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Local Futures Podcast

Local Futures Podcast

Local Futures 20 Episodes Jun 3, 2026

This podcast tracks the rise of the local economy movement and related ideas from around the world. It features interviews and discussions with leaders, activists, and thinkers who are working to build more resilient, community-based economies. The show explores topics such as local food systems, community currencies, and grassroots economic development.

Episodes

Planet Local Voices II with Lars Veraart Jun 3, 2026 903 Lars Veraart is a veterinarian and agroecological farmer. Together with his wife Robyn, Lars moved from the Netherlands to a small village in the mountains of Romania, where he co-founded ALPA – Land for Life — an initiative supporting small-scale ecological farming, young farmers and bioregional regeneration. He and Robyn also run Provision Transylvania, an example farm and centre for agroecology
Planet Local Voices II with Mattias Desmet May 14, 2026 1551 Mattias Desmet is a professor of clinical psychology in the Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences at Ghent University (Belgium), a practicing psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and author of The Psychology of Totalitarianism. In this episode of Planet Local Voices II, Mattias explains how the poly-crises roiling the world today ultimately stem from a metaphysical crisis, a "de-souling" of
Planet Local Voices II with Shrishtee Bajpai Apr 22, 2026 1756 Shrishtee Bajpai is a researcher, writer and activist working at the intersections of environmental justice, earthy governance, indigenous worldviews, and systemic transformations. She is a member of Kalpavriksh , and coordinates Vikalp Sangam (Alternatives Confluence) in India. She is part of the facilitation team of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives. She also serves on the executive committee
Planet Local Voices II - Jason Nardi - Solidarity Economies for Collective Power Apr 9, 2026 1086 Jason Nardi is the European coordinator of RIPESS - the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy, president of RIES (Italian Solidarity Economy Network) and co-founder of Solidarius Italia. Jason is an active member of the International Council of the World Social Forum and promoter of the World Social Forum on Transformative Economies. Jason currently lives in Flore
Planet Local Voices II - Aseem Shrivastava – An Ecosophical Critique of Modernity Mar 19, 2026 2481 Aseem Shrivastava is an environmental economist, philosopher and a writer. He is the co- author with Ashish Kothari of Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India, and The Grammar of Greed, among others. He taught economics for many years in India and the US and writes extensively on issues associated with globalization. More recently he taught ecosophy, an ecological philosophy grounded in the
Planet Local Voices II - Laura Kaestele - Living Alternatives, Active Hope Feb 25, 2026 1503 Drawing on a wealth of practical experience from regenerative community building, Laura Kaestele, discusses the importance of living models of localization in keeping alive a sense of active hope and radical imagination for a more beautiful, just and nourishing world. She calls attention to a 'mycelial network' of such alternatives, all over the world, which remains invisible in the mainstream wor
The Bristol Conversations – Bayo Akomolafe Dec 15, 2025 1302 We close the Bristol Conversations series with the much-admired teacher, poet and post-activist, Bayo Akomolafe. A public intellectual and writer, Bayo blurs the lines between the personal and the political, prompting a deep rethink of how we can act for change. He is the founder and curator of the Emergence Network and Chief Host of the We Will Dance with Mountains community. He’s involved with m
The Bristol Conversations – Lyla June Johnston Nov 20, 2025 1639 Dr. Lyla June Johnston is an indigenous musician, scholar, and community organizer of Diné Navajo, Cheyenne and European lineages. She blends her study of human ecology, graduate work in indigenous pedagogy, and the traditional worldview she grew up with to inform her music, perspectives and solutions. Her research has focused on the ways in which pre-colonial indigenous nations shaped large regio
The Bristol Conversations – Manish Jain Oct 28, 2025 1709 In another life, Manish Jain was educated at Harvard, became an investment banker with Morgan-Stanley, and worked with the UN. Since then, he has been on a journey of unlearning, deschooling and decolonizing, returning home to India to learn from his illiterate village grandmother. Manish is the founder-coordinator of Shikshantar Andolan, which has been significant in shaping the larger unschoolin
The Bristol Conversations – Iain McGilchrist Oct 10, 2025 2837 In the fifth episode of The Bristol Conversations, we hear from Iain McGilchrist, the author of the groundbreaking book ‘The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World’. Iain is a neuroscientist, psychiatrist and scholar; a man who has shed light not only on some fascinating truths about our minds and our experience of the world, but also on how these truths re
The Bristol Conversations – Camila Moreno Sep 24, 2025 1668 In the fourth episode of The Bristol Conversations, we hear from Camila Moreno, civil society’s foremost expert on the international COP climate negotiations. Since 2008, Camila has been charting the emergence of what she calls a system of ‘global climate governance’. She describes the ways in which the environmental movement is being coopted and reduced to a mandate for decarbonization and digita
The Bristol Conversations – Nelson Mudzingwa Aug 27, 2025 1727 In this episode we hear from Nelson Mudzingwa, a farmer and food sovereignty advocate, working with La Via Campesina. He teaches at the Shashe Agroecology School and is the national coordinator for the Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmer’s Forum (ZIMSOFF). In this conversation with Helena Norberg-Hodge, Nelson extols the benefits of local food systems that are closely connected to culture, communi

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