On Matrimony, Mothering Culture and the Undoing of Self with Stephen Jenkinson

The Tension of Emergence: Thriving in a world that remakes, not breaks

In this festive wedding season, what if matrimony wasn’t here to affirm the intensity of love between two people but a courageous submission to the unknown?

Jennifer speaks with Stephen Jenkinson—cultural activist, author, ceremonialist—about the necessary burdens of love through the ritual of matrimony. With characteristic poetic edge, Stephen challenges the Western obsession with autonomy, authenticity and safety and gestures toward a redemptive cultural project: one of radical hospitality, memory, and the mystery of matrimony as a village-making act.

Together they dive into:

• How matrimony is distinct from weddings and is rooted in mothering culture, not just romantic love
• The lost valence of patrimony, and what it asks of us
• The role of the stranger in belonging and village making
• Why being “yourself” might not be the gift you think it is

This conversation reveals how ritual and ceremony thins the membrane with other worlds, makes congress with the divine and helps us honor what's come before —so we might find our place, and responsibility, in what’s yet to come.

Links & Resources:

• Order Stephen Jenkinson's newest book Matrimony: Ritual, Culture and the Heart's Work
• Learn more about Orphan Wisdom School
• Get Jennifer’s biweekly newsletter for radical encouragement on the hard mess of being human
• Connect with Jennifer on Instagram or LinkedIn

Gratitude for this show’s theme song Inside the House, composed by the talented Yukon musician, multi-instrumentalist and sound artist Jordy Walker. Artwork by the imaginative writer, filmmaker and artist Jon Marro.