About The Alive Letter

Staying fully human in an increasingly abstract world.

We are entering an age defined by intelligence—human, artificial, and everything in between. Our tools are growing more powerful, our environments more mediated, our attention more abstracted. The question is no longer whether we’ll live with AI, but how we’ll live with it—and whether we can remain fully alive while we do.

The Alive Letter explores that question.

Each week, I write about the intersection of technology, cognition, and connection—how modern environments shape the way we think and feel, and how we can design new ones that restore presence, meaning, and vitality. This is research-backed but human-centered work: insights from cognitive ecology and organizational psychology meet lived practice—nature immersion, equine-assisted learning, and embodied intelligence.

My name is James Meaden. I’m an I/O psychologist and founder of The Alive Institute, a research and practice organization dedicated to helping people and organizations thrive in the age of AI. My work bridges worlds that rarely meet—Silicon Valley and the forest, machine learning and mindfulness, performance and presence.

If you’ve ever felt both inspired by technology and uneasy about what it’s doing to our humanity—this is your place.

Welcome to The Alive Letter.
A newsletter for those learning to work with artificial intelligence—
without becoming artificial themselves.