Welcome to Rethinking Humanity with Lacey Delayne & Sonya Larrea

Modern culture values the dead. And it's making us sick.

We are living in a time of isolation, busyness, consumerism, bureaucracy and workism. This way of modern life is considered the norm and as a result, we are losing our humanity. Our level of disconnection to others is increasing by our obsessive use of screens and by caring more about things than people. Community has become a hollow word.

Our mental health is suffering. Self medication is the status quo whether through alcohol, drugs, shopping, social media or whatever addiction powerful enough to distract us from the pain. 

Our sense of purpose is frequently tied to our jobs, leaving little space for the human autonomy we need to thrive. We don't know how to find our worth outside of the workplace. The domination of work causes the deterioration of our relationships, robbing us of one of the most needed experiences in life: love.

The United States rates 16th in the world on the happiness scale, along with having one of the highest rates of anxiety, depression and child poverty in the developed world. 

We live in a rich highly developed country, and are struggling with the basics. We aren’t alone in our condition; other countries suffer from similar problems but struggle to find solutions.

There was a social philosopher in the 1950’s by the name of Erich Fromm who wrote extensively on these very issues. His message resonates with us and is timely: We are living in a world predominated by machines. Humans aren’t valued unless they’re producing and consuming. We are slaves to things, dead inanimate things (our homes, cars, toys, etc.) We live to keep the economy humming by continuing to buy and consume even at the expense of lives without authenticity, value or purpose. 

As obvious as it is to some, many are not aware of this truth.

We, Lacey and Sonya, find it important to share the realities we’re seeing, and discuss ideas that can lead us to a better quality of life. Our podcast dives into current events, history, and Fromm’s writings. We interview authors, thinkers and anyone that can add to these meaningful discussions.

We met through a philosophy Meetup group in the Atlanta area in 2018. We had similar values and both loved reading books that explored living conscientiously and purposefully. Our friendship grew as our conversation centered on how to improve the quality of life in today’s modern culture.

Rethinking Humanity podcast initiated in the hopes of sharing our conversations with others and to continue the dialogue that is so urgently needed today.

If you haven’t heard an episode yet, we recommend starting with episode 24 titled “Are We Sane?” 

If you have, thank you!  We are so glad to have you as a listener and hopefully now, as a part of our Substack community.

We moved to the Substack platform in July of 2022, after two years of doing the podcast. We saw it as the most viable and ethical way to monetize, grow our podcast and build a community of folks with similar values. Substack is a platform where we can share the podcast and other content, and at the same time, interact with you.

Here’s what happens if you become a paid subscriber

If you choose to support us at any level you will get access to bonus content along with our episodes. Bonus content includes bonus episodes on a bi-weekly basis, where we share more openly and personally than we do on a regular podcast episode. Lacey will be sharing her journey in learning to paint with paid subscribers, including the art itself. We are developing more cool bonus content as we grow!

Becoming a paid subscriber enables us to keep making content. It empowers others to see how we can rethink the way we do life by shifting the values of our society to accommodate our humanity. 

Can’t Pay for a Subscription? You still get a lot with a free one

You can interact in our Substack community, get access to our podcast episodes and written content. You are notified via email when we post something new.

For either subscription, please be sure to add our email address (rethinkinghumanity@substack.com) to your contacts list or address book so that the emails come directly to your inbox. If you are having trouble finding the emails, check your spam or the promotions tab.

Are you going to send me a shit ton of emails?

No! You, your time, and attention, are way too valuable for that! As a subscriber, paid or unpaid, you will receive an email when:

1. A new podcast episode posts 

2. Bonus content drops 

3. Written content posts

That means an average of one email per week, as our typical rhythm will be to post an episode every other week and share bonus content the weeks in between. We don’t plan to write posts often, but when we do, they will come in the form of an email.  And that’s it!

Thanks again for joining us on the ‘stack. :)

With love and humanity,

Lacey & Sonya