I've been working in the field of sustainability and climate change for some 20 years. It feels like the need for change is growing faster than the impact we are delivering. So, I am wondering what I can do next that is useful. Speaking with others, they have the same challenge.Which is why I’m doing this interview series. In 30 minute bites, I ask some brilliant people what they are doing now and why. All to inspire and enable the audience (which may turn out to be just me!) through stories grounded in experience. Please do listen, be inspired and suggest who I should be interviewing.Thank you -- David (powerfultimespodcast@gmail.com)
What Can We Do In These Powerful Times?
Claim This Podcastby David Bent
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47 episodes
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Podcast Overview
I've been working in the field of sustainability and climate change for some 20 years. It feels like the need for change is growing faster than the impact we are delivering. So, I am wondering what I can do next that is useful. Speaking with others, they have the same challenge.Which is why I’m doing this interview series. In 30 minute bites, I ask some brilliant people what they are doing now and why. All to inspire and enable the audience (which may turn out to be just me!) through stories grounded in experience. Please do listen, be inspired and suggest who I should be interviewing.Thank you -- David (powerfultimespodcast@gmail.com)
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Publishing Since
5/19/2022
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Recent Episodes
May 19, 2024
Rupert Read
<p>Rupert Read is Co-Director of the <a href='https://climatemajorityproject.com/'>Climate Majority Project</a>, and <a href='https://research-portal.uea.ac.uk/en/persons/rupert-read'>Emeritus Professor of Philosophy</a> at the University of East Anglia, and former spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion (<a href='https://twitter.com/GreenRupertRead'>Twitter</a>, <a href='https://rupertread.net/'>Website</a>, <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Read'>Wikipedia entry</a>).</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>In the interview, Rupert unpacks the four strands of the Climate Majority Project:</p><ol><li><b>Truthfulness</b>. Shifting the public narrative about climate change towards the truth, through skilful messaging.</li><li><b>Cultures of awareness and resilience</b>. Facing the truth together and taking action calls for inner resources and communities of support.</li><li><b>Serious action. </b>Helping people from many backgrounds take meaningful action to help drive the systemic change we need.</li><li><b>Building shared understanding.</b> Developing the identity and vision of the emerging mass movement, and helping people see that they are powerful together.</li></ol><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p><b>Links</b></p><p>Rupert's books <a href='https://rupertread.net/books/'>here</a>.<br/><a href='http://mpwatch.org'>MP Watch</a><br/><a href='https://climatemajorityproject.com/community-climate-action/'>Community Climate Action</a><br/><a href='https://www.wildcard.land/'>Wildcard</a><br/><a href='https://gcsforum.com/'>General Counsel Sustainability Forum</a><br/><a href='http://cadenceroundtable.org.uk'>Cadence Roundtable</a><br/>The Deluge By Stephen Markley -- <a href='https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/The-Deluge/Stephen-Markley/9781982123116'>here</a><br/><br/><a href='https://davidbent.wordpress.com/?p=2858'>More notes</a></p><p>Twitter: <a href='https://twitter.com/Powerful_Times'>Powerful_Times</a><br/><br/>Website hub: <a href='https://davidbent.wordpress.com/what-can-we-do-in-these-powerful-times/'>here</a>.<br/><br/>Please do like and subscribe, to help others find the podcast.<br/><br/>Thank you for listening! -- David</p>
May 12, 2024
Erica Austin
<p>Erica Austin is a social entrepreneur, community weaver, facilitator, photographer and Christchurch Ambassador (<a href='https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-austin-62913b95/?originalSubdomain=nz'>LinkedIn</a>). She describes her self as a <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multipotentiality'>multi-potentialite</a>, or someone with activities in many fields. As we will hear, in Erica's case, this is something of an understatement.</p><p>I was first introduced to her as the Community Activator in the <a href='https://www.ehf.org/'>Edmund Hillary Fellowship</a>, a community of 500+ innovators, entrepreneurs and investors committed to New Zealand as a basecamp for global impact. (I am an Edmund Hillary Fellow.)</p><p>We have a very rich conversation, touching on many huge themes. </p><p>One is culture and identity, especially in a place with strong indigenous and colonial heritages plus inward immigration. </p><p>As her introduction (using the Maori tradition of <a href='https://pepeha.nz/'>Pepeha</a>) 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.