Moral Footprint

Host Jeni Miles talks to Anastasia Linn, co-founder of the Arketa Institute for Post-Growth Finance, about why sustainable finance is built on flawed economic foundations.

They explore ecological economics, the risks facing pension funds, moral purity in climate action, and why staying inside extractive industries — not leaving them — may offer the greatest leverage for change.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Discover why neoclassical economics, the foundation of all mainstream finance, leaves nature and energy out of its models entirely.
• Understand the shift from an "empty world" to a "full world" economy, and why growth-based finance no longer fits planetary limits.
• Learn why walking away from extractive industries may be less effective than staying and using your position for change.
• Explore how "multi-capital" thinking (natural, social, human and manufactured capital) reframes what a secure retirement actually looks like.
• Hear why UK actuaries are warning that ecological collapse threatens the entire financial system, even as other institutions downplay the risk.
• Move beyond the trap of moral purity, and understand why shame-based climate narratives can hold back real systemic change.
• Find out why hope, in Anastasia's view, isn't something you wait for. It's something you build through action.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

02:31 Anastasia's journey: from design and organisational psychology into finance

07:40 What's wrong with neoclassical economics

10:40 "Empty world" vs "full world" economics

12:12 Founding the Arketa Institute for Post-Growth Finance

15:27 Why staying inside the system can be more powerful than leaving

23:22 Moving beyond moral purity in climate action

29:58 The UK Actuaries' Planetary Solvency report & the "ground shifting" in finance

35:53 Post-growth pensions and multi-capital thinking

39:21 Why pension funds are unprepared for multiple "bubbles"

46:40 Emotional resilience, climate grief and active hope

50:12 Where to find Anastasia and the Arketa Institute

ABOUT THE GUEST

Anastasia Linn is co-founder of the Arketa Institute for Post-Growth Finance. Her background spans the Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth, the World Climate Foundation, and the House of Beautiful Business. Follow her on Linkedin: https://ch.linkedin.com/in/avlinn

LINKS & RESOURCES

• Arketa Institute — https://www.arketa-institute.org/
• Institute and Faculty of Actuaries — Planetary Solvency report — https://actuaries.org.uk/planetary-solvency-tipping-into-the-wild-unknown/
• A Tale of Two Actuaries (Matt Orsagh) — https://degrowthistheanswer.substack.com/p/a-tale-of-two-actuaries
• Financial activism playbook & zine (Jasmine Rashid) — https://www.jasminerashid.com/
• Rethinking Economics – https://rethinkeconomics.org/
• Triodos Bank — https://www.triodos.co.uk/
• Alexis Shotwell — https://www.alexisshotwell.com/
• Against Purity: Living Ethically in Compromised Times (Alexis Shotwell) — https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816698646/against-purity/
• Joanna Macy — https://www.joannamacy.net/
• Active Hope (Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone) — https://newworldlibrary.com/product/active-hope-revised
• Good Grief Network — https://goodgriefnetwork.org/

• ⭐ Leave a review — it helps more people find the show
• 🔗 Follow Jeni Miles on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenifisher/) or subscribe to the Moral Footprint Substack (https://moralfootprint.substack.com/)

Jeni Miles speaks with Lilli Graf, founder of IMMA Collective, about why climate resilience begins with how you make a living. Drawing on regenerative business principles and antifragility, Lilli explains how solopreneurship, community and redefining "enough" can help purpose-driven professionals build careers that don't just survive uncertainty, but grow stronger because of it.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Identify the single biggest lever for personal resilience: Lilli found that, of work, finances, location, family and community, how you make a living has the greatest impact.
• Distinguish resilience from antifragility — bouncing back versus growing stronger through stress, drawing on Nassim Taleb's Antifragile.
• Apply the barbell strategy to career risk: keep 80% secure and channel 20% into high-conviction experimentation.
• Reframe scarcity as a learnt capitalist mindset, and define your own version of "enough" rather than chasing endless growth.
• Build community as infrastructure — solopreneurs who connect and collaborate become "antifragile forests" rather than isolated trees.
• Recognise that failure only happens if you stop trying; fast, cheap failures are how regenerative businesses redesign themselves.
• Prioritise the quality of relationships over scale, especially as AI reshapes how solo businesses are built and differentiated.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 — Introduction: realigning careers towards a resilient, regenerative future

