Today on FESTIVAL, we meet two advocates who are in it for the long haul.

First, we launch a new recurring segment: The Roots of My Theory of Everything, in which we bring on thinkers and advocates to walk through the origins of how they see the world. The series kicks off with Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, who has spent three decades championing local community economies and challenging the domination of Walmart and Amazon. Tune in to learn about the forgotten history of local businesses and the New Deal, the abandoned power of the Robinson-Patman Act of 1936, and effective methods of changing public narratives around your cause.

Later in the show, we kick off the series After-Action Report, in which advocates recount recent battles, sharing what went well, what didn’t, and most importantly, what we can learn for future action. Joining us to walk through his past fifteen years of fighting Congressional corruption is cyberlaw folk hero-turned-campaign finance reform crusader Lawrence Lessig. Tune in to learn about his push for a new Constitutional convention, lessons from his 2016 presidential campaign, and new hope in a Maine court case that could defang Super PACs once and for all.

Timecodes:

* 00:01:06 Introducing The Roots of My Theory of Everything and Stacy Mitchell’s work with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance

* 00:02:53 Interview with Stacy Mitchell

* 00:50:38 Introducing After-Action Report and Lawrence Lessig’s campaign finance reform crusade

* 00:53:20 Interview with Lawrence Lessig

Further reading:

* The Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s website

* Stacy Mitchell’s book Big Box Swindle

* Stacy Mitchell’s report Amazon’s Stranglehold

* ILSR on the Robinson-Patman Act

* Lawrence Lessig’s website

* Equal Citizens’ website

* Lawrence Lessig’s book Republic, Lost

* Tom Latkowski’s book on Democracy Vouchers

* More info on the Maine case to defang Super PACs: Dinner Table Action v. Schneider

* Roberto Mangabeira Unger’s Letter to Young People

* Wendell Berry’s poem “February 2, 1968” is in The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry

Subscribe to FESTIVAL on:

* YouTube

* Spotify

* Apple Podcasts

* RSS (can be used with most podcast players)

* Substack (If you are already subscribed to my main Substack, you are all set—episodes flow through here.)

If you haven’t seen FESTIVAL’s first episode with the Two Loops Model’s Deborah Frieze and Randonautica’s Joshua Lengfelder, you can find it here.

Check out FESTIVAL’s trailer here, which includes our wonderful theme song—“Last Dance at the Grove” by the great Boston band Noble Dust:

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.petedavis.org

Today on the premiere of FESTIVAL, we meet two people who helped develop ideas that give me hope in our dark times. Both creations appear simple on the surface—but then reveal themselves to be more and more profound the longer you sit with them.

On the main stage, we launch our first recurring segment—Schemas That Could Save the World—with Deborah Frieze, co-conceptualizer of “The Two Loops Model,” a tremendously useful map of how promising emergent systems can replace failing dominant systems. Tune in to learn how an ecosystem of roles—from Hospice Workers and Protectors on the inside to Trailblazers and Illuminators on the outside—are needed to transform any system.

In the sideshow, we enter the Realm of the Strange to meet Joshua Lengfelder, co-founder of Randonautica, a mysterious smartphone app that invites you to visit a randomized, real-world location…and see what you find. Tune in to learn about the origins of the intriguing Fatum Project, the promise of Noveltism, the latest verdict on Mind-Matter Interaction, and the announcement of Josh’s spiritual sequel to Randonautica: Chronomancy.

Timecodes:

* 00:00:55 Introducing Schemas That Could Save the World and The Two Loops Model

* 00:06:20 Interview with Deborah Frieze of The Two Loops Model

* 00:54:21 Entering The Realm of the Strange and introducing Randonautica

* 01:00:15 Interview with Joshua Lengfelder of Randonautica

Further reading:

* Deborah Frieze and Margaret Wheatley’s book Walk Out Walk On

* Deborah’s TED talk about The Two Loops Model

* The Berkana Institute’s website

* Randonautica’s website

* The Fatum Project’s Theory page, explaining Noveltism, Blind Spots, The Despair Meme, and more

* Josh’s latest project: Chronomancy, or “Randonauting for Time”

* Daytime Revolution — a recent documentary about John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s brief takeover of The Mike Douglas Show

* Walt Whitman’s “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”

Subscribe to FESTIVAL on:

* YouTube

* Spotify

* Apple Podcasts

* RSS (can be used with most podcast players)

* Substack (If you are already subscribed to my main Substack, you are all set—episodes flow through here.)

And if you haven’t seen it yet, check out FESTIVAL’s trailer, which includes our wonderful theme song—“Last Dance at the Grove” by the great Boston band Noble Dust.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.petedavis.org

“The Festivals are all for rejoicing and pleasurable gatherings, which in most cases are indispensable for man; they are also useful in the establishment of friendship, which must exist among people living in political societies.” —Maimonides

The rain has stopped. The afternoon sun slants through the pine trees: and how those useless needles smell in the clear air! A dandelion, long out of season, has pushed itself into bloom between the smashed leaves of last summer’s day lilies. The valley resounds with the totally uninformative talk of creeks and wild water. Then the quails begin their sweet whistling in the wet bushes. Their noise is absolutely useless, and so is the delight I take in it. There is nothing I would rather hear, not because it is a better noise than other noises, but because it is the voice of the present moment, the present festival. —Thomas Merton

To celebrate a festival means: to live out, for some special occasion and in an uncommon manner, the universal assent to the world as a whole. —Josef Pieper

Next week, I’m launching a new podcast. It’s called FESTIVAL.

The idea is to have almost everything that a festival has, except in podcast form:

* A main stage where we talk about what everyone’s talking about that month

* Ample sideshows where we enter the realm of the strange and particular

* And everything in-between—interviews, spotlights, investigations, experiments, reflections

These are dark times in our country—and we need to get to work turning things around. But that is exactly why we need to start with festivity, because celebration is the soil for everything new and good.

We have great friends, old and new, lined up to come join us each episode. And I want this to be a shared festival, where we are in conversation with viewers and listeners—so please reach out with ideas and suggestions.

To follow along, subscribe on:

* YouTube

* Spotify

* Apple Podcasts

* RSS (can be used with most podcast players)

* Substack (If you are already subscribed to my main Substack, you are all set — episodes flow through here.)

See you next week. For now, check out FESTIVAL’s trailer, which includes our wonderful theme song—“Last Dance at the Grove” by the great Boston band Noble Dust.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.petedavis.org