</p><p>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.</p><p>One consequence is that Erica is involved in many things, and has organised her work according to the <a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goals'>Sustainable Development Goals</a> (or SDGs).</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p><br/></p><p><b>Links</b></p><p><a href='https://web.archive.org/web/20190105013207/https://festa.org.nz/'>FESTA</a></p><p><a href='https://teputahi.org.nz/'>Te Pūtahi Centre for Architecture and City Making</a> </p><p><a href='https://www.eacuration.space/'>E.A.Curation</a></p><p><a href='https://learningcitychristchurch.nz/'>Ako Ōtautahi Learning City Christchurch</a></p><p><a href='https://www.allyskills.nz/'>Ally Skills NZ</a> </p><p><a href='https://leadershiplab.co.nz/'>Leadership Lab NZ</a> </p><p><a href='https://www.asianz.org.nz/'>Asia New Zealand Foundation</a> </p><p><a href='https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?keywords=taonga'>Taonga</a> -- treasure</p><p><a href='https://treatypeople.org/about/'>Tangata Tiriti</a> – Treaty People</p><p><a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Waitangi'>Treaty of Waitangi</a></p><p>More on the SDG 0 story <a href='https://www.listening-inspires.world/post/sdg-0-the-sdg-of-love-and-joy'>here</a>.</p><p>More notes <a href='https://davidbent.wordpress.com/2024/05/12/powerful-times-erica-austin/'>here</a></p><p>Twitter: <a href='https://twitter.com/Powerful_Times'>Powerful_Times</a><br/><br/>Website hub: <a href='https://davidbent.wordpress.com/what-can-we-do-in-these-powerful-times/'>here</a>.<br/><br/>Please do like and subscribe, to help others find the podcast.<br/><br/>Thank you for listening! -- David</p>
April 19, 2024
Alex Evans
<p>Alex Evans is Founder and Executive Director of <a href='https://larger.us/'>Larger Us</a>, 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 <a href='https://twitter.com/alexevansuk'>Twitter</a>).</p><p><br/></p><p>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.</p><p><br/></p><p>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.</p><p><br/></p><p>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."</p><p><br/></p><p>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.</p><p><br/></p><p><br/></p><p><b>Links</b></p><p>Alex's book: <a href='http://mythgap.org/'>The Myth Gap</a></p><p><a href='https://climatemajorityproject.com/'>Rupert Read's Climate Majority Project</a></p><p><a href='https://larger.us/ideas/climate-conversations-how-do-we-know-if-they-make-a-difference/'>Larger Us: Climate Conversations</a></p><p><a href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_canvassing'>Deep Canvassing</a> (on Wikipedia)</p><p><a href='https://www.buzzsprout.com/1738464/8465284'>The Larger Us Podcast: How to change people's minds - with Dave Fleischer</a></p><p>Radical Love campaign in <a href='https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/06/ex-istanbul-mayor-imamoglu-fights-erdogan-radical-love/591541/'>The Atlantic</a> and <a href='https://www.thealternative.org.uk/dailyalternative/2019/6/24/turkey-radical-love-strategy'>The Alternative</a> (I couldn't find the Book of Radical Love on the Larger Us website).</p><p><a href='https://www.brookings.edu/articles/confronting-the-long-crisis-of-globalization/'>Confronting the Long Crisis of Globalization</a> (2010)</p><p><a href='https://larger.us/ideas/the-long-crisis-scenarios/'>The Long Crisis COVID scenarios</a></p><p>Alex's <a href='https://larger.us/ideas/larger-us-middle-east/'>blog post on the Middle East</a>.</p><p>Ways to <a href='https://larger.us/get-involved/'>Get Involved with Larger Us</a></p><p><a href='https://michaelventura.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/THE-AGE-OF-ENDARKENMENT.pdf'>The Age of Endarkenment</a> essay by Michael Ventura</p><p><br/></p><p><b>Timings</b></p><p>0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there?</p><p>23:35 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why?</p><p>32:18 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why?</p><p>38:40 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next?</p><p>42:15 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them?</p><p>46:43 Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach?</p><p>51:11 Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say?</p><p>Twitter: <a href='https://twitter.com/Powerful_Times'>Powerful_Times</a><br/><br/>Website hub: <a href='https://davidbent.wordpress.com/what-can-we-do-in-these-powerful-times/'>here</a>.<br/><br/>Please do like and subscribe, to help others find the podcast.<br/><br/>Thank you for listening! -- David</p>
47 total episodes available
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