01:18 — Leaving a stable corporate job to follow climate resilience

04:27 — From freelancing to founding IMMA Collective

07:41 — Realising climate resilience is personal, not just organisational

10:00 — How you make a living is the biggest lever for resilience

10:27 — Resilience vs antifragility: lessons from Nassim Taleb

13:21 — AI, English as a third language, and levelling the playing field

14:03 — What working in climate resilience looks like in practice

16:48 — The barbell strategy: 80% safe, 20% high-conviction risk

19:52 — The "Robin Hood strategy" for funding purpose-led work

20:58 — Redefining "enough" and challenging scarcity mindsets

23:35 — Why Lilli turned down outside investment

26:53 — IMMA as a food forest, not a monoculture startup

30:34 — Can existing businesses shift towards regenerative models?

33:26 — Coping with the emotional weight of systemic change

39:27 — Advice for anyone considering the leap into solopreneurship

41:25 — Closing thoughts and thanks

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Lilli Graf is the founder of IMMA Collective, a global community helping purpose-driven solopreneurs build sustainable client pipelines. Her background is in service design, working previously with major London design agencies on venture building.

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🔗 Want more? Follow Jeni on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenifisher/

Subscribe to the Moral Footprint Substack: https://moralfootprint.substack.com/

RESOURCES:

Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifragile_(book) — the book behind Lilli's barbell strategy and antifragility thinking

Love & Order (Eliza Yvette Esquivel): https://www.love-and-order.com/ — foresight and Protopian leadership practice for visionary organisations
SporeSight: https://www.sporesight.co/ — Jess's work applying fungi-inspired thinking to regenerative futures
Elise Ford: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elise-ford-59a75157/ — specialist in polarisation and collaborative leadership capacity
Caroline Harris: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/caroline-harris-7a791117 — IMMA member helping people clarify their next career step
Radhika Bhatt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/radhika-bhatt/ — IMMA member specialising in freelance and solopreneurship clarity
Work With Source by Tom Nixon:

https://tomnixon.co.uk/
Inner Development Goals: https://www.innerdevelopmentgoals.org/

What if business was designed for people, not profit? That's the question at the heart of this conversation between Jeni Miles and ecological economist Dr Jennifer Hinton — and the answer might be more radical, and more hopeful, than you expect.Dr Hinton argues that inequality and ecological breakdown aren't the result of bad actors or poor leadership.

They're the inevitable output of a business system structurally designed to extract and accumulate private wealth. Swap the CEO, tighten the regulations, launch another ESG initiative — and the system keeps doing exactly what it was built to do.The alternative?

Not-for-profit business structures that stop the wealth siphon before it even begins — making economies distributive by design rather than trying to redistribute wealth after the fact.

Drawing on her five-dimension post-growth business framework, Dr Hinton walks through what genuinely transformative business looks like — from steward ownership models to Patagonia's ownership revolution, to what democratic governance and relocalisation could look like next.They also get into the circular economy's blind spot (you can't keep growing the circle on a finite planet), why 86% of corporate workers privately support post-growth practices but underestimate their peers' support, and what Big Tech might look like if it was structured as public infrastructure rather than private empire.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The relationship to profit is the most fundamental layer of any business — everything else flows from it
• Even good people behave poorly in bad systems — structural change matters more than individual ethics
• Not-for-profit business structures stop the wealth siphon before it begins — distributive by design
• Swapping the CEO cannot fix a structurally broken system
• Patagonia's ownership transformation is a real-world blueprint — and democratic governance could take it further
• 86% of UK for-profit professionals support post-growth practices but underestimate their peers' support
• A post-growth working week could mean shorter hours, stronger communities, and a genuinely circular local economy

ABOUT DR JENNIFER HINTON

Dr Jennifer Hinton is an ecological economist, systems researcher, and co-author of How on Earth. Her post-growth business framework bridges micro and macro economics to diagnose — and redesign — the structures driving our global crises.jenniferhinton.org

LINKS & RESOURCES

• How on Earth — howonearth.usKate Raworth — kateraworth.com
• Doughnut Economics Action Lab — doughnuteconomics.org
• Steward Ownership — steward-ownership.com/en
• Purpose Economy — purpose-economy.org/en
• Upstream Podcast, Part 1 episode on worker co-ops — https://www.upstreampodcast.org/workercoops1
• Della Duncan — dellazduncan.com
• Luke Kemp, Cambridge — cser.ac.uk/team/luke-kemp
• Digital Degrowth, Michael Kwet — plutobooks.com/product/digital-degrowth
• House of Hackney: houseofhackney.com/pages/nature-our-director

FOLLOW JENI MILES

LinkedIn — linkedin.com/in/jenifisher

Substack — moralfootprint.substack.com

Behavioural scientist and business consultant Jeni Miles reflects on the World Beautiful Business Forum in Athens and shares the talk she gave as part of its Ministry of Regeneration track.

Drawing on a (preprint) study with over 400 UK for-profit managers, she reveals a striking paradox: the majority privately support post-growth business practices and believe business must operate within planetary and social limits. Yet most assume their peers don't support these views, silencing a consensus that already exists.

She also examines why the governance structures most businesses take for granted are profoundly undemocratic, and what it would actually mean to design stakeholder solidarity into the legal architecture of a company.

Full show notes, links and resources: https://moralfootprint.substack.com

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Discover how 92-93% of UK business managers support doughnut economy principles
• Understand how pluralistic ignorance silences the corporate majority and preserves the status quo
• Learn how two billionaire founders can legally override the preferences of 160,000 employees
• Explore real precedents for democratic business governance, from German co-determination law to multi-stakeholder cooperatives
• Challenge the assumption that mission-led for-profit companies can reliably put purpose before profit
• Recognise how big tech's retreat from climate commitments in favour of AI infrastructure locks in irreversible emissions

LINKS & RESOURCES

Bayo Akomolafe https://www.bayoakomolafe.net

World Beautiful Business Forum https://houseofbeautifulbusiness.com/world-beautiful-business-forum

Dr Dario Krpan (LSE) https://www.lse.ac.uk/people/dario-krpan

Dr Frédéric Basso (LSE) https://www.lse.ac.uk/people/frederic-basso

Kate Raworth- author of Doughnut Economics https://www.kateraworth.com

DrJennifer Hinto (ecological economist) https://jenniferhinton.org

Dr Luke Kemp (societal collapse researcher) https://www.cser.ac.uk/team/luke-kemp

House of Hackney, who legally appointed a Mother Nature and Future Generations Director to their board https://www.houseofhackney.com

Extinction Rebellion

https://extinctionrebellion.uk

Doughnut Economics Action Lab

https://doughnuteconomics.org

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens

https://www.thegreatsimplification.com

Google and natural gas — Distilled Earthhttps://www.distilled.earth/p/google-is-weighing-natural-gas-without

Meta funds ten natural gas plants for AI — Forbes

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmarkman/2026/03/31/meta-funds-ten-natural-gas-plants-to-power-its-largest-ai-campus/

FOLLOW JENI MILES

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenifisher/Substack: https://moralfootprint.substack.com

Subscribe, leave a review and share with someone who needs to hear this, thank you!

Alice Kalro joins host Jeni Miles to explore why traditional businesses fail to transform amidst systemic breakdown. As founder of arkH3 and lead author of "Leading Through the Polycollapse," Alice believes that conventional corporate sustainability approaches amount to "fairy tales" disconnected from planetary realities.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand that polycollapse describes multiple interrelated breakdown processes across environmental, economic, and social systems

• Recognise that conventional sustainability approaches focused on "doing less harm" remain fundamentally inadequate

• Accept that financial system collapse may occur in the 2030s, preceding full ecological breakdown

• Prepare for metadisruption—the predictable aggravation of current trends affecting multiple industries

• Transform core business models toward providing essential needs without causing harm

• Abandon incremental metrics for binary questions about business necessity and impact

• Match your level of courage to your level of privilege to drive systemic change

Timestamps:

 00:00 — Introduction and overview of polycollapse 

07:59 — Approaching difficult conversations about systemic breakdown

13:52 — Understanding polycollapse versus other collapse terminology

18:44 — How systemic foresight differs from traditional scenario planning

23:49 — Financial system collapse and meta-disruption

30:49 — Implications for shareholder value and future business viability

37:18 — Metrics for future-compatible business models

41:20 — Matching courage to privilege for business leaders

Resources:

• arkH3: https://www.arkh3.com

• Leading Through the Polycollapse eBook: https://www.arkh3.com/resources/leading-through-the-polycollapse-a-guide-to-systemic-foresight-for-vuca-native-strategy 

• arkH3’s training programs: https://training-series.arkh3.com/ 

• Regeneration Journal interview: https://www.regenerationjournal.org/on-leading-through-the-polycollapse-an-interview-with-alice-kalro-claudia-gasparovic-and-julio-campos/

• Breaking Together by Jem Bendell: https://jembendell.com/2023/04/08/breaking-together-a-freedom-loving-response-to-collapse/

• Global Tipping Points Conference: https://global-tipping-points.org/conference-2025/

• Business Declares: https://businessdeclares.com

Connect:

• Follow Alice on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-kalro/ 

• Follow Jeni on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenifisher/

• Subscribe to the Moral Footprint Substack: https://moralfootprint.substack.com/

About Alice Kalro:

Alice Kalro is founder of arkH3 and an emerging global thought leader in transformational corporate sustainability, providing practical guidance on science- and ethics-aligned business transformation for a just and liveable future.

Post-growth economist Donnie Maclurcan joins host Jeni Miles to explore why systems transformation requires moving from thinking to feeling. From not-for-profit business models to the circulation of money and power, Donnie reveals how embodied wisdom might be our most revolutionary tool against extractive capitalism and why slowing down in urgent times could be the key to creating regenerative systems.

Key Takeaways

• Understand why capitalism creates disconnection from our bodies and embodied wisdom
• Learn the difference between not-for-profit businesses and B Corps or social enterprises
• Discover how debt expansion is a feature of capitalism, not the monetary system
• Explore moving from "systems thinking" to "systems feeling" for transformation
• See how moving your money, pensions, and investments can create systemic change
• Experience the offers and needs markets methodology for community resilience

Donnie Maclurcan is Director of Strategy with the Post Growth Institute. He joins us from Patagonia where he lives with his wife and their cats.

• Follow Donnie on LinkedIn: https://ar.linkedin.com/in/donniemaclurcan
• Follow Donnie on Bluesky: https://web-cdn.bsky.app/profile/donmacca.bsky.social

People and Resources Mentioned:

• Post Growth Institute: https://postgrowth.org/
• How on Earth? Book https://howonearth.us/
• Colin Saltmere: https://au.linkedin.com/in/colin-saltmere-09762485
• Better Off by Eric Brende (an Amish lifestyle experiment) https://www.amazon.com/Better-Off-Flipping-Switch-Technology/dp/0060570059

• Offers and Needs Markets methodology: https://postgrowth.org/offers-and-needs-markets/
• Triodos Bank (sustainable banking example): https://triodos.co.uk/
• Bayo Akomolafe's The Times Are Urgent, Let Us Slow Down open letter https://www.bayoakomolafe.net/post/the-times-are-urgent-lets-slow-down

• The Co-operative Bank (UK not-for-profit banking): https://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/
• The WEIRD Study (research on Western assumptions): https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1601785
• AORTA Co-Op: https://aorta.coop/
• BLIS Collective https://www.bliscollective.org/
• adrienne maree brown https://www.instagram.com/adriennemareebrown/

Sociocracy as a governance system https://www.sociocracyforall.org/sociocracy/

Follow Jeni on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenifisher/

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCChD92b63Sfh5xeNFMM5lCA

Read the Moral Footprint newsletter: https://moralfootprint.substack.com

Jeni Miles speaks with Joy Njeri, systems doula and regenerative economy advocate, about why current African development models are creating dependency rather than empowerment.

From NGOs to corporate work, Joy exposes how Western funding structures perpetuate colonial patterns in both humanitarian and venture capital sectors, advocating instead for community-led, regenerative economics approaches.

Key Takeaways:

•Question the dependency models created by NGO funding that prioritise donor agendas over local solutions.

•Recognise how Silicon Valley VC replicates colonial extraction by favouring white founders and imposed scaling models.

•Understand why 70% of African startups fail at seed stage due to misaligned Western investment criteria.

•Explore indigenous wisdom systems like commitment pooling as alternatives to extractive business models.

•Examine how Tempo Arts community created regenerative solutions near Kenya's largest dump site — without external funding.

•Embrace businesses as interconnected living systems that must strengthen, not extract from, their communities.

About Joy: Joy co-authored the upcoming book Seismic Questions and contributes to the Doughnut Economics community in Kenya.

Next Steps:

• Leave a review to help others discover the show.

• Follow Joy on LinkedIn

• Follow Jeni on LinkedIn

• Subscribe to the Moral Footprint Substack

Links & Resources:

•Seismic Questions (book)

•Tempo Arts Centre (Kenya)

•Grassroots Economics

•Global Donut Days 2025

•Jennifer Hinton – Post-Growth Business Dimensions

In this uncompromising conversation, host Jeni Miles speaks with Siobhan Strode, advocacy consultant and founder of This Sister Speaks, about how our electoral system has been captured by corporate interests and what we can do about it. 

Recorded just days before England's May 2025 local elections, Siobhan shares her journey from teacher to Labour parliamentary candidate, revealing how Keir Starmer systematically betrayed party members by promising socialist continuity before dismantling progressive policies. 

They explore how the government is funded by groups like Labour Friends of Israel continue supporting genocide in Palestine, but crucially, Siobhan offers practical resistance strategies, from using boycott apps like No Thanks to building community power when electoral politics feels rigged against ordinary people.

Books:

• Robert Tressell – The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15447/9780141187693

Other Resources:

• We Support Jeremy Corbyn Facebook group

• No Thanks app – barcode scanner for boycotting companies that fund genocide Available on Apple App Store and Google Play Store https://bashsquare.com/projects/no-thanks 

• This Sister Speaks – Siobhan's advocacy training programme for women https://www.siobhanstrode.com/

Connect with Siobhan Strode on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/siobhan.strode/ and Linkedin https://uk.linkedin.com/in/siobhan-strode84

Follow host Jeni Miles on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenifisher/ or subscribe to the Moral Footprint Substack https://moralfootprint.substack.com/

Moral Footprint Host Jeni Miles sits down with Erald Kolasi, a physicist and economist whose groundbreaking book The Physics of Capitalism challenges us to see our ecological crisis through the lens of thermodynamics.

Erald makes a compelling case that our economic system isn't just fundamentally broken, it's at odds with the physical laws that govern life on Earth, creating what he calls a "supercharged entropy machine" that's destabilising the biosphere.From dissecting carbon capture's flaws to exploring metabolic rift, Erald explains why tech solutions can't prevent ecological collapse and outlines his "valerism" framework's four pillars of stabilisation, socialisation, modularisation, and localisation.

LINKS

• Erald Kolasi – The Physics of Capitalism: How a New Political Ecology Can Change the World
  https://uk.bookshop.org/a/15447/9781685900908

• Monthly Review – Socialist magazine where Erald has published articles https://monthlyreview.org/

Key Concepts Discussed:

• Thermodynamics and entropy in economic systems
• Metabolic rift theory (originally from Marx, developed by John Bellamy Foster)
• Climate reductionism and techno-solutionism

• The cosmopole, a proposed global governance system for ecological management
• Energy caps and biophysical economics
• Critique of carbon capture technology

Connect with Erald Kolasi on Substack at https://technodynamics.substack.com/

Follow host Jeni Miles on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenifisher/ or subscribe to the Moral Footprint Substack https://moralfootprint.substack.com/

Transformative leader and educator Ryan (Ra) James joins host Jeni Miles to discuss how we can move from a transactional world to one based on relationship and genuine connection.

Ryan explains why most sustainability efforts are merely iterations rather than true innovations, challenges our war-based business language, and offers a powerful alternative: relational intelligence. Discover why he believes gratitude must go beyond concept to action and why our external climate crisis mirrors our internal disconnection.

From his transition from finance graduate to global wisdom seeker, Ryan provides practical ways to reconnect with what sustains us.

Whether you're a business leader, sustainability professional, or simply seeking a more meaningful relationship with our planet, this conversation will transform how you think about innovation, progress, and your place in the web of life.

People and Resources Mentioned

• Vandana Shiva
• Kumu Ramsey
• Abraham Maslow
• The Siksika people/Blackfoot Nation
• Carl Jung
• Martin Prechtel
• The Dalai Lama

• Rights of Nature movement

Learn more about Ryan via his website, Instagram, LinkedIn or his business-as-usual un/school ⁠⁠(Re)Biz⁠⁠.

Follow host Jeni Miles on Linkedin or subscribe to the Moral Footprint Substack.