Surviving the Future:
The Deeper Dive
January 6th – March 16th 2025
For those seeking insights and allies to help themselves and their localities through profound change.
The annual Deeper Dive offers a long moment — a 10-week opportunity — to slow down, pull back, and explore responses as part of a small global community, among and alongside some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers.
(sliding-scale pricing options from $299-$599;
trust-based scholarships also available)
“So let us not talk falsely now,
The hour is getting late.”
— Bob Dylan
A place for those conversations you really need to have, with people who understand the times we’re in.
Maybe you’ve taken our course A Path Through Tumultuous Times, or independently encountered the tantalizing vision held out in the late David Fleming’s book Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy.
Maybe you’re now among those eager to go further: applying, questioning and reforging his principles in the context of the varied realities we are facing today in our diverse home communities.
If so, then The Deeper Dive is for you. Whether you’re already hard at work on responses to our times or seeking your calling, this is an annually curated space for reorienting, recharging and plotting together. From your own home, as part of an international community.
All the participants will have already read or listened to Surviving the Future (in case you haven’t, advance enrollees gain immediate access in both text/audio format), so we’ll have a shared baseline of understanding from which to explore the leading edge thinking on how we might individually or collectively change direction before we end up where we’re headed.
Let’s be clear: none of us have neat answers to the impossible conundrums of the day. Likely there are none.
And that raises some pretty important questions for those of us alive in these times.
So, guided by Shaun Chamberlin, we’ll gather with some of the most compelling thinkers and doers on Earth — our eight guests for 2025 are confirmed to include Vandana Shiva, Rachel Donald, David Abram, Isabelle Frémeaux and Nate Hagens — to discuss with them why they’ve chosen to walk the paths they do.
As Fleming wrote, “Do nothing that matters without consulting a conversation”. So now we want to go deeper, together. And numbers will be limited, to keep the conversations accessible and meaningful.
For all our lack of neat answers, we believe we have uncovered some questions worth sharing, worth chewing over together. And some paths worth walking.
You are invited to join us.
Testimonials
“When I found the course, or the course found me, I just knew I needed to sign up for it. My gut feeling did not betray me.
It was the right course at the right time helping me to understand and come to terms with the various crises and human predicaments. My fellow learning companions helped me to learn, grow and find ways in which I will work towards transitioning and the sequel here in Berlin. I just loved the whole experience.”
“The space and respect you gave to all participants was fundamental. I cannot emphasise this enough, the way in which you listened and allowed us to be, really brought this course to another level.“
“The course has definitely sparked some much-needed fire and motivation in me for thoughtful action.
I started this course with grief, sadness even rage at the way things are going, at the total destruction our human-made systems are wreaking with terrifying efficiency on the natural world, and a sense that those around me weren’t really concerned about it much at all.
At the end of this course, I feel more understood. And a desire to channel the energy throbbing in these emotions into greater courage, to step into life more, with greater conviction, and do my best to question whether each step/decision is bringing me into a more relationally rich, nourished way of living.
I already feel different.”
“Just brilliant. I was able to meet people from across the globe I ordinarily wouldn’t have had the chance to talk with.”
“I LOVED the Deeper Dive and thought the design and implementation of the class was brilliant — the lectures, on-line forum questions, the weekly bundle of rich resources, and the social gatherings. I’ve never seen such a multi-layered design that touches all our modalities.”
“An important reminder of how lovely humans can be.”
“It’s difficult to find the words that would fully capture what I’m taking away from our 8 weeks together. I came into this longing for new options for how to change the way I’m living and I think I found it.
I feel like my daily experience with life has become much deeper and more peaceful over these eight weeks as a result of the connections I’ve made, the course material that I’ve encountered on my own, and the sage advice I’ve integrated from our guest teachers.
I have been seen and heard in a way that is so rare, especially when discussing the things we’ve discussed here. This has been a profoundly meaningful experience, thank you!!!“
“Until recently I had no idea the course’s guests existed. Collectively, they form an alternate constellation to the machine world, something worth pulling for.
I spent over a quarter of my adult life in university because I liked the environment. But Surviving the Future is by far the most profound learning I’ve known, involving the heart along with the head.
There are so many of us! We’re the kind of people I dream of meeting in real life. I think there are more of us than I ever imagined, and so there must be some nearby. Going through this process has given me the courage and desire to seek us out.”
“The range of content — from the artful poems, fiction and songs to the intellectual readings and graphs — provides a rich offering. Unlike anything else I’ve encountered.
This course is in a category of its own. Exceptional.”
“Participating in the Deeper Dive had a profound impact on me. The course of my life has changed because of it.”
“As soon as I saw there was a ‘song of the week’ I thought, ‘yep, I’m in the right place!’”
“It was terrific to be able to engage with other people from all over, live in conversation. The intimacy with which we were able to connect with the guest teachers was invaluable.
Shaun was also available far beyond what I could have imagined. I really appreciated the timeliness of each of his beginning of the week welcomes.”
“Your course should be a model for online learning!”
“OMG, so incredibly grateful to all of you and especially to Shaun. This program was such a gift.”
“What an amazing journey you took us all on! Immense gratitude to each of you.”
“I would imagine every single person comes away feeling like something special has taken place here.”
“I feel so blessed, so enriched, so humbled and so eager for others to have the chance I had here.”
“This is much more than just a course; it brings together a community of people who want to explore how we got where we are on a global level and how to respond to it with courage, positivity, wisdom and humour in an ongoing and unforgettable conversation.”
“Trusted people told me that I MUST take it. They were so right!”
“Some of the conversations with our guests magically veered off into what felt like unrehearsed, profound, intimate territory, which surprised me.”
“Such a swell of emotion and inspiration to be in a space where I don’t have to explain myself at all, we each already get it in our ways…
I wouldn’t be able to speak enough to how much this is precisely where I need to be right now.”
“Shaun did a beautiful, artful job convening a community and shepherding us along, and the guest teachers each brought a facet of the complex question of finding purpose and meaning in a culture that is so off track.”
“I have heard the quote ‘Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul’ in a new way throughout this course. The birds sing it to me in the morning, I hear it on the breath of my sleeping child.
I have always felt despair over how wrong it feels to be re-arranging the proverbial deck chairs on the titanic and trying to fix the problem within the system that created it.
Action is coming … it is as real as the seedlings I am putting in the ground. And I am so grateful for the courage this course and community has given me to make this happen.”
“I feel more alive with this group and with this course than I have ever before — thank you so so so much.”
“Since taking the Deeper Dive I have come to count on this community for information, inspiration, comfort.
I believe that coming together in a group to learn about and address these issues is the way forward for human communities.
We need each other, and courage, as we learn to face the future, to acknowledge what is true and to navigate the stormy seas ahead. Grateful!”
“The Deeper Dive went a long way in my realization that I still personally have thoughts to share on these topics that are unique and aren’t coming from anyone that looks like me — a black man.
I have been been thinking, discussing and occasionally writing my thoughts on these topics for nearly my whole life. This space inspired me to share my perspective more actively and widely. I am extremely grateful for that and the connections I made.”
“The more people talk about the issues the more real it seems, and it pushes me to make the changes I need to help ensure I can survive in the future, and that I can help others to see the truth of our situation. My community is growing, swelling with positive influences.“
“The collective ‘weight’ of these — now three years — of Deeper Dives have truly been the single most potent enabling force for the deep change in my outlook, and the work I do.
Because of the StF community, I feel ‘backed-up’ and held by the collective force of many collaborators.”
“This course brought out of the complexity of these times a clarity of focus and intent that has been personally transformational.
What I have learned is directly and immediately relevant in acting more consciously. As a result, I feel the efforts with which I am engaged are a better offering to my local community.”
“I came to this course at a personal crossroad and seeking a path forward and I feel that this course has helped me confidently decide on that path. Thank you!!!”
“Of all the education i’ve ever participated in, this was the first that genuinely gave me everything I was looking for — engagement, education and being surrounded by incredible, inspiring people. And extremely well organised. My expectations were beyond exceeded.”
“I am emerging from this learning journey transformed. Still me, but with a clearer look on reality and with new energy, tools and connections to ‘bend the curve’ and help myself and my community here to transform and transition.”
