#104 Susan Griffin: Creating Meaning Through Stories

Vicki Robin, the once and possibly future host of What Could Possibly Go Right?, breaks her hiatus to share the first episode of We Are the Great Turning, an intimate kitchen table conversation with the elder ecophilosopher and guide Joanna Macy.As Joanna approaches the end of a long life dedicated to healing our imperiled planet, she begins the conversation with Jessica Serrante, her student and dear friend, “standing afresh with what it’s like to live on Earth at this moment.” As we look into the face of the climate crisis, injustice, and war, difficult feelings arise; all are welcomed.You are invited to join them at Joanna’s kitchen table, and invited into a deeper sense of your belonging and love for our world.In this episode you'll find:How to connect with the great possibilities that still exist for us even in these precarious times Joanna reflects on her awakening of environmental consciousnessJess reflects on how meeting Joanna changed her lifeLove, laughter, heartbreak, and the Work That ReconnectsBonus Exercise: “Open Sentences”—a practice for partnersCheck out the full podcast here or search for "We Are the Great Turning" in your podcast app of choice.Support the showComplete Show Notes

Douglas Rushkoff makes another appearance on our podcast, sharing his latest thoughts on What Could Possibly Go Right?  Listen to his previous interviews in episodes 52, 84, and 97.Douglas Rushkoff is an author and documentarian who studies human autonomy in a digital age. Rushkoff’s work explores how different technological environments change our relationship to narrative, money, power, and one another. Named one of the “world’s ten most influential intellectuals” by MIT, his twenty books include Team Human, based on his podcast.Enjoy this casual chat between Douglas and Vicki, including themes of:Re-socialization and finding connection for well-beingPutting the soul back into our interactionsQuestioning our social constructs and triggering our agency to create changeHow experiences of awe can have profound impactsSupport the showComplete Show Notes

Laura Oldanie is a green living and money coach who blogs at Rich & Resilient Living, where she explores money and lifestyle choices for a regenerative future. Her goal is to help people achieve financial freedom and live their best lives in socially and environmentally conscious ways that equally value people, planet, and profit. She received her Permaculture Design Certificate in 2009 and has been exploring how to earn, spend, invest, and manage her money to bring about the change she wants to see in the world ever since. She has been a sought-after source of knowledge on regenerative investing, and her work has been featured in Forbes, Your Money or Your Life, Good Housekeeping, CNBC, All Star Money, ChooseFI, The Firedrill Podcast, the Permaculture podcast, and many others!She answers the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:The “possibilities for us to think more holistically, more resourcefully about wealth and what constitutes wealth”The need to “think about retirement planning on a climate challenged planet”, and to build resilient homes and communitiesThe self-actualization and joy elements that come from resourcefulness and creative frugalityThinking beyond socially responsible investing to more regenerative and meaningful opportunitiesSupport the showComplete Show Notes

For over fifty years, through twenty books and one Pulitzer Prize finalist, Susan Griffin has been making unconventional connections between seemingly separate subjects. Whether pairing ecology and gender in her foundational work Woman and Nature, or the private life with the targeting of civilians in A Chorus of Stones, she has shed a new light on countless contemporary issues, including climate change, war, colonialism, the body, democracy, and terrorism.She answers the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:An exploration of the boundaries or “binding” of gender The relationship between matter and spiritThe value of writing, “a sort of miracle, of something being created”That “people need meaning… as much as food, water, and air” and that meaning often comes through storiesSupport the showComplete Show Notes

Margaret Wheatley, Ed.D. began caring about the world’s peoples in 1966 as a Peace Corps volunteer in post-war Korea. As a consultant, senior-level advisor, teacher, speaker, and formal leader, she has worked on all continents (except Antarctica) with all levels, ages, and types of organizations, leaders, and activists. Her work now focuses on developing and supporting leaders globally as Warriors for the Human Spirit. Margaret has written ten books, including the classic Leadership and the New Science, and been honored for her pathfinding work by many professional associations, universities, and organizations.She answers the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:The idea of life affirming leadership, “on what cultivates life, what cultivates growth” and “adapting to circumstances”.The call to be “of dedicated service at the local level where we can still create good lives… embodiments of good human beings, which is the ultimate gift that we can offer.”The need to “get our egos out of the way” and move to a “place of right action and right work”The question of seeing “what's needed here, and then, am I the right person to contribute at this time?”Support the showComplete Show Notes

For over 35 years, Alisa Gravitz has led Green America, the national green economy organization that develops marketplace solutions to social and environmental problems with a key focus on climate, regenerative agriculture, labor justice and responsible finance.  As part of Green America's Center for Sustainability Solutions, which focuses on transforming supply chains, Alisa Gravitz co-chairs innovation networks on carbon farming, regenerative agriculture, climate safe lending, solar and clean electronics. Ms. Gravitz’s board service includes Ceres, Yes! Media, Network for Good, the Non-GMO Project and Underdog Foundation, along with Green America. She answers the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:The progress in the renewable energy field around the worldThe importance of our own individual steps towards climate action, both in impacting the issue and influencing society’s leadersThe significance of regenerative agriculture for environmental and social benefitsThe role of pathfinders, early adopters, and fast followers in driving positive changeSupport the showComplete Show Notes

Anne Stadler is a pioneering elder and board member at Sourcing the Way. Her specialty is offering services that support self-organizing individual and collective leadership. She opens space for the emergence of spirited leadership and inspired forms for collective evolution. A founder and organizer of local, national, and international peace efforts, and an award-winning television producer at KING 5-TV in Seattle Washington, Anne has decades of experience in guiding the formation of emergent communities. She answers the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:Learning what love is in your life, guiding and pulling us forward through even bleak times and problemsAppreciating “all these little bubbling initiatives that people undertake out of love” that are creating change Realizing that “We live in an emergent reality. We're creating the future all the time, or we're being drawn into it.”Exploring the principles of Open Space for community buildingSupport the showComplete Show Notes

Riane Eisler is a social systems scientist, cultural historian, futurist, and attorney whose research, writing, and speaking has transformed the lives of people worldwide. Her newest work, Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future, co-authored with anthropologist Douglas Fry, shows how to construct a more equitable, sustainable, and less violent world based on Partnership rather than Domination. Dr. Eisler is founder and president of the Center for Partnership Studies (CPS), dedicated to research and education.She answers the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:That “there's still this distracting argument between capitalism or socialism” and that “yes, we need enlightened government policies, but we really need to go deeper and wider and beyond”The focus on four cornerstones for partnership or domination systems: family/childhood, gender, economics, narratives/languageThe use of social wealth economic indicators as better measures for quality of lifeSupport the showComplete Show Notes

Fran Korten is former executive director, publisher and contributing editor for YES! Magazine, where she wrote about opportunities to advance a progressive agenda in politics, economics, and the environment. She lives in Bainbridge Island, Washington, with her husband, author David Korten.She answers the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:The encouraging increase in voter turnout, especially amongst younger peopleThe learnings we can take from the “people over profit” Mondragon model in Spain’s Basque regionThe benefits of ranked choice voting in elections, resulting in more collaboration and civil dialogue in the political processThe positive shift in our respect for Indigenous peopleSupport the showComplete Show Notes

Kristin Ohlson is a writer living in Portland, Oregon. Her newest book is Sweet in Tooth and Claw: Stories of Generosity and Cooperation in the Natural World. Her last book was The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers and Foodies are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet, which the Los Angeles Times calls “a hopeful book and a necessary one…. a fast-paced and entertaining shot across the bow of mainstream thinking about land use.” She appears in the award-winning documentary film, Kiss the Ground, speaking about the connection between soil and climate health. She answers the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with thoughts including:- “Cities and human societies are marvels of cooperation”- “There are a lot of people in journalism… who are looking for the solutions and looking for positive examples to spread around”- That “every living thing has a mutualism, a mutually beneficial relationship with other living things”- That “a big part of it is storytelling… when something brilliant has happened in these small incremental steps of healing relationships or the natural world; to tell the story, multiplies it”Support the showComplete Show Notes