The Metagame

Hosted by Daniel Kazandjian

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Jun 2026

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About the show

Practical philosophy for playing with life. themetagame.substack.com

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54 recent

June 25, 20261 hr 28 min

#54 - Jessica Vellela | A Gentle Introduction to Ayurveda

Jessica is the first American-born woman to graduate as an Ayurvedic Physician and practice independently. She studied for 8 years in India completing Bachelor of Āyurvedic Medicine and Surgery (BAMS). She’s also the founder of myayu.com and has been healing many of my friends.In this overview, we discuss what western medicine misses, archetypal ways of knowing, personal empiricism, the doshas and some counter-intuitive Ayurvedic practices. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

June 3, 20262 hr 39 min

#53 - Guy (@nosilverv) | Facedoxing, Stream Entry and How to Avoid Psyops

Guy is an independent researcher, author, Emergent Ventures Fellow, and hands-down the most prolific/insightful shit-poster I know on twitter. If you’ve been around long enough, you’ll know him as “Rival Voices”.Among many things, he’s an expert on Adversarial Epistemology: finding truth in an environment designed to deceive you. You can learn more from his book Alignment Gone Strange. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

May 20, 20261 hr 7 min

#52 Kathryn Devaney | The Neuroscience of Awakening

Kati Devaney is a neuroscientist and meditation teacher with over 25 years of practice. She earned her PhD in 2018 using fMRI to study attention and prediction updating in experienced Vipassana meditators and completed a postdoc at Harvard Medical School. She’s now the Chief Scientific Officer at the Consciousness Foundation, co-founded the Berkeley Alembic and the SF Dharma Collective, advises Jhourney on the neuroscience of jhana, and has been quoted on the brain and meditation in The Atlantic, National Geographic, and TIME.In this episode we talk about weird stuff like cessation, jhanas, and non-duality. We also explore how the brain quietly constructs your sense of reality moment-to-moment, and how to (re)start a meditation practice. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

May 12, 20261 hr 17 min

#51 - Elena Lake | Nondual Bodywork, Fascia, and Somatic Healing

Elena Lake is a bodyworker and former mathematician. After studying math, CS, and physics at MIT and two years doing ML at Meta, she left tech to study touch. When her early massage sessions started producing results she couldn't explain, she trained across Esalen, craniosacral, fascia, ScarWork, BoneWork, and visceral manipulation. In 2024 she developed her own modality: Regenerative Touch. Elena now sees billionaire clients, teaches tactile anatomy classes, and writes on Substack.In this episode we talk about her path from MIT to massage school, how to take care of yourself, what it’s like to see fascia with your hands, and some of the weirder aspects at the frontier of bodywork. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

May 5, 20261 hr 28 min

#50 - Alex Olshonsky | You're Probably Addicted to Thinking

Alex Olshonsky is a coach, somatic therapist, and writer. After a polysubstance addiction nearly killed him during his Silicon Valley years at Twitter, Salesforce, and Slack, he found freedom in somatic psychology and contemplative practice. He now coaches founders and people in recovery, co-founded the psychedelic-assisted addiction nonprofit Natura Care, and writes the Substack Deep Fix.In this highly practical episode, we talk about his life a “professional drug addict” and his beautiful article You’re probably addicted to thinking. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

April 28, 20261 hr 57 min

#49 - Richard Ngo | The Case For Virtue Ethics In The Age of AGI

Richard Ngo is one of a handful of people who've worked on AGI safety at both DeepMind and OpenAI. After three years as a futurist on OpenAI's Governance team, he left to pursue independent research on coalitions, virtue ethics, and the foundations of cooperation. He’s also a science fiction author (The Gentle Romance: Stories of AI and Humanity) and writes at Mind the Future.We talk about virtue ethics, egregores, academic fraud, memeplexes, cooperation, parts-work, and what it was like to work with Sam Altman. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

April 21, 202638 min

#48 - Matt Southey | A Gentle Introduction to Nick Land

"Nothing human makes it out of the near future." - Nick LandMatt Southey is a leading expert on the philosophy of Nick Land with a PhD in Religion from Rice University. He is also the founding editor of The Latecomer, an online magazine which publishes essays on the long-term future.Matt's excellent piece on "A Brief History of Accelerationism" can be found here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

April 14, 20261 hr 47 min

#47 - Michael Smith | Hostile Telepaths: Why Your Brain Deceives Itself to Survive Social Reality

Michael “Valentine” Smith is a co-founder of CFAR (the Center for Applied Rationality) and the author of influential LessWrong essays including The Hostile Telepaths Problem, Kenshō, and The Intelligent Social Web. He’s also been described as “one of the most powerful wizards in the Bay Area.”In this conversation, he explains why your brain creates fog and self-deception to survive social situations, what it actually takes to find clarity, and why "working on yourself" might be the wrong frame entirely. We also do a live coaching demo debugging my own procrastination. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

April 7, 20261 hr 21 min

#46 - Jake Orthwein | Unraveling the Dream: Psychedelics, Meditation, and the Brain

Jake Orthwein is the creator of Frame Problems, a video essay channel on science, art, philosophy, politics, and culture.In this episode, Jake talks about his upcoming film for Sam Harris‘s mindfulness app Waking Up. We explore the latest neuroscience on consciousness and how it might explain the psychedelic experience, religious phenomenology, meditation and what it all means for a good life. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com

February 9, 20261 hr 36 min

#45 - Alex Zhu & Romeo Stevens | Debating the Perennial Philosophy

Alex Zhu is a math olympian and researcher exploring the convergence of analytical rationality and religion. He’s also the co-founder of AlphaSheets. He’s currently working on a rigorous framework for bridging AI alignment and mysticism.Romeo Stevens is one of co-founders of the Qualia Research Institute and the founder of Mealsquares. He writes extensively about buddhism, pedagogy, skill development and psychotherapeutic modalities. You can find his work on his blog, Lesswrong and Twitter.In this episode, Alex and Romeo explore their disagreement around perennialism. The idea that all the world’s major religions are pointing to the same thing. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themetagame.substack.com