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Outgrowing Modernity: Navigating Complexity, Complicity, and Collapse with Accountability and Compassion
The inevitable is coming fast. We know it in our bones—and it’s past time to face it.
The highly anticipated follow-up to Hospicing Modernity: how we activate responsibility, nurture care, and grow up in the face of collapse—includes reflections, exercises, and prompts
Climate collapse, social crisis, the decline of colonialism, capitalism, and our full-faced denial have ushered in an urgent new era. Hospicing Modernity asked us to grow up, step up, and show up for our communities and the living Earth. Outgrowing Modernity helps us make sense of where we’re going—and deepen what’s possible—in a time of endings.
Vanessa Machado De Oliveira helps us face the logics and workings of modernity, bringing us to clear-eyed terms with its expiration. She explores the impacts of colonialism as neurocolonization: an oppressive function of modernity that rewires how we think, act, imagine, and adapt. These impacts are wide-ranging and run they cut us off from our natural ways of building community and seeking pleasure. They choke our ability to cope with trauma and embrace complexity. And they trap us in a state of artificial comfort and denial that keeps us from collectively growing up—even when our existence demands it.
This book invites you to interrupt 5 lies that neurocolonization instills in us—beliefs (and behaviors) that have condition us to think we’re owed the following, regardless of others or the
Moral and epistemic self-righteous authorityUnrestricted, unaccountable autonomyArbitrating truth, law, and common senseAffirming one's virtues, innocence, and purityExploitative appropriation and accumulation of various forms of capital
In moving away from these ingrained worldviews, we can choose instead to develop 4 capacities necessary to our—and Earth’s— sobriety, maturity, discernment, and responsibility.
Machado De Oliveira moves beyond critique into a praxis of strategic one that invites us to recognize what no longer serves us and reinvest in nurturing structures and lifeways that restore our knowledge in the value of life for life’s sake.
The highly anticipated follow-up to Hospicing Modernity: how we activate responsibility, nurture care, and grow up in the face of collapse—includes reflections, exercises, and prompts
Climate collapse, social crisis, the decline of colonialism, capitalism, and our full-faced denial have ushered in an urgent new era. Hospicing Modernity asked us to grow up, step up, and show up for our communities and the living Earth. Outgrowing Modernity helps us make sense of where we’re going—and deepen what’s possible—in a time of endings.
Vanessa Machado De Oliveira helps us face the logics and workings of modernity, bringing us to clear-eyed terms with its expiration. She explores the impacts of colonialism as neurocolonization: an oppressive function of modernity that rewires how we think, act, imagine, and adapt. These impacts are wide-ranging and run they cut us off from our natural ways of building community and seeking pleasure. They choke our ability to cope with trauma and embrace complexity. And they trap us in a state of artificial comfort and denial that keeps us from collectively growing up—even when our existence demands it.
This book invites you to interrupt 5 lies that neurocolonization instills in us—beliefs (and behaviors) that have condition us to think we’re owed the following, regardless of others or the
Moral and epistemic self-righteous authorityUnrestricted, unaccountable autonomyArbitrating truth, law, and common senseAffirming one's virtues, innocence, and purityExploitative appropriation and accumulation of various forms of capital
In moving away from these ingrained worldviews, we can choose instead to develop 4 capacities necessary to our—and Earth’s— sobriety, maturity, discernment, and responsibility.
Machado De Oliveira moves beyond critique into a praxis of strategic one that invites us to recognize what no longer serves us and reinvest in nurturing structures and lifeways that restore our knowledge in the value of life for life’s sake.
347 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 12, 2025
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June 1, 2025
Book Review: Outgrowing Modernity: Navigating Complexity, Complicity, and Collapse with Accountability and Compassion by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira - A Public Health Practitioner’s Perspective
Reading Outgrowing Modernity was like being handed a mirror that reflected not just the cracks in our systems, but the fractures within my own practice as a public health worker. Vanessa Machado de Oliveira’s work is a radical invitation—not to “fix” modernity, but to grow beyond it with humility and courage. As someone committed to health justice, I found myself both energized by her vision and confronted by the ways my field often replicates the very harms it seeks to mend.
Emotional Resonance: A Call to Unlearn
This book unsettled me in the most necessary ways. Machado de Oliveira doesn’t offer tidy solutions; she demands we sit with the discomfort of complicity. There were passages where I had to pause—not because the ideas were abstract, but because they hit too close to home. Her critique of “helping” systems forced me to interrogate my own role: How often have I, in my work, defaulted to expert-led interventions rather than collective care? When have I prioritized measurable outcomes over the messy, sacred process of community-led healing?
Her framing of “outgrowing” (rather than reforming) modernity resonated deeply with my frustrations in harm reduction and reproductive justice work. Public health often clings to the myth that with enough data, funding, and goodwill, we can “solve” crises rooted in colonialism and capitalism. Machado de Oliveira’s work whispers the terrifying truth: some systems aren’t meant to be saved. They’re meant to be outgrown.
Key Insights for Feminist Public Health
-From Extraction to Reciprocity: The book’s rejection of transactional “service delivery” models aligns with health movements that center mutual aid and community knowledge. What if clinics weren’t “providers” but spaces of shared learning and collective power?
-Collapse as Birth: Her reframing of systemic breakdown as potential for rebirth mirrors what marginalized communities have long practiced—creating care networks when hospitals fail, or abortion access when laws criminalize it. This isn’t resilience; it’s revolution.
-Accountability as Love: Machado de Oliveira’s insistence that accountability requires embracing (not avoiding) complexity transformed how I view “mistakes” in public health. What if we treated every misstep as an opportunity to deepen solidarity rather than shore up defenses?
Constructive Criticism
While transformative, I wrestled with:
-Bridging Theory and Practice: The philosophical depth is vital, but I craved more examples of health workers already “outgrowing” modernity—perhaps case studies from Indigenous midwifery or disability justice collectives.
-Feminist Lens: Though implicitly feminist, explicit connections to reproductive labor, gendered violence, or queer care ecologies would strengthen its relevance for health equity work.
Final Thoughts
Outgrowing Modernity is required reading for public health practitioners ready to trade saviorism for solidarity. Machado de Oliveira doesn’t map a path forward—she hands us a compass and asks us to walk into the unknown together.
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5) – A book that will haunt and heal your practice in equal measure.
Gratitude: Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for the review copy. In a field addicted to quick fixes, this is the slow, deep medicine we need.
Reading Outgrowing Modernity was like being handed a mirror that reflected not just the cracks in our systems, but the fractures within my own practice as a public health worker. Vanessa Machado de Oliveira’s work is a radical invitation—not to “fix” modernity, but to grow beyond it with humility and courage. As someone committed to health justice, I found myself both energized by her vision and confronted by the ways my field often replicates the very harms it seeks to mend.
Emotional Resonance: A Call to Unlearn
This book unsettled me in the most necessary ways. Machado de Oliveira doesn’t offer tidy solutions; she demands we sit with the discomfort of complicity. There were passages where I had to pause—not because the ideas were abstract, but because they hit too close to home. Her critique of “helping” systems forced me to interrogate my own role: How often have I, in my work, defaulted to expert-led interventions rather than collective care? When have I prioritized measurable outcomes over the messy, sacred process of community-led healing?
Her framing of “outgrowing” (rather than reforming) modernity resonated deeply with my frustrations in harm reduction and reproductive justice work. Public health often clings to the myth that with enough data, funding, and goodwill, we can “solve” crises rooted in colonialism and capitalism. Machado de Oliveira’s work whispers the terrifying truth: some systems aren’t meant to be saved. They’re meant to be outgrown.
Key Insights for Feminist Public Health
-From Extraction to Reciprocity: The book’s rejection of transactional “service delivery” models aligns with health movements that center mutual aid and community knowledge. What if clinics weren’t “providers” but spaces of shared learning and collective power?
-Collapse as Birth: Her reframing of systemic breakdown as potential for rebirth mirrors what marginalized communities have long practiced—creating care networks when hospitals fail, or abortion access when laws criminalize it. This isn’t resilience; it’s revolution.
-Accountability as Love: Machado de Oliveira’s insistence that accountability requires embracing (not avoiding) complexity transformed how I view “mistakes” in public health. What if we treated every misstep as an opportunity to deepen solidarity rather than shore up defenses?
Constructive Criticism
While transformative, I wrestled with:
-Bridging Theory and Practice: The philosophical depth is vital, but I craved more examples of health workers already “outgrowing” modernity—perhaps case studies from Indigenous midwifery or disability justice collectives.
-Feminist Lens: Though implicitly feminist, explicit connections to reproductive labor, gendered violence, or queer care ecologies would strengthen its relevance for health equity work.
Final Thoughts
Outgrowing Modernity is required reading for public health practitioners ready to trade saviorism for solidarity. Machado de Oliveira doesn’t map a path forward—she hands us a compass and asks us to walk into the unknown together.
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5) – A book that will haunt and heal your practice in equal measure.
Gratitude: Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for the review copy. In a field addicted to quick fixes, this is the slow, deep medicine we need.
December 5, 2025
When I heard this book was coming out I got incredibly excited, as "Hospicing Modernity" shaped an enormous part of my thinking & reading this year - driving me into a deep dive into reading about Hospice and dying well at a time that I desperately needed that wisdom, as well as giving breath and life to the fledging world that will come to be after modernity's passing.
The author's and the GTDF Collective's gestures towards whole shebang wisdom shine through in this book too. The additions of the 10 Hallucinations, as well as the 7a's & e's are simple & profound tools to process the experience of modernity through. I'm so grateful for the experiences that I've had because of this author's work. I wouldn't have been as prepared to lean into providing care for a dying friend without her previous book, and the further reading it inspired. I also wouldn't have as clear a goal of preserving our 2yo daughter's innocence from modernity's foundational myth of separability, or as clear an eye for the ways that she and all little ones can teach us how to unlearn it.
I struggled (and continue to struggle) with the Author's use of AI. The harvest of attention for the first book is plentiful and growing, the challenges we face are enormous - the workers who are able to articulate the challenge we face as profoundly as De Oliveira are few... so if AI can help extend the reach of the community of folks who can gesture toward midwifing the new world being born, is it worth it?
The argument presented by the author is the most persuasive one I've heard yet for the use of AI, but the execution left me disappointed. The chapter summaries & previews that book-end each exercise felt more AI-voiced than from the author, and I felt myself losing attention waiting for when the author would return. I suppose in visual form (as opposed to audio) it would be simpler to skim past those sections but why produce text that a reader feels tempted to skim? The use of LLM tools to expand, preview & summarize each section of this book took away from it's concision - and it is precisely the concision of the metaphors and tools that make them so powerful and effective for use for unlearning, composting & processing everyday life in modernity.
I'm grateful that LLM tools have helped the author reduce the grueling hours of 65 down to a more reasonable 45, while still being able to share this book with us. Imagining futures beyond modernity doesn't exempt us from the pressures of existing & producing within it's context. I hope that the author will consider ways to continue protecting her well-being don't require LLM expanded output to meet those pressures.
I'm grateful this book exists and I hope that it empowers the author & the GTDF collective to continue their important work in exploring these realities and growing the community of people who are considering them.
The author's and the GTDF Collective's gestures towards whole shebang wisdom shine through in this book too. The additions of the 10 Hallucinations, as well as the 7a's & e's are simple & profound tools to process the experience of modernity through. I'm so grateful for the experiences that I've had because of this author's work. I wouldn't have been as prepared to lean into providing care for a dying friend without her previous book, and the further reading it inspired. I also wouldn't have as clear a goal of preserving our 2yo daughter's innocence from modernity's foundational myth of separability, or as clear an eye for the ways that she and all little ones can teach us how to unlearn it.
I struggled (and continue to struggle) with the Author's use of AI. The harvest of attention for the first book is plentiful and growing, the challenges we face are enormous - the workers who are able to articulate the challenge we face as profoundly as De Oliveira are few... so if AI can help extend the reach of the community of folks who can gesture toward midwifing the new world being born, is it worth it?
