Denizen

Steward ownership is one of the single most important concepts to understand for those interested in reforming capitalism. Whereas all other models of corporate governance that seek to integrate purpose co-ops, public benefit corporations, B Corps, and PBLLCs leave intact a fundamental tension between purpose and profit, steward ownership instantiates profit in service of purpose in a way that is legally binding. Steward ownership is where the keys to the castle lie if we are interested in market economy that addresses the fatal flaws of capitalism as we know it.Our guest for this episode are Derek Razo and Camille Canon, co-founders of Purpose US, a consultancy supporting companies looking to adopt steward owned governance models.In this conversation Jenny, Derek, and Camille discuss:What is steward ownership? [4:41]Steward ownership vs. other familiar corporate governance models [6:50]Channels for profit in steward owned and other governance models [10:29]Importance of legally binding structures in reforming the economy [11:27]Value clarifying purpose amongst stakeholders [12:10]Steward ownership and securing purpose across multiple generations of leaders / protecting purpose against capture by any particular group's interests [13:01]Rethinking the definition of ownership [16:05]How steward ownership binds governance rights to purpose [18:37]Checks and balances to limit extraction with steward ownership [20:30]Legacy of steward owned models around the world [22:43]Camille and Derek's ladder of legal security for purpose driven governance [24:16]Entity types and legal forms for steward ownership [31:15]Steward ownership models vs. non-profits [33:29]Challenges accessing finance [35:13]Overcoming the growth stage financing gap without losing control [38:00]Innovative financing models [39:02]Founder leverage and alternative deal structures [40:24]The Purpose Futures Fellowship for fund managers [42:52]Steward ownership and DAOs [49:48]Web3 and new sources of liquidity [52:58]Current state of steward ownership interest and adoption [54:54]‍ResourcesSteward Ownership: Rethinking Ownership in the 21st century A handbook outlining steward ownershipCan Companies Force Themselves To Do Good? A feature in The New Yorker MagazineThe Patagonia Structure in the Context of Steward-Ownership To stay connected to all things Denizen, you can sign up for our newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

This episode covers an important corporate governance form: the cooperative, also known as a co-ops. There are many types of co-ops which makes it challenging to fully understand what distinguishes them from other corporate forms.This is an essential topic, as it is within the incentives of corporate governance that alternative economic outcomes can be designed.In this conversation Jenny, Jessica, and Greg cover:What defines a co-op? [3:22]Examples of well known co-ops [4:28]How co-ops address inequality and other issues with captialism [5:24]Performance stats for co-ops vs. other corporate governance structures [5:48]Drawbacks of co-ops [6:39]Why there aren't more co-ops [7:35]Greg's definition of a co-op [10:42]Co-ops vs. employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) [13:32]Ownership, financial rights, and governance rights [15:16]Co-ops vs. other multi-stakeholder forms of governance [17:41]Variables for cooperative governance design [19:25]Patrons vs. investors [27:34]Co-ops and philanthropy [31:45]Unions vs. co-ops and deeper structural change [34:09]Co-ops and scale [37:44]Access to financing [39:44]Cultural change and moving from stakeholder capitalism to shared ownership [44:33]Shared ownership and growth / extraction incentives [47:06]Entity options for co-ops [49:47] To stay connected to all things Denizen, you can sign up for our newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

Our guest for this episode is Robert Gilman, founder of the Context Institute. Robert is a pioneer in the sustainability movement and an elder in our midst. His career began with 30 years in astrophysics, so he is deeply versed in the mindsets of scientific thinking.Robert is particularly interested culture and cultural change. He sees us in a moment of significant transition towards what he called the Planetary Era, where we live in harmony with our inner guidance, each other, and nature.In this episode Jenny and Robert discuss:Culture as a living, complex, adaptive system [3:18]Major periods of distinct culture across the history of humanity [5:39]The Age of Enlightenment and modern culture [10:05]Describing the Age of Enlightenment [10:36]The blind spots of the Age of Enlightenment [12:53]The Age of Enlightenment and dominance [15:02]Weakening of dominance hierarchies in modern culture [24:00]Breaking out of the monopoly of language and linguistic thinking [28:00]The Planetary Era [36:16]Increasing self-awareness and self-compassion [37:45]Moving beyond object perception and categorical thinking [38:01]Understanding and integrating childhood trauma [39:05]Polyvagal Theory [40:17]Five optimal qualities to move towards [43:06]Five pervasive childhood traumas and the unproductive patterns that result [44:49]Resources:The Context InstituteBright Future Now courseDoughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist, Kate RaworthThe 5 Personality Patterns, Steven KesslerThe Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation, Stephen Porges To stay connected to all things Denizen, you can sign up for our newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

This conversation connects systemic change and big paradigm shifts to our everyday behaviors. The dominant way that we think about and speak to one another reflects a story of separation and has us regularly in a state of fight or flight. It lends itself to right/wrong thinking, extracting from one another and keeping score.The principles and practices of nonviolent communication (NVC) offer an alternative model for human relationality, one that fosters safety, compassion, and connection. Understanding the tenets of NVC helps us embody the future we want to move towards, one rooted in abundance, cooperation, and interconnection.Our guest for this episode, Danny Cohen, teaches nonviolent communication. His work integrates contemplative spiritual practice and wisdom traditions with trauma-informed therapeutics and practical tools for cultivating authentic human connection.In this conversation Jenny and Danny discuss:Dominant vs. alternative paradigms of human motivation and behavior [3:07]The dominant paradigm and the inner critic [5:00]The dominant paradigm, patriarchy, scarcity, and judgement of others [6:05]Narratives of good vs. evil, compassion vs. violence [7:15]The denial of choice and responsibility in the dominant paradigm [8:55]The effect on our nervous systems of common ways of communicating [11:49]The pervasiveness of blame [15:03]Connecting to the intelligence of the body through NVC [17:44]Myths and emotional response [20:31]Embodied experience and systemic change [22:11]The story of humanity underlying NVC [23:31]Empathy, vulnerability, safety, and human connection [29:30]Reframing unpleasant emotions [32:55]Taking responsibility, making requests, willingness to hear no [36:50]No as a yes to another need [40:20]Zero sum vs. win-win outcomes [41:20]NVC and parenting [44:40]NVC, the gift model of exchange and how it reflects a relational vs. transactional way of being [50:25] Resources:The Art of Dialog, a short introduction to NVCNonviolent Communication: A Language of Life Marshall Rosenberg, Arun GandhiReweaving our Human Fabric Miki Kashtan To stay connected to all things Denizen, you can sign up for our newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

In this episode we discuss governance on social media platforms, an important topic given the enormous social consequences of our reliance on them. Our guests are Columbia sociology professor Sudhir Venkatesh and Yale legal professor Tracey Meares. Sudhir and Tracy co-direct Yale's Social Media Governance Initiative, which is leading research in this field.In this conversation, Jenny, Sudhir, and Tracey explore:What is governance? [2:50]Governance as a performance [5:28]Establishing norms [7:39]Where authority comes from [10:02]Parallels between criminal justice and social media governance [12:57]How to internalize rule following [13:45]Bad actors and Facebook [16:05]Designing for pro-social engagement [19:29]Challenges establishing channels of communication in tech companies [23:05]Pro-social objectives and incentive misalignment [30:00]Who are tech platforms accountable to? [37:48]International governance and local cultural norms [43:21] To stay connected to all things Denizen, you can sign up for our newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

In this episode we address a foundational topic: governance. Governance refers to how we make decisions and act in groups, whether that be within a nation-state, a corporation, a community group, or a household. Today's challenges require collective action at a global scale. What factors should we keep in mind as we architect governance processes in various contexts?Our guest for this episode is Forrest Landry, philosopher, writer, engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur. Forrest worked closely with Daniel Schmachtenberger and Jordan Hall in the Game B movement, where he focused on questions of governance. This is a core topic that informs many upcoming episodes, including social media governance, delegative democracy, corporate governance, and DAOs.In this conversation, Jenny and Forrest discuss:What is governance [4:39]Tribal size and Dunbar's number [7:50]Challenges with governance at scale [12:42]Group vs. individual intelligence [16:36]Embodied vs. abstract knowledge [18:05]Bias towards action [25:52]The epistemic process [31:41]Knowledge as process [33:24]Information, scale, and technology [36:45]Limitations of information [40:13]Multi-polar traps [42:39]Dynamics of capitalism [48:35]Arrow's theorem [57:58]Ephemeral group process [59:28]Phase parallax and the importance of diversity [1:03:48]Right size for group process [1:09:02]Governance and identity [1:17:22] To stay connected to all things Denizen, you can sign up for our newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

Who are the great thinkers of the past and what can we learn from them? In this episode we cover the life and work of Buckminster Fuller, who was an architect, inventor, futurist, and prolific writer. Our guest is Amanda Joy Ravehill, former Executive Director of the Buckminster Fuller Institute.The conversation explores:Who was Buckminster Fuller? [2:38]Buckmister Fuller's archive, The Chronophile[4:26]Converting from a zero sum to a win for all game dynamic [6:16]Amanda's tattoo of Buckminster Fuller [7:48]"You never change things by fighting the existing reality" [9:43]Four characteristics of design science: comprehensive [11:18]Four characteristics of design science: anticipatory [15:10]Four characteristics of design science: design [16:30]Four characteristics of design science: science [17:33]Polymaths vs. specialists [18:33]Knowledge as wealth [20:08]Bucky and universal basic income [21:27]The need for the dissolution of nation states [24:08]Spaceship earth metaphor [24:58]Paradigm shifts and the role of art [27:12]The concept of the trim tab [31:10] Bucky works and ideas mentioned in the episode:Inventory of World Resources, Human Trends and NeedsOperating Manual for Spaceship EarthSynergeticsGrunch of GiantsEducation AutomationDymaxion MapOther mentions:Moral Politics, George LakoffDon't Think of an Elephant, George LakoffDesign Science Primer, Medard Gabel and David HeeneyWendell Berry To stay connected to all things Denizen, you can sign up for our newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

