Accidental Gods

Words have the power to change worlds. Powerful words, powerfully written can open doors to the future. Beautiful words, beautifully written, can give us hope . Richard Wain's new collection of poetry is doing all of these, with panache, and heart and soul.We all know by now that we need total systemic change - and a central thesis of this podcast is that we'll get there best by creating narratives that build this - both highlighting the need for it and exploring possible paths through. What's becoming clear is that this is an emotional and spiritual journey long before it's a logistical one. So we need to find ways to reach beyond people's head-minds into their heart-minds and spirit-minds. With this in mind, our guest this week is a poet, an entrepreneur and an artist. Richard Wain is founder and director of the digital marketing agency Vu Online, and of the Positive Nature Network, both committed to creating networks of businesses that can support each other in the move towards a regenerative, flourishing future. He is also a poet with a commitment to celebrating openness and vulnerability and he has now written a beautiful, generative book of poetry called Beyond the Brink is the Beginning.I met Richard when he came to our 6 month Thrutopia Masterclass back in May of 2022 - and was struck by his capacity to grasp the big ideas. Then I began to read the poems that arose out of our classes and was really in awe of his capacity to take these big, complex ideas, find the emotional spark at their core and weave it into something that could open hearts and help others to understand what really matters. We've been planning this podcast for ages, but his book is coming out soon, so now is the time - though in the end, as always happens, we roamed far and wide beyond the book, to the positive nature network and how small businesses and their owners, who are often their founders and may well be the sole employee, can begin to be part of the solution. As ever, we approached our own edges, which, a bit like poetry, is what this kind of medium is all about. Richard's book will launch on 27th November 2023 at The Barrel House in Totnes. Go along if you can!Here's the event link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/beyond-the-brink-is-the-beginning-book-launch-tickets-74349440076Buy the Book here: https://www.beyondthebrinkbook.com/Positive Nature Network https://www.positivenaturenetwork.co.uk/Vu Online https://vuonline.co.uk/Richard on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@richardwainpoet

My guest this week is someone who is both right at the edge of the emerging futures and in a position to exert leverage at some of the highest points of the scale at which change happens. Sophia Parker is the Emerging Futures Director at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a philanthropic organisation with a long history of progressive work, aiming for social and cultural equity. It is still committed to the research that sheds new light onto the nature and scale of poverty and injustice in the UK. It is still advocating for change and supporting the people who are making it happen - but newly it is supporting those who are at the leading edge of paradigm shift, exploring all the myriad ways we could break out of late stage capitalism and towards that more flourishing future our hearts know is possible. And there are so many ways - one of the many things I took on board from this conversation was the number of people and organisations around the world who are working in and expanding the radical spaces we've touched on recently with Indy Johar and then Alnoor Ladha and Lynn Murphy. In her role as the Director of the Emerging Futures Programme, Sophia is working at the heart of the change, connecting ideas, exploring how best to support them in ways that will grow us forward and not just keep propping up the old system and the old narratives. She's delving deeply into ways to change the narrative, the levels at which that happens, where are the tipping points in our culture and how do we support and entire ecosystem of transformation. Near the top of the hour, we talked about hope and truly, I came away from this conversation a lot more hopeful than when we started. Bio:Sophia Parker was CEO of Little Village, the London-based charity she founded in 2016 that works to tackle child poverty. Now, she is the Emerging Futures Director at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a philanthropic organisation with a long history of progressive work, aiming for social equity. The Emerging Futures programme was set up to imagine and grow radical new approaches to tackling poverty, in collaboration with partners and people with lived experience of poverty.Previously she has held senior leadership positions in think tanks and charities, as well as working in government locally and nationally, and was a Research Associate at Harvard's Kennedy School). Share your ideas for future Gatherings: https://accidentalgods.life/ideas-for-gatherings/ Sophia's Blog Emerging Futures at JRF - two years in, the story so far | JRFJoseph Rowntree Foundation https://www.jrf.org.uk/JRF Emerging Futures https://www.jrf.org.uk/society/emerging-futures/Little Village https://littlevillagehq.org/Geoff Mulgan Another World is Possible https://www.geoffmulgan.com/another-world-is-possibleMeg Wheatley - Two Loop theory https://transformationallearningopportunities.com/two-loop-theoryEF/JRF Imagination Infrastructure Event https://www.imaginationinfrastructuring.com/imagination-infrastructure-initiatves/iievent-pw8gjThe Onion Collective: https://www.onioncollective.co.uk/The Onion Collective: Liminal economics paper - https://medium.com/onioncollective/liminal-economics-swimming-at-the-edge-of-the-economy-f16fb476daa4Centre for Public Impact https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/europeCanopy https://www.canopy.si/Center for Economic Democracy https://www.economicdemocracy.us/York: New Constellations https://newconstellations.co/journey/york/Opus in Sheffield https://weareopus.org/CoLab Dudley https://dudleyhighstreet.uk/colab-dudley/SuperFlux https://superflux.in/Cassie Robinson Emerging Futures, Patterning the Emerging Horizon https://videos.theconference.se/cassie-robinson-emerging-futuresLankelly Chase https://lankellychase.org.ukThirtyPercy https://thirtypercy.org/Dimple Abichandani https://www.ncfp.org/people/dimple-abichandi/Nkem Ndefo https://lumostransforms.com/team/nkem-ndefo/

How do we move ourselves – individually and collectively – from the broken Trauma Culture of our times, to the Initiation Culture that will allow us to step forward, healed and whole?Alnoor Ladha and Lynn Murphy have co-authored a book: Post-Capitalist Philanthropy: Healing Wealth in the Time of Collapse.Vandana Shiva says of it, “Ladha and Murphy walk us through the deep logics of neoliberalism, the foundations of globalisation and the ideology of corporate free trade … the authors dissect philanthrocapitalism. And they indicate the possibilities of reclaiming the true economies of the gift, of solidarity, of caring and sharing. For now, I invite you to please read on as if Life depends on it.”On every level, this is a remarkable work, grounded in the understanding that we hold our realities in our bodies, that we have been born into a trauma culture, even as we yearn for the our birthright and our legacy as inheritors of initiation cultures. This is one of several genuinely transformative concepts that Lynn and Alnoor bring to the table: the intellectual capacity to explore the crisis of the moment – coupled with absolute grounded, experiential knowing that we are spiritual beings first, that we are mystical beings, and that if we can find the humility and the willingness to change, if we can bring ourselves to the web of life full open, asking for help, the Animate Earth responds.Biographies: Lynn Murphy is a strategic advisor for foundations and NGOs working in the geopolitical South. She was a senior fellow and program officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation where she focused on international education and global development. She resigned as a”‘conscientious objector” to neocolonial philanthropy. She holds an MA and PhD in international comparative education from Stanford University. She is also a certified Laban/Bartenieff movement analyst.Alnoor Ladha is an activist, journalist, political strategist and community organiser. From 2012 to 2019 he was the co-founder and executive director of the global activist collective The Rules. He is currently the Council Chair for Culture Hack Labs. He holds an MSc in Philosophy and Public Policy from the London School of Economics. Post Capitalist Philanthropy https://www.postcapitalistphilanthropy.org/Transition Resource Circle: https://www.transitionresourcecircle.org/Alnoor on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/alnoor-ladha-85a1882/Alnoor on Twitter https://twitter.com/alnoorladhaEpisode 56 'Four Arrows Flying' https://accidentalgods.life/four-arrows-flying/

This is an Accidental Gods bonus Episode recorded at the Marches Real Food and Farming Conference held at Linley Estate in Shropshire in September. Josiah Meldrum is co-founder and Director of Hodmedod's - which was set up specifically to enable local growers to farm regeneratively - and sell the produce they want to grow (and can grow in ways that help to regenerate the land), to people who want to buy their produce. This sounds obvious - but in our hyper-industrialised world, where industrial farming meets the industrial food industry (ultra-processed foods, we're looking at you), with their overt and covert advertising - it's radical. Truly, spectacularly radicle. This is localism in action. It's the deliberate enactment of the values and principles that need to expand far, far beyond the shores of Britain if we're to create the future we'd be proud to leave behind. In the understanding that this was actually recorded in a barn, please enjoy the conversation - and if you're interested in getting in touch locally to help with next year's event, please contact the Shropshire Good Food Partnership. Similarly, if people in other areas interested in sharing on bioregional food and farming futures work then the organiser, Jenny Roquett, is keen to setup a learning space on this.Hodmedod's https://hodmedods.co.uk/Josiah on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/josiahmeldrum/Hodmedod's on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hodmedodsHodmedod's on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hodmedodsMarches Real Food and Farming Conference Marches Real Food and Farming Conference Shropshire Good Food Partnership Shropshire Good Food Partnership Stockholm Resilience Centre Report on Planetary Boundaries: https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2023-09-13-all-planetary-boundaries-mapped-out-for-the-first-time-six-of-nine-crossed.html

We all know the climate and ecological tipping points are terrifyingly close. What can we do - as individuals and collectively? Simon Oldridge has ideas that answer both of these. Simon first joined us back in episode #182 when he joined his colleague Anthea Simmons and they spoke eloquently about the strategies of the South Devon Primary group which are aimed at raising one progressive candidate in borderline constituencies in the UK, so that the hard right doesn't swan through the middle on a minority of the votes because the anti-Tory vote has been split (again). Getting progressive politicians into power is their primary aim, but they also want to make sure the candidates who become MPs understand the concerns of their constituents and are prepared to act as independent-minded individuals in the House of Commons, not simply lobby fodder. So that was a fun and sparky conversation, but it seemed to me at the time that we could have delved down a lot more deeply into SImon's broader work to find politically viable ways to address the climate and ecological emergency, particularly his work with Zero Hour, the campaign for the Climate and Ecology Bill and which has produced a number of detailed and fascinating reports, including one about the Ambition Gap we have as we head for Net Zero and another entitled, 'Creating a Nature-Rich UK'. Hence, we came back for another conversation - because apart from anything else, it's so enlivening to talk with someone else who spends their entire life thinking about these things: and if I can't have fun on the podcast, what's the point? I am well aware that many of you listening are not in the UK - and that politics is a very siloed space: we all have our own rules to work within and our own levels of bureaucracy and kleptocracy masquerading as democracy that we're trying to reform. So I hope that some of the ideas we explore, particularly the bigger ones of global power systems and routes to net zero and nature-based solutions strike home far outside the boundaries of this island. And yes, I still have Covid, so I apologise in advance for the state of my voice. Target Seats suitable for replicating South Devon Primary https://www.politicalprimary.org/target-mapSouth Devon Primary on Twitter https://twitter.com/sdevonprimarySouth Devon Primary on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/sdevonprimary/Simon on Twitter https://twitter.com/SiOldridgeSimon on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-oldridge-17207a206/Zero Hour: https://www.zerohour.uk/Zero Hour Reports https://www.zerohour.uk/reports/Zero Hour on Twitter https://twitter.com/@CEBill_nowCREDS - https://low-energy.creds.ac.uk/ Stanford study: https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/3539703-no-miracle-tech-needed-how-to-switch-to-renewables-now-and-lower-costs-doing-it/ Oxford study on how Decarbonising the Energy system could save $Trillions https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2022-09-14-decarbonising-energy-system-2050-could-save-trillions-oxford-studyClimate and Ecology Bill:https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/2943Episode 182: South Devon Primary https://accidentalgods.life/primary-strategy-growing-a-new-voting-paradigm-in-the-south-devon-primary/

If we're at the moment of choice between flourishing and destruction, what would you choose? We are at a moment of decision: We either step forward into our own Great Destruction, which could theoretically see us wipe out all of humanity and most of the More than Human World…Or we could step into what Indy Johar calls 'The Great Peace', claiming our birthright as the Interstitial Generation between the old paradigm of extraction, consumption and pollution—and the new one that could arise where we accept the interbecoming of all things, where we as individual humans take our place in a community of care and experience that encompasses all of the world. This is our potential, laid out in clear terms, by thought leader and evolutionary, Indy Johar of Dark Matter Labs. Indy is an architect by training and a maker by practice; he is a Senior Innovation Associate with the Young Foundation, and, amongst many other things, he co-founded Impact Hub Birmingham and Open Systems Lab, was a member of the RSA’s Inclusive Growth Commission, and was a good growth advisor to the Mayor of London. He is an explorative practitioner in the means of system change & the dark matter design of civic infrastructure finance, outcomes, and governance. Indy is a co-founder and Director of 00 and Dark Matter Laboratories - a field laboratory focused on building the institutional infrastructures for radicle civic societies, cities, regions and towns. Dark Matter Labs says, 'Around the planet, we’re feeling the consequences of outdated institutions and inadequate infrastructures incapable of coping with planetary-scale challenges. At Dark Matter, we believe in taking on these challenges via a new, civic economy.'Their many strands of work include the Radicle Civics experiments (where 'Radicle', is the first part of a seedling to emerge from the embryonic seed of a plant), which explores, amongst other things, how we could re-imagine houses as autonomous beings, not things we own . One of the many exciting things about Dark Matter Labs is that they create these experiments on the ground: I've put a link to their blog post on Repermissioning the City in the show notes and really, if you have time, I encourage you to read it for ideas of things that are actually happening as we speak. Beyond that, Indy and Dark Matter explore so much of what this podcast is about: governance systems, economics, management, the nature of the world if we were able to take our place within it as fully conscious beings in a fully conscious web of life. This took me right to the edge of my thinking, which is such an exciting, enlivening place to be: walking the knife edge between what we know (or think we know) and what might yet be possible. Both Indy and I had various viruses so there's some coughing and some rough-speaking, particularly from my end, but if you can manage that, I think this is one of those episodes that has the power to change worlds. So people of the podcast, please do welcome, Indy Johar of Dark Matter Labs. Dark Matter Labs https://darkmatterlabs.org/Radicle Civics https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U9LXY3CTN2upEG38oz4j4vW8Vb0Yq21u/viewProject 00 https://www.project00.cc/Dark Matter Blog https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.orgRepermissioning the City https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/re-permissioning-the-city-unlocking-cities-growing-underutilised-spatial-assets-for-an-emergent-1550997714a4Indy on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/indy-johar-b440b010/Dark Matter on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/darkmatterlabs/Dark Matter Labs on Twitter https://twitter.com/DarkMatter_Labs7Gen Cities https://www.7gencities.org/7Gen Cities CiFi Gathering Report https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/6462104f72fa898a55556e56/651ec633d3229a3920f0c03a_CiFi_Report_7GenCities_0410.pdfEmily Harris, AG podcast #176 https://accidentalgods.life/bridging-from-the-necessary-to-the-possible-with-emily-harris-of-dark-matter-labs/Systems change needs Democratic change https://ddc.dk/why-systems-change-will-lead-to-democratic-renewal/#

How can we, as parents, grandparents and anyone who cares about the fate of future generations, live our lives in such a way that when our children ask us why we didn't do more, we can say with honesty that we did all that we could? How do we help them to build resilience, to feel safe in a supportive community and in connection with the natural world so that as they grow, they can face the truth about the world they have inherited?And how can we use our role as parents to create conversations that matter, not only with people with meet in our daily lives but also with those in positions of power. These are some of the core questions that prompted environmentalist and movement-builder, Rowan Ryrie to co-found Parents for Future, a fast-growing group of parents who have come together to support each other in navigating the climate crisis and trying to secure a safer, fairer world for children everywhere. Rowan says, 'Together, we can be much more courageous than we can alone,' and she's brought this understanding to their latest project, 'Courageous Conversations'. It's a pilot project just now, but when the results are in next year, it will be spread out around the UK and then, if there's funding, around the world, to give us emotionally literate tools to engage with the people we encounter in our communities of place, purpose and passion. This feels to me to be right at the cutting edge of the emergent future we need to create. It's grounded in a theory of change that makes sense in the realities of overall systemic change, while at the same time, understanding that shift happens one courageous conversation at a time, and that we all feel better if we can share our fears and build hopes that work for everyone. Rowan specifically wanted me to assure everyone that Parents for Future is not only for those with young children - or any children - if you care about the world we're leaving to the generations that come after us, human and more than human, then do join. There are 28,000 members and rising, all around the world - and if there's not a physical, location-based group near you, and you want to set one up they'll help. Parents for Future https://parentsforfuture.org.uk/Larger Us https://larger.us/Climate Psychology Alliance https://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/Climate Parent Fellowship https://ourkidsclimate.org/climate-parent-fellowship/The Week https://www.theweek.ooo/The Britain Talks Climate research paper https://climateoutreach.org/reports/britain-talks-climate/ Social Media linksRowan, LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rowan-ryrie/Rowan Instagram @rowanryrieTwitter https://twitter.com/rowanryrieParents for Future LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/parents-for-future-uk/Instagram https://instagram.com/@rowanryrieTwitter https://twitter.com/parents_4futureMastadon: https://climatejustice.global/@Parents4FutureUK FB: https://www.facebook.com/ParentsForFutureUK/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/@parentsforfuture_uk Mastadon: https://climatejustice.global/@Parents4FutureUK FB: https://www.facebook.com/ParentsForFutureUK/

How much do you know about AI, blockchain and Web 3.0? If you're like us, the answer is probably very little. But these techs are going to change our world out of all recognition and while there is the potential for catastrophe, in the right hands, the same technology has the potential to help us shape the future we'd all be proud to leave behind and this is what this podcast is about. Monty is one of the founders of ReFi DAO. Monty is working deeply and effectively at the cutting edge of emergence, a change-maker working on many different scales to build a future we'd be proud to leave behind. He is helping to build a global network of regenerative communities and start-ups and then taking those ideas out into the world as a public speaker and evangelist for ReFi & Regeneration. His public work includes a TEDx talk titled 'Can Crypto Regenerate the World?'. He has an undergraduate and Master's degree in Management & Innovation, with specialism in sustainability, digital technologies, blockchain, and design & systems thinking.This conversation ranged across landscapes from the nature of greenwashing to the potential for borderless nations, from the way financial markets currently underpin the existing structures, to how they could be tilted to underpin a whole new regenerative paradigm. We explored the difference between what's sustainable and what's regenerative - and discovered what's actually happening now, that you could be involved with in your communities of place, purpose and passion. I say the word, 'inspiring' way too often in this podcast, and I apologise in advance, but it's true: knowing that this is happening is one of the bright points of this year and I am genuinely thrilled to be able to share it with you.ReFi DAO https://www.refidao.com/ReFi podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/refi-podcast/id1609683147ReFi blog https://blog.refidao.com/Monty's TEDx 'Can Crypto Change the World?' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-4HW3iPtfoEcological Benefits Framework https://canyouchangethefuture.org/Toucan https://toucan.earth/Celo https://celo.org/Cosmolocalism explained https://www.cosmolocalism.eu/publications/Julia Hailes MBE https://juliahailes.com/

How does soil health intimately and profoundly impact human health? What's the link between the soil microbiome and the human gut microbiome? How can we begin to restore our health, and the health of the living earth in concert with each other? These are the questions posed by the outstanding book 'What your Food Ate: How to heal our land and reclaim our health' and the co-authors, Anne Biklé and David Montgomery are this week's guests as we delve deeply into the nature of soil, the functions of fungi, the populations of bacteria we depend on that inhabit our guts, and how we might affect total systemic change in the food and farming system. So a little light listening for your day. In detail, Anne Biklé is a biologist, avid gardener. She is among the planet’s leading experts on the microbial life of soil and its crucial importance to human wellbeing and survival. She is married to David Montgomery, who is a professor of Geomorphology at the University of Washington. David has studied everything from the ways that landslides and glaciers influence the height of mountain ranges, to the way that soils have shaped human civilizations both now and in the past. All of this has led him to write a number of books, including Dirt: The Erosion of Civilisations which explores how our historic - and contemporary - farming practices have critically undermined the living soil on which we depend. Following this, David and Anne co-wrote, The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health and the book we're going to be exploring in depth today: What your Food Ate: how to heal our land and reclaim the our Health. David also plays in the band, Big Dirt, which is, and I quote directly from their Facebook page: Americana Alternative. Whatever that means. Roots folk-rock with something to say and fun to listen.I read What your Food Ate earlier this year and if you've listened to the podcast for any length of time, you'll have heard me mention it more than once. It's the most readable exploration I've come across of how our food is grown, and how it could - and should be grown - it's really easy to read, but it's full of the kind of mind-blowing data that we need if we're going to change our habits. You'll hear more in the podcast, but truly, the detail they gathered on the difference in content between food grown in the modern agri-business farm and that grown on a regenerative farm with no chemical inputs and no or minimal ploughing, one that strives to build the soil health and so build the health of everything else... it's both terrifying and inspiring. If you want something to persuade you that you need to change the places you buy your food, this is it. So, here we go. People of the Podcast, please welcome Anne Biklé and David Montgomery. Dig2Grow Website https://www.dig2grow.com/Buy the Books: https://www.dig2grow.com/booksBig Dirt https://www.reverbnation.com/bigdirtmusic

Here at Accidental Gods, we are increasingly of the opinion that our most urgent need as we face the polycrisis is to find a sense of being a belonging that changes our life's purpose. We all know we're not here just to pay bills and die, but knowing what we're not here for is not enough: we need to feel at the deepest level what we are here for, to rebuild the deep heart connections to the web of life such that we can take our place in the web with integrity and authenticity and a true sense of coming home. As we head into our sixteenth season, our third century of episodes, this is our baseline. The membership is here to delve deep into the practice and to give the time and the space to building the connections and the podcast exists to outline the theory and to give a voice to other people on this path. And with that in mind, it is my great pleasure to introduce you to this week's guest, the narrative strategist, Ruth Taylor. I came across Ruth when she published a Medium post entitled 'To UnPathed Waters and Undreamed Shores' - and just that title alone was enough to get me to read it. And then I was blown away by the ideas Ruth put forward, by her theories of narrative change, which are clearly at the heart of all we do, and by the clarity of her thinking and writing. I've put the link in the show notes so you can read it for yourself. In the 6 months since she agreed to come onto the podcast, she's published several other posts and a long paper called Transforming Narrative Waters, which delves even more deeply into the need for, and practice of, narrative change. Ruth works for the Common Cause Foundation which I first came across when I was at Schumacher College and had my eyes opened to the emotional intelligence behind it, and the astonishing work it's been doing in the world. Ruth is particularly interested in narrative change and writes a regular newsletter called In Other Words that collates the latest thinking in this field so she was an ideal person to explore the nature of framing, and story and how we can get to grips with changing the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and why we're here and how our relationships to each other and the world can still shift us away from the cliff's edge.CCF is a not for profit that works at the intersection between culture change and social psychology. Over the past ten years, it has pioneered a new way of inspiring engagement through catalysing action that strengthens and celebrates the human values that underpin the public's care for social and environmental causes. Its work is centered on the research findings that, 1) people are more likely to support environmental and social change when they place importance on their intrinsic values, such as equality, curiosity, broadmindedness and community, and 2) that the majority of people in the UK place importance on these values, but are constantly having their more extrinsic values primed due to the consumerist culture in which we live. With this in mind CCF offers training and support to a range of organisations on how to develop messaging and campaigning strategies that engage with people’s intrinsic values in order to rebalance the value norms in our societies.Ruth on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruth-taylor-14747173/To Unpathed Waters and Undreamed Shores https://commoncausefoundation.org/to-unpathed-waters-undreamed-shores/Transforming Narrative Waters https://ruthtaylordotorg.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/transforming-narrative-waters.pdfCulture and Deep Narratives blog (Medium) https://medium.com/inter-narratives/culture-deep-narratives-and-whac-a-mole-16cc1ecfc0a9Online Course: Values 101: Creating the Cultural Conditions for Change https://www.tickettailor.com/events/commoncausefoundation/820814?Global Action Plan https://www.globalactionplan.org.uk/Internarratives https://inter-narratives.org/The Common Cause Foundation https://commoncausefoundation.org/HumanKind Book https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/humankind-a-hopeful-history-rutger-bregman/4969515?ean=9781408898956CultureHack https://www.culturehack.io/Narrative Initiative https://narrativeinitiative.org/about-us/The Culture Group https://theculturegroup.org/Parents for Future https://parentsforfuture.org.uk/

Manda's Equinox meditation focuses on finding our sense of balance as the tilt of the world balances between summer and winter, light and dark, day and night. And from that, finding a stable place with the three pillars of our heart minds: joyful curiosity, gratitude and compassion. The meditation is available with Birdsong and with MusicBirdsong https://media.transistor.fm/66b6845b/79a1c49b.mp3Music https://media.transistor.fm/8284fc49/d9bae6ab.mp3

As we head into winter in the northern hemisphere, as the tilt of the world hangs in balance, we reached our 200th episode. So this is a time to look back and look forward: to look at where we've been, where we are and where we might go. From our origins as an adjunct to the Accidental Gods Membership, explaining the neurophysiology and neuropsychology behind what we're doing, and then then the spiritual grounding of connecting to the web of life... we moved into talking to people who live at the edge of the new system. In doing so, we discovered the magic of podcasts as a way to nudge our whole system towards change. If it is the case, as Ilya Prigogine says, that 'when a system is far from equilibrium, small islands of coherence in a sea of chaos can move it to a higher order', then Accidental Gods aims to be one of the small islands of coherence. We are here to show the potential in the wonder of our world and humanity's place in it - and to be utterly clear how far we still are from that potential. Above all, we're here to help map the routes through to the new system that can yet emerge from the transition and transformation of our times. Accidental Gods https://accidentalgods.life/join-us/Thrutopia Masterclass https://thrutopia.life/

In this, our 200th episode of Accidental Gods podcast, I am delighted to be joined by André Tranquilini, estate manager at Waltham Place, a 220 acred biodynamic estate in Berkshire, in the UK. André is a biodynamic farmer, consultant and teacher. He has been the manager at Waltham Place since 2018. André has worked extensively as a market gardener, Steiner school teacher and farmer, and was a founding member of the seed company, Living Seeds, in Portugal. Born in Brazil, André has had the opportunity to work and manage farms in his homeland, as well as Portugal and the UK. He has traveled widely teaching workshops and lecturing on Biodynamic Agriculture and is recognised as a biodynamic consultant by the international Biodynamic Agriculture section at the Goetheanum in Switzerland. This was one of the podcasts where we could have talked for hours, if not days. With is background in Brazil and coming from a mix of several racial groups, both colonised and colonisers, André brings a unique mix of perspectives just from the outset. Then with his training in Steiner's philosophy, and at Emerson College, coupled with his choice to specialise in biodynamic farming, he offers insights into the spirituality of agriculture, of how we can bring genuine deep connection with the web of life into our reality to re-connect the disconnections of the last ten millennia. He is passionate about the nature of living food and really knowledgable on how different it is from the industrially farmed and processed foods we are generally offered. He's part of a think-tank, A Bigger Conversation, that's looking into appropriate technology in farming and is at the leading edge of innovation in the biodynamic field, bringing the best of our new world together with the depth of experience that has grown out of the connection with the land. This was an inspiring and generative conversation and I bring it to you with great joy. Waltham Place https://www.walthamplace.com/Waltham Biodynamic Education: https://www.walthamplace.com/biodynamic-gardeningBiodynamic Association https://www.biodynamic.org.uk/Emerson College https://emerson.org.uk/A Bigger Conversation Think Tank https://abiggerconversation.org/DOK Trial: https://www.biodynamic.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/42-years-of-the-DOK-trial-research-Star-furrow-issue-139-Spring-2023-pages-22-23.pdfScientific American https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tropical-forests-may-be-getting-too-hot-for-photosynthesis/

"Grasping the Nettle' is at the heart of the film. Making a dress this way is a mad act of will and artistry but also devotional, with every nettle thread representing hours of mindful craft. Over seven years Allan is transformed by the process just as the nettles are. It's a kind of alchemy: transforming nettles into cloth, grief into beauty, protection and renewal. A labour of love, in the truest sense of the phrase, The Nettle Dress is a modern-day fairytale and hymn to the healing power of nature and slow craft."This week is our one hundred and ninety ninth episode of the Accidental Gods podcast. It's been quite a ride, and to celebrate the end of our second century, my partner, Faith, has come to join me as host, and we have two guests, textile designer Allan Brown and Dylan Howitt who is a filmmaker with over 20 years of making documentaries and features for the BBC, Netflix, Sky, Discovery - if you've heard of them, Dylan's worked with them. Allan was exploring how we could feed and clothe ourselves as we head towards a world of localism and increasing self reliance. A journey that began with a simple question - namely 'how can we clothes ourselves?' - led to his spending seven years of his life making a a dress from the fibres of the nettles that grew locally. He harvested them in his local wood, made the fibre, spun over fourteen thousand feet of it, hand wove it, and then made it into a truly beautiful dress for his daughter. It was an extraordinary process of experimentation, discovery and ensoulment - a journey into possibility that would be hard to match in our current, frenetic world. And we know about this: the patience of it, the wonder, the loss, the grief, the resilience, the alchemy… the sheer magic, because Dylan made a film, 'The Nettle Dress' which also took 7 years and is also a process of emergence and ensoulment and magic and discovery. The film is one of the most profoundly moving I've seen in a long time: it's deep time brought into being, it offers connection and profound attention and intention as it follows Al's profound intention and attention. It's so, so different from what we normally see, so grounding - and when we had the chance to talk to Al and Dylan, it made sense for Faith to join me: she's the maker in our partnership, she's been a textile maker and designer and she thinks differently than I do in many ways. So this is a joint endeavour and all the stronger for it. Dylan Howitt Bio Dylan Howitt is a filmmaker with many years of experience telling compelling stories from all around the world, personal and political, always from the heart. Twice BAFTA-nominated he’s produced and directed for BBC, Netflix, ITV and Channel 4 amongst many others. His latest feature documentary, The Nettle Dress, follows textile artist Allan Brown on a seven-year odyssey making a dress from the fibre of locally foraged stinging nettles. Allan Brown Bio Allan Brown (Hedgerow Couture) is a textile artist from Brighton, East Sussex, in the UK. Working primarily with sustainable natural fibres like nettles, flax, hemp and wool, Allan takes these raw materials and transforms them into beautiful cloth with the aim of creating functional, durable clothing that draws lightly from the land, reflecting the fibres and colours of the landscape he lives and works in. Dylan's website www.dylanhowitt.comDylan on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-howitt-babb3395/Watching The Nettle Dress https://www.nettledress.org/watchNettles for Textiles on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/1648679398499874Hedgerow Couture on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hedgerowcoutureSimon and Ann at Flaxland https://www.flaxland.co.uk/contactGillian Edom from sting to spin https://gillianedomsbook.blogspot.com/

How do good people create systems of oppression? What is Health? What is unHealth? And how do we move from the latter to the former in ways that mean good people create systems of co-creation, inter-being and connection? This week, we explore all these questions with Sophy Banks, Founder and Lead Facilitator of Healthy Human Culture. This week's guest is a remarkable woman who was one of the shining lights amongst those who came to teach us at Schumacher college, before the pandemicSophy Banks has been an engineer, a footballer, and a therapist. She was deeply involved in the Transition movement from its inception, finding ways to balance inner and outer work, to keep heart-focused in a world where a lot of outward-focused action can so easily lead to burnout. I met Sophy as she was moving away from that role, moving into Inner Transition as a new movement and also working deeply with Grief Tending workshops inspired by her time with Sobonfu and Patrice Malidoma Some from Burkino Faso. That was back in 2017 and clearly the world has moved on since then and Sophy has moved with it. She is now Founder and Lead Facilitator of the Healthy Human Culture movement where she brings together the deep learning and experience of the past decades in a system of online learning journeys and other workshops which offers a vision for a world in which societies, communities, workplaces, families and individuals can thrive. It's a journey of healing and understanding and exploration and it feels absolutely core to where we are going, could go, need to go as people and as a culture. It is always an honour, a delight, and a deeply thought-provoking, moving experience to talk with and learn from Sophy. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Healthy Human Culture https://healthyhumanculture.com/Grief Tending https://grieftending.org/Sophy on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophy-banks-uk/

We're on the edge of so many tipping points it's hard to know where to start. But paralysis isn't useful and so we need to talk to the people who are still moving forward - and who have ideas of how we can carry more and more people with us. With that in mind, this week's guest is a many-time friend of the podcast: someone completely aligned with our aims and ideals and whose energy, activism - and capacity to write and publish books that are right on the nail - leave me awestruck. Professor Rupert Read is an associate professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia. With a first degree from Oxford and a doctorate from Rutger's, he has a polished academic pedigree and he's certainly written a lot of philosophical texts and papers. But it's as an activist, thought-leader and fearless advocate for truth that he really stands out. Rupert's books 'This Civilisation is Finished', 'Parents For a Future' and, most recently 'Do you want to know the Truth' are all hard-hitting examinations of exactly where we are and how we could move forward in ways that will at least begin to acknowledge the truths of the meta crisis. It's not all writing, though, Rupert, was one of the core founders of Extinction Rebellion and has been arrested for his actions on behalf of our future. He went on to co-found the Moderate Flank and is now one of the key thinkers and figureheads of the Climate Majority Project. He appears almost daily on television and radio in the UK and around the world and I am really grateful that he's made the time to join us here at Accidental GodsRupert's website https://rupertread.net/books/The Climate Majority Project https://climatemajorityproject.com/IF you want to help - the CROWDFUNDER is here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/power-climate-action

In this week's episode I'm talking to someone I met on last year's Thrutopia Masterclass: someone who was there to explore and share ideas about how we might get through to that flourishing future we'd be proud to leave behind. Elisa Rathje is an artist, a filmmaker, a podcaster, a writer, an unschooling parent - and a homesteader whose life is an expression of her philosophy that we need to live closer to, and in harmony with, the land. She and her family farm one and a half acres on Saltspring Island off the west coast of Canada between Vancouver and Vancouver island where she makes her appleturnover TV channel for Youtube, with short films showing the ways she's rediscovering, or in some cases, creating anew, ways to grow and thrive on and with the land. We've had some pretty hardcore conversations recently on the podcast, and I thought it was time for something inspiring, less of how we fix the broken structures at national level, and more how we can each live different lives, tell ourselves different stories of who we are and how we are... get into the detail of composting toilets and community buses and how to keep chickens and geese and sort the water... all the things we're really going to need to learn, or relearn or otherwise bring into being as we shift forward into the small farm future that Chris Smaje was talking about last week. So this is a regenerative episode, about regenerating our souls as we heal the land. appleturnover TV https://appleturnover.tv/The Journal of Small Work https://appleturnover.tv/farm/journal/Miraculous Abundance https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/miraculous-abundance-one-quarter-acre-two-french-farmers-and-enough-food-to-feed-the-world-perrine-herve-gruyer/1935503?ean=9781603586429Feminism and the Mastery of Nature https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/feminism-and-the-mastery-of-nature-val-plumwood/825976?ean=9780415068109Attachment Parenting https://attachmentparenting.co.uk/Hold onto your kids by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Mate https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/hold-on-to-your-kids-why-parents-need-to-matter-more-than-peers-gabor-mate/739814?ean=9781785042195

This podcast is focussed on all the ways that we can bring all of ourselves to the project of total systemic change: our minds, bodies, spirits, hearts - and the practicality of what we do. Given this, we're delighted to welcome to the podcast Maddy Harland, the Co-founder and Editor of Permaculture Magazine . Maddy, and her husband Tim, co-founded a publishing company, Permanent Publications, in 1990 and Permaculture Magazine in 1992 to explore traditional and new ways of living in greater harmony with the Earth. She is the author of Fertile Edges—regenerating land, culture and hope and The Biotime Log. Maddy and Tim, have designed and planted one of the oldest forest gardens in Britain: once a bare field, it is now an edible landscape ,a haven for wildlife, and a reservoir of biodiversity. I met Maddy first back in the early days of this millennium when the whole Permaculture team was in the south east of England. More recently, they moved to Devon in the south west, where they are retrofitting a Devon longhouse to become zero carbon and restoring an old woodland to be a sanctuary for rare species like Dormice and Pied Flyctachers - and to be a place of healing and retreat for people. Maddy has been one of the beacons of the regenerative movement for decades. She's edited one of the world's most vibrantly alive magazines for over thirty years, she's interviewed - and edited - everyone who is anyone in this field from Vandana Shiva to Satish Kumar to Patrick Whitefield hundreds, literally, of the less well known, but absolutely cutting edge, inspiring people in all corners of the world who are living the change that will take us to the future we'd be proud to leave behind. If anyone knows where we're at, and what potential there is for change, she does. So it was a joy to be able to connect and explore ideas with someone who's given their life's energy to exploring the ways that change can happen. COUPON: PERMACULTUREGODS - with this, you'll get a free copy of Maddy's book Fertile Edges, with your subscription. Please use the code at the Checkout. (NB: this is valid until 23:59 on 6th November 2023 - and works once a subscription and Fertile Edges have been added to the cart, and then the code added)Website link at which to use it: https://shop.permaculture.co.uk/collections/permaculture-magazinePermaculture Magazine Website: https://www.permaculture.co.uk/Permaculture Books: https://www.permanentpublications.co.uk/Free Permaculture e-books: https://shop.permaculture.co.uk/collections/free-ebooks-1Permaculture Magazine YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PermacultureMagazinePermaculture Magazine Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/PermacultureMagPermaculture Magazine Instagram https://www.instagram.com/permaculturemagazinePermaculture Magazine Twitter https://twitter.com/PermacultureMagPlus a free Intro to Permaculture Course: https://workspace.oregonstate.edu/free-on-demand-intro-to-permaculture-open-online-resourceSetsuden in Japan - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SetsudenFilm: In grave danger of falling food: https://www.acmi.net.au/works/80421--in-grave-danger-of-falling-foodbarefoot-economist/

We all know that we need to reconnect to our HeartMinds and to bring our Heart Intelligence up to meet the explosion of left brain intelligence - we just don't know how to do it. This week's guest is one of my living heroes - who does have clear, grounded ideas of how to do this. Dr Scilla Elworthy was thirteen years old when she saw the Soviet Invasion of Hungary on the television and understood the horror of what was happening. Her mother found her packing a case to go to Budapest to help and managed to persuade her to stay home by promising she'd help to train her to be what the world needed. When she was sixteen, she worked in a holiday camp for Auschwitz survivors, and sat peeling potatoes and listening to them talk of their suffering. Since then, she has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with Oxford Research Group to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics. In 2003 Scilla founded Peace Direct, to work closely with locally-led peace building initiatives throughout the world, bringing us daily experience in how to help prevent violent conflict and build sustainable peace throughout the world.She has written numerous books, given numerous TED and TEDx talks and now leads The Business Plan for Peace to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of transforming destructive conflict. She was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003 and the Luxembourg Peace Prize in 2020. She is one of the clearest, most grounded thinkers I have ever met and she's working tirelessly to create the future we'd be proud to leave behind. I was more than a little star-struck, but this was a genuinely heart-felt conversation and I hope listening to it leaves you feeling as heart-connected as it did me. The Mighty Heart https://mightyheart.co.uk/The Mighty Heart in Business program: 18th October - 6th December 2023 https://thebusinessplanforpeace.org/the-mighty-heart-in-business/TED Talk: Fighting with Non Violence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk3K_Vrve-ETEDx Talk: Dare to Question: Why are we so afraid of getting older https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6zenOjPC1ATEDx Talk: How do I deal with a bully without becoming a thug? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgWyolwBGgETEDx Talk: The Future Belongs to those who can see it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWDl1PqGjqYTEDx Talk: Do something - OK, but how? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYlhHkLgBWATEDx Talk: The Business Plan for Peace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH1WgurH5FAConversations in Compassion w Dr Scilla Elworthy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C5BMRDYzc8Book: Pioneering the Possible https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/pioneering-the-possible-awakened-leadership-for-a-world-that-works-scilla-elworthy/3218709?ean=9781583948620Books: The Mighty Heart in Action and The Business Plan for Peace https://mightyheart.co.uk/media/

