FEASTA and EHFF

The Role of Creativity in Health by FEASTA and EHFF

Regenerative Economics in Secondary Schools (and Elsewhere) by FEASTA and EHFF

David Somekh and Caroline Whyte speak with Professor Lindsay McLaren, who is a Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary, Canada, where her research and teaching focus on the social determinants and political economy of health. Topics covered included the fact that good health actually has far less to do with health behaviours which are conceptualised as...

Seán Ó Conlaín and Caroline Whyte speak with Nicholas Shaxson about his advocacy work on tackling the power of monopolies and on tax justice. Conversation topics included the relationship between Ireland’s corporate tax regime and its Foreign Direct Investment; the reasons why Nick has expanded his focus to include monopoly power as well as tax justice; the role of monopolies in the agribusiness,...

David Somekh and Caroline Whyte speak with Simon Ticehurst, Advocacy and Movements Lead for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance. They discuss how the wellbeing economy concept can help tackle the urgent challenges of planetary health; covering topics such as Donut Economics, the historical challenges of extractive, mainstream economics, particularly in Latin America, and finding hope from youth movemen...

David Somekh and Caroline Whyte spoke with Dr Tony Holohan, the former Chief Medical Officer of Ireland and the director of the new One Health Centre at University College Dublin. Tony and David reflected on the breakout session on health at the June 2024 Rethinking Growth conference. They discussed the need to emphasise community-based healthcare, the strong links between healthcare and the broad...

Doctor Sarah Browne from TCD Business School explains why she moved away from a traditional, mainstream teaching of marketing - including such subjects as ‘micro-targeting’ and ‘brand equity’. Instead, Sarah and colleagues, both in the Business School and elsewhere, are now taking a more critical stance which questions the prioritisation of demand generation, growth at all costs, and the targeting...

David Somekh and Caroline Whyte spoke with Mark Garavan, who is a senior lecturer in Social Care at the Atlantic Technological University and the author of the recently-published book ‘Care’. Topics discussed include the double-edged role of technology, the power of dominant narratives - including those concerning inequality and economic growth - modernity’s quest to eliminate all suffering, and t...

In this podcast Seán Ó Conláin spoke with Philip McDonagh. Philip is the author of several poetry collections and the Director of the Centre for Religion, Human Values, and International Relations at Dublin City University. A former diplomat, he was involved the Good Friday Agreement peace process in Northern Ireland, and he served as ambassador to India, the Holy See, Russia and Finland. The topi...

David Somekh and Caroline Whyte speak with Takis Kotos, the founder of the Cambridge Medical Academy, about his work on integrating conventional and traditional medicine, including research on herbs, while also making use of new technologies to help ensure that patient care is personalised as possible.

In this podcast, Seán Ó Conláin and Caroline Whyte spoke with Harjeet Singh. Harjeet is the Global Engagement Director at the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative (FFNPT). He is currently also a member of the United Nations' Technical Expert Group on Comprehensive Risk Management. Topics covered in our interview included the history of the FFNPT initiative, its current status, and the n...

Caroline Whyte interviews four of Feasta's delegates to the COP28 climate summit which took place in Dubai, in November 2023: Hania Imran (Pakistan), Angel Smith (USA), Theresa O'Donohoe (Ireland) and Barbara McCarthy (Ireland). Topics discussed include: - the influence of civil society on COP negotiations - the potential for ‘side-treaties’ that develop alongside the UNFCCC process - the shadow c...

Thobile Chittenden, network co-lead of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll), speaks with Seán Ó Conláin about her early childhood at the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa and how that experience has influenced her, leading eventually to her decision to join the WEAll global amplification team. Topics covered in their conversation include the importance of people and communities being s...

David Somekh and Caroline Whyte interviewed Professor Jane Gray of Maynooth University Department of Sociology on her research on resilience in times of crisis. We discussed two projects that she recently led which explored the ways in which families coped with the wake of the Great Financial Crisis and, in the case of Ireland, how the Family Income Supplement affected them. Topics discussed inclu...

Seán Ó Conláin and Caroline Whyte spoke with Molly Scott Cato. Molly was formerly a Professor of Green Economics and speaks for the Green Party of England and Wales on Economy and Finance. She recently published a book on Sustainable Finance (Springer, 2022). Between 2014 and 2020 Molly represented South West England and Gibraltar in the European Parliament. She was a member of the Parliament’s Ec...

In this month's podcast, David Somekh of the EHFF and Caroline Whyte spoke with Bogi Eliasen, the Director of Health at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies (CIFS). Bogi initiated the Nordic Health 2030 process and has a key role in both the global Future Proofing Health Index and Movement Health 2030, that aspires to improve health by applying a new health paradigm. His current focus is f...

Caroline Whyte spoke with Katy Wiese, the Policy Manager for Economic Transition and Gender Equality at the European Environmental Bureau, and Jan Mayrhofer, the Policy and Advocacy Manager for Sustainability at the European Youth Forum. Katy and Jan discussed the recommendations in their co-authored report 'Escaping the Jobs and Growth Treadmill,' their impressions of the European Parliament's re...

David Somekh and Caroline Whyte interview futurist Bill Sharpe, author of the book 'Three Horizons: the Patterning of Hope'. Bill explains how he came to be working in this area, the potential offered by the Three Horizons method, and describes some recent projects in healthcare and regenerative agriculture.

Seán Ó Conláin and Caroline Whyte exchange some initial thoughts on the European Parliament’s recent conference, ‘Beyond Growth: Pathways Towards Sustainable Prosperity in the EU,” which they both attended from May 15-17. They considered it a seminal event and felt it was far too rich an experience to sum up in a half-hour podcast, and so they plan to discuss it further in future podcasts. In this...

David Somekh of the EHFF and Caroline interviewed Laura Rayner, who is a policy analyst at the European Policy Centre in Brussels. Laura is currently working on the Wellbeing Economy Policy Lab, which is a crosscutting work programme to analyse how the EU can develop and implement policies leading to a more equitable, socially inclusive and regenerative economy. The Lab's objectives are to help bu...

Caroline Whyte spoke with Sarah McKinley, who is the director of community wealth building programs for The Democracy Collaborative, working out of her home office in Brussels, Belgium. Sarah's background is in community development and has worked with community development organizations at different levels, including with the Greater Southwest Development Corporation, a Chicago-based community de...

Many people would agree that we need to change the way in which we measure progress and move past the current narrow focus on GDP. Ireland, along with many other countries, has been developing a wellbeing framework that contains a dashboard of indicators which are intended to give a snapshot of how Ireland is doing in many different areas, including health, education, employment and the environmen...

David Somekh of the EHFF and Caroline Whyte spoke with Jim Garrison. Jim is the founder of Ubiquity University, whose founding purpose is to develop learning experiences grounded in the world’s wisdom traditions blended with practical interpersonal and entrepreneurial skills.  Jim has a doctorate in philosophical theology from Cambridge University and has been active throughout his life in the ant...

Seán Ó Conláin and Caroline Whyte interviewed Anne Barrington, who is the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Ó Cualann Cohousing Alliance in Ireland, and Uuriintuya Batsaikhan, an economist based in Brussels who oversees the research projects at Positive Money Europe. Topics covered in our discussion included the challenges faced by those trying to provide affordable housing in Ireland,...

David Somekh and Caroline Whyte spoke with Lars Münter. Lars works on international relations for the Danish committee for health education, and he also manages the communication for Nordic Health 2030 and is a member of the EHFF’s Advisory Group and the Wellbeing Economy Alliance’s Danish hub. Topics covered included the impact and implications for community health from the COVID pandemic, the ne...