Designing the Revolution

Roger Hallam

It's official we are heading into the biggest shit-show in human history. The U.N says there is no ‘credible pathway’ to staying under 1.5C (October 2022). Revolution is now inevitable, a great danger and a great opportunity to create a new revitalised democracy, or allow fascism to drag us all into hell. Far from it being the end it's just the beginning, there's everything to play for but only if we organise and resist as if our lives depend upon it, because they do. Roger Hallam has studied and designed social change for 35 years, he has initiated and helped run the biggest climate campaigns of the last decade he knows his stuff. This series details the theory and practice of a completely new way of reimagining and renewing society. At this moment in time this is the most important podcast series in the world, even if few people get it; that it's now or never for humanity. Roger walks his talk. The first 13 podcasts episodes are recorded from prison. We're talking about real change here, no more blah blah blah. For Roger's latest updates and to support his work, sign up to his email list at 👉rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup

  1. Ep.12 How Neoliberalism Killed the Sacred

    FEB 3

    Ep.12 How Neoliberalism Killed the Sacred

    This episode of The Spirit of Revolution continues the argument that the crisis we face is not only political but spiritual — in the old sense of that word. It is about what a human being is, what we are for, and why most “resistance culture” currently fails to become fit for purpose. After the Second World War the Catholic project faced a decisive temptation: to capitulate to the secular world, either through Marxist alliances on the left or through liberal human rights frameworks on the centre. Both paths produced real gains. Both also carried a fatal weakness. Neither challenged the underlying logic of modernity: power, coercion, and the reduction of the person to a means. So the Church became, over time, a private realm of belief and Sunday ritual, with politics reduced to mild moral suggestions. The sacred was hollowed out. And when human rights get abandoned — as they always do under pressure — there is no rootedness left, no necessity, no red lines, only the familiar rituals of disapproval. Out of this failure emerged a renewed Catholic critique (often called neo-orthodoxy): a counter-politics rooted in the irreducible dignity of the person and the primacy of love over power. It rejects the idea that the Church should become “progressive” by adopting the state’s categories and playing by the rules of the game. That route produces a faithless faith — civic activism that cannot confront the system that manufactures the harm. I also return to the question of ritual, especially the Eucharist. If it is merely symbolic, it means nothing. But if it is real — an act of union that redraws the world — then it demands a way of life that leads to conflict with power. The episode ends with El Salvador in the 1970s: Rutilio Grande’s assassination, Oscar Romero’s response, and a Eucharist that became an act of revolutionary equality — not based on legal rights, but on the claim that we are one body, one humanity. Next week I turn to a tradition that looks very different on the surface: Zen Buddhism — and why it turns out to be dealing with the same problem. ---- For my latest updates and to support my work, sign up to my email list at https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup You'll get a free copy of my books, like Common Sense for the 21st Century, and my film, The Troublemaker. Thousands are entering civil resistance around the world. Want to get involved? Email me at roger@rev21.earth Follow My Work ✅ Email List: https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup 📱 Telegram Chanel: https://t.me/rogerhallam 𝕏: https://twitter.com/RogerHallamCS21 💬 https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaEpZT560eBk4QO7dz2Y 🫂 https://www.facebook.com/rogerhallamcs21 📸 https://www.instagram.com/rogerhallamcs21/ 🧵 https://www.threads.net/@rogerhallamcs21 🦋 https://bsky.app/profile/rogerhallam.bsky.social 👾 https://mastodon.social/@rogerhallamcs21@threads.net 👯‍♀️ https://www.tiktok.com/@roger.hallam 🤓 https://www.reddit.com/r/rogerhallam/ 🤚 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hallam_(activist) #rogerhallam #climatecrisis #revolution

    24 min
  2. Ep. 11 Spiritual Resistance in an Age of Collapse

    JAN 27

    Ep. 11 Spiritual Resistance in an Age of Collapse

    In this episode of The Spirit of Revolution, I move from abstract questions of transcendence to how they played out historically — and politically — in the first half of the twentieth century. Following the catastrophe of the First World War, the belief that human reason alone could organise a moral world collapsed. The resulting vacuum produced both nihilism and totalitarianism. In this context, Catholic thinkers were forced to confront a fundamental question: what does it mean to live a transcendent vision of the human when power, violence, and mass death dominate public life? I look at how the Catholic Church responded to the loss of state power, the rejection of Thomist compromises with secular authority, and the emergence of new theological currents centred on the dignity of the person. This led to concrete social practices — Catholic Action, community organising, trade unions — and later to hard moral decisions under fascism and Nazi occupation. The episode examines: - The rise of secular materialism and its psychological consequences - The idea of the person versus the individual or the mass - Catholic engagement with community, labour, and politics - The failure of compromise with authoritarian power - Why “spiritual resistance” became non-negotiable under fascism I also compare Catholic resistance in France with Protestant resistance in Germany, including the execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and contrast these with the failures of institutional churches that retreated into a false separation between the spiritual and the political. The argument is simple but demanding: if transcendence is real, it cannot be confined to private belief. It redraws the whole world. And once that is seen clearly, resistance is no longer a political choice — it becomes a matter of being. The parallels with our current moment are uncomfortable and obvious. For my latest updates and to support my work, sign up to my email list at https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup You'll get a free copy of my books, like Common Sense for the 21st Century, and my film, The Troublemaker. Thousands are entering civil resistance around the world. Want to get involved? Email me at roger@rev21.earth Follow My Work ✅ Email List: https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup 📱 Telegram Chanel: https://t.me/rogerhallam 𝕏: https://twitter.com/RogerHallamCS21 💬 https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaEpZT560eBk4QO7dz2Y 🫂 https://www.facebook.com/rogerhallamcs21 📸 https://www.instagram.com/rogerhallamcs21/ 🧵 https://www.threads.net/@rogerhallamcs21 🦋 https://bsky.app/profile/rogerhallam.bsky.social 👾 https://mastodon.social/@rogerhallamcs21@threads.net 👯‍♀️ https://www.tiktok.com/@roger.hallam 🤓 https://www.reddit.com/r/rogerhallam/ 🤚 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hallam_(activist) #rogerhallam #climatecrisis #revolution

    23 min
  3. Ep. 10 Thinking Outside the Silo: Religion and Power

    JAN 11

    Ep. 10 Thinking Outside the Silo: Religion and Power

    In this episode of The Spirit of Revolution, I begin a mini series looking at what revolutionary movements can learn from religious traditions — starting with Catholicism. This is not about belief, conversion, or theology as identity. It is about effectiveness. After Extinction Rebellion took off, journalists often asked me what climate or activist books I’d been reading. The honest answer was: hardly any. What mattered more was learning outside my political silo — including from capitalist strategy, evolutionary theory, and religious traditions that have grappled with power, morality, failure, and endurance for centuries. Here I introduce the idea of exaptation — taking elements from one system and using them in another — and explain why religious traditions are worth studying even (especially) if you are secular. I outline some of the core philosophical and political problems Catholic thinkers like Maurice Blondel and Henri de Lubac were wrestling with: - Action without certainty - The relationship between the material and the transcendent - Power, morality, and who decides - Why neat divisions between public/private or sacred/secular keep breaking down These are not abstract questions. They sit underneath how we organise, how we exercise power, and why movements either sustain themselves or collapse. This episode sets up the problem. In the next episodes, I’ll look more concretely at how Catholicism navigated a historical period very similar to the one we are entering now — and what we might be able to extract and use without reinventing the wheel. For my latest updates and to support my work, sign up to my email list at https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup You'll get a free copy of my books, like Common Sense for the 21st Century, and my film, The Troublemaker. Thousands are entering civil resistance around the world. Want to get involved? Email me at roger@rev21.earth Follow My Work ✅ Email List: https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup 📱 Telegram Chanel: https://t.me/rogerhallam 𝕏: https://twitter.com/RogerHallamCS21 💬 https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaEpZT560eBk4QO7dz2Y 🫂 https://www.facebook.com/rogerhallamcs21 📸 https://www.instagram.com/rogerhallamcs21/ 🧵 https://www.threads.net/@rogerhallamcs21 🦋 https://bsky.app/profile/rogerhallam.bsky.social 👾 https://mastodon.social/@rogerhallamcs21@threads.net 👯‍♀️ https://www.tiktok.com/@roger.hallam 🤓 https://www.reddit.com/r/rogerhallam/ 🤚 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hallam_(activist) #rogerhallam #climatecrisis #revolution