How dangerous is AI? Are Large Language Models likely to subvert our children? Is Generalised AI going to wipe out all life on the planet? I don't know the answers to these. It may be that nobody knows, but this week's guest was my go-to when I needed someone with total integrity to help unravel one of the most existential crises of our time, to lay it out as simply as we can without losing the essence of complexity, to help us see the worst cases - and their likelihood - and the best cases, and then to navigate a route past the first and onto the second. Daniel Thorson is an activist - he was active in the early days of the Occupy movement and in Extinction Rebellion. He is a lot more technologically literate than I am - he was active early in Buddhist Geeks. He is a soulful, thoughtful, heartful person, who lives at and works with the Monastic Academy for the Preservation of Life on Earth in Vermont. And he's host of the Emerge podcast, Making Sense of What's Next. So in all ways, when I wanted to explore the existential risks, and maybe the potential of Artificial Intelligence, and wanted to talk with someone I could trust, and whose views I could bring to you unfiltered, Daniel was my first thought, and I'm genuinely thrilled that he agreed to come back onto the podcast to talk about what's going on right now. My first query was triggered by the interview with Eliezer Yudkowsky on the Bankless podcast - Eliezer talked about the dangers of Generalised AI, or Artificial General Intelligence, AGI, and the reasons why it was so hard - he would say impossible - to align the intentions of a silicon-based intelligence with our human values, even if we knew what they were and could define them clearly. Listening to that, was what prompted me to write to Daniel. Since then, I listened many times to two of Daniels own recent podcasts: one with the educational philosopher Zak Stein on the dangers of AI Tutors and one with Jill Nephew, the founder of Inqwire, Public Benefit Company on a mission to help the world make sense. The Inqwire technology is designed to enhance and accelerate human sensemaking abilities. Jill is also host of the Natural Intelligence podcast and has clearly thought deeply about the nature of intelligence, the human experience and the neurophysiology and neuropsychology of our interactions with Large Language Models. I've linked all three of these podcasts below and absolutely recommend that you listen to them if you want more depth than we have here. What Daniel and I tried to do today was to lay things out in very straightforward terms: it's an area fraught with jargon and belief systems and assumptions, and we wanted to strip those away where we could and acknowledge them where we couldn't, and lay out where we are, what the worst cases are, what the best case is, given that we have to move forward with technology, switching it all off seems not to be an option—and how we might move from worst to best case. With this latter in mind, I've included a link to Daniel's new project, the Church of the Intimate Web which aims to connect people with each other. I've also - because it seems not everyone listens to the very end of the podcasts - included a link to our membership programme in Accidental Gods where we aim to help people connect to the wider web of life. I definitely see these two as interlinked and mutually compatible. So - trigger warning - a lot of this is not yet impinging on public awareness and we're not yet aware of how close we are to some very dangerous edges. This podcast leads us up to the edge so we can look over. We do it as gently as we can, but still, you'll want to be resourced and resilient before you listen. The Emerge Podcast https://www.whatisemerging.com/emergepodcastEmerge with Zak Stein https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/emerge-making-sense-of-whats-next/id1057220344?i=1000610403148Emerge with Jill Nephew https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/emerge-making-sense-of-whats-next/id1057220344?i=1000613784941Bankless with Eliezer Yudkowsky https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/bankless/id1499409058?i=1000600575387The Church of the Intimate Web https://tome.app/the-church-of-the-intimate-web/the-church-of-the-intimate-web-a-response-to-the-global-intimacy-disorder-clhgc8h1l1b2p5k3z9ppbitfyAccidental Gods Membership https://accidentalgods.life/join-us/The Soul's Code by James Hillman https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-soul-s-code-james-hillman/1563087?ean=9780553506341

Peruvian shaman Oscar Miro-Quesada says that "Consciousness creates matter, Language Creates Reality, Ritual creates relationship.” This week I'm speaking with someone who bring reality into being with words and weaves relational rituals. Abigail Morgan Prout is a poet, life coach, mother and visionary. She and I have been talking to one another for about three and a half years. We connected just before lockdown and then, as life became weirder, Abigail's daily poems were a bright flash in the whirling chaos, a doorway into a world halfway across the planet that was different in so many ways, and yet so often the same; a sense of soul connection to someone who gets it; an excoriating and sometimes intensely personal, vulnerable view into someone else's life, shared with great courage - and word-jewels of true beauty that connected me again to the wonder of the web of life, and the wonder of language. As a writer, I am always in absolute awe of the fact that we can make black marks on a white page and evoke the whole multi-dimensional, multi-sensory glory of human and More-Than-Human experience. As a prose writer, I am ever more in awe of the skill poets bring to their word-smithing, and Abigail's is beautiful, moving and inspiring at all levels. It's not just me that thinks so - Walk Deep, the collection that arose from lockdown won the 2021 Homebound Poetry Contest. So when Homebound published Walk Deep, I really wanted to bring Abigail onto the podcast - to talk about the process of writing, which is one of my more major obsessions, but also to talk about everything she brings to this -she's a life coach and a teacher of life coaches. She's a daughter and a mother and she holds ceremony in beautiful ways. We didn't touch much on this last in the main body of the podcast - but, as happens so often, as soon as I'd stopped recording, we talked about exactly this, and it seemed so profoundly important, that I hit record again and we added another ten minutes of what, to me, is not just podcasting gold, but human gold, spiritual gold; the account of someone's experience of a lifelong dream that came to life, but more than that, of the ways the web of life is so ready to connect with us and offer help if we can only open to hear it. So that's tacked on at the end, before the final credits.Abigail's website https://www.abigailprout.com/Spiral Leadership Method https://www.spiral-leadership.com/Accidental Gods Membership (the Intention Intensive is within the Membership) https://accidentalgods.life/join-us/Abigail on FB https://www.facebook.com/abigail.m.proutInstagram: @Insta: abigail_Morgan_prout

Our guest this week is Max Ajl, who is an associate researcher with the Tunisian Observatory for Food Sovereignty and the Environment and a postdoctoral fellow with the Rural Sociology Group at Wageningen University. He has written for multiple journals and is an associate editor at Agrarian South & Journal of Labor and Society. It was his 2021, his book, 'A People's Green New Deal', published by Pluto Press, that brought Max to my attention. If you've been listening to the podcast for any length of time, you'll know that one of our regular contributors, Simon Michaux, is adamant that the material flows for the various posited Green New Deals don't exist - that they are logistical impossibilities. But what Max argues strongly and with brilliant clarity in his book and elsewhere, is why these things should not happen even if they could: why they are better viewed as extensions of the Giant Vampire Squid wrapped around the face of humanity (not his phrase) - and that there's a better, much more deeply green set of ideas and ideals based in actual earth connection, the restoration of what should be fundamental human rights across the world and the widespread implementation of agro-ecological principles. His book seems to me an eco-socialist manifesto and while its values are closely aligned with the podcast, the nature of this as a political theoretical and practical concept is not something we'd previously explored on the podcast. So now we have. In the course of our early discussion, we touched on the Cochamamba Peoples' Agreement - and then never came back to it. So very briefly, I'd like to fill you in, because this agreement is both an internationally agreed document and, in itself, a statement of core ecosocialist principles. The conference from which it arose took place in April 2010, when more than 35,000 people from 140 countries gathered in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and developed a consensus-based document reflecting substantive solutions to the climate crisis. Two things arise immediately. First, thirteen years on, we would call it the climate, ecological and cultural crisis. Second, and more important than the semantics - much though they matter - was the ways this agreement came into being. There were 17 working groups, and a lot of effort was put into consensus building - working out what mattered and what worked, or could be imagined to work - not the failed COP process of deleting anything that offends a member state until you have a basically meaningless document. I've attached links in the show notes and I really recommend you follow them, because it is profoundly important. It is, in fact, the framework we need to work towards. What's distressing is that it's over 13 years old and hardly anyone in the hegemonic nations of what Max Ajl calls the core - as opposed to the periphery - has heard about it and still fewer care. So we need to change that. If you do one thing after this podcast, as Max says, it'll be to join an organisation. If you do two things, the second will be to tell people about the Cochabamba People's Agreement. And Max's book. The sound quality was not the best. but Alan has woven his production magic and I hope your ears will accept the result as a price worth paying for the ideas we explore here. A People's Green New Deal https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745341750/a-peoples-green-new-deal/Cochabamba People's Climate Agreement https://www.climateemergencyinstitute.com/uploads/Peoples_climate_agreement.pdfand https://archive.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/the-environment/climate-change/49253-need-for-recognition-of-cochabamba-peoples-agreement-in-un-climate-negotiations.htmlLandworkers' Alliance https://landworkersalliance.org.uk/La Via Campesina https://viacampesina.org/en/Colin Duncan The Centrality of Agriculture https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-centrality-of-agriculture-between-humankind-and-the-rest-of-nature-colin-a-m-duncan/3518385?ean=9780773513631Selimah Vaiani Rethinking Unequal Exchange: the global integration of nursing labour markets https://utorontopress.com/us/rethinking-unequal-exchange-4ORGANISATIONS SUGGESTED BY LISTENERSCompass https://www.compassonline.org.uk/#DemocratizingWork https://democratizingwork.org/Doughnut Economics https://doughnuteconomics.org/ Eco-socialists in Australia https://socialist-alliance.org/New Economy Network Australia https://www.neweconomy.org.au

In this week's episode, we have a return guest to the podcast. Ruth Catlow has taken the amazing work she did in lockdown and held live festivals in the park where people get to become one of the seven core species: a dog, a Canada goose (just visiting!) a tree, grass… and, yes, a stag beetle. What they're not being, are people. So they're looking at the world through new eyes, hearing it with new ears, smelling, tasting, sensing in all ways - and the whole experience of what it is to live in this place as home, instead of just dropping in…becomes deeper, and more complex and more alive. And then each of the species can put forward ideas for the Interspecies Treaty of Finsbury Park which will make it a much better place for everyone - including the people. And then - because Ruth's enthusiasm and expertise range widely over the ways things can be made more fair and equitable, as well as work better, she's designed the app that allows a much fairer voting system, so the people-become-MoreThanHumans can vote on the seven ideas put forward for the Treaty in ways that allows more nuance than simply ranking them. This last became a whole other hour of conversation on voting systems and how we can create a decent democracy - so that's the bonus... well worth a listen! The Treaty of Finsbury Park https://treaty.finsburypark.live/CultureStake App https://culturestake.org/Episode #163 https://accidentalgods.life/cultures-of-commoning/Experiences of the Interspecies Festival https://www.islingtontribune.co.uk/article/now-we-know-how-trees-in-the-park-feelNordic LARP https://nordiclarp.org/Quadratic Voting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadratic_voting

This is the part of the podcast where we talk about voting systems, specifically the quadratic voting on the blockchain that Ruth has made into an app that's in use in the Park. Then we moved into her work with Government ministries and big corporations, bringing the aliveness and liveliness, and special insight of Live Action Role Play into politics and industry to help people see things from a wider context. This is how we change the world: one new idea at a time...

What does it take to avoid global collapse? Is there still time? And if so, what are the societal, social, cultural and goal-oriented changes that we need to make to get there? This week's guest is one of the new generation of super-thinkers who have the capacity, individually and collectively, to bring into being that better future our hearts know is possible. Gaya Herrington received her first master’s degree in Econometrics from the Liberal University of Amsterdam and her second master’s in Sustainability from Harvard University. In between she worked for KPMG, for the Dutch Government as a regulator and then back to KPMG in the US, where she now lives. She is a member of the Transformational Economics Commission of the Club of Rome, a recurring guest lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and works at Schneider Electric as Vice-President of ESG Research. She wrote her thesis for her second Masters on the seminal Limits To Growth work that first came out in 1972. The paper she wrote as a result of this went viral - and she expanded it into a book called Five Insights for Avoiding Global Collapse. She has made this freely available by download and I have put a link in the show notes - because this is absolutely essential reading for anyone on this path. The take home message though, as you'll hear, is that if we all work together, there is still time. Which should be a fairly familiar idea to those of you who have listened to other guests. But this time, we'll really unpick the data and concepts behind it in the company of someone who has worked hard at the coal face of the old system and has seen how to change it. Gaya's book https://mdpi-res.com/bookfiles/mono/6206/Five_Insights_for_Avoiding_Global_Collapse.pdf?v1682069789Gaya's paper at KPMG https://advisory.kpmg.us/articles/2021/limits-to-growth.htmlManfred Max-Neef https://gaiafoundation.org/the-barefoot-economist-manfred-max-neef/Club of Rome: Earth for All https://www.clubofrome.org/publication/earth4all-book/

