#52: Creating Accidental Activists to Improve Health in a Post Pandemic world with George Monbiot

12th May 2020

Today on the podcast I welcome along George Monbiot - who is is an author, Guardian columnist and environmental campaigner.

George cowrote the concept album Breaking the Spell of Loneliness with musician Ewan McLennan; and has made a number of viral videos. One of them, adapted from his 2013 TED talk, How Wolves Change Rivers, has been viewed on YouTube over 40m times. Another, on Natural Climate Solutions, that he co-presented with Greta Thunberg, has been watched over 50m times.

As we witness an improvement in the crisis and anticipate the relaxation of social distancing, I wanted to talk about the opportunities to learn and reform our political systems that globally have been woefully unprepared and slow to respond.

As we try to recuperate the losses both emotionally, physically and financially I’m trying to cultivate the opinions of thinkers from around the world who have long documented the unfolding crises in society that have now spectacularly revealed themselves to us.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How to harness intrinsic human values of kindness to foster better wellbeing in society
• How cooperation and altruism is hardwired in our neurobiology
• The evolution of humans would have required community and kindness to survive rather than the prevailing narrative of individualism and inequality
• Neoliberalism in politics and how we have evolved over the 20th and 21st century
• The impact of immersing ourselves in a virtual world
• How we address alienation and loneliness, which are the defining conditions of our time.
• The rise in social initiatives and Accidental activists
• What will we reward in a post pandemic era? Those with material wealth and social influence or those who seek to build community and foster relationships?
• Is this an opportunity to build a doughnut economy?
• Big Organising in the wake of the Pandemic

Please do remember to check out George’s website which is linked here - where you’ll find a wealth of super interesting information along with articles and publications on numerous subjects and topics.

You can also find all of George’s books linked here too - definitely have a look at these, I know you will love them!

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