The Neuroscience of Changing the World: Participatory Governance for the Future
For over two thousand years we have overlooked the scientific and cultural impact of human feeling. USC neuroscientist Dr. Antonio Damasio argues feelings and emotions are what make up human intelligence, consciousness, and the capacity for cultural creation. Thus when we look to engineering and policy solutions to our ecological collapse based on computational brainpower and artificial intelligence, we get lost along the way. By adopting a biological understanding of feeling, we can create a framework to advance the resilience of living systems.
Threats to democracy, autonomy, diversity, and culture are evident around the globe, amidst a rise in autocratic leaders and the forwarding of globalist, nationalistic, corporate and/or elitist agendas. How to manifest the world of our dreams? How to advance the causes of justice, equality, freedom and true, compassionate regard for all life? How might we create systems of governance that actually support the common good?
Max Henning, Neuroscientist and Technical Specialist of Behavioral Science and Learning at Democracy International [https://www.democracyinternational.com/], and former Research Assistant for Dr. Damasio, sheds light in this 2023 interview on why the future of humanity depends upon our reconnection to and biological understanding of feeling and how it serves as the underpinning for a vibrant, resilient democracy and an engaged citizenry that supports it.
The Quest to Understand Our Consciousness, Antonio Damasio, TED 2011: https://youtu.be/LMrzdk_YnYY
How Our Brains Feel Emotions, Antonio Damasio 2011 - BigThink: https://youtu.be/KsSv1KzdiWU
Max Henning believes that a new model of human nature, based on recent research on emotion and feeling, is critical for building a flourishing and resilient future. Max began his career as a neuroscientist at USC, where he worked with Dr. Antonio Damasio, studying the molecular and evolutionary basis of feeling, emotion, and social behavior. Inspired by his research, about the potential for cooperative problem-solving, he founded Novus Think Tank, an organization for bottom-up, community-driven positive change. He is now working on bringing this model of bottom-up governance to the public sphere, and is currently a graduate student in Democracy and Governance at Georgetown University.
Carry Kim, Co-Host of EcoJustice Radio. An advocate for ecosystem restoration, indigenous lifeways, and a new humanity born of connection and compassion, she is a long-time volunteer for SoCal350, member of Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and a co-founder of the Soil Sponge Collective, a grassroots community organization dedicated to big and small scale regeneration of Mother Earth.
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More Info: https://maxahenning.medium.com/a-new-social-framework-can-be-based-on-a-biological-feeling-of-feeling-25c8c0d263c5
https://democracyandsocietynet.files.wordpress.com/2022/12/ds-31-henning.pdf
Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/
Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/
Support the Podcast: https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradio
Executive Producer: Jack Eidt
Hosted by Carry Kim
Intro By: Jessica Aldridge
Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats
Episode 160
Photo credit: Max Henning