We’re back with another amazing episode! Our guest this week is Anna Funder, an incredible Australian writer whose books Stasiland and All That I Am are prize winning international best sellers. Her most recent work, Wifedom , is an exploration of Eileen O'Shaughnessy, George Orwell's first wife who was almost successfully erased from history - until now. Anna shares her inspiration for the book, reflecting on her own experiences within a seemingly egalitarian marriage as she unravels the intric...
Feb 08, 2024•53 min•Season 1Ep. 3
We are so thrilled to introduce you to the legendary Nora Bateson! Nora is a celebrated filmmaker, writer, and president of the International Bateson Institute in Sweden. Her interdisciplinary work combines biology, cognition, art, anthropology, and psychology where she delves into ecological patterns in living systems. Nora introduces us to the concept of “warm logic” and “double binds” and challenges traditional ways of thinking that are rooted in linear causality. We also explore the differen...
Dec 14, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Welcome to the first episode of the Wisdom and Action podcast, brought to you by the Small Giants Academy. Join host Berry Liberman as she chats with Ben Goldsmith, a leading figure in green investment and the rewilding movement in the UK and Europe. The conversation navigates the complexities of valuing nature, rewilding, and the financial markets in the restoration process. As Berry and Ben explore the mysteries of our connection with nature, they touch on the profound impact of grief and loss...
Dec 07, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 1
We’ve been brewing something special here at The Small Giants Academy and can’t wait to show you. The Wisdom and Action Podcast… coming soon. Produced by Audiocraft Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dec 05, 2023•3 min
Legendary Hollywood screenwriting teacher Joan Scheckel shares her insights about the true value of meaningful storytelling. Joan has refined a creative process called The Technique – a deep storytelling discipline so deep and profound, you dare not do it if you're not 100 per cent committed to your craft.Joan has worked on hundreds of films: from Little Miss Sunshine to Whale Rider to Transparent. Talking with Joan, we are in the presence of a true master. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...
Mar 21, 2023•1 hr 11 min
This week’s conversation is between Berry and Canadian culture activist Stephen Jenkinson. His work is really hard to classify. You may have read his conversation with Pierz Newton-John in issue 54 of Dumbo Feather magazine. Stephen has worked extensively with people who are dying, and their families. He’s worked in medical care, agriculture, and he’s also a canoe builder and sculptor. Stephen’s the author of Come of Age and Die Wise. He travels the world performing the Nights of Grief and Myste...
Feb 21, 2023•41 min
This is episode 2 of our mini-series with Nate Hagens, where he and Berry explore the role of energy in our lives and in our economies, and how our short-term thinking around energy in the past two centuries in particular is bringing and will continue to bring huge implications.They wrestle with our collective behaviours and thinking, and unpack some of the adaptive solutions and opportunities available for us to work with the circumstances we are in.You can dive deeper into the work of Nate Hag...
Feb 13, 2023•44 min
Gabor Mate is a Hungarian-Canadian physician who specialises in addiction and childhood development.His most recent book, a must read, is The Myth of Normal, all about trauma, illness and healing in a toxic culture. We apologise for the rough audio in this chat, but hope you'll still be able to take in many of the gems it harbours. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 23, 2023•30 min
Introducing our new mini-series with Dumbo Feather favourite, Nate Hagens! You may remember our conversation with Nate from a couple of episodes back, where he gave us a big picture overview of the various interlocking crises of this moment, or what he calls "the human predicament."We are going deeper into this with a mini-series that unpacks a range of issues and asks the question, "What can our collective future look like?" In this episode, Berry and Nate explore the topic of human behaviour, ...
Jan 09, 2023•47 min
Dr Julia Kim is the Program Director of the Gross National Happiness Centre in Bhutan. Long time readers and listeners of Dumbo Feather will be familiar with the GNH framework, which many organisations, cities and communities around the world have implemented to shape a more sustainable and holistic vision of their success. Julia shares more on that and why Bhutan is such a rich place for leadership exploration in this chat with Small Giants Academy head of programs, Tamsin Jones.You can learn m...
