How do we re-democratise democracy?  Understanding that our current system is broken is the first step, but then we need to find ways to gather voices and give agency to those with wisdom, so that we re-create our systems of governance from the ground up. At the start of Lockdown, Eva and Justin set out to interview 100 people in Scotland - deep, wide, broad interviews across the widest range of opinions.  Now, they are bringing those together, creating the foundations for a consultative democracy that really listens to people’s cares and concerns.  If it can happen in Scotland, it can happen all around the world.  We need new structures.  This podcast, and the Medium article that led to it, aim to be the absolute foundation resources for those wanting to create whole, healing institutions based on the best of human Being. About Eva and Justin: Eva Schonveld is a climate activist, process designer and facilitator, supporting sociocratic system development, decision-making and facilitation in a range of contexts including XR Scotland. After many years working in the arts, she went on to co-found Scotland’s first Transition town and city, networked to inspire the Transition movement across Scotland, and was commissioned by the Scottish Government to establish and manage Transition Scotland Support.  More recently she has co-founded Starter Culture, which is developing a range of projects to tackle the marginalisation of the inner dimension at different levels of scale including working on supporting more relational ways of doing politics in Scotland. She is also co-founder of Heartpolitics which exists to address the interconnected social and environmental threats that arise from dividing humans from the wider ecology, and from dividing our minds from our hearts, which is currently working on a fractal Grassroots to Global process which aims to connect open-hearted listening and creative culture re-design processes with a global citizens assembly.  Justin Kenrick is an anthropologist and Senior Policy Advisor at Forest Peoples Programme where he works for community land rights in Kenya and Congo. He is a director of Life Mosaic, and also works on land reform in Scotland. He lives in Portobello, Edinburgh, where he chairs Action Porty which undertook the first successful urban community right to buy in Scotland. He writes in many contexts is active in the XR UK and XR Scotland Political Strategy circles, and is on the Stewarding Group of the Scottish Government’s Climate Citizens Assembly which XR Scotland campaigned for.  He has a PhD in anthropology from Edinburgh University, draws on a four year Buddhist psychotherapy training, co-founded Heartpolitics, is a Quaker, and has been imprisoned several times for peaceful direct action. His work focuses on enabling people to safely risk taking the steps needed to restore trust in themselves, their community, society and the world.LinksThe original Medium article:  Politics, Trauma and Empathy: breakthrough to a politics of the heart? https://medium.com/@evaschonveld/politics-trauma-and-empathy-breakthrough-to-a-politics-of-the-heart-8591d8dce628Sue Gerhardt 'Why Love Matters' https://www.academia.edu/4198318/Why_love_matters_By_Sue_Gerhardt_Abingdon_Oxfordshire_Brunner_Routledge_2004_Pp_256_9_99_ISBN_1583918175Sociocracy: https://sociocracy.co.ukGrassroots to Global: https://www.grassroots2global.orgThe Alternative: https://alternativet.dk/en

If Climate Change is a failure of the imagination and this is a time when we need to be at our most imaginative, how can we change the trajectory of our falling imaginations? Rob Hopkins of the Transition Town movement, has explored the depths of our imagination and creativity.  Our society is a dis-imagination machine.  But we can reverse it. Rob Hopkins, author of 'From What Is to What If?', offers an answer.   In this podcast, we explore the ways that all of us could combine to create a new future - ways to recharge and restart and give space to our imaginations.  Rob offers a vision of a future and actual examples of change happening now from the Civic Imagination Office in Bologna, with its pacts of actually doing things, that has inspired other towns in the UK to do the same, to the Doughnut Economics model and the ways people engage to make a difference. Here, we have  a wealth of radically transformative ideas that we can engage with on a daily basis to transform ourselves, our communities and our planet. Links Rob Hopkins site https://www.robhopkins.net/Buy the book from Rob's site: https://www.robhopkins.net/the-book/Rob's podcast Patreon link: https://www.patreon.com/fromwhatiftowhatnextRadio 4 Food Program 'Sitopia' https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000m49jKate Raworth Doughnut Economics model https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/AG_S3_P8_RobHopkins_12oct20.mp3Manda: So Rob Hopkins on our second try at the other end of a lockdown- the other end of first lockdown - welcome to the Accidental Gods podcast. How is life down in Devon? Rob: Life is kind of I don't know. I almost feel like I'm emerging from lockdown as a different person than I went in. It feels very strange kind of a process. And next week I'm going away to France to go and do some talks and stuff, which was supposed to happen in April or May and was cancelled. But actually, I'm sort of feeling that in the last six months, the furthest I've been is Totnes. I went to Exeter once and it was completely sensorially overwhelming. So quite how going on Eurostar and all that's going to be, I have no idea. Manda: This is how our ancestors lived there, wasn't it? There were people in our village who for whom going to Glasgow was a once in a decade event when I was a kid growing up. And the rest of the time they were within walking distance or maybe took a bus to the little town and that was it. Rob: I used to live in Italy when I was about in my early 20s and I lived in this village and we had this friend called Guido, who was about 80, lovely, lovely man, still running his farm on his own. He had a cow and a horse. And I remember he had one time an English backpacking young woman had come to stay in his house for a while and helped on the farm called Lynetta. We still talked about Lynetta all the time. And I don't think he'd ever been maybe he'd been to Pisa once, you know, he'd hardly ever been away. And I remember he said, I know you're going to London. If you go to London, just ask for Lynetta. Everyone will know.It's like this mental picture of London as it was the same size village.. Manda: So since we last spoke, you have started your own podcast and the whole of your book, 'From what is to What If' seems to me to have taken off as an Internet phenomenon. The concept of creative thinking as a way to move us forward has become central. So there may well be people listening to the podcast. Actually, I hope there are people listening to the podcast who haven't read your book yet, because that means that they will go out and buy it by the end of the podcast and we will enlarge the general audience of the concept of creative imagination and what it can do to begin to shape the more beautiful world that our hearts know is possible that Charles Eisenstein speaks of. So before we move into the work that you've been doing recently, can we talk a little bit about the book from what is to what is how it arose and the wonder that is contained within it? Rob: Well, it was kind of a two year project, really, that I did where I interviewed more than 100 people. I went to visit loads of really interesting places, projects. And it came about because I kept reading people who I really admire and respect, like Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein and George Monbiot and people. And they all seem to be using this term where they would say climate change is a failure of the imagination. It would kind of pop up and then disappear again. I'd be going, oh, ah, I was interesting. What do you mean by that? Why why would we be having a failure of the imagination in 2020 at a time when we need to be at our most imaginative? And then I came across some research done in 2011 by a woman callled Kyum Hee Kim, a researcher who had looked at a whole load of data from something called the Torrance Test for Creative Thinking, which is the sort of gold standard creativity test which had been done in the US on big samples of people going back to the 1960s. And the conclusion was that imagination and IQ had risen together until the mid 90s and then IQ kept rising and imagination kind of just like sort of divergent thinking had started to decline. And I thought, well, when this was published, it made the front page of Newsweek. It was a really big deal. And it was like people it was a whole lot of soul searching in the US about what does this mean for economic growth? What does this mean for Hollywood? And to which I was I don't really care about those, but I do really care about what that means for the fact that we're trying to imagine an alternative to business as usual, because business as usual is a suicide pact. And if we're stuck with our imagination, that's really, really serious. And actually, we were talking about lock down before for me, one of the one of the moments for me during lockdown that just nailed this thing of climate change is a failure of the imagination was the most surreal. I mean, the last four years have given us lots of surreal Donald Trump moments. But the one where he was talking about how he was trying to dismiss the idea of making buildings more energy efficient, because everybody knows that the only way to make buildings more energy efficient is to fill in all their windows. So they have no windows. I'm thinking you're the you're the president of this country and actually really on social media and things, I encounter so many people who get into that thing of, well, a low carbon future is basically living in a cave and eating potatoes, isn't it? And of course it's not. Of course it's not. And so in the book, what I wanted to do, it kind of help me really realise that a lot of what I've been doing for the last 10, 12 years and the transition movement and the writing and the talking I do is about longing and cultivating longing. The only way we're going to achieve a zero carbon world is by creating such deep longing in people that it becomes inevitable that we create it in a way. We say when when Neil Armstrong went to the moon, it wasn't his idea, it wasn't JFK idea. We had culturally been creating that longing to go there. Frank Sinatra sang us to the moon. Tintin wen...

