Rob Hopkins

You are in for such a treat today. It is my honour and privilege to share with you our twelfth episode of 'From What If to What Next'. In the US, as elsewhere, vast amounts of money are poured into mass incarceration and brutal and violent policing. What if instead that money was invested into the communities that bear the burnt of this approach to criminal justice, into healthcare, wellbeing, opportunity, safety? It's a huge question, and such a rich What If question. Luckily we are joined in this podcast by two amazing guests to explore it. Andrea J. Ritchie is a Black lesbian immigrant police misconduct attorney and organizer whose writing, litigation, and advocacy has focused on policing and criminalization of women and LGBT people of color for the past two decades. She is currently Researcher in Residence on Race, Gender, Sexuality and Criminalization at the Barnard Center for Research on Women, where she recently launched the Interrupting Criminalization: Research in Action initiative. Zach Norris is the Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, author of We Keep Us Safe: Building Secure, Just, and Inclusive Communities, and co-founder of Restore Oakland, a community advocacy and training center that will empower Bay Area community members to transform local economic and justice systems and make a safe and secure future possible for themselves and for their families. These are tough times in the US. I was touched by both Andrea and Zach telling me how much they had been looking forward to recording this episode, how they had been looking forward to stepping out of the grave and knife-edge moment the US is living through and into some space to imagine how it could be. As Andrea puts it in this podcast, "our dreams are what will save us in this moment". I hope listening to this podcast moves you as much as it did to record it. My thanks for your support for this podcast, my thanks to Zach and Andrea, and to Ben Addicott for theme music and production. I would love to hear what you think of this episode. Do share your thoughts below. Thank you.

Welcome to Episode 11 of From What If to What Next. So many of those who listen to this podcast are trying, in one way or another, to bring about change in the world. Whether it is the more confrontational activism demonstrated by groups like Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter, or grassroots organising and working to build the alternative, we are all trying to understand how to be the most effective activists we can possibly be. Which leads us to this episode’s question, one that feels increasingly timely, one sent in by subscriber Elke Himmelmann. “What if we had the skills and abilities to talk to decision makers and convince them to act differently?”. What would those skills be, and how might we become adept at using them? We are joined by two amazing guests to explore this. Scilla Elworthy is a three times Nobel Peace Prize nominee for her work with Oxford Research Group to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics. Her most recent book is The Mighty Heart: how to transform conflict (2020 ). Robert Philips founded Jericho in 2013 after a 25-year career at the top of the global communications industry. He leads its work on Responsible Tax, Good Work, Social Justice in Tech, Housing, Energy and Infrastructure. He is the chair of #JerichoConversations. As ever, my thanks to you for subscribing and for listening, and my thanks also to my guests and to Ben Addicott for production and theme music. Do let me know what you thought of this episode below.

The uprising of Black Lives Matter and other organisations have led to many calls for the decolonisation of education at every level. But what does it mean to decolonise education? As Boris Johnson dismisses such calls as a "national orgy of self-embarrassment", does decolonising education mean simply changing the curriculum, or does it go much, much deeper than that? And what if we achieved it? What would it be like to live in a world where that had happened? In this deep, rich and fascinating episode of ‘From What If to What Next’ we are joined by two amazing guests to explore this... Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan is an educator, writer and poet from West Yorkshire, UK. Her work disrupts and interrupts questions of history, race, knowledge and power - interrogating the political purpose of narratives about Muslims, migrants, gender and violence in particular. She is the author of poetry collection, Postcolonial Banter, co-author of the anthology, A FLY GIRL’S GUIDE TO UNIVERSITY: Being a woman of colour at Cambridge and other institutions of power and elitism and hosts the Breaking Binaries podcast. Kwame Boateng is passionate about de-colonial approaches to education and community development. Having extensive experience with Black youth in rural areas of the UK which are still lacking racial integration, Kwame decided to begin his studies in social anthropology and development focusing on race, identity and their respective intersections with education and transformative pedagogy. At present Kwame is working closely with ‘The Black Curriculum’ as an educator. Their objective is to incorporate Black British history into the national curriculum to aid a holistic understanding of British identity rooted in respect, reciprocity and empowerment.

Our question this time was slightly adapted from one sent in by subscriber Pamela Barnes. As the world attempts to claw its way back from the COVID19 pandemic, and as opinion polls show an overwhelming support for not ‘going back’ to how things were before, people are increasingly discussing and exploring new models for an economy that better needs the needs of the population as a whole. One of those key ideas is that of a Wellbeing Economy, an economy that delivers both human and ecological wellbeing. It is an idea that is being taken up by governments now in Scotland, New Zealand and Iceland, and attracting interest from further afield. But what would it be like to live in a Wellbeing Economy? What would daily life look like? What would change, and what would be the same? And how would it impact on democracy, fairness, inclusion? Big questions, but fortunately we are joined by two of the very best people to help us explore them. Dr Katherine Trebeck is Advocacy and Influencing Lead for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance and co-founder of Wellbeing Economy Alliance Scotland. She instigated the Wellbeing Economy Governments partnership and her book The Economics of Arrival was published in 2019. Yannick Beaudoin is Director-General for Ontario and Northern Canada with the David Suzuki Foundation. He brings a ‘new economics for transition’ lens to the organization to enable the transformation of Canada towards social and ecological sustainability.

In this episode we are exploring a question sent in by subscriber Joy Cherkaoui. One of the things a future in which imagination is able to flourish will need is spaces in which imagination and creativity are invited. Intentionally. These can take many forms, but we need them. What then are the ingredients of such spaces? What makes a good one? Who gets to create them? How can we ensure that they support and reflect the diversity of the place in which they are situated? Big questions. But luckily in this episode we are joined by two of the very best people to explore it. Tom Doust is Director of Experience and Learning at the Institute of Imagination in London, an organisation which champions opportunities for children and young people of all backgrounds to develop their imaginations, a quality vital to creativity and the next generation’s ability to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world. Marie Godart works in the field of theatrical creation, climate change and facilitating the imagination. She is currently working on ‘Play’, a proposed cultural space in the centre of Brussels dedicated to the power of play and imagination in our cities. I hope you enjoy this episode. Do let me know what you think, and tell your friends!

Doughnut Economics is rapidly moving from the fringe to the mainstream. Amsterdam in Holland was recently confirmed as the first ‘Doughnut City’, using the model to underpin its economic development strategy. Many other cities are also moving towards adopting this powerful and fascinating tool for reimagining cities and their economies. Our question in this episode, your mind-expanding piece of summer listening, is "what if every city used Doughnut Economics?' As usual, I have sought out the two very best people to help me explore this. Kate Raworth is an economist focused on making economics fit for the 21st century. Her book Doughnut Economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist is an international bestseller that has been translated into 18 languages. She is co-founder of Doughnut Economics Action Lab, which works with change-makers to turn Doughnut Economics from a radical idea into transformative action. She teaches at Oxford University and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Marieke van Doorninck is Alderman for Sustainability and Urban Development for the City of Amsterdam. From 2006 until 2014, she was a member of the Municipal Council for the GreenLeft party, of which she was the party chair since 2009. Before that, she worked for different organisations focusing on refugees and women’s rights. She is one of the key people working with Kate and the Doughnut Economic Lab team to bring the Doughnut model to Amsterdam. The conversation that followed, and the new vision it opened up, is fascinating, and I hope you really enjoy it. Doughnut Economics creates, by identifying the 'safe space' in which our city economies need to operate, a powerful imaginative space. As usual, do let me know what you think.

Allow me to present one of my very favourite episodes of ‘From What If to What Next’ thus far. The question we explore is ‘What if imagination were a universal right?’ It emerges from the argument in ‘From What Is to What If’ that imagination is, to a degree, a function of privilege, and that we need to create the conditions for everyone to be able to live a life rich in imagination. But how do questions of colonisation, systemic racism and social exclusion impact this? What is the state of health of our collective imagination today, and how does the fact that we have failed to see imagination as a universal right manifest in the world around us today? My guests to explore this are Ariane Conrad, writer, activist and ‘book doula’ (editorial consultant and collaborative author) who tends to collaborate with authors who defend the rights of people and planet, and Dr. Masum Momaya who has worked at the intersection of arts, culture, social justice and human rights for more than 20 years as an educator, museum curator, writer and activist. You’re going to love this episode, and I would love to hear your thoughts and what it brings up for you. My thanks as always to Ben Addicott for theme music and production.

This fifth episode of 'From What If to What Next' has the longest title of any of our shows thus far! It was sent in by subscriber Chris Wells. As we start, hopefully, to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately affected older people, many people have experienced an end to their lives that was lonely and traumatic. How different would the world feel if its priorities had changed to being one where the end of life was treated with the same love and reverence as birth? My two guests for this episode are Mike Grenville and Mary Nally. Mike is a dying doula and independent funeral Celebrant. He runs workshops on 'death and dying' including Dying To Talk sessions. He has had a long involvement in the Transition movement and he lives in Frome. Mary lives in Summerhill in County Meath, Ireland. She has background in nursing, and founded an amazing organisation called Third Age ("where the third age of life is valued and celebrated"), which she will tell you about in the podcast. She is an Ashoka fellow.

