Accidental Gods - The Thrutopian Podcast

Why does the law not protect us?  Why does our government not strive every sinew to keep us safe at all levels?  What would it look like if the law did protect, care for and sustain common people?  Answers on this, and the depths of life from Mothiur Rahman, pioneer member of XR Muslims.

Mothiur Rahman speaks with raw courage and a unique combination of vulnerability and strength as he describes his own journey to spiritual connection and how it informs his life, from supporting anti-fracking campaigners to working with XR visioning.   
From helping defeat the first major fracking application in the UK, to taking part in XR actions to highlight government inaction, Mothiur walks his talk with clear integrity, a sharp, engaged mind and a commitment to bringing about a regenerative future.

New Economy Law
Muslims for Extinction Rebellion FB page
Article in Resurgence Magazine: "A Civil Rights Movement"
Mothiur’s statement to be read at his trial (for XR Action - the case was dismissed before this could be read out)

Mothiur's article in Stir for Action Land & Power:Community Charters

Mothius's talk at Vaults Festival 2019 Decolonise/Decarbonise: Decoloniality & Rewilding the Psyche

How does it feel to commit - completely, without reservation - to the flow of life? Where do we find the courage and resilience to take the first steps on the path? And how does the world - that same flow of life - support us when we have done so?

In this second of two parts with Alan Watson Featherstone we explore more deeply the creation of Trees for Life - how it arose and what it entailed... In itself, this is impressive, but what makes it inspiring for those of us who might not be able to set up a world-changing forest reWilding project, is the extent to which, having made a commitment to change the world, the world itself supports us in our endeavour. 

This is what is so inspiring about Alan's story, what gives us hope in a world hurtling towards so many tipping points:  that if we listen to our innermost yearnings, if we follow our hearts and let our intuition lead us - then when we step onto the path of our calling the world supports us in our endeavour. 

Alan's website: https://alanwatsonfeatherstone.com
Trees for Life: https://treesforlife.org.uk/alan-watson-featherstone-founder-of-trees-for-life/
Findhorn community https://www.findhorn.org
Auroville community https://auroville.org
Restore the Earth http://www.restoretheearth.co.uk
Global Ecovillage Network https://ecovillage.org

What are we here for?  What - exactly - is the purpose of life? Imagine a world where finding our life's purpose - and having the courage to follow it - was at the core of everything we did.   

Alan Watson Featherstone listened to the prompting of his heart and set up Trees for Life to ReWild the Great Caledonian Forest in Scotland. Three decades on, there are thousands of acres alive with new growth. In this first of two podcasts, he describes his journey to Findhorn.

Alan is an ecologist, nature photographer, international speaker – and founder of Trees for Life, the charity that grew from a promise made at a Gathering, into a multi-million pound organisation owning – and ReWilding – thousands of acres of the Scottish Highlands. Along the way, he organised the planting of trees by the million, the fencing of thousands of acres to protect saplings – and helped lay the roots for the re-introduction of beavers to Scotland.

His journey from electronics undergraduate to one of the world’s foremost advocates for Wild Land and our connection with nature is an inspiration for anyone and everyone who seeks to connect with a sense of purpose in life.

Alan's website: https://alanwatsonfeatherstone.com
Trees for Life: https://treesforlife.org.uk/alan-watson-featherstone-founder-of-trees-for-life/
Findhorn community https://www.findhorn.org
Auroville community https://auroville.org
Restore the Earth http://www.restoretheearth.co.uk
Global Ecovillage Network https://ecovillage.org

'Dreaming Your Soul's Path' Gathering at Accidental Gods https://accidentalgods.life/dreaming-your-souls-path/

Suppose we all made this year the one where we choose to make a difference?  We could take a sabbatical and join in the actions around COP26. Or we could go to work and do whatever it takes to make our business regenerative.  Or we could join Parents For Future and build a world that we are proud to leave to our children.  Rupert Read on his new book: Parents for a Future and how now is the time to act. 

Professor Rupert Read works in the philosophy department at UEA in Norwich.  He's author of numerous books and a hands-on, sit-in-the-streets climate activist.  His latest book, Parents for a Future is a passionate, beautifully argued clarion call for all of us to do whatever it takes to move us onto a trajectory that will shape the future we need and want for future generations: a future we're proud to leave behind. 

This year in particular is a crucial turning point. As we emerge from COVID and move towards COP26 in Glasgow, the decisions we make now will shape this decade, which will shape this century, which will shape this millennium - and the future of the human and more-than-human worlds.

You can connect at @parents4afuture and #ParentsforFuture, so head for both of those and see what you can do to make this year the one where we changed.

Parents for a Future Book: https://www.parentsforafuture.org/shop
Rupert's website https://parentsforafuture.org
ThruTopia paper: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/rupert-read/thrutopia-why-neither-dys_b_18372090.html
Narrative Ark Television for the future website  https://narrativeark.net

Suppose we already have all the answers to the crises that assail us?  Suppose countless people, companies, non-profit organisations and local community groups were already working to change the way things work?  And suppose we could knit these together into a movement for change? Donnie Maclurcan of the Post Growth Institute explores the ways we can find a generative future.

Donnie is a facilitator, author and social entrepreneur, passionate about all things not-for-profit. Originally from Australia, he moved to the U.S. in 2013, from where he coordinates the Post Growth Institute. As a consultant, he has worked in Egypt, Kenya, Fiji, Thailand and South Korea, helping 500+ not-for-profit projects start, scale and sustain their work, while his own initiatives include developing: Free Money Day, the Post Growth Alliance, the (En)Rich List, the Offers and Needs Market process, The Not for Profit Waytraining, Silent Skype team meetings, Project Australia, and the globally-used #postgrowth hashtag. An Affiliate Professor of Economics at Southern Oregon University and Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, Donnie holds a Ph.D. in social science.

He is passionate about the concept that we already have the answers to the current world, social, cultural, climatic, ecological and economic crises - and that if we can understand this fact, it will help us to work towards answers that will work.

In the podcast, he explores the ways in which we can spread this understanding, and build on it to create a generative future.  He focuses on the things that are already working - and ways we can shift the focus of our economy away from the massive hoarding of wealth by big multinationals and the global hyper-rich.

How on Earth: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/How-on-Earth-by-Donald-Maclurcan-author-Jen-Hinton-author/9780990369004

Imagine a world where we didn’t always feel as if money was tight. Imagine an economy that works for the health and welfare of people and planet rather than all of us working for the health of the economy. Richard Murphy describes where money comes from and how we could use it differently.

We all know the economy is broken - that the experiment of free market capitalism has driven us to the edge of extinction. The problem is working out what to replace it with that will help us to find new ways of being without creating such havoc that lives are destroyed in the process.   

In this first of a two-part series, Richard Murphy explores ways we can change the current system to create a different world.

Richard Murphy is a political economist, author of the book 'The Joy of Tax', and is a visiting professor at Sheffield, Anglia Ruskin and City universities. He's an adviser at the Fair Tax Mark and was deeply involved in creating the first iteration of the Green New Deal in the UK. He writes the Tax Research Blog, which shines bright lights on the economic illiteracy of free-market governments.

In our conversation, we explore how money is made in the current system, the mythology of austerity and how the world could be if we all understood the nature of the lies.  When we all see the Emperor has no clothes, we can re-create a new way of doing and being.

Tax Research Blog: https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/
Fair Tax Mark: https://fairtaxmark.net
The Joy of Tax: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Joy-of-Tax-by-Richard-Murphy-author/9780552171618
Tax Justice Network: https://www.taxjustice.net
The Green New Deal: https://greennewdealgroup.org

We all know national politics is in chaos.  But local governance can be a place of enlivening, inspiring, radical change. Pam Barrett speaks of her work to change the nature of her local town council - what she achieved - and how we can do the same. 

Pam Barrett worked at the heart of the Westminster government's civil service. Then she moved to picturesque Buckfastleigh, a mill town on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, and began to see how badly the town was served by the town and regional councils.  She started a group to preserve the town's only swimming pool. That grew, and the pool was saved, and she moved on, in time, to stand as an independent for the town council. A group of others stood with her, and they gained 9 seats on a 12 seat council. Which meant they could do things, make things happen... discover the freedom that local democracy gives if it truly serves the local people.
 
With the newly independent group on the local council, the concept of 'of the people, by the people, for the people' took on new meaning.  They moved the council to a bigger room and made the proceedings far more transparent. They asked local people what they wanted to do - and then worked out how much it would cost.. .23p per household per week to really keep the swimming pool open, other bits for other things, amounting to an extra 97p per household per week. And then they let local people decide if they wanted that...

and, like almost all participatory budgeting, when people have a chance to really see what their money goes towards - they did want it, and they were happy to pay.  So that four years later, when the council came up for re-election, 10 independent councillors stood and 10 were elected. 

Pam's story is one of agency, and local empowerment and it can play out pretty much anywhere in the world where democracy is still alive.  Listen in and be inspired - then go out and see what you can do in your local area. 

FlatPack Democracy: https://www.flatpackdemocracy.co.uk

Trust the People online Training: https://actionnetwork.org/events/trust-the-people-online-course-spring-2021

Be Buckfastleigh: https://bebuckfastleigh.co.uk

Positive News on Pam Barrett and Buckfastleigh: https://www.positive.news/uk/the-devonshire-town-that-transformed-local-democracy/

Handforth Parish Council Zoom call (full) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsalmnyed7k

Handforth Parish Council Zoom (highlights) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgGmYeAm0jk

How does it feel to know we're really living our purpose? What's the felt sense inside that tells us to keep going in a particular direction? Or to stop?  Radical evolutionary, Chris Taylor explores the pathways to right being that will let us transform what it is to be human. 

Chris Taylor, author of 'The Tao of Revolution' is a Tai Chi teacher, regenerative farmer, musician, performance poet, facilitator-of-change and author - who describes himself as a revolutionary mystic. Or mystical revolutionary. His book is described as 'A field guide for Global Transformation, - a book on climate and societal change that isn't about the coming chaos, but about how we learn to live with the future.  The system will not be over-thrown, it will be overgrown - here's how.'

In this heart-warming, thought-provoking podcast we move through Immanuelle Wallerstein, Quaker philosophy and Mellissa Etheridge to the Green New Deal, QAnon  and Taoism, to how we can live deeply connected to the land that feeds us.

Ultimately, we explore the opportunities and gifts of our times and the ways that we can each find the margins of ourselves, find the things that make our hearts sing and find the ways to do them - so that together, we are building a world based on connection, coherence and empowerment.

Chris Taylor's book: The Tao of Revolution: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Tao-of-Revolution-by-Chris-Taylor-author/9781939269973
Oasis Human Relations: https://www.oasishumanrelations.org.uk
Grace Blakeley: Green Capitalism is not enough: https://democracycollaborative.org/learn/publication/green-capitalism-not-enough
Jem Bendell's Deep Adaptation paper: https://jembendell.com/2019/05/15/deep-adaptation-versions/
Immanuelle Wallerstein: World Systems Analysis: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/World-Systems-Analysis-by-Immanuel-Maurice-Wallerstein/9780822334422

How different would our world be if we understood how our minds - and feelings - worked?  How would our workplaces change if everyone was doing their best to understand how everyone else experienced the world? Dr Rachel Lilley describes how shifting our perspectives changes everything - from work to home to government. 
Rachel combines extensive  academic research with  many years practical  experience  working  with  teams and senior leaders  to offer unique and practical  insights  into attention, emotions, consciousness and decision making.  She has particular expertise in behaviour change related to sustainability, climate change and community engagement as well as extensive academic and personal experience of using mindfulness to develop self and other awareness and gain insight.

In today's podcast, we discuss the basis behind her PhD thesis, which explored the practical results of teaching mindfulness to civil servants in the Welsh Government and how this impacted on the ability to deliver results particularly related to climate change actions.  The core of this: that people learned how their own minds worked - and so began to understand how others' minds work, that not all minds are the same, and not all thought processes follow the same lines - is transformative in our lives, our workplaces and our ability to respond to the current planetary crisis.   Rachel explains the basis of her work and its results so far- as well as the potential for extending it further.

Rachel Lilley Predicting Mind website - https://predictingmind.com
Lisa Feldman Barret: How Emotions are Made - https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/How-Emotions-Are-Made-by-Lisa-Feldman-Barrett-author/9781509837526
George Lakoff Metaphors we Live By: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Metaphors-We-Live-By-by-George-Lakoff-author-Mark-Johnson-author/9780226468013
Podcast: Sam Harris talking to Anil Seth: https://samharris.org/subscriber-extras/113-consciousness-and-the-self/

Everybody Now

Climate Emergency and Sacred Duty

We’ve caused a turning point in the Earth’s natural history. Everybody Now is a podcast about what it means to be human on the threshold of a global climate emergency, in a time of systemic injustice and runaway pandemics. Scientists, activists, farmers, poets, and theologians talk bravely and frankly about how our biosphere is changing, about grief and hope in an age of social collapse and mass extinction, and about taking action against all the odds.

On 19th October 2020, Everybody Now is being released by podcasters all over the world as a collective call for awareness, grief and loving action. 

With contributions from:

Dr. Gail Bradbrook - scientist and co-founder of Extinction Rebellion

Prof. Kevin Anderson - Professor of Energy and Climate Change at the University of Manchester

Dámaris Albuquerque - works with agricultural communities in Nicaragua

Dr. Rowan Williams - theologian and poet, and a former Archbishop of Canterbury

Pádraig Ó Tuama - poet, theologian and conflict mediator

Rachel Mander - environmental activist with Hope for the Future

John Swales - priest and activist, and part of a community for marginalised people

Zena Kazeme - Persian-Iraqi poet who draws on her experiences as a former refugee to create poetry that explores themes of exile, home, war and heritage

Flo Brady - singer and theatre maker

Hannah Malcolm - Anglican ordinand, climate writer and organiser

Alastair McIntosh - writer, academic and land rights activist

David Benjamin Blower - musician, poet and podcaster

Funding and Production: 

This podcast was crowdfunded by a handful of good souls, and produced by Tim Nash and David Benjamin Blower

Permissions:

The song Happily by Flo Brady is used with permission.

The song The Soil, from We Really Existed and We Really Did This by David Benjamin Blower, used with permission.

The Poem The Tree of Knowledge by Pádraig Ó Tuama used with permission.

The Poem Atlas by Zena Kazeme used with permission.

The Poem What is Man? by Rowan Williams from the book The Other Mountain, used with permission from Carcanet Press.