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Wanderful the podcast is created and hosted by arts-in-business innovator David Pearl to help you bring a bit of wonder to your walking. Inspired by David’s not-profit social movement Street Wisdom that brings free guided in-person and online walking workshops to city streets in 80 countries and counting. Each episode takes an entertaining and light- hearted look at an aspect of life we all secretly struggle with or want to get better at: optimism, creativity, relationships, wealth, direction… you get the idea. We’ll start the walks by exploring the everyday challenge in the company of an entertaining and refreshingly, imperfectly human, guest. Then, following simple instructions provided by David, the walk becomes a way to get clarity, insight and learn new skills you can use every day to help you find answers to your life questions. All you need is some headphones and a phone so you can get outside and walk whilst listening, but if you are tuning in at home then walking (slowly) inside your house, also works well too. You can dig deeper into the power of wandering and getting off the beaten track in David’s book Wanderful: Human Navigation for a Complex World available at leading bookstores. Follow @streetwisdom_ @davidpearlhere for more ideas and inspiration on leading a Wanderful life https://wanderfulpodcast.com/
Episodes
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
Tuesday Aug 09, 2022
"My purpose is to be a beacon for inspiration."
Anuradha Chugh is the CEO of Pukka Herbs since July 2021. She firmly believes that businesses can – and should – tackle climate change and address inequality. Anu has over 25 years’ experience in the CPG industry, holding positions in values-led progressive businesses like Ben & Jerry’s as Managing Director- Europe, as well as in some of Unilever’s flagship brands like Dove & Lipton, in different geographies of Europe, US, Latin America, Turkey & India.
Anu has demonstrated that she can lead businesses to thrive, transform and grow by creating value that is long-lasting and purpose driven. She is passionate about using the power of business to make a positive impact in society and is not afraid to step out of her comfort zone to drive change.
Anu is married to Rohit with whom she has two kids: Aditi and Varun, and loves spending time outdoors with their dog, Alfie.
Timeline
00.00 - 00.43 Theme
00.44 - 05.05 David introduces Anuradha Chugh
05.07 - 09.10 Speaking to and from the heart
09.12 - 11.50 Meeting people’s needs
12.20 - 13.30 Choosing ice cream over detergents
14.00 - 15.43 Where to find inspiration: How to be a beacon for inspiration
16.00 - 19.56 What inspires Anu?
17.00 - 18.21 Routes: Mentoring women who have come from refugee and asylum seeking backgrounds
18.40 - 21.38 Doing good and doing well: Business and impact: Giving back to the Planet
22.50 - 24.22 Who benefits from Pukka Teas work?
26.40 - 25.49 The well being and health benefits of tea
26.41 - 27.57 How does Anu promote her own health?
28.00 - 31.25 Work in the post-pandemic world
29.41 - 33.54 The Wanderful Exercise: The Heart Led Walk
34.10 - 38.00 Epilogue
38.01 - 38.50 End Credits
Quotes
“I don’t think choices can be all that rational.” (Anu)
“Packaging has to emotively speak to you. It has to grab you emotionally, while you’re walking down an aisle. Something as functional as that really has to be emotionally driven.” (Anu)
“You gravitate towards what you find exciting - there is a little bit of intentionality that comes into it.” (Anu)
“You have to find the higher purpose of what really makes you tick in that space - you have to articulate for yourself the purpose of why you get up in the morning.” (Anu)
“I need to inspire myself and inspire those I lead. You get the best work from yourself if you are a beacon for inspiration.” (Anu)
“We’re rediscovering business as a force for good.” (Anu)
“The more you grow the more positive impact you have.” (Anu)
“In today’s world we all have to do business which is regenerative.” (Anu)
“As long as people keep buying what you’re selling, then everything that you then sell has a positive impact to that last person or maybe that first person who has been wild berry picking somewhere in Guatemala. And that’s the circle.” (Anu)
“The solution will be with business working with governments and charity institutions.” (Anu)
“You are putting health and well-being in their cup.” (Anu)
“You’re selling health.” (Anu)
“Life is more about being rather than doing.” (Anu)
Further Reading
Bianca Pitt - Co Founder of She Changes Climate
https://www.shechangesclimate.org
Pukka Teas - Impact & Sustainability
https://www.pukkaherbs.com/uk/en/impact-and-sustainability
Routes
Contacts
Anuradha Chugh: @pukkaherbs
David Pearl:
Twitter @DavidPearlHere
Instagram @davidpearl_here
Website www.davidpearl.net
Andrew Paine (Producer & Audio Engineer)
Twitter @ItPainesMe
The Green Room at COP26 - What (On Earth's) The Story?
Full film: https://youtu.be/UWoO9UmWscM
Trailer: https://youtu.be/zmQqj5WHSPM
Wednesday Jul 27, 2022
Wednesday Jul 27, 2022
‘What one mountain taught one Londoner about life …step…by wobbly step.”
This week’s episode is a little off the straight and narrow. But that’s what Wanderful is all about. Finding wonder in life’s side roads.
I reckon the planet needs us to be more creative. So for World Nature Conservation Day, we decided to get improvising. Our producer Andrew Paine took some words that came into my mind as I was struggling down an Italian mountain and asked the composer Laura Cannell to add whatever music came into her mind as she listened to the text. We’re calling it the Stumblers’ Guide. I deliberately didn’t listen to what she’s done so this is a premiere for you and me. And also a chance to say thanks to a mountain that taught me a lot.
Happy wandering (and stumbling)
David Pearl
Laura Cannell
Laura Cannell's music straddles the worlds of experimental, contemporary, early & medieval music, her semi-composed, semi-improvised music draws on the emotional influences of the landscape whilst exploring the spaces between early and experimental music. She has released seven solo albums to critical acclaim, mainly performing on Overbowed Violin and Double Recorders. Her new solo album 'Antiphony of the Trees’, was The Quietus Album of the week and month in March 2022, received a 4 star review from Songlines Magazine and is featured in the May Wire Magazine. Laura’s music has been used for film & television internationally.
http://www.lauracannell.co.uk/
Twitter @laurarecorder
Insta @lauracannellmusic
David Pearl (Host)
Twitter @DavidPearlHere
Instagram @davidpearl_here
Website www.davidpearl.net
Andrew Paine (Producer & Audio Engineer)
Twitter @ItPainesMe
The Green Room at COP26 - What (On Earth's) The Story?
Full film: https://youtu.be/UWoO9UmWscM
Trailer: https://youtu.be/zmQqj5WHSPM
Tuesday Jun 14, 2022
Tuesday Jun 14, 2022
"My activism is just one tool in the activism tool kit."
Sarah Corbett is an award-winning activist, author, Ashoka Fellow and founder of the global Craftivist Collective. She grew up in a low-income area of the UK into an activist family and has worked as a professional campaigner for over a decade, most recently with Oxfam GB. She started doing craftivism (craft + activism) in 2008 to add a different tool of activism into the toolkit - a form of slow, quiet and intimate effective activism she calls ‘Gentle Protest’.
Due to demand, Sarah set up the award-winning Craftivist Collective in 2009, providing products and services for individuals, groups and organisations around the world to be effective gentle craftivists. Sarah’s work has helped change government laws, business policies as well as hearts and minds through her unique ‘Gentle Protest’ methodology. She works across the arts sector, charity sector and academia, as well as with unusual allies to reach people nervous of activism in an attractive and empowering way. Corbett regularly gives talks, events and happenings around the world. Her book “How To Be A Craftivist: the art of gentle protest” is now available in paperback. Her talk ‘Activism Needs Introverts’ was chosen as a TED Talk of the Day and has over a million views. You can preorder her Craftivist Collective Handbook here
Time Line
00.00 - 00.45 Opening Credits
00.46 - 04.58 Introducing Sarah Corbett
05.00 - 06.25 Growing up in an activist family
06.25 - 09.05 Routes into Gentle Activism
09.10 - 13.00 The Canary Campaign
13.05 - 15.55 The importance of courage and care
15.57 - 18.10 Different forms of craftivism
18.30 - 23.15 Gentle protest & self control
23.18 - 26.35 Making change
26.38 - 27.41 Being ‘crafty’ but kind
27.43 - 29.30 How Sarah manages anger
29.35 - 34.25 The Tale of the MP & the Handkerchief
34.28 - 37.55 The Wanderful Exercise: In Their Shoes
38.12 - 41.29 Epilogue
41.30 - 42.16 End Credits
Quotations
“My activism is just one tool in the activism tool-kit.” (Sarah)
“I knew change doesn’t just happen in transactional and loud and public ways.” (Sarah)
“My craftivism is all about where are the gaps and where can craftivism fill certain gaps to compliment other tactics and where can it bring in audiences who are scared of activism but (who are) influential.” (Sarah)
“My approach to craftivism is Gentle Protest.” (Sarah)
“There’s something in the process of craft that’s really helping me slow down, calm down and think more strategically, so I thought there must be something in this.” (Sarah)
“If we want to make change then gentleness can be so powerful, and putting yourself in the power holder’s shoes, and not just the person affected.” (Sarah)
“The gentleness is treading lightly and being gentle with people.” (Sarah)
“It’s more about trying things out and being light touch on everything… not holding things and forcing things.” (Sarah)
“If you receive something which feels a little manipulative… you’re going to close off. You want people to feel genuinely encouraged and accountable.” (Sarah)
“When I’m angry… I jump it out, I dance it out, I power walk somewhere, I just shake the anger out of me. Long term anger is chronic and produces really bad health and mental health problems. I know anger is a good catalyst, but I need to shake it out.” (Sarah)
“I swing from really angry to okay.. .how am I going to use this anger in an effective, useful way, which won’t change the world dramatically but I can try and make some nudges and tweaks with the little power I have as one little scouser.” (Sarah)
Contact Information
Sarah Corbett
https://craftivist-collective.com/
Twitter: @craftivists
Instagram: @Craftivists
David Pearl (Host)
Twitter @DavidPearlHere
Instagram @davidpearl_here
Website www.davidpearl.net
Andrew Paine (Producer & Audio Engineer)
Twitter @ItPainesMe
The Green Room at COP26 - What (On Earth's) The Story?
Full film: https://youtu.be/UWoO9UmWscM
Trailer: https://youtu.be/zmQqj5WHSPM
Tuesday Jun 07, 2022
Tuesday Jun 07, 2022
Dr Dale Vince OBE
With more than 25 years experience as a green entrepreneur, Dale launched Ecotricity (http://www.ecotricity.co.uk), the world’s first green energy company back in 1995. Today, it powers around 200,000 homes and businesses across the UK with renewable energy from the wind and sun.
Dale also owns Devil’s Kitchen (http://www.thedevilskitchen.co.uk), which makes vegan school dinners, and his latest business, Skydiamond (http://skydiamond.co.uk) – creating lab grown diamonds from the wind, rain and sun. His work focuses on three key areas – energy, transport and food – collectively responsible for 80% of our own carbon emissions.
He is Chairman and owner of Forest Green Rovers (http://fgr.co.uk) - recognised by FIFA as the “world’s greenest football club” and became a United Nations Climate Champion in 2018. He launched his first book, Manifesto in 2020, and is Executive Producer of the Netflix Original documentary, Seaspiracy.
Time Line
00.00 - 00.44 Wanderful Theme
00.45 - 04.25 Introducing Dale Vince
04.30 - 09.48 Travelling & living off-grid
10.05 - 13.25 The Origins of Ecotricity
13.27 - 15.33 Green Populism
16.45 - 19.10 Forest Green Rovers FC and the Green Agenda
20.00 - 21.40 Business versus Politics
21.50 - 23.00 Thoughts on Leadership - the Ecotricity ethos
23.40 - 25.27 Adopting the best elements of business
25.30 - 27.20 Business, Government and the People
27.25 - 29.12 The Wanderful Exercise - Slow Right Down
29.30 - 33.10 Epilogue
33.11 - 33.55 - Outro
Quotes
“ A term I learned in my twenties, was ‘new radical dis-possessed’ and we had been dispossessed… we are dispossessed by the system of wealth and wealth maintenance. Money stays with the people who have money and the rest of us are kind of cogs in the wheel.” (Dale)
“When were the first company in the world to start selling green electricity and were able to price match brown electricity… it seems obvious to me the way to get real traction for the environment cause for sustainability is for it to become a business opportunity or at least for it to be business like.” (Dale)
“The conventional environmentalist way of communicating is too often about doom and gloom and catastrophe on a global scale, which makes people feel a little powerless and a little bit hopeless. At the same time the presentation of living a green life is made to feel like we’re asking people to give up the way we live.” (Dale)
“Living a green life is just as good, it’s actually better - you will live healthier and longer.” (Dale)
“We have to get away from this altruism first approach, which says its about polar bears, melting ice and people somewhere else in the world and actually come back to the people in this country which we’re asking to change their lives and say ‘this is actually about you’, our economy, it’s about Green sustainable jobs, a stronger economy that supports our people better and in the process doesn’t create pollution of the air, the land and the water and then fighting the climate crisis just becomes a happy by-product.” (Dale)
“On day 1 of being in charge of a football club (Forest Green Rovers) I found we were serving red meat to the players and I got the manager and the chef together and we agreed to stop it on that day. The Sun called it a ‘red meat ban’ which was fantastic, we leaned into that infamy that they created for us and day by day I bumped into things that had to change in terms of environment and ethics. After a couple of weeks, I realised this meant we would be creating a green football club and we would be communicating to a very different audience, the world of football fans, and that appealed to me.” (Dale)
“Football is the most incredible platform to reach people..” (Dale)
“We have a one-page ecotricity manifesto, which we share with everybody that joins us. It talks about how we want people to treat other people - it’s about openness and honesty, admitting mistakes when made, so we can fix them and move on in a non-judgemental way, and treat people how you would like to be treated yourself.” (Dale)
“I think it’s really important to do something before you talk about it. Prove it, do it and then when you talk about it you’ve got a standing to persuade other people to then pick that up themselves. There are two ways to bring change in the world. One is to do it yourself, necessarily limited by what one person can do. The other is to be the catalyst for other people and it comes back to do it first, show other people you can become a catalyst and other people will follow you and then you create more change that way..” (Dale)
“There are three things, which between them, account for about 80% of everybody’s carbon footprint and general unsustainability - energy, transport & food - it’s about how we power our homes, how we travel and what we eat and these are things we all spend money on every day. If we choose to spend that money on a greener option, where we can, that sends a very big signal to businesses who are picking this up and changing what they do, adapting to what people want and then the government picks that up from business. And these three sectors from our society are the main players - business, government and the people - and we have much more power than we realise because ultimately - we’re the consumers of everything that’s produced, we are the people who drive demand and our money gets to choose which way the world goes round.” (Dale)
Links
Dr Dale Vince OBE
Twitter @DaleVince
Insta @zerocarbonista
David Pearl (host)
Twitter @DavidPearlHere
Instagram @davidpearl_here
Website www.davidpearl.net
Andrew Paine (Producer & Audio Engineer)
Twitter @ItPainesMe
The Green Room at COP26 - What (On Earth's) The Story?
Full film: https://youtu.be/UWoO9UmWscM
Trailer: https://youtu.be/zmQqj5WHSPM
Tuesday May 31, 2022
Tuesday May 31, 2022
“Trust Breeds Magic”
Tina Roth Eisenberg is a Swiss born and trained graphic designer. Over the past 16 years, she has started side projects that have organically turned into businesses: Tattly, Creative Mornings, Teux Deux and FRIENDS. Tina believes in generosity and kindness. She considers creating a fulfilling, kind work environment and welcoming, safe communities as her way of having a positive impact on the world.
Tina’s blog swissmiss launched in March of 2005 as a personal visual archive. Little did she know that it would eventually grow into a viral design journal with an average of 1 million unique visitors a month.
Time Line
00.00 - 00.46 Wanderful Intro & Theme
00.46 - 04.09 Introducing Tina Roth Eisenberg
04.10 - 05.26 Swiss Miss: Designing our own lives
06.59 - 10.56 How the universe cheers Tina on
12.27 - 18.13 Origins of ‘Creative Mornings’
19.44 - 22.21 The link between creativity and innocence - everyone is welcome
22.38 - 23.38 Creative Mornings Manifesto
26.40 - 29.29 The Purpose of Creative Mornings
29.30 - 31.53 The ‘Field Trips’
32.50 - 35.30 Trust Breeds Magic
35.33 - 37.33 ’The Design Walk’ Exercise
37.54 - 40.26 Epilogue
40.27 - 41.12 Closing Credits
Quotes
“Your outer world is an expression of your inner world” (Tina)
“What would it be to live your life as if it were an art-work?” (Charles Handy via David)
“Creative Mornings has grown into the world’s largest face to face creativity community.” (Tina)
“There needs to be a bit more pure, honest, innocent gathering opportunities… we’re basically a church for creative opportunities.” (Tina)
“If you love something and you’re not insane, millions of other people will love it too, you’ve just got to find a way for them to find you.” (David)
“Living is a creative act and I don’t want to define creativity just by you outputting things that are on walls.” (Tina)
“In my world there are basically two modes… you’re either in love or you’re in fear.” (Tina)
“Trust Breeds Magic” (Tina)
Links
Tina Roth Eisenberg (Guest)
@swissmiss
https://tattly.com/pages/custom
http://www.friendsworkhere.com/
David Pearl (Host)
Twitter @DavidPearlHere
Instagram @davidpearl_here
Website www.davidpearl.net
Andrew Paine (Producer & Audio Engineer)
Twitter @ItPainesMe
‘Surface Of The Water’ excerpt by Andrew Paine & Caroline McKenzie
The Green Room at COP26 - What (On Earth's) The Story?
Full film: https://youtu.be/UWoO9UmWscM
Trailer: https://youtu.be/zmQqj5WHSPM
Wednesday Apr 13, 2022
Wednesday Apr 13, 2022
"The wolves represent ‘wildness’ and if you ever have the occasion to see them and walk in the same place where they live and share the same territory as them, it's a privilege."
Paul Bulencea is an award-winning author, educator, entrepreneur and speaker inspiring forward-thinking Fortune 500 companies and governments to foster innovation and drive sustainable growth by shifting business models from services to co-creative transformational experiences.
Following his vision to help organisations migrate to the Experience Economy, he co-founded The College of Extraordinary Experiences in 2016, which serves as a worldwide community and think tank for experience designers. The College is described by creative thought leaders a must for pioneers in experience design.
Since she was a child Valeria Roselli walked along the paths through the forest of the mountains where she was born. Her curiosity led her to explore and get to know the territory. While listening to stories from older people in the area, Valeria learnt the importance of the local traditions and how necessary it was to preserve traditions and value the past.
Her love of nature and for the Abruzzo mountain’s became her passion, which in turn became her profession. She is now a nature guide, environmental interpreter and Nordic walking instructor and an expert guide in the Italian Apennines.
Timeline
00.00 - 00.44 Intro Theme
00.45 - 06.54 David introduces the re-wilding special
06.55 - 11.59 What is the fascination with ‘tracking’ wildlife?
12.00 - 12.48 Combining tracking with trailing
12.50 - 13.53 The benefits of sitting and observing
13.56 - 17.15 The story of the Red Deer
17.30 - 26.55 The Eye of the Wild Bison
26.57 - 29.54 What we can learn from the Wolves?
29.56 - 32.00 David’s ‘Sit Spot’ exercise - observing nature
32.22 - 36.08 Epilogue: The story of the fox
36.09 - Bonus Feature: David descends the mountain (field recording)
Quotes
“What I like about tracking is that it shows you how everything is inter-connected. (Therefore), it’s much easier to become self-aware and to understand how inter-twined everything is by observing and seeing and noticing.” (Paul)
“Trailing is where you follow the tracks until you find and discover the animal.” (Paul)
“The moments spent in nature are special. Every day is a new day for a new moment and a new emotion.” (Valeria)
“One of the Bison came very close, he was very curious… about 7 metres and was just looking at us. I made eye-contact and in that gaze with a wild animal… it felt like finding ‘home’. It’s very hard to describe because it’s an experience we rarely have nowadays.” (Paul)
“When you’re calm and not tense, then you start seeing things all around you.” (Paul)
"The wolves represent ‘wildness’ and if you ever have the occasion to see them and walk in the same place where they live and share the same territory as them, it's a privilege.” (Valeria)
Links
Paul Bulencea
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulbulencea/
Valeria Roselli
https://www.wildlifeadventures.it/en/meet-our-team/
David Pearl (Host)
Twitter @DavidPearlHere
Instagram @davidpearl_here
Website www.davidpearl.net
Andrew Paine (Producer & Audio Engineer)
Twitter @ItPainesMe
The Green Room at COP26 - What (On Earth's) The Story?
Full film: https://youtu.be/UWoO9UmWscM
Trailer: https://youtu.be/zmQqj5WHSPM
Tuesday Mar 01, 2022
Tuesday Mar 01, 2022
“Despite all our best endeavours… we rely on six inches of soil and the fact that it rains.”
Discover more stories of hope with Johanna and other climate innovators on the newly released ‘The Green Room - What (On Earth’s) The Story’ film on You Tube.
Full film: https://youtu.be/UWoO9UmWscM
Trailer: https://youtu.be/zmQqj5WHSPM
Johanna Gibbons is a Landscape Architect and Fellow of the Landscape Institute. Jo was named a Royal Designer for Industry for her ‘pioneering and influential work combining design with activism, education and professional practice’. She is founding Partner of J & L Gibbons practice, Director of social enterprise Landscape Learn and a core research partner with Kings College London of Urban Mind. Jo is a panel advisor to Historic England and the Forestry Commission. She is a Trustee of Open City and publishes and lectures widely.
Time Line
00.00 - 00.45 Opening credits
00.46 - 05.37 Introducing Johanna Gibbons
05.40 - 08.19 Johanna’s Origin Story
08.54 - 12.47 The untold story of the soil
13.07 - 16.10 How we can connect with the soil: re-wilding, composting, digging holes
16.55 - 19.15 Community effort and grass-roots
19.17 - 21.12 Day-lighting water and understanding natural processes
21.15 - 26.50 Johanna’s Four Steps
26.51 - 31.18 The Wanderful Exercise: Someone’s Something
31.36 - 35.05 Epilogue - Post Exercise
35.06 - 35.52 Closing Credits
Quotations
“ Landscape connects our family. It’s my work but it’s also all my passions - soil diversity, urban forestry, rain water management and the connection with the natural cycles and connection with everything that feeds the soul and gives you a joy of life.” (Johanna)
“To me, a city is a landscape.” (Johanna)
“It’s not muck-away, this is one of the most important, critical infrastructures of the planet and we talk about muck-away. It comes from ignorance, it comes from a mis-understanding or nobody pointed it out in the first place.” (Johanna)
“There is a disconnect with nature and the most fundamental aspect of terrestrial life on earth… is soil.” (Johanna)
“A handful of soil has more microbes than there are people on this earth.” (Johanna)
“We do like digging holes. Because when you dig a hole you reveal all sorts of secret horizons, a layer cake of human endeavour, of natural cycles, it depends if it’s urban, brownfield, greenfield… and therein lies the story.” (Johanna)
“The whole re-cycling energy is to do with the soil and not touching it… letting it repair itself.” (Johanna)
“Nature is resilient if we would let it be.” (Johanna)
“Composting… because it is (soil) like black gold. You take your good quality waste, you put it into a hot rotter (?) and it comes back as soil. It is quite a magical thing.” (Johanna)
“Despite all our best endeavours… we rely on six inches of soil and the fact that it rains.” (Johanna)
Social Media
Johanna Gibbons
Web: www.jlg-london.com
Instagram: @jlg_london
David Pearl (Host)
Twitter @DavidPearlHere
Instagram @davidpearl_here
Website www.davidpearl.net
Andrew Paine (Producer & Audio Engineer)
Twitter @ItPainesMe
Tuesday Feb 22, 2022
Tuesday Feb 22, 2022
“In 2018 we built the world’s first sailing boat, made from already used plastic.”
