Local Futures Podcast: Recent Episodes
Local Futures
Vu Truong is a program coordinator at VCIL Community, Vietnam, a grassroots movement towards well-being and regenerative society re-imagining every aspect of life through social innovation in alternative education, rethinking development, new economy and community building. Thien Quach is a community builder, regenerative educator, and social innovator with VCIL Community. He is passionate about reimagining education and rethinking development through alternative education, post-growth entrepreneurship, regenerative tourism, and solidarity-based finance.
In this episode of Planet Local Voices II, Vu and Thien paint an evocative picture of the deeply relational, humble and nurturing traditional values and lifestyles that prevailed until recently in Vietnam, and how these have been dramatically undermined and degraded by the race for material wealth and "success" brought about by recent decades of mainstream development, modernization and "progress". Still, beneath the pavement and within the cracks of development, the old values still survive, and with them more and more people are turning away from the soul-deadening, polluting mainstream to create "many streams" of regenerative, life-affirming, meaningful alternatives - a process that VCIL Community is playing a vital role in nurturing.
They emphasize the importance of changing mindsets, values, and worldviews in order to effect systemic change, and conversely, the need for systemic change to enable and encourage these inner transformations. It is a story that will resonate with communities and cultures across the world who are facing similar pressures, which is to say, it will resonate everywhere.
Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn is a Māori human rights and environmental advocate from the Ngāti Kurī and Te Rarawa peoples of Aotearoa (New Zealand). A lawyer by training and longtime activist by calling, she has spent decades working on Indigenous rights, climate justice, Treaty negotiations, food sovereignty and more, and applied herself from local campaigns close to home to international advocacy at the United Nations.
In this episode, we go deep into metaphysics, ‘staying with the trouble’ of the current moment while also seeing the bigger picture. Catherine leads us in drawing lessons from Maori language and worldviews, and we think through the cycles of time to find life-sustaining hope for the future.
We were delighted to get to know Catherine at the Planet Local Summit, and I have no doubt that her vibrant energy will also come through in the airwaves!
Lars Veraart is a veterinarian and agroecological farmer. Together with his wife Robyn, Lars moved from the Netherlands to a small village in the mountains of Romania, where he co-founded ALPA – Land for Life — an initiative supporting small-scale ecological farming, young farmers and bioregional regeneration. He and Robyn also run Provision Transylvania, an example farm and centre for agroecology and non-violence.
In this episode of Planet Local Voices II, Lars offers a concise and lovely story of social, cultural, and ecological regeneration in action. He describes the process of 'becoming a peasant' in Romania and the surprise of the local villagers as he and his family began to emulate their ways. He speaks of change and ecocide, but also of hopeful signs, stressing the oft-overlooked relationship between small-scale farming and wild biodiversity conservation. He also shares about how non-violent communication and localisation have informed his work.
Mattias Desmet is a professor of clinical psychology in the Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences at Ghent University (Belgium), a practicing psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and author of The Psychology of Totalitarianism.
In this episode of Planet Local Voices II, Mattias explains how the poly-crises roiling the world today ultimately stem from a metaphysical crisis, a "de-souling" of the world produced by a rationalism in Western science that lost sight of its own limitations. Excessive rationalism, he argues, is actually deeply irrational, and the socio-ecological breakdowns we are witnessing today, in many cases produced by the most advanced science applied to technology, are a clear illustration of this. Unless subordinated to deeper values and ethics, science and rationalism will continue to lead the world to ruin.
Mattias also argues that the fading of local exchange, craft and economy have contributed to the psychological crises of loneliness and meaninglessness. Accordingly, rebuilding local, grassroots economies are vital to repairing peoples' sense of meaning, purpose and mattering.
Shrishtee Bajpai is a researcher, writer and activist working at the intersections of environmental justice, earthy governance, indigenous worldviews, and systemic transformations. She is a member of Kalpavriksh , and coordinates Vikalp Sangam (Alternatives Confluence) in India. She is part of the facilitation team of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives. She also serves on the executive committee of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature.
In this episode of Planet Local Voices II, Shrishtee lays out the profound nature of indigenous worldviews rooted in collective care and respect for, and intimate relationship with, the rest of the living Earth, and the work of bringing this ancient sensibility into contemporary practice through movements for the Rights of Nature and Earthy Governance. She explains how local, indigenous and other land-based and communities around the world are defending their territories and building locally-rooted alternatives to the destructive dominant economic system. Finally, she reflects on the political nature of hope, as a disciple through which we push back against the closure of the imagination, and allow ourselves to dream of - and enact - better futures.
Jason Nardi is the European coordinator of RIPESS - the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy, president of RIES (Italian Solidarity Economy Network) and co-founder of Solidarius Italia. Jason is an active member of the International Council of the World Social Forum and promoter of the World Social Forum on Transformative Economies. Jason currently lives in Florence, where he promotes Community Supported Agriculture projects, mutualism and the Forum Firenze Beni Comuni (Florence Forum of the Commons).
In this episode of Planet Local Voices II, Jason defines the social and solidarity economy concepts and diverse practices including collective ownership, cooperation, sufficiency- and needs-based production and exchange, and connects these to the localization and bioregionalist movements.
Jason reminds us of our collective power and true wealth, and argues that by weaving together the multiplicity of diverse alternative economic initiatives that respect people and nature, we can change the system.
This podcast episode forms part of the Planet Local Voices II series, produced by Local Futures, an international non-profit organisation, dedicated to renewing ecological and social well-being by strengthening communities and local economies.
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/8oil0IQVhx8
Follow the Planet Local Voices Series II series: https://www.localfutures.org/programs/planet-local-voices-series-2/
Explore our work: https://www.localfutures.org/
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Aseem Shrivastava is an environmental economist, philosopher and a writer. He is the co- author with Ashish Kothari of Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India, and The Grammar of Greed, among others. He taught economics for many years in India and the US and writes extensively on issues associated with globalization. More recently he taught ecosophy, an ecological philosophy grounded in the thought of Raimon Panikkar. He writes regularly for numerous publications, and is currently writing a book bringing Rabindranath Tagore’s spiritual and ecological vision into dialogue with the ecological challenges of 21st century modernity.
In this interview for the Planet Local Voices II, Aseem delves into the philosophical roots of our present crises in the rise of modernity which effected an ‘earth alienation’ that ultimately gave rise to colonialism and today’s catastrophic obsession with economic growth and progress. The values of modernity – including individualism, instrumentalism, and mechanization – drive the dominant world system, in which we are all embedded. As a radical alternative, Aseem proposes ‘ecosophy’, an ecological philosophy that rejects the philosophical foundations of modernity and calls instead for us to return to and embrace our home, the Earth.
This podcast episode forms part of the Planet Local Voices II series, produced by Local Futures, an international non-profit organisation, dedicated to renewing ecological and social well-being by strengthening communities and local economies.
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/20JPzAGCRt8
Follow the Planet Local Voices Series II series: https://www.localfutures.org/programs/planet-local-voices-series-2/
Explore our work: https://www.localfutures.org/
Sign up for our newsletter to never miss an episode — exploring localization as a pathway to ecological balance and community resilience. Sign up here: https://www.localfutures.org/sign-up-to-our-newsletter/
Drawing on a wealth of practical experience from regenerative community building, Laura Kaestele, discusses the importance of living models of localization in keeping alive a sense of active hope and radical imagination for a more beautiful, just and nourishing world.
She calls attention to a 'mycelial network' of such alternatives, all over the world, which remains invisible in the mainstream world, but which is clearly gaining strength. Laura Kaestele works as a network weaver with ECOLISE, and has worked as designer, grower, project manager, and facilitator for the permaculture and ecovillage networks for nearly two decades.
This podcast episode forms part of the Planet Local Voices II series, produced by Local Futures, an international non-profit organisation, dedicated to renewing ecological and social well-being by strengthening communities and local economies.
Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/NYim2VXNJek
Follow the Planet Local Voices Series II series: https://www.localfutures.org/programs/planet-local-voices-series-2/
Explore our work: https://www.localfutures.org/
Sign up for our newsletter to never miss an episode — exploring localization as a pathway to ecological balance and community resilience. Sign up here: https://www.localfutures.org/sign-up-to-our-newsletter/
We close the Bristol Conversations series with the much-admired teacher, poet and post-activist, Bayo Akomolafe. A public intellectual and writer, Bayo blurs the lines between the personal and the political, prompting a deep rethink of how we can act for change. He is the founder and curator of the Emergence Network and Chief Host of the We Will Dance with Mountains community. He’s involved with many other projects, some of which you will hear about in this episode.
In this conversation with Helena Norberg-Hodge, Bayo reflects on the ruptures in modernity that have sparked his own questioning. Going beyond a politics which fetishizes identity and category, he invites us to open up other spaces of power – where the immediate, the understated, and the local are more profound and more promising than grand slogans and ideas.
Watch the video: https://youtu.be/1vE5-yFiRUM
Find all episodes in The Bristol Conversation series: https://www.localfutures.org/programs/the-bristol-conversations/
This series is produced by Local Futures, an international non-profit organisation dedicated to renewing ecological and social well-being by strengthening communities and local economies.
Explore our work: https://www.localfutures.org/
Sign up to Local Futures newsletter: https://www.localfutures.org/sign-up-to-our-newsletter/
Dr. Lyla June Johnston is an indigenous musician, scholar, and community organizer of Diné Navajo, Cheyenne and European lineages. She blends her study of human ecology, graduate work in indigenous pedagogy, and the traditional worldview she grew up with to inform her music, perspectives and solutions. Her research has focused on the ways in which pre-colonial indigenous nations shaped large regions of Turtle Island (aka the Americas) to produce abundant food systems.
In this conversation, Helena and Lyla weave together different lines of heritage and experience, getting into deep discussions about identity, psychology and culture. They focus a lot on European identities and salvaging them from cruel and inaccurate narratives of progress which have cast many as fools, and many as villains. They come out with a throughline that connects the 'ancient primitive' with 'ancient futures'.
No video available for this episode.
Find all episodes in The Bristol Conversation series: https://www.localfutures.org/programs/the-bristol-conversations/
This series is produced by Local Futures, an international non-profit organisation dedicated to renewing ecological and social well-being by strengthening communities and local economies.
Explore our work: https://www.localfutures.org/
Sign up to Local Futures newsletter: https://www.localfutures.org/sign-up-to-our-newsletter/
In another life, Manish Jain was educated at Harvard, became an investment banker with Morgan-Stanley, and worked with the UN. Since then, he has been on a journey of unlearning, deschooling and decolonizing, returning home to India to learn from his illiterate village grandmother. Manish is the founder-coordinator of Shikshantar Andolan, which has been significant in shaping the larger unschooling movement in South Asia. He's the co-founder of Swaraj University, Udaipur as a Learning City, the Indian Multiversities Alliance, the Ecoversities Network and more.
In this conversation, Manish and Helena Norberg-Hodge bounce of each other in a radical questioning of concepts like progress, freedom, wealth, empowerment and knowledge. Manish shares his personal story of disillusionment with the dominant system, sketching the profound worldview shift he had to undergo in order to come back to life, love, and local wisdom.
Watch the video: https://youtu.be/EXu2m68D5V4
Find all episodes in The Bristol Conversation series: https://www.localfutures.org/programs/the-bristol-conversations/
This series is produced by Local Futures, an international non-profit organisation dedicated to renewing ecological and social well-being by strengthening communities and local economies.
Explore our work: https://www.localfutures.org/
Sign up to Local Futures newsletter: https://www.localfutures.org/sign-up-to-our-newsletter/
In the fifth episode of The Bristol Conversations, we hear from Iain McGilchrist, the author of the groundbreaking book ‘The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World’. Iain is a neuroscientist, psychiatrist and scholar; a man who has shed light not only on some fascinating truths about our minds and our experience of the world, but also on how these truths relate to many of the seemingly intractable predicaments we find ourselves in today. He helps us see the world and its problems with a new eye.
In this conversation with pioneer of the new economy/localization movement, Helena Norberg-Hodge, the two draw connections between their seemingly quite different bodies of work. They discuss human psychology, community, connection to nature, spirituality, technocracy, and AI. They illuminate how the struggle between the brain’s left and right hemispheres relates to the global techno-economic system, the damage it’s doing, and exactly how we might change it.
In the fourth episode of The Bristol Conversations, we hear from Camila Moreno, civil society’s foremost expert on the international COP climate negotiations. Since 2008, Camila has been charting the emergence of what she calls a system of ‘global climate governance’. She describes the ways in which the environmental movement is being coopted and reduced to a mandate for decarbonization and digitalization, which are in turn paving the way for the unfettered financialization of nature and the extension of technocracy.
This conversation between Camila and Helena Norberg-Hodge strengthens our critical awareness of the often unconscious but undeniable hijacking of social and environmental concerns and their buzzwords. It’s a conversation that will help activists and everyday people remain impervious to co-optation and stay true to a vision of real ecological integrity.
In this episode we hear from Nelson Mudzingwa, a farmer and food sovereignty advocate, working with La Via Campesina. He teaches at the Shashe Agroecology School and is the national coordinator for the Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmer’s Forum (ZIMSOFF).
In this conversation with Helena Norberg-Hodge, Nelson extols the benefits of local food systems that are closely connected to culture, community and the land. With firsthand experience, he highlights how local seeds and local knowledge systems offer real resilience and prosperity, especially in a time of climate change and market volatility. As a leading spokesperson for the global peasant movement, Nelson debunks the stubborn notion that we need big agribusiness – and particularly the so-called ‘Green Revolution in Africa’ – to feed the world.
Welcome to the Bristol Conversations, a new podcast and video series by Local Futures featuring Helena Norberg-Hodge in conversation with some of the great minds who joined us in Bristol for the Planet Local Summit.
Today, we hear from perhaps the world's leading expert on local finance and local business, Michael Shuman. With roots in the peace movement and social justice struggles, Michael is a Harvard-trained lawyer and economist who has spent his career going against conventional economic dogmas to champion the local. Local economies, he maintains, can deliver greater justice and wellbeing in society, and greater prosperity and political power to people. He shares his wisdom across the world in talks, workshops and his publication The Main Street Journal.
In this highly informative episode, Helena and Michael deliver critical but creative takes on buzzwords like ethical investment and impact investing. Drawing on demonstrative examples, they explore how place-based institutions, economies and the policies that support them can revolutionize not only our local communities but global geopolitics, and ultimately give rise to an 'economics of happiness'.
Welcome to the Bristol Conversations, a new podcast and video series by Local Futures. In these longer-format, meandering episodes, our founder Helena Norberg-Hodge speaks with some of the great minds who joined us in Bristol for the Planet Local Summit.
We kick the series off with Darcia Narvaez. Darcia is professor emerita of psychology at the University of Notre Dame. She studies morality, child development and human flourishing, and she does so by integrating disciplines like anthropology, neuroscience, developmental psychology and evolutionary biology. Helena, in turn, holds a very compatible perspective on human development thanks to her learnings from many years spent in the indigenous culture of Ladakh.
Their conversation explores who we really are as human beings and the kind of supports we need to develop healthily. They show how so-called 'human nature' itself is molded by the economy and culture, and give anecdotes that illuminate some fundamental differences between modern Western (i.e. globalized) culture and more land-based communal cultures. How deep does the damage of disconnection go in the modern world? And how might we begin to reverse that damage through care, touch, play and vulnerability?
