On this episode of Doomer Optimism, Dr. Ashley Colby (@RizomaSchool) and Steven Morris (@lifesmyth) sit down with family, financial and legal expert Ali Katz (@thealikatz)for a conversation about leaning into the things that scare you most. An apt topic for these terrifying times.

About Ali Katz
Ali Katz is a family, financial and legal expert who works as a private advisor for families, small business owners, and inheritors of family wealth, in addition to running 3 of her own, purpose-aligned companies. As a trusted advisor, Ali supports her clients to make eyes wide open legal, insurance, financial and tax decisions, often providing interim CEO/CFO services to founders ready for their next level of expansion and evolution.

About Dr. Ashley Colby
Ashley is an Environmental Sociologist who studied at Washington State University, the department that founded the subdiscipline. She's interested in and passionate about the myriad creative ways in which people are forming new social worlds in resistance to the failures of late capitalism and resultant climate disasters. I am a qualitative researcher so I tend to focus on the informal spaces of innovation. She's the founder of Rizoma Field School and Rizoma Foundation.

About Steven Morris
Steven Morris started his journey into Doomer Optimism in 2011 when during the time of a divorce he stumbled upon 3 of the many early doomer optimist voices: Chris Martenson's Crash Course, John Michael Greer's blog The Archdruid Report, and KMO's C-Realm podcast. These 3 identified the many issues of decline in the world that he could sense but didn't have words for. At the same time they all provided positive possibilities for the future.

Steven considers himself an amateur Renaissance Man and Polymath of sorts with a wide variety of interests including, appropriate use of technology, regenerative systems, explorations in consciousness, alternative (sometimes called complementary) currency systems, computer technology, and complex systems.

He has worked on multiple award winning independent films, managed warehouse logistics for a small business, run a college radio station and lead ecstatic dance workshops. He is a trained Host for Nora Bateson's People Need People gatherings. He currently generates income from running the audio visual technology behind corporate events and is working with the Commons Engine as the video editor for their upcoming Currency Design for Change Agents master class to be launched this spring.

So this is quizmas: our inaugural holiday face-off