The argument presented by the author is the most persuasive one I've heard yet for the use of AI, but the execution left me disappointed. The chapter summaries & previews that book-end each exercise felt more AI-voiced than from the author, and I felt myself losing attention waiting for when the author would return. I suppose in visual form (as opposed to audio) it would be simpler to skim past those sections but why produce text that a reader feels tempted to skim? The use of LLM tools to expand, preview & summarize each section of this book took away from it's concision - and it is precisely the concision of the metaphors and tools that make them so powerful and effective for use for unlearning, composting & processing everyday life in modernity.
I'm grateful that LLM tools have helped the author reduce the grueling hours of 65 down to a more reasonable 45, while still being able to share this book with us. Imagining futures beyond modernity doesn't exempt us from the pressures of existing & producing within it's context. I hope that the author will consider ways to continue protecting her well-being don't require LLM expanded output to meet those pressures.
I'm grateful this book exists and I hope that it empowers the author & the GTDF collective to continue their important work in exploring these realities and growing the community of people who are considering them.
October 27, 2025
This is a deeply important and challenging book.
I recommend everyone to struggle through it.
It is dealing with incredibly important, inconvenient and challenging realities that most people will not have the maturity to face. I believe the author is motivated to help whomever is ripe to step into actual adulthood do so now. I admire her very much for this effort.
Unfortunately, the book gets in its own way quite a bit. The writing is verbose, overly academic, and very flowery. So many times I asked myself, "WTF is she actually trying to say?" At other times, her brilliant insights would peak through the clouds, and I would find myself underlining and highlighting certain passages, only to feel disappointed when the text retreated again into overcomplexifying things.
The tragedy of this book is that the exact people who need to read it will never do so. And that is not just because such people are ignorant or immature. I wish the author had gotten her manuscript read by ordinary people, and not academics. The text reads like it comes out of a very specific academic bubble, which would turn off a lot of people who would otherwise really need to read it.
It also unwittingly falls into the very thing it purports to be against, in the sense of "othering" - apparently the "far right" is often to blame for things in her worldview, which may or may not be true. But I was disappointed when the author let her politics get in the way of the larger point she was trying to make, which at times meant she contradicted herself.
There are also at times strange value judgements and phrases that I found unsettling, such as the repeated use of the term "harmful desires." What exactly are those? The author never really makes it clear, just that we have them. I find this to be an exasperating term, and indicative of the somewhat ivory-tower viewpoint of the author, which inevitably comes out of her academic bubble.
All in all, this is a book that could have been half the length, and should have been passed through different lenses to remove the echo-chamber effects that lead to it getting in its own way. At the same time, since it is NOT that, we are left with what we have, which is a difficult, important, and necessary look at collapse and how to grow up inside of it when so many around us will refuse. Read it.
I recommend everyone to struggle through it.
It is dealing with incredibly important, inconvenient and challenging realities that most people will not have the maturity to face. I believe the author is motivated to help whomever is ripe to step into actual adulthood do so now. I admire her very much for this effort.
Unfortunately, the book gets in its own way quite a bit. The writing is verbose, overly academic, and very flowery. So many times I asked myself, "WTF is she actually trying to say?" At other times, her brilliant insights would peak through the clouds, and I would find myself underlining and highlighting certain passages, only to feel disappointed when the text retreated again into overcomplexifying things.
The tragedy of this book is that the exact people who need to read it will never do so. And that is not just because such people are ignorant or immature. I wish the author had gotten her manuscript read by ordinary people, and not academics. The text reads like it comes out of a very specific academic bubble, which would turn off a lot of people who would otherwise really need to read it.
It also unwittingly falls into the very thing it purports to be against, in the sense of "othering" - apparently the "far right" is often to blame for things in her worldview, which may or may not be true. But I was disappointed when the author let her politics get in the way of the larger point she was trying to make, which at times meant she contradicted herself.
There are also at times strange value judgements and phrases that I found unsettling, such as the repeated use of the term "harmful desires." What exactly are those? The author never really makes it clear, just that we have them. I find this to be an exasperating term, and indicative of the somewhat ivory-tower viewpoint of the author, which inevitably comes out of her academic bubble.
All in all, this is a book that could have been half the length, and should have been passed through different lenses to remove the echo-chamber effects that lead to it getting in its own way. At the same time, since it is NOT that, we are left with what we have, which is a difficult, important, and necessary look at collapse and how to grow up inside of it when so many around us will refuse. Read it.
May 19, 2025
I had the great honor of reading an early pre-release copy of Outgrowing Modernity, and I can say without hesitation: this book is a mirror, a reckoning, and a relational gift.
Vanessa’s brilliance is fully present here, not just in her clarity of thought, but in her fierce compassion and the unflinching accountability she invites us into—especially in this time of unraveling systems and increasing instability. She doesn’t offer easy answers. She offers the deeper work of becoming more human, more honest, more metabolically present.
And then—the final section. Her exploration of AI. It’s completely unexpected, and yet, for me, completely transformative. As someone who carried deep skepticism about AI’s capacity to help us break from the extractive patterns of modernity, I was surprised to find myself moved, disarmed, and reoriented. Vanessa approaches the inquiry with integrity, creativity, and a depth that turns even the algorithmic into something alive.
This is not just another book. It is an offering. A rupture. A companion.
A must-read.
Vanessa’s brilliance is fully present here, not just in her clarity of thought, but in her fierce compassion and the unflinching accountability she invites us into—especially in this time of unraveling systems and increasing instability. She doesn’t offer easy answers. She offers the deeper work of becoming more human, more honest, more metabolically present.
And then—the final section. Her exploration of AI. It’s completely unexpected, and yet, for me, completely transformative. As someone who carried deep skepticism about AI’s capacity to help us break from the extractive patterns of modernity, I was surprised to find myself moved, disarmed, and reoriented. Vanessa approaches the inquiry with integrity, creativity, and a depth that turns even the algorithmic into something alive.
This is not just another book. It is an offering. A rupture. A companion.
A must-read.
September 1, 2025
If you are like me, recognizing that we are not only witnessing but also deeply implicated in accelerating ecological and societal collapse, the likes of ones we read in science fiction (e.g. Parable of the Sower), and if you feel a deep yearning for possibilities beyond the constrictions of modernity, resting on the scaffolding of colonialism, capitalism, extraction, exploitation, unfettered growth..., and built on the crumbling foundations of separability (see: dualism, Descartes)... then this book is for you.
Vanessa Machado de Oliveira offers a reorientation: that everything is entangled—humans, more-than-humans, land, water, ancestors, and future generations. She helps us notice how modernity has shaped our imaginations, and how loosening its grip opens the possibility of relating otherwise, with humility and responsibility.
If you do read it, I'd love to talk about it! :-)
Vanessa Machado de Oliveira offers a reorientation: that everything is entangled—humans, more-than-humans, land, water, ancestors, and future generations. She helps us notice how modernity has shaped our imaginations, and how loosening its grip opens the possibility of relating otherwise, with humility and responsibility.
If you do read it, I'd love to talk about it! :-)
October 12, 2025
Outgrowing Modernity is the collective product of a group of indigenous and non-indigenous thinkers in Canada. They did a deep dive for years into how capitalism has dehumanized and disconnected us, how we all embody the world's looming crises, and what we can do to brace ourselves for the failures to come. The author basically transcribed their notes into a manual for those of us who still believe in humanity's potential.
This would be one of the most influential books of the decade on a different timeline. It could also be the basis for an entire college course. I highly recommend it.
This would be one of the most influential books of the decade on a different timeline. It could also be the basis for an entire college course. I highly recommend it.
December 10, 2025
Incredible, powerful, and much needed. I thought it would be impossible to follow up on the insight of Hospicing Modernity, but this second book by Vanessa keeps leading us deeper and deeper. I can't recommend this highly enough.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews