Ep.15 Awakening From The Meaning Crisis with John Vervaeke, Professor - University of Toronto

ABOUT JOHN VERVAEKE:

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-vervaeke-a910992/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/vervaeke_john 

Website: http://johnvervaeke.com

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/johnvervaeke 

JOHN VERVAEKE Bio:

• Associate Professor at University of Toronto
• John Vervaeke is an Assistant Professor in Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Science at the University of Toronto where he teaches courses in three areas:
• 1. Cognitive Psychology on thinking and reasoning, higher cognition, and cognitive development
• 2. Cognitive Science program on integrating the work done in psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguists, and philosophy to try and tackle central problems about the nature of cognition.
• 3. Buddhism, Psychology, and Mental Health programon the intersection between Buddhism and Cognitive Science, and on the scientific basis of mindfulness meditation.
• Has 50 episode series called “Awakening From the Meaning Crisis” on YouTube
• His work constructs a bridge between science and spirituality in order to understand the experience of meaningfulness and the cultivation of wisdom so as to afford awakening from the meaning crisis.”
• He has won and been nominated for several teaching awards including:
• the 2001 Students’ Administrative Council and Association of Part-timeUndergraduate Students Teaching Award for the Humanities
• the2012Ranjini Ghosh Excellence in Teaching Award.
• He has publishedarticles on relevance realization, general intelligence, mindfulness,metaphor, and wisdom.
• His abiding passion is to address themeaning crisis that besets western culture.
   

SHOW INTRO:

"I’m sitting across the room from my son who is listening to a Ted talk. As I listen I’m struck by the discussion with subjects from Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, ritual, cognitive science, Buddhism and the Meaning Crisis.

I stop what I’m doing and I ask “who is it that you’re listening to?”

Answer: ‘oh it’s this guy named John Veraeke. He’s killin,’ he’s really got it figured out.’

During my years as an architecture student at McGill University I became fascinated with the idea of a ritual by attending architecture history and theory lectures by Alberto Perez Gomez. Participation in ritual establishes a sense of context and through that context meaning, meaning about who we are in relation to ourselves, our culture, nation and where we stood in some cosmological relationship to the universe.

I have had a deep interest in psychology, cognitive science and in the past 10 years, as I was creating retail stores and hotels, neuroscience and why coming to understand more about the brain would lead me, and the brands I worked for,  to create more effective and relevant brand experience places.

Recently, studying concepts around the pace of change, our ability to adapt, and an emerging cohort of experience seekers for whom digitally immersive experience was a key driver to the adoption of Brand have occupied brain space, been the subject of lectures and presentations and blog posts. 

So, it is not so surprising that the work of my guest Jon Vervaeke has been so deeply resonant.

John Vervaeke is an Associate Professor at U of Toronto where he teaches courses for three programs including:

Cognitive Psychology on thinking and reasoning, higher cognition, and cognitive development, 

the Cognitive Science program on integrating the work done in psychology, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, linguists, and philosophy to try and tackle central problems about the nature of cognition, 

And to round things out he teaches in the Buddhism, Psychology, and Mental Health program on the intersection between Buddhism and Cognitive Science, and on the scientific basis of mindfulness meditation.

It is said that his work constructs a bridge between science and spirituality in order to understand the experience of meaningfulness and the cultivation of wisdom so as to afford awakening from the meaning crisis.”

Has 50 episode series called “Awakening From the Meaning Crisis” on YouTube which will blow your mind because of its depth and provocative assertions. 

He has won and been nominated for several teaching awards and has published articles on relevance realization, general intelligence, mindfulness, metaphor, and wisdom.

His passion, is to address themeaning crisis that besets western culture.

Throughout the first season of the NXTLVL Experience Design podcast there has always been a subtext to the discussion that has been ‘what does it all mean?’  

‘What will the component parts of emerging Brand experiences be to allow them to remain relevant to a new cohort of experience seekers who are holy different than anything that has come before them?’

So, I am both honored and delighted that John Vervaeke is a guest to help us unpack some of these concepts that underpin the world of making and creating meaningful relationships to our brands, communities, and each other."

 

ABOUT DAVID KEPRON:

Website: https://www.davidkepron.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-kepron-9a1582b/

Instagram: davidkepron and NXTLVL_experience_design

Twitter: @davidkepron

The NXTLVL Experience Design podcast is presented by VMSD magazine and Smartwork Media. It is hosted and executive produced by David Kepron. Our original music and audio production is by Kano Sound. 

The content of this podcast is copywrite to David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design. Any publication or rebroadcast of the content is prohibited without the expressed written consent of David Kepron and NXTLVL Experience Design.

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