Barry Rutherford

Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI

Ethan Mollick

The most practical and humanistic book on working with AI. Mollick argues AI is not a tool you use occasionally but a colleague you work with continuously. Required reading for anyone navigating the Third Phase of civilization.

From Strength to Strength

Arthur C. Brooks

The book I wish I'd had at 60. Brooks makes the research-backed case that crystallized intelligence — wisdom, pattern recognition, the ability to teach — peaks in your sixties and seventies. Phase Three isn't decline. It's a different kind of peak.

Nexus

Yuval Noah Harari

Harari's civilizational history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI. Gives the Third Phase concept its historical weight. Every page makes the current moment feel both more understandable and more urgent.

The Second Mountain

David Brooks

A philosophical examination of what happens when you reach the summit you've been climbing and find the view unsatisfying. The case for commitment, community, and other-centered living in the second half of life.

Extra Life

Steven Johnson

How humans doubled their life expectancy in a single century — and what that means for the unprecedented Phase Three years most of us now have. The historical foundation for why this moment is genuinely new.

The Anxious Generation

Jonathan Haidt

Essential for understanding what Griffin's generation is navigating and why the Gen Z conversation matters. Social media didn't just change communication — it rewired adolescent development.

The Social Dilemma

Documentary on how social media platforms were designed to exploit human psychology. Essential viewing for understanding the civilizational Second Phase we're leaving behind.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

A meditation on mastery, dedication, and what it means to pursue excellence across an entire lifetime. Resonates differently at 74 than it did at 40.

Up in the Air

Corporate life, constant travel, and what we sacrifice for professional identity. Hits different when you've lived it across four continents for fifty years.

American Symphony

Jon Batiste documentary on creative ambition, love, and making something meaningful under pressure. Quietly one of the most inspiring things I've watched recently.

AI and the Third Phase of Life

The real AI opportunity for people in their sixties and seventies isn't productivity. It's cognitive engagement, creative partnership, reduced isolation, and new career possibilities that didn't exist before. That's the story nobody is telling yet.

The Death of the Third Place

Gen Z's loneliness epidemic makes more sense when you realize they have no genuine third places — spaces between home and school or work where community happens organically. The civilizational cost of that loss is still being calculated.

Motorcycle Culture in the Electric Age

As a lifelong rider watching the industry grapple with electrification, it feels familiar — like watching manufacturing shift from the US to Asia decades ago. The soul of the thing is being renegotiated in real time.

The Hybrid Content Question

Is content created in collaboration with AI authentic? We think the honest answer is yes, if the human remains the author in every meaningful sense and the collaboration is disclosed. That's our working method and we think it matters to say so plainly.