

THE SPACESHIP EARTH PODCAST
Dan Burgess
We live on a life giving rock called Earth hurtling through space.
Like a spaceship, we have a finite amount of supplies with an intelligent operating system, called nature, which keeps everything replenished as long as we all respect and participate wisely.
In this podcast I’m in conversations with humans involved in regenerating life,
Shifting consciousness and re-imagining how we can live more beautifully and peacefully.
I talk with artists, writers, activists, designers, adventurers, healers, farmers, creative mavericks and more.
Their stories invite us to participate in the co-creation of life sustaining cultures.
In service to life.
Becoming crew on Spaceship Earth.
becomingcrew.substack.com
Like a spaceship, we have a finite amount of supplies with an intelligent operating system, called nature, which keeps everything replenished as long as we all respect and participate wisely.
In this podcast I’m in conversations with humans involved in regenerating life,
Shifting consciousness and re-imagining how we can live more beautifully and peacefully.
I talk with artists, writers, activists, designers, adventurers, healers, farmers, creative mavericks and more.
Their stories invite us to participate in the co-creation of life sustaining cultures.
In service to life.
Becoming crew on Spaceship Earth.
becomingcrew.substack.com
Episodes
Mentioned books

Mar 24, 2020 • 1h 40min
Episode 32 with Giles Hutchins & Laura Storm - Regenerative Leadership in a time of systemic crisis
In this episode I'm in conversation with the inspiring and wise Laura Storm and Giles Hutchins, co-authors of the book 'Regenerative Leadership'. Having booked this podcast weeks ago we recorded this conversation as the UK was preparing to lock down the country in the face of the coronavirus crisis, Laura based in Copenhagen was in her 10th day of isolation with her family. Because of this unprecedented context, this conversation is an open, honest, sometimes vulnerable exploration of living in this moment in time, the uncertainties we face as business, leaders, communities, citizens, parents and ultimately humans, as we rapidly adapt to global lockdown and how the principles of regenerative leadership might offer ways for navigating towards a thriving and flourishing world, a new way of being on this planet. We riff on everything from trust and letting go of old ways and the logic of command and control, how to work in these new remote times, dealing with the huge uncertainty of income and job loss, integrating family and community back into our lives, how to support the most vulnerable, noticing the natural world, and how we might move forward beyond this crisis.https://www.regenerativeleadership.co/https://laura-storm.com/https://www.instagram.com/storm_laura/https://www.instagram.com/regenerators.cohttp://gileshutchins.com/https://thenatureofbusiness.org/2020/03/22/can-the-darkness-of-crisis-reveal-a-new-dawn/https://www.dominomusic.com/news/uk/jon-hopkins-shares-new-composition-scene-suspended-listen-now Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

Feb 27, 2020 • 1h 55min
Episode 31 - Sean Pillot de Chennecy - The Post Truth Business//Influencers & Revolutionaries
In this episode, recorded in January, I’m in conversation with Sean Pillot De Chennecy. Sean is an author, speaker, researcher and strategy consultant who’s spent his professional life exploring the leading edges of culture and how business and brands respond authentically to an increasingly uncertain world.He has authored two recent books, the first: The Post Truth Business: How to Rebuild Brand Authenticity in a Distrusting World out in 2018 and his latest Influencers and Revolutionaries: How Innovative Trailblazers, Trends and Catalysts Are Transforming BusinessThis episode is a lively and lengthy exploration which meanders through fake news, technology disruption, populist politics, brand trust, UK Labour leadership, climate change and the ecological emergency, Extinction Rebellion and permanent protest through to surveillance capitalism and more.We’re ultimately riffing on one of the biggest challenges that faces humanity - how do you mobilise the planet to act together on the urgency of climate and ecological collapse when what is true and what is fake is becoming increasingly difficult to figure out, dividing people more than ever.Enjoy!Gratitude to Bean Downes for the editGraeme Douglas/Bountiful Cow for hostingShow notes:https://www.instagram.com/seanpdec/?hl=en https://www.koganpage.com/author/sean-pillot-de-chenecey Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

Feb 14, 2020 • 39min
Episode 29 - Bio Leadership Project X The SpaceShip Earth
In this shorter episode, I'm talking about a new collaborative leadership program for creative practitioners that I'm launching into the world in 2020 in partnership with Andres Roberts and The Bio-Leadership Project. I also have a chat with Andres to get an update on the Bio-Leadership journey and we talk about the Why, how and what of the collaboration.Show Notes:https://bio-leadership.org/https://bio-leadership.org/clusters/creativecommunicationshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIX-4DJLwRw&feature=youtu.behttps://medium.com/@hiutdenim/100-makers-and-mavericks-2019-2f9a6be1c0b2 Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

Feb 13, 2020 • 1h 14min
The SpaceShip Earth - Episode 30 - Ted Hunt - Designing for Life
Ted Hunt is a one off. A designer for these times. His work is unique, brilliant, provocative and can help us challenge some deeply flawed assumptions. The world needs Ted Hunt right now, his ideas are of huge significance to the challenges we are facing as a species. He's also a wonderful human. Recorded in London at Acast studios Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

Jan 9, 2020 • 1h 39min
The SpaceShip Earth - Episode 26 - Natalie Fee - City to Sea - How to Save the World for Free
In this episode I welcomed award winning campaigner, activist, author and speaker Natalie Fee to the SpaceShed in my garden.Nat is a true maverick making incredible impacts through her organisation City to Sea and Refill - from an idea in her head which hatched a youtube video and a crowdfunder to bring attention to plastic pollution habits in our consumerist culture, Nat has built a 30 strong campaigning organisation and a fast growing community driven movement to encourage the spread of refill culture in our society. We riff on Nat’s journey from dropping out of University, searching for spiritual meaning, achieving material and financial success and not finding happiness with that and how stumbling across Chris Jordan’s Albatross project catalysed her to act on plastic pollution.We talk about the rise of consumerism, plastic pollution, searching for meaning, community action, individual change and action as system change, following your heart and putting yourself out into the world and much much more. This is an open, honest conversation about Nat’s journeying to find meaning and purpose in her life which led to campaigning and innovating on plastic pollution, which has become a catalyst to connect more deeply to the earth and how Nat believes individual action to be a creative, powerful and regenerative act. Which is exactly what her new book ‘How to Change the World for Free’ riffs on. We talk about toilets a fair bit too and porn and flax seed lube. Enjoy!www.citytosea.org.uk/refill.org.uk/nataliefee.com/nataliefee.com/books/www.instagram.com/nataliefee_/www.instagram.com/citytosea_/www.instagram.com/refillhq/ Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

Dec 30, 2019 • 1h 32min
The SpaceShip Earth - Episode 28 - Zahra Davidson - Enrol Yourself - Lifelong Learning Together
In this episode I’m in conversation with Zahra Davidson, Co-founder of Enrol Yourself. A venture helping people become lifelong learners through peer group supported 6 month learning marathons. Zahra created Enrol Yourself because she felt that there wasn’t anything out there which could help her explore her own curiosities and questions. What makes Enrol Yourself so interesting is there are no teachers or tutors, you write your own curriculum and you are part of a peer group who all support each other on their learning journeys. We explore how Enrol Yourself was born, in itself a brilliant example in the power of following your curiosity, prototyping and experimenting with many constraints and openly inviting others to participate in a pilot. We get into the development of the offer, developing learning questions, the role of learning hosts instead of experts, the magic of learning with and supporting others through peer supported groups. We riff on how our institutionalised learning systems are so ripe for change and dig into the enormous opportunity at this moment in time to develop an accessible culture of inquiry and lifelong learning and the positive role for self directed, peer and social supported learning in responses to the complex challenges we are facing today on our spaceship earth.With a new year upon us, maybe you are starting the year with your own big questions, curiosity for new adventures or just feeling the need for personal growth and exploration. Perhaps you’re searching endlessly for that elusive course online or contemplating career changes or new skills or frankly maybe you’re just asking what to point your energy at in the world at this moment in time. Maybe it’s time to Enrol Yourself.https://www.enrolyourself.com/https://www.instagram.com/enrol_yourself/https://twitter.com/zahradavidsonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_for_Realistshttps://www.theschoolinthecloud.org/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_Organised_Learning_Environmenthttps://lumiar.co/en/https://yearhere.org/ Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

Dec 13, 2019 • 1h 21min
Episode 27 - Dancing in the Dark - Dan Solo in the Mix - December 2019
When things get dark, getting lost in music is fine medicine I find. Going back to my DJ roots, I'm ending this year with a mix to shuffle around your kitchen, car, headphones etc. There is no conversation here, no guest, no me talking, just 80 mins of deep, emotional cosmic house music, to take the edges off the crazyness of an unravelling world. Dancing has always united people in my experience, this mix represents the kind of vibes I'm playing in the mainroom on the Spaceship Earth. Huge gratitiude to the most excellent producers of these tracks (you can shazam them). The intro and outro is words of wisdom from Anna Murray @Patternity captured from a conversation in Episode 8. I hope some of this mix moves you. Keep loving, keep caring, keep on giving a f**k, keep giving, keep listening, keep collaborating, keep dreaming, keep laughing, keep experimenting, keep reaching out to others, keep standing up for the more than human world, keep looking after yourself, keep learning, keep the awe and wonder, keep dancing, keep on creating a more beautiful world. Turn the volume up! Peace and Out. Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

Sep 4, 2019 • 1h 21min
The SpaceShip Earth - Episode 25 - Will Skeaping - Extinction Rebellion
Ecological breakdown, Creative Courage, Climate strikes and Rebelling for lifeThis episode is a two for one bargain. The theme is the climate and ecological crisis and the enormous creative response needed from humanity at this moment in time.Kicks off with a ramble from me, some personal reflections into the sadness of the climate and ecological crisis and my journeying to deeper understanding through the last decade. To 2019 and the energy and urgency of the school climate strikers, collaborating with them through my Good for Nothing project, the call for adults to step up to the climate and ecological emergency from our kids. Designing creative interventions and experiments to nudge collective action and waking up the talent and potential of creative professionals to respond to this crisis. This is followed by a conversation with Will Skeaping from Extinction Rebellion (XR). Will talks about his journey into XR, the missions he’s currently involved in, the response from the Advertising industry so far to XR interventions and plans for the October rebellion, the global climate strikes on the 20th/27th September and and why everyone is needed. This is an open honest conversation, we cover grief, anxiety, despair, uncertainty, the global economic system that we’re all implicated in, the role of advertising, consumerism and materials economy at the root of the crisis, the need for creative visioning of a more beautiful world and how the responses we must find as a civilisation, will have to come from the most creative places, minds and radical collaborations. We riff on creative activism and participation culture. Some thoughts on what next and how to get involved in a load of great projects and collectives that are fast emerging from the crisis now the space has been created. I finish with musings on how Joanna Macy’s 'Great Turning' work might help with more intentional mobilisation within this industry and share the warning from the UN’s leading Biodiversity expert from just days ago that a complete redesign of our consumption and production culture globally is urgently needed if we are to protect a life sustaining earth for our future generations. Can the creative sectors lead the shift to a more beautiful world? It needs all of us. Enjoy. Please rate and review the show if you like it. Drop me a line > dan@thespaceship.earth / @dansoloShow Notes:Dan’s stuffhttps://medium.com/@dansolo/climate-breakdown-exceptional-circumstances-and-pissing-on-the-childrens-fire-39ca048d6a6dhttps://medium.com/@dansolo/fridays-for-future-for-everyone-48d9152de17dYouth climate Strikeshttps://ukscn.org/https://globalclimatestrike.net/https://www.goodfornothing.com/https://weglimpse.co/Ad/Creative industry climate crisis interventions and initiativeshttps://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/adland-challenged-mobilise-million-people-join-uk-climate-strike/1590526https://www.thedrum.com/news/2019/05/17/extinction-rebellion-warns-ad-industry-you-didn-t-think-we-d-forget-about-youhttps://www.thecommslab.com/https://www.purposedisruptors.org/https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/climate-crisis-summit-sept-16th-tickets-69868561749?aff=odeimcmailchimp&mc_cid=e2549959cf&mc_eid=%5BUNIQID%5Dhttps://www.creativeandclimate.com/https://www.createandstrike.com/Heading for Extinction Talk by XR co-founder Gail Bradbrook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2VkC4SnwY0https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/314/314671/this-is-not-a-drill/9780141991443.htmlSave the date: October 7th - 19th: London.http://www.extinctionrebellion.comhttp://www.instagram.com/ExtinctionRebellion http://www.twitter.com/ExtinctionRWill Skeaping http://www.instagram.com/skeapsnaps http://www.twitter.com/skeapspeaksDan’s references at the end https://www.activehope.info/great-turning.htmlhttps://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/30/tipping-point-un-biodiversity-chief-warns-burning-amazon-could-lead-cascadinghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oevXkJY-fE Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

Aug 31, 2019 • 1h 9min
The SpaceShip Earth - Episode 24 - Louise Middleton - Kudhva - Hiding Out to Reconnect
In this episode, I'm in conversation with Louise Middleton, founder of Kudhva - an amazing collection of stunning hide-outs on a magical, elemental landscape on the remote and wild North Cornwall coast - a place for folks to disconnect to reconnect. Having spent the night in a Kudhva in a rocking gale, I caught up with Louise to get the Kudhva story, the vision and journey of place making so thoughtfully in tune with the landscape, designing living experiences that help people connect more fully with themselves, to each other and the non human world around them. We explore how living more simply and intentionally seems to help us let go of stress, tune in to our creativity and connect better with ourselves and others. Experimenting with the design challenge of creating balance between space for solitude vs community. At a time when we are faced with the most enormous and urgent challenges of lowering our carbon and ecological impacts particulalry in the west, and where we have often removed ourselves from place based community, what can we learn from places like Kudhva which we can bring back and build into our modern urban lives. Hope you enjoy. Please share and review if you like it.http://kudhva.com/https://www.instagram.com/kudhva/ Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

Aug 27, 2019 • 56min
The SpaceShip Earth - Episode 23 - Afdhel Aziz - Why true brand purpose must come from within
In this episode I chat with Afdhel Aziz - Author of the book ‘Good is the New Cool - Market like you give a damn’, Keynote Speaker and Chief Purpose Officer at Conspiracy of Love. Afdhel is on a mission to help businesses find purpose and meaning in what they do, and he’s spent 20 years working at the highest level in some of the biggest brands on the planet -so he has a unique perspective on the workings of the corporation. We riff on his journey, the challenegs we face right now as a human race, why business has such a big role in the shift to a more beautiful world, the blockages to radical change in business, the climate and ecological crisis and the implications of that for consumer and brand culture - and why humans ultimately are the key to change. Enjoy!https://www.afdhelaziz.com/https://www.goodisthenewcool.org/https://conspiracyoflove.co/team-1https://www.forbes.com/consent/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/afdhelaziz/ Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe