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ePODstemology

Medicine for intellectual boredom. Host Dr Mark Fabian of Cambridge University brings together an eclectic mix of creative young folk to discuss the most stimulating ideas at the knowledge frontier, from data governance to the metamodern cultural mode, and everything in between. The world's most thoughtful people, having a chat - and you're invited! So turn off your socials, throw away your popular science books, and get ready for some legit galaxy brain takes. Thanks to Keith Spangle for the spaceship cat avatar https://www.deviantart.com/keithspangle

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ePODstemology

Welcome to metamodernity - complexity science, meaning making, and the return of spirituality

January 16, 2026 • Mark Fabian/Brendan Graham Dempsey • Season 7 • Episode 1

Metamodernism is the cultural mode that is emerging after postmodernism, and boy do we need it. Postmodernism was a period of deconstruction. A necessary deconstruction, I hasten to say, one that shook the foundations of many obsolete structures that kept people oppressed like homophobia, patriarchy, colonialism, and opinions masquerading as expertise. But as there was only deconstruction, we find our culture mired in a nihilistic swamp. How can we reconstruct shared values, shared perspectives on the world, shared culture? How can we escape our meaning crisis? Brendan Graham Dempsey is at the forefront of the both science and humanities aspects of metamodernism, blending complex systems theory, theology, neuroscience, existentialism and gardening in his efforts to articulate a new way to do old things. He has written an edited a series of books on metamodern spirituality, and is now publishing a second series specifically on meaning-making.

Brendan's website:

https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/

Vermeulen and Van Den Akker's original metamodernism website:

https://www.metamodernism.com/

And one of their early papers:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3402/jac.v2i0.5677

An analysis of Nihilistic themes in Ric & Morty and Bojack Horseman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsotfzGpby8

An analysis of metamodern tropes in Everything Everywhere All At Once:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xEi8qg266g

Lyotard on The Postmodern Condition:

https://monoskop.org/images/e/e0/Lyotard_Jean-Francois_The_Postmodern_Condition_A_Report_on_Knowledge.pdf

Brendan's book Emergentism:

https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/emergentism

Kolchinsky and Wolpert on Meaning making in information theory:

https://www.santafe.edu/news-center/news/new-definition-returns-meaning-information

Brendan's new book on the evolution of meaning - free with his substack!

https://brendangrahamdempsey.substack.com/p/publishing-my-new-book-on-substack

John Vervaeke on metamodernism:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De6ZIHThONI