In our fourth episode, we bring together two of the UK's most pioneering doctors to explore what a very different future for healthcare could be like. What would it be like if doctors' surgeries were key players in the wider Transition of the community, actively stimulating a reimagining of food, energy, community and much more? In this episode we are joined by Dr Jane Myat, doing amazing work at the Caversham Group Practice in Kentish Town, North London since 1997. She is a passionate advocate of finding alternative patient-centred approaches to long-term conditions. Inspired by pioneering GPs such as Sam Everington and by our second guest here, and assisted by Transition Kentish Town, Jane founded the Listening Space, a project centred around a community garden in the courtyard of her family practice. Dr Michael Dixon is a Devon GP whose CV and list of roles within the NHS is glittering and includes numerous national leadership roles. To name just two, he is a Chair of the College of Medicine and Clinical Champion for Social Prescription (NHS England) and Chair of The Institute for Social Prescription.

FWIWN3.mp3 In this third episode of 'From What If to What Next', we're talking about food. Taking a question from Patreon subscriber Tony Buck, we are asking "What If towns and cities set out to intentionally relocalise their food production?" How would it work? Where would you start? How would you involve the local government? How would you ensure that it is inclusive? To explore this complex question, one that COVID-19 has firmly re-emphasised the importance of, we have two guests with many years of experience in this area. Dee Woods describes herself as a “food and farming action-ist and campaigner” and has been involved for many years in London, playing a role in many different projects, whilst also writing and speaking widely on issues around food insecurity, inequalities in food systems, participatory policy making, intersectionality and decolonisation. Christian Jonet is one of the founders and co-ordinators of the brilliant Ceinture Aliment-Terre Liégeoise ( Liége Food Belt) in Belgium, one of the most remarkable examples of a citizen-led re-imagining of a city's food production. I hope you love this episode. Please leave your comments and feedback below. My thanks to Ben Addicott for production and theme tune, and to you for subscribing to this podcast.

In this second episode of 'From What If to What Next', we're talking about Universal Basic Income with Alexis Frasz, researcher and cultural strategist with Helicon Collaborative, and Phil Teer, author of 'The Coming Age of Imagination'. What would it be like to live in a world in which UBI was now an integral part of everyday life? How would life, and the world around us feel different? How might we re-frame UBI as a vital strategy for rebuilding our collective imagination? All too often, UBI is discussed as being an economic issue, but might imagination provide a fresh and essential lens through which to explore the idea? I hope you love this episode. Please leave your comments and feedback below. My thanks to Ben Addicott for production and theme tune, and to you for subscribing to this podcast.

Welcome to this, the first ever episode of 'From What If to What Next'. In this first episode, we meet singer, curator, event creator and lover of birdsong Sam Lee, speaking to us direct from a birdsong-filled forest, and Mya-Rose Craig, also known as 'Birdgirl', who is doing amazing work promoting birdwatching among young people and promoting BME engagement with the natural world. Subscribe to this podcast at www.patreon.com/fromwhatiftowhatnext and get it a full two weeks before everyone else, PLUS a subscribers-only podcast called 'The Ministry of Imagination', PLUS other treats such as my recent conversation with permaculture co-founder David Holmgren AND the opportunity to ask the What If questions that shape these episodes. All for just £3 a month.

Here is a taster of Episode One of 'From What If to What Next', my new podcast series. You can unlock this full episode, as well the exclusive 'Ministry of Imagination' podcast, and other exclusives, by subscribing at www.patreon.com/fromwhatiftowhatnext. This first episode speaks to Sam Lee and Mya-Rose Craig, and is deeply lovely.

In 2011 I gave a talk at Bristol Colston Hall, which as someone who had grown up in Bristol, was hallowed ground. The talk opens with a Captain Beefheart anecdote I am rather fond of.

On Sunday 20th October, at Battersea Arts Centre, following an incredible day of 'Pop Up Tomorrow', I launched 'From What Is to What If'. Here is the audio of the evening, which also features appearances by improv expert Jeremy Finch and Ruth Sapsed of Cambridge Curiosity and Imagination. I hope it gives you an inspiring taste of the evening.