Accidental Gods

What do we really think about Food? Revolutionising what we eat with Sue Pritchard of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission

<p>We're told so often that people 'don't want the nanny state to intervene' in what we eat or drink or smoke - and often the people saying this are those who employ literal n...

How do we live, when under the surface of everything is an ocean of tears? With Douglas Rushkoff of Team Human

<p>Our guest this week is Douglas Rushkoff, a man whose insights and intellect have earned him a place among the world's ten most influential intellectuals by MIT. As the host...

Evolving Education: Building a Doughnut School with Jenny Grettve of When!When!

<p>This week's guest is one of those people whose breadth and depth is an inspiration.  As you are about to hear, Jenny Grettve is an author, a philosopher, a systems thinker ...

Building Trust - One Conversation at at Time: Cooperation Hull with Gully Bujak

<p>Today we venture into the heart of Hull, where the seeds of change are being sown by the hands of ordinary people. Gully Bujak, our guest this week, is a force of nature wh...

Vulture Capitalism - Exposing the toxic system and how to outgrow it with Grace Blakeley

<p>This week's guest is one of those who understands the nuts and bolts - the iniquities - of the current system - and has ideas of how we can shape something better from the ...

Accidental Gods Spring Equinox Meditation 2024

<p>"Consciousness creates Matter<br>Language creates Reality<br>Ritual creates Relationship" - Oscar Mira-Quesada quoted by Nina Simons in <a href="https://accidentalgods.life...

Seeds of Hope: Cultivating a Future of Flavour and Resilience with Sinead Fortune and Kate Hastings of the Gaia Foundation

<p>In this nourishing episode of Accidental Gods, we delve into the fertile world of seed sovereignty with Katie Hastings and Sinead Fortune of the Gaia Foundation's Seed Sove...

Finding a Cure for Civilisation: Delving Deep into the Roots of Being with visionary and shaman, Drea Burbank of Savimbo.

<p>“Respect is earned. Honesty is appreciated. Trust is gained. Loyalty is returned.”</p><p>— Oscar Auliq Ice - quoted on Savimbo website</p><p>In this pivotal episode, we jou...

River Charters, Net Zero Cities and BioRegional Banks: Creating a Life-Ennobling Economic System with Emily Harris of Dark Matter Labs

<p>In this week's episode of Accidental Gods, we dive into the visionary world of economic transformation with Emily Harris of Dark Matter Labs. Emily, a chartered accountant ...

Dung Beetles, People and helping the Keystone Species with Claire Whittle, the Regenerative Vet

<p>In this week's episode we delve into the intricate world of dung beetles and their critical role in regenerative farming with the passionate and knowledgeable Claire Whittl...

End State: 9 Ways Society is Broken and How we Fix it, with James Plunkett

<p>This week, I spoke with James Plunkett, a man who has spent his career at the intersection of policy and social change. From the halls of Number Ten to the charity sector's...

Growing a Public Chorus for Change: reshaping democracy with Alex Lockwood of the Humanity Project

<p>We don't have a democracy, we have a kleptocracy that elevates to positions of power those amongst us who are most comfortable with leaning into their inner Dark Triad of P...

Dancing with the god within: Finding the Sovereign Feminine with thought-leader Maggie Ostara

<p>How does each of us find our sovereignty, our sense of what it is to have agency and be alive in the world, and align this with the part in all of us that is anchored in co...

On Nature, Culture and The Sacred with Elder and Visionary, Nina Simons

<p><br></p><p>"Consciousness creates matter,</p><p>Language Creates Reality,</p><p>Ritual creates relationship' - Oscar Miro-Quesada  quoted by Nina Simons in her book ’Nature...

Gathering the Memes of Production: Building Co-ordi-Nations with Josh Davila of Blockchain Socialist podcast

<p>Those of you who've followed the podcast for any length of time know that I feel our capacity to connect across long distances, to share ideas in real time, is one of the t...

Let's get rid of Money and start afresh! Dismantling the Super-Organism with Diana Finch

<p>Happy New Year.  It feels to me as if this year, the journey is going to be one of continual change and of challenge - that 2024 will be the year when it is impossible for ...

Promethean Project - Part 2: Crafting the future with Dr Simon Michaux

<p>Welcome to the second part of our conversation - if you haven't listened to the first part, please do so - it's here [LINK]</p><p><br>and</p><p><br> Simon has very kindly a...

The Promethian Project: Building a Radical Tomorrow with Dr Simon Michaux

<p>Happy New Year.  My guest this week is a long term friend of the podcast. Dr Simon Michaux has been a physicist and geologist and then became an expert in the reality of th...

Plant Spirit Teachers: learning from the Elder Plants with Dr Simon Ruffell

<p>For this time around the dark nights of the winter solstice - at least in the northern hemisphere - we've been exploring more of an inner landscape - being reflexive with N...

Meditation for the Winter solstice of 2023

<p>Here is our winter solstice meditation - please create a space for yourself where you won't be disturbed and where you can feel your way into the dark, regenerative space o...

Solstice Dreaming: 3 podcasters gather round the Dark-Nights fire: Della Duncan, Nathalie Nahai and Manda Scott

<p>This is the fourth year of our now-traditional Winter Solstice podcast get-together in which Nathalie Nahai, Della Duncan and I sit around our virtual dark-nights fire to r...

Bright Fires, Dark Nights: Connecting deeply and building tribe as we head to the Solstice with Angharad Wynne

<p>This week, as we head down towards what, in the northern hemisphere at least, is the long nights, the dark nights, I wanted to explore our heritage, the way we celebrate th...

Braced for Impact: Cutting through the Greenwash and Lies with Rachel Donald of Planet: Critical podcast

<p>Our guest this week is host of one of my must-listen podcasts - one I've been following since the spring, when Dr Simon Michaux mailed me and said, you need to listen to Ra...

Cars of the future (NOT EVs!) - Transforming transport and business with Hugo Spowers of Riversimple Movement

<p>Our guest this week is Hugo Spowers, Company Architect of <a href="%20https://www.riversimple.com/">Riversimple,</a> whose purpose is 'To pursue, systematically, the elimin...

Beyond the Brink is the Beginning with Richard Wain - Launching 27th November 2023

<p>Words have the power to change worlds.  Powerful words, powerfully written can open doors to the future.  Beautiful words, beautifully written, can give us hope . Richard W...

Building Lifeboats to the Emerging Futures with Sophia Parker of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

<p>My guest this week is someone who is both right at the edge of the emerging futures and in a position to exert leverage at some of the highest points of the scale at which ...

The Animate Earth Responds: Initiation in a time of Crisis with Alnoor Ladha and Lynn Murphy

<p><strong>How do we move ourselves – individually and collectively – from the broken Trauma Culture of our times, to the Initiation Culture that will allow us to step forward...

Bringing Indigenous food back to the people: a conversation with Josiah Meldrum of Hodmedod's

<p>This is an Accidental Gods bonus Episode recorded at the Marches Real Food and Farming Conference held at Linley Estate in Shropshire in September.   Josiah Meldrum is co-f...

Power to the People: Changing the way things work with Simon Oldridge

<p>We all know the climate and ecological tipping points are terrifyingly close. What can we do - as individuals and collectively? </p><p>Simon Oldridge has ideas that answer ...

Becoming Intentional Gods: Claiming the future with Indy Johar of the Dark Matter Labs

<p>If we're at the moment of choice between flourishing and destruction, what would you choose? </p><p>We are at a moment of decision: We either step forward into our own Grea...

Courageous Conversations - talking about what matters with Rowan Ryrie of Parents for Future

<p>How can we, as parents, grandparents and anyone who cares about the fate of future generations, live our lives in such a way that when our children ask us why we didn't do ...

The Web of Life & New Tech Webs – A Beautiful Connection? with Monty Merlin of ReFi DAO

<p>How much do you know about AI, blockchain and Web 3.0? If you're like us, the answer is probably very little. But these techs are going to change our world out of all recog...

