Today, we are learning from Della Z Duncan.
Della guides us upstream to the root causes of the challenges of our time to empower us to realize and re-member who we are and how we can contribute. As a Renegade Economist, plants in her regenerative livelihood garden include hosting the Upstream Podcast challenging mainstream economic thinking through documentaries and conversations, supporting individuals as a Right Livelihood Coach, co-directing the California Doughnut Economics Coalition which just released a Doughnut Snapshot of the state of California, helping transition businesses and organizations to post-capitalism, and teaching and facilitating courses and retreats on Buddhist Economics, the Work that Reconnects, and Regenerative Economics.
Della is also the Course Development Manager of Fritjof Capra’s Capra Course on the Systems View of Life, a Senior Fellow of Social and Economic Equity at the London School of Economics, a Gross National Happiness Master Trainer, and a Senior Lecturer of Renegade Economics and Regenerative Livelihoods at the California Institute of Integral Studies, Santa Cruz Permaculture, Vital Cycles Permaculture, and Gaia Education.
Let's get started...
In this conversation with Della Duncan, I learned:
00:00 Intro
02:55 The current plants in her regenerative livelihood garden of Della. - One who supports re-membering.
04:30 Our parenting and caretaking can be part of the offerings of our time.
06:05 Renegate economist is to challenge and unlearn the paradigms and values that underpin mainstream economic thinking.
08:20 What are your indicators for success, what are your metrics?
09:20 What is truly important to you and to us?
10:50 We have high levels of inequality and it is growing. Many people don't have the ability to be happy, healthy, and well.
13:25 A beautiful vision for a post-profit world.
14:50 What do you want your entrepreneurship to serve, what cause or issue?
15:15 Entrepreneurship can be a force for good.
15:45 You find your enoughness and after that, where do you want your profit to go?
20:45 Kicked off the mindfulness cushion into a path of engaged activism.
21:35 Stumbling onto Buddhist economics, the work of E.F. Schumacher, and Schumacher College.
25:50 Challenging the main mainstream economic thinking with initiatives like doughnut economics.
27:35 Bringing Doughnut Economics to live in California.
32:40 Instead of seeking balance, Della seeks balancing.
33:00 We are tentative about what we measure; what are my metrics of success?
34:40 Looking at some of your work as a hobby as a helpful reframe for balancing life.
36:00 Being led by inquiry is important for the podcast.
39:05 This is how they use the money from their Patreaons.
40:10 Learnings from the conversations about post-capitalism parenting.
45:05 A more equal world is better for everyone.
45:45 We get to a more equal world by paying people more equally.
47:20 Two great questions from the right livelihood coaching sessions: 1. What is the world's deepest hunger as it shows up for you? (What breaks your heart?) 2. How do we pair that with your deepest gladness? (What brings you joy? Sense of thriving?)
51:24 The practice of tithing - with the mindset of enoughness, what can you give away what you don't need?
52:20 Christianity has been supportive of capitalism, colonization, and harm to people on the planet. We can also find places where Christianity had been supportive of post-capitalist realities.
54:15 Spiritual traditions are unhelpful when they posit individual salvation and cosmic duality, and they are helpful when they posit collective liberation and cosmic unity.
58:00 What are your metrics? How are you measuring your life?
The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.
— Frederick Buechner
More about Della Duncan:
