Accidental Gods

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/

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

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/

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/

Our guest this week is Hugo Spowers, Company Architect of Riversimple, whose purpose is 'To pursue, systematically, the elimination of the environmental impact of personal transport.' Modernity demands that we have personal transport and the thought of giving it up is one of the many sticking points when people try to imagine a way through to a regenerative future: nobody wants to be limited to their immediate vicinity for work, leisure or social connection. At the same time, we're becoming increasingly aware of the limitations of electric vehicles - Simon Michaux has explained in detail the logistical limitations to rare earth batteries, and the environmental catastrophe created by their miningWhich is what makes the Riversimple's hydrogen fuel cell car so transformative. They've gone right back to the basics of what makes a car in the first place and then how could it be made better - not just lighter and more efficient and fuelled by something that doesn't create greenhouse gases - but how could it be made so that the aims of the manufacturer and the customer are aligned - and both are aiming for a habitable planet. On its own, this would be inspiring - but Riversimple doesn't stop there. The company is structured with the innovative - and I genuinely believe transformative - 'Future Guardian Governance model' - Hugo describes this in near the end of the podcast so I won't go into it here, but it seems to me that if every company in the world shifted to this model tomorrow, by the day after, we'd be on our way to healing many aspects of the meta-crisis. So with this in mind, sit back and prepared for a fundamental shift in how we see our role in the world and how we could move towards the future we need, with Hugo Spowers of Riversimple. Riversimple https://www.riversimple.com/RIversimple Subscription model https://www.riversimple.com/subscription/Riversimple Future Guardian governance model https://www.riversimple.com/governance/Invest in Riversimple here https://www.riversimple.com/investment/Paul Hawken 'The Ecology of Commerce' https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-ecology-of-commerce-revised-edition-a-declaration-of-sustainability-paul-hawken/883510?ean=9780061252792

Our guest this week is host of one of my must-listen podcasts - one I've been following since the spring, when Dr Simon Michaux mailed me and said, you need to listen to Rachel - and he was right. Rachel Donald is host of Planet: Critical one of the world's top-rated podcasts on the poly-crisis and systems change.  She interviews some really big players on the world stage with integrity and panache - her conversation with Alastair Campbell where she never lets him off the hook is an absolute exemplar of how to hold power to account and I think we're seeing the change in real time on his podcast with Rory Stewart. When she's not podcasting,  Rachel is a climate corruption journalist who investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it.  With world exclusives in major papers, Rachel investigates the gaslighting which props up our broken systems.  She travels the world talking on - and off - the record to heads of government and oil industry executives, to the people who make our current system tick and who are often just as afraid as we are about the direction and speed of travel towards the edge of the extinction cliff. Rachel has an almost unique insight into the nature of the systemic catastrophe we've built for ourselves and therefore of the ways we might address it. This was a bracing conversation. There are no easy answers and I had some of my rosier tinted lenses broken along the way.  But in the end we came to the place we often get to with this podcast - that building communities of place, purpose and passion where we value each other, and our capacity to love bravely is what might - perhaps - bring us to the emergent edge of inter-becoming that Indy Johar spoke of a few weeks ago. So brace yourselves, this is not an easy podcast, but we need to know where we're at so we can let go - again - ever more completely  - of our assumptions about business as usual and do whatever we can, wherever we are, to be that emergent edge. Planet: Critical podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/planet-critical/id1545009586Planet: Critical website https://www.planetcritical.com/Rachel on Twitter https://twitter.com/CrisisReportsRachel on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-donald/Diem25 - Democracy in Europe Movement https://diem25.org/en/

This week, as we head down towards what, in the northern hemisphere at least, is the long nights, the dark nights, I wanted to explore our heritage, the way we celebrate the solstice in this land, the land of Britain. I'm aware that quite a lot of you listening are from the southern hemisphere where you're heading up to your long sun and your fires burn differently. I recorded a summer solstice meditation at our long days in June and when we get to the meditation - after the podcast with Della Duncan and Nathalie Nahai, I'll put that up. In the meantime, I hope this conversation with Angharad Wynne helps open doors to reconnection wherever you are in the world. Angharad is a story-teller, a placemaker, a myth-creator holder of tribe and of the land. A native of Wales, she is deeply connected to the land there, and holds retreats and workshops designed to help people connect with the living spirits of the land. In the podcast you're about to hear, she describes her 3 year "Dadeni" training which helps to create the deep tribe-connections, community-connections we speak about in the podcast. If you're interested in this, applications are open until 21st January and the link is in the show notes. I'd also like to remind you that if you have ideas of previous podcast guests - including Angharad, or anyone you've heard over the years - that you'd like us to invite for one of our Sunday evening 'Cutting Edge' events please click the link in the show notes, or go to the podcast section of the website and find the button there and let us know. this is your chance to talk to people, to ask the questions I didn't get around to asking, but you wish I had. And then afterwards, there'll be a chance to connect with other people in breakout rooms, to share your thoughts and ideas and ways of grounding what you've heard in everyday life. So, it's the dark month, the time when we rest, and regather and recoup. The time when we light the fire and invite our tribe to join us. In the spirit of connection, people of the podcast, please welcome, Angharad Wynne, a bard of Wales. Angharad's site https://www.angharadwynne.com/Dadeni Programme https://www.dadeni.org/Dreaming the Land https://www.dreamingtheland.com/aboutThree Degrees of Influence - https://exploringyourmind.com/impact-the-three-degrees-of-influence-theory/

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

This is the fourth year of our now-traditional Winter Solstice podcast get-together in which Nathalie Nahai, Della Duncan and I sit around our virtual dark-nights fire to reflect on the podcasting year just gone and explore what has changed for us since the last time the seeds of new beginnings were grounded in the heart of what has passed.  This is becoming one of the highlights of my podcasting year  - a chance to range far and wide and deep in the company of two women whose podcasts never fail to touch me deeply, and whose opinions on life, the universe and everything are always inspiring and enlightening. Della Z Duncan is a Renegade Economist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a co-host of the Upstream Podcast, a Right Livelihood Coach, a faculty member at the California Institute of Integral Studies, a Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics, a founding member of the California Doughnut Economics Coalition, and the designer and co-facilitator of the Cultivating Regenerative Livelihood Course at Gaia Education.Nathalie Nahai is an author, keynote speaker and host of the Nathalie Nahai in Conversation podcast enquires into our relationship with one another, with technology and with the living world. She's author of the international best-sellers Webs Of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion and, more recently, Business Unusual: Values, Uncertainty and the Psychology of Brand Resilience which has been described as “One of the defining business books of our times”. She's a consultant, artist and facilitator of Before we head into the conversation, I want to invite you to 'Dreaming Your Year Awake' which takes place on Sunday the 7th of January.  This is our chance really to delve deeply into the year just gone, and look ahead at how we want to shape our attention and intention for the year that's coming. After all the  outward connection of the holiday season, this is a time to go inwards, to be kind to ourselves, to explore all that we can be and want to be. This, too, is part of our Accidental Gods tradition and we have people who've come year after year to give themselves the gift of time and space and the company of people who share the journey.  So please do come along, we would love to share this time with you.  I've put a link in the show notes and it's also on the website accidentalgods.life under the 'Gatherings' tab. And now, People of the Podcast, please welcome Della Duncan, co-host of the Upstream podcast and Nathalie Nahai, host of the Nathalie Nahai podcast, and me. Links Summer Solstice Meditation - Essence  https://chrt.fm/track/8F5463/media.transistor.fm/6f621f9a/7a43d63f.mp3 Summer Solstice Meditation with Birdsong With Birdsong https://chrt.fm/track/8F5463/media.transistor.fm/6f621f9a/7a43d63f.mp3 Poem: The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer Theory: Two Loop Theory by Meg Wheatley and Deborah Frieze  Conversation: Marxism & Buddhism with Breht O'Shea on the Upstream Podcast  Conversation: A Marxist Perspective on Elections with August Nimtz on the Upstream Podcast Conversation: Beyond the Clock with Jenny Odell on the Upstream Podcast Organization: California Doughnut Economics Coalition

Here is our winter solstice meditation - please create a space for yourself where you won't be disturbed and where you can feel your way into the dark, regenerative space of the longest night.  If you want to draw the curtains, switch off all the power and light a candle, this may help you to connect with the place of rest and renewal. This version is the shortest and comes with music in the background. If you'd prefer longer versions with or without music, you can find them belowand if you are in the southern hemisphere and would rather experience a meditation for the height of the sun and the bright time of the longest day, that's at the foot of the links. Winter Solstice meditation - 17 minutes Without Music   https://media.transistor.fm/a20d6861/492c0725.mp3Winter Solstice meditation - 22 minutes With Music https://media.transistor.fm/361287b3/6bad5f45.mp3Winter Solstice Meditation: 22 minutes Without Music https://media.transistor.fm/e11c283a/d522798e.mp3Winter Solstice Meditation: 27 minutes With Music https://media.transistor.fm/4c1945ed/1ab5c80a.mp3Winter Solstice Meditation: 27 minutes Without Music https://media.transistor.fm/25cbf6e7/e9f16280.mp3

For this time around the dark nights of the winter solstice - at least in the northern hemisphere - we've been exploring more of an inner landscape - being reflexive with Nathalie and Della, and before that, exploring the living myths of our land and how we can ground them in our current reality with Angharad Wynne. And this week, we're heading inward and outward, travelling to Peru with Dr Simon Ruffell, psychiatrist, ayahuasca researcher and student of Shipobo curanderismo. Since 2016, Simon has been working closely with Indigenous communities in the Amazon basin, exploring the effects of ayahuasca and the role of ceremony and spirit in healing. As you'll hear in the conversation that follows, Simon manages to bridge between the world of western science and the older world of indigenous spirit with extraordinary integrity, humour and a grounded. commitment to the traditions he's learning that feels wholly authentic. He's experiencing the depths of ancient teaching and exploring the leading edge of modern science, delving into epigenetics, the microbiome and neuroplasticity. As we rest in the cusp of the dark nights, that time of reflection and renewal, I wanted to bring you something that felt as if it spoke deeply to the ethos of Accidental Gods, and I couldn't imagine anything better. So people of the podcast, please welcome, Dr Simon Ruffell. Simon's personal website https://www.drsimonruffell.com/Simon's Onaya website https://Onaya.ioWebsite for donations https://onaya.science ICEERS https://www.iceers.org/Simon on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-ruffell-27bba0191/Simon on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/simon.ruffell Simon on Twitter https://twitter.com/sgdruffellOnayaScience on Twitter https://twitter.com/Onaya_Science

Happy New Year.  My guest this week is a long term friend of the podcast. Dr Simon Michaux has been a physicist and geologist and then became an expert in the reality of the circular economy. He now works in the Geological Survey of Finland and is a regular advisor to the Finnish parliament. The day after we recorded this podcast, he was talking to the British consulate in Helsinki and in the last year, he's explained the reality of where we're at over 200 times, and one third of those talks was to governments around the world. He's been extraordinarily generous with his time on Accidental Gods. He was with us in podcasts number 172, 175, 183 and 184 with a series of excoriating, fact-filled, grounded, lucid conversations on the reality of the transition we face, so who better to start us off into 2024 with a conversation about where the world is going, where it could go, where it might go, where it should go in the coming year. This was one of our longest ever podcasts and truly, my brain had turned to slurry and was leaking out of my ears by the end, but Simon's ideas of how we could build a different way of being - and his ability to turn ideas into action feels revolutionary to me in the best possible way. We talked for hours. Many ours - and because we ended up defaulting to Zoom for the recording so we do have a video - the entire unexpurgated hours of which we will put up on YouTube - so if you want to see Simon's slides, head over there. But Caro has edited this down to the highlights so that it makes for easier listening, even so, we're spanning more than one podcast. At the time of recording, I don't know exactly how many, but we'll release them all at once, so just let your favourite podcast provider just stream them all for you. One thing to say before we head into the first conversation is that Simon has very kindly agreed to come back to join our Cutting Edge gathering on Sunday 19th March at 7pm UK time. He'll be with us for an hour during which you'll have a chance to ask him the questions that matter to you - all the things I don't think to ask - and then we'll have another hour together to explore ways each of us can ground what we're learning in our own lives. So you can sign up for this at accidentalgods.life - go to the Gatherings page. I've also put a link in the show notes. And while we're talking about Gatherings, there's still space on Dreaming Your Death Awake on Sunday 7th January.  This is our chance really to delve deeply into the year just gone, and look ahead at how we want to shape our attention and intention for the year that's coming. After all the  outward connection of the holiday season, this is a time to go inwards, to be kind to ourselves, to explore all that we can be and want to be. This, too, is part of our Accidental Gods tradition and we have people who've come year after year to give themselves the gift of time and space and the company of people who share the journey.  So please do come along, we would love to share this time with you.  I've put a link in the show notes and it's also on the website accidentalgods.life under the 'Gatherings' tab. Simon's Website https://www.simonmichaux.com/Prometheus Project link to follow Episode 172 https://accidentalgods.life/transforming-industry-to-create-a-genuine-green-revolution/Episode 175 https://accidentalgods.life/drawing-humanity-out-of-the-cave-with-dr-simon-michaux/Episode 183 https://accidentalgods.life/lifeboats-and-volcanoes-part-3-of-our-series-with-simon-michaux/Episode 184 https://accidentalgods.life/bonus-reality-check-less-quantity-more-quality-in-a-future-that-will-work-part-4-with-simon-michaux/Cutting Edge - come and meet Simon - ask him your questions - and we'll gather afterwards to see how we can apply all we're learning in our own lives https://accidentalgods.life/the-logistical-realities-of-our-world/

Welcome to the second part of our conversation - if you haven't listened to the first part, please do so - it's here [LINK]and Simon has very kindly agreed to come back to join our Cutting Edge gathering on Sunday 19th March at 7pm UK time. He'll be with us for an hour during which you'll have a chance to ask him the questions that matter to you - all the things I don't think to ask - and then we'll have another hour together to explore ways each of us can ground what we're learning in our own lives. So you can sign up for this at accidentalgods.life - go to the Gatherings page. I've also put a link in the show notes. And while we're talking about Gatherings, there's still space on Dreaming Your Death Awake on Sunday 7th January.  This is our chance really to delve deeply into the year just gone, and look ahead at how we want to shape our attention and intention for the year that's coming. After all the  outward connection of the holiday season, this is a time to go inwards, to be kind to ourselves, to explore all that we can be and want to be. This, too, is part of our Accidental Gods tradition and we have people who've come year after year to give themselves the gift of time and space and the company of people who share the journey.  So please do come along, we would love to share this time with you.  I've put a link in the show notes and it's also on the website accidentalgods.life under the 'Gatherings' tab. Prometheus Project Link: Episode 172 https://accidentalgods.life/transforming-industry-to-create-a-genuine-green-revolution/Episode 175 https://accidentalgods.life/drawing-humanity-out-of-the-cave-with-dr-simon-michaux/Episode 183 https://accidentalgods.life/lifeboats-and-volcanoes-part-3-of-our-series-with-simon-michaux/Episode 184 https://accidentalgods.life/bonus-reality-check-less-quantity-more-quality-in-a-future-that-will-work-part-4-with-simon-michaux/Cutting Edge - come and meet Simon - ask him your questions - and we'll gather afterwards to see how we can apply all we're learning in our own lives https://accidentalgods.life/the-logistical-realities-of-our-world/

Happy New Year.  It feels to me as if this year, the journey is going to be one of continual change and of challenge - that 2024 will be the year when it is impossible for anyone to pretend that the life we knew, the life we grew up believing would go on indefinitely - is going to continue. The old order is dying, but if we're to absolute collapse on a global scale (because clearly it's happening locally all over the world, usually pushed by the governments of people who are statistically most likely to be listening to this podcast) -but if we're going to avert absolute breakdown everywhere, then we need to dismantle the super-organism of the markets. Markets, globalisation, the entire neo-liberal model of free trade that was neither free nor liberal, nor particularly new... these are the common thread that perpetuates the world we know. Yes, we have to change our political systems, our power generation, our food systems..... all of these are core, but it's the markets and our concepts of value and money - the core of capitalism that keep the whole show on the road. One way or another, they are going - either there's a crash and nothing... or we succeed in managing a degrowth curve to a much simpler system that is not just less extractive, it's regenerative - it repairs some of the desperate harm we've done in recent times. So I want this podcast really to begin to look at how we could shape this downward slope - to play with ideas that could take use forward into something different - to begin to build narratives, stories, mythologies, collective heroic journeys of how we as a culture could affect the change that we need. Yes, the super-organism feels as if it has a life of its own, but it is composed of individuals and if we all change our behaviour, our expectations, our understanding of what's good and what isn't - then it will change. I still believe this is possible and I'm definitely working towards this. As is our guest this week. Diana Finch has worked in senior leadership roles in a variety of socially and environmentally focused non-profit organisations since 2001. Through this work, she became convinced that our economic system is the root cause behind the environmental and social challenges the non-profit sector is trying to address. She started to become interested in the field of new economics, and was thrilled to join the Bristol Pound team as Managing Director in 2018. She continued to be a director until the organisation was wound up in 2023. The experience helped her develop an understanding of the problems with our existing economic system, creating a determination to share what she has learned by writing a book called 'Value Beyond Money: an exploration of the Bristol Pound and the building blocks for an alternative economic system' The book is not out until September, but it I was privileged to read it early and was so struck by Diana's capacity to lay out clearly the various different ways we have begun to see money and the alternative systems that people are trying - the Bristol Pound was an astonishing endeavour and the story of how it came about and why it ended are remarkable in and of itself. But it's the ideas that come after - why did it not work and what could we do now - what could help us shift from exactly where we are, to where we need to be - these are the solid gold. We did talk for a long time. If necessary, we'll split this into two bits. I'm not sure if we're going to need to, so... we'll see.   In the meantime, enjoy the ideas of how we could be different - and then if you know of anyone who could fund this, please do let us know. PreOrder Diana's book https://crowdbound.org/product/value-beyond-money/The Bristol Pound legacy homepage https://www.bristolpoundlegacy.info/Holochain https://www.holochain.org/Art Brock Metacurrency https://www.artbrock.com/metacurrency/resourcesBradford Citizen Coin https://bradford.citizencoin.uk/Mark Fisher Ghosts of my Life https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/ghosts-of-my-life-writings-on-depression-hauntology-and-lost-futures-mark-fisher/517207?ean=9781780992266Mark Fisher Capitalis Realism - Is there No Alternative https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/capitalist-realism-new-edition-is-there-no-alternative-mark-fisher/7313424?ean=9781803414300Confessions of an Economic Hitman Short Animated Version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYtb5zatgMgNew Economics Foundation https://neweconomics.org/Positive Money https://positivemoney.org/Reference booksLess is More: How Degrowth can save the world by Jason Hickel https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/less-is-more-how-degrowth-will-save-the-world-jason-hickel/364774Doughnut Economics: 7 Ways to Think like a 21st Century Economist https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/doughnut-economics-seven-ways-to-think-like-a-21st-century-economist-kate-raworth/

Those of you who've followed the podcast for any length of time know that I feel our capacity to connect across long distances, to share ideas in real time, is one of the things that has shifted our culture from being complex to super-complex, or hyper-complex, or whatever adjective we want to create that intimates a massive increase in the complexity of our communications and our actions. One key part of this is the evolution of blockchain, particularly in its Ethereum incarnation. Most of us know blockchain, if we know it at all, as the core of Bitcoin, but it's progressed far beyond this in the last decade, not only in the core technology, but in the thinking around it. Once, a libertarian playground, there is now a whole infrastructure of interconnected mycelial webs of progressive, regenerative communities who are building on and with Ethereum. I know this can often feel as if it's not part of our world - and it isn't an integral part - yet - in the way mobile phone technology is, or Zoom, or using a banking app, or a meditation app, or measuring your blood glucose in real time... but it's going to be a part of things in the same way these are soon. In the same way mobile phones became indispensable, I think some of the experiments in smart contracts and ways of hooking up currencies are going to become integral to our lives. And even if I'm wrong, there are a few certainties: The old paradigm is crumbling; the superorganism has to be dismantled; we do need to learn to live more regeneratively, connected more deeply to ourselves, each other and the web of life. And it's this connection that inspires our guest today. Josh Dàvila is host of one of my must-listen podcasts, Blockchain Socialist, where he, often joined by Primavera de Filipi hold fascinating, deep, thoughtful conversations that take me right to the edge of my understanding so that I have to listen to each episode three or four times to really get to grips with the ideas. Josh is also an author. His book 'Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It' is essential reading for anyone who's remotely interested in this space. Like Diana Finch in last week's episode, he has the capacity to take mindbendingly complex ideas and render them straightforward and even obvious - and in Josh's case, he's rendering social concepts of how our culture is run and how we can change it, in parallel to the evolution of blockchain, the nature of Ethereum and what can be done with it. And then he and Primavera are right in the middle of a whole host of conversations about the concept of Coordi-Nations - which are what I would have called communities of passion and purpose, as opposed to communities of place (though there's nothing to stop a community of passion and purpose arising in a specific geographic location. In the end, I think that's likely to happen). But we're getting ahead of ourselves: If I'm right that 2024 is the year when the tipping points become obvious even in the mainstream, then we need the ideas that will shift us out of business as usual and into new ways of being. Josh and his co-thinkers are having those ideas and I dearly wanted to share some of them on the podcast. So here we go.Josh's Website https://theblockchainsocialist.com/Blockchain Radicals book https://theblockchainsocialist.com/blockchain-radicals-book-announcement/in the UK here: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/blockchain-radicals-building-beyond-capitalism-josh-davila/7441624?ean=9781914420856Josh on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/theblockchainsocialistCheck back here for the Audio book after February 6th BlockchainGov.eu https://blockchaingov.eu/Primavera De Filipe and Jessy Kate Co-ordi-Nations Blog  https://jessykate.medium.com/coordi-nations-a-new-institutional-structure-for-global-cooperation-3ef38d6e2cfaRojava https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rojava_conflict

