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.

Joining me online from her home in Oxford, I hope you enjoy this conversation with Kate Raworth.

Anthony.

Get more at:

Kate’s website (including how to buy her book)

Rethink Economics - the movement that began with a global student revolt against how economics is being taught in universities

Listen on iTunes, SoundCloud or Stitcher.

Meet Trevor Meier, award-winning documentary film-maker, photographer, and story-teller. His latest film, ‘A New Economy’, has been a popular feature on the global festival circuit, including nationally in Australia as part of the Transitions Film Festival.

It’s a terrific documentary - much-needed, beautifully produced, and featuring a range of insightful people and projects to fire our imaginations, open our view of the world, and sure up our courage to experiment with new ways of doing things.

As Trevor explains, this isn’t a movie about the economic crisis we’re in – it’s about going beyond the crisis. It’s about what comes next, or perhaps better said, what is currently coming next.

Our first guest on Rescope Radio, Capital Institute founder John Fullerton, features in the film. And like John, Trevor has observed hundreds of projects happening on the ground to build a new economy – they considered 600 for this film alone!

His observations of these projects, and of the influential people featured in the movie, are as insightful as his films. He reserves particular mention for John Fullerton, which echoes the reasons we were so pleased to launch Rescope Radio with him. But it’s his comment on his biggest regret of the film that is just as important in this light, raising probing insights into the nature of diversity and power in this space.

He also talks tellingly about the sense of privilege he feels, and accompanying responsibility, to do what he does with his contribution to the world. And tellingly, again echoing John Fullerton, he talks of the liberating nature of living in this way, with this purpose, this sense of being alive, and connecting with the best of what makes us human – notwithstanding, or even because of, the challenges involved. “I don’t see it as a fight”, he says, “I see it as life, this process of creation.”

Music is central to ‘A New Economy’, and to Trevor’s background, so we were looking forward to what he would choose for us to end this program with. And in many ways, his choice of music and how he describes what it means to him says everything you need to know about him, and the potential of the new economy we might create together.

I found speaking with Trevor to affirm a sense of possibility in the world, one grounded in the reality we might not commonly see unfolding on daily media, but we can see it in his films, and hear it in this conversation. Joining me online from his home in Vancouver, I hope you enjoy this conversation with Trevor Meier.

Anthony James.

Listen on iTunes, SoundCloud or Stitcher.

Welcome to the first episode of Rescope Radio, featuring an extensive and inspiring conversation with John Fullerton, the former Wall Street executive who became the founding President of the Capital Institute, a non-profit organisation working to change our economic and financial systems. Hosted by Rescope Project Director, Anthony James.

John is a former Managing Director of 'the old' JP Morgan, as he puts it, and now founding President of the Capital Institute, a non-profit organisation in the US dedicated to bringing about new, regenerative economic and financial systems.

Given these systems are fundamental to the civilisational crisis we find ourselves in, and therefore how we need to deal with it, this is vital work, and a revealing conversation.

John draws deeply on systems thinking, a broad range of other contemporary and ancient schools of thought, and a range of ‘real world’ case studies, impact investing and other experiments on the ground. All this features in his extensive speaking and writing, including in his white paper, Regenerative Capitalism: How Universal Principles and Patterns Will Shape Our New Economy.

Speaking with John was every bit as inspiring and enlightening as we thought it would be. So it’s our great pleasure to introduce him as our first guest on Rescope Radio.