What your Food Ate - Or why you should never eat industrially farmed food ever again- With Anne Bicklé and David Montgomery

<p>How does soil health intimately and profoundly impact human health? What's the link between the soil microbiome and the human gut microbiome? How can we begin to restore ou...

Transforming Narrative Waters with Ruth Taylor of the Common Cause Foundation

<p>Here at Accidental Gods, we are increasingly of the opinion that our most urgent need as we face the polycrisis is to find a sense of being a belonging that changes our lif...

Equinox Meditation: Finding the balance point in ourselves and the world

<p>Manda's Equinox meditation focuses on finding our sense of balance as the tilt of the world balances between summer and winter, light and dark, day and night.  And from tha...

Walking the edge between light and dark: Equinox reflections on Accidental Gods past, present and future

<p>As we head into winter in the northern hemisphere, as the tilt of the world hangs in balance, we reached our 200th episode.  So this is a time to look back and look forward...

Meeting the Spirit of the Land: exploring Spirituality in Farming with biodynamic grower, André Tranquilini

<p>In this, our 200th episode of Accidental Gods podcast, I am delighted to be joined by André Tranquilini, estate manager at Waltham Place, a 220 acred biodynamic estate in B...

Making The Nettle Dress: a journey of attention and intention and magic and loss with Allan Brown and Dylan Howitt

<p>"Grasping the Nettle' is at the heart of the film. Making a dress this way is a mad act of will and artistry but also devotional, with every nettle thread representing hour...

Healthy Human Culture: Diving deep into ourselves, each other and the world, with Sophy Banks

<p>How do good people create systems of oppression?  What is Health? What is unHealth? And how do we move from the latter to the former in ways that mean good people create sy...

Inspiring the climate majority with Prof Rupert Read

<p>We're on the edge of so many tipping points it's hard to know where to start.  But paralysis isn't useful and so we need to talk to the people who are still moving forward ...

The Art of Living Well - A Creative Life on the Land with Elisa Rathje of AppleTurnover TV

<p>In this week's episode I'm talking to someone I met on last year's Thrutopia Masterclass: someone who was there to explore and share ideas about how we might get through to...

Spiritual Activism: Permaculture of land, heart and people with Maddy Harland

<p>This podcast is focussed on all the ways that we can bring all of ourselves to the project of total systemic change: our minds, bodies, spirits, hearts - and the practicali...

This Mighty Heart: exploring the power of Heart Intelligence with Scilla Elworthy

<p>We all know that we need to reconnect to our HeartMinds and to bring our Heart Intelligence up to meet the explosion of left brain intelligence - we just don't know how to ...

AI: Integral to the future or existential risk? (or both) - conversations on current evolution with Daniel Thorson

<p>How dangerous is AI? Are Large Language Models likely to subvert our children?  Is Generalised AI going to wipe out all life on the planet?  I don't know the answers to the...

Walk Deep, walk true, and listen to your dreams: wordsmithing the human spirit with Abigail Morgan Prout

<p>Peruvian shaman Oscar Miro-Quesada says that "Consciousness creates matter, Language Creates Reality, Ritual creates relationship.”  This week I'm speaking with someone who...

A Green New Deal that Works for People and Planet with Max Ajl

<p>Our guest this week is Max Ajl, who is an associate researcher with the Tunisian Observatory for Food Sovereignty and the Environment and a postdoctoral fellow with the Rur...

Becoming a Stag Beetle! Living the Interspecies Treaty of Finsbury Park with Ruth Catlow

<p>In this week's episode, we have a return guest to the podcast. Ruth Catlow has taken the amazing work she did in lockdown and held live festivals in the park where people g...

Voting our way to a fairer future: Contemplations on quadratic voting with Ruth Catlow

<p>This is the part of the podcast where we talk about voting systems, specifically the quadratic voting on the blockchain that Ruth has made into an app that's in use in the ...

Five Insights for Avoiding Global Collapse with economist Gaya Herrington

<p>What does it take to avoid global collapse?  Is there still time?  And if so, what are the societal, social, cultural and goal-oriented changes that we need to make to get ...

