# Dear Crisis

> Dear Crisis is a volunteer-run New York community dedicated to turning crisis into connection and connection into action, convening around the metacrisis (also searched as the polycrisis or permacrisis). Monthly Metacrisis Salons in Brooklyn, hands-on Metacrisis Action Labs, and The Creationship creative incubator on the Lower East Side. People building an island of coherence in NYC, ready to take action.

Key facts: Metacrisis Salons run monthly at Lightning Lofts, 245 Varet St, Brooklyn, NY 11206 (~65 people, $15, food included, two speakers + breakout groups). Metacrisis Action Labs teach practical community-resilience skills (off-grid mesh radios, grid-down preparedness, rooftop food growing). The Creationship runs Sundays at Caravan of Dreams, 405 E 6th St, Manhattan (free). Founded by Benjamin Von Wong. Contact: hi@vonwong.com.

## Main pages

- [Homepage](https://dearcrisis.com): what Dear Crisis is, upcoming events, latest recaps, FAQ
- [Join the community](https://dearcrisis.com/join): request to join the WhatsApp community — short form, community agreements, instant invite
- [Climate Week at Caravan of Dreams](https://dearcrisis.com/climateweek): the week-long Climate Week takeover of Caravan of Dreams, 405 E 6th St, East Village (September 21 to 27, 2026). An open refuge up front and a week of talks, dinners, salons and field trips to register for
- [Climate Week volunteer sign-up](https://dearcrisis.com/volunteer): help curate, design, produce, host a small gathering, or just be in the room during Climate Week
- [Lightning talk submissions](https://dearcrisis.com/lightning-talks): pitch a five-minute talk, with slides, for Responding to the Meta-Crisis: Putting Together the Pieces of Systemic Change, the Opening Event of Climate Week at Caravan of Dreams by Dear Crisis and Denizen (Monday, September 21, 7 PM)
- [Community agreements](https://dearcrisis.com/community-guidelines): how we show up, in the room and in the group chat
- [About](https://dearcrisis.com/about): the full story — why hyperlocal, venues, how to plug in
- [Recaps](https://dearcrisis.com/salons): every Metacrisis Salon and Metacrisis Action Lab, distilled
- [Past events archive](https://dearcrisis.com/events/past): every gathering we've ever run
- [RSS feed](https://dearcrisis.com/feed.xml): recap feed, updates with every new gathering

## Attend

- [Events calendar + RSVP (Luma)](https://luma.com/dearcrisis)
- [iCal subscription](https://api.lu.ma/ics/get?entity=calendar&id=cal-Cv4SfxulyNrsjTM)

## Upcoming events

- [Our Crises Call for Re-enchantment: a Panel and Portal](https://luma.com/dear-gq1o): September 22, 2026 — New York, NY
- [Imaginarium: An intimate working dinner ft. Nate Hagens](https://luma.com/dear-3oop): September 22, 2026 — New York, NY
- [TrashBlitz with 5 Gyres [Field Trip]](https://luma.com/dear-nmap): September 22, 2026 — New York, NY
- [What to Do as the World Falls Apart With Nate Hagens - Metacrisis Salon #15](https://luma.com/dear-wazh): September 22, 2026 — New York, NY
- [East Village Tour: Energy and Innovation [Field Trip]](https://luma.com/dear-odpn): September 23, 2026 — New York, NY
- [The Climate Cooling Initiative: Global Launch](https://luma.com/ab2vr3eh): September 23, 2026 — New York, NY
- [Mapping the Climate Ecosystem: Infrastructure for Coordinated Impact](https://luma.com/dear-s6mc): September 23, 2026 — New York, NY
- [Next Economy MBA Alumni + Friends Mixer](https://luma.com/dear-NextEconomyMBA): September 23, 2026 — New York, NY
- [Community Gardens of the Future](https://luma.com/dear-pzhl): September 23, 2026 — New York, NY
- [Aligning AI Safety with Earth: Salon](https://luma.com/dear-gkmo): September 24, 2026 — New York, NY
- [Krill Baby Krill: Piloting an Activist Investment Trust for the Antarctic](https://luma.com/dear-prz8): September 24, 2026 — New York, NY
- [Biodiversity Love And Law: How Stories, Art, And Law Come Together For Biodiversity Protection](https://luma.com/dear-gayk): September 24, 2026 — New York, NY
- [Dreaming a World that Works for All – ft. Ecocivilization Coalition](https://luma.com/ecocivilization): September 24, 2026 — New York, NY
- [Regen Speakeasy...shhh](https://luma.com/dear-t2j1): September 24, 2026 — New York, NY
- [True Human: A Story Big Enough to Carry Us](https://luma.com/dear-46yq): September 25, 2026 — New York, NY
- [The Climate Engagement Lab](https://luma.com/climateengagementlab): September 25, 2026 — New York, NY
- [The More-Than-Human City](https://luma.com/dear-1jr6): September 25, 2026 — New York, NY
- [Dear Crisis, Sincerely… Grief](https://luma.com/dear-gx0x): September 25, 2026 — New York, NY
- [Love and Fear in a Warming World](https://luma.com/dear-ox3x): September 26, 2026 — New York, NY

