In this final episode of season 2, I look at where we've been and where we're headed. How do we comprehend the multiple threads of trouble that have brought us to this fractured time?

And when we comprehend them, how do we respond? What works? What have people tried? And what does the research show?

The damage that has been done to us so that people in power could have more power -- and so that a national religion could be forced onto us -- is serious. But we can be equally serious, and we can build off-ramps for ourselves and each other.

In this cultic time, it's important to understand abuse, manipulation, and cultic mechanisms of control so that we can protect ourselves -- and also avoid creating cultic mechanisms ourselves, or "cult-hopping" out of ignorance.

It's also essential to understand our emotions so that no one can grab onto them and control us.

Good and grounded information is out there, and I've shared it in all 32 episodes so far. Now it's time for me to rebuild my Off-Ramp book proposal and get to work.

I'll check in as I go, and let you know how it's going. Thank you for being with me through this process.

You can find all kinds of free information about emotions and empathy on my YouTube Channel and on my website, karlamclaren.com.

Books mentioned in this episode: https://bookshop.org/lists/the-off-ramp-project

The Language of Emotions by Karla McLaren

The Quiet Damage by Jesselyn Cook

The Klansman's Son by R. Derek Black

A Billion Years by Mike Rinder

Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roper

C Street by Jeff Sharlet

The Family by Jeff Sharlet

Escaping Utopia by Janja Lalich and Karla McLaren

Taking the War Out of Our Words by Sharon Ellison

Calling In by Loretta Ross

High Conflict by Amanda Ripley

I Never Thought of It That Way by Mónica Guzmán

How do we talk to each other when we've been trained to see each other as problems to be solved -- instead of as real human beings?

I've been searching on this question for more than two decades now, and reading book after book on communication, conflict, and how to speak the truth without erasing the truth of other people.

Of course, I've also been studying emotions and empathy.

At this time, when our emotions, our empathy, our attention, and our ability to connect to each other have been for sale to the highest bidder, how do we retrieve ourselves and reconnect to each other? How do we take an off-ramp when the entire machine is making money and gaining power by pushing us onto a road that goes nowhere good?

It will take some deep thinking, some deep feeling, and some deep work to retrieve our better natures, but it's good work if we can get it.

Books mentioned in this episode: https://bookshop.org/lists/the-off-ramp-project

Taking the War Out of Our Words by Sharon Ellison

Calling In by Loretta Ross

High Conflict by Amanda Ripley

Talk to Me by Emma Van Der Klift

I Never Thought of It That Way by Mónica Guzmán

There is a secret heart inside violence, but most of us are taught to avoid violence, which means that we don't tend to learn much about it.

In this episode, I explore the conditions that create healthy forms of violence and the conditions that make violence frakked up and a losing game for everyone.

Violence has an important purpose, and it can be understood and addressed intelligently. In fact, people (and animals) have been studying and responding to violence skillfully for centuries.

We can take an off-ramp from abusive and violent relationships, ideologies, and groups -- but first, we have to understand how we went down this wrong road, and how we can get onto a road that's going somewhere better.

Mentioned in this episode:

My Master's thesis on autism: Interrogating Normal: Autism Social Skills Training at the Margins of a Social Fiction: https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/concern/theses/mw22v614s

Books mentioned in this episode: https://bookshop.org/lists/the-off-ramp-project

Talk to Me by Emma Van Der Klift

Warriors and Peacemakers by Mark Cooney

The Power Manual by Cyndi Suarez

When Killing is a Crime by Tony Waters (and me!): https://www.rienner.com/title/When_Killing_Is_a_Crime