Steve McIntosh

Personal Life

Stephen Ian McIntosh (“Steve”) was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, on July 3, 1960. His parents were both immigrants; his father from Australia and his mother from England. Shortly after his birth, his parents divorced and his mother moved to Los Angeles where he grew up. In the 1970s Steve was active in the counter culture, and traveled extensively in Europe. Beginning in 1979 he dedicated himself to bicycle road racing, winning major races throughout North America in 1980 and 1981. Then in 1982 he became a member of the world’s first factory sponsored mountain bike racing team.

In 1984 he received a bachelor of science in business administration from the University of Southern California. His major emphasis was in USC’s Entrepreneur Program, where he received The Best Business Plan Award. In 1987 he graduated among the top of his class from the University of Virginia Law School, where he served as Articles Editor of the Virginia Law Review. After passing the California Bar, he traveled throughout Asia and spent a month in Tibet, reaching the 20,000 foot level on Mt. Everest. His travels also include the Middle East and South America.

Steve married in 1989, and had a son, Ian McIntosh, in 1992. He was divorced in 1994, after which he became the primary parent of his son Ian. In 1999 Steve met the love of his life, Tehya, whom he married in 2003. Then in 2005 Tehya gave birth to Peter McIntosh, Steve’s second son.

Steve and Tehya reside primarily in Boulder, Colorado. But since they have become “empty nesters,” they increasingly spend time at their desert retreat in Castle Valley, Utah. The McIntosh’s are also avid backpackers who enjoy exploring North America’s numerous wildernesses.

Early Career

After law school, Steve practiced corporate law with Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro, the state’s largest law firm. In 1990, after three years of practicing law, he was recruited to become Vice President of a start-up environmental products company in Boulder, Colorado, called Earth Wise. Then in 1991, Earth Wise was acquired by Celestial Seasonings tea company where he served as Director of Corporate Development and General Counsel. In 1995, he left his position at Celestial Seasonings to found Now & Zen, Inc., a brand of “natural lifestyle products,” featuring the famous line of Zen Alarm Clocks, which Steve conceived, designed, and patented. In 2012, he stepped down from his position as CEO of Now & Zen to become a full-time writer and social entrepreneur.

Developmental Philosophy

Steve became a dedicated scholar of philosophy and spirituality in his teens. He was especially inspired by the evolutionary philosophy of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and later by the work of Alfred North Whitehead, Ken Wilber, Charles Taylor, and Holmes Rolston. In 2001 he joined Wilber’s Integral Institute think tank, but left on good terms in 2003 in order to make an independent contribution to developmental philosophy. He has since written four philosophy books, with a fifth book in press:

• Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution—How the Integral Worldview is Transforming Politics, Culture and Spirituality (Paragon House, 2007). Steve’s first book provides a unique interpretation and critique of integral philosophy and the work of Ken Wilber.

• Evolution’s Purpose—An Integral Interpretation of the Scientific Story of Our Origins (Select Books, 2012) Inspired primarily by Whitehead, Teilhard, and Rolston, Steve’s second book explores the “spiritual teachings of evolution,” showing how philosophy can integrate science and religion.

• The Presence of the Infinite—The Spiritual Experience of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness (Quest Books, 2015). Building on Evolution’s Purpose, Steve’s third book focuses on spiritual experience. The Presence of the Infinite analyzes and critiques contemporary spiritual culture, showing how nondual and theistic forms of spirituality can challenge and support each other.

• Developmental Politics—How America Can Grow Into a Better Version of Itself (Paragon House, 2020). Steve’s fourth book focuses on political philosophy with the goal of ameliorating hyper-partisan polarization. Developmental Politics shows how Americans can overcome hyperpolarization by expanding the scope of what they are able to value.

• Truth Emerging—A Developmental Philosophy of Purpose and Progress (Orbis Books, 2026). Steve’s fifth philosophy book (in press) expands on the themes of his previous books, showing how recent breakthroughs in science and philosophy are revealing the deeper meanings behind our evolving universe. This forthcoming book argues that the emerging truth about universal evolution has the power to bring about positive social progress.

The Institute for Cultural Evolution

After working in the emerging field of developmental philosophy for over a decade, Steve concluded that this philosophy’s most promising application was in the realm of politics. So in 2013 he cofounded the Institute for Cultural Evolution, a 501c3 nonprofit think tank based in Boulder, Colorado.

Between 2014 and 2016 the Institute convened a series of invitational conclaves on overcoming hyperpolarization, which were held at Esalen Institute in California, and in Austin, Texas. These conclaves brought together influential thought leaders on both the left and the right. Participants included prominent luminaries such as social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, political scientists Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, PBS’s Firing Line host Margaret Hoover, controversial scholar Charles Murray, The Breakthrough Institute’s Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, Reason magazine’s Nick Gillespie, MoveOn.org founder Joan Blades, Log Cabin Republicans founder Rich Tafel, and Daily Beast editor-in-chief John Avlon, as well as many others.

Building on his work with the Institute, between 2017 and 2019, Steve wrote Developmental Politics, whose 2020 publication resulted in the expansion of the Institute’s board of directors and the hiring of staff. The Institute’s board now includes John Mackey (former Whole Foods CEO), John Street (former CEO of Pax8), Rand Stagen (CEO of Stagen Leadership Academy), Jeff Salzman (former CEO of Career Track), Nate Lowery (CEO of LexTM3 LLC), Ralph Gregory (retired media executive), Carter Phipps (author and cofounder), and Steve (chief philosopher and cofounder). Between 2018 and 2020, he also coauthored Conscious Leadership—Elevating Humanity Through Business (Penguin Portfolio, 2020) with John Mackey and Carter Phipps.

While ameliorating hyperpolarization continues to be a goal of the Institute, the organization is now primarily focused on advancing the influence of developmental philosophy within contemporary culture.