The Whole Social

Listen (8 min): Does anyone understand Orwell's “1984”?

Earlier this year, the Trump administration removed exhibits on slavery from George Washington’s former home in Philadelphia. The removal was part of a nation-wide effort to rewrite history, which sounds bad, but they did it in the name of “restoring truth and sanity to American history,” which sounds good. So: was it bad or good? In February, federal judge Cynthia M. Rufe ruled that the exhibits must be immediately restored, citing the dystopian novel 1984 to make clear that the administration’s actions were very bad indeed. But her understanding of 1984 was flawed. That book does clearly illuminate this case, but no one (including Judge Rufe) seems to understand its deeper meaning. Do you? This is a recording of an article from February 21st, 2026. You can find the written version of the article here [https://thewholesocial.substack.com/p/does-anyone-understand-orwells-1984]. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thewholesocial.substack.com [https://thewholesocial.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Listen (21 min): Approaching Rudolf Steiner's ideas on organizational development

The 20th century spiritual researcher Rudolf Steiner is known for his work in many fields — education, agriculture, medicine, economics, religion, etc. — but his work in the field of organizational development is almost entirely unknown. In this talk (given at Harvard Divinity School on December 15, 2025), Seth Jordan shares an overview of those ideas, bringing together the advice that Steiner gave to individual institutions with Steiner’s social ideas more broadly. You can find a written version of this talk (though by no means an exact transcript) here [https://thewholesocial.substack.com/p/rudolf-steiner-on-organizational-development] and a video version here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpLy5xJZzss]. Yes, writers have to eat, but paywalls just punish low-income people, and why shouldn’t they have access to the writing and ideas they want? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thewholesocial.substack.com [https://thewholesocial.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Is it possible to "threefold" an organization?

Seth Jordan, Nathaniel Williams, and Omri Elaad discuss how Rudolf Steiner’s social threefolding insights pertain to organizations. They look specifically at two texts that can be found here: https://thewholesocial.substack.com/p/possible-to-threefold-an-organization At the end of WWI, Steiner worked tirelessly to wake people up to the threefold nature of society, to the fact that it has distinct realms — political, economic, and cultural — and that each require independence in order for society to be healthy. But in all his books and lectures, he rarely spoke about the threefold nature of organizations, even though, as he said, “we can only work and act as modern people through and within organizations,” and even though, as he also said, every organization is itself threefold: “We divide social life into these three parts best when we comprehend that all of life’s institutions implicitly contain a threefold nature, and when we understand how to organize individual things so that the threefold impulse underlies them.” But how should we organize our initiatives so their threefold nature can express itself in a healthy way? Over the years, some anthroposophists have tried to threefold organizations by distinguishing and dividing up governmental, economic, and cultural activities (often in the form of committees overseeing agreements/bylaws, work, and learning/inspiration). But Steiner himself never suggested this to the organizations he worked with, in fact he ridiculed it when members of the Anthroposophical Society brought it up. So how should we think about it? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thewholesocial.substack.com [https://thewholesocial.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Listen (21 min): How can we overcome prejudice? By "mapping" our differences.

This is a recording of an article from July 12th, 2025 (you can find the written version of the article here [https://thewholesocial.substack.com/p/overcoming-prejudice-erin-meyer-culture-map-rudolf-steiner], and a brief description of the article here [https://thewholesocial.substack.com/p/bridging-the-cultural-divide]). Pictures from the original article, which are referred to in the audio article, are below. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thewholesocial.substack.com [https://thewholesocial.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Listen (11 min): The Supreme Court thinks it should decide what kids read

On April 22nd, 2025, the nine justices of the Supreme Court discussed a number of children’s picture books being taught in the nation’s schools and asked, What concepts are age-appropriate? What’s content neutral and what’s pushing a certain agenda? The justices felt responsible to answer such questions — even though they have exactly no expertise in this area — because of a fundamental and widespread misunderstanding of the constitution’s first amendment. This is a recording of an article from April 30th, 2025. You can find the written version of the article here [https://thewholesocial.substack.com/p/supreme-court-childrens-books]. Yes, writers have to eat, but paywalls just punish low-income people, and why shouldn’t they have access to the writing and ideas they want? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thewholesocial.substack.com [https://thewholesocial.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]