Advertise on podcast: The UNcivilized Podcast with Traver Boehm

What if the reason so many of us feel disconnected, exhausted, or unfulfilled has less to do with our individual lives and more to do with the culture we're living in? My guest today is Luke McLaughlin, founder of Holistic Survival School, where he teaches ancestral earth skills as a way to help people reconnect with themselves, each other, and the natural world. Luke left a promising career in education to follow a calling into the wilderness. What began as teaching survival skills eventually became something much bigger: helping people remember what it means to be human. We get into the grief of things we never received, why our old ways of coping can eventually hold us back, and how rituals, community, and time in nature can help us rebuild what's missing. We also explore what it means to follow your soul, why feeling alive isn't always about feeling good, and Luke's fascinating 400-year plan to build a culture that will outlive him. This conversation goes well beyond surviving in the woods. It's about what we're actually trying to survive in modern life. Men, come train with us in The UNcivilized Nation: https://www.manuncivilized.com/thenation Connect with Luke McLaughlin: https://holisticsurvivalschool.com Chapters 00:00 — Meet Luke McLaughlin and Holistic Survival School 02:38 — Why Luke Left His Old Life Behind 06:46 — Following the Call to Adventure 10:46 — Turning Grief Into Something Meaningful 12:34 — The Grief We Carry Without Knowing It 19:25 — What Is Cultural Repair? 24:04 — Creating Rituals and Ceremonies 27:44 — How Trauma Becomes an Adaptation 31:08 — What Happens When We Lose Our Culture? 37:14 — Finding Balance With Technology 39:12 — What Does It Mean to Follow Your Soul? 42:12 — Understanding Aliveness 46:41 — How Do We Bring Soul Back Into Culture? 53:09 — Luke's 400-Year Plan 54:58 — Connect With Luke McLaughlin

Most men are taught to look outside themselves for purpose: a bigger paycheck, a better title, more status, more proof. Amir Khalighi sees it differently. The signal gets clearer when you stop looking out and start paying attention to what keeps calling you inward. Amir is the founder of Embodied Masculine and has worked with men for more than three decades. In this conversation, we get into what it means to know your post, why purpose has more to do with responsibility than personal success, and what happens when the life you built no longer matches the life you feel called to live. Amir also shares the experience in his late forties that changed the direction of his life. We talk about initiation, strength, the King archetype, brotherhood, the cost of secrecy and isolation, and why every man needs people he can tell the truth to. And yes, I tell the ridiculous story of how one cop, McDonald’s burritos, and a men’s group in Brooklyn somehow helped create Man UNcivilized. Men, come train with us in The UNcivilized Nation: https://www.manuncivilized.com/thenation Connect with Amir: Website: https://embodiedmasculine.com/ Transpersonal Facilitation Method: https://transpersonalfacilitation.com/ Instagram: @khalighi Chapters 00:00 Meet Amir Khalighi 01:09 Before the Turning Point 03:09 Self-Initiation and Learning to Be a Man 04:06 Following the Tug of the Heart 07:28 How Man UNcivilized Was Born 11:52 The Wound Beneath the Gift 14:00 Purpose Means Knowing Your Post 16:01 Stop Looking Outside Yourself 19:25 Strength, Power, and the King Archetype 23:31 Getting Out of Your Head 27:43 Going Inward Instead of Up and Out 31:18 What Purpose Looks Like in Daily Life 36:26 Men Need Men They Can Call at 3 A.M. 39:35 Why Men Lose Access to Expression 42:16 The Experience That Changed Amir’s Life 50:02 Where to Find Amir

Every man has parts of himself he may not particularly like admitting are there. Aggression. Dominance. The desire to hunt, take, compete, capture, or exert power. Recently, someone asked me how I deal with what I’d call my own inner predator or dark masculine. My answer starts here: I acknowledge that it exists. Because pretending those parts aren’t there doesn’t make them disappear. What we suppress has a way of coming out sideways. In this solo episode, I talk about what it means to actually be in relationship with those darker parts of myself and give them healthy, skillful, consensual ways to breathe. For me, that looks like jiu-jitsu. Hunting. Writing. Building a business. Getting onstage. Shibari. Kink. The specific activity isn’t really the point. The point is knowing what lives inside you and finding ways for it to exist without destroying your life or hurting the people around you. Full expression doesn’t mean acting on every impulse. It means taking responsibility for all of who you are. Men, come train with us in The UNcivilized Nation: https://www.manuncivilized.com/thenation Join me for the Embodied Dominant Workshop on October 11: https://www.manuncivilized.com/dominance CHAPTERS 00:00 How I Deal With My Inner Predator 00:40 Every Man Has Two Predators 02:26 Step One: Acknowledge It 04:33 Step Two: Be in Relationship With It 06:58 Healthy Ways to Express Your Dark Parts 09:24 Freedom Through Full Expression 10:13 When Power Comes Out Sideways 10:47 Three Questions to Ask Yourself

How do you practice dominance when you’re single and don’t have a partner to practice with? The answer has a lot less to do with flirting than you might think. In this short Q&A, Coral Osborne and I break down why dominance starts with everyday interactions: creating connection, taking initiative, paying attention to how people respond, and learning how to lead without needing anything in return. You can get reps talking to the cashier at the supermarket. Meeting someone new. Starting a conversation. Holding a door. Asking one more question instead of staring at your wallet. And underneath all of that is the bigger practice: Do you lead yourself? Do you go to the gym when you say you will? Do you keep the commitments you make to yourself? Do your actions match the man you say you are? Because dominance isn’t something you suddenly switch on in the bedroom. It starts with how you carry yourself everywhere else. Want to train this with Coral and me? 36th Chamber Intensives: https://traverboehm.com/36-intensive 36th Chamber Year-Long Program: https://traverboehm.com/36 Chapter 00:00 How to Practice Dominance While Single 01:00 Practice Connection Everywhere 02:18 Get Your Reps Before the Date 03:10 Dominance Starts at Home 04:02 Start With Low-Stakes Risks 04:37 Dominance Is Also in Service 05:23 Practice Taking Initiative

Jeremy Goldberg is back on the podcast with a book he spent five years trying not to write. A Giraffe Named Feelings is a memoir about the parts of his life he spent years avoiding, numbing, or simply not knowing how to talk about. We get into his parents’ divorce, his mom’s alcoholism, his own relationship with alcohol and drugs, getting cheated on, sobriety, and what happened when he finally let his parents read the stories he had written about them. We also talk about writing from the wound versus writing from the scar, why abstinence became easier than moderation, and what betrayal actually takes from you beyond the relationship itself. And we end with one of my favorite stories in the book: Jeremy returning to his childhood home decades later and finding his six-year-old handprint still pressed into the concrete. Men, come train with us in The UNcivilized Nation: https://www.manuncivilized.com/thenation Get A Giraffe Named Feelings: https://substack.com/home/post/p-192337555 CHAPTERS: 00:00 Jeremy Goldberg Returns 02:45 A Giraffe Named Feelings 08:38 The Book He Tried Not to Write 11:56 The Story Behind A Giraffe Named Feelings 16:39 What His Parents’ Divorce Meant at Six 22:14 Letting His Parents Read the Book 27:14 Do You Have the Right to Tell Your Story? 30:05 Why He Couldn’t Ignore the Book 37:54 Writing From the Wound vs. the Scar 42:37 Confronting His Own Substance Use 47:29 When Drinking Is Just What Everyone Does 48:14 Awareness, Acceptance, and Action 53:34 Traver on Quitting Alcohol 58:31 What Being Cheated On Does to a Man 01:02:51 What He Wishes Someone Had Told Him 01:06:07 Heartbreak as an Opportunity 01:08:54 The Grief of Losing a Future Together 01:10:28 Returning to His Childhood Home

A woman can feel when your words and your motive don’t match. And according to sexologist Coral Osborne, that disconnect matters far more than whether you know the right positions, techniques, or lines to say. Coral joins me for a conversation about sexual honesty, desire, boundaries, aftercare, and one of the most important skills I didn’t learn until much later in life: attunement. We talk about what Coral calls the “clean taker,” why hiding your sexual desire can actually make you feel less safe to a woman, and why great sex has far more to do with presence, communication, curiosity, and being able to handle the answer “no” than most men have been taught. We also break down the RBDSMA framework, what aftercare actually looks like, why men need sexual boundaries too, and the difference between being sexually aggressive and being a grounded man who knows what he wants. Better sex is part of the conversation. But this is really about becoming a man who can tell the truth, pay attention, own his desires, respect someone else’s, and stay grounded regardless of the answer. Want to train this with Coral and me? 36th Chamber Intensives: https://traverboehm.com/36-intensive 36th Chamber Year-Long Program: https://traverboehm.com/36 Chapters 00:00 Meet Coral Osborne 02:55 Why Traver Came Back to Sexuality 06:08 The Freedom on the Other Side of Shame 09:44 Sex Is More Than Sex 13:34 What Women Say They’re Missing 18:32 Being Safe AND Wild 23:20 When Your Words Don’t Match Your Motive 26:54 What Is a “Clean Taker”? 31:31 The RBDSMA Framework 35:37 Why Aftercare Matters 45:06 What Attunement Actually Means 49:54 What Great Sex Is Really Made Of 53:38 Men Need Boundaries Too

About a year ago, I typed “Shibari” into Spotify because I needed something better to tie people to than my liked songs — which are basically 80s music, Metallica, and the Little Drummer Boy. A playlist called Chiara Shibari popped up. I used it for the next year with absolutely no idea Chiara was an actual human being. Then I found Julieta Chiara on Substack and had the very mature realization: Oh shit. It’s her. Julieta is a submissive mentor and Shibari master who’s been in the kink lifestyle for ten years. We get into what kink changed for her outside the bedroom, why being sexually met is very different from simply having good sex, and why dominance can be an incredibly vulnerable thing for men to explore. We also talk about shame, submission, consent, power, rope, what it means to feel fully accepted by another person, and why Julieta sees kink less as something broken people do and more as a way to play with parts of ourselves we don’t usually get to explore. Then we get into containment — what it actually means to be with someone who can handle all of you — and why Julieta’s experiences in kink have become one of the closest things she has to spirituality. And then, naturally, we end up talking about God. If you’ve ever had a desire you couldn’t explain, judged yourself for wanting, or tried to make smaller so somebody else would be more comfortable — this one’s for you. —— 👉 Men, come train with us in The UNcivilized Nation: https://www.manuncivilized.com/thenation —— Connect with Julieta: Website: https://www.julietachiara.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julietachiara/ Substack: https://substack.com/@julietachiara Connect with Traver: Website: https://www.manuncivilized.com Substack: https://traverboehm.substack.com Instagram: @traverboehm Get my books: https://www.manuncivilized.com/books CHAPTERS: 00:00 How Traver Found Julieta Through a Shibari Playlist 02:34 Meet Julieta: The Sub Who Ties 05:25 How Julieta Found Kink 10:58 “My Soul Is Kinky”: What Changes Outside the Bedroom 17:31 Kink Is Play 22:07 The Sub Who Tops 28:06 Intimacy Without Sex 32:18 What It Means to Be Sexually Met 36:54 The Grief of Finally Getting What You Want 43:22 Why Dominance Can Be Vulnerable for Men 46:55 Consent, Collaboration, and Learning to Lead 51:24 What Containment Actually Means 56:35 Sex, Power, and Spirituality

