Do big businesses need to fail and be replaced by better ones? Psychology and management guru Helen Sieroda joins us to discuss the evolution of leadership. In this mind-expanding episode on being we explore empathy, burnout, toxic leadership traits and narcissism.

Wild Geese 🪿 by Mary Oliver

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Season 3 is here! What are the economy and markets really for? Ben Kellard is Director of Business Strategy at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. In this thought-provoking episode we explore how we might create genuine wellbeing for people and the planet. We discuss how the market economy is undermining civilisations and wellbeing - and what a better future might look like.

More thoughts from Ben

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In this bonus episode with author and regenerative business guru Stephen Vasconcellos we discuss his new book The Regenerative Enterprise and lots more!

Stephen is a deep and thoughtful guy and we cover lots of bases including indigenous wisdom, regenerative vs sustainable business and whether business can survive at its current scale.

https://theregenerativeenterprise.com 

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Amber Brandner and Brad Harris are the co-founders and principals of A Frame - a venture studio as a force for better businesses. In this episode they discuss their experiences, motivations and the community aspects of building better from the bottom up.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE

• What are the biggest challenges for mission-driven founders to structure impact at early stages?
• ‘Humanity-centred’ design rather than human-centred design: looking at problems from the root cause with a long-term mindset, being iterative, continual refinement and building with community
• The power of the collective and what is possible when we come together and create from a space that is bigger than ourselves.

REFERENCES

Mirth Drink

Patagonia founder, Yvon Chouinard

Let my People go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard

Perspectiva Press

The Wisdom of Insecurity, Alan Watts

Shantaram (audiobook)

Armchair Experts (podcast) 

Syzmon, Blue colored mountain (song)

Barca Matchday Playlist 

CONNECT WITH BRADLEY HARRIS

LinkedIn

CONNECT WITH AMBER BRANDNER

LinkedIn

www.aframeventurestudio.com

SUPPORT BETTER BEINGS

If you enjoyed this episode of Better Beings, please share it with your friends and follow us on socials. Thanks for listening! 

Instagram

LinkedIn

CONTACT

Let us know your thoughts, feelings, critiques, and resource recommendations [email protected]

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Better business genius and spiritual leader John Featherby joins us to discuss the limits to materialism, a crisis of meaning and what spirituality means in the modern world.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE

• Reaching the end of a hyper-rational, high secular materialism age - and looking at what comes next to fill the ‘void’ in realising it doesn't provide real meaning 
• Exploring Spiritual Capital as a “resource of collective memory, benefit, and impact of a culture’s religious, spiritual, philosophy history and heritage” and investing in it through honouring purpose, value, virtue, and meaning in cultures 
• Religion as a way of being. It’s a pattern and we’re all in one. We’re all worshipping something
• CENTRES OF POWER ARE MOVING AWAY FROM THE WEST - neutral secular perspectives that are not neutral. Parts of the world are pushing back.
• How you develop leaders - mindfulness, breathing, embracing the wilderness 
• The agenda of “purpose” in business spaces & leadership programmes - and how authentic and meaningful this actually is. 

QUOTES & SNIPPETS

“We’re in a meaning crisis. Spiritual Capital doesn’t ‘belong’ to big businesses. You cant import purpose, ritual, philosophical ideas etc”

“It’s a pattern and we’re all in one”

“Consumerism doesn’t provide the meaning people thought it would so they’ve gone looking for meaning in something else”

“All people have now IS their work - home - and hobby. People's lives have gone from many layers to work and home. Back in the day, people belonged to a community organisation, there were layers between the individual and the state that gave them meaning and a sense of grounding but we’ve stripped them out”

“Most of the stuff you read in these modern business books about purpose and good culture - they exist in all the great scriptures. We’ve had this stuff forever.”

REFERENCES

Richard Dawkins

Gus Speth

Robert Tombs

Religion for Atheists, Alain de Botton

CONNECT WITH JOHN

Substack

Website

LinkedIn 

SUPPORT BETTER BEINGS

If you enjoyed this episode of Better Beings, please share it with your friends and follow us on socials. Thanks for listening! 

Instagram

LinkedIn

CONTACT

Let us know your thoughts, feelings, critiques, and resource recommendations [email protected]

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The wonderful Dan Haggis - from chart-topping band The Wombats - joins us to discuss creativity and commercialisation in the music business. In this fun and thoughtful episode we also discuss parenthood, wellbeing, mid-life-crises and what makes for a fulfilling and grounded life.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE

• The appreciation & sense of wonder that parenthood brings - for the journey that all humans go through
• Prioritising a creative career and navigating the school system
• Holding onto the purity of making music vs being ‘successful’ in the industry 
• The mid-life crisis that comes when we turn 30; “slowly untethering from youth, accepting that you’re moving on to a new chapter”, and how yoga helped him through this process

QUOTES & SNIPPETS

“It’s like I’m seeing the pyramid of Egypt for the first time when I’m watching him (son), that sense of wonder, seeing his little personality grow”

“No matter how much work you do on yourself (e.g meditation, Wim Hof ice showers) - you can still fall into bad habits. We are all a work in progress”

“Keep the harmony. If you don’t get things ironed out with yourself and your band or business; there’s no longevity”

“Yoga was a revolutionary force in my life; the one place, apart from making music, that could go to be in the moment where no other thoughts exist”

REFERENCES

The Infinite Monkey Cage, Brian Cox

The Rest is Politics

Cold Reactor, Everything Everything

Doppelganger, Naomi Klein

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F***, Mark Manson

The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle

CONNECT WITH DAN

Instagram (Dan)

Dan’s new album

FOLLOW THE WOMBATS

The Wombats

Instagram (The Wombats)

SUPPORT BETTER BEINGS

If you enjoyed this episode of Better Beings, please share it with your friends and follow us on socials. Thanks for listening! 

Instagram

LinkedIn

CONTACT

Let us know your thoughts, feelings, critiques, and resource recommendations [email protected]

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Steve Biddulph is the world's top-selling parenting author this century. His books include Raising Boys, Manhood, Raising Girls, and Fully Human, which are in over 6 million homes. Steve campaigns for better treatment of families and children and a more affectionate and connected form of parenting.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODE

• Why caring for your people should be the first goal in any human organisation 
• Thriving with autism
• The mental health and emotional intelligence of the younger generation
• The complexities of gender differences in raising boys and girls
• Getting in touch with our “Wild Creature Mind”

QUOTES & SNIPPETS

“If your kid sees you cry sometimes, that’s a gift to them”

“Human beings are broken and that’s the beauty of us - it’s what we make of that”

“There’s a thousand different ways to be a boy or a man, and there’s a thousand different ways to be a girl or a woman” 

“Instead of thinking ‘I'm anxious’ - try thinking: ‘there's something in me that’s anxious;’ then everyone can muster that strength to nurture themselves”

“There’s a generational uprising. It’s angry and it’s tender at the same time. These kids have got heart and they’ve got backbone. And they know what’s what.”

“We are wired to have fatherly, sisterly, and motherly feelings. A human organisation will only really hum when we honour these”

“Any organisation that has money as its purpose is automatically doomed to fail, because money is a myth, it’s a fairytale.”

REFERENCES

Fully Human by Steve Biddulph

The Secret of Happy Children by Steve Biddulph

Make Friends with Your Wild Creature Mind by Steve Biddulph *coming soon*

Ian McGilchrist (neuroscience) 

CONNECT WITH STEVE

https://www.stevebiddulph.com

SUPPORT BETTER BEINGS

If you enjoyed this episode of Better Beings, please share it with your friends and follow us on socials. Thanks for listening! 

Instagram

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CONTACT

Let us know your thoughts, feelings, critiques, and resource recommendations [email protected]

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