RSA Conversations

In this episode, Daniel and Philipa talk with Indigenous musician, scholar, and community organiser, Dr Lyla June Johnston. Lyla June shares lessons from her Diné, Tsétsêhéstâhese and European heritage and highlights the importance of engaging with, recognising and respecting Indigenous wisdom traditions as we seek to reinhabit our world regneratively.  

Lyla June is an Indigenous musician, scholar, and community organizer of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages. Her multi-genre presentation style has engaged audiences across the globe towards personal, collective, and ecological healing. She blends her study of Human Ecolo...

Many of us are guilty of imagining that we can neatly measure and therefore manage the world around us. But an essential aspect of life is its continued motion. How might we learn from the patterns and nature of this motion in order to think ‘like an ecology’?

Nora Bateson is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and educator, as well as President of the International Bateson Institute. Her work brings the fields of biology, cognition, art, anthropology, psychology, and information technology together into a study of the patterns in ecology of living systems. Her book, Small Arcs of Larg...

When faced with global social and environmental challenges, we can assume that we should be entirely focused on solving the problems ‘out there’. But without paying attention to our inner world and inter-being - the ways in which we relate to one another - can we really reimagine our world and enable flourishing futures for all? 

In this episode, Daniel and Philipa are joined by peace pilgrim, activist and former monk, Satish Kumar. Aged 9, Satish renounced the world and became a wandering Jain monk. Inspired by Gandhi, he decided at 18 that he could achieve more ‘back in the wor...

ReGeneration Rising is a specially-commissioned RSA Oceania podcast exploring how regenerative approaches can help us collectively re-design our communities, cities, and economies, and create a thriving home for all on our planet. In this first episode of the second series, co-hosts Philipa Duthie and Daniel Christian Wahl talk to Biomimicry pioneers Janine Benyus and Dr Dayna Baumeister about the practice of learning from life’s enduring patterns and wisdom. 

Over 3.8 billion years life has evolved to create the conditions conducive to life. In comparison, the history of human innovation is vanishingly brief. What might we learn if we...

How might the creation of scarcity, lead to popularity? 

 Johnny Lynch is a Scottish musician, also known as Pictish Trail. As well as his solo and collaborative performance career, he runs a unique record label from a remote Scottish Island. 

In this final Spark of the series, enjoy some of Johnny’s music along with his take on what it means to be your very own limited edition – with unlimited results. 

 Disclaimer:  

This Spark has been created using material recorded online during the pandemic - so the sound quality varies in places, but this s...

When can constraint be a good thing?  

And why should we learn to trust, in order to maximise creativity? 

Malcolm Gladwell is a journalist, author and public speaker. Malcolm’s enquiring mind and capacity to communicate complex ideas very clearly has made him a best-seller across many book titles.  

 In this sequence of mini-Sparks, Malcolm considers the beauty of constraint, the role of story in ideas and how trust and creativity are intrinsically linked. 

 Disclaimer:  

This Spark has been created using clips recorded online during the pandemic - so the sound quality vari...

How can injecting ideas into art create meaningful direction? 

Nadya Tolokonnikova is perhaps known best for being a musician and founding member of the group Pussy Riot - but would describe themself primarily as a conceptual artist and political activist. 

 Nadya was jailed in their home country of Russia in 2012, following a performance in Moscow Cathedral. Amnesty International named them a ‘Prisoner of Conscience’.  

 For Nadya, concepts and ideas come first. Joy and mental health should all form part of activism, and we have the power to create our own future. 

 Disclaimers:  

How can collective artistic experiences help us to understand how our minds work?  

This short audio Spark introduces the Dream Machine – one of ten UK-wide projects from Unboxed.  

Anil Seth is Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience at the University of Sussex and co-director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science; he also wears other hats including Editor-in-Chief for a leading neuroscience journal and he’s a best-selling author. 

In this neurologically soothing Spark, you can enjoy some of the atmospherics of a twenty first century Dream Machine - and the words of Professor Set...

How can wonder and positivity impact the way we make progress? 

Dr Ella Gilbert describes herself as a cloud nerd and all-round polar enthusiast. She has a post-doctorate role in climate modelling at the British Antarctic Survey and believes that communication is key when it comes to the big scientific challenges.   

 In this audio Spark, Ella discusses the idea that creativity and imagination are essential in any discipline, and especially in finding our way towards more helpful outcomes for our future habitat. 

 Disclaimer: This Spark has been created using material recorded online during the pandemic...

How can the science behind a specific human emotion, change our lives for the better? 

Dacher Keltner is Professor of Psychology at Berkeley University, California and is the founder of the Greater Good Science Center. You may have heard his podcast, the Science of Happiness. 

 Dacher and his students have been studying the transformative power of a single emotion. Keep listening to hear a brief history of our understanding of awe, its age-old purpose in the pursuit of knowledge… and how the humbling effect of a walk in the woods might just change the way we appro...