Exploding the Myth of a Farm-Free Future (and fake meat!) with Chris Smaje

<p>How do we make the case for a fully ecological farming system, that can feed all of us, while restoring the bio-sphere and providing affordable, nutritious food. How can we...

Psychedelics: the key to evolution or (yet more) big Pharma hype? With Dr Ros Watts of ACER Integration

<p>We are the Accidental Gods.  We didn't plan to be the ones to hold the god-like power to destroy most of the life on this planet, but here we are, at a place where one sing...

Summer Solstice Meditation - with Manda Scott (with birdsong behind)

<p>It's the summer solstice, the longest day and the shortest night. What matters now in our world is that we reconnect with the rhythms of the living web. This meditation is ...

Summer Solstice Meditation with Manda Scott

<p>It's the summer solstice, the longest day and the shortest night. What matters now in our world is that we reconnect with the rhythms of the living web. This meditation is ...

Manda - Summer Solstice Roundup, Reading and Listening

<p>At the halfway point of the year, Manda looks back on what's been on the podcast, forward at (some of) what's to come, thoughts on where we're at as a world, and explores t...

The Sacred Depths of Nature: exploring the interface of science, spirituality and religion with Ursula Goodenough

<p>Sometimes the synchronicity of this podcast leaves me very happy. About six months ago, I was thinking that I wanted to talk to someone who really lived at the interface be...

Reality Check: Less Quantity, More Quality in a Future that will Work, Part 4 of our series w Simon Michaux

<p>This is the fourth of our ongoing series with Dr Simon Michaux.  As ever, we ranged far and wide, but this time within the remit of 'what does the world look like in 2050 i...

Lifeboats and Volcanoes: part 3 of our series with Simon Michaux

<p>This week's guest is fast becoming a friend of the Podcast. In the first part of what is now an ongoing series, Dr Simon Michaux outlined for us the nature of the materials...

Primary Strategy: Growing a new voting paradigm in the South Devon Primary

<p><br>As you'll know by now, one of our core motivators in creating this podcast was the realisation that the 'democratic' systems of the world are largely broken and are not...

No More Fairy Stories: Writing the way through, one tale at a time - with Denise Baden

<p>If you've listened to this podcast at all recently, you'll know that I'm in the editing phase of the new book - the phase where we 'carve it into tiny pieces, throw signifi...

Meeting the Ocean: Rekindling our deepest connections through art and science with Markus Reymann

<p>How do we really create systemic change? How do we shift narratives towards a generative future? How do we bring artists, scientists, policy makers, educators, conservation...

Proudly Mad: exploring mental health and the climate emergency with Charlie Hertzog Young

<p>How did one man make the shift from Not wanting to <em>live</em> in this world, to refusing to live in <em>this</em> world?</p><p>If you've listened to this podcast for any...

Building Tomorrow: Bonus addition: Painting 2050 if we get things right

<p>Paddy and I recorded a brief 15 minute bonus of how the world could look if we actually employed all the strategies in 'Building Tomorrow' - so sit back, soak it in - and t...

Building Tomorrow: Practical steps to a new economic system with Paddy Le Flufy

<p>As you will know by now, this podcast searches long and hard for answers to the over-riding question of 'what do we need to do, to get us from where we are, to where we nee...

Building Bridges to the Future with Cat Tully of the School of International Futures

<p>If you've listened to the podcast at all over the past few years, you'll know that the search for routes to total systemic change has always been the driver of what we're d...

Bridging from the Necessary to the Possible with Emily Harris of Dark Matter Labs

<p>IF the present system is broken - and is in fact the heart of the meta-crisis - how can we transform peacefully to something that will work to create the future we'd want t...

Drawing Humanity out of the Cave with Dr Simon Michaux (Part 2 of a series)

<p>This week, we're returning to the second part of the ongoing series with Dr Simon Michaux. If you haven't listened to the first part, I'd recommend you do and I'll put the ...

The Fine Art of Huddles: multiplying our potential by the power of our peers with Zahra Davidson of Huddlecraft

<p>How can we begin to shift away from the old hierarchical dominance structures of our past 2,000 years, towards something where everyone brings the best of themselves and em...

Meshworks of Being: Building Community on the DAO with Grace Rachmany of Priceless DAO

<p>We know that the future is based on Community. What we lack are practical routes to creating communities of community on a worldwide scale - ones that can form and will be ...

Bonus: Exploring the banking crash with Grace Rachmany - in which I ask all the questions I never asked before...

<p>Following our podcast with Grace Rachmany, we stayed online and talked about the banking crash. At the time of recording, we only knew about Silicon Valley Bank - Credit Su...

Dancing with the Muppets of Cutthroat Island: Transforming Industry to create a genuine Green Revolution with Dr Simon Michaux

<p>How much actual stuff do we have in the world compared to what we need to make the 'Green Revolution' happen?  </p><p>This week's guest is another of those recently elevate...

Reasons to be Sheepful: from wedding shawls to burial shrouds with Yuli Somme of Bellacouche

<p>Our crisis, our challenge, our opportunity is complex. More than ever, it matters now that we not get caught in separate silos where we focus just on atmospheric carbon, or...

Technology for a future that works with Cory Feco of the DOI Foundation

<p>The one big question that this podcast exists to answer is - what does our future look like when it works? <br>When we endeavour to answer this, there seems quite a clear d...

Be Kind, Be Useful, Create Giants in the Sky: transforming community with Alan Lane of Slung Low

<p>The Accidental Gods podcast exists to set the conditions for emergence into a new system: to bring a critical mass of us to a place where emergence into a new system is a r...

One Planet Living: Mapping Minds to create a new Consciousness, with Pooran Desai, OBE.

<p>It is our mission on this podcast - and the wider membership community from which it arose -  to open doors and break down barriers, to bring forward the ideas and the acti...

Saving Chocolate! and finding solutions to the meta crisis with Nicola Peel

<p>Accidental Gods podcast exists to open doors and break down barriers, to bring forward the ideas and the actions of and give voice to the gloriously creative people who giv...

Living in a Post-Carbon, Post-Capital, Post Urban world - with Chris Smaje, author of A Small Farm Future

<p>Chris Smaje is a social scientist by training and a small-scale farmer by occupation. For the past 19 years, he has co-worked a small farm in Somerset, in southwest England...

Unlocking Curiosity: Regenerating Business from the packaging up with Jo Chidley of Re and Beauty Kitchen

<p>Jo Chidley is one of those forces of nature, unconstrained by the way things are usually done.  As the co-founders of Beauty Kitchen, she and her partner refused venture ca...

Stop eating Chicken! - The future of food with Rob Percival, author of The Meat Paradox

<p>Rob Percival is a writer, campaigner and food policy expert with The Soil Association. His commentary on food and farming has featured in the national press and on prime ti...

Cultures of Commoning: Quadratic voting, indigenous connectivity and pacifist chess with Ruth Catlow

<p>This week's conversation ranges over an astonishingly wide range of topics from ways to facilitate interspecies communication through play and ways to play 3-person pacifis...

Being the Change: Journeys in Service to Life with Gail Bradbrook

<p>This week's guest is a friend of the podcast, Dr Gail Bradbrook.  Best known for her role in co-founding Extinction Rebellion, Gail is one of our nation's (and our world's)...

Plan. Pause. Reset: Real Steps to Radical Transformation with Eva Schonveld and Justin Kenrick

<p><strong>Eva</strong> is a climate activist, process designer and facilitator. She has co-convened the Transformative Conflict for Transition Network summit, supports socioc...

Three years on: Manda's reflections on our third anniversary - and looking forward into 2023

<p>As we move from our third to our fourth year, it seemed like a good time to look back on the origins of the whole Accidental Gods project - why and how we started and what ...

Food, Farming and Feeding the Soul: with Satish Kumar in conjunction with the Oxford Real Farming Conference

<p>Satish Kumar is one of the absolute titans of the Regenerative movement in the UK.  In 1962, he and and one of his fellow Jain monks made an 8,000 mile mendicant peace pilg...

Traditional Solstice Celebration: Looking back and looking forward with Della Duncan and Nathalie Nahai

<p>As the year stills and tilts afresh, we bring you our annual moment of reflection with two podcast hosts we really admire.  There's a meditation at the end, to bring you in...

Earthborne Rangers: Playing our way to a future that works with Andrew Navaro

<p>The average child in the western world attends 10,000 hours of school - and plays 20,000 hours of games.  In the 'adult' world, many of us spend hours devoted to levelling ...

Living Well within our Limits: Actions for systemic change with Prof Julia Steinberger

<p>Professor Julia Steinberger researches and teaches in the interdisciplinary areas of Ecological Economics and Industrial Ecology.  She is the recipient of a Leverhulme Rese...

Data is the New Plastic! Ethics, Accuracy and AI with Dr John Collins of Machine Intelligence Garage

<p>Dr John Collins worked for the UK's Central Electricity Generating Board in the days when such things were nationalised industries. His PhD involved creating a real-time do...

Telling the Truth and Moving Forward: Building the Moderate Flank with Rupert Read

<p>Rupert Read is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia, but he is also a Green party activist, and a prolific speaker, media spokesperson and aut...

End of year round-up: Manda's favourite podcasts, fiction and non-fiction of 2022

<p>As we do each year, we've curated a list of the Accidental Gods' favourite podcast and books of 2022.  Enjoy!</p><p><br>Podcasts <br><strong>Nate Hagens The Great Simplific...

Regenerative by Design: Creating Communities that work with Charlie Fisher of Transition by Design

<p>In a world that feels as if all the certainties are breaking down, how can we build the communities of place and of purpose that will give us the resilience to bridge from ...

Fractal Improv: finding generosity, connection and compassion amidst our fear with Belina Raffy

<p>We know our climate is in crisis and that time is running out. But we also know that screaming at people to wake up is not working.  What if we gave ourselves permission to...

Compass: Charting a Progressive Route through the Political Maelstrom with Neal Lawson

<p>In a world where our 'democracy' is manifestly not fit for purpose, how can we turn the brief, bright fireworks of political sanity into floodlights of progressive values, ...

The Kindness of Strangers: Ocean Rowing, Solitude and Transformation with Dr Roz Savage MBE

<p>What happens when we realise we're trying to be something we're not?  For Roz Savage, this led to a transformation that took her from Management Consultant to the first wom...

Matereality and Corporate Mischief: reshaping Business as if the job were to create a world that works with B.Lorraine Smith

<p>What if businesses existed not to price-gouge consumers and destroy the planet, but to be part of a pathway to a flourishing future?  What if the end-of-year reports were n...

Flourish: Designing new paradigms and expanding our agency with Sarah Ichioka

<p>What will it take to restore balance in our world? How can we repair our devastated environments, and secure future generations' survival? And what's they key to unlock the...

Planet, not Profit: Envisioning a genuinely sustainable future in a not-for-profit world with Jennifer Hinton

<p>We live in a world run by profiteers: the rush to make money destroys people and planet with equal disregard. But how would the world look if all businesses existed to prom...

Re-Enchantment: Creating rituals to re-discover our embodied sovereignty with Isla McLeod

<p>What do we do when we feel disempowered, disconnected, alone and afraid?  We can throw ourselves more deeply into social media, drink, drugs and deeper disconnection…or we ...

The Meat Paradox: Ethics, morality and shamanic spirituality: exploring the politics of protein with Rob Percival

<p>We are human because for most of our evolutionary history, we have eaten meat whilst treating animals as relations and giving thanks to them. We held these the two sides of...

Hagitude: Paving the way to empowered elderhood with Sharon Blackie

<p>"As elders, our job is to die, as eventually we come to live —always in service to life."  How do we do this? How can we pass into our elder years with grace and rage and d...

Beyond the tribal divisions of right and wrong: Exploring Restorative Engagement with Sophie Docker

<p>We know that tribalism is destroying us, that the need for 'us' to be right and 'them' to be wrong and to become enraged when we're challenged…is what's destroying us. But ...