Adam: On crafting an authentic life path

Our interview today is with Adam McKenty. I got to know Adam about a year ago, after he had moved to Berlin from Canada and was in the process of starting the Church of Interbeing. A non-belief based ritual that meets every Sunday in Berlin. Before this, Adam worked in a wide range of areas: as a software developer, stone mason, gardener, technician, photographer, musician, facilitator, and builder of organizations.  Through these activities, he has been a lifelong observer of ceremony, collective intelligence, and the peculiar ways in which human groups fail and succeed in their endeavors.  In our conversation, we talk about Adams' very unusual upbringing in the Canadian wilderness. Resisting to portray his life in a linear way, we explore what it means, and what it takes, to craft an authentic life path with all its beauties and challenges. What really struck me, and what I believe you as a listener might also come to appreciate, is the way in which Adam's explorations never seem to be pre-fabricated and stale, but arise out of the moment. There is a slowness and deliberation in the way he speaks, which reflects the inner state of searching. If you live in Berlin, you are very welcome to attend the weekly services of the Church of Interbeing. You can find it in the Genezareth Kirche in Schillerkiez, Berlin.

Om Podcasten

Being Underwater is a project about inner life in the digital age. Hosted by social entrepreneur and anthropologist Joana Breidenbach, this series of interviews tries to uncover the language we use to describe our inner worlds, as well as the tools or practices that help us decipher them. These conversations are important to engage in at any time, however with the onset of the digital age, they present a new urgency. As machines and algorithms threaten to know and understand us better than we do ourselves, we are faced with an evolutionary pressure to expand our consciousness and comprehend greater amounts of complexity. We must understand who we are, and what it is that we want, in order to define our relationship with technology, rather than allowing technology to define us. The project was conceived by Joana Breidenbach and edited by Siena Powers. Angus Sewell McCann composed the main theme music, and Vincent Augustus mixed the second theme. All visuals were created by Florentin Aisslinger.