A New And Ancient Story: The Podcast

British bass guitarist Yolanda Charles carries some powerful stories
about trust, luck, mentorship, motherhood, and music. She shares some of them in our far-reaching conversation on these and other topics. Why does luck sometimes happen in life? Are some people born lucky? Do we make our own luck? What choices and conditions invite it in? This conversation gave me insight into these questions, and I hope it will for you as well.

About Yolanda Charles:
Yolanda Charles is a touring musician and mother of three, who has
played and toured with Squeeze, Hans Zimmer, Robbie Williams, Mick
Jagger, and others. You can support her on Patreon and find her work on Youtube, Soundcloud, and her website.

MUSIC: https://soundcloud.com/yoyobasscharles 
WEBSITE: https://g4dz.com/
YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/c/YoBassCharles/
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/yolandacharlesmusic

NAAS

Yolanda Charles: Trusting Life (E55)

Here I speak with a woman who, in her younger days, put 110% of her time and life energy into a cause, in this case, Palestinian rights (Devorah is Jewish). Her story will resonate with many current and former activists, as it has resonated with me. Today she is a regenerative urban homesteader. Does that mean she has given up on changing the world? Or is there a deep level of activism where being a healing presence is not always about struggle? The conversation also engages my own burnout and fatigue... it gets a bit personal. 

Charles Eisenstein
---
About Devorah Brous:
Dev Brous (she/her) is a regenerative consultant at the nexus of urban gardening and burnout recovery. An urban homesteader and a frontline community organizer -- she designs, writes, and gardens with individuals and institutions to design regenerative practices for soul care, community care, and earth care. 
Her website: www.fromsoil2soul.com

A New and Ancient Story

Devorah Brous: Burnout and Renewal (E56)

Anna Breytenbach is one of the world's best known interspecies communicators, subject of the film The Animal Communicator ( https://youtu.be/gvwHHMEDdT0). In this conversation we touch on a couple of her stories before zooming out larger themes such as: the living planet and humanity's role on it, the relationship between humans and the rest of life, and how to access the kind of abilities Anna has developed.

About Anna:

Anna Breytenbach is a professional interspecies communicator practicing for 20 years on several continents and featured in the documentary "The Animal Communicator".

Native to South Africa, she holds a degree in Psychology and studied telepathic animal communication with the Assisi Institute in California as well as tracking and mentoring at the Wilderness Awareness School in Seattle.

As an experienced master facilitator she focuses on mentoring in a practical manