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The Case for Idealism: Satish Kumar

Photo by Carles Rodriguez Marin Peace pilgrim, lifelong activist, former monk and founder of The Resurgence Trust, Satish Kumar has been inspiring global change for over 50 years, and at 90 he is still choosing to be, in his own words, a naïve idealist. At nine he renounced the world to become a Jain monk, against the wishes of his businessmen brothers, who thought him too idealistic. He decided then that being naïve was exactly what he wanted, and he has never let go of it. In his twenties he walked 8,000 miles across 15 countries without money, from India towards the world's nuclear capitals, in the name of disarmament, meeting Bertrand Russell, Martin Luther King and others along the way. The pragmatic people, he argues, are the ones ruining the world with war, waste and warming. It is the idealists, the Buddha, Gandhi, King, who actually change it. Idealism, for Satish, is not a flaw to grow out of but the very thing the world most needs us to hold onto. That conviction led him to found Schumacher College in Devon. He wanted an education of head, heart and hands, teaching young people courage, creativity and the confidence to make their own path rather than wait for one. It is idealism as a practical training, a way of seeing that dares young people to imagine differently and act on it. Satish now wants every country to establish a Minister of Peace, noting that 194 nations fund armies and defence while not one invests in peace itself. War, he says, achieves nothing: not in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Ukraine or Gaza, only lives lost. The age of war has passed, he believes, and the age of peace is what we must now build, spending our energy on how to be good neighbours rather than good enemies. It is a bracing, hopeful call from someone who has lived every word of it. More about Satish: Peace-pilgrim, life-long activist, and former monk, Satish Kumar has been inspiring global change for over 50 years. He undertook a pilgrimage for peace, walking for two years without money from India to America for the cause of nuclear disarmament. Now in his 80s, Satish has devoted his life to campaigning for ecological regeneration and social justice. He is a world-renown author and international speaker, founder of The Resurgence Trust and Editor Emeritus of Resurgence & Ecologist – a change-making magazine he edited for over 40 years. To find more about Satish and join him in protecting people and planet click here. Link here to the Resurgence Trust Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

7 juli

An Eye For Nature: Xander Beks

This week we're joined by Xander Beks, founder of Eye For Nature, whose whole way of working began with a simple willingness to step up. As a teenager, when others met a good idea with "that will never happen," his instinct was different: nothing is impossible until we have tried. More often than not, it became a success. He puts it down to an open, generous approach, one he traces to his Dutch roots, and a saying that "you always have no as an answer, and maybe you will get a yes." Coming to people with kindness rather than self-interest builds trust, he found. Much of our conversation turns to intergenerational learning, and Xander's belief that we waste the potential of young people. Through Eye For Nature he works to put them in the driver's seat, helping shape how they learn and matching them with mentors and experts around the world. What he describes is a genuine two-way exchange: older generations sharing experience, and younger ones, often the real experts now, teaching in return. Find out more about Eye For Nature here. Read our blog about this episode here. More about Xander Beks: Xander Beks is the Founder and Leader of Eye for Nature Cooperative, bringing over 20 years of international experience across nature-related fields, youth engagement, learning design and system transition, spanning government (national, EU and UN), education, civil society and the private sector. With more than 30 years of hands-on farming experience, he combines a deep understanding of farming realities with strategic expertise in regenerative agriculture, landscape restoration and value-chain transformation, put into practice on the farm he runs with his wife and parents-in-law, the home base of Eye for Nature and part of a future Polder Campus. He has extensive experience designing learning programmes for young people, farmers and changemakers, with a focus on leadership, experiential learning and system change. He has led national and international initiatives across youth, food systems and regenerative agriculture, including Harvest of Tomorrow, Youth Food Lab, World Food Forum national chapters, Groundswell NL, and the School of Sustainable Food and Farming NL. He has also held senior roles in public-sector policy and defence-related sustainability and energy-transition programmes, bringing strong capability in multi-stakeholder coordination, governance and complex delivery. Xander holds a Master's in Agricultural Engineering from Wageningen University & Research, is a Nuffield Scholar (2023), and is a reserve officer (Major) at the Dutch Centre of Expertise for Military Engineering, filling several roles in European and NATO fora. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

