Finding Nature

Nathan Robertson-Ball

Find inspiration and guidance for the change you want to create and learn how others have achieved it in their life and work in pursuit of a more just, safe and healthier future. Nourishment for the change making class.

  1. 19h ago

    Why Everything Feels So Broken - Gary Gerstle On This Endless Political Order And How To Build The Next One

    Now today’s episode is timed somewhat perfectly. With the US midterms under way and the results unknown and their ramifications entirely unknown, today’s guest is someone who can help us all better appreciate the broader context and historical moment we are in, as well as how we got to now. Gary Gerstle is an American historian and Emeritus Paul Mellon Professor of American History at the University of Cambridge and an Emeritus Fellow of Sidney Sussex College. His work in studying and publishing a history of US labor and political economy has resulted in him publishing ten books and seen his writing appear in The Guardian, The New Statesman and The Atlantic. Gary is recognised as one of the most important voices in this field, and his work in defining political orders by studying the origins, evolution and collapse of the new deal and then neoliberalism is seminal in this moment. Gary’s most recent book - The Rise and Fall of Neoliberalism, sets out a detailed account that gives shape and context to this moment, and gave me a clarity for why now, and the years of the recent past, have felt so fractious and fraught. I know I lay claim to a new vital book to go out and get, but if you’re interested in why so much feels stuck, uncertain and confusing right now, I can’t recommend more highly getting yourself a copy of Gary’s latest book. This is a really wide ranging conversation, and deliberately so. With so much in our world - from inflation to addressing climate change to attitudes towards migrants and migration depending on US political outcomes - I wanted to delve deep into Gary’s expertise. From the conditions required to establish a new political order, what one even is and requires, how they shape cultural and society, the difficulty of seeing beyond electoral cycles, the potential for the US to slip into authoritarianism in coming years, the decades of time it often takes form and establish new ideas that move from the periphery to the role of all of us and institutions to reconstitute solidarity not just as a stated virtue but as a dedicated practice with meaningful, enduring structural support. I'm heading to the Investor Group On Climate Change Summit on November 24 and 25. See you there. Use code SUMMIT26GRP for 10% off when you get three or more tickets.  Naidiri Marine Biodiversity Park crowdfunding campaign - we can get them to $5,000! Support Dharawal Spirits. Drink country to save country.  Enjoyed this conversation? Check out Altiorem for your episode companion guide.  Five Truths We Can No Longer Ignore Holding the Line: A Playbook for ESG Leadership in Hostile Terrain ESG in the Trump era: What’s next? Send me a message Thanks for listening. Follow Finding Nature on Instagram

    Why Everything Feels So Broken - Gary Gerstle On This Endless Political Order And How To Build The Next One

  2. Oct 27

    Manoa Duwai Is On A Mission - Restoring Pacific Coral Reefs One Day At A Time

    So what did you do when you met someone and you hear their story and it humbles you to your core? When you learn and feel firsthand the experience of another human that acts as a cattle prod to make clear that the path you’ve been on is no longer the path you can be on? That’s what today’s guest - Manoa Duwai - did to me when we spoke. Today I bring you a conversation that has unsettled and inspired me in a way none of the other 100 plus episodes of this show has. I am changed having met Manoa, and I’m proud to be sharing his story and remarkable work with you today. Manoa is a Fijian man who was recently in Sydney to spread the word of the work he has been and is doing in his village of Naidiri. To help set the scene for the episode, let me help you picture Manoa. He’s well over six feet tall and in his prime was on the cusp of representing one of the most incredible sporting teams on the planet - the Fijian Rugby 7s team. He’s big and he’s fit, and he’s also not the archetype of who I and probably many other imagine when you think about those who are making an outsized impact on the state of the planet’s environment. That’s my own bias speaking, and with some sporting background, it’s surprising as they are not two worlds that overlap too often. In Manoa those worlds do, and I suspect his athletic prowess and everything that comes with what’s required to be a top level sportsperson is what’s served him well over the last 17 years in building the Naidiri Marine Biodiversity Park - perseverance, discipline, a zealous commitment to a goal and the ability to lead and build a great team. So I’ve mentioned the Naidiri Marine Biodiversity Park and that is what this conversation focuses on - the 17 year quest Manoa has been on to regenerate the coral system that sits on the shore to his village. It traverses the night where he and his best mate came back from rugby to find only rice and tea for dinner and their subsequent failed effort to catch some fish. This was the spark that altered his trajectory, the village of Naidiri and has now seen the marine park recognised by both the Fijian Government and the UN as a site of environmental value. What started by blocking off a 30 by 40 metre area with noone’s knowledge nor permission to what is now a site measuring over 28,000 square kilometres of protected reef. We chat about seeking forgiveness instead of permission, the work this has involved and how climate change is upending this work far faster than he and others can keep up. The second part of today’s episode is with sibling duo Gauri and Akshay Salunkhe who for the last couple of years have been working with Manoa on his work in Fiji. That part of today’s show extends on how remarkable Manoa and the villagers work has been, the lack of resources they’ve had and the way all of us can get involved and help from afar. And on how you and we can all help, Gauri and Akshay are running a crowdfunding campaign to help support Manoa and others with their mission, and I highly encourage you to check it out and to give what you can. They’re seeking to raise $5000, and are currently sitting just below the one thousand mark. So Finding Nature listener, here’s my call to action and direct appeal to you. Over the next four weeks I’m going to be talking about this campaign here and on all the various social media places, and I think we can get to that $5000 figure. If you’re already sold - pause this, go to the link in the show notes, and donate. If you still need persuasion, hopefully after this episode you’re hitting the link and contributing to this community’s goal of getting Manoa, Gauri and Akshay $5000 that will go an enormous way to contributing to the work they have upcoming in transplanting corals that are going to be affected by huge El Niño heat, as well as the myriad youth programs they have going on. $5000 - we can do this. Ok Manoa, as well as Gauri and Akshay. The question I have to you is a simple one - how willing would you be to protect the place you love the most? Because the willingness of these three is nothing short of astonishing.  I'm heading to the Investor Group On Climate Change Summit on November 24 and 25. See you there. Use code SUMMIT26GRP for 10% off when you get three or more tickets.  Naidiri Marine Biodiversity Park crowdfunding campaign - we can get them to $5,000! Support Dharawal Spirits. Drink country to save country.  Enjoyed this conversation? Check out Altiorem for your episode companion guide.  Diving deep: Finance, ocean pollution and coastal resilience Super-duper El Nino and the bigger problem Ocean investment protocol: 2026 revised draft for consultation: A multi-stakeholder plan to enable funding for the Sustainable Ocean Economy Check out everything Finding Nature.  Send me a message Thanks for listening. Follow Finding Nature on Instagram

    Manoa Duwai Is On A Mission - Restoring Pacific Coral Reefs One Day At A Time

  3. Oct 20

    Reclaiming Agency In An Age Of AI Boosterism - Aubrey Blanche On Where To Start, What To Do And Valuing Dignity

    This week on the show is Aubrey Blanche. Aubrey is somewhat of a professional enigma - she’s lived multiple careers already, from time inside big tech and early stage investing, and now she’s at the Ethics Centre, while she’s an expert in human resources, diversity and inclusion and ethical AI. Aubrey has also established one of Australia’s largest regular AI newsletters and her writing has been featured in publications like Wired, The Wall Street Journal and Australian Financial Review. I wanted to get Aubrey on the show to chat about her myriad professional and personal experiences, to try and chart a course to understand the thread that runs through the life of someone with such diverse perspectives and experiences, but also to chat about her work in recent years in advising organisations with their own artificial intelligence deployment and implementation. If any organisation in Australia who may have a clue how to do this - and not focussing on the false flag of productivity and hooked by the marketing spin of large language model AI - it’d be The Ethics Centre, an organisation I have a huge regard for. Aubrey’s work there, and her background more broadly, struck me as resonate considering it was framed as requiring design with the affected people, to question its value and understand how it could be useful, but also that conscientious objection and the right to opt out is a legitimate option too. So this is a conversation that I hope does justice to Aubrey’s personality and spirit - it traverses everything from pain and trauma to healthy relationships and the need to undertake ongoing honest self appraisal, this moment of deranged LLM AI tech bro bubblemaxxing and how organisations fixated on using it for short term productivitymaxxing benefits are likely in for a rocky future. Fundamentally though, this is a conversation about values and what we value - from ourselves in this moment of job uncertainty to how we uphold the dignity of humanity to reprise a spirit of custodianship and responsibility for life more broadly. Some extra reading relevant to this episode from our friends at Altiorem. AI systems at work: A changing psychosocial work environment AI-driven productivity gains enable more CO₂ emissions than they avoid in a global energy–economy model Top 10 principles for ethical artificial intelligence Welcome to Drinking Country To Save Country. Check out Dharawal Spirits, and grab yourself something - drink responsibly!!! Check out our upcoming events, get all the info and grab your tickets.  Events Send me a message Thanks for listening. Follow Finding Nature on Instagram

    Reclaiming Agency In An Age Of AI Boosterism - Aubrey Blanche On Where To Start, What To Do And Valuing Dignity

  4. Oct 13

    Impermanence And Uncertainty - Geoff Mann On Anticipating Futures

    Today’s guest is Geoff Mann. Geoff is a Canadian political economist who was recently in town and I loved having the opportunity to not only sit down and record this conversation, but to indulge in the breadth and depth of his unique background. His research, teaching and books have intersected around political economy, political theory and the history of ideas, with much of his writings in recent years delving into climate change, macroeconomic crisis, the far right and fascist politics, as well as how uncertainty underpins much of this. How do we make sense of what we don’t understand, or what has never happened before? What gives actual confidence to understand what could occur, what lessons do the past offer, how to identify false and fake confidence, what role does power play, how is our political system set up to deal with any form of complexity and uncertainty? These and much more were questions Geoff’s work has explored. What struck me though before and then meeting Geoff was how adamant he was in the necessity for humility in this moment. A climate crisis, wars, shifting geopolitical currents - yet many still stand up and let us know that they’ve seen the future, that they know - with a bizarre level of certainty - what all of this means. Chatting with Geoff I realised that the natural state of impermanence of living each day - which I do my best to ignore and hope to impose my own grand plans of control over regardless of how delusional that is - that impermanence is perhaps one of the most important concepts for our society to come to grips with today. How can we predict the impacts of climate change in economic models that weren’t built for that with any sense of certainty and think they give us the answer for what’s to come - when we have never in human history experienced anything like this climate ever, and when it will only become more volatile, unstable and unknown? Yet we try. And aren’t the consultants and lawyers enjoying that cash cow at the moment helping client after client deliver integrated climate assessment models that don’t in any way reflect the reality of disaster and creeping ecological changes underway in every corner of the planet. We cover so much in this conversation. The malady of mainstream economic theory and modelling to deal with a whole new reality, the role of story in beginning to imagine and anticipate potential futures, how to think about trade-offs, the potential for a climate leviathan or climate Mao, and the necessity for modesty, generosity and curiosity to be infused in any form of inquiry or action. Some extra reading relevant to this episode from our friends at Altiorem. The Climate Average Trap Prosperity without growth: The transition to a sustainable economy Rewiring finance – a new approach to financing a sustainable economy Check out our upcoming events, get all the info and grab your tickets.  Events Send me a message Thanks for listening. Follow Finding Nature on Instagram

    Impermanence And Uncertainty - Geoff Mann On Anticipating Futures

  5. Oct 6

    One Of Australia's Illnesses - Sonia Orchard On What Kids, And All People, Need

    Today I’m particularly honoured and humbled by today’s guest, Sonia Orchard. Now Sonia isn’t a name most people would recognise, but her story likely is, which is exactly why she’s on the show and why I wanted to speak with her. 60% of Australian kids are reported to experience some form of abuse or neglect. 1 in 10 Australian men admitted to committing a sexual offence against a child. NSW police are responding to an incident of domestic violence every three minutes. These are horrifying, harrowing, overwhelming statistics, just three of them too, and yet for the most part everything just carries on. What happened to children being the most important thing in our society? How can there be such a pervasiveness of something so awful? That’s why Sonia is on the show, to discuss these questions and much more. Sonia is the author of two books, her memoir Groomed, which tells the story of her own childhood sexual abuse by a man ten years her senior, as well as the most recent In The National Interest titled Before the Harm: Preventing Abuse, Protecting Children. The latter is an enlightening and shocking read, something I implore everyone out there to go and get a copy of. At the heart of her writing lies one simple question - we know how to prevent harm to children, and yet we don’t, so why not? As difficult as the book sounds, and as daunting as the subject matter is, the book is optimistic, determined by nature and a call to arms to every single one of us - as citizens, parents, colleagues, family members, voters, leaders - action prevents harm to kids. It’s available and it’s available now. There is much Sonia and I chat about here - from the current status of what is going on with how kids are harmed to the drivers of that, the behaviours of perpetrators, the victim victimiser paradigm, the need for moral courage in not waiting at the bottom of the cliff to try and rescue those being abused but go way upstream and examine the health of a society when 60% of its children are reported as abused or neglected. From what we can do everyday practically to the structural reforms and types of leadership needed. This was an incredibly powerful experience for me, and I was compelled to share a little of my own experience in the context of this topic too and how it’s affected me both as a child and now navigating life as a parent. Preventing harms to kids - we all want it. What do we need to change to do that? Everything. Some extra reading relevant to this episode from our friends at Altiorem. A roadmap for private investors: Investing to address gender-based violence Our Watch: Change the story and key frameworks Looking beyond traditional gender lens investing approaches using Access Impact Framework in support of SDG 5: Gender equality Send me a message Thanks for listening. Follow Finding Nature on Instagram

