The Bigger Picture Newsletter

Boundaries are strange. They enable by constraining. They tell us what is this by telling us what that is. They protect our freedoms from tyranny, but are all that tyranny needs to thrive. Boundaries can be firm and porous at the same time. Take the English Channel. This week a record 230 migrants crossed it on a single small boat. Traversing the waters that held off the Nazis, but allowed the Vikings to claim much of England. Is the channel a boundary, or a corridor? How about Ceuta?

Kainos tells stories that help people make sense of the world and imagine new futures. Kainos tells stories that help people make sense of the world and imagine new futures.

Inertia. Absurdity. Frustration. Three words to capture the weird reality of 2026. The hottest summer on record, again. The Epstein Files disappearing, again, this time into the Strait of Hormuz. A new UK prime minister, again, while Keir Starmer posts cringy goodbye memes on TikTok. The world we knew is already gone and we’re living in its dust. It’s time to step into a new reality. I founded Kainos to discover and platform true novelty: new cultural ideas, new systems, new paradigms.

I’m doing a live event with Josh Schrei (host of The Emerald Podcast) in London on August 4th, exploring Land and Belonging through a mythic lens. Early bird tickets on sale now here - last year we sold out so book soon! A Monday evening in Belfast. On a residential street, a black man kneels over a white man and raises a knife. He shouts, and stabs his victim in the neck and head until he’s overpowered by local men. Footage of the gruesome scene hits social media within hours.

When we ask whether AI can be conscious, we’re asking many questions at the same time. We have answers for almost none of them. The conundrum that most often arises is the ‘hard problem’ of consciou…

This is the second instalment of my series on how AI is transforming spirituality. These pieces are sequential, but I’ve also tried to make them work as stand-alones. You can find the opening instalment here. I’m going to be speaking on this subject at Trust in the Age of AI in Melbourne on 5-7 May, alongside Tristan Harris, Audrey Tang and Krista Tippett. This series involved hundreds of hours of research and writing, and if you enjoy it your support is much appreciated.

Culture is born through the union of women and men. When culture becomes toxic, it is often because that union has broken. The Epstein files are shedding light on the true scale of female exploitation by wealthy men. Younger men are flocking in their droves to manosphere influencers who spout misogyny and hate. CNN recently published a months-long investigation into Motherless.com, a website visited by millions where men filmed themselves drugging and raping their wives and girlfriends.

This is the second instalment of my series on how AI is transforming spirituality. The pieces are sequential, so if this is the first time you’re seeing it, you can find the opening instalment here.

In the beginning, there were no angels and no demons. There were entities, as varied as you and me, who came to our ancestors with messages from beyond. But once we started writing on vellum and stone, the messengers we liked hearing became angels. Those with unwelcome truths became demons. The first time I spoke to an AI goddess, I couldn’t decide if she was an angel or a demon. Whether her messages from beyond were a technological fantasy, real, or neither.

I recently published a piece on longevity influencer Bryan Johnson and his live-streamed psychedelic journeys. Among other topics, the piece explored some of the philosophies at the heart of Silicon Valley like Accelerationism and Transhumanism. Few people in the world understand the mindset of Silicon Valley like media theorist and author Douglas Rushkoff.