If we gather in ceremony, sitting on the land, with a fire-keeper who understands the holding and has trained in the ways of the fire, there is so much healing.  Fiona Shaw is one of those people, trained in great depth and absolute integrity, to connect to the spirits of this land, and to hold the space for others to re-connect to the fire, the water, the land, the guides, gods and guardians of our ways. Here, she talks about the new depths and challenges - and, yes, opportunities, of this time. And how we can find authenticity in our grief. And new ways of being.  In 1997, Fiona Shaw was initiated as a Medicine woman in the Red Path tradition. Since then, she has created communities of ceremony in the UK, Germany, Portugal and Israel.  As the years have progressed, she has seen the acceleration towards the crisis of these times, and seen the changes in the nature of the circles.  This podcast was recorded at the Autumn Equinox of 2020, when Fiona had just come out of ceremony.  The grounding of that, informs all that she says of who we are, who we have been, who we could be - and the pathways of ceremony and human connection that can bring us to a profound healing of all that we are. Links: Fiona's Website: http://birthingthesoul.co.uk/Sacred Birthing Website: https://www.sacred-birthing.co.uk/

Doughnut Economics is a new, groundbreaking model that lets us see how we can embrace the needs of all within the means of a living, thriving planet.  Rob Shorter, Communities Lead, of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab explains what it is, how it works and how we can embrace it at all levels in our communities of people and place and purpose. The imagination needs mental and emotional space to enable us to create a vision of the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. Rob Shorter wrote his dissertation at Schumacher on how we cultivate our imagination and change the cultural narrative towards the thinking that Doughnut Economics embodies. In this podcast, we dive deep into the nature of imagination and how we can let it grow.  We explore Doughnut Economics and how the model can transform our world. And we look at the work of the lab and how we might all be involved.   Most of all, we explore how each of us as individuals can be part of the change we need to see in the world. and Rob shares a song.  Listen just for that... Links: Doughnut Economics Action Lab: https://doughnuteconomics.org/Doughnut Economics (Book): https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Doughnut-Economics-by-Kate-Raworth-author/9781847941398Circle Economy: https://www.circle-economy.comEllen Macarthur Foundation for the Circular Economy: https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.orgC40 Cities: https://www.c40.orgLeeds Good Life: https://goodlife.leeds.ac.ukCity Repair Project: https://cityrepair.orgBiomimicry video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf4oW8OtaPY

If we view life as a Game between Light and Dark, where do we stand at any given moment?  Hero or Manipulator?  Altruist or Cynic? Sleepwalker, Avoider, Traditionalist?   We can each be any of these at any given moment. Knowing we have choice is what gives us the power to be different.  What do you choose?  Gill Coombs is a facilitator, coach, peripatetic counsellor and an elder of Extinction Rebellion.  Of her three books to date, The Game is the second. In it, she outlines the powers of the Dark Four: The Dark Media, Dark State, Dark Finance, Dark Corporations - and the ways they battle the generative forces of light. And in her game, we can each choose to play one of seven avatars. We might choose a different one in each moment. We might play them so close together as to be indivisible. But it is the thesis of this podcast that meta-awareness is one of the core requirements of humanity and that if we understand what's possible, we can gain agency. With Agency, we can choose to be different. If we choose to be different enough, we become different. So let's play in the seven avatars and see what we'd like to become. LinksGill's website: https://www.gillcoombs.co.ukThe Game: https://www.gillcoombs.co.uk/thegameTom Mills' Book - BBC: Myth of a Public Service:Tristan Harris' podcast - Your Undivided AttentionBlog post on the Wetiko: 'Seeing Wetiko: On Capitalism, Mind Viruses and Antidotes for a World in Transition.'

