Local Futures Podcast Local Futures

Rutendo Ngara is a holder of indigenous African knowledge systems and a transdisciplinary researcher. She is a practitioner of a number of physical disciplines, including dance and yoga, and has represented South Africa as an international silver medalist in martial arts (Wushu/Kung Fu/Tai Ji). Rutendo serves on the boards of the Credo Mutwa Foundation, the South African Wushu Federation, and the ASSEGAIA Alliance for protection of sacred sites. She is also an electrical and biomedical engineer, and is pursuing a doctorate in Philosophy of Education. The quest for harmony and healing underpins her diverse endeavors.In this episode, Rutendo blends different ways of knowing and perceiving. She utilizes African concepts like Ubuntu and Sankofa as lenses through which to examine and critique western notions of progress, efficiency, time, and economics. With forays into the worlds of engineering, biomedicine and academia, she communicates a big-picture perspective on modernity, and raises questions about our collective past and future.
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.

A political economist and environmentalist, Andrew Simms is at the forefront of the movement for a new economy in the UK and around the world. His books include Cancel the Apocalypse, Tescopoly: How One Shop Came Out on Top and Why it Matters, and Economics: A Crash Course. He is coordinator of the New Weather Institute, the Rapid Transition Alliance and the Badvertising campaign. He is also a fellow at the New Economics Foundation, and research associate at the Centre for Global Political Economy, University of Sussex.
In this episode, Andrew outlines why a shift from global to local is integral to his vision of a new economy. He shines an incisive light on the foundations of today's economy, exposing and interrogating ideas like "growth" through GDP, and exploring practicable alternatives. Brimming with informed optimism, he highlights the very real possibilities for economic change.
 
To watch the video of this series, visit: Planet Local Voices interview series.
The music for this series is ‘Pines and Violet’, by Sky Toes.

In this episode, Eva elucidates some of the profound connections between the economy we live in and our most intimate experiences of being human. Exploring the root causes of the widespread mental health crises, Eva shifts the focus from individual pathologies to societal malaise and the economic system responsible for it. She also lays out a path for people to shift from isolation and disempowerment towards community care, connection and, ultimately, activism.

Juan del Rio is a pioneer of the Transition movement in Spain, and the Co-Director of ECOLISE, the European network for community-led initiatives on climate change and sustainability. He is the co-founder of the Municipalities in Transition project, and the co-director of an inspiring new film about bottom-up initiatives in Spain called ALTERNATIVAS: Building possible futures.

Keibo Oiwa is a professor, cultural anthropologist, and a widely respected philosopher and organizer in Japan. He co-authored, with David Suzuki, a book about bottom-up movements for peace, human rights and environmentalism, called ’The Japan We Never Knew’. He is the founder of The Sloth Club – an NGO that promotes slow and sustainable living. The Sloth Club, coupled with Keibo’s book Slow is Beautiful: Culture as Slowness, have fostered a new appreciation of rural life and a simpler way of living.

In this episode, Thais encourages those trapped in the modern world to step beyond its ideological confines. She shares experiences of living local cultures in indigenous Amazonia, and gives examples of localization projects in the favelas of São Paulo.