"Consciousness creates matter,Language Creates Reality,Ritual creates relationship' - Oscar Miro-Quesada  quoted by Nina Simons in her book 'Nature, Culture and the Sacred' One of the extraordinary privileges of hosting a podcast like this is that I get to talk to some of my heroes, to ask questions, to have a conversation about the things that really matter.  This week's guest is one of these.  Nina Simons is an author, a leader - and we'll hear how that word was imposed on her and then she learned to embody it, she's a visionary in the deepest sense, and I would say, in a world that is crying out for the wisdom of elders, she is an elder, a wisdom-bearer, someone who has brought deep humility and authenticity to the whole of her life.  In more outward terms, in 1990, she co-founded Bioneers, which started off as a conference and has grown into one of the foremost trailblazers of the movement for a whole and healed earth. On the website it says 'We act as a fertile hub of social and scientific  innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges.' Nina is also a writer. She's a co-author of 'MoonRise: the Power of Women Leading from the Heart' and then more recently, she wrote Nature, Culture and the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership, which is the kind of book that opens new doors, it's got the crackle of authenticity and the deep wisdom of someone who really does listen, to the earth, to other elders, to her own body, who has the capacity to walk the earth, asking, 'what wants to come through me?' without presuming to know the answer and then the integrity to write what comes.  And what came in that particular walk was this: "This is no time for small talk. This is a time for mythmaking. This is a time for epic poetry. This is a time to tell the tales that will become our compass for the days ahead. " So, with this as our guiding light, please enjoy the conversation. Nina's website https://www.ninasimons.com/Bioneer's website https://bioneers.org/Nature Culture and the Sacred (Introduction is available for Free Download here) https://bioneers.org/ncs/Bioneers Learning https://www.bioneerslearning.org/Bioneers You Tube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@bioneersNina on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ninasimonsauthorNina on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-simons/Nina on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/1ninasimons/The Burning Times Film https://youtu.be/34ow_kNnoro

How does each of us find our sovereignty, our sense of what it is to have agency and be alive in the world, and align this with the part in all of us that is anchored in compassion, connection and empathy?  How, in short, do we encounter and encourage our own sovereign feminine?Dr Maggie Ostara is a long-time friend of the podcast - she was with us in episode 116 when we talked about finding our purpose in the world: What's mine to do, what's yours to do and what's ours to do together?  I've put a link to this in the show notes in case you want to go back and listen.  Since then, Maggie has written the international Amazon best-seller: Feminine Sovereignty: Eight Pillars for Regenerating Ourselves and Our World.  It was published towards the end of last year and I've been wanting to talk to Maggie ever since.  Her book is absolutely of our time and for our time: it's courageous and hard-hitting in terms of its dissection of where we are, but it's full of compassion and wisdom and embodied exercises that you can do as you go along.  And as you'll hear in the podcast, in 2024 she'll be offering the Feminine Sovereignty Explorers Club and the Feminine Sovereignty Leadership Incubator based in the principles of the 8 Pillars.  She's a certified Human Design and Quantum Human Design Specialist, Level 4, a certified Radiant Body Yoga Instructor, and a certified Clarity Breathwork Practitioner. She supports her global audience through her thriving YouTube channel and works with clients 1:1 and in groups.So this is a perfect sequel to Nina Simons last week - yet again, we are talking about ways of finding the god within - and engaging outwards with the world. Maggie's previous Accidental Gods episode #116 https://accidentalgods.life/daring-to-risk/Where to buy the book and/or get the first 50 pages for free FeminineSovereigntyBook.com Where to find out about the Feminine Sovereignty Explorers Club FeminineSovereigntyBook.com/explorersclubWhere to find out more about the Feminine Sovereignty Leadership Incubator FeminineSovereigntyBook.com/incubatorWhere to find out more about Human Design SovereigntybyDesign.com and YouTube.com/maggieostaraphdSusan Harper, Master Teacher of Continuum ContinuumMontage.com Where to find Maggie on Facebook Facebook.com/maggiesaleostaraWhere to find Maggie on Instagram Intstagram.com/SovereigntybyDesign

We don't have a democracy, we have a kleptocracy that elevates to positions of power those amongst us who are most comfortable with leaning into their inner Dark Triad of Psychopathy, Narcissism and basic low cunning.  Then, when they get there, we're surprised that they go on to wreak havoc with all that we believe to be good and right and beautiful. Doing the same thing time after time is the very definition of insanity - clearly we need a new way of connecting, of communicating, of articulating our needs and wants that give us a sense of connection, agency and sufficiency, that bring out the best of us, not our own inner dark triads. We need a new means of governance that works from the ground up and works for a thriving future for the human and more-than human world. This week's guest is absolutely immersed in the questions of how we transform our governance. More than this, he is immersed in actually making it happen. Alex Lockwood was a Senior Lecturer in Professional and Creative Writing at Sunderland University and he practiced what he taught - because he's also the author of a novel, The Chernobyl Privileges and a non-fiction memoir, The Pig in Thin Air. More recently, he was actively involved in Animal Rebellion, a kindred organisation to Extinction Rebellion and then that evolved into becoming a founder member of The Humanity Project, an astonishing, life-affirming, inspiring collective movement for change. At the times when the news about climactic tipping points and the loss of sulphur particles and the impact of el Nino combines with the horrors of political destruction around the world, it's really good to remember there are highly motivated, highly intelligent people getting together to create visions for change that will work and to which we will all look forward. This podcast rekindled my belief in a future that can work. I hope it does the same for you.Humanity Project https://humanityproject.uk/Hard Art Festival in Manchester "The Fête of Britain" https://hardart.metalabel.com/ha002/Global Assembly https://globalassembly.org/Lee Jasper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_JasperClare Farrell  https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/61534/1/extinction-rebellion-xr-co-founder-clare-farrell-prison-hsbc-windows-smashAlex on Twitter https://twitter.com/alexlockwoodAlex on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-lockwood-narrative-leadership/

This week, I spoke with James Plunkett, a man who has spent his career at the intersection of policy and social change. From the halls of Number Ten to the charity sector's front lines, James's unique perspective has birthed a book that critically examines what's wrong with our society and offers tangible fixes. Together, we dissect our societal challenges, from outdated institutions to the technology of gods, and discuss structured ways to mend a fractured system.James has spent his entire career thinking laterally about the complicated relationships between individuals and the state, with a particular focus on digital transformation and public policy, from the social innovation agency Nesta to the charity Citizens Advice and before that roles at 10 Downing Street, the Cabinet Office, and the Resolution Foundation think tank.James combines a deep understanding of social issues with an appreciation of how change is playing out not in the ivory tower, but in the reality of people's lives. As a result of all these insights, he's written an optimistic book, 'End State: 9 Ways Society is Broken and How we fix it.'  that explores how we can reform the state to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.As you'll hear, he didn't think of this as a hopeful book when he began - it was more of a response to seeing the ways the old system of the 20th century was not keeping up with the new world. How we have, in EO WIlson's words, 'Paleolithic emotions, Mediaeval Institutions and the Technology of gods' and this isn't necessarily a good combination to face the meta-crisis. But James did come out with hope for the future and structured ways our current system could make these happen. Accidental Gods often inhabits a world where the current system is broken beyond repair and the only answer is to create a new one and help people shift into it. So this was fascinating, enlivening conversation with someone who has lived and worked in the heart of the superorganism and can see ways through to a world where the human and more than human worlds flourish. James's book https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/james-plunkett/end-state/9781398702202/James on Twitter https://twitter.com/jamestplunkettJames on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/jamestplunkett.bsky.socialJames on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-plunkett-a1472827/James on Medium https://medium.com/@jamestplunkett

Our guest this week is Claire Whittle, the Regenerative Vet. As you'll hear, Claire went into veterinary medicine intending to work with small animals - which is to say dogs, cats, and other household pets... but working on a dairy farm as part of the requirements for her degree led her to fall in love with cattle and when she qualified, she became a farm vet. In the conversation you're about to hear, she talks movingly and with deep authenticity about her journey from traditional large animal practitioner to the place now where she's a passionate advocate for the human capacity to engage with the natural world, for our ability to become a positive keystone species and for farming to become a lower stressed, lower input, far more wholistic experience than it generally is. And she's a completely compelling source of endlessly fascinating information, particularly about dung beetles. We've never had a podcast where we discussed dung in quite so much depth or detail - and it's all good. Whether you're farming acres of land or have a single trough on a balcony, and wherever you are in the world, learning to step into our birthright of deep rooted connection to the land - to the soil - is one step on our journey towards being what the world needs of us. This was such a fun, sparkling conversation, with so much to learn. Dung Beetles for Farmers https://www.dungbeetlesforfarmers.co.uk/Claire on Instagram https://instagram.com/dr_DoWhittle/ Claire's Regen Vet on Instagram https://instagram.com/RegenerativeVetClaire at Kingshay https://www.kingshay.com/advice/meet-the-consultants-2/claire-whittle/

In this week's episode of Accidental Gods, we dive into the visionary world of economic transformation with Emily Harris of Dark Matter Labs. Emily, a chartered accountant with an MA in regenerative economics, is not your average number cruncher. She's at the forefront of reimagining our financial systems, exploring the intersection of technology, governance, and the natural world. Join us as Emily unveils the bold concept of life-enabling economics (LEE) and the radical aspiration of establishing bioregional banks — a system where money is no longer a mere transactional tool but a means to foster a thriving web of life. From the Findhorn watershed initiative to the Sheffield River Don project, Emily details practical steps towards making these ideas a reality, including the creation of relationship registers and multivalent currencies like 'river coins'.The conversation also touches on the challenges of aligning current political and economic systems with these pioneering concepts. Emily shares insights into the Net Zero Cities team's efforts, working with 112 mission cities to forge climate city contracts and policy labs that embody a mission-oriented methodology. This episode is a call to action for all listeners to engage with these transformative ideas. If you're inspired by the potential of a future where financial systems are in harmony with ecological and social well-being, then tune in, offer your thoughts, and be part of the change. Emily's work is a testament to the power of collective imagination and the tangible steps we can take towards a regenerative economy.For those ready to delve deeper into the mechanics of these groundbreaking ideas, visit the show notes for links to the thought-provoking blogs and learn how you can contribute to this evolutionary journey. Accidental Gods is the platform where we explore the edges of possibility — and this episode is a beacon of hope for a world in dire need of economic renaissance.As I say at the top of the conversation, these are amongst the most interesting concepts I've ever read - and I spend my life exploring this field. I'd like to read you the opening paragraph of the Concept paper: "Instead of focusing on labour, property, individual or democratic rights, this vision seeks to unfurl the full potential of agrowing planetary consciousness. It is an expression of practical realism embedded in a deep respect for allmanifestations of life; past, present, human, more-than-human, the sacred and the machine. This economyseeks to move beyond the everyday codes of property, labour, capital and private contracts and break freefrom the constrictive dance of socio-political isms. It offers an unbounded understanding of agency, invitingthe full range of adjacent possibilities, thus refuting the exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few."and then a few paragraphs down, "At its core, this is a provocation of the heart. An invitation to cultivate lives of profound collaboration, dignity,psychological and physical freedom. It is a framework meshed in human embodied experience that criticallyincludes machine and non-human systems, integrating them into the same expansive beyond-paradigm ofinter-becoming."The two papers are in the show notes and they're definitely worth reading. In the meantime, this conversation moved even beyond these into whole new areas that, once again with DML, breached the boundaries of my thinking - in a good way.  Dark Matter Labs https://darkmatterlabs.org/Life Ennobling Economics Position Paper https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EiU8MQ3JKtuCJIUTrxkl2Fzx0xWBiWDu/viewLife Ennobling Economics Concept White Paper https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hNpgVEyYiERE0Jj3gczUfK9ki9GmrFRm/viewBlog on BioRegional Banks Part 1: https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/towards-multivalent-currencies-bioregional-monetary-stewardship-and-a-distributed-global-reserve-dac459dc844e Blog on BioRegional Banks Part 2: https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/towards-multivalent-currencies-bioregional-monetary-stewardship-and-a-distributed-global-reserve-38ed3849395fBlog on BioRegional Banks Part 3: https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.org/towards-multivalent-currencies-bioregional-monetary-stewardship-and-a-distributed-global-reserve-951ca09dd76dBlog on BioRegional Banks Part 4: The Swedish Cornerstone prototype was co-developed with Linnéa Rönnquist with the support of SamhällskontraktetEmily Harris in Episode #176 https://accidentalgods.life/bridging-from-the-necessary-to-the-possible-with-emily-harris-of-dark-matter-labs/Indy Johar Episode #205 https://accidentalgods.life/becoming-intentional-gods-claiming-the-future-with-indy-johar-of-the-dark-matter-labs/

“Respect is earned. Honesty is appreciated. Trust is gained. Loyalty is returned.”— Oscar Auliq Ice - quoted on Savimbo websiteIn this pivotal episode, we journey with Drea Burbank from the depths of a fundamentalist Mormon cult to the rainforests of the Colombian Amazon. Drea's life story, chronicled in her book "Shaman Gurl" (linked in the show notes), is a testament to human resilience and the quest for truth. From her escape over the mountains, through the fiery trials of being a firefighter, to her awakening during medical school, Drea's path has been anything but conventional.Now, as a co-founder of Savimbo, Drea is part of an extraordinary mission: to introduce a human rights code for nature. With the support of 60 indigenous leaders from across the globe, she is leading the charge to bring legislation to the UN that enshrines the rights of nature into law. This episode is an urgent call to recognize the voice of nature and the indigenous custodians who have preserved 30% of the planet's intact land and 80% of its biodiversity.Drea's conversation is a revelation of the indigenous perspective on ecotourism, cultural competency, and the necessity of a post-colonial lifestyle. She shares the transformative impact of ecotourism training programs and the importance of creating safe spaces for spiritual awakening in a world that often suppresses regrowth. As she and her colleagues prepare to share their vision with the world through a series of powerful videos, we invite you to become bridges for this crucial movement. Follow Savimbo across social media platforms, amplify the voices of these indigenous leaders, and help turn the tide towards a future where the rights of nature are not just recognized but revered.For those who are ready to be part of this monumental shift, to stand with the guardians of our planet's remaining wilderness, this episode is an essential listen. Join us as we explore the profound connections between human healing and planetary health, where the fight for nature's rights is a fight for our collective future.We were speaking on a starlink and we lost the connection several times so I apologise in advance for any glitches in the conversation, but this was solid gold and I wasn't going to let minor issues of technology get in the way of your hearing it. Enjoy!

In this nourishing episode of Accidental Gods, we delve into the fertile world of seed sovereignty with Katie Hastings and Sinead Fortune of the Gaia Foundation's Seed Sovereignty Programme. Katie, hailing from the lush landscapes of Wales, and Sinead, rooted in the rugged beauty of rural Aberdeenshire, share their passion for reviving ancient grains and fostering communities of growth.Embark on a journey through the tales of black oats, a crop once on the brink of oblivion, now experiencing a renaissance on the cliffs of Pembrokeshire. Discover how these oats, intertwined with the stories of generations, are being brought back into circulation by a vibrant network of farmers, engineers, and chefs, all dedicated to preserving the diversity of our seed heritage.As we explore the practical steps and the profound joy of seed saving, we're reminded that every seed sown is a vessel of potential, a beacon of hope in an ever-changing climate. Katie and Sinead illuminate the path towards a more resilient food system, where local, open-pollinated seeds adapt and thrive, offering unique flavors and a promise of sustainability.This episode is a clarion call to reconnect with the origins of our sustenance, to embrace the community spirit inherent in the cycle of seed to harvest, and to participate in the movement towards a future where our choices at the dinner table also nurture the earth.Whether you're a seasoned grower, a curious gardener with a windowsill plot, or simply someone who cherishes the act of sharing a meal, this conversation is an invitation to join hands in shaping a world where the diversity of our plates reflects the diversity of our landscapes.For those inspired to take root in this revolution, visit the show notes for links to local seed initiatives and resources that will guide you in becoming an integral part of this flourishing movement. Tune in and let the stories of seeds sow inspiration in your heart, as we cultivate a world abundant in flavor, joy, and resilience.Katie's Bio: Katie Hastings is the Wales Coordinator for the Gaia Foundation's Seed Sovereignty Programme, where she works alongside farmers and growers to build a more resilient seed system from the ground up. As part of this work, she facilitates the Wales Seed Hub - a cooperative of agroecological seed growers, and Llafur Ni - a network of people working together to revive rare Welsh oats. Katie is co-founder of the community organisation Mach Maethlon, where she has coordinated a horticultural training programme, food hub and community growing scheme. Katie's seed journey started when she had a mental breakdown and was referred for horticultural therapy by her doctor. She found hope for the future in growing food in community with others. In her free time she swims in her local river and walks her dog up Cadair Idris mountain. Sinead's Bio: Sinéad Fortune is Programme Lead for the Seed Sovereignty Programme, as well as coordinating the programme work in Scotland where she's based. She works with coordinators around the UK and Ireland to support community groups, market gardeners and farmers to train in seed production and to develop and strengthen the connections that make the seed sovereignty movement thrive. Her academic background in Political Ecology focused on food security and community empowerment, and her diverse professional experience spans community food movements, alternative sustainable food production, science education and behaviour change. When Sinéad isn't working in seed sovereignty or willing her crops to grow, she can be found wandering the woods looking for interesting fungi, crafting herbal lotions, potions and remedies, or playing a few tunes on the fiddle.Gaia Foundation https://gaiafoundation.org/Seed Sovereignty www.seedsovereignty.infoSeed Hub Wales https://www.seedhub.wales/about-us/Open Food Network Seed Hub Shop https://openfoodnetwork.org.uk/hwb-hadau-cymru-wales-seed-hub/shopThe momentous black oat feast: https://www.seedsovereignty.info/welsh-oats-back-in-black/Llafur Ni film: https://vimeo.com/489406001Guardian coverage of the Black Oat story: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/28/black-oats-llafur-ni-wales-crops-grains-growers-farmers-aoeKatie's article about the issues with oat processing: https://www.seedsovereignty.info/oat-quest-inching-towards-tasting-our-oats/Recent Oxford Real Farming Conference panel discussion I hosted: https://soundcloud.com/user-775591787/orfc2024-the-story-of-black-oats-lost-and-foundKatie's guide to starting your own seed cooperative: https://www.seedsovereignty.info/so-you-want-to-start-a-seed-coop-week-1-finding-your-varieties/

"Consciousness creates MatterLanguage creates RealityRitual creates Relationship" - Oscar Mira-Quesada quoted by Nina Simons in podcast #218Part of our moving towards a healed and healthy culture for humanity is rewilding our relationships with ourselves, each other and the earth. A key part of this is building rituals that have meaning for us in the context of these relationships. Connecting to the cycles of the earth is a straightforward ritual that acknowledges, honours and respects the world we live in and our place within the planetary cycles - and our own.This guided visualisation walks us into the moment of balance between the long nights and the long days, the restorative time of winter and the outward-acting time of summer, between being to doing.  Please take time for yourself to sit quietly, perhaps light a candle, or otherwise create a space out of time that has meaning for you. It doesn't have to be at the moment of the equinox, whenever that is for you, wherever you are in the world, it's the connection that counts, the marking of the day.  And you don't have to limit yourself to one pass through - please feel free to explore this more deeply than one single iteration. If you want other, similar journeys, they are a whole host in the Accidental Gods Membership Programme. For those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, where you are moving from doing to being, from the long days to the long nights, this meditation is more appropriate. I mentioned Alnoor Ladha and Lynn Murphy and our discussion of Initiation Cultures and Trauma Cultures, which was in episode 208. 

This week's guest is one of those who understands the nuts and bolts - the iniquities - of the current system - and has ideas of how we can shape something better from the hot mess of corruption and greed in which we're mired. Grace Blakeley is a staff writer at Tribune Magazine and author of several books, including 'Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom' in which she  peels back the layers of our economic system, exposing the stark realities hidden beneath the veneer of 'free markets' and 'democratic' institutions.Grace's journey from the New Statesman to the frontlines of political commentary has equipped her with a unique vantage point to critique the fusion of state and corporate power, illuminating the dark corners of corporate greed and government complicity. With a narrative as gripping as a thriller, she exposes the corruption that led to tragedies like the Boeing 737 MAX crashes and the grim theatre of financial crises.In our conversation, Grace challenges the notion that some are born to rule while others to be ruled, advocating for a new democratic settlement that truly empowers people. She shares inspiring examples from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Cooperation Jackson, highlighting communities that are redefining resilience and self-governance. Her call to action is clear: it's time to question, to demand, and to actively participate in shaping a future that is just, equitable, and truly democratic.As we navigate the most critical moment in human history, Grace's insights are not a roadmap toward a world where the many, not the few, hold the power. For anyone feeling the weight of our current system's failures, this episode is a clarion call to join hands, make your voice heard, and be part of the collective effort to weave a future we can all be proud of.For those ready to dive into the mechanics of Grace's analysis and to explore the potential of a society reimagined, visit her website for links to her other books and to upcoming events. Grace's Bio: Grace Blakeley is a staff writer at Tribune magazine, author, and a prominent voice in economic and political commentary. Her work has taken her from the New Statesman to BBC Question Time, and now to the forefront of the movement challenging the entrenched powers of capitalism. With a sharp wit and a clear vision, Grace is not only dissecting the present but also sowing the seeds for a future where democracy and economic justice are not just ideals but realities.https://graceblakeley.co.uk/

Today we venture into the heart of Hull, where the seeds of change are being sown by the hands of ordinary people. Gully Bujak, our guest this week, is a force of nature who, since her awakening to the climate crisis in 2018, has channeled her energy into the creation of Cooperation Hull, a beacon of participatory democracy and local empowerment.Drawing inspiration from the groundbreaking work of Cooperation Jackson in Mississippi, Gully and her team have set their sights on the city of Hull, a place where political disengagement and socioeconomic challenges have forged a community ripe for change. With the lowest voter turnout in the UK and facing threats from climate change, Hull's residents are finding their voice through the innovative approach of neighborhood assemblies.Gully shares the powerful story of how these assemblies are not just meetings but crucibles of collective wisdom, where residents from all walks of life come together to listen, to speak, and to find common ground. From the facilitation of respectful dialogue to the co-creation of community-driven initiatives, these gatherings are rekindling the art of conversation and the flame of active citizenship.As we listen to Gully's journey from Extinction Rebellion activist to a catalyst for grassroots transformation, we are reminded that the future is not a distant dream but a living reality being woven by the hands of those who dare to act. Cooperation Hull is more than an organization; it's a movement, a call to action for communities everywhere to reclaim their power and shape the world from the ground up.For listeners who feel the pull to be part of this unfolding story, who yearn to see their own neighborhoods awaken to their potential, this episode is an invitation to step into the arena of change. Be inspired by the vision of Cooperation Hull, and consider what it would mean to ignite a similar spark in your corner of the world.Gully's Bio: Gully Bujak is an activist and community organizer who has dedicated her life to the pursuit of a just and sustainable future. From her early days with Extinction Rebellion to her current role at the helm of Cooperation Hull, Gully embodies the spirit of resilience and hope. Her commitment to direct democracy and local empowerment is not only changing the landscape of Hull but also serving as a model for others to follow.For those eager to learn more and to connect with the movement, visit the show notes for links to Cooperation Hull, upcoming assemblies, and resources to fuel your journey into community-led revolution. Tune in, be inspired, and join the wave of change that starts right at your doorstep.Cooperation Hull https://www.cooperationhull.co.uk/Cooperation Jackson https://cooperationjackson.org/Jackson Rising Redux - NEW Book https://cooperationjackson.org/announcementsblog/2023/3/2/jackson-rising-redux-out-nowGuardian Article re the HSBC Action and Acquittal https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/20/windows-major-bank-jury-climate-crisisGiroscope https://giroscope.org.uk/Accidental Gods Gatherings https://accidentalgods.life/gatherings-2024/

This week's guest is one of those people whose breadth and depth is an inspiration.  As you are about to hear, Jenny Grettve is an author, a philosopher, a systems thinker who takes her ideas and brings them alive in the world. She's the founder and director of When! When!, a design studio that tests and actively implements ideas and projects on systemic transformation with the goal of slowing down our speeding meta crisis. When!When! regards simplicity as a tool for innovation and create a beautiful and regenerative life for all.  Those who work in and for When!When! believe that at the core of our planetary problems lie vulnerable human ponderings about why we live, what life is meant to be and how that is deeply intertwined with our economic structure. By daring to open up dialogues on economy and emotions, fear and trust, technology and using fewer resources, but also on hope and how all living things profoundly need each other, they believe they can unlock new possibilities for our shared futures. Jenny's heart-mind is huge and deep and we explored many areas of the transformation that's coming, from the evolution of a primary school along Doughnut Economic lines to the future of architecture, to the role of systems thinking in our political, social and, in the end, human, evolution.  It was a truly heart-warming conversation and I hope it helps you, too, to think to the edges of yourself. https://www.jennygrettve.comhttps://videos.theconference.se/jenny-grettve-feminist-economieshttps://www.howtolivehappilyonmars.com/home/small-cities-leadhttps://www.howtolivehappilyonmars.com/home/systems-thinking-on-a-beautiful-life

Our guest this week is Douglas Rushkoff, a man whose insights and intellect have earned him a place among the world's ten most influential intellectuals by MIT. As the host of the acclaimed Team Human podcast and author of numerous groundbreaking books, including "Survival of the Richest," Rushkoff's work delves into the intricate dance between technology, narrative, money, power, and human connection.Douglas shares with us the palpable "ocean of tears" lurking beneath the surface of our collective consciousness—a reservoir of compassion waiting to be acknowledged and embraced. His candid reflections on the human condition, amidst the cacophony of a world in crisis, remind us of the importance of bearing witness to the pains and joys that surround us. He challenges us to consider the role of technology and AI not as tools for capitalist exploitation but as potential pathways to a more humane and interconnected existence.As we navigate the complex interplay of digital landscapes and social constructs, Rushkoff invites us to question the gods of our modern age—wealth, power, control—and to seek solace in the simpler, more profound aspects of life: friendship, community, and the transformative power of awe. His vision for a society that embraces these values, even as it stands on the precipice of uncertainty, offers a beacon of hope for those willing to engage with the deeper currents of change.For listeners yearning to dive into the depths of our potential for transformation, this conversation with Douglas Rushkoff is an invitation to join a chorus of voices seeking to reshape our collective destiny. Tune in to this episode of Accidental Gods and join us on a journey to redefine what it means to be human in a world teetering between collapse and rebirth.

If you've listened to previous episodes of this podcast, you'll know that total systemic change is one of our foundational beliefs: it's coming whether we like it or not and we'd like to manage a just transition rather than waiting to see what arises from the ashes if we keep pushing business as usual until our entire bus dives over the edge of the biophysical cliff. And so we are always on the lookout for people who not only think systemically, but who get it; who aren't just talking the talk, but who are making things happen on the ground that will lead us all closer to the tipping points of change. Sue Pritchard is one of these people. She's the Chief Executive of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, leading the organisation in its mission to bring together people across the UK and the world to act on the climate, nature and health crises, through fairer and more sustainable food systems, and a just transition for rural communities and the countryside.She is a Trustee of CoFarm Foundation and is an independent Governor at Royal Agricultural University. Sue lives an organic farm in Wales, where she and her family raise livestock and farm for conservation.This conversation was sparked by the FFCC's inspiring Food Conversation - which brings together ordinary people and begins to unpick the web of deceit surrounding our food  - and replaces it with something that is real and decent and nourishing on a physical and systemic level.  This was such an inspiring, invigorating conversation and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  Food Farming and Countryside Commission The Food Conversation Food Conversation YouTube The case for AgroEcologyCUSP Nature of Prosperity DialogueChris van Tulleken - Ultra Processed People (book)  

In this deep, thoughtful conversation, two of the men at the heart of the Climate Majority Project discuss their own journeys into eco-spirituality - what they believe it to be and why it's a core, foundational bedrock of their lives. If you follow anything else that Faith and I do together, you'll know that we believe heart-felt connection to the All That Is forms the bedrock of human existence and is the pathway to human flourishing, to our being good ancestors, to laying that foundation on which future generations can build a world where we are an integral part of the web of life. The whole of the Accidental Gods membership program exists to help people find ways to make this heartfelt connection and the Dreaming Awake contemporary shamanic training takes it more deeply. We don't often get to unpick this in depth here on the podcast. But long term friend of the podcast, the author, philosopher and academic, Rupert Read, suggested a while ago that we might like to have a three way conversation with him and Woodford Roberts who is an integral part of the Climate Majority Project of which they are both founder members. Both have been active in Extinction Rebellion. Both have moved on to believing that change happens in other ways, and both have at the core of their actions and activism a heartfelt connection to the All That Is, however we define it. We have regular guest appearances by people who work deeply in shamanic traditions, or other aspects of contemporary spirituality, but this is the first time we've had a chance to explore what we might call western 'eco-spirituality' in a way that is practiced distinctly from contemporary - or indigenous - shamanic practice. Rupert is a philosopher who has studied both Quaker and Buddhist traditions, naming Joanna Macey and Thich Nhat Hahn as his teachers. Woodford Roberts - who is called Rob within the movement - comes from a more meta-cognitive stance, but still deeply embedded within western psycho-spiritual philosophy, albeit with personal experience in the shamanic realities. So this was a deep, wide ranging, thoughtful episode and I hope it helps you to navigate your own routes to thinking, feeling and being in these turbulent times. So please welcome back Rupert Read and welcome for the first time, Woodford Roberts, both of the Climate Majority Project. Bios: Woodford Roberts is a writer based in Cornwall. With a focus on eco-spirituality and emotion, Woodford's work seeks to help readers stare down the truth of the metacrisis as he seeks to do the same, sharing his own spiritual journey of navigating the challenging terrain of a time between two worlds and the lessons found within. His work appears in Dark Mountain Books, Resurgence & The Ecologist. His first book, called 'How To Be Happy At The End Of The World' is currently in development, and he publishes on a Substack of the same name. Prof Rupert Read is co-director of the Climate Majority Project and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia. He is the author of several books, including This Civilisation is Finished, Parents for a Future, Why Climate Breakdown Matters and Do you want to know the truth? The surprising rewards of climate honesty. His spiritual teachers have included Joanna Macy and Thich Nhat Hanh.Links: Climate Majority Project https://climatemajorityproject.comRob in Resurgence https://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article3855-waking-up-to-the-world.htmlRob Substack https://howtobehappyworld.substack.com/'Kisses on the Wind' - A heartfelt essay written by Rob since our conversation (trigger warning - he discusses his own brush with suicide)  https://howtobehappyworld.substack.com/p/kisses-on-the-windXR Writers Rebel by Rob https://writersrebel.com/read-this-is-for-my-children/ Motes In A Sunbeam published with Dark Mountain  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdmr96gVFgwRupert's website https://rupertread.net/Rupert on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupert-read-6717548/?originalSubdomain=ukRupert on Twitter https://twitter.com/GreenRupertReadArts Council-Funded Play inspired by Rupert's work  www.phoenixdodobutterfly.comRupert - Ebor Lecture in York  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ebor-lecture-earth-hope-with-professor-rupert-read-tickets-811255837047 (also available online for those not in Yorkshire) Rupert 'Thin Red Line' paper https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/film.2002.0023Climate Majority Culture Peace Gathering https://climatemajorityproject.com/culture-peace-gathering/Life Itself https://lifeitself.org/programs

Author Stephen Markley opens the doors to The Deluge, his ground-breaking, world-changing Climate/MetaCrisis thriller- 900 pages that absolutely squarely rips into the current system in all its deficiencies - and offers a route through to a future that might work. This week's guest is someone who has mapped out a possible future in a depth and detail that leaves me awestruck. Stephen Markley's first published novel Ohio, was described as a wild, angry, and devastating masterpiece of a book. Stephen King called it this generation's Grapes of Wrath and there is no doubt that it's a beautifully written, lyrical, devastating debut. But it turns out Ohio was the book he wrote in the midst of writing the novel we're going to talk about today. The Deluge is nine hundred pages of astonishing depth and breadth that takes as its topic the meta-crisis. It's an excoriating evisceration of neoliberalism and the thousands of small acts of mendacity or cowardice or sheer self-absorption that have got us to the edge of the cliff. It's an examination of just how close we are, and a portrayal of how utterly catastrophic will be the impacts if we step over. It's a deeply political book, but at heart it's also incredibly humane, with a cast of characters that spreads across contemporary American life in ways that I have rarely, if ever, encountered. I read the book and connected with Stephen because Rupert Read, who was with us last week, called me up and said 'This is a glorious Thrutopian novel, you have to read it.' And there were times when I completely did not believe him. But he's right. it's big. It requires huge dedication. But it's well, well worth the investment in terms of the doors it opens - and the many ways it shows us how we might fail before we finally succeed. Stephen's website https://www.stephenmarkley.com/The Deluge https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-deluge-stephen-markley/7544942?ean=9781982123109

This week's guest is one of those at the forefront of regenerative change, both on the ground and as an educator. Nicky Grady Scott is a Master Composter, author of several books on composting, a YouTuber with some fascinating videos on composting, host of composting masterclasses in person and online around the world - and he's set up community organisations to make Proper Jobs out of work that is so often done by volunteers who verge ever on the brink of burn-out. In short, he knows a serious amount about the how, why, where and what of this key part of the regenerative cycles that link or living soil with our living food.  We all eat.  We all want the soil on which our food is grown to be as alive as possible. We will all do best if we eat locally. So this is our route to doing so - please welcome Nicky Grady Scott: Master Composter. Dr Compost https://drdotcompost.wordpress.com/about/Devon Composting Community Network www.dccn.org.ukDevon Schools project www.growingdevonschools.orgProper Job www.proper-job.orgNicky's book on Composting https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/how-to-make-and-use-compost-9780857845450/Complexity University https://complexity.university/Mycelium Network  https://www.mycelium-network.com/Nicky on YouTube: https://youtu.be/cYHHhLi0b3YCleanStream https://www.roadrunnerwm.com/blog/we-scream-for-clean-stream

This week the tables are turned and Maddy Harland, editor of Permaculture Magazine interviews Manda about her new 'seismic' Mytho-Political thriller, Any Human Power, which will be available from 30th May. "From a bestselling storyteller who brings together myths and speculative futures with a radical compassion, comes the story of a family at the heart of a political crisis and the ensuing uprising of a disenfranchised generation. A family that harnesses the skills and stories needed for real change, if they can choose the right path, before it is too late …As Lan lies dying, she makes a promise that binds her long into the Beyond. Fifteen years later, her teenage granddaughter, Kaitlyn, triggers an international storm of outrage that unleashes the rage of a whole betrayed generation. For one shining fragment of time, the world is with her. But then the backlash begins and soon she and those closest to her find themselves facing the wrath of the old establishment, who will use every dirty trick in the book to fight them off.Watching over the growing chaos is Lan, who taught them all to think independently, approach power sceptically and dream with clear intent. She knows more than one generation's hopes are on the line. Nothing less than the future of humanity stands in the balance.Grand in scope, rich in courageous characters who breathe new life into ancient wisdom, here is a dream of a better future: a world we'd be proud to leave to our children and their children and on, generations down the line.‘A polemical thriller like no other, an absorbing manifesto to change the world. It constantly surprises. Manda Scott's characters play havoc with your emotions, her narrative keeps you turning the pages, and her ideas might just change your life.'ANDREW TAYLOR, AUTHOR OF THE SHADOWS OF LONDON ‘The critical task in present times is to find a way out of the world-destroying political status quo. To make that happen we first have to imagine how it could happen. In Any Human Power, Manda Scott uses her own supreme imaginative powers as a novel is t to open windows into the flow of possibilities.'CHRIS SMAJE, AUTHOR OF A SMALL FARM FUTURE ‘This book brilliantly depicts the frightening reality facing those who mobilise against a violent global establishment. However, instead of regarding cosmic and spiritual forces as separate from politics, this book transforms our sense of what is possible.'RUTH CATLOW, CO-FOUNDER OF FURTHERFIELD"Ordering: If you're in the UK, please either order through your local independent bookstore or  by following this link https://linktr.ee/anyhumanpowerIf you're elsewhere in the world, you have options (NB - the book is currently only available in English. If you know a publisher who'd like to publish a translated copy, please let me know) You can order from the UK at the link above and they'll ship a hardback to you anywhere in the worldIf you'd like to order through your local independent bookstore, you can let them know that the books are available through the distributors   - Gardners UK or Ingrams USorYou can order an ebook from your national Amazon, Kobo or Apple stores and whichever you do - if you like it, please do leave a review at Amazon and Goodreads as well as whatever other social media follow - word of mouth is our best possible friend! Pre-order here  https://linktr.ee/anyhumanpowerAudio versions hereAudible: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Any-Human-Power-Audiobook/B0CZSC3VQF Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1aP1GZmdTp0FHhhaDjuTN2?si=d3212df5b0734697 Apple: https://books.apple.com/gb/audiobook/any-human-power-unabridged/id1738454513 Google play: https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/Any_Human_Power Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Audible-Any-Human-Power/dp/B0CZS8R8DCPermaculture Magazine https://www.permaculture.co.uk/subscribe/Manda's Website https://mandascott.co.uk

Once in a while, a book comes along that changes how we see the world, that re-sets something fundamental in who we are and our capacity to engage with the Web of Life.  Braided Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer was one of these: at once poetically beautiful, spiritually inspiring and deeply thought-provoking. And now Osprey Orielle Lake has written 'The Story is in our Bones: How Worldview and Climate Justice can Remake a World in Crisis'.  This is a genuinely beautiful book on every level: full of living mythology, opening doors to how the bones of our language make the world around us, offering other perspective, other ways of being, living stories of where we came from and who we are and who we could be.  It's deeply honouring of Indigenous wisdom from around the world, and of the struggle of all those who suffer most and have done least to unleash the poly crisis that is so obviously impacting our world. The author is an extraordinary person, founder and executive director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) which was created to accelerate a global women's movement for the protection and defense of the Earth's diverse ecosystems and communities. She sits on the executive committee for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature whose goal is to 'transform our human relationship with our planet' and on the steering committee for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is modelled on the Nuclear non-proliferation treaties of the last millennium, and seeks to manage a global transition to safe, renewable and affordable energy for all. In short, she works internationally with grassroots, BIPOC and Indigenous leaders, policymakers, and diverse coalitions to build climate justice, resilient communities, and a just transition to a decentralized, democratized clean-energy future. This is one of those conversations that dived deep into the heart of what really matters - how we bring ourselves to a place of genuine connection with the Web of Life  - in time - and in ways that will create the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.  We could have talked for hours, and I have no doubt we'll come back again, but in the meantime, please enjoy the many layers of being and belonging that Osprey brings to all her work. Buy the Book 'The Story is in Our Bones' Osprey's website: https://ospreyoriellelake.earth/Women's Earth and Climate Action Network International https://actionnetwork.org/groups/wecan-internationalGlobal Alliance for the Rights of Nature https://www.garn.org/Osprey on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ospreyorielle.lake/Osprey on GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/137212679-the-story-is-in-our-bonesOsprey on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ospreyoriellelake/Osprey on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/osprey-orielle-lake-4286bb12/

This week's guest, Jessica Bockler is one of those people who sparks every fire in my being - and i hope in yours, too.  Jessica is an applied theatre practitioner and transpersonal psychologist who co-founded the Alef Trust a globally-conscious non-profit organisation offering online graduate education programmes, and open learning courses for people who want really to step into what Indy Johar so beautifully calls the emergent edge of Inter-Becoming. Jessica is integral to the Nurturing the Fields of Change Programme that brings people together from diverse walks of life to create an emerging community of practice around change - and she's Programme Director for the Trust's academic programmes in Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology. She teaches on a range of topics, bringing spiritual perspectives to activism and social change - so you can begin to see why I find her work so enthralling. She stands at that nexus where transpersonal psychology meets shamanic practice, where being and becoming are an art and a practice in themselves, grounded in modern science - not the reductive, Head Mind science of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but twenty-first century science where complexity and systems thinking lie at the heart of all we do, where we recognise that only by becoming fully present in the moment, can we access the whole, vast intelligence of the All That Is and find what is ours to do. Jessica brings all this into being in social prescribing programmes, in theatre, in change facilitation, in the MSc at Liverpool John Moores University and in her daily life and she shares it in the conversation you're about to hear - including a clip of one of her own practices, that is solid podcasting gold.  If you're interested in finding out how we can access our own inner intelligence and build with others to co-create the foundations of that more flourishing future we'd be proud to leave behind, then this is the podcast for you.  ALEF Trust  https://aleftrust.org Nurturing the Fields of Change https://www.aleftrust.org/alef-applied/nurturing-the-fields-of-change-programme/MSc in Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology https://www.aleftrust.org/academic-learning/masters-degree/Live Event: Healing Humanity, 1st June 2024, Broughton Sanctuary, Yorkshire eventbrite.co.uk/e/healing-humanity-imagination-embodiment-and-community-tickets-887551710057 Workshop: Embodied Imagination for Social Change, 2nd & 3rd September, Oxford eurotas2024.com/pre-post-conference-workshops/towards-emergence-embodied-play-and-sourcing-for-transformation Conference, 4 – 8 Sept, Oxford: Creative Bridges: embodied consciousness, psyche & soul in research and practice eurotas2024.comNational Academy for Social Prescribing https://socialprescribingacademy.org.uk/Inner Green Deal  https://innergreendeal.com/

Buy Manda's book hereOur first Election Special with friend of the podcast, Neal Lawson.Neal is Director of the progressive campaign group, Compass and co-host of the Compass podcast ,called It's Bloody Complicated. Neal is a long-time progressive campaigner and a tireless advocate for Proportional Representation as a vehicle for radical progressive change in the way we do politics.  In this swift half hour, we look at the circumstances of this utterly unexpected election and Neal explains the practical steps we can take between now and polling day  with the aim of brining about what he calls a progressive 'Pitch Invasion' that will fundamentally upgrade and update the way we arrange our governance structures... Neal Lawson on Twitter https://x.com/neal_compassCompass https://www.compassonline.org.uk/Neal in Episode #150 https://accidentalgods.life/charting-a-progressive-route-through-the-political-maelstrom/https://accidentalgods.life/charting-a-progressive-route-through-the-political-maelstrom/

Our guest this week is Dr Deborah Benham, Biomimicry Educator, Transition Town Co-Lead Link and Deep Nature Connection facilitator - which puts her in a place to really unpick what it will take for us to depart the crumbling remains of late-stage capitalism and build a world based on connection, coherence and community. From her early days as a Marine Biologist, through her PhD on sea otters (I am not remotely envious of someone who gets to study sea otters for 3 years!), to her time in a community near Findhorn and now in a co-housing community in Dorset, Deborah's life has been oriented towards holding a vision of humanity as a helpful species on this planet. As you'll hear, she's the co-Lead Link for Transition Network, the charity which supports the international Transition towns movement; she's a trained Biomimicry Educator and with a background in Jon Young's Deep Nature Connection work, Deborah brings a practical, experiential lived and living toolkit that she shares and teaches - of how we can build thriving human societies, cultures, communities and businesses, designing with and as nature, creating mutual benefit for all life, using tech in life affirming ways, and uplifting justice, kindness and cooperation. We often reach an impasse where we know roughly what needs to happen, but don't have the conceptual or practical tools to bring it into being. Deborah has both - she's fully grounded in the theory of how communities of support, practice and place can come into being and she's teaching and living the practice. In fact - she's one of the core team creating the Nature Connection Camp from 4th - 10th August near Bedford in the UK so if you're around and want to experience the many ways we can weave the four threads she talks about, please hit the link in the show notes. Nature Connection Camp link for Tickets  - https://natureculturenetwork.org/connection-camp/  USE THE DISCOUNT CODE MandaConnection - VALID TILL JUNE 14TH Promo short video - https://youtube.com/shorts/924rR_uZtdA?si=DfbMMEIdg7PSNCwtVideo channel with testimonials from previous camps - https://www.youtube.com/@NatureCultureNetworkFacebook event page - https://www.facebook.com/events/1338787930132432Resource List Connect with DeborahDeborah's website www.deborahbenham.comDeborah on Linked In Deborah on Instagram - Nature's Guide to Thriving WebsitesBiomimicry 3.8Biomimicry InstituteNature Culture Network - UKLiving Connection 1st / 8 ShieldsTransition NetworkBridport Co-HousingEvents, Courses, Online materialsIntroducing Biomimicry to your communityBiomimicry - Ask Nature Learn Biomimicry CourseCapra CourseGaia EducationNature Culture Connection Camp August 2024Nature-Based Village Building (enquire directly to Deborah to join the prototype 2024 membership)ProjectsBonn im Wandel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru2pywGzsH0Liege Food Belthttps://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/jul/16/the-good-life-in-liege-the-start-of-a-food-revolutionResearch and BooksAldrich, Daniel -   social ties in disaster recovery Bregman, Rutger (2021).  Humankind: A Hopeful HistoryMacdonald, Miriam Kate (2022).  Emergent: Rewilding Nature, Regenerating Food and Healing the World by Restoring the Connection Between People and the Wild. Pedersen Zari, M.; Hecht, K. (2020). “Biomimicry for Regenerative Built Environments: Mapping Design Strategies for Producing Ecosystem Services.” Biomimetics 2020, 5, 18. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics5020018  Young, Jon, Ellen Haas and Evan McGown (2009).  Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature.Zelenski, J.; Warber, S.; Robinson, J.M.; Logan, A.C.; Prescott, S.L. (2023).  “Nature Connection: Providing a Pathway from Personal to Planetary Health.” Challenges 2023, 14, 16. https://doi.org/10.3390/challe14010016

in this second election special, we talk to Natalie Bennett (or Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle if we're going to be forma - but she said we didn't need to be) - one of two Green Party members in the House of Lords.  Natalie is author of the Book 'Change Everything: How we can rethink, repair and rebuild society' - one of the essential books of our time that outlines in detail how we can create the total systemic change we need. Natalie will be back in the autumn to discuss this in more detail, but in the meantime, we had a broad, deep conversation on the UK election - where it's going, where it could go and how each of us can help move a progressive, radical, thoughtful, compassionate, useful, climate-and-meta-crisis-aware agenda so that an incoming government will listen to us.  As she says, 'The Tories are Toast', but there's still a lot we can do to elect as many Green MPs as possible. Natalie Bennett website: https://www.nataliebennett.org/Natalie's Book: https://unbound.com/books/change-everythingNatalie on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GreenNatalieBennett/Natalie on Twitter https://x.com/natalieben