Most of us say we want peace. Then the second we actually touch it, some part of us starts looking for a problem. Brea Segger and I talk about why real transformation doesn’t always need a breakdown, a breakthrough, or a giant emotional release. We get into the exhaustion that comes from trying to be someone you’re not, why loneliness can exist even when you’re surrounded by people, and what happens when you stop looking outside yourself for somebody to fix you. We also talk about alcohol and distraction, our relationship with nature, the differences Brea sees in how men and women process change, and why twenty minutes of doing absolutely nothing might tell you more about yourself than another year of searching for answers. Brea and I are leading Deep Waters together in Nosara, Costa Rica this November. Learn more: https://www.traverboehm.com/deepwaters —— 👉 Men, come train with us in The UNcivilized Nation: https://www.manuncivilized.com/thenation —— Connect with Brea: Website: https://www.breasegger.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breasegger/ Connect with Traver: Website: https://www.manuncivilized.com Substack: https://traverboehm.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/traverboehm/ Get my books: https://www.manuncivilized.com/books Chapters 00:00 Who Is Brea Segger? 03:29 Brea’s Childhood and Feeling Like Something Was Wrong 06:48 When the Outside World Doesn’t Match What You Feel Inside 10:41 Why Brea Doesn’t Call Herself a Mystic 14:14 Alcohol as Distraction and Avoidance 20:55 Why Being Okay Can Feel Unsafe 26:15 Does Transformation Need a Big Breakthrough? 29:18 What Actually Happens When Brea Works With Someone 33:05 Why We’re So Exhausted 36:23 Why So Many People Feel Lonely 39:31 What Does “Soul” Mean? 41:34 How Men and Women Process Change Differently 44:17 Stop Looking Outside Yourself for Answers 45:57 Can You Do Nothing for 20 Minutes? 48:20 What Five Days Alone Taught Traver 50:56 Deep Waters and Closing

At twelve years old, Tanya Marie Dubé left home with $18. For the next several years, she moved between friends' houses, church bathrooms, cars, closets, and the street while trying to finish school. She learned how to read a room, anticipate danger, handle everything herself, and do whatever needed to be done to get through to the next day. Those skills helped her survive. The problem is that survival strategies don't always disappear when the danger does. In this episode, Tanya and I get into what she calls the five survival identities — the hyper-independent, the performer, the pleaser, the caretaker, and the invisible one — and how the versions of ourselves that once kept us safe can eventually become the same versions keeping us stuck. We also get into something I see all the time with high achievers: checking every damn box and still wondering why success doesn't feel like enough. What happens when slowing down feels more dangerous than working harder? Can you actually feel satisfied without losing your ambition? And how do you tell the difference between genuinely trying to survive and continuing to live like you still have to? This one's about the identities we build to survive, what happens when they outlive their usefulness, and what it takes to stop dragging them into the rest of our lives. —— 👉 Men, come train with us in The UNcivilized Nation: https://www.manuncivilized.com/thenation —— Tanya's 5-Day Identity Challenge: https://identity-collapse-challenge.com/ Connect with Tanya: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tanyamariedubeofficial/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tanyamariedube/ Connect with Traver: Website: https://www.manuncivilized.com Substack: https://traverboehm.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/traverboehm/ Get my books: https://www.manuncivilized.com/books CHAPTERS 00:00 Tanya's Return to Acting 02:06 What Is a Survival Identity? 08:27 Leaving Home at 12 With $18 13:42 How Survival Becomes an Identity 18:16 The Five Survival Identities 20:22 Do Men and Women Have Different Survival Identities? 23:18 Step One: Notice What's Not Working 27:57 Why Success Still Doesn't Feel Like Enough 35:15 Can You Be Driven and Still Be Satisfied? 41:26 What If You're Actually Just Trying to Survive? 51:07 Tanya's 5-Day Identity Challenge 53:28 What Does "Soul-Led" Actually Mean?

I left my suitcase on an airplane, sprinted through a Houston terminal, and blew out both calves in the process. That was day one of seven weeks in Costa Rica — and it was just the beginning of the jungle trying to teach me something. In this solo episode, I'm sharing three lessons I brought back from Costa Rica — through injuries, a viral post about men's mental health, and a free diving course that scared the hell out of me. Lesson one — slow the hell down, even when everything in you wants to move at full speed. Lesson two — how you talk to yourself matters more than almost anything else, and why I made a promise to myself back in 2016 that I still keep today. Lesson three — what free diving 15 meters underwater taught me about the power of a single thought, and how fast it can change everything happening in your body. If you've ever felt like you're moving too fast to hear what's actually going on inside you — this one's for you. —— Men, come train with us in The UNcivilized Nation —— Connect with Traver: Website Substack Instagram: @traverboehm Get my books Chapter List 00:00 Flight Chaos and Injuries in Costa Rica 06:00 Lesson One: Slow the Hell Down 07:37 Lesson Two: Speak Kindly to Yourself 11:42 Lesson Three: The Power of a Single Thought 17:12 Costa Rica Recap and What's Next

Sasha Cobra spent her twenties pouring drinks at a private cocktail bar in San Francisco — sober, vegan, healthy, and getting paid well to serve people poison. Then one Saturday morning in Golden Gate Park, she closed her eyes and saw herself doing something else entirely. She called her boss from a tea house that same afternoon and quit. She never went back. That decision started a twenty-year path that's led her to work with thousands of people around the world on sexuality, trauma, and healing. In this episode, she and I get into what she calls Love, Truth, and Eros — three words that sound simple until you actually try to live them. Why she believes love isn't a feeling but a regulated nervous system. Why almost nobody you've ever met actually operates from truth. And why she thinks the most repressed, most misunderstood part of being human might also be the most healing. This one goes into the body, sexuality, and trauma — and we don't tiptoe around any of it. —— 👉 Men, come train with us in The UNcivilized Nation —— Connect with Sasha:WebsiteCommunityInstagram Connect with Traver:WebsiteSubstackInstagram: @traverboehmGet my books CHAPTERS: 00:00 Love, Truth, and Eros: The Framework 06:58 Personal Truth vs. Societal Lies 16:59 Masculine and Feminine Energy 22:15 What Eros Really Means 32:35 Coming Back to the Body 34:23 Releasing Emotion Through the Body 42:39 Facing Emotional Overwhelm 45:57 Lovemaking as Medicine 51:48 Living in a Different Paradigm 58:51 Why No Teacher Has It All Figured Out 01:01:34 Sasha's Story: Quitting the Nightclub, Finding Her Path 01:12:41 Social Media: Tool or Poison 01:18:33 Building Community, Wrapping Up

Laurita Gorman almost never got called up to read her poem in front of the audience. She signed up for her first poetry slam and spent the whole night waiting to hear her name — the host had forgotten to add her to the list. She got up anyway. And wouldn’t you know it, placed second. That accident put her in the finals, and by the end of that year she was reading a poem about a woman named Laken Riley to a room that went completely silent. Laurita is a Canadian-born poet and therapist living in Australia. A poet from an early age, she filled journal after journal. In her twenties, she started taking those journals into therapy sessions to figure out what she'd actually been trying to say. Life eventually stopped her in her tracks and pushed her back toward performing — and within a year she was standing on the Sydney Opera House stage. We get into what it actually took to go from writing privately to reading in front of strangers. Why she stopped trying to be "nice" and started saying the true thing instead. What it felt like the night a room full of women grabbed her arm without saying a word. And why she believes a poem can do something years of talking can't. If you've ever had something true stuck in your throat you didn't know how to say — this one's for you. —— Connect with Laurita: Instagram —— Men –– Join us in The UNcivilized Nation Connect with Traver: Website Substack Instagram: @traverboehm Get my books 00:00 Introduction to Laurita Gorman 02:54 The Journey from Personal to Public Poetry 15:51 The Power of Voice and Expression 30:04 How Poetry Became Her Therapy 37:48 Connection Is Our Instinct, Not an Inconvenience 47:42 Sharing Poetry and Its Impact

Fair warning — this one is not safe for work. It's also not safe for anyone who wants to keep pretending that what happens in the bedroom has nothing to do with who you are everywhere else. —— Athos Khan is a board-certified physician, Jungian-influenced philosopher, and author of several books on kink, intimacy, and the deeper psychology underneath both. He's been kinky since the beginning — and he's spent the last several years writing and thinking about why that matters far beyond the bedroom. We go deep on things most people are too uncomfortable to say out loud. Why the West stripped the meaning out of sex and what that's actually costing us. Jung's conception of libido as a generative force — not just a rush to orgasm. Why great sex is dangerous, what your fantasies are actually pointing at symbolically, and why the shadow doesn't disappear just because you ignore it. We also talk about what it means to orient all of this toward good — even when what you're doing looks, from the outside, like it has no business being called that. If you've ever felt like your sexuality was bigger than you knew how to hold, this episode might be the framework you didn't know you were looking for. —— Connect with Athos: Substack YouTube Books — available on Amazon: Love is a Kink | The Architecture of Intimacy | Structuring Desire —— You might also enjoy these related conversations: The Deep Psychology of BDSM & Kink w/ Dr. Douglas Thomas EP 415 — Living an UNtamed Life by Following Your Truth | Kati Bird —— Men –– Join The UNcivilized Nation Connect with Traver: Website Substack Instagram: @traverboehm Get my books Chapter List 00:00 Intro 01:01 Meet Athos: Doctor, Philosopher, and Kinky as Hell 07:27 Why the West Got Sex Wrong 13:32 Sex Like LSD — Not Chardonnay 22:41 Safe Containers and Starting Points 29:58 Your Darkest Fantasies and What They're Actually Pointing At 41:33 Why This Energy Is So Big 50:24 Integration: When the Mask Becomes Your Face 01:00:37 Orientation Toward Good 01:04:58 Wrap Up

