Malka Older makes a life at the crossroads of our existing and future worlds. Between research into the sociology of organizations, on-the-ground work in humanitarian aid and disaster risk reduction, and acclaimed writing of speculative and science fiction, Older brilliantly, beautifully, uncommonly lives the great paradox in front of us all: to hold at once the two truths of lived experience and imagined future.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

• the immigrant sensibility (05:00)
• belonging (07:20)
• exile (09:00)
• Danielle Allen's theory of justice (15:00)
• A Paradise Built in Hellby Rebecca Solnit (16:00)
• Malka's work in the international space (16:20)
• Global Voices (19:15)
• Where are you REALLY from? (19:40)
• The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (20:30)
• 'Great Asking' (22:30)
• Positionality (23:00)
• Mu - unask the question (23:20)
• the opportunity in disaster (27:10)
• 2004 Boxing Day Indian Ocean Tsunami (31:00)
• psychological distance (34:40)
• Malka's book ...And Other Disasters(35:30)
• the importance of improvisation (43:00)
• David Whyte - the conversational nature of reality (46:30)
• Malka's book Infomocracy (49:00)
• the adjacent possible (53:45)
• The Crisis of Narration by Byung-Chul Han (59:15)
• The Sociological Imaginationby C Wright Mills (59:30)
• what does it mean to flourish? (59:45)
• the generative narrative of our time (01:08:30)
• Lightning round (01:02:00)
  • Book: The Lord of the Rings
  • Passion: Hearing a new language
  • Heart sing: Global Voices
  • Screwed up: relationship
• Find Malka online:
  • Wikipedia
  • Arizona State Profile
  • LinkedIn

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

Biologist, philosopher, educator, facilitator, and historian of science Mette Miriam Böll is embodiment of the kind of life that emerges when we accept, recognize, and revere our profound interconnectedness. Her scholarship as her life are nourishment for returning to the task we are all called to: to human well, at once simple and complex, individual and civilizational.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

• Tibetan Book of the Dead (04:20)
• Dzogchen - Tibetan Buddhist Teachings (05:00)
• John P. Milton (05:40)
• drawing her out on interconnectedness (12:30)
• Krishnamurti (17:00)
• Systems awareness and change processes (17:25)
• Polycrisis (17:35)
• life is a creative journey (18:20)
• John Paul Lederach on Origins (19:30)
• systems thinking (20:15)
• Jesper Hoffmeyer (20:30)
• Peter Senge (22:00)
• Why most systems change efforts fail (22:40)
• industrial PhD program Denmark (e.g., here) (32:10)
• Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society by Peter Senge (34:00)
• compassionate systems framework (37:30)
• Otto Scharmer (37:30)
• compassionate systems workshops (42:40)
• generative social fields (44:00)
• Francisco Varela: The Logic of Paradise (53:00)
• "Keeping Quiet" by Pablo Neruda (59:00)
• Lightning round (58:30)
  • Book: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • Passion: Regenerative futures field
  • Heart Sing: Digital detox
  • Screwed up: Practicality
• Find Mette online:
  • Center for Systems Awareness

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media

Dr. Dan Jay has a mission to inspire where art and science meet. His life has been spent in the liminal and generative space between and among these domains of inquiry that are too often considered separate, distinct, even opposing. Yet, it is transformative creativity only possible from the co-mingling and conversation of art and science that we seem to be called to in the 21st century.

Origins Podcast Website

Flourishing Commons Newsletter

Show Notes:

• Falling Upward by Richard Rohr (05:20)
• Hinduism four stages of life (05:50)
• Society of Fellows (10:00)
• David Hubel (12:20)
• Will Ryman (13:00)
• Dan's hypercube series (20:00)
• self-emptying (24:30)
• Why we need an academic career path that combines science and art (27:00)
• Burroughs Wellcome Fund (28:00)
• Arthur Zajonc - 'something for the light to fall on' (31:00)
• Enfold initiative (32:00)
• collective over community (32:15)
• Ancient Greek symposium (35:00)
• Émile Durkheim - collective effervescence (38:30)
• Joie de vivre (38:30)
• vulnerability and frailty (41:30)
• compassionate leadership (42:40)
• flourishing (45:30)
• TS Eliot "The Four Quartets" (46:30)
• Souq al Arabi (48:20)
• "all flourishing is mutual" Robin Wall Kimmerer (52:00)
• encounters with flourishing (52:20)
• nuanced conception of flourishing (52:30)
• Lightning round (53:30)
  • Book: Civilisation by Kenneth Clark
  • Passion: spirituality
  • Heart sing: inspiration for his mission
  • Screwed up: failed marriage
• Find Dan online:
  • http://www.danjayart.com/
  • https://smfa.tufts.edu/directory/dan-jay

Logo artwork by Cristina Gonzalez

Music by swelo on all streaming platforms or @swelomusic on social media