Mind the Shift

If you’re not used to venturing far outside the mainstream: buckle up, you’re in for a ride. The South African writer, scientist, explorer and activist Michael Tellinger tells about our ancient history and the world today in ways that you’ve never heard before. ”I’d like to invite the listeners to open their minds and imagine that anything is possible, because almost everything we’ve been told by...

How can democracy catch up with the globalized economy? ”It’s surprising that inequality increases even in democratic systems”, says Folke Tersman, a professor of practical philosophy at the university of Uppsala in Sweden. ”You might expect that with more inequality people would vote governments out that are seen as responsible. But we don’t always vote in accordance with our own interests”, says...

This pandemic shall pass, like everything does. But things won’t go back to exactly where they were. We will see whether these strange times will prove to be a watershed or something less significant. But the pandemic has highlighted and affected some features of our society that aren’t as natural as we think, to the extent we think about them at all: • Money • The workplace • Fear and authority •...

Have you heard of the Free Republic of Liberland? Probably not. But it is actually a nation that turned five this spring. There is a catch: It still doesn’t have any inhabitants on the physical area it has marked out for itself on a disputed piece of land between Serbia and Croatia, and it is still only recognized officially by Somaliland (which itself isn’t really recognized internationally). But...

The EU is an attempt to accomplish democracy at the European level, but there is a glass ceiling: The heads of government have the final say, not the elected representatives in the European Parliament. And when electing those representatives, it’s a national affair. It’s not even possible to run a Europe-wide campaign. Enter Volt, the very first pan-European party, founded in 2017 to create politi...

Almost everything in this physical world is ”nothingness”. It’s space. Only a teeny fraction of you, me and everything else consists of what we call particles. But that space isn’t nothing. It’s packed with all-encompassing energy, and ”we” are just more or less densified portions of that unified field of energy. How, then, can we not be connected? I think we can tap into this totality, and into e...

The near-death experience of Dr Eben Alexander is astonishing in its depth, and it is especially interesting since Dr Alexander was part of the mainstream scientific community. He was in a week-long coma, and his brain was all but destroyed. He shouldn’t have been able to experience anything. Yet he visited realms that he describes as far more real than this physical plane. Against all odds he rec...

Our world is ever more a cyberworld, but we still treat the digital part of it as if it weren’t real. Those who develop tech solutions surprisingly often forget about the people whom those solutions are for. Nadine Michaelides is a cyber psychologist and behavioral scientist. She works with understanding the relationship between human behavior and technology. Some years ago she realized the need f...

One day when I was 20 years old the whole world around me changed in appearance. I had tunnel vision and I had an eerie feeling of not being rooted. The thought that I, the real ”I”, was just that lump of flesh in my skull scared the hell out of me. I didn’t understand it at the time, but today I am convinced it was my higher self trying to tell me that my inkling was correct. The babble going on...

Most economists point out that economics isn’t particularly much about money, it’s about people’s behavior. Yet, most of them wouldn’t go so far as to suggest we scrap money altogether. ”When people ask how something is going to work in a money-free world I always say: ’Well, how does it work today?’. That’s always a good place to start. And the current economy allocates resources terribly badly....

The narrative about aviation's impact on the climate is muddled by a desire to use moral ammunition. Trains can never substitute airplanes on long distances, air traffic is crucial for global integration and there is no point in knocking out aviation anyway — its share of the world’s CO2 emissions is too small. If all the billions that are invested in trains instead were to be invested in clean av...

”The notion that we are stuck in matter is a huge mistake. For example if you listen to music, there are no molecules of a certain type flying through the air, it’s just energy, a small amount of energy, but it has a huge effect on the body.” The words are Karl Moore’s, an American Irishman who is a physicist, writer and homeopath, and as from this summer also a podcaster. In this episode, Karl ta...

What if the conventional view that the past has formed what we are today is false? What if it is the other way around: The present creates the past. The consequences of changing your mindset about past, present and future is mind blowing, and it has the potential to liberate you from the enslaving chains of history. Why do you feel an urge do do certain things and not others? Maybe you feel the pu...

One of the world’s most experienced diplomats, Jan Eliasson is a likable and honest man who is endowed with a constructive mindset. Lately, however, he feels that he in dark moments almost lands in the category of pessimist, ”but a pessimist that hasn’t given up”, he adds in his typical forward-looking way. What is worrying this former UN number two is the geopolitical shift that seems to have ero...

Jannecke Øinæs is a Norwegian former singer and actor who now excels as a spiritual entrepreneur. I really enjoyed having this candid conversation, which revolves around the deepest aspects of life but still in an easy-going way. Jannecke is a true light worker. Hear her talk about: • Her sudden, life changing shift in the middle of a promising career in show business • Identifying with labels oth...

Most of what you think you know about migration is probably incorrect. Listening to professor of sociology Hein de Haas , director of the International Migration Institute , makes one realize that both the media and the politicians have got the whole thing wrong: Migration would be less dramatic with more open borders. Poverty and conflict don’t drive most of migration, labor demand does. The conc...

Rania Odaymat is a Ghanaian artist, creative coach, art curator, founding member of the Beyond Collective and a part time fashion stylist and creative director. ”All of these roles can be helpful in simplifying things, but they don’t describe you as a person”, says this cool, wise and responsive human being (who stresses that she can just as well be described as an explorer, seeker, mother and dau...

Allan Lichtman, a professor of history at American University in Washington DC, has correctly predicted the winner of nine presidential elections in a row. He has a system with 13 ”keys” that seems almost foolproof (see below). Now he reveals his prediction for November 3, and you will hear it in this episode. Lichtman is a Democrat, but he makes sure to shove his own opinions aside when he makes...

Roy Coughlan had a multi-million euro business and lost everything when the markets crashed. When trying to rescue what was possible to rescue he saw the corruption of the economic and legal systems. He had a first hand experience of the ”conveyor belt rulings” in favor of the banks and against homeowners. At that point he had already seen falsity in the health system. ”Why don’t you hear about he...

Hear the experienced and highly respected ”global trend guru” Bi Puranen explain some of the social mega-trends that we are seeing today. On the Pandemic: ”Lockdowns have caused a lot more harm than the virus to low and middle income countries . One estimated result is 15 million unwanted pregnancies.” ”It’s a huge backlash for the fight against poverty. We have lost ten years.” On Democracy: ”Wha...

The experienced, sharp-minded, productive and – to some – controversial German ecologist Josef Reichholf is a humble Bavarian scientist who realized early on that he couldn’t compromise with his conscience. That entailed breaking with fellow ecologists, who in Reichholf’s mind had become too ideological. He thinks climate change policy for the most part is a big waste of money – not because there...

Shouldn’t an economist count money all the time? ”No”, is the unequivocal answer from Andreas Bergh , associate professor in economics at Lund university in southern Sweden. In this episode you can hear Bergh develop his sharp observations of human behavior in all kinds of contexts. Some samples: On globalization: ”We are seeing a backlash against the very forceful and rapid increase in globalizat...

In this episode we meet UNFPA doctor Bernadette ”Bernie” Ssebadduka, who dedicates her working hours to fighting harmful cultural practices in poor rural areas in northern Uganda, such as ”courtship rape” and female genital mutilation performed under the radar. But Bernie has also seen change sweeping across Uganda. There is hope, she says: ”We have seen the benefits of empowering women. The game...

”This is like a bushfire. If there is one spark, this thing will catch fire”, says epidemiologist Debby Guha-Sapir about the fact that authorities stopped measles vaccinations due to covid-19. Debby founded the world’s best and most reliable database on natural disasters, EM-DAT , at the university of Louvain, Belgium. Dry numbers can be more contentious than you think: ”We get a lot of hate mails...

”The most important weapons for terrorists isn’t Kalashnikovs or suicide bombs, it’s journalists. We journalists are part of the problem of trust meltdown in society. Now we have to be part of the solution”, says this Danish former editor in chief, who fled the bleeding headlines and decided to dedicate his time to making journalism constructive. In 2017 he founded Constructive Institute . He is c...