In this episode we do a deep dive on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). MMT stems from an alternative story of money which has significant implications for governments in countries that have sovereignty over the currency it issues. Under MMT, spending does not face financial constraints, taxes and bonds do not fund government budgets, federal deficits and debt are not problematic, and the lines between fiscal and monetary policy blur completely.We were fortunate to be joined by Andres Bernal, leading MMT proponent and former advisor to help us understand the essential topic. In this conversation Jenny and Andres cover:Two stories of the origin of money [3:04]Money as a social construct [9:58]MMT defined [12:46]Currency issuers vs. currency users [15:15]Spending and its relationship to taxes [16:00]Reconsidering federal deficits[16:44]Monetary sovereignty and MMT [17:21]Hyperinflation and productive capacity [20:15]MMT and the role of taxation [23:36]MMT and bonds [26:41]MMT and monetary policy [30:15]Rejecting the monetarist view of the inverse relationship between unemployment and inflation [33:43]MMT and inflation [35:55]Drivers of today's high inflation rates [41:55]MMT and a Job Guarantee [50:17]Job guarantee vs. guaranteed income [55:04]De-growth vs. post-growth [59:39]Current MMT landscape [1:01:53]Common misconceptions about MMT [1:03:14] ResourcesStephanie Kelton’s Ted TalkThe Deficit Myth, Stephanie KeltonL. Randall Wray - Modern Money Theory for Beginners L. Randall Wray lecture gets into the origin story of moneyL. Randall Wray’s introductory lecture from an economist’s perspective.“Seven Replies to the Critiques of Modern Monetary Theory” Eric Tymoigne, December 2021The Case for a Job Guarantee, video with Ravlina Tcherneva a main advocate for the policy which is a major component of MMT www.MoneyontheLeft.org is a useful resource for podcasts and essays  To stay connected to all things Denizen, you can sign up for our newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

In this episode, Jenny and Jordan Hall discuss their experiences and systemic perspectives as parents in modern society.This conversation covers:Unraveling the meaningfulness of becoming a parent [3:01]Exploring interrelationships between parents, kids, extended family, and community [7:15]"Stewarding the soul of another human being" [9:55]Some historical and cultural contexts of parenting today (Game A) [11:55]Riane Eisler's work on Partnerism [22:23]Elaborating the concept of Game A parenting [24:33]How preschools can help us be better parents [35:24]Exploring the ideals and constraints of Game B parenting [36:47]Finding the right relationship between parenting and professional identities [56:00]Prioritizing both parents in the next wave of feminism [58:37]Framing a design question for evolving the interconnected systems of parenting [1:04:24] To stay connected to all things Denizen, you can sign up for our newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

In this episode, Marta Ceroni joins us to discuss systems thinking. The focus of our conversation is the life and work of Donella Meadows, a distinguished systems and environmental thinker in the mid-late 20th century. Ceroni stewards Meadows' archives and furthers her work as co-director at the Academy for Systems Change. In our conversation, Marta and Jenny discuss Meadow's life, the key attributes of complex systems, and some of the leverage points to influence the outcomes of a system. They talk about the importance of information flows, being conscious of paradigms, and how we can move out of our heads and into our bodies to inform systems change."We can't control systems or figure them out, but we can dance with them" [3:30]Marta's background [5:35]Meadows' background, education, and travels abroad [9:22]Key attributes of a system [15:26]Leverage points to change a system [22:00]Importance and power dynamics of information flows [22:24]Meadows' highest-ranked leverage points [24:11]Realizing the paradigm that there are paradigms [30:21]Moving beyond the intellect to the embodied aspects of systems thinking [32:45]The impacts of trauma and trauma-healing in a system [37:52]Meadows' envisioning talk and guided practice [40:49]Meadows' ecovillage [43:26]About the Academy for Systems Change [49:41]Resources:The Donella Meadows Project at the Academy for Systems Change stewards an archive of her life and workCobb Hill the on-going ecovillage that was her work and visionDenizen's summary of Meadow's work, Lessons from Donella Meadows.Notable writings and talks from Donella Meadows:Thinking in Systems: A Primer this short and accessible book covers her essentials for systems thinkingDancing with Systems this essay outlines some of her most essential ideasLimits to Growth (1972) she was the lead author of this pioneering study about the sustainability of economic growthEnvisioning a Sustainable World a speech by Meadows that offers the experience of visioning the world we want to bring into beingVideo archives of her teaching To stay connected to all things Denizen, you can sign up for our newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.