The final episode in the World Localization Extravaganza counters the “bigger, more complex and more violent” logic of the dominant system with a bottom-up approach built on peoplepower, local sovereignty and small-scale economies. The episode stresses how, even and especially in the face of global crises, localization simply makes sense.
VISIT OUR CAMPAIGN PAGE: www.worldlocalizationday.org to get active, and follow @localfutures_
This third and final episode visits six leaders practicing on-the-ground work as well as building coalitions for systemic change in Europe, Africa and Australia:
- Ruby van der Wekken – Finland – Food systems activist and social solidarity economy networker with Oma Maa and Ripess Europe
- Anisa Rogers – Australia – Campaigner and practitioner, Degrowth Network Australia and New Economy Network Australia
- Million Belay – Uganda – General Coordinator, Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa
- Laura Kaesteele – UK/Germany – Network weaver, ECOLISE
- Juan del Rio – Spain – Network weaver and filmmaker, ECOLISE
- Margarita Barcena – Mexico/Ethiopia – Food systems activist and storyteller, A Growing Culture
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On World Localization Day, 2025, we celebrate a planet-sized paradox – a GLOBAL movement for LOCALization.
VISIT OUR CAMPAIGN PAGE: www.worldlocalizationday.org to get active, and follow @localfutures_
This second episode in the trio offers shining examples of localization-in-action in the USA, Brazil, Bangladesh and Nepal, while also stressing efforts to build up broad-based, international coalitions for strategic policy change. You will hear from:
- Debra Efroymson – USA/Bangladesh – campaigner, public health advocate with Institute of Wellbeing https://instituteofwellbeingbd.org/
- Thais Mantovani – Brazil – educator, reformer, campaigner with EcoUniversidade @ecouniversidade
- Michael Shuman – USA – economist, lawyer, leading expert on local finance https://michaelhshuman.com/
- Shail Shrestha – Nepal – Public policy advocate and cofounder, Digo Bikas Institute https://digobikas.org/
- Rutendo Ngara – South Africa – indigenous knowledge keeper
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On World Localization Day, 2025, we come to you with a very big story. It’s a story played out across every continent, told by 15 different voices, over three upbeat super inspiring podcast episodes. It’s the story of a global turning towards all things local and life-affirming.
VISIT OUR CAMPAIGN PAGE: www.worldlocalizationday.org to get active, and follow
@localfutures_
This first episode defines and depicts localization as it manifests in parts of Asia, Africa and Australia. It features five awe-inspiring activists, storytellers and thinkers:
- Aimee Wallin – Ghana – food systems activist and leader, Ghana Food Movement @aimee.wav @ghanafoodmovement / https://www.ghanafoodmovement.com/
- Keibo Oiwa – Japan – renowned teacher, author, activist, networker @theslothclub_japan
- Vu Truong – Vietnam – youth leader, education reformer with VCIL
https://www.vcil.community/ - Rutendo Ngara – South Africa – indigenous knowledge keeper
- Morag Gamble – Australia – Permaculture leader and educator with Permaculture Education Institute https://permacultureeducationinstitute.org
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Described as "one of the greatest thinkers of our age," Jeremy Lent is an impassioned researcher and speaker who investigates the underlying causes of our civilizational metacrisis, and explores pathways toward an ecological civilisation. He is the author of The Patterning Instinct and The Web of Meaning, and the founder of the Deep Transformation Network – an online global community where people can engage in facilitating a deep transformation toward a life-affirming future on a regenerated Earth.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Christian Jochnick, a Swedish entrepreneur, started his career in social projects for urban youth. After experiencing the challenges around finance in the philanthropic world, he decided to go back to university to get an MSc from the London School of Economics. He then worked as an analyst in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs before becoming an entrepreneur and venture investor. Today, Christian utilizes his broad experience to support the transition towards a small scale, diversified, organic and regenerative food system, primarily through his project Juntos Farm in Ibiza.
In this episode, Christian explains a bit about how he came to understand the paramount importance of local food economies for genuine social and ecological regeneration. He speaks pragmatically to the question of how best to streamline community resources and actually build such economies. He talks strategy, investments and infrastructure, and offers a holistic understanding of how a local food economy actually works.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Nathalie Kelley is a Peruvian-Australian actress of Quechua descent who has starred in Hollywood films like ‘The Fast and the Furious’ and Netflix’s ‘Dynasty’. Over the last five years, however, she has switched from acting to activism, speaking out for indigenous peoples, regenerative agriculture and localization. She is a graduate of Kiss The Ground's Soil Advocacy program, is on the board of the Fungí Foundation, and has narrated Local Futures' films ‘Closer to Home’ and ‘Trade Gone Mad’.
In this episode, Nathalie recounts how she walked away from her “success” in the dominant system in favor of using her platform to tell stories that might inspire activism, reconnection, and a radical worldview shift. She draws learnings from her indigenous roots and speaks unapologetically about the need to re-sacralize our approach to economics and the wider world. Through sharing her own story, she invites all of us – indigenous and non-indigenous alike – to rediscover our rightful place in the web of life.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Peace-pilgrim, life-long activist, and former monk, Satish Kumar has been inspiring global change for over 60 years. In 1962 he undertook a pilgrimage for peace, walking for two years without money from India to America for the cause of nuclear disarmament. In 1991, he co-founded Schumacher College, a renowned center of ecological education, and is a Visiting Fellow of Schumacher Wild. Now in his 80s, Satish has devoted his life to campaigning for ecological regeneration and social justice. He is a world-renowned author and international speaker, founder of The Resurgence Trust and Editor Emeritus of Resurgence & Ecologist – a change-making magazine he edited for over 40 years.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
How can we make our local communities healthy and resilient, and make sure that the voices and concerns of local people are heard? In this episode of the Planet Local Voices Series, Kate Taylor-Smith, Patricia Patterson Vanegas and Ben Christie, share their experience from Forest Row - a small town of 5000 people in East Sussex in the UK. They talk about localization and the process of building direct democracy, with genuine community representation in local, county and state-level governments.
It all started with FROCAL - a grassroots project that explores what the Forest Row might be like if they all lived and acted more locally. What would it mean for the sourcing of food, water and energy, for the local economy and livelihoods? Overall, the aim is to care for the land and each other to improve collective wellbeing.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
William (Bill) Powers is an author, speaker and teacher whose essays and commentaries on global issues have appeared in the New York Times and the Atlantic and on National Public Radio. Powers has also spent several decades exploring the American culture of speed and its alternatives in some fifty countries around the world. He is the author of five books that probe issues of sustainability and the need for a new, bio-centric paradigm, and lives in a Transition Town in Bolivia where principles of a "sweet, slow life" are being put into practice.
In this interview for the Planet Local Voices series, Powers questions the colonial categories of language and thought behind conventional 'development' models that are pushing globalization and urbanization onto the whole world. Powers argues that the antidote to the seeming invincibility of this destructive mainstream direction is by coming home to our senses, re-embedding ourselves in the fabric of Nature and life, and re-building interdependent communities and local economies.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Ruby Van der Wekken is a member of RIPESS, a network committed to promotion of the Social Solidarity Economy, as well as Oma Maa, a Finnish food co-operative based on community-supported agriculture (CSA) as well as ecologically and socially sustainable food production methods. Ruby works both at the cooperative's community farm and with the development of the co-op, with a personal background in the global justice movement, and advocacy for solidarity economies and the commons. In this interview for the Planet Local Voices series, Ruby describes the work of Oma Maa, and how it exemplifies both solidarity economy and commons principles for fairer, more just and sustainable economies. She also emphasizes the importance of local ownership of the economy, and the need for supportive laws and genuinely democratic governance to enable such alternatives to flourish and spread.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Rob Hopkins is the co-founder of Transition Network and of Transition Town Totnes, and author of several books including 'The Transition Handbook' and most recently, 'From What Is to What If: unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want'. He is an Ashoka Fellow, has spoken at TED Global and at several TEDx events.
