
World of Wisdom
By World of Wisdom
Cover photo by Happy Wilder (@indiewildfox)

World of WisdomSep 28, 2023

192. Jon Smieja: The culture of convenience, the state of the circular economy and product blindness
Jon Smeija from the Green Biz Group came by. We talked about the state of the circular economy and the challenge we are facing in the next few decades. Jon is a chemist by training and has been in technical roles in corporations for most of his career until he stepped over to the green biz group where he runs their event on circular economy. We speak of the immense challenges we are facing in the coming years and address things like there is no such thing as away, consumers are in some way product blind, the culture of convenience is one of the biggest challenges we have to face if we are to make meaningful progress and much more. Host Amit Paul

191. Paul Weinfield: Every defeat is just an angel tugging your sleeve telling you that you don’t have keep banging your head against the wall.
Paul Weinfield (Spotify, webpage) musician, coach, teacher and more. Paul wrote a text about the heroes journey that grabbed Amit. This is a wonderful conversation about things like surrender, growth, truth, what it means to be human. But not in a high flying, abstract way, this is tangible, close and personal. Check the links if you're curious about Paul's work. Enjoy the conversation! Host: Amit Paul

190. Jude Currivan: The power of shifting to a story unity
Best selling author, cosmologist and physicist Jude Currivan came on the podcast for a wonderful conversation hovering around the topic of Unity. We speak of the need for a new story, the laws of physics as relational algorithms, our 21st century technology and our 19th century world view, activism, acting local - feeling global - thinking cosmological and much more. This is an invitation to embrace the simple and not easy, assume belonging and common ground and accepting that love as the innate inseparability of all parts from the whole and the whole from all parts is the very fabric of our universe. Enjoy! Resources: Whole Worldview. Host: Amit Paul

189. Fredrik Forss - UNUM AI god or servant, symbols, and two questions to simultaniously keep exploring
Fredrik Forss, long term serial entrepreneur and debut author come on the podcast and we talk about his debut novel UNUM - AI god or servant. Where the book came from and his process of writing it. We also touch upon symbols and stories how one can play with them to hack our current cultural moment. We speak of some very likely questions that we will face as parents to kids growing up in the age of AI. This is a deep and fascinating conversation about a topic that Fredrik's thought a lot about over the past 6 years. Links: Fredrik Forss, the Unuminati. Host: Amit Paul

188. Laura Storm: Regenerative leadership, surrender and accepting that there is no path back to what once was
Laura Storm (webpage) author of Regenerative Leadership with Giles Hutchins, speaker, entrepreneur, community builder, mother, creator. The list is long. We got together for a wonderful conversation about the what regeneration is, the next steps and moves in the regenerative community, joy, a ceremonial attitude to life, grief and what it means to really stop and be forced to surrender to life. What does it mean to accept that there is no recovery, no going back? This covers some of what I believe to be the most important topics of our time yet not through high flying theoretical concepts rather the life and contexts that takes up most of our time. To connect check out Regenerators and Regenerative Leadership. Enjoy. Host: Amit Paul

187. Glenda Eoyang: Paradigm shifts, differences and mid level tools for taking action
Glenda Eoyang is the founder of the Humans Systems Dynamics Institute (hsdinstitute.org). They have been working on human systems development for several decades teaching courses and developing tools for agency and collective action in the liminal times we are in.
This is a gem of a conversation. Glenda provides some valuable frames from the institutes work on how to manage and navigate in the current times and we speak about difference, paradigm shifts, questions that make a difference, baker folds, non-linear dynamics and stances we can take to be of service to the transformation. Enjoy!
If you are interested in the HSDs newsletter send a note to info[at]hsdinstitute.org

186. Dakotah Apostolou: Reimagining home ownership and creating regenerative living communities
Dakotah Apostolou is a co-founder of the Cohere network. Reinventing regenerative home ownership and collective living for our age. We speak about community, why arcitecths seem to have a knack for imagining what’s next, why maximum diversity around values not metrics is the way to go and why ownership is so important and yet something we need to fundamentally rethink. Dakotah and his team is looking at one of the fundamental needs of humans, shelter, and rethinking it in a way that makes it fit for whatever the world need next. Curious? Follow along at cohere.network

185. Solo episode 4: Modes of exchange, Different modes of thinking and the shift from exchange to use value
This is another solo reflection. This time I speak of the modes of exchange that have progressed through our paradigms, from: reciprocity, dominance and trade towards something new. Perhaps that new thing is play? And how that interacts with different ways of thinking: think mind, process mind, essence mind and source mind. Exploring how these two aspects in themselves seem to relate to the switch from exchange value to true cost and use value rather. And what happens in a world where anything is to expensive to own? Is that the path towards us reinventing ownership? This is a little open ended with out conclusions but perhaps you hear something I missed, what came a live for you? Appreciate your patience with the sound, ended up having to use a back up microphone. To see what I'm up to, connect or engage with my writing and of course more on the RCO here

184. Ditte Lysgaard Vind: Circularity as a tool, careing for the triad of material, product and business model and otherh things regenerative
Ditte Lysgaard Vind is a design practicioner, teacher and author deeply immersed in circular design. We speak of the a number of the importance of weaving together products, materials and business model. Circularity as a tool not an end in itself. Measurements of various parameters and why CO2 is a critical indicator right now. We speak of the shift form Exchange to Use value in our accounting and what that would entail and about the two fundamental principles that we need to practice: Stay with the trouble and Get tactile! This is a wonderful conversation on everything circular. If you want to get in touch with Ditte and go deeper visit: https://www.thecircularway.com

183. Johnn Andresson: Systems of transformation instead of innovaion, systems as epistemological not ontological and the state of our world
Johnn Andersson is a systems scientists looking at socio-technico-ecological systems. We speak about systems in the widest sense and also in the details. Maps and territories make their way into this conversation as well. We speak of the ontological vs the epistemological aspects of systems and what it does to us when we mistake those. We also speak about the consequences of our decision to focus on systems of innovation in the 80's vs what could have happened if we would instead have talked about systems of transformation all along. This episode is very rich and invites a different way of understanding the world in a very tangible way. Enjoy!

182. Kajsa Balkfors and Ola Jubelin: Sensitivity, Play, Creativity. Reinventing swedish preschools and building community. Talking to practicioners.
Kajsa Balkfors is the former (very successful) CEO of Cirkus Cirkör that has dedicated her life as a practicioner to practice the art of living in community, hosting and most recently she's worked with liberating kids in the Swedish preschools through Tillitsverket. Ola Jubelin is a friend and a skilled facilitator that you can find at facilitatingchange.se. This is a conversation between practitioners. We speak about change, what it is and how it differs from the new. The distinction between change and growth. Most of all however we speak about what is possible when we fill existing structures, like the preschool, with new content and how that has the potential, like in Kajsas case, liberates both kids and pedagogs. Enjoy the conversation!

181. Viveca (Fallenius) Svensson: Legal design, law as liberating structures and GDPR as the bible,
Viveca (Fallenius) Svensson is a passionate lawyer and practitioner of legal design. We spoke about the state of privacy and trust in our society. What legal design actually is and how we can approach law completely differently. What if we actually trust the law makers good intent and instead of pushing against law as something we want to avoid we'd use law to actually guide our actions? Finding out what the spirit of the law is and pushing off from that. We also speak about automatic contract writing, a little bit about how we as consumers can do things to reclaim our power but mostly it's a peak into what is also possible in our current system. There are ways to practice law consciously. If you are curious to find out more about Vivekas work check out GentleRev. Host: Amit Paul

180. Ariana Alexander-Sefre: Spoke.world, music as windows and channels of communication with subcultures, mental health, melancholy and much more.
Ariana Alexander-Sefre co-founder and CEO of Spoke a mental wellness app focused on working with music as a path towards mental resilience. We address the topic of the parts of the demography that a coach, yoga teacher or wellness program will never reach, the power of music to shift, move and transport us. We also speak of the power of melancholy and how music can be an important part in gaining new perspectives. Spoke is working globally with their app and methodology and is committed to push the research front in parallell. This is an important conversation with large implications for those of us committed to large systems change. Host Amit Paul

179. Indy Johar - The boring revolution, computational bureaucracy, the accounting pathway from ownership to stewardship
Indy Johar at Dark Matter Labs address some of our most pressing planetary needs and we talk about their work. This is a fascinating conversation where we touch upon objects, our relationships to them and how that is important to rethink bureaucracy to and allow it to harness our increased computational capacity. We also talk about ownership and for pathways towards custodianship, how we can orient towards letting life find a way, how work could be part of liberating us in the new paradigm, why direct redistribution is most likely not the path forward and why all of this fundamentally is an invitation to rethink what it means to be human. This is a mind blowing conversation. Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul

178. Daniel Görtz: Metamodern AI, sensemaking and a new, closer look at the transformation we're in
Daniel Görtz 50% of the team behind Hanzi Freinacht came on the podcast to talk about the times we're in, the material conditions for transformation, what we can do that are trying to make the transition into a new reality and we speak about AI (of course). Daniel brings in the different modes of interaction: play, competition, cooperation and trade with the suggestion that we love all of them. We also speak of the faustian societies and scratch the surface of the power over vs power with dynamics. We also speak of the move towards the information economy where attention, retention and respons are going to be crucial factors. This is an excellent conversation where Daniel graciously holds some of my messiness while I try to follow along in his reasoning in real time. If you want to get the Hanzi books or follow their work check out https://metamoderna.org/. Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul

177. Lennart Hennig - Growth, sustain and decay cycle of life, boundaries and interaction and neurodiversity as adaptive
Lennart Hennig (LinkedIn) founder of the Institute for collective development and co-founder of Alma de Solo visited the podcast. We talk about regeneration of the land. The cycle of life as growth, sustenance and decay and how our current moment is so enamoured with the growth part, to the detriment to everything around us. We speak of attention and how it is such an important variable, and how the current epidemic of mental health crisis could be more than just a crisis, perhaps there are adaptive aspects to it given the society we live in? We speak about the energy of helping and fixing and we speak about diversity. To connect with Lennart and to support his work visit the links above. Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul

176. Stefan Engseth: Sharks, sharkonomics and what a few hundred million hears of evolution has to teach humans
Stefan Engeseth is the dyslectic that became a researcher and author. We talk about Stefan's concept Sharkonomics. What humans and corporations can learn from sharks in thinking about particularly business and business strategy. Our conversation is wide ranging and we explore several different concepts from Stefans books as well as what happens when we start considering time in longer cycles than just with a mere 'human' lens. Enjoy this conversation! To connect with Stefan check out either the links above or his LinkedIn. Host: Amit Paul

175. Alexander Crawford and Ylva Björnberg: Conversation 1 and conversation 2 and some of the fundamentals for shifting ones world view (part 2)
Alexander Crawford and Ylva Björnberg visit the podcast for a deep dive. Both Ylva and Alexander are deeply involved with the transformation of society and are recovering futurists. This conversation introduces a concept they have been developing and gives a first taste of what they call conversation 1 and conversation 2. Conversation 2 is what is needed by some for us as a society to start being able to shift out of the grid lock of the current global logic. This is part 2 of our conversation that we ended up re-recording post IPCCs updated report and the release of Chat-GPT4. We speak about language, Bretton Woods, Silence, Push and pull, institutions and much more. Come along!

174. Ylva Björnberg and Alexander Crawford: Introducing conversation 1 and conversation 2 and some of the fundamentals for shifting ones world view (part 1)
Alexander Crawford and Ylva Björnberg visit the podcast for a deep dive. Both Ylva and Alexander are deeply involved with the transformation of society and are recovering futurists. This conversation introduces a concept they have been developing and gives a first taste of what they call conversation 1 and conversation 2. Conversation 2 is what is needed by some for us as a society to start being able to shift out of the grid lock of the current global logic. We cover a few of the fundamental moves in this conversation. Like the ladder of awareness by Paul Chifurka and Donatella Meadows framework on places to interveine in a system. This is the first part of the conversation and next week we'll lean further in, it ends right when we took a break (that ended up being some 7 weeks in clock time). We'll pick it up again next episode. Come along!

