On this episode, Nate is joined by Joslin Faith Kehdy, a changemaker and citizen of Lebanon. Over the last 3 years, Lebanon has had a 50% drop in GDP and 98% devaluation in their currency, massive unemployment, and - among many other things - an ongoing waste crisis. Throughout this, Joslin has been a leader in responding to and coming up with new (and old) ways for living a dignified and simplified life. Joslin is an environmentalist currently living ‘The Great Simplification’ - she offers a valuable perspective on what ‘sustainable’ living really means and insights for what may come to the rest of the world.  About Joslin Faith Kehdy: Joslin Faith Kehdy is the Founder and Director of Recycle Lebanon, whose goal is to make a circular system change to “re-psyc’le” our mindset towards action. Since 2015, Recycle Lebanon  has been organizing projects focusing on reducing plastic usage and pollution in Lebanon, while building initiatives to expand nature based consumption & production alternatives. A hands-on unlearner with a devotion for land & water stewardship, Joslin lives off-grid, homesteading in the rural village of Baskinta, Lebanon. Joslin’s organization, Recycle Lebanon, is fundraising for their newest initiative: TerraPods. If you’d like to learn more or support this project please visit: Sustain Lebanon - TerraPods For Show Notes and More visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/73-joslin-faith-kehdy To watch this video episode on Youtube → https://youtu.be/S1iAa9kP80Q

On this episode, Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation joins Nate to unpack how monetary policy and debt have increasingly extended the reach of colonial powers over recent decades and how bitcoin offers an alternative to the many people who are under this financial exclusion. How have the IMF and World Bank upheld the power of reserve currency countries in the Global North to exploit and extract resources and labor from the Global South under the guise of aid and development? What is the origin of the ‘petrodollar’ and how has it shaped geopolitical relationships since its creation? What exactly is Bitcoin and how does it provide economic and political freedom? Is Bitcoin compatible with a low energy future? About Alex Gladstein: Alex Gladstein is Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation. He has also served as Vice President of Strategy for the Oslo Freedom Forum since its inception in 2009. In his work, Alex has connected hundreds of dissidents and civil society groups with business leaders, technologists, journalists, philanthropists, policymakers, and artists to promote free and open societies. He serves as faculty at Singularity University and as an advisor to Blockchain Capital, a leading venture firm in the fintech industry. He frequently speaks and writes about why Bitcoin matters for freedom, and is the author of Check Your Financial Privilege. His new book, Hidden Repression: How the IMF and World Bank Market Exploitation as Development was just published in May 2023. For Show Notes and More visit: http://thegreatsimplification.com/episode/72-alex-gladstein To watch this video episode on Youtube → https://youtu.be/u84tyIokAY8   

On this Frankly, Nate reflects on the Beyond Growth Conference held at the European Parliament, including the stunning public acknowledgement by EU President that a growth model based on fossil fuels is now obsolete. In the context of this growing and relevant conversation, Nate unpacks what the degrowth movement is getting right, but also what is missing from the conversation. Is it possible to purposely navigate from our current system to one with lower energy and material wealth? How does a large and growing global debt overhang impact this possibility? Is a transfer of wealth between nations feasible or even desirable based on realistic outcomes? In any case, as to the inevitability of a post-growth world, the degrowth conversation needs to be expanded.  It’s the primary movement mapping out what a desirable destination might look like as we move through a Great Simplification.   Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/JYbIsXoBg70 For Show Notes and More: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/frankly-original/31-reflections-on-beyond-growth

On this episode, Daniel Schmachtenberger returns to discuss a surprisingly overlooked risk to our global systems and planetary stability: artificial intelligence. Through a systems perspective, Daniel and Nate piece together the biophysical history that has led humans to this point, heading towards (and beyond) numerous planetary boundaries and facing geopolitical risks all with existential consequences. How does artificial intelligence, not only add to these risks, but accelerate the entire dynamic of the metacrisis? What is the role of intelligence vs wisdom on our current global pathway, and can we change course? Does artificial intelligence have a role to play in creating a more stable system or will it be the tipping point that drives our current one out of control?  About Daniel Schmachtenberger: Daniel Schmachtenberger is a founding member of The Consilience Project, aimed at improving public sensemaking and dialogue.  The throughline of his interests has to do with ways of improving the health and development of individuals and society, with a virtuous relationship between the two as a goal. Towards these ends, he’s had particular interest in the topics of catastrophic and existential risk, civilization and institutional decay and collapse as well as progress, collective action problems, social organization theories, and the relevant domains in philosophy and science. For Show Notes and More visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/71-daniel-schmachtenberger  To watch this video episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/_P8PLHvZygo

Last Friday we released Nate's annual Earth Day presentation for 2023: a reflection on ~3 dozen common English words which are semantically disconnected from what they really mean - paired alongside more biophysically accurate terms. Building on that theme, this week’s Frankly is a thought experiment of which ecological and systems concepts do not exist in the English language - but perhaps should. All of this is to say, the semantics and connotations of our language are extremely powerful and have direct impacts on the way we think and act. Could shaping our speech to be more accurate, empathetic, and comprehensive cause our aggregate actions to do the same? For Show notes and more:  Youtube Link here