Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature

The podcast dives into the urgent housing crisis, questioning whether housing should be a human right instead of a market commodity. It highlights community struggles against gentrification, showcasing grassroots efforts to reclaim public housing. The conversation draws insights from Vienna's successful housing strategies post-WWI, advocating for transformative policies. Additionally, it emphasizes the role of cooperative models like the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative in fostering community wealth and addressing historical injustices.

In this episode on community wealth building, we look at how communities are working to transform their local economies by harnessing the assets that exist in their place. It’s the Kryptonite to the corporate model that extracts wealth from communities. Instead, they’re anchoring capital and resources locally to directly invest in that place and its people - from land to money and finance.We hear from Nicole Ndumele from the Center for American Progress; Mike Strode, from The Kola Nut Collaborative; and Deyanira del Río of the New Economy Project.ResourcesCenter for American ProgressNew Economy ProjectOpen Collective FoundationThe Kola Nut CollaborativeOur Economic Future: Achieving a More Equitable Society by Radically Rethinking Our Guiding Economic Ideas | Bioneers ReaderThis episode is part 1 of a 4-part series exploring how communities are working to transform their local economies by harnessing their assets, anchoring capital and resources locally to directly invest in that place and its people – from land to money and finance. Explore the full series here.Guest HostLaura Flanders is the host and executive producer of Laura Flanders & Friends, which airs on PBS stations nationwide. She is an Izzy-Award winning independent journalist, a New York Times bestselling author and the recipient of the Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Media Center.CreditsThis series is co-produced by Bioneers and Laura Flanders & FriendsLaura Flanders & Friends Producers: Laura Flanders and Abigail HandelProduction Assistance: Jeannie Hopper and David NeumannBioneers Executive Producer: Kenny AusubelSenior Producer: Stephanie WelchProducer: Teo GrossmanHost and Consulting Producer: Neil HarveyProgram Engineer and Music Supervisor: Emily Harris

Today’s corporate, capitalist economy is radically unequal, ecologically unsustainable, and embedded in recurring boom-and-bust cycles of crisis. Not surprisingly, people are looking for alternatives. What if, instead of tweaking the system to reduce the damage, we reorganized entirely so that both local and national economies produced better outcomes for people, communities and the planet in the first place? That’s the essence of community wealth building, the focus of this episode with guest host Laura Flanders, featuring Democracy Collaborative Distinguished Senior Fellow, Marjorie Kelly; Preston City Council Member, Matthew Brown in the UK; and community wealth building adviser to the Scottish Government, Neil McInroy.This episode is part 2 of a 4-part series exploring how communities are working to transform their local economies by harnessing their assets, anchoring capital and resources locally to directly invest in that place and its people – from land to money and finance. Explore the full series here.ResourcesDemocracy CollaborativeWealth Supremacy: How the Extractive Economy and The Biased Rules of Capitalism Drive Today's CrisesAction Guide for Advancing Community Wealth Building in the United States | Democracy CollaborativeGar Alperovitz – Replacing Corporate Capitalism: Why We Need a Next System | Bioneers 2018 KeynoteOur Economic Future: Achieving a More Equitable Society by Radically Rethinking Our Guiding Economic Ideas | Bioneers ReaderGuest HostLaura Flanders is the host and executive producer of Laura Flanders & Friends, which airs on PBS stations nationwide. She is an Izzy-Award winning independent journalist, a New York Times bestselling author and the recipient of the Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Media Center.CreditsThis series is co-produced by Bioneers and Laura Flanders & FriendsLaura Flanders & Friends Producers: Laura Flanders and Abigail HandelProduction Assistance: Jeannie Hopper and David NeumannBioneers Executive Producer: Kenny AusubelSenior Producer: Stephanie WelchProducer: Teo GrossmanHost and Consulting Producer: Neil HarveyProgram Engineer and Music Supervisor: Emily Harris

In this special episode of the Bioneers, guest host Laura Flanders explores “Community Wealth Building,” a model that democratizes the economy, creates more cooperative businesses, better care for communities, and builds wealth for the many, not just the few. This episode features American political economist, historian, and author Gar Alperovitz of the Democracy Collaborative, along with India Pierce Lee about her work with the Collaborative in Cleveland, Ohio; and John McMicken, Executive Director of Cleveland’s Evergreen Cooperative Corporation.This episode is part 1 of a 4-part series exploring how communities are working to transform their local economies by harnessing their assets, anchoring capital and resources locally to directly invest in that place and its people – from land to money and finance. Explore the full series here.Guest HostLaura Flanders is the host and executive producer of Laura Flanders & Friends, which airs on PBS stations nationwide. She is an Izzy-Award winning independent journalist, a New York Times bestselling author and the recipient of the Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Media Center.CreditsThis series is co-produced by Bioneers and Laura Flanders & FriendsLaura Flanders & Friends Producers: Laura Flanders and Abigail HandelProduction Assistance: Jeannie Hopper and David NeumannBioneers Executive Producer: Kenny AusubelSenior Producer: Stephanie WelchProducer: Teo GrossmanHost and Consulting Producer: Neil HarveyProgram Engineer and Music Supervisor: Emily HarrisResourcesDemocracy CollaborativeEvergreen CooperativesHow to Make a Democratic Economy | Laura Flanders & FriendsAction Guide for Advancing Community Wealth Building in the United States | Democracy CollaborativeGar Alperovitz – Replacing Corporate Capitalism: Why We Need a Next System | Bioneers 2018 KeynoteOur Economic Future: Achieving a More Equitable Society by Radically Rethinking Our Guiding Economic Ideas | Bioneers Reader

Angela Glover Blackwell, a leading social justice advocate and founder of PolicyLink, and john a. powell, Director of the Othering and Belonging Institute, dive deep into the urgent need for a cultural shift from individualism to a collective 'we.' They discuss the vital role of storytelling and joy in advocacy, while unpacking complex dynamics of belonging and identity. From navigating reparations to fostering a truly inclusive democracy, these two visionaries explore the pathways to creating a world where everyone genuinely belongs.