“The careful conception of the course with curated reading, listening, watching materials; Shaun Chamberlin’s warm and wise guidance; meeting guest teachers as discussion partners; social and reflection sessions; the forum which reminded me of a permaculture food for thought and action garden…
I appreciated the kinship of the others through grief, inspiration and co-creation. And of course our closing carnival which was one of the most magical experiences I have ever had (online).”
“Thank you so much. Being able to participate from a distance, and not having pressure to attend everything was really helpful.
Due to our different time zones, and trying to juggle multiple commitments in this space meant that listening back and engaging in my individual way was ideal. I absolutely loved the material we covered, and have felt very confirmed in all that we are creating here in NZ.”
“This course has been so stimulating and hopeful, something desperately needed and sustaining for me, that I cannot suppress its content and hope within myself.
I began trying to substantively share about this course last week. It was truly eye-opening and it made me feel so much more hopeful and empowered, despite many unresolved disagreements.
That is what this course is all about. That – such a short and tiny taste but so rich and enduring – is a hint of the magic that creates and sustains community and culture. That was conversation.”
“My greatest regret is that I did not take this course 10 or 20 years ago and that I wasn’t able to take leave and do nothing other than immerse myself in this course and the amazing, profound work of all of the guest speakers during the eight weeks.
I have taken many courses with great thinkers, scientists, and minds; Shaun and the guest speakers are among the most transformative minds I have had the privilege to learn from, but what was so profound was the way the material was presented and other participants built this interactive community. I learned more from and about myself and how to intuit and perceive than I thought possible.
This course is a gift that I will continue to come back to and learn from and lean on for the rest of my life.”
“The Deeper Dive far exceeded my expectations of any type of course but particularly an online course.
The quality of the speakers and of the resources provided, along with the depth and quality of the conversations among the group were beyond comparison to anything I have experienced before in an educational context.
And I have an undergraduate degree, masters degree and two diplomas.”
“A feeling that makes me want to show up. Not as jolting as a quickening, a nerve shock, like when the Universe says, “Yes, that’s it, yer on the right track.”
You know, when the subtle voice reveals itself not so subtle… it has caught my heart by surprise, and I am so grateful, so grateful.”
“My day to day life already feels different. My conversations are just a little bit deeper and richer, each moment and each encounter a little more pregnant with meaning.
“I cannot thank you enough for the wisdom, care, and brilliance you have given to make the Deeper Dive so magically transformative, life-affirming, and beautiful.
I am gob smacked and awed with how powerful and intricately interwoven the speakers, supplemental recordings and resources, and conversations have been.
It has felt both like an education in intuition, community building, therapy, and life-training like I didn’t think was possible.”
“Shaun’s presence, playfulness, and engagement really stood out.
Especially being able to draw threads through different conversations and bring materials to the next week to build on those already engaged conversations.”
“I’ve never found a more lovingly and thoughtfully curated space geared toward bringing people together and enriching the lives of everyone involved.”
“What I’ve gotten from the course goes beyond the mind-expanding exposure to activists and thinkers who are ahead of me on this journey.
It’s the profound sense of being on the same journey.“
“I joined, and left, this course knowing there are most certainly dark times ahead, but I have never felt so equipped to deal with them.”
“This is eight weeks that will resonate through me for a long, long time.”
— Surviving the Future participant
Meet Shaun Chamberlin.
Shaun was involved with the Transition Towns network from its inception, co-founding Transition Town Kingston and authoring the movement’s second book, The Transition Timeline, in 2009.
In exploring the cultural narratives charting society’s course, he has since been one of Extinction Rebellion’s first arrestees, chair of the Ecological Land Co-operative, a director of the campaigning organisation Global Justice Now and (for his sins) an advisor to the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change.
He has written and edited diverse publications, including conceiving and creating the book Surviving the Future: Culture, Carnival, and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy from the work of his late mentor David Fleming, and spoken at venues from Occupy camps to Parliaments.
He was also executive producer of the 2020 film The Sequel: What Will Follow Our Troubled Civilisation? , and puts the theory into practice as part of the community around legendary free pub ‘The Happy Pig‘.
