What Can We Do In These Powerful Times?

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...

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...

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 impac...

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...

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...

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 w...

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&...

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 be...

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 Cha...

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...

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 prosp...

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...

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 Unlocking those individual and organisational impact j...

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...

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...

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 Rebel...

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 lite...

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 loo...

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 glob...

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 wo...

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 internatio...

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 conver...

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 i...

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...

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...