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Sponsored by Tierra Farm | Music by Aaron Dessner

Martin welcomes activist, author, entrepreneur, and long-time friend Judy Wicks into conversation about her life's work to build economies based on cooperation and local self-reliance.  In 2001, she founded the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia, and co-founded the international Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. BALLE now includes some 30,000 local independent businesses in the U.S. and Canada. Judy envisions an economy that provides for the needs of all people while working in harmony with natural systems.

2:50 All Together Now began in 2019, Judy talks about the impulse for founding this initiative.

4:00 Judy talks about the importance of building an economy with local self-reliance at its core.

5:00 We need a revolution of values. Many of our problems stem from a society that values money more than life itself. 

5:30 Judy's first experience with indigenous people was when she lived in an Eskimo Village in 1969 as a VISTA volunteer. She recounts what this experience taught her about collaboration and sharing and how these lessons impacted her life.

7:45 Judy’s second experience with Indigenous wisdom was during the Zapatista Uprising in Chiapas, Mexico. This experience taught her the concept of local self-reliance. NAFTA was threatening the survival of the Zapatista people with GMO corn by making communities dependent on long-distance supply chains controlled by increasingly powerful multinational corporations that were putting local farmers and food-producers out of business.

10:25 What led to the founding of BALLE – network of locally self-reliant businesses.

11:30 Judy goes to Standing Rock to support Indigenous People in their efforts to honor Mother Earth, and protect children and the future by stopping the Dakota Access pipeline.

14:00 Lakota Prophesy of the Black Snake: fossil fuel industry and pipelines.

14:30 Judy realized the Black Snake in PA is fracking – and she takes up cause to stop fracking and begins to understand that the only way to go about this is by electing the right politicians.

16:00 Now more than ever we need to look to Indigenous wisdom to find the path forward. 

17:00 Story of White Dog Café and Judy’s epiphany about ethical business practices.

18:45 Transformational moment for Judy in what makes a sustainable business work: cooperation and a sustainable business system.

20:00 Judy sells White Dog and dedicates rest of her life to building local economies; and starting nonprofits as the vehicle to do so.

22:15 Judy’s work in increasing supply and connecting farmers and entrep

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