What Can We Do In These Powerful Times? (David Bent)
Explore every episode of What Can We Do In These Powerful Times?
| Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 May 2022 | Trailer for 'what can we do in these powerful times?' | 00:10:41 | |
Hello! Here is the trailer for my new interview series 'what can we do in these powerful times?'. Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 21 May 2022 | 1. Ed Gillespie | 00:30:27 | |
First interview with Ed Gillespie -- "father, inspirational keynote speaker and futurist". Also, co-presenter of The Great Humbling and John Richardson and the Futurenauts, director of Greenpeace UK, a facilitator with The Forward Institute, and involved with 12 or so. different, ethical environmental startup businesses -- or, as he puts it: facilitation, activism, and investment in businesses which might help shape a better future). Links Timings 0:32 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 10:45 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 18:27 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 23:26 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 25:23 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 27:27 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 28:13 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Transcript - here Themes -A creeping, nagging doubt that the successful sustainability consultancy was actually in defence of the status quo, despite public protestations to the contrary. -Life experience of grief leading into embracing a far more profound sense of uncertainty and being more comfortable with that. -Resting in uncertainty have the emergence of three strands of work (facilitator, activist, investor) -Tension between improving the current and improving the next (which will eventually replace the current). -Tired of urgent pragmatism that says there is no time for moral awakenings. -Let's explore all the different possible futures, rather than we should definitely had an only this one direction. -Every single thing that we've been told was a brilliant idea in hindsight was essentially resisted as being unworkable, impractical, unaffordable, impossible. beforehand. -Working hypothesis that there's gonna be more radicalization, as the circumstances become more clear. -Priority: stretching people's imaginations on what's possible. -Priority: Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 21 May 2022 | 2. Simon Hampel | 00:29:22 | |
Simon Hampel is founder of SARSEN, which exists to 'greater connection, balance and harmony with ourselves and the world around us'. This interview was recorded in December 2021 (so before some big things like Ukraine). Key quote: "How can we wake up, grow up, and clean up in order to show up?" Links LeadersQuest "grows wise leaders for a regenerative future -- now". "Between stimulus and response there is space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." Often attributed to Victor Frankl (but there is doubt -- see here). "[Leaders with 21st century competences] do not reduce such problems to the scale of the tools available to them...In a disciplined yet engaging way they are always pushing boundaries, including their own. They dance at the edge." O'Hara and Leicester. Dancing at the Edge. Triarchy Press -- here Calm app -- mission: to make the world happier and healthier. Thomas Hubl - "a renowned teacher, author, and international facilitator whose lifelong work integrates the core insights of the great wisdom traditions and mysticism with the discoveries of science." Timings 01:09 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 16:25 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 19:19 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 22:05 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 23:48 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 26:59 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 27:53 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Transcript Themes -How does consciousness energy and technology come together to create tipping points for changing the world? -How can we help, grow, expand our individual and collective consciousness? Because we cannot solve today's problems with the same thinking that generated them. -Experiences that help connect ourselves back to who we are, with each other and with the world, in order to expand people's consciousness. -Describing important qualities which are dismissed as 'fluffy' in the mainstream (like 'consciousness') in ways that people can hear starting to where they are. -Complexity is simplicity in the right-sized vessel. How do we expand our vessel to cope with the world around us. -Experienced that life is emergent, if we trust it. -With an expended sense of self and opportunity has meant being more interested in going to a place of service and contribution. -Priority: reaching 100 million people, expanding their consciousness and so acting differently acting in whatever makes. -What can you practice every day that the more you do the better you get and the more expanded you are from it? -Have a greater curiosity, and a few other interests or people who are different. -Have an on-going efforts which a Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 01 Jun 2022 | 3. Jon Alexander | 00:31:56 | |
Jon Alexander is an advertising executive turned social entrepreneur and writer. In 2014, Iheco-founded the New Citizenship Project with the mission: 'what if we saw people as citizens, not consumers?'. He has brought his experiences and insights together in a new book 'Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us'. This interview was recorded on 13 Jan 2022, just before the book was released. As I type, Jon is on a book tour. You can buy the book directly from the publisher Canbury Press here (unfortunately, the discount Jon mentions right at the end is no longer valid) or all good bookstores. There is two uses of f*ck ('people are f*cking good!'). Links New Citizenship Project and key document This is The #CitizenShift. Estimate that most Americans are exposed to around 4,000-10,000 ads each day is here. More on the Value Action Gap. Orit Gal's Social Acupuncture. Amartya Sen's thesis is democracies prevent famines but not chronic malnourishment. Timings 1:09 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 10:30 EXTRA QUESTION: What are the strongest good faith arguments against your thesis and how do respond to them? 17:48 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 20:46 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 27:55 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 30:00 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 30:36 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 31:09 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say?
-What would it look like to put as much energy that we put into consumers, into giving people agency as citizens. -The diagnosis I'm offering is that feeling of powerlessness comes from the story that has shaped our society for the last 80 years or so is it is collapsing around us. -But in that moment, the emergence of the idea of 'citizens', that we can arrange society around the idea that 'all of us are smarter than any of us', rather than the idea of 'we should always pursue self-interest'. -How can we open up the institutions and organisations of our society to get in behind people and support the fundamental power they are trying to express? -How can you put yourself in service of the people, be an organiser not just a transaction? -The idea of consumerism is it's essentially a kind of species level of self-hatred. We are telling ourselves that we are lazy and selfish. It's the respo Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 07 Jun 2022 | 4. Ian Christie | 00:38:02 | |
Ian Christie is Senior Lecturer in the Social Science of Sustainable Development at the Centre for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Surrey and with many associations in academia and the think tank world, not least the Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity ('CUSP') and the New Economics Foundation ('NEF'). This conversation took place in early January 2022, soon after the climate negotiations of COP26 but before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It goes for almost 40 minutes because of the richness of Ian's contributions, especially on the role of democracy and the need for post-growth. Links Surrey Climate Commission: "Our aim is to provide an independent and authoritative voice to all organisations in Surrey, whether they be private, or public sector or other, helping them contribute to the County reaching its necessary climate target, to avoid the damaging effects of runaway climate change." Post-Growth is also a book by one of Ian's colleagues, Prof Tim Jackson. Perspectiva: "a community of expert generalists working on an urgent one hundred year project to improve the relationships between systems, souls and society in theory and practice" Timings 1:19 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? For the themes, follow this link. Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 07 Jun 2022 | 5. Anna Birney | 00:20:38 | |
Dr Anna Birney (LinkedIn, Medium, Twitter) is Director of School of System Change and Global Director of Systems Change Learning at Forum for the Future. Key quote: "If we teach system practices, we create the conditions for which society can continually address the challenges that it faces, then we can actually work with the world as it is at the moment." Links The conversation uses the word 'systems' a lot. Here is a Medium post from Anna on systems practices which includes: "A system might be defined as a collection of interacting parts organised as a whole to do something." Timings 1:00 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 20 Jun 2022 | 6. Rowan Conway | 00:43:47 | |
Rowan Conway (LinkedIn, Twitter, UCL) is Visiting Professor of Strategic Design at UCL’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP). Between 2019-2022 she worked with Professor Mariana Mazzucato to lead the Mission Oriented Innovation Network (MOIN) at IIPP, convening global policy-making institutions in a range of exploratory design projects focused on mission-oriented innovation and public value creation. Rowan was Director of Innovation at the Royal Society of Arts, and part of the Design Team for London 2012 Olympic Park. She is a doctoral candidate at IIPP. A very rich conversation, and so goes to 44 minutes. There is some small swearing (one use of b*ll*cks). Apologies for both! Two key quotes (of many): Links -Elinor Ostrom on wikipedia here. Timings 0:52 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 24 Jun 2022 | 7. Margaret Hannah | 00:30:43 | |
Margaret Hannah (LinkedIn, Twitter) is Director of Health Programmes of International Futures Forum (IFF). We spoke in early February, before Russia invaded Ukraine. Our conversations covers public health, especially its psychological and social determinants, planetary health, and creating a different kind of human being to address the poly-crises. How can we have a population of all who have the human skills of real learning, turning epiphanies into next steps so that society can adapt to challenges they are facing? I know Margaret through IFF. In our conversation she mentions various tools they have created, all of which are linked to below. Links Kitbag "creates a space to become calm, share feelings and grow quality relationships". 'The Body Keeps The Score' (A phrase Margaret uses at 3:09) is the title of an excellent book (Wikipedia) by Bessel van der Kolk on the effects of psychological trauma, also known as traumatic stress. "The COVID-19 pandemic has starkly exposed how these existing inequalities - and the interconnections between them such as race, gender or geography, are associated with an increased risk of becoming ill with a disease such as COVID-19." Local Government Association The Black Report on health inequalities in 1980 (mentioned by at about 6:05). Three Horizons model is explained on the IFF website here. The key book is Bill Sharpe's 'Three Horizons: The Patterning of Hope', which I summarise and review here. Planetary Health Alliance is "a consortium of over 300 universities, non-governmental organizations, research institutes, and government entities from around the world committed to understanding and addressing global environmental change and its health impacts." Tagline: Our Health Depends on Our Environment. IFF Persons of Tomorrow Breakfasts explained here. Charter of Compassion has a vision of "A world where everyone is committed to living by the principle of compassion." Timings 0:55 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 9:11 -- BONUS QUESTION: What is Kitbag? 18:50 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 24:52 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 27:21 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 28:30 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 29:4 Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 04 Jul 2022 | 8. Denise Young | 00:27:43 | |
Denise Young (also LinkedIn, Twitter) is a writer & sustainability communications consultant. She has a background in financial journalism, which she applies in her green finance & net zero newsletter The Zeroist. Based in France, Denise grew up in Hong Kong with a mother from Shanghai and a father from Sydney. Thanks to this multicultural background, plus a career as a foreign correspondent, public relations expert and strategic science communicator in Asia, Europe and the U.S., Denise feels freed from having a singular worldview, and powers her ability to connect dots in unexpected ways. A big theme of our conversation was care: "I think my message is about care. If we care for ourselves, we can care for each other. If we care for each other, then we can care for the things that around us that we want to leave for future generations." How can we live in a way that we bring the intention of care to everything we do, whether it's big or small, short- or long-term? The intention: of care and very specific attention to the particular need in that particular moment; of people listening to each other more; of not being in such a hurry; of not kind of filling up life with lots of tasks and to do lists and making that a proxy for life itself. We recorded the interview on 4 March 2022. Links International Council for Science IPCC -Working Group 1: physical science latest -Working Group 2: adaptation latest -Working Group 3: mitigation latest "Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish - too much handling will spoil it." Lao Tzu here (26: 20) Senegalise writer who won the Prix Goncourt: Mohamed Mbougar Sarr. 0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 06 Jul 2022 | 9. Julia Steinberger | 00:31:53 | |
Prof Julia Steinberger (Twitter, Wikipedia) is Professor of Professor of Societal Challenges of Climate Change at the University of Lausanne. Her research examines the connections between resource use (energy and materials, greenhouse gas emissions) and societal performance (economic activity and human wellbeing), and she was a Lead Author for the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report with Working Group 3 on mitigation. Her research on ‘Living Well Within Limits’ shows it is entirely possible just extremely unlikely. Everyone can have decent living standards but only if there is equality. Recorded: 4 March 2022. Links Living Well Within Limits (LiLi). 'Decent Living Conditions' (4:50) -- Rao, N.D., Min, J. Decent Living Standards: Material Prerequisites for Human Wellbeing. Soc Indic Res 138, 225–244 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1650-0 'Fair' inequality, consumption and climate mitigation, Joel Millward-Hopkins and Yannick Oswald 2021 Environ. Res. Lett. 16 034007 IPCC Working Group 2: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability here "It has been said that the United Nations was not created in order to bring us to heaven, but in order to save us from hell" UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, 1954 here UK Citizens Assembly on the path to Net Zero here. Wikipedia entry on the French Citizens Convention for Climate here. Geographic experiments in ways of taking control of economic parts of their lives: Big Local; New Constellations; Participatory City. Timings 0:55 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 4:05 - BONUS QUESTION: Is it possible to live well within limits? 6:25- BONUS QUESTION: for everyone to reach a decent living standard, is it necessary to have equality (or, do we need to take away the billionaire yatchs)? 10:22 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 21:09 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 26:15 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 29:00 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 10 Jul 2022 | 10. Mario Boccucci | 00:37:51 | |
Mario Boccucci (LinkedIn,) is Head of Programme Secretariat at the UN-REDD Programme. "The United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD) is the UN knowledge and advisory platform on the forest solutions to the climate crisis." We recorded on Wed 9 Mar, 2022. You will hear that Mario has an unrivalled passion for unprecedented task of reversing forestation urgently, and for the work of dialogue and connecting that he sees as vital to discovering solutions and driving systems change. Links Paris Agreement on Cliamte Change -- wikipedia. Environmental Kuznets Curve (~10:0) explained on Wikiepdia. Paul Ekins' book - 'Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability: The Prospects for Green Growth' - has a chapter challenging the Environmental Kuznets Curve, which is a separate journal paper here. (Paul will be the interviewee in episode 16.) Timings 1:05 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 7:01 - BONUS QUESTION: How do you keep on having that kind of passion in the face of what seems like overwhelming odds on something which is so very important? 17:28 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 23:00 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 28:58 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 34:13 Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 36: 00 - Q6. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 18 Jul 2022 | 11. Susan Harrison | 00:31:34 | |
Susan Harrison works with individuals and organisations to express themselves more fully as living systems (LinkedIn, Twitter). She held a number of senior NHS positions (including Head of Health and Homelessness across London) before retiring. As you will hear, she now applies her skills in various voluntary and consulting roles, mainly to the NHS and civil society. Timings 0:45 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there?
Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 18 Jul 2022 | 12. Julie Blane | 00:29:35 | |
Julie Blane has a range of activities in impact investing professional focussing on integrating ESG into venture capital (LinkedIn). We speak on the strengths, and weaknesses, of impact investing, ESG and Venture Capital. Plus, If you are a lifelong learner, going into a new career is daunting, exciting, scary, thrilling, exhausting, and invigorating, and a whole bunch more. But it's never too late to restart and never too late to reinvent. For clarity, I have been a tutor on the sustainable finance online short course offered by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). That does not make me a Cambridge Professor (Julie had got the wrong end of the stick in an earlier conversation). We recorded this interview on 10 March 2022. Links 'ESG' - stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. More here. Sloan Fellowship at London Business School Different phases of start up funding (pre-seed, seed, Series A etc) mentioned at 5:42, are explained here. The 100-year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity by Lynda Gratton & Andrew Scott. Timings 0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 14:35 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 21:30 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 25:36 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 27:53 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 28:44 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 18 Jul 2022 | Matthew Jackson | 00:45:27 | |
Matthew Jackson is serial entrepreneur from Aotearoa New Zealand (LinkedIn, Twitter, Personal Website). He is currently Founder and Commercial Director of Alimentary Systems, "a circular way to treat multiple & seasonal organic waste streams, that creates renewable energy. With an positive economic payback in 8 years." Matthew and I are both Edmund Hillary Fellows ('EHF'), a network for incubating solutions to global problems from Aotearoa New Zealand. Matthew starts with his Pepeha, "a way of introducing yourself in Māori. It tells people who you are by sharing your connections with the people and places that are important to you." Matthew gives his at 1:23 and explains a little more at 1:37. There's a deep background on why a non-Māori (or 'Pākehā') Kiwi like Matthew wants to give a Māori introduction. The short version is that many in Aotearoa New Zealand are trying to engage with the history of how the British entered the country. Key in this is a founding agreement, the Treaty of Waitangi, which has Māori and Pākehā in partnership. While for a longtime the Treaty was ignored, there has been a shift in recent times back towards partnership, or 'biculturalism'. Speaking your Pepeha at the start of a conversation is a way of supporting a bicultural nation, and addressing the colonial past. Themes of our conversation: -Respectfully having a relationship with indigenous knowledge, and using that wisely for a better world. -We are in a profound crisis because of how we have treated the natural world, which is deeply interrelated to how we treat each other, especially colonialism. -Accessing our common humanity through being vulnerable with each other is part of the way forward. We spoke at the end of March 2022. I had just had a period of illness, where I had lost 3kg in 3 days. This gets a small reference at 9:10. (Don't worry, it was a passing food poisoning and I soon put that weight back on!) Links Kaitiakitanga -- 'guardianship' here Te Awa Tupua -- mentioned at 14:30, it recognises "the special relationship between the Whanganui River and Whanganui iwi. It also provided for the river’s long-term protection and restoration by making it a person in the eyes of the law." Timings 0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 15:38 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 34:29 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 41:24 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 42:50 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 18 Jul 2022 | Martin Wright | 00:36:33 | |
Martin Wright is a writer, editor, speaker, enthusiast, focused on stories of a hopeful future (Twitter, Keynote speech at 2018 Global Good Awards). He is currently chair of Positive News, "the magazine for good journalism about the good things that are happening:. I got to know Martin when I was working for Forum for the Future, and he was editor of Forum's magazine, Green Futures (now discontinued). Key theme: "It is important to infuse people that it is possible that the future can be brighter than it is today. And that they have agency, they have the skills, the energy to make it to make that happen." We recorded this in late March 2022 (about 4 weeks after the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine). There is a little bit of swearing (one use each of f*cked, sh*t and b*gger). Links Forum for the Future in India (note: a while ago. I had Senior Management Team responsibility for Forum in India, and so was, briefly, Martin's line manager). Academy of Ideas "Free Minds for a Free Society". Martin enjoys speaking to them to get outside the environmental bubble. While I think that is is an important thing to do, I worry whether this particular organisation's contrarian stance is in good faith (see, for instance, this LRB article). Martin says the government is ahead of the public on climate change. Subsequent polling shows it might be the other way round, for instance here, 76 per cent of Conservative voters thought “the UK should try as hard as possible to be a global leader in getting to net zero and develop new green industries and jobs, even if it is more expensive”. Ashden Awards here. (Full disclosure, in 2017 I worked with Ashden on its strategy.) At 29 minutes, I was wrong that renewable energy is 5 times cheaper than gas. The latest figures are 9 times cheaper. Timings 0:51 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 06:06 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 10:29 - BONUS QUESTION: Where do you place the responsibility for the perception of a doomsday environmental narrative? 21:04 - BONUS QUESTION: Given we have agency to make a better future, what could we be using our agency for? 29:23 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 32:47 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 34:20 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 35:22 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 35:22 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say?
Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 18 Jul 2022 | 15. Rebecca Willis | 00:35:22 | |
Rebecca Willis is a a researcher with twenty years’ experience in environment and sustainability policy and practice, at international, national and local level. She is Professor in Energy and Climate Governance at Lancaster University (uni profile, personal website, Twitter). Her research group is Climate Citizens, which aims to "change how people engage with the creation of climate policy. We want to transform climate policy from something that happens to people, to something that happens with people." Theme: crafting a proper negotiated social contract between people in the state around climate, through experiments, action and advice. THere's something for everyone to do in that, from being an activist, voting through to talking with your neighbours. Links Sustainable Development Commission Rebecca's book "Too Hot to Handle? The Democratic Challenge of Cliamte Change" (Highly recommended!) UK Government 'British energy security strategy' UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres "the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels." Timings 0:49 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 3:08 - BONUS QUESTION: Why do a doctorate? 5:21 - BONUS QUESTION: What were your findings on how MPs understand and act on climate change, and what can be done about that? 7:56 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 10:03 - BONUS QUESTION: Are there illustrations or hotspots of activity in the renegotiation of the social contract between people and the state on climate? 14:31 - BONUS QUESTION: Is the pathological aversion to engaging people on climate regardless of political stripe (and embedded in the mechanics of the state) or is it a feature of ideology, of wanting a small state where markets deliver all the solutions? 19:49 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 28:06 - BONUS QUESTION: Are the things which you find yourself shying away from how do you how do you use that academic place, but also keep on retaining the authority that comes with it? 30:10 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 32:45 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 33:58 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 18 Jul 2022 | 16. Paul Ekins | 00:31:46 | |
Prof Paul Ekins is Professor of Resources and Environment Policy at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources within the Bartlett School Environment, Energy & Resources, Faculty of the Built Environment (UCL page, Google Scholar, Wikipedia page). His work focuses on the conditions and policies for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy, and he is an authority on a number of areas of energy-environment-economy interaction and environmental policy. Paul was a co-founder of Forum for the Future in 1996 (along with Jonathon Porritt and Sara Parkin). That is how we got to know each other, though he left Forum in 2002, and I joined in 2003. Paul has rich things to say on how he shifted from being a professional classical singer to environmental campaigner, to a world-leading academic on the environment-economy nexus. He touches on why he believes we need economic growth, and why hope is better than optimism. For him, "every tonne counts" is a better slogan than "1.5C, still alive". We recorded this on 20 April 2022. Links The book of Paul's doctoral research: "Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability: The Prospects for Green Growth". UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres "the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels." Wikipedia article explaining weak and strong sustainability (Paul mentions at about 09:40). Wikipedia article explaining Planetary Boundaries. Strong Environmental Sustainability Index on UCL website (mentioned at 10:15). UNEP's International Resource Panel 'Longue duree' on wikipedia. Timings 0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 06:41 Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 09:13 - BONUS QUESTION: What would a sustainable world mean for you? 15:50 - BONUS QUESTION: Where do you disagree with those who say that economic growth is bad? 21:03 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 23:56 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 26:01 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 28:52 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? 29:06 - BONUS QUESTION: Are you optimistic? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 15 Sep 2022 | 17. Iris Andrews | 00:36:19 | |
Iris Andrews is a co-creator of New Constellations, which exist to help people imagine and create better, more beautiful futures (Twitter, LinkedIn). Her background is over 15 years in the climate movement, for instance at Greenpeace and Purpose, plus a decade's yoga teaching and creating Nature Enquiries at the Quadrangle Trust, which will help people explore their relationship with nature. Iris expresses her passion about giving people back a sense of agency and, and a feeling that they can build and shape their own futures. She stalks about how, in her 20s, she thought that she had to shut down her creativity to be effective in creating change, but now has believes that, at its best, art is the most powerful tool in the tookbox. She feels privileged to be bringing her different personas (the 'alpha' operator and the artist) together in New Constellations. Links Nature Enquiries at the Quadrangle Trust, which will help people explore their relationship with nature. Summaries fo the latest IPCC reports on Carbon Brief: WG1: the physical science, WG2: impacts, WG3: mitigation. Iris mentions wayfinding. A friend of mine (not mentioned by Iris) has an approach of wayfinding that draws from her Samoan heritage. More on New Constellations work in Barrow and Sheffield. Timings 0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 15:13- Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 18:00 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 27:42 Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 30:45 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 32:17 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 15 Sep 2022 | David Nabarro | 00:33:34 | |
David Nabarro is Strategic Director of 4SD, which enables changemakers to be effective for equity, justice and regenerative futures in a complex, fast-changing world (Wikipedia, Twitter). David was a practicing medical doctor and then went into a very distinguished career in international civil service. He was the UN Secretary General's Special Adviser on Sustainable Development and Climate Change in the mid-2010s, and was part of negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals. He has a long association with the World Health Organisation, most recently as Special Envoy on COVID-19. (In the UK, if you listened to the Today Programme during the pandemic, then you almost certainly heard several interviews with David.) The main focus of the conversation was creating national and global systems change through bringing people together, often people with conflicts and different values. For David, the process of coming to a story that means something to us all on an issue is almost the most powerful part of the kind of leadership. In this podcast, David was speaking in a personal capacity. We recorded it on 6 May 2022. David, rightly, tells me off at 25:49 for attributing an approach to him but not letting him respond. Oops. Listen right to the end for a moment which is both very English and very un-English moment in the expression of emotion. Links 2021 UN Food Systems Summit and 4SD's Food Systems Summit Dialogues. What 4SD means by systems leadership. More on Nobel Prize winner Malala here. Presencing Institute is now the u-school for transformation with Otto Scharmer. Timings 00:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 19:59 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 23:11 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 27:40 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 30:22 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 31:52 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 15 Sep 2022 | Maggie Dugan | 00:28:57 | |
Maggie Dugan (Linkedin) is Founder and Lead Facilitator at Inclusive Innovation, who "foster creative collaboration for sustainable development". Maggie has a history in creativity, whether in radio, writing or innovation. Our focus: how Inclusive Innovation is hacking the SDGs, using a creative process with a strong track record to bring people together in ways that come up with solutions. All create a world which is more collaborative. Nugget: Maggie promised herself when she graduated that she would quit her job at 30 and move back to Europe. She did, and that was pivotal in changing how she looked at who she was and what she did. We spoke on 9 May 2022. Links More on Inclusive Innovation's Impact Labs. Inclusive Innovation is the daughter company of Know Innovation, which specialises in accelerating scientific innovation. The Creative Problem-Solving Model in overview here (clarify, ideate, develop, implement). Centre for Applied Imagination, Buffalo State, The State University of New York. The charity I chair is EIRIS Foundation, with the new-ish mission of 'pioneering the next steps for sustainable finance'. Toastmasters, to improve public speaking. Timings 0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 7:00 - BONUS QUESTION: What is the secret sauce of the Inclusive Innovation method which leads to results? 11:20 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 15:05 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? BONUS QUESTION: For the Impact Labs method, do you have a sense of those boundaries of what it's most suited to and least suited to? 21:07 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 22:23 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 23:24 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 24:16 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 15 Sep 2022 | Paul van Zyl | 00:32:14 | |
Paul van Zyl served as the Executive Secretary of South Africa’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission . Paul also co-founded the International Centre for Transitional Justice, an organization that works in over 40 countries that have endured massive human rights violations under repression conflict. Most recently, Paul co-founded The Conduit, which serves as a home for those committed to improving the world by harnessing the power of creativity and entrepreneurship. Paul speaks with amazing precision and passion on 'just transition', whether from apartheid to democracy or from fossil fuelled, extractive economies to renewable, regenerative ones: "The trick is, in a nutshell, to get ourselves to net zero in a way that builds durable political and electoral majorities who will support it. And that starts with making sure that people who are most vulnerable and most left behind benefit from their transition." We spoke on 6 July 2022. Truth and Reconciliation Commission explained on Wikipedia"a court-like restorative justice body assembled in South Africa in 1996 after the end of apartheid...{C]haired by Desmond Tutu, the commission invited witnesses who were identified as victims of gross human rights violations to give statements about their experiences, and selected some for public hearings. Perpetrators of violence could also give testimony and request amnesty from both civil and criminal prosecution." New York Times / The Conduit conference: Climate Forward. Rowan Conway, while at the RSA, 'Think like a system, act like an entrepreneur'. Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 15 Sep 2022 | 21. Rosalie Nelson | 00:28:34 | |