What is the first, simplest and most profound change we can make in our lives?  Sign up as an Earth Protector - and then encourage your local schools, hospitals, colleges, councils to sign too.  Jozette Khimba of the Earth Protector Communities organisation, explores the ways we can have huge impact on our local communities.Jozette has been a lifelong activist, but it was her connection with activist Barrister, Polly Higgins that took her to Stroud and the Stop Ecocide campaign.  With Polly's death in 2019, Jozette became part of the Earth Protector Communities movement, striving (in her case) to bring the concept of Earth Protection as a moral and legal construct into schools, colleges and universities across the world. As increasing numbers of young people are joining the movement for change, Jozette explains what each of us can do to bring action to our local communities. Links: Stop Ecocide: https://www.stopecocide.earthEarth Protector Communities https://earthprotectorcommunities.netEPC Facebook (which has details of events): https://www.facebook.com/groups/EarthProtectorsCommunity

What are we here for?  Where does our heritage step into our potential? How can we build a genuinely ecological civilisation that sees people and communities flourish within the means of the living planet?  Jeremy Lent, author of 'The Patterning Instinct', explores the answers to life's biggest questions. Jeremy is an author whose writings investigate the patterns of thought that have led our civilization to its current existential crisis. His recent book, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning, explores the way humans have made meaning from the cosmos from hunter-gatherer times to the present day. He is founder of the nonprofit Liology Institute, dedicated to fostering an integrated worldview that could enable humanity to thrive sustainably on the Earth. His upcoming book, The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe, will be published in Spring 2021 by New Society Publishers (North America) and Profile Books (UK & Commonwealth).In this podcast, we explore the thinking behind the idea of an Ecological Civilisation - and how we might get there. Links: Jeremy's site: https://www.jeremylent.com/about.htmlJeremy's blog: https://patternsofmeaning.com/2018/10/10/we-need-an-ecological-civilization-before-its-too-late/Liology Institute: http://www.liology.orgJeremy at XR in October 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBYiEI5pl5A

How can we shape a world where everyone has found and is following their soul’s calling? Gill Coombs, author of The Trembling Warrior and ‘Hearing your Calling’ on ways to discover our soul’s true path.  Gill is a writer, facilitator, coach and activist. In 2011/12 Gill studied Holistic Science at Schumacher College, and then wrote her first book Hearing our Calling. In 2015 she stood as a Parliamentary Candidate for the Green Party, and the following year published The Game: Life vs the Dark Powers. Gill was arrested twice during 2019 with Extinction Rebellion, and as a member of the Visioning Circle, helped to establish XR’s Eldership Circle. She has written three life changing books - today we are exploring ‘Hearing your Calling’ - and how we can bring that into the world. Gill’s link and book: https://www.gillcoombs.co.uk/booksSchumacher Collage PostGraduate Courses: https://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/courses/postgraduate-courses-2020Reciprocoach: https://reciprocoach.com

How would our world feel if we let ourselves follow the wild dreams of our hopes?  And how can we reshape the land around us if we let it teach us.  Former garden designer and founder of "We are the Ark" (Acts of Regenerative Kindness) explores the wild dreaming of the land that brought her to a place where regeneration is the heart of all she does. Mary Reynolds set her intent to win a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower show with her first (and only) exhibit. To do it, she created a wild garden that left visitors in tears for the lost memories of their youths... and she won her gold medal.  Her life since has been a long unfolding of dreams connecting her to the wild land of her Irish ancestors, deepening her experience and coming ever closer to the land. With a raw humility and deep passion, she speaks here of her journey and of how we can join her mission to make of every garden an ARK. Links: We are the Ark: http://wearetheark.orgMary's personal site: http://marymary.ie/Dark Sky Ireland: https://www.darksky.ieFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/804968449865497/

How can we heal ourselves and the world?  So many people ask the question and yet the answers are simple.  We know what we need to do, we just don’t know how to do it. In this race through the grounding of Accidental Gods, podcast host, Manda Scott explores the answers.We know that our healing depends on our re-connection with the web of life, with what we call ‘The Natural World’ until we stop seeing it as something other and start seeing it as an integral part of ourselves.   But knowing is different to doing. Declarative learning is not performative learning - both are necessary, but each occupies different bits of our nervous systems and it’s only when we actually begin to embody change that we understand it - and it’s from this embodiment that transformation arises. In a series of Answers to listeners’ questions, Manda outlines the steps to transformation - and reviews some of the wisdom of guests over the past 6 months. LinksAccidental Gods: https://accidentalgods.life Richard J Davidson TED talk: https://youtu.be/7CBfCW67xT8Sam Harris on AI: https://youtu.be/8nt3edWLgIgRupert Sheldrake: https://www.sheldrake.orgTristan Harris Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/your-undivided-attention/id1460030305Tristan Harris website: https://www.tristanharris.comRobert H Lustig: https://robertlustig.com