173. Cheryl Hsu & Sam Hinds: Exploring the edge of our collective knowing
This is a special episode. It is an experiment into what is called collective presencing in some circles, emergent dialogue in others and probably goes by other names as well. This practice is something Amit has been involved with for some years now and invited two masters. Sam Hinds (twitter) and Cheryl Hsu (webpage). This is our first conversation together and we explore our field, it is a rich deep exploration that might require a measure of patience to get through but the reason I'm putting it out on the channel is because I believe you will be enriched by the experience. This is also how conversations can be.
We touch upon how cells in a limb growing back knows when to stop growing, what death enables, what it is like to be eaten, models that are worth engaging with for their beauty and the longing for participation. Of course there is much more to this conversation. Do you dare to take a leap of faith and leap in? Host: Amit Paul

172. Solo Episode 3 (Amit): Generation, transcending the story of the hero, consequences, openness, nested timelines
This is my 3rd solo episode. Feeling called to think out loud. I do touch upon the masculine and the feminine principles and the work I've been doing with Eric Lichtman on the topic of 'dissolving the cage' (not making it dissapear mind). I touch upon the concepts of openness that could also be called faith and compassion and why that is so crucial. I speak about consequences. Nested timelines and the inherently hopeful prospect that simultaneously ongoing crisis might afford us. I speak of feelings as portals into remember and in(-)formation. And I discover a part of what whatever it is that I'm doing on this podcast have to do with Socrates. If you want the links to the number of episodes I point to or find the writing I've done on some of the topics I bring up here check out amitpaul.substack.com.

171. Lene Rachel Andersen: Bildung and why its relevant to re-invent the concept in our day and age.
Brilliant Lene Rachel Andersen came on the podcast and we spoke about Bildung. Lene is the author of The Nordic Secret and several other books and is deeply engaged in the topic of creating a future worth living in for all of us. This particular conversation circle around the topic of bildung, its necessary and sufficient conditions, what it actually was, what the history of it was and how it relates to the concept of 'adult development' as defined by the developmental psychologists and their stage theories. An excellent review of the topic as well as a some conducive directions for those of us thinking about where we can go next as a society. If you want to connect: Nordic Bildung, LinkedIn, Global buildung network. Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul

170. Helena Norberg-Hodge: An alternative story of progress, a critique of the economic worldview and the localisation movement
Helena Norberg-Hodge is the linguist and one of the wisdom keepers and originators of the regenerative movement that through her experiences in Ladakh many decades ago discovered the cracks of the conventional story of industrialisation = progress. We revisit that story, and we talk about those cracks. Helena gives her perspective on the current economic paradigm and why this logic is in many ways, most ways actually in opposition to the logic of life. Helena has developed the Economics of Happiness and is also a center figure in the budding localisation movement. To find out more and to support Local futures visit their webpage. Until then enjoy the podcast! Host: Amit Paul

169. Eugenio Molini: Organisational transformation, mans search for meaning, the dunbar sequence and its relationship to efficiency
Eugenio Molini (webpage, LinkedIn) has worked with organisational transformation with 100s of organisation all over Europe for the last 30+ years. He shares his wisdom on do's and don'ts as well as some very clear rules of thumb. Like why minimal structures are the way to go, that there is no such thing as perfect - always strive for sufficient. Why focusing on peoples actions and a common target is an way to actually get culture and people to shift - without coersion. We also speak of the different types of organisational transformation that one has access to and why it is useful to have the Dunbar sequence in mind when leading or growing an organisation, and perhaps even reorganising one. This is a very useful conversation for anyone that has anything to do with change work. Enjoy! Host Amit Paul

168. Gita Rajan - Complexity, trauma and waking up to a some basic truths about what it is to be human
Gita Rajan is the head of clinic and research and the founder of WONSA (World of No Sexual Abuse). I took her out of the comfort zone to some degree a little bit trying to talk about complexity. Then we explored the different aspects of the human condition and truma. We talk about control, stealing - taking what is not yours, what it means to be truly interdependent, part of the world (as opposed to separate from it). We also spoke of war, separation and transformation. The basic principle that ever living being is ready to transform - and we need to ask for consent prior to transforming someone or something. This is a true exploration. A true dive into uncertainty and one of those conversations that have really rearranged my system since. On a side note: WONSA needs more funding for their important work, if you can contribute please do. Their work is so important. Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul

167. Dada Shambushivananda: Neohumanism, education, the human potential and what we are missing out on by leaving spirit out of 'everyday life'
Dada Shambushivananda (LinkedIn) is the Chancellor of the Global Neohumanist Education (Gurukul) and has dedidcated himself to the movement called Ananda Marga. Dada was born in India and graduated from Wharton school of Business before returning to monastic life and dedicating himself to inner and outer peace in the world. Dada is the author of several books like Thoughts for a new era and his latest book Towards a brighter future. This conversation circle around human potential and what becomes possible when we lean into the spiritual aspects of our human potential. What is the limit to how much a kindergarten child can learn? What is important to consider in a learning environment? What does it mean to control your mind? What should we consider going forward for those of us that long for a regenerative future? Host: Amit Paul.

