Malka Older makes a life at the crossroads of our existing and future worlds. Between research into the sociology of organizations, on-the-ground work in humanitarian aid and disaster risk reduction, and acclaimed writing of speculative and science fiction, Older brilliantly, beautifully, uncommonly lives the great paradox in front of us all: to hold at once the two truths of lived experience and imagined future. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

• the immigrant sensibility (05:00)
• belonging (07:20)
• exile (09:00)
• Danielle Allen's theory of justice (15:00)
• A Paradise Built in Hellby Rebecca Solnit (16:00)
• Malka's work in the international space (16:20)
• Global Voices (19:15)
• Where are you REALLY from? (19:40) 
• The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (20:30)
• 'Great Asking' (22:30)
• Positionality (23:00)
• Mu - unask the question (23:20)
• the opportunity in disaster (27:10)
• 2004 Boxing Day Indian Ocean Tsunami (31:00)
• psychological distance (34:40)
• Malka's book ...And Other Disasters(35:30)
• the importance of improvisation (43:00)
• David Whyte - the conversational nature of reality (46:30)
• Malka's book Infomocracy (49:00)
• the adjacent possible (53:45)
• The Crisis of Narration by Byung-Chul Han (59:15)
• The Sociological Imaginationby C Wright Mills (59:30)
• what does it mean to flourish? (59:45)
• the generative narrative of our time (01:08:30)
• Lightning round (01:02:00)
  • Book: The Lord of the Rings
  • Passion: Hearing a new language
  • Heart sing: Global Voices
  • Screwed up: relationship
• Find Malka online:
  • Wikipedia
  • Arizona State Profile
  • LinkedIn

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Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

Biologist, philosopher, educator, facilitator, and historian of science Mette Miriam Böll is embodiment of the kind of life that emerges when we accept, recognize, and revere our profound interconnectedness. Her scholarship as her life are nourishment for returning to the task we are all called to: to human well, at once simple and complex, individual and civilizational. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

• Tibetan Book of the Dead (04:20)
• Dzogchen - Tibetan Buddhist Teachings (05:00)
• John P. Milton (05:40)
• drawing her out on interconnectedness (12:30)
• Krishnamurti (17:00)
• Systems awareness and change processes (17:25)
• Polycrisis (17:35)
• life is a creative journey (18:20)
• John Paul Lederach on Origins (19:30)
• systems thinking (20:15)
• Jesper Hoffmeyer (20:30)
• Peter Senge (22:00)
• Why most systems change efforts fail (22:40)
• industrial PhD program Denmark (e.g., here) (32:10)
• Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society by Peter Senge (34:00)
• compassionate systems framework (37:30)
• Otto Scharmer (37:30)
• compassionate systems workshops (42:40)
• generative social fields (44:00)
• Francisco Varela: The Logic of Paradise (53:00)
• "Keeping Quiet" by Pablo Neruda (59:00)
• Lightning round (58:30)
  • Book: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • Passion: Regenerative futures field
  • Heart Sing: Digital detox
  • Screwed up: Practicality 
• Find Mette online:
  • Center for Systems Awareness

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

Dr. Dan Jay has a mission to inspire where art and science meet. His life has been spent in the liminal and generative space between and among these domains of inquiry that are too often considered separate, distinct, even opposing. Yet, it is transformative creativity only possible from the co-mingling and conversation of art and science that we seem to be called to in the 21st century. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

• Falling Upward by Richard Rohr (05:20)
• Hinduism four stages of life (05:50)
• Society of Fellows (10:00)
• David Hubel (12:20)
• Will Ryman (13:00)
• Dan's hypercube series (20:00)
• self-emptying (24:30)
• Why we need an academic career path that combines science and art (27:00)
• Burroughs Wellcome Fund (28:00)
• Arthur Zajonc - 'something for the light to fall on' (31:00)
• Enfold initiative (32:00)
• collective over community (32:15)
• Ancient Greek symposium (35:00)
• Émile Durkheim - collective effervescence (38:30)
• Joie de vivre (38:30)
• vulnerability and frailty (41:30)
• compassionate leadership (42:40)
• flourishing (45:30)
• TS Eliot "The Four Quartets" (46:30)
• Souq al Arabi (48:20)
•  "all flourishing is mutual" Robin Wall Kimmerer (52:00)
• encounters with flourishing (52:20)
• nuanced conception of flourishing (52:30)
• Lightning round (53:30)
  • Book: Civilisation by Kenneth Clark 
  • Passion: spirituality
  • Heart sing: inspiration for his mission
  • Screwed up: failed marriage 
• Find Dan online:
  • http://www.danjayart.com/
  • https://smfa.tufts.edu/directory/dan-jay

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

Zachary Ugolnik has for years been charting a new path that refuses the tired and inanimate narrative about the separateness of science and spirituality, reason and religion. In his life we find rich possibility when those old illusory dichotomies are discarded, and from that possibility perhaps new wisdom for creating a society full of care and flourishing, one that embraces our inherent needfulness and borrows from theology, ecology, and the social sciences. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

• locate shared spaces of curiosity across disciplines (11:50)
• Émile Durkheim and collective effervescence (13:45)
• Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University (14:10 and 16:20)
• through lines between religion and social science (13:45)
• Victor and Edith Turner  communitas (15:00)
• Simone Weil decreation (18:30)
• re-membering (22:00)
• Zach's book: The Collective Self (18:30)
• Theater of War (24:00)
• Byzantine iconography and perspective (26:00)
• Picasso "Le Taureau" (26:20)
• The Social Science of Caregiving (27:30)
• Flourishing Knowledge Commons (27:45)
• Margaret Levi communities of fate (27:50)
• "Mobilizing in the Interest of Others" by Levi and Ugolnik (30:00)
• Buddhism and interdependence (31:50)
• Collective action problems (34:40)
• flourishing systems (37:30)
• Ilya Prigogine and dissipative structures (39:30)
• Danielle Allen (42:15)
• philanthropy (44:30)
• Strother School of Radical Attention (52:30)
• Andrei Rublev (52:50)
• Daniel Kahneman (53:50)
• Syriac term Iḥidāyā (55:00)
• Lightning Round (57:30):
  • Book: The Way of the Pilgrimand The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Matsuo Bashō
  • Passion: travel
  • Heart sing: swimming with my kids
  • Screwed up: eulogy 
• Find Zach online:
  • https://zacharyugolnik.com/

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

Dr. Jennifer Wiseman gives expression to our cosmos, as a pioneering astrophysicist, an outspoken advocate for science within policy and the public, as well as a person of faith. Her's are sensibilities of a scientist, a theologian, and a human being in awe of the universe, recognizing that these parts of ourselves need not be in opposition but rather in beautiful and enriching conversation. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

• Discovery of comet 114P/Wiseman-Skiff (14:30)
• Maria Mitchell (14:30)
• Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at MIT (15:40)
• Jim Elliot (16:00)
• Needfulness (23:30)
• the 'lone genius' myth of science (26:00)
• the Science of Science (29:40)
• the society of science (30:00)
• "How Prayer Works" by Kaveh Akbar (30:15)
• 'coworkers in the kingdom of culture' W.E.B. Du Bois (35:00)
• The Hubble Space Telescope (37:00)
• Ultra-deep field image (37:00)
• William James and numinous experiences (37:15)
• discovery of exoplanets (43:00)
• "My God, It’s Full of Stars" by Tracy K Smith (43:30)
• what does it mean to flourish? (52:30)
• lightning round (58:30):
  • Book: A Grief Observedby C.S. Lewis & Life, the Universe and Everythingby Douglas Adam
  • Passion: nature and serendipity 
  • Heart sing: the bigger picture, being part of a bigger story
    • a sense of awe and wonder and a sense of hope
    • Jane Hirshfield on Origins
  • Screwed up: worrying about different things in different stages of life
• I am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter (01:07:00)
• Find Jennifer online:
  • At NASA
  • Wikipedia

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

Susan Magsamen makes her life at the frontier: the frontier of neuroscience, of institutional change, of the intersection of art and science. Her's is a life full of wisdom for how to live amongst mystery and befriend complexity.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

• spontaneous "you are my sunshine" (02:00)
• T. S. Eliot (08:00)
• implementation science (08:40)
• therapeutic recreation (11:00)
• Trabian Shorters and asset framing (15:00)
• Daniel Kahneman (16:00)
• neuroplasticity (22:30)
• Howard Gardner and Kurt Fisher and Mind, Brain, and Education Program at Harvard (26:15)
• Karl Alexander (27:30)
• Curiosity Kits (28:30)
• NeuroArts (32:00)
• Gileadby Marilynne Robinson (36:00)
• more than scientific knowledge (38:00)
• "Social Support and the Perception of Geographical Slant" (45:00)
• Resmaa Menakem (46:30)
• NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative (46:40)
• "Cirque du Soleil and the neuroscience of awe" on Vox (47:40)
• Global Watering Hole (51:30)
• Renée Fleming Neuroarts Investigator Awards (52:30)
• Rachel Naomi Remen (56:30)
• Lightning Round (01:03:00)
  • Book: Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
  • Passion: horseback riding
  • Heart sing: grandchildren
  • Screwed up: articulation in these times
• Find Susan online:
  • International Arts + Mind Lab

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

Origins Podcast Website

Hello friends, a new season of Origins arrives next week, on Tuesday, May 20. 

This next chapter of Origins is about exploring conversation, that great practice of placing two things next to one another and allowing them to be astonished by the other. It is also about exploring the collective narrative of our time. 

This trailer is both introduction and meditation on how Origins is more than a podcast: a space for collective inquiry into living well in a fractured world.

Over on Substack we’re cultivating not just conversation but community—a space for listening, reflection, and co-creation. This season, you’ll find templates born from the gatherings surrounding some of these episodes: guides for more generative encounters, wider conversations, and more generous questions. These tools aren’t prescriptions, but invitations.

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Few concepts are more important to our society than resilience. Agnostic of domain, of nation, culture, and scale (as vital, indeed, to the individual life as to the planetary civilization), it would be impossible to overstate the pressure on us to understand it. If resilience is a core competency of our time, it would not be hyperbole to say that Dr. David Woods one of our most important thinkers. 

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

• three mile island (07:20)
• resilience engineering (12:30)
• the theory of graceful extensibility (12:30)
• The Risk Society by Ulrich Beck (13:10)
• how do you know? (14:00)
• scientific revolutions and paradigm shifts (15:00)
• retrenchment vs revitalization (16:00)
• the novelty inequality (28:00)
• Simon DeDeo on Origins (28:30)
• Mars Climate Orbiter report (31:00)
• 'faster, better, cheaper' pressure (32:00)
• Erik Hollnagle and Efficiency-Thoroughness Trade-Off principle (33:30)
• graceful extensibility (36:20)
• Douglas Hofstadter and strange loops (41:00)
• SNAFU catchers (42:00)
• dialectic between the individual and collective (44:00)
• Arnold Toynbee (45:00)
• multi-hazards and changing climate (52:20)
• John Doyle (54:00)
• Elinor Ostrom and reciprocity (54:20)
• Lightning Round (01:01:30):
  • Book: Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter
  • Passion: History and Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History by Helen Hornbeck Tanner
  • Heart sing: graceful extensibility and resilience engineering video series
  • Screwed up: building interfaces to the knowledge of resilience
• Find David online:
  • Ohio State University site

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

Paul Smaldino is an explorer. That might seem like an odd way to describe a professor of cognitive science, but anyone who has glanced at his biography will recognize that he lives his life in exploration. His scholarship as his life are inspiration for keeping the lines of inquiry wide open and the things we can discover in doing so.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

• The Dancing Wu Li Masters (08:00)
• The Quantum and the Lotus (12:30)
• Sagehood (15:00)
• J. Krishnamurti and David Bohm (17:00)
• Simone de Beauvoir (18:00)
• Science as an ongoing process of flourishing (18:15)
• Jeffrey Shank (26:00)
• Richard McElreath (27:40)
• "Cultural group selection plays an essential role in explaining human cooperation" Richardson et al. (28:00)
• "Social conformity despite individual preferences for distinctiveness" (35:00)
• "Maintaining transient diversity is a general principle for improving collective problem solving" Smaldino et al. (38:00)
• Philip Kitcher (46:00)
• explore-exploit tradeoff (46:10)
• replication crisis (49:00)
• The Knowledge Machine Strevens (50:30)
• "Echo chambers and epistemic bubbles" by C Thi Nguyen (53:00)
• "Interdisciplinarity can aid the spread of better methods between scientific communities" Smaldino and O'Connor (56:00)
• Wicked problems (56:30)
• C Thi Nguyen on Origins (57:00)
• Flourishing (58:00)
• Lightning round (01:05:00):
  • Book: Dune by Frank Herbert or Culture and the Evolutionary Process by Boyd and Richerson
  • Passion: film and music
  • Heart sing: two kids
• Find Paul online: Website

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

I've been following John Paul Lederach's work for years, finding the words he uses inordinately relevant to all of the details and spaces of my life. John Paul is Professor of International Peacebuilding at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame. He has been a teacher to me across time and space and I believe the ideas he brings into the world are teachers we all need for the world we are walking into.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

• Vocation (12:00)
• The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peaceby John Paul (12:30)
• Rumi poetry and the reed flute (19:00)
• Ongoingness (21:00)
• Peacebuilding (21:20)
• Pádraig Ó Tuama (31:00)
• wonder, wander, and wait (36:00)
• 'bearing witness to more of the complexity of the other' (37:30)
• collective empathy (40:00)
• Paulo Freire (44:00)
• critical yeast (46:00)
• Francisco Varela and "The Logic of Paradise" (54:00)
• Mind and Life Dialogues (54:00)
• Poetry (55:00)
• Eduardo Galeano (56:00)
• Donald Hall (01:03:00)
• Ai-jen Poo (01:11:00)
• Lightning Round (01:05:00)
  • Book: Tomorrow's Child by Rubem Alves 
  • Passion: poetry and physics
  • Heart sing: podcasting
  • Screwed up: the significance and challenge of patience
• Find John Paul online:
  • https://www.johnpaullederach.com/

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media