Fresh Thinking Podcast

This story or parable is from the first of eight sections of an inquiry I am running into Relational Disobedience. The world today gives us plenty of reasons to resist. Wars rage, ecosystems collapse, politicians play games with truth and trust, and economic systems deepen inequality. Many feel the urge to fight back. Yet the dominant images of resistance remain loud, angry, and often violent; bur...

There are times when obedience is deadly, when following the rules, sticking to the plan or hiding behind the institution means ignoring the subtleties of life as it unfolds in front of us. Relational disobedience is the choice to refuse that deadening obedience. It is the courage to respond as a living sensing creative human being. It means listening more deeply than the policy allows. Caring whe...

Nilo was born in the City of Angles, where towers touched clouds and everything had a number. Even the birds, what few remained, were tagged and tracked, their wings weighed against efficiency. He lived on the thirty-second floor of a glass building that never opened its windows. Air came through vents. Food arrived in packages. His parents worked on screens that glowed day and night, solving prob...

Far beyond the edge of the last map, past the iron fields, the gridstone towers, and the cities that spoke only in numbers, there was a small valley no one sought and few remembered. The valley was not hidden, only ignored. Its roads were narrow, its trees unlabelled, its seasons irregular. It offered no riches, no strategic advantage, and no certainty. But those who lived there knew the signs of...

Story Two in The Thread and the Listening World; The Shattering of the Map. There was once a boy born with stars in his eyes. While other children listened to the wind or followed the trails of beetles through leaf litter, this boy asked questions no one had thought to ask. Where does the sun go at night? Why does the river curve when it could run straight? How do I know that your blue is the same...

“There is no finality, no finished state of being. There is only becoming, and becoming is a shared endeavour.” — paraphrasing Whitehead In an age of polarisation, climate collapse, and political gridlock, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Many of us sense that our political systems, built on competition, control, and linear planning, are not only failing to address our crises but are actively deepen...

“The cosmos is not a place but a story. It is not a system but a communion.” — Brian Swimme Thanks for reading Fresh Thinking! This post is public so feel free to share it. We are living through more than a political crisis. More than an economic crisis. Even more than an ecological crisis. We are living through a cosmological crisis, a collapse in the stories that once held meaning, coherence, an...

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” — C.G. Jung Politics has always had its shadows. But in recent years, it has taken on an increasingly psychological tone, emotional, reactive, tribal. Our public discourse is saturated with outrage, scapegoating, and symbolic battles that seem to have little to do with the slow work of governance and everythi...

“The fallacy of misplaced concreteness consists in treating abstractions as though they were real.” — Alfred North Whitehead We live under the illusion of control. Our institutions are structured, our policies measured, our goals SMART. Governance is imagined as a machinery of systems, inputs, outputs, and efficiencies. Yet everywhere, the ground is shifting, ecologically, politically, spiritually...

Fresh Thinking is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. In an era of political fragmentation and cultural tension, it is tempting to seek stability. We long for certainty in our leaders, clarity in our values, and control over our communities. Figures like Donald Trump, movements like Brexit, and the rise of nationali...

Politics as Process By Mike Chitty A six-part inquiry into politics, process philosophy, and the ethic of care. Episode 2: The Backlash to Complexity Multiculturalism, ‘woke’, and the rise of the right This episode considers the cultural and psychological forces behind backlash politics. It suggests that many anti-woke, anti-pluralist narratives are responses to the anxiety of relationality. Multi...

This is the final part of three Mirror Merchant. A reflective story that has taken us from sense to soul to spirit. I hope that you got something from it! I certainly learned something about visoe editing and script writing. I will keep trying to get better! Get full access to Fresh Thinking at freshthinking.substack.com/subscribe

Story 1 in the cycle, The Thread and the Listening World. The Song Beneath the Silence. Before the world was measured, it was heard, not in words, nor in melodies, made for ears. But in the deep, unfathomable music of being, this music did not rise from any one place. It was not sung by birds or carried by wind, though both gave it form. It was the pulse that bound the living to the living, the st...

Episode Three - Spirit coming next Sunday… Get full access to Fresh Thinking at freshthinking.substack.com/subscribe

In the first episode of 'The Listening Hive,' beekeeper and writer Mike Chitty explores the myth of greed as a driver for societal prosperity. Drawing insights from his experience with beekeeping and the early 18th-century text 'The Fable of the Bees' by Bernard Mandeville, Mike challenges the notion that private vices lead to public benefits. He contrasts this with an ethic of care, emphasising a...

My first dabble in video for a while. This is the first of a trilogy. Sense, Soul and finally Spirit. I hope yo find something in them... Get full access to Fresh Thinking at freshthinking.substack.com/subscribe