Coconut Thinking

Giles Hutchins, a transformative leader in regenerative business and author of "Nature Works," discusses the imperative of aligning leadership with nature. He critiques traditional paradigms and highlights the interconnectedness of humans and the environment. The conversation reveals how embracing tensions can fuel creativity and growth. Giles explores the relationship between artificial intelligence and natural wisdom, and the importance of seeing organizations as living systems. He emphasizes cultivating empathy and aiming for a holistic approach to enhance our world's sustainability.

How might we weave stories together as a response to ecological breakdown, using sound to connect to place?In this episode, I speak with Mike Edwards. Mike began his career researching climate change in the Southwest Pacific, where his work—cited by the IPCC—was among the first to explore ecocolonialism: how climate discourse is manipulated by the powerful to control those most affected. His research challenged dominant narratives, sparking debate among those reluctant to rethink the status quo. In 2015, he co-founded Sound Matters, pioneering work in sonic rewilding, regenerative soundscaping, and Integral Listening (IL). His book Soundscapes of Life is set for release in 2025. Beyond sound, Mike has been a Climate Change Advisor to The Elders Foundation, working with leaders like Kofi Annan and President Jimmy Carter ahead of COP21. He has lectured worldwide, led the Arts and Ecology programme at Dartington Arts, and founded InnerDigenous, a movement helping people reconnect with self and place for personal and planetary healing. We discuss: 🥥 How knowledge is co-created by place and when it travels, brings place with it; 🥥 How soundscapes are the stories of many, which force us to attend differently; 🥥 How we are not interconnected, because that might suggested we can become disconnected, rather, we are all entangled and vibrating, sometimes, if we are lucky, at the same frequencies. Check us out, www.coconut-thinking.comCheck out www.sound-matters.com

What happens when the way we see ourselves changes the way we see the world?In this episode, I speak with Steffi Bednarek. Steffi’s work explores the intersection of climate change, complexity thinking, and the human psyche. She is the Director of the Center for Climate Psychology. With over 25 years of experience in depth psychology, trauma-informed practice, complexity thinking, and climate psychology, she supports individuals and organisations in navigating the psychological impacts of the metacrisis while fostering resilience and healthy cultures. She is the author of Climate, Psychology, and Change, described as “a work of wisdom and radical ideas” by Satish Kumar and endorsed by Fritjof Capra, Bill McKibben, and Nora Bateson. We discuss:🥥 How our identities might shift in different ways depending on how we draw the boundaries, which changes our resonance with/as the world;🥥 How silencing others because they do not agree with us is not the solution to creating spaces for understanding;🥥 Our (in-)capacities to manage the inundation of information that comes our way, and how we might better adapt so as to flourish at best and avoid trauma at minimum.Check us out: www.coconut-thinking.comAnd check out the Center for Climate Psychology: https://climate-psychology-change.squarespace.com/

How might leadership open more emergent spaces in schools?This is the first in a series of episodes throughout the year where we invite educators and practitioners to explore how they might share their time, talents, and gifts to uplift others. As we delve into their stories, we ask our guests what contributions they envision making in the spirit of generosity and regeneration. This isn’t about the spotlight—it’s about the offering.In this episode, I speak with Leslie Medema, Head of Campus at Green School Bali. Leslie has held various roles at Green School, including head, curriculum developer, career counsellor, and, above all, educator. Her background spans work in NGOs and policymaking across industries. While she may be in the jungle, Leslie never forgets her roots in South Dakota. She brings a wealth of experience in starting innovative schools, aligning vision with lived experiences, and guiding organizations from unproductive chaos to emergent possibilities. We discuss:🥥 How to grow an organization in the midst of (controlled chaos) in ways that build capacity and foster community;🥥 The importance of knowing and articulating why we learn and teach something and how this makes our local or global world a better place; 🥥 How being comfortable with uncertainty is never going to be an easy ride—stories from Green School over the past 13 years Check us out www.coconut-thinking.com

How might we learn (and teach) to navigate uncertainty when the system rewards final answers?Dave Cormier is an internationally renowned educational thinker specializing in the intersection of technology and pedagogy. He coined the term MOOC in 2008 and pioneered open and rhizomatic learning. His work on creativity and uncertainty in education is taught globally. In 2024, he published Learning in a Time of Abundance: The Community Is the Curriculum with Johns Hopkins University Press. Recently, Dave facilitated an international online conference for educators and will be a visiting academic at Deakin University for the CRADLE symposium on Generative AI and Work-Integrated Learning. As the Interim Director of Curriculum Development and Delivery, Open Learning at Thompson Rivers University, he advances digital learning strategies in the GenAI era, supporting student experiences with practical and strategic solutions. We discuss:🥥 How a single adult engaging with a few students—when replicated locally and globally—might be the response we need to face the metacrisis.🥥 How learners of all ages don’t need to have every tool at their disposal when confronting uncertainty, but rather need to know how to respond, what to do, and where to learn to navigate it effectively.🥥 How the most important literacy of the 21st century is humility—the ability to say, “I don’t know, but let’s learn together.”Check us out at www.coconut-thinking.com

How might sound reshape our understanding of and nurture new relationships with the living world?In this episode, I speak with Louise Romain. Louise works as an anthropologist, an imagination activist (with Moral Imaginations) and a podcast producer. She campaigns for multispecies justice and Indigenous rights through grassroots organising, relationship building and media production. With her show ‘Circle of Voices’, she produces short stories, spoken word and immersive sound journeys, crafted as invitations to dream deeper into possible and desirable futures while engaging with themes of socio-political and environmental justice. She is fascinated by the potential of acoustic ecology to weave listeners into the sacred web of life and to support ecosystem regeneration. Louise is part of the Communications Team of the Women’s Caucus of the Convention on Biological Diversity, a 2024 Fellow of The Bio-Leadership Project and an active member of Earth Decides. We discuss:🥥 Multispecies justice as supporting all species to thrive alongside humans, appreciating that survival depends on water, the land, the air—a healthful planet;🥥 How sound asks us to slow down and open ourselves to different relationships with the living world of which we are part, noticing what we aren't used to noticing when we rely primarily on our sight;🥥 Inclusion of the more-than-human and how inclusion might require exclusion, and leaving a part of us behind in order to be included.Check us out www.coconut-thinking.comFind out more about Louise's work on her website https://tuneintotheworld.com/ and follow her on social media @‌lou_romain_ and @‌circleofvoices.Find her podcast here.

What happens when we tune into sound to make sense of our world? How might noticing sounds and silences tell us more about place?In this episode, Charlotte and I speak with Melissa Pons. Melissa is a field recordist and award-winning sound designer based in Portugal. Throughout her years of practice, she has independently released field recording albums, music compositions upon commission and her work has been streamed and featured in several media, like the BBC, NPR, The Guardian and Bandcamp Daily. Her personal work orbits around the more-than-human world and our complex relationship with it, and wild animals are a big source of inspiration for thinking, listening, writing, making music and the landscapes she seeks. Currently she’s working as a curator and podcast producer at the streaming platform earth.fm and works seasonally with sound design for audio dramas at Hemlock Creek Productions. We discuss:🥥 How sound forces us to slow down, to take time to notice, in ways that photos cannot, creating a different kind of embodied experience;🥥 How sounds tell stories of what is there and what is no longer there, which provides data that we aren't used to noticing;🥥 The relationship between people and place to sound, and the stories these tell.This is the first episode in our two-part series on sound. We hope that educators will consider sound over written text as means of learning, feeling, and expression. Check us out www.coconut-thinking.com.

How might Biomimicry help us understand the context of a problem in order for us to respond locally, not with one-size-fits-all solutions?In this episode, I speak with Bronwen Main and Frank Burridge. Bronwen is a landscape architect and co-founder of Main Studio, where she focuses on sustainable, nature-inspired designs that transform urban spaces. Her work emphasizes ecological restoration, community well-being, and biodiversity, creating environments that encourage people’s communion with nature. Bronwen also contributes as a lecturer and mentor, sharing her expertise with emerging architects. Through her innovative projects and community engagement, she promotes environmentally responsible design practices that blend aesthetics with ecological integrity and sustainable urban living.Frank is an architect and co-founder of Main Studio, a creative practice that blends architecture, art, and landscape design with ecological and community-focused principles. As a Teaching Associate at Monash University and a registered architect with the Architects Registration Board of Victoria, Frank is known for his innovative, sustainable projects. His work includes high-profile projects like Zac Efron’s planned “Futurecave” in New South Wales, embodying his commitment to creating functional, environmentally harmonious spaces. Bronwen and Frank are the architects (along with Ibuku) who are designing Green School' Biomimicry for Regenerative Design Lab, a first of its kind space in a K-12 school, where learners of all ages come together to explore and apply biomimicry principles for regenerative design We discuss:🥥 How biomimicry provides hope because we learn [from/as/with] Nature, which has already tested out infinite problems for over 3.8 billion years (at least!);🥥 The design process behind Green School's Biomimicry for Regenerative Design Lab, in which students and educators participated, as did the Natural world and the contact of Bali, education, and the current state of the world;🥥 How Biomimicry allows us to understand our place in Place, which is fundamental to opening up new possibilities for learning in schools and beyond.Check us out: www.coconut-thinking.comLearn more about Green School Bali: www.greenschool.org/bali

How might biomimicry be an ethical approach to a thriving planet rather than just another way to make cool products for money?In this episode, I speak with Henry Dicks. Henry is an environmental philosopher and philosopher of technology. He holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford and lectures in environmental philosophy and ethics at University Jean Moulin Lyon 3 and Shanghai University and in the philosophy of biomimicry at the Institut Supérieur de Design de Saint-Malo. We discuss:🥥 Nature as measure, not in the qualitative sense, but rather as an ethical compass that guides us to respond in ways to life🥥 Biomimicry as a move away from anthropocentrism through the reconsiderations of our relationships as Nature.🥥 Biomimicry as a model for AI and the possibilities expanding toward more-than-human intelligences in AI.This is the second of a 3-part series on Biomimicry, looking at the relational, ethical, and process of Biomimicry. Check us out: www.coconut-thinking.com

How might we create participatory, community-based technologies inspired from Nature with the interests of life in mind?In this episode, I speak with Daniel Kinzer. Daniel is the founder of Pacific Blue Studios, a network of youth-powered exploration, design and innovation studios leveraging biomimicry, traditional ecological knowledge and conservation technologies and focused on co-creating thriving, regenerative communities across Hawai'i and around our blue planet. He is an educator, designer, adventurer and ocean lover, and has spent over a decade living and learning across more than 70 countries and all 7 continents, including an expedition to Antarctica as a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow with National Geographic. We discuss: 🥥 Being comfortable in the absence of language and tuning into how our human and other-than-human kin communicate;🥥 Biomimicry and indigenous knowledge ask us to quiet our cleverness, having humility, and neither is for anybody to own, run away from, or have exclusive to anyone;🥥 Eco-anxiety as “I don’t know who I am anymore,” as ego-anxiety.This is the first of a 3-part series on Biomimicry, looking at the relational, ethical, and process of Biomimicry. Check us out: www.coconut-thinking.com