Accidental Gods

How would our world feel if our local, regional and national politics really listened to all the people, really brought together diverse views, and knew how to listen deeply to whatever was said? How would we be if our politics brought out the best in all of us, and worked for the living planet?  We talk to Trust The People , a new movement to bring this about - globally.  Trust The People is a mo...

What if we could see the nature of the stories that drive us, how would we be?  Would we be able to change them?  And what would we want in their place?  This week, Alnoor Ladha, mystic, visionary, activist and regenerative farmer explores the four ways to change the world. Alnoor Ladha's  work focuses on the intersection of political organizing, systems thinking and narrative work. He was the co-...

What if we had a way to draw carbon out of the air, heal our ecosystems and feed the world?  We do: It's called Regenerative Agriculture and the understanding of how we do this is key to a flourishing future.  But we need to listen to the land first, as Navona Gallegos describes in this new Accidental Gods podcast. Navona Gallegos is an ecologist and farmer working to transition desert back into g...

An end-of-year round up of the best fiction and non-fiction books - and podcasts - of 2020.  All are my opinion and this is only a tiny selection of the really good stuff out there - but it's good.  Enjoy!   We have to stop consuming stuff... but we never stop imbibing ideas. So here are some to choose from - all links to Blackwells. For obvious reasons. Non-Fiction 'From what is to what if' by Ro...

It's our Birthday... and it's the December Solstice, the time of transition and potential transformation .  In honour of which, we are crafting a new tradition: a PodBoom shared with Della Duncan of UPSTREAM podcast and Nathalie Nahai of THE HIVE.    So, it's our Birthday - and it's that time of year when every pundit endeavours to look back at the year just gone and ahead to the one that is comin...

How can we make learning a genuinely transformational experience? One that's fun, and inspiring and that teaches us HOW to think, not WHAT to think? Rachel Musson had given her life to asking this question and ThoughtBox is her answer.  Suppose we all learned three things at school: empathy, critical thinking and systems thinking... imagine how different the world would be. Suppose we learned how...

How bad are things really? Is it too late to avert the climate and ecological catastrophe? And if not, how do we pull ourselves back from the brink? Exploring answers with Paul Behrens, author of 'The Best of Times, The Worst of Times'. We live on the edge of change - the facts can be terrifying, but the creative potential of our times is inspiring and just as jaw-dropping as the horrors of the re...

How can we take the radical, renegade, rule-breaking, revolutionary ideals of the golden age of Pirates and transmute them to gold in our world? Alex Barker, author of 'How to be More Pirate' lays out the maps to the treasure of change. The concept of radical, renegade, revolutionary insurgency based on the model created in the Golden Age of Pirates was given wings by Sam Conniff's best selling bo...

In the midst of nonviolent direct action, is a red thread, holding the liminal space between the old and the new, between action and re-action, between hope and extinction.  The Red Rebel Brigade is a distinctive feature of XR Actions and here we have a glimpse from the inside. More at  Red is the colour of our life blood. It joins us to the land and all the web of life.  It was chosen as the orig...

Greta Thunberg says that ‘We cannot save the planet by playing by the rules, so the rules have to be changed’.  This is self-evidently true, but that leaves us with the question of what rules could we create that we could all live by. Polly Higgins has the Earth Protector law, but Shelley Ostroff has gone one step further with her Codes for a Healthy Earth and the World Water law.  Together, these...

How do we shift the narratives of business so that it becomes part of the solution, not the core of the problem? Mike Raven of AQAI explores the ways business can adapt - and become part of a genuinely regenerative future. Mike  is a Radical collaborator, rapid researcher, speaker, facilitator and entrepreneur. He's a holistic business graduate and practitioner. He's a qualified Naturopath, who ha...

How can we rebuild our cities to become place of community, connection and coherence? How can we build multi-generational tribes that thrive and support each other in the hearts of our urban areas? Mark Lakeman of the City Repair project explains the changes he has made - and continues to make.   Mark Lakeman is the founder of the City Repair Project, as well as the founder and Design Director at...

