Today’s guest is someone who has absolutely been one of those people on the forefront of impacting business, our world and particularly the voiceless for the better. Richard Boele is on the show today to chat about his remarkable life and career - from visiting China and Tibet in the late 1980s and witnessing violence on his first day in Lhasa, to playing a vital role in making public to the world the deleterious impacts Shell’s oil operations in Nigeria have had and the impact that Ken Saro-Wira had on him, through to how businesses today and their leaders face a seemingly overwhelming array of inputs, data and choices, all while juggling their shareholder obligations, community expectations, short and long term perspectives, responsibilities to respect human rights and the role of purpose and having a reason to exist that is more substantial than favouring extractive financial results. We also talk briefly about Richard’s personal practices that have helped him stay sane, well and optimistic after all of these years working against, in and for business right around the world, as well as the tragic losses he’s experienced as a father.

Richard is somewhat of an idol to me. I had the grand privilege of working for him for seven years in the early part of my career, and it’s annoying how I realise the role and value of experience and wisdom after the fact, when I’ve gotten old enough to recognise and appreciate it. Professionally he’s one of if not the most significant person in my career to date, and the time I spent with Richard on jobs and around the office chatting about power, understanding relationships, always thinking about work as an opportunity to deliver a trojan horse and how systems and individuals relate and interact are things I’ve carried ever since.

It was a great privilege to reprise my relationship with Richard, to catch up, to hear a few of his stories and be reminded that one of the best in corporate sustainability in the world is always at the end of a phone call for me. I really hope you get to enjoy this one, and feel inspired and hopeful by Richard’s example.

Thank you for listening today, I appreciate it and don't take your precious time for granted.

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Dr Anastasia Hronis is a clinical psychologist and founder of the Australian Institute for Human Wellness. She is a practicing clinician, as well as a researcher and lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney. She has published in a number of prestigious academic journals, appears regularly on TV discussing all manner of topics related to mental health and wellbeing, and has also performed at some of the world’s greatest music venues as a concert pianist. If that’s not enough, she’s also the author of The Dopamine Brain which I found an utterly compelling and valuable read.

With the growth in interest and understanding of how our brains work and the neurology that lays down the wires that inform and influence every one of our choices, behaviours and actions, dopamine has gone from being an abstract topic discussed in universities and health clinics, to a hot topic across social media, the news and in our culture. Seemingly all of a sudden everyone is an expert in dopamine, or neurotransmitters or how our brains operate and drive our lives. The Dopamine Brain myth busts, defines, explains and brings to life the incredible ways by which our brains work.

Anastasia and I chat about this but also the role dopamine plays in both resisting and enabling what we do, which is relevant as we enter the second week of January and those resolutions or goals for 2025 become increasingly difficult to stay on track with. There’s good science as to why that is - beyond the myth that this is all about willpower and unlimited levels of personal responsibility. Our neurology can dictate and open or shut opportunities to change, and Anastasia’s book plus this chat reinforced that change is difficult for two fundamental reasons that are beyond the power of my will - changing my neurology involves a period of painful withdrawal where slipping and returning to pattern is a more convenient option despite the irrationality, while creating new pathways and resetting dopamine levels is physically uncomfortable and about re-organising the neurology in my brain. It helped me have compassion for myself as I look to make shifts and some transitions this year, why these have been so difficult in the past and also helps me hold onto optimism that the difficulty of these periods do eventually erode, and that light is shining at the end of the tunnel.

Thank you for listening today, I appreciate it and don't take your precious time for granted.

If you enjoyed this episode or any other, please offer a rating as the algorithms appreciate that type of interaction, share the show with friends, colleagues and on social media - tag me in with your comments - and subscribe.

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Finding Nature wouldn’t exist without today’s guest. A man I’ve known for 25 years and has been a role model, coach and mentor to me through much of that. Richard Burton is the perfect person to be kicking off the new year. Why’s that? Being the new year, no matter how much we seek to avoid the platitudes of new year’s resolutions, I find it impossible not to experience moments and periods of reflection. Many of us have a bit of time and space from our usual routines, habits and obligations over this period, and for me that surfaces questions, aspirations, questions and ideas.

Richard is a career coach, a recovering corporate executive, father, husband and truly one of the greatest people I have had the privilege of knowing. In 2023, when I was at a low ebb personally he reached out to me in a way that very few could. He sheltered me from the storms of change occurring in my life and helped create a refuge where I could begin to feel grounded and supported. Later that year, as I began to steady myself I knew something needed to change for me professionally. Lost in my own career, I was reminded of the value of coaching. Listening to others talking about the importance and role of seeking and receiving help for our working lives, it hit me that I needed to revisit work I’d done with Richard over a decade ago in exploring my strengths, interests and motivations to help me become clear on what my purpose is.

Purpose I hear you say? That vague and awful exercise my workplace every now and again attempts to induce me to contemplate in 30 minutes of awkward group exercises. Or that hacky snake oil stuff just about everybody seems to be pushing with their hokey one liners and Instagram-esque quotes. What the hell is purpose? With Richard I was fortunate not to need convincing on the necessity of this work, its role in my life and why I needed professional help. So I went and got it and the gifts of help from a master of his craft was evident immediately. Relief and liberation in assessing where I was, where I’d come from, and able to begin to imagine what was possible. Not only was Finding Nature seeded in those coaching sessions, but my whole approach to how I turned up and engaged professionally was transformed.

The work with Richard was organised, evidence-backed and experiential, and it progressively helped me re-connect to my own sense of confidence and self assuredness that had deteriorated in the previous couple of years. That gift was priceless, and as Richard says in this chat, our careers can be re-framed as 50 year investments, or opportunities to get lost. I’m grateful I took the action when I did, and it’s changed my life.

Richard has worked with thousands and thousands of people. From helping teenagers think about what they might to be when they’re adults, to those experiencing redundancies, to Executives and whole teams.

I need to offer a warning and apology for some of the sound quality in this recording - a technical problem has infected my equipment which I’m confident will be fixed in the next couple of weeks with some tweaks and replacements, but I’m sorry if it inconveniences or affects the quality of your listening experience.

Richard changed my life in my late teens through our sporting connection, then again in my late 20s when I first received his career coaching support, and again 15 months ago. I hope you take from this some of what I have, and it helps to launch you into a glorious 2025.

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Welcome to the show and my podcast where I endeavour to have long form in depth conversations that matter - or at least I hope they matter - with thought and action leaders who are making positive change across business, health, society and politics.

Today’s episode is the second and final part of the finding nature 2024 anthology. I hope you managed to enjoy the first part reprising some of your favourite guests or coming across some new ones, and the second part is more of the same.

The intent of these two episodes is to create a little inspiration, to help you set the right mood and mindset to reflect on the year that’s nearly passed and better contemplate what may lay ahead for you, and launch you into 2025 in a state of clarity and optimism to ponder what it is you are going to pursue.

These two episodes are my way of saying just saying that I hope you get to enjoy the new year period and to offer a huge thank you. Thank you for investing in my work. Thank you for being an incredible audience, for honouring the guests and taking on board their messages and calls to action. I love this show and I love the privilege of serving you all with a new episode each and every week, and I promise the year ahead is going to be even more of what 2024 launched for me. I really cannot wait for what is to come, to connect with so many of you, to learn from so many of you and to know that there is a huge and growing community of people who are looking to leave a mark in the pursuit of more just, equitable and beautiful futures.

The Animals Do Not Want To See Us - Satyajit Das On The Perils of Wild Quests
Dr Vanessa Pirotta is Forging New Paths: Humpbacks, Drones and Creating What Doesn't Exist
Sisyphus is No Obstacle - Chris Nunn on the Clarity to Catalyse
Tammi Miller Will See You Now: Work Addiction, Identity and The Perils of Pursuing It All
Internal Integration, External Actualisation - Mark Rowland is Here Now
The Voice of A Community: Nicolette Boele on Local Politics, Local Change and the Potential For A Real Shift
We're Allies On The Same Team - Davina Rooney and Jorge Chapa Make Friends and Change Buildings
From Housing Dream To Inalienable Right - Kevin Bell is Reframing For Dignity
The Slow Road to Gender Equality: Catherine Fox Wants to Break The Delusion and Realise The Power of Intention and Imagination
Building and Maintaining A Body To Live, Work & Play In with Dr John Panagopoulos
Changes Requires Changing - Grounding Helicopter Thinking With Pablo Berrutti
Climate Councillor Le

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Hey everybody, how are you all doing. Happy holidays to all the good people out there, and welcome to or welcome back to the Finding Nature podcast. I do my best on this show to have meaningful, insightful and valuable conversations with people who have made it their mission in life to make a positive difference and to bring their stories to you.

My name is Nathan Robertson-Ball, this is my show and thank you for listening. Thank you for subscribing on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, thank you for spreading the word with your friends or colleagues, or maybe today over the lunch or dinner table with your functional and dysfunctional relatives. Welcome to my first best of series, an anthology of the year that was 2024 on this show, where I feature excerpts from some of my favourite conversations.

As many of you know, I got the Finding Nature show on the road this year after harbouring ideas and hopes and fantasies of heading off on a personal/professional quest to meet with, learn from and create a platform for courageous and persevering people who are making a difference in the pursuit of more just, safe and beautiful futures.

As a podcast I attempt to reflect my own breadth of interests and passions across sustainability, wellbeing, meaning-seeking, personal evolution health and business, and I pride myself on inviting on a wide range of perspectives, experiences and mindsets onto the show. To have now hosted and published 42 episodes since starting in March, I’m experiencing both awe and surrealism. It’s been such an incredible experience beginning Finding Nature - an act that has brought me personal liberation, new relationships and friends, experiences I couldn’t have imagined and it’s a real pleasure to be bringing you the first annual best of series.

What You Don't Know Does Harm You - Nina Jankowicz Is The Valiant We Need
Reaching for What's Possible - Emma Pocock's Vision for Sport as a Vehicle for Change
Indigenous-Designed Finance - Bruce Chapman and Chris Andrew Want To Reflect Reality
The Open Secret Change Relies Upon & Sustainabilators Have Missed - Rob Rogers
Subversion and Exertion - Jess Miller Wants to Have Fun, Win Hearts and Change Cities
The Word For World Is Ocean: James Bradley On The World In The Ocean
Designing Transitions for Sustainable and Equitable Futures - Madness or Mission with Cameron Tonkinwise
Adapt or Lose - Kate Cotter Has Inconvenient Truths
What Needs to Change for Sustainability to Work - Lee Stewart is Throwing Down The Gauntlet
Blowing The Whistle on the Climate Crisis - Regina Featherstone Won't Go With The Flow

Alrighty, I really hope you enjoyed that one, the best of finding nature 2024, part one. I’ll be back in a few days wit

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A topic and issue I’ve been grappling with is artificial intelligence. It’s a space that has dominated so much in 2024 - news, investment, executive wish lists, fears, hopes, fantasies. Personally, I’ve just been overwhelmed and it’s a topic that’s allowed me to find compassion and empathy for all the folks out there that aren’t consumed and living the issues of environmental protection, human rights and sustainability more broadly - this stuff is technical, expansive and has a lexicon all of its own. Artificial intelligence is something I want to explore more in 2025, but to begin today’s guest is Lee Schofield.

Lee is an unusual character in the realm of AI - and not just because she’s a woman, but she's a trained economist, and her professional career has spanned investment, sales, marketing, product management and strategy. I first came across Lee at a conference in 2023 where she spoke about AI, responsible technology, and the shift from the attention economy to that of the intimacy attention. She spoke like a normal person - not an acolyte of a general purpose technology that has arrived to reshape every element and aspect of our lives for the better. She wasn’t banging a big drum proclaiming that AI was the messiah to the climate crisis, the plastic crisis, the inequality crisis, the cancer crisis, the loneliness crisis.

That take as a regular person was important for me to better understand, because if a non tech bro who was interested in AI as a tool for calendar optimisation or sales closing uplift could learn about, build an understanding of and then communicate about the overwhelming and often confronting world of AI, it helped me realise I had somewhere closer to home that was more than a listening or viewing experience. So this episode is one where I have basically no idea about the content - which hopefully is unusual. Its intent is to help me and hopefully you as well begin to learn about this big and broad and strange and bombastic and daunting and auspicious technology.

OK Lee - she offers the value of curiosity, of taking time, the necessity for the beginner’s mind, and the potential learning and growth that comes with a healthy dose of humility. I certainly need it so I remain more firmly in the realm of learning and scepticism as opposed to cynicism and sarcasm.

A heads up that this is the last interview format of the pod for 2024. Over the coming weeks I’m going to release a version of a best of that offers moments and glimpses from many of the wonderful and extraordinary guests who’ve graced Finding Nature this year. I’m really looking forward to it, and if you’re new to the show you’re in for a treat and if you’re a loyal listener get prepared to re-engage with some of your favourite listens.

We’ll be back on the first of January with a very special guest who is the perfect person to help you and I think about the year ahead, the year gone and whatever may lay ahead for all of us. I’m excited to be bringing all of this to you, so please hit that subscribe button and share it around.

Until then, wishing you a safe and satisfying festive period. Thanks for listening.

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Today’s guest is the indomitable Catherine Fox. A woman of such immense fierceness, incisive analytical powers and a mastery of craft that has led to authoring or co-authoring six books. Catherine was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2022 for significant service to journalism, gender equality and diversity. Catherine’s career is nothing short of phenomenal - beyond the books and order of Australia medal, she wrote for the Australian Financial Review for more than two decades, editing their Corporate Women column, was awarded a Walkley award for women’s leadership in media in 2017. While at the AFR she helped to establish the 100 women of influence awards, and was named as one in 2018, has been a gender equality advisor to the Australian defence force and sits on the Australians investing in women board. Time with her was nothing short of an honour.

Her latest book, Breaking the Boss Bias - How to Get More Women Into Leadership is an essential read. The reality check Catherine lays out in this book affected me, and it’s something the men listening to this in particular would be well suited and recommended to go out and get immediately. The book struck me for two primary reasons: the first being how delusional progress on gender equality has been and remains in Australia and around the world. And secondly how relatable I found Catherine’s work to be to every other realm of sustainability from climate inaction to biodiversity loss and species extinction to housing unaffordability and the degradation of trust in our society. Catherine’s works paints a picture within a picture and it’s a tormenting one. Never have so many been aware of and attempting to engage in any and all issues that would deliver more equitable and sustainable futures, yet the empirical evidence and data shows that slow gains hard ear have been and are slipping. This is depressing and dispiriting information, yet also necessary. Crisis and disaster - whether that is gender inequity, the climate, housing - can only be approached in my mind if there is a shared and collective appreciation of the truth. A reckoning that at its heart is about becoming and being honest with reality. Catherine’s work for decades has been about exactly this, and it was enlightening and agitating to both read her book and to spend this time with her.

Thank you for listening today, I appreciate it and don't take your precious time for granted.

If you enjoyed this episode or any other, please offer a rating as the algorithms appreciate that type of interaction, share the show with friends, colleagues and on social media - tag me in with your comments - and subscribe.

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Cameron Tonkinwise is back on the show today. The first repeat guest which is fun and exciting for me, but also because he is someone who I think more than anyone I’ve met in my career deeply understands and seeks to learn about and apply novel and innovative ways by which change happens.

Cameron is a Professor of Design at the University of Technology Sydney, and has a storied career here and in the United States at some of the world’s greatest design schools. Few have influenced me as much as Cameron so to get him back after his recent annual lecture at the School of Visual Arts in New York City was a pleasure.

We chat about the disintegration of support and help from private and state entities, the challenges everyday people face when trying to take part in the transition to more sustainable and safe futures - everything from car purchasing to understanding the risks climate change poses to their home and health. We also get into how this year has affected me - Cameron pushes me in exploring what I’ve learnt from getting Finding Nature to now which does feel a little self-centred, but it was nice to share about my own experience of this effort and endeavour.

Thank you for listening today, I appreciate it and don't take your precious time for granted.

If you enjoyed this episode or any other, please offer a rating as the algorithms appreciate that type of interaction, share the show with friends, colleagues and on social media - tag me in with your comments - and subscribe.

The rest of the year's events are all listed and you can get your ticket or tickets by heading to  humanitix.com and searching for finding nature - hit follow so that you get automatically notified of listings and access to ticket sales. The end of year party is on the 18th of December, so if you’re in Sydney and you haven’t got your ticket yet, I’d love to see you there for a fun time.

One last place you can sign up is at  findingnature.substack.com where each month I publish a series of contributions from other professionals working in the sustainability and impact fields on what motivates them, their philosophies and how that informs their daily lives. The latest edition came out last week on the topic of hope. It’s really hit a nerve - people have contacted me to say they’ve been brought to tears, others have asked me if I’m ok, and some have expressed how they've taken hope from the strength of others. The privilege of helping to tell the stories of others is a remarkable gift, and I love to share these so please go check out them out.

What comes out in December is still to be decided so Til next time here on the show, thanks for listening.

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Today's guest is a very wonderful privilege to be bringing to you - Lesley Hughes. Lesley is one of Australia's most distinguished and recognised experts on climate change. Beginning her career as an ecologist where she studied the role ants played in dispersing seeds across landscapes, she turned her attention to studying the climate and its impacts on biodiversity in the early 90s. She was a lead author of the 4th and 5th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports - including being part of the IPCC group who were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. She was appointed a Climate Commissioner under the Gillard Government, helped found the Climate Council where she remains a Director and Councillor. A Professor Emerita in Biology and Pro-Chancellor at Macquarie University. Lesley has published over 200 scientific papers, she's a Ted speaker and is now a member of the Federal Climate Change Authority. Just to give you a flavour of her remarkable career and life.

Lesley is someone who has made an incredible contribution to humanity's understanding of climate change, in particular how it has, is and will affect human and non human species and ecosystems. This was a true honour for me.

I found this conversation incredible - from the early years of her career conducting research and pushing for public awareness of this problem, to the hopeful years of the 2000s when substantive action seemed possible and likely, to the toxicity and insanity of the early 2010s as someone who had a front row seat on the emergence and escalation in Australia's climate wars, to how she works to stay healthy and hopeful in the face of such despair and grief. It struck me how so much of what has been vital to Lesley has been unity with her own tribe, the sense of belonging and vulnerability that comes with working together, that hope is more than a feeling but about building groups that can take collective action together. Lesley's stories are characterised by courage and perseverance, something many of us are required to exhibit on a daily basis doing this type of work.

The rest of the year's events are all listed and you can get your ticket or tickets by heading to  humanitix.com and searching for finding nature - hit follow so that you get automatically notified of listings and access to ticket sales.

One last place you can sign up is at  findingnature.substack.com where each month I publish a series of contributions from other professionals working in the sustainability and impact fields on what motivates them, their philosophies and how that informs their daily lives. October's theme was help, and the next edition that is coming out this Saturday morning is on the theme of hope.

With everything occurring in our world at the moment, and with the latest COP fresh in our consciousness, where else is there to go but to Lesley herself - “hope has to be a strategy.”

Til next time, thanks for listening.

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Today's guest is Tammi Miller - a Certified Practising Counsellor registered with the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia. She works with people to improve mental wellbeing, improve health literacy and looks to facilitate a path towards happier, healthier and more mindful ways of living. I dare say a lot of us could benefit from this type of work.

I've wanted to get Tammi on the show for a few months, so when the chance came up after reading her book Bare Therapy I jumped at it. It's reasonable to expect that many of us can struggle with our relationship to work when so much of the news and information we're exposed to is doomish and dread-inducing. Working in the fields of sustainability, climate action and social impact is exhausting and painful, and burnout is common. I have certainly struggled with maintaining my stability and wellbeing over the years, and it's felt shaky again the past few months working solely in the science and impacts of a changed and changing climate.

Tammi is on the show to chat about identity, self worth, work addiction, meaning, the pursuit of it all and the perils of the pursuit of it all. Doing the inner work is essential I believe to all of us, helping to reveal with another what we cannot see for whatever reason, to identify new insights and give strength for an evolution of our existence to help align our meaning and dreams with the actions we can take every day, every moment.

The rest of the year's events are being listed regularly - we've got three coming up in the next month and I hope to see as many of you at them as possible - head to humanitix.com and search for finding nature - hit follow so that you get automatically notified of listings and access to ticket sales.

One last place you can sign up is at  findingnature.substack.com where each month I publish a series of contributions from other professionals working in the sustainability and impact fields on what motivates them, their philosophies and how that informs their daily lives. The most recent edition was published on the topic of help - the obvious necessity that it is for me, you and everyone else, but also the difficulty and torment it can bring up in exhibiting vulnerability and honesty when it's asked for or accepted. Entirely relevant in the context of this episode with Tammi.

November is about hope at Finding Nature, and with Tammi on the show and all we spoke about and the work of change making, this quote from Lori Gottlieb stands out “Uncertainty, I'm starting to realise, doesn't mean the loss of hope - it means there's possibility. I don't know what will happen next - how potentially exciting!”

Til next time, thanks for listening.

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