Most people think Ayahuasca is a drug. A trip. Something you do once to see some visuals and come back with a good story. Sam Believ has sat with over 3,000 people at Lawayra — the highest-rated ayahuasca retreat in South America — and he'll tell you that couldn't be further from the truth. Sam is a Latvian engineer who walked away from a six-figure offshore oil and gas career, landed in Colombia, and found himself more lost than ever. Ayahuasca didn't just help him heal — it gave him a purpose he didn't see coming. Now he runs the biggest retreat in the country, hosts the Ayahuasca Podcast, and has made it part of his mission to reframe Colombia from drugs to medicine. We get into what actually happens inside a ceremony — the weeks of preparation, the moment you drink, the purging, the music, the shaman's role — and why the West's obsession with isolating the active ingredient and stripping away the tradition might be the very thing that makes it less effective. Sam puts it simply: separating the medicine from its tradition is like separating a plant from its roots. Eventually it dies. We also get into the mental health piece — why a diagnosis isn't always the whole story, why making it part of your identity can actually keep you stuck, and what these medicines do that years of therapy alone often can't. If you've been curious about plant medicine — or skeptical of it — this one is worth your full attention. Connect with Traver:InstagramSubstackWebsite Ready to UNcivilize your life? Start here Men, Join us in The UNcivilized Nation — a community of men doing the real work Find Sam Believ:WebsiteRetreatPodcastAyahuasca Course Chapter List  00:00 From Oil Rig Engineer to Ayahuasca Retreat Leader 08:22 Ibogaine, Tradition, and Why Ceremony Still Matters 17:34 Ceremony Walkthrough: What to Expect 28:57 What a Shaman Actually Sees 34:49 Understanding Mental Health: A Dual Perspective 42:59 The Spiritual Awakening Through Ayahuasca 50:42 AI, Purpose, and the Future of Community 58:04 Where to Find Sam

A decade ago, I woke up and it felt like my life had crashed all at once. A miscarriage. A divorce. A business partnership ending — all inside of a few months. These weren't small things. I found three things that worked like hitting a reset button — control, alt, delete. You know, the command you give your computer when something's stuck. They helped me stop fighting what had happened and lit the way to rebuilding on purpose. Accept it's happening — Not why it's happening, not what it means. Just: this is real, and figuring out the why won't undo it. The moment I stopped spending my energy on why and started spending it on what's next, everything shifted. Make space, then get curious — When the life you had gets cleared out, there's suddenly room. Don't rush to fill it with the next relationship, the next business, the next distraction. Sit in it. That's where you start noticing what's actually trying to come through. Bust your ass — Once you know the direction, go all in. Rebuilding isn't comfortable and it sure isn't fast. I wrote three books in ten years, drove twelve hours to teach a free workshop, and slept in my truck. That's just a little of what it took. Over a decade later, and I still wouldn't trade the life I'm building for the one I "lost." If you know someone in the middle of their own version of this, please send them this episode. —— Want to go deeper?My first book, Today I Rise, was written during my own divorce Or watch Transformations: How to Navigate Life's Biggest Changes for more on what real change actually requires And if you don't know where to start, get the framework here. —— Connect with Traver:InstagramSubstackWebsite Chapter List 00:00 Control Alt Delete: A Life Reset 05:48 Accept That It's Happening 11:33 Make the Space — Then Get Curious 17:05 Bust Your Ass — Build the New Life 20:30 Wrap Up