When What Used to Matter Stops Mattering at The Listening Room HQ

Alex Katz – Claire, Grass and Water

A recent interview with Josh Homme, of  Queens of the Stone Age, on GQ Mexico lead me to write a post for The Listening Room HQ on leaving behind what no longer serves, staying present in the pause, and noticing when the old life ends and the next step arrives. It can be read here: here.

The Listening Field: How Men Heal When They Are Truly Heard at The Listening Room HQ

Helen Maudsley – The listening lady, c.1955-1956

The Listening Field: How Men Heal When They Are Truly Heard is the new post on The Listening Room HQ.

The Listening Field: How Men Heal When They Are Truly Heard is about deep listening, emotional clarity, and grounded presence, how men heal when they are truly heard. You can read The Listening Field: How Men Heal When They Are Truly Heard here.

The Sieve Year – Quiet Alchemy at The Listening Room HQ

Claude Monet, Les Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, 1891

The Sieve Year – Quiet Alchemy the new post at The Listening Room HQ pairs with The Sieve Year – Field Notes a reflection The Polymath on 2025 as a sieve year. However The Sieve Year – Quiet Alchemy is addressed as guidance for men in the sieve year, a season of filtering, listening, and quiet recalibration, while The Sieve Year – Field Notes is a broader reflection. You can read The Sieve Year – Quiet Alchemy here.

From the Listening Room – Mapping Midlife: A Practical Diagram of the Male Midlife Crisis

Vincent van Gogh, Green Wheat Fields, Auvers, 1890

I close my four-part series on male midlife thresholds and midlife crisis with a practical, diagram-style guide
in The Listening Room HQ : Mapping Midlife: A Practical Diagram of the Male Midlife Crisis.

This final note gathers the series’ language and tools into an easy-to-scan map of stages and fork points — intended as a practical aid for noticing where you are, what choices appear, and how to move through midlife with clearer intention and integrity.

Earlier Mondo Bizarre Magazine notes in this series:

The full series as published on The Listening Room HQ:

For the complete set and ongoing notes from the practice, visit The Listening Room HQ.

From the Listening Room HQ – The Midlife Crisis Decision Map

Gunter Damisch – Gelbe Kaskade, 1985

I continue my four-part series on male midlife thresholds and male midlife crisis on The Listening Room HQ with the third piece: The Midlife Crisis Decision Map.

This magazine note links the conversation between the magazine and The Listening Room HQ — my men’s practice – carrying the series’ practical focus on stages, fork points, and the choices that either trap men in repetition or open a path toward integrity and real inner work.

Previously on Mondo Bizarre Magazine:

On The Listening Room HQ the series reads as:

For those who want to follow the full sequence, visit The Listening Room HQ or read the pieces above. Each post builds toward practical language and tools for noticing stages, choosing differently, and moving through midlife with presence, clarity, and accountability.

From the Listening Room HQ – The Universal Midlife Crisis Script | The Midlife Crisis Loop

Gerhard Richter – Abstraktes Bild Nr. 611-1, 1986

In The Listening Room HQ, my men’s practice, I continue the deep dive into the male midlife journey with the second post in a four-part series: The Universal Midlife Crisis Script | The Midlife Crisis Loop.

This piece maps the repeating beats of midlife unraveling across psychology, mythology, addiction recovery, organizational burnout, and even astrology — showing how the same loop resurfaces in different guises.

It follows directly from our earlier feature on Mondo Bizarre Magazine: From The Listening Room HQ – Living the Archetype of Unsupported Male Midlife, where the groundwork for this series was laid.

The full four-part series on The Listening Room HQ:

Each post builds on the last, offering practical language and tools for noticing stages, making clearer choices, and moving through midlife with integrity and care.