Our guest this week is Richard Smyth, author, crossword designer, cartoonist - and father of two young children Richard writes features, reviews and comment pieces for publications including The Guardian, The Times LiterarySupplement, The New Statesman, and New Scientist. His crosswords – both cryptic and quiz – appear regularly in New Scientist, History Today, and BBC Wildlife. He's part of the team that sets questions for BBC Mastermind, and he's a cartoonist: Private Eye, New Humanist and Claims magazines have all featured his work. He's the author of five non-fiction books of which the latest is The Jay, the Beech and the Limpetshell which is one of those captivating works that is both memoir and eulogy of a dying world. It brings together Richard's passionate love of the natural world with his care for his two young children. It's a captivating read that shuttles back and forth along the time lines, weaving Twitter comments from 'Average Dad' with items from the memoirs of old Victorian naturalists who tasted bird's eggs and considerations of how we help the generations that come after us to fall in love with a world that is going to be so, so different from when we were young - however old you are now, whatever your memories. So this is one or our more reflective, peaceful, contemplative podcasts, a paean to the worlds of our youth and a hope for the future.  Enjoy!Richard's Website Richards books at Hive 

Today we're blowing open a route towards energy security, reduced carbon footprint and saving money - all in the way we make, distribute and use power.  If each of us could minimise our own power use, we'd be a step on the way to reducing our overall carbon footprint: more, we'd be changing the ways we think of ourselves as separate from the web of life. This week's guest is long time friend of the podcast Howard Johns. Howard is an activist, author, and serial entrepreneur in the field of energy generation - of how we power our lives, keep the lights on and keep ourselves warm.  Howard is now CEO of OneZero energy, a team of energy experts and digital nerds with a shared passion for getting homes off fossil fuels.  One of the biggest climate actions anyone can take is to retrofit their home with four components: Solar panels, batteries, heat pumps and insulation The combination of these makes homes more comfortable, but more importantly, it saves significant amounts of money and massively reduces the carbon footprint - weaning us off fossil fuels.  Howard himself has founded and led an award winning solar business, a pioneering community-owned energy company, and written a guide book to help others to do the same. He's given a TED Talk, occupied a coal mine and campaigned on energy and climate issues from inside parliament and atop treehouses, and until recently ran a large fleet of solar projects across the EU and UK.One Zero https://www.onezero.energy/Howard's website: https://www.howardjohns.net/Howard's book: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/energy-revolution-your-guide-to-repowering-the-energy-system-howard-johns/706009AG Episode 89https://accidentalgods.life/power-to-the-people/Indenture Hemp Insulation https://www.indinature.co/Homely Heat Pump Controllers https://www.homelyenergy.com/Any Human Power (Manda's book) https://linktr.ee/anyhumanpower

What are we being offered by the incoming Labour Government? What's good in their Manifesto (spoiler alert, not very much)? What's not good? What could be improved upon and how do we go about pushing them to a place where they actually do something useful that isn't simply a repeat of the same-old, same-old we've had for the past decade and a half?  Our third Election Special Guest is Dr Jeremy Gilbert, professor of culture and political theory at the University of East London. He's the author of several books including Twenty First Century Socialism and Hegemony Now: How Wall Street and Big Tech won the world - and how we can win it back  which was written with Alex Wiliams. Jeremy's been on the podcast before back in Episode #95  - and he's always my go-to person for insight into progressive thinking within the current Labour party, and for a broader, more political scientific view of where we're at. As chance would have it the Labour party published their manifesto about thirty six hours before we were due to record, so I took the chance to ask Jeremy what he thought of it: what's good, what could be better, what can we who care about people and planet do to help shift us onto a trajectory where we're not barrelling towards the edge of the biophysical cliff. It's not the most upbeat of conversations - because the answers to all three are 'not a lot, but joining a union is probably one of the most useful things you can do' - but it gave us a chance to look into a bit of the ideological, conceptual and pragmatic views of the current Labour party - and how we can shape things for a world that will work. Jeremy's WebsiteJeremy's BooksJeremy on TwitterJeremy in Episode #95Unite Community MembershipGreen Party ManifestoLiberal Democrat ManifestoLabour Party ManifestoCompass 'Win As One' vote swapping siteManda's novel - Any Human Power 

The question of how we reshape democracy, walking the fine line between stagnation and populist rage - is the defining problem of our time - with a coherent strategy, we can shape anything. In its absence, we're going to end up spinning in pointless circles, arguing about trivia while the world burns. We set this podcast up months ago, thinking we'd talk about the example Scotland sets for the UK and the rest of the world as a way *maybe) to shape democracy.  And then Nicola Sturgeon stepped down and Scotland fell into the kind of turmoil I thought only impacted England. And then the turmoil in England sparked a general election. So now we're talking about how  we can use this moment to affect the digital, distributed democracy that we need with two of the smartest people in our eco-system - people who give their entire lives to thinking about this question: Indra Adnan and Pat Kane of The Alternative. This week's guests are Indra Adnan and Pat Kane. Indra is the author of The Politics of Waking up: Power and Possibility in the Fractal Age and Pat is a musician, writer, curator, consultant, activist and futurist and his substack is absolutely essential reading for anyone who wants to keep up to date with the ideas in our eco-system. The reason we're here, they're, Co-Initiators of The Alternative, which is a socio-political platform hosting #PlanetA: new ground to stand on for a flourishing future - and a daily blog and a forum, or perhaps a melting pot - for new ideas and new ways being.  Acknowledging that the systems we are embedded in - media, economic, political - take our power away.  The Alternative and Planet A ask us how we achieve the world we know deep down is possible.You have to experience The Alternative really to understand what it is to explore ideas at the leading edge of our emergent inter-becoming, to think through the lens of cosmo-localism, to hold new truths of who and how we are and to frame radical new political options in this age of cardboard cut-out politicians spouting ever more stale lines that were out of date in the 80s and are certainly not fit for purpose in the third decade of the twenty first century.  So this conversation takes us deep into this territory. Recorded on the day after the EU elections, as France heads to the polls and the UK's general election descends ever further into infantile name-calling and political posturing that no longer even pretends to be the adults in the room, it was - and is - really refreshing to explore ideas of what's possible with people whose entire lives revolve around the concepts of emergent change.  The Alternative Indra's book Indra in episode #124Pat's musicPat on Substack and at The NationalEcological Civilisation Manda's novel Any Human Power 

If the current electoral/governance system is not fit for purpose (and who could possibly imagine it was?) how can we lay the foundations for new ways of organising democracy, new ways of voting, new ideas of what governance is for and how it could work in the twenty-first century.  How, in short, do we create space for future generations to be able to decide their own futures in ways that are not constrained by material or political strictures they've inherited from us? In this ground-breaking conversation with Glenn Weyl, economist, philosopher, film producer, visionary - and co-author with Audrey Tang of the book Plurality, which emerged from a collaboration to ask all of these questions - and from Audrey's experiences in re-shaping the democracy in Taiwan towards connection, collaboration and - above all -peaceful resolutions of the many internal contradictions of that state. Glen currently works at Microsoft where he is the founder and research lead of the Microsoft Research Special Project the Plural Technology Collaboratory, though he was previously GeoPolitical advisor to the CTO.  He also founded and serves on the board of the RadicalxChange Foundation the leading thing tank in the web 3 space, and is founder and chair of the Plurality Institute which coordinates an academic research network developing technology for cooperation across different disciplines. He's also senior advisor to the Getting-Plurality Research Network at the Harvard Edmond and Lily Saffra Centre for Ethics.  He previously lead Web 3 technical strategy at Microsoft's Office of the CTO and taught economics at the Universities of Chicago, Yale, Princeton and Harvard Glen's websiteThe Plurality InstituteRadicalxChange FoundationQuadratic voting explainedPLURALITY - the book Audrey Tang on Twitter Trailer for film biopic about Audrey Tang: The Good Enough Ancestor Project LibertyQuadratic Voting - with Ruth Catlow in Episode #193

How does our increasing destruction of the earth's biosphere also impact our health?  What diseases are we seeing in almost pandemic proportions and how much younger are the people in whom we're seeing them?  Above all, what can we do to step away from the system that's extracting everything from us - our health, our futures and our potential to be good ancestors?Our guest this week is Jenny Goodman who is a doctor - and also an author. Her first book, Staying Alive in Toxic TimesL A seasonal guide to lifelong health is a fascinating look at how we can stay well, but it's her second that we're going to explore today, partly because at the time of recording, it's just about to be launched.  'Getting Healthy in Toxic Times: an ecological doctor's prescription for healing your body and the planet' is a mind-bending read. I really did think I knew this stuff, but there are large parts of this book that have blown all my fuses, not just for the health impacts - particularly on children and young people (did you know we're seeing Alzheimer's now in teenagers?) but for the cold-blooded way it's been allowed to happen.  Every part of this book is essential reading  - not just because it shows us how we're being poisoned by our food, our water, the air that we breath, the things around us that we can't even see - but more importantly because it details how we can get healthy again and help restore the integrity of our soils, our water, our air…the whole world we live in. As you'll hear, Dr Jenny Goodman is a medical doctor, lecturer and broadcaster. She qualified in Ecological Medicine with British Society for Ecological Medicine and practiced this for over two decades, giving rise to many of the case studies in her books. Jenny has appeared with Terry Pratchett in ITV's documentary What's in Your Mouth? and has been featured on the Victoria Derbyshire show, BBC One's Inside Out and numerous other TV and radio shows.00:00 Introduction to Microplastics in Clothing01:10 Welcome to the Accidental Gods Podcast01:44 The Journey of Dr. Jenny Goodman03:12 From Conventional Medicine to Ecological Medicine10:07 The Impact of Industrialised Agriculture13:17 The Dangers of Glyphosate and Pesticides23:10 The Epidemic of Chronic Diseases26:55 The Importance of Organic and Regenerative Farming35:57 Filtering Water and Avoiding Toxins36:42 The Hidden Dangers in Our Water46:01 The Problem with Synthetic Clothing52:23 The Impact of Fossil Fuels on Air Quality54:21 Heavy Metals and Air Pollution55:19 Political and Personal Actions Against Air Pollution57:01 The Clash of Freedoms: Clean Air vs. Car Ownership57:25 The Need for Efficient Public Transport59:27 AI and the Future of Public Transport01:02:49 Electric Vehicles and Ethical Concerns01:06:43 Nuclear Power: Risks and Realities01:07:39 Protecting Yourself from Nuclear Radiation01:19:33 Electromagnetic Radiation: Hidden Dangers01:31:08 Making Your Home a Safe Haven01:40:29 Final Thoughts and ResourcesPre-Order Jenny's book here:  WaterstonesBookshop.orgAmazonJenny's websiteJenny on FacebookJenny on LinkedInJenny on TwitterJenny on InstagramThe British Society for Ecological Medicine 

We know by now that the old system is crumbling, that the old paradigms are no longer fit for purpose and we need to take part in the birth of something new: this is what this podcast is for. But what are the tools and how can we begin actually to build something relevant and useful within the strictures of a system that is still trying to cling onto legitimacy and power? Michael Haupt was a key figure in the widespread introduction of mobile telephones to South Africa ahead of the first all-race elections in 1994.  He was head-hunted soon after and the next decade saw him working around the globe in 16 cities on 6 continents.  He was in Thailand, taking a year out when he had a vision - an actual not-expected, not-planned, not-drug-or-meditation-mediated set of visions - that showed him how the world could look and feel like if we manage to craft a route through to what he calls the Transition Phase of our evolution. This moment was pivotal in his life. Now he's a 'Resilience Strategist' bridging between those businesses that are switched on enough to know that corporate greenwashing is no longer useful, and agile enough to find what is. He's building mycelial links to others who are working in this area and he's thinking deeply - so deeply - about where we could go and the actual logistics of how we might get there. I've been holding a lot of conversations on the back of launching Any Human Power about how we could build a future that is fit for purpose, where the human and More-Than-Human worlds flourish on a thriving planet. Thanks to Audrey Tang and Glen Weyl, I can see some of the routes through to political and technological change. Thanks to the Gaia Foundation, the Sustainable Food Trust, the million and one permaculture organisations around the world, I can see a way to mending our totally broken food and farming system. I can see ways to shift transport and power generation and city design.  What I have lacked, until now, is the ideas that might bring the great behemoth that is the corporate world on board in a way that's useful.  And this is what Michael is doing. As ever, this was a wide, deep conversation and it pushed the edge of my thinking, but it brought me to a place where I can more clearly see a few more steps forward. I hope it does the same for you. 00:00 Introduction: Reconnecting with Nature01:19 Welcome to the Podcast01:40 Michael's Journey to Resilience Strategy02:14 Load Shedding in South Africa03:49 Understanding Resilience Strategy04:52 Michael's Life Journey and Worldview07:40 The Vision on the Beach12:15 Potential Futures and Human Coordination15:22 Cycles of Civilisations18:12 Class-Based vs. Values-Based Societies20:19 Emerging Consciousness and Systemic Change22:01 The Role of Currency and Mutual Credit27:25 Coordinating for Systemic Change28:55 South African Elections and Corporate Responsibility32:10 Legal Personhood for Natural Entities35:12 The Mycelial Network and Future Coordination38:28 Encouraging Systemic Change39:13 Resilience Strategies and City Exclusion40:12 Rural Experiments and Human Purpose41:12 Challenges of Implementation45:27 Local Currencies and Community Commitment50:50 Ownership vs. Stewardship53:22 Rediscovering Connectedness57:26 Emerging Incentive Mechanisms01:09:35 Forking Governance and Parallel Systems01:16:25 The Power of NarrativeMichael on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhaupt/A blog past about the Thai beach experience: https://michaelhaupt.com/the-beach-4b6e60e407e8Michael - Liminal School liminalschool.org Cycle of Civilization: https://bit.ly/7-Phases-Glo Interstructure: https://bit.ly/Int-Struct Roger Briggs, Emerging World - explains the shifts in consciousness: https://bit.ly/Em-World Will Ruddick, Commitment Pooling: https://bit.ly/CommPool Joe Brewer Bioregional Movement: https://bit.ly/JBrewerClare Graves' Momentous Leap: https://bit.ly/MoLeap GaiaNet: https://www.gaianet.earth/Dark Matter Labs: https://darkmatterlabs.org/

Humanity is a storied species - everything we do from forming partnerships, to buying stuff, to moving house, to getting a new job… arises from the stories we tell ourselves and each other about ourselves and each other. If we're going to shift to a new way of being, the route will be led by the stories we can build of how it will look and feel, how we'll be more alive, more connected, have a deeper sense of being, belonging, becoming… So - how do we tell stories of transformation in ways that engage everyone, that give everyone the agency, support, encouragement and freedom to be what they need in any moment - in every moment?  This week's guest is theatre maker and champion of access, Jenifer Toksvig.  Jen is creator of the Copenhagen Interpretation, which takes concepts of uncertainty and fluidity evolved to describe the quantum process in physics, and applies them to theatre, to the telling of living stories in a shared space in a way that fosters connection, creativity, and personal growth. Clearly we on Accidental Gods believe that the stories we tell ourselves and each other of ourselves and each other - and our place as more or less conscious nodes in the web of life - are crucial to how we navigate this moment of total turmoil in our cultural, energetic and biophysical worlds.  We not only need new stories, we need new ways of telling those stories, new ways of experiencing different ways of being and this, it seems to me, is what Jen is creating. When I first learned of the Copenhagen Interpretation, and The Broad Cloth that arises from it, when I first took part in Jen's gathering of a Fairy Tale, it felt as if someone was opening doors in my mind; that here is a way safely to explore the emergent edges of interbecoming that are where the magic happens.  So I wanted to bring some of this magic to the podcast, to let Jen tell her story and to see if we could bring it home for you. So here we go, stepping into a place of magic and emergence, people of the podcast, please do welcome Jenifer Toksvig of the Copenhagen Interpretation. Jenifer Toksvighttps://linktr.ee/toksvighttps://www.jenifertoksvig.com/The Copenhagen Interpretationhttps://www.worldanvil.com/w/thecopenhageninterpretationOpen Space Technology - Harrison OwenOriginal: https://openspaceworld.org/wp2/what-is/Original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_space_technologyOur version: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/thecopenhageninterpretation/a/open-space-articleJoseph Campbell - The Hero's Journey (aka 'arrow narrative')https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journeyUrsula K. Le Guin - The Carrier Bag Theory of Fictionhttps://stillmoving.org/resources/the-carrier-bag-theory-of-fictionhttps://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Ursula-Le-Guin/The-Carrier-Bag-Theory-of-Fiction/24443320Navigator of Current See: Diana Finchhttps://www.dianafinch.info/Navigator of Gathering: Ess Grangehttps://slgrange.com/Navigator of Accompanying: Flo O'Mahony / ZooCo - Perfect Show For Rachelhttps://www.wearezooco.co.uk/shows/perfect-show-for-rachelCopenhagen Model: The Fairytale Libraryhttps://www.instagram.com/the_fairytale_library/Copenhagen Model: The Broad Clothhttps://www.worldanvil.com/w/thebroadclothThe Broad Cloth: producing partner, ScandinaviaThe Field Station on Ingøya - Oliver Dawehttps://www.fieldstation.no/https://www.oygrid.no/ - this is Harald Hansen, Oliver's husband, who is working in renewable energy on the islandhttps://www.favli.no/ - this is Harald's company for renewable energy work elsewherehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ing%C3%B8yThe Broad Cloth on the Isle of Wight: partners- Ventnor Exchange, host organisationhttps://ventnorexchange.co.uk/- Lisa Kerley, caretakerhttps://memoriesofthesea.uk/https://farmingmemories.com/- Art Ecologyhttps://www.artecology.space/- Arc Biodiversityhttps://arcbiodiversity.co.uk/- Wolfguard Viking Reenactmenthttps://www.wolfguardiow.co.uk/

Clearly we need urgently to shift the democratic dial towards something that might actually serve the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. But how do we get there? How do we open the doors to possibility so that we can shift from the disconnection of our culture to a path of real heart-mind connection to the web of life? Our guest this week is Leah Rampy, author of the book Earth and Soul, Reconnecting Amid Climate Chaos, a beautiful, many-layered weaving that is a memorial to the world that is dying around us, a paean to the world that is possible and a deeply imagined, deeply practical guide to how we can actually engage with the living web so that we can bring ourselves into a place of understanding, connection and service. She says, 'We are not made to be separate from Nature. We were formed from Nature by the same cosmic evolution. The vitality of our lives depends on our acceptance of the gift of communion.'  This book is full of personal insights, of stories from the islands of Britain, from Australia, from the Americas.  It's beautiful and heartfelt and the prose flows with an ease you'll recognise when you hear Leah speak.  At this time of utter turbulence in the world, please take this chance to settle into the words of someone who is crafting a path towards a future that works for all. Leah's website https://leahrampy.com/Leah's books https://www.leahmoranrampy.com/books.htmlThe Center for Spirituality in Nature https://www.centerforspiritualityinnature.org/

Cities: most of us live in them and most of them are geared around the old values of the last century.  But what if our core question was: what does it take to have pride in the place I live?  How can we completely rethink the way cities act and are shaped to put a flourishing future at the heart of all they do?  Georgia Cameron of Dark Matter Labs lays out the visions of Net Zero Cities that goes way beyond just the carbon. Of the 8 billion (ish) people on the planet, over half now live in cities. If we're going to create a just, equitable, enduring transition to that more beautiful world our hearts know is possible, how we live, work, play and connect with each other in urban centres is going to be key.  Which is why we're talking today to Georgia Cameron, who is a policy strategist and innovator at Dark Matter Labs who is currently working with the 112 cities involved in the EU Climate Neutral and Smart Cities Mission helping navigate the legal, regulatory, economic and social barriers they face in advancing transition pathways. For over a decade, Georgia studies, researches and works at the intersection of law, public policy, organisational strategy, and community organisation. She practised as an urban planning and environment lawyer at a top four law firm in New Zealand before completing a Masters in Regenerative Economics (with Distinction) from Schumacher College, UK in 2021, and now, as we said, she's working with the Net Zero Cities Mission which aims to achieve ‘climate neutrality' in those cities taking part, although, as you'll hear, those at the heart of this are really clear that it's not just about the carbon, and that everything we do must enhance our connections with ourselves, each other and the wider web of human and More than Human life. This Mission is one of five within the EU - and miraculously, wonderfully, totally encouragingly, the plan is that all of these will be integrated: that each Mission will feed into the others.  So this conversation roamed wide and deep through the theory and practice of this relatively new initiative, exploring the changes in political, inter-personal (and intra-personal) and regulatory thinking that will allow a complete phase-shift in how we work, play, live, commute and engage with the world. At heart, the question boils down to, What does it mean to live well in any given city - or indeed, anywhere? What does it take to feel pride in your neighbourhood? How can those in charge removed obstacles as much as putting new ideas in place? How can all of us work from the ground up to make changes - and what are the stories of change, of being and belonging, that will make this feel like a just, equitable - and desirable - transition? Georgia on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgia-cameron-frsa-8a90668a/Net Zero Cities https://netzerocities.euNet Zero Cities EU 2024 Conference in Valencia https://netzerocities.eu/2024/07/04/thats-a-wrap-key-takeaways-from-the-2024-cities-mission-conference-in-valencia/Net Zero Cities Circular Economy Paper https://netzerocities.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Policy-brief-Circular-Economy-Policy-Lab.pdfNet Zero Cities Nature Based Solutions Policy Paper https://netzerocities.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Policy-brief-Nature-Based-Solutions-Policy-Lab-2024-06-23.pdfDark Matter Labs https://darkmatterlabs.org/Mariana Mazzucato https://marianamazzucato.com/

The Western world is in a crisis of democracy - but we learn a lot of our principles from the ways we interact online and the internet is essentially a feudal space that gives absolute power to a few and robs the many of agency.  Nathan Schneidersuggests that if we were able to shape a more liquid democracy online, our experience of generative interactions would spill over into the outer world. Has to be worth a try, right?  So how do we do it? As we spend increasing amounts of our time, energy and emotional bandwidth online, so we are increasingly exposed to what passes for democracy online.  And then we internalise the inherent autocracy and are at risk of exporting this to the real world.  So what can we do to change things? What's democracy for in the first place and how can we experiment with increasing the scope and scale of agency and accountability so that we can build trust in the processes that define our lives.   Nathan Schneider is a professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he directs the Media Economies Design Lab and the Masters program in Media and Public Engagement. The book that drew me here is 'Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for online life',  - which you can buy as a paper copy, but you can also download for free.  He has also written 'Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition that is Shaping the Next Economy', 'Thank you Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Movement' and God in Proof, the Story of a Search from the Ancients to the Internet.  He's edited other books about crypto and co-ops, writes numerous articles and his blog posts are essential reading. He serves on the boards of Metagov, Start.coop, and Waging Nonviolence. Follow his work on social media at @ntnsndr or at his websiteIn essence, discovering Nathan has been like discovering the well of life... He's deeply enmeshed in that liminal space where the best of human technologies meet the leading edge of digital technologies and he brings to it the sense of deep wonder, humility and humour that I've only otherwise met in meditators or contemplative mystics.   I feel I only scratched the surface of his thinking in this conversation and would dearly like to go back for a second round, but only after I've re-read everything he's written - and dived into some of the online spaces.   In the meantime, as a taste of what's possible, please do enjoy this podcast. Nathan's website https://nathanschneider.info/Governable Spaces https://nathanschneider.info/books/governable-spaces/Everything for Everyone https://nathanschneider.info/books/everything-for-everyone/Thank you, Anarchy https://nathanschneider.info/books/thank-you-anarchy/University of Colorado Media Economies Design Lab https://www.colorado.edu/lab/medlab/MetaGov https://metagov.org/

We know that being kind to our gut biome is crucial to our health, but what about the trillion happy helpers (or not) on our skin, in our lungs, our ears, our mouths… the things we slaughter daily with the ‘cleaning products' we splash around our homes.  What if there was a better way to keep things clean that wasn't toxic to us and the tiny lives on whom our health depends?  Joe Flanagan works at the cutting edge of change, helping us shape the world for a flourishing future. Human health and the health of our planet are intimately interwoven - we established this with Dr Jenny Goodman a few weeks ago, when she unpicked for us the many, many ways we are poisoning ourselves by what's in our food, our water, our air… One of the things she touched on was the environmental toxins we unwittingly spray, shake and flush all over our house and into the waterways - things we not only don't need, but which are doing us active harm. If I was smart, I'd say this was the impetus for today's podcast, but in fact, I heard Joe Flanagan months ago on Viki French's 'PupTalk' podcast and that was long before I read Jenny's book.  Joe is one of those people who is podcasting gold - he has the most gorgeous Irish accent and he's completely on top of his topic: which is the biome - the trillions of microorganisms that are essential to our lives and to the greater living biosphere.  We've talked quite a lot about the gut biome on the podcast, but this is the first time I've had the chance really to sit down and explore the world with someone who specialises in the surface biomes - of our skin, our mouth, our ears, our lungs.  As you'll hear, Joe started off working on air quality - how to make the air we breathe safe for us when the external air is so full of things we truly don't want to be breathing in.  But gradually, his work has shifted until now he is one of the founders of Ingenious Probiotics, which sells to pet owners the things they need to help keep gums, skin and ears health. He sells things to wash our hands and our floors with, washing up liquid, as well as topical sprays for the animals - all predicated on the understanding that killing bacteria is a really bad idea and what you want instead is to provide the right bacteria to out-compete the pathogenic ones.  Joe is a font of information and this was a unique opportunity to sit down with someone right at the cutting edge of transformation. We talked everything from canine aural surgery to human behaviour and the corruption endemic in our health systems. Above all, he understands that if each of us changes our behaviour - if we actively choose to stop poisoning the planet that is our home - and stop poisoning ourselves and those we care most about at the same time - we can make radical improvements in the way our system works. Joe is the Owner of Ingenious Pet Probiotics https://ingenious-probiotics.com/Joe on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-flanagan/Ingenious Probiotic products are not a medicine or medical device - if in any doubt, always consult your vet.Any Human Power Book Club Sunday 15th September 6-8pm UK time (BST) https://accidentalgods.life/any-human-power-discussion/Pup Talk Podcast with Vicky French https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/pup-talk-the-podcast/id1525563393

We live in a burning world. As we record, there are record wildfires across the Americas, record temperatures around the world, falling oxygen levels in the oceans and however much supposedly renewable energy we produce, Jevons' Paradox means we keep on burning fossil fuels.  This is not a great combination, but even the so called renewables have more under the hood than appears on the surface.  Burning wood - or grasses - for 'Green' Energy is both a massive accounting scam and one of the ways that the predatory industrial complex sucks in eye-watering quantities of public money - while selling us the lie that this is somehow net zero.  It isn't, but sometimes we need someone who really knows what they're talking about to spell out the details for us and this week, our guest is one of those people. Dr. Mary Booth is the founder and director of the Partnership for Policy Integrity, a Massachusetts-based think tank that uses science, communications, and strategic advocacy to protect forests and our climate future. Mary worked as Senior Scientist in the Environmental Working Group in the US, working on water quality. Now, she directs the PFPI's science and advocacy work on greenhouse gas, air pollutant, and forest impacts of biomass energy and has provided science and policy support to hundreds of activists, researchers, and policy makers across the US and EU - and now that the UK is no longer in the EU (sigh) in the UK as well.  I heard Mary on the Economics for Rebels podcast back in February and was blown away by her grasp of the essential science, and also by the sheer mendacity of the companies involved: the lies they tell, the false accounting they use and the extent to which they are destroying the biosphere to give us - or at least, those who set our policies and spend public money - an illusion of somehow being more 'green', more sustainable, more ethical.  I wanted to give listeners to Accidental Gods the chance to hear Mary in action, so here we are: people of the podcast, please welcome Dr Mary Booth of the Partnership for Policy Integrity. Partnership for Policy Integrity  https://www.pfpi.net/PFPI international work https://www.pfpi.net/international-work/Guardian article by Greta Thunberg https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2022/sep/05/burning-forests-energy-renewable-eu-wood-climateLand Climate Blog https://www.landclimate.org/the-problem-of-bioenergy-in-the-eu/Forest Defenders Alliance (EU) https://forestdefenders.eu/Forest Litigation Collaborative https://forestlitigation.org/BBC Panorama: Green Energy Scandal Exposed https://vimeo.com/795555785/c6e9420ff6

'Are we [in our WEIRD culture] intelligent enough to be more generous than we have ever been throughout history?'  So writes Jenny Grettve, in her new book, 'Mothering Economy'.  Jenny is an author, philospher, systems thinker and designer who joined us in Episode #228, talking about the principles and practice of her generative, systems-led design agency, 'When!When!'At the time, she said she was writing a new book that would be out in the late summer, and here we are - in late summer, and Jenny's book 'Mothering Economy' is coming out at the end of this month. So we're back in a wide, deep, provocative, generative conversation about what it might takes for us to have the courage to care deeply for ourselves, each other and the more than human world. She writes, 'The profound mothering among humans that I envision is not a burdensome technological revolution, but rather a simple way of being together. We have a vast number of examples: what we lack is the intention and commitment to raise awareness…'And so here we are, raising awareness, exploring the ideas deep in Jenny's book and searching our own beings for ways to show up with stronger, clearer, more open hearts. Just before we get to this, I'd like to tell you that we're holding a Zoom Reading Group for Any Human Power - it'll be on 15th September at 6-8 UK time and anyone and everyone is welcome. The writing coach Sally-Shakti Willow and Maddy Harland, editor of Permaculture magazine will join me in conversation for a bit and then we'll open to questions.  We have a signup page on the website, just so we're not pushing a Zoom link out on the troll-filled shadows of the web, but if you've read the novel and want to explore some of the ideas in it, or ask questions, please do come along.    In the meantime, please enjoy this wide, deep, thoughtful, caring, connecting conversation with Jenny Grettve, author of Mothering Economy. Jenny's book Jenny's Website https://www.jennygrettve.com/When!When! https://www.whenwhen.agency/I, Pencil http://files.libertyfund.org/files/112/Read_0202_EBk_v6.0.pdf

The climate emergency is impacting our entire eco-sphere.  Plants are at the core of every food chain but we have no idea how fast they can adapt to changes that are taking place in decades where once they took Millenia.  Which is where human ingenuity and intervention could be game-changing.  If we put our minds to it, could we help plants to evolve in ways that serve the entire web of life? In this regard, Dr Shane Simonsen is someone who has oriented his entire life to making sure that we have the right seeds to grow the food we'll need as industrial agriculture grinds to a halt.In this regard, Dr Shane Simonsen is someone who has oriented his entire life to making sure that we have the right seeds to grow the food we'll need as industrial agriculture grinds to a halt.  Shane has a prodigious output.  When he's not writing his substack on Zero Input Agriculture  - this means no water, fertiliser or pesticides, and the former of these is seriously impressive when you know he lives in subtropical Australia - or recording his Going to Seed podcast with Joseph Lofthouse, or writing Taming the Apocalypse as a non-fiction view of how the world could be if we got it right, or converting this into fiction in Our Vitreous Womb… when he's not doing all of this, Shane is farming in the aforesaid sub-tropical zone of Australia, exploring the means of production in their most grounded sense; creating parrot-resistant maize or hybrids from Bunya Nuts and Parana Pines - species that haven't been on the same continent together since the tectonic plates last shifted and Australia became separate from South America.  Shane is a polymath's polymath: he has a PhD in biochemistry which means he can trace down ideas to their roots and then extrapolate back up and join them with other ideas to create something new.  He celebrates the old gentleman scientists of Victorian times who may have been innately colonial products of the trauma culture, but they played at science, they did things that weren't obviously oriented to producing the next paper or winning the race to the next patent: they had fun, they followed their intuition and most of the really big advances in our technologies arise from them.  Shane is also aware that most of the big advances in human evolution came when we were under serious pressure as a species.... kind of like we are now.  So he's made it his life's task to find ways we can feed ourselves with low technology in a changing world. What species will survive and how might they grow? What hybrids can we intentionally create that will open up new spaces of possibility? How can we - how will we - transform ourselves in this changing world? Zero Input Agriculture Substack https://zeroinputagriculture.substack.com/The Going to Seed Podcast with Joseph Lofthouse and Shane Simonsen https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-going-to-seed-podcast/id1713240427Shane's speculative fiction 'Our Vitreous Womb' https://haldanebdoyle.com/Taming the Apocalypse - Shane's non-fiction https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/212297242-taming-the-apocalypseAll Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1955162/Gail Tverberg Our Finite World https://ourfiniteworld.com/author/gailtheactuary/Going to Seed Online Community https://goingtoseed.org/pages/communityAny Human Power Book Club Sunday 15th September 6-8pm UK time (BST) https://accidentalgods.life/any-human-power-discussion/

Can our national and international legal systems be harnessed in service of life, to put the brakes on the worst excesses of capitalism and slow the annihilation of our eco-sphere?  Stop Ecocide International exists explicitly to make this happen and this week, we talk to Jojo Mehta, co-founder and Executive Director of the movement. If we're going to stop capitalism's harms to the planet, we have to build road blocks into the current system that will be recognised by those who make the harms happen and one of the key ways to do this is to criminalise activities that are wiping out the future in real time - if we're using Joanna Macy's concept of the Three Pillars of the Great Turning, this is one of the most effective Holding Actions imaginable (the other two pillars are 'Systems Change' and 'Shifting in Consciousness', which we explore in many other episodes. Today, though, we're exploring this ultimate Holding Action and our guest is right at the forefront of this. Jojo Mehta is co-founder and Executive Director of Stop Ecocide International (SEI)  which she and the late pioneering barrister Polly Higgins (1968-2019) set up in 2017.  SEI is the driving force at the heart of the growing global movement to make ecocide an international crime. Their core work is supporting diplomatic progress and fostering global cross-sector support for this. To this end, they collaborate with diplomats, politicians, lawyers, corporate leaders, NGOs, indigenous and faith groups, influencers, academic experts, grassroots campaigns and individuals, positioning themselves with great clarity at the meeting point of legal evolution, political traction and public narrative. As a result, they are uniquely placed to track, support and amplify the global conversation. This conversation took us in many directions, exploring the legal implications of the law, but beyond it to the potential it has to counter the iniquities of the States Investor Dispute Settlements and how it could bolster Indigenous groups seeking protections for their ancestral lands.  We looked at the ways the law is being framed and where it and laws like it have already been enacted, how it's progressing in the International Criminal Court and what the ultimate aims are in using it as a deterrent, but also as a cover for those in the extractive, destructive industries - which, let's face it, is pretty much every industry - who want to act, but are constrained by their requirement to push always for profit regardless of the impact on people and planet.  Those who drive them may not care about the little people - you and me - but they care about themselves and if they face actual gaol terms, then their incentive structures become quite different. As Daniel Schmachtenberger so often says, 'Show me the incentives and I'll show you the outcome' - Stop Ecocide International exists radically to shift the incentive structure and it's making real headway.  If you despair about the ways we can change the trajectory of the system, if you think our chances of veering the bus away from the cliff's edge are small, then this is the spark of light you need in the gloom - it's genuinely encouraging. Stop Ecocide International Ltd https://www.stopecocide.earth/stop-ecocide-international-ltdStop Ecocide Foundation https://www.stopecocide.earth/sefIndependent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide https://bell-harmonica-g83z.squarespace.com/legal-definitionSEI on Twitter  https://x.com/EcocideLawJJo on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jojo-mehta/Stop Ecocide Film on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZw0HWM9n8IGuardian Article:  https://www.theguardian.com/law/article/2024/sep/09/pacific-islands-ecocide-crime-icc-proposal

My first guest after the summer break is Tim Frenneaux, whom I first met in his role as Source for the Piʌot project which is a thoroughly engaging and inspiring new concept, that he describes as a people-powered movement for regenerative transformation.  As you'll hear, Tim really understands what it is to live - to dance  - at the inter-becoming edge of emergence.  He's a multi-talented, multi-hatted entrepreneur, who once established England's only carbon negative Local Industrial Strategy whilst working as Head of Economic Policy, and now specialises in regenerative businesses transformation. Tim is a bookseller, regenerative business designer and rebel economist on a journey to understand his role in the great system of life. Through his practice, he cultivates an emotional connection with this pivotal moment for life on Earth to create change and transformation that comes from the heart not just the head. Because of this work, the Doughnut Economics Action Lab have, called him a thought leader, though he prefers to think of himself as a thought weaver.He also works as a consultant, facilitator and public speaker on regenerative design, and runs a monthly book subscription, Adventurous Ink, which helps people reconnect with themselves and the wider world.In this wide-ranging conversation, we move from ideas of how to bring the UK's water companies back into genuine public ownership, to how we could build political consensus around bio-regions, to what it is to walk the doughnut of Doughnut Economics.  This was a really encouraging, enlivening conversation to start our new season and I hope you find it takes you further in your own journey - it certainly helped me.  Adventurous Ink http://www.adventurousink.co.uk/Tim's Website https://timfrenneaux.co/Tim on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/timfrenneaux/Links to organisations and books mentioned in the podcastDoughnut Economics Action Lab https://doughnuteconomics.org/Climate Action Leeds https://www.climateactionleeds.org.uk/Kate Raworth 'Doughnut Economics' https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/doughnut-economics-seven-ways-to-think-like-a-21st-century-economist-kate-raworth/2694262?ean=9781847941398Miles Richardson 'Reconnection' https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/reconnection-fixing-our-broken-relationship-with-nature-miles-richardson/7335558?ean=9781784274856Jenny Odell 'How to Do Nothing' https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/how-to-do-nothing-resisting-the-attention-economy-jenny-odell/3185527?ean=9781612198552James A Pearson 'The Wilderness that Bears your Name' https://www.everand.com/book/725658458/The-Wilderness-That-Bears-Your-NameManda Scott 'Any Human Power' https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/any-human-power-manda-scott/7637805?ean=9781914613562Dan O'Neill et all 'Provisioning Systems' paper https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378020307184

This is our regular September bonus episode - a brief look at where we're at - how I (Manda) see things just now as we head deeper into the moment of transformation. 

Here is an Autumn Equinox Meditation to help set you up for the shift from the long days to the long nights. For those in the Southern Hemisphere, there's a Spring Equinox Meditation here.

How do we build the local futures we all know we need?  What does it actually take to become a good enough ancestor? Or even the best ancestor we can be?  Our guest this week, Helena Norberg-Hodge, has given her life to exploring the answers, and helping birth them into being. Helena Norberg-Hodge is one of the Elders of our culture. She's a linguist, author and filmmaker, and the founder and director of the international non-profit group Local Futures, in which role, she has initiated localization movements on every continent, and has launched both the International Alliance for Localization (IAL) and World Localization Day (WLD). She's a pioneer of the new economy movement and recipient of the Alternative Nobel prize, the Arthur Morgan Award and the Goi Peace Prize for contributing to “the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide.” She is author of the inspirational classic Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh, and Local is Our Future (2019), and producer of the award-winning documentary The Economics of Happiness. Almost fifty years since her journey began in Ladakh, Helena is still collaborating with thought-leaders, activists and community groups across the globe which gives her a uniquely rounded insight into howour local futures could look and feel - and the routes to getting there. I've known Helena since I was at Schumacher college - I rented a room in her house for a while, so we know each other well and I was able to press her in ways I wouldn't normally feel able to do with a podcast guest, so we could drill down into the details of her ideas for a different way of being. At heart, we need to get rid of global trade and move back to a localist economy based in sufficiency. The devil is in the detail, obviously, but if we have an idea of where we're going, we stand more chance of getting there. So I hope this inspires you to action.  Please do follow up some of the links  - and definitely watch this new film: Closer to Home - the vision it offers of a generative, working local future is beautiful.  Helena's website https://www.helenanorberghodge.com/Local Futures https://localfutures.orgWorld Localisation Day https://worldlocalisationday.orgFilm: Closer to Home: Voices of Hope in a Time of Crisis (YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJBWvUEZ-50Helena's book Ancient Futures https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/ancient-futures-learning-from-ladakh-helena-norberg-hodge-hodge/2771495?ean=9780712606561Book Local is our Future: Stepping into an Economics of Happiness https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/local-is-our-future-steps-to-an-economics-of-happiness-helena-norberg-hodge/7409197?ean=9781732980402

How do we move beyond our myopic focus on carbon/CO2 as the index of our harms to the world?  What can we do to heal the whole biosphere?  And what role is played by water-as-verb, forest-as-verb, ocean-as-verb? This week's guest is an environmental journalist and author who has answers to all of these questions - and more.  Judith Schwartz is an author who tells stories to explore and illuminate scientific concepts and cultural nuance. She takes a clear-eyed look at global environmental, economic, and social challenges, and finds insights and solutions in natural systems. She writes for numerous publications, including The Guardian and Scientific American and her first two books are music to our regenerative ears. The first is called 'Cows Save the Planet' and the next is 'Water in Plan Sight'. Her latest, “The Reindeer Chronicles”, was long listed for the Wainwright Prize and is an astonishingly uplifting exploration of what committed people are achieving as they dedicate themselves to earth repair, water repair and human repair. Judith was recently at the 'Embracing Nature's Complexity' conference, organised by the Biotic Pump Greening Group which offers revolutionary new insights into eco-hydro-climatological landscape restoration. She's a contributor to the new book, 'What if we Get it Right?' edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, who was one of the editors of All We can Save.Judith has been described as 'one of ecology's most indispensable writers' and when you read her work, you'll understand the magnificent depth and breadth of her insight into who we are and how we can help the world to heal. Judith's website https://www.judithdschwartz.com/Do The Impossible website https://www.dotheimpossible.earth/Embracing Nature's Complexity Conference https://www.thebioticpump.com/tum-ias-conference-2024Judith's paper at the conference https://bioticregulation.ru/conf2024/Judith-Schwartz.pdfBook - What if we get it right? https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-If-We-Get-Right-ebook/dp/B0BPX5GWP8

Our two guests this week are deeply embedded in the creation of Tiny Homes as a way for us meet the needs of all within the bounds of the living planet. Both are living absolutely at that sharp, bright edge of inter-becoming from which our more flourishing future will emerge.  Rachel Butler is the founder of Tiny House Community Bristol, Chair of Bristol Community Land Trust and is a member of Bristol's One City Homes & Communities board. Her root mission is within systems change/paradigm shift: to re-common as much land as practicable, enabling as many people as possible to move back onto and reconnect with this land, by co-creating and co-residing in Tiny House Regenerative Settlements. She believes that, at this critical time of human-created poly crisis, as the current system collapses and composts, it's also time for the human species to rejoin the web of life, in sacred reciprocity; healing our relationships to self, each other and community; not only human, but of all beings and kinds.Maddy Longhurst is a director of Tiny House Community Bristol alongside Rachel and, for the last 4-5 years has been helping to create their Tiny House development in Sea Mills, Bristol, as well as another small tiny house community off the radar. Since having to leave her rented home this August, she and her daughter have decided to exit the mainstream housing system so as to no longer be subject to its unethical, exploitative ways, but to live, for now, in the fertile margins until their tinies are created. She's UK coordinator of the Urban Agriculture Consortium, weaving relationships between people working in the urban and peri-urban agroecological transition. She is also Studio Coordinator for Constructivist, a regenerative design school for built environment professionals, and part of the Strategy circle for Bristol Commons. Some of her current areas of work are on Reimagining the Greenbelt as a place for regenerative settlements, prototyping Landed Community Kitchens and developing a model for Tiny Homes for land regenerators in the city. As you can imagine, our conversation ranged from how grinding bureaucracy so often gets in the way of genuinely restorative, regenerative practice,  to the philosophy and practices that are the foundations of the change we need to see in the world.  We explored the actual social technologies that moved things forward and learned of two workshops that sound totally transformative.  Since recording, it's become apparent that the one in Bristol with El Juego is not really open to other participants, which is sad, but I have no doubt they'll be back - and that Maddy and Rachel will be able to engage with the teaching and bring it into life here and elsewhere.  I've put links in the show notes to the Fearless Cities event in Sheffield on the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of November.  If I go, I swear I'll be at a microphone in time for the Ask Me Anything Gathering in the Accidental Gods membership that day.  This is also a good time to remind you that Dreaming your Death Awake is on the last Sunday of October, 27th from 4-8pm UK time. It's on Zoom and anyone can come. Tiny House Community on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/tiny-house-community-bristol-ltd/ https://www.tinyhousecommunitybristol.org - this is the Tiny House Community Bristol website - please have a look at the Sea Mills page where you can see and support their planning applicationThe THCB Facebook page is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/364360747248042/THCB Instagram @tinyhousecommunitybristolOther related sites of interest: https://www.bristolclt.co.ukhttps://wecanmake.org/https://thebristolcommons.org/https://www.bristolonecity.com/https://www.in-abundance.org/https://coexistuk.org/https://www.urbanagriculture.org.uk/https://www.fearlesscities.com/https://www.fearlesscitiessy.org/https://eljuego.community/El Juego Tour details here: https://eljuego.community/tour-reino-unido/https://www.regenerativesettlement.comhttps://www.agroecologicalurbanism.org/building-blockshttps://www.urbanagriculture.org.uk/ongoing-projects/fringe-farming/for those interested in policy around community led housing (CLH): Bristol's CLH policy page https://www.bristol.gov.uk/council/policies-plans-and-strategies/housing/community-led-housing-policiesAlso maybe this for great examples of tiny homes around the world: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoNTMWgGuXtGPLv9UeJZwBwAlso another progressive 'compact homes' policy https://www.teignbridge.gov.uk/planning/custom-and-self-build/compact-homes/defining-compact-homes/Accidental Gods Online Gathering: Dreaming Your Death Awake online Gathering 27th October 4pm - 8pm UK time https://accidentalgods.life/dreaming-your-death-awake/

We know we need to shift from our Trauma Culture to a resilient, connected Initiation Culture where we can open our heart-minds to the Web of Life, ask 'What do you Want of Me?' and respond to the answers in realtime, with flexibility, authenticity and a grounded awareness of our place in the huge complex system of the More than Human World. Knowing this, and being able to do it are two different things.  But it's possible, and our guest this week is someone who walks this path with enormous grace and huge integrity.Cynthia Jurs met her root teacher, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in the early 1980s, and in 1994 received his transmission of Dharmacharya, becoming a teacher in his tradition, the Order of Interbeing. In 1990 she traveled to a remote cave, 13,000 feet up in the mountains of Nepal to meet the 106-year-old Lama Kushok Mangden Rinpoche, from whom she received an assignment - she was to engage with an ancient tradition of Earth Treasure Vases - that's our English transliteration. The actual translation is 'vessels giving life-essence to the earth'. And so she did.  She received these small pottery vessels and has spent the past 34 years making pilgrimages around the world to engage in sacred practice with local communities, gathering prayers and whatever is sacred to the people of the land she is in, as an offering to be interred with these vessels in the earth.  There have been three generations of vases, and there may be a fourth so that in the end, there are 108 of them.  The practice is still on-going and engages people all around the world.  In 2018 she was given the honorary title of Lama at Tolu Tharling Gompa in Nepal by Ngawang Tsultrim Zangpo Rinpoche. She has written of her experiences in a book, 'Summoned by the Earth: Becoming a Holy Vessel for Healing our World,' and if you're interested at all in how we can connect with the web of life, I absolutely encourage you to read it. These days, inspired by her years of service and connection with others who care, Cynthia is forging a new path of dharma in service to Gaia—a path deeply rooted in the feminine, honouring indigenous cultures, and devoted to collective awakening. If you want to join her, Cynthia leads meditations, retreats, courses, and pilgrimages to support the emergence of a global community of engaged and embodied sacred activists. You can find her offerings and join the global healing community at: www.GaiaMandala.net and there  is more about her book at https://www.summonedbytheearth.org/Her book is here: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/summoned-by-the-earth-becoming-a-holy-vessel-for-healing-our-world-cynthia-jurs/7556979?ean=9781632261328

How can we achieve total systemic change? And are there politicians anywhere who are ready to make it happen (in a way that supports the continuation of complex life on this planet, not the scorched-earth destruction of the right)?The short answer is that yes, there are people deeply embedded in politics who know how dire things are and that we need urgent change. One of these is Natale Bennett, former Green Party leader and now Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle, one of two Green Party members of the UK's House of Lords. She is also the author of the book Change Everything: How We Can Rethink, Repair and Rebuild Society, which was published by UnBound in 2024.Her thesis is that what has been called political common sense over recent decades—that greed is good, inequality doesn't matter and we can keep treating the planet as a mine and a dumping ground—has been a recipe for disaster. The ideology of neoliberalism has delivered poverty and destruction, with a few benefiting while the rest of us pay. We need urgent change - and we have the routes to do it.  Many ideas and arguments in this book have been inspired by the people she has met around the UK. Every idea in it has been road-tested, honed by interaction. We can only get through this dangerous stage  by relying on the collective ingenuity, talents and creativity of millions of people, all empowered to “do politics”. This book aims to synthesise the voices Natalie has heard and read –and encourage them to step forward. They collectively represent true common sense.That's why she chose to publish it with Unbound using crowdfunding. You can order it through them, or it should be in your local bookstore. YouTube Introduction to Natalie's book https://youtu.be/US7EaCHR0ZsOther links of things we mentionedPlanetary Health Checks https://www.planetaryhealthcheck.org/Florida Congressional Race - details of where you can support this are in the blog  https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/10/15/2275160/-Hard-evidence-that-having-a-candidate-in-every-district-makes-a-big-differenceThe Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-dawn-of-everything-a-new-history-of-humanity-david-graeber/5715204?ean=9780141991061Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/bullshit-jobs-the-rise-of-pointless-work-and-what-we-can-do-about-it-david-graeber/2523934?ean=9780141983479Christian Felber's book, also called Change Everything, exploring the Economy for the Common Good https://christian-felber.at/en/books/change-everything/

How does an understanding of what makes dogs tick, help us to understand ourselves and our place in the world? What does it take to feel safe - as a human, or as a dog (or cat, or horse, or... anything)? And how can we help ourselves and each other find regulation in a VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous)?Andrew Hale is a Certified Animal Behaviourist who specialises in working complex behaviour cases, especially those involving 'Reactivity and Aggression.'  Look around you at the world.  Look at the news.  What two words best describe the nature of our local, national and geo-political processes? Andrew is one of those remarkable people committed to a Dog Centred Care approach, working with empathy and compassion to understand why any being is behaving in this way. His focus is on dogs, but what we're learning - and the reason I have invited Andrew onto the podcast - is that all the theories of secure or ruptured attachment, of the need for autonomy, agency, confidence and safety, apply in dogs as much as they do in people -or indeed, any sentient being.  This conversation dives deep into trauma (or at least, trauma responses), our capacity for secure attachment in the modern world, our parenting skills, our skills as people who choose to share our lives with other animals - and ultimately, our skills in helping ourselves cope with a culture that's increasingly going off the rails. It's not about to get any better, either. So the more we can find our own stability, the more we can help others. Which is what this episode is all about.  Relax, get yourself a cup of tea and let's explore what really makes us tick. Dog Centered Care https://dogcc.org/Dog Centered Care TV on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@DogCentredCare/videosDog Centered Care Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/dogccCandace Pert Molecules of Emotion https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/molecules-of-emotion-why-you-feel-the-way-you-feel-candace-pert/355476Attachment and Bonding in dogs and people https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4348122/

If you're over 40, the world you grew up believing in no longer exists.  The younger generation approaches the polycrisis with open eyes, striving to find and nurture resilience, to listen to the whispers of synchronicity and let it lead them - and us - to a world that works for all life. Today, we're talking to Elliot Riley. Elliot is an educator, permaculture designer and practitioner working to bring wellbeing, reforestation and perennial food production into schools. Elliot graduated during the pandemic. When he left school, he was planning to join the paratroops, but after what he describes as a 'Thunderbolt moment', he shifted tack and, despite not having the grades, was able to get a place to study history at the New College of Humanities.  One pandemic and a degree later, he realised that mainstream education struggles to equip us for the challenges of a changing world. After two years upstream, studying Trauma-Informed Education and permaculture in the Dominican Republic, Elliot returned to his hometown, where he now works at The Saint Leonard's Academy, leading a wellbeing programme called Future Growth, which supports students whilst transforming the community's waste into a regenerative food forest. Through an initiative called OFFSET, Elliot's working to spread the mission further.Elliot's Patreon Page for OFFSET https://www.patreon.com/offsetfoodforests/about/Elliot's instagram account for OFFSET food forest: https://www.instagram.com/offset_food_forests/The One World Orchestra's first single https://open.spotify.com/album/62UZvSNV1gtBXdqLQLdfrw?si=WIdwzar_RvivoA-P3dBiAThe Human Hive https://www.thehumanhive.org/our-storyVaughan Wilkins and links to his PhD thesis on the Zoochosis of humanity https://www.vaughanwilkins.com/thesis  Accidental Gods Membership https://accidentalgods.life/enrol/

 Edit cover photoManda Scott 2.7Kfriends Add to storyEdit profileManda ScottIntroThrutopian Novelist: ANY HUMAN POWER. odcaster @AccidentalGods. Smallholder. Evolutionary economistEdit BioWorks at Self-employedStudied at Schumacher College

How do we all respond to the seismic events of the US election?  Specifically, how do those of us over 50 respond? (and how would the younger generations like us to respond)? This is the question of now. It would be hard to discuss anything else, but my guest this week is uniquely placed to address these questions.  As you'll hear, John Izzo was once an ordained Minister in a Presbyterian Church. Now, he's a bestselling author, speaker, and thought leader focused on social responsibility.  He's a Board Member of the Elders Action Network and the Elders Climate Action group and one of the co-hosts of a podcast called The Way Forward Regenerative Podcast which is expressly aimed at people over 50 who want to explore what it means to be an elder.  I met John on that podcast back in the summer and was so impressed with his approach to things. John is a deeply thoughtful, deeply spiritual person who takes his time to look at things from all angles.  He's dedicated his entire career to helping individuals and organisations discover purpose and foster meaningful change. He is absolutely committed to exploring the role of elders in creating a regenerative future.  And we need this now, more than ever. Originally we had scheduled this week's guest for a recording on the 4th of November.  Clearly this wasn't going to be as constructive as a conversation held in the wake of the election, whatever the outcome. And so we rescheduled and spoke together on Thursday 7th, which gave us time to process the results and speak more directly to a future that is unknowable, but not entirely unpredictable.  How do we feel?  What world do we want to create? How best can we bring alive a flame of hope from the ashes of the old system?  These are our questions - a starting point, not an end point and no doubt this conversation will continue for the rest of our lives.  This is our truth for now. John's website https://drjohnizzo.comJohn's books https://drjohnizzo.com/books/Elders Action Network https://eldersaction.org/Elders Action Network on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/EldersActionNetwork/Elders Action Network on YouTube https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCMAJFT3jmRlQHnM4p6Rrh7g&ved=2ahUKEwjF-Iq3ubuJAxXRVkEAHZtzH98QFnoECBgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3JK2afgUEPwxIJz-tO0ZRMElders Climate Action https://actionnetwork.org/groups/elders-climate-actionThe Way Forward Regenerative Conversations podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-way-forward-regenerative-conversations/id1651941803

We are not going back.  But how do we go forward now in a world where the old norms are under assault by people who move fast and break everything? How do we find a place of balance and compassion - for ourselves, each other and the More than Human world - so that we can move forward in a way that isn't just a replaying of the old binaries? Our world changed irrevocably with the results of the US election on the 5th of November.  On this podcast, we talk a lot about total systemic change and now that change is happening in front of our eyes.   Clearly, there is no going back from here.  So how do we who care deeply about a flourishing future - who wish there to be a survival of complex life in all its amazing creativity - navigate this new landscape? How do we embrace the polarities and dichotomies of an unpredictable world so that we can embrace the infinite complexity - and unknowability - of the future? This week's guest is someone who has devoted her life to exploring the paradox at the heart of our existence. I first met Andrea Hiott through her 'Love and Philosophy' podcast which has become part of my essential listening list.  From the outset, Andrea struck me as someone whose way of viewing life is, if not unique, then definitely exceptional and well worth exploring. As you'll hear, she is someone who throws herself into learning: she can talk with authority on everything from philosophy and phenomenology to neuroscience and ecology and  as we speak, she's completing her doctorate, which is called Ecological Orientation.  She's an author of various books, including Thinking Small, The long, strange trip of the Volkswagen Beetle, and has long worked on issues of motoring and mobility as a consultant, writer, and ghostwriter.  She has appeared in films and TV shows, such as The Bug and Cars that Changed the World.  She's been on a whole variety of other podcasts, and has worked extensively for museums, artists, collectors, and agencies. She is also developing the philosophical framework of Waymaking and the practice of Navigability and I have never in my life spoken with someone who has evolved their own philosophy to the extent that they can talk about it in depth and in detail and make so much sense.  There's a YouTube where Andrea does exactly this - I've put a link in the show notes. On top of all this, she is founder of the private educational consulting platform, Making Ways and pours her energy into collaborating with other thinkers and creators at the intersection of multiple different philosophical, cognitive and ecological landscapes, so that she can create a deeper, more emergent understanding of the world we live in. We booked this conversation over six months ago and we were not particularly hinging it around the US election.  But we recorded this one week to the day after the vote that has so completely changed our world so it would have been impossible not to reflect on this. Andrea is a US citizen, currently living in Europe, so she has a particular set of perspectives - and a capacity to see beyond the polarities that feels particularly useful now.   I felt a lot calmer after this conversation than I did going into it and that wasn't all about the pony with colic that put our recording back by a day.  So in the hope that this helps you, too, to deepen into this moment of absolute change, https://www.andreahiott.net/https://making-ways.ck.page/profilehttps://www.youtube.com/@waymaking23https://www.youtube.com/@DesirableUnknownhttps://www.facebook.com/TheBugMovieThinking Small Book

This week sees the launch of a new book: Transformative Adaptation: Another world is still just possible. The main editors and contributors are friend of the podcast, author, activist and co-founder of the Climate Majority Project, Rupert Read and -  new to the podcast - Morgan Philips who is an educator, currently working for Global Action Plan, an environmental charity that mobilises people and organisations to take action on the systems that harm us and our planet.  Full disclosure, I'm also a contributor - the book is published by Permanent Publications, the book-publishing arm of the Permaculture Magazine, and Maddy Harland, who edits the magazine and has published the book, brought together the five articles I wrote on Thrutopia: what it is, why we need it and how we get there, and fitted them into the mix.  The book launch has been timed to coincide with the end of COP29.  At the time of recording, we have no idea how that will go, but if it's like all the previous 28 COPs it will be a triumph of obstructionism and irrelevancy masquerading as action. We might be surprised. We hope we are. But even if the nations who truly understand the magnitude of the meta-crisis somehow manage a worldwide diplomatic miracle and succeed in making it clear that we need total systemic change - we still need guidelines that help us see how this can happen: ideas of what to do at local and national levels, examples of the kinds of deliberate democracies that we'll need to bring everyone on board; templates of how the world can be if we actually bring all our creativity to bear on the single most important issue of our time. This is exactly what this podcast is for - the whole of it - and this particular episode lays out the detail, from the concept of a 6th Mission for the UK government (and any other national government that wants to take it up) to examples of how we might shift our educational focus, to why building flood defences is really not enough, never going to be enough and how we could shift our communities to stop reacting and start…adapting. None of this is easy. We do know this.  But we can at least start the important conversations. This is what we're doing here - and we hope you find it inspiring enough to buy the book and read it, give it to your friends, family and colleagues - do whatever it takes to help your local community to find creative, flourishing, inspiring ways to meet the chaos of our world. TrAd book https://www.permanentpublications.co.uk/port/transformative-adaptation/TrAd Collective https://transformative-adaptation.com/Climate Majority Project http://www.climatemajorityproject.com/Climate Majority Complimentary Approach https://climatemajorityproject.com/safer/The Rojava Project https://thekurdishproject.org/history-and-culture/kurdish-democracy/rojava-democracy/Solar farms can be havens of biodiversity https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/solar-farms-biodiversity-pv/Kikaru Komatsu https://sites.google.com/site/kmthkr/home/publications 

How do we become the change we need to see in the world?  What are the actual, practical steps to grounding, connecting and resonating with the world? We're on the brink of cataclysmic change.  Knowing this, we have choices: we can either fold into despair, terror, rage…whatever rises up in us as we watch the whole biosphere hurtle towards irrevocable tipping points. Or we can become the change we need to see in the world: each of us.  This is a cliché by now, but that doesn't stop it being true.  Here are others: we are the people we have been waiting for and if not us, now then who and when?  We've been saying these for a long time and if you're listening to this podcast, then you're already on board, at least intellectually.   You know there is no going back, that ideology cannot win out over biophysical reality and avoiding ecosystem collapse doesn't just mean moving to regenerative farming or buying second hand clothes or even changing all the narratives of all the world's media systems - good though each of these things would be. But there's been a gap between what we know and how we behave, between where our better selves might push us and the behaviours that are locked into the core of our being, our firmware, if you like. But now - this minute now - we're hitting the buffers where the old paradigm is so obviously not fit for purpose that we need something new. The core questions are what? And how? And this is where we're going with the podcast just now - After Dr John Izzo of the Elders Action Network reminded us of our purpose on the earth, and Andrea Hiott of Waymaking helped us embrace paradox - now we're talking to someone who can help guide us into the embodied reality of a different way of being.  Dan McTiernan is a certified Transpersonal Psychology Coach, embodied meditation teacher and breathwork instructor. With is wife Johanna, he's the co-founder of embodied coaching organisation, Earthbound. He hosts the Being Earthbound podcast which is absolutely on my must-listen list, as is the Substack blog from which it arises. He's a facilitator on Alef Trust's Nurturing the Fields of Change programme and is the project leader for the Embodied Permaculture Project - an international 2-year action research project exploring the impacts of holistic wellbeing on outer ecological change work. The first 9 weeks of this programme are about to be released as a self-study course - and by the time this podcast ends, you will want to join up with that - I'll put a link in the show notes as soon as I have one - hopefully before this goes live.  He is currently working with Alef Trust and the A Team Foundation to deliver an innovative project supporting farmers and growers in the UK with a programme of embodied wellbeing known as Calmer Farmer which will be launched in January 2025.As you'll hear, Dan is working at the leading edge of the change we need to embody. He has straightforward practices that any of us can do to help us with grounding, attunement, opening and integration so that we can be the nodes in the web of life.  This is key people: we need to stop trying to think our way out of this with our head minds. It doesn't work. It's not going to work.  We need to come into our physical bodies, find that truly calming place of peace - and then find connections we can trust with the wider web.  This is what we're here for.  And Dan has routes to get there.  For more information about this coaching approach, to book a 1-1 appointment or to find out more about Earthbound's courses and practice group: www.earthbound.fiFor more information about Calmer Farmer: www.calmerfarmer.orgTo read more about Dan's work and to listen to the Being Earthbound podcast: www.beingearthbound.substack.comThe Embodied Permaculture Course is here https://earthbound.fi/embodied-permaculture-course

Clearly we're at an inflection point in the history of humanity.  Our experiment with a notional democracy is failing and either we find something that actually works, or we sink into autocracy. And given that the current global flavour of autocracy is in deep denial of the climate and ecological catastrophe that's currently underway, then that's a pretty fast road to extinction: you can't deny your way out of biophysical reality. So what can we do, we who care deeply about passing an inhabitable - thriving - world to the generations not yet born?  We need to go back to basics. We all need clean water, clean air, safe shelter and good nutritious food - and we are rapidly heading for a space where just accessing these will become more of a priority than our recent experiment with unleashing ancient sunlight has led us to believe. But more than this, the community that grows around these, particularly the growing and sharing of food - is the glue that keeps us together. We are a prosocial species. We are astonishingly creative when we put our minds to it. So what happens when we put our minds to creative ways of growing and sharing food that are founded in solid values of cohesion and connectivity?  One of the things that happens is the Open Food Network which is a global community of farmers, growers, community food enterprises and software geeks with a common belief that world food systems are broken - and that better, more connected, open, resilient systems can arise in their place.  They are building alternative food systems from the bottom up: this is their theory of change and this is a recent podcast about a new OFN project called the Power of Food.So this week, I've been talking to Nick Weir who helped to set up the Open Food Network UK. Nick has a background in IT account management, but, as you'll hear, he is also a long-term grower who co-founded the Stroudco Food Hub and Stroud Community Agriculture and is deeply passionate about the role of innovative food systems in creating a kinder, more interconnected society, and the ways in which the Network can model a new way of working which empowers people to bring more of themselves to their work.  If you're feeling crushed by the global political chaos, I hope this conversation cheers you as it did me, with living examples of change happening on the ground, and the ripple effects it can have. Open Food Network Global https://openfoodnetwork.org/Open Food Network uk https://about.openfoodnetwork.org.uk/Power of Food podcast  https://www.wearecarbon.earth/power-of-food-collaboration/ Open Food Network resources https://about.openfoodnetwork.org.uk/resources/Landworkers' Alliance https://landworkersalliance.org.uk/our_vision/Sustain https://www.sustainweb.org/about/Social Farms and Gardens https://www.farmgarden.org.uk/about-us/what-we-doThe Power of Food theory of change https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oSn8g-b-GlVku9g9TOKoVO0GvxSRSuCy/Living Justice https://livingjustice.earth/projects/

It's that time of year - when all we really want is to curl up and reflect, go inside, become the potential that will arise in the unfolding spring.  If you want things to listen to or watch or read as you head into the long-nights, then these are (some of) the things that have caught my attention this year. Enjoy!Books: Non-FictionHospicing Modernity by Vanessa Machada de Oliviera https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/hospicing-modernity-parting-with-harmful-ways-of-living-vanessa-machado-de-oliveira/6401710?ean=9781623176242Pedagogies of Collapse: A Hopeful Education for the End of the World as we Know It by Ginie Servant-Miklos  https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/pedagogies-of-collapse-9781350400498/  NB - you can download the pdf for FREE!Flourishing Kin: Indigenous Foundations for Collective Wellbeing by Yuria Celidwen https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/flourishing-kin-indigenous-wisdom-for-collective-well-being-ph-d-celidwen-yuria/7727216?ean=9781649632043Right Story, Wrong Story Tyson Yunkaporta https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/right-story-wrong-story-adventures-in-indigenous-thinking-tyson-yunkaporta/7645728?ean=9781922790439Down the Rabbit Hole by Charlie Bennett   CharlieBennettauthor.co.ukFiction: Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-ministry-of-time-kaliane-bradley/7445878?ean=9781399726344 Venomous Lumpsucker by Ned Beauman https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/venomous-lumpsucker-ned-beauman/2764635?ean=9781473613577Denise Baden 'Murder in the Climate Assembly'  You can get a feel for the book here: https://www.dabaden.com/murder-in-the-climate-assembly/Kickstarter here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dabaden/murder-in-the-climate-assembly    Katherine Addison 'Throne of Dragons' - due March 11th US and a few days later UK https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-tomb-of-dragons-the-cemeteries-of-amalo-book-3-katherine-addison/7764905?ean=9781837864393FilmsRichard Wain: The Oath of the Hopeful  https://youtu.be/JFNEPx9NYVkRoots so Deep https://rootssodeep.org/The Shopping Conspiracy  Trailer:  https://youtu.be/OVfZw_eqJW8    Full film: https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81554996 Future Council - not yet released: https://theregenerators.org/future-council/see-the-film/ PodcastsFarm Gate 1 'What is Bill Gates doing to Africa's Food?' https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/farm-gate/id1490590788?i=1000675185519Farm Gate 2 'Down the Rabbit Hole with Charlie Bennett' https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/farm-gate/id1490590788?i=1000678521906The Great Simplification: Future Council: How Children are responding to our Planetary Crisis  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-great-simplification-with-nate-hagens/id1604218333?i=1000678061953  What is a Good Life with Mark McCartney - Rekindling our Wild Nature with Diarmuid Lyng https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/what-is-a-good-life/id1663668603?i=1000677421697Wild w Sarah Wilson  Indy Johar: the Starkest Collapse Prognosis I've heard  https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/wild-with-sarah-wilson/id1548626341?i=1000677521024

This is the fifth year of our traditional Winter Solstice podcast gathering in which Nathalie Nahai of 'In Conversation with Nathalie Nahai, Della Duncan of The Upstream Podcast and I sit around our virtual dark-nights fire to reflect on the podcasting year just gone and explore what has changed for us since the last time we three met in one place.  By any measure, this year has been pretty turbulent and our capacity to predict anything at all for 2025 is fairly ragged, but that doesn't stop us from celebrating Della's news, and sharing the ways we find stability and maintain sanity in a world that feels increasingly precarious. Whatever else is happening, friendship is the glue that builds community and all of us - we who make the podcasts and everyone who listens - are building a de facto community of passion and purpose.  So thank you for being there. I hope you enjoy what follows. Della Z Duncan is a Renegade Economist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a co-host of the Upstream Podcast, a Right Livelihood Coach, a faculty member at the California Institute of Integral Studies, a Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics, a founding member of the California Doughnut Economics Coalition, and the designer and co-facilitator of the Cultivating Regenerative Livelihood Course at Gaia Education.Nathalie Nahai is an author, keynote speaker and host of the Nathalie Nahai in Conversation podcast enquires into our relationship with one another, with technology and with the living world. She's author of the international best-sellers Webs Of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion and, more recently, Business Unusual: Values, Uncertainty and the Psychology of Brand Resilience which has been described as “One of the defining business books of our times”. She's a consultant, artist and the founder of Flourishing Futures Salon, a project that offers curated gastronomical gatherings that explore how we can thrive in times of turbulence and change.LinksDown the Rabbit Hole - https://charliebennettauthor.co.uk/shopTransformative Adaptation - https://shop.permaculture.co.uk/products/transformative-adaptationHow to Be an An Anticapitalist in the Twenty-first Century - book  https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/933-how-to-be-an-anticapitalist-in-the-twenty-first-century?srsltid=AfmBOoq4Q9LtVqpS7BkvtrBsQwBW3eHwnbD9SKoDXxt-rT9_2BL1DdEG How to be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century - article in Jacobin https://jacobin.com/2015/12/erik-olin-wright-real-utopias-anticapitalism-democracy/God, Human, Animal, Machine https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/god-human-animal-machine-technology-metaphor-and-the-search-for-meaning-meghan-o-gieblyn/5885978?ean=9780525562719The Psychological Drivers of the MetaCrisis https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-psychological-drivers-of-the-metacrisis/id1680606350?i=1000639851812Feeding Your Demons by Tsultrim Allione https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/feeding-your-demons-ancient-wisdom-for-resolving-inner-conflict-tsultrim-allione/1740345?ean=9781848501737Feeding your Demons online https://www.lionsroar.com/how-to-practice-feeding-your-demons

Traditionally, we have offered a meditation for the solstice - and these are available in the links below. This meditation aims to offer a long-wide-deep perspective on our place as conscious nodes in the web of life - the journey that brought us here and the places humanity may go.  Please give yourself plenty of time both to experience the journey and to reflect afterwards. If it helps to write down your feelings, images, ideas or sensations afterwards, please do. Winter Solstice Meditation  https://media.transistor.fm/25cbf6e7/e9f16280.mp3Summer Solstice Meditation https://media.transistor.fm/4dbb7991/ddc721bc.mp3

Druidry is the indigenous spirituality of the islands of Britain, but how does is live in the contemporary world? What are the values and practices that make it so suited to the inflexion point of the moment? Why - and how - does it mesh so well with other, more spiritual traditions? And how does the practice of Will, the honing of intent, create the magic we need to see in our world? This week's guest, Philip Carr-Gomm, has spent his life studying, and writing about all of these things. Philip began studying Druidry as a spiritual path with Ross Nichols, the founder of The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids. Later, he took a degree in psychology from University College London, and trained in psychotherapy for adults at The Institute of Psychosynthesis, in play therapy for children with Dr Rachel Pinney, and in Sophrology – a system of mind-body training for deep relaxation and personal development. He has also trained in Montessori education and founded the Lewes Montessori School. In 1988, he was asked to lead The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids. For thirty two years, he was the Chief Druid of Britain until, in June 2020, he handed on this role to his successor, Eimear Burke. He is now involved in the work of the ACER Integration programme and the Sophrology Institute. He's a prolific author, having written or contributed to over two dozen books, mostly exploring Druidry, but more recently he has written The Gift of Night: A six step programme for better sleep, and Seek Teachings Everywhere: Combining Druid Spirituality with Other Traditions.  He is co-creator of two sets of Celtic Oracle cards and has written the text for two tarot sets. He is host of the magnificent 'Tea with a Druid' which is part of his active, pro-active YouTube channel. On his website, he says, "Something magical happens when the worlds of psychology and spirituality are brought together. Every discipline in psychology helps to reveal the extraordinary nature of the human being, but add the insights of the Perennial Wisdom Tradition – the ancient knowledge and esoteric teachings passed down through the ages – and we enter awe-inspiring territory that has the power to transform us."And this feels perfectly aligned with this podcast, and with the times. So as we head down into the long-nights of the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and up into the long-days in the south, we offer the wisdom of the grove and the mountain and the river. Philip's website https://philipcarr-gomm.com/The Art of Living Well https://artoflivingwell.org.uk/The Sophrology Institute https://sophrology.institute/The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids  http://www.druidry.org/Tea with a Druid https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnjpTLSK6D733dGegH7n2wLlg-y2NiYF-&feature=sharedPhilips YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@PhilipCarrGomm/videosThe Gift of Night https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-gift-of-the-night-a-six-step-program-for-better-sleep-philip-carr-gomm/7408262?ean=9781644119297Seek Teachings Everywhere https://philipcarr-gomm.com/book/seek-teachings-everywhere/The Druidcraft Tarot https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/druidcraft-tarot-use-the-magic-of-wicca-and-druidry-to-guide-your-life-philip-carr-gomm/5068090?ean=9781800691179The Druid Plant Oracle https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-druid-plant-oracle-working-with-the-magical-flora-of-the-druid-tradition-philip-carr-gomm/6048210?ean=9781800691599The Druid Animal Oracle https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-druid-animal-oracle-philip-carr-gomm/5777280?ean=9781800691247

Is it possible that 2024 might have been the year of 'Peak polarisation' around the world and that from hereon in humanity might grow less divided, not more; that we might use technology and social media wisely to bring the best of ourselves to the table, becoming the best we can be in service to life?  Audrey Tang certainly thinks so in this wide-deep, mind-expanding conversation, we explore everything from the dual nature of AGI to the potential for liberational  education that gives young people a sense of agency, interaction and the common good, to ways to rescue democracy to recipes for sound sleep.  Until recently, Audrey Tang was Digital Minister of Taiwan: the country's first transgender, post-gender, and youngest ever Minister of state. In this role, Tang helped bring the .g0v movement into the mainstream and brought with it the concept that democracy could be a social technology with a focus for good.  In 2014, at the time of the Sunflower Revolution in which Tang took part, confidence in the government was measured at 9%.  Six years later, it was up to 73%. In that time, there had been shifts in everything from the concept of education, to healthcare, to the provision of broadband, to the online submission of taxes.  Then the pandemic hit and, by any measure, Taiwan's response was one of the most flexible, emotionally and politically literate in the world. With no need for lockdown, they  kept public confidence high and the death rate low.  More recently, the Government began 'pre-bunking' the possibility of foreign interference in the General Election of 2024 and the end result saw all three parties agree that it had been a free and fair election, with a population who felt heard and engaged.  How different is this to the western experience of maximal polarisation. Since the end of May 2024, Audrey Tang has been Taiwan's Ambassador at Large in charge of Cyberspace Governance, instrumental in bringing ideas of a post-polarised world to those who dance amongst the levers of power - and doing so with charm, grace and a fierce, sharp intellect that makes the balance between polarities feel like the only possible way forward.  Audrey is probably not entirely alone in swimming both deep in the world of code and stretching wide across the understanding of what it takes to bring humanity to a place of agency, connection and sufficiency, but I don't know of anyone else who has this as a life's goal.  This was the most mind-expanding, heart-firing conversation imaginable, and it was an astonishing joy and an honour. I hope it inspires you to be part of a growing, evolving, re-connected world. Audrey has been the subject of a documentary: 'Good Enough Ancestor' - at the time of this podcast, the trailer is available, but the full video will be released in early January 2025Plurality.net https://www.plurality.net Download and donate here https://www.plurality.net/chapters/Good Enough Ancestor Trailer https://youtu.be/L_AAhYk6I3M Good Enough Ancestor  https://vimeo.com/1010351047/07c278e0d0 TimeShifter App https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/timeshifter/id1380684374Vivid App https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/vivid-double-your-brightness/id6443470555?mt=12Tenet movie https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6723592/

This podcast is predicated on the belief that if we all work together, we can still lay the foundations for a future we'd be proud to leave as our legacy.  And it's becoming increasingly obvious that this is now urgent; that we need to let go of the assumptions we'd made about career paths or future constructs and give ourselves wholeheartedly to the process of making it through. Five years ago when we began, it was possible to imagine that the world might stabilise with a vestige of the old system as a scaffold for the new.  That assumption is growing increasingly ragged. At the same time, it's becoming increasingly obvious, at least to me, that the shifts we need to be in the world are primarily inner; that the truly urgent work is in healing both our own and the global human psyches, that we need urgently to remember how to connect with the web of life so that we can ask it 'What do you want of me?' and respond to the answers in real time. That we need, in short. to evolve. But we need mentors and guides along the way. It is possible that we could perhaps each carve out our own route, but part of being human is sharing best practice, is having elders and mentors who open the doors of possibility for those who strive to walk the ways of healing. And this week's guest is one of those elders and mentors; he's a trailblazer of the most incandescent kind. Professor Christopher Bache is professor emeritus in the department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Youngstown State University, adjunct faculty at the California Institute of Integral Studies, Emeritus Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and on the Advisory Council of Grof Legacy Training.  He grew up in a Catholic household in the southern US and spent 4 years at a seminary training to be a priest before deciding this wasn't the path for him.  Moving into academia, he took degrees in the US and at Cambridge and finally a PhD by the end of which he had concluded that, 'using language derived from finite existence to describe an infinite God was like shining flashlights at the stars.'  He duly finished graduate school as 'a deeply convinced agnostic with a strong atheistic bent' and went on to teach the philosophy of religion as an academic study. So far, so academically straight.  He took a post teaching at Youngstown University in Ohio - and then he read Ian Stevenson on reincarnation and Stanislav Grof's work on LSD.  And 45 years later, I read his book, 'Diamonds from Heaven: LSD and the Mind of the Universe' and realised that here was someone who had walked with the Heart Mind of the Universe.  Here is someone who has taken himself to the edge of being, in order to understand the process.  As you'll hear, over the course of 20 years, he took 73 truly heroic doses of LSD in very carefully controlled conditions and then, over the past 20 years, he has reflected deeply on the results.  I'll let him tell his story: it's truly remarkable.  And what he brings to us is visions of how humanity could be: it's not guaranteed - but it's the opening to a door of possibility where every one of us can play a part, where, as he says, if we can align ourselves with the needs of the living planet, find out what's ours to do and devote ourselves to doing it, we have no idea what might arise. For many of us, this feels like a true dark night of the soul. So I offer this conversation as a ray of potential, that out of this immense pressure, might arise the conscious evolution of humanity: if we can all find ways to be the change.  Chris Bache website https://chrisbache.com/ABOUTChris Books https://chrisbache.com/BOOKS-1New Extended Edition of The Living Classroom https://sunypress.edu/Books/T/The-Living-Classroom-Second-EditionStanislav Grof (a website devoted to him and his works) https://www.stangrof.com/Bill Barnard Liquid Light Book https://liquidlightbook.com/Soul Centered Healing https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/soul-centered-healing-a-psychologist-s-extraordinary-journey-into-the-realms-of-sub-personalities-spirits-and-past-lives-ed-d-thomas-zinser/310221?ean=9780983429401

How can we bring wisdom to those with power and power to those with wisdom?  If we were to step into elder hood and bring the best of ourselves to the table, could we create governance structures that would help to heal our cultural divides, create equity and guide is wisely through the coming crisis? Jenny Grettve believes we can and has set up a global council to make this happen.  Jenny is a good friend of the podcast. She joined us in episode #228 to talk about designing and building a school along Doughnut economic lines and then again in episode #249 to talk about the evolution of a Mothering Economy based on the values of compassion and care for future generations.  Jenny is an author, philosopher, systems thinker and designer, author of several books, most recently the Mothering Economy that we talked about the last time we met. Then, she was leading WhenWhen, a new feminist design agency that creates system demonstrators to test ideas generated by global researchers working with the climate crisis and sustainable life.  She was still working there last November when Donald Trump managed to take the US Presidency again. Amidst all the shock and horror of that moment, I saw a post Jenny put up on LinkedIn, proposing the creation of a Global Council of Women as a way to bring forward the values that our world needs at this moment of total transformation.  I signed up on the spot and then asked Jenny to come and talk to us about it, so that the idea might spread in the Accidental Gods spheres.  And then as I was doing the reading for this episode, I found that Jenny had started the year in a new post - that she is now Head of Transformation at a European Council funded organisation called EIT - that's European Innovation and Technology - Culture and Creativity.  Which means Jenny is now taking the wisdom of creativity right into the heart of the bureaucracy that sustains the super organism, at least in the EU.  So here we are, considering the nature of wisdom and elder hood, how we might overcome the gender divides that so assail us in service to life - and how to bring creative ideas deep into the heart of machine.  Please know that the Council is not only for women - the first meeting is exploring whole, healthy masculinity and how it can be prioritised in this world. Which feels like such an integral part of our thinking now.  So please do join - the link is below.  Women Council https://www.womencouncil.world/Jenny Grettve https://www.jennygrettve.com/EIT Culture and Creativity https://eit-culture-creativity.eu/Jenny on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennygrettve/EIT Culture and Creativity on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/eit-culture-creativity/Jenny in Episode 228 https://accidentalgods.life/evolving-education-building-a-doughnut-school-with-jenny-grettve-of-whenwhen/Jenny in Episode 249 https://accidentalgods.life/finding-the-courage-to-care-ways-to-build-a-mothering-economy-with-author-jenny-grettve/

What happens when people with chronic, unstable diabetes eat food grown in local, regenerative farms? Erin Martin talks to the Accidental Gods podcast about the dramatic and spectacular improvements in health her group FreshRxOK saw in Oklahoma when they instigated a 'Food as Medicine' programme, offering real food with good nutrient density to diabetic patients in some of the poorest communities.An Oklahoman on track to be a lawyer, Erin's first job in a retirement community inspired her to pursue a degree in gerontology instead. During her Masters program at USC, Erin ran a team of advocates serving over 700 low income older adults in the Southern California area. She was troubled by how little support people get as they age. So Erin founded Conscious Aging Solutions, a company dedicated to helping older adults navigate health and social systems so they can age successfully. As Erin's work focused on strategies for longevity, she found that food—access to quality food—had an enormous impact on our life spans.As her interest in food grew, she became certified in Regenerative Soil Advocacy. Erin moved back home to Tulsa during the pandemic to find that the supply chain disruptions had only intensified what was already a food system problem in the city. Lack of access to nutritious foods was contributing to poor health outcomes and high mortality rates for Tulsans, especially those with chronic conditions.In 2021, Erin co-founded a prescription produce program called FreshRx Oklahoma. The program's success has launched her onto the national stage. Now Erin champions food as medicine to promote the longevity of underserved communities, decrease food insecurity, support the environment, revitalize the agricultural economy, and decrease system-wide health care costs.Recorded on the day of the US Presidential Inauguration, we talk about the shift from a sickness service to a health service and how food can help us move towards a more regenerative system.  Most particularly, we talk about the truly spectacular health improvement indices in the diabetic patients who benefit from the FreshRxOK programme. Erin's website: https://www.erinwmartin.com/Erin on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@erinwmartinFreshrxOK https://www.freshrxok.org/FreshRxOK on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@freshrxok

We are living through the death of democracy and the onset of Techno-Feudalism.  But this is not a time when linear systems can hold and feudalism was nothing if not linear. So how can we be part of a transformative process that will let us lay the foundations for a future we'd be proud to leave behind?Usually, on Accidental Gods, we talk to guests who seem to exemplify some aspect of the generative edge of interbecoming change that will take us towards the emergent future we need if we're not only to survive, but thrive.  But once in a while it's just Manda, reflecting on the moment and offering pointers to things that might be useful to read or watch or listen to or think about. This is one of those, and it feels timely, in part because the Oxford Real Farming Conference too place recently and was immensely heartening - and partly because of the times we're in. This was recorded on Sunday 19th of January 2025 and if you're in the English speaking world listening to this podcast, then you'll be aware that basically democracy dies tomorrow. Though, as you'll also be aware, we never had true democracy of the people by and for the people, and certainly nothing that might have created a generative enhancement of the web of life. We had a kleptocracy at best, a kakiocracy at worst and all of it was working against the kind of  future we want to leave as our legacy. So this is a podcast of ideas, most of which boil down to: It's time each of us committed ourselves in service to life.  What does that feel like? How does it work and where will it take us?  Let's find out.  Oxford Real Farming Trust https://realfarming.org/programmes/land-based-wisdom/CFOSA https://consciousfoodsystems.org/Animate Earth Collective https://animate-earth.orgThe Wild with Indy Johar - the whyhttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/wild-with-sarah-wilson/id1548626341?i=1000677521024Changing our Civilisational Model - Michel Bauens on Substack https://substack.com/inbox/post/155005488And then at the macro level, Dark Matter Labs on Governance https://media.licdn.com/dms/document/media/v2/D4E1FAQFRu6lmVVqBvw/feedshare-document-pdf-analyzed/B4EZQsP1m3HAAc-/0/1735909140676?e=1738195200&v=beta&t=8kAX6cLW_kf4Lsvw8dYn2_9FG644-bWKa6SZy1QTXKk

If what our culture most urgently needs is for a critical mass of us to grow into adults and then elders, how can we help our young people to step beyond the artificial boundaries of our old, rigid system into a world where they are fully connected to all parts of themselves, each other and the web of life. How, in effect, can we create an educational system that is fit for purpose in the emerging century?In this podcast, I joined with Tim Logan, host of the Future Learning Design podcast, educator, part of the team at Good Impact Labs and co-leader of the International Baccalaureate's 'Festival of Hope'.   Tim is a highly experienced school leader, management consultant, coach, educator and researcher, has held previous pedagogical and well-being senior leadership positions in a variety of international settings and is proud to have consistently helped to build innovative, outstanding schools, supportive relationships and powerful educational visions.  He says, 'The important question for now is, can we intentionally create more spaces in our schools that provide a qualitatively different kind of 'educational' experience?  Transformational shifts are happening in educational and organisational cultures around the world right now. I am incredibly fortunate to be able to play a role in this.'I was on the Future Learning Design podcast just before the dark nights of winter with Ginie Servant-Miklos, Raïsa Mirza and Will Richardson and his podcast has become one of my essential listens of the week and had been planning to invite Tim here to talk about the transformational shifts happening in education and how they can help us lay the foundations for a world we'd be proud to leave behind.  We were planning something for later in the year but we had a cancellation and he had a tech misfire and we both  needed something fast to get the schedules back on track, so here we are with a joint conversation—one of those that ranges wide over the landscape of culture and learning and the 'citadel mind' and our history of optimising for everything and how we could, instead, begin to expand into a more porous mindset and look for resonance and help young people to become part of the emerging transformation of the entire web of life.  Tim on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/teblogan/Tim's podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/future-learning-design-podcast/id1536832802Good Impact Labs https://www.goodimpactlabs.com/aboutNick Mulvey Live from COP26 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-GBl6DeA50&t=1273sConcerned Bird Substack https://theconcernedbird.substack.com/p/elon-musks-and-xs-role-in-2024-electionFestival of Hope https://ibo.org/festival-of-hope/ Systems Transformation Pathway at UWC Atlantic College: https://www.uwcatlantic.org/learning/academic/systems-transformation-pathwayGreen School: https://www.greenschool.org/School of Humanity: https://sofhumanity.com/

Democracy is breaking around us in real time and a small percentage of those in power would like us to become - at best - obedient subjects in a world dedicated to the destruction of ecosystems and the annihilation of compassion, empathy and all that makes us thrive.  Clearly, we are better than this. So how can we harness the astonishing wonder of human co-creation in service to life and a world where humanity thrives as part of a flourishing web of life? This week's guest, Jon Alexander started off his professional life as a highly successful advertising executive - until the inherent contradictions in the Consumer narrative led him on a new path, to seeing people as Citizens in his words, 'people who actively shape the world around us, who cultivate meaningful connections to our community and institutions, who can imagine a different and better life, and who create opportunities for others to do the same.'  This quotation comes from his book,  Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us. It's is a genuinely Thrutopian view of possibility from one of the sharpest minds, and biggest hearts in this space of all potential and I wholeheartedly encourage you to read it - knowing that it came out three years ago - and the world has changed since then.When we first mooted this conversation over six months ago, we still thought Harris was going to win the US election, that democracy was stable and that - in Jon's words - we could affect change by creating acupuncture points in the system.  And now we are where we are and none of these is possible.  And yet, the cracks are where the light gets in and this is a time when we can abandon any belief that the old system is functioning any more. So what doors does this open? What new light is there at the end of the tunnel and how do we find the agency, motivation and connections to the people and places we love, to make the changes that need to happen if we're to create that future we'd be proud to leave behind?  Jon is one of the people best placed to answer this. He's co-founder of the New Citizen Project which works to help organisations and businesses find ways to enhance Citizenship in all they do. And more recently, he helped found the Citizen Collective which we can all join and which holds regular online meetings to connect people who aspire to citizenship all around the world. This was a raw, honest conversation and neither of us is pretending we have all the answers.  But we're exploring the ideas - and Jon brings such a wealth of experience to the table to open doors for all of us.  I came away from this feeling that the routes forward are opening up. I hope you do, too. Jon's website https://www.jonalexander.net/Jon on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-alexander-11b66345/Jon on NEXT TV in Hamburg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dvLFWTzXeUCitizen Collective https://medium.com/citizen-collective-updates/citizen-collective-is-here-and-id-love-you-to-be-part-of-it-525f113fd8de Join here: https://airtable.com/appIlFU7nEF8NgiMf/pagsPy8sTEAMKaZpu/form  Polis AI-based connection https://compdemocracy.org/Our House https://ourhouseuk.org/Stephen Green on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenbgreene/

By now we know that we need to connect to the More than Human world. We know we need to grow into adulthood and elder hood. We know we need to move from a Trauma Culture to an Initiation Culture.  But knowing these things is not the same as living them as a reality.  To get here, we need waymakers, people of huge heart and raw courage to walk away from the limited, goal-based directions of our culture and step into the ways of being where we meet in open-hearted, full-hearted, strong-hearted relationship with the land and all that lives there. Daniel Firth Griffith is one of these people. With his wife, Morgan, and their three children, Daniel lives on 400 acres on the eastern side of the Appalachian mountains where he is steadily building relationship with the land.  He lives amongst cattle, sheep, goats and horses - the latter used for logging, on land that was scheduled to be clear-cut when Daniel and Morgan first moved there.  With a growing understanding that even the forms of agriculture we term 'regenerative' are still part of what I would call the Trauma Culture, Daniel and Morgan have been on a steady journey of transition through to something that feels to me entirely different.  This is what we need to be. It's not clear cut. There isn't a hard and fast recipe because every bit of land is different and each of us is different and the routes to connection are unique... up to a point. But there are baselines we can learn: be human. Find what that means for you when 'human' is not simply being a wheel in an extractive system. We had a really long conversation and we stopped at about 90 minutes in and restarted so you can listen to it in two parts.  We go down rabbit holes. We tell stories, or at least, Daniel does, big, deep, tear-flowing, heart-searing stories that made both of us weep...because stories are how we learn. This conversation, or these conversations, felt like sitting at the feet of an indigenous elder and the fact that this can happen in 2025, talking to someone of white ancestry who lives on lands stolen by colonialists... this is what gives me hope. We can't undo our past, but we can grow into what the future needs of us, and Daniel, Morgan and those who visit them are doing this. Daniel's an astonishing author as well as everything else, so please do visit his website and buy his books: as with everything else he does, they are filled with layers upon layers of meaning. Daniel's website https://danielfirthgriffith.com/

Daniel remains one of the few people I know who is originally of the Trauma Culture but is living absolutely integral to his land - and we couldn't keep our conversation confined to 60 minutes. So we broke at an appropriate point and came back. This is the second part - please do listen to the first if you've only just found us - we literally paused the recording, took a breath and continued…As ever, if you're interested in Daniel's work visit his website. And if you have the means, do buy his books, they are genuinely beautiful. Stagtine, Wild Like Flowers and Dark Country are all out now and Plain of Pillars will be released in May of 2025.

In a world of turmoil where the only certainty is uncertainty, what happens if we who yearn for a future we'd be proud to leave behind began really to speak the quiet part out loud? What happens if we acknowledge the meaning crisis of our culture and state clearly that we need a world based on Love: on the raw, wild, wonder of life itself? And what happens if we shape our politics around this, instead of defensive attempts to make the death cult of predatory capitalism feel less... deathly?This week's guest, Jamie Bristow is someone who lives in the worlds where policies are made and, for the past sixteen years, he has been consciously committed to being a Spiritual Warrior with all this implies. Like Jon Alexander, Jamie started off life as an advertising executive before realising he needed to align his inner and outer worlds.  Now, he's a writer and policy advisor working at the intersection of inner and outer transformation and sustainability. For eight years, he was clerk to the UK's All Party Parliamentary Group on Mindfulness and director of the associated policy institute, the Mindfulness Initiative, (where he helped to introduce mindfulness to a number of other parliaments).  During this time he worked with legislators around the world to make mindfulness and compassion training serious matters of public policy and catalysts for a healthier political process. In 2023, he joined the Inner Development Goals team to lead on public narrative and policy development, emphasising the inner skills and qualities needed for a sustainable transition. His work includes influential reports such as Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out and The System Within: Addressing the inner dimension of sustainability and systems transformation. He is an associate of Life Itself, The Climate Majority Project, Mind & Life Institute and Bangor University.Jamie's website https://www.jamiebristow.com/Jamie's substack https://jamiebristow.substack.com/Jamie on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiebristow/Mindfulness Initiative Mindfulness initiative UN IDG Inner Development Goals Life Guild lifeguild.earthTransformative Skills Guide Transformative Skills Guide: Expanding the Definition of Climate Literacy (co-authored with US gov climate literacy experts)Jamie's Wiki psycho-social dimensions of societal resilience Desmog https://www.desmog.com/2024/08/06/between-optimism-and-despair-the-messy-middle-paths-through-climate-breakdown/Reconnection: Meeting the Climate Crisis Inside Out https://www.themindfulnessinitiative.org/reconnectionThe System Within: addressing the inner dimensions of sustainability and systems transformation https://www.clubofrome.org/publication/earth4all-bristow-bell/The Mindfulness Initiative Report on the result of 10 years of mindfulness in Westminster https://www.themindfulnessinitiative.org/mindfulness-in-westminster-reflections-from-uk-politicians Soulmaking Dharma with Catherine McGee https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/courses/immersive-online-programs/soulmaking-dharma/SoulMaking Dharma teachings  https://hermesamara.org/teachings/soulmaking-dharmaSoulMaking Dharma Course https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/classes/2025-introduction-to-a-soulmaking-dharma/

How do we shed the shackles of modernity and step into a new set of stories that could help us grow into the fullness of our potential? Alexander Beiner is one of a small band of people in our culture who is shaping the cutting edge of possibility, crafting new ideas of who we are, at the deepest levels of our Self and out into the widest view of our place as conscious nodes in the web of life. Ali is an author, journalist and facilitator focused on bringing new ways of seeing and being from the margins of culture into the mainstream, through writing, and by creating transformative experiences that invite us to find ways to evolve and thrive in the chaotic times we live in. He's the author of The Bigger Picture: How psychedelics can help us make sense of the world that details his part in a psychedelic clinical trial that took him deep into what it is to be human and he has recently launched Kainos, an alternative media platform and studio on both Substack and YouTube. He says of it, 'in an age of upheaval, we tell stories that help people make sense of the world and imagine new futures. Our films, articles and experiences combine cultural sensemaking with hope, imagination and impact.'He's an executive director of Breaking Convention, Europe's longest-running conference on psychedelic medicine and culture and was also one of the founders of Rebel Wisdom, which ran from 2017-2022 and explored the cutting-edge of systems change and cultural sensemaking. This is where we need to be: the edge place where spirituality meets psychology and mythology, where culture meets politics meets our desperate yearning to grow up and become the good enough ancestors we know we can be.  We need path-finders, people who have the courage to stretch out beyond the edges of our being and Alexander is so clearly one of these - his explorations of what makes us human in the psychedelic realm merge with his documentary making and Kainos takes up where Rebel Wisdom left off, delving deeply into the nature of the moment and how we might become more than we are.  This was a genuinely inspiring conversation in a series that I hope is helping you to make sense of these times, to accept that the old system is gone and that something truly generative could arise - if we all take part in its making.  Alexander Beiner website https://www.alexanderbeiner.com/Kainos on Substack https://beiner.substack.com/Alexander on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-beiner-b9aa8b19/Kainos on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@StudioKainosBooks mentionedOf Water and the Spirit by Malidoma Some The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker 

In these turbulent times, what values most strongly underpin our humanity and how can we nurture our relationships with all parts of ourselves, with ourselves and other people and with ourselves and the web of life? This week's guest is another podcaster.  Mark McCartney is host of the 'What is a Good Life' podcast, which is now into well over 100 episodes. Mark is a coach and writer based in Berlin, via Dublin, Ireland. He started his 'What is a Good Life' project in 2021,  it became a podcast soon and now, in it's fourth year, he's interviewed over 250 people with humanity and sensitivity - and a glorious, marrow-melting Irish voice - that brings out the best in a suite of truly remarkable people. So this was my chance to turn the microphones the other way around and ask Mark what values underpin his life, that have brought him from Ireland to Peru and back to Germany? How has he navigated the turbulence that is common to our lives, how has he approached those moments that push us to ask the most important questions of who we are, and what we're here for. How has he found that sense of being, belonging, becoming that we all seek?Authenticity and the capacity for honest self reflection feel really critical now and in this conversation, Mark models both of these with deep humility and humanity as he and I explore integrity, vulnerability, humour courage, the capacity to listen to our body minds and act on instinct when it's right to do so - and how to let go of lifelong terrors and learn to love the objects of our fears. Nothing is certain any more - it never was, but we were able to seduce ourselves into thinking we could predict the paths our lives would take. Now that we know we can't do this, learning from people who are able and willing to walk in uncertainty seems to me one of the most valuable lessons we can embrace.  So this is what we're doing.  Enjoy. https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/what-is-a-good-life/id1663668603https://www.whatisagood.life/p/the-silent-conversations

How do we step past the magical thinking of the elites that says we can either use AI to 'Solve for Climate' - or just ignore the entire climate and ecological emergency completely? This week's guest, Paul Hawken, has been at the forefront of intelligent responses to the entire meta-crisis for decades. He has been profiled or written in hundreds of articles in the biggest newspapers across the world and has written nine books, six of which have become bestsellers, including Blessed Unrest, Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation and Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. He's the founder of both Project Drawdown and Project Regeneration, which is the world's largest, most complete listing and network of solutions to the climate crisis, describing by agency, what each level of society can do, starting from the individual.  If you're in the UK and waiting for Paul's new book to come out in August, then I'd thoroughly recommend you explore Regeneration as a good place to start. For those of you in the US, Paul's new book comes out on the 18th of March so you can get your pre-orders in now.  This book is 'Carbon: The Book of Life' and truly, it's one of those books you'll read in a single sitting and then pass round to your family and friends so they can know the things you now know.  I learned so much in this book: how supernovas are formed, how some really brilliant people worked out the formation of carbon - and one of them was knocked off the Nobel Prize because he began to believe there must be some kind of organising principle behind the formation of life. I learned the horrors of how we are destroying the ecosphere, but I also learned some of the wonders of humanity - how the Mi'kmaq tribe in Canada name large pine trees by the sound of the wind moving through the branches one hour before sunset in October - and then can return decades later and will know if trees have been damaged by comparing their names to the sound they hear.  How other tribes in Alaska can predict the weather two years in advance by listening to the patterns in the web of life around them… Truly, this is a beautiful book, beautifully written and it contains within it, the seeds of hope that we speak of often on this podcast - that human creativity and compassion endure and are our gifts to the world. “Endlessly endlessly fascinating! Human beings, over the millennia, have come up with a thousand ways to carefully observe the world around us, and Paul Hawken has managed to collect and synthesize these observations—from the sweat lodge to the satellite—in a way that helps us see what now must be done. There's information, and then there's wisdom—and this book is a compendium of the latter.” BILL MCKIBBENPaul's Website https://paulhawken.com/Paul's LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-hawken-0792bThe link to purchase the book is here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316928/carbon-by-paul-hawken/Project Regeneration https://regeneration.org/

The old systems are no longer fit for purpose. What does an education system look like that's fit for the twenty-first century?  Where we put self care, people care, earth care at the heart of what we do? This week's guest, Rachel Musson, has made it her life's work to fashion ways of learning for all ages that put this Triple Wellbeing principle into action. In everything she does, from leading ThoughtBox Eduction, to creating the Transforming Leadership Course, to writing her glorious, inspiring children's books, to her podcast, Two Inconvenient Women, with her fellow Thoughtboxer Holly Everett, she is being the change we need in the world. At this time where the old is breaking apart and the worst are full of passionate intensity, Rachel is a living example of the fact that the best of us can also be full of passionate intensity and that this can sow seeds of change that ripen into something close to miraculous transformation.  Rachel is a beacon of inspiration and optimism, of how we can connect to the web of life and build networks of mycelial change in our personal and collective lives.  ThoughtBox Education: https://thoughtboxeducation.com/Transforming Leadership Course: https://thoughtboxeducation.com/leadership The next online course after recording starts 4th June 2025Order Story Books https://thoughtboxeducation.com/storykitRachel on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-musson/Rachel and Holly's podcast Two Inconvenient Women https://thoughtboxeducation.com/tiw-podcastEpisode 52 of Accidental Gods https://accidentalgods.life/living-to-learn/

We all know the current system of predatory capitalism is not fit for purpose.  We don't (yet) all agree on how to fix it, but for sure, no problem is solved from the mindset that created it.  So how do we begin to compost the debris of the failing system to grow something constructive, generative, connected communities that can act as a bridge from where we are towards that future we'd be proud to leave behind? James Lock is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Opus Independents Ltd, a not-for-profit social enterprise, working in culture, politics and the arts. Opus works to encourage and support participation, systemic activism and creativity with project strands that include Now Then Magazine & App, Festival of Debate. Opus Distribution, the River Dôn Project and Wordlife. I met James and other members of Opus in Sheffield last summer when we were all part of the Sheffield Social Enterprise Network summer conference and I was really blown away by their understanding of systemic thinking, by their absolute commitment to total systemic change and by the flexibility of their thinking. Here were people who were taking the concepts that we talk about and making them real, amongst real people in a real place.  So we agreed that we'd talk first to James for an overview of what Opus is and does, how the thinking comes together and how we can each take ideas from here and scale them up and out in the places we live. Clearly each city, town, village, street is unique, but some principles are universal and I think we can all learn from the ways James thinks about things as he strives to create the bridges towards a new system. LinksOpus https://www.weareopus.org/Festival of Debate https://festivalofdebate.com/Opus 2024 Report https://www.weareopus.org/opus-annual-report-2024Opus on LInkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/opusindependents/Fairness on the 83 https://fairnessonthe83.nowthenmagazine.com/Citizen Network https://citizen-network.org/Dark Matter Labs Cornerstone Indicators https://darkmatterlabs.org/initiatives/cornerstone-indicatorsPlum Village podcast w Kate Raworth https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/mindful-economics-in-conversation-with-kate-raworth/id1579910767?i=1000669364849James is Co Founder & Director at OpusCo Founder of Now Then MagazineCo Founder of the UBI Lab NetworkCo Founder of Festival of DebateCo Founder of Foundations EarthCo Founder of The River Don ProjectVoluntary Roles: Social Entrepreneur In Residence at Sheffield Hallam UniversityAdvisory Board Member on SYMCA  Local Nature Recovery StrategyGeneral Secretary of the Independent Media AssociationSouth Yorkshire Social Enterprise Place Steering Group MemberAdvisory Board Yorkshire & Humber Office for Data Analytics 

If we are in the midst of the Great Derangement (thank you Amitav Ghosh), what tools do we have to help us shape a system that is actually fit for purpose? Who are our elders and what can they teach us? How do we learn to listen to our heart's (and hearts') desire and shape the communities of place, passion and purpose that will allow us to emerge into a different culture? Our two guests this week live and work at the heart of a global movement for cultural change.  Looby Macnamara is the co-founder of the Cultural Emergence movement. She is an author, designer, gardener, song leader, mother, and artist. She has written four influential books including People & Permaculture and Cultural Emergence - and she has a new one coming out in September: Design Adventures: Discover a Creative Framework for Effective Change.  She is also creator of the CEED card deck - Cultural Emergence Empowerment & Design.  With her partner, Chris, Looby runs Applewood Permaculture Centre in Herefordshire, UK, where they facilitate courses and demonstrate permaculture of both land and people . Leona Johnson, host of Connection Matters Podcast, is a transformational life coach, connection facilitator, and guide dedicated to personal growth, cultural emergence, and regenerative ways of being. She has spent decades exploring how we heal the crisis of disconnection, within ourselves, in our relationships, and in the world around us.Through her work in nature connection, rites of passage, life coaching, and cultural emergence, she supports people to step into Connected Self-Leadership and what she calls ‘Everyday Spirituality' practical, embodied ways of living with depth, purpose, and alignment.Leona co-hosts the PEACE course with Looby and online with Jon Young, runs the Connection Matters Leadership Programme, Nature Quests around the world, and Children, Nature & Spirituality courses. At the heart of her work is a simple but powerful message: When we remember our interconnectedness, with ourselves, each other, and the other than human world, we step into our fullest potential and create the conditions for a thriving world.These two transformational women are part of a growing movement to shift the entire foundation of our culture. What happens if we stop being the hamsters in the wheel of modernity and become the lively, inspiring, inspired - and connected - individuals we could be?  In this episode we explore the nature of cultural emergence, the values that could underpin our new culture and the real, grounded, practical ways we can begin the journeys of shift in ourselves and our communities. Cultural Emergence www.cultural-emrgence.comCultural Emergence Courses https://cultural-emergence.com/courses-overview/PEACE Course (24th - 29th June 2025)  https://applewoodcourses.com/uk_courses/peace-empowerment-and-cultural-emergence/Applewood Courses https://applewoodcourses.com/courses/Looby's Books https://applewoodcourses.com/sales/books/Leona's website: https://www.leonajohnson.life/Leona's podcast Connection Matters https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/connection-matters-podcast/id1515564368Leona's FREE mini course on Elemental Connection  https://pages.leonajohnson.life/elemental-connections-helloandIf you want to share the journey with Accidental Gods, we're here: Accidental Gods Gatherings https://accidentalgods.life/gatherings-2025/Accidental Gods Membership https://accidentalgods.life/join-us/

We grow up thinking we want to be happy (or at least, not-sad).  But happiness isn't enough. What we need is wellbeing, and as Dr Mark Fabian quotes in the dedication to his book, Beyond Happy, "Wellbeing is about wholeness, not happiness, and wholeness is so much more demanding than happiness.' So what is wholeness, and what does it demand of us? As the old world crumbles and the new is struggling into being, what steps can each of us take to bring ourselves ever closer to a sense of being complete? This week's guest, Dr Mark Fabian, is Associate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Warwick, and an affiliate fellow at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy at the University of Cambridge. In, Beyond Happy, his first book for a general audience, he explores how evolution has wired us to keep happiness just out of reach, leaving us perpetually stuck on a happiness treadmill.  Instead of striving to escape it, he argues that we should focus on making the treadmill a place we want to be.  Finding this place of relative equanimity begins with listening to our emotions, discovering intrinsic motivation and pursuing our authentic values.  Mark coaches us through this process of self-actualisation and then knits it together into a collective, cooperative way of being, building relationships that matter and that work. Mark's book will be available in April - here: https://bedfordsquarepublishers.co.uk/book/beyond-happy/Or order from your favourite local independent bookshop. Please remember to put a review up on Amazon and GoodReads as well as anywhere else you feel is worthwhile. (this applies to every book you read and like - algorithms matter) andIf you want to share the journey with us, we're here: Accidental Gods Gatherings https://accidentalgods.life/gatherings-2025/Accidental Gods Membership https://accidentalgods.life/join-us/

Suppose we accept that the current system is not broken - it is doing what it was always designed to do - which is to shovel wealth and power from the many to the few at a human scale and from the more-than-human world to the industrial/technical maw of predatory capitalism at an ecological scale.This is a death cult and it is in its death throes, but it will take us all down with it if we let it.Suppose then, we accept that, while the current system may not be broken, it is absolutely not fit for purpose, if that purpose is the continuation of complex life on earth; if it is the flourishing of humanity as an integral part of the web of life; if it is a world predicated on values of compassion, decency, integrity, generosity-of-spirit and absolute confidence in our place as conscious nodes in the web of life.IF this is the case - then we need a whole new system. We need a movement that will bring this system into being.In this solo podcast, Manda explores what the baselines of a new system might look, feel and work like.Manda's Substack post  https://substack.com/home/post/p-158280401Jan Andrew Bloxham post https://substack.com/home/post/p-157874742Jason Hickel 'No the US is not a beacon of democracy' https://substack.com/@jasonhickel/note/p-158661867If you want to share the journey with us, we're here: Accidental Gods Gatherings https://accidentalgods.life/gatherings-2025/Accidental Gods Membership https://accidentalgods.life/join-us/