“Now there are lots of writers who talk about how foundational stories have been across history. Just take Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, in it he maps that without story, humans wouldn’t have been able to live in civilisations larger than about 20,000. That myth and story have been fundamental to our evolution as a species. And if we want to shift stories, we need to start thinking of them as technologies. We need to recognise them for the complex and potent things that they are.”

This episode explores the role of stories and narrative as a technology for foundational economic system change.
Stories For Life is a project authored by Dan Burgess and Paddy Loughman in collaboration with The Green Economy Coalition and The WellBeing Economy Alliance. Collectively they explored how stories may help design an economy in service to life. To weave this narrative requires engagement across cultures. It needs everyone who brings stories into our cultures to participate and play. This podcast was recorded at The Stories For Life event hearing from those working to create new narratives through creative culture, arts, activism, new economic design, leadership, community action and more.

Listen to speakers:

Dan Burgess
- Our current destructive narratives
- What if we could evolve these stories?
- What if we can jump into uncertainty?
- What if this is the most exciting and imaginative time?

Paddy Loughman
- Symptoms of a deadly economy and how to design an alternative in service to life
- Separation and competition over kindness, compassion, cooperation, diversity, creativity and care
- Economics are not fixed, they were designed. So they can be redesigned. Upgraded

Ella Saltmarshe
- Myth and story are fundamental to the evolution of our species
- Change the Things. Change the Relationships. Change the goals - Donella Meadows
- The values we hold will determine the stories we collectively have
- What changes when we understand ourselves as good ancestors?
- Radical kinship and care

Carlota Sanz
- A new vision for the 21st century - A doughnut!
- An inherited degenerative system to a new regenerative and cyclical system
- What would it take to realise the new doughnut economy?
- Change makers to change makers. The most effective way to realise a new paradigm

Kumi Naidoo
- What’s the biggest contribution we can make to the cause of justice? It’s not about giving your life, but giving the rest of your life
- Activists no longer speak the same language of the people
- What is needed? System innovation. System redesign. System transformation
- Bravery is required to tackle the root of our problems
- The focus is too much on what people don’t have, not what people have.
- An appeal for a just social contract

Andres Roberts
- How do we change the story of human progress by working with nature?
- Nature works in cycles and webs of connection, not straight lines, pyramids and hierarchies
- Humanity’s guiding principle is growth. Yet nature is based on optimisation
- When we listen and observe to nature, a new kind of knowledge arises
- We have emerged from nature. If we connect back to this truth we’ll rekindle our feeling of belonging

Community:
Green Economy Coalition - https://www.greeneconomycoalition.org
Wellbeing Economy Alliance - https://weall.org
The Longtime Academy - https://www.thelongtimeproject.org
Civic Square - https://civicsquare.cc/team/
Donut Economics Action Lab - https://doughnuteconomics.org
Bio-Leadership Project - https://www.bio-leadership.org
Power People & Planet - Kumi Naidoo https://www.powerpeopleplanet.org/
Stories For Life (You Tube) - https://stories.life/get-involved
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Thanks for listening to The Spaceship Earth Podcast.
Host: Dan Burgess @dansolo__
Edit: Charlie Shread
Shownotes: Vicki Turner
Music: Escape Goat by Soren Lorenson
Join us on Instagram: @thespaceship.earth
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