May/June Newsletter
Merging months for strange times
Hello
hope this finds you well
I don’t know about you, but these times are messing with my head.
I want to unplug and hide in the woods and waves for a month - not quite possible - but I’m plotting offgridness in August.
I’m learning that I’m juggling too much in these last two months and have missed my own newsletter deadlines. Eek!
So with that, here’s May/June’s new podcast episodes, updates, news, offerings and things that speak of Becoming Crew.
I hope you find something in them
Love and light
Dan
#becomingcrew #inservicetolife
Podcast: Why Rebel
Jay Griffiths is to me one of the most important writers of our time, and in this current moment her writing has never been more vital and crucial. Was a real treat to have this conversation with Jay about her new book - Why Rebel. We covered a lot of ground and Jay also shared some readings from the book. Jay writes courageously and so beautifully, and I feel her work can help us to face into the most pressing and urgent issues upon us, to see differently and act. Why Rebel? Have a listen, read the book and maybe find your own rebel expression. It’s urgently being called for and potentially most beautiful. Available on all podcast platforms.
Learn: Becoming Crew - Join me on a 6 Month peer supported Learning Marathon
Excited to put this out into the world. Blasting off in September I’m hosting a 6 month learning marathon following the Enrol Yourself game changing methodology of peer supported learning. I’m seeking 11 folks who are looking to regenerate life on Spaceship Earth to join me. Do you have a dream, idea, project, venture or burning question with potential to regenerate life around you and want a dynamic group of people backing you while you make it happen? Follow the link for more details and how to apply. And if you want to know more about Enrol Yourself and what to expect, I had a conversation with Enrol Yourself Co-founder Zahra Davidson back in Episode 28
Watch: Sea7 Ocean Activism Training Camp available to watch online
Last month I had the absolute pleasure and honour of hosting Sea 7 - a 6 hr ocean activism online training camp from my good friends Finisterre coinciding with the global G7 gathering down the coast in Cornwall, co-designed and powered by awesome humans Linzi and Luke at Protect Blue
It was an incredible and exhausting day, with so many brilliant humans around the world sharing their work and wisdom to protect and regenerate our planetary life support system that is the ocean - and encourage all of us to step into service - through talks, workshops and panels. The 6 hour stream is available here with all the content, there is so much gold in there. Enjoy and share widely.
Read: An Indigenous Systems Approach to the Climate Crisis
“A colleague recently told me that climate justice is about building ties between people, their land, and their traditional, ancestral ways. In all my years of doing environmental work, this is one of most succinct ways I’ve heard to describe what climate justice means for Indigenous People and communities: Reconnecting to our land is an integral piece of addressing climate change, for both our Nations and our wider communities.”
Jade Begay writes in the Stanford Social Innovation Review - 8 minute read
Read: Living as a unifying creative practice
“I’ve been wondering what the essential roles are for artists now, especially as many of us find ourselves in “an increased condition of gathering on-line” (Rocha & Gürses, 2021). Role is not the right word – identity might be better. Then again, maybe it is important to consider the contributions of artists as work. Work that is impossible to separate from identity and ways of being. Work that inherently involves thinking and feeling. And there is a lot to be thought and felt just now, in all of our acute fragilities, shared and private; in our grief and confusion. “
Reilly Dow writes in the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere (MAHB)
Podcast: Designing our way out of this mess
Episode 48 - Dave Hakkens is an award winning and disruptive designer from the Netherlands. Graduating and launching two projects, Phone Bloks and Precious Plastic in 2013, he continued to develop open-source projects that address global environmental problems. Dave is a maverick in his field, and continues to learn and develop the skills to build communities around interconnected problems, in pursuit of a better world. Hope you enjoy. Available on all podcast platforms.
Read: What do stories and story-telling have to do with the daunting challenges we face in the coming century? Turns out, quite a lot.
That was the question at the heart of our Stories for Life Virtual Gathering, held June 8 by the GEC, Wellbeing Alliance, and Spaceship Earth - bringing together activists and creatives to explore how we might shape new stories to achieve real social change. We explored how storytelling and imagination can move us toward an economy in service to life through creative culture, arts, activism, new economic design, community action and more.
Write up by Ben Martin of our Stories for Life gathering in June - 4 Minutes
Tools: Framework for human connection
Early on in lockdown I spent a couple of days working with a collective exploring ways to make digital services more human, especially for providers on frontlines of social issues - that work is now available as a tool kit, principles, conditions and methods, here if you're curious.
Book: The Web of Meaning
Jeremy Lent offers us an absolute gift for these times. We have to recognise and be honest across cultures and society about the flaws in our modern world views and beliefs that are taking us to the brink. We are not separate from nature and each other. What we are doing to life on this earth we are doing to ourselves. The exciting thing is that the leading edge of modern science is converging with ancient indigenous wisdom - a realisation that all life is interconnected. The potential for life sustaining civilisations is extraordinary. It just requires acceptance of the brokenness of these dominant views, beliefs and mindsets today, they are no longer fit for purpose and they no longer serve the vast majority of life, human and non human on this earth, they definitely don’t serve the future. We need to embrace a beautiful letting go of these old ways of seeing the world.
Imagination, courage, humility, empathy, awe, wonder, kindness, love, care, responsibility, play, curiosity and fun, an opening of the heart, a willingness to experiment and not know, to acknowledge our collective emotional traumas and our diverse wisdom and beauty, these are the main innovation requirements to get going. No new technologies required.
As Jeremy says in the book, these deeply ingrained world views and beliefs, born from a colonising and industrial global north, which now dominate our global ways of seeing the world have been institutionalised in education, economics, business, politics, media, everywhere. And that’s why we keep on this pathway of destroying our home planet, divisiveness and creating extreme inequalities. It’s the way we view the world and our relationships to it and that informs everything we do. And we are mostly oblivious to it because it runs so deep.
And the maddest bit ? - these world views, beliefs and mindsets were originally formed by a small group of white European men in the 17th century. Good work fellas but FFS, get off the decks - it’s time to collectively co-create something better. It’s time for a feeling revolution.
Podcast: We are Nature
If you listen to my podcast you’ll know I’m a huge fan of Amisha Ghadiali’s Future is Beautiful Podcast, this recent episode is an absolute banger for wisdom and insights for these times
Listen: - Tim Green Mix - When we dip 121
Stunning 2.5 hours from Tim Green for When We Dip
Support the Podcast
With nearly 60 episodes available now (some of them experimental to be fair) and the current momentum is releasing two per month. It takes time, energy and cost to get these out, and I’m keeping it ad free. I do all of this in the spirit of the gift, I won’t stop that but if you like what I’m doing with the podcast, newsletter, mixes etc and you want to support it there are three ways currently to do that.
Share it with friends and/or give it a review on Apple Podcasts or whatever your platform - it really helps more people to find it.
Chip in here - the price of a takeaway coffee if you enjoy an episode.
Much gratitude to you for being here.
“We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody.”
— R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER