Impact Journey with Julia S Julia S

I’ve noticed that activism is having a moment in places I was not used to seeing it - inside companies. Back in my corporate days, I kept your head down and did my activism at home. Serial rebel Tessa Wernink has been shaking things up since co-founding Fairphone. I met her in her new role at The Undercover Activist. We get deep into employee activism: the dissonance about staying in a job and staying true to values, the role of power, and activism as a spiritual practice.



THE IMPACT. Tessa Wernink:

-leads The Undercover Activist, an education and research platform that coaches and emboldens young professionals to take constructive action to change their organisations from within

-was part of the founding team of Fairphone, turning a campaign for fairer electronics into an impact-driven business model

-is co-founder and host of the podcast series, What If We Get It Right?

-studied English Literature and International Development, Journalism, Deep Democracy, Non-Violent Resistance and Communications

-grew up in Hong Kong, and now lives in Amsterdam with her partner and their three boys



THE JOURNEY. In our conversation, we explore:

-Tessa’s international upbringing: “there is more than one truth”

-Starting Fairphone: a rebel questioning systems

-Roots of The Undercover Activist: action research, a learning hub

-Befriending conflict: “resistance is the energy, not the enemy”

-The dissonance: “Should I stay in this job and try to kind of be that person I want to be”

-A learning journey: knowing our rights, safe spaces to be uncomfortable, making it personal

-Activism and power: the “power shadow” of leaders, “do we need power to have influence?”

-Activism as a spiritual practice: “how we get there is where we’ll arrive”

What do you get when you cross a bestselling novelist with a masters in regenerative economics and a healthy dose of shamanic practice? This fascinating conversation with the brilliant Manda Scott, creator of Accidental Gods and the Thrutopia Masterclass.



THE IMPACT. Manda Scott:

- Has been, variously, a veterinary surgeon, veterinary anaesthetist, acupuncturist (people and animals), crime writer, columnist, blogger, economist, and author

- Teaches shamanic dreaming, creative writing and concept-based dog training

- Is the bestselling author of many books, including the Boudica series, and most recently of the upcoming thrutopia novel Any Human Power, to be released in 2024

- Created Accidental Gods, a podcast and membership program for people and ideas at the edge of regenerative change

- Teaches the Thrutopia Masterclass for writers to create inspiring stories that shape our futures

- Holds a Masters in Regenerative Economics from Schumacher College



THE JOURNEY. In our conversation, we explore:

- A different childhood. How a unique upbringing on a rehabilitation center for birds of prey in rural Scotland meant that “being normal was never an option”

- A spiritual journey. As a young child, getting curious about pre-Roman shamanic cultures of her land

- Listening. Asking “what do you want of me?” and following the answer, creating Accidental Gods 

- Writing Thrutopia. Writing a future beyond capitalism and extraction, challenging the publishing world

- What are we here for? Not to pay bills and die. What something new and different could look like

For any of us working in sustainability, land guardianship is crucial to climate action. Yet the ways to support stewards of the land - Indigenous peoples and local communities - are not obvious. I learned so much from Nonette Royo from the Tenure Facility: she grew up seeing violence and land grabs in her home in the Philippines, and became a human rights lawyer to protect the protectors of land.



THE IMPACT. Nonette Royo:

- Is a human rights and environment lawyer, committed to supporting the aspirations of Indigenous and local peoples and helping forest communities protect their people and land

- Is currently Executive Director at The International Land and Forest Tenure Facility, an organization focused on securing land and forest rights for Indigenous Peoples and local communities

- Gave a TED talk on why Indigenous forest guardianship is crucial to climate action

- Has over 30 years experience advising funds dedicated to Indigenous Peoples and local communities in forest and climate programmes

- Co-founded and led the Samdhana Institute and set up several NGOs focusing on advancing Indigenous Peoples and women’s legal rights, helping design and implement funding portfolios for local communities and Indigenous Peoples in the global south



THE JOURNEY. In our conversation, we explore:

- Origins of Nonette’s life and work in the Philippines: a "land of promise" and broken promises

- Becoming a lawyer and the challenge for Indigenous communities: traditions that don’t believe in land ownership in a capitalist system that demands deeds and titles

- Bringing alternative law solutions to bridge the two worlds: through basic human rights, ancestral domain law, and Indigenous People’s Collective Titles

- The hardest part of this work: bringing communities together to heal stories and land

- The key to climate change: land rights in conversation with stewards of the land




As always, send any feedback and ideas to impactjourneypodcast at gmail dot com.

What did it take to start a first-of-its-kind sustainable business section at The Guardian? And why leave the big city life to live in a monastic community? Journalist Jo Confino describes his journey from covering finance and business to the next frontier in this time of crisis: mindfulness, compassion, feeling our suffering. As the podcast Jo hosts says: the way out is in.

 

THE IMPACT. Jo Confino:

- Bridges many worlds: executive coach, facilitator, journalist, and sustainability expert.

- Was Executive Editor of What's Working at HuffPo, executive editor of The Guardian and chairman and editorial director of Guardian Sustainable Business

- Is a Partner at Leaders’ Quest, partnered with UN Development Programme on a consciousness and systems change initiative, and sits on the Boards of various climate organizations.

- Is a mindfulness advocate, has worked closely with Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and his monastic community in France Plum Village, and now hosts their podcast The Way Out Is In.

- Gained his MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice at the University of Bath.

 

THE JOURNEY. In our conversation, we explore:

- Early influences: the desire to make sense of the world

- Changing things at the edge: how he did that at Guardian Sustainable Business

- The next edge for anyone working on the climate and social crises: consciousness

- What does climate have to do with mindfulness: getting personal, feeling the feelings

- The wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh: connecting to our own suffering and the suffering of the world

- The thousands of choices we can make every day

Since I've joined the board of Action Against Hunger, I've been on a learning journey. How big of a deal is the global food crisis? Why hasn't it been solved? What can we do about global hunger? Of course, my preferred way to learn is to call up experts and together explore tough questions on the podcast.



THE IMPACT.

- Cathryn Dhanatya, PhD, works at the intersection of health and research and advocacy, and sits on the Advisory Board of Action Against Hunger. She leads Growing Good, was the Chief Scientific Administrative Officer for Stand Up To Cancer, and held leadership research positions at UCLA and USC.

- Michelle Brown has a career in advocacy and development. After many years as the UN representative for Refugees International, she is now the Associate Director of Advocacy for Action Against Hunger.

- Get more information on the work of Action Against Hunger and support via my fundraising page.



THE JOURNEY. In our conversation, we explore:

- Influences: what led both Cathryn and Michelle to work in international development and advocacy

- Listening to communities: getting close means learning as much as helping

- Hunger: there isn't a lack of food; there is a lack of distribution that's fair and equitable

- Proximity: understanding hunger close to home and around the world, and how all of it affects us

- Beyond hunger: not just about food, it's about access to health, clean water, education, livelihoods and income

- The climate crisis: and how it is inextricably linked to the hunger crisis

- Systemic change: transferring power to local communities

In my attempts to connect with people on some of our most important issues like climate change, I have been missing a huge pathway - faith. These issues need hard conversations, and hard conversations need us to tap into more than facts and fears. My conversation with Dekila opens the door to bringing the sacred back into science.

THE IMPACT. Dekila Chungyalpa:

- is the founder and director of the Loka Initiative, an interdisciplinary capacity building and outreach platform at the University of Wisconsin - Madison for faith leaders and culture keepers of Indigenous traditions who work on environmental and climate issues. Its mission is to support faith-led environmental and climate action efforts, locally and around the world, through collaborations on project design and management, capacity building, training, media and public outreach. Their vision: that inner, community, and planetary resilience are interdependent and that we cannot achieve any one of these goals without working on the other two. To sign up for their quarterly newsletter: https://go.wisc.edu/lokanewsletter

- founded and led Sacred Earth, a faith-based conservation program at the World Wildlife Fund; at WWF-US she was also Director for the Greater Mekong Program

- serves as the environmental adviser for His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, head of the Karma Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism.

- received the prestigious Yale McCluskey Award in 2014 for conservation innovation

- recently published in Psychology Today on how to cope with eco-anxiety



THE JOURNEY. In our conversation, we explore:

- Her path to wholeness: bridging her spiritual heritage growing up in Sikkim in a Tibetan Buddhist community and her environmental conservation background, after being “an environmentalist by day and a person of faith by night”

- Eco-anxiety amidst success: her own path through the urgency and panic while being externally “successful” at the World Wildlife Fund

- People and planet: why faith leaders are uniquely positioned to lead us in spiritual truth-seeking on some of our toughest issues