Accidental Gods

Imagine a world where every one of us finds meaning in living a good life - and where 'good' means conducive to the flourishing of all beings. Imagine that this frames our every thought, sensing and action, allowing us to explore and question our triggered responses to the world we are enmeshed with in a way that is resilient and self-regulating, so that we can bring the best of ourselves to the table, with outcomes as information, ready to engage with what is, for what matters, and not to force how we think things ought to be.  Imagine us working to govern this way of being so our our actions are shaped, moment by moment, day by day, year by year, decade by decade as we turn the bus that is humanity - the entire ecosphere, really - from the edge of the cliff that is mass extinction to collective enduring flourishing.  This is the vision of this week's guest, Dr Victoria Hurth.  Victoria was with us back in Episode #308 and I have put a link in the show notes so you can listen as she describes her new book, Beyond Profit; Purpose-Driven Leadership for a Wellbeing Economy and the ISO 37011 Standard which she is helping lead - and which is framed exactly around these philosophical concepts. Near the end of that podcast, Victoria mentioned that she is a practicing Stoic, and that she finds within its teachings, a moral philosophy compatible with our navigating the pinch point of the poly crisis.  And so clearly, we had to have another conversation.  This is it.  As we did last time, we ranged far and wide touching on what it means to be in service to the world; how we might choose to live a purpose-driven life and what that purpose might be; what does it mean, anyway, to live a good life, and can everyone access it?  We explored the difference between religion, spirituality and philosophy and ethics, how we can expand to whole systems, or see ourselves as a system and how we might live a life that is wise, just, courageous and temperate.  As a bit of background, Dr Victoria Hurth is an Independent Pracademic who works in service to the world clarifying its consensus on what matters, before we lose it. She firmly believes that we need to dedicate ourselves to the long-term wellbeing of all as the ultimate shared purpose, and then co-create the outer-most governance system to frame the strategies/behaviours/outcomes that will take us there.  We don’t need everyone to sign up, but we do need a critical mass of people at all levels of our organisations from government, to NGOs to industry and beyond.    To this end, Victoria co-led the five-year development of the global ISO standard in Governance of Organizations (ISO37000), was Technical Author for the first national standard in Purpose-Driven Organizations and is currently Project Leader of the development of an equivalent ISO (ISO37011). Victoria is a Fellow of the University of Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership (CISL), Director at the Soil Association Certification Ltd and advises Planet Mark, and UnaTerra Venture Capital. She has over 25 years’ global experience in business transformation and is a full time Associate Professor of Marketing and Sustainable Business.  Alongside all this, she is also a practicing Stoic.  Links Episode #308 Beyond Profit book  Victoria’s website Victoria on LinkedIn Purpose-Driven Organisations– community  BooksStoicism and Emotion by Margaret GraverThe Enchiridion by Epictetus Beyond the Individual: Stoic Philosophy on Community and Connection by  Will Johncock Podcasts Practical Stoicism with Tanner CampbellAI Generated overview of Stoic practice created by Victoria (Claude) —About Accidental Gods—We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass Our next Open Gathering offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme is 'FALLING IN LOVE WITH LIFE' which will run on Sunday 17th May 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are here. You don't have to be a member of Accidental Gods - but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here Manda and Louise both offer one-to-one Mentoring Calls.  Manda is fully booked just now, but if you'd like to contact Louise, details are here.

“I think empathy is a creative act. It’s imaginal, it’s an art-making practice, where even just listening is creating a picture and a lifeworld of the other inside yourself in order to get closer to each other.” - Dylan McGarry Empathy is a magical thing.  It lets us do more than just step into another's shoes, it opens the doors for us to step into their heart and soul with the vast generosity of spirit we'd like others to bring to us, wide as the sky, deep as the oceans, so that we can see through their eyes as the best of who they are. Obviously, we can do this with other people, but we can do it too, with whales, with elephants, with horses, and red kites and moles and spiders - and mountains and trees and landscapes… empathy is the spark that connects us to the More than Human world.  There are not many people who truly understand this and fewer still who make it their life's work to open the doors in our souls with such subtlety that we only know afterwards that we've stepped beyond the boundaries of who we think we are. Our guest this week, Dr Dylan McGarry, is one of these people. Dyl works across the fields of Education, Sociology, Ecology, and the Arts. An Educational Sociologist, Cultural Ecologist, multimedia artist, artivist, curator, theatre and filmmaker, Dyl's work spans disciplines with many tentacles touching the world. Dyl holds a PhD in Environmental Education and Art, as well as degrees in Marine Science, Environmental Science, and Sustainable Rural Development. As co-founder of Empatheatre, their praxis draws from the power of public storytelling, theatre, film, and animation, as a tool for regenerative community building, proactive justice, active empathy and meaning making.  Their artwork and creative practice are particularly focused on empathy, working with imagination, listening and empathy as actual sculptural materials. They are developing pedagogies for empathy, in the context of ecological citizenship, and exploring the sculptural potential of empathy, attentiveness, intuition and learning. Dyl is an astonishingly prolific, and inspiring pracademic, with a host of published papers in topics that I could easily dive into for years - like hydro-feminism... but it's the work of Empatheatre that we're really looking at today.  This is a theatre-based approach to transgressive social learning, and an extra-legal alternative to democratising policy change. This in itself is mind-blowing - the plays are developed over months or years in collaboration with the communities affected by the concepts - and then when the play tours, the cast and crew facilitate conversations after each event that turn into tribunals or citizen's assemblies and the mere fact of having experienced the deep emotions of the play, had a sense of how things land with other people, can open doors that were previously closed.  I've been searching for longer than this podcast has been live for people who are crafting paradigm shift in ways that are sticky, that will land and last - and this is it.  Dylan says that empathy has three components: Imagination, attentiveness, and intuition. And just hearing this opens whole new ways of being for me, and I hope for you.  This was such a heart-filling, generative conversation and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. People of the podcast, please welcome Dylan McGarry from Empatheatre, and so much more. ​"His sensitivity and integrity regarding valuing the knowledge, perspectives and values of others is amazing – a role model for others."      Professor Charlie Shackleton, Department of Environmental Science, Rhodes University LINKShttps://www.dylanmcgarry.org/https://www.empatheatre.com/ Empatheatre on YouTube https://youtu.be/p_W3QBz9cPY?si=mFH4W2V7_AnObM61  Lalela uLwandle (illustrated short film)https://youtu.be/DnuZa7r0vPc?si=RX3Is2k4eN0ROO9e  CWF24 TA1 Empatheatre Dylan McGarryhttps://youtu.be/sfAGXCiki8U?si=fXaqm66WlKCqO2j6 FORGE x MOTH Festival of Ideas 2025 | Dylan McGarry & Elisa Morgerahttps://youtu.be/lNm-Yf8Dt10?si=CkJW0aqePYEQAX3h  Indlela Yokuphila: The Soul's Journey (ZULU) https://youtu.be/e3tUrfUXgsw?si=tQRxPTSLHgkDwckG Isitha Sabantu Teaserhttps://youtu.be/4UBubIpCWuk?si=CyVzPA7suMnmbrrr The Blue Blanket South African Puppet Company: The Herds The play: Isitha Sabantu - review —About Accidental Gods—We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass Our next Open Gathering offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme is 'FALLING IN LOVE WITH LIFE' which will run on Sunday 17th May 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are here. You don't have to be a member of Accidental Gods - but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here Manda and Louise both offer one-to-one Mentoring Calls.  Manda is fully booked just now, but if you'd like to contact Louise, details are here.

Jeremy Lent is a long time friend of the podcast.  His new book, 'Ecocivilization: Making a World That Works for All'  is coming out at the end of April 2026 and so we got together to discuss what an Ecocivilisation is, why we so badly need to become one, and how we might get there. These questions have animated all of Jeremy Lent's writing, from The Patterning Instinct, through The Web of Meaning and now to his latest in this seminal trifecta: Ecocivilization: Making a World That Works For All.  We spoke to Jeremy back in Episode #301 to lay the foundations of the book, to explore the ways the current system is not fit for purpose and then to leave the door open for this episode, which is timed so that you can pre-order the book in plenty of time - it's out on the 26th of May in the US and the 28th in the UK. This is a genuinely Thrutopian book in that it lays out pathways - route maps - towards a future we'd be proud to leave behind. Nobody is pretending these are the only routes, but I think we are all agreed that the values and beliefs underpinning the new system will have to be coherent in the same way the values of power-over and beliefs in separation, scarcity and powerlessness are core to what Jeremy called Wendigo Inc. and we tend to call the Death Cult of Predatory Capitalism. I'm sure Jeremy needs no introduction to anyone in this field, but there's always someone for whom this is the first podcast - you're so welcome here, thank you - and so for those to whom some of the people and ideas are new, Jeremy Lent was born in London, has a BA in English Literature from Cambridge University, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and was a former internet company CEO. Now, he is an author, speaker and founder of the  Deep Transformation Network, a global community exploring pathways to an ecological civilization. He is the author of the three books we mentioned, and is helping to co-create an EcoCivilisation Visioning Forum and various other umbrella seed-banks to help bring his ideas into being. He is one of those people who has given his life to the emerging of a system that will work for all life. Jeremy's Website: https://www.jeremylent.comJeremy's Blog https://patternsofmeaning.comJeremy on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-lent-ba153017/Jeremy's YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@JeremyLentDeep Transformation Network https://deeptransformation.network/feed TOUR DATES: [] Guardian article on global tipping point https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/13/coral-reefs-ice-sheets-amazon-rainforest-tipping-point-global-heating-scientists-report BooksThe Patterning Instinct https://www.jeremylent.com/the-patterning-instinct.htmlThe Web of Meaning https://www.jeremylent.com/the-web-of-meaning.htmlEcoCivilization - pre-order here: https://www.jeremylent.com/ Previous Episodes#102 - Weaving the Web of Meaning  https://accidentalgods.life/weaving-the-web-of-meaning/#38 - Fractal Flourishing https://accidentalgods.life/fractal-flourishing/#310 - Eco-civilisation - Part 1   https://accidentalgods.life/eco-civilisation-the-future-we-deserve-and-how-we-will-get-there-with-jeremy-lent/ —About Accidental Gods—We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass Our next Open Gathering offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme is 'FALLING IN LOVE WITH LIFE' which will run on Sunday 17th May 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are here. You don't have to be a member of Accidental Gods - but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here Manda and Louise both offer one-to-one Mentoring Calls.  Manda is fully booked just now, but if you'd like to contact Louise, details are here.

What are the stories we tell ourselves and each other about ourselves and each other and our place in the living web of life—and how do we shape them in service to Life?  This is the central question that animates Accidental Gods: the idea that we are a storied species, that humanity lives and breathes and loves and learns by the rich tapestry of stories that shape our lives.  Everything we do from picking a career to moving house, from finding our life's co-creator(s) to choosing what to have for lunch is underpinned by stories of who we are and how the world works.  Often, we take these stories so much for granted that we don't even recognise they are stories - we genuinely believe the world works like this. But then once in a while, someone comes along with such great heart and deep, compassionate fluency in the many layers of our myths that they can weave magic wild enough to turn the bus that is humanity from the edge of the cliff - or at the very least, they can help us imagine what it is to be something entirely other, with no bus and no cliff. This week's guest, Sam Crosby, is one such myth-weaver. Sam is founder of Recalling Fire, the oral storytelling practice bringing ancient courage to modern leadership challenges. Guided by the work of Dr Martin Shaw at the School of Myth, fellow of the Bio-Leadership Project, mentor for A Band of Brothers and Alumnus of the Dartington College of Arts, he works with individuals and organisations all around the world, helping us to weave, re-weave the stories of our lives. Of this process, he says, '…after sharing reverential space and stories with hundreds of people as an oral storyteller and hundreds of thousands more as a consultant for culture, I believe stories and careful word choice have what it takes to guide us further down.' This conversation was rich and deeply layered.  We explored Arthurian Legend (fwiw, I think A Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff remains the best Arthurian book, though Mary Stewart's Crystal Cave trilogy was my introduction to the whole genre and while I could never bring myself to read the third book, the first two were stellar), through a story of choice and agency, through the nature of grief and gratitude, love, loss and death as a Rite of Passage to the nature of story in modern politics: everything was here in a truly generative long-hour's conversation.   Enjoy! Links Sign up here for Sam's next event in May https://www.recallingfire.com/tristan-and-isolde-2026 This is the Substack article we were referring to https://recallingfire.substack.com/p/essay-mythocartography and then:Recalling Fire websiteDrop the Map Podcast1-on-1 Guidance from SamBand of BrothersSam on LinkedInSam on BlueSky Sam on Mastodon Clarissa Pinkola EstesDanny Deerdorff MythSinger Project —About Accidental Gods—We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass Our next Open Gathering offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme is 'FALLING IN LOVE WITH LIFE' which will run on Sunday 17th May 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are here. You don't have to be a member of Accidental Gods - but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here Manda and Louise both offer one-to-one Mentoring Calls.  Manda is fully booked just now, but if you'd like to contact Louise, details are here.

How do we create stories powerful enough, moving enough, inspiring enough - and grounded enough - to shift the trajectory of our culture onto a totally new pathway?  This week's guest, Matt Golding, has spent his entire professional life exploring what makes stories go viral, gaining awards, big contracts and a deep instinct for how to help people see the best in themselves in ways that can shape new narratives.  Since the early days of the internet, Matt has been breaking rules and breaking new ground. He's a strategist, writer & filmmaker using story to excite people about the possible future that's emerging all around us - that works better for the majority. He believes the stories we share shape the culture we inhabit, and with a background in viral campaigns, he's fascinated with how we can use creativity, heart and humour to shape stories people share - that unlock a more positive future.  As director of impact and social change studio, Rubber Republic, he was as the forefront of a movement that used shareable content campaigns to engage mass audiences with a better future. Historically, he worked with brands like Disney, eBay, Channel 4, BBC, Fiat and Yorkshire Tea, but since 2019 he has committed only to work with organisations 100% committed to creating a future that functions for all. He's the founder of ANTIDOTE - a positive storytelling platform sharing stories of collective action by ordinary people that are changing our world for the better. Matt says that it's 'an experiment in reshaping how we find and tell collective action stories to see if we can get them more mainstream traction and appeal, and make them more invitational so we can get more people to be inspired into action.'  Which is as Thrutopian as it gets. And, on top of all this, he's co-host of the recently launched - and absolutely brilliant - podcast  'Screw This, Let's Try Something Else...' sharing stories of ordinary communities creating extraordinary change. And then finally, on top of all of this, there's a postcode search tool, so you can get involved in transformative things wherever you are (in the UK - though at some point, someone will stretch it worldwide) In a crazy-making world, join us for a dose of inspiring sanity, creativity and hope. LinksAntidote https://www.antidotelive.studio/ Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/screw-this-lets-try-something-else/id1863391095 Postcode Search Tool (find collective action near you): https://www.antidotelive.studio/near-you Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattgolding/ Substack: https://mattgolding.substack.com/ Rubber Republic https://www.rubberrepublic.com/ —About Accidental Gods—We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass Our next Open Gathering offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme is 'FINDING YOUR SOUL'S PURPOSE' which will run on Sunday 22nd March 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are here. You don't have to be a member of Accidental Gods - but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here Manda and Louise both offer one-to-one Mentoring Calls.  Manda is fully booked just now, but if you'd like to contact Louise, details are here.

In a culture where age is, at best, ignored, how do we rebuild a cohort of genuine Elders fit for the rapid transitions of the 21st Century: those who can combine the wisdom of wide boundary perspectives with the humility that allows flexibility of thinking, feeling and being? This is one of the core questions of our time and this week's guest is working to find answers. Alain Gauthier is co-founder and coordinator of the Regenerative Elder Process at the Elders Action Network. With John Izzo, he is co-host of The Way Forward Regenerative Conversations podcast and over his long life, he has been an international consultant, facilitator, coach, researcher-educator, and author. His book Actualising Evolutionary Co-Leadership: To Evolve a Creative and Responsible Society was published in 2014 - and is only available on Kindle (sorry) - but it is nonetheless a fascinating and inspiring read. A graduate from HEC (Paris), with an MBA from Stanford University, Alain was once a senior consultant at McKinsey & Company, As you'll hear, a life-changing experience led him to co-found Core Leadership Development in Oakland, California and to focus his professional work on developing co-leadership, partnering and coaching capabilities. Now in his eighties and as an elder, he devotes his time to co-creating conditions for elders to explore how they can live a regenerative life and collaborate with younger generations in transforming education and community life.    Over the last seven years, he has been an active member of the Elders Action Network (EAN), where he initially led a visionary planning process and now co-leads the Regenerative Elder Process (REP) – which, this April (2026) is offering for the seventh time an in-depth exploration called Embodying Regenerative Worldviews. He co-leads the REP Community and is a member of the Advisory Council of Elders Rising, EAN’s educational arm. This was a rich, deep and heart-felt podcast.  Enjoy! LinksElders Action Network https://eldersaction.org/Regenerative Elders Process https://eldersaction.org/regenerative-elder-processIntroductory Exploration of Regenerative Elder Process https://sutra.co/space/2eqo2s/register - New Cohort April 2026 Alain's book (only on Kindle) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Actualizing-Evolutionary-Co-Leadership-Creative-Responsible-ebook/dp/B00JE4FRHY/The Way Forward Regenerative Conversations Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-way-forward-regenerative-conversations/id1651941803 Peter Senge's Centre for Systems Awareness https://systemsawareness.org/person/peter-senge/Jeff Carreira’s Mystery School https://mysteryschool-memberscircle.com/Otto Scharmer’s Presencing Institute https://www.presencing.org/ About Accidental Gods - What we offer. We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme, it's 'FINDING YOUR SOUL'S PURPOSE' on Sunday 22nd March 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are here. You don't have to be a member - but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here Manda and Louise both offer one-to-one Mentoring Calls.  Manda is fully booked just now, but if you'd like to contact Louise, details are here.

What is Integral Altruism and how could it crowd-source the answers to our meta crisis?   It's a while since I learned about 'reverse mentoring': a young person mentoring someone of an older generation. The idea really took hold, so when a mutual friend connected Jonas Søvik and me, I knew I'd found someone from whom I could learn a huge amount about life, ideas, thoughts and how the world feels in circles I would otherwise never reach. Jonas and I have been exploring all this together for the past 18 months and every conversation leaves me buzzing with the potential of new doors opening and new senses unfolding, and how could we not share something so rich?  And so here we are, a day after his 27th birthday, with Jonas now in Blackpool, working at the Effective Altruism Hotel, which is, in itself, a significant step outside the predatory capital model.  Jonas Søvik is a coach, self-exploration and wisdom enthusiast, currently serving on the board of EA Denmark, and at the EA Hotel, helping to restructure and expand the organization/community to serve the EA community and the wider world. He is also building courses to help us all gain more control of our screen time.  He swims in similar waters to this podcast - interested in the metacrisis, particularly as framed by Daniel Schmachtenberger and Nate Hagens, integral altruism, Life Itself, Learning Planet, John Vervaeke's work on modern wisdom, regenerative thinking, Game B, Liminal Web - & most things related in that field.  This was one of those conversations where we were both freewheeling, thinking in real time, asking questions as they arose.  It's alive, and electric and takes us both to new places. I hope it leaves you feeling as optimistic as it did me.  Enjoy!  Jonas' Website https://www.coachingforhuman.com/Integral Altrusim https://www.integralaltruism.com/John Vervaeke's TEDx Talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKvRUfZ_u1oJonathan Rowson: The Flip, The Formation, The Fun https://jonathanrowson.substack.com/p/the-flip-the-formation-and-the-funEffective Altruism https://www.effectivealtruism.org/About the EA Hotel in Blackpool https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/ah6rXHq8qqz7nNrFE/ceealar-has-a-new-executive-directorEvolving Effective Altruism blog https://thewiderangle.substack.com/p/evolving-effective-altruism-dialogue About Accidental Gods - What we offer. We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme, it's 'FINDING YOUR SOUL'S PURPOSE' on Sunday 22nd March 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are here. You don't have to be a member - but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here Manda and Louise both offer one-to-one Mentoring Calls.  Manda is fully booked just now, but if you'd like to contact Louise, details are here.

In this podcast Manda dives deep into the nature of fear, what it is and how we might find our own resources, resilience and capacity to work with the parts that catch our attention.  Given this, it is recommended that you listen at a time and place where you can give it full attention. We believe that we are in a time of total transformation and the potential is enormous - if enough of us can do the work to free up the stuck parts inside so that we can be fully present, fully able to respond to the needs of every moment as it arises.  Nobody is suggesting this is easy work, but it is absolutely the work of this moment. If we can all free up our stuck places so that our connections between all parts of ourselves, ourselves and each other, ourselves and the Web of Life are free and fluid - then we can begin to step into what's ours to do in the moment, rather than rehashing old stories of old hurts - that may not be ours, but may be inherited from the generations that have gone before. We need not to pass them on, but more than that, we need to be able to connect in real time with all that's around us in an ever-changing world.  [For those of you who attended the Gathering Honouring Fear as your Mentor that Manda taught earlier this month, this podcast is designed both to cement the teachings of that Gathering and open them up to our wider group of listeners.] Manda's recommended reading from the Winter Solstice 2025  https://accidentalgods.life/word-magic-2025-accidental-gods-pick-of-fiction-non-fiction-poetry-and-podcasts-through-the-year/ Nature and Neuroscience - 'mouse/almond blossom study' https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.3594Scientific American precis of the study https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fearful-memories-passed-down/ About Accidental Gods - What we offer. We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass Honouring Fear as our Mentor was the February Gathering  offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme. If you'd like to join us in future, our next Gathering is 'FINDING YOUR SOUL'S PURPOSE' which will be held on Sunday 22nd March 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are here. You don't have to be a member - but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here Manda and Louise both offer 121 Mentoring Calls.  Manda is fully booked just now, but if you'd like to contact Louise, details are here.

What is a Network State and how does the concept matter in relation to the Trump administration's attempts to take Greenland - and their 'peace' proposals in Gaza and Ukraine?   This is the question I asked the transnational legal expert Dr Andrea Leiter: Who is trying to set up legal structure that mandate for No Death, No Taxes and No Democracy? And why might the rest of us end up dead or enslaved (I'll leave you to work out which you think is worse) - because as with any fascist enterprise, there will be the in-group that is protected but not constrained and the out-group that is constrained but not protected and if you're listening to this podcast, the chances of your being in the in-group are vanishingly small.  So we ended up discussing Balaji Srinivasan's concepts of the Network State - and no, I have not linked to the book or the website in the show notes: if you want them, you can search.  I have, however, linkedto the ideas of the Co-ordiNations put forward by Primavera de Filippi and, of course, there's the ongoing Bioregional work being conducted by Joe Brewer and others: the merging of these two feels to me a good way forward if we're to get rid of the current Hobbesian concepts of a Nation State - which is, for sure, pretty outdated.  For those who want background, Andrea works at the intersection of law, digital transformation, and economic innovation. Director of Amsterdam Center for International Law, she’s deeply aware of, and involved in, Transnational Law, Digital Economies & Institutional Innovation, all things crypto – as well as being a Social Justice Entrepreneur. She currently leads a Dutch Research Council-funded VENI project on Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) and their potential to reshape economic governance from below. So here we go: a radical ride through the forest of nationhood: what it is, why it matters and how we could craft something so much better than what we have now - without the nightmare of fascist police states.  Andrea on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-leiter/Amsterdam Centre for International Law https://acil.uva.nl/%20VENI%20project%20https://www.nwo.nl/en/researchprogrammes/nwo-talent-programme/projects-veni Primavera de Filipi https://pdefilippi.com/Coordinations https://blockchaingov.eu/coordi-nations-a-new-institutional-structure-for-global-cooperation/Network State ByLineTimes - Greenland Data Centres https://bylinetimes.com/2026/02/03/pro-trump-ai-giants-pushed-greenland-expansion-weeks-before-trumps-bid-to-seize-the-island/Quinn Solobdian - Crack up Capitalism https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Crack-Up-Capitalism-by-Quinn-Slobodian/9780241460245 ExoCapitalism ExoCapitalism: Economies with Absolutely No Limits by Marek Poliks & Roberto Alonso TrilloEconomic Space Agency Protocols for Post Capitalist Expression Protocols for Post-Capitalist Expression by Dick Bryan, Jorge López & Akseli Virtanen About Accidental Gods - What we offer. We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme, it's 'FINDING YOUR SOUL'S PURPOSE' on Sunday 22nd March 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are here. You don't have to be a member - but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here Manda and Louise both offer 121 Mentoring Calls.  Manda is fully booked just now, but if you'd like to contact Louise, details are here.

As we crest the wave of the Great Transformation, we have choices: we can crash into chaos and extinction - or we can step into our birthright as fully conscious nodes in the Web of Life, offering the astonishing creativity of humanity in service to life. We've said this on the podcast often, but it's not often that we speak with someone whose entire life is given to helping people step into our birthright, to opening the doors of what we might call Nature Connection, but is so much deeper than this -  so that anyone, of any age or circumstance can step forward into whatever it is that our birthright becomes in the twenty-first century. Our guest this week does just this. I've known of Jon Young for decades, heard of his 8 Shields practice and have friends who have trained in his Art of Mentoring, but it was only this last September that we met in person and I was struck by the deep inner stillness he brings to everything he does, the sense that his awareness stretches out across space and through time and he's listening to layers upon layers of meaning. Jon Young is a deep nature-people-self connection researcher, mentor, naturalist, wildlife tracker, author, consultant, and storyteller. Mentored by his grandmothers, Tom Brown, Jr., and a host of elders and experts, he has spent over 40 years leading the field of nature-based community building. His work explores the impact of nature on mentoring, human intelligence, spirituality, well-being, and development, influencing tens of thousands worldwide. He is the author and co-author of seminal works such as What the Robin Knows and Coyote's Guide to Connecting to Nature, and has appeared in documentaries including The Animal Communicator. In 2016, he received the Champion of Environmental Education Award for his innovative and globally impactful contributions to the nature connection movement. So, with all of this as our baseline, it was an honour and a delight to dive deep with Jon into the history and lineages of his learning, of his views of where we are now, and of how we can best navigate this moment of collapse and renewal. https://www.livingconnection1st.net/https://www.jonyoung.orghttps://www.livingconnection1st.net/pages/resourcesJon's TEDx TalkThe Animal Communicator Sign up for the Living Connection 1st newsletter Paul Hawken's Blessed Unrest Karl Direske's site https://wildernessfusion.com/ About Accidental Gods - What we offer. We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme, it's 'FINDING YOUR SOUL'S PURPOSE' on Sunday 22nd March 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are here. You don't have to be a member - but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here Manda and Louise both offer 121 Mentoring Calls.  Manda is fully booked just now, but if you'd like to contact Louise, details are here.

As we move towards Total Systemic Change, shifting from the death cult of predatory capitalism towards a future we'd actually be proud to leave behind, our absolute baseline non-negotiable foundations must be Clean Air, Clean Water, Clean Soil. We talk a lot about regenerative agriculture on this podcast, and how we can rebuild living soils from the inert growing media we've created in the hellscapes of Industrial Agriculture.  One day, we'll talk about Clean Air.  Today, we're talking about water, that utterly essential part of our biological and spiritual lives.  It should be clean. It should be safe to drink, to swim in, for us and all the species with whom we share our beautiful blue pearl of a watery planet. As we all know… it's not.  It's not because our system values profit over the vibrancy of life. It's not because people in suits have found that if they treat our rivers as open sewers and our oceans as waste dumps they can get away with it.  It's not because for too long, we've believed the stories that say there is no alternative and this is the way the world has to be. But the masks are coming off and activism is increasingly being seen as an act of radical, necessary resistance that can bring people together, bridging across the false, toxic cultural divides that the establishment creates so that we fight ourselves instead of working towards a world founded on different values.  The push for clean water is one of the most unifying drives we have.  It doesn't matter where you are on the political spectrum, you don't vote for sewage to be poured into the rivers, for the dead zones in the oceans to grow and join up, for the rain to be full of forever toxins so that some suit in a company C-suites can buy themselves a new private jet and an invitation to Jeffrey Epstein's private parties. In the UK, we're in an almost unique position because back in the 80s, Margaret Thatcher saw Pinochet privatising the water and sewage companies in Chile and decided this was a fine idea and imported it wholesale to the UK. Our water and sewage companies were privatised at a steal in 1989 and pretty much everyone is agreed this is an incredibly bad idea. Except successive governments.  So people got together and formed their own activist groups based around the rivers near them - there's always at least one - and they are conducting citizen science, holding people's assemblies and generally making enough of a nuisance of themselves that those in power have to take notice.  All this being the case, it's World Water Day on March 22nd every year and this year - we're recording in 2026 for those of you who listen years later - we're talking to Claire Kirby co-founder of Up Sewage Creek and a member of the Sewage Campaign Network.  I first met Claire when my last dog was young - so nearly 20 years ago.  She has a degree in Environmental Science from King's College London and then went on to become a Pet Behaviour Specialist who used to run rather wonderful puppy training classes.  In 2020, following an episode of this podcast, she undertook a training with Trust the People and went on to co-found Up Sewage Creek, an activist group based around the River Severn in Shrewsbury on the borders between England and Wales.  More recently, she has become an active part of the Sewage Campaign Network and is actively campaigning against the latest Government White Paper on the Water Industry which as much of a greenwash/whitewash as you'd expect.  This was a lively conversation, a lot of it focussed on the situation in England, mainly because we live here and it's pretty bad.  But wherever you are in the world, you have water somewhere near you and I guarantee it's not clean - and there will be people around you who care that it become cleaner.  Clearly if you're in a war zone, even if it's an as-yet undeclared civil war, this is not your highest priority and I really do want to honour the people of Minnesota, Maine and Oregon who are taking to the streets in freezing weather to face the Terrorist gangs unleashed by the US government. You have other things to think about than the quality of your water, though not far away in Flint, Michigan, there is one of the most egregious failures of local politics ever to express itself in the quality of the water, so this is clearly a universal problem.   We each do what we can. For those of us not facing pepper spray, uniting our communities so that nobody is ever prepared to join up to the government's shock troops might be the front line.  If testing water is your thing, please do it.  And to find out how and why to connect and converge, let's talk to Claire Kirby of Up Sewage Creek. LinksWorld Water Day https://www.unwater.org/our-work/world-water-dayCastCo https://castco.org/Trust the People https://www.trustthepeople.earth/Top of the Poops (!)  - to help you connect with your MP https://top-of-the-poops.org/constituencies Sewage Campaign Network https://www.sewagecampaignnetwork.org.uk/Up Sewage Creek https://www.upsewagecreek.com/USC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/upsewagecreekhttps://www.windrushwasp.org/single-post/new-vision-for-water-a-mirage-or-worse?cid=1dfba32d-7702-4cde-974a-08a8580126ff Left Foot Forward Article https://leftfootforward.org/2026/01/public-ownership-of-water-is-the-only-way-to-deliver-security-efficiency-investment-and-value-for-money/ National Security Briefing on BioDiversity Loss in the UK https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nature-security-assessment-on-global-biodiversity-loss-ecosystem-collapse-and-national-security Other Accidental Gods water-related podcasts River Dôn Project Tim Smedley 'The Last Drop' BooksDrinkable Rivers - https://drinkablerivers.org/drinkable-rivers-book/ About Accidental Gods If you'd like to support us, come along and join the Accidental Gods Membership. Here, you can share in the ideas, the programme that will help you connect to the Web of Life in ways that will last—and you can come to the Gatherings half price. Or if that doesn't appeal, come along to one of the Gatherings. Or buy a subscription/Gathering for a friend... do something that feels like a good exchange of energy and minimises our connection with old economic paradigm. Remember that if any of this is difficult, contact us and we'll find something that works for you. Details below: We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river:

In the midst of collapse, as we watch our governments lay waste to our social agreements, it can be hard to imagine extending the franchise of legal rights to Nature and the More than Human world.  And yet, if we're to transcend this moment, it must be because we have become something other than we are now - and to do this, we need the roadmaps that show us how to move through, and beyond, the collapse of the old into something new. We spoke to Ally Pimor about this a couple of weeks ago and when I first met her, I also met this week's guest and they had so much to say that I wanted to talk to each of them.  So with this in mind, this week's guest is Brontie Ansell, the founder and co-director of Lawyers for Nature. Brontie founded Lawyers for Nature in 2019 with the (fairly infamous) barrister Paul Powlesland, they are a collective of lawyers who act to represent Nature. They reimagine the law for Nature and advocate for Nature to be given legal rights through education, Nature centric governance, consultancy, research and advocacy. Last year Lawyers for Nature were behind the We Are Nature campaign that sought to change the dictionary definition of Nature at the Oxford English Dictionary to include humans as part of Nature. Brontie was one of the key legal architects behind the Nature on the Board project at Faith in Nature and she was the first human to act as the Nature Guardian speaking on behalf of Nature at the company Faith in Nature, giving Nature a voice and a vote on a corporate board for the first time in history. She then went on to design the legal apparatus to appoint Nature and the voice of future generations to the board of House of Hackney, a company that credits Nature as their most important muse. Most recently she was advising the Comisiwn Seilwaith Cenedlaethol Cymru/National Infrastructure Commission for Wales on their Nature Representation pilot. She features heavily in both Simeon Rose's new book Nature's Boardroom and Frieda Gormley's book In the Company of Nature. She has been a lecturer in law for 15 years, most recently at the University of Essex where she was an associate professor at Essex Law School. Brontie has taught courses on Rights of Nature, climate justice, employment law and land law. Her work is informed by the global rights of nature movement and she is grateful to all who came before her to create the bedrock for work she does. Brontie talks to me about what a society could look like if we really reformed the meaning of ‘justice for all’, and started to understand Nature and aspects of Nature as a subject of law.Because of the times we're in, I felt I could not ignore the shocking events that occurred in America this past week week and so we started with a quote from Elliott Morris and Strength in Numbers, which I was confusing with another organisation - Strength in Numbers is, in fact, a Substack blog -  well worth reading. I've put a link in the show notes, along with a few others that I think are worth adding to your must-read list every morning.  Last week - with his permission - I read a bit from one of these, by Oliver Kornetzke as part of the intro (hi Ollie if you're still listening!). I'm not going to make a habit of this every week, but I want to read something from Jackie Summers blog, Field Notes for Cracking An Empire, where she says, “If you’ve been reading my work for the last few years, none of this should be surprising. The old narratives are gone. This is what fascism looks like in real time. First, ICE agents killed Renee Nicole Good, a white woman. Now they’ve murdered Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old US citizen. A nurse with no criminal record. White women’s bodies were supposed to be sacrosanct. Respectable professionals were supposed to be “off-limits.” That’s no longer the case. For Black people, this country has always been fascist. What’s new is who else is inside the blast radius. The Venn diagram of “safe” and “endangered” is now a circle. If you’re shaken, it’s not just grief. It’s narrative whiplash. The distance between “this can’t happen” and “it just did, on camera” no longer exists. You have choices. You can either cling to the lie and let someone else keep paying. Or pay the cost of updating the story about this country. About who is “safe,” about what you’re willing to do now that protections are gone. I’ve said it before, the empire can handle outrage. It has no defense against empathy at scale. Outrage spikes, trends, and fades. Empathy—“it can be me; it already is them”—changes what people are willing to risk and protect. This is recruitment by atrocity. Your blood spilled red in the streets, just like ours. It shouldn’t take this. It always has."There follows one of the most cogent, clear, useful, grounded lists of how we can all join what has been called well-organised Anarchists. And if that's what we are, I'm not sure that's bad.  At the end, Jackie writes - If you’re going out, your first job is coming home. If you’re staying home, your first job is staying human.  I'm writing this from the privilege and safety of a rural home in the UK.  Wherever you are in the world, please look after each other. And for ideas on how we can transcend this moment, to start reimagining a world which sees us as humans who reconnect with each other and with Nature, and give Nature the rights it deserves to thrive, please listen on to Brontie Ansell and her beautiful models of Quiet Romance, Care, Guardianship and justice for all life.  Linkshttps://www.lawyersfornature.com/ https://immersives.pioneerspost.com/lawyers-leading-nature/index.htmlhttps://greenallianceblog.org.uk/2022/09/22/giving-nature-a-seat-on-the-board-is-a-powerful-way-to-make-sure-businesses-protect-our-environment/https://nationalinfrastructurecommission.wales/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/NICW_NOTB_LFN-Final-Report.pdfhttps://www.houseofhackney.com/pages/nature-our-directorhttps://www.natureontheboard.com/https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/professional-business/natures-boardroomhttps://www.waterstones.com/book/in-the-company-of-nature/frieda-gormley/9781645023500https://www.ukrightsofnature.org/https://wearenature.org/

As the old paradigm splinters into rage-filled, grief-stricken fragments, how can we lay the foundation for the total systemic change we so badly need?Even beyond the listeners to this podcast, it is obvious by now that there is no going back. As Oliver Kornetzke wrote in a particularly sharply written piece on Facebook back on 22nd January - before Alex Pretti was murdered by Trump's Federal Agents - what white America is not experiencing is not new, and is not a flaw in the system, it is the system.  This is what he says in more detail: White Americans are not witnessing the collapse of something noble. They’re witnessing the unveiling of what has always been true. The rot now visible is not a flaw in the foundation. Rather, it is the foundation. It was poured with concrete, inscribed into laws, and baked into the American mythos. The violence, the inequality, and the selective application of “justice”—none of it is a betrayal of the American promise. It is the American promise, applied unevenly by design. For centuries, Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized communities have lived under the weight of this system—disenfranchised, disappeared, surveilled, caged, and killed. They were told to be patient, to be peaceful, to vote harder, to “work within the system.” And when they told the unvarnished truth—that the system is the violence—they were mocked, criminalized, and ignored. Now the machinery begins to grind down those it once served, and only now does the shock begin to register. But this isn’t the system breaking. It’s merely the mask coming off. The laws of this land protects power and wealth. It has always protected power and wealth. The state defends itself. And democracy here has always been ornamental—used to sanctify what power had already decided. The rule of law is not impartial. It’s a weapon, a performance, a convenience afforded to the privileged. The pageantry of justice is reserved for those never meant to feel its weight. What you’re seeing now is not the end of the American dream. It is the truth of the American reality, finally uninterested in disguising itself. The empire is simply turning inward. Many will not want to read this. They will flinch, deflect, and rationalize. They will call me divisive, bitter, and extreme. They will attack, argue, and dismiss. And in doing so, they will only prove the point by choosing their comfort over clarity, and their denial over responsibility. Because that, too, is by design: the privilege of ignoring the truth until it shows up at your own door. So what do we do?  It is a founding principle of this podcast that there is still time to turn the bus that is humanity from the edge of the cliff of species-level extinction. We believe the Egregor, the Super-Organism, the death cult of predatory capitalism... whatever you like to call it, is in its death throes.  In its flailing, it might yet take us all with it, but that's not a given and in every single act of compassion, courage and community that we're seeing around the world from Greenland, to Venezuela, to Minnesota and beyond, we are building the leading edge of a new system. But we need a spiritual base to this.  I genuinely think we get through only if we can lift ourselves out of our Trauma Culture and into a new way of being - an Initiation Culture fit for the twenty first century.  We talk about this a lot on the podcast, and sometimes, we talk to other people who get this, and who are working explicitly towards a shift in consciousness of the whole human race.  Today's episode is one of those. Our guest is Marc-John Brown who describes himself with characteristic humility, as an integration coach, transpersonal life coach, and spiritually-oriented business coach. Since 2019, he has been an apprentice of the Shipibo-Konibo tribe of the Peruvian Amazon Jungle and an ally and collaborator among multiple other living indigenous peoples. Having met him, I'd say that Marc-John  is deeply connected with the spirits of the land in a way that is both profoundly wise, and deeply grounded.  He is one of those who comes to Elderhood at a young age, moving through the world with dignity and humility, helping others to reach the core of what it is to be human at this moment of total transformation.  Born and raised in Scotland, he has a deep spiritual connection to south America and to the indigenous peoples of that land. With his wife, Erika Huarcaya a native Peruvian of the Chanka peoples, Marc-John runs the Native Wisdom Hub, which seeks to bring people of our culture - the white, western culture that is currently eating itself alive - into authentic, enduring connection with the web of life such that we can all begin to change the way we are in the world.  On a recent Substack post, Marc-John says, 'We believe that, in large part, healing happens through nervous system co-regulation between indigenous wisdom keepers and modern seekers. Building healthy relationships. Creating psychological safety. Allowing trust to grow where mistrust has festered.' So this conversation delves deeply into the nature of the trauma we experience - and how we might heal the relationships between all parts of ourselves, ourselves and each other, ourselves and the web of life.   LinksNative Wisdom Hub https://www.nativewisdomhub.com/NWH on FB https://www.facebook.com/nativewisdomhub/Marc-John's Substack https://substack.com/@marcjohnbrown Oliver Korntezke on FB https://www.facebook.com/okornetzke What we offer—If you'd like to support us, come along and join the Accidental Gods Membership. Here, you can share in the ideas, the programme that will help you connect to the Web of Life in ways that will last—and you can come to the Gatherings half price. Or if that doesn't appeal, come along to one of the Gatherings. Or buy a subscription/Gathering for a friend... do something that feels like a good exchange of energy and minimises our connection with old economic paradigm. Remember that if any of this is difficult, contact us and we'll find something that works for you. Details below: We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme, it's 'Honouring Fear as your Mentor' on Sunday 8th February 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are here. You don't have to be a member - but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass

Across the world, our legal systems are crumbling, the rule of sane law dismantled in real time. Yet at the same time, rivers, mountains, bees are being granted legal rights in ways that would have been thought impossible even a few years ago.  And in boardrooms around the planet, C-suites and businesses are increasingly looking to the natural world for guidance on how to be in ways that heal the web of life. So how do we make this work? How do we ensure that it's not just another layer of corporate greenwash?  Our guest this week, Alexandra Pimor is Director of the Nature Governance Agency (NGA) within the Earth Law Center. Increasingly, she is acting as a proxy for the Voice of Nature in corporations and organisations, in professional practice, project management and organisational cultural evolution.  For many years a legal scholar and academic, her practice, studies and research are anchored in a quantum-based ecology of law paradigm, espousing a critical, reflective and multidisciplinary approach. She has a deep passion for people and planet, and, as you'll hear, she now sees it as her mission to promote the facilitation of conscious governance and leadership, at individual, collective and organisational levels, to advance the emergence of an anthropo-eco-logical system of harmonious living.  In our conversation, she lays out what it means to take Death - and Life - as our Witness; to evolve a Sacred No and a Sacred Yes; to speak as the web of life, not for it or to it. She walks the fine line between Two-Eyed Seeing - from a Western, Trauma Culture viewpoint as well as from the perspective of an Indigenous, Initiation Culture - and we explore how boardrooms can see ripples of change as we strive to turn the bus that is humanity away from the cliff edge of the 6th mass extinction.  Earth Law center's NGA Onboarding Nature Toolkit ( developed in partnership between ELC, B Lab Benelux and Nyenrode Business University) Bio-leadership fellowship (a mycelium of regenerative and curious change makers) Thinking like Gaia cards (Ally invites these cards into board conversations when the time, space and dynamics are right)https://www.linkedin.com/in/apimor/ (Ally on LinkedIn) Article on Solidarity within the EU in 'The Conversation' https://theconversation.com/solidarity-was-a-founding-principle-of-european-unity-it-must-remain-so-74580 If you'd like to support us, come along and join the Accidental Gods Membership. Here, you can share in the ideas, the programme that will help you connect to the Web of Life in ways that will last—and you can come to the Gatherings half price. Or if that doesn't appeal, come along to one of the Gatherings. Or buy a subscription/Gathering for a friend... do something that feels like a good exchange of energy and minimises our connection with old economic paradigm. Remember that if any of this is difficult, contact us and we'll find something that works for you. Details below: We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme, it's 'Honouring Fear as your Mentor' on Sunday 8th February 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are here. You don't have to be a member - but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

We live in an ever-changing world, but it is not always obvious what kinds of evolutionary change we are seeing in the broader web of life: in physiology, behaviour, language - and human responses to these.  How plastic is the natural world? How resilient?  How capable - or not - of adapting to the chaos of the climate emergency, the cascade of toxins in our air, soil and water, to the plastics, heavy metals and other detritus we throw out into the world as if the entire planet were one vast sewer for waste we forget about as soon as we've had the dopamine drip that acquiring it evoked? How thin is the ice on which we are skating?  And how can we change the ways we do things so we don't fall into the void of extinction. Our guest this week spends his life exploring these questions. David Farrier is Professor of Literature and the Environment at the University of Edinburgh. David’s first book, Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils, looked at the marks we are leaving on the planet and how these might appear in the fossil record in the deep future. It was named by both The Times and Telegraph as a book of the year, earned praise from Robert Macfarlane and Margaret Atwood, and has been translated into ten other languages. His most recent book is the one we're going to be exploring today - Nature’s Genius: Evolution's Lessons for a Changing Planet is one of the few non-fiction books I've come across that is capable both of going deep into the science of the anthropocene - the full genetic, chemical, noise-pollution havoc of it and going deep into how we can engage with indigenous cultures, languages and ways of thought so that we in the western trauma culture might become something new.  As he says early in the book, 'We pollute because we see ourselves as separate from the rest of the living world, but…learning to coordinate our time with nature's rhythms…could revolutionise our politics.'  The whole quote is in the episode. What you need to know now is that this is a genuinely ground-breaking, mind-opening book and I cannot imagine better reading as we step into 2026.  If you need to know I'm not alone in thinking this, it has been shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Conservation Writing, and the Saltire Award (Scotland's national book awards) for non-fiction. For the New Scientist and Waterstone's bookshop, it is 'Best popular Science Book of 2025'.  You do need to read this.  And in the meantime, enjoy a conversation that left me buzzing for long after we stopped recording. David's booksFootprints: In Search of Future Fossils https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/footprints-david-farrier/6489943Nature’s Genius: Evolution's Lessons for a Changing Planet https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/nature-s-genius-evolution-s-lessons-for-a-changing-planet-david-farrier/7811885 David on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/david-farrier.bsky.socialDavid on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/proffarrier/If you'd like to support us, the best way is to come and join the Accidental Gods Membership: that way you can share in the ideas, the programme that will help you connect to the Web of Life in ways that will last—and you can come to the Gatherings half price. Or if that doesn't appeal, come along to one of the Gatherings. Or buy a subscription/Gathering for a friend... do something that feels like a good exchange of energy and minimises our connection with old economic paradigm. Remember that if any of this is difficult, contact us and we'll find something that works for you. Details below: What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme, it's 'Honouring Fear as your Mentor' on Sunday 8th February 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are here You don't have to be a member -but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Masterclass, the details are here

If we ever had a genuine democracy (and I would argue we never have) then it is clearly disintegrating now, along with the entire system with which it was entwined.  Everyone agrees we need something new, what we don't necessarily agree on across the board is the design of this new thing.  This week's guests are two people who spend their lives imagining how things might be different, particularly in the US, where even the pretence of democracy has been abandoned. Dr John Izzo is a friend of the podcast. Once an ordained Minister in a Presbyterian Church, he’s now a bestselling author, speaker, and thought leader focused on social responsibility and intergenerational integration. He’s a a Distinguished Fellow at The Stimson Center in Washington DC, and a Board Member of the Elders Action Network and the Elders Climate Action group. Most notably in terms of what we're talking about here, he's co-host of The Way Forward Regenerative Conversations Podcast on which I heard him speaking to our other guest, Suzette Brooks Masters.  Suzette describes herself as a sometime Cassandra who sees around the corner; a serial social entrepreneur, and a thought leader and strategist in the fields of democracy, governance and futures. She has degrees in Economics from Amherst College and Cambridge University, and a Law degree from Harvard. She has spent much of her working life as a strategist working on immigration, inclusion and democracy. She is currently Senior Fellow and Director of Democracy Innovation at the Democracy Funders Network and Co-Founder of the Federal Foresight Advocacy Alliance.   So listen in for a 3-way conversation on the nature of power, community and change as we move into the new year.  John on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjohnizzo/John's showreel: https://vimeo.com/248012255?fl=pl&fe=vlJohn's website: www.drjohnizzo.comJohn's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1adiRng-Ab3d3Wos9pFjAA The Way Forward Regenerative Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-way-forward-regenerative-conversations/id1651941803Episode with Suzette: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-way-forward-regenerative-conversations/id1651941803?i=1000704364583The Way Forward on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@RegenerativeConversations Suzette on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzette-brooks-masters-0614981bDemocracy Funders Network https://www.democracyfundersnetwork.org/Federal Foresight Advocacy Alliance  https://www.ffaa-us.org/Suzette's recent report - Becoming Futures Ready: How Philanthropy can leverage strategic foresight for democracy https://www.democracyfundersnetwork.org/resources/2024/10/3/becoming-futures-ready-how-philanthropy-can-leverage-strategic-foresight-for-democracy If you'd like to support us, there is a Patreon page, but we're not going to link to it, because, honestly, the best way is to come and join the Accidental Gods Membership: that way you can share in the ideas, the programme that will help you connect to the Web of Life in ways that will last—and you can come to the Gatherings half price. Or if that doesn't appeal, come along to one of the Gatherings. Or buy a subscription/Gathering for a friend... do something that feels like a good exchange of energy and minimises our connection with old economic paradigm. Remember that if any of this is difficult, contact us and we'll find something that works for you. Details below: What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme, it's 'Honouring Fear as your Mentor' on Sunday 8th February 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are here. You don't have to be a member -but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

Well…2025 was the year the masks came off the old system: nobody is pretending it's there to help us, or that those who have stolen the reins of power have any intention of 'saving the planet', still less resolving the horrors of inequity or anything at all but feeding the ravenously hungry ghost of capitalism. So how do we bring power to those with wisdom and wisdom to those with power?  If we have the destructive capacity of gods, how do we find in ourselves the compassion, prudence and wisdom of gods?  What does it take to lay the foundations for emergence into a new system  - one that we'd be proud to leave to the generations that come after us? In this solo episode, Manda Scott, host of the Accidental Gods podcast, reflects on the year just gone and looks ahead to the one that's coming and lays out ideas for how we can be the change we need to see in the world.  Join us for New Year's eve and let's find ways we can step into 2026 with grace, courage, bringing the best of ourselves in service to life. If you'd like to support us, there is a Patreon page, but we're not going to link to it, because, honestly, the best way is to come and join the Accidental Gods Membership: that way you can share in the ideas, the programme that will help you connect to the Web of Life in ways that will last—and you can come to the Gatherings half price. Or if that doesn't appeal, come along to one of the Gatherings. Or buy a subscription/Gathering for a friend... do something that feels like a good exchange of energy and minimises our connection with old economic paradigm. Remember that if any of this is difficult, contact us and we'll find something that works for you. Details below: What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Year Awake on Sunday 4th January 2025 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are here You don't have to be a member -but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

At the end of a turbulent year that has seen the masks come off the death cult in ways that were probably predictable, but still shocking, we reconvene our December Solstice Traditional conversation. Manda is joined by Della Duncan of the Upstream Podcast and Nathalie Nahai of 'Nathalie Nahai in Conversation' to explore the things that have stood out for each of us in our explorations this year—and to look forward to the year about to begin for what will be our baselines. 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. Before we head into the conversation, I want to invite you to our transformative online course,  Dreaming Your Year Awake,  which takes place on Sunday the 4th of January from 16:00 - 20:00 UK time (GMT).  This is a time to go inwards, to be kind to ourselves, to explore all that we can be and want to be. It's your chance really to delve deeply into the year just gone, and look ahead at how you want to shape your attention and intention for the year that’s coming, for each of us, individually and together to ask ourselves how we are going to navigate all the coming turbulence with grace and courage?  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. What we offer in more detail: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Year Awake' (you don't have to be a member - but if you are, all Gatherings are half price) on Sunday 4th January 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are hereIf you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

Here's our December Solstice Meditation for 2025 - please find a place and time where you can relax, take space for yourself, and build the connections to the web of life that will carry us forward. Details of 3iATLAS https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/3i-atlas/3i-atlas-facts-and-faqs/

How do we create the stories that will bring a whole new generation back to the web of life, that will help people find hope again, and lean into their heart's yearning for connection, relationship, being and belonging? This week's guest, Ally Kingston, is a creative facilitator and strategy lead at Purpose Disruptors, where she co-developed the breakthrough Agency for Nature, a pop-up agency bringing nature into youth culture. A former advertising strategist, she is curious about how creativity intersects with myth, meaning, consumerism and desire, and how we might design new cultural infrastructures that seed fresh possibilities for how to live. Equally committed to holding space for grief and loss in turbulent times, Ally has trained as a death doula and rites of passage holder and recently co-created the Tending to Endings card deck, a garden-inspired tool for engaging more meaningfully with loss. She is based in Somerset in the UK, where she lives with her partner, young son and lurcher. In this wide-ranging episode, we explore the nature of advertising and how an industry that has been so deeply embedded in the death cult of predatory capitalism can turn all the wild, creative magic in service of life; how the skills that push us to buy the pseudo-satisfiers can instead remind us of our original connections, and turn us towards co-creation, connection and belonging.  We talk too, about grief and how learning to compost the old system is a key to the new growth we need and want.  Ally is so multi-talented, it was a joy to explore so many ways we can bring our world back into love with life, into balance, into each of us being part of the solution and letting go of the parts of the problem. Purpose Disruptors https://www.purposedisruptors.org/Agency for Nature https://www.agencyfornature.com/Tending to Endings https://www.tendingtoendings.com/Ally on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ally-kingston-75922025/Ally on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/allykingston ALLY is co-guiding a deep dark creative winter journey with Dan Burgess and co, Into the Dark, in January: https://www.becomingcrew.com/intothedark What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Year Awake' (you don't have to be a member - but if you are, all Gatherings are half price) on Sunday 4th January 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are hereIf you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

Here's Manda's round up of (some of) the best books, poetry and podcasts she's come across this year.   Most of the links are to Bookshop.org in the UK where you can link to an independent bookshop of your choice.  In some cases, we've linked to the authors' website. Fiction Rachel Neumeier - Rihasi, Marag, Sekaran, Hedesa - all four are part of the TUYO series. 8 Doors from Dawn to Midnight is a stand alone.  Natasha Pulley - The Hymn to Dionysus Antonia Hodgson- The Raven Scholar    + Katherine Addison - The Tomb of Dragons Amal El Mohtar  - The River has Roots Jacqui Morris and Tamsin Abbott - Wild Folk  Wild Gods Rising - Podcast with the authors (WILD FOLK is being published anew by Chelsea Green in time for the Spring Equinox of 2026You can order (or pre-order) here in the UK  https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/wild-folk-tales-from-the-stones-jackie-morris/d934f63a50bf69fd and here in the US https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/828350/wild-folk-by-jackie-morris/ ) Richard Morgan Altered Carbon Becky Chambers A Long Way to A Small Angry Planet Poetry:  You better be Lightning by Andrea Gibson A Map to the Next World: Poems and Tales by Joy Harjo (YouTube Interview on the Power of Poetry)  Non Fiction   Economic Space Agency (Dick Bryan, Jorge Lopez and Akseli Virtanen)  Protocols for Post Capitalist Expression  Richard Schwartz and Thomas Hübl - Releasing our Burdens: A Guide to Healing Individual, Ancestral and Collective Trauma Julie Brams The Nature Embedded Mind: How the Way We Think Can Heal Our Planet and Ourselves Tristan Gooley  How to Read a Tree: Clues and Patterns from Roots to Leaves  Justine Afra Huxley and Anna Kovasna  Co-creating with a Living Intelligent Earth: Pathways towards Kincentric Leadership Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares If Anyone Builds it, Everyone Dies: The case against superintelligent AI PODCASTS Nate Hagens The Great Simplification: If Anyone Builds it, Everyone Dies: How Artificial SuperIntelligence Might Wipe Out our Entire Species w Nate Soares Your Undivided Attention: Feed Drop: “Into the Machine” with Tobias Rose-Stockwell Upstream - A World out of Balance: Introducing Doughnut 3.0 w Andrew Fanning  Point of Relation with Thomas Hübl: Becoming an Ally of Life  Love and Philosophy by Andrea Hiott: Moving Beyond Binaries in Eduction: Andrea Hiott in Conversation with Tim Logan of Future Learning Design Future Learning Design What’s Love Got to Do with Education? A Conversation with Dr Laura Penn, Khadija Shahper Backthiar, Jamie Bristow and Andrea Hiott Step Outside, Stand Still Pauline Leitch Magazine Permaculture Magazine Subscriptions What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Year Awake' (you don't have to be a member) on Sunday 4th January 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are hereIf you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

If we are to build systems that meet our real needs we have to first understand what those needs are and start growing the stuff that will allow us to thrive: good food from healthy soils, safe and supportive homes and communities, space to develop and express our creativity, opportunities to increase our capacity for co-operation and kindness.  As much as these, though, we need to understand what an economy is for - why it does what it does. And while we're all clear that the death cult of Predatory Capitalism exists to enrich the few at the expense of the rest of the living web, it's not always clear what a flourishing economy might look like.  So we're going to explore exactly this with our guest today. Inez Aponte is a self-described 'Dissident of Capitalism', she's an educator, storyteller, and consultant who's spent 15 years bridging mainstream economics with human-scale alternatives. Using the Human Scale Development Approach (Barefoot Economics), she helps professionals see the economic system itself, and imagine what comes next. Barefoot Economics (also known as Human Scale Development) was developed by Manfred Max-Neef and colleagues in Chile as a response to the predations of the colonial capital system. It reframes economic thinking away from endless wants and towards nine fundamental needs: Subsistence, Freedom, Participation, Understanding, Affection, Creation, Idleness, Protection and Identity. We are wealthy when our needs are satisfied, regardless of our income. This means we can also be poor in multiple ways, even when we have a ‘healthy’ bank balance. Inez has built this forward into a framework for the 21st century. Her 'Beautiful Economies Learning Lab' breaks people out of mainstream economic thinking to explore how we can build systems that meet real needs while healing ourselves, communities, and the Earth. So this is our deep dive.  Let's go. https://www.beautifuleconomies.com/https://library.uniteddiversity.coop/Money_and_Economics/The_Future_of_Money-Bernard_Lietaer.pdf What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Year Awake' (you don't have to be a member) on Sunday 4th January 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are hereIf you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

We all know by now that plants grown in living, thriving, life-filled soil, give us living, thriving, life-filled food... but the steps to getting there in the face of a multinational industry devoted to toxic, nutritionally empty, addictive - and highly profitable - ultra-processed 'food-like substances' are harder to see.  This week's guest, Daphne du Cros, spends her life deep in the mycelial networks of food and farming systems, bringing both into genuinely regenerative balance. Daphne is a food policy researcher, educator, and farmer. She holds a PhD in Food Policy at the Centre for Food Policy at City St. George's University of London, and a Master's in Environmental Science and Management from Toronto Metropolitan University in Canada. She is Director and Coordinator at Shropshire Good Food Partnership; Director at Light Foot Enterprises; Project Lead at Food Forward BC (where BC stands for Bishop's Castle, not British Columbia or any of the other potential options) -   and she's co-owner of Little Woodbatch CIC, a farm just outside BC that hosts the Bishop's Castle Community Seed Bank. She is the author of the town's Community Food Resilience Strategy - the only such policy in Shropshire. Daphne and I are relatively near neighbours, we have swapped seeds - her more than me - and share ideas about systems thinking and how we might evolve our world. She's deeply involved at every level from actual growing up to governmental meetings trying to get those in power to find some wisdom when it comes to food resilience, food security and all the other things we say as we try to get them to move away from the corruption innate in our system towards something that actually works in service to life. Daphne on LinkedIn https://uk.linkedin.com/in/daphne-du-cros-743128332Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littlewoodbatch/  Shropshire Good Food Partnership:  https://www.shropshiregoodfood.org/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shropshiregoodfood/  Soil Ed UK: https://www.instagram.com/soil_ed_uk/   Gaia Foundation Seed Sovereignty Network: https://www.seedsovereignty.info/ Serving the Public https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/serving-the-public-the-good-food-revolution-in-schools-hospitals-and-prisons-kevin-morgan/7657661?ean=9781526180469&next=t Civil Food Resilience Report: https://nationalpreparednesscommission.uk/publications/just-in-case-7-steps-to-narrow-the-uk-civil-food-resilience-gap/  Little Woodbatch Farm https://www.littlewoodbatch.co.uk/ What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Year Awake' (you don't have to be a member) on Sunday 4th January 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are hereIf you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

What does it mean to (re)orient our entire culture around the power of love?  To answer this, we have to understand the nature of love and of power and how both of these have many meanings in our culture, some of them essential to moving forward - and some of them so toxic they turn the entire concept into a poisoned cue. This week's guest is friend of the podcast, Jamie Bristow. We spoke to him back in episode #274, recorded at the start of this year, and there, we consider what it was to be a Spiritual Warrior in our times - a concept to which Jamie has given the past 16 years of his life. Jamie is someone who lives and breathes at the intersection between spirituality - specifically Buddhism - and international policy in the realm of what is still called sustainability but which must, now, be shifting towards systemic change. 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 around the world. 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 and now is working with Professor Rebecca Henderson on an initiative which is currently called the ReWeaving Project and it's in this area that we focussed our attention. There are many ways these conversations go. Often, I'm exploring a particular body of work and am asking questions to which, broadly, I have a sense of the answer - 'tell me about [x] that is squarely in your field'.  Sometimes, though, I'm talking with someone I know well enough, and where we share enough of a common grounding, that I can ask questions to which I don't know the answer. Where we can find the places where our Theories of Change meet but perhaps don't overlap, and explore the fertile, liminal spaces of uncertainty.  Jamie is one of these people and this was one of those conversations - where we explored love and power and game theory and how we get from where we are, through a nexus of power that is arrayed firmly around the Dark Triad of Narcissism, Psychopathy and Sadism (and I know that's slightly different to other Dark Triads that have Raw Cunning as the third one and sadism as an afterthought, but I think the cunning is in there with Psychopathy and the Sadism is, as we're seeing around the world, an essential part of the performative power-over that the wounded egos need to tell themselves they're safe). Anyway - we explored all the things that matter - and still only scratched the surface. So Jamie will definitely be coming back for another conversation, but in the meantime, here we are, delving deep into what it is to be human, and to be striving for emergence into a new, generative, kin-centric and flourishing system at this moment of total transformation. Links Rebecca Henderson https://rebeccahenderson.com/Jamie’s website Jamie’s substack Jamie on LinkedIn Mindfulness Initiative Mindfulness initiativeUN IDG Inner Development GoalsLife Guild lifeguild.earthJamie in Episode #274 https://accidentalgods.life/becoming-spiritual-warriors-exploring-a-politics-of-radical-compassion-with-jamie-bristow/ What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Year Awake' (you don't have to be a member) on Sunday 4th January 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are hereIf you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

Do you love the dark?  Do you yearn for sunset and the amber glow of a fire with the night growing deeper, more inspiring all around you?  Most of us don't - though our ancestors through all of history have lived by firelight, moonlight, starlight... until the modern era of light at the flick of a switch.  But there's a world out there of sheer, unadulterated magic that is only revealed when we put aside the lights and the phones and the torches and step out into the night  - as this week's guest has done. Leigh Ann Henion is the New York Times bestselling author of Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark and Phenomenal: A Hesitant Adventurer’s Search for Wonder in the Natural World. Her writing has appeared in Smithsonian, National Geographic, The Washington Post, Backpacker, The American Scholar, and a variety of other publications. She is a former Alicia Patterson Fellow, and her work has been supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Henion lives in Boone, North Carolina.  Wall Street Journal says of this book. "Lovely…truly inspired…and very clever…An appreciation of nature’s nocturnal organisms can help us reset our relationship with the night…That’s the gift of Night Magic: It may make you think differently about the night." Leigh Ann's Website https://leighannhenion.com/Night Magic book (UK): https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/night-magic-leigh-ann-henion/7832118 What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Year Awake' (you don't have to be a member) on Sunday 4th January 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are hereIf you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

This week's guest, Andrea Leiter, is one of those polymaths who brings not just breadth, but astonishing depth to the work of bridging the worlds of technology, biodiversity and international law; bringing them together in service of a new way of being built from the ruins of collapse. Andrea works at the intersection of law, digital transformation, and economic innovation. Director of Amsterdam Center for International Law, she's deeply aware of, and involved in, Transnational Law, Digital Economies & Institutional Innovation, all things crypto - as well as being a Social Justice Entrepreneur. She holds a jointly awarded PhD in Law from the University of Melbourne and the University of Vienna, where her dissertation examined the historical foundations of international investment law and the legal architectures of global capital. Her resulting manuscript titled ‘Making the World Safe for Investment: The Protection of Foreign Property 1922-1959’ was published with Cambridge University Press. She is a junior faculty member at the Institute for Global Law and Policy at Harvard Law School. As legal scholar and strategist, her expertise lies in transnational law, private ordering, the governance of digital economies, and the design of new institutional forms for just and sustainable futures.  I came across her when she was a guest on the Blockchain Socialist podcast - one of my must-listens - and heard that she was co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of the Sovereign Nature Initiative (SNI), a venture which aimed to 'merge nature with digital ecosystems and introduce online communities to ecological stewardship whilst developing novel funding mechanisms for vital biodiversity protection and restoration'.  you'll hear more about this in the conversation that follows, but I want to emphasise that the SNI team designed and implemented the Decentralised Ecological Economics Protocol (DEEP), which demonstrated how blockchain infrastructure can serve biodiversity goals. Over two years, SNI developed and distributed more than one million digital collectibles, activating new models of ecological value creation. Currently, Andrea leads a Dutch Research Council-funded VENI project on Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) and their potential to reshape economic governance from below. She also serves as Acting Director of Research at the Amsterdam Center for International Law, where she guides strategic research planning and foster interdisciplinary collaboration. She also co-developed and launched an Advanced LLM in Technology Governance with a public purpose orientation, an effort that included curriculum design, funding acquisition, and stakeholder engagement. One of Andrea's superpowers is the ability to take complex concepts and make them comprehensible to ordinary people: blockchain, cryptocurrency, the difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum, the potential for technology to be used to heal as well as the many ways it is already being used to harm, so we spent the first half of our conversation exploring the baselines of where we are and what's happening in the world. I refer to Andrea's blog post, 'Who gets to bet on the future?' which first appeared on her Transformative Private Law Blog and is linked in the show notes. She mentioned several books and I've linked those in the show notes too, because they were new to me, and completely mind blowing.  I found ExoCapitalism as a pdf where you decide what you pay - this is the value of small presses that actually get what their books are discussing - and Protocols for Post Capitalist Expression is open source - you can read it and engage in the process with others in the Economic Space Agency.  Links Sovereign Nature Initiative https://sovereignnature.com/Andrea on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-leiter/Amsterdam Centre for Intenational Law https://acil.uva.nl/VENI project https://www.nwo.nl/en/researchprogrammes/nwo-talent-programme/projects-veniTransformative Private Law Blog "Who gets to bet on the future?" https://transformativeprivatelaw.com/who-gets-to-bet-on-the-future/Andrea on Blockchain Socialist Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-blockchain-socialist/id1501607045?i=1000660699306 Between Gaia and Ground: Four Axioms of Existence and the Ancestral Catastrophe of Late Liberalism by Elizabeth A. Povinelli https://dukeupress.edu/between-gaia-and-groundExoCapitalism: Economies with Absolutely No Limits by Marek Poliks & Roberto Alonso Trillo  https://goodpress.co.uk/products/exocapitalism-economies-with-absolutely-no-limits-by-marek-poliks-roberto-alonso-trilloPROTOCOLS FOR POST CAPITALIST EXPRESSION by Dick Bryan, Jorge López & Akseli Virtanen https://postcapitalist.agency/ What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Year Awake' (you don't have to be a member) on Sunday 4th January 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are hereIf you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

What is the true vow of your life, the one it would kill you to break?  This phrase comes from the poem 'All The True Vows' by David Whyte, but there can be no better introduction to this week's guest, who knows how to help people - ordinary, every-day people from our culture -  build true, heart-felt connections with the web of life such that we come to know what we are here for, our unique gift to the world, the promise is would kill us to break, what it feels like to be so heart-explodingly in love with the sheer wonder of being alive that we can step out of the world we thought we knew, into the world as it really is, alive with connection to all parts of ourselves, each other and the whole of the more than human world. Bill Plotkin is one of those who has found what he's here for. He's been a Thrutopian activist and cultural catalyst since long before those were buzzwords in our firmament.  Over the years, he has been a research psychologist, professor of psychology, psychotherapist, rock musician, and whitewater river guide. Now, I would say he is a visionary, a mystic and an elder. More importantly, he's a map-maker, a way-breaker, a trail-leader of the routes we will have to take to walk out of this moment of dissolution, into a world of remembering and creating anew. Back in the early 80s, Bill founded the Animas Valley Institute, whose central purpose is to assist people through the initiatory process that leads to visionary leadership and cultural artistry. Its primary work is with those ready to undergo the joys and challenges of the underworld descent to soul, which flowers into a life of meaningful service and abundant fulfilment — or a deepening for those already on the journey. In other words, Animas Valley Institute supports people in our culture to find what they're here for, to undergo, in his words, the journey of soul initiation. To embark on this journey requires that people break out of the perpetual early adolescence of modernity and endure the ecstatic initiations of late adolescence and that eventually result in true adulthood and perhaps, for a few, genuine elderhood.  Bill offers maps and models for his work in depth and detail. He has four books to date and I encourage you to read them all in order from Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche, through Nature and the Human Soul, to Wild Mind and finally, The Journey of Soul Initiation.  He writes a blog, Soulcraft Musings, which I also recommend, because we could have explored the basics of Bill's models of human evolution and what it means for people of our culture, who have been subject to what he calls 'systemic human developmental oppression' for many hundreds of generations… and in the long conversation that follows, we did explore the basics of this, but in the days before recording, Bill shared the early draft of a paper called 'A Map to the Next World' and this lit all kinds of fires in my heart and mind and soul—because Bill's capacity to write lucidly the things this podcast is all about  is beautiful and sharp and perfect.   He writes: 'We need a map to the next world because our current world is clearly in its death throes… We need a map to the next world, a way to navigate the long trail from here to cultures that we will be proud to leave for the future ones — of all species. And nature, as always, including human nature, provides this map, or at least templates for creating one.  And we need to translate the map into a contemporary language that we can understand — and act on — even though the journey is necessarily through realms of great mystery. We won’t find our way using the maps of other peoples or of other times. We must make our own map.' As and when his paper on the Map becomes available, I'll put it in the show notes.  In the meantime, I have included the poem by David Whyte, because truly, it is one of the guiding lights of our movement, and I've included Joy Harjo's poem, also called 'A Map to the Next World' both as a YouTube recording of her speaking it, and the poem, and the book of the same name from which it came. Please do explore these.  And now, let's head into the ways we can change our world, with Bill Plotkin.  Links Animas Valley Institute https://www.animas.org/Soulcraft Musings (https://www.animas.org/books/bill-plotkins-soulcraft-musings/ Bills Books Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche (an experiential guidebook), Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World (a nature-based stage model of human development through the entire lifespan), Wild Mind: A Field Guide to the Human Psyche (an ecocentric map of the psyche — for healing, growing whole, and cultural transformation)The Journey of Soul Initiation: A Field Guide for Visionaries, Evolutionaries, and Revolutionaries (an experiential guidebook for the descent to soul). AG #302 The Crisis and the Call with Sara McFarland https://accidentalgods.life/the-crisis-and-the-call-journeys-through-species-wide-soul-initiation-with-sara-mcfarland/ David Whyte  'All The True Vows' https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/W/WhyteDavid/AllTrueVows/index.html David Whyte website https://davidwhyte.com/ Joy Harjo 'A Map to the Next World' on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4ab9vOC4PoJoy Harjo 'A Map to the Next World' text https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49621/a-map-to-the-next-worldJoy Harjo 'A Map to the Next World' book https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/a-map-to-the-next-world-poems-and-tales-joy-harjo/b45e39c2525e82e5 Joy Harjo website: https://www.joyharjo.com/ The Parable of the Tribes by Andrew Bard Schmookler  https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-parable-of-the-tribes-the-problem-of-power-in-social-evolution-second-edition-andrew-bard-schmookler/7823092 What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Wr...

What is an eco-civilisation? What are its values and what are the frames within which it works? Why do we need it in the first place and what will the Establishment do to maintain business as usual? Most importantly, what can each of us do to live an eco-civilisation into being? This week's guest, Jeremy Lent, explores these ideas in depth in his forthcoming book, Ecocivlization: Making a World that Works, which is due out in May of 2026.  We've talked to Jeremy twice before, first in episode #38 about his award-winning book, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity's Search for Meaning, and then in #102 about his second book in the series, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe. Ecocivlisation is the third book in this trifecta and I was privileged to read the pre-proof draft, so I can tell you that it's one of the few genuinely Thrutopian books I've read. It that lays out the iniquities and downright horror of the imperial/colonial system of the Trauma culture - termed Wendigo Inc. in the book - and then brings Jeremy's trademark meticulous research and fluent prose to bear on the ways through to a system in which we all live and thrive and work towards the wellbeing of the entire ecosphere.   Given that there is such detail, I wanted to talk to Jeremy now, so that we could explore some of the foundations - the nature of the existing narratives of Business as Usual, of TINA: There is No Alternative  - and why this is so ubiquitous in spite of being self-evidently untrue.  Then I wanted to look at the broader frame of the Theory of Change proposed here so that next spring we can go into more detail ahead of the book's publication. For those of you who don't yet know him, Jeremy was born in London, has a BA in English Literature from Cambridge University, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and was a former internet company CEO. Now, he is an author, speaker and founder of the  Deep Transformation Network, a global community exploring pathways to an ecological civilization. He is also founder of the nonprofit Liology Institute, dedicated to fostering an integrated worldview that could enable humanity to thrive sustainably on the Earth. Jeremy's Website: https://www.jeremylent.comJeremy's Blog https://patternsofmeaning.comJeremy on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-lent-ba153017/Jeremy's YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@JeremyLentDeep Transformation Network https://deeptransformation.network/feed Guardian article on global tipping point https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/13/coral-reefs-ice-sheets-amazon-rainforest-tipping-point-global-heating-scientists-report BooksThe Patterning Instinct https://www.jeremylent.com/the-patterning-instinct.htmlThe Web of Meaning https://www.jeremylent.com/the-web-of-meaning.htmlEcoCivilization https://mhpbooks.com/books/ecocivilization Previous Episodes#102 - Weaving the Web of Meaning  https://accidentalgods.life/weaving-the-web-of-meaning/#38 - Fractal Flourishing https://accidentalgods.life/fractal-flourishing/ What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.The next one after this is 'Dreaming your Year Awake' on Sunday 4th January 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are hereIf you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

How do we heal ourselves from the 'lost-ness' that afflicts our culture? How do we move on from the strange—and wholly untrue— belief our culture holds that we are separate from the natural world, that our cycles of exploitation, extraction, destruction, pollution are the way the world is, that this is the natural order and there's nothing we can do to change it, individually or collectively? Knowing that our sense of separation is an illusion is one thing, but genuinely feeling it deep in the marrow of our bones is quite another.  Which is where this week's guest comes in.  Kelly Wendorf is an executive and personal coach,  spiritual mentor, disruptor, and socially responsible entrepreneur.  As you'll hear, her book 'Flying Lead Change: 56 million years of Wisdom for living and leading' offers a unique answer to these questions. Kelly is founder and CEO of EQUUS whose central question is, 'What are you Yearning for?' and whose central offer is: 'We create conditions for your transformation'. As the name suggests, she and her team do this, by engaging the generous spirits of a herd of horses as mirrors to the people who come to EQUUS for coaching - and, although this is often not why they think they're coming, for healing.  Kelly's childhood experience with a whole-hearted man in Ethiopia, and later, with one of the First Nations people in Australia, taught her a way of listening, of being fully present, fully in her heart mind and body mind, in the present moment, and this is what she helps others to find with the help of the horses who often just don't engage if we're not congruent, not present, not fully embodied.  She has been called a ‘corporate shaman’ and a ‘CEO whisperer’, but as we crash through the boundaries of the Great Transformation, it seems to me that Kelly's work opens doors for us all. We may not have access to a herd of free-living, re-wilding horses, but even reading about the experiences of her clients can melt some of the concrete around our hearts. And with this, we can always step outside, stand still, let the living world teach us.  So this was a deeply moving read, and a fascinating conversation, at the end of which, Kelly offered our community coupons for two of her forthcoming online courses - the first 'Breaking the Loop, Transforming Habits that hold you back' is on Saturday 1st November at 10-11:30 am Mountain Time and she's offered 50% off that one.  The second is nearly a year from now: How to lead a Transformative Life' takes place over two Saturdays, for two hours each at 10am - 12 noon Mountain Time and this one has a base cost of $457, but Kelly is offering it to our Accidental Gods community for free.  So please do go and check out the show notes for the links and the coupon codes.  Links EQUUS Inspired website https://www.equusinspired.com/Kelly's Book: https://www.equusinspired.com/flc COURSES 2025 - BREAKING THE LOOP: Transforming Habits that hold you backSaturday 1st November 10-11:30am Mountain Time  Coupon for 50% off - EQUUS50KW (full cost $97 - 50% =$48.50) 2026 How to Lead a Transformative LifeSeptember 26th, 2026 | 10:00am-12:00pm MTOctober 3rd, 2026 | 10:00am-12:00pm MT COUPON  for 100% off - EQUUS100KW (original cost $457 - coupon cost = Free ) Podcasts mentioned: #297 Charlie Bennet https://accidentalgods.life/otterly-amazing-common-sense-farming-can-feed-us-all-with-charlie-bennett/#288 Abel Pearson https://accidentalgods.life/farm-as-church-land-as-lover-community-farming-and-food-with-abel-pearson-of-glasbren/#273 Daniel Firth Griffith Kin Centric ReWilding https://accidentalgods.life/farm-as-church-land-as-lover-community-farming-and-food-with-abel-pearson-of-glasbren/ What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.The next one after this is 'Dreaming your Year Awake' on Sunday 4th January 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT - details are hereIf you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

'Each of us was put on this earth at this time to personally determine the fate of humankind.  Do you think you were put here for something less?' Chief Arvol Looking Horse. We exist in a world where the ultra-rich are getting richer, powered by a system we call 'the economy' which is serving to funnel power and value up to an ever-shrinking core of wounded individuals who then project their trauma out on the rest of the world in a doomed attempt to feel better about being caught in a system that doesn't promote human wellbeing. So far, so very obvious.  The system is clearly dysfunctional and the cost of failure is the sixth mass extinction. The stakes could not be higher.  So how do we create the unity and clarity we need to coalesce around a common cause? Explicitly, how do we create a system that aims for the longterm wellbeing for all - where 'all' is not just all of humanity now and for generations to come in perpetuity, but all of the web of life, the human and the more than human worlds? How, in fact, do we persuade at least a critical mass of our existing system, that we as humans exist to transform our selves and our world for the flourishing of all? This weeks' guest has wrestled with these questions for all her adult life.  Victoria Hurth is an Independent Pracademic who works at the cutting edge of theory and practice to help the world clarify its consensus on foundational issues.  As you'll hear, she firmly believes that we need to agree that our goal is the longterm wellbeing of all, and then co-create the governance system to frame the strategies that will take us there.  We don't need everyone to sign up, but we do need a critical mass of people at all levels of our organisations from government, to NGOs to industry and beyond.  To this end, Victoria co-led the five-year development of the global ISO standard in Governance of Organizations (ISO37000), was Technical Author for the first national standard in Purpose-Driven Organizations and is currently Project Leader of the development of an equivalent ISO (ISO37011). Victoria is a Fellow of the University of Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership (CISL), Director at the Soil Association Certification Ltd and advises Planet Mark, UnaTerra Venture Capital, and formerly Creatives for Climate Collective and SACE – Italy’s national export credit agency. She advised the UN on the SDG methodology for the business reporting target 12.6.1 and has over 25 years’ global experience in business transformation and as a full time Associate Professor of Marketing and Sustainable Business.    Alongside all this, she is a practicing Stoic. How inspiring is that?  She is also co-author of a new book called 'Beyond Profit' which is one of those potentially world-changing books that lays out in explicit detail why the old system is dead, how slight tweaks to make it 'more sustainable' are never - were never - going to work - and how instead we might craft a new system of governance that allows us to step forward into a world that does prioritise the longterm wellbeing of all life. Beyond Profit book https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/beyond-profit-purpose-driven-leadership-for-a-wellbeing-economy-lorenzo-fioramonti/7895496 Victoria's website https://victoriahurth.comVictoria on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-victoria-hurth/'Beyond Profit' Book Community https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13085230/ ISO37011 (Purpose-Driven Organisations) community  https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13091442/ What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

What is humanity for?  What happens if we rethink not just the way we plan buildings, but our entire role as beings on a living planet?  These are the central questions driving Michael Pawlyn's third edition of the life-changing book, Biomimcry in Architecture.  Michael Pawlyn is an architect, the founding director of Exploration Architecture Ltd and is a ground-breaking pioneer, not just of biomimicry as the design foundation of architecture and the built environment, but of the ways we might redesign humanity. Before setting up his own practice, Michael was central to the team that radically re-invented horticultural architecture for the Eden Project. In 2018 he jointly initiated Architects Declare a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency which has since spread to 28 countries with over 8,000 companies signed up to a declaration of action. In addition to his architectural work he advises companies and governments on how to make the shift from sustainable to regenerative design. He lectures widely and his and his TED talk has been viewed over 2 million times, which gives you a sense of the scale and scope of the possibilities he opens up.  With Sarah Ichioka, he co-wrote the book 'Flourish' and we spoke to Sarah back in episode #147, but now Michael is back with the third edition of Biomimicry in Architecture, which came out on 1st September, and my goodness, this book has the capacity to change our world.  If every key decision-maker on the planet had a copy of this book, and was given time to read it, our world would be a different place, because over and over again, Michael shows the ways that the natural world has designed things that are more efficient, stronger, more resilient than anything humanity has created - but that we can make things with them that the natural world has not imagined.  More than anything this book re-iterates the fact that we are an integral part of the web of life and that by using our astonishing creativity, our capacity to see the design of an abalone shell, or the way a mussel roots in the seabed, or the ways palm leaves roll up in a hurricane or any of a thousand other almost-miraculous things—and then applying them in different contexts, we can create everything from surgical drills that can bend round corners to whole tidal lagoons that create and store power and offer whole new biomes.  If we set the flourishing of all life as our goal, we can co-create miracles. As will be obvious in the conversation you're about to hear, this book lit up so many parts of my heart and my mind - there is so much we can do if we bring the best of ourselves to the table and Michael Pawlyn is one of those thought-leaders who has ranged right to the edge of what we know and what we can do and brought the results to the rest of us in a way that's intriguing, inspiring and invigorating.  Whatever else you do this year, you need to read this book. Buy it, share it, tell your friends.  This is how we change the world.  So, with that endorsement ringing in your ears... Book - Biomimicry in Architecture https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/biomimicry-in-architecture-michael-pawlyn/1341162TED talk - using Nature's Genius in Architecture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QZp6smeSQABiomimicry Talk at UNITE summit https://youtu.be/XZbv9tc3Prc/ Episode #147 with Sarah Ichioka on 'Flourish' which she co-wrote with Michael: https://accidentalgods.life/flourish-designing-new-paradigms/ ‘Human Layers’ workshop developed by The Long Time Project based on Joanna Macey’s work https://www.thelongtimeacademy.com/toolkit Survival of the Fittest: From ESG to Competitive Sustainability - paper from Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/files/from_esg_to_competitive_sustainability.pdf What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

Let the Wild Gods Rise.  Easy to say and harder to do - but if you were offered a portal, a way to step into the other-worlds, to reconnect with all that we have been and could be, would you take it? If you're listening to this, you are likely steeped in the mechanical world of our culture - but it doesn't have to be like this.  The other worlds are alive, present…wild—and just within reach. All we need are doorways, places where the veils between the worlds grow thinner and then route maps to take us to—and through—them. There are many of these: some of us have places where we go to sit, day after week after month after year; places we walk where the lapwings fly or the toads grumble or the lichens coat the rocks. Some of us dance, or sing, or hold spaces for each other to find the endless re-creation of the web in the inter-becoming moment, the dependent co-arising of the magic of life. Many of us go to books and it's one of these we're visiting today: Wild Folk by Jackie Morris and Tamsin Abbott is a work of art, a delight on so many levels—and it's explicitly a portal to the wild at the heart of the world. I'm fairly sure I don't need to introduce these two amazing women, but just in case: Jackie Morris is an artist, illustrator and wordsmith. Alone or in collaboration has written & illustrated over forty books, including classics such as The Snow Leopard, Song of the Golden Hare, and East of the Sun, West of the Moon. More recently, she and Robert Macfarlane co-created The Lost Words, and The Lost Spells, and I'm delighted to say they are working on new book on birds, which is due to come out soon.Tamsin Abbott has been creating painted stained-glass panels for over twenty years. Herwork is influenced by this ancient land and how we are connected to it: the hills, the woods, the plants, birds and animals that live alongside us and the world of myths and fairytales that we have spun around it. She has appeared on BBC Countryfile, appeared in many of this country's foremost magazines and exhibited in our leading galleries. As you'll hear, Jackie and Tamsin had been friends for many years before the seed of Wild Folk finally took root at a residency in the wilds of Exmoor. The result is a work of pure magic.  Come along with us and let's explore the what and the how and the where and the who of this astonishing act of co-creation. WILD FOLK is being published anew by Chelsea Green in time for the Spring Equinox of 2026You can order (or pre-order) here in the UK  https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/wild-folk-tales-from-the-stones-jackie-morris/d934f63a50bf69fd and here in the US https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/828350/wild-folk-by-jackie-morris/ Tamsin's website https://www.tamsinabbott.co.uk/Tamsin on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/tamsintheshed/Tamsin on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Tamsin-Abbott-260979701880/ Jackie's website https://www.jackiemorris.co.uk/Jackie on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jackiemorrisartist/Jackie on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/JackieMorrisPaints/ What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

How do the stories we tell ourselves and each other about ourselves, each other and our place in the web of life shape our world? How can we craft narratives that can shift the way we see and experience the world? Is this even the best leverage point to start off with or is there a deeper/wider/more effective acupuncture point we could explore as we evolve to become…what?  What are we aiming for? What—who—do we want to be and how might we reach places we can't even express - and do it in the face of a world where narratives are becoming more black-and-white, more constrained by circumstances, more held by those with power? In a week that's seen our world become both more complex, more ugly and more beautiful, we're talking to story-crafter and narrative-explorer, Paddy Loughman. Paddy's work explores the role of narrative and communications in navigating beyond our predicament. He is curious about how we might come together to appreciate what science and wisdom traditions reveal about entangled, relational reality, and the potential of more viable, beautiful worlds. He works independently, collaborating with activists, academics, philanthropists, creatives, community organisers and more, orienting towards just, transformational change. He has also co-initiated a number of efforts, including Inter-Narratives with Ella Saltmarshe. Earlier in his career he worked as a strategist in commercial and political communications, before jumping into climate campaigning with a wide range of organisations, from the UNFCCC to grassroots activists, and once upon a time he trained as an actor. This is my first conversation after a life-changing time away from my desk and it was a genuinely generative, consciousness-expanding conversation. I'm in the space where reality, dream and experience are overlapping seamlessly and Paddy felt like one of those people who can stand on the edge of all our spaces and look into what we might become and how we might get there.  So…with this as your baseline, please do join us in our exploration of possibility. LinksStories for Life https://stories.life/Inter-Narratives https://inter-narratives.org/Paddy on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/paddyloughman/ Go Deep or Go Home Medium Post by Paddy Loughman and Ella Saltmarsh https://medium.com/inter-narratives/go-deep-or-no-home-the-essential-power-of-deep-narrative-9124e69ee2aa 'Stop Trying to Change Mindsets. Do This Instead' by Jessica Boehme https://jessicaboehme.substack.com/p/the-greatest-leverage-to-change-a 'Raging against the dying light: a systems view of human futures' by Julian Norris https://wolfwillow.substack.com/p/raging-against-the-dying-light-a 'Who is Organising the Poor White Folks' by Amhara Spence  https://amahraspence.substack.com/p/who-is-organising-poor-white-folks Antidote Project: https://www.antidotelive.studio/Imandeep Kaur https://civicsquare.cc/ The Dawn of Everything David Graeber and David Wengrow https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-dawn-of-everything-a-new-history-of-humanity-david-graeber/bb3d95f3af2350df What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

Why are we here? How do we think? What is the nature of life? What are the boundaries between ourselves and the rest of the living web—between ourselves and the rest of the universe across space and through time…and in the timeless, formless place from which everything arises? These are the big, foundational questions of our existence, and how we answer them shapes how we see ourselves and our relationship to everything around us. If we work on a human supremacist frame, then we have no qualms about destroying the rest of the living web. If we know ourselves to be integral to it, if we can 'prove' this at a scientific level, then perhaps we can shift the way we behave. Dr James Cooke is an author, researcher and host of the Living Mirrors Podcast which is how I got to know him. He has three degrees from Oxford, including a PhD in neuroscience. He has been conducting research into the brain basis of consciousness and at the University of London, he achieved a theoretical breakthrough that linked philosophy, the latest in cognitive neuroscience and modern secular mysticism. Outside academia, he directs the Inner Space Institute for NonDual Naturalism, a center for education and participation in topics at the intersection of science & spirituality.  It is here, it says, 'To help you engage in spiritual development in a way that is scientifically grounded.'   Nondual Naturalism is a worldview that synthesises science and spiritual insight, centred around the recognition that we are not separate from nature and are fundamentally at home in existence and James expands on this in detail in his book, The Dawn of Mind: How matter became conscious and alive which synthesises science and contemplative insight to offer a radical solution to the Hard Problem of Consciousness and the question of our place in existence. James' website: https://www.drjamescooke.com/ The Inner Space Institute: https://www.innerspaceinstitute.org/The Dawn of Mind Book https://uk.bookshop.org/book/9781633889927Living Mirrors Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/living-mirrors-with-dr-james-cooke/id1516523741James on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@DrJamesCooke What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

Our western (Trauma Culture) economies run on two falsehoods - we might go so far as to call them lies. The first is that economies have to grow to be 'successful'.  The second is that government spending is limited by the tax take.  That is, they need to take money in as taxes in order to spend it out into the economy.  Both of these are untrue, and understanding that they are untrue, and the political forces of ignorance and mendacity that keep them in place, is essential to our moving forward into a future that works. We cannot continue to maintain the death cult of predatory capitalism. We cannot continue with a Zombie economy that extracts, consumes, destroys and pollutes as if there were no consequences.  So what do we do? Both ecological economics and Modern Monetary Theory have been around for a while.  Degrowth theory is more recent, but it's being taken more seriously. What I haven't seen up till now is a fusion of these: a set of policy ideas worked out in which we acknowledge how money actually works, and look at how a national -or global - economy could be structured to lead us forward into a world where people and planet flourish together. I don't think this is the final destination, but it's definitely a step on the way. Our guest this week is someone particularly well positioned to answer these questions.  Colleen Schneider is a Doctoral student in Social-Ecological Economics & Policy in Vienna. Her key research areas: Ecological Economics, Environmental Justice, Monetary and Financial Systems in a Post-Growth Economy, Climate Policy.  She says, "I take a sociological and anthropological approach to understanding money as fundamentally a social relation. Money, and the monetary system (as with our economic system) are things we've created, and can create otherwise. I draw on historical examples to help understand how the institutional structure of the monetary system and our ideas about money came to be what they are, and to challenge those. [I seek to] de-naturalize money and point to ways to structure the monetary system as democratized, and (at least somewhat) localized -to realize money as a public good. I focus more specifically on how monetary and fiscal policy can be directed toward meeting human needs within environmental limits, while maintaining macroeconomic stability." So this is the focus of today's conversation.  This is a field about which I am passionate - I absolutely believe that if everyone understood how money actually works in our current world, a lot of the power inequities that we currently experience would end.  We have endeavoured to minimise the use of jargon, though we did talk about monetary and fiscal policy and I wanted to make it clear that Monetary Policy is about keeping prices stable - about using interest rates to influence inflation, that kind of thing . Fiscal policy is about the spending decisions - do we have austerity or don't we, do we fund social goods or don't we, do we decide to pour money into the military, or don't we… and the nature of taxation - what rates do we levy, what are the bands and what loopholes do we leave wide open so our friends can escape paying taxes altogether - while everyone continues to pretend that government spending is limited by the tax take. Which is nonsense. Taxation is about levelling the playing field. It's not about paying for the NHS. So there we go. Colleen spends her entire life working in this field, producing fascinating papers and a chapter in a forthcoming book that completely blew me away. So she speaks to these things far more eloquently and intelligently than I can.  Enjoy! Colleen on LinkedIn Colleen's papers: How to Pay for Saving the World - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800923002318 Democratizing the Monetary Provisioning System - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15487733.2024.2344305 On universal public services to end the cost of living crisis - https://www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/economic-growth/cost-of-living-crisis/2023/01/state-end-cost-of-living-crisis-climate-change Papers by others: The political response to Inflation: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/mexico/governments-survived-inflation Workshops: Public Money for Public Good: Why MMT Matters | ViennaSeptember 27th and 28th Gleis 21, Bloch-Bauer-Promenade 22, 1100 Wien, Austria https://events.humanitix.com/public-money-mmt-vienna   Public Money for Public Good: Why MMT Matters | Sheffield (Colleen is not a part of this one, but says that wonderful people are running it!) September 20th and 21st  https://events.humanitix.com/public-money-mmt-sheffield Regenerative Economy Lab - Money and Finance Workshop Vienna, October 23rd and 24th https://www.regenecon.eu/ Online masters program on which Colleen teaches - grounded jointly in ecological economics and modern monetary theory: https://www.torrens.edu.au/studying-with-us/employability/industry-led-learning/co-delivery-partners/modern-money-lab Documentary 'Finding the Money'. https://findingmoneyfilm.com/ MMT group based in the UK : https://modernmoneylab.org.uk/ What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

As the old system is splitting apart, a few brave souls are already working to hospice this old system, acting as Death Doulas to the Great Dying—as well as helping people to awaken the seeds of a new world within.  One of these is our guest this week. Sara McFarland is a Soul Initiation and Wild Mind Mentor and Guide, Artist of Consciousness and a Death Doula for the Great Dying. Their website says, 'I believe Earth is always moving towards transformation and renewal—to our eyes, it may look like rupture or being stuck, a dead end or a tragedy. And, like Earth, we are always Whole, regardless of the part we are currently stuck in. Resiliency is part of (our) nature. I do not offer the solution to your "problem" - what are often labeled problems, I understand as symptoms of disconnection from the Web of Life and the Trauma of Civilization. Both blessing and curse, they are the place where our gold is buried and shaped. I use all of the tools-physical, energetic and spiritual- I have learned and received, to support you towards wholeness and the building of inner resources in order to reduce your stress level, to learn to love yourself and to stand in your power. ' I came to know Sara earlier this year when I was invited onto the Starter Culture podcast.  We talked for an hour and it felt like about 3 minutes and that we could have talked all day and not run out of avenues to explore, rabbit holes to excavate. Our conversation today took entirely different routes but was felt just as generative to me. Sara lives right at the emergent edge of the transformation of our world, helping to midwife the Soul Initiations of people who are called to ask them for help, and stepping into the Mystery at all its levels to act as a guide, mentor, healer in a world in transition.  Sara's website https://www.saramcfarland.com/ What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

Our Trauma Culture has spread across the globe with terrifying speed and ghastly efficiency.  But the tide is turning and people of good heart in many nations are beginning to understand that what we need now is a move towards a 21st Century Initiation Culture. The language is often different, but at heart, this is where we need to go. Our guest this week, Hilary Giovale, is a mother, writer, facilitator and community organiser who lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.  As an active reparationist, she seeks to follow Indigenous and Black leadership in support of human rights, environmental justice, and equitable futures.  She is the author of the award-winning book Becoming a Good Relative: Calling White Settlers toward Truth, Healing, and Repair. Descended from the Celtic, Germanic, Nordic, and Indigenous peoples of Ancient Europe, she is a ninth-generation American settler.  For most of her life these origins were obscured by whiteness.  After learning more about her ancestors’ history, Hilary began emerging from a fog of amnesia, denial, and fragmentation.  For the first time, she could see a painful reality: her family’s occupation of this land has harmed Indigenous and African peoples, cultures, lands, and lifeways.  This realisation changed her life and part of this change was writing this moving, deeply important book.  Supported by local First Peoples, she undertook four years of fasting ceremonies, and began to engage differently, more deeply and with a new, raw authenticity with those whose ancestors had been most damaged by the Trauma Culture's colonisation of the land. Her book is essential reading for anyone in white culture, wherever we live in the world. It's a raw, unflinching step into discomfort, but it's also a deeply moving memoir of Hilary's journey inward, to dreams, to genuine visionary connection with the land, to the power of heartfelt apology to heal at least some of the generational horror of the Trauma Culture.  So, you'll definitely want to read this. If you're in North America, you can get hard copies easily. If you're elsewhere, you may only be able to get an e-book, but either way, Hilary returns all income she receives from book sales to Decolonizing Wealth Project and Jubilee Justice.   Hilary's website: https://www.goodrelative.comBecoming a Good Relative https://www.goodrelative.com/bookE-book here: on Barnes and Noble  and on Kobo Guide to Making a Personal Reparations Plan https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G-ufl_8ixdquMGrDziiBUBAANYKXrN7eHtjiE5aKTfw/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.1kvofvfw6wns What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

We are a storied species: Everything we do arises from the stories we tell ourselves and each other about ourselves and each other and our relationship with the web of life.  Our current polycrisis: the accelerating annihilation of our cultures and our biosphere arises out of a particular set of stories that tell us we're isolated individuals caught in a system of separation, scarcity and powerlessness; that we can't trust anyone else and we have to do whatever it takes to get to the top of a steep-sided pyramid - that anyone who falls or fails is not worth our empathy or compassion; that the living web is a 'resource' to be exploited; that the ends of madmen always justify the means by which they steal control. This is how we end up with narratives of the 'humane genocide of non-productives' being peddled in the backwaters of the alt-right, and a world of increasing violence. So how do we change this? How do we create visions of a world that functions differently, one where every single human thrives as an integral part of a flourishing ecosphere?  One obvious route is to begin to seed stories in the various screen-based media where people engage with empathy and compassion, where our goals and values have a compassionate base, where people respond with genuine emotional literacy, as adults, instead of endlessly as adolescents.  Our guest this week is Romain Vakilitabar, founder of Pathos Labs, a non-profit laboratory focused on exploring ways in which entertainment and media can rewrite harmful narratives, and change culture. One such project is PopShift, an initiative which convenes Hollywood’s leading TV writers with the country’s leading experts to determine how television can help catalyze new prosocial behaviors and attitudes. Romain was awarded the "Erase the Hate" fellowship from NBCUniversal in 2018 for his efforts to eradicate hatred in America. He spoke at one of the world's biggest TEDx events, has been featured in the books "2 Billion Under 20" and "Compassionate Careers", and in journals such as UC Berkeley's "Othering and Belonging".   Whether traveling between Palestine and Israel to better understand emotional relationships to the long-lasting conflict, spending weeks voluntarily homeless to empathize with the idea of "absolute need", hitchhiking thousands of miles to test the generosity of strangers, or living with conservative rural farmers in Oklahoma to better understand cultural conservatism, Romain has found that people, no matter the differences, are more alike than they imagine. Pathos Labs was born to prove it, by using the arts to dismantle systemic "othering". Romain on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/romainvak/Pathos Labs https://pathoslabs.org/Pop Shift https://popshift.org/Video from Futures Basecamp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnxKP4wecis/ The Day After Movie on IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085404/reviews/ What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

In this week's podcast I was honoured to join a four-way conversation between Giovanna and Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti and Tim Logan of Future Learning Design Podcast, to celebrate the publication of Vanessa's new book, Outgrowing Modernity. Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti is author of Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity's Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism which we have referenced many times on Accidental Gods.  She is also Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria in Canada. She is a former Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities and Global Change and a former David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education. She is one of the co-founders of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures (GTDF) Arts/Research Collective, is the author of many academic papers and, with Aiden CinnamonTea, is co-author of Burnout From Humans. Most of her published articles and OpEds are available at academia.edu. Her daughter, Giovanna de Oliveira Andreotti, is a Dancer/dance teacher, GTDF member, certified Warm Data Lab host, founder of Rewiring for Reality: Cross Generational Reckoning, and an online course facilitator/co-ordinator. She holds a Bachelor's in Psychology from UBC, postgraduate certifications in Climate Psychology and Embodied Social Justice, and currently coordinates an inquiry that maps pedagogical practices addressing complexity, complicity, collapse, and accountability. This conversation took us deep into the complexity of what it means to be human at this moment when the old order is quite clearly in breakdown.  How do we use language? How do we engage with ourselves, each other and the web of life? And what is the web in a world where the first human-created silicon life is co-evolving with us.   How do we explore inter and intra-generational responses and capacity for meaning-making in a way that honours everyone, both human and beyond-human? In a world that feels ever more precarious, it was an honour and a delight to be in the company of such bright, deep minds.  Thank you to Giovanna, Vanessa and Tim - and I hope you all enjoy this as much as we did. Vanessa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-andreotti-a013276/Giovanna on LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/giovanna-de-oliveira-andreotti-b77950272/Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures https://decolonialfutures.net/Burnout from Humans https://burnoutfromhumans.net/Rewiring for Realities https://r4rs.org/cross-generational Tim's podcast and website https://www.futurelearningdesign.com/ Books: Hospicing Modernity https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Vanessa-Machado-De-Oliveira/Hospicing-Modernity--Parting-with-Harmful-Ways-of-Living/26579141Outgrowing Modernity https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Vanessa-Machado-de-Oliveira/Outgrowing-Modernity--Navigating-Complexity-Complicity-an/31891959 What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

In the midst of the Great Transformation, one of the most exciting changes taking place is in our capacity to find what makes our hearts sing - to find our flow, to find what it is that we can do best, that we can do with all our hearts and souls—that leaves us radiant; that lets us lead with our Heart Minds, letting our Head Minds relax into service to life. Getting here, though, is not a trivial pursuit.  And finding ways for parents to lead their children into this place of discovery and switched-on joy is a critical step of our evolution as a species.  So when I read the book 'Lights on Learning: a parent's blueprint for happy, fulfilled and curious kids',  by Julia Black, founder of the Lights on Learning programme, I was genuinely delighted. Julia Black of Lights on Learning is a mother of two young adults, a BAFTA and Grierson nominated documentary director, social entrepreneur, educationalist, and Master Neurocoach. She hosts an online global community for parents who want to bring the latest thinking from neuroscience, positive psychology and passion-led learning into their homes. Her vision is of a world where all children love learning, and she sees parents as the key to that future. Julia says, 'I’m a social entrepreneur to my core, driven by a deep passion to give children the freedom to learn through their strengths. When we find that thing we were born to explore, we enter the realm of infinite possibilities. This is where I love to play with potential - beyond the edges of our comfort zone.'  This is such an inspiring book. It's full of examples of young people and their parents who have found the ways to switch on their flow, their love of life, their gratitude, compassion and joyful curiosity. It's clearly laid out, expresses the science of neuroplasticity and flow clearly and easily and opens doors by which all of us can step into what Julia calls 'Radiance' the fullest expression of our being - and where we can see that this is one step on a spectrum and sometimes we need to step into Darkness to see where our blocks lie and to find the courage and resilience to keep pushing through the hard stuff, to find where our edges are and to step beyond them. Lights On Learning has the core values that 'Courage Counts', 'Authenticity Rules' and 'Growth Spirals' - which feel like essential values for our time. Lights on Learning website https://www.lightsonuniverse.com/Lights on Learning book https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/lights-on-learning-a-parent-s-blueprint-for-happy-fulfilled-curious-kids-julia-black/7786461?ean=9781781338933 LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lightsonmum/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/thelightsonmumInstagram https://www.instagram.com/lightsonfamilies/ MentionsRon Berger 'An Ethic of Excellence'Dr Shannon Irvine https://drshannonirvine.com/ What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering offered by our Accidental Gods Programme it's  'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

“In a world where our wildlife is becoming extinct at a frightening rate, we are setting up an oasis where animals, wild flowers and even ancient fungi can thrive.” Charlie Bennett writing of Middleton North Farm. It's clear to most of us that the existing food and farming system is unsustainable.  What's less clear is what to do about it, particularly when the behemoths of the industry put so much time, effort and money into propaganda which suggests we can't feed humanity unless we keep doubling down on the industrial systems that are destroying our soils, our watercourses and our health.  Given this toxic mix of misinformation, government bureaucracy and algorithms engineered to keep us at each others' throats, it's not surprising the waters are muddied. And yet the signposts are out there and brave pioneers across the continents are working to find ways to feed people healthy, nutritious food at prices they can afford while also building soil, increasing water uptake —which is another way of saying we're reducing flooding— and returning life to the land. One of these glorious pioneers is Charlie Bennett of Middleton North farm in Northumbria. I came across Charlie  in the closing days of 2024 when I read his first book 'Down the Rabbit Hole' and promptly bought copies to give to all my friends. HIs writing was at once lyrical and grounded in a reality I recognised—and he was writing about regenerative farming, except he called it 'Common Sense Farming'.  I wrote to him then, and we've corresponded ever since and now he's this week's guest on the podcast. Charlie Bennett is a farmer, writer, and passionate advocate for the countryside. He is joint owner of the Middleton North estate near Morpeth, Northumberland, in North East England. Here, he and his wife Charlotte work to support existing wildlife and attract new species alongside sustainable stock farming designed to add to the diversity of wildlife in the area. Trigger Warning: Charlie and I share a passion for the land and a deep sense of connectedness to the more than human world. We both live in a reality where humans (sometimes) eat meat so if discussions of the reality of this might be difficult for you, please skip past those bits. Otherwise, please do enjoy this exploration of how we can share our world differently with the Web of Life. Charlie's website https://charliebennettauthor.co.uk/Buy Charlie's books https://charliebennettauthor.co.uk/shop/p/down-the-rabbit-hole-book-fh2pk-mcey8Middleton North Farm https://www.middleton-north.co.uk Lit and Phil https://www.litandphil.org.uk/ What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering 'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

Water is our lifeblood and Clean Water (along with Clean Air and Clean Soil) is one of our core Three Asks, the non-negotiable baselines that underpin a flourishing future for people and life on our planet. Getting there, means everyone beginning to care at a bone-deep level, way beneath our conscious minds and having a sense of how we might get there, supported by evidence of what works (or doesn't) so that we can create positive feedback loops of growing community between the human and Beyond-Human worlds.  Living this into being is one of the core pillars of the Great Transformation and one of the groups working towards it is the River Dôn Project in Sheffield, one of the many projects overseen by Opus Independents. One of the project leads is Jonny Douglas, and he's today's guest. Jonny imagines a world where the vast majority of people have the means and opportunity to find and fulfil their true potential. He has worked as a designer, a trainer, educator and facilitator in human skills and creativity in universities, colleges, schools and businesses.  At Opus he is a Co-Founder and Network Coordinator of the UBI Lab Network and Technology Lead for the River Dôn Project, among other roles across the portfolio. He believes our only path forward is one of mutually assured flourishing and that now is the time to build those alternative realities, together.  I met Jonny last July at the Social Enterprise Network Summer Conference in Sheffield and the conversation about the River Dôn Project was one of the single most inspiring, thought -provoking I have ever had. So, with great delight, here we are, exploring routes to Mutually Assured Flourishing.  Enjoy!  Jonny at Opus https://www.weareopus.org/team/jonny-douglasJonny on all socials: Linked in  |  Pinterest  |  Instagram  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Bluesky River Dôn Project website  |  Engagement Platform    River Dôn Project - Bluesky  |  Linked in  |  Instagram  |  Mailing list  |  Donate Mentions in the Show James Lock of Opus #279 https://accidentalgods.life/now-then-building-networks-of-citizen-power-with-james-lock-of-opus-in-sheffield/Debs Grayson from Opus #283 https://accidentalgods.life/red-pill-blue-pill-green-pill-true-pill-creating-a-trustworthy-media-commons-with-debs-grayson-of-opus-independents/Hospicing Modernity with Vanessa De Oliveira Andreotti ~ Festival of  Debate, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZgq3h6pPxU  #Brilliant Minds: BONUS podcast with Kate Raworth, Indy Johar & James Lock at the Festival of Debate https://accidentalgods.life/brilliant-minds-bonus-podcast-with-kate-raworth-indy-johar-james-lock-at-the-festival-of-debate/ Opus https://www.weareopus.org/ Festival of Debatehttps://festivalofdebate.com/  PechaKucha Sheffield  https://www.pechakucha.com/communities/sheffield  Sheffield Souphttps://sheffieldsoup.wordpress.com/what-is-soup/  Food Works https://thefoodworks.org/  Sofar Sounds https://www.sofarsounds.com/cities/sheffield  Dôn Catchment Rivers Trust https://dcrt.org.uk/  For a deeper dive, other links are available on a Google Doc here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/172pnHQdb14dgQmphixCoFgea5j_kapzpSOeIlgZUko8/ What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering 'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

We know that our 'democracy' is, in fact, a kleptocracy that is not fit for purpose IF that purpose is the continuation of complex life on earth. The sociopaths who have stolen control show no signs of shifting to something that works, so it's way past time that ordinary people across all walks of life embraced the tools of participatory democracy and wrought the new system that we need - a new House of the People which would, finally, accrue power to those with wisdom and enact governance of, for and by the people and the planet.  To do this, we need people who are intimately aquainted with these tools, who live them, breathe them, find joy and creativity in them and know how to share them in ways ordinary people understand.  Our House is a collective that exists to do exactly this and in today's episode, we're talking to Katy Rubin and Oli Whittington, two of its core team, to find out what it does and how and why - and, crucially, where it could take us if we all jump on board.  Katy Rubin is a Legislative Theatre practitioner and strategist based in the UK. She is founder of The People Act hub for creative civic practice. She works in partnership with local and national governments, advocacy organizations, and community groups to co-create equitable and innovative public policy through participatory processes that are joyful, creative, and inclusive. Katy is also a member of the Our House UK collective, a Senior Fellow with People Powered: Global Hub for Participatory Democracy, and a Senior Atlantic Fellow at London School of Economics, as well as former executive director of Theatre of the Oppressed NYC. Her Legislative Theatre work with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority was awarded the International Observatory of Participatory Democracy’s 2022 award for Best Practice in Citizen Participation. Oli Whittington is the initiator and co-lead of Our House, drawing on his background in participatory design and democracy. Oli’s work has focused on unpacking and addressing the concentration of power, including leading democratic innovation at Nesta, Shift Design’s participation practice, and as a participatory designer in Arup’s urban innovation studio. Together, they are working around all four nations of the UK to help bring the tools of participatory democracy to communities of place, purpose and passion.  They are helping to facilitate local participatory processes with a view to creating National Charters for each Nation and then bringing people together to decide whether we want a united Charter for the whole of the UK or remain separate.   To me, creating a governance system that is fit for purpose is absolutely essential to our moving forward through the pinch point of the Great Transition.  If we can't find coherent, constructive, compassionate, courageous ways to work together, we're sunk—and while there might be courageous, compassionate people within the current system, the overall system is not any of these.  So I dearly hope that by the end of this, you'll want to become involved. And if you're listening to this podcast as it goes out on the 16th of July 2025, you should know that there's an online event on the 18th which in an open invitation to anyone, anywhere who wants to start building an open democracy.  Please do sign up, there's a link in the show notes.  Our House website https://ourhouseuk.org/Our House Event on 18th July 2025 https://www.eventbrite.com/e/power-to-the-people-shaping-a-peoples-charter-tickets-1415315900959 Movement Mapping https://movementecology.org.uk/2025/04/27/mapping-participatory-democracy-movement.htmlEast Marsh United https://eastmarshunited.org/Legislative Theatre Resource Hub https://www.thepeopleact.org/Charter 88 and the Constitutional Reform Movement https://academic.oup.com/pa/article-abstract/62/4/537/1538934? What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering 'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

We're on the edge of a cliff and the way out is through - through the obfuscations and extractive values and downright lies of predatory capitalism.  Through to authenticity, and integrity and finding language for how we can be who we really are, what our souls yearn to be.  And that language is not always English. This week's guest, Diarmuid Lyng, speaks Irish - one of the older, indigenous languages of these islands. Listening to him is a genuinely fabulous experience in the truest sense of the word in that it lifts us to the place of myth and fable where our oldest stories are held, and we can reconnect with the bones of who we are so that we can carry our knowing forward into who we could yet be: who we will have to be, I'd say, if we're going to make it through the current pinch point; and who we will love being. Diarmuid is co-owner of Wild Irish Retreats and Nature of Man. He is a former Wexford hurling captain and a host on the Irish Newstalk's flagship sports programme 'Off the Ball'. With Wild Irish Retreats he is part of a team that is focused on the rejuvenation of the Irish language in relation to nature reconnection. With Nature of Man he runs retreats and online programmes with men that creates a space for them to do their own internal spiritual work. He also takes teams/groups of all kinds to the woods for overnight camps that focus on connection; to self, teammate and place. In all of this, Diarmuid is uncovering in people a previously hidden energy source that benefits the individual, the society and the web of life - and he does it with such authenticity, integrity and a really humble sense of what it is to be human in the world at this moment, that I found this whole conversation a genuinely magical exeperience. I hope you do too. Diarmuid's Fundrazr https://fundrazr.com/wildirish Diarmuid's website https://www.diarmuidlyng.ie/Diarmuid's LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/diarmuid-lyng-54931928/Diarmuid's Substack https://diarmuidlyng.substack.com/Diarmuid on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/diarmuid.lyngJohn Moriarty and Tommy Tiernan on YouTube https://youtu.be/m6kfo4FahM0?si=PDrgpag33IAvG7cP Peia - Blessed We Are (lie down, eyes closed, breathe and listen https://open.spotify.com/track/6lZnYjOFaoBVNFD0rf9kYl?si=KZe4cx0YRxS6RGhFu-Xgnw This is hurling https://youtu.be/9aqRRvcyAgE?feature=shared The myth of Cú Chulainn https://www.wildernessireland.com/blog/irish-folklore-cuchulain-hound-ulster/ What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Open Gathering 'Dreaming Your Death Awake' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 2nd November - details are here.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

Our priority now is to find -and then embody - a sense of grounded stability, a sense of safety, a sense of embodied connection to the Web of Life...  This is the single most important thing we can be doing to create a world we'd want to leave behind, and this week's guest, Dan McTiernan, is one of those who is leading courses, trainings and embodied meditations that give people a genuinely grounded set of resources to feel this at a cellular, bone-deep level so that it can become the foundation for a life of authentic practice. Dan's main focus in all of his work is to really double down on the process and practice of finding our Ground. He's been working with people to really explore the physiological, psycho-emotional and existential layers of grounding as a holistic approach to a stabilised embodied sense of safety and connection. This is just so foundational to any possibility of responding to a world in which all the ground has been ripped up, and we are literally laying each cobblestone at a time before we dare take the next step. This feels a central Thrutopian capacity - to him, and to me. Dan is a friend of the podcast. We talked last on Episode 263, where we explored his concepts of embodied learning.  This time around, as we watch the death throes of the old system grow ever more violent, his experiences with the Calmer Farmer programme, his Being Earthbound Practice Circle and What's Here Now meditations feel like exactly what we all need. Dan's Website https://Earthbound.fi Dan's Embodied Permaculture Course https://earthbound.fi/embodied-permaculture-course Dan's SubstacksCalmer Farmer https://calmerfarmer.substack.com/Being Earthbound Practice Circle https://beingearthbound.substack.com/p/earthbound-practice-circle What's Here Now https://beingearthbound.substack.com/p/whats-here-now Dan on Episode #263 of Accidental Gods https://accidentalgods.life/avoiding-burn-out-fall-out-drop-out-and-freak-out-with-dan-mctiernan/ ALEF trust https://www.aleftrust.org/ What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join our next Gathering 'Becoming a Good Ancestor' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 6th July - details are here.If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

How can Bioregionalism supplant the nation state as the natural unit of civilisation? Joe Brewer is living, breathing and teaching the ways we can work together with each other and the natural flows of water and life. We know that the current paradigm is breaking apart in real time, but how do we become the light that shines through the cracks?  How do we build ways of being that reunite us with the web of life, create new/old ways of letting value flow and become what humanity has been and could be: stewards of that massive, magical, heartbreakingly beautiful living system that is the web of life. This week's guest, Joe Brewer, works at the leading edge of these ideas, testing out answers on the ground in communities of place, purpose and passion around the world.  Joe is a trans-disciplinary systems thinker and Earth regeneration designer who has worked in everything from agroforestry work in Bioparque Móncora to starting a Waldorf Forest School (Sueños del Bosque) to co-founding a territorial foundation called Fundación Barichara Regenerativa and starting a trust to bring more local land into the commons. He was founder of the Earth Regenerators study group, which became Design School for Regenerating Earth, and is the author of The Design Pathway for Regenerating Earth. Increasingly, he's becoming a leading global voice on the ways we can return to a bioregional way of living that is, as you'll here, how we have lived for over 99% of human history. It's the way that makes sense, that can heal our relationships to ourselves, each other and the living web of life.  The question, always, is how we make this happen? How do we shift our entire culture out of a world where lines drawn on maps are more real than the flows of a river, back to a place where clean air, clean water, clean soil are our priorities, the non-negotiable baselines from which everything else arises? How do we shift our concept of value flows away from the accumulation of stuff in a zero-sum game to a place where human needs are trusted and met?  Joe has such heart-warming, inspiring examples of how this is happening around the world: on all 5 inhabited continents, there are groups making this happen. As Joe says, this is the work of now. It's urgent. It's also the single most inspiring thing we can do. Bioregional Earth https://www.bioregionalearth.org/pathway/design-schoolDesign School for Regenerating Earth https://www.bioregionalearth.org/pathway/design-schoolJoe's book: The Design Pathway for Regenerating Earth https://www.bioregionalearth.org/pathway/design-pathwayGovernance Futures  https://governancefutures.org/Elinor Ostrom's work on Governing the Commons https://www.beyondintractability.org/bksum/ostrom-governingSociocracy https://www.sociocracyforall.org/sociocracy/ProSocial World https://www.prosocial.world/Joe on Accidental Gods Episode #127 https://accidentalgods.life/bio-regionalism-the-design-path-for-regenerating-earth/ Updated 12th July 2025 with a recent YouTube video from Joe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buoLfQtsK9k What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to join our next Gathering 'Becoming a Good Ancestor' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 6th July - details are here.If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

Here is a meditation for the Solstice – the moment when the sun stands still. It is suitable for Summer and Winter solstice.  You don't have to do this at the exact moment of stillness: it’s the connection that counts, the marking of the turning point from days lengthening to shortening (or vice versa if you’re in the southern hemisphere).  This is a moment of reflection and a re-affirming of our connection to the web of life.  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. What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass Guided visualisation/meditations similar to this one are available in the Accidental Gods membership, which aims to offer everyone a structured route towards heart-mind connection and opening; to connect you to the Web of Life such that you can ask 'what do you want of me?' and respond to the answers in real time as a self-conscious node in the living, hyper-complex system that is the web of life. If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to join our next Gathering 'Becoming a Good Ancestor' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 6th July - details are here.If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

As we head into the solstice- that moment when the sun stands still—whether you're in the northern hemisphere where we have the longest day, or the southern, where it's the longest night—this solstice feels like a moment of transformation. The world is turning over, turning a page. The old system is visibly—palpably—breaking apart. A new system will arise from the ashes, because there is always going to be a system. The question is what it looks like, works like, feels like. We are a prosocial, communitarian species, but our culture has shattered from our knowing of our integral place in the All That Is, so it's possible we might end up with a system predicated on hatred, underpinned by fear, where a small number of incredibly frightened people let their traumatised parts run a scorched earth policy in an effort to hold back everything of which they are most afraid, but I am increasingly hopeful that what we're seeing in places is the extinction burst of the old system: its death throes if you like. As I record this, there has been an estimated turnout in the US for the No Kings rallies of between ten and twelve million. This is an astonishing number. If it's true, it's well within shouting distance of the 3.5% of the total population that was considered a tipping point in previous social movements in our recent history: the abolition of slavery in the UK, the civil rights movement in the US, gay marriage in too many nations to count. The difference is that these numbers are based on a pre-internet age. We genuinely don't know what happens when people can see the images on their phones and realise how many of the people around them share the common values of decency, compassion, integrity, generosity-of-spirit.  So if this is potentially a turning point in the making in the US, how do we make this bigger, grander, more of a global movement?  We know we need total systemic change, but how do we make it happen?  How do we create lasting change in our ways of organising everything from food to water to shelter to education. How do we sort our mess of a governance system so we can find those with the greatest wisdom and give them as much power as they need and no more, at all the levels of our culture? As ever, I think the answer lies in our narratives - when ideas become common currency, then we begin to build them into our visions of how the world is and has been and could be. If we can become bold, evolutionary imagineers and craft stories of a different way of organising, loving, relating, caring…then we can live it into being. Which means we need to know in the marrow of our bones what this feels like. Imagination begins in our perception of the possible and part of the horror of the Trauma culture is the systematic stifling of possibility. From our books to our movies to our TV to our TikTok videos, so much is predicated on Trauma Culture narratives of scarcity, separation and powerlessness.  We are told this is the way the world is. That it is human nature to  lack all morality and engage in zero sum strategies that belittle, disempower and crush everyone around us.  Which it isn't. Nonetheless, predatory Capitalism is designed to keep us from imagining things differently. If we're stressed about earning enough to survive while at the same time being hooked on the things we absolutely have to have to feel better, and are being steadily more sedated by the incessant dopamine drips of social media…then we literally cannot step out into other ways of being. So this is our task now - to wean ourselves off the stuff we neither need nor (really) want; off the dopamine drips, and onto things that make our hearts sing so we can build new stories predicated on connection, agency and sufficiency; stories where we are self-conscious nodes in the web of life, and it's our job to ask 'What do you want of me?', listen to the answers, then carry them out to the best of our ability.  That's it. Easy to say. Harder to do.  But we can boil things down to 9 basic concepts: Three Values: Integrity, Compassion, Generosity-of-SpiritThree Baselines: Clean Air, Clean Water, Clean Soil Three ReWoven Connections: between all parts of Ourselves; ourselves and Each Other; Ourselves and the Web of Life. What happens if every single thing we think or do or say or dream is based in these three sets of three? How would our days change? This isn't going to happen overnight, but we can make the commitment to live by them now. Here. This moment.  It's not going to be easy: changing behaviours never is. But we have baselines to work from.  And we might focus on one at a time.  What happens if Clean Water is our priority? How does it change how we live?  What happens if we make Integrity the heart and soul of every interaction through our days - beginning with ourselves? What does it feel like to commit to re-weaving clean, clear, courageous, compassionate connections between all parts of ourselves, ourselves and each other, ourselves and the More than Human world? Clearly I think the inner work is the foundation of everything, though I am aware that this isn't the case for everyone: if you work better in the outer world, if you'd rather lead with head than heart, that's fine, truly.  Go for it.  Find the Values that speak to you and the Baselines you can work with and go for it.  If the Inner Work speaks more to you then know that we in the west need to heal ten thousand years of Trauma Culture in half a decade. It's been at least that long for some of us since our ancestors knew themselves to be an integral part of the web of life. This is the work of the spiritual warrior. It's going to take astonishing levels of courage and commitment. Nobody is pretending this is easy.  But it is essential. And because this is the water I swim in, I'd like to share the basics of how we might get there. It starts with Grounding - with having a clear sense of our physical presence in the world, the flesh and the bones and the teeth of who we are; with sensing the solid earth beneath us as support, containment, holding, as the reality of who and what we are. When our feet are on the earth, there is nowhere left to fall. When we have a sense of roots going down into the earth, we have connection, holding and an open path from the heart of the earth to our heart. If we connect it on up to the heart-mind of the Universe, we have the three hearts in alignment. Just doing this is huge. But then, as we begin really to live in our bodies, so we can begin to recognise the places where trauma sits; the frozen places, the stuck places, the parts of ourselves that leap to our own defence - and are brilliant and wonderful and creative - but who are probably defending against threats that occurred decades ago, if not longer. We carry generational trauma, civilisational trauma. And the healing is ours to do: the good news is that there's a lot of help out there - that just as we really need it, we're beginning really to get to grips with how healing can happen. One to one work is good if you have the means: the time and the money, but many of us don't - and that doesn't mean we can't do the work.  If you'd like to work in groups there's a huge amount.  We offer Gatherings and the Membership, but there's Listen to Thomas Hübl Mystic Cafe — I'll link to his podcast Point of Relation in the show notes —Tara Brach, Michael Meade, Bill Plotkin, Jon Young…a host of others are offering online work that helps you to reconnect to yourself and the land. You have to find out what helps you best, but there's a lot out there. So we do the inner work. And in doing it, we become the still point in the whirling world that...

Our guest this week, Rob Hopkins, is a towering figure in the world of regenerative change.  Co-founder of Transition Network and of Transition Town Totnes, he is host of the podcast 'From What if to What Next', stars in the groundbreaking French film 'Demain', speaks at TED Global and TEDx events and most recently, has created a collaborative music project with artist Mr Kit, ‘Field Recordings from the Future‘ which will be released on 17th of May 2025, alongside his new book,‘How to Fall in Love with the Future’. With the subtitle, 'A Time Traveller's Guide to Changing the World', this book does what it says on the tin - it offers a radical, moving, deeply inspiring dive into the people and movements throughout history who have used visions of the future to inspire positive change on a large and dramatic scale. From the life and writings of musician Sun Ra and the history of Black utopian movements to the latest neuroscience on what goes on in our minds—and hearts—when we travel through time, Rob brings essential new thinking to anyone overwhelmed with dread and anxiety for the future. He asks us to consider: what would the world look like if we all got to work imagining—and then building—a world we were deeply in love with? So this is our invitation to you: Listen to Rob now, then read his book, then explore what a genuinely flourishing future would feel like for you. And then together, let's make this happen. Rob's website https://www.robhopkins.net/Rob's book on Hive Books https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Rob-Hopkins/How-to-Fall-in-Love-with-the-Future--A-Time-Travellers-Gu/31447799 What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to join our next Gathering 'Becoming a Good Ancestor' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 6th July - details are here.If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

If you listen to this podcast for any length of time, you'll know that I believe the way forward is predicated on our finding shared values—I'd go for integrity, compassion, courage and generosity of spirit as the baselines—and then a suite of clear asks in the outer world and needs in the inner world.  In logistical terms, at an absolute baseline, we need Clean Air, Clean Water, Clean Soil. These are non negotiable and the fact that we currently have none of these is a grim indictment of how much we live in an economy that sucks the life out of everything rather than a society that grows. But we do have people who are working flat out to change the narrative on exactly these topics and this week's guest, Tim Smedley, is one of these.  Tim is an award-winning sustainability journalist who has worked with the BBC, the Guardian, Sunday Times and Financial Times. He is also a celebrated non-fiction writer. His first book, Clearing the Air: The Beginning and the End of Air Pollution, was shortlisted for the UK's Royal Society Science Book Prize. His latest: The Last Drop: Solving the World's Water Crisis was a Times Book of the Year and has been described as 'Smart, Sobering and Scholarly' which it certainly is. This is one of those books that's both terrifying, utterly compelling and—I'm glad to say—ultimately inspiring.  Yes, the world's water is in a desperate state.  Yes, it has been horribly mismanaged almost everywhere by the kleptocracy that masquerades as a democracy in our modern world.  But yes, we do have responses that will work, they have been carefully explored and water is one of those unifying elements that brings people together across tribal boundaries. We all need clean water and getting there means we need to find common principles by which we can live. Spoiler alert: turning water into a for-profit commodity is not a part of the solution.  Regenerative agriculture, re-Wilding our waters, beavers (yay!) and sane water saving/sparing practices definitely are. Tim is so knowledgeable and his books are both brilliantly researched and utterly personal.  He goes to the places he writes about and his first-hand experiences are priceless.  I have put links in the show notes for both of his books, plus the Medium article on DeGrowth which is where I first came across his work.  Please do explore afterwards. Tim's website https://www.timsmedleywriter.com/Medium on Degrowth: https://medium.com/the-new-climate/we-need-to-talk-about-degrowth-part-ii-4d71c44067b9Article in Prospect Magazine https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/environment-news/climate-change/70022/why-isnt-it-raining-extreme-weatherTim on LinkedIn https://uk.linkedin.com/in/timsmedleyTim on Medium https://medium.com/@tjsmedleyTim on BlueSky https://bsky.app/profile/timsmedley.bsky.social Tim's BooksClearing the Air https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/clearing-the-air-shortlisted-for-the-royal-society-science-book-prize-tim-smedley/1246586?ean=9781472953339The Last Drop https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-last-drop-solving-the-world-s-water-crisis-tim-smedley/7544965?ean=9781529058178What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to join our next Gathering 'Becoming a Good Ancestor' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 6th July - details are here.If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

How do we let go of the sense of scarcity, separation and powerlessness that defines the ways we live, care and do business together? How can we best equip our young people for the world that is coming - which is so, so different from the future we grew up believing was possible? This week's guest, Jennifer Brandsberg-Engelmann is an educator, regenerative - and I would say renegade - economist who is Project Lead at the Regenerative Economics for Secondary Schools and Lead Author of the online textbook of the same name. Jennifer has taught economics for nearly thirty years, but as you'll hear, the Global Financial Crash led her to rethink the rules and structures of the system and now she's one of the world's leading thinkers on Regenerative Economics - how we can refocus away from business, markets and the structures of neoliberalism towards ways of being that are grounded in reciprocity, respect and responsibility, in the realities of being human in the twenty-first century.  In 2023, Jennifer stopped working as a teacher and is now focused full time on shifting the paradigm in the education system and beyond, moving us away from the toxic mindset of scarcity, competition and the rise of oligopolies, towards an understanding of our place as integral nodes in the web of life. Her new two year curriculum is one of the most ambitious I've ever seen. It builds a solid, damning critique of the old paradigm and offers credible, structured routes through to a new one that would allow us all to flourish within a thriving ecosystem, to have not just an economy, but a way of being that is predicated in reciprocity, care, sharing and the kinds of lives we yearn to lead, but don't yet know how. Truly, this is evolutionary and if we can spread these ideas far enough, wide enough and root them deep enough in all that we are and do, I genuinely believe this is at least part of the key to the continuation of complex life on earth. Because, yes, we are that close to extinction. And yes, there is still time to veer from the cliff's edge. So if you do nothing else this week, please share this conversation and the links within it to anyone and everyone you know who cares about shifting the paradigm - or even is involved in the education system at any level.  Enjoy. Jennifer on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-brandsberg-engelmann/Regen Economics on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/regenerative-economics-for-secondary-schools/Regenerative Economics for Secondary Schools - Project website (including online textbook with a creative commons license). 5/7 topics have been published + a Topic on systems thinking. https://www.regenerativeeconomics.earth/homeReimagining Economics: Five Transformative Shifts for Secondary Schools (Version for England) - A discussion paper to help curriculum authorities consider key changes to economics curricula. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R8e3wRmHYzqPl0Mfvv34oHv610F2RH8xveQ79xoZzYs/ Regen Economics online Textbook https://www.regenerativeeconomics.earth/regenerative-economics-textbook/about-the-bookRegen Economics Open Letter on D.E.A.L https://doughnuteconomics.org/stories/open-letter-for-a-course-in-regenerative-economicsDoughnut Economics book https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Kate-Raworth/Doughnut-Economics--Seven-Ways-to-Think-Like-a-21st-Century-Economist/21739630 Teach the Future - Curriculum for a Changing Climate (Track Changes) Project Where the Regenerative Economics for Secondary Schools got its start https://www.teachthefuture.uk/tracked-changes-project How captured economics stole our climate — and how we can reclaim it (Part 4/4) Katy Shields' article in Medium with a brilliant causal loop diagram showing the reinforcing feedback loops that prevent change in the economics discipline https://medium.com/@katyrshields/how-captured-economics-stole-our-climate-and-how-we-can-reclaim-it-part-4-4-6de66f5255af Katy is also the co-producer of the Tipping Point podcast, a true-crime style podcast about the Limits to Growth report and how it was undermined by economists https://tippingpoint-podcast.com/ David Bollier, the expert support for Topic 2: Commons, recently released the second edition of his book Think Like a Commoner https://thinklikeacommoner.com/ What we offer: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to join our next Gathering 'Becoming a Good Ancestor' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 6th July - details are here.If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

We are honoured to bring to Accidental Gods, a recording of three of our generation's leading thinkers in conversation at the Festival of Debate in Sheffield, hosted by Opus. This is an unflinching conversation, but it's absolutely at the cutting edge of imagineering: this lays out where we're at and what we need to do, but it also gives us roadmaps to get there:  It's genuinely Thrutopian, not only in the ideas as laid out, but the emotional literacy of the approach to the wicked problems of our time.  Now we have to make it happen. Kate Raworth is a renegade economist, author of the groundbreaking book, Doughnut Economics: 7 ways to think like a 21st Century Economist and founder of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab which is seeing companies, cities and nations around the world working towards an economy that prioritises flourishing of people and planet ahead of growth for growth's sake.  Kate is a Senior Teaching Fellow at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, where she teaches on the Masters in Environmental Change and Management. She is also Professor of Practice at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Indy Johar is an architect, co-founder of 00 on behalf of which he cofounded  multiple social ventures from Impact Hub Westminster to Impact Hub Birmingham. He has also co-led research projects such as The Compendium for the Civic Economy, whilst supporting several 00 explorations/experiments including the wikihouse.cc, opendesk.cc.  More recently he  founded Dark Matter Labs - a field laboratory focused building the institutional infrastructures for radicle civic societies, cities, regions and towns. Dark Matter works with institutions around the world, from UNDP (Global), Climate Kic, McConnell (Canada), to the Scottish Gove to Bloxhub (Copenhagen). Indy has taught at various institutions from the University of Bath, TU-Berlin; Architectural Association, University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT and New School.  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.  James was on the podcast quite recently - in episode #279 - and we talked about the upcoming Festival of Debate and the fact that, amongst many other outstanding conversations, he'd be talking with Kate and Indy who are easily up their in my pantheon of modern intentional gods.  Afterwards, James and I discussed the possibility of our bringing the recording of that conversation to the podcast - and here we are.  Enjoy! Opus Independents https://www.weareopus.org/Festival of Debate https://festivalofdebate.com/ Kate Raworth https://www.kateraworth.com/Doughnut Economics Action Lab https://doughnuteconomics.org/Doughnut Economics book https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Kate-Raworth/Doughnut-Economics--Seven-Ways-to-Think-Like-a-21st-Century-Economist/21739630 Indy Johar https://about.me/indy.joharIndy's blog at DML https://provocations.darkmatterlabs.orgDark Matter Labs https://darkmatterlabs.org/Indy on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/indy-johar-b440b010/Indy on Substack https://indyjohar.substack.com/ James Lock on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-lock-964a8014/ Rob Shorter of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab on Accidental Gods #41 https://accidentalgods.life/doughnut-economics-action-lab/Indy on Accidental Gods #205 https://accidentalgods.life/becoming-intentional-gods-claiming-the-future-with-indy-johar-of-the-dark-matter-labs/James on Accidental Gods #279 https://accidentalgods.life/now-then-building-networks-of-citizen-power-with-james-lock-of-opus-in-sheffield/ What we offer - Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership. This is where we endeavour to help  you to connect fully with the living web of life. If you'd like to come along to an Ask Manda Anything hour on Sunday 8th June, you do have to be a member (but you can join for £1 and then leave again!)If you'd like to join our next Gathering 'Becoming a Good Ancestor' (you don't have to be a member) it's on 6th July - details are here.If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here. If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here

We all know the future rests upon us building heart-grounded, spirit-led communities that link humanity to the Web of Life. We know that the key to this is building reciprocal relationships with our food and the land from which it comes.  Doing this is…harder.  So this week, we're speaking with Abel Pearson of Glasbren.  Abel is a friend of the podcast - we last spoke in the depths of the pandemic when he was farming 3 acres and beginning to feed the local community in ways that helped the people in a ten mile radius really to connect with the spirit of the land on which their food was grown.  Now, Abel and the team are farming 138 acres of National Trust property, and still producing food for people in the local area - but so much more than that, they are building communities of place, passion and purpose, centred on the land and the cycles of the seasons and the ways we can build authentic relationship, full of reverence for the many, many layers of life in, on and under it the soil.  He says that everything he does now is for his young son and the children to come, in the hope that they might yet enjoy abundant foodscapes, clean rivers and regenerative cultures. Glasbren https://www.glasbren.org.uk/Support the Farm https://www.glasbren.org.uk/farm-supporterGlasbren courses https://www.glasbren.org.uk/coursesEpisode #25 with Abel https://accidentalgods.life/nurturing-our-bodies-and-souls/ If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership. If you'd like to join our next Gathering (you don't have to be a member) it's on 6th July - details are here.And if you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work, you'll find us here. 

We've known for decades that the 'Yell, Tell and Sell' strategy of belittling people, endeavouring to cajole—or shame—them into some kind of change doesn't work - in fact it can't work.  It's not how we're wired.  Cognitive neuroscience has been telling us this for decades but it's only recently that people have begun to listen. One of those who has been speaking in the wilderness for a long time—and is now finally being heard—is this week's guest, Renée Lertzman. Dr. Renée Lertzman is a researcher, advisor and strategist who translates relational psychology to change our approach to our planetary crisis. Applying her graduate training as a psychosocial researcher, she designs frameworks and methods, grounded in public health, clinical psychology and neurosciences, that guide people to take action and create impact on climate and sustainability issues.  Over the past two decades, Renée has worked with global leaders, startups, governments, and mission-driven companies—including Google, IKEA, the California Academy of Sciences, and WWF—helping them navigate the emotional complexities of climate engagement. She’s also the founder of Project InsideOut, an initiative that equips changemakers with psychologically grounded resources for collective transformation. This is the key to our survival. We need to learn how to engage ourselves and each other in ways that will transform ourselves and each other. We need to bring serious emotional literacy to the table so that we can create the containers, and attune to the anxieties and aspirations of people around us. We need, above all, to equip people to make sustained and sustainable change.  This is the core of Renée's work and hearing her talk about it in depth is the first step to making it happen.  Enjoy! Learn more at reneelertzman.com and projectinsideout.net.Renée on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/reneelertzman/Renée's TED talk https://www.ted.com/talks/renee_lertzman_how_to_turn_climate_anxiety_into_action

Our world is more magical than we know - more than we can know.  Increasing numbers of us are realising that the 'citadel theory of mind' where we see ourselves as isolated units within the boundaries of our own skulls is not how the world works.  But if it isn't, then how do we make sense of the worlds beyond consensus reality? How do we engage with the web of life and all that's around it in ways that are respect, reciprocal and generative? Robert (Bob) Falconer is a long time IFS practitioner and trainer.  He is the author or co-author of many books, including Many Minds, One Self which he co-wrote with Dick Schwartz, who is credited with founding Internal Family Systems Therapy. For me, this is the form of therapy that leans closest into spiritual work, particularly into shamanic work, and Bob's book, The Others Within Us: Internal Family Systems, Porous Mind and Spirit Possession is a ground-breaking work that blows open the fallacies of the citadel mind model and opens us to a wide spectrum of other realities in other cultures, all of which acknowledge the existence of non-human, non-embodied energies that have at least a degree of agency and that can interact with human beings in ways that are either to our benefit or our detriment. Very few are neutral. So as we hurtle towards the edge of a cliff, pushed by our culture's endemic inability to engage with our own traumas, talking to Bob seemed pretty much essential.  We talk quite a lot about IFS, which is Internal Family Systems therapy and at the start, we open up more of what that's about, though I do encourage you to read the book Bob co-wrote with Dick Schwartz.  We also - and this is a trigger warning - explore some of Bob's own life history of harrowing sexual and physical abuse so if this is likely to trigger parts of you, then please only listen when you're feeling grounded and well resourced.  Beyond that, we range far, wide and deep across the boundaries where science meets spirituality and philosophy meets psychotherapy, all of which is squarely in the area that I think needs most work, for all of us.  Bob's website: https://robertfalconer.us/Bob on YouTube https://robertfalconer.us/youtube-channel/ Bob's Books: Out now: The Others Within Us: Internal Family Systems, Porous Mind, and Spirit PossessionOUT ON 22nd MAY 2025 - Opening the Inner World: Spiritual Healing, Internal Family Systems and Emanuel Swedenborg Co-written with Dick Schwartz: Many Minds, One Self by Richard Schwartz and Robert Falconer Other books Thomas Zinser Soul-Centered Healing Lloyd DeMause The History of Childhood  David Gordon White - Daemons are Forever Dreaming Awake Contemporary Shamanic Training: https://dreamingawake.co.uk Accidental Gods Membership https://accidentalgods.life/join-us/Accidental Gods Gatherings https://accidentalgods.life/gatherings-2025/

We are living through a time between stories—where the old economic narratives of scarcity, extraction, and separation are crumbling, and a new one is seeking to be born. At the heart of this transition is the question: What do we truly value, and how do we express that value in ways that nourish life?Imagine a society where every act of care, contribution, and kindness is not only appreciated but economically recognised. Schools, councils, and local businesses become part of an ecosystem where value flows back and forth amongst the people who create it. This doesn’t replace wages or public services—it enhances them. This is a good step of the way towards a culture that's predicated on solid core values of compassion, integrity and generosity of spirit, and where we value what we care about, rather than what we can grab.  So how do we build this in ways that work - and do so inside the current system? This week's guest, Peter Kemp, calls himself a professional dot-joiner.  Peter is a UK-based digital innovator and social entrepreneur whose career has spanned web technology, media production, civic engagement, and alternative economics. He was a co founder of HullCoin, and currently serves as CEO of Value Squared (V2) Ltd and the Social Value Academy, organisations dedicated to reimagining how we understand, measure, and reward social value. As part of his work, Peter has helped to establish Citizen Coin - a digital, values-led complementary currency designed explicitly to recognise and reward social, environmental, and civic contributions that often go unpaid and undervalued in the mainstream economy.   He says, 'The current economic model—predominantly built around fiat currencies and centralised systems—is increasingly failing to deliver equitable outcomes, community cohesion, or environmental resilience. Citizen Coin offers a new approach: a digital token earned through pro-social actions—such as volunteering, participating in community initiatives, or engaging in sustainable practices. These actions are verified by local authorities, public sector bodies, or accredited third-party partners. Unlike traditional money, which is often scarce and controlled, Citizen Coins are abundant where social value is being generated.' Crucially, Citizen Coin is not a replacement for fiat currency. Instead, it operates as a complementary economy—a parallel system that strengthens local resilience, incentivises positive behaviour, and redistributes recognition for care work and civic participation.  More than a technology, this offers a shift in worldview—a move from scarcity to abundance, from extraction to contribution.  As we face overlapping crises of inequality, climate, and mental health, complementary economies like this are no longer radical—they are necessary.  Citizen Coin is not just about digital infrastructure or economic reform. It is about choosing a new story—one where we honour the unseen, uplift the essential, and move from domination to stewardship. It is about birthing an economy in service to life. Value Squared https://www.value-squared.com/#aboutCitizen Coin https://www.citizencoin.uk/ If you're interested in joining us at a Gathering, or in the Membership, please follow the links below: Accidental Gods Gatherings https://accidentalgods.life/gatherings-2025/Accidental Gods Membership https://accidentalgods.life/join-us/

All flourishing is mutual, that's a given. And yet the schisms in our culture, the tribal divides and limbic hijack seem to grow deeper and more powerful by the day.  It doesn't have to be like this.  We do have the tools of connection, of genuine listening, of offering trust to gain trust and offering respect to gain respect, we just need to know how  - and when - to put them into practice.  If we're going to move forward into that future we'd be proud to leave behind, we need to start practicing these skills as if the world depended on them - because it does.   This week's guest is someone who practices and teaches the deep, transformative skills of conflict resolution daily.  Carm Aufderheide has a master’s degree in conflict and dispute resolution (CRES), and qualifications in positive reinforcement dog training from the Karen Pryor Professional Dog Training Academy (KPA-CTP and CPDT-KA) and in Separation Anxiety from Malena DeMartini, bringing both to her consultations in her NorthStar Training Solutions in Oregon.  Together, these put her right in the middle of quite fierce conflicts that rage around the dog training world over the various styles of dog training, most of which boil down to: do we use force or don't we?  This is a perfect microcosm of the greater macrocosm of our torn and wounded world and Carm brings her dual skills to this with grace and intelligence and a fierce compassion that is a joy to encounter.   I first came across Carm on the Functional Dog Collaborative podcast and was blown away by the clarity of her thinking, and her capacity to live true to her convictions. I made contact later that day and we set up time for the podcast.  That was roughly six months ago, when the world was a different place.  Now, recording on the day of the Pope's death, as our reality spirals deeper into chaos, it feels ever more essential that we learn these skills.   Carm suggested a whole set of reading before we recorded and I have put a link to all the books, as well as Carm's NorthStar website in the show notes.     Northstar Training Solutions https://www.northstartraining.info/ Street Epistemology https://www.streetepistemology.com/Albert Mehrabian's 7-38-55 Rule https://www.rightattitudes.com/2008/10/04/7-38-55-rule-personal-communication/Carm on the Functional Dog Collaborative podcast Carm's Recommended readingHow Minds Change by David McRaneySupercommunicators by Charles Duhigg High Conflict by Amanda RipleyThe Book of Beautiful Questions by Warren BergerNever Split the Difference by Chris VossWe Can Work it Out by Marshall Rosenberg If you're interested in joining us at a Gathering, or in the Membership, please follow the links below: Accidental Gods Gatherings https://accidentalgods.life/gatherings-2025/Accidental Gods Membership https://accidentalgods.life/join-us/

Our legacy - or status quo - media is owned and run by billionaires for billionaires and the stories they promote are the ones that will keep us all in line. How do we shift the global narrative towards a future of mutual flourishing? It is axiomatic of this podcast that stories – the good and the bad – are what got us to where we are. We are a storied species. Everything we do arises from the stories we tell ourselves and each other about ourselves, each other and our relationship with the communities of place, purpose and passion around us. Often, we're seeking respect and the pride of knowing we've contributed to the things we care about.  But many of us are living in media echo chambers which have no connection to the other bubbles around us. So how do we bridge the gaps? How do we created a media eco-system, a commons, that works for the people by the people, growing stories of agency and empowerment, motivation and direction in, by and from our communities? This week's guest, Debs Grayson, is a facilitator, researcher and organiser living in Sheffield. She works for Opus Independents, where she spends most of her time developing relatable, accessible metrics to track progress towards the Sheffield City Goals, and also on the People's Newsroom Initiative (PNI). PNI is a project housed within Opus broadly focused on journalism innovation, and our recent work has been reimagining journalism as 'storytelling commoning' - collective practices of sharing and weaving together stories that can support a just climate transition. With a background in media research and campaigning for a transformed media system, she previously worked for the Media Reform Coalition running the 'BBC and Beyond' campaign, which also developed ideas of a 'media commons'. Alongside her role at Opus, she is currently working with the independent press regulator IMPRESS on various projects, including presenting Dis/Mis, a podcast on dis- and mis-information and how we build a trustworthy media.  Opus: The People's Newsroom https://www.weareopus.org/the-peoples-newsroomElinor Ostrom 8 Rules for Managing a Commons https://earthbound.report/2018/01/15/elinor-ostroms-8-rules-for-managing-the-commons/Hastings Commons https://hastingscommons.com/ Amam Cymru https://www.amam.cymru/Amam Cyrmu post on the People's Newsroom https://amam.cymru/the-peoples-newsroom/what-is-a-storytelling-commons-and-why-is-it-so-hard-to-talk-aboutDis/Mis podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/dis-mis-exploring-misinformation-in-modern-media/id1775649531 Accidental Gods Gatherings https://accidentalgods.life/gatherings-2025/Accidental Gods Membership https://accidentalgods.life/join-us/

'If you're not changing the numbers, you're not changing the world.' So says this week's guest, Katie Patrick. Katie Patrick is a Silicon Valley based environmental engineer, climate action designer, and author of How to Save the World: How to Make Changing the World the Greatest Game We've Ever Played, now taught in Harvard University’s graduate program and top recommended reading material by UNEP. Katie specializes in designing innovative apps, dashboards, and campaigns that drive environmental action by leveraging insights from behavioural science and game design. Her work combines rigorous research with creative execution to develop solutions that inspire sustainable behaviors and measurable impact. She has advised the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Google, the U.S. State Department, the University of California, the European Commission, Dassault Systèmes, the Institute for the Future, Magic Leap, and Stanford University, as well as numerous startups focused on behavior design for environmental action. Katie is passionate about biophilic design and envisions a future shaped by ecotopian principles. Her thought leadership has been recognized globally; she delivered a TEDx talk in 2020 and spoke at the UN General Assembly in 2021 on the role of creativity, optimism, and imagination in environmental change. In our conversation, we range wide and deep through and across the ways each of us can bridge the divides in our cultures and bring change to our local worlds - and thus to the wider world, exploring the power of gamification, evidence base and feedback loops to create real, enduring change.   Hello World https://www.helloworlde.com/Climate Action Design School https://www.helloworlde.com/climate-action-design-schoolKatie on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-patrick/Katie's TED Talk. https://youtu.be/GOWYwEtzeH4/Katie's Book https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/how-to-save-the-world-katie-patrick/1671034Katie's Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/6QaoYkmNqLSsn89zWMw3nl?si=540f4604608d4652 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-158661867 If 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/

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) and If 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/

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-hello and If 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 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. Links Opus 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=1000669364849 James is Co Founder & Director at Opus Co Founder of Now Then Magazine Co Founder of the UBI Lab Network Co Founder of Festival of Debate Co Founder of Foundations Earth Co Founder of The River Don Project Voluntary Roles:  Social Entrepreneur In Residence at Sheffield Hallam University Advisory Board Member on SYMCA  Local Nature Recovery Strategy General Secretary of the Independent Media Association South Yorkshire Social Enterprise Place Steering Group Member Advisory Board Yorkshire & Humber Office for Data Analytics If 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/

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/ Triple Wellbeing Practitioner Course in London on April 1st 2025 https://thoughtboxeducation.msnd24.com/tracking/lc/a318407c-86a0-4fd3-990e-3614925cc90a/392b9a45-f2f3-44aa-bf90-0afdc15fb732/dfaf176f-fc9c-4809-5698-0c04d852d104/ If 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/

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 MCKIBBEN Paul'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/ If 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/

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 If 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/

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/@StudioKainos Books mentionedOf Water and the Spirit by Malidoma Some The Seven Basic Plots by Christopher Booker 

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-dharma SoulMaking Dharma Course https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/classes/2025-introduction-to-a-soulmaking-dharma/ If 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/

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. If 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/

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/ If 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/

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/ If 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/

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-election Festival of Hope https://ibo.org/festival-of-hope/ Systems Transformation Pathway at UWC Atlantic College: https://www.uwcatlantic.org/learning/academic/systems-transformation-pathway Green School: https://www.greenschool.org/ School of Humanity: https://sofhumanity.com/ If 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/

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.org The Wild with Indy Johar - the why https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/wild-with-sarah-wilson/id1548626341?i=1000677521024 Changing our Civilisational Model - Michel Bauens on Substack https://substack.com/inbox/post/155005488 And 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 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/

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 If 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/

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/ If 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/

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 If 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/

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 2025 Plurality.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/ If 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/

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=sharedPhilip\s 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 If 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/

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.mp3 Summer Solstice Meditation https://media.transistor.fm/4dbb7991/ddc721bc.mp3 If 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/

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=1000639851812 Feeding 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 If 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/

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.uk Fiction: 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=9781473613577 Denise 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=9781837864393 FilmsRichard 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/ Podcasts Farm 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

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-do The Power of Food theory of change https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oSn8g-b-GlVku9g9TOKoVO0GvxSRSuCy/Living Justice https://livingjustice.earth/projects/

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.fi For more information about Calmer Farmer: www.calmerfarmer.org To 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 If 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/

We're teetering on the brink of ecosystem and cultural collapse.  How do we adapt and transform to the changing realities? 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  

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/profile https://www.youtube.com/@waymaking23 https://www.youtube.com/@DesirableUnknown https://www.facebook.com/TheBugMovie Thinking Small Book If 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/

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 If 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/

It occurs to me that we are now at an inflection point in the WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich and - notionally - Democratic) culture that has been so successful in destroying the ecosphere.  A significant number of us now see what has been obvious to a minority for some time: that the system is not broken - it is doing what it was always designed to do: which is to maintain power in the hands of a few white men.  What we know now, is that the system is not fit for purpose - IF that purpose is the survival of complex life on this planet, if it is the flourishing of the human and More-than-Human worlds in an indivisible web of life.  We need a new system - and this realisation has landed not with the people who solve their problems with violent insurrection (see Jan 6th 2021) but with people whose primary driving aim is to find ways to connect and consiliate, to create coherence with compassion, to find courage and confidence and creative curiosity.  And so this is our goal now - there is no point waiting for the side we favour to win in a broken system.    - We need a whole new system predicated on new and better values.    - We need to find our connectedness.   - At a bone-deep level, in the core of our tissues and the vast expanses of our individual and collective awareness, we need to remember our place in the Web of Life and work only from this.   - We need to start building something entirely different that does not rely on the structures of the broken system, even as it crumbles (or is dismantled) around us.  This is our challenge.  Facing it will require everything we've got, but the old system is a self-terminating algorithm and we can all see the route to chaos and extinction now.  If we're going to pull through and find that flourishing world we can bequeath with pride to future generations, nothing else matters now.  Nothing.  Find what's yours to do and do with all your heart.  Build imaginal islands with friends, colleagues and co-evolutionaries of the human and More than Human world.  Build narratives based on the heart-focused values that are our birth-right. Above all else, do whatever you can to connect to the More than Human world  - to the Web of Life  in all its awe-inspiring wonder, its majesty and beauty  - and ask 'What do you want of me?'   Listen to the answer, however it comes. And then do it.

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-P3dBiA The 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/

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/dogcc Candace 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 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/

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/US7EaCHR0Zs Other links of things we mentioned Planetary 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/b******t-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/

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

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 @tinyhousecommunitybristol Other 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.com https://www.agroecologicalurbanism.org/building-blocks https://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-policies Also maybe this for great examples of tiny homes around the world: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoNTMWgGuXtGPLv9UeJZwBw Also 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/

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

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.org Film: 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

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.

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. 

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=9781847941398 Miles Richardson 'Reconnection' https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/reconnection-fixing-our-broken-relationship-with-nature-miles-richardson/7335558?ean=9781784274856 Jenny Odell 'How to Do Nothing' https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/how-to-do-nothing-resisting-the-attention-economy-jenny-odell/3185527?ean=9781612198552 James A Pearson 'The Wilderness that Bears your Name' https://www.everand.com/book/725658458/The-Wilderness-That-Bears-Your-Name Manda Scott 'Any Human Power' https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/any-human-power-manda-scott/7637805?ean=9781914613562 Dan O'Neill et all 'Provisioning Systems' paper https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0959378020307184

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=vZw0HWM9n8I Guardian Article showing real progress - yay!  https://www.theguardian.com/law/article/2024/sep/09/pacific-islands-ecocide-crime-icc-proposal

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-apocalypse All 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/community Any Human Power Book Club Sunday 15th September 6-8pm UK time (BST) https://accidentalgods.life/any-human-power-discussion/

'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 - and now, ‘Mothering Economy’ is coming out at the end of this month (August), 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 let's do all we can to raise awareness by exploring the ideas deep in Jenny’s book and searching our own beings for ways to show up with stronger, clearer, more open hearts. In the meantime, please enjoy this wide, deep, thoughtful, caring, connecting conversation with Jenny Grettve, author of Mothering Economy. Jenny's book https://andthekiosk.com/products/mothering-economyJenny'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

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

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 that not only impact our biomes directly, but leach out into our waterways, soil and the air that we breathe so we end up adding to ecosphere annihilation.  Human health and the health of our planet are intimately interwoven and while we're all getting to grips with the need to keep our gut biomes (and those of the animals who share our lives) healthy, we're woefully behind on the need to look after the rest of our biome: skin, lungs, teeth, eyes, ears..  I listened to Joe Flanagan months ago on Viki French’s brilliant ‘PupTalk’ podcast and knew we needed to talk here, too. Joe is a font of information and this was a unique opportunity to explore ideas 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, we got to grips with the fact 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

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 website In 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/

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/

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/

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 Toksvig https://linktr.ee/toksvighttps://www.jenifertoksvig.com/ The Copenhagen Interpretationhttps://www.worldanvil.com/w/thecopenhageninterpretation Open Space Technology - Harrison OwenOriginal: https://openspaceworld.org/wp2/what-is/Original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_space_technology Our version: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/thecopenhageninterpretation/a/open-space-article Joseph Campbell - The Hero's Journey (aka 'arrow narrative')https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey Ursula 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/24443320 Navigator of Current See: Diana Finchhttps://www.dianafinch.info/ Navigator of Gathering: Ess Grange https://slgrange.com/ Navigator of Accompanying: Flo O'Mahony / ZooCo - Perfect Show For Rachelhttps://www.wearezooco.co.uk/shows/perfect-show-for-rachel Copenhagen Model: The Fairytale Libraryhttps://www.instagram.com/the_fairytale_library/ Copenhagen Model: The Broad Clothhttps://www.worldanvil.com/w/thebroadcloth The 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 island https://www.favli.no/ - this is Harald's company for renewable energy work elsewherehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ing%C3%B8y The 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/

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 Narrative Michael 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/

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 Resources Pre-Order Jenny's book here:   Waterstones Bookshop.org Amazon Jenny's websiteJenny on FacebookJenny on LinkedInJenny on TwitterJenny on Instagram The British Society for Ecological Medicine 

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 fourth election special, I have a profound conversation with Glen Weyl - economist, philosopher, film producer and visionary thought-leader for our time. We explore how we can break away from traditional governance structures and how spiritually acknowledging the complexity within each individual can pave the way for more inclusive, fluid, and efficient democratic systems. Glen is co-author with Audrey Tang of the ground-breaking book Plurality, which emerged partly 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. He introduces the concept of quadratic voting (of which he is the creator) as a significant innovation in this field. The conversation expands to the potential of technology in aiding governance reforms, and Glen shares insights from his work with the Plurality Institute and Radical Exchange. We also touch on the success of Taiwan’s innovative governance, influenced by Audrey Tang. Join us as we discuss creating experimental, adaptable governance systems aimed at ensuring peace and human flourishing in an ever-complex world.  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. 00:00 Introduction to Polarisation and Complexity01:04 Welcome to the Accidental Gods Podcast01:31 The State of Global Democracy02:15 Quadratic Voting and Governance02:51 Defining Governance in the 21st Century03:13 The Role of Peace in Governance04:36 Harnessing Human Diversity for Progress08:42 Challenges to Current Democratic Systems11:11 Expanding the Polity and Legal Innovations11:58 Lessons from Historical Societies13:42 Imagining Future Governance Systems19:42 Locality and Pluri-locality in Governance26:39 Metaphors and Toolkits for Governance27:33 Concrete Voting Designs28:55 Dynamic Voting Systems30:48 Quadratic Voting Explained35:06 Liquid Democracy and Emotional Literacy37:24 Taiwan's Unique Political Landscape41:27 Audrey Tang's Impact and Philosophy47:06 Glenn's Diverse Background and Vision54:43 Concluding Thoughts and Future Directions Glen's websiteThe Plurality InstituteRadicalxChange FoundationQuadratic voting explained PLURALITY - the book Audrey Tang on Twitter Trailer for film biopic about Audrey Tang: The Good Enough Ancestor Project Liberty Quadratic Voting - with Ruth Catlow in Episode #193

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 NationalPat's Blog - The Play Ethic www.theplayethic.com Ecological Civilisation Manda's novel Any Human Power 

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 Twitter Jeremy in Episode #95 Unite Community Membership Green Party ManifestoLiberal Democrat ManifestoLabour Party Manifesto Compass 'Win As One' vote swapping site Manda's novel - Any Human Power 

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

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 

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 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=DfbMMEIdg7PSNCwt Video channel with testimonials from previous camps - https://www.youtube.com/@NatureCultureNetwork Facebook event page - https://www.facebook.com/events/1338787930132432 Resource List  Connect with Deborah Deborah's website www.deborahbenham.com Deborah on Linked In  Deborah on Instagram - Nature’s Guide to Thriving  Websites Biomimicry 3.8 Biomimicry Institute Nature Culture Network - UK Living Connection 1st / 8 Shields Transition Network Bridport Co-Housing Events, Courses, Online materials Introducing Biomimicry to your community Biomimicry - Ask Nature  Learn Biomimicry Course Capra Course Gaia Education Nature Culture Connection Camp August 2024 Nature-Based Village Building (enquire directly to Deborah to join the prototype 2024 membership) Projects Bonn im Wandel  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru2pywGzsH0Liege Food Belt https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/jul/16/the-good-life-in-liege-the-start-of-a-food-revolution Research and Books Aldrich, Daniel -   social ties in disaster recovery  Bregman, Rutger (2021).  Humankind: A Hopeful History Macdonald, 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

Buy Manda's book here Our 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/

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/

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 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!  Permaculture Magazine https://www.permaculture.co.uk/subscribe/Manda's Website https://mandascott.co.uk

Join us on a deep dive into the transformative world of composting with Nicky Grady Scott, a master composter and educator whose expertise is revolutionizing our approach to waste and regenerative cycles. In this enlightening episode, Nicky shares his journey from a passionate 16-year-old working with compost to the establishment of community-led recycling projects that have evolved into thriving businesses. Discover the science and simplicity behind composting, the importance of soil health, and how we can all contribute to a flourishing future by turning our "wasted resources" into rich, living soil. Whether you live in a high-rise or have acres of land, Nicky's insights offer practical guidance on creating compost, understanding soil's water retention, and the alchemy of air, water, and fire in the composting process. Tune in to learn how you can be part of this global movement towards sustainability, food security, and job creation. Get ready to be inspired to transform your food scraps into a force for regenerative change! 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

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

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.com Rob 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=hdmr96gVFgw Rupert'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.2002.0023 Climate Majority Culture Peace Gathering https://climatemajorityproject.com/culture-peace-gathering/ Life Itself https://lifeitself.org/programs

We're told so often that people 'don't want the nanny state to intervene' in what we eat or drink or smoke - and often the people saying this are those who employ literal nannies to raise their children.  But is it true?  What would we learn if someone courageous, with vision, depth and care were to find ways to ask ordinary people what they really feel?  #TheFoodConversation is huge -  in scope and depth and duration - but more in terms of what it teaches us about how people actually feel, what they actually think, and the massive difference that we can make by helping ordinary people to understand more about how food could be healthy, nutritious and affordable -  as opposed to how it is now.  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)  

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.

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.com https://videos.theconference.se/jenny-grettve-feminist-economies https://www.howtolivehappilyonmars.com/home/small-cities-lead https://www.howtolivehappilyonmars.com/home/systems-thinking-on-a-beautiful-life

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 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/

"Consciousness creates MatterLanguage creates RealityRitual creates Relationship" - Oscar Mira-Quesada quoted by Nina Simons in podcast #218 Part 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. 

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/shop The 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/

“Respect is earned. Honesty is appreciated. Trust is gained. Loyalty is returned.” — Oscar Auliq Ice - quoted on Savimbo website In 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! Links Drea’s websiteSavimboDrea on Medium (on Carbon Credits and Blockchain) Shaman Gurl Johnson et al ‘Cultural Competency’ 

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 a watershed-scale project in Scotland 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 a growing planetary consciousness. It is an expression of practical realism embedded in a deep respect for all manifestations of life; past, present, human, more-than-human, the sacred and the machine. This economy seeks to move beyond the everyday codes of property, labour, capital and private contracts and break free from the constrictive dance of socio-political isms. It offers an unbounded understanding of agency, inviting the 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 critically includes machine and non-human systems, integrating them into the same expansive beyond-paradigm of inter-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 Samhällskontraktet Emily 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/

In this week's episode we delve into the intricate world of dung beetles and their critical role in regenerative farming with the passionate and knowledgeable Claire Whittle, the Regenerative Vet. Claire's journey from a conventional large animal practitioner to a fervent advocate for farming in harmony with nature is not only inspiring but also a testament to the profound impact one species can have on the environment. With her vivid and captivating storytelling, Claire brings to life the bustling ecosystem that thrives within a simple cowpat, highlighting the crucial work of dung beetles in nutrient cycling, reducing greenhouse gases, and supporting biodiversity. This conversation is a call to action for farmers, vets, and anyone interested in sustainable agriculture to reconsider the way we interact with the land and its inhabitants. Whether you're managing vast farmlands or nurturing a small garden, this episode is a treasure trove of insights on how we can all contribute to a healthier planet by stepping into our role as a positive keystone species. So, grab your headphones and prepare to be charmed by the unsung heroes of the pasture, as we explore the significance of these tiny earth-movers in shaping a regenerative future. 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/

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

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/

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/explorersclub Where 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/maggieostaraphd Susan Harper, Master Teacher of Continuum ContinuumMontage.com Where to find Maggie on Facebook Facebook.com/maggiesaleostara Where to find Maggie on Instagram Intstagram.com/SovereigntybyDesign

"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

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-3ef38d6e2cfa Rojava https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rojava_conflict

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=9781803414300 Confessions of an Economic Hitman Short Animated Version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYtb5zatgMg New Economics Foundation https://neweconomics.org/Positive Money https://positivemoney.org/ Reference books Less 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/

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.  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/

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 Dreaming Awake shamanic training (with Manda and her apprentice) https://dreamingawake.co.uk 

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 below and 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.mp3 Winter Solstice meditation - 22 minutes With Music https://media.transistor.fm/361287b3/6bad5f45.mp3 Winter Solstice Meditation: 22 minutes Without Music https://media.transistor.fm/e11c283a/d522798e.mp3 Winter Solstice Meditation: 27 minutes With Music https://media.transistor.fm/4c1945ed/1ab5c80a.mp3 Winter Solstice Meditation: 27 minutes Without Music https://media.transistor.fm/25cbf6e7/e9f16280.mp3

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 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. 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.mp3Summer Solstice Meditation with Birdsong With Birdsong https://chrt.fm/track/8F5463/media.transistor.fm/6f621f9a/7a43d63f.mp3Poem: The Invitation by Oriah Mountain DreamerTheory: 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 PodcastConversation: Beyond the Clock with Jenny Odell on the Upstream PodcastOrganization: California Doughnut Economics CoalitionRiversimple: Future Guardian Governance https://www.riversimple.com/governance/Planet Local Summit https://planet-local-summit.localfutures.org/about/Podcast: The way out is in: Grief and Joy on a Planet in Crisis: Joanna Macy on the Best Time To Be Alive (Episode #12)(https://plumvillage.org/podcast/grief-and-joy-on-a-planet-in-crisis-joanna-macy-on-the-best-time-to-be-alive-episode-12)Flourishing Futures Salon: https://www.ffsalons.comPre-order Any Human Power https://linktr.ee/anyhumanpower

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/

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/

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 mining Which 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

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-74349440076 Buy the Book here: https://www.beyondthebrinkbook.com/ Positive Nature Network https://www.positivenaturenetwork.co.uk/Vu Online https://vuonline.co.uk/Richard on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@richardwainpoet

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

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

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

We all know the climate and ecological tipping points are terrifyingly close. What can we do - as individuals and collectively?  Simon Oldridge has ideas that answer both of these.  Simon first joined us back in episode #182 when he joined his colleague Anthea Simmons and they spoke eloquently about the strategies of the South Devon Primary group which are aimed at raising one progressive candidate in borderline constituencies in the UK, so that the hard right doesn't swan through the middle on a minority of the votes because the anti-Tory vote has been split (again).  Getting progressive politicians into power is their primary aim, but they also want to make sure the candidates who become MPs understand the concerns of their constituents and are prepared to act as independent-minded individuals in the House of Commons, not simply lobby fodder.   So that was a fun and sparky conversation, but it seemed to me at the time that we could have delved down a lot more deeply into SImon's broader work to find politically viable ways to address the climate and ecological emergency, particularly his work with Zero Hour, the campaign for the Climate and Ecology Bill and which has produced a number of detailed and fascinating reports, including one about the Ambition Gap we have as we head for Net Zero and another entitled, 'Creating a Nature-Rich UK'.  Hence, we came back for another conversation  - because apart from anything else, it's so enlivening to talk with someone else who spends their entire life thinking about these things: and if I can't have fun on the podcast, what's the point?  I am well aware that many of you listening are not in the UK  - and that politics is a very siloed space: we all have our own rules to work within and our own levels of bureaucracy and kleptocracy masquerading as democracy that we're trying to reform.  So I hope that some of the ideas we explore, particularly the bigger ones of global power systems and routes to net zero and nature-based solutions strike home far outside the boundaries of this island.  And yes, I still have Covid, so I apologise in advance for the state of my voice.   Target Seats suitable for replicating South Devon Primary https://www.politicalprimary.org/target-map South 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_now CREDS - 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-study Climate and Ecology Bill:https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/2943Episode 182: South Devon Primary https://accidentalgods.life/primary-strategy-growing-a-new-voting-paradigm-in-the-south-devon-primary/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We all know that we need to reconnect to our HeartMinds and to bring our Heart Intelligence up to meet the explosion of left brain intelligence - we just don't know how to do it. This week's guest is one of my living heroes - who does have clear, grounded ideas of how to do this.  Dr Scilla Elworthy was thirteen years old when she saw the Soviet Invasion of Hungary on the television and understood the horror of what was happening. Her mother found her packing a case to go to Budapest to help and managed to persuade her to stay home by promising she'd help to train her to be what the world needed. When she was sixteen, she worked in a holiday camp for Auschwitz survivors, and sat peeling potatoes and listening to them talk of their suffering.  Since then, she has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with Oxford Research Group to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics. In 2003 Scilla founded Peace Direct, to work closely with locally-led peace building initiatives throughout the world, bringing us daily experience in how to help prevent violent conflict and build sustainable peace throughout the world. She has written numerous books, given numerous TED and TEDx talks and now leads The Business Plan for Peace to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of transforming destructive conflict. She was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003 and the Luxembourg Peace Prize in 2020. She is one of the clearest, most grounded thinkers I have ever met and she's working tirelessly to create the future we'd be proud to leave behind. I was more than a little star-struck, but this was a genuinely heart-felt conversation and I hope listening to it leaves you feeling as heart-connected as it did me.  The Mighty Heart https://mightyheart.co.uk/ The Mighty Heart in Business program: 18th October - 6th December 2023 https://thebusinessplanforpeace.org/the-mighty-heart-in-business/ TED Talk: Fighting with Non Violence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk3K_Vrve-ETEDx Talk: Dare to Question: Why are we so afraid of getting older https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6zenOjPC1ATEDx Talk: How do I deal with a bully without becoming a thug? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgWyolwBGgETEDx Talk: The Future Belongs to those who can see it  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWDl1PqGjqYTEDx Talk: Do something - OK, but how? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYlhHkLgBWATEDx Talk: The Business Plan for Peace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH1WgurH5FA Conversations in Compassion w Dr Scilla Elworthy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C5BMRDYzc8 Book: Pioneering the Possible https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/pioneering-the-possible-awakened-leadership-for-a-world-that-works-scilla-elworthy/3218709?ean=9781583948620Books: The Mighty Heart in Action and The Business Plan for Peace https://mightyheart.co.uk/media/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At the halfway point of the year, Manda looks back on what's been on the podcast, forward at (some of) what's to come, thoughts on where we're at as a world, and explores the books and podcasts that have stood out in the past six months.  Non fiction    A People’s Green New Deal by Max Ajl https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/a-people-s-green-new-deal-max-ajl/5731783?ean=9780745341750 Building Tomorrow by Paddy Le Fluffy https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Building-Tomorrow-by-Paddy-Le-Flufy/9781739345204 Spinning Out By Charlie Herzog Young https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Spinning-Out-by-Charlie-Hertzog-Young/9781804440315 Saying No to a Farm Free Future by Chris Smaje https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/saying-no-to-a-farm-free-future-the-case-for-an-ecological-food-system-and-against-manufactured-foods-chris-smaje/7448082?ean=9781915294166 Two Lights by James Roberts https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/two-lights-james-roberts/7366651?ean=9781912836178 Post-Capitalist Philanthropy: Healing Wealth in a time of collapse by Alnoor Ladha and Lynn Murphy: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Post-Capitalist-Philanthropy-by-Alnoor-Ladha-Lynn-Murphy/9798986531007   Fiction  Black Water Sister by Zen Cho https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/black-water-sister-zen-cho/6464196?ean=9781509800018 The Grief Nurse – Angie Spoto https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-grief-nurse-angie-spoto/7230526?ean=9781914518171 Now She is Witch by Kirsty Logan https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/now-she-is-witch-a-witch-story-unlike-any-other-from-the-author-of-the-gracekeepers-kirsty-logan/7387771?ean=9781529116113 Habitat Man by DA Baden https://www.dabaden.com/habitat-man/ The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-First-Fifteen-Lives-of-Harry-August-by-Claire-North/9780356502588 Frankie Boyle, Meantime https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/meantime-frankie-boyle/6521254?ean=9781399801157 Podcasts  Bankless Episode w Eliezer Yudkowsky https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/bankless/id1499409058?i=1000600575387 Planet Critical – particularly the episode w Alastair Campbell https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/planet-critical/id1545009586?i=1000615243292 David Bollier’s Frontiers of Commoning, particularly the episode with Alnoor Ladha and Lynn Murphy https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/frontiers-of-commoning-with-david-bollier/id1501085005?i=1000615201925 Your Undivided Attention https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/your-undivided-attention/id1460030305 The Great Simplification https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-great-simplification-with-nate-hagens/id1604218333

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

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

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

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

If you've listened to this podcast at all recently, you'll know that I'm in the editing phase of the new book - the phase where we 'carve it into tiny pieces, throw significant chunks of it in the recycling (because words are never wasted and text storage is basically free) and rebuild the rest into something shinier, sharper and generally more succinct.' And I'm telling you this because this week's guest is a fellow writer who knows what it's like to stare at a blank page until your forehead bleeds - but in this case, she's also an academic psychologist who has the data to back up the value of Thrutopian writing.  Dr Denise Baden is a Professor of Sustainable Practice at the University of Southampton, and she says, that 'working in sustainability and climate change, the more you know the scarier it is. Like the sun, you can’t look too closely at it, but face to one side, you make your way, because in fact, it’s easy to put everything right. All the solutions are right here, they just have to catch on. Walking lightly and mindfully upon the earth is so doable. I started writing as therapy, with green solutions as the main ingredient, stories to soothe my soul. Then my characters and their stories took over centre stage, leaving the green solutions to season the stew.' Denise is one of those people who sees a problem and starts creating real world solution. in 2018, she set up the series of free Green Stories writing competitions to inspire writers to create positive visions of what a sustainable society might look like, and to tell stories that showcase solutions, not just problems because her data show that's what we need. In the process she continued to research what works in terms of fiction and climate communication - as a result of which, she has written a novel, Habitat Man, and she compiled an anthology of short stories  called No More Fairy Tales: Stories to Save Our Planet. which she had ready by COP27 so there was a copy for every delegate to read. Magnificently, she is on the Forbes list of Climate Leaders: https://www.forbes.com/sites/solitairetownsend/2023/03/19/68-climate-leaders-changing-the-film-and-tv-industry/ Denise Website https://www.dabaden.com/Green Stories website https://www.greenstories.org.uk/  NEXT NOVEL PRIZE DEADLINE IS 26th JUNEDenise on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DABadenauthorDenise publications and academic record https://www.southampton.ac.uk/people/5wzjrb/professor-denise-badenSustainable HairCare project: https://ecohairandbeauty.com/Details of the project with Bafta and Albert  https://www.greenstories.org.uk/climatecharacters/ Key hashtags are #ClimateCHaracters and #HotOrNot. The survey is here (please go an complete it!)  bit.ly/433n71w The images were designed by  https://www.rubberrepublic.com/ (check out their website – the first and third especially are hilarious and the one about the old XR protestor is incredibly moving. Thrutopia website https://thrutopia.life Books mentioned by other authorsCarbon Diaries by Saci Lloyd https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4935015-the-carbon-diaries-2015The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-ministry-for-the-future-kim-stanley-robinson/2164043

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How can we begin to shift away from the old hierarchical dominance structures of our past 2,000 years, towards something where everyone brings the best of themselves and embraces and celebrates the best in other people? It was in hunting for answers to this, that I came across this week's guest: someone who is opening doors all round the world in the creation of a regenerative, emotionally literate future.   Zahra Davidson was Co-founder of and is now the Chief Executive and Design Director at Huddlecraft, an organisation that promotes and supports peer to peer learning. With a background spanning social entrepreneurship, service design, system change, sustainability and visual communication. she describes herself now as a purpose-led designer and strategist, working for a post-growth future for our finite planet.   As you'll hear, Zahra and Huddlecraft have evolved a system of peer to peer learning that absolutely helps those involved to grow the emotional literacy - to exercise their conceptual and psychological muscles - as a way of shifting our culture's centre of gravity in a more generative direction.  As part of this, she is Strategic Advisor to Money Movers (formerly called OwnIt), a movement designed to empower women to take Climate Action by moving their personal finances - and they are aiming to move £1billion by 2030.  She and Huddlecraft are also involved in the newly formed Collective Imagination Practice Community - and any of you who have listened to more than a couple of podcasts will know that I'm fairly firmly of the belief that if we're going to get to that flourishing future we'd be proud to leave behind, we'll need a massed act of collective re-imagining of our trajectory.  Huddlecraft https://www.huddlecraft.com/ Huddlecraft 'Huddles' (peer learning groups) currently open for sign-up https://www.huddlecraft.com/huddles Huddlecraft 101 training (learn to apply the power of peer-led approach) https://www.huddlecraft.com/101  Money Movers: women moving money for the planet https://www.wearemoneymovers.com/ Collective Imagination Practice Community https://medium.com/imagination-practice/collective-imagination-practice-community-2023-24-1c1405d33662 Joseph Rowntree Emerging Futures https://www.jrf.org.uk/blog/emerging-futures-update Doughnut Economics Action Lab https://doughnuteconomics.org/ CIVIC SQUARE https://civicsquare.cc/ Medium post on creating 'microclimates' for learning and change inside organisations https://medium.com/huddlecraft/how-can-we-create-microclimates-for-learning-and-change-inside-organisations-70aae0266d9d Medium post on creating a 'surge' of peer to peer learning over the next decade https://medium.com/huddlecraft/a-surge-of-peer-to-peer-learning-through-multiple-intertwining-movements-55a101b5db5a Zahra on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/zahra-davidson-84710920/ Huddlecraft on Twitter https://twitter.com/Huddlecraft Huddlecraft on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/huddle.craft/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Accidental Gods podcast exists to open doors and break down barriers, to bring forward the ideas and the actions of and give voice to the gloriously creative people who give their lives to the idea and realisation of a regenerative future.   In this wide-ranging conversation with Solutionist and film-maker, Nicola Peel, we learned of the horrors of oil spills in the Amazon and the ways fungi could clear them if only the oil companies would let the work begin. We explored the nature of regenerative farming in the global north and - particularly - in Ecuador where agro-forestry is rebuilding soil on land that had previously been devastated by beef farming - and how the polycultures might save the cacao industry. We contemplated death and burial, whether carbon offsetting can be useful, the concept of air as a global commons and how to integrate localism into the map of a flourishing future. At the end - as often happens - I stopped recording but we carried on speaking and it seemed that Nicola was saying things that definitely should have been in the podcast. So I hit record again. Twice. We've stitched those bits on at the end for you. BioNicola Peel is a Solutionist, environmentalist, film maker and host of the Solutions podcast. For over 20 years her work has been focussed on environmental solutions. As a filmmaker, she has made documentaries to raise awareness, built rainwater systems for those drinking contaminated water and brought together scientists to use fungi to clean up oil spills. She has built buildings made of thousands of plastic bottles filled with rubbish and taught agroforestry to regenerate the soil and prevent further deforestation of the Amazon. She believes that around the world, people are waking up to the climate and ecological breakdown we are facing. For many they think it is up to governments or big business or someone else to fix the problems and feel disempowered to be a part of the change themselves. Believing, too, that every one of us have different strengths and different areas of expertise, Nicola's focus is to identify the issues we face and see what opportunities and solutions there are to address these issues. Nicola's website https://www.nicolapeel.com/Nicola's Solutions podcast https://www.patreon.com/solutionistNicola's annual newsletter https://mailchi.mp/3bb712bfc940/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-solutionist-nicolas-news-and-views-2022Film 'Blood of the Amazon'  https://youtu.be/Y5b--eRsX9oFilm 'A Solution to Pollution' https://youtu.be/KO1WjFRL_XAResearch into Taro and its impacts https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5610413/taro-market-analysis-report-industry-size

Chris Smaje is a social scientist by training and a small-scale farmer by occupation. For the past 19 years, he has co-worked a small farm in Somerset, in southwest England.  Previously, he was a university-based social scientist, working in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surry and the Dept of Anthropology at Goldsmith's College. HIs focus was aspects of social policy, social identities and the environment. Since switching focus to the practice and politics of agro-ecology, he's written for various publications, such as The Land, Dark Mountain and Permaculture Magazine, as well as academic journals such as Agroecology and Sustainable Food systems. He blogs at Small Farm Futures and has previously been a director of the Ecological Land Co-op.  His latest book, A Small Farm Future, forms the basis of this conversation - in it, he lays out Ten Crises of our times, which, put together, create the Wicked Problem of this moment in history. From there, the remaining three parts of the book explore the ways in which rural localism can offer a way for humanity to see itself through the numerous crises we currently face both in the richer and poorer countries. In the podcast, we take the book as our starting point (really, you should read it) and look less at the why, of rural localism and more at the ways it might happen and how it might work.   We delve into the ways humanity has organised in the past (with deep passing references to Graeber and Wengrow's brilliant book, The Dawn of Everything') and how we might self-organise in the future.  We look at the future of energy, at our conceptions of prosperity, the ways small farms can feed the world - and the absolute insanity of the 'precision fermentation' model of feeding eight billion people while enabling them to flourish free of corporate capture.  Chris's blog https://smallfarmfuture.org.uk/Chris's book https://uk.bookshop.org/books/a-small-farm-future-making-the-case-for-a-society-built-around-local-economies-self-provisioning-agricultural-diversity-and-a/9781603589024Chris's response to Monbiot's Regenesis https://smallfarmfuture.org.uk/?p=1978Article on The Land updating the book https://www.thelandmagazine.org.uk/articles/commons-and-households-small-farm-futureChris on Twitter https://twitter.com/csmajeGraeber and Wengrow - The Dawn of Everything https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-dawn-of-everything-a-new-history-of-humanity/9780141991061Simon Michaux https://www.simonmichaux.com/Rebecca Solnit - A Paradise Built in Hell http://www.rebeccasolnit.net/book/a-paradise-built-in-hell/What your food Qte https://uk.bookshop.org/books/what-your-food-ate-how-to-heal-our-land-and-reclaim-our-health/9781324004530The Agricultural Dilemma https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-agricultural-dilemma-how-not-to-feed-the-world/9781032260457

Jo Chidley is one of those forces of nature, unconstrained by the way things are usually done.  As the co-founders of Beauty Kitchen, she and her partner refused venture capital, keeping their business free to become a B-Corp and to put people and planet ahead of profit.  She's dedicated to producing the best outcome for the people who work for her as well as for the people who buy her products.  And in the process of finding the best ways forward, she came across the horror of single use packaging and the devastation it's causing both in terms of the extraction and the post-use pollution.  So Jo founded 'Re' to find ways to bring 'reuse' back into the 'reduce, reuse, recycle' triad. Now, she's invited to Davos to speak about the way this could transform the vast global packaging industry. So in this week's podcast, we talked about why this is essential to transforming our world, and how it could work.  Jo has ideas that seem (and are) innovative now, but ten years from now, will be the way things are done. With enthusiasm, integrity and a great deal of humour, she offers solutions to the meta-crisis that rely on each one of us changing behaviour - and she's devoting her life to making it possible - indeed inevitable - that we do. Bio: Jo Chidley is a circular economy expert, chemist, herbal botanist, and co-founder of Beauty Kitchen and Re.  Founded in 2014, Beauty Kitchen is the highest scoring B Corp in the UK beauty industry and it's changing the face of the beauty industry with its aim to create the most effective, natural, and sustainable beauty products in the world. Jo went on to found Re, a company devoted to reducing the mountains of waste from our global $1tr annual single use packaging industry.  As one of the pioneers of sustainable beauty, Jo and her company have accelerated the transition to Reuse through sustainable innovation by implementing Cradle to Cradle design into Beauty Kitchen’s circular approach. Jo's been instrumental in developing the world’s first closed-loop solution for beauty packaging and powered the service behind the ground-breaking Re programme which is resuable packaging for personal care brands & retailers. Beauty Kitchen is recognised on the UK’s 50 Most Disruptive Companies list and has won numerous industry awards, including ‘Who’s Who in Natural Beauty’. Jo has won multiple industry awards, including the Natwest Everywoman Award in the Brand of the Future Category and was recognised as one of the 10 most influential people in Natural Beauty in the UK. She’s been featured in the likes of ELLE, Woman & Home magazine and BBC News and is a founding member of the Global Advisory Board for Sustainable & Natural Cosmetics. Jo was voted Nr 2 in the 2018 Who’s Who of Natural Beauty. The Beauty Kitchen https://beautykitchen.co.uk/Re https://www.rereworld.com/Jo on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/jochidley/wet uplink https://uplink.weforum.org/uplink/s/The Ethical Consumer https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/

Rob Percival is a writer, campaigner and food policy expert with The Soil Association. His commentary on food and farming has featured in the national press and on prime time television, and his writing has been shortlisted for the Guardian’s International Development Journalism Prize and the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s Food Sustainability Media Award. He works as Head of Food Policy for the Soil Association. The Meat Paradox is his first book, and goodness, it's been a world changer - since its hardback publication, Rob's become a global superstar: invited to speak to groups across the spectrum of industry and culture about the nature of our relationship with the food that we eat. We left our first conversation each feeling that we'd just begun to scrape the surface of possibility and it would be good to talk again. We had scheduled another podcast for later this year, but I saw that the book had just come out in paperback and that coincided with our having a total technological crash in this week's interview. So Rob really kindly agreed to fill in at super short notice so that we could talk more about life and death and food and the nature of the meta-crisis. There's so much to this that really cuts to the core of who we are and where we're heading as a species, and we ended - again, feeling that there was more to say. But in the meantime, we explored the nature of the food system, the concept of precision fermentation, what makes 'whole' foods and how we might feed the world without industrial agriculture.  Rob gave his one big suggestion for moving things forward - stop eating chicken. At the end, we opened another huge topic and began to explore the nature of death, and who our fear of the unknown leads us to denial of the meta-crisis and, in the end, denial of death itself. So we'll be back when Rob's next book comes out, but in the meantime, here are more thoughts on the social, political, practical and moral aspects of how we take in the building blocks of life.  Radio 4 Book of the Week https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001hf27Rob's website https://rob-percival.com/about/The Meat Paradox in paperback https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-meat-paradox-brilliantly-provocative-original-electrifying-bee-wilson-financial-times/9780349144573Rob on Twitter https://twitter.com/Rob_Percival_Previous Episode https://accidentalgods.life/the-meat-paradox/Green Alliance https://green-alliance.org.uk/GA Report  https://green-alliance.org.uk/publication/shaping-uk-land-use-priorities-for-food-nature-and-climate/ Bionutrient Food Association https://www.bionutrient.org/Global Governance Futures podcast that refers to how we cope (or don't) with the inevitability of our own mortality https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/global-governance-futures-imperfect-utopias-or-bust/id1548522280?i=1000590656384