In this interview for the Planet Local Voices series, Rob inspires with the story of how the Transition Movement has for years been practically demonstrating and fostering a more resilient, healthy, and beautiful local future in communities around the world. Rob explains how this movement represents a profound - and urgently needed - break with the extractivist, (neo)colonial globalized economy, and emphasizes the critical need for boosting the radical collective imagination of what is possible as an antidote to despair and hopelessness.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
A Stanford-trained lawyer and economist, Michael Shuman is the world’s pre-eminent expert on local finance, sharing practical tools to reclaim wealth from Wall Street for the benefit of communities. He is a prolific speaker and advocate for policy change, and is the author of ten books including Local Dollars, Local Sense, The Small Mart Revolution and his most recent title Put Your Money Where Your Life Is.
In this interview, Michael contends with the prevailing globalist strategies for economic development and thoroughly debunks them - beating conventional economists at their own game. With a robust research base, he sketches alternate strategies for economic development that focus on supporting small-scale enterprises and local economies, promising cascading benefits for society, community prosperity and the planet.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Morag Gamble is an award-winning permaculture teacher and designer and the founder of the Permaculture Education Institute. Over 30 years, she has led permaculture programs in 22 countries across six continents, inspiring countless people to join the practical permaculture revolution. She also curates a blog and practical YouTube channel called Our Permaculture Life, and hosts the Sense-Making in a Changing World podcast.
In this interview, Morag elucidates the deep, mutually reinforcing ties between permaculture - a holistic practical philosophy of reweaving the practices and interdependent relationships of local living - and the localization movement. As Morag puts it in the interview, permaculture "shows the deep possibilities of what a more local way of being can do in terms of nourishing our souls, nourishing our stomachs, nourishing our communities, and nourishing life itself." She shares her experiential wisdom as well as heartening stories that illustrate how local food and community-building practices ripple out into an ethic of care and a sacred regard for the land that gives us life.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Jon Jandai is a farmer, seed saver, natural builder, eco-educator, speaker and co-founder of the Pun Pun Center for Self-Reliance, an educational organic farm and earth-building school in Northern Thailand where skills of self-reliance are demonstrated and shared. His TED talk, ‘Life is easy. Why do we make it so hard?’, has over 15 million views.
In this interview, Jon talks about the links between community self-reliance and deep happiness. He explains how globalization has profoundly undermined this self-reliance, driving masses of people into a kind of urban slavery. It has also undermined the diversity of foods, cultures, and thinking, leaving a physical, mental and spiritual wasteland in its wake. Yet, especially for those people who have experienced both the old world of self-reliant local cultures, as well as industrial-globalized modernity, the pitfalls of the latter have come into sharp focus and sparked a movement to return to the countryside, and to reclaim the deep knowledge and skills of local living.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Ben Rawlence is an award-winning writer, activist and co-founder of Black Mountains College, Wales. He has written extensively about the human consequences of environmental catastrophe in Africa, and later turned his attention to similar issues in Europe and the Arctic. Ben's research led him to focus on building institutions that promote new ways of thinking, seeing, and learning, with a particular focus on climate adaptation through localization.
In this concise episode, Ben introduces the Black Mountains College project against the backdrop of a mainstream educational and economic system that is unfit for the future. He discusses the paramount need to reinvent education to prepare people and communities for a future in which intersecting global challenges will necessarily be met with local solutions.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Camila Moreno is one of civil society's foremost experts on climate policy, and her critical analysis of carbon metrics, digitalization and corporate power is unparalleled. Coming from social and environmental movements in Latin America and her native Brazil, Camila has attended all the COP climate negotiations since 2008. She has written _Carbon Metrics and the New Colonial Equations_ and is a researcher at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro.
In this episode, Camila elucidates the history and possible future trajectories of the emerging techno-globalist power structure, with a particular focus on how that agenda is closely tied to international climate governance, like the COP climate negotiations. She highlights how the complexity of climate has been reduced to a narrow focus on carbon dioxide, and how that has served to co-opt diverse environmental struggles into a corporate-friendly agenda based on market-based schemes, digitalization and the financialization of nature. Camila gives us all a strong warning about continuing further down this technocratic path. To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Resisting categorization, Alnoor works towards the healing of culture, people and the living world, bringing spirituality, politics and place-based work into dialogue with one another. He co-founded The Rules – a global activist collective and thinktank for economic alternatives. He also co-founded the post-capitalist community Tierra Valiente in Costa Rica, where he lives. He is a board member of Culture Hack Labs and The Emergence Network, co-director of the Transition Resource Circle and co-author of Post Capitalist Philanthropy: Healing Wealth in the Time of Collapse.
In this episode, Alnoor brainstorms how we might appropriate, co-opt, discard and/or reclaim the proverbial master’s tools in order to take down the house and revolutionize the system we live in. He brings a non-dualist complexity to discussions about movement building and awareness raising and localization, and finally turns his attention to healing the rift between political work and spiritual work.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Iain McGilchrist is an Oxford literary scholar, and a doctor in psychiatry and neuroscience. A champion of holistic thinking, Iain’s tour-de-force book The Master and His Emissary, along with his more recent The Matter with Things, have transformed academic and popular understanding not only of the human brain, but also of the importance of a fundamental worldview shift. His works sustain an in-depth critique of reductionism, and unfold different approaches for understanding who we are and what the world is.
In this episode, Iain’s research on the differences between the left and right hemispheres provide the backdrop for discussions of the human experience of the sublime, and how important that experience is if we are to reestablish social and ecological balance in the world. He discusses his long-standing appreciation for the local, the place-based and the natural, suggesting that these offer avenues towards right-hemisphere aspects of our experience – aspects which have been neglected to our detriment.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
A small farmer and Campaigns Coordinator for The Landworkers Alliance, Jyoti both embodies and powerfully communicates the possibility for a more just and sustainable future through local food sovereignty. On her 20-acre farm in Dorset, UK, Jyoti raises animals and grows vegetables and fruit, and processes apple juice, wool and jam. She is also a spokesperson for the international peasants' movement, La Via Campesina, and is a powerful advocate for policy change in the UK and beyond.
In this episode, Jyoti presents a robust case for policy change, helping us understand what kind of structural decisions are needed to shift our food systems away from exploitation and corporate control, and towards sustainable, local food sovereignty, worldwide. She combats widely held misconceptions touted by global agribusinesses, and draws on personal experience to give detail about how food policy decisions are currently being made.
Darcia Narvaez is a Professor Emerita of Psychology (University of Notre Dame), and Fellow of the American Psychological Association. She employs an interdisciplinary approach to studying morality, child development and human flourishing, integrating disciplines like anthropology, neuroscience, developmental psychology, evolutionary biology, and more. Darcia’s publications include 'Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom', 'Restoring the Kinship Worldview: Indigenous Voices Introduce 28 Precepts for Rebalancing Life on Planet Earth', and, most recently, 'The Evolved Nest: Nature’s Way of Raising Children and Creating Connected Communities'.
In this episode, Darcia describes “the evolved nest”, which is the set of conditions needed for healthy human development. Stemming from our deep evolutionary past, these conditions include close-knit community, affection, care, play, and connection to nature. She sheds light on the way so many of us, in the disconnected world of modernity, experience great insecurity, dysregulation, and lack of self-understanding because of the myriad developmental challenges that arise from being “un-nested”. As such, Darcia calls for localization - at both the structural level and in practice at the community level - in order to restore our wellbeing.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Charles Eisenstein is an independent writer and speaker on topics traversing the economy, society, spirituality and the environment. His work is renowned for its boldness and poetics. The author of six books – including Sacred Economics, Climate: A New Story and The Coronation – he is an indispensable guide towards “the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible”. Over the past year, Charles has become involved with Robert F. Kennedy Junior’s campaign for president of the United States.
In this episode, Charles articulates the philosophical basis for his enduring support of the localization movement, expressing how the reweaving of local connections is fundamental to birthing a new story for humanity – one based on interbeing. He considers the process of societal change itself, dissolving restrictive intellectual binaries and rigid frameworks. Instead, Charles invites action that is grounded in humility and based on the powerful combination of information and intuition.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Diego Isabel la Moneda is the Executive Director of the New Economy and Social Innovation (NESI) Forum, and Co-Founder and Director of the Global Hub for the Common Good. NESI aims to co-create a new economy at the service of people and the planet through innovative impact initiatives, public policy proposals and the organization of forums and other events aimed at connecting and promoting the new economy and social innovation ecosystem. Diego is author of the book Yo Soy Tú: Propuesta para una Nueva Sociedad (I Am You: Proposal for a New Society) (Octaedro, 2013) www.yosoytu.com, co-author of Dentro de 15 años (Within 15 years) (Lid, 2014) as well as an international speaker.
In this episode, Diego contrasts today's dominant economic system based in growth, profit maximization, redundant global trade (for example Spain, a top orange-producing country, both exporting and importing oranges from the global market), competition and urbanization with the needed alternative of an "economics of the common good", based in collaboration, democratization, decentralization, and rural revitalization. Shifting to this new economy will require both supportive public policies, as well as a cultural shift rooted in a redefinition of "success" from wealth and power to strong webs of relationships with other people and nature and doing meaningful work for the common good.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Rupert Read is a highly respected activist and thought-leader, eco-philosopher, campaigner and self-described “recovering academic”, who has influenced public and academic opinion on issues like climate, genetic engineering, technological development and advertising to children. Rupert has (co-)authored books including ‘A Film-Philosophy of Ecology and Enlightenment’ and ‘This Civilization Is Finished’. He has been a spokesperson for the Extinction Rebellion movement and the UK Green Party, and now directs the Climate Majority Project.
In this episode, Rupert explores the possibilities for renewal and reconnection latent within the ecological, social and spiritual catastrophes of industrial modernity. He suggests we can, through the localization movement, simultaneously humble ourselves enough to address our civilizational predicament, while healing ourselves and nature. He calls us to take action at the level of human-scale groups and institutions to bring about the local future "our hearts know is possible", making a plea that we embrace this future through conscious choice, rather than being delivered to it through traumatic collapse.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Liz Hosken is the Founding Co-Director of the Gaia Foundation. For nearly 40 years, Gaia has been upholding indigenous wisdom and working with both indigenous and industrialized communities to restore their biocultural diversity. Inspired by decades of work with Amazonian peoples, Liz co-developed a three-year training in the philosophy and practice of Earth Jurisprudence, seeding the revival of Earth-centred consciousness, cultures and landscapes.
In this episode, Liz offers profound reflections on the need for deep reconnection with the web of life if we are to heal the wounds of industrial modernity. To move beyond hubris, reductionism and control, Liz suggests we need to decolonize our minds, remember humility, and re-embed ourselves in place, to become 'healing cells in the body of Gaia'. Pointing out how indigenous, land-based cultures can remind us of a more beautiful way of being, she offers practices like traditional seed saving as practical ways of re-indigenizing and re-localizing our cultures.
Rutendo Ngara is a holder of indigenous African knowledge systems and a transdisciplinary researcher. She is a practitioner of a number of physical disciplines, including dance and yoga, and has represented South Africa as an international silver medalist in martial arts (Wushu/Kung Fu/Tai Ji). Rutendo serves on the boards of the Credo Mutwa Foundation, the South African Wushu Federation, and the ASSEGAIA Alliance for protection of sacred sites. She is also an electrical and biomedical engineer, and is pursuing a doctorate in Philosophy of Education. The quest for harmony and healing underpins her diverse endeavors.
In this episode, Rutendo blends different ways of knowing and perceiving. She utilizes African concepts like Ubuntu and Sankofa as lenses through which to examine and critique western notions of progress, efficiency, time, and economics. With forays into the worlds of engineering, biomedicine and academia, she communicates a big-picture perspective on modernity, and raises questions about our collective past and future.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
A political economist and environmentalist, Andrew Simms is at the forefront of the movement for a new economy in the UK and around the world. His books include Cancel the Apocalypse, Tescopoly: How One Shop Came Out on Top and Why it Matters, and Economics: A Crash Course. He is coordinator of the New Weather Institute, the Rapid Transition Alliance and the Badvertising campaign. He is also a fellow at the New Economics Foundation, and research associate at the Centre for Global Political Economy, University of Sussex.
In this episode, Andrew outlines why a shift from global to local is integral to his vision of a new economy. He shines an incisive light on the foundations of today's economy, exposing and interrogating ideas like "growth" through GDP, and exploring practicable alternatives. Brimming with informed optimism, he highlights the very real possibilities for economic change.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Eva Henje is a neuroscientist, trauma therapist, and associate professor at Sweden’s Umeå university, specialising in child and adolescent psychiatry. Eva describes herself as mental health activist, because she’s passionate about raising awareness about the systemic reasons behind increasing rates of depression. She has created programs to empower and destigmatize young people with psychological suffering, and has helped develop alternatives to the current psychiatric diagnostic systems.
In this episode, Eva elucidates some of the profound connections between the economy we live in and our most intimate experiences of being human. Exploring the root causes of the widespread mental health crises, Eva shifts the focus from individual pathologies to societal malaise and the economic system responsible for it. She also lays out a path for people to shift from isolation and disempowerment towards community care, connection and, ultimately, activism.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Juan del Rio is a pioneer of the Transition movement in Spain, and the Co-Director of ECOLISE, the European network for community-led initiatives on climate change and sustainability. He is the co-founder of the Municipalities in Transition project, and the co-director of an inspiring new film about bottom-up initiatives in Spain called ALTERNATIVAS: Building possible futures.
In this episode, Juan opens our eyes to the plethora of community-led responses to social, economic crises and climate change, especially in the Spanish-speaking world, where models of transition are being adapted to diverse cultures and bioregions. He speaks about how this movement of alternatives is helping to bridge the divide between left and right, and he also offers advice on how the grassroots can and should collaborate with local governments.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Keibo Oiwa is a professor, cultural anthropologist, and a widely respected philosopher and organizer in Japan. He co-authored, with David Suzuki, a book about bottom-up movements for peace, human rights and environmentalism, called 'The Japan We Never Knew'. He is the founder of The Sloth Club – an NGO that promotes slow and sustainable living. The Sloth Club, coupled with Keibo's book Slow is Beautiful: Culture as Slowness, have fostered a new appreciation of rural life and a simpler way of living.
In this episode, Keibo offers us a portrait of a Japan moving in two different directions. He sounds the alarm about the cultural and spiritual devastation that has been a deeply tragic cost of Japan's pursuit of globalized development. But he also speaks of a widespread cultural resurgence – a movement towards regeneration, community and nature. He highlights cultural "keywords" that can be rediscovered in the Japanese cultural fabric, and which can be used as a guide for these emerging movements.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Thais Mantovani is a young woman from São Paulo, Brazil, passionate about education
reform and eco-cultural regeneration. An alumnus of Schumacher College, she is the co-founder of EcoUniversidade, a Youth Climate Leaders fellow, a member of the Global Regeneration CoLab network, and a long-time collaborator of Local Futures. She studies and promotes localization and regeneration in Brazil.
