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Superfluity of AI: Lyla June, Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez & Ashley Nicole Leitka

The third conversation in "The Great AI Unraveling", recorded live with our community on July 10, 2026.

Throughout time, humanity has experimented with playing God, and each time we have been humbled by forces larger than ourselves. Many Indigenous Nations consciously chose not to pursue certain technologies, recognizing that not every innovation serves life, and that wisdom lies in understanding the boundaries of nature and those of our human condition.

As artificial intelligence promises ever greater efficiency, productivity, and control, we are invited to ask a deeper question: Which problem are we really trying to solve? Beneath the relentless pursuit of more—more knowledge, more power, more convenience—lies a profound inquiry into sufficiency, relationship, and meaning.

Guests

Dr. Lyla June Johnston (aka Lyla June) is an Indigenous musician, scholar, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages.
 Her messages focus on Indigenous rights, supporting youth, traditional land stewardship practices and healing inter-generational and inter-cultural trauma.

She blends her study of Human Ecology at Stanford, graduate work in Indigenous Pedagogy, and the traditional worldview she grew up with to inform her music, perspectives and solutions. Her doctoral research focused on the ways in which pre-colonial Indigenous Nations shaped large regions of Turtle Island (aka the Americas) to produce abundant food systems for humans and non-humans.

Ashley Nicole Leitka comes from the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma and the Oglala and Sicangu Lakota nations. She lives on Absentee Shawnee land in so-called Oklahoma and is the Director of the Department of Sovereignty and Self-Determination at Honor the Earth.

Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez is a native spirit-rooted social activist, community educator, traditional blackware potter, and fluent Tewa language speaker from the Tewa Pueblo of San Ildefonso in New Mexico. For more than two decades, she has been a guiding force within Tewa Women United, advancing environmental justice, cultural revitalization, healing, and social transformation.

A respected elder, teacher, and mentor, Kathy developed the acclaimed Two World Harmony Butterfly Model and Trauma Rocks, innovative frameworks that support cross-cultural understanding and intergenerational healing. Her lifelong work bridges Indigenous wisdom, environmental stewardship, community empowerment, and the protection of cultural and spiritual traditions. Through local, national, and international advocacy, she continues to inspire pathways of healing, resilience, and right relationship with the Earth and one another.

Topics

  • 00:00:00 — Welcome and The Great AI Unraveling
  • 00:04:00 — Superfluity: what if we don't need it
  • 00:08:00 — The maple syrup story
  • 00:12:00 — Kathy Wan Povi Sanchez on natural law
  • 00:19:00 — Data centers on Native land
  • 00:24:00 — Falsely generated demand and cognitive decline
  • 00:27:00 — The data center toolkit and Stop Data Colonialism
  • 00:30:00 — AI as ancestral intelligence: the Butterfly Model
  • 00:38:00 — Why ceremony is never filmed
  • 00:39:00 — Water, energy, and the growth curve
  • 00:48:00 — Surveillance, ICE, and biometrics
  • 00:57:00 — Yvette Running Horse Collin on Lakota science
  • 00:58:00 — Einstein, Hiroshima, and being humbled
  • 01:01:00 — Choosing oral tradition
  • 01:08:00 — Love is the greatest technology
  • 01:10:00 — A litmus test for any technology

Resources & Links

The Great AI Unraveling series

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