Keith Martin-Smith

Keith Martin-Smith

Keith Martin-Smith is an award-winning author, writing coach, and Zen priest. He is passionate about human connection, creativity, and evolution.

His most recent book is "When the Buddha Needs Therapy" which was published by Integral Life Press (2022).

You can learn more about him and his work at http://www.keithmartinsmith.com

Website: https://keithmartinsmith.com

The Highest Stages of Human Flourishing

The Highest Stages of Human Flourishing

Keith Martin-Smith   October 17, 2025  
Keith Martin-Smith and Alexander Love explore Terry O'Fallon's STAGES model of human development, focusing on the rarely-discussed MetAware tier where transpersonal awareness becomes a structural feature of consciousness, leading to the dissolution of boundaries and recognition that all meaning is constructed.
The New War on the First Amendment: Words as Violence, Jokes as Crimes

The New War on the First Amendment: Words as Violence, Jokes as Crimes

Keith Martin-Smith   September 30, 2025  
Keith Martin-Smith tackles America's free speech crisis in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination—examining how both left and right have abandoned principled commitments to the First Amendment in favor of tribal speech enforcement.
STAGES: Cracking the Code of Human Development

STAGES: Cracking the Code of Human Development

Keith Martin-Smith   September 5, 2025  
Keith Martin Smith and Alexander Love explore Terry O’Fallon’s Stages model as a powerful lens for understanding how humans grow, make meaning, and relate across vastly different realities. Together, they reveal how developmental precision — not content or ideology — holds the key to deeper empathy, cultural healing, and truly integrative practice.
Redefining the Masculine (Without Losing the Man)

Redefining the Masculine (Without Losing the Man)

Keith Martin-Smith   July 18, 2025  
In this episode of Integral Edge, Keith Martin-Smith explores the modern crisis of masculinity and offers a powerful framework for reclaiming the healthy strengths of traditional, modern, and postmodern masculine expressions. Rather than choosing between power and empathy, discipline and vulnerability, Keith shows how wholeness means learning to embody all of them—at the right time, in the right way.
The End of America? How the Founders’ Genius Is Breaking Down (And What We Can Do About It)

The End of America? How the Founders’ Genius Is Breaking Down (And What We Can Do About It)

Keith Martin-Smith   June 24, 2025  
Can America still save itself — or is collapse inevitable? Drawing lessons from history, developmental psychology, and the meta-crisis, Keith explores why systems built on “enlightened self-interest” are faltering… and what kind of leadership could restore the balance.
How We Lost the Art of Connection

How We Lost the Art of Connection

Keith Martin-Smith   June 13, 2025  
This conversation between Keith Martin-Smith and Michael Porcelli explores the hidden dynamics that shape how we communicate, from cultural conditioning to emotional awareness to the unseen “third entity” of relationship. Together they unpack why so many conversations go off the rails—and how we can learn to repair, realign, and relate with greater depth, clarity, and skill.
Becoming Whole in a Divided World

Becoming Whole in a Divided World

Keith Martin-Smith   May 29, 2025  
In this thought-provoking episode of Integral Edge, Keith Martin-Smith sits down with executive coach and consciousness explorer David Arrell to explore what it truly means to become whole, both personally and collectively, amid ongoing division and conflict.
The Cycles of Time: Mapping Evolution at the Edge of History

The Cycles of Time: Mapping Evolution at the Edge of History

Keith Martin-Smith   April 30, 2025  
In this wide-ranging conversation, Terri O’Fallon and Keith Martin-Smith explore how human development unfolds through increasingly complex relationships with time, from infancy’s timelessness to the transpersonal awareness of timelessness beyond time. They examine how cultural evolution is accelerating, why recurring societal crises reflect developmental recursions, and how future leadership must integrate ethical maturity, shadow work, and a multi-generational vision.
How Can DEI Survive? (And Should It?)

How Can DEI Survive? (And Should It?)

Keith Martin-Smith   April 17, 2025  
Keith Martin-Smith offers a bold, developmental critique of modern DEI, tracing its evolution from fairness-based policy to postmodern orthodoxy. He explores how inclusion can become exclusion when empathy gives way to ideology—and outlines how DEI might survive by embracing complexity, dissent, and shared humanity.
The Shadow of Trump

The Shadow of Trump

Keith Martin-Smith   April 2, 2025  
Psychotherapist and developmental theorist Kim Barta joins Keith Martin-Smith for a deep dive into the psychological and developmental dynamics surrounding one of the most polarizing figures of our time: Donald Trump.
Men, Meaning, and the Rise of the New Right

Men, Meaning, and the Rise of the New Right

Keith Martin-Smith   March 14, 2025  
The modern world is demanding more from men than ever before—strength and sensitivity, resilience and vulnerability, leadership and collaboration—yet many feel lost without clear role models or cultural support. This conversation explores the forces shaping modern masculinity, the allure of strongman archetypes, and the path toward a truly integrated, evolved form of masculinity that balances power with presence, agency with empathy, and tradition with transformation.
What Were They Thinking?!? Decoding the 2024 Election

What Were They Thinking?!? Decoding the 2024 Election

Keith Martin-Smith   December 20, 2024  
David and Keith explore how individuals intersect between different vertical developmental stages (Amber, Orange, Green) and cultural value stacks (traditional, modern, and progressive) in order to make meaning and navigate complex electoral decisions, with a specific focus on the 2024 U.S. election, unpacking the interplay between cognitive development, cultural alignment, and systemic factors in understanding the diverse rationales behind people's voting behavior.
The Content/Structure Fallacy: The Common Mistake Most Integralists Make

The Content/Structure Fallacy: The Common Mistake Most Integralists Make

Keith Martin-Smith   October 24, 2024  
David Arrell and Keith Martin-Smith explore one of the most important (and misunderstood) dynamics within integral theory: the content/structure fallacy. They explore how developmental structures—our deeper worldviews and ways of making sense—shape the content of our beliefs, but not always in straightforward or predictable ways. The conversation touches on how integral theory can help us navigate the nuances of individual growth, leadership, and social dynamics, especially when it comes to assessing the developmental depth of others.

