The Perth-based Rescope Project has an exciting mission and goals about “empowering people to regenerate the systems and stories we live by” and has produced some great interviews “getting to the heart of sustainability” that we believe Geelong should hear.
So during the summer break, we have lined up the following five Rescope podcasts to go on air in The Sustainable Hour’s slot on Wednesdays from 11am to 12pm:
27 December 2017: Kate Raworth
Doughnut Economics: A conversation with Kate Raworth
3 January 2018: Michelle Maloney
Building the New Economy: A conversation with national convenor Dr Michelle Maloney
10 January 2018: John Hewson
A Greater Purpose: A conversation with former Australian Federal Liberal Party leader, John Hewson
17 January 2018: Frances Jones
Regenerating Land and Food Systems: A conversation with Frances Jones from the remote Wooleen Station
24 January 2018: Anthony James & Keith Badger with Cynthia Lim
Rescoping Progress and the Good Life: Anthony James & Keith Badger with host Cynthia Lim
» Listen live on your computer or smart phone every Wednesday at 11am Melbourne time:
www.right-click.com.au/rcPlayer2
More info below
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Interview with Rescope producer Anthony James
On 13 December 2017, we talked with Rescope founder Anthony James over a phoneline to Perth, about the idea of broadcasting five of his podcasts on FM airwaves over the summer holiday.
Anthony James is an advisor, educator, writer, speaker, musician, host of the podcast Rescope Radio, and Executive Director of The Rescope Project.
“The Rescope Project empowers people to regenerate the systems and stories we live by, for life on Earth to flourish.”
» Read more on www.rescopeproject.org.au
» More about Anthony James
Building the New Economy: A conversation with Dr Michelle Maloney
This episode can be heard on 94.7 FM airwaves in Geelong region on 3 January 2017 at 11am to 12pm
Dr Michelle Maloney is the national convenor and co-founder of the Australian Earth Laws Alliance, and the developing New Economy Network Australia. Both are strongly connected with fast-growing global movements, and a burgeoning mix of initiatives on the ground.
All this has inspired a rapidly growing convergence on the 2nd New Economy conference coming up in Brisbane in September, to formalise the network and its strategies for regenerating the systems and stories we live by. Hear Michelle talk about who’s involved, what it’s aiming to achieve, how you can get involved, and why it matters.
It’s no secret that there is mass disenchantment with our economic and governance systems. And there is an extraordinary range and number of people and organisations around the world working to harness this towards positive change. Michelle explains that Australia is no exception. “At its nub, what [we’re] talking about is shifting the underpinning structures that support industrial society away from destruction, and towards sustaining, nurturing and restoring life.”
Thousands of people and groups are working at the new economy in one form or another in Australia. But unlike a lot of other places around the world, there has been no over-arching means of connecting and developing the movement. There have been pockets of work on the new economy everywhere, but nothing to stitch them together. “We’ve got all the pockets, we’ve got pockets galore. And we want to grow that, and amplify that …. But at the macro level, the systems change … perhaps [that’s where] this network will have an opportunity to really break some new ground…. [To shift] not just pockets of activity in a local area but the systems that connect them.”
Michelle emphasises that this isn’t just for people working in this space already. This is for anyone who wants to be part of the network’s important work. And the music she chooses for us to end this podcast will leave you in no doubt that when she describes the upcoming conference as a ‘grass roots economics fiesta’, she means it!
In light of all this, it was great to have an opportunity to speak with Michelle about some of her personal journey, these networks she’s convening, and how they can help us rethink and regenerate our society’s systems, for the interdependent aims of good human living and a flourishing planet.
Joining me online from her home in Brisbane, I hope you enjoy this conversation with Michelle Maloney.
Music:
Can’t Stop the Feeling, by Justin Timberlake
Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Production by Ben Moore.
Related links:
www.neweconomy.org.au – the developing website of the New Economy Network Australia
www.earthlaws.org.au – the Australian Earth Laws Alliance (AELA)
www.earthlaws.org.au/?page_id=2854 – for more on Dr Michelle Maloney
» Listen to this episode on Soundcloud:
www.soundcloud.com/rescoperadio
Doughnut Economics: A conversation with Kate Raworth
This episode can be heard on 94.7 FM airwaves in Geelong region on 27 December 2017 at 11am to 12pm
At her home in Oxford, UK: Kate Raworth, best-selling author on the ‘new economy’. In Perth, Australia: Anthony James, Executive Director of The Rescope Project.
“Kate Raworth is one of the world’s most brilliant and needed systems thinkers. Her new book ‘Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist’ is already a best-seller and has been described by George Monbiot as ‘brilliant, thrilling and revolutionary’.
Tim Jackson, the author of Prosperity Without Growth, says it ‘reclaims economics from the dust of academia.’ Indeed, Kate initially walked away from economics due to the disconnect between how it was being taught, and today’s ‘real world’ concerns. This book is the synthesis of her work since she felt compelled to return to the field, having recognised it as the ‘mother tongue’ of modern society.
Her experience mirrors that of an increasing number of people in this regard, including myself. So it was great to have an opportunity to speak with her about how her doughnut – yes, of all things – can help us rethink and recreate our economic system for today’s world – to leave no one languishing in the hole, while keeping planetary boundaries safely intact.
This isn’t just for economists. It’s for all of us. It’s about how we live and organise ourselves – and ultimately how we get to the heart of creating the world we’d rather see. And Kate’s art is not just how to think about this stuff, it’s how to communicate it.
In literally re-drawing economics for the 21st century, Kate is asking us to engage with how people make sense of things, and by extension how we can make new sense of things. “I realised, when it comes to mindset, how powerful pictures are…. Far more than we give them credit for, they shape the way we think.”
All this gets to the heart of system change – shifting the mindset and the very goals of the system. Though in this case, we’re not so much charged with shifting goals as, tellingly, creating one – to go beyond growth and GDP as proxies for society’s progress, to tracking what’s actually important to us. “We have an economy that needs to grow, whether or not it makes us thrive. We need an economy that makes us thrive, whether or not it grows.”
So if the doughnut is the goal, how do we get there? Kate offers a kind of map, where the obstacles are undeniable, but not inherently insurmountable. And hearing about her interactions with mainstream institutions, and the many ways people of all walks can and are driving this change, feeds a sense of something significant happening here.
Production by Ben Moore.
Music:
Never Give Up On A Good Thing, by George Benson
Let Them Know, by the Public Opinion Afro Orchestra
Related links:
www.kateraworth.com – Kate’s website (including how to buy her book)
www.rethinkeconomics.org – the movement that began with a global student revolt against how economics is being taught in universities
www.neweconomy.org.au
» Listen to this episode on Soundcloud:
www.soundcloud.com/rescoperadio
These podcasts by Rescope Radio are licensed under a Creative Commons License.
www.rescopeproject.org.au
» The Sustainable Hour: Listen live on your computer or smart phone every Wednesday at 11am Melbourne time:
www.right-click.com.au/rcPlayer2/index.php?c=thepulse