Rosalie Nelson is the CEO of the Edmund Hillary Fellowship, whose mission is to "incubate solutions to global problems from Aotearoa New Zealand, and make a lasting positive impact on the world". (Full disclosure: I am an EHF Fellow.) Like Matthew in episode 13, Rosalie starts with her Pepeha, "a way of introducing yourself in Māori. It tells people who you are by sharing your connections with the people and places that are important to you." At the core of our conversation is being of service to Aotearoa New Zealand, and getting beyond hierarchical hero leadership model of leadership and innovation. Instead, really being able to let go and think about what is our collective? How do we unlock the collective capability? And with as much diversity of thinking as possible. We spoke on 11 July 2022. Links Treaty of Waitangi (on Wikipedia) Kaitiakitanga - guardianship. Prof Mariana Mazzucato has created a Mission-Orientated Innovation approach. Turangewaewae - the place where one has the right to stand. Timings 0:59 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 4:12 - BONUS QUESTION: What does "bicultural nation" mean? 11:28 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 15:39 - BONUS QUESTION: Are there particular values that inform the values-based innovation you are trying to nurture? 17:04 - BONUS QUESTION: How do we make sure that values of stewardship and guardianship do not slow down what is needed? 18:22 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 20:45 - BONUS QUESTION: What challenges want to focus the EHF on going forward? 22:50 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 24:48 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 26:30 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 27:29 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 09 Oct 2022 | Briony Greenhill | 00:49:43 | |
Briony Greenhill a folk-soul improvisational artist who teaches Collaborative Vocal Improvisation (CVI) internationally, plus political activist (Twitter, Bandcamp, YouTube, Patreon). She tells her story of performing different sorts of music when she was young, but not fitting with a music degree. After her 20s in political campaigning, she stopped believing we could have 'business as usual, but greener'. An experience of Indian improvised music then inspired her to a different direction, which became Collective Vocal Improvisation. Our conversation asks: what could politics (and all of our society become) if we acted like people do in Collective Vocal Improvisation: not placing one person as most important; creating positive sum games; and starting in the void and working through the mess to get deep? Briony uses the word 'sh1t' a few times, in reference to the state of the world. The interview was on Mon 18 July, the first day of 40C heat in the UK. Links Debut studio album Crossing the Ocean. Briony's history of Collaborative Vocal Improvisation, a modern approach to vocal music emerging in the last 40 years in the US. The most famous practitioner is Bobby McFerrin (of 'Don't Worry, Be Happy'). Four Columns form the HEART Community Group: 1. Mainstream; 2. Business as Usual but Greener; 3. Emergency; 4. Collapse Aware. Hospicing Modernity by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira (also know as Vanessa Andreotti of Gestures Towards Decolonial Futures). Rhiannon, one of Briony's teachers. Spiral Dynamics is a model of the evolutionary development of individuals, organizations, and societies. Edge Retreats with Kim. Alex Steffen on how the planetary crisis is not an issue, but a change in era. Briony's app Your Song - "Learn to improvise: set your voice free. Magnificently." Timings 0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 10:41 - BONUS QUESTION: Why do you think you responded so strongly to this improvisational approach to music, and what is igniting the community around your teaching? 19:31 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 34:02 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 39:09 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 42:34 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 45:36 - Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 16 Oct 2022 | Martin Allen Morales | 00:36:41 | |
Martin Allen Morales is the CEO at the Institute of Imagination. The Institute designs and delivers award-winning creative learning programmes, products, and platforms across the arts, sciences and digital technologies for children aged 5 to 11 years old. As Martin touches on in the podcast, he has had an extraordinarily varied career. He started music, then senior roles in Apple and Disney. He started a chain of restaurants, Ceviche, which were grounded in his Peruvian heritage. His mother came from a culturally rich but poor indigenous community in the Andes, while his dad was working class British. Key theme: imagination (including being open-minded and curious) is vital to thrive in our complex world, where there is so much information overload and so many economic pressures. Combined with the right support, it can help people grow out of challenges and nurture new futures. The Institute of Imagination is currently working on a three year plan to reach half a million children to be prepared for the future in the next three years by 2025. Apologies for one loud cough! Links Global's Make Some Noise - "Improving lives through small charities". Global is an entertainment and media group that includes radio stations like Heart and LBC, and more besides. Five Rhythms Dance is a dynamic movement practice—a practice of being in your body—that ignites creativity, connection, and community. Article explaining hypothesis that music came before language, and might be the necessary evolutionary step to get to language here. David Epstein - Range: why generalists triumph in a specialized world. Timings 0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 12:20 - BONUS QUESTION: Does the variety in your early life (indigenous heritage, time in Peru, time in working class England) equip you to be more imaginative than your peers, who grew up in Leicester only? 14;14 - BONUS QUESTION: Are there practices or habits which you have to keep your imagination active? 19:45 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 24:50 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 29:38 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 31:45 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 34:04 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 35:26 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 16 Oct 2022 | Loriann Robinson | 00:31:28 | |
Loriann Robinson (Twitter, LinkedIn) is the founder and director of The Advocacy Team, "a service for people and organisations working for a just world". They provide public affairs advice, policy advocacy, policy analysis and more, often in the international arena. She is also co-founder of The Equity Index, a UK social enterprise advocating for greater equity across the international development sector. Loriann speaks to how having impact gets her out of bed in the morning, and how she wants to see a shift in global development where power doesn't sit in the global north, but it's dispersed to the people in the global south who know their communities best. She also enjoys the variety of consulting, and the way the Advocacy Team can be a vehicle for other organisations (with aligned values) to create the futures that they envisage. I was struck by her approach of having a core income, with important side-projects (like The Equity Index) which don't have to scrabble for funding. Links CarbonBrief explainer on Loss and Damage. The Equity Index - "a UK social enterprise advocating for greater equity across the international development sector." "ODA" = Overseas Development Assistance #ShiftThePower on Twitter - here Timings 0:45 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 10:25 - BONUS QUESTION: Hw does one influence British politics? 13:13 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 15:36 -- BONUS QUESTION: As a vehicle for others to create the future they want, do you have written down the values you want your clients to align with? 17-26: BONUS QUESTION: Given your desire to shift power and resources to the Global South, what are the most important topic areas in international development right now? 20:48 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 24:16 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 28:16 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 30:27 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 30:39 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 16 Oct 2022 | Eva-Maria Dimitriadis | 00:44:24 | |
Eva-Maria Dimitriadis is the CEO and Managing Partner at The Conduit Connect. Launched in 2018, the Conduit Connect exists to scale innovative impact technologies and businesses that are solving some of the most challenging and critical issues of our time. it does this by connecting world class entrepreneurs and fund managers to values aligned impact investors and experts. One theme of our conversation is how Impact Investing is now maturing so that those investments are both having an impact and making commercial returns. The aim: "the future is a world where you invest your pension, and you not only knew where that money is going, but you know that it's going to a place where you're securing your own future, but also that of your grandchildren by not destroying the planet at the same time." A second theme the role of long-term relationships and compelling stories in creating that change. To attract investors for the long haul, any for-impact enterprise needs a compelling narrative. Some disclosures:
Links More on the overall Conduit Connect approach here. As a step towards inclusion, you can submit your pitch on the front page. More on the Conduit EIS Impact Fund is here. It is managed by Ascension, one of the most active impact VCs in Europe. Bridges Fund Management's Spectrum of Capital Timings 0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 13:43 - BONUS QUESTION: What did you learn from your time at Christies? 19:00 - BONUS QUESTION: Isn't ESG a scam, where finance makes money out of greenwashing? 22:18 - BONUS QUESTION: This all very nice, but aren't you sacrificing some returns in order to be having that impact? 24:03 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 28:06 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 36:40 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 39:11 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 40:48 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 42:47 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 16 Oct 2022 | Charlotte Dufour | 00:35:14 | |
Charlottte Dufour is founder of Narayan, a retreat space which followed years of work in humanitarian aid and international cooperation (LinkedIn, Twitter). She is a nutrition expert, having worked in Afghanistan in the early 2000s on child malnutrition before moving to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (a UN agency), where she specialised in Food Security, Nutrition and Livelihoods. She is also a qualified yoga instructor. The key theme of our conversation was Charlotte's hard-won perspective that challenges we face are invitations to not look for happiness in the fulfilment of our material desires, but to have the wisdom to find the stillness within. From that deep place we can work on what is very important:the quality of relationship between humans, and between humans and nature. You'll hear me say a couple of times that the perspective can sound fluffy. But if you read Charlotte's book on her time in Afghanistan, then you would know the tough and grounded experiences from which that perspective has grown. We recorded the interview in early Sep 2022. Worth knowing that Charlotte and I were at university together, and she introduced me to my late wife in 1999. Links Listening Inspires, which Charlotte co-founded, "brings together a rich network of individuals committed to inspiring creative solutions to modern-day challenges through deep listening – to ourselves, each other and Nature." 4SD on engaging thousands with Food Systems Summit Dialogues Powerful Times interview with David Nabarro Land of Eternal Hope: Ten Years of Lives Shared in Afghanistan, Charlotte's book which tells the story of her time in the country, and also gives voice to her Afghan friends on their stories. Polly Higgins' Earth is our Business. Conscious Food Systems Alliance The Art of Possibility by Zander and Zander Timings 0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 10:15 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 18:23 Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 28:25 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 31:39 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 33:04 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 33:44 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? More here. Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 15 Nov 2022 | Helen Henderson | 00:36:34 | |
Helen Henderson is a Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC), combined with a long history of community education in Derry/Londonderry. We explored Helen's work on peacebuilding and non-violence. For instance, how do you build peace between communities that have been in conflict for decades? Two things: spaces to discover common humanity; and growing critical literacy. My reflection is that I've not had to worry about security. But that's a privilege others haven't had. And how important that work is, because so much else relies on feeling secure. Links Educating the Heart programme from Children in Crossfire, aims to "nurture compassion and emotional literacy alongside critical thinking and critical literacy". Ethical and Shared Remembering at The Junction. "Ethical remembering will mean asking critical and ethical questions about violence, change, justice and peace in the context of the present and desired shared future. One hundred years on there will be no ethical remembering without remembering the future, and without an ethical and concrete commitment to building it together." Timings 0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 3:23 - BONUS QUESTION. Can you give us some examples of the peace-building work you have been involved with? 7:15 - BONUS QUESTION. How do you build peace between people whose families and communities have been in conflict for literally decades? 15:15 - BONUS QUESTION. What does a trauma-informed approach mean? 18:31 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 21:35 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 24:59 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 29:30 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 31:45 Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 33:55 Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Themes and quotes - The role of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission is to hold the state to account or duty bearers to count on who they are, they uphold the human rights of people in Northern Ireland. -Future trying to create:
Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 15 Nov 2022 | Richard Sandford | 00:48:02 | |
Richard Sandford is Professor of Heritage Evidence Foresight and Policy at the UCL Institute of Sustainable Heritage (Twitter, LinkedIn). He interested in how we think about the future and how we connect it to the past. We discuss in depth how heritage can be a source of useful and productive stances towards the future. Key line from Richard for me: "Change s coming...If you're looking at the future, perhaps our job now is to preserve that sense of identity that allows us to act without reifying the things that we do need to let go." Links Richard's key paper (£) laying out how he thinks lived futures should be the focus of futures researchers and heritage, rather than history, offers the context for developing lived futures. UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) on Futures Literacy. Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies. Stuart Candy on Design and Futures. Rodney Harrison and "future-making". Rupert Read on the need "to build lifeboats to carry as many as possible of us through the storms that are coming". Gillespie and Zittoun -- Imagination in Human and Cultural Development
Courses at UCL Institute for Sustainable Heritage. Link to get Richard's email address. More on Tony Hodgson here. Timings 0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 11:10 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 27:33 -- BONUS QUESTION: Is the rise of imagination activities a sign that we have run out of road and trying to imagine something different? 31:10 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 38:14 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 41:45 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 43: 34 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 46:06 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 15 Nov 2022 | Zahra Davidson | 00:38:13 | |
Zahra Davidson is Chief Executive and Design Director of Huddlecraft, a Community Interest Company that uses the the practice of combining people to unearth and multiply potential (Zahra's Linkedin, Twitter and Medium). Huddle craft asks: 'What if everyone could multiply their potential by the power of their peers?' We talked about how collective learning is so necessary for global transformations, but how to contribute at the necessary scale while keeping the important relational, often local, character of individual peer learning groups. I think Huddlecraft's About Us page is a Masterclass in formulating and communicating an organisation's strategy (it covers: landscape, north star, puzzle focused on, alchemy that gives hope (ie methods), ecosystem, outcomes, compass to guide decisions). Ummah -- "Arabic word that means 'community', ...it is commonly used to mean the collective community of Islamic people." More on microclimates in Huddlecraft. Example Huddles: -Sheffield Pioneers: place-based leadership. -Father Figures: exploring 21st century fatherhood. Zahra's blog on creating a surge of peer-to-peer movements. Upcoming Huddles to join. Timings 0:45 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 6:40 - BONUS QUESTION: What does Huddlecraft mean by microclimate, and what makes for a good microclimate? 11:48 - BONUS QUESTION: Can you give us some examples of some of the inquiries people have taken off some of the peer learning that has happened within Huddlecraft so far? 17:30 - BONUS QUESTION: is it fair to say that HUddlecraft has taken for a very distributed approach which mimics living systems and nature? 20:45 - BONUS QUESTION: How do you get right combining intimacy with scale? 22:28 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 29:30 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 31:26 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 31:26 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 33:21 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 34:45 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say?
Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 15 Nov 2022 | Daianna Karaian | 00:34:31 | |
Daianna Karaian is co-founder of Today Do This, which aims to empower everyone, every day (Today) to take action on (Do) what matters to them (This) (LinkedIn, personal website, Twitter). The theme was people being able to take meaningful action in their work. Why? First, "The scale of the change that's needed is only going to happen if social and environmental considerations are woven into the daily decisions and responsibilities of everyone in the company at every level in every department." Second, "I think there's this really common misconception that action is reserved for those in power, that sort of only a few people, in powerful positions can do anything that makes any difference in the world. And I think that's nonsense. I think power is accumulated by those who take action." Third, taking meaningful action also makes people happier and more productive. With that in mind, some things you can do after listening to this interview: -Subscribe to the Today Do This newsletter, which "revisits one major headline each week and suggests a simple, practical action you can take that day to make a difference". -Contact Daianna through this link. Links Powerful Times Podcasts referred to in to interview: Ed Gillespie (the very first!) and Rowan Conway. Dr Martin Luther King's Six Steps for Non Violent Social Change:
UN Sustainable Development Goals Timings 0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 10:57 - BONUS QUESTION: How do you support people so social and environmental considerations are woven into the daily decisions? 16:32 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 21:00 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 22:37 - BONUS QUESTION: Can you unpack what you meant when you said you don't like the word purpose compared to impact on? 24:40 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 29:16 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 31;45 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 32:33 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say?
Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 14 Jan 2023 | Clare Farrell | 00:57:39 | |
Clare Farrell is a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, as well as fashion designer and lecturer (Twitter, website). Clare had a lot of deeply interesting things to say across a broad range of topics. So, this episode is the longest yet at 57 mins. I make no apology, as every minute is worth listening to. Just want to give you a heads up. She speaks about the coming together of Extinction Rebellion as a magical time: "It's a huge honour really. So too, in like, basically, I feel the universe sort of collided the right people at the right time. And enough of us were like crazy enough to go: oh, yeah, like, whatever. Let's try and do that." Clare is trying to create a different approach to politics, here "ordinary people have agency, and the ability to take part in the way decisions are made". On the need for deep change to address the climate emergency, Clare believes that "ordinary people are way ahead of the people in power". As you will pick up, I hugely admire Extinction Rebellion for many things, including the core message: a positive future possible if only we were willing to tell the truth on the challenges we face and act for it. For the most part, the first wave of XR was successful in creating a sense of a festival, which modelled a more vibrant, more inclusive, positive future, where we will still have to deal with the consequences of our actions up to this point. Clare ends with this: "This work that we do is absolutely made of love....Whatever your opinion about me...[It] absolutely comes from ..the best possible intention to try and make something better out of a wholly depressing and heartbreaking, tragic situation." Clare occasionally swears (a*-holes, sh*t, f*cked that kind of thing). Links Penguin publishers book with Extinction Rebellion: 'This is Not A Drill'. More on the Extinction Rebellion symbol and how since inception it has always been a strictly anti-consumerist project. For criticism of David Attenborough, see George Monbiot's piece. More on situationism on wikipedia. Nafeez Ahmed on the flawed social science behind XR's change strategy. Merchants of Doubt on wikipedia. One way into the material found by the US Congress on the Oil and Gas companies' lipservice to Net Zero. An exploration of the evidence base behind radical tactics by James Ozden. In a second post, James also explores how he could be wrong. Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 21 Jan 2023 | Liam Black | 00:43:49 | |
Liam Black has a long history of leading social enterprises (including Jamie Oliver's Fifteen), and is now 'Chief Encouragement Officer' and mentor to many (website, Twitter, LinkedIn). In his own career, Liam has made many jumps into the unknown. His view is if you are clear about the work you want to be doing, then taking the jump gives others the chance to recognise what your'e trying to do and to offer you help (including, maybe a job). Also that "if you do things with good intention, with enough advice from the right people, you can always come back from whatever mistake you make". Putting it another way, in the long-term it is better to try than not. Liam's book is "How to Lead with Purpose: Lessons in life and work from the gloves-off mentor". Buy it here. Links Furniture Resource Centre is now known as the FRC Group have a "social mission to reduce and ultimately end furniture poverty". Book: There's No Business Like Social Business: How to Be Socially Enterprising (with Jeremy Nicholls). Background on Jamie Oliver's Fifteen here. Wavelength executive education business. Together All is "a safe, online community where people support each other anonymously to improve mental health and wellbeing". The Conduit is "a new workspace for changemakers in the heart of London". "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard The iron law of megaprojects: over budget, over time, under benefit. -- Bent Flyvberg Timings 0:50 - Q1. What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 8:27 - BONUS QUESTION: Is there a way you can tell in advance that you're ready to make that jump? is how can you have the confidence to jump? How did you get there? 15:47 - BONUS QUESTION: To make the leap, you are saying you need the direction and guide rails but not lots of constraining details? 17:58 - BONUS QUESTION: One of the recommendations in the book is to have alignment between your platform and your purpose. What do you man by 'platform'? 26:00 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 33:00 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 35:17 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 40:11 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 41:18 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 42:25 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say?
Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 31 Jan 2023 | Robin Alfred | 00:40:04 | |
Robin is an executive coach, facilitator, a mediator, an organisational consultant, works in leadership development and sometimes known as a mystic (Twitter, LinkedIn, Website). Our conversation concentrates on the importance of feeling present, and being fully open to what is happening in that moment. Only then can we integrate the past, and not be unconsciously driven by it. Only then can we hear the calling of the future, and act courageously towards something different. Only then can we act in alignment with a deeper ethics. This is all very much at the spiritual end of acting in these powerful times. You can read about my own experience on a previous version of Robin's course, Leading from the Future, is in this blog 'Facing the Future'. Here is the current one (as at Jan 2023) Leading from the Future programme (starts 14 Feb 2023). Links Findhorn Foundation (and on wikipedia here). Robin's course on The Art of Facilitating Transformational Fields. Otto Scharmer on wikipedia When Robin talks of 'the bottom of the U' he's referring to Scharmer's Theory U. Timings 0:58 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 21:19 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 25:45 -- BONUS QUESTION: What values are embedded in taking the next evolutionary step? 27:46 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 30:02 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 34:02 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 36:11 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 37:33 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 04 Feb 2023 | Dougald Hine | 00:53:53 | |
Dougald Hine is author and co-founder of Dark Mountain, a cultural movement of people who have "stopped believing the stories our civilisation tells itself" and a School Called HOME, a "a gathering place and a learning community for those who are drawn to the work of regrowing a living culture" (personal website, Substack, wikipedia). His latest book is "At Work in the Ruins", which we discuss at length in the conversation. At the beginning Dougald describes himself as "using words, and sometimes silences, to shift the space of possibility", which I think underplays his role as curator and community builder. One way of understanding Dougald's response to these powerful times is that he sees them as showing that our world, the world of modernity, is ending. I have read the book and heartily recommend it. To buy the book, and find the latest on Dougald's tour in Feb 2023, follow this link. Links 'Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity's Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism' by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira (aka Vanessa Andreotti). More on Dougald's partner, Anna Björkman, here. A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society Built Around Local Economies, Self-Provisioning, Agricultural Diversity, and a Shared Earth by Chris Smaje Timings 0:50 - Q1. What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 7:53 - BONUS QUESTION: Tell us something of the genesis of Dark Mountain? 12:00 - BONUS QUESTION: Tell us something about the start of a School Called Home? 18:11 - BONUS QUESTION: Give us a pen portrait of the book, At Work in the Ruins. 32: 54 - BONUS QUESTION: What are the strongest good faith arguments against what you are saying? 37:00 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 42:20 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 46:42 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 49:55 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 52:30 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 52:46 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 04 Feb 2023 | Andrea Hartley | 00:35:24 | |
Andrea Hartley is Founder and CEO of Skating Panda, a creative social impact consultancy (Twitter, LinkedIn). DISCLOSURE: I do some work for Skating Panda as 'Senior Associate -- Strategy and Sustainability'. In the 12 months to April 2023, that work comprised about 18% of my income. We speak about Andrea's three priorities
Links B-Corp, a certification scheme so that people can trust when companies claim they are 'for-benefit' (in contrast to being exclusively 'for-profit'). Climate Quitting - here is KPMG saying that "One in three 18–24-year-olds have rejected a job offer based on ESG record" Jonathon Wise at Purpose Disruptors - mission: catalyse the advertising industry's climate transition to align with the 1.5C degree IPCC global warming target. Effective Altruism is a "research field and practical community that aims to find the best ways to help others, and put them into practice." It is worth knowing there are some very important and strong critiques of Effective Altruism. For instance, here (£) The Economist shows how the commitment to "strong long-termism can also lead people to disregard common-sense moral commitments to living people". My view: while a commitment to rigour on impact and getting 'bang for buck' is laudable, too often Effective Altruism is used as a cover for today's billionaires to perpetuate a status quo that they are successful in, rather than a better world for billions. As such, whatever the intentions of the founders and participants, I fear it has become an intellectual justification for on-going oligarchy, and so for preventing fundamental change. Timings 0:48 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 8:57 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 12.01 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 21:29 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 26:55 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 30:09 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 34:21 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 18 Feb 2023 | Tim Jackson | 00:59:36 | |
Prof Tim Jackson is a British ecological economist and professor of sustainable development at the University of Surrey (personal website, twitter, wikipedia). He is the director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP), a multi-disciplinary, international research consortium which aims to understand the economic, social and political dimensions of sustainable prosperity. He is also a successful playwright. It was an extraordinarily rich and honest conversation, covering (and this is just a taste):
I make an quotation error. it was Max Plank (not Thomas Khun) who said that scientific revolutions proceed one funeral at a time. Towards the end, Tim makes a similar error: Ode: Intimations of Immortality was Wordsworth, not Tennyson. Tim uses one swear word (f*ck) as part of a story about being rejected by mainstream economists. Latest book: Post-Growth -- Life After Capitalism Previous book: Prosperity Without Growth (must read, by the way). Timings 0:55 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 9:37 - BONUS QUESTION: Do you feel that you've combined that storytelling of being a playwright into the analytics of being an economist? 21:00 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 27:27 - BONUS QUESTION: The future Tim is trying to create, inspired by past thinking, is a society based on meaningful relationships. But has it existed in practice? And is there a practical way of getting from where we are now? 43:04 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 51:14 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 54:50 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 57:26 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 58:40 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 13 May 2023 | Sandrine Dixson-Declève | 00:43:54 | |
Sandrine Dixson-Declève is Co-President of The Club of Rome (LinkedIn, Twitter, Wikipedia). She divides her time between leading The Club of Rome, advising, lecturing, and facilitating difficult conversations. She currently Chairs the European Commission, Expert Group on Economic and Societal Impact of Research & Innovation (ESIR) and sits on the European Commissions Mission on Climate Change & Adaptation. We speak a lot about the latest findings of systems dynamics modelling as expressed in the book Sandrine co-authored, Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity. The major finding is the need to address inequality and poverty, in order to avoid a graver social backlash and to make action on environmental challenges easier politically. This is a reversal of many environmentalists over the last decades, who have said: yes, inequality is important, but if we don't address climate change first then any improverments in poverty will be wiped out anyway. Sandrine turning that logic around: the only way to have an environmental transition is to have a just transition. The other finding in Earth for All is that all this can and must be done through economic growth, just a growth decoupled from impact. Sandrine explains how from 22:29.
More on Jay Wright Forrester, pioneering systems scientist at MIT, here and builder of the first World Dynamics modelling which fed into the Limits to Growth report. Earth4All is a vibrant collective of, co-convened by The Club of Rome, and builds on the legacies of The Limits to Growth and the Planetary Boundaries frameworks. In effect the website, background papers and book are the 50 year update to the Limits to Growth report. Amitav Ghosh's The Nutmeg's Curse More on Inflation Reduction Act, or 'IRA', here. More on Amartya Sen's claim on democracy and famines here. The red dotted-line of GDP still grows in the Giant Leap scenario: This diagram: Callegari B., Stoknes P.E., People and Planet: 21st- century sustainable population scenarios and possible living standards within planetary boundaries. Earth4All, March 2023, version 1.0. EU Expert group on the economic and societal impact of research and innovation (ESIR) here. I have now put the chapter from the unpublished book on my website here. It explores 'security through protection' vs 'security through renewal'. Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 13 May 2023 | Amy Twigger Holdroyd | 00:49:25 | |
APOLOGIES FOR SOME SOUND ISSUES RIGHT AT THE START AND END OF THIS RECORDING. Amy Twigger Holroyd is Associate Professor of Fashion and Sustainability at Nottingham School of Art & Design (website). Through design-led participatory research, she explores plural possibilities for post-growth fashion systems: alternative ways of living with our clothes that meet our fundamental human needs and respect ecological limits. Her main project pursuing this is Fashion Fictions, which invites you to to imagine, explore and enact enticing alternative fashion worlds. Stage One: Worlds is to write an enticing, possible parallel world (as I type, there are 213 which you can still add to here). Stage Two: Explorations is to generate visual and material is to prototypes of those worlds (eg a mocked-up WhatsApp chat). Stage Three: Enactments is to try and experience the prototyped Worlds. Our conversation covers: -How fashion (the clothes people wear, and how those are created) are an expression of society. -Her motivation: using participatory fiction to expand the sense of possibility, because so many people feel hemmed in. -She's currently excited by the realisation that we can write stories, and then, by enacting them, we can make them real. It is a sort of magic. By the way, the sound problems come from having to use the back-up recording. I hope they don't interfer with your enjoyment too much. Links Book Amy co-authored: Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion. Arturo Escobar -- Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds The Great Transition Initiative, expressed in a book called 'Journey to Earthland' by Paul Raskin. Diana Wynne Jones' series with numbered worlds is Chrestomanci. Timings 0:51 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 12:43 -- BONUS QUESTION: What is your project, Fashion Fictions? 22:41 -- BONUS QUESTION: What are the themes in your findings from Fashion Futures? 29:41 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 33:58 -- Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 41:10 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 44:31 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 46:12 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 48:02 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 13 May 2023 | Jacquie McGlade | 00:38:03 | |
Prof Jacquie McGlade (Twitter, Wikipedia) is an administrator, academic, advocate and more besides. Currently she is Professor of Natural Prosperity, Sustainable Development and Knowledge Systems at UCL (which is how I know her) and a lecturer at Strathmore Business School in Nairobi, which is where she lives. She is married to a Maasai village chief. In a frankly amazing career, Jacquie has been a scientist, the executive director of the European Environment Agency, and the Chief Scientist at UNEP. She is also a co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Downforce Technologies, a pioneer in science-led, data-driven land management solutions focused on optimising soil health, soil organic carbon levels, and biodiversity (I had a small part in setting up Downforce Technologies). Jacquie has a rare combination of (Western) science and indigenous knowledge. She is like the fish she studied for her PhD, able to travel into the oceans and back into fresh water. The striking themes are on: Links UCL Institute for Global Prosperity Ilya Prigogine, Nobel prize-winning chemist, was one of the foundational thinkers of what is now called complex systems,because of his discoveries of self-organisation. Chris Smaje -- A Small Farm Future Jacquie's Gresham Lectures are at the bottom of this link. Timings 0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 13:39 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 22:22 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 25:36 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 28:35 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 31:25 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 36;12 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 03 Nov 2023 | Dave Snowden | 00:28:11 | |
Dave Snowden (Twitter, LinkedIn) is Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of The Cynefin Co. The Cynefin Co is "the world leader in developing management approaches (in society, government and industry) that empower organisations to absorb uncertainty, detect weak signals to enable sense-making in complex systems, act on the rich data, create resilience and, ultimately, thrive in a complex world". The Cynefin Framework is a decision support framework, a way of determining what method to adopt in this particular situation. Dave is a thorough-to-brusque practitioner and thinker using Complex Adaptive Systems (a dynamic network of interactions where the behaviour of the ensemble is not predictable from the components, and which is able to adapt to changing circumstances). Two key points I take from our conversation: -Don't focus on changing people (for which there is little evidence of success). Instead, focus on changing the connections people have with other people opens up more possibility for the whole assembly. -From a complexity view, the world is constantly changing and the information you have is partial. Better to be responsive to what's happening around you, rather than having aplan which will be immediately out of date. Links Probably the most recent full explanation of the Cynefin Framework and how to us it is here. "Managing complexity (and chaos) in times of crisis. A field guide for decision makers inspired by the Cynefin framework" published by the EU. SenseMaker® is a distributed ethnographic approach to understanding a situation. By allowing respondents to give meaning to their own experience, it avoids the epistemic injustice of third-party of algorithmic interpretations. "SenseMaker® allows the powerful combination of vast amounts of data, with the rich context of narrative, based on the anecdotes of real people going about their real lives. Very importantly, SenseMaker® places the voices and interpretations of people at the centre, instead of privileging those in power." Timings 0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 6:03 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 11:52 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 20:58 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 22:46 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 25:52 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 26:58 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 03 Nov 2023 | Jonathon Porritt | 00:28:06 | |
Jonathon Porritt is a sustainability campaigner and writer (website, Twitter, Wikipedia). After years in the Green Party (while working full-time as a teacher), in 1984 he became director of Friends of the Earth in Britain and then co-founded Forum for the Future in 1996. (One of the other co-founders was Paul Ekins, who I interviewed for Powerful Times here. I worked with Jonathon when I was at Forum, 2003-2016.) He has been at the forefront of sustainability, in business and also government, for the last 30 years. We spoke in November 2023, just after he had, in his own words, extricated himself from the roles which had been very present in that time, including stepped back from any role in Forum. For Jonathon, at the heart of sustainable development is this very simple, but massively powerful notion of intergenerational justice. That is still provides the rationale for everything that he does and allows him to envision ways in which 8 billion today and 10 billion people in the future could live reasonably good lives in the future. One telling reflection: a focus on positive solutions for the last 30 years has put Jonathon's anger on hold, and he now feels that has been problematic. He's moving back into campaigning, being less reasonable with those who deserve our anger, and also still constantly absorbing in the solutions to the problems we face. Links Brundtland Commission definition of sustainable development: "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Jonathon's latest book, Hope in Hell. Timings 00:56 - Q1. What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 3:55 -Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 7:35 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 10:31 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 14:00 Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 19:37 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 22:36 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 03 Nov 2023 | Kim Polman | 00:41:21 | |
