide – anything that allowed her the freedom to travel and open herself to life. 

After attending Boom, one of the largest transformative festivals in Europe, Chiara knew she wanted to get involved. By 2010, she had become the program curator of Liminal Village, the cultural area of the festival, which sheds light on topics ranging from psychedelic science to regeneration and social justice. 

It was at Boom too, following a transcendental experience at the dance temple, that Chiara felt called to initiate her independent research on the evolution of ecstatic practices in the West, weaving the threads from primitive culture to present-day electronic music events.

In 2019, Chiara co-edited the ‘Psychedelic Mysteries of the Feminine’, an anthology on the intersection between the feminine principle and altered states of consciousness.

Currently, Chiara is a PhD candidate at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She lives in Costa Vicentina in Portugal, where she often plays as DJ Clandestina.

Together we talk about Chiara’s early life, growing up as a good catholic girl, and her initiation into alternative culture and transformative festivals. We listen to some of the challenges and learnings of her decade-long career as a curator, including her efforts to re-integrate social justice into new-age culture. And lastly, we explore what it takes to live a wholehearted life, even when it means embracing the inevitable tragedy present in love. 

Let me know what emerged for you throughout the episode in the comments section.

Leave a comment

Credits

• Music Audio Producer & Editor: Carlos Sierra

• Creator, Writer & Host: Carlota Guedes

Subscribe now

Guest Bio

Cristina Bernardo is the co-founder of Open Dreams, a non-profit that assists high-achieving, low-income youth from Cameroon apply for and receive international scholarships to some of the best universities across the world.

She also served as the business developer and executive director of EmzingoU, a firm that designs and facilitates leadership development experiences for university students.

In 2016, Cristina served as a political appointee for the Obama administration to support the growth of small businesses, renewable energy, and community economic development throughout the most impoverished rural and tribal areas of the US.

Currently, in addition to running her non-profit, Cristina is a certified integral coach, supporting women through her She Shines Worldwide initiative.

Credits

• Creator, Writer & Host:

• Music Audio Producer & Editor: Carlos Sierra