    20 min
  4. How To Start a Revolution in 2026

    JAN 8

    How To Start a Revolution in 2026

    This is me thinking out loud, carefully and practically, about how real political change actually happens — based on history, organising in Brixton since I was imprisoned, and a lot of experience inside movements that worked… and some that didn’t. I’m trying to lay out a usable framework for building people power in the conditions we actually face now: climate collapse, democratic breakdown, and the fast rise of authoritarian politics. This doesn't need to be watched in one sitting. Here are the timestamps: 00:00 Introduction 04:37 The Context 13:45 The Theory 41:13 The Mobilisation 02:20:34 The Organisation 02:51:20 The Endgame 👉 Join the Zoom organising and training sessions: https://timetoassemble.org/training-sessions If you want more depth on these ideas and a compact strategic manifesto, check out my book Grasping The Enormity of The Moment: 📘 https://rev21.earth/product/your-party-paperback/ Other good next steps: - Share this with people you organise with - Watch it together and argue about it - Start small, but start with a strategy People power has remade the world before. It can do it again. --- For my latest updates and to support my work, sign up to my email list at https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup You'll get a free copy of my books, like Common Sense for the 21st Century, and my film, The Troublemaker. Thousands are entering civil resistance around the world. Want to get involved? Email me at roger@rev21.earth Follow My Work ✅ Email List: https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup 📱 Telegram Chanel: https://t.me/rogerhallam 𝕏: https://twitter.com/RogerHallamCS21 💬 https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaEpZT560eBk4QO7dz2Y 🫂 https://www.facebook.com/rogerhallamcs21 📸 https://www.instagram.com/rogerhallamcs21/ 🧵 https://www.threads.net/@rogerhallamcs21 🦋 https://bsky.app/profile/rogerhallam.bsky.social 👾 https://mastodon.social/@rogerhallamcs21@threads.net 👯‍♀️ https://www.tiktok.com/@roger.hallam 🤓 https://www.reddit.com/r/rogerhallam/ 🤚 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hallam_(activist) #rogerhallam #climatecrisis #revolution

    3h 6m
  5. Ep. 9 Beyond The Citadel

    12/20/2025

    Ep. 9 Beyond The Citadel

    In this episode of Spirit of Revolution, Roger continues the journey beyond the Citadel — not to replace one system of power with another, but to refuse a dominant power itself as the organising principle of life and resistance. Recorded from prison, this chapter explores why real liberation does not mean arriving at a new truth, ideology, or belief system. It means staying suspended, open, and in motion — refusing to build another Citadel, whether secular or religious. Roger argues that secularism and religion are not opposites, but two sides of the same coin: instruments of power that limit how we are allowed to see. True freedom begins when we step outside this frame and reclaim the power of imagination, interpretation, and collective meaning. This episode explores: - Why revolution fails when it replaces one power with another - The illusion of objectivity - How imagination defeats material force - The power of powerlessness in public space - Training the mind collectively for acts of resistance - Why culture and consciousness precede political change This is not a private spirituality or a new belief system. It is a public practice — one that reshapes how we organise, resist, and act together. Recorded by Roger Hallam from prison. Footage courtesy of Just Stop Oil and The Guardian. For Roger's latest updates and to support his work, sign up to his email list at 👉https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup You'll get a free copy of his book, Common Sense for the 21st Century, and his film, The Troublemaker. Thousands are entering civil resistance around the world. Want to get involved? Email the team at roger.hallam.uk@gmail.com. Follow Roger's work ✅ Email List: https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup 📱 Telegram Chanel: https://t.me/rogerhallam 𝕏: https://twitter.com/RogerHallamCS21 💬 https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaEpZT560eBk4QO7dz2Y 🫂 https://www.facebook.com/rogerhallamcs21 📸 https://www.instagram.com/rogerhallamcs21/ 🧵 https://www.threads.net/@rogerhallamcs21 🦋 https://bsky.app/profile/rogerhallam.bsky.social 👾 https://mastodon.social/@rogerhallamcs21@threads.net 👯‍♀️ https://www.tiktok.com/@roger.hallam 🤓 https://www.reddit.com/r/rogerhallam/ 🤚 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hallam_(activist) #rogerhallam #climatecrisis #juststopoil

    29 min
  6. Ep. 8 Over the Walls of the Citadel

    12/19/2025

    Ep. 8 Over the Walls of the Citadel

    Recorded from prison, this episode explores what Roger Hallam calls the Citadel: the dominant way we are taught to see the world, ourselves, and time — and how that way of seeing silently maintains power. This is not a political argument in the usual sense. It is a metaphysical one. Roger argues that real resistance does not begin with tactics or policies, but with breaking the frames that limit what we believe is possible. When we learn to refuse false choices, to step outside the questions power wants us to answer, the walls of the Citadel begin to crumble. This episode is about: - Power as agenda-setting, not persuasion - Why the deepest form of domination is how we are taught to see - The link between spiritual vision and mass civil resistance - How new ways of seeing create the conditions for social tipping points - Why the metaphysical comes before the political The Spirit of Revolution series explores the inner foundations of nonviolent resistance — the culture, rituals, emotions, and ways of seeing that have animated every successful movement for liberation. Recorded by Roger Hallam from prison. Footage courtesy of Just Stop Oil and The Guardian. 📖 Full transcripts and supporting texts available online 00:00 Intro 01:00 Introducing the Citadel of Secular Reason 10:00 New Ways of Seeing 23:50 Outro For Roger's latest updates and to support his work, sign up to his email list at 👉https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup You'll get a free copy of his book, Common Sense for the 21st Century, and his film, The Troublemaker. Thousands are entering civil resistance around the world. Want to get involved? Email the team at roger.hallam.uk@gmail.com. Follow Roger's work ✅ Email List: https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup 📱 Telegram Chanel: https://t.me/rogerhallam 𝕏: https://twitter.com/RogerHallamCS21 💬 https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaEpZT560eBk4QO7dz2Y 🫂 https://www.facebook.com/rogerhallamcs21 📸 https://www.instagram.com/rogerhallamcs21/ 🧵 https://www.threads.net/@rogerhallamcs21 🦋 https://bsky.app/profile/rogerhallam.bsky.social 👾 https://mastodon.social/@rogerhallamcs21@threads.net 👯‍♀️ https://www.tiktok.com/@roger.hallam 🤓 https://www.reddit.com/r/rogerhallam/ 🤚 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hallam_(activist) #rogerhallam #climatecrisis #juststopoil

    24 min
  7. On Being, In Prison

    10/17/2025

    On Being, In Prison

    He got five years in prison for a Zoom call. After serving 14 months, Roger Hallam reveals what prison taught him about freedom, God, and revolution. In this unfiltered talk filmed just weeks after his release, the Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil co-founder explores: 🎬 Chapters 00:00 – Introduction 00:06 – “14 Months for a Zoom Call” 03:16 – The Tipping Point 05:33 – Climate Reality Check 09:20 – Extinction in Plain English 20:58 – Everything Can Be Taken… Except Your Being 26:50 – The Best Ten Days of Your Life 28:02 – Left Defeatism 30:55 – Religion as a Metaphor for Revolution 40:57 – Closer to God (Because of the Pain) For Roger's latest updates and to support his work, sign up to his email list at 👉https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup You'll get a free copy of his book, Common Sense for the 21st Century, and his film, The Troublemaker. Thousands are entering civil resistance around the world. Want to get involved? Email the team at roger.hallam.uk@gmail.com. Follow Roger's work ✅ Email List: https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup 📱 Telegram Chanel: https://t.me/rogerhallam 𝕏: https://twitter.com/RogerHallamCS21 💬 https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaEpZT560eBk4QO7dz2Y 🫂 https://www.facebook.com/rogerhallamcs21 📸 https://www.instagram.com/rogerhallamcs21/ 🧵 https://www.threads.net/@rogerhallamcs21 🦋 https://bsky.app/profile/rogerhallam.bsky.social 👾 https://mastodon.social/@rogerhallamcs21@threads.net 👯‍♀️ https://www.tiktok.com/@roger.hallam 🤓 https://www.reddit.com/r/rogerhallam/ 🤚 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hallam_(activist) #rogerhallam #climatecrisis #juststopoil

    42 min
  8. I Went to Prison for the Climate — Here’s What I Learned

    10/12/2025

    I Went to Prison for the Climate — Here’s What I Learned

    This is my first full talk after being released from prison. Here's what I learnt inside, why civil disobedience matters more than ever, and why materialism on its own has failed to move people. I go into the climate science (yes, billions dead), why prison isn’t what you think it is, and why faith and transcendence still hold the key to revolution. Some people hate prison. Some people love it. I’m one of them. Watch and make up your own mind. ⏱️ Timestamps 0:00 – Opening & The Uses of Adversity 5:30 – Materialism: Why the Climate Crisis Demands Civil Disobedience 22:00 – Postmodernism: Prison as Subjective Experience 36:00 – Stories from Prison & Post-Traumatic Growth 45:00 – Religion, Faith & The Power of Mass Movements For Roger's latest updates and to support his work, sign up to his email list at 👉https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup You'll get a free copy of his book, Common Sense for the 21st Century, and his film, The Troublemaker. Thousands are entering civil resistance around the world. Want to get involved? Email the team at roger.hallam.uk@gmail.com. Follow Roger's work ✅ Email List: https://rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup 📱 Telegram Chanel: https://t.me/rogerhallam 𝕏: https://twitter.com/RogerHallamCS21 💬 https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaEpZT560eBk4QO7dz2Y 🫂 https://www.facebook.com/rogerhallamcs21 📸 https://www.instagram.com/rogerhallamcs21/ 🧵 https://www.threads.net/@rogerhallamcs21 🦋 https://bsky.app/profile/rogerhallam.bsky.social 👾 https://mastodon.social/@rogerhallamcs21@threads.net 👯‍♀️ https://www.tiktok.com/@roger.hallam 🤓 https://www.reddit.com/r/rogerhallam/ 🤚 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Hallam_(activist) References The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis. (c.1418). Chapter 12: “On the Uses of Adversity.” IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). (2023). AR6 Synthesis Report: Climate Change 2023. Geneva: IPCC. Lenton, T.M. et al. (2019). “Climate tipping points — too risky to bet against.” Nature, 575, 592–595. World Bank. (2018). Groundswell: Preparing for Internal Climate Migration. Washington, DC: World Bank. Munich Re. (2024). Climate Change and Systemic Risk: Global Insurance Outlook. Appendix A. The Guardian. (2024). “Global GDP faces 50% collapse from climate risk, say insurers.” (Headline coverage of the Munich Re report). Rahmstorf, S. et al. (2015). “Exceptional twentieth-century slowdown in Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation.” Nature Climate Change, 5, 475–480. Post-traumatic growth: Tedeschi, R.G. & Calhoun, L.G. (2004). “Posttraumatic Growth: Conceptual Foundations and Empirical Evidence.” Psychological Inquiry, 15(1), 1–18. Children’s March, Birmingham, Alabama. (1963). Civil Rights Movement Archive. https://www.crmvet.org Havel, V. (1985). The Power of the Powerless. Eastern European dissident writings, influential in 1989 uprisings. Liberation Theology: Boff, L. & Boff, C. (1987). Introducing Liberation Theology. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Barth, K. (1932–1967). Church Dogmatics. (esp. Barth’s writings after World War I). #rogerhallam #climatecrisis #juststopoil

    53 min

About

It's official we are heading into the biggest shit-show in human history. The U.N says there is no ‘credible pathway’ to staying under 1.5C (October 2022). Revolution is now inevitable, a great danger and a great opportunity to create a new revitalised democracy, or allow fascism to drag us all into hell. Far from it being the end it's just the beginning, there's everything to play for but only if we organise and resist as if our lives depend upon it, because they do. Roger Hallam has studied and designed social change for 35 years, he has initiated and helped run the biggest climate campaigns of the last decade he knows his stuff. This series details the theory and practice of a completely new way of reimagining and renewing society. At this moment in time this is the most important podcast series in the world, even if few people get it; that it's now or never for humanity. Roger walks his talk. The first 13 podcasts episodes are recorded from prison. We're talking about real change here, no more blah blah blah. For Roger's latest updates and to support his work, sign up to his email list at 👉rogerhallam.com/#/portal/signup

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