How We Show Up with Mia Birdsong

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Oct 24, 2023

In this episode, Mia Birdsong, author of 'How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community', discusses the importance of building healthy communities and reevaluating societal values. They explore the impact of capitalism on our ability to connect and support one another, the meaning of showing up for someone, setting boundaries without bosses or policing, and cultivating a collective vitality for a liberated future.

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INSIGHT

Practice Generational Futurism

Mia Birdsong urges futurist thinking to orient energy toward building a generational, liberated future rather than only reacting to crises.
Imagining long-term possibilities expands strategy and prevents staying trapped in perpetual defense mode.

INSIGHT

Community Predicts Resilience

Birdsong links community connection to resilience in disasters, citing Daniel Aldrich's research that social ties predict survival better than wealth.
She argues freedom depends on being embedded in mutual support networks, not solitary self-sufficiency.

INSIGHT

Freedom Is Rooted In Belonging

Birdsong traces freedom and friendship to a shared etymological and historical understanding of belonging as essential to freedom.
She highlights humans as social animals whose survival and freedom depend on connection.

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As we continue to work towards outer transformation, building the structures and models that will shape the transition to a post-capitalist society, it's also important to think about the inner transitions within ourselves — particularly, how we relate to one another personally and socially.

How we show up together for a liberated future is the core theme of the book How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community, written by our guest in this episode, Mia Birdsong. Mia is the Executive Director of the Next River Institute and the host of the More than Enough podcast miniseries. In How We Show Up, Mia shares how we have separated from one another despite our deep desire for belonging. She explores how we can instead turn towards one another, remembering our inherent interconnectedness, and how we can find connection and support in vulnerability and generosity.

In this conversation we explore how capitalism has undermined our ability to create and sustain healthy communities, what it really means to show up for someone, how to set boundaries and hold each other accountable without bosses or policing, what a healthy interconnected community feels like, and how to cultivate a sense of collective vitality that embodies the liberated future we want right now

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