29 juni

Adventures in Understanding: Alice Morrison

Explorer, TV presenter and author Alice Morrison joins us this week, fresh from a world first: becoming the first recorded person to cross Saudi Arabia from north to south on foot. For Alice, the heart of adventure is understanding, and not only of the people next door. Through the stories she gathers and shares from her journeys, she helps us get to know other people, countries, religions and places, so we can no longer stand back and condemn them from a distance. We see where they are coming from, and make better decisions. She honestly wrestles with her beliefs about our world. She once believed life would simply keep getting better. Reporting from Northern Ireland, she saw the peace reached at Stormont as a template the rest of the world might follow, and the rise of conflict and violence since has been hard to bear. Yet she still believes we have to face it and keep acting for a better humanity. In a Scottish word from her upbringing, we must "gird" ourselves for the tough and necessary work ahead. More about Alice: Alice Morrison is an explorer, TV presenter and author, fresh from a world first as the first recorded person to cross Saudi Arabia north to south on foot. A Scot brought up partly in Africa, she studied Arabic and Turkish and worked in journalism before changing course in mid-life, cycling 12,000km from Cairo to Cape Town on the longest bike race on earth. Now based in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco, she has since walked the length of the Draa river as the first woman to do so, crossed the Sahara with camels and Amazigh guides, and presented BBC series including her latest, Arabian Adventures: Secrets of the Nabateans. She is the author of four books, among them Walking with Nomads, runner-up for the Best Travel Book Award 2023, and hosts the podcast Alice in Wanderland. Link here to learn more about Alice’s adventures and her 4 books here. Link here for Alice’s podcast ‘Alice in Wanderland’. Read our blog about this episode here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

23 juni

A Strong Sense of Fairness: Ben Rawlence

Award-winning author and co-founder and director of the pioneering Black Mountains College, Ben Rawlence joins us this week. He shares how his life has been guided by a need for fairness for all and a deep commitment to morally important campaigns. That work in policy and human rights has taken him to the USA, to his beloved Tanzania, and across Africa, a career that someone recently described to him as a graveyard of good intentions. Through all of it, one question has kept him steady: "what's the right thing for me to do right now?" Right now for Ben, that means building this unique college in and around the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park in Wales, creating a future where nature and people thrive together. Black Mountains College takes on the challenge of our times: how to build a fair and just society within safe planetary boundaries. More about Ben: Ben Rawlence is the is the award-winning author of Radio Congo, City of Thorns, The Treeline and Think Like a Forest. His writing has been translated into a dozen languages. The Treeline won the 2023 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, the 2022 Schmidt Award for Excellence in Science Communications among others. He is the co-founder and director of the pioneering educational institution, Black Mountains College in Wales. His next book chronicles the Gulf Stream system: The River in the Sea: The Ocean Current That Made the World As We Know It (out in 2027). Ben's latest book is Think Like a Forest, Letters to My Children Children From A Changing Planet. Read our blog about this episode here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

15 juni

A Mission to Spread Kindness: Joshua Ford

This week we're joined by Joshua Ford, an award-winning actor and filmmaker whose work explores kindness, vulnerability, human connection and the belief that creativity can change lives. In 2024 he made a film called Hey You, Yes You, Open Me, dropping a hundred handwritten notes of kindness across London's tubes and buses, each one a message of hope and an invitation to connect. It went viral, and Joshua still hears from people every day, grateful for the impact it has had on them. Joshua grew up in a small, busy house in High Wycombe with three brothers, his parents and a couple of animals. Amid the chaos, and his mum's serious ill health, there was so much kindness that he assumed the whole world worked that way. He believes he was drawn to the arts because of it, drawn to understanding people more because of the compassion shown to him. He emphasises keeping your imagination alive and not caring if you look silly doing what you love. As he puts it, when it comes to creativity, "it doesn't really matter what people think so much because you've made it and they haven't." Link here to watch ‘Hey You, Yes You, Open Me’ More about Joshua Ford: Alongside his creative endeavours, Joshua champions a “DIY” approach to creativity, believing that creativity can underpin almost every part of life and help nurture the truest human experiences. Through his films, talks, and community projects, he encourages others to stop waiting for permission and simply begin making, connecting, and expressing themselves authentically. Read our blog 'Shifting the Baseline: Joshua Ford's episode' here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

9 juni

Shamelessly Idealistic Creativity: Ben Peers

Ben Peers, Creative Director, Designer and Videographer, believes that nothing ever really changes for the better without a little bit of shameless, idealistic creativity. He also believes that our fixation on metrics and the bottom line can stifle our ability to challenge the status quo and shame idealism out of us. He recalls the same trajectory in his own life: creativity that flourished in primary school, before that spark was stifled and shamed within the conformist walls of secondary school. That's why he created 'Good Eye', a safe space for idealism and a counterweight to the cynicism that stops us believing we can do things differently. As he says, "if we're discouraged from imagining a better future because it's too idealistic, then how on earth are we ever going to even achieve a fraction of that?" He shares how, through Good Eye, he is bringing together a community of creatives who want to use their talent to build a better world. He wants to awaken people to a possibility many of us lose sight of: that creativity is for more than selling things, it can help build the world we want to live in. More about Ben Peers: Ben Peers is a London-based Creative Director, Designer and Videographer. In 2025 he began developing Good Eye, a community for creatives who want to use their creativity for good. Read our blog 'On the Side of Nice: Ben Peers’s episode’ here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

1 juni

Building Bridges in the Food System: Dr Lucy Wallace

What happens when you stop trying to fit in and start trusting your own way of seeing the world? Dr Lucy Wallace, a convenor and peacebuilder in food systems, has spent her career bringing people together in rooms thick with conflict, holding to one quiet belief: everyone deserves a seat at the table. In this conversation she takes us from a childhood spent hunting out small pockets of nature in the concrete West Midlands, to the noisy halls of COP, where making space for every voice is rarely tidy but is how trust slowly takes root. She speaks openly about embracing her late-diagnosed ADHD, about peacebuilding between those working in food systems, and about hope. When others try to dim your light, she says, it is usually a sign you have touched on something that matters. Her gentle encouragement to the rest of us is to stay with it, and to keep building the empathy that carries people along. More about Lucy Dr Lucy Wallace is a globally recognised connector, convenor and peacemaker in the food system, with 20 years' experience. She is the founder of Liminal Thinking, where she advises organisations on food innovation ecosystems, and Creative Director for tmrw. She has held senior roles at EIT Food, led the secretariat of the Action on Food hub at the UNFCCC COP, and co-founded REGEN HOUSE. A biologist by training, with a zoology degree from Aberdeen and a PhD in veterinary science, her feel for complex systems is rooted in the living world. Want to think more about the issues raised in this podcast? Read our blog 'When 'Not Enough' Means it's Time to Share' here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

26 maj

The Right Thing To Do : Samantha Ward OBE

What happens when you refuse to accept that nothing can be done? In this episode, we hear from Samantha Ward OBE, Deputy CEO of Royal Voluntary Service, whose lifelong conviction that the world can be changed for the better has shaped an extraordinary career in service and volunteering. From childhood, Sam had a powerful sense of right and wrong and the grit to go with it, always asking not just "why is this happening?" but "what can we do about it?" Where others saw naivety, Sam saw possibility, and she never stopped acting on it. That conviction was tested most visibly when the pandemic hit and Royal Voluntary Service stepped forward while others battened down the hatches. The result? The NHS Volunteer Responders programme, built in a matter of weeks, which mobilised 750,000 volunteers and delivered support over 2.6 million times to people who might otherwise have been completely cut adrift. Sam also shares the more recent launch of GoVo, RVS's flexible volunteering platform now home to nearly 1,800 charities, designed to meet people where they are and make volunteering work for modern life, whether that's 20 minutes on the way home or a Saturday afternoon trying something completely new. As Sam describes it, it was built on the same quiet certainty that it was simply the right thing to do. More about Samantha: Samantha Ward OBE, Deputy CEO and Chief of Services and Volunteering at Royal Voluntary Service As well as Deputy CEO responsibilities, Sam is also responsible for Royal Voluntary Service's volunteering, safeguarding & service delivery, including health, social care, community services and Armed Forces support. Sam is also a qualified Leadership Coach, Mentor & Consultant for Leaders who feel driven to serve and are born to lead. She was awarded an OBE for services to charity in 2022. Links and resources: Royal Voluntary ServiceGoVo volunteering platformWant to think more about the issues raised in this podcast? Read our blog 'The Girl Who Wouldn't Look Away' here. Subscribe for more stories and practical tools from Reboot the Future. www.rebootthefuture.org

Let’s Reboot the Future

The Case for Idealism: Satish Kumar

An Eye For Nature: Xander Beks

Adventures in Understanding: Alice Morrison

A Strong Sense of Fairness: Ben Rawlence

A Mission to Spread Kindness: Joshua Ford

Shamelessly Idealistic Creativity: Ben Peers

Building Bridges in the Food System: Dr Lucy Wallace

The Right Thing To Do : Samantha Ward OBE

Om

Information

Let’s Reboot the Future

Avsnitt

The Case for Idealism: Satish Kumar

An Eye For Nature: Xander Beks

Adventures in Understanding: Alice Morrison

A Strong Sense of Fairness: Ben Rawlence

A Mission to Spread Kindness: Joshua Ford

Shamelessly Idealistic Creativity: Ben Peers

Building Bridges in the Food System: Dr Lucy Wallace

The Right Thing To Do : Samantha Ward OBE

Om

Information