Discover more stories of hope with Ben and other climate innovators on the newly released ‘The Green Room - What (On Earth’s) The Story’ film on You Tube.
Full film: https://youtu.be/UWoO9UmWscM
Trailer: https://youtu.be/zmQqj5WHSPM
Ben Morison is CEO of Far & Wide Travel, and has worked in the Africa travel industry all his life. He started the Flipflopi Project after witnessing the dramatic impact that plastics are having on the continent that has given so much to him. He became convinced that plastic was far too valuable, versatile and often beautiful to be used just once and thrown away. His mission; ‘a world without single-use plastics’.
Timeline
00.00 - 04.38: Introducing Ben Morison
04.44 - 07.07: Building a boat out of re-cycled plastic
07.10 - 08.35 : How Ben arrived at Flipflopi
08.36 - 10.54: Positive African Voices & Leadership Roles
10.56 - 14.20: Fast Emerging Consumer Populations and Winning the Plastics Challenge
14.24 - 18.15: Bringing value to re-cycled plastic
18.17 - 21.18: Using creativity to convene
21.20 - 24.11: The Wanderful Exercise: Finding value in ‘rubbish’
24.32 - 29.07: Epilogue: Waste as an act of appreciation
29.08 - 30.02: Closing credits
Quotations
“In 2018 we built the world’s first sailing boat, made from already used plastic.” (Ben)
“The reality of this challenge we have around plastic pollution and climate change generally, is it needs a holistic global approach. So what’s lacking here is confident, cheerful, positive voices from… African voices, who are taking leadership roles… and if you look around there’s not really many strong leadership roles, positive one’s too, that are coming from our environment. It’s really important for us to have that positive voice.” (Ben)
“The reality is, if I am a young man in Kenya and I am on a date with somebody, I’ll be in a car… I will wind down the window, I will drink my bottle of water and I will throw it out the window in a deliberate ostentatious show of… ‘I’ve arrived, I’m a consumer now.” (Ben)
“We as the developed world have had the starter, main course and dessert of this amazing thing called plastic… it’s developed our economies and now… just as some other parts of the world are just starting to develop consumer economies… we… how dare we go… oh we don’t want you to start with that (plastic). So, there’s some complexity to how we as a global community have this conversation. We have to be nuanced and thoughtful.” (Ben)
“If you give value to anything… stuff will happen. So what we wanted to show by building a boat was, using already used plastic… we can build a boat. That’s got value as a creative art object. It’s got value as something you go fishing in or take tourists in or travel in. It’s not really about the boat, it’s about the fact we were able to re-cycle or re-use and create something of value.” (Ben)
“The boat is a convener. If I arrive up the Clyde in a brightly coloured boat that looks like Elmer the Elephant, I can guarantee that the policy makers will definitely be keen to come and welcome it in and its going to draw lots and lots of crowds of people, because they want to see it. Of course, for the media it’s a very interesting thing to capture, so you now have the three ingredients you want to engage with.” (Ben)
Social Media
Ben Morison
Web https://www.theflipflopi.com/
Twitter @theflipflopi
Instagram @theflipflopi
David Pearl
Twitter @DavidPearlHere
Instagram @davidpearl_here
Web: www.davidpearl.net
Andrew Paine (Producer & Audio Engineer)
Twitter @ItPainesMe
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
Tuesday Feb 15, 2022
“What we need is soils that are resilient… that are sponges”
Discover more stories of hope with Eliane and other climate innovators on the newly released ‘The Green Room - What (On Earth’s) The Story’ film on You Tube.
