The Metagame

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

Pranab Sachi is the co-founder of Attention Copilot, a service that blends meditation and therapy techniques with real-time productivity support. He applies non-dual teachings, IFS, somatic awareness, and emotional processing to help people experience deep work on demand. 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

Max Shen is a pain researcher with a background in computational cognitive science and degrees from MIT. After developing severe RSI in grad school, he devoted himself to understanding pain from the inside out. Remarkably, his pain was cut in half just from reading Dr. John Sarno's Healing Back Pain.Max’s work blends active inference, non-dual teaching, and Pain Reprocessing Therapy to create practical, self-guided tools for lasting pain relief. He’s also the creator of DebugYourPain.org.Resources:* Max Shen’s Substack (Debug Your Pain)'* To find out about Max’s coaching, see 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

Connirae Andreas is a living legend in the world of personal development and NLP. She’s best known for creating Core Transformation, a parts-work modality that follows troubling feelings to discover what they ultimately want for you. This leads to “core states” like peace or wholeness and allows change to unfold naturally without effort or control.YouTube:Resources:* Core Transformation* The Wholeness Work* Related Episode: 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

Michael Stroe (@Plus3Happiness) is a phenomenologist and “happiness concierge.” Through a combination of the Buddhist Fetters & somatic practices, he’s allegedly reduced his suffering by ~90%. He claims to consistently live at 9/10 life satisfaction and has skillfully guided others into similar transformations. Today we demystify his journey and discuss concrete practices for oneshotting procrastination, reducing reactivity and permanently raising the floor of your happiness (seriously).Watch on YouTube:Transcript — Michael Stroe​[00:00:00] Daniel Kazandjian: Michael Stroe, welcome to the Metagame.Michael Stroe: Well, thank you for having me. How you doing?Daniel Kazandjian: I’m doing great. I’m really excited for this conversation. You famously, through a combination of Buddhist practices and somatic practices reduced your suffering by around 90%, whichMichael Stroe: Even more these days.Daniel Kazandjian: And now you’re teaching other people how to do that, which is fantastic. How did you figure that out? Like what, what’s the story there?Michael Stroe: As many great things happened by mistake, it’s a total mistake. I was on a more or less sabbatical in like 2023 in Barcelona. Uh, not in a great place in life, honestly.Daniel Kazandjian: Hmm.Michael Stroe: and towards the end of the trip, someone actually, someone that, someone being Frank Yang, which you might be familiar with,Daniel Kazandjian: Mm-hmm.[00:01:00] Michael Stroe: Shared, Kevin Schanilec’s website, which I’ve messaged, and he was very succinct as like, “try Liberation Unleashed” being a Liberation Unleashed being this forum for, for these practicesDaniel Kazandjian: Can you say that again? LiberationMichael Stroe: unleashed. Yes,Daniel Kazandjian: Unleashed. Yeah.Michael Stroe: Yes. And very quickly realize that the way they’re doing it is one practice at a time and it’s months of work. My ADHD Mind, uh, was like, yeah, but what if we do everything all at once? Um, instead of doing one practice at a time, I basically did eight of them daily for a couple of hours.’cause that’s how you do it. Uh, in a bunch of days I had a perceptual shift, which was very interesting, and a bit of a honeymoon for like two days. Uh, that was something that I found funny that um, some people speak of these, uh, awakenings or whatever in terms of like, oh, months of bliss. And I just had two days and on the second day I was in an airport delayed for like five hours, which I was chill about.[00:02:00] But that wasn’t necessarily like, whoa, I’m so alive. They’re like, yeah, that’s not happening. It was a bit better than usual. That perception shift coincided with a bit of a, what should I put it? Less? Uh, stress, let’s call it initially. ‘cause I didn’t know what was happening. Just less stress, less, uh, overthinking, less, chatter.And actually one of the, one of the few things that I found really interesting somehow coincided with great sleep. I don’t know how to explain it seconds to sleep.Daniel Kazandjian: Wow.Michael Stroe: I found it very interesting because I used to get like one hour, two hours, three hours to get to sleep. And I just have ideas and sit in bed for just 30 seconds. I was out and I’m like, okay, this is an interesting benefit. Not gonna lie. Uh, I don’t even care about all these benefits, I’m sleeping. Like that’s, that’s enough. And from then on I sort of returned to simply the scene, the, the initial website where I was guided, uh, to Liberation Unleashed.And I’ve done the practices on attachment and version. Okay.[00:03:00] And I should mention that immediately after stream entry, which would be the first shift that I had where it kind of, you notice that there’s just the body mind, there’s no little guy driving this, uh, body around. Um, you start to be aware of the fact that you kind of don’t like a lot of the things that are happening.You’re trying to pull out experience to such an extent. And, I had 10, 15 years of anxiety and other things on and off. Um, when I started looking at them, uh, I sort of noticed that I had a sort of a version towards so many things even after the first shift in like two more weeks had another one where, oh, like I, my, my, like that was the point where anxiety got reduced both in size and intensity and that was a big deal, even more of a big deal than the first one. ‘cause the first one is, like I said, it was nice, I was sleeping better, but also realizing how much you hate your experience,[00:04:00] let’s call it, put it into a certain perspective and realize that from whatever anxiety I used to have or whatever intensity, it went down by like 60, 70%, at least in duration.Michael Stroe: One of the things I’ve noticed is actually, I used to have anxiety for days and weeks at a time about some stupid thing, or in general, like a generalized anxiety. And I realized that I couldn’t. Get anxiety going for more than 30 minutes. As in, if someone distracted me, I forgot I had anxiety, and I’m like, huh, do

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. In this conversation we explore about how he got into spirituality without sacrificing his rigorous epistemics.Resources* Alex’s Twitter and Substack* C. Langan – An Introduction to the Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe (2002) YouTube: 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

Justin is the Chief Quant & Director of Analytics at MathAcademy.com (the best way to learn math). He optimizes learning efficiency in students’ brains with cutting edge cognitive psychology. He’s written extensively and passionately about “serious upskilling” and how to increase agency to benefit yourself and the world.Resources:* Justin’s Twitter and Website* That Paul Graham article on Identity* www.mathacademy.com* The Romeo Stevens conversationYouTube: 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

Ever met someone whose presence is so clean and luminous it changes the energy of the room? That’s today’s guest.Jeff Lieberman is an artist, musician, MIT-trained scientist, and former host of Time Warp on Discovery Channel. His current work is on how human beings can find genuine freedom through emotional fluidity, consciousness, and connection. He co-founded Sleepawake, a transformational program that helps people break out of isolation by cultivating authentic, heart-centered relationships.Resources:* theopensource.life* sleepawake.camp* Jeff’s websiteYoutube:Jeff’s Map of Consciousness 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

This is the first in person Metagame episode! Be sure to check out the video.Jonny Miller is a writer, nervous system coach and podcaster. We met at Edge Esmerelda where he facilitated a surprisingly psychoactive breathwork session. This episode is about the practicalities of feeling your feelings and unlatching patterns that have been governing your personality since childhood.Resources:* www.jonnymiller.co* www.nsmastery.com* “Secure attachment with reality”* Mike Johnson’s Latch TheoryYouTube: 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

Chris Barber is an entrepreneur/researcher. He co-founded an executive coaching marketplace for startups, and a place for engineers to discover good startups to join. His primary focus is AI preparation & emotional regulation. He’s the inventor of a simple but highly effective method for processing emotions called Resonance. It’s a way of speaking that helps others regulate their emotions and feel better. In this episode he teaches us how to do it.Resources:* Chris Barber’s twitter (DMs encouraged!)* A guide to ResonanceYouTube: 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

Dr. Tucker Peck is a meditation teacher, clinical psychologist, and bestselling author. He studied meditation with Sharon Salzberg and Upasaka Culadasa (John Yates). Tucker’s first book, Sanity and Sainthood, debuted as a #1 bestseller in 2025. A former professor, he is the founding director of the scholarship fund Open Dharma Foundation, and co-host of the podcast Teaching Meditation. He lives in Alameda, California, an island in the San Francisco Bay. You can read more about Tucker here.Resources:* Sanity and Sainthood: Integrating Meditation and Psychotherapy* Tucker’s TwitterYouTube: 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

Daniel Thorson spent 5 years in residential training at The Monastic Academy with 2 years in cumulative silent retreat. He has decades of deep engagement with contemplative practice, systems theory, and transformative work. He’s also the beloved host of The Emerge Podcast and writes at The Intimate Mirror, where he’s exploring how people can develop a secure attachment with reality.Resources:* Spirituality is Secure Attachment with Reality* AI for Emotional Unfolding* Steve March on Self-Improvement vs Self-unfoldment* https://x.com/dthorsonYouTube: 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

Rich Bartlett helps people grow high-trust communities & decentralized organizations. He’s the co-founder the community building network Microsolidarity, and non-hierarchical management consultancy The Hum. He also co-runs Fight Wise an online course about developing courage in your relationships, standing up for yourself, skillfully navigating conflicts, and asking for what you want.Resources:* Improvise for Real* Keith Jarret* Fight Wise: Find Your Backbone* People mentioned: Guy (RivalVoices), Visakan, Romeo Stevens, Vivid VoidYouTube: 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

Brooke Bowman is the founder of Vibecamp. She also runs events to help foster connection and social cohesion such as Ms. Bowman's School for the Socially Inept, and The Network Society Camp. For nearly a decade before that, she was in an affair with heroin. Her mental and physical health declined slowly at first, then plummeted, leaving her sleeping on the streets of Los Angeles for two and a half years. Then came a series of insights that led her to essentially rewire her own brain. Resources:* Brooke’s Twitter* vibe.camp* Brooke’s talk at The Network State Conference* Bowman’s School for the Socially Inept 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