What does it mean to bring the “feminine” forward in leadership from diverse cultural and ethnic perspectives? How might a spectrum of views help us to integrate relational intelligence into all our leadership? This hour long special features poet Noris Binet; Nikki Silvestri, former Executive Director of Green for All and The People's Grocery and Pat McCabe, or Woman Stands Shining, a Navajo teacher working on Indigenous frameworks for gender and all of life.

Ever since women won the right to vote in 1920, women leaders and their allies have sought to pass an Equal Rights Amendment to drive total equality and justice for women into the U.S. Constitution. It did pass in 1972, but fell three states short of ratification. Today’s next wave of the women’s movement might finally make the ERA a reality. Why is Constitutional protection so crucial? Join leading advocates Joan Blades (MomsRising co-founder), attorney Kimberle Crenshaw and Jessica Neuwirth (ERA Coalition President) to learn the true story of what’s at stake and how life would be different and better for women and men.To learn more about Kimberle Crenshaw’s work, visit the African American Policy Forum.  You can follow Joan Blades work at MomsRising, and Living Room Conversations. Follow the progress Jessica Neuwirth and others are making with the ERA Coalition.See related media in our Green New Deal Media Collection.This is an episode of the Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature series. Visit the radio and podcast homepage to learn more.

Global healing requires a spiritual transformation of every aspect of life. Rabbi Michael Lerner of Tikkun Magazine, author/educator Matthew Fox and Joanna Macy, eco-philosopher and scholar of Buddhism speak of the profound interconnectedness of all life and the experience of joy, courage and community we need to engage in the healing of the world.

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. From the historic Indigenous occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969 to the fossil fuel fights throughout Canada and the U.S. today, Indigenous resistance illuminates an activism founded in a spiritual connection with the web of life and the human community - with Julian NoiseCat, Dr. LaNada War Jack and Clayton Thomas Müller.Featuring Julian Brave NoiseCat is a polymath whose work spans journalism, public policy, research, art, activism and advocacy. He serves as Director of Green Strategy at Data for Progress, as well as “Narrative Change Director” for the Natural History Museum artist and activist collective. Dr. LaNada War Jack is an enrolled member of the Shoshone Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Idaho. Clayton Thomas-Müller is a member of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, also known as Pukatawagan, in Northern Manitoba. He serves as the “Stop it at the Source” campaigner with 350.org. ResourcesFaulty Infrastructure and the Impacts of the Dakota Access Pipeline | 2022 NDN Collective Climate Justice ReportFrom Alcatraz to Standing Rock and Beyond: On the Past 50 and Next 50 Years of Indigenous Activism | 2019 Bioneers Indigenous ForumJulian Brave NoiseCat – Apocalypse Then & Now | 2021 Bioneers Keynote AddressBioneers Indigeneity Curriculum | Free resources for educators covering Alcatraz, Standing Rock, and moreCreditsExecutive Producer: Kenny AusubelWritten by: Kenny AusubelSenior Producer and Station Relations: Stephanie WelchHost and Consulting Producer: Neil HarveyProducer: Teo GrossmanProgram Engineer and Music Supervisor: Emily HarrisProduction Assistance: Monica LopezSpecial thanks to Cara Romero and Alexis Bunten, co-producers of the Bioneers Indigeneity Forum.This program features music by Justin Delorme, Chippewa Travelers and Mimi O’Bonsawin from Nagamo Publishing at Nagamo.ca.This is an episode of the Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature series. Visit the radio and podcast homepage to learn more.

We plug into the real world Matrix – the digital Wild West of surveillance capitalism that dominates this Age of Information. Behind it is the unholy alliance between Big Tech and Big Brother. Privacy is the first casualty and democracy dies with it. Our guide is Cindy Cohn, director of Electronic Frontier Foundation, with her decades of experience challenging digital authoritarianism.FeaturingCindy Cohn, the Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation since 2015, served as EFF’s Legal Director as well as its General Counsel from 2000 to 2015. Among other honors, Ms. Cohn was named to The Non-Profit Times 2020 Power & Influence TOP 50 list, and in 2018, Forbes included Ms. Cohn as one of America’s Top 50 Women in Tech.ResourcesCindy Cohn – The Climate Fight is Digital | Bioneers 2024 KeynoteTools from Electronic Frontier FoundationCreditsExecutive Producer: Kenny AusubelWritten by: Kenny AusubelAdditional production and writing: Leo HornakSenior Producer and Station Relations: Stephanie WelchProgram Engineer and Music Supervisor: Emily HarrisProducer: Teo GrossmanHost and Consulting Producer: Neil HarveyThis is an episode of the Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature series. Visit the radio and podcast homepage to learn more.