This week sees the launch of a new book: Transformative Adaptation: Another world is still just possible. The main editors and contributors are friend of the podcast, author, activist and co-founder of the Climate Majority Project, Rupert Read and - new to the podcast - Morgan Philips who is an educator, currently working for Global Action Plan, an environmental charity that mobilises people and organisations to take action on the systems that harm us and our planet. Full disclosure, I'm also a contributor - the book is published by Permanent Publications, the book-publishing arm of the Permaculture Magazine, and Maddy Harland, who edits the magazine and has published the book, brought together the five articles I wrote on Thrutopia: what it is, why we need it and how we get there, and fitted them into the mix.

The book launch has been timed to coincide with the end of COP29. At the time of recording, we have no idea how that will go, but if it's like all the previous 28 COPs it will be a triumph of obstructionism and irrelevancy masquerading as action. We might be surprised. We hope we are. But even if the nations who truly understand the magnitude of the meta-crisis somehow manage a worldwide diplomatic miracle and succeed in making it clear that we need total systemic change - we still need guidelines that help us see how this can happen: ideas of what to do at local and national levels, examples of the kinds of deliberate democracies that we'll need to bring everyone on board; templates of how the world can be if we actually bring all our creativity to bear on the single most important issue of our time.

This is exactly what this podcast is for - the whole of it - and this particular episode lays out the detail, from the concept of a 6th Mission for the UK government (and any other national government that wants to take it up) to examples of how we might shift our educational focus, to why building flood defences is really not enough, never going to be enough and how we could shift our communities to stop reacting and start…adapting.

None of this is easy. We do know this. But we can at least start the important conversations. This is what we're doing here - and we hope you find it inspiring enough to buy the book and read it, give it to your friends, family and colleagues - do whatever it takes to help your local community to find creative, flourishing, inspiring ways to meet the chaos of our world.

TrAd book https://www.permanentpublications.co.uk/port/transformative-adaptation/
TrAd Collective https://transformative-adaptation.com/
Climate Majority Project http://www.climatemajorityproject.com/
Climate Majority Complimentary Approach https://climatemajorityproject.com/safer/
The Rojava Project https://thekurdishproject.org/history-and-culture/kurdish-democracy/rojava-democracy/
Solar farms can be havens of biodiversity https://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/solar-farms-biodiversity-pv/
Kikaru Komatsu https://sites.google.com/site/kmthkr/home/publications

We are not going back. But how do we go forward now in a world where the old norms are under assault by people who move fast and break everything? How do we find a place of balance and compassion - for ourselves, each other and the More than Human world - so that we can move forward in a way that isn’t just a replaying of the old binaries?

Our world changed irrevocably with the results of the US election on the 5th of November. On this podcast, we talk a lot about total systemic change and now that change is happening in front of our eyes. Clearly, there is no going back from here. So how do we who care deeply about a flourishing future - who wish there to be a survival of complex life in all its amazing creativity - navigate this new landscape? How do we embrace the polarities and dichotomies of an unpredictable
world so that we can embrace the infinite complexity - and unknowability - of the future?

This week's guest is someone who has devoted her life to exploring the paradox at the heart of our existence. I first met Andrea Hiott through her 'Love and Philosophy' podcast which has become part of my essential listening list. From the outset, Andrea struck me as someone whose way of viewing life is, if not unique, then definitely exceptional and well worth exploring. As you'll hear, she is someone who throws herself into learning: she can talk with authority on everything from philosophy and phenomenology to neuroscience and ecology and as we speak, she's completing her doctorate, which is called Ecological Orientation. She's an author of various books, including Thinking Small, The long, strange trip of the Volkswagen Beetle, and has long worked on issues of motoring and mobility as a consultant, writer, and ghostwriter. She has appeared in films and TV shows, such as The Bug and Cars that Changed the World. She's been on a whole variety of other podcasts, and has worked extensively for museums, artists, collectors, and agencies.

She is also developing the philosophical framework of Waymaking and the practice of Navigability and I have never in my life spoken with someone who has evolved their own philosophy to the extent that they can talk about it in depth and in detail and make so much sense. There's a YouTube where Andrea does exactly this - I've put a link in the show notes.
On top of all this, she is founder of the private educational consulting platform, Making Ways and pours her energy into collaborating with other thinkers and creators at the intersection of multiple different philosophical, cognitive and ecological landscapes, so that she can create a deeper, more emergent understanding of the world we live in.

We booked this conversation over six months ago and we were not particularly hinging it around the US election. But we recorded this one week to the day after the vote that has so completely changed our world so it would have been impossible not to reflect on this. Andrea is a US citizen, currently living in Europe, so she has a particular set of perspectives - and a capacity to see beyond the polarities that feels particularly useful now. I felt a lot calmer after this conversation than I did going into it and that wasn't all about the pony with colic that put our recording back by a day. So in the hope that this helps you, too, to deepen into this moment of absolute change,

https://www.andreahiott.net/

https://making-ways.ck.page/profile

https://www.youtube.com/@waymaking23

https://www.youtube.com/@DesirableUnknown

https://www.facebook.com/TheBugMovie

Thinking Small Book

How do we all respond to the seismic events of the US election? Specifically, how do those of us over 50 respond? (and how would the younger generations like us to respond)?

This is the question of now. It would be hard to discuss anything else, but my guest this week is uniquely placed to address these questions. As you'll hear, John Izzo was once an ordained Minister in a Presbyterian Church. Now, he's a bestselling author, speaker, and thought leader focused on social responsibility. He's a Board Member of the Elders Action Network and the Elders Climate Action group and one of the co-hosts of a podcast called The Way Forward Regenerative Podcast which is expressly aimed at people over 50 who want to explore what it means to be an elder.

I met John on that podcast back in the summer and was so impressed with his approach to things. John is a deeply thoughtful, deeply spiritual person who takes his time to look at things from all angles. He's dedicated his entire career to helping individuals and organisations discover purpose and foster meaningful change. He is absolutely committed to exploring the role of elders in creating a regenerative future. And we need this now, more than ever.

Originally we had scheduled this week's guest for a recording on the 4th of November. Clearly this wasn't going to be as constructive as a conversation held in the wake of the election, whatever the outcome. And so we rescheduled and spoke together on Thursday 7th, which gave us time to process the results and speak more directly to a future that is unknowable, but not entirely unpredictable. How do we feel? What world do we want to create? How best can we bring alive a flame of hope from the ashes of the old system? These are our questions - a starting point, not an end point and no doubt this conversation will continue for the rest of our lives. This is our truth for now.

John's website https://drjohnizzo.com
John's books https://drjohnizzo.com/books/
Elders Action Network https://eldersaction.org/
Elders Action Network on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/EldersActionNetwork/
Elders Action Network on YouTube https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCMAJFT3jmRlQHnM4p6Rrh7g&ved=2ahUKEwjF-Iq3ubuJAxXRVkEAHZtzH98QFnoECBgQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3JK2afgUEPwxIJz-tO0ZRM
Elders Climate Action https://actionnetwork.org/groups/elders-climate-action
The Way Forward Regenerative Conversations podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-way-forward-regenerative-conversations/id1651941803