## Recaps (newest first)

- [Metacrisis Salon #14 — Taking Down Oligarchy](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/14-taking-down-oligarchy): Political scientist Jeffrey Winters says the United States was designed to be an oligarchy and a democracy at the same time, and that the design still works. We asked him how to take it apart. (Jeffrey Winters)
- [Metacrisis Salon #13 — Should We Be Building a Mind?](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/13-should-we-be-building-a-mind): Philosopher Jeff Sebo puts the bar for moral consideration at a realistic chance of a mind, not proof of one. We tackled what that meant for the more than human world, both synthetic and biological. (Jeff Sebo)
- [Metacrisis Action Lab #5 — Collective Capital](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/action-lab-5-collective-capital): Ordinary people keep pooling startling amounts of money: 17,500 pledge $47 million for a copy of the Constitution, 371,552 pledge $337 million for a community-owned airline. Every time, the same legal barriers kill the campaign. Josh Nussbaum wants the next one to be ready. The room workshops four live pilots. (Joshua Nussbaum)
- [Metacrisis Action Lab #4 — Strategy & Power](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/action-lab-4-strategy-and-power): What do you do when the community board revolts, the mayor gets cold feet, and the business lobby calls your bus lane a job killer? Organizer Allison King opens the Practical Radicals playbook (six sources of power, seven strategies, the inside/outside game) and we run it against three ways a transit campaign dies.
- [Metacrisis Salon #12 — How We Build Power](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/12-how-we-build-power): Power is the capacity to act and shape outcomes. Labor strategist Stephanie Luce spent the night showing us how underdogs build it: seven strategies, a long-term agenda, and solidarity, the superpower the other side can't take away. (Stephanie Luce)
- [Metacrisis Action Lab #3 — Rooftop Reciprocity](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/action-lab-3-rooftop-reciprocity): We don't garden to give back to nature. We garden to come back to it. A barren rooftop corner becomes a pollinator habitat, a medicine cabinet, and a small act of rebellion against a food system more fragile than it looks.
- [Metacrisis Action Lab #2 — Off-Grid Comms with Signals Rising](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/action-lab-2-off-grid-comms): When the grid goes down (a blackout, a hurricane, a crowd that overwhelms the cell towers), the people who can still reach each other are the ones who set up their comms and practiced before they needed them. (Spike)
- [Metacrisis Action Lab #1 — Two Weeks, No Grid](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/action-lab-1-two-weeks-no-grid): Could your household make it fourteen days with no power, no water, no internet? The first Action Lab put a room of neighbors to work mapping the plan: bathtub to Berkey, Starlink to mesh, rice math to a backyard fire.
- [Metacrisis Salon #11 — How we build an Ecocivilization](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/11-how-we-build-an-ecocivilization): The system isn't broken. It's doing exactly what it was built to do: extract, exploit, accelerate. So we don't fix it. We build the one that makes it obsolete. (Jeremy Lent)
- [Metacrisis Salon #10 — Is Climate Stabilization Still Possible?](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/10-is-climate-stabilization-still-possible): We are already engineering the planet, recklessly, as an externality, in the dirtiest, most inequitable way. The only question left is whether we do it consciously: understand what we are already doing, and put rigorous research behind what could be done safely and responsibly from here. (Kelly Erhart)
- [Metacrisis Salon #9 — Is Empire Collapsing?](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/9-is-empire-collapsing): We are an egalitarian species. We keep building cages. AI is the newest one. (Luke Kemp, Samantha Sweetwater)
- [Metacrisis Salon #8 — Disconnection & Polarization](https://dearcrisis.com/salon/8-disconnection-polarization): We're not divided on issues. We've become contemptuous of each other, and contempt is a different problem entirely. (Emily Graham, Shia Levitt)