Full film: https://youtu.be/UWoO9UmWscM
Trailer: https://youtu.be/zmQqj5WHSPM
Éliane Ubalijoro, PhD, is the Executive Director of Sustainability in the Digital Age and the Future Earth Montreal Hub and founder and Executive Director of C.L.E.A.R. International Development.
She is a Professor of Practice For Public-Private Sector Partnerships at McGill University’s Institute for the Study of International Development, where her research interests focus on innovation, gender and sustainable development for prosperity creation and her teaching over the last decade has focused on facilitating leadership development.
In addition, Eliane is a Research Professor at Concordia University in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment. She is a member of Rwanda’s National Science and Technology Council.
Eliane is a member of the Impact Advisory Board of the Global Alliance for a Sustainable Planet and a member of the Expert Consultation Group on the Post COVID-19 Implications on Collaborative Governance of Genomics Research, Innovation, and Genetic Diversity.
Eliane is a member of the African Development Bank’s Expert Global Community of Practice on COVID-19 Response Strategies in Africa.
She is a member of the Capitals Coalition Supervisory Board as well as the Crop Trust Executive Board.
Eliane is a former member of WWF International’s Board of Trustees. She was the principal investigator on a Gates Grand Challenges Phase I grant looking at Innovations in Feedback & Accountability Systems for Agricultural Development. Eliane was the project manager and an investigator on a Gates Foundation Grand Challenges in Global Health project led by Professor Timothy Geary, the director of McGill’s Institute of Parasitology from 2009 to 2014. As a result of this work, she has been a reviewer for the Grand Challenges Canada Stars in Global Health program since 2012.
Eliane is a co-editor of the 2021 book Building Resilient African Food Systems after COVID-19.
Timeline
00.00 - 00.43 Opening Credits
00.44 - 05.23 Introducing Eliane Ubalijoro
05.26 - 08.40 Sustainability in the Digital Age & Future Earth
08.41 - 10.43 Soils are sponges
11.25 - 12.42 The big stories Eliane is up against
13.30 - 15.04 Bridging the knowledge systems of the West & the knowledge of Eliane’s ancestors
15.06 - 16.00 Technology & sustainability coming together: the collective and planetary intelligence
16.07 - 17.20 The story of the fig tree
17.44 - 19.40 Planetary intelligence (Yesterday & Tomorrow)
19.56 - 21.26 Innovators and early adopters: connecting and supporting communities
22.11 - 24.41 Harnessing the collective intelligence with nature and artificial intelligence
25.28 - 26.16 The big lie: discounting nature’s intelligence
26.20 - 29.11 Leafy greens: healthy diets for the body and the planet: biodiversity thrives
29.21 - 30.31 The power of storytelling: cultivating planetary intelligence
31.00 - 32.39 The connection of the past, present and the future
33.10 - 34.51 Loving nature is not enough: the value of living with nature
35.27 - 37.25 Optimism v Realism
37.30 - 39.07 Dreaming is free
39.10 - 43.15 The Wanderful Exercise - Walking with our past and our future
43.34 - 47.10 Post exercise - epilogue
47.11 - 48.01 Closing credits
Quotations
“What we know is soils are a living space… soils that have worms, that have fungi, that have insects, can hold fifty times more water than soils that have been polluted or have no microbial life in them anymore.” (Eliane)
“What we need are soils which are resilient, which are sponges.” (Eliane)
“Part of my story is the story of an African woman, who was born in a space where I was deeply connected with nature and with the stories of my ancestors, who flew to North America for University, who went on to get her PhD in academia. And so I hold the knowledge systems of the West and the knowledge systems of my ancestors and so my work is about bridging both.” (Eliane)
“In the cosmology of the indigenous people it’s really how we are an element in the universe and so we look at time in different ways. In my native kinyawanda, ‘yesterday’ and ‘tomorrow’ are the same word… it’s ‘ejo’. It’s depending on how I conjugate my verb that you know whether I’m talking about yesterday or tomorrow. And so how we see our selves cosmologically is really critical to how we move forward and I think of living in Canada where indigenous populations always say… how do we govern for seven generations from now?” (Eliane)
“The big lie of today is the discounting of nature’s intelligence because we’ve had over 400 years of exploitation and colonisation of natural resources in order to gain more and more power and so we had to discount nature’s intelligence in order to exploit it in the same way that people of African ancestors or black had to be considered three fifths of a human being to say, ‘we can enslave them, because they’re not really people’ and so it’s how we create narratives that are exploitative and dangerous and allow disempowerment of whole systems.” (Eliane)
“We have the power of the media that need to harness these stories that you and I are cultivating and so part of it is how do I create spaces for more people to gain the needed knowledge, for them to have hope and to have the capacity for action.” (Eliane)
“How can storytelling bring out the beauty and truth of what we need to live our inter-dependence and so I’m excited about the mission of cultivating our inter-dependence and opening more people to cultivating planetary intelligence and respecting all these different knowledge systems, so we can resonate and work at a higher level of power and consciousness for everybody.” (Eliane)
“The more trauma we have, the bigger our dreams have to be, because if not, we can be swallowed up by the suffering and the pain… and be paralysed. That’s why I remind people… dreaming is free. Give yourself the opportunity to dream so audaciously that people are going to say ‘how dare you’ and that’s why I say, dare to dream beyond anywhere people think you can dream, but only share it with the people who can help you get there.” (Eliane)
Social Media & Links
Eliane Ubalijoro
Twitter @elianeubalijoro
Linked In - linkedin.com/in/eliane-ubalijoro-1b8a7b
David Pearl (Host)
Twitter @DavidPearlHere
Instagram @davidpearl_here
Website www.davidpearl.net
Andrew Paine (Producer & Audio Engineer)
Twitter @ItPainesMe
Tuesday Feb 08, 2022
Tuesday Feb 08, 2022
‘I’m the murmuration meister… I should put that on my business card’
Nigel Topping is the UN’s High-Level Climate Action Champion, appointed by the UK Prime Minister in January 2020. Nigel works alongside the Chilean High-Level Climate Action Champion, Gonzalo Muñoz. The role of the high-level champions is to strengthen collaboration and drive action from businesses, investors, organisations, cities, and regions on climate change, and coordinate this work with governments and parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Nigel was most recently CEO of We Mean Business, a coalition of businesses working to accelerate the transition to a zero carbon economy. Prior to that he was Executive Director of the Carbon Disclosure Project, following an 18 year career in the private sector, having worked across the world in emerging markets and manufacturing.
‘Discover more stories of hope with Nigel and other climate innovators on the newly released The Green Room – What (On Earth’s) the Story film on You Tube’
Full film: https://youtu.be/UWoO9UmWscM
Trailer: https://youtu.be/zmQqj5WHSPM
Time Line
00.00 - 00.44: Opening Credits
00.46 - 05.08: Introducing Nigel Topping
05.15 - 07.51: The advantage of converging pathways
08.22 - 10.40: The collaborative process at COP26
11.00 - 12.19: Momentum and how to change big systems
12.36 - 13.34: Where Nigel finds his inspiration and energy - moving through despair
13.35 - 16:21: The 4 unhelpful micro stories
16:30 - 21:28: What are the helpful stories to tell ourselves?
20:30 - 24:36: David’s ‘Wanderful' Exercise: Recognising Patterns
24:59 - 28:42: Epilogue
End Credits
Quotes
“Changing big systems is very difficult and for all the clamour on the streets, there’s a lot of people who don’t want change… so… the louder the clamour gets, then the more it becomes a political force and so it opens up, but it’s only in the last few years that we’ve had that… it’s relatively new and it’s still only a minority of people.” (Nigel)
“Plenty of people who won’t allow politicians to move fast. It’s all very well saying you’ve got to move faster but we see CEO’s and politicians who have gone really fast, lose their jobs. The challenge is to take the WHOLE of society with us.” (Nigel)
“It’s not in the small hours, it’s in the middle of the day that I find despair and in Glasgow (COP26) I went through about three cycles of grief and joy per day.” (Nigel)
“The trick is not to fall on the two horns of the dilemma… there’s the ‘we’re so fucked, it’s not worth doing anything’ and ‘we’re so clever, it’s not worth worrying’. Both of those are bullshit.” (Nigel)
“I do think you should be scared and sceptical and so you should dip into those stories. For example, the science is a story, which is based on fact, right, but it’s still a narrative that shows you why you should be scared. And the history of in-action shows you why you should be sceptical… but… you shouldn’t get stuck in those stories, because there is very little agency in those stories and there’s a danger of being stuck in despair or anger.” (Nigel)
“Hope is an active choice… and hope and action are intertwined.” (Nigel)
“Choose hope…to try to do something… to make the world a better place… and then think about your skills and your influence.” (Nigel)
“If you’ve got kids, go to their school and see if the school will get involved in the ‘let’s get to zero initiative. If you’ve got access to business leaders, bring them into your work.” (Nigel)
Further Information
Nigel Topping
Twitter @topnigel
Instagram @nigel.topping
Web: https://racetozero.unfccc.int/
David Pearl
Twitter @DavidPearlHere
Instagram @davidpearl_here
Web: www.davidpearl.net
Andrew Paine (Producer & Audio Engineer)
Twitter @ItPainesMe