Dec 19, 2022•36 min
It's the brilliant, joyful and wise Esther Perel!Esther is the foremost expert on human relationships and sexuality right now on the planet, and author of the New York Times bestseller Mating in Captivity, which shook the ground beneath us with the concept of erotic intelligence.She is a cultural force & global icon, creator of two outstanding podcasts series: Where Should We Begin, which takes us into the therapy room as she counsels real couples through their conflicts, and How's Work? abo...
Dec 11, 2022•38 min
In this episode, Kirsty chats with Frances Haugen, the woman who leaked internal documents that demonstrated a lack of empathy and care from Facebook executives about the impact that its products were having, particularly on young women and girls.Facebook has since changed its name to Meta, but its suite of products is the same: Facebook, instagram and WhatsApp are visited by billions of people globally, every day.Frances is a big thinker: she wants to be part of the story that changes the narra...
Nov 21, 2022•40 min
For the past couple of months, we’ve been exploring what the good society is all about, how we can create systems and communities that support people and planet to thrive. On this episode, we have a slightly different take on the topic. Dumbo Feather’s editor Kirsty de Garis is speaking with someone who had made her way into just about every kitchen in Australia with her gorgeous cookbooks – Hetty McKinnon. Hetty is a Chinese-Australian cook who established Arthur Street Kitchen in Sydney’s Surr...
Nov 07, 2022•30 min
Hi friends! This is our third episode in our Good Society series, where we unpack the current systems we live, work and play within and ask how they can do better and be better for people and planet. This week, Berry talks with Oliver Burkeman, a long-time columnist for The Guardian, where he wrote a column about productivity that ultimately lead to his latest book, 4000 Weeks - Time Management for Mortals. First, Oliver says, we need to accept that we can't do everything. Given that reality, wh...
Oct 25, 2022•41 min
We’ve got episode two of our Good Society Series, where we’re unpacking the current systems we live, work and play within, and ask how they can be better for people and planet.What does it mean for us to thrive within our planetary bounds? What structures are getting in the way of that? Throughout this series, we look at who we want to be as a society & how we can use our heads, hearts and hands to get there.In this episode, Berry sits down with professor Dan Ariely, one of the world’s leadi...
Oct 10, 2022•41 min
We are excited to share the first in our 6-part series on the The Good Society, where we’re unpacking the current systems we live, work and play within, and ask how they can do better and be better for people and planet.What does it mean for us to thrive with another within our planetary bounds? What structures are currently getting in the way of that? What are the stories we need to be telling to get there?Throughout this series, we look at who we need and want to be as a society, and how we ca...
Sep 26, 2022•1 hr 15 min
You might have noticed a recent run of incredible female leaders on the show – well, they keep coming! This episode Berry sits with one of the world’s leading teachers of mindfulness meditation – Sylvia Boorstein. Sylvia is one of the people who literally brought buddhism to the West in the 1970s, and like many of them is Jewish. She is a mother, a grandmother, a psychotherapist, and a founding teacher of Spirit Rock, a world-renowned Buddhist meditation centre in Woodacre, California. The title...
Sep 12, 2022•43 min
Gayle is co-founder of Melbourne-based Global Leadership Foundation, and she works with boards and senior leaders all over the world in raising emotional health, building resilience, and transforming leaders and organisations. Gayle is one of our guest facilitators on the Small Giants Academy Mastery of Business and Empathy program, which is currently open for 2023 expressions of interest. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 29, 2022•41 min
Kemi Nekvapil is one of Australia’s leading coaches for female executives and entrepreneurs, as well as an author and a highly sought-after international speaker.Her latest book is Power: a woman’s guide to living and leading without apology, and in this chat with our editor Kirsty, she talks about some of the stories and ideas behind writing it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 15, 2022•40 min
Jamie Wheal is the founder of the Flow Genome Project and an expert in the neurophysiology of human performance. His latest book is "Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex and Death In a World That's Lost Its Mind."In this conversation with Berry, he posits solutions for the crisis of meaning many of us face today, and guides us towards a new (old) frontier that he calls "Meaning 3.0". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 27, 2022•31 min
In celebration of Issue 70 of Dumbo Feather magazine, all about a Meaningful Life, Berry sat down with one of the greatest living thinkers of our time: Professor A C Grayling. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 14, 2022•33 min
This week we’re sharing a conversation we had with waste queen Veena Sahajwalla as part of Vivid Festival 2022. Veena is a trailblazer in the field of recycling science. She heads up the SMaRT Centre at UNSW, and among her epic scientific breakthroughs include perfecting a technique that brings together waste tyres and waste plastic in the production of steel, and waste textiles and waste glass in the manufacturing of ceramics. We love Veena's story and ability to offer very practical solutions ...
