RSA Conversations

How can injecting ideas into art create meaningful direction?

Nadya Tolokonnikova is perhaps known best for being a musician and founding member of the group Pussy Riot - but would describe themself primarily as a conceptual artist and political activist.

Nadya was jailed in their home country of Russia in 2012, following a performance in Moscow Cathedral. Amnesty International named them a ‘Prisoner of Conscience’.

For Nadya, concepts and ideas come first. Joy and mental health should all form part of activism, and we have the power to create our own future.

Disclaimers:

This podcast contains some use of strong language.

This Spark has been created using material recorded online during the pandemic - so the sound quality varies in places, but this shouldn’t prevent you from enjoying the material.

Presentation by: Nadya Tolokonnikova

Pussy Riot News: Pussy Riot to receive the 2023 Woody Guthrie Prize (faroutmagazine.co.uk)

Music by Pussy Riot: Pussy Riot - YouTube

Produced by: Unboxed - a UK-wide festival of creativity that brought together Arts, Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEAM).

Brought to you by: The RSA - the royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce. Where world-leading ideas become world-changing actions. Subscribe for new episodes weekly and visit our website to find out more about our Design for Life mission and our global changemaker community - the RSA Fellowship: theRSA.org

In this episode, Daniel and Philipa are joined by award-winning permaculture teacher and designer, Morag Gamble, and best-selling author and integrator, Jeremy Lent. Together, they discuss the urgent need to realign our patterns of meaning with the life-sustaining patterns of our planet to create thriving, regenerative cultures.

An award-winning permaculture teacher and designer, Morag Gamble has been at the forefront of the permaculture revolution for over 30 years. She is the founder of the Permaculture Education Institute and the Executive Director of Ethos Foundation, a permaculture education charity for refugees. She hosts the Sense-Making in a Changing World podcast, exploring what a thriving one-planet way of life lookd like with leading ecological thinkers, activists, authors, designers and practitioners.

Jeremy Lent is the best-selling author of The Patterning Instinct and The Web of Meaning. His work investigates the underlying causes of our civilization’s existential crisis, and explores pathways toward a life-affirming future. He has been described by Guardian journalist George Monbiot as “one of the greatest thinkers of our age,”

Explore links and resources, and find out more at https://www.thersa.org/oceania/regeneration-rising-podcast

Join the Re-generation: https://www.thersa.org/regenerative-futures

Reduced Fellowship offer: In celebration of the launch of Regeneration Rising, we're offering a special promotion for listeners to join our global community of RSA Fellows. Our Fellowship is a network of over 31,000 innovators, educators, and entrepreneurs committed to finding better ways of thinking, acting, and delivering change. To receive a 25% discount off your first year of membership and waived registration fee, visit thersa.org and use the discount code RSAPOD on your application form. Note, cannot be used in conjunction with other discount offers, such as Youth Fellowship. For more information email [email protected].

In this episode, Philipa and Daniel talk about post-activism, border transgressions and making sanctuary with Dr Bayo Akomolafe and Dr Tyson Yunkaporta.

Bayo Akomolafe is a widely celebrated international speaker, post-humanist thinker, philosopher, writer, activist and professor of psychology. He is the author of two books, These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity's Search for Home and We Will Tell our Own Story: The Lions of Africa Speak. Bayo is the Founder of The Emergence Network and and a Global Senior Fellow at the University of California Berkeley. He is also the Inaugural Scholar in Residence at the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Tyson Yunkaporta is an Aboriginal scholar, educator, maker, researcher, and poet. He is the founder of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab at Deakin University in Melbourne, and the author of two books, the bestselling “Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World” and the recently published “Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking”. Tyson’s work focuses on applying Indigenous methods of inquiry to resolve complex issues and explore global crises.

Explore links and resources, and find out more at https://www.thersa.org/oceania/regeneration-rising-podcast

Join the Re-generation: https://www.thersa.org/regenerative-futures

Reduced Fellowship offer: In celebration of the launch of Regeneration Rising, we're offering a special promotion for listeners to join our global community of RSA Fellows. Our Fellowship is a network of over 31,000 innovators, educators, and entrepreneurs committed to finding better ways of thinking, acting, and delivering change. To receive a 25% discount off your first year of membership and waived registration fee, visit thersa.org and use the discount code RSAPOD on your application form. Note, cannot be used in conjunction with other discount offers, such as Youth Fellowship. For more information email [email protected].