How do we make the case for a fully ecological farming system, that can feed all of us, while restoring the bio-sphere and providing affordable, nutritious food. How can we become a good keystone species - and what does that mean. This second episode with Chris Smaje, explores his new book, 'Saying No to a Farm Free Future: The Case for an Ecological Food System and against Manufactured Foods.' Chris was last a guest on the podcast in the spring of this year (2023), in episode 166, in which we explored his book 'A Small Farm Future' - what it meant, how he came to write it, and what a Small Farm Future might look and feel like. At the time, we veered toward the topic of the Eco-Modernist manifesto and in particular their concept that 'Precision Fermentation' is necessary to feed the world's population - and would enable us to dispense with farming, which they regard as the author of all the world's ills. Chris said then that he was writing something that would address this more directly and suggested he come back when it was ready.And now his new book is ready, and he has come back to talk about it. The book absolutely does what it says on the tin, and does it well. Chris has a background in academia and his capacity for critical thinking shines through the text as he examines the good and the bad of the Eco-Modernist agenda, and in particular the new kid on the Eco-Modernist block, George Monbiot and his latest tract, Regenesis. He really dives deeply into the assertions that are made, takes them apart and shows the (many) places where they don't stack up. At the end, he makes a heartfelt, grounded, and I think rather beautiful plea for us to rediscover our human place as a good keystone species, instead of feeling we have to wall ourselves up in concrete boxes eating manufactured food. Chris's Book: Saying NO to a Farm Free Future https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/saying-no-to-a-farm-free-future-the-case-for-an-ecological-food-system-and-against-manufactured-foods-chris-smaje/7448082?ean=9781915294166Chris’s website smallfarmfuture.org.uk Chris's blog https://chrissmaje.com/blog/Chris on Twitter https://twitter.com/csmajePrevious Accidental Gods episode https://accidentalgods.life/living-in-a-post-carbon-post-capital-post-urban-world/Tyson Yunkaporta Sand Talk https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/sand-talk-how-indigenous-thinking-can-save-the-world-tyson-yunkaporta/3904066?ean=9781925773996

We are the Accidental Gods. We didn't plan to be the ones to hold the god-like power to destroy most of the life on this planet, but here we are, at a place where one single species - ours - has the capacity to do just this. The routes to Armageddon seem to be increasing all the time, but they all have one thing in common: they're predicated on our absolute disconnection from the web of life. It is a central tenet of this podcast that, for most of our evolutionary history, humanity has existed as an integral part of this web - and that we were aware of our connectedness. Quite how we lost this is open to question and I doubt if we'll ever find concrete answers: certainly I don't think speculation is worth a lot of emotional or intellectual bandwidth - because what really matters - what can and, I think, should, take up most of our energy in whatever time we have left - is finding ways to heal the rift, to re-connect us to the living web so that we can ask of it, 'What do you want of me?' and respond to the answers in real time. If you've listened to this podcast much, you've heard me say this once or twice before. Possibly more often. If you're a part of the wider Accidental Gods community and come along to our monthly Intention Intensives, then you've heard me say it Every. Single. Time. we meet. (!) So, yes, finding ways to do this at scale is something of an obsession. I think it's the only way we're going to get through, and that if we can achieve it. we'll have made a significant shift in the evolution of our consciousness - our wisdom (the bit that AI will never be able to emulate). But one of the things from which I have steered quite clear is the field of psychedelics. There are a lot of reasons for this and we explore some of them in the podcast we're about to hear because I have found someone whose opinion I trust implicitly, who has direct experience of the use of psychedelics in a number of fields and whose integrity feels strong. Dr Rosalind Watts is a clinical psychologist who was the former Clinical Lead of the 'psilocybin for depression' trial at Imperial College, London. She also gave a ground-breaking TEDx talk in 2017, in which she opened up the results of that first trial to her peers and to the world. Since then, though, she has written a Medium post in which she points out some of the pitfalls of that trial, and opens up the concept that if we use psychedelics indiscriminately in a toxic culture, they are as likely to amplify the toxicity as they are to heal. Having realised this, and experienced some of the harm that plant medicines can do if not held within a supportive framework, Ros has gone on to found ACER Integration, a twelve month online course with monthly modules built around connections to and with trees - designed explicitly to create the supportive culture people need to integrate their experiences. So - if you're expecting us to talk about all the multi-coloured wonders of psychedelics, then forget it, that's not what this podcast is about. It's about understanding the systemic nature of mental health, of cultural experience and of the ways plant spirits can act to change this. It's inspiring and it's a call to action, as well as a profoundly important health warning as we approach the brink of yet another tipping point. ACER Integration: https://acerintegration.com/Ros on Medium: https://medium.com/@DrRosalindWatts/can-magic-mushrooms-unlock-depression-what-ive-learned-in-the-5-years-since-my-tedx-talk-767c83963134Ros on Newsnight https://headtopics.com/uk/psilocybin-calls-to-ease-restrictions-on-magic-mushroom-drug-39313183Ros on Twitter https://twitter.com/drrosalindwattsRos on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-rosalind-watts/Ros Paper on Psychedelic link to Biophilia https://www.mdpi.com/2813-1851/2/2/12ACER integration on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/acer-integration/Psypan https://www.psypanglobal.org/ DoubleBlind paper https://doubleblindmag.com/colonialism-by-another-name/Film - Psychedelic Chronicles https://psychedelicchronicles.earth/Ros's TEDx talk https://youtu.be/8kfGaVAXeMYThe Hive w Camila Moreno https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-hive-podcast/id1387510537?i=1000612916498

It's the summer solstice, the longest day and the shortest night. What matters now in our world is that we reconnect with the rhythms of the living web. This meditation is designed to help you connect to the rising sun on this day of longest light.This version of the summer solstice meditation has periods of silence in which you can explore your own feelings and observe the focus of your awareness. As with all meditations, please find a safe, quiet place where you can be completely undisturbed for the duration of the meditation - and a short while afterwards.

It's the summer solstice, the longest day and the shortest night. What matters now in our world is that we reconnect with the rhythms of the living web. This meditation is designed to help you connect to the rising sun on this day of longest light.This version of meditation has birdsong overlaid so there is no silence. As with all meditations, please find a safe, quiet place where you can be completely undisturbed for the duration of the meditation - and a short while afterwards.

At the halfway point of the year, Manda looks back on what's been on the podcast, forward at (some of) what's to come, thoughts on where we're at as a world, and explores the books and podcasts that have stood out in the past six months. Non fiction A People’s Green New Deal by Max Ajl https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/a-people-s-green-new-deal-max-ajl/5731783?ean=9780745341750Building Tomorrow by Paddy Le Fluffy https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Building-Tomorrow-by-Paddy-Le-Flufy/9781739345204Spinning Out By Charlie Herzog Young https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Spinning-Out-by-Charlie-Hertzog-Young/9781804440315Saying No to a Farm Free Future by Chris Smaje https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/saying-no-to-a-farm-free-future-the-case-for-an-ecological-food-system-and-against-manufactured-foods-chris-smaje/7448082?ean=9781915294166Two Lights by James Roberts https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/two-lights-james-roberts/7366651?ean=9781912836178Post-Capitalist Philanthropy: Healing Wealth in a time of collapse by Alnoor Ladha and Lynn Murphy: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Post-Capitalist-Philanthropy-by-Alnoor-Ladha-Lynn-Murphy/9798986531007 Fiction Black Water Sister by Zen Cho https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/black-water-sister-zen-cho/6464196?ean=9781509800018The Grief Nurse – Angie Spoto https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-grief-nurse-angie-spoto/7230526?ean=9781914518171Now She is Witch by Kirsty Logan https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/now-she-is-witch-a-witch-story-unlike-any-other-from-the-author-of-the-gracekeepers-kirsty-logan/7387771?ean=9781529116113Habitat Man by DA Baden https://www.dabaden.com/habitat-man/The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-First-Fifteen-Lives-of-Harry-August-by-Claire-North/9780356502588Frankie Boyle, Meantime https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/meantime-frankie-boyle/6521254?ean=9781399801157Podcasts Bankless Episode w Eliezer Yudkowsky https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/bankless/id1499409058?i=1000600575387Planet Critical – particularly the episode w Alastair Campbell https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/planet-critical/id1545009586?i=1000615243292David Bollier’s Frontiers of Commoning, particularly the episode with Alnoor Ladha and Lynn Murphy https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/frontiers-of-commoning-with-david-bollier/id1501085005?i=1000615201925Your Undivided Attention https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/your-undivided-attention/id1460030305The Great Simplification https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-great-simplification-with-nate-hagens/id1604218333

Sometimes the synchronicity of this podcast leaves me very happy. About six months ago, I was thinking that I wanted to talk to someone who really lived at the interface between science and spirituality, where I could begin to sand down some of the rough edges of my own thinking. And that afternoon, I discovered that the 2nd edition of Professor Ursula Goodenough's book 'The Sacred Depths of Nature' was due to be published in the first half of this year. So we set up a podcast and then it turned out that my calendar management was haywire and I'd booked it for the day after teaching one of the most challenging of the shamanic dreaming courses. Normally I'd give myself several days to come back to something approaching consensus reality. You may think I don't spend a lot of time in CR as it is, and you'd be right, but there are degrees of my untethering and the day after a dreaming course is not my most tethered. But in the end, it was magical - really good to re-read Ursula's book in the evening and then have a quiet day reflecting and exploring things that snagged my attention. And so here we are: Ursula is a Professor of Biology Emerita at Washington University. She has discussed religious naturalism in essays, college classes, and as part of blogs and television and radio productions. She participated in conversations with the Dalai Lama sponsored by the Mind and Life Institute. She is author of the book, “The Sacred Depths of Nature” which, examines cosmology, evolution, and cell biology, celebrates the mystery and wonder of being alive, and suggests that this orientation might serve as the basis for “planetary ethic” that draws from both science and religion. And on the basis of this concept, in 2014, Ursula was part of the founding of the Religious Naturalists Association. And now comes the second, updated, edition, that looks into epigenetics and pandemics and generally updates both the science and the moving reflections that each scientific section evokes. It's beautiful, thoughtful, and inspiring. Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass said of it, “At once expansive and intimate, empirical and immanent, analytical and intuitive, material and spiritual, science and poetry get to dance joyfully together in these pages.” What better encouragement would we need to explore more deeply with the author? So People of the Podcast, please welcome Professor Ursula Goodenough, author of The Sacred Depths of NatureIn 2023, Ursula was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Sacred Depths of Nature http://sacreddepthsofnature.com/Order Ursula's book here http://sacreddepthsofnature.com/order-book/Religious Naturalist Association https://religious-naturalist-association.org/welcome/National Academy of Sciences https://source.wustl.edu/2023/05/goodenough-mckinnon-elected-to-national-academy-of-sciences/Terence Deacon - The Symbolic Species https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/733691.The_Symbolic_SpeciesBitch by Lucy Cooke https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/bitch-a-revolutionary-guide-to-sex-evolution-and-the-female-animal-lucy-cooke/6532317?ean=9781804990919

This is the fourth of our ongoing series with Dr Simon Michaux. As ever, we ranged far and wide, but this time within the remit of 'what does the world look like in 2050 if we make good choices now?' Specifically, how do we construct and power our civilisation beyond the emergence of the new system. And yes, that's impossible to predict exactly, but it's not overly hard to make some basic observations - that we'll have phased out fossil fuels; that we'll reduce our inputs and outputs; that we'll live more simple, but higher quality lives. Specifically, we narrowed down on possible energy sources, and Simon proposed something which has been known for decades, but not put into practice, once again, with his trademark data to support his thesis. This one is genuinely hopeful - though of course we’ll have to completely rearrange our entire value system to put the living biosphere (current and future) ahead of profit - but we do know this... Enjoy!Confessions of an Economic Hitman - Animated Short version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYtb5zatgMgNaomi Klein Shock Doctrine https://naomiklein.org/the-shock-doctrine/

This week's guest is fast becoming a friend of the Podcast. In the first part of what is now an ongoing series, Dr Simon Michaux outlined for us the nature of the materials crisis - the fact that there is simply not enough stuff, not enough copper or cobalt or lithium to continue to manufacture at the levels we have been - and there's not even enough to make the renewable (or, as Nate Hagens would call them, rebuildable) technology to replace the fossil fuel power we're going to have to stop using. If you haven't listened to these two, please do, because lot of this conversation is predicated on that one, and on our second podcast where we looked at Michaux's hierarchy of needs and really delved into power generation in more depth. I had planned that we'd look more at the remaining five of Simon's hierarchy of needs in this conversation, but - like most of these podcasts - the plan went out of the window when I asked how he was doing and it was clear that he'd been having some really interesting conversations. And so we went with this - because it seems to me that if the people who get it are multiplying, then it's useful for us to know this - we can support the narratives that unpick the 'business as usual' dynamics and begin to look forward to what will work. That's the core of this podcast - what can we do, how can we do it - and how can we ensure that enough people get this to create a global movement. We had to cut off faster than we'd like, so there will be (at least) a podcast four!Simon Michaux Podcast 1 https://accidentalgods.life/transforming-industry-to-create-a-genuine-green-revolution/Simon Michaux Podcast 2 https://accidentalgods.life/drawing-humanity-out-of-the-cave-with-dr-simon-michaux/Gail Tverberg 'Our Infinite World: https://ourfiniteworld.com/William Rees: https://www.postcarbon.org/our-people/william-rees/GOES REPORT http://goesfoundation.com/news/posts/2021/june/plastic-and-toxic-chemical-induced-ocean-acidification-is-causing-a-plankton-crisis-and-will-devastate-humanity-in-the-next-25-years/

As you'll know by now, one of our core motivators in creating this podcast was the realisation that the 'democratic' systems of the world are largely broken and are not a useful way to affect change. I used to be a political activist. I thought I'd given all that up, but today's conversation has definitely re-awakened my political instincts because today I'm talking with two of the people who set up South Devon Primary: a group committed to changing the political system in the UK. So the first thing to say for those of you who live elsewhere is that this episode is focused on the need for change in the Westminster Parliament. But the issues are worldwide and whatever your political system, it could probably do with being shaken up. We need to share best practice across the globe and what Simon Oldridge, Anthea Simmons and Ben Long have created feels like a template that could be replicated not just throughout the UK but across the world. The principles are basic and while it's not going to take us to full democracy in one giant leap, it's definitely a step in the right direction. If adopted around the nation (and the world) it could see us move away from the politics of hatred, fear and resentment to something a great deal more generative. To look at these three in more depth and so understand where they're coming from: Simon Oldridge was an accountant with Ernst and Young and then CEO of a manufacturing company. More recently, his awareness of the climate and ecological crisis has led him to engage with a group endeavouring to put forward a Climate and Ecology Bill to the UK parliament (he talks about this in the podcast) and to set up the South Devon Primary campaign which you'll hear about in much more depth. Anthea Simmons is Editor in Chief of the progressive online paper, West Country Voices, speaker for Devon for Europe and author of a number of books, including one for young climate activists. Before that, rather like Simon, she worked in financial asset management. She's a passionate advocate for the South Devon Primary and invented the Democracy Meter, which you're also hear about in the conversation. Ben Long is an author and educator and currently helps his partner run her ceramics business in Devon. He didn't join us on the podcast - partly because I think two extra voices is enough to contend with - but he's a core part of the work of South Devon Primary. And that work is practical, active, really intelligently targeted and if it were taken up around the country, could do more, I think, to shape the outcome of the next general election than anything else I've found. Listen, enjoy - and then make this happen as near to wherever you live as you can. South Devon Primary Website https://www.southdevonprimary.org/Zero Hour https://www.zerohour.ukAnthea Simmons on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/antheasimmons/West Country Voices on Twitter https://twitter.com/WCountryVoicesSimon Oldridge on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-oldridge-17207a206/Simon on Twitter https://twitter.com/SiOldridgeSouth Devon Primary on Twitter https://twitter.com/SDevonPrimaryBen Long on Twitter: https://twitter.com/benwhlongSimon - Twitter thread w Local MP https://twitter.com/SiOldridge/status/1641713280967213056

If you've listened to this podcast at all recently, you'll know that I'm in the editing phase of the new book - the phase where we 'carve it into tiny pieces, throw significant chunks of it in the recycling (because words are never wasted and text storage is basically free) and rebuild the rest into something shinier, sharper and generally more succinct.' And I'm telling you this because this week's guest is a fellow writer who knows what it's like to stare at a blank page until your forehead bleeds - but in this case, she's also an academic psychologist who has the data to back up the value of Thrutopian writing. Dr Denise Baden is a Professor of Sustainable Practice at the University of Southampton, and she says, that 'working in sustainability and climate change, the more you know the scarier it is. Like the sun, you can’t look too closely at it, but face to one side, you make your way, because in fact, it’s easy to put everything right. All the solutions are right here, they just have to catch on. Walking lightly and mindfully upon the earth is so doable. I started writing as therapy, with green solutions as the main ingredient, stories to soothe my soul. Then my characters and their stories took over centre stage, leaving the green solutions to season the stew.'Denise is one of those people who sees a problem and starts creating real world solution. in 2018, she set up the series of free Green Stories writing competitions to inspire writers to create positive visions of what a sustainable society might look like, and to tell stories that showcase solutions, not just problems because her data show that's what we need. In the process she continued to research what works in terms of fiction and climate communication - as a result of which, she has written a novel, Habitat Man, and she compiled an anthology of short stories called No More Fairy Tales: Stories to Save Our Planet. which she had ready by COP27 so there was a copy for every delegate to read. Magnificently, she is on the Forbes list of Climate Leaders: https://www.forbes.com/sites/solitairetownsend/2023/03/19/68-climate-leaders-changing-the-film-and-tv-industry/Denise Website https://www.dabaden.com/Green Stories website https://www.greenstories.org.uk/ NEXT NOVEL PRIZE DEADLINE IS 26th JUNEDenise on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DABadenauthorDenise publications and academic record https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5wzjrb/professor-denise-badenSustainable HairCare project: https://ecohairandbeauty.com/Details of the project with Bafta and Albert https://www.greenstories.org.uk/climatecharacters/Key hashtags are #ClimateCHaracters and #HotOrNot. The survey is here (please go an complete it!) bit.ly/433n71wThe images were designed by https://www.rubberrepublic.com/ (check out their website – the first and third especially are hilarious and the one about the old XR protestor is incredibly moving. Thrutopia website https://thrutopia.lifeBooks mentioned by other authorsCarbon Diaries by Saci Lloyd https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4935015-the-carbon-diaries-2015The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-ministry-for-the-future-kim-stanley-robinson/2164043

How do we really create systemic change? How do we shift narratives towards a generative future? How do we bring artists, scientists, policy makers, educators, conservationists, journalists, and all the different siloed tribes together in ways that let them genuinely communicate and listen to the web of life? This week's guest is someone who is actively working on so many levels to change all these things. As you'll hear, Markus Reymann is a Director of a European Arts foundation, which doesn't sound nearly as exciting as it is. Because this is an arts foundation with a difference. TBA21 says of itself that it is a leading international art and advocacy foundation and it stewards the TBA21 Collection and its outreach activities, which include exhibitions, educational offers, and public programming. The TBA21–Academy, which Markus helped set up, is the foundation’s research center, 'fostering a deeper relationship with the Ocean and other bodies of water by working as an incubator for collaborative inquiry, artistic production, and environmental advocacy. For more than a decade, the Academy has catalyzed new forms of knowledge emerging from the exchanges between art, science, policy, and conservation in long-term and collaborative engagement through fellowships and residency programs. All activity at TBA21 is fundamentally driven by artists and the belief in art and culture as a carrier of social and environmental transformation.' We talk a lot about social and environmental transformation on this podcast: it's what we're here for and what we believe is essential not just to creating that future we'd be proud to leave behind, but to creating any liveable future at all for most of the species on the planet. We talk a lot, too, about systemic thinking, about paradigm shifts and about our capacity as a species to let go of our dominant narratives, and the need for someone, somewhere to bring together the scientists, the artists, the policy makers, the journalists, the educators…and do it in a way that breaks down the barriers, lets them actually understand each other - and then shows them other cultures that think differently, that have different value systems than ours ,so they can see that there are different ways of doing things that will work. And this, is what Markus is doing. Here is someone who understands systemic thinking and who is applying it with depth and breadth and great heart. Bio: Markus Reymann is Director of TBA21–Academy, a non-profit cultural organization he co-founded in 2011 that fosters interdisciplinary dialogue and exchange surrounding the most urgent ecological, social, and economic issues facing our oceans today. Markus leads the Academy’s engagement with artists, activists, scientists, and policy-makers worldwide, resulting in the creation of new commissions, new bodies of knowledge, and new policies advancing the conservation and protection of the oceans. In March 2019, the Academy launched Ocean Space, a new global port for ocean literacy, research, and advocacy. Located in the restored Church of San Lorenzo in Venice, Italy, Ocean Space is activated by the itinerant Academy and its network of partners, including universities, NGOs, museums, government agencies, and research institutes from around the world.Reymann also serves as Chair of Alligator Head Foundation, the scientific partner of TBA21–Academy. Alligator Head Foundation established and maintains the East Portland Fish Sanctuary, and oversees a marine wet laboratory in Jamaica.TBA21 https://tba21.org/TBA21–Academy: https://tba21.org/tags/?tag=tba21_academyOcean Space in Venice https://tba21.org/tags/?tag=ocean_spaceWalid Raad https://www.walidraad.com/Anthropocene Observatory https://www.territorialagency.com/anthropoceneWoods Hole Oceanographic Observatory https://www.whoi.edu/

How did one man make the shift from Not wanting to live in this world, to refusing to live in this world?If you've listened to this podcast for any length of time, you'll know that I did the Masters in Regenerative Economics at Schumacher college in 2016-17. It was a genuinely life changing experience not least because I met some of the most inspiring people I could imagine - young, motivated and incredibly bright. And of them all, Charlie was the brightest. Even before we met, he'd studied economics at Harvard and SOAS which for those of you not in academia, are both hardcore and supremely activist. And while doing the MA, he was acting as researcher for one of our best known non-fiction journalists and writers. What I didn't know was that he was already an award-winning activist who, over the course of his career has worked for the New Economics Foundation, the Royal Society of Arts, the Good Law Project, the Four Day Week Campaign and the Centre for Progressive Change, as well as the UK Labour Party under three consecutive leaders. Charlie has spoken at the LSE, the UN and the World Economic Forum and written for The Ecologist, The Independent, Novara Media, Open Democracy and The Guardian.I should have guessed most of that. What I perhaps also ought to have understood better was that he was bipolar - he now says of himself that he's proudly mad which I love - and how deeply it influenced who he was and what he did. So when he contacted me a while ago with news that he'd written a book, I wasn't remotely surprised. What was slightly surprising was that he is now a double amputee, and that his book is written about the interface between mental health, the climate emergency and what we now call eco-anxiety but which I think needs a rather stronger name than that implies. But definitely, this is something I wanted to talk about on the podcast - the edges to which our awareness of this time brings us, the frustration that arises out of living in a culture that still, broadly, gaslights all of us and does its best to rob us of the power to bring about change. Note that I don't think it's succeeding, and Charlie's book is a testament to the not-succeeding of the dominant culture, to the resilience of people around the world who are living with the reality of the climate, ecological and societal crisis and are forging paths through the chaos. Spinning Out: Climate Change, Mental Health and Fighting for a Better Future is an extraordinary book. It approaches head on the things we often turn away from, and we did this too, in the podcast - so this is a potential trigger warning. We do discuss Charlie's suicide attempt and how he ended up with two prosthetic legs, so if this is going to be hard for you, please tap into whatever are your resources before you listen. And then sit back and enjoy, because Charlie's brought his astonishing capacity for humanity, deep thought, and huge emotional intelligence to this and I loved it.Charlie's website https://charliehertzogyoung.cargo.site/Charlie on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-hertzog-young-frsa-40b50b162/?originalSubdomain=ukCharlie's book, Spinning Out https://footnotepress.com/product/spinning-out/Charlie at Hay on Wye https://www.hayfestival.com/p-20173-charlie-hertzog-young-and-mya-rose-craig-talk-to-areeba-hamid.aspx

Paddy and I recorded a brief 15 minute bonus of how the world could look if we actually employed all the strategies in 'Building Tomorrow' - so sit back, soak it in - and then let's make it happen... BIO: Author, Paddy le Flufy read mathematics at Cambridge, then - as seems to have happened with quite a lot of our recent guests, he took a job in the city and qualified as an accountant with KPMG. And then, as also seems to happen with our guests, he didn't buy into the system, but instead spent years, living a double life in which he worked as a finance specialist in London for six months of the year and then used the money to live in remote places, alongside people whose lives were radically different from his own. He has traveled with economic migrants, been taught to fish by the rural people of Mozambique and lived with Hadza hunter-gatherers. He spent two months living with an indigenous tribe in the Ama§on rainforest, then won a Royal Geographical Society Award to spend an entire year being taught by traditional wisdom-keepers from another jungle culture. Since 2015, he has been based in the UK and then Canada, researching how we can redesign our economic system to avert the impending environmental catastrophe. His book is the result and it brought together some ideas we've explored already on the podcast, but knits them with things I had never heard about, and it creates a whole that has the potential to change the way our culture functions - which is genuinely exciting. Paddy's website https://paddyleflufy.com Paddy on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/paddy-le-flufy/Paddy on Substack https://paddyleflufy.substack.com Doughnut Economics https://doughnuteconomics.org/RiverSimple https://www.riversimple.com/governance/Sovereign Money https://positivemoney.org/our-proposals/sovereign-money-introduction/FabLab https://www.fablabs.io/Curitiba Bus Tokens https://brazilianexperience.com/curitibas-bus-system-2/Cosmo-Localism https://www.thealternative.org.uk/dailyalternative/2019/5/13/what-is-cosmo-localism-and-why-we-think-its-a-game-changer

As you will know by now, this podcast searches long and hard for answers to the over-riding question of 'what do we need to do, to get us from where we are, to where we need to be to set the stage for that generative future our hearts know is possible?' So when I got a book that directly asked and then answered that question, I dived straight in. 'Building Tomorrow: Averting Environmental Crisis With a New Economic System' does exactly what it says on the cover. It's full of concrete examples of individuals, organisations and businesses who are forging new ground at the leading edge of change, weaved into a coherent imagining of a future that runs by different rules.Author, Paddy Le Flufy, read mathematics at Cambridge, then - as seems to have happened with quite a lot of our recent guests, he took a job in the city and qualified as an accountant with KPMG. And then, as also seems to happen with our guests, he didn't buy into the system, but instead spent years living something of a double life, earning money as a finance specialist in London then spending it living in remote places, alongside people whose lives were radically different from his own. This period culminated with a year, funded by a Royal Geographical Society Award, being taught by indigenous wisdom-keepers in the Peruvian Amazon. Since 2015, he has been based in the UK and then Canada, researching how we can redesign our economic system to avert the impending environmental catastrophe. His book is the result of this research. It brings together some ideas we've explored already on the podcast, but knits them with things I had never heard about, and it creates a whole that has the potential to change the way our culture functions - which is genuinely exciting. Paddy's website https://paddyleflufy.com Building Tomorrow on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Building-Tomorrow-Averting-Environmental-Economic/dp/1739345207/ Paddy on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/paddy-le-flufy/Paddy on Substack https://paddyleflufy.substack.com Paddy on Twitter www.twitter.com/paddyleflufy Doughnut Economics https://doughnuteconomics.org/RiverSimple https://www.riversimple.com/governance/Sovereign Money https://positivemoney.org/our-proposals/sovereign-money-introduction/Fab Labs https://fabfoundation.org/ Torekes currency https://www.torekes.be/nl/home/ Cosmo-Localism https://www.thealternative.org.uk/dailyalternative/2019/5/13/what-is-cosmo-localism-and-why-we-think-its-a-game-changerThe Cosmolocal Reader https://clreader.net/

If you've listened to the podcast at all over the past few years, you'll know that the search for routes to total systemic change has always been the driver of what we're doing and why we're doing it. Even so, it's not often I talk to someone who is singlemindedly exploring the routes to that systemic change and who has the tools to help everyone explore the potential for what might come next. And so this week, I am immensely happy to have had the chance to talk to Cat Tully, a remarkable woman who spends her life helping people to bridge the space between where we are and where we need to get to, in ways that drag as little of the past with us as possible, while opening the widest gates we can to the systems, structures and practices that stand the best chance of a generative future. Cat leads the School of International Futures (SOIF), a not-for-profit international collective of practitioners based in the UK that use futures thinking to inspire change at the local, national and global levels. SOIF has worked with organisations like the UN, Omidyar, NATO, the Royal Society and national governments across the planet - all with the explicit intention of making the world fairer for current and future generations. SOIF also supports a growing network of Next Generation Foresight Practitioners - young people under the age of 35, who can advocate for and engage with change in their communities and the wider world. There is so much that the SOIF is doing - so many people it's bringing together - we could have spent our time together talking about specific instances, and Cat does use specific examples of projects she's involved in to highlight specific areas, but in general, we wanted to explore the ideas, the systems, the ways we might think differently so that you can pick them up and run with them. Because one thing is becoming increasingly clear as our future unfolds - which is that none of us knows what it is, and it's going to take all of us, using the best tools we have, to make it clear. Cat is bringing us those tools, honed and ready for use. SOIF Projects:If you are interested in learning strategic foresight to shape the future of your community or your organisation, SOIF offers an annual in-person Summer Retreat in Strategic Foresight, happening from 24 to 28 July 2023 in the UK and virtual courses throughout the year. The next virtual courses in 2023 are starting in May and September.Futures toolkit for leaders: SOIF and California 100 published "Beyond Strategic Planning: Foresight Toolkit for Decision Makers"—a primer for leaders looking for straightforward, pragmatic ways to apply foresight to their work.The National Strategy for the Next Generation programme engaged 16-30-year-olds, Next Generation Champions, to imagine futures of the UK's international development role in 2045.SOIF developed the Framework for Assessing Intergenerational Fairness with Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. The tool has been used by All Parliamentary Party Groups for Future Generations (APPG) in their initiative Futures Check, and we have developed a policy brief on Building a Coalition for Intergenerational Fairness in the European Green Deal.Next Generation Foresight Practitioners, an initiative by SOIF, is the largest global network of next-generation future-alert changemakers democratising the futures and foresight field. With 100 fellows and 500 members of a global network, the initiative supports young change agents that use foresight to shape better futures for their community and the world, e.g. NGFP members in Africa imagining Digital Futures of the continent, seeding collaboration with an Impact fund and creating opportunities for members to be visible, BBC Futures article, Youth Climate and Energy Futures Lab at COP26 and contributing to United Nations General Assembly on the SDG Moment Closing Panel.Other links3 Horizons model https://www.boardofinnovation.com/blog/what-is-the-3-horizons-model-how-can-you-use-it/Beth Barany https://bethbarany.com/

IF the present system is broken - and is in fact the heart of the meta-crisis - how can we transform peacefully to something that will work to create the future we'd want to leave behind? That's the core question of this podcast and so it was with great joy, that I found Dark Matter Labs. DML says of itself, "We’re working to create institutions, instruments and infrastructures for a more equitable, caring and sustainable future.Around the planet, we’re feeling the consequences of outdated institutions and inadequate infrastructures incapable of coping with planetary-scale challenges. At Dark Matter, we believe in taking on these challenges via a new, civic economy. An economy that’s community-led, and based on many-to-many relationships. An economy that prioritises mental wellbeing and Nature-based Solutions as platforms for further change. We’re an ambitious not-for-profit designing and building the underlying infrastructure to support this new civic economy, exploring how ownership, legal systems, governance … might begin to change." Which sounds exactly like what we need in our world as we head to the edge of total transition - and exactly what this podcast is about. So I asked if there was someone I could talk to - and connected with Emily Harris. Emily is a Chartered Accountant. She also holds an MA in Regenerative Economics (Distinction) from Schumacher College and a BSc in Medical Sciences from Imperial College. She trained with Deloitte in London and was a manager in their Big Ticket Restructuring Team during the 2008 global financial crisis.Prior to joining DML, Emily spent 11 years running her own consultancy business which took her all over the world and included a number of international CFO positions. In our current meta crisis, Emily has a view from both sides of one of our major divides - and now she's bringing all that experience, and a brilliantly sharp analytical mind to finding answers. Running after the conversations with Simon Michaux and Zahra Davidson, this feels like a further piece in the broader puzzle of how we are going to get from where we are, to where we need to be if we're going to create the future we want to leave behind. We spent a long time exploring Emily's background, so that I - and so you - would understand the depth she brings to this. And then we launched into what she's actually doing and it was really very inspiring. There is hope, and Emily and the teams at DML are at the core of our potential. Be ready to grasp the depth of the problem - and the many possibilities for change. Dark Matter Labs https://darkmatterlabs.org/DML on Medium https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/DML Medium on Financing Civic Transition https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/financing-city-transitions-a-public-civic-deep-code-innovation-challenge-9f2ef55b4bdaNora Bateson Aphanipoiesis https://norabateson.medium.com/aphanipoiesis-96d8aed927bcGillian Tett Warrior Accountants Leading the Green Revolution https://youtu.be/jR0n8mekzro

This week, we're returning to the second part of the ongoing series with Dr Simon Michaux. If you haven't listened to the first part, I'd recommend you do and I'll put the link in the show notes, but the edited highlight is that Simon is a mining engineer who is dedicated to crunching the numbers that nobody else bothers to crunch - of how much stuff there is: key stuff, like copper and lithium and cobalt and concrete - and where it comes from and how much power it takes to dig it up and move it around and where that power might come from. Our original plan for this 2nd part in our conversation was to explore Michaux' hierarchy of needs - the logistical things we'll need as we move to a low entropy, post-carbon, (which is to say, post-fossil-fuel) world. Everything in these conversations is predicated on the understanding that we've got to where we are by burning fossil fuels, which is to say concentrated ancient sunlight, laid down over millions of years - millions of years ago - and that this sudden access to vast quantities of readily transportable energy has changed who we are. Our civilisation is built on this stuff. But we haven't necessarily used it wisely. If I had time, I might write the counter-factual history where we discover oil in a culture that isn't predicated on power hierarchies and the accumulation of resources to the few by the many. But we don't live in that culture. We live in this one and we've burned more oil since 1995 than the whole of the rest of human history before that point. In doing so, we've brought ourselves to the point where the entire ecosystem on which we depend is breaking down and we need urgently to step back and think differently. Which is the entire point of this podcast - what does the thinking differently look like? How can we connect to the web of life in a way that allows us to play a constructive, regenerative part in a flourishing web? What are the spiritual and psychological and conceptual shifts this will take and how best can we make those shifts?In all those questions, I've tended to take for granted, for instance, the idea that we need to shift to renewable sources of power without actually thinking about whether that was a logistical possibility. Which is where Simon comes in because he does think about these things and he has the numbers to back it up. He gave his baseline talk 91 times in 2022 - sharpening it at every iteration - and now he's talking at governmental level to people who are listening, even if they don't yet know quite what to do. Unless you're listening in Scandinavia, he is probably not talking to your government. But he should be. So part of the reason for continuing the conversation is so that we - all of us who care - can get our heads around reality and then we can use that understanding to create governance systems that work. Link to Part 1 with Simon https://accidentalgods.life/transforming-industry-to-create-a-genuine-green-revolution/Balanced Resource Economy Paper https://www.centrumbalticum.org/files/5598/BSR_Policy_Briefing_2_2023.pdfSimon's Site https://www.simonmichaux.com/Alice Friedman site https://energyskeptic.com/Alice Friedman - When the Trucks Stop Running https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/27136955The Venus Project https://www.thevenusproject.com/Sam Harris TED Talk on AI https://youtu.be/8nt3edWLgIgBiomimicry Institute https://biomimicry.org/what-is-biomimicry/

How can we begin to shift away from the old hierarchical dominance structures of our past 2,000 years, towards something where everyone brings the best of themselves and embraces and celebrates the best in other people?It was in hunting for answers to this, that I came across this week's guest: someone who is opening doors all round the world in the creation of a regenerative, emotionally literate future. Zahra Davidson was Co-founder of and is now the Chief Executive and Design Director at Huddlecraft, an organisation that promotes and supports peer to peer learning. With a background spanning social entrepreneurship, service design, system change, sustainability and visual communication. she describes herself now as a purpose-led designer and strategist, working for a post-growth future for our finite planet. As you'll hear, Zahra and Huddlecraft have evolved a system of peer to peer learning that absolutely helps those involved to grow the emotional literacy - to exercise their conceptual and psychological muscles - as a way of shifting our culture's centre of gravity in a more generative direction. As part of this, she is Strategic Advisor to Money Movers (formerly called OwnIt), a movement designed to empower women to take Climate Action by moving their personal finances - and they are aiming to move £1billion by 2030. She and Huddlecraft are also involved in the newly formed Collective Imagination Practice Community - and any of you who have listened to more than a couple of podcasts will know that I'm fairly firmly of the belief that if we're going to get to that flourishing future we'd be proud to leave behind, we'll need a massed act of collective re-imagining of our trajectory. Huddlecraft https://www.huddlecraft.com/Huddlecraft 'Huddles' (peer learning groups) currently open for sign-up https://www.huddlecraft.com/huddlesHuddlecraft 101 training (learn to apply the power of peer-led approach) https://www.huddlecraft.com/101 Money Movers: women moving money for the planet https://www.wearemoneymovers.com/Collective Imagination Practice Community https://medium.com/imagination-practice/collective-imagination-practice-community-2023-24-1c1405d33662Joseph Rowntree Emerging Futures https://www.jrf.org.uk/blog/emerging-futures-updateDoughnut Economics Action Lab https://doughnuteconomics.org/CIVIC SQUARE https://civicsquare.cc/Medium post on creating 'microclimates' for learning and change inside organisations https://medium.com/huddlecraft/how-can-we-create-microclimates-for-learning-and-change-inside-organisations-70aae0266d9dMedium post on creating a 'surge' of peer to peer learning over the next decade https://medium.com/huddlecraft/a-surge-of-peer-to-peer-learning-through-multiple-intertwining-movements-55a101b5db5aZahra on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/zahra-davidson-84710920/Huddlecraft on Twitter https://twitter.com/HuddlecraftHuddlecraft on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/huddle.craft/

Following our podcast with Grace Rachmany, we stayed online and talked about the banking crash. At the time of recording, we only knew about Silicon Valley Bank - Credit Suisse hadn't gone down yet - but we talked about the nature of finance, of cryptocurrencies, of the totally unsustainable nature of the economy. This is the kind of conversation that I often have with guests after the podcast is over. Usually it happens off-air and I wish we'd captured it. And this time, we did. So if you're interested in the two of us riffing in a rather less structured way than the usual podcast, this is it.

We know that the future is based on Community. What we lack are practical routes to creating communities of community on a worldwide scale - ones that can form and will be resilient enough to survive. In this week's podcast, therefore, I'm genuinely thrilled to introduce you to one of the women who is breaking new ground in the creation of communities at scale and across wide geographic areas. In quite specific order, Grace Rachmany is a mother, a tech industry trouble shooter, author of over a hundred White Papers, creator of Voice of Humanity, Gangly Sister and - crucial to the trajectory we're taking just now - co-creator of Priceless DAO. If you've heard our podcast with Cory Feco back in episode #170, you'll know we invited Cory to tell us about DAOs specifically because we knew we were going to talk to Grace and wanted you to have at least a grounding in the nature of Disseminated Autonomous Organisations and the nature of the Web 3 revolution so that we could head straight into Grace's ideas and work in this podcast. And here we are: Grace is one of those people who has thought outside the boundaries of our current system, about the nature of the current system, about economics and governance and politics and decision making and the creation of viable communities as we head out of the old paradigm into something new and different. The result is Priceless , which is a cause-based DAO in the form of a networked nation, which says it is dedicated to creating a true alternative economy and alternative citizenship for its members.In pursuit of this, Priceless funds economic experiments that are designed to replace the current monetary system. The holders of PricelessDAO tokens can create whatever they want with the DAO, while the founders of Priceless Economics develop decentralized economic models that support life on earth.At Priceless, we are convinced that the existing financial system is crumbling and at the end of life. While many projects seek to salvage what we’ve got, Priceless is looking forward to creating a completely new system that will be a destination for those trying to escape the collapse of everything.I mean, you know everything’s collapsing, right? What can you do about it? At the very least you can give your sh*tcoins to PricelessDAO. Any funds we have will be used to research, design, prototype, and deploy economic models that respect humans and the planet.Which is just what we're here for. Truly. If you want to know more, or to be part of her thinking, follow the links below - and then stay tuned for the bonus podcast, in which we recorded the follow-up conversation on the nature of cryptocurrency and Ponzi schemes and the global financial crash(es). Grace's website https://gracerachmany.com/Priceless website https://pricelessdao.io/Grace's Medium posts https://rebeccarachmany.medium.com/group-currency-what-if-you-could-only-transact-as-a-community-38f4234f72cGrace on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccarachmany/recent-activity/Drea Burbank and the Savimbo project: https://www.savimbo.com/

How much actual stuff do we have in the world compared to what we need to make the 'Green Revolution' happen? This week's guest is another of those recently elevated to my pantheon of people I Must Listen To whatever they say and however they say it and I am genuinely thrilled to welcome him onto the podcast. Dr Simon Michaux has been a physicist and geologist. His PhD is in mining engineering and he worked for years in the mining industries in Australia. In 2015, he moved to Europe and became involved in urban mining, or reverse metallurgy, which is to say the recovery of essential minerals from existing waste - what we would call the beginnings of the circular economy - and from there, he moved to Scandinavia where he now works in the Geological Survey of Finland and is a regular advisor to the Finnish parliament. From all of which you will gather that Simon is deeply embedded in the actual physicality of the world we inhabit - and, because he's also committed to creating the future we want and need, he is growing ideas of the future we could inhabit. Of all the people I've encountered as I roam the digital web for ways we can shift our relationship with the living web, Simon is the one who has his finger on the actual logistics of what's going on - he can list the reasons why most of the targets for our transition away from fossil fuels are simply logistically impossible. It's not until you hear his crunching of the numbers that you begin to realise how much arm waving is going on in the corridors of power. How much raw self-delusion is being practice by the people who we still, at some deep subconscious level, trust to keep the show on the road. And I think we need to know this. It's hard. It's sobering. It's shocking, on many levels, but if we aren't grounded in reality then we're not going to build forward So hold onto your seats - this isn't easy, but we do need to know it. And then we need to plan our responses. Fast. (NB - the accompanying image is of a copper mine and the pollution from it is destroying an entire water system) Simon's website: https://www.simonmichaux.com/Assessment of the Extra Capacity Required of Alternative Energy Electrical Power Systems to Completely Replace Fossil Fuels https://tupa.gtk.fi/raportti/arkisto/42_2021.pdfAnswers to Hot Topics around the above report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdJH3tKjvzMWhat are the Raw Material Supply Bottlenecks to the Green Transition? The Need for a New Plan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o0xzCa2fLQInterview with Mark Mills of the Manhattan Institute https://www.manhattan-institute.org/presidents-update-2021/interview-mark-mills

Our crisis, our challenge, our opportunity is complex. More than ever, it matters now that we not get caught in separate silos where we focus just on atmospheric carbon, or just on plastic pollution, or just on our cultural addiction to fossil fuels. We need responses that cover all of these fields, new stories that let us move into a future we can barely imagine. So, that's what this podcast is for: to give a platform to people whose perspectives are new or different or challenging or inspiring in ways that will help us all to weave new stories of how we could do things differently - and this week, we're talking to Yuli Summe of Bellacouche, whose work has taken her from weaving to felt making to the creation of burial shrouds. Yuli is a maker, someone deeply grounded in our connection to the ancestry of the land and the ways we have sustained ourselves from it. She's been working with wool since childhood and is embedded in the rich lore of shepherd, farm and land, of the fullers and spinners and weavers that were so much a core of our history - and will be again as we move to a more localised, simpler economy and way of living. This conversation moved from the courage of one man in the second world war, to the courage of his daughter in laying to rest her fear of death, through fields and high tors and the rhythms of feltmaking. It felt to me like a song to our future and I hope it leads you forward in the same way. BioYuli was born in Norway and although she has lived most of her life in Devon, the traditional weaving and knitting heritage of Norway has deeply influenced her since she was old enough to hold needles to knit with. She is a member of Make SouthWest and through this organisation, has been an active teacher of felt making and textile understanding in schools, and is part of the Green Maker Initiative.At the turn of the millennium, an Arts Council grant allowed Yuli to travel to Turkey to work with traditional master feltmakers, and it was there that she started thinking about a “lifetime” garment made of felt, inspired by witnessing the making of a ‘kepenek’, a felt cloak traditional to Kurdish shepherds. Yuli is a member of the South West FibreShed – a growing community of fibre and dye growers, processors, makers and manufacturers across the South West whose aim is to produce home-grown textiles and garments in a more healthy, resilient and regenerative textile ecosystem. This group is affiliated to the international FibreShed group.Another Man's Shoes https://www.waterstones.com/book/another-mans-shoes/sven-somme/9780954913731Yuli Somme Bellacouche https://www.bellacouche.com/yuli-somme/Human Composting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LJSEZ_pl3YGood Funeral Guide https://goodfuneralguild.co.uk/Natural Death Centre http://naturaldeath.org.uk/

The one big question that this podcast exists to answer is - what does our future look like when it works? When we endeavour to answer this, there seems quite a clear divide between those us born in the twentieth century who grew up in a world before broadband, and those born in the nineties and later who never got to know the strange weeble of the dial up tone, but instead grew in a world where their every move was dissected by their peers on social media. We can look some other time at the emotional and spiritual impact of that but today I wanted to look at the people who are determined to use the rapidly evolving technology for good. I'm going to interview someone called Grace Rachmany in a couple of weeks time. She's setting up a DAO, a disseminated autonomous organisation, to create not just a community, but a network of communities that - she says - could be free of the need to use dollars, or pounds or the currency of their nation, in 10 years.Which sounds pretty exciting. But I to understand how it works and what it is she's planning to do, we needed to know what a DAO actually is. And to get to that, we have to unpick Blockchain a bit, because the one thing I learned when we invited Reiki Cordon to speak on blockchain last summer, was that it went over a lot of people's heads. So this is the first time I've actually sought out someone on the basis that they could tell me what I wanted to hear. I wanted an idiot's guide to blockchain, to DAOs, to web 3.0 and the web 3 revolution because that seemed like something this podcast ought to know about. All of which leads me to introduce this week's guest. Cory Feco is a member of the DOI foundation which describes itself as 'an international community of communities bound by a common interest in persistent infrastructure.' Cory himself is a podcaster at the DOICast - which is one of my must-listen podcasts - I've put a link in the show notes. Beyond that, he describes himself as a web 3 impactivist, and a recovering workaholic. He started as an entrepreneur at 9 selling products from catalogs door to door and ever since have been the most satisfied when walking the path less tread. He has founded and failed, founded and sold, trained hundreds, consulted dozens, lead teams of many, lead only himself, won some awards, and made countless mistakes - and through this the one constant has been growth. He is completely plugged in to a world about which I only have a transient and shallow understanding, but I know enough to know that it could make or break our chances of a flourishing future. Advaya https://advaya.co (soon to be advaya.life) Advaya course with Nathali Nahai https://www.digitalage-course.com/DOI Foundation https://www.doi.org/DOICast podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-doicast/id1618462106CryptoWorld https://shopcryptoworld.com/DOA HQ https://www.daohq.co/EarthSong Seeds https://earthsongseeds.co.uk/

The Accidental Gods podcast exists to set the conditions for emergence into a new system: to bring a critical mass of us to a place where emergence into a new system is a rewarding reality. To get there, we bring to you some of the many astonishingly creative, compassionate, switched-on people who are working at the leading edge of change. Alan Lane is one of these people. He's the artistic director of the theatre company Slung Low, which in turn is one of the most innovative theatre companies in the UK, if not in the world. Absolutely embedded in the neighbourhood in which they work, Slung Low are committed to their core principles of 'Be Kind, Be Useful, Everyone gets to do what they want. Nobody gets to tell anyone else what they can't do.' (within obvious limits - as you'll hear). Alan is also the author of the book 'The Club on the Edge of Town' which is subtitled 'A Pandemic Memoir' but is so, so much more - this is the story of how Slung Low arose, how it came to be entered in the oldest Working Mens' Club in England (unable to change the name), and ultimately became a Food Bank during the pandemic. It's the story of standing in the rain, of keeping promises, of integrity and grit and sheer bloody-minded tenacity. Most of all, it's a story of how a small group of committed people made a huge difference to the lives of their neighbours and community. It is also the story of the culture clash that you'll hear more about in the podcast, and that led, ultimately, to Slung Low moving elsewhere in Leeds. Since then, their transformation to being part of the team that put on the utterly magical opening event of the Leeds Year of Culture 2023, where the city's most famous pop star spoke to a god - is the stuff of legend. In their new world, their core purpose is to make Awe and Wonder happen - and they are doing it with commitment, integrity, enthusiasm and raw inspiration. In this episode, Alan tells the story that led from standing in the rain in Nottinghill to creating technical magic on a stage in Leeds. We explore the power of story to change people's lives and the value of commitment to the things we believe in. We dig deep into Alan's absolute moral imperatives and his compassion for the people around him, people he values, people he teaches to value themselves in a world that, in his words, 'teaches us we're cogs in a machine and we're scum' is heartbreakingly wonderful. Truly, if the whole world was inspired as Leeds is being inspired, we'd be in a different place. (And the god that rose out of the river was a world first: made with drones, everyone said it was impossible. And Alan and the team made it happen anyway. How good of a metaphor is that for what we have to do now in our emerging new system?)Bio: Alan Lane is Artistic Director of Slung Low directing most of their work over the last decade including projects with the Barbican, the RSC, The Almeida, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Liverpool Everyman, Sheffield Theatres, Singapore Arts Festival and the Lowry. Slung Low make large scale people’s theatre work on stages, trains, castles, swimming pools, fishing boats and town centres.In 2017 Slung Low headlined Hull UK City of Culture 2017 with Flood by James Phillips: a 4 Part epic performed online, live and on the BBC. Over half a million people saw a part of Flood. It won a Royal Televisual Award Yorkshire for innovation in drama.In 2019 the company took over management of the oldest working men’s club in Britain, The Holbeck in South Leeds. Initially, they ran this venue as a Pay What You Decide creative and community space, but during lockdown, they transformed into one of the only non-means-tested Food Banks in the country. Their work there was transformative and Alan wrote the book 'The Club on the Edge of Town' out of their experiences there. Late last year, the company moved venues to a warehouse next to their favourite primary school and began to help organise the astonishing, miraculous, technologically outstanding (and magically wonderful) opening event to Leeds Year of Culture 2023, which culminated in Corrine Bailey Rae talking to a god in front of a rugby stadium filled with 10,000 artists. Slung Low https://www.slunglow.org/Arts Together Leeds https://artstogetherleeds.co.uk/partner/slung-low/Leeds 2023 https://leeds2023.co.uk/Buy 'The Club on the Edge of Town' https://salamanderstreet.com/product/the-club-on-the-edge-of-town-paperback/The Club on the Edge of Town audio version https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Club-on-the-Edge-of-Town-Audiobook/B0B8TKMXWQ

It is our mission on this podcast - and the wider membership community from which it arose - to open doors and break down barriers, to bring forward the ideas and the actions of, and give voice to, the absolutely amazingly creative people who get that business is not usual, that the reality we have created for ourselves is misguided at best - and dangerously toxic at worst - and are doing their best to bring about change in a timescale that matters. This week, we spoke with Pooran Desai, whose scope and scale and grasp of the nature of the problem is unmatched. Pooran is a serial environmental entrepreneur and it felt like a breath of fresh air, to connect with someone who sees the bigger picture and is working to affect change at all levels. We explored topics that ranged from the building of Britain's first sustainable community at BedZED in London, to the nature of the meta-crisis and why measurement of single indices is one of the key factors in the emergency. On the way, we discusses the different natures of left and right brain thinking and how they apply to databases (and why databases are so critical to the way that business and so politics works in the world), the evolution of sustainable development goals (and why those started out well but have become yet another way of greenwashing business in its endless drive for profit), the nature of reality and how Daoist meditation can give us insights into our own delusions…and ways we could save the NHS 80% of its costs. This was a hard-hitting conversation. We didn't mince words or step around ideas. I found it exhilarating, enlightening and inspiring and hope you do to. Bio: Pooran Desai has been a neuroscientist, a property developer, and a technology entrepreneur, but all of it has been in service to a regenerative future. In 1994, he co-founded one of the world’s first sustainability organisations, Bioregional which is responsible for setting-up enterprises in sustainable forestry, organic farming, recycling and real estate development.He assembled a wealth of environmental and sustainable talent to create the UK’s first zero-carbon urban eco-village, BedZED, which was completed in 2002. In 2004, he was awarded an OBE for services to sustainability - in the days when the word still meant something seriously worthwhile. Pooran led Bioregional’s One Planet Living® initiative for 18 years, leading teams that created sustainability strategies in 30 countries creating a set of principles that served as inspiration for the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). Pooran is author of OnePlanet Communities: A Real-Life Guide for Sustainable Living, and is a trustee of the Design Council, supporting their 'Design for Planet' mission.In 2019, Pooran founded OnePlanet, to create a software suite that helps people, companies, policy makers shift to networked thinking - to let go of the constraints of consensus reality and the linear thinking that got us into this mess, and move towards systemic thinking that might get us out of it. LinksAlan Watts recordings https://alanwatts.org/audio/Sharon Blackie Post-Heroic Journey https://open.substack.com/pub/sharonblackie/p/the-post-heroic-journeyKnepp https://knepp.co.uk/