## The podcast

Field Notes from the Metacrisis Salons: every salon as audio. A twenty-minute recap of each night, an extended edition of the whole evening, and Syllabus study guides on the speakers' books. The show is hosted by Gemini and Gemino, two AI correspondents, and every episode page carries a full transcript.

- [All episodes + player](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast)
- [RSS feed for podcast apps](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast.xml)

- [You Can't Vote Out an Oligarch (Salon 14 Study Guide)](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast/primer-salon-14): You can vote out a politician. You cannot vote out an oligarch. The Blind Spot by political scientist Jeffrey Winters shows how extreme wealth defends itself inside modern democracies. This study guide takes you through the book in about forty minutes, homework for Metacrisis Salon #14 in Brooklyn on Thursday, September 10. He will be signing books at the salon.
- [Metacrisis Salon #13: Should We Be Building a Mind?](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast/13-should-we-be-building-a-mind): Jeff Sebo brought The Moral Circle to Salon 13 in Brooklyn, and argued that a small chance something has a mind is enough to owe it consideration. Insects included. Chatbots, before long.
- [Metacrisis Salon #13: Should We Be Building a Mind? (Extended)](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast/13-should-we-be-building-a-mind-extended): Jeff Sebo brought The Moral Circle to Salon 13 in Brooklyn, and argued that a small chance something has a mind is enough to owe it consideration. Insects included. Chatbots, before long.
- [Which Minds Matter? The Moral Circle in One Hour (Salon 13 Study Guide)](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast/primer-salon-13): Which minds matter? The Moral Circle by NYU philosopher Jeff Sebo asks who deserves moral consideration: animals, insects, and the AI systems we are starting to build. This study guide takes you through the book in about an hour, so you arrive at Metacrisis Salon #13 in Brooklyn on Saturday, August 15 with the ideas already humming. Twenty copies will be for sale at the salon.
- [Seven Strategies Underdogs Use to Win (Salon 12)](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast/12-how-we-build-power): Power is the capacity to act and shape what happens next, which means it can be built. At Metacrisis Salon #12 in Brooklyn, labor strategist Stephanie Luce showed a New York living room how underdogs actually win: seven organizing strategies, a long game, and organized people as the lever. The night ended with war games, three election-crisis scenarios stress-tested by the room.
- [Every Strategy, Every War Game, Every Commitment (Salon 12, Extended)](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast/12-how-we-build-power-extended): Power is the capacity to act and shape what happens next, which means it can be built. At Metacrisis Salon #12 in Brooklyn, labor strategist Stephanie Luce showed a New York living room how underdogs actually win: seven organizing strategies, a long game, and organized people as the lever. The night ended with war games, three election-crisis scenarios stress-tested by the room.
- [The System Isn't Broken. It's Doing What It Was Built to Do (Salon 11)](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast/11-how-we-build-an-ecocivilization): The system extracts and accelerates because that is exactly what it was built to do. At Metacrisis Salon #11 in Brooklyn, author Jeremy Lent showed a New York living room a different design: an ecocivilization, a society built around life instead of extraction, and how to grow one inside the shell of the old.
- [Jeremy Lent's Whole Argument, Unhurried (Salon 11, Extended)](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast/11-how-we-build-an-ecocivilization-extended): The system extracts and accelerates because that is exactly what it was built to do. At Metacrisis Salon #11 in Brooklyn, author Jeremy Lent showed a New York living room a different design: an ecocivilization, a society built around life instead of extraction, and how to grow one inside the shell of the old.
- [We Already Engineer the Planet, Just Recklessly (Salon 10)](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast/10-is-climate-stabilization-still-possible): We already change the climate every day, by accident and in the dirtiest way possible. At Metacrisis Salon #10 in Brooklyn, Kelly Erhart of Outlier Projects asked a New York living room the uncomfortable question: should we start doing it on purpose? The science, the risks, and the rules it would demand.
- [The Science, Risks, and Governance of Doing It On Purpose (Salon 10, Extended)](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast/10-is-climate-stabilization-still-possible-extended): We already change the climate every day, by accident and in the dirtiest way possible. At Metacrisis Salon #10 in Brooklyn, Kelly Erhart of Outlier Projects asked a New York living room the uncomfortable question: should we start doing it on purpose? The science, the risks, and the rules it would demand.
- [We Keep Building Cages, and AI Is the Newest One (Salon 9)](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast/9-is-empire-collapsing): Humans are an egalitarian species, and we keep building cages anyway. At Metacrisis Salon #9 in Brooklyn, collapse researcher Luke Kemp traced how empires form and why every one of them eventually falls, calling them Goliaths rather than civilizations. Then evolutionary philosopher Samantha Sweetwater turned the same crisis inside out: the story that sustains dominance, and what it would take to replace it.
- [Every Question the Room Asked About Collapse (Salon 9, Extended)](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast/9-is-empire-collapsing-extended): Humans are an egalitarian species, and we keep building cages anyway. At Metacrisis Salon #9 in Brooklyn, collapse researcher Luke Kemp traced how empires form and why every one of them eventually falls, calling them Goliaths rather than civilizations. Then evolutionary philosopher Samantha Sweetwater turned the same crisis inside out: the story that sustains dominance, and what it would take to replace it.
- [Why Every Empire Eventually Dies: Goliath's Curse in One Hour (Salon 9 Study Guide)](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast/primer-salon-9): Why does every empire eventually die? Goliath's Curse by collapse researcher Luke Kemp is the book behind Metacrisis Salon #9 in Brooklyn. This study guide takes you through the whole argument in about an hour: how societies actually collapse, what triggers the fall, and what that means for this one. Listen before or after the Salon 9 recap, which sits right beside this episode.
- [We're Not Divided, We're Contemptuous. That Has a Different Fix (Salon 8)](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast/8-disconnection-polarization): America is not divided on the issues. It is locked in contempt, and contempt is a different problem with a different fix. At Metacrisis Salon #8 in Brooklyn, Emily Graham of Braver Angels showed a New York living room the perception gap: why both sides badly misjudge each other. Then journalist Shia Levitt of News Ambassadors mapped the other half of the problem: news deserts, where local reporting collapses and polarization fills the gap.
- [The Whole Night on Contempt and Talking Across the Divide (Salon 8, Extended)](https://dearcrisis.com/podcast/8-disconnection-polarization-extended): America is not divided on the issues. It is locked in contempt, and contempt is a different problem with a different fix. At Metacrisis Salon #8 in Brooklyn, Emily Graham of Braver Angels showed a New York living room the perception gap: why both sides badly misjudge each other. Then journalist Shia Levitt of News Ambassadors mapped the other half of the problem: news deserts, where local reporting collapses and polarization fills the gap.

## Community

- [Join the WhatsApp community](https://dearcrisis.com/join): tell us who you are, check off the community agreements, and you're in
- [Build the Metacrisis Hub](https://dearcrisis.com/volunteer): the crew putting together three days during New York Climate Week
- [Instagram @dear.crisis](https://www.instagram.com/dear.crisis)
- Email hi@vonwong.com to speak at a salon, host an event, or collaborate