ReGeneration Rising is a specially-commissioned RSA Oceania podcast exploring how regenerative approaches can help us collectively re-design our communities, cities, and economies, and create a thriving home for all on our planet. In this first episode of the second series, co-hosts Philipa Duthie and Daniel Christian Wahl talk to Biomimicry pioneers Janine Benyus and Dr Dayna Baumeister about the practice of learning from life’s enduring patterns and wisdom.
Over 3.8 billion years life has evolved to create the conditions conducive to life. In comparison, the history of human innovation is vanishingly brief. What might we learn if we looked to nature as our teacher, not only for inspiration in physical design but in ways of learning, relating and collaborating?

Janine Benyus is a biologist, author, innovation consultant, and self proclaimed “nature nerd.” She may not have coined the term biomimicry, but she certainly popularized it in her 1997 book ‘Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature’. She is Co-founder of Biomimicry 3.8 and the Biomimicry Institute. Janine has introduced millions to the meme of biomimicry through two TED talks, hundreds of conference keynotes, and a dozen documentaries. In 2022, Janine was awarded the annual RSA Bicentenary Medal for her remarkable contribution to regenerative design.

Dr Dayna Baumeister’s foundational work has been critical to the biomimicry movement, establishing it as a fresh and innovative practice, as well as a philosophy to meet the world’s sustainability challenges. As an educator, researcher, and design consultant, Dayna has helped more than 100 companies consult the natural world for elegant and sustainable design solutions. She is Co-founder of Biomimicry 3.8.

Explore links and resources, and find out more at https://www.thersa.org/oceania/regeneration-rising-podcast

Join the Re-generation: https://www.thersa.org/regenerative-futures

Reduced Fellowship offer: In celebration of the launch of Regeneration Rising, we're offering a special promotion for listeners to join our global community of RSA Fellows. Our Fellowship is a network of over 31,000 innovators, educators, and entrepreneurs committed to finding better ways of thinking, acting, and delivering change. To receive a 25% discount off your first year of membership and waived registration fee, visit thersa.org and use the discount code RSAPOD on your application form. Note, cannot be used in conjunction with other discount offers, such as Youth Fellowship. For more information email [email protected].

When faced with global social and environmental challenges, we can assume that we should be entirely focused on solving the problems ‘out there’. But without paying attention to our inner world and inter-being - the ways in which we relate to one another - can we really reimagine our world and enable flourishing futures for all?

In this episode, Daniel and Philipa are joined by peace pilgrim, activist and former monk, Satish Kumar. Aged 9, Satish renounced the world and became a wandering Jain monk. Inspired by Gandhi, he decided at 18 that he could achieve more ‘back in the world’, campaigning to turn Gandhi's vision of a peaceful future into reality. Satish founded The Resurgence Trust, an educational charity that seeks to inform and inspire a just future for all. He was the Editor of the charity's change-making magazine, Resurgence & Ecologist, for over 40 years. He co-founded Schumacher College, which he continues to serve as a Visiting Fellow.

ReGeneration Rising is a specially-commissioned RSA Oceania podcast exploring how regenerative approaches can help us collectively re-design our communities, cities, and economies, and create a thriving home for all on our planet.
Explore links and resources, and find out more at https://www.thersa.org/oceania/regeneration-rising-podcast

Join the Re-generation: https://www.thersa.org/regenerative-futures

Reduced Fellowship offer: In celebration of the launch of Regeneration Rising, we're offering a special promotion for listeners to join our global community of RSA Fellows. Our Fellowship is a network of over 31,000 innovators, educators, and entrepreneurs committed to finding better ways of thinking, acting, and delivering change. To receive a 25% discount off your first year of membership and waived registration fee, visit thersa.org and use the discount code RSAPOD on your application form. Note, cannot be used in conjunction with other discount offers, such as Youth Fellowship. For more information email [email protected].