Denizen

This episode builds on many prior conversations exploring work that we can do on ourselves, including living authentically, trauma and the nervous system, nonviolent communication, transforming relational conflict, and optimal zone resilience. It demonstrates how the work on ourselves extends upwards into the organization context, and further amplifies our impact at a systemic level.‍In this conversation Jenny and Diana discuss:What Diana means by conscious when she refers to conscious leadershipBeing above or below the line: reacting from fear vs. responding from trustThe four different types of consciousness from which we might lead: to me, by me, through me, and as meTaking radical responsibilityStaying curious and growing in self-awarenessThe problem with wanting to be rightOur relationship with our stories and willingness to consider the opposite is equally trueThe importance of feeling our feelings and seeing their valueWhy candor and safe emotional spaces are essentialWhy gossip is pernicious and the how judgement reveals our shadowsIntegrity, both with ourselves and with othersMaking clear agreements using a whole body yesHow to handle broken agreementsRegarding all circumstances of life as an opportunity to learn and growMoving from scarcity to abundance with a commitment to experiencing having enough of everythingCommitting to win for all solutionsOperating from our zones of genius and realizing our full potentialBeing the resolution rather than assigning blame to othersThe importance of rest and playSubconscious commitments Resources:The 15 Commitments of Conscious LeadershipThe 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success, Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Warner KlempThe Conscious Leadership GroupWholeBodyYes.comConscious Loving: The Journey To Co-Commitment, Gay Hendricks, Ph.D. and Kathlyn Hendricks, Ph.D.Terrance Real: https://terryreal.com/Man's Search For Meaning, Viktor FranklExistential Kink: Unmask Your Shadow and Embrace Your Power, Carolyn Elliott, Ph.D. Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

Ethnocide is a word Barrett both coined and resurrected, referring to the destruction of a people’s culture while keeping the people. From Barrett’s point of view, Trump’s re-election is not cause for disbelief, but a glaring reminder of what America has been since its inception: a country founded by white men for the purposes of wealth accumulation, whose rhetoric of freedom and equality has always been tenuous alongside its prevalence of white supremacy and patriarchy. In this conversation Jenny and Barrett discuss:Why Trump's re-election did not surprise Barrett and how it reflects something fundamental about American politicsThe bad faith and lies underlying American democracyThe distinction between freedom from and freedom withThe importance of language in addressing systemic oppressionWhat ethnocide means and its originCapitalism and ethnocideExistentialism and the notions of existence vs. essenceWhite essence in the United StatesWhat identity means to BarrettWhy the Hegelian dialectic and critical theory are essential to understand and combat ethnocideWhat culture means to BarrettEthnogenesis: creating and birthing cultureBarrett's Altars of American project: a ritual to combat ethnocideEŭ-topia: a sustainable, good, nurturing placeHow we can transcend systemic oppression by cultivating Eŭ-topian spaces Resources:The Crime Without A Name: Ethnocide and the Erasure of Culture in AmericaThe Sustainable Culture LabHalf Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

Melanie Rieback is a cybersecurity entrepreneur and the founder of Nonprofit Ventures, an organization dedicated to supporting post growth entrepreneurs.  She runs an incubator to support post growth entrepreneurs and teaches a course at the University of Amsterdam on post growth entrepreneurship. Her lectures are available on YouTube, linked below.This episode builds on a long series of conversations on this podcast exploring economic reform: stakeholder capitalism, steward ownership, co-ops, post-growth economics, to name a few. While it's called pot growth entrepreneurship, really this conversation is about non-extractive entrepreneurship. PGE rejects the typical silicon valley model of capital, scale, exit, in favor of bootstrapping, flat growth, and non-extraction.In this conversation Jenny and Melanie discuss:Melanie's path from cybersecurity entrepreneur to post growth entrepreneurshipWhy not all forms of steward ownership ensure profit serves purposeWhy Melanie believes business is one of the most effective forms of activismDefining post growth entrepreneurship (PGE)Why PGE is a leverage point for systemic changeIssues with the Silicon Valley model of capital, scale, exitIssues with status quo social enterprise and impact investingPrinciples of PGE: bootstrapping, flat growth, non-extractionAsset locks and stable steward ownership implementationPolicy initiatives in Europe to create a steward owned business entityHow to think about fair compensation when implementing PGEThoughts on the cultural component of this workBusiness as spirituality Resources:Nonprofit Ventures website: https://nonprofit.ventures/Post Growth Entrepreneurship: three minute explainer video"Putting Post Growth Theory Into Practice" Medium postMelanie's post growth entrepreneurship course at the University of Amsterdam; 8 YouTube lectures Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

Consciousness is one of the six themes of the Denizen podcast and the role of psychedelics is an important subset of that inquiry. It's an honor to bring Rick Doblin to the podcast with this episode; he has been at the forefront of the movement since founding the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in 1986. Rick is joined by Nirvan Mullick, filmmaker and founder of Interconnected Media, who has been working on a documentary about Rick and MAPS for ten years.This episode extensively explores the role of storytelling in the psychedelic movement. Rick takes us back to the cultural context of his childhood and shares his own experience of awakening through experimenting with psychedelics as a young adult. We discuss MAPS’s strategy and how storytelling complimented their data-driven approach with clinical trials. We talk about MAPS's corporate structure and how it evolved over time, with its incentives slowly corrupted as MAPS was forced to bring in venture capital to continue its work. Rick shares the story of the year leading up to the FDA's response letter, and how MAPS's leadership inhibited his ability to contribute to a more balanced narrative about the treatment of MDMA for PTSD. We then look forward to what comes next, and how storytelling is critical for the movement to succeed in bringing psychedelics to the mainstream to enable a global shift in consciousness. Throughout, Nirvan shares his insights as a filmmaker documenting Rick's story over the last ten years. Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

Ferananda Ibarra is the CEO of the Coventina Foundation, co-founder of the Metacurrency Project, and expert in utilizing the decentralized web to enable economic innovation, collective intelligence, and the commons.In this conversation we explore the role of currency innovation in economic innovation and regenerative economics.  Fernanda has such an incredible range of experience and knowledge that she brings to bear with her work — from her expertise in technology to her love of nature and study of indigenous wisdom to her deep foundational understanding of  the commons and collective intelligence.While the headline for this conversation is currencies, ultimately it’s abroad ranging discussion that explores money, wealth, currencies, why flows are so critical for healthy living systems, what’s wrong with blockchain and the familiar cryptocurrencies out there, and more. Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

This episode citizen’s assemblies, which are similar to jury duty, but for policy. Over the course of several months, a representative group of everyday citizens comes together to understand and deliberate issues, ultimately making policy recommendations. They’re very compelling as a compliment to traditional policy making processes, as citizens do not face the incentive challenges that elected officials do.Citizen’s assemblies have been gaining traction around the world for the last decade, and our guest Claudia Chwalisz is at the forefront of this work. We cover the basics, but then we also get into things at her frontier, such as how technology and AI can improve the process, how citizen’s assemblies might help us regulate AI, and moving beyond human-focused governance models. Resources:DemocracyNext website: https://www.demnext.org/DemocracyNext's Citizen Assembly GuideOECD Report: Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic InstitutionsValuing Uncertainty and Curiosity: Lessons from physics for politicsTech Enhanced Citizen's Assemblies: Toward a more healthy and constructive democracyMore than Human Governance Experiments in Europe (Claudia’s paper)Specific Examples:How A Permanent Assembly in Paris passed a bill into law (July 2024)In Oregon assembly, Americans show another kind of politics is possible (Oct 17, 2024)The French Citizens' Assembly on End of Life, ExplainedHow Ireland Transformed Democracy with Citizens’ AssembliesIn Their Own Words: Deschutes County, Oregon USA Civic Assembly Members  Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

Resources:Development in Progress: https://consilienceproject.org/development-in-progress/ Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

If you’re wondering how we might reform capitalism to be less extractive and more regenerative, this conversation is for you.  Our guests Chelsea Robinson and Jay Standish have just published a book, Assets in Common, sharing recent research on what is happening in the most progressive corners of the current economic landscape.   We discuss shared and stewardship governance models, which yield a more equitable, more purpose-driven economy.  Chelsea and Jay relay key findings from his research on how forward thinking entrepreneurs can address constraints they face, which  enable a more progressive economy to scale.  This isn’t a theoretical conversation that leaves you questioning what’s realistic, it is tactical and grounded in case studies. Resources:Assets in Common: Stories of Business and Community Leaders Remaking the Economy from the Ground Up Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

Over the last few episodes we’ve been exploring work that we can do on ourselves and in intimate relationships. This conversation builds on those by extending that individual work into the group and organizational level.   We explore power and examine the patterns that show up at all organizational levels, from teams to organizations to coalitions to movements.‍In this conversation Jenny and Ted cover:Power and it's relationship with agency and responisbilityThe distinction between power-over, power-under, power-within, and power-withThe importance of individual workThe concept of multi-level selection and the need to balance autonomy with alignmentThe Principles for prosocial behaviorVarious models for decision making and why Ted believes consent is the only collectively minded decision making methodThe importance of trust and psychological safety in organizationsOrganizational structures and processes that enable coherence alongside decentralizationSources of legitimacy in organizationsWhat blobs are and how to avoid your organization becoming oneCoalitionsMovementsChallenges in implementing these ideas in the default legal and cultural context ResourcesCollective Power: Patterns For A Self=Organized Future, Ted Rau Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