The Wonderful (But Flawed) Ideals of DEI

The Wonderful (But Flawed) Ideals of DEI

Keith Martin-Smith   September 13, 2024  
Keith Martin-Smith takes a careful look at the diversity, equity, and inclusion movement when he began to notice the damage it was causing people he knew under the guise of progress, or equity. Putting his keen mind to the task, Keith identified seven key areas where the DEI movement goes markedly astray from the values it aspires to.
Can Integral Theory Actually Help the World?

Can Integral Theory Actually Help the World?

Keith Martin-Smith   June 28, 2024  
Keith Martin-Smith explores the potential and pitfalls of integral theory in addressing global challenges. He argues that while integral thinking offers valuable tools for understanding complex systems and human development, it often falls short in practice due to misapplication and ego-driven superiority complexes. Keith proposes a more nuanced approach: treating people as unique individuals, communicating integral ideas more skillfully, and focusing on practical applications rather than theoretical grandstanding.
Reintegrating DEI: Beyond the Culture Wars

Reintegrating DEI: Beyond the Culture Wars

Keith Martin-Smith   June 6, 2024  
Keith Martin-Smith explains the developmental levels in detail that allowed DEI to form in the first place, as well as the levels from which DEI is often expressed (and resisted) from, allowing us to more clearly see and understand the cultural wars we are all experiencing.
The Lost Art of Adulthood: Reviving Our Rites of Passage

The Lost Art of Adulthood: Reviving Our Rites of Passage

Keith Martin-Smith   March 15, 2024  
In this episode, Keith and Luke Entrup discuss the necessity of reintroducing formal rites of passage for our children, not as a fun thing to do with your kid but as something vital for their development – a piece most of us missed and have had to make up for throughout our lives.
The Seven Deadly Sins of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion)

The Seven Deadly Sins of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion)

Keith Martin-Smith   February 8, 2024  
Join Keith Martin-Smith as we question whether DEI initiatives are achieving their intended goals of increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion, or whether they may be perpetuating any number of unseen biases that take us further away from those shared goals. Are we oversimplifying the narrative around privilege and diversity? How do factors like poverty impact issues like police violence? How might we rethink and reshape the DEI discourse, moving towards more skillful (and more integral) approaches?
How to Awaken and Empower the Integral Man

How to Awaken and Empower the Integral Man

Keith Martin-Smith   January 4, 2024  
Keith Martin-Smith and Jason Lange explore the challenges and ongoing evolution of masculinity. Watch as they delve into topics such as the impact of societal norms on men's behavior, the importance of emotional intelligence, and the journey from traditional to more integrated forms of masculinity, bringing a wealth of insights to help men navigate their roles and identities in a rapidly changing social landscape.
The Power of Vulnerability: Embracing an Integrated Masculinity

The Power of Vulnerability: Embracing an Integrated Masculinity

Keith Martin-Smith   December 1, 2023  
In this insightful discussion, Keith Martin-Smith addresses the misconceptions around male vulnerability, emphasizing its role as a source of strength and authenticity. He explores the transformative impact of embracing vulnerability on men's emotional health, relationships, and societal perceptions of masculinity.
Sex, Identity, Gender: Beyond Wokism and Trumpism

Sex, Identity, Gender: Beyond Wokism and Trumpism

Keith Martin-Smith   July 28, 2023  
Join us as we push even further into the front lines of the culture war skirmishes that have become so plentiful over the last several years. Corey deVos joins Keith to discuss how our notions of sex, gender, and identity apply to some of the most contentious and pressing issues of our time, and how they can be integrated into a more integral dialectic.
What Is a Man (And Why Does It Matter?)

What Is a Man (And Why Does It Matter?)

Keith Martin-Smith   July 6, 2023  
With all the cultural war battles being waged around the question "what is a woman", Keith Martin-Smith offers an integral discussion of manhood and masculinity — as a biological given, as a cultural construct, and as an ongoing source of identity.
Shadow, Trauma, and Attachment: Why Do Spiritual Teachers Keep Messing Up?

Shadow, Trauma, and Attachment: Why Do Spiritual Teachers Keep Messing Up?

Keith Martin-Smith   June 1, 2023  
If spiritual teachers are so “awake” and “enlightened”, why do so many of them get caught with their shadow hanging out? Watch as Keith Martin-Smith offers a stunning overview of shadow, trauma, and attachment disorders, and how they can corrupt both our mental health and our spiritual awakening.
Shadows of Development

Shadows of Development

Keith Martin-Smith   April 13, 2023  
Join Keith Martin-Smith and Kim Barta for an exclusive discussion as they delve into the world of shadow and ego development. Kim is a seasoned therapist, coach, and educator with over 40 years of experience who has dedicated his career to the resolution of shadow material. His unique perspective on the intersection of development, trauma, and attachment disorders combines the best of developmental psychology with depth psychology.
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