    One Of Australia's Illnesses - Sonia Orchard On What Kids, And All People, Need

  6. Sep 29

    We Are The Existential Risk - No-one Knows AI Like Toby Walsh

    If there is one topic that has come to dominate this moment, it is artificial intelligence. Is it going to wipe us out? Will I lose my job? Is a data centre going up in my neighbourhood? Why are all these tech bros so incapable of sounding anything like a normal, sane, relatable person? Why do I have to hear so much about AI? Can’t I just have my connection and attention and identity back, please? I’m an avowed cynic of the broad set of technologies AI represents, and I’ve been fortunate to learn from some of the best minds in the world on this show as to how these technologies are warping and distorting our relationship to ourselves, each other, work, identity, even reality itself. People like Emily M Bender and Nina Jankowicz have made clear the hazards and harms of a technology we seemingly have no innate capability to withstand - like the Wizard of Oz, it’s omniscient existence and self-proclaimed extraordinary potential has our society captured. Haven’t we seen this all before though? Weren’t there warnings about climate change in the 1960s we’ve ignored ever since? What’s that saying about power tending to corrupt, and absolute power corrupting absolutely? Aren’t we observing that with a tiny number of companies seemingly holding all the chips against us? Yes, yes, I sound like a luddite. I’m obviously extraordinarily anti-progress, anti jobs and anti growth. Also a hypocrite too as I get to enjoy the quality of life I do today because of the evolution of technology over all of human history. Well, I’d love to believe AI could be helpful and valuable so I was very excited to invite Toby Walsh onto the show. Just about all Australians probably recognise Toby now - he’s become not just a prolific author helping to make sense of this moment after decades working in and leading University of New South Wales’ AI Institute, but he’s featured regularly on traditional and digital media. He addressed the National Press Club earlier this year, was a featured expert in Channel Seven’s AI reporting, and is regularly popping up on the ABC, SBS the BBC, CNN, The Guardian, NPR and The New York Times. If there is anyone in Australia to learn and hear from about not just the current world of AI, but also its history and heritage and where this all may be going, it’s Toby. His most recent book, God AI; Boom or Doom? What to expect when machines outsmart us examines the existential risk of AI. As we’ve heard repeatedly in recent weeks, some techbrogods are foreshadowing the end of all human life by the end of this decade! What does that even mean, how could it even be possible, and what other extinctions have occurred over the course of history that offer precedent to understand if these apocalyptic warnings are even credible. We also get into much else - the history of AI to help understand this moment, the potential of ubiquitous intelligence, use cases where it is proving to be helpful, but also how humans are so ill-prepared to handle something so compelling and convenient and laden with potential - maybe the AI prompted to maximise paperclip production and ends up causing humanity’s extinction is all just a furphy, and we’ll end up degrading, eroding and eventually fracturing our ability to relate and cohere together in drastic and irreparable ways. Some extra reading relevant to this episode from our friends at Altiorem.  Artificial intelligence and the future of finance: A framework for structural change Modeling ghost GDP: Macro-financial risk and diversified portfolios in the age of artificial intelligence, automation, and populism Artificial intelligence and human rights investor toolkit Check out Planet Protein and get 10% off when you sign up. Send me a message Thanks for listening. Follow Finding Nature on Instagram

    We Are The Existential Risk - No-one Knows AI Like Toby Walsh

  7. Sep 22

    Senator Rosa Galvez On The Need For Government Before Calamity Hits

    Today’s guest is Canadian Senator Rosa Galvez. This was a very special experience to meet and speak with Rosa, whose background, expertise and humanity made this a conversation I both really enjoyed but also took so much from. Rosa, originally from Peru, is one of Canada’s leading experts in pollution control and its effects on human health. She was appointed to Canada’s Senate in late 2016, representing Québéc, and been involved with or led many of the country’s most substantive environmental, human health, finance and planetary wellbeing regulations, initiatives and committees over the last decade, which reflects her mindset and experience in appreciating the reality of complex systems, interconnectedness, the need for holistic approaches to both thinking and acting, and her own grounded experience as and with First Nations peoples and their practices. She’s a member of Canada’s Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources and Standing Senate Committee on National Finance. She’s has also served on the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications and the Special Committee on the Arctic. She’s published widely - on Canada’s building codes, what a clean and just recovery from Covid-19 would involve and look like, Aligning Canada’s Finance with Climate Commitments, introduced Bill S-243, the Climate Aligned Finance Act and helped to drive the legislation of Canada’s financial sectors approach to transitioning to a net zero economy. Beyond her political and policy work, Rosa has been acknowledged broadly for this work and her career as an engineer. She was included in the Clean50 award in 2021, the 2022 Ecological Society of America Regional Policy Award, and the 2023 Top 25 Women of Influence Award. In this chat we get into many and various topics - a primer on the Canadian political system and her appointment, their nation’s choices currently under pressure from Trump’s tariff and economic warfare tactics, understanding and attempting to make decisions that account for multiple and simultaneous considerations and impacts, the language of human, our disconnection from nature, ceremony and each other, as well as the idea of needing government for before inevitable calamity and crisis hits. Some extra reading relevant to this episode from our friends at Altiorem.  Climate Engagement Canada Directors' liability and climate risk: Comparative paper - Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom The state of sustainable finance (2025-2030) global architecture, jurisdictional approaches and emerging trends Check out Planet Protein and get 10% off when you sign up. Send me a message Thanks for listening. Follow Finding Nature on Instagram

    Senator Rosa Galvez On The Need For Government Before Calamity Hits

  8. Sep 15

    All We Have Are Our Stories - Damon Gameau On What Really Moves Us

    Damon Gameau is on the show today. This one was many many months in the making so I’m incredibly excited to be sharing it and so glad the diary Gods eventually made possible a chat that will live long in my memory for me. Damon is a renowned, award winning actor, filmmaker, and director who has made some of my favourite documentaries of the last little while. Most recently, Future Council centred children in their pursuit of understanding why adults seem so incapable of dealing with a series of problems that are so obvious to see, be affected by and seemingly addressable too. Before that, 2040 examined and highlighted the technological and governance solutions that already exist to deal with decarbonisation, pollution and circularity. He made That Sugar Film which revealed the captured dietary and health system all of us struggle to free ourselves from on a daily basis. Each of these and much more of his work goes to a simple truth - story is what moves humans. We care when we know others. We care when we understand. We care by knowing the stories of others and having them explain what’s not working and what is working, what’s possible if we change and also what’s likely if we don’t. I was keen to speak with Damon not only because of his body of work and learning from him through conversation, but also because over the last six months I’ve had my own epiphany which he helped me realise - that story is most likely the most disregarded yet necessary component of any change process. Easy to disregard as story can get wrapped up in stereotypes of advertising’s dark arts or the lamentable challenges associated with greenwashing. Story also takes time. It involves being with others, slowing down, listening, openness, a humility to let in what you may not already know, ultimately, to be challenged in what you believe or think is right. Story is inconvenient and may not work - much easier and faster to turn to a powerpoint or petition or to find blame in what and who you don’t like. After 20 years attempting to do change I never realised that every single time I’ve been moved and shifted a belief, it’s because of a story I was told, read or watched. From Inconvenient Truth and The Weather Makers in the mid 2000s, to the experience of watching Future Council to prepare for this chat. What resonates are stories. In this conversation Damon and I speak about all of this, including his own philosophy on story, their cultural significance, as well as how it matters in countering darker visions of a future that seems inevitable in our common consciousness. We also get into his and my own journeys as men and parents who’ve been cracked open by difficult life events, how we both had the stories we told ourselves fissured and needed to go through the proverbial crucible - something our whole society may also need - to come out cleansed, refreshed and buoyed by a new perspective and closer relationship to reality. Check out more of Damon's work at Future Council and The Regenerators. Some extra reading relevant to this episode from our friends at Altiorem.  Framing and language for effective climate conversations We need a revolution in environmental communications What do sustainability disclosures disclose? Check out Planet Protein and get 10% off when you sign up. Send me a message Thanks for listening. Follow Finding Nature on Instagram

    All We Have Are Our Stories - Damon Gameau On What Really Moves Us
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About

Find inspiration and guidance for the change you want to create and learn how others have achieved it in their life and work in pursuit of a more just, safe and healthier future. Nourishment for the change making class.

Information

  • Creator
    Nathan Robertson-Ball
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    142
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Finding Nature
  • Show Website
    Finding Nature

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