Nordic By Nature

Simon’s latest book, The Good Country Equation: How We Can Repair the World in One Generation is full of amusing and sometimes surreal anecdotes from a long and colorful career meeting with all sorts of political leaders. His ultimate aim was to help increase the type of international cooperation that can solve the challenges of globalization. His core message to world leaders is still as clear; do good and good comes to you, but change the way nations behave now, because our survival as a species depends on it.

Tom Crompton’s research into values shows that the dominant narrative of the selfishness of humankind is deeply flawed. Paul Allen presents a positive and attainable vision of the future, where technology creates smart, localised and integrated infrastructures that help us humans live in harmony with the planet for centuries to come.  

We then hear from Yuan Pan, whose work integrating biodiversity into the Natural Capital Framework at Cambridge University aims to help businesses and policy makers make smarter decisions and start understanding the direct benefits from acting as stewards of the environment and nature’s resources.
 
Finally, we hear from Paul Jepson who is also active in science communication, particularly in the area of biodiversity, science-policy interfaces and new media. In 2016, Paul published an agenda for European Rewilding and conducted research with Frans Schepers on creating policies for Rewilding within European Commissioned nature institutions. Paul currently works for the consultancy ecosulis. 

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Walid founded a ground-breaking news aggregation service in his home country of Yemen, which spurred him onto work with tracking Internet censorship and enabling activists and journalists to bypass government-imposed firewalls to access news and social media websites. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society (ISOC) and co-founder of the Society’s Blockchain Special Interest Group. His work in tech development for increasing Internet Access has earned him international recognition, including a TED senior fellowship, and Örebro University's Democracy Award, and he has been featured by global media such as CNN, the Guardian, and the Huffington Post.

Esra'a is passionate about music as a means for social change, and is also the founder of MideastTunes, where musicians across the world with Middle Eastern and North African origin can share their music that is often censored on mainstream music platforms. She also a senior TEDFellow, and Echoing Green fellow. As an outspoken defender of free speech, Esra'a was FastCompany magazine’s "100 Most Creative People in Business and The Daily Beast one of the 17 bravest bloggers worldwide. 
 

The music you hear with Esra’s is by Tam Tam, the Saudi born pop star who sings about love, solidarity and equity.

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Ajay Rastogi works closely with the women of Majkhali village in foothills of the Himalayas, in Uttarakhand, India, where making art is an intrinsic part of everyday life. Ajay set up the Vrikshalaya Centre there to be a meeting place and knowledge hub for the villagers and other communities in the Himalayan lowlands, as well as visitors and homestay guests interested in learning about more meaningful forms of sustainability. 
 
Catrine Gangstø is the founder of the Peace Painting Foundation, that runs painting workshops for children, youth and adults all over the world, including war zones. Through her idea of Painting for Peace, Catrine has engaged over 3,000 workshop participants and many more through travelling exhibitions of their work. Catrine has proven that painting can be a safe space for sharing difficult experiences and emotions as well as a way to communicate hopes and desires for peace in the world.
 

Then we hear from Laila Kolostyák, a visual artist who works with snow and ice. Laila and her colleagues have engaged a whole generation of young people in creating and enjoying outdoor snow and ice experiences that culminates in the Borealis festival in Alta, which lies 375 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. 

#tracesofnorth #arnenaess #deepecology #ajayrastogi #nadiabergamini #reetusognai #foundnature #contemplationofnature #bioversityinternational #climateequity #biodiveristy #climatechange #nordicbynature #nordicbynaturepodcast #peacepainting #ajayrastogi #catrinegangsto #lailakolostyak #imaginarylife #alta #norway #sweden #thenordics #icecircle 

First we hear from Ajay Rastogi who works closely with the women of Majkhali village in foothills of the Himalayas, in Uttarakhand, India. He set up the Vrikshalaya Centre there to be a meeting place and knowledge hub for the villagers and other communities in the Himalayan lowlands, as well as foreign visitors and homestay guests interested in more meaningful forms of sustainability. 

Then Nadia Bergamini speaks about facing the growing global challenges of population growth and climate change through agro-biodiversity. Nadia works at Bioversity International and runs an organic, biodynamic farm together outside Rome. Nadia collaborates with the Satoyama Initiative, helping communities all over the world develop strategies to strengthen their social and ecological resilience, whilst maintaining the diversity of the landscapes’ species and varieties.

Reetu Sogani is a passionate women rights activist. She has become known around the world for her work with grass roots communities, building awareness levels and capacities for a stronger foundation of local knowledge systems and practices, across the Middle Himalayan ranges and other parts of India. Reetu has addressed the International Women’s Earth and Climate Summit in New York as one of the 100 women global leaders from across the world. 

#tracesofnorth #arnenaess #deepecology #ajayrastogi #nadiabergamini #reetusognai #foundnature #contemplationofnature #bioversityinternational #climateequity #biodiveristy #climatechange #nordicbynature #nordicbynaturepodcast 

Both Ajay Rastogi and Dr John, as his students call him, are part of an growing movement that calls for a new kind of ethics that views all places as part of our home, all generations and beings as part of our scope of responsibility, and all actions as potential expressions of human care for the world. 
 
 Dr. John and Ajay were at the Foundation’s HQ, the Vrikshalaya centre, in Majkhali village, at the foothills of the Himlayas, at the time of this recording. Every year Dr. John and Ajay lead students on an experiential Mountain Resilience Course, that is part of a longer-term Sister Cities program between Gunnison and Majkhali. The long-term aim of the partnership is to share climate change solutions between the two Mountain Communities, and co-create a project based transformative Masters’ degree course that is both transferable and scalable. 

First you hear the words of Andrew and Kayla Blanchflower, tipi dwellers and makers whose way of the life can be an inspiration to all of us to live lighter. Andrew and Kayla met and fell in love in Oregon in the States, and decided to raise their family ‘off the grid’ with a closer contact to the earth and Mother Nature. 

You will then hear Yvette Neshi Lokotz teacher of hand drumming and practitioner of the Medicine Wheel or Sacred Hoop healing, and tribal member of the Potawatomi Nation. 

First, we hear Tim Kasser, currently a professor of psychology at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, USA. He has authored over 100 scientific articles and book chapters on materialism, values, goals, well-being, and environmental sustainability, among other topics. In 2018, he collaborated with the cartoonist Larry Gonick to create HyperCapitalism: The modern economy, its values, and how to change them. 
Then we hear Dasho Dr. Karma Ura, President of the Centre for Bhutan & GNH Studies located in Bhutan’s capital city, Thimphu. The Centre has a mandate to research Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness, Culture and History of Bhutan, and policy related studies.

Tomas is the author of the book The World We Create and the  co-author of The Nordic Secret. He is a founding member of the Swedish youth association Protus for lifelong learning and philosophical exploration. In 2016, he founded the Research Institute Perspectiva in London together with Jonathan Rowson - to inspire our political, academic and business leaders to examine real world problems with a deeper appreciation of the influence of our inner worlds.

In 2017, in partnership with the Norrsken foundation, Björkman launched the digital platform 29k to help people reconnect with themselves, like-minded people and what they value most in life. He has been a member of the Club of Rome since 2014. He is also a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences Kungliga Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien or IVA. 

Nordic By Nature is a mindful podcast inspired by the Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess who coined the term deep ecology. 

In this episode, ON INNER RESILIENCE, you will hear from Ajay Rastogi, is the co-founder of the Foundation for the Contemplation of Nature (foundnature.org). Together with the village residents, Ajay runs experiential 'Resilience Leadership' homestay courses in the Himalayan village of Majkhali in Uttarakhand, India. 

You will then meet conservationist Noor A Noor. Noor was born in Egypt into a family of activists. His his love of the arts and activism lead him to a job with Nature Conservation Egypt. Noor is also part of an upcycled instruments music group raising awareness about waste.

After Noor, Judith Schleicher, a PhD fellow at Cambridge University and an active member of Extinction Rebellion, speaks about how regular meditation has helped her in her work looking at the links between environment and human wellbeing, where dealing with 'bad news' is the norm. Judith and Ajay held a contemplation of nature mindfulness session and seminar at David Attenborough House at Cambridge university. 

Lastly, we meet Christoph Eberhard, a bilingual Austrian living in France. Christoph is a specialist in the anthropology of law and author of the book Human Rights and Intercultural dialogue. He is also a Tai Chi and Qi Gong Teacher with decades of experience. His motto is “Life is not a void to be filled. It is a world of abundance, or “plenitude,” waiting to be discovered.”

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