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

Join our mailing list: https://www.localfutures.org/sign-up-to-our-newsletter/

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

Join our mailing list: https://www.localfutures.org/sign-up-to-our-newsletter/

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

Join our mailing list: https://www.localfutures.org/sign-up-to-our-newsletter/

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.