In this episode, Thais encourages those trapped in the modern world to step beyond its ideological confines. She shares experiences of living local cultures in indigenous Amazonia, and gives examples of localization projects in the favelas of São Paulo. She calls out modern schooling as a tool of indoctrination, and highlights the importance of reweaving trust-based community relationships – not only for survival, but also for health and happiness.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Chris Smaje is an author, small-scale farmer, social scientist, and food system analyst. His work explores the current moment of vast change, as the dynamics of climate, energy, politics and natural ecosystems upend familiar assumptions about how the world is supposed to work. He’s written two books – ‘A Small Farm Future’ and ‘Saying No to a Farm-free Future’ – which are both grounded his belief that we need to develop low-energy localisms that give people the means to make practical and sustainable livelihoods.
In this episode, Chris explains how the organisation of food systems is ultimately an energetic question; one that, in the modern era, has been answered by an over-reliance on cheap fossil fuels. He argues that, in a future of lesser energy abundance and mounting crises, localised food systems will be vital for survival. Chris encourages an embrace of agrarian localism not only to avoid chaotic disruption, but also to bring profound and immediate benefits to people and planet. Local Futures is an international non-profit organization, dedicated to renewing ecological and social well-being by strengthening communities and local economies.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Debra Efroymson (Bangladesh/USA) is a tireless advocate for policies that support public health, wellbeing and happiness. She is the co-founder and Executive Director at Institute of Wellbeing, Bangladesh, and is faculty at the Asian University for Women. While her particular interests lie in urban planning and transportation, her holistic perspective leads her to envision profound transformations in economics, governance, and society as a whole.
In this episode, Debra calls into question things many of us take for granted – including how our cities are planned, how we get around, and what priorities shape development. She connects the idea of car-free cities to localization, and she explores the nitty gritty of policymaking and movement building, drawing on her personal experiences of David-and-Goliath struggles between activists and corporate power.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
Bayo Akomolafe (Nigeria) is a widely celebrated speaker, teacher, public intellectual and writer. In this episode, he “meanders the vortices of a world yet to come”, posing questions, sharing stories, and searching for the cracks in modernity. In his playful and poetic way, he encourages us to gather in these cracks – to participate in the emergence of what comes next.
A one-of-a-kind thinker, Bayo blurs the lines between the personal and the political, prompting us to unlearn, rethink, and radically imagine our role in the world. He is the author of two books, These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home (North Atlantic Books) and We Will Tell our Own Story: The Lions of Africa Speak. He is also the founder and curator of the Emergence Network and Chief Host of the course/festival series, We Will Dance with Mountains.
Local Futures is an international non-profit organization, dedicated to renewing ecological and social well-being by strengthening communities and local economies.
Follow the Planet Local Voices interview series: https://www.localfutures.org/programs/planet-local-voices/
Listen to this interview as a podcast: https://www.localfutures.org/programs/global-to-local/local-futures-podcast/
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Ele Saltmarsh is a young farmer, scientist and activist. In this episode, she tells her family’s story of pursuing organic farming, and suggests big-picture policy frameworks that could provide avenues for the growing ranks who dream of a life connected to nature and to community. She also makes a powerful case for agroecology and localised economies for feeding the UK, and speaks candidly about community, climate crisis, and about her worries and hopes for the future.
Ele comes from a small farm in Southern England, where she lives and practices agroecology. Since returning from her studies in biology and agricultural sciences at Oxford and Penn State Universities, she has worked with the Landworkers’ Alliance, and with a young farmers’ organisation called FLAME. She applies her research to show how the UK can feed itself sustainably, and campaigns for policies to support small farmers, food security, and real climate action.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series
To learn more and to follow the series, visit and subscribe at www.localfutures.org
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.
The second episode in the Planet Local Voices series features Manish Jain.
A leading advocate for un-learning, de-schooling, and deepening place-based knowledge systems, Manish discusses why and how to rethink conventional education and conventional economic development. He points to a growing movement of 'walk-outs' and 'drop-outs' as a great reason for hope, as well as highlighting a rich tapestry of living cultures and knowledge systems that still exists around the world, despite the onslaught of globalization. Having 'unlearnt' the worldview imparted by an education at Harvard, and having 'walked out' from a job as an investment banker, Manish lands a heavy critique of the economic growth-for-the-rich, highlighting the importance of localization for rebuilding trust, and rediscovering real wealth and meaningful work.
Based in Udaipur, India, Manish Jain has served as the coordinator of Shikshantar: The Peoples' Institute for Rethinking Education and Development. He co-founded the Swaraj University, a unique institution which is dedicated to the regeneration of local culture, local economy and ecology. Through a myriad of other projects, he has done groundbreaking work with children, rural communities and prisoners.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series https://www.localfutures.org/programs/planet-local-voices/
To learn more and to follow the series, visit and subscribe at www.localfutures.org
The music for this series is 'Pines and Violet', by Sky Toes.
Here's the first episode of Planet Local Voices – an interview series by Local Futures.
In this wide-ranging episode, economist, author and whistleblower John Perkins calls us to meet the defining challenge of our time – shifting from a "death economy" to a "life economy". He shares his own personal story of how he came to question the neoliberal worldview he'd been trained in, and discusses topics like empire and democracy, international relations, “free trade” treaties, redefining growth, embracing the local, and learning from indigenous cultures.
John spent many years working to advance the interests of American corporations in Global South countries, at a time when neoliberal policies were being rolled out. Upon realizing the destructive ramifications of the work he was doing, he became an important whistleblower. His best-known book is 'Confessions of an Economic Hit Man' (2004), which describes his role in a clandestine process of economic colonization at the behest of corporations, banks, and the United States government. The book spent more than 70 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
The music for this series is 'Pines and Violet', by Sky Toes.
Local Futures is an international non-profit organization, dedicated to renewing ecological and social well-being by strengthening communities and local economies.
To watch the video of this episode, visit:
https://www.localfutures.org/programs/planet-local-voices/
To learn more and to follow the series, visit and subscribe at www.localfutures.org
In this episode, Helena Norberg-Hodge talks to Alnoor Ladha. Raised in Canada, Alnoor comes from a Sufi lineage, and today lives in community in Costa Rica. He is an important and incisive activist whose work brings together political organizing, systems thinking, structural change and narrative transformation. His conviction that the spiritual and political are fundamentally inseparable underpins his writings, which have been published in Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Truthout, Huffington Post and more. Alnoor was on the board of Greenpeace International, and has directed organizations such as The Rules and Culture Hack Labs, and is the co-author of Post Capitalist Philanthropy: The healing of wealth in the time of collapse.
Helena and Alnoor have a deep friendship and a long-standing collaboration. In this episode, they explore politics and spiritualism together, and delve into their own philosophies of change, sketching a holistic political vision that goes beyond the left-right divide. They analyse the outrageous and deeply abstract ideologies of today’s global elite, and contrast those with lessons from intact indigenous cultures. They name value shifts and structural changes that are integral to healing the world.
It is all too rare to find two individuals so deep in the action of systemic change. An informed and courageous optimism pervades their conversation.
Intro music by Gillicuddy (CC BY-NC 3.0)
In this episode, Helena Norberg-Hodge talks to Iain McGilchrist. Iain is a one-of-a-kind thinker, an Oxford literary scholar as well as a doctor in psychiatry and neuroscience. His interdisciplinary achievements reflect his conviction about the importance of holistic thinking – a topic he has explored in-depth in his two ground-breaking works, 'The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World', and, more recently, 'The Matter with Things'.
In this conversation, Iain and Helena employ a big-picture lens to critique artificial intelligence, corporate globalization, and the profit-orientation of science and academia. They ask some hard questions about how things might change – through collapse, through movement-building, through grassroots action, or through a combination of these? And they also articulate insights into who we are as human beings, what constitutes genuine intelligence, and what a fulfilling life really entails.
In this episode, Helena Norberg-Hodge speaks with Charles Eisenstein. Charles is a pioneering storyteller of a new world – in his words, “the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible”. His writings and talks, renowned for their eloquence, deal with civilizational history and mythmaking, new economies, spirituality, pandemics, power, climate change, ecological living, and – at the deepest level – who we are as human beings. This conversation examines truth, metaphysics, learning from traditional cultures, activism and more, exploring various aspects of the civilizational transformation at hand in a post-covid world. Together, Helena and Charles decry the power structures that continue to dominate modern global society, and share stories of hope from the grassroots.
Please write to info@localfutures.org with any comments and ideas for future topics/guests.
Intro music by Gillicuddy (CC BY-NC 3.0).
In this episode, Helena Norberg-Hodge talks to her friend and colleague of 40 years, Vandana Shiva. Vandana trained as a quantum physicist, but turned her attention to campaigning for the rights of small farmers, seed savers and local communities in her home country of India when she witnessed the imposition of industrial agriculture and its tragic impacts on health, biodiversity and livelihoods. Today, she is one of the most powerful voices challenging corporate rule.
In their conversation, Helena and Vandana reminisce about friends who inspired them both, delving deep into the stories and personalities of the environmental and anti-globalization movements. They explore the structures of corporate globalization - from its roots in colonialism to the present day - as well as ecofeminism, movement building and deep ecological wisdom. Their conversation highlights the importance of focusing on economic structures, on scale and on the power of people to build a better world from the ground up.
Please write to info@localfutures.org with any comments and ideas for future topics/guests.
Intro music by Gillicuddy (CC BY-NC 3.0).
In this newly published episode of the Local Futures podcast, Helena Norberg-Hodge talks to the renowned Dr. Gabor Maté. The two dispel false ideas about human nature and analyze the ways macro-level economic structures are impacting our personal identities. A remarkable and far-reaching compassion for people from all walks of life imbues their conversation.
See our new - Localization Action Guide.
Please write to info@localfutures.org with any comments and ideas for future topics/guests.
Intro music by Gillicuddy (CC BY-NC 3.0).
Described by journalist George Monbiot as “one of the greatest thinkers of our age,” Jeremy Lent is the founder of the Liology Institute and the author of ‘The Patterning Instinct’ and, most recently, ‘The Web of Meaning’. His work investigates the underlying causes of our civilization’s existential crisis, and explores pathways toward a life-affirming future. In his own words, his work:
“has been a journey of many years, during which I dedicated myself full time to deep research in disciplines such as neuroscience, history, and anthropology, and to exploring the great traditions of Buddhism, Taoism, Neo-Confucianism, and Indigenous wisdom.”
In this conversation with Helena Norberg-Hodge, Jeremy unpacks many of the assumptions and world views that underpin modern society’s destructive trajectory. Together, they outline worldview transformations that contribute to a vision for a more sustainable and humane future – a future that both Helena and Jeremy truly believe to be within our grasp.
See our new - Localization Action Guide.
Please write to info@localfutures.org with any comments and ideas for future topics/guests.
Intro music by Gillicuddy (CC BY-NC 3.0).
Brazilian researcher and activist Dr. Camila Moreno has attended almost all the major climate conferences in the last decade. In this conversation with Helena Norberg-Hodge, she offers a rare glimpse into the internal workings of the multilateral negotiations. She explains how the narrow focus on carbon is turning climate itself into a tradable commodity for profit, and how the "decarbonization" agenda is linked to technocracy and increased surveillance.
We are left with greater clarity, and a stark choice between a human future and a high-tech dystopia.
This is key listening for climate/environmental activists.
See our new - Localization Action Guide.
Please write to info@localfutures.org with any comments and ideas for future topics/guests.
Intro music by Gillicuddy (CC BY-NC 3.0).
You would struggle to find three individuals more equipped to navigate the big picture of global economic mega-structures and civilizational transformation than Tyson, Alnoor and Helena. Between them, they share a wealth of diverse experiences, radical analysis and bold future-visioning, as well as a healthy dose of banter and laughter. Their far-reaching conversation analyses conspiracy theory, the global financial system and capitalist ideology, while outlining the power of localization and sacred activism to build a radically different future. This one is well worth a listen.
Please write to info@localfutures.org with any comments and ideas for future topics/guests.
Intro music by Gillicuddy (CC BY-NC 3.0).
Tyson Yunkaporta, author of Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World, joins Local Futures’ director Helena Norberg-Hodge to explore “right story” - cognitive frameworks that can help us navigate through the neo-colonial, techno-globalist age, and towards more interconnected, land-based futures. Touching on everything from marginal identities to electromagnetic pulses, from the local food movement to civilizational “apocalypse”, they outline the great necessity for all people to experience a “right of return”: to land, to community, to the local.
Related links:
- Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World
In this episode, we cover the inspiring story of the Copenhagen Food Coop, a member-owned alternative to mainstream grocery stores which allows people to not only have regular access to fresh local food, but also to make decisions about what foods the coop purchases and how the coop is run. NOTE: This episode was recorded before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though some of the activities mentioned in this episode - such as community harvest celebrations and group farm visits - are currently 'on hold', the work of the Copenhagen Food Coop and other groups to build strong local food economies has never been more important. Related links:
- Website of the Copenhagen Food Coop
- Ökostart (toolkit for starting a food coop, created by the Copenhagen Food Coop) (site in Danish)
- Planet Local library Intro music by Gillicuddy (CC BY-NC 3.0). Please write to info@localfutures.org with any comments and ideas for future topics/guests!
In this episode we speak with Judith Hitchman, the president of Urgenci, an international network of community-supported agriculture groups (CSAs). The conversation touches on decommodifying food, ISDS clauses, local food policy councils, and many more topics related to local food.
Related links:
- Urgenci - the international CSA network
- Article: 'Saving Japan’s seed heritage from “free trade”'
- Article: 'Tosepan - Resistance and Renewal in Mexico'
- Booklet: 'Localization: Essential Steps to an Economics of Happiness'
- Links to Organizations for Change
- 'Insane Trade' factsheet and short film Photo by Peg Diaz (http://pegdiaz.com/) Music by Gillicuddy: 1; 2; 3 (CC BY-NC 3.0).
Please write to info@localfutures.org with any comments and ideas for future topics/guests!
Juan del Río is a co-founder of the Spanish Transition Network, and author of the first book about the Transition movement to be published in Spanish. In this interview from the New Economy and Social Innovation (NESI) forum, he gives us his thoughts on economic transition, how different economic systems encode different values, how trade treaties threaten community resilience, and what we can do about it all.
Related links:
- Read about our work in Ladakh over the years
- Read the foreword to Juan's book about the Transition movement in Spain, by Transition founder Rob Hopkins
- The Spanish Transition Network (Red de Transición) Photo: Juan giving a talk on the Transition movement. Music by: Gillicuddy and Podington Bear (CC BY-NC 3.0). Please write to info@localfutures.org with any comments and ideas for future topics/guests.
From social enterprises to credit unions, a new wave of not-for-profit businesses is pushing back against the assumption that consumerism and competition must drive the economy. In this episode, we speak with Jen Hinton of the Post Growth Institute, co-author of a forthcoming book about how the line between businesses and not-for-profit organizations doesn’t have to be as rigid as you might think.
Related links:
- How On Earth - the website for the forthcoming book.
- 'Beyond capitalism: not-for-profit business ethos motivates sustainable behaviour', by Jen Hinton and Donnie Maclurcan, Oct 2014.
- Community-Wealth.org's factsheets about worker cooperatives, social enterprises, municipal enterprises, community development corporations, and community financial institutions.
Photo: Goodwill Industries, one of the first entities to blur the line between business and nonprofit. Music by: Gillicuddy (CC BY-NC 3.0), Chris Zabriskie (CC BY 3.0), and Podington Bear (CC BY-NC 3.0).
Please write to info@localfutures.org with any comments and ideas for future topics/guests.
In this episode, we chat with Diego Isabel La Moneda of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WE-All), a growing group of people and organizations around the world focused on co-creating a new economic system. The goal of WE-All is to bring businesses, NGOs, policymakers, faith-based groups, academics and citizens all together into a coherent global new economy movement, with a vision for change and a set of strategies for how to achieve it.
Related links:
- The Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WE-All) website Photo by Pierre Ferron. Music by Chris Zabriskie (CC BY 4.0). Write to info@localfutures.org with your comments and ideas for future topics/guests.
Francisco Grau is a co-founder of Feria Verde, one of the largest and oldest organic farmers markets in Costa Rica. In this episode, Local Futures' Associate Programs Director Anja Lyngbaek, sits down with Francisco to talk about how the market got started, how it’s kept itself running and thriving for nearly a decade, and what lessons Feria Verde has to offer for people thinking about starting farmers markets in their own communities.
Related links:
- Feria Verde's website (in Spanish)
- Feria Verde on Facebook Photo by Francisco Grau. Music by Chris Zabriskie (CC BY 4.0), Doctor Turtle (CC BY 4.0), and Gillicuddy ("Jupiter the Blue" & "Springish"; CC BY-NC 3.0). Write to info@localfutures.org with your comments and ideas for future topics/guests.
Listen to a conversation between two giants of the local economy movement in this extended episode. Helena Norberg-Hodge founded Local Futures, produced the film The Economics of Happiness, and wrote the book Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh. Wendell Berry is a poet and activist, an author of over 40 books, and a lifelong advocate for ecological health, the beauty of rural life, and small-scale farming. Their far-reaching discussion touches on human nature, technology, experiential knowledge, agriculture policy, happiness, wildness, and local food systems.
Related links:
- Helena's biography
- Wendell's website and biography
- 'In Distrust of Movements'
- Wendell’s article on the 50-Year Farm Bill
- Wendell’s newest book, The Art of Loading Brush: New Agrarian Writings, published in 2017 just after this conversation was recorded
Music: "Is That You or Are You You?" by Chris Zabriskie (CC BY 4.0). Photo by Guy Mendes (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Write to seankeller@localfutures.org with your comments and ideas for future topics/guests.
In this episode, Jay Tompt tells the story of the REconomy Centre. A little bit startup incubator, a little bit co-working space, and a little bit gift-economy networking hub, this "new economy wing of the Transition movement" emerged from an abandoned office building in Totnes, England to bridge political divides and help create the conditions needed for holistic local economies to emerge around the world.
Related links:
- REconomy Centre Totnes - The REconomy Project - How to start a REconomy Group in your community - The CTRL-Shift Summit (March 27-29, 2018) - Planet Local: our library of inspiring grassroots projects
Music used: Chris Zabriskie: "Is That You or Are You You?" (CC BY 4.0); Kevin Macleod: "Sonatina" (CC BY 3.0); Sean Keller: "Air"
Countries around the world are fixated on growing their economies - but is growth doing more harm than good? In this episode, Richard Heinberg discusses the history behind how GDP growth came to be used as a measure of success, why GDP can't continue growing indefinitely, and why it's time to transition to a better metric - one that better reflects human and ecological well-being.
Related links: - On our blog: 'Life in a degrowth economy, and why you might actually enjoy it' - On our blog: 'From growth to degrowth: a brief history' - Richard's articles on the Post Carbon Institute website - Richard's articles on Resilience.org - Much more detail about the Jevons Paradox - A PDF version of Limits to Growth
Music used: Chris Zabriskie: "Cylinder Three", "Is That You or Are You You?", "Readers! Do You Read" (CC BY 4.0); Kevin Macleod: "Windswept" (CC BY 3.0); Tri-Tachyon: "Edge of the Wastelands" and Circus Marcus: "Beethoven - Bagatelle op.119 nº9" (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Societies and communities everywhere are under threat from an increasingly corporatized global economy that is shifting power and resources from the many to the few and separating us from one another and from nature. Around the world, however, an increasing number of people are actively looking to re-establish the bonds of interdependence and recreate community living in tune with nature.
In this episode, Anja Lyngbaek interviews Kosha Joubert, the Chief Executive Officer of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), about the rapidly growing ecovillage movement, which sees the ecovillage concept being adopted and adapted by a multitude of people and diverse cultures across the globe. Kosha speaks of the multiple social and environmental benefits of ecovillages, including the mitigation of climate change. We hear of a host of inspiring initiatives, including rural villages in China choosing to transition to ecovillages, Senegal´s national ecovillage strategy, tried and tested ecovillages in Asia and emerging initiatives in Palestine and Gambia that offer youth an alternative path to the migration to big cities.
Humanity has lost nearly three-quarters of its agricultural biodiversity in the last century. Now, in the face of an increasingly volatile climate, conserving the remaining seed diversity is a matter of survival. In this episode, Local Bites interviews ecologist and renowned seed conservationist, Dr. Debal Deb on the value of traditional seeds in an unstable world. Deb argues that traditional seeds are vitally important, not just to ensure food security, but also for protecting local food sovereignty against the corporate control of food systems around the world. Deb shares insights from his work conserving and sharing over 900 indigenous seed varieties in eastern India, and he talks about why ecological farming, a communitarian ethos, and localization are all key components of his conservation efforts.
For more information about Dr. Deb's work, read Seed Savior, or watch one of these short films by Jason Taylor of The Source Project: "The Farmer, the Architect and the Scientist" (made for The Gaia Foundation), and "Food Web Theory".
Image credit: Jason Taylor
In this episode, Local Bites interviews Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance to talk about the multiple social, economic and environmental benefits of local business ownership and community-scaled financial institutions. Mitchell lays out the evidence for why local ownership matters, and provides a thorough debunking of the idea that large, global corporations are more efficient or create more jobs than smaller-scale, community-rooted enterprises. After warning listeners about the growing consolidation of economic power in the hands of fewer and fewer global corporations, Mitchell exposes the policy decisions that have led to such concentrated ownership. She concludes by highlighting several promising initiatives from the growing localization movement, and articulating the key components of a 'localist policy agenda'.
In this extended episode, Local Bites interviews scholar/activist, Ashish Kothari about his book, Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India, co-authored by Aseem Shrivastava. During the first half of the interview, Kothari provides a sobering account of the social and environmental impacts of globalized development in India, arguing persuasively that the costs outweigh the benefits, and calling into questions a number of taken-for-granted assumptions about "economic growth", "progress", and the so-called inevitability of urbanization. In the second half (28:24), Kothari highlights a diverse range of localist alternatives taking place in communities throughout India, forerunners to what he calls 'radical ecological democracy', that can "take us all to higher levels of well-being, while sustaining the earth and creating greater equity."
In this episode, Local Bites interviews Dr. M. Jahi Chappell of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy on the question, "What kind of food and farming system do we need to feed a growing world population in an ecologically sustainable and socially just manner?" His responses challenge widely-held notions about the future of our food supply.
In this episode host Brian Emerson interviews Helena Norberg-Hodge on how "free" trade treaties undermine local communities, economies and democracies around the world, and why localists need to join the global resistance against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA, also known as TTIP). Norberg-Hodge ends her interview by suggesting an alternative international framework for supporting more democratic, localized solutions to global problems.