What is life? Ask a biologist, a philosopher, and a priest and you'll get three different answers. That's why Dr. Luigi Luisi founded the Cortona Week, an interdisciplinary summer program where students and young leaders from all over the world and from all disciplines can come into contact and exchange ideas. In Luigi’s view, the expansion of the mind and heart offered at Cortona is vital to create leaders that can tackle the multifaceted problems we face today.

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Joseph Bonasia and Gary Robbins have a unique approach to protecting our environment: they are working to secure legal rights for rivers and other bodies of water in Florida.  Securing the “rights of nature” would give citizens and municipalities the authority to sue polluters on behalf of natural resources and the people who share them. Joe and Gary emphasize that as humans, we are not separate from nature, but an interdependent part of global ecosystems. They want our legal system to reflect that interdependence.

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Chuck Collins, a program director at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-editor of inequality.org, shares the story of waking up to his own privilege and the racist systems that granted his family generational wealth while stripping it from others. Since that discovery, Chuck has dedicated his life to spreading awareness about wealth inequality and working toward a more equitable economic system. If we're going to mend the damage done by the 'extraction economy', we must first tell the true story of how we got to where we are.

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Does more money lead to greater happiness? In Rivera Sun's novel, Billionaire Buddha, inspired by the life of Dariel Garner, true happiness doesn't come until immense wealth is given away. In our 20th episode, Mel and Steff chat with Rivera and Dariel about income inequality, the immense damage being done to people and planet in the name of wealth accumulation, and the importance of reexamining our values to build a more collaborative and equitable future.

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This is like no weaving you've seen before. In place of threads and looms, Ross Hall and the Weaving Lab employ collaboration and experiential learning to empower communities and promote universal wellbeing.

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What if you could pick up a book and learn how to transform your entire community in a single hour? That's what Faye Cox is working on with her startup called Hourbooks. She's on a mission to empower people to live more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable lifestyles. Hourbooks is the gateway.

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Gwendolyn Hallsmith, founder of the Headwaters Garden and Learning Center ecovillage, talks about how our money system has gotten out of balance and what it will take to get our world back on track. Bonus: she sings!

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Meet Jean Rossiaud, one of the masterminds behind Monnaie Léman, a new complimentary currency for the regions of Switzerland and France surrounding Lake Geneva. Listen as he talks through the benefits complimentary currencies can have for local economies and the planet.

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What will it take to make air pollution a thing of the past? According to Kristian Lande, it's all about decentralizing data. His start up, AirVeraCity, aims to give people direct access to the information they need to take local action on air quality.

The post There’s Something in the Air | Kristian Lande appeared first on Pod of Gold.