In this episode we’re discussing healing trauma, specifically what is required to address trauma at the root: in our nervous systems.  This topic is critical because what most of us don’t realize is how many people live in a perpetually dysregulated state due to unresolved trauma.  This leaves us with an ongoing baseline of reactivity, hypervigilance, and anxiety that spills over into every area of our lives.  Very often our unresolved trauma stems from so far into our childhoods that we are unable to parse out who we actually are at our core from who we become when our nervous systems are stuck in a fight, flight, or freeze response.  ‍Our guest for this episode is Danielle Rubio.   Danielle uses nervous system rewiring, movement therapy, and mindfulness to help her clients do the deep work required to truly address their trauma and live lives of purpose from a center, empowered place.  She is a yoga and meditation teacher, reiki master, and touch therapist who has studied extensively with leaders in the field such as Dr. Fleet Maul, Irene and Seth Lyon, Gabor Mate, and Arielle Schwartz.‍In this conversation Jenny and Danielle discuss:How Danielle defines traumaIts prevalence in the United States and the extent of its economic and social costs to societyWhat trauma actually does to the body and what it looks like when we have an unhealed, regulated nervous systemThe distinction between true healing and bypassing, illustrated by Danielle’s rude awakening after the traumatic birth of her daughterCritical learnings from Danielle's research that inform her practice todayWhat doing the work to heal actually looks like, and why it’s important to do it with supportDanielle's most essential toolsWhat it looks like to live in a more embodied state, addressing trauma as it surfacesThe one thing Danielle wishes everyone knew Resources:Danielle's website: https://danielle-rubio.com/The Body Keeps The Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, Bessel Van Der Kolk Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

In this episode we’re discussing conflict resolution, in particular, the distinction between an adversarial paradigm, that all of us unwittingly hold, and a restorative paradigm, that gets us what we ultimately want: healthy, thriving relationships with those closest to us .  The difference between the two is quite literally life changing. In the former hurt leads to disconnection and distance, with a slow and steady degradation of the relationships that matter most.  In the latter, hurt creates an opportunity for deeper connection and intimacy, which obviously reflects the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. This deep, provocative, practical conversation will help us all move in that direction.‍Our guest is David Cooley, he is a relationship coach who works with individuals and couples, guiding them to address conflict in a way that restores harmony.   His work interweaves his background in restorative justice with training in nonviolent communication, mindfulness based practices, narrative therapy, somatic work, and attachment theory.  He is also the author of Poly-wise with his partner, Jessica Fern.‍In this conversation Jenny and David discuss:What the adversarial paradigm isHow culture and the criminal justice system affect how we show up in interpersonal conflictThe insidious ways the adversarial paradigm shows up in our beliefs, responses, and internal narrativesHow our conflict resolution defaults impact our nervous systems and the nervous systems of our partnersHow the stories we hold distort how we perceive our partners in moments of conflictWhy all of this leads to increasing disconnect and degradationsWhat the restorative paradigm isThe restorative versions of the believes, responses, and narratives of the adversarial paradigmThe nervous system and how critical self-awareness and self-regulation is to addressing conflict productivelyThe role of fairness in intimate relationshipsThe role of forgiveness and the distinction between repair, expression, and forgivenessHow we can care for our partner's emotional needs without taking responsibility for our partner's emotions and compromising ourselves‍Alongside this episode we are sharing David's incredible handouts with our listeners:Attachment NeedsParadigms of ConflictThe Restorative ParadigmRepair QuestionsCentering Hurt Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

In this episode we delve deep into how we can live more authentic lives, in alignment with our true selves.‍Our guest is Maria Camara Serrano, co-director of the Hoffman Institute's international division. In addition to her work leading the Hoffman Institute internationally, Maria is trained in Gestalt Therapy, Mindfulness, and Emotion-Focused Therapy.  She has a PhD in psychology and has been studying and practicing Buddhism for over 20 years.  ‍Jenny and Maria integrate both psychology and spirituality into the conversation as they explore the question of how we might live more authentic lives, covering the following:What does it mean to live authentically?Why this topic is so relevant for Denizen's vision for the futureWhy most of us don’t lead an authentic lifeWhat the spiritual traditions have to teach usWhat psychology has to teach usWhat the work to learn to live authentically looks likeWhat the work doesn’t look like, and common ways people misunderstand what the work is or try to bypass critical components of itThe Hoffman Institute’s cycle of transformation: awareness, expression, compassion and forgiveness, and new ways of beingWhat a healthy relationship with our emotional experience looks likeHow we can heal from traumatic experiences stored in the bodyWhy our emotional competence is so important for compassion and forgivenessWhy compassion and forgiveness is an essential part of returning to our authentic selvesWhat it looks like to live authentically in our day to day livesThe role of self love Resources:Hoffman Institute: https://www.hoffmaninstitute.org/The Body Keeps The Score, by Bessel Van Der Kolk Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

In this episode we build on the two part series on consensual non-monogamy by discussing modern family structures and the work underway to support them.Our guests, Alexander Chen and Health Schechinger are both doing remarkable work in this field.In this conversation we discuss:The relationship between consensual non-monogamy and the LGBTQ+ movementWhat family meansWhy this is a civil right issueLegal work underway to support nondyadic partnershipsThe research agendaWhy this is relevant for systemic change more broadly Resources:Modern Family InstitutePolyamory Legal Advocacy Coalition Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

In this episode Jenny and Jessica discuss:The neurochemisty of lust, attraction, and loveConsensual non-monogamy (CNM) and social justice: punitive vs. restorative vs. transformational modelsHow CNM helps us surface and heal trauma and attachment issuesHow CNM teaches us to change dominant paradigms and stories within usWhy CNM leads to a change in consciousness and evolution of the selfHow embarking on a CNM journey is similar to climbing Mt Everest Resources:Polysecure, by Jessica FernPolywise by Jessica FernLove, Actually: The science behind lust, attraction, and companionshipOur Models of Justice are Perpetuating Injustice Jenny's Blog PostWe Will Not Cancel Us: And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice by adrienne maree brownThinking in Systems by Donella Meadows Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

In this conversation Jenny and Robert discuss:What the optimal zone is and how it relates to our nervous systemWhat the defensive zone is and how it relates to our nervous systemHow our triggers are amplified by past trauma, agitation from other events of the day, and chronic stressHow we can break the cycle of reflexive response when we are triggered and develop new patterns to become less triggered next timeThe notion of optimal zone hygiene, and practices we can employ to stay in our optimal zoneOptimal zone first aid; i.e. things we can do in groups as preparation to better respond when someone is triggeredHealing, particularly with respect to intergenerational traumaHow this conversation fits into Robert's course at the Context Institute, Bright Future Now Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

In this episode Jenny and Jessica cover:The prevalence of infidelity and divorceIssues with the modern love story and codependencyWhat is love?  Ideas from bell hooks and Daniel SchmachtenbergerWhat consensual non monogamy (CNM) isDifferent variations CNM can take depending on emotional and physical exclusivityWhy people practice CNMBest practices: defining your whyBest practices: defining your whatHierarchyTransparencyCNM and attachment theory: the difference between structural and statistical security ReferencesPolysecure, by Jessica FernPolywise by Jessica Fernall about love by bell hooks"What Loving You Means To Me" by Daniel Schmactenberger Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

How might we move beyond polarization and integrate the truths held in opposing points of view? Storyteller and producer Stephanie Lepp shares with us her tools and strategies to, in her words, "leave no insight behind" -- a skill essential to address the challenges of our time.Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

In this essential episode, Jenny discusses stakeholder capitalism with Jasper van Brakel, CEO of RSF Social Finance. This is one of the most important topics of the Denizen inquiry, as it tees up true economic reform where profit is put in service of purpose.In this conversation Jenny and Jasper cover stakeholder capitalism comprehensively:Defining stakeholder capitalism and differentiating between stakeholder economicsOutlining key ideas from classical economics to neoliberalism to today's shift to stakeholder driven modelsTrends driving stakeholder capitalismMetrics and B CorpsPublic Benefit CorpsBoard RepresentationCo-opsEmployee TrustsPerpetual Purpose TrustsFoundation Owned CompaniesCapital ConstraintsPhilosophical questions‍ResourcesJasper's writingsEveryone talks about the E and the S, but we need to talk more about the GWant to wring impact from ESG? Look to governanceMomentum gathers for a mission-first business model revolutionWelcome to the Era of Regenerative Finance‍Jenny's Medium postsAccelerating Stakeholder CapitalismTaming the Evolutionary BeastThe Friedman Doctrine, Revisited‍ Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

How can art contribute to systemic change? Design Science Studio co-founder Roxi Shohadaee shares her insights from working with hundreds of artists across myriad disciplines.Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.

The regenerative story starts with single core idea: we can use the universal principles underlying stable, healthy, and sustainable living and nonliving systems throughout the real world as a model for economic-system design.‍After 20 years on Wall Street, John Fullerton embarked on an intellectual journey that led him to formulate his ideas around regenerative economics. In this conversation Jenny and John discuss the meaningful influences in John's thinking, his views on why neoclassical economics is fundamentally flawed, the eight principles of regenerative capitalism, how his ideas relate to more dominant forms of economic reform, and the Capital Institute's course on Regenerative Economics, which John describes as more of an awakening than a course. Sign up for the Denizen newsletter at www.becomingdenizen.com to stay plugged into our work.  There we share our latest content alongside community events, educational opportunities, and announcements from our many partner organizations.