It is our mission on this podcast - and the wider membership community from which it arose - to open doors and break down barriers, to bring forward the ideas and the actions of, and give voice to, the absolutely amazingly creative people who get that business is not usual, that the reality we have created for ourselves is misguided at best - and dangerously toxic at worst - and are doing their best to bring about change in a timescale that matters. This week, we spoke with Pooran Desai, whose s...
Feb 22, 2023•1 hr 6 min•Season 13Ep. 8
Accidental Gods podcast exists to open doors and break down barriers, to bring forward the ideas and the actions of and give voice to the gloriously creative people who give their lives to the idea and realisation of a regenerative future. In this wide-ranging conversation with Solutionist and film-maker, Nicola Peel, we learned of the horrors of oil spills in the Amazon and the ways fungi could clear them if only the oil companies would let the work begin. We explored the nature of regenerative...
Feb 15, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Season 13Ep. 7
Chris Smaje is a social scientist by training and a small-scale farmer by occupation. For the past 19 years, he has co-worked a small farm in Somerset, in southwest England. Previously, he was a university-based social scientist, working in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surry and the Dept of Anthropology at Goldsmith's College. HIs focus was aspects of social policy, social identities and the environment. Since switching focus to the practice and politics of agro-ecology, he's...
Feb 08, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Season 13Ep. 6
Jo Chidley is one of those forces of nature, unconstrained by the way things are usually done. As the co-founders of Beauty Kitchen, she and her partner refused venture capital, keeping their business free to become a B-Corp and to put people and planet ahead of profit. She's dedicated to producing the best outcome for the people who work for her as well as for the people who buy her products. And in the process of finding the best ways forward, she came across the horror of single use packaging...
Feb 01, 2023•1 hr•Season 13Ep. 5
Rob Percival is a writer, campaigner and food policy expert with The Soil Association. His commentary on food and farming has featured in the national press and on prime time television, and his writing has been shortlisted for the Guardian’s International Development Journalism Prize and the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s Food Sustainability Media Award. He works as Head of Food Policy for the Soil Association. The Meat Paradox is his first book, and goodness, it's been a world changer - since it...
Jan 25, 2023•54 min•Season 13Ep. 4
This week's conversation ranges over an astonishingly wide range of topics from ways to facilitate interspecies communication through play and ways to play 3-person pacifist chess (and thereby change the world), to the nature of democracy and how the use of quadratic voting on the blockchain to inspire artistic endeavours in north London might be expanded nationally and internationally on the scale of global governance to shift the cultural dominance away from capital hegemony to a more fluid, g...
Jan 18, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 13Ep. 3
This week's guest is a friend of the podcast, Dr Gail Bradbrook. Best known for her role in co-founding Extinction Rebellion, Gail is one of our nation's (and our world's) deepest thinkers on radical change: what will it take to shift the juggernaut of predatory capitalism from the orgy of extraction, consumption and destruction that has brought us to the edge of crisis, and instead turn it towards a celebration of life in all its forms? Gail is also a leading beacon of practical activism - how ...
Jan 11, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 13Ep. 2
Eva is a climate activist, process designer and facilitator. She has co-convened the Transformative Conflict for Transition Network summit, supports sociocratic system development, decision-making and facilitation in many contexts including Extinction Rebellion Scotland. Justin is an anthropologist and activist from Edinburgh. He is a member of Extinction Rebellion Scotland. Since 2009, has worked with the Forest Peoples Programme, supporting communities to secure their community lands and deter...
Jan 04, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Season 13Ep. 1
As we move from our third to our fourth year, it seemed like a good time to look back on the origins of the whole Accidental Gods project - why and how we started and what our original aims were - and then to look forward to the coming year and what we're focussing on both on the podcast and within the membership. So much has changed even in such a short time. We're all more aware than ever of the tipping points around us, but also more aware of what we can do, of the many, many roles that are h...
Dec 30, 2022•40 min•Season 12Ep. 15
Satish Kumar is one of the absolute titans of the Regenerative movement in the UK. In 1962, he and and one of his fellow Jain monks made an 8,000 mile mendicant peace pilgrimage around the world, stopping in the capitals of what the nuclear nations of the earth: Russia, USA, China, France and the UK. He settled in the latter and soon became known for his work in connecting people and ideas. He founded the Small School in Devon and went on to found Schumacher College , deeply rooted in his ideas ...
