My guest today is Della Duncan, a Renegade Economist. Areas of her livelihood garden include supporting individuals as a Right Livelihood Coach, helping transition businesses and organizations as a post-capitalist consultant, teaching and facilitating courses and retreats on the Work that Reconnects and Regenerative Economics, and hosting the Upstream Podcast which challenges mainstream economic thinking through documentaries and conversations including most recently, The Green Transition: The Problem with Green Capitalism and The Myth of Freedom Under Capitalism. 

Our current global capitalist economic system has provided many benefits to humanity AND the system was designed for those benefits to accrue to those at the top, which is one of the reasons we have such massive inequality around the globe. Della and I talk about how capitalism is more like modern-day slavery and a tool for white supremacy and patriarchy. It is fueling the destruction of the planet, from which it is compelled to extract and it’s a system that can’t last forever and will eventually topple under its own weight.

Della challenges the assumptions that are built into mainstream economics: that nature is commodifiable and we can objectify it and put a price on it, that humans are selfish beings out for our own self-interest, that work is something we don’t value or enjoy doing, that humans aren’t capable of collectively taking care of the land and that it must be privatized to be cared for, and the biggest assumption of all: that limitless growth on a finite planet is possible and even desirable. 

I hope you enjoy the episode, if you do please subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app or on the entangledworldpod YouTube channel.

Della’s Links & Resources:

Website

Upstream Podcast

Upstream Podcast, Ep 16: The Myth of Freedom Under Capitalism (Documentary)

Social Media handles: @upstreampodcast and @dellazduncan

Books mentioned:

Less is More, Jason Hickel

The Divide, Jason Hickel

Winners Take All, Anand Giridharadas

How on Earth: Imagining a Not for Profit World by 2050, Jennifer Hinton

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Persig

100 Years of Psychotherapy And the World’s Only Getting Worse, Michael Ventura, James Hillman

Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer

Other people and work mentioned:

Does Studying Economics Breed Greed, Adam Grant

Limits to Growth, Donella Meadows

Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System, Donella Meadows

The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance, Robin Wall Kimmerer

Entangled World explores our greatest, interrelated social, economic, ecological, and technological global challenges, their underlying drivers, and how a more beautiful world might emerge.

YouTube

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Entangled World is a labor of love, I couldn’t keep this podcast going without the generosity of my listeners and fans. Please consider making a donation at patreon.com/entangledworld.

Get full access to Entangled World at najialupson.substack.com/subscribe