Changing the Narrative

Changing the Narrative
Changing the Narrative
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Independent conversations with the people building working alternatives in the economy and society — and a clear look at how they actually work.

Episodes

  1. 6d ago

    Giving Nature a Voice: From the Boardroom to the Courtroom - Brontie Ansell, Lawyers for Nature

    A company can go to court. A river can’t. Brontie Ansell of Lawyers for Nature is working to change that — giving the natural world a voice in law, in policy, and even inside the company boardroom. Brontie is a corporate solicitor and the Managing Director of Lawyers for Nature, a UK-based group of solicitors, barristers and academics who take on no human clients, because they treat nature itself as their client. It began, she says, with a coffee at a 2019 conference and a single thought: nobody speaks for the trees. In this conversation we get into what a nature director actually does on a company board (she sat on the boards of Faith in Nature and House of Hackney), why company law holds so much unused “white space”, the River Standing Bill that could let a river be heard in court, Maidstone Borough Council’s new rights of nature framework, and Ecological Attribution Rights (EARs) — Brontie’s idea for giving a river a stake in the value it helps create. This episode also opens with the more personal, foundational part of the conversation that’s normally reserved for Changing the Narrative members. It was too central to hold back, so this week it’s here for everyone. As Brontie puts it: there’s never one answer, but there is always an answer. Listen and read the full show notes at: https://content.changingthenarrative.media/giving-nature-a-voice-from-the-boardroom-to-the-courtroom Become a member and support the podcast at: https://content.changingthenarrative.media/#/portal/signup More on Lawyers for Nature: https://www.lawyersfornature.com/ Chapters: 00:00 Cold open 00:32 Introduction 03:08 Meet Brontie Ansell 03:28 Why company law? The white space nobody’s using 06:48 Do corporations have more rights than nature? 10:44 Why nature needs a voice in court: the guardian model 12:56 How Lawyers for Nature began 16:57 Are we waking up to being part of nature? 21:31 When a movement goes mainstream: the risk of greenwashing 23:42 Rewriting the dictionary: the We Are Nature campaign 24:13 Bottom-up or top-down? Nature on the board 27:42 When legislation works: the River Standing Bill 29:25 Maidstone: a council adopts a rights of nature framework 30:39 Open-sourcing the work, and refusing to gatekeep 34:09 Inside the boardroom: what a Nature Director actually does 38:06 From less harm to nature positivity 40:07 What they’re experimenting with next: Risks Beyond Human Eyes 45:21 The rabbit in the garden: Ecological Attribution Rights 50:00 One thing to take away: there’s always an answer 51:55 Outro

    Giving Nature a Voice: From the Boardroom to the Courtroom - Brontie Ansell, Lawyers for Nature

  2. Jul 7

    Written into the constitution: How Italy nurtures and protects its co-ops

    This week, Chris talks to Vera Zamagni, Professor of Economic History at the University of Bologna, Senior Associate Fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s SAIS Europe, and a former Vice President of the Emilia-Romagna regional government. Since 1948, Article 45 of Italy’s constitution has recognised the social function of cooperation, and no government since has legislated against it. In Emilia-Romagna, that helped build an economy where more than 3,600 cooperatives sit alongside a dense network of small, export-focused private firms — Vera says cooperatives now account for up to a fifth of the regional economy once you include the firms they control. In this conversation: the historical roots of the Emilian model, whether cooperatives and small private business can coexist with capitalism, whether any of this can travel beyond Italy, and why Vera believes the greatest threat to the cooperative model today isn’t politics — it’s artificial intelligence. CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open 00:58 The Cooperative Economy of Emilia-Romagna 02:15 The Historical Context of Italian Cooperatives 05:55 The Roots of the Emilian Model 11:21 The Scale of Cooperative Italy Today 16:32 Can Cooperatives Keep Growing? 22:00 Cooperatives and Capitalism: Is Coexistence Possible? 26:08 Can the Model Travel Beyond Italy? 31:45 Resisting the AI Tsunami 33:54 Britain’s Identity Crisis and the Anglo-Saxon Trap 38:44 Culture Before Everything: Growing Co-ops Without the Italian Foundations 47:08 Italy’s Constitutional Shield 50:32 Building from Below: The New York Childcare Experiment 56:41 Cooperation Among Cooperatives: Italy’s Networked Model Full show notes, chapters and further reading: https://content.changingthenarrative.media/written-into-the-constitution-how-italy-nurtures-and-protects-its-co-ops Become a Subscriber+ member to hear how Vera actually found her way into this work, and her years running part of the regional government: https://content.changingthenarrative.media

    Written into the constitution: How Italy nurtures and protects its co-ops

  3. Jun 19

    Neil McInroy on community wealth building and Scotland's world-first law

    Scotland has become the first country in the world to write community wealth building into law. Neil McInroy — Global Lead for Community Wealth Building at The Democracy Collaborative, and previously chief executive of CLES — explains what that actually means: who holds wealth in a place, how to make more of it stay, and the five pillars the approach works through, from fair work and public procurement to community finance, land, and inclusive ownership. He traces the idea from Cleveland’s Evergreen Cooperatives to the Preston model and on to the Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Act 2026 — and is candid about the limits: what a framework can and can’t do against data centres and footloose capital, why the legislation caused a pause as much as a surge, and why, on his account, none of it works without an organised movement underneath it. Chapters 00:00 Understanding Community Wealth Building 04:00 Five Pillars of Community Wealth Building 07:20 Global Expansion of Community Wealth Building 10:44 The Preston Model and Its Success 13:05 Catalysts for Uptake of Community Wealth Building 16:35 Addressing Modern Economic Challenges 18:24 The Evolution of Community Wealth Building 21:33 Community Wealth Building in the face of AI and Data Centres 25:35 Understanding Community Wealth Building and Lessons Learnt 31:12 Building community and becoming activist citizens 32:46 The Need for Real System Change 36:40 Comparison with other alternative economic frameworks 37:32 Engaging with the Marginalized 40:59 Future Prospects for Community Wealth Building 44:50 Being conscious of the needs of the people within a community 47:28 The future of Community Wealth Building 51:09 Is the Scottish CWB Act getting the attention it deserves 53:43 Can the embracing of CWB be expedited About Neil McInroy Neil McInroy is Global Lead for Community Wealth Building at The Democracy Collaborative, the US-based research organisation that originated the term, where he supports inclusive-ownership strategies and systemic economic reform in the US and internationally. He spent around two decades as Chief Executive of the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) in Manchester, where he helped pioneer community wealth building in Britain, including the Preston model. He has advised the Scottish Government on community wealth building and chairs the Economic Development Association Scotland (EDAS). Sources: The Democracy Collaborative; Future Economy Scotland. Further reading The Democracy Collaborative — community wealth building The Democracy Collaborative on the Scottish law — “A World First“ Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Act 2026 — full text, legislation.gov.uk Scottish Government — community wealth building policy Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) — cles.org.uk Listen & watch 🎧 Audio: https://podcasts.changingthenarrative.media/@ChangingTheNarrative/episodes/neil-mcinroy-on-community-wealth-building-and-scotlands-world-first-law ▶️ Video: https://youtu.be/ofpnimWFoEc Also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.

    Neil McInroy on community wealth building and Scotland's world-first law
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Independent conversations with the people building working alternatives in the economy and society — and a clear look at how they actually work.

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