Dec 28, 2022•59 min•Season 12Ep. 14
As the year stills and tilts afresh, we bring you our annual moment of reflection with two podcast hosts we really admire. There's a meditation at the end, to bring you into your own space of stillness and reflection, but ahead of this, we delve into where we think the global human psyche is at this moment, how we feel when we look upstream, and what we see; and what makes our hearts sing, and what does it prompt us to do: core questions that open up a wealth of ideas, reflections and imaginings...
Dec 20, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 12Ep. 13
The average child in the western world attends 10,000 hours of school - and plays 20,000 hours of games. In the 'adult' world, many of us spend hours devoted to levelling up our characters and exploring imaginary worlds. If the Tech-bros get their way, we'll soon live entirely in the Metaverse and have minimal contact with the real world beyond the walls of our concrete hutches. But imagine a different world: where the people of earth have come together to solve the multi-polar traps of the clim...
Dec 14, 2022•1 hr 25 min•Season 12Ep. 12
Professor Julia Steinberger researches and teaches in the interdisciplinary areas of Ecological Economics and Industrial Ecology. She is the recipient of a Leverhulme Research Leadership Award for her research project 'Living Well Within Limits' investigating how universal human well-being might be achieved within planetary boundaries. She is Lead Author for the IPCC's 6th Assessment Report with Working Group 3. She has held postdoctoral positions at the Universities of Lausanne and Zurich, and ...
Dec 07, 2022•42 min•Season 12Ep. 11
Dr John Collins worked for the UK's Central Electricity Generating Board in the days when such things were nationalised industries. His PhD involved creating a real-time dosimeter for workers in nuclear plants so they didn't have to wait 2 weeks to learn the results of the film-based dosimeters that were in use. In doing so, he saved the CEGB considerable amounts of money - and, mere importantly, saved the lives and health of the men and women who worked there. Thus began a lifetime working at t...
Nov 30, 2022•59 min•Season 12Ep. 10
Rupert Read is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia, but he is also a Green party activist, and a prolific speaker, media spokesperson and author advocating for a wholehearted, whole-culture response to the Climate and Ecological Emergency. A long-term friend of the podcast, Rupert joins us today to talk about his new book: 'Do You Want to Know the Truth: The Surprising Rewards of Climate Honesty' and to announce the launch of a new movement, the Moderate Flank, whi...
Nov 23, 2022•58 min•Season 12Ep. 9
As we do each year, we've curated a list of the Accidental Gods' favourite podcast and books of 2022. Enjoy! Podcasts Nate Hagens The Great Simplification - fourth of four (so far) with Daniel Schmachtenberger https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-great-simplification-with-nate-hagens/id1604218333?i=1000583952697 The Sustainable Food Trust episode with Dr Michael Antoniou https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-sustainable-food-trust-podcast/id1511133906?i=1000559083233/ Global Governance ...
Nov 16, 2022•56 min•Season 12Ep. 8
In a world that feels as if all the certainties are breaking down, how can we build the communities of place and of purpose that will give us the resilience to bridge from the old structures to the new? Exploring deeply practical ways to build community with Charlie Fisher. Charlie Fisher is a co-founder and director of the Co-operative Architecture Practice, Transition by Design . He's a researcher and urban-instigator working on regenerative land use approaches and more collaborative forms of ...
Nov 09, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Season 12Ep. 7
We know our climate is in crisis and that time is running out. But we also know that screaming at people to wake up is not working. What if we gave ourselves permission to tell the truth - and the skills to do it with humour and compassion so that we didn't trigger the resistances of fear? This Episode, we explore stand-up and improv in sustainable communications with Belina Raffy. Belina Raffy, Empress and Improvisation guide, is the director of Maffick Ltd & Applied Improvisation and Thriv...
Nov 02, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 12Ep. 6
In a world where our 'democracy' is manifestly not fit for purpose, how can we turn the brief, bright fireworks of political sanity into floodlights of progressive values, of liquid democracy that leads to an equitable, regenerative culture? With Neal Lawson of the progressive campaign group, Compass. Neal Lawson was brought up in an activist household and joined the Labour party at sixteen. After university, he worked for the Transport and General Workers' Union and then was a speech writer for...
Oct 26, 2022•52 min•Season 12Ep. 4
What happens when we realise we're trying to be something we're not? For Roz Savage, this led to a transformation that took her from Management Consultant to the first woman to row solo across the world's 3 big oceans. Now she devotes her life to the healing of the planet. Dr Roz Savage MBE is an Ocean Rower, Author, Speaker, Lecturer, Sustainability Advocate. Her feats have been described by Sir Richard Branson as “Heroic, epic, inspiring, historic.” Best known as the first (and so far only) wo...
Oct 19, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Season 12Ep. 5
What if businesses existed not to price-gouge consumers and destroy the planet, but to be part of a pathway to a flourishing future? What if the end-of-year reports were not expensive exercises in greenwash, but were actually truthful - and useful. With B.Lorraine Smith, creator of Matereality. B. Lorraine Smith is a writer, speaker, corporate mischievist, and generally curious student of life. She changes minds (most often her own), casting a dubious eye on the line between work and play. She h...
Oct 12, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 12Ep. 3
What will it take to restore balance in our world? How can we repair our devastated environments, and secure future generations' survival? And what's they key to unlock the mindset shift to enable truly regenerative transformation? With Sarah Ichioka, co-author of 'Flourish: Design Paradigms for our Planetary Emergency'. Sarah Ichioka is co-author with Michael Pawlyn of 'Flourish' a rich, inspiring book that outlines key paradigm shifts for this time of planetary emergency. Looking deeply into t...
Oct 05, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 12Ep. 2
We live in a world run by profiteers: the rush to make money destroys people and planet with equal disregard. But how would the world look if all businesses existed to promote wellbeing in all its forms? How could we make this work? Re-imagining our relationship to profit with Dr Jennifer Hinton of Lund University, Sweden. Dr. Jennifer Hinton is a systems researcher and activist in the field of sustainable economy. Her work focuses on how societies relate to profit and how this relationship affe...
Sep 28, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 12Ep. 1
What do we do when we feel disempowered, disconnected, alone and afraid? We can throw ourselves more deeply into social media, drink, drugs and deeper disconnection…or we can build rituals with intention, creativity, gratitude and kindness that re-connect us with the web of life. With Isla McLeod, ritualist and shamanic healer. Isla McLeod is a creator of ceremonies, ritual designer, transformational healer and companion at the thresholds. She has dedicated her life to bridging the gap between h...
Sep 21, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Season 11Ep. 12
We are human because for most of our evolutionary history, we have eaten meat whilst treating animals as relations and giving thanks to them. We held these the two sides of this paradox in tension. But in the past decades, we have created hells on earth in our industrialised farming and abattoirs so that eating from them is no longer remotely ethical. How do we resolve the paradox? Is global veganism the answer or are there other ways to create a generative relationship with our humanity and the...
Sep 14, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Season 11Ep. 11
"As elders, our job is to die, as eventually we come to live —always in service to life." How do we do this? How can we pass into our elder years with grace and rage and depth and honouring of who we are, and emerge wiser, and more attuned to our soul's calling. With Dr Sharon Blackie, author of Hagitude. Dr. Sharon Blackie is an award-winning writer, psychologist and mythologist. Her highly acclaimed books, courses, lectures and workshops are focused on the development of the mythic imagination...
Sep 07, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Season 11Ep. 10
We know that tribalism is destroying us, that the need for 'us' to be right and 'them' to be wrong and to become enraged when we're challenged…is what's destroying us. But how do we change? How do we connect across our differences and hear pain without attributing blame? Exploring all this and more with Sophie Docker of The Restorative Engagement Forum and Open Edge. Sophie Docker is a highly experienced workshop leader, facilitator and mediator working in organisations, education and community....
Aug 31, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 11Ep. 9
Zineb Mouhyi is the co-founder of two charitable organizations, YouthxYouth & the Weaving Lab . YouthxYouth is a movement to radically reimagine the future of education with the goal of accelerating the process of young people influencing, designing, and transforming their education. The Weaving Lab is a global community of practice with the mission of advancing the field of weaving, understood as the practice of interconnecting ideas, people, projects, organizations, places, and ecologies t...
Aug 24, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 11Ep. 8
Lynn Cassells and Sandra Baer met while working as rangers for the National Trust and soon realised that they shared a dream to live closer to the land. They bought Lynbreck Croft at the edge of the Cairngorms National Park in the Highlands of Scotland in March 2016 - 150 acres of pure Scottishness - with no experience farming but a huge passion for nature and the outdoors. Now, they raise their own animals and sell the produce, grow their own fruit and vegetables, and are as self-sufficient as ...
Aug 17, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Season 11Ep. 7
Holding a Ph.D. in (Ecological) Economics and having studied international development, political science, and management, Thomas Legrand works in the field of sustainability for UN agencies, private companies, and NGOs. His focus is on forest conservation, climate change, sustainable finance, and organizational transformation. His spiritual journey began at the age of 23 with an encounter with native spirituality in Mexico, before embracing the wisdom of a wide range of traditions and practices...
Aug 10, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Season 11Ep. 6