Kim Polman is Co-Founder & Chair of Reboot the Future, a fellow of the Aspen Institute and co-founder and chair of the Kilamanjaro Blind Trust (bio on the Reboot website, LinkedIn, Twitter). The purpose of Reboot the Future acts on the belief that a better future is possible if we follow the Golden Rule, that we treat others and the planet as we’d wish to be treated. In the conversation we dive into the Golden Rule and how that is applied in Reboot The Future. Plus how Kim is a late blooming baby boomer, who didn't get in front of a microphone until she was 60. She also touches on the importance of love, almost as a practice to be resilient and attract opportunities. Plus, how we are all leaders in our own spheres, and so we can all take action. Note: there's a moment at about 10 minutes where my connection freeze. But it is barely noticeable. Links The Golden Rule on wikipedia. The first book Kim co-authored on The Golden Rule: "Imaginal Cells: Visions of Transformation" Pope's encyclical on climate change Laudato si' (wikipedia entry, English version on Vatican website). The second book Kim co-wrote: Values for a Life Economy. Powerful Times interview with Tim Jackson. More on the 'Inner Game of Tennis' here. Executive Masterclass on the Golden Rule. Timings 0:56 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 17:16 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 27:50 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 31:05 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 33:01 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 35:33 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 36:53 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 03 Nov 2023 | Ella Saltmarshe | 00:36:01 | |
Ella Saltmarshe sits "at the intersection of culture, narrative and systems change" (website, LinkedIn, twitter). She describes herself as a founder, systems change specialist, anthropologist, writer, podcaster, teacher, activist, and (as of very recently) a mother. We recorded this interview on 31 October 2023, only a few weeks into the Isreal-Gaza conflict. Anyone who follows Ella's work will have seen her recent focus on that conflict. For the start of any International Women's Day events (8 Mar 2024), she suggested people use some acknowledgements. This one spoke to me in particular: The 8,570 (and growing number of) Palestinian women who have been killed by Israel. The 5500 women who are due to give birth in Gaza over the next month with no medical facilities, with 40% of those pregnancies classified as high risk. May our actions contribute to their safety. May we support each other in working for an immediate ceasefire. As women, may we demonstrate what international solidarity looks like, today and everyday. " Our conversation focused on the role of culture and narrative in helping us transition to a regenerative future. In particular, how we are really messy, irrational, emotional creatures. So we need to be working at the level of emotions. The things that move us emotionally are stories. In particular, Ella is focused on nurturing cultures that have stewardship at their core. Links Long Time Project "aims to galvanise public imagination and collective action to help us all be good ancestors." Inter-Narratives. Subscribe to the newsletter here. More on my late wife's work on the use of time in child and adolescent psychotherapy here. You can hear Steve Waygood explain Macro-Stewardship here. Timings 0:56 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 9:35: BONUS QUESTION: What is it that you mean by narrative? 17:43 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 19:53 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 22:58 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 26:01 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 28: 59 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 29:41 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 19 Apr 2024 | Alex Evans | 00:52:28 | |
Alex Evans is Founder and Executive Director of Larger Us, a "community of change-makers who share the aim of using psychology for good – to bridge divides, build broader coalitions and bring people together" (Alex's Twitter). Alex set up Larger Us to flip society from a breakdown dynamic and into a breakthrough dynamic. That means paying attention to hwo the state of world impacts our state of mind, how our state of mind how we show up, and how we affect others through our behaviour, especially in a primed and fast-hyper-connected world. We were speaking a month on from Hamas attacking Isreal, adn the Isreali response. Alex had written a fantastic blog post on how to make sense and respond without just accelerating the conflict. He says the real tussle of our times is between those two perspectives : zero-sum ('for me to win, you must lose) or nonzero sum ('for me to win, you must win also'). If we want contribute to towards nonzero sum outcomes, and avoid feeding conflict, then it starts with managing our own mental and emotional states." For Alex this part of a wider sense that the kind of moment humankind is now living through it is a sort of initiation threshold. We need a deep story that's capable of holding the immense difficulty and intensity and all the contradictions of this moment that we're living through. Links Alex's book: The Myth Gap Rupert Read's Climate Majority Project Larger Us: Climate Conversations Deep Canvassing (on Wikipedia) The Larger Us Podcast: How to change people's minds - with Dave Fleischer Radical Love campaign in The Atlantic and The Alternative (I couldn't find the Book of Radical Love on the Larger Us website). Confronting the Long Crisis of Globalization (2010) The Long Crisis COVID scenarios Alex's blog post on the Middle East. Ways to Get Involved with Larger Us The Age of Endarkenment essay by Michael Ventura Timings 0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there? 23:35 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why? 32:18 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why? 38:40 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next? 42:15 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them? 46:43 Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach? 51:11 Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say? Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 12 May 2024 | Erica Austin | 00:40:33 | |
Erica Austin is a social entrepreneur, community weaver, facilitator, photographer and Christchurch Ambassador (LinkedIn). She describes her self as a multi-potentialite, or someone with activities in many fields. As we will hear, in Erica's case, this is something of an understatement. I was first introduced to her as the Community Activator in the Edmund Hillary Fellowship, a community of 500+ innovators, entrepreneurs and investors committed to New Zealand as a basecamp for global impact. (I am an Edmund Hillary Fellow.) We have a very rich conversation, touching on many huge themes. One is culture and identity, especially in a place with strong indigenous and colonial heritages plus inward immigration. As her introduction (using the Maori tradition of Pepeha) makes clear, Erica was born in China, moved to Aotearoa New Zealand when she was young. We talk about Aotearoa New Zealand as both a bicultural and a multicultural nation: "acknowledging that, that Maori people are the first people who've arrived in this land, and then comes multiculturalism, to be able to then create a space for all people to thrive". How she is part of something she calls re-indigenisation, not decolonisation. Another theme is neurodiversity. Erica was diagnosed with ADHD when she was young, and really sees this as her superpower, which allows her to connect with other people, and people with places. One consequence is that Erica is involved in many things, and has organised her work according to the Sustainable Development Goals (or SDGs). Erica's priorities for the next three years are integrating indigenous practice and knowledge into our modern world, and growing the idea of a learning ecosystem, where people are not just learning in schools, not learning just in the organisation, but actually creating multiple different pathways for them to understand and learn to create better future, the future focus learning opportunity. We did this interview in November 2023, and I remember being energised for days afterwards. I've just re-listened and again have a buzz from Erica's energy, her ambition, her practices of connecting people, and her uses of her superpower. Links Te Pūtahi Centre for Architecture and City Making Ako Ōtautahi Learning City Christchurch Taonga -- treasure Tangata Tiriti – Treaty People More on the SDG 0 story here. More notes here Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||
| 19 May 2024 | Rupert Read | 00:53:41 | |
Rupert Read is Co-Director of the Climate Majority Project, and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia, and former spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion (Twitter, Website, Wikipedia entry). The Climate Majority Project has the mission to "accelerate effective, coordinated climate action by a broad-based coalition of citizens; from grassroots initiatives to high-level policy". Rupert left the relatively stability of academia to wholeheartedly focus on CMP. Temperature records are falling, and there are signs that climate change is accelerating. For Rupert, the paradoxical insight is that now is not the time to get more radical, but to be ready to welcome more people into the climate movement. Experiencing the weird weather will be the best recruiter into climate action. In the interview, Rupert unpacks the four strands of the Climate Majority Project:
Core to the Climate Majority Project is depolarisation, because acting on climate over the long-term needs to be a broad project which reaches across classes, political orientations, identities. As you might expect from a former philosophy professor, there is a great deal of nuance to Rupert's views. One is that there is no shortcut. Just as a technological fix to our predicament is an illusion, so is revolution. He's wants to create a future which is not based on illusion, which involves a transformation over time, it's going to take the time of political culture. Rupert very much believes that, yes, the problem is overwhelmingly vast but when you start to see yourself as part of a huge coming wave of action, and you start to feel yourself as part of that, then it's exciting and energising you no longer feels so puny, or hopeless. Collectively, we are in a time of call-and-response between how the geophysical situation is getting worse, but the human response is also accelerating. The Climate Majority Project is the kind of thing we need so the human response can deal with the geophysical situation, more than just reforming the status quo but not taking the shortcut of revolution, nor settling for ruins. Links Rupert's books here. Twitter: Powerful_Times | |||