Gill Coombs is a writer, coach, and facilitator. Her approach is rooted in her own long, colourful journey towards fulfilling work.  In 2010, Gill left a corporate Learning and Development career to travel around the country on foot and public transport, leading workshops for communities on living in harmony with self, people and planet. She is now an elder visionary with Extinction Rebellion and...

How do we re-democratise democracy?  Understanding that our current system is broken is the first step, but then we need to find ways to gather voices and give agency to those with wisdom, so that we re-create our systems of governance from the ground up.  At the start of Lockdown, Eva and Justin set out to interview 100 people in Scotland - deep, wide, broad interviews across the widest range of...

If Climate Change is a failure of the imagination and this is a time when we need to be at our most imaginative, how can we change the trajectory of our falling imaginations? Rob Hopkins of the Transition Town movement, has explored the depths of our imagination and creativity.  Our society is a dis-imagination machine.  But we can reverse it. Rob Hopkins, author of 'From What Is to What If?', off...

If we gather in ceremony, sitting on the land, with a fire-keeper who understands the holding and has trained in the ways of the fire, there is so much healing.  Fiona Shaw is one of those people, trained in great depth and absolute integrity, to connect to the spirits of this land, and to hold the space for others to re-connect to the fire, the water, the land, the guides, gods and guardians of o...

Doughnut Economics is a new, groundbreaking model that lets us see how we can embrace the needs of all within the means of a living, thriving planet.  Rob Shorter, Communities Lead, of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab explains what it is, how it works and how we can embrace it at all levels in our communities of people and place and purpose. The imagination needs mental and emotional space to ena...

If we view life as a Game between Light and Dark, where do we stand at any given moment?  Hero or Manipulator?  Altruist or Cynic? Sleepwalker, Avoider, Traditionalist?   We can each be any of these at any given moment. Knowing we have choice is what gives us the power to be different.  What do you choose?  Gill Coombs is a facilitator, coach, peripatetic counsellor and an elder of Extinction Rebe...

What is the first, simplest and most profound change we can make in our lives?  Sign up as an Earth Protector - and then encourage your local schools, hospitals, colleges, councils to sign too.  Jozette Khimba of the Earth Protector Communities organisation, explores the ways we can have huge impact on our local communities. Jozette has been a lifelong activist, but it was her connection with acti...

What are we here for?  Where does our heritage step into our potential? How can we build a genuinely ecological civilisation that sees people and communities flourish within the means of the living planet?  Jeremy Lent, author of 'The Patterning Instinct', explores the answers to life's biggest questions. Jeremy is an author whose writings investigate the patterns of thought that have led our civi...

How can we shape a world where everyone has found and is following their soul’s calling? Gill Coombs, author of The Trembling Warrior and ‘Hearing your Calling’ on ways to discover our soul’s true path.  Gill is a writer, facilitator, coach and activist. In 2011/12 Gill studied Holistic Science at Schumacher College, and then wrote her first book Hearing our Calling. In 2015 she stood as a Parliam...

How would our world feel if we let ourselves follow the wild dreams of our hopes?  And how can we reshape the land around us if we let it teach us.  Former garden designer and founder of "We are the Ark" (Acts of Regenerative Kindness) explores the wild dreaming of the land that brought her to a place where regeneration is the heart of all she does. Mary Reynolds set her intent to win a gold medal...

How can we heal ourselves and the world?  So many people ask the question and yet the answers are simple.  We know what we need to do, we just don’t know how to do it. In this race through the grounding of Accidental Gods, podcast host, Manda Scott explores the answers. We know that our healing depends on our re-connection with the web of life, with what we call ‘The Natural World’ until we stop s...

If you could transform your life with three questions whose answers would bring you into right relationship with yourself, the Earth and the whole web of consciousness, would you ask them?  Even if they took you to the full depths of yourself?  In this profoundly moving podcast, Mac Macartney guides us through.  "When a human embryo is in the mother’s womb, creation whispers into their being ‘I am...

What links the neuroscience of love, the embracing of failure and the pheromones of trees?  Adam Hamdy, novelist, screenwriter and sense-maker in an increasingly non-sensical world shares ways to be the best of ourselves, and help others to reach the same place. Adam Hamdy is a novelist, screenwriter, advisor-to-ministers (not that they necessarily listen, but that's their loss) and soon-to-be aut...