Phoebe Barnard is an environmental and societal futures analyst and sustainability strategist, global change ecologist, biodiversity conservation biologist, climate risk and resilience specialist, policy wonk, and film co-producer. She is the chief executive officer at the Stable Planet Alliance and an affiliate professor at UW Bothell and UW Seattle. Phoebe works at the intersection of science, society, sustainability, policy, planning, and media storytelling.

She addresses the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:

• “Soldiering on through times of profound ecological angst” to make our positive contributions
• The importance of surrounding ourselves with “wonderful people… that are like-minded in their determination to make that positive future, that kinder, wiser, more humble, more sustainable civilization ahead happen.”
• That “these times call upon us to be the best kind of person that we can be” and “to bring out our most profound humanity”.

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Kinari Webb, MD, is the founder of Health In Harmony, an international nonprofit dedicated to reversing global heating, understanding that rainforests are essential for the survival of humanity, and a co-founder of Alam Sehat Lestari (ASRI). Dr. Webb graduated from Yale University School of Medicine with honors and currently splits her time between Indonesia, international site assessments, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Guardians of the Trees is her debut.

She addresses the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:

• The interconnectedness of nature and humanity, that rainforest health is linked to planetary and human health
• The importance of reciprocity and gratitude towards the communities living in and protecting our forests
• Using radical listening to respect and understand what communities truly need to solve problems
• The value of “recognizing there is enough for us all to thrive, but only when we all thrive. That it is actually the belief in not enough that creates the scarcity.”

Resources

• Book: Guardians of the Trees: A Journey of Hope Through Healing the Planet (2021) - Kinari Webb, M.D. www.guardiansofthetrees.org

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Seth Godin is an entrepreneur, best-selling author, and speaker. He has written 20 best-selling books, including The Dip, Linchpin, Purple Cow, Tribes, and What To Do When It's Your Turn (And It's Always Your Turn). Most recently, he organized the all-volunteer community project, The Carbon Almanac.

By focusing on everything from effective marketing and leadership, to the spread of ideas and changing everything, Seth has been able to motivate and inspire countless people around the world. 

He addresses the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:

• The Carbon Almanac project and book, is “a powerful tool to help us create change, right here and right now”
• That humanity finds ways to solve problems and live with situations, and perseverance is our best (and only) option
• That we're not just in the audience; we're participants with power
• The Rogers Curve of idea adoption and how it applies to activism
• That systemic change will come not from solo personal action, but from organizing groups toward common goals

Resources

• Book: The Carbon Almanac: It's Not Too Late (2022) thecarbonalmanac.org

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Please check out our newest podcast, Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival featuring Richard Heinberg. How have humans become powerful enough to disrupt the world's climate, trigger the sixth mass extinction, and cause serious harm to the biosphere? And with all the abilities and technologies we've accrued, why do we so often oppress instead of uplift one another? Join us as we explore the hidden driver behind the converging crises of the 21st century. It all comes down to power - our pursuit of it, overuse of it, and abuse of it. Learn how different forms of power arose, what they mean for us today, and why giving up power just might save us.

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Bonus episode: With the recent passing of Hazel Henderson, Vicki Robin revisits her April 2020 interview with Hazel as part of her CoVida Conversation series. This earlier series inspired the What Could Possibly Go Right? podcast.

Hazel Henderson (1933-2022), D.Sc. Hon., FRSA, went virtual (her own words) on May 22, 2022, at the age of 89.  A prolific writer, Henderson authored nine books and hundreds of articles leading to what is now known as sustainability and growing the “green” economy. Henderson is best known as a Lifelong Futurist who 40 years ago forecasted the need for the current transition from the fossil fuel era to the 21st century green economy worldwide in her groundbreaking book, The Politics of the Solar Age, (Doubleday, 1981) which was the lead review in the New York Times Book Review on Sept. 13, 1981.  Her passion for the environment and her grasp of finance led to her creation of the global socially responsible investment industry single handedly. Her accomplishments are valuable and current going forward especially her advocacy to hold polluters accountable to the world’s stakeholders, not just the stockholders.

Read the full tribute on Hazel's website at https://hazelhenderson.com/

See also Vicki's tribute at https://vickirobin.com/hazel-henderson/

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Douglas Rushkoff makes a third appearance in our series, sharing his latest thoughts on What Could Possibly Go Right? Listen to his previous interviews in episodes 28 and 52.

Douglas Rushkoff is an author and documentarian who studies human autonomy in a digital age. Rushkoff’s work explores how different technological environments change our relationship to narrative, money, power, and one another. Named one of the “world’s ten most influential intellectuals” by MIT, his twenty books include Team Human, based on his podcast. Others include bestsellers Present Shock, Throwing Rocks and the Google Bus, Program or Be Programmed, Life Inc, and Media Virus. He also made the PBS Frontline documentaries Generation Like, The Persuaders, and Merchants of Cool. 

Before our season break, enjoy this casual chat between Douglas and Vicki which included themes of:

• Exposing “the false premise of winning at capitalism”
• Exploring that life often gets better, not worse as we avoid consumerist comforts
• Rebuilding non-monetary social capital and being careful of the “transactional bias in the way human beings relate to each other”

Connect with Douglas Rushkoff
Website: rushkoff.com
Twitter: twitter.com/rushkoff

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Margaret Klein Salamon, PhD, is the Executive Director of Climate Emergency Fund. She is a clinical psychologist turned climate activist whose work helps people face the truth of the climate emergency and transform their despair into effective action. She founded and directed The Climate Mobilization from 2014-2020, advocating an all-hands-on-deck, whole society mobilization to protect humanity and the living world from climate catastrophe. She is the Founding Principal of Climate Awakening, a project to unleash the power of climate emotions through scalable small group conversations. She is the author of Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth, a radical self-help guide for the climate emergency

She addresses the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:

• The need for a widescale consciousness shift to prioritize climate mobilization
• The psychological defenses being used during this climate emergency, such as compartmentalization, wilful ignorance and intellectualization
• The drive to action from the “combination of morality with something new…like enlightened self-interest.”

Complete show notes HERE

Connect with Margaret Klein Salamon
Website: https://www.climateemergencyfund.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClimatePsych

Follow WCPGR/Resilience
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/buildresilience
​Twitter: https://twitter.com/buildresilience
​Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildresilience

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Betsy Taylor is president of Breakthrough Strategies & Solutions LLC. For over thirty years, she has built a solid reputation as a philanthropic advisor, social change leader, motivational speaker, and problem solver. For the past four years, Betsy has worked to build the field of regenerative agriculture through grant-making, network development, global convenings, and general cheerleading about the potential of our lands to sequester carbon pollution while boosting food security and habitat protection.

She addresses the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:

• The increased resilience of healthy soil farms against climate change impacts
• The boost to food production and bio-diversity offered through regenerative agriculture practices. “It's phenomenal what the land will do if you just give it a break.”
• The value in shifting to bio-regional production and supply chains

Complete show notes HERE
Register for The Dirt on Soil HERE

Connect with Betsy Taylor
Website: https://www.breakthroughstrategiesandsolutions.com

Follow WCPGR/Resilience
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​Twitter: https://twitter.com/buildresilience
​Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildresilience

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Helaine Olen is an award-winning opinion writer for the Washington Post Opinion section. An expert on money and society with a deep understanding of public policy, she writes, speaks and consults on issues including Social Security, retirement, healthcare, student loans and women’s financial issues. Helaine has appeared on The Daily Show, Frontline, C-Span, the BBC, MSNBC, All Things Considered, Marketplace and more to share her forward-thinking commentary on politics, economics and consumer and regulatory issues. 

She addresses the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:

• The “Great Resignation” and Americans’ changing relationship with work
• The need to insist on dignity in our working lives
• The call “to not confuse your needs, with corporate needs or government needs”
• The benefits of building better social safety nets and increased government support

Complete show notes HERE

Connect with Helaine Olen
Website: http://helaineolen.com
Twitter: twitter.com/helaineolen

Follow WCPGR/Resilience
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/buildresilience
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Dr. Britt Wray is a Human and Planetary Health Fellow at Stanford University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her research focuses on the mental health impacts of the ecological crisis. She is the creator of Gen Dread, the weekly newsletter about “staying sane in the climate crisis” and the author of Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis (2022). She has hosted several podcasts, radio & TV programs with the BBC and CBC, and is a TED speaker.

She addresses the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:

• The “profound moment of collective wake up” and the eco-anxiety we find ourselves in
• The impacts of the climate crisis on young people and their feelings of despair and betrayal
• The importance of acceptance and “leaning into that vulnerability and lack of control” for outcomes, while still taking action

Complete show notes HERE

Connect with Britt Wray
Website: www.brittwray.com
Newsletter: gendread.substack.com
Instagram: instagram.com/gen_dread
Twitter: twitter.com/brittwray

Follow WCPGR/Resilience
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/buildresilience
​Twitter: https://twitter.com/buildresilience
​Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/buildresilience

Support the show

Complete Show Notes