Accidental Gods

Carolyn Hillyer lives on a 1,000 year old farm in the heart of Dartmoor. Her fierce, deeply spiritual guardianship of this place involves a heart-commitment to sharing the space with those who have been and those yet to come. As we near the end of (the first) Covid lockdown, she talks - and sings - of her spiritual connection to the ancestors of this land, of the ceremonial spaces she has built, of the Sami women and the bear skull that they brought in honouring - and of the remains of a Bronze Age ancestor-woman found on the hill overlooking the land, and the bear skin she was wrapped in. Carolyn's deep, heartfelt connection to the land shines through her words, her art and her songs: a shining beacon of how life can be lived for those who choose to follow.

Carolyn’s website, Seventh Wave Music: https://www.seventhwavemusic.co.uk

So, it's our Birthday - and it's that time of year when every pundit endeavours to look back at the year just gone and ahead to the one that is coming. And we thought we'd like to establish a parallel tradition, where we bring together our favourite podcasting-friends and explore the ways we think. So we set up a structure that will be repeatable in future years... where we give each other gifts of a book, podcast or something else that has brought us real insight, and then we explore each other's existential questions. And we have fun. So that you can have fun too.

Della Duncan is a Renegade Economist who hosts the UPSTREAM podcast challenging traditional economic thinking and uplifting stories of sustainable, just, and equitable economic systems-change around the world. Della is also a Right Livelihood Coach, a Senior Fellow of Social and Economic Equity at the International Inequalities Institute in the London School of Economics, the Course Development Manager of Fritjof Capra’s Capra Course on the Systems View of Life, and an Alternative Economics Consultant.

Nathalie Nahai is host of THE HIVE podcast. Nathalie is an international speaker and author of the best-selling book, Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion, which has been translated into seven languages.

Her work explores the intersection between persuasive technology, ethics and the psychology of online behaviour, and clients include Google, Accenture, Unilever and Harvard Business Review, among others.

Nathalie gives keynotes, workshops and webinars on the psychological dynamics behind evolving consumer behaviours, teaching people how to ethically apply behavioural science principles to enhance their website, content marketing, product design and customer experience.

A member of the BIMA Human Insights Council, she also hosts The Hive Podcast, Seeking The Self and several Guardian podcasts, and contributes to national publications, television (BBC, Sky, CNN), and radio (BBC Radio 4) on the impact of technology in our lives.

From Nathalie:
Books

• • Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
  • Women Who Run with the Wolves - Clarissa Pinkola Estés
  • Foxfire Wolfskin - Sharon Blackie
  • The Abundant Earth - Eileen Crist
    
    
• Podcast: Eco Civ Podcast

From Della:

Books

• • The Dangerous Old Woman: Myths and Stories of the Wise Woman Archetype - Clarissa Pinkola Estés
  • Building Bridges, Not Walking on Backs: A Feminist Economic Recovery Plan for COVID-19 - Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women
  • The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself - Richard Wolff

Podcast: Upstream Conversations that I mentioned

From Manda:

Books

• • English Pastoral - James Rebanks
  • Less is More - Jason Hickel
  • Slow Horses - Mick Herron

Great Thunberg says that ‘We cannot save the planet by playing by the rules, so the rules have to be changed’. This is self-evidently true, but that leaves us with the question of what rules could we create that we could all live by. Polly Higgins has the Earth Protector law, but Shelley Ostroff has gone one step further with her Codes for a Healthy Earth and the World Water law. Together, these rules spell out our connection with the More than Human world, and leave us with agency, initiative, and a sense of genuine flourishing.

Shelley Ostroff (PhD) is a planetary activist, leadership consultant, social architect, mystic and writer. She is the founder of www.togetherincreation.org, www.7days-of-rest.org, www.codes.earth and other initiatives dedicated to the healing and replenishment of the planet and all its inhabitants. Concerned by the suffering and devastation humans cause each other, other species and the planet, she dedicated herself to exploring whole-system systems dynamics and integrative healing wisdom from diverse disciplines and traditions. She has worked with people from all walks of life, from different sectors of society and across continents as a therapist, consultant, mentor, and creative partner in cultivating individual, collective and whole-system wellness. Through ongoing research and practice, she has developed a unique holistic approach to human and whole-system healing and transformation that includes evolving blueprints for a new form of holistic health-oriented global Eco-Governance.

Links:
Codes for a Healthy Earth https://www.codes.earth

Together in Creation: www.togetherincreation.org

Seven Days of Rest https://www.7days-of-rest.org/

Accidental Gods: https://accidentalgods.life/

We live on the edge of change - the facts can be terrifying, but the creative potential of our times is inspiring and just as jaw-dropping as the horrors of the reality we inhabit. Paul Behrens is Assistant Professor of Energy and Environmental Change at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He has advised governments and his work on climate change has appeared in leading scientific journals, as well as on the BBC, in the New York Times and Scientific American. He's got a clear, un-sensational view of the way things are - and how we can bring ourselves back from the brink.
In our conversation, we explore the realities and the possibilities - and where we might go from here.

Pauls Book: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Best-of-Times-The-Worst-of-Times-by-Paul-Behrens-author/9781911648093

The concept of radical, renegade, revolutionary insurgency based on the model created in the Golden Age of Pirates was given wings by Sam Conniff's best selling book, BE MORE PIRATE.

In the wake of its success, Sam needed to find ways to help the many people the book inspired. And for that he needed help. Enter Alex Barker, Primary Pirate, visionary, breaker of rules and maker of gatherings on and offline. Alex and Sam between them have steered Pirate groups from industries as far apart as car manufacturing (Mercedes), Social Media Mega-Giants (Google) and nationally owned health care providers (the UK's NHS).

But we can go deeper than simply breaking the old, fossilised structures of industries... we can change the entire system. Because, as Sam says, 'problems will not be fixed by fixing the problems... what's really needed is an overhaul of the engine that's causing the problems. In other words, the business model.'
And, as Alex says, 'I want to see many more new crews forming outside of formal structures, so that while the old models fall, new ones are already emerging.'
Accidental Gods seeks to be part of that emerging eco-system of new ways of being. And to get there, we need new ways of thinking - and ways we can each break out of the moulds that have cast us. Alex Barker offers a map to the treasure of change. Follow us!

The book: https://www.bemorepirate.com/the-book
The Workshops: https://www.bemorepirate.com/the-workshop
Rethink Humanity Paper: https://www.rethinkx.com/humanity

As we said at the end of the podcast, Mike Raven and Ross Thornley of AQAI have kindly agreed to let Accidental Gods subscribers and members access their Adaptability Quotient test.

The link is here:
DISCOUNT CODE FOR AQAI: https://app.aqai.io/signup/aqme?discount_code=ACCGODS