Jun 27, 2022•40 min
Our much-loved contributor Lydia Fairhall sits down with a hero of hers, the Worimi storyteller, Paul Callaghan. Paul is an author and consultant who specialises in leadership development and wellbeing. In his mid-30s, he encountered a period of depression, after realising the success he had been striving for didn’t match up with his internal measure. Drawing on a variety of tools, including Indigenous teachings, he was able to navigate his way to a truer, more whole embodiment of himself. In 20...
Jun 20, 2022•34 min
Peter Garrett is a member of one of Australia's most successful bands, Midnight Oil. He’s also served as environment minister in the Rudd-Labor government, and been a long-time advocate and campaigner on a range of issues, including human rights and climate change. In this chat with contributor Myke Bartlett, he talked about the role of culture and the arts in enacting change, and how we can infuse our systems with integrity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jun 02, 2022•27 min
Roman Krznaric is an internationally renowned public philosopher who writes about the power of ideas to change society. Born in Sydney, he now lives in Oxford with his kids and wife Kate Raworth, who many of you will know as the designer and thinker behind Donut Economics. Roman is the founder of the world’s first Empathy Museum and Research Fellow of the Long Now Foundation, a long-term cultural institution promoting “slower/better” thinking. Roman’s most recent book is The Good Ancestor, which...
May 23, 2022•44 min
Elizabeth Sawin is unlocking the power of multi-solving for people and planet. A student of biology, she became fascinated with the interconnectedness of all things, in a world that is often ready to simplify and seperate. Climate change sat at the heart of those connections, leading her on a path to activism and the co-founding of Climate Interactive, a group that uses system dynamics — an approach to understand the behaviour of complex systems — to drive meaningful and equitable climate action...
May 09, 2022•40 min
We join American biologist and writer David Haskell on a sonic journey, back to the first sounds made on Earth.David's latest book is "Sounds Wild and Broken," a lyrical exploration of the diverse sounds of our planet and the perils that sonic diversity now faces. It’s an exquisite lens through which to think about our relationships with the living world, and how we can enter more fully into a conversation that is always waiting for us. David is a professor of biology and environmental studies a...
Apr 25, 2022•46 min
This week we’re revisiting some of the spirit and empowered thinking that emerged from the chaos of 2020, with a conversation we had at the time with the deputy lord mayor of Sydney, Jess Scully. Jess is an extraordinary young councillor who is helping bring more voices to the political table, while creating pathways to reclaim public spaces, address housing problems, and enable more resilient and connected cities and communities. Jess is also an arts curator and writer, a passionate advocate fo...
Apr 14, 2022•42 min
This is part two of our conversation with social philosopher and thought leader, Daniel Schmachtenberger. If you haven’t listened to part one, go back and do that, as it lays all the groundwork for what he and Berry explore in this episode.If you like what you hear, then grab a copy of our systems change issue of Dumbo Feather magazine, with Daniel on the cover, over at dumbofeather.com or your local newsagent or retail store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 31, 2022•33 min
We’ve got an epic conversation with one of the most sophisticated thinkers on the planet today, the social philosopher Daniel Schmachtenberger. Berry spoke with Daniel for our systems change issue of the magazine, a special edition for this crucial moment in history, which comes out March 24. Daniel is co-founder of Civilization Emerging and The Consilience project, and has a particular focus in his work on existential threats to humanity, and the importance of collective sensemaking. He’s able ...
Mar 17, 2022•34 min
