The RegenNarration

As elite sport resumes amidst the pandemic, the Royal Commission into Australia’s summer fires continues. So it seemed a good time to re-post this conversation with Dr Sheila Nguyen - to celebrate the return of top level sport, and to remember the rest of what sport can and needs to be in these times.

This Black Summer in Australia saw a national T20 cricket match cancelled due to smoke, international tennis players choking on the pollution, and sports facilities burned down around the country. A few weeks ago, Australia’s Federal Opposition leader Anthony Albanese tweeted: “It’s Australian Open time. The eyes of the world are on us. The world is seeing air so toxic that players are collapsing and others are needing medical treatment. We can’t just sit by and accept this as the new normal. We need climate action – now.”

Leaving aside the apparent contradictions in some of Mr Albanese’s other statements, this one well reflects our reality. And while fundraising by elite sport for communities most directly affected by the fires has been brilliant, and sport has been such an effective advocate in other areas of cultural life, the climate and extinction crises continue to threaten the places we love, and the things we love doing, including sport. So what role can sport play in reversing the trajectory of these crises, and furthering regenerative change?

Dr Sheila Nguyen has been working at bringing together sports from around the country over the last decade or so to explore just that. Sheila is co-founder and Executive Director of the Sports Environment Alliance. Its members range from the biggest clubs in the land, to the smallest - from the reigning Australian Rules premiers the Richmond Tigers Football Club, to the Swamp Rats cricket club, along with local governments and others with responsibilities around sport. It goes by the hashtag #noplanetnoplay.

Sheila was among the 2019 Australian Financial Review Top 100 Women of Influence, and is about to head to London next month to co-chair and MC the UN’s Sport for Climate Action’s Sport Positive event at Wembley Stadium. But as a lonely, overweight daughter of Vietnamese refugees, none of this seemed likely. Until sport changed her life.

Updates: Malcolm Speed finished his term as Chair of the Alliance soon after this conversation in January 2020. And the March Wembley event was postponed due to the COVID-19 shut-down.

Title slide: The Sydney Cricket Ground covered in bushfire smoke in the summer of 2019-20 (AAP).

Music:
The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra

Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode.

Find more:
Sports Environment Alliance. 

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I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

The summer here in Australia has been witnessed by people around the world, saddened and concerned as they’ve watched this country burn and be subsequently shrouded in heavy palls of smoke. This is a brief introduction to the new year of The RegenNarration, in reference and reverence to all that has happened, and what it means from here.

Title slide: Firefighters struggle against the strong wind in an effort to secure nearby houses from bushfires near the town of Nowra in the Australian state of New South Wales, December 31, 2019 (pic: Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty - sourced from Insider.com).

Music:
By Jeremiah Johnson.

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The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

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We’re signing off for the year with an episode of highlights from our brilliant array of guests throughout 2019. With sincere thanks for tuning in, continuing to share and rate the podcast, and of course for donating and supporting its production. It couldn’t happen without you. 

Thanks also for getting in touch throughout the year to share stories, questions and insights, and to tell us how much you’ve valued the podcast. It’s been great to see our listener numbers spike further this year, and even more fulfilling to hear how the stories are landing and what the podcast means to you. Thank you very much!

Track list:

1. Podcast Theme, featuring Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra (& a range of guests from the podcast’s first year in 2017)
2. Albert Wiggan (ep 34) 
3. Stephen Jenkinson (ep 35)
4.  Mother Canoe, by Stephen Jenkinson and Gregory Hoskins (Stephen’s choice)
5. Michael Shuman (ep 36)
6. Nora Bateson (ep 37)
7. Damon Gameau (ep 38) on Velvet’s Unicorn, by Bryony Marks from the ‘2040’ original motion picture soundtrack
8. David McLean (ep 39) 
9. Emma Lee (ep 40)
10. Douglas Rushkoff (ep 41) 
11. Karen O’Brien (ep 42) 
12. Darren Sharpe (ep 43)
13. David Pollock (ep 44) 
14. Miriam Lyons, Ian Dunlop and Jan Owen AM (ep 45) on The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
15. Kate Raworth (ep 46) 
16. Economic Man vs Humanity a Puppet Rap Battle, a collaboration between Kate Raworth, puppet designer Emma Powel, and song-writer Simon Panrucker
17. Amy (ep 47)
18. Katherine Trebeck (ep 48) 
19. Frank Fisher (ep 50)
20. Hazel Henderson (ep 49 & 50) 
21. What If? (Impact: The Musical), by Jacqueline Emerson and co. (Hazel’s choice)
22. Jake Claro (ep 51) on Food, by Land of Milk and Honey.

Due to licencing restrictions, most of our guests’ nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts.

Title slide: Anthony introducing episode 48 live at The Platform in Perth (pic: Joni Sercombe).

Find more:
To access the full catalogue of episodes, head to our website or wherever you get your podcasts.

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The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

Jake Claro is the Director of the Vermont Farm to Plate Program, widely regarded as the most comprehensive state-wide food system plan in the United States, and the only one with full government engagement. It is approaching the end of its first decade, and gearing up for the next, with a growing global reputation.

The program takes a coordinated, long-term and collaborative approach with all parts of the food system - beyond a simple focus on agricultural output. Since 2010, and in the wake of the GFC, as so many communities and industries have struggled, the program has helped Vermont achieve enormous value – such as a rise in local food purchases of around 75%, 742 new businesses, over 6.5k new jobs in food-related industries, and a sharp reduction in the increasingly critical area of food insecurity. And that’s just the quantifiable stuff - all on the basis of improving the health of people and country.

Jake himself is a recipient of the Rachel Carson award at the Bard Centre for Environmental Policy, sits on a multitude of boards, and shares the story here of his instructive beginnings in this work.

Jake will be a special guest at the Food for Thought Festival in Albany, Western Australia, between the 19th and 23rd of March 2020. For that and other possible dates around Australia, stay tuned to our partners supporting the production of this episode - Community Food Events, the Food for Thought Festival, Sustain: the Australian Food Network, Commonland, and the Centre for Social Impact at UWA.

Title slide: Jake Claro, Farm to Plate Director at the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund provides an update on the next 10 years of Vermont Farm to Plate, at the recent annual gathering (supplied).

Music:
Food, by Land of Milk & Honey.

Concluding tune by Jeremiah Johnson.

Due to licencing restrictions, our guest’s nominated music can only be played on radio or similarly licenced broadcasts of this episode.

Find more:
Vermont Farm to Plate Program.

Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund.

Food for Thought Festival.

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

Welcome to episode 50 of The RegenNarration podcast! Which also commemorates the 76th anniversary of the birth of pioneering Australian systems thinker, and the man who introduced Anthony to the work of Hazel Henderson, the late Professor Frank Fisher. Fittingly then, this dual milestone episode features part 2 of Anthony’s conversation with Hazel.

Hazel and Anthony delve deeper here into 3 key systems – money, media & mind – including the growing momentum behind reclaiming media and the internet as ‘public square’, the powerful resurgence underway in public banking, and some brilliant and at times surprising ways we can think about opportunities for regeneration.

More of Hazel’s story is interwoven throughout this conversation, including how being a concerned mother led to her becoming an activist, later evolving into one of the world’s most respected figures in this space.

Title slide: Hazel Henderson (supplied).

Music:
What If? (Impact: the Musical), by Jacqueline Emerson & co. – watch the film clip.

And for the free ebook version of The Purpose of Capital, by Jed Emerson, that the musical was inspired by.

The acoustic tune accompanying this episode is by Jeremiah Johnson.

Find more:
Part 1 of Anthony's conversation with Hazel Henderson (with some additional links in the show notes).

Note: Ecor’s website, mentioned by Hazel, is now www.ecorusa.com.

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Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

Hazel Henderson is a legendary author, advisor and media producer. It’s very hard to overstate the influence Hazel has had, and continues to have, throughout nearly 60 years of public life.

Hazel has written 10 books, including ‘Mapping the Global Transition to the Solar Age', been translated into 27 languages across hundreds of outlets globally, won a multitude of awards, is listed in the Who’s Who in the USA, the World, in Business and Finance, and in Science and Technology, is a member of the Club of Rome, has been named in the Post-Growth Institute’s (En)Rich List as a top 100 luminary inspiring global prosperity beyond financial wealth, and has been repeatedly honoured as one of the ‘Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behaviour’. We could go on!

Along the way, Hazel’s collaborated with a host of systems thinking pioneers, had defining experiences with the UN and other global agencies, been a pioneering advocate for equitable and sustainable human development, and an influential advisor on socially responsible business and investment. In her 70s, she became founder and media producer at Ethical Markets Media, which is a certified B Corporation, producer of the “Transforming Finance” TV series, and publisher of the Green Transition Scoreboard.

E.F. Schumacher, the revered author of ‘Small is Beautiful: A study of economics as if people mattered’, said Hazel’s writing has “more 'reality' than almost any other writings on societal problems I know.” Senator Edward Kennedy called her "a unique contemporary pioneer in the effort to humanize modern science and technology". 

This special episode with Hazel wandered across the personal and political, the heart felt and intellectual, the confronting and the thoroughly uplifting.

Title slide: Hazel Henderson pictured in 1964 (supplied).

Music:
The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.

Concluding music by Jeremiah Johnson.

Find more:
Part 2 of my conversation with Hazel Henderson.

Hazel’s website.

Ethical Markets website.

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

Featuring UK-based Dr Katherine Trebeck, a central figure in the global Wellbeing Economy Alliance, and co-author of the new book ‘The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a grown up economy’. With special guests: 

• Mike Salvaris, director of the Australian National Development Index, and global leader in the development of wellbeing measures; and 
• Carol Innes, local Whadjak Noongar Traditional Owner and co-chair of Reconciliation WA, successfully engaging in shifting economic development frameworks locally. 

All in conversation with Anthony James. Recorded live in conversation with a full room at The Platform in Perth, a few days after the global climate strike and as the UN Climate Action Summit began.

This event launched Katherine’s book, as part of a national tour around Australia in collaboration with the New Economy Network Australia.

While everyday economics has assumed all growth is good, the richest countries already have plenty of wealth and resources — they have ‘arrived’. The Economics of Arrival urges us to move from enlarging the economy to improving it, exploring the benefits this could bring for all, and how it can be done.

Importantly in this context, Aboriginal people in this country might well ask when they’ll have the opportunity to ‘arrive’. And with all we continue to learn about the sophistication of Aboriginal culture in Australia throughout millennia, what other narratives of ‘progress’ and development are available for us to share in?

Hot on the heels of the Wellbeing Budget in New Zealand, just the latest in a raft of key developments around the world, we explore how we change systems, stories and measures, to transition to an economy geared towards shared quality of life, rather than sheer quantity of stuff.'

Title slide pic: Joni Sercombe.

Music:
The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.

Find more:
Listen to the special extra to this episode, How To Make It Happen? (live Q&A)

For a 25% discount on Katherine’s book, ‘The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a grown-up economy’, enter the code ARRIVAL25 until 31 October 2019 on this website.

Hear Katherine in conversation with Anthony on episode 29.

Hear Mike with Tim Costello and Melissa Weinberg on redefining progress for episode 6.

Wellbeing Economy Alliance.

Australian National Development Index (ANDI).

Reconciliation WA.

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Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

This special extra to episode 48 features Katherine Trebeck, Mike Salvaris & Carol Innes, in live conversation with a full room at The Platform in Perth last month, launching Katherine’s new book ‘The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a grown up economy’.

We pick up the conversation on the topic of power, before opening up to a brilliant dialogue with the audience, and a series of resounding closing sentiments from each speaker.

We explore the Wellbeing Economy Governments alliance, some extraordinary outcomes from the work Carol has been involved in, and a host of other positive developments around the world.

The questions are asked, how can a more widespread transition to wellbeing economies take place? To what extent are people just going ahead and doing it? What part might a universal basic income play? What about debt and money more broadly? And how do we go about democratic reinvention, both within our institutions, and in how we engage with each other in daily life?

Title slide: Katherine Trebeck delivering her keynote address (pic: Anthony James).

Music:
The System, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.

Find more:
Listen to the main episode 48, Arriving at Wellbeing Economy.

Send us a voicemail

Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

The Global Climate Strike on the 20th of September saw upwards of four million people strike worldwide. A few hundred thousand of these were in Australia, including thousands of businesses and dozens of union groups, as adults were invited to join in and support the burgeoning student movement. It was all timed to lead in to the UN Climate Action Summit a few days later, where Greta and other young leaders also had a strong presence.

This episode is dedicated to taking a look at this significant moment in time, and to getting some sense of the difference being made. You’ll hear a spread of voices from around Australia and the world, including Greta, a host of other impressive young people and some of their guest speakers at the strike, through to UN Chief António Guterres on what came out of the subsequent Summit.

The film 2040 also screened at the Summit, so we’ll hear from award-winning director Damon Gameau about his impressions of the meet too.

And while at the strike in Perth, Anthony spoke with a diverse range of adults around the margins of the march, asking what is moving them to step up, and how they are doing it.

So here’s a look at these significant few days, some of the extraordinary context leading to it all, and the systemic and cultural changes starting to gear up.

Title slide: the Perth climate strike (pic: Anthony James).

Music:
Far Away Castle, by Rae Howell & Sunwrae.

The acoustic tune at the end of this episode is by Jeremiah Johnson.

Find more:
School Strike 4 Climate Australia.

Greta Thunberg: the speeches that helped spark a climate movement, from The Guardian News.

Global climate strike: Millions take to the streets to save the world, from Channel 4 News.

The Greta Thunberg HelpLine, from ABC's 7:30 Report.

Alexandria Villaseñor, a 14 year old climate advocate: opening speech at the first meeting of UNICEF's Second Executive Board Regular Session.

David Attenborough tells world leaders at COP 24 that the 'Continuation of civilisation is in your hands', from The Guardian News 13.12.18.

UN Secretary General António Guterres, participating as a ‘keynote listener’ at the Youth Climate Summit.

Followed by his close of the Climate Action Summit 2019 (all from the UN channel).

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Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!

Kate Raworth’s internationally acclaimed idea of Doughnut Economics has been widely influential amongst sustainable development thinkers, progressive businesses and political activists, and she has presented it to audiences ranging from the UN General Assembly to the Occupy movement. The Guardian even named her as “one of the top ten tweeters on economic transformation”. And last Tuesday Kate tweeted pictures of the world’s first City Doughnut Day in Philadelphia, advising they are “plotting a tool so we can share it widely.”

Kate’s best-selling book ‘Doughnut Economics: 7 ways to think like a 21st century economist’ continues to provide perhaps the most promising framework for achieving an economy fit for this century; along with the simple yet profound visual symbol and metaphor for going about the change in how we think and organise ourselves. So to celebrate Doughnut Day, and on the back of where our last episode left off, it seemed like a good time to feature Kate on this podcast again. All the more in light of our live conversation event the day before Doughnut Day, launching Katherine Trebeck’s ‘Economics of Arrival’, for which Kate wrote the foreword.

It’s also a week out from the next National New Economy Network conference here in Perth, Australia, and it was at the 2nd of these national conferences where this 20-minute keynote address by Kate was given. It features Kate beaming in on the big screen with her customary power pack delivery, on how the economy has come to work the way it does, and how to reorient it towards what we need and want in an economy today.

It’s followed by Q&A with the capacity audience of around 300 people at Brisbane’s South Bank, hosted by Network co-founder Dr Michelle Maloney.

So how are we to create an economy that, in Kate’s words, is ‘distributive and regenerative by design’? And how can we become less concerned about the growth of our economy, and more concerned about improving it?

Music:
Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.

Economic Man vs Humanity, a collaboration between Kate Raworth, puppet designer Emma Powel and song writer Simon Panrucker.

Find more:
Kate's website.

Hear Kate in conversation with Anthony in episode 3.

Kate and her team are in the process of setting-up the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL), ‘in order to connect and empower those who want to turn the ideas of Doughnut Economics into transformative practice to create a world that thrives'.

4th New Economy Network Australia conference in Perth, 4-7 October 2019 – as a podcast listener, use the code RPBP19 when registering to access the super early bird rate of $180 for the entire weekend program (see you there!). 

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Support the show

Please share this episode or the trailer with a friend, follow the podcast, and subscribe if you can.

The RegenNarration is independent and ad-free, with hundreds of episodes freely available, thanks to the generous support of listeners like you. If you're enjoying the podcast, I hope you'll consider becoming a paid subscriber, from as little as around $1 a week, to gain access to a great community, subscriber events and giveaways, and to help keep the show going, on Patreon or Substack (where you'll find some writing, photography and tunes too).

You can also donate directly via the website (avoiding fees) or PayPal.

I hope to see you at an event soon, even the shop. Thanks so much for your support!