166 Revisiting the RCO: An organisational model for regenerative organisations
Amit and Nils take a look into the RCO as it stands right now. The RCO is an organisational model aiming to bring business into relationship with the rest of the world, an undertaking crucial to create the conditions for a regenerative paradigm. The RCO stands for the Regenerative Community Organism and the first one is just filing it's registration documents with the Swedish authorities. This entire episode is a little meta since Nils is interviewing Amit on the topic in an episode that will also be posted as part of the soon to be released Meaningful Work Podcast. If you want to find out more check out the RCO deck or reach out to Amit or Nils. Enjoy!

165. Thomas Herrmann: Open space technology and five to fold. Structures for bring co-creation to the center
Thomas Herrmann (LinkedIn) is a facilitator for more than 25 years in various co-creative methodologies in particular Open Space Technology and lately also bringing the decision methodology five to fold to the world. He's worked across contexts from public organisations like hospitals to companies and associations. With spaces as small as 5 people and as large as 700. This is an excellent, hands-on primer for the curious to start understanding the possibilities of these topics. In a larger perspective we discussed the importance of structure in complex problem solving, the possibilities and affordances of collective intelligence and decision making, why empowerment will surprise and surpass your wildest expectations of what is possible - if you are willing to surrender. This is hands on with immense implications. Enjoy! Host Amit Paul.

164. Leif Edvinsson: Intellectual, spiritual and intangible forms of capital. Forward looking accounting, longitutde and navigation.
Leif Edvinsson is a Swedish organizational theorist, Professor at the University of Lund in Sweden and consultant, known for his work on intangible forms of capital, specifically intellectual capital and knowledge management. This conversation with Leif is a trip into a different way of engaging with the world. Leif says early on in the podcast that he learned to think at Berkley, CA and that the invitation was often to turn everything upside down. That's what we are doing here. We enter the usually dull world of accounting and intangible assets and start looking at how we can use the practice not for controlling and taking stock but rather for quantifying potential. It is truly mindboggling when you let some of these concepts sink in.
We speak of spiritual capital, intellectual capital, alternative cost, potential, future forecasting, experimentation, living labs, entrepreneurship as creation in the spaces, why piles of shit was a good measure of future wealth on the farm and what happens when you realise that the main value of the tree is in the roots not in the parts you see. This conversation is truly exciting. Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul.

163. Joel Tickner - Chemicals, chemicals legislation and what you can do with regards to them?
Joel Tickner is a professor Umass Lowell and founder of the Green Chemistry and Commerce Council (GC3). This conversation revolve around Chemicals in the products we use in our everyday life. Why chemicals are so ever present? To what extent and how should we worry about them and what can we do as consumers to take care? We speak about why chemicals-free is probably not a possible vision. What the difference is between synthetic and natural and what it means with regards to safety. We speak about risk and hazard, ways to think about chemicals and much more. This is a really hands on, useful conversation for those worried or curious about chemistry in our world today and why they are in our world in the first place as well as how we need to change our practices to get to something that looks like sustainable or green chemistry. Host: Amit Paul

162. Pella Thiel - On why Ecocide legislation has such deep implications for the shift we are in the middle of.
Pella Thiel (LinkedIn, webpage) is the institutional activist and farmer that is focused on getting ecocide legislation into the ICC at the Hague. Support their work at Stop Ecocide. We talked about ecocide law and why it is potentially so elegant and powerful. We also talked about what direction ecocide law points us in with regards to our state as a human species or as a part of the whole earth's ecosystem. We spoke about the importance of loving what is already here and the power of the institutions and the system that we have built that we now need to transform. We spoke about the value that we can find in relationships and what happens when we dare to localise our value - shifting our gravity of value closer, to biking distance even. This is such a hands on, humane and warm conversation that I'd recommend anyone to listen to it regardless of if you need a pick me up or if you are a budding activist and need a different way of changing the system than chaining yourself to a tree. Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul

161. Maria 'Decida' Wahlberg. What pop culture can teach us about subculture, culture, coming home and creation
Maria 'Decida' Wahlberg is the co-founder of Transponder where she works with transformation of culture in companies and society at large. She is a creative, dancer and choreographer turned systems thinker. To find out more about her check out her webpage. In this conversation we look at what it is to come home, what pop music has to teach us about culture change and transformation. What it means to be deracinated and put into a different culture, what it means to find a new home in a subculture, what movement and constellations has to teach us about complexity and much more. Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul.

160. Daniel Christian Wahl - Regenerative design, the water cycle, science as intersubjective consensus, salutogenic and ecozoic principles of reorganising our society
Daniel Christian Wahl is one of the motors and originators of the regenerative design trend that is really picking up speed now. We speak about a number of topics like: of coming home, what regenerative actually is, what would be a better topic than carbon dioxide to work on (water cycle). why it is important to leave the antroposcene behind as it might further be deepening our pathology of separation. How it is that we can integrate indigenous perspectives and world views in a more constructive way? Why our current state of technology development is also just kids stuff and not necessarily the pinnacle of what homo sapiens have achieved. This conversation is a peek into the world of the regenerative with one of it's wisdom keepers. It is a diverse, grounded and truly human. To find out more about Daniel Christian Wahl visit his webpage, his medium or his youtube channel. Host Amit Paul

159. Alexander Whitley - Choreography, the language of dancing, healing through dance and dealing with high levels of uncertainty
Alexander Whitley is a British renowned choreographer trained in classical ballet that has formed his own company and is working and exploring the topics of our current moment, consciousness and our interaction with technology. We speak of the potential for us to process complexity through other languages than the spoke word. What happens, what shifts and what becomes possible through the implicit? That which contains lots of room for interpretation? We also speak of what is the nature of the relationship of art and what does it mean to have to fund art (to make contributions visit the company's webpage) as well as new formats for dance and art (check that out on the website too). Wonderfully rich and deep conversation in words but addressing something else altogether with an invitation to look at dance through the lens of a dancer. Enjoy. Host Amit Paul

158. Joshua Haynes - Money, Power and new ways of funding in a transforming society
Joshua Haynes (twitter) a nurture capitalist (not venture capitalist) and director of the investment fund Masawa where they have reimagined capital and investing, building an ecosystem and looking out for people that build ventures to address our mental health challenges. This was an exciting conversation and some of the questions that Joshua poses like: power for what and what does an ideal system look like when belonging is universal? We also speak of the world of aid as part of Joshuas background in SIDA and USAID. Why his current ventures might have some traces of inspiration from the micro finance industry. And we speak on the topic of whether money has a soul? Wonderful wide ranging conversation. Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul

157. Marco Valente - Epistemic humility, loops of learning, theories of change, navigating complexity, risk, wicked problems and evidence based decision making
Marco Valente (LinkedIn, Twitter) is a sustainability practicioner and a facilitator. He's way of speaking into and navigating complexity are wonderfully rich. Marco shares some of his thinking on a wide range of topics. We speak about epistemic humility: how do we get to see the world through which lens? Loops of learning and Marcos decision diary. Wicked learning environments and how to navigate them. What do we do in the face of radical uncertainty? What does it mean to set a minimum set of rules or minimum specifications? What is the replication crisis and why does it not warrant for disbelief in science? What is the paradox embedded in evidence based decision making? Wonderfully rich conversation on how we get to know our world. Host: Amit Paul

156. Maria Selting: 5 mental shifts to thrive in the future of work
Maria Selting from the Unbox your world podcast came on. She is a futurist and a technologist having spent time in a couple of hyper growth start-ups. She is now a speaker and podcaster focusing on what's next in the world. Discussing her article titled 5 mental shifts to thrive in the future of work. This is a fun exploration around the times we are standing in and a meeting of paradigms. The conversation cover the 5 shifts and it was a privilege to weed out and untangle similarities and differences in our way of thinking. The 5 points are useful as a backbone to structure one's capacity building regarding the times that we are in. Here is the deeper explanation of the concept of anti-fragility that Maria points to in the conversation. If you want to book Maria as a speaker. Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul

155. Ria Baeck: Collective presencing, knots, flow, life, when individuals get stuck, when groups get stuck and why attention really matters.
Ria Baeck is a psychologist and a member of the Art of Hosting community. She has worked with organisations as large as the EU as well as many companies in "untying the knots" that are keeping people from fulfilling their full potential. Ria has been experimenting with collective presence (or wisdom) for a long time. In fact she wrote the book on collective presencing (excellent resource). Her experiments with the "magic in the middle" has taken her into a journey of remembering and exploration of many years. And the exploration has some profound implications for those of us interested in transformative work. This conversation focus on the collective presencing, we speak of individual and collective stuckness and how we can bring flow (or life) back when that happens. And focus especially on how to cultivate a culture of interdependence. I personally believe this is an important one for those engaging in transformative work. Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul
If you are curious about collective presencing you can also check out the STOA for the open sessions that they offer.

154. Hans Hassle: Companies, companisations, the value change in business and wondering if money has a soul?
Hans Hassle who describes himself as half buddist monk, half business man. He has spent much of his life in business trying to change business. The fundamental values of business particularly. We speak about the companisation that is the invention he made to put the limited company back into relationship with the rest of the world. We also dug deeper and spoke about value, responsibility and ended exploring how it is that we are willing to give up almost anything for money. Is it so that money has a soul? This was a wonderful, rich conversation. If you want to get in touch with Hans, check out his LinkedIn. Enjoy. Host: Amit Paul

153. Klaus Schenck: Everything agile (Kanban, Scrum, DevOps) summed up, doughnut economics, optimisation, navigating complexity and half-assed relationships
Klaus Schenck is a coach and organisational consultant that has dived deep into the world of agile. This conversation uses Agile as a point of departure to go into our current perdicament in the world. We touch upon Scrum, Kanban, DevOps, standardisation, measurement as well as the basic pilars of flow of value and respect for people and what they mean. We talk quite about the relationship between parts and the whole and optimisation. Theory of constraints, complexity navigation, trial and error, solutions focus etc. are other frameworks and ideas we touch upon. It is an incredibly rich conversation with a wonderfully empathic, knowledgable and curious person. If you want to reach out to Klaus visit his webpage or look at some of his articles. Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul

152. Anders Varger: Life on the pragmatic edge. Changing how we build and commune and weaving the young and old into the fabric of our society
Anders Varger is the school teacher and entrepreneur that realised that it's possible to change societies. Even if you are just an individual. We speak about his project to build regenerative neighbourhoods through his organisation Hubville and his work to bring in youth and elderly into the discussions around how we build our society through Framtidens röster. We also speak about not knowing as a leader. What it means to be on the pragmatic edge. Scaling down and deep, figuring out what you are really doing and how really move things along and a lot more. This is a grounded, concrete, hands on discussion about the craft of driving societal change. Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul.

151. Nate Hagens: Energy blindness, the perdicament our world is in and the importance of creating a deeper understanding of it.
Nate Hagens is the host of the podcast the great simplification that has blown up as a dire and well researched lense to our current predicament as a species. The podcast is a must listen for anyone trying to make sense of our wold that takes a trans-disciplinary lens on our challenges. From economy to biology, chemistry and physics. If you are new to the topic take a look at the animated shorts that will give you a nice overview of this frame. Or dive into the youtube channel right away.
This conversation is timely and somber. And yet it contains hope. The frame of a this being a story of a species finding a huge amount of fossile carbon and throwing a 2 century party and the need to now gently come off it sums it up in one way. The take away that both Nate and Amit, both spending quite some time in existential risk frameworks, have the feeling that the understanding of the times we are in create some sort of agency and a different focus altogether. Nate took a break form his touring the world and speaking to governments about the last 20 years of his work to record this. Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul.

150. Alexander Bard. Why we live in addicted, childish times and what we need to understand and relate to in order to move forward
Alexander Bard is philosopher, artist and politician. We invited him to talk about the trinity priest/schaman, matriarch and chieftain/king and the times we live in. This is a challenging, thought provoking perspective that draws upon a specific narrative around our current moment. It deals with the feminine, masculine and shamanoid. The invitation is clear: what does it take for our society to grow up and start taking responsibility? What does it take for you to do that? Hosts: Amit Paul and Nils von Heijne.

149. Joey Weber - Why mindfulness is not enough and the science of equanimity
Dr Joey Weber is the author of Why mindfulness is not enough. He worked out a definition of equanimity and also a protocol for being able to measure and cultivate equanimity during his PhD. Joey is now giving 6 week courses in mindfulness (next one starting october 2nd 2022, and then restarting every 6 weeks). This conversation about equanimity, feeling, how to put mindfulness to use. Joey is liberatingly opinionated and passionate about the subject. To find out more check out Joeys Webpage, LinkedIn or Instagram. Enjoy.

148. Amit Paul Solo episode: Knowing, Maps, The Power principle, Owning our shadow, Not knowing as a driver for the exploration
Amit Paul talks into a couple of things he's been considering lately weaving previous episodes, learnings and perspectives. He covers knowing, the importance of it and its relationship with arrogance, maps as an important part of navigating and what they are - also invoking some care in our relating to them both in terms of the map makers intended and unintended purposes. The power principle and our current moments relationship to power and how it is an innate part of our biology - to be pulled towards power. He also talks about the concepts of intention and extension and how that paring may make us suceptible for capture. And wrapping up: how can we invite people to move from a place of not knowing - from a caring, circular, end-less paradigm, what does that look like? (If you want to connect with Amit, Linked in or his webpage are the places to go) Enjoy!

147. Christopher Cassillas - regnenerative work, community, will - being - function, finding the right timescales, vitality - viability - evoluationary potential and much, much more
Chis Cassillias is a fellow curious who is currently working with the non-profit Regenerating Sonora. (if you're interested to contribute they are also here on Giveth.io). This is a rich conversation and we cover a number of topics. Everything circling around the topic of regeneration. Chris shares his framework of will, being and fucntion. We speak of the importance of culture before strategy, the risk of over formalising, finding the right time scales, the framework of assessing work on vitality, viability and evolutionary capability, how regenerating soil is not a ideological practice. We also speak of scales from neighbourhoods to bioregions to biocultural corridors and we speak of the goddess of necessity as well as technology. But most of all, the question that is reverberating with me is: Imagine that it's the day after armageddon - what do you do? Now go do that. Enjoy! Host Amit Paul

146. Tomas Björkman. Instrumentality, development and how leaning into a 5 min past 12 mentality can help us going forward
Tomas Björkman is a former banker and philantrophist. Tomas has been involved and funded a number of projects with the purpose of taking us through the current societal transformation. Examples are 29k, the Inner Development Goals, Perspectiva and Emerge. Tomas has also release his book The World We Create as a Youtube series. This conversation stems from a deep care and circles the topic of instrumentality. It is a deep curiosity around movement building and concern for the current direction we are facing as a society that is the base line. Host: Amit Paul. Enjoy!

145. Mark Leonard: Social mindfullness, activism, generative societal change and the importance of sharing and caring.
Mark Leonard the director of Mindfulness Connected - one of the first clinically proven social mindfulness protocols in Europe. It's a wonderful conversation that touches upon activism, the importance of and the consequences of the surrender, how simple it really is - share and care. What happens when we are in opposition even in order to achieve that which is good. The forgotten part of the heroes journey - the return home. Resources to get in touch: Mindfulness Connected, Social Mindfulness in Italy Enjoy. Host: Amit Paul

144. Thomas Bruhn - Facilitation, ego, fear and being an individual experience of a collective story
Thomas Bruhn is working at the IASS at the Potsdam Institute a physicist and facilitator with interests around consciousness, sustainability and how we can transform our world into a more regenerative direction. In this conversation we speak about ego, being in service and the balance between channeling ones power and taking that responsibility versus to shirk away from it and how that influence our possibility to be effective in the world. If you are curious about what Thomas is up to you can find him at the IASS webpage or check out his project A mindset for the anthropocene - place where you can "find the others". Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul

143. Raz Kennedy and Teresa Kali Stark - The voice, healing, teachers, mastery, knowing, trust and surrender
This is a special episode. I get to bring on Raz Kennedy a vocal coach I worked with some 20 years ago when I was in the music business that showed me what letting go really was. Raz Kennedy (website link) has been in the music business for his entire life, initially through his mom but then for most of his professional life. Teresa Kali Stark (fb page) is a singer and vocal coach who's worked with some of the most acclaimed Swedish jazz artists among a number of others. We speak about the healing power of song and music. What it can teach us about surrender and non-judgement. How it heals. We also speak about the teacher and the role of the teacher and what it means to know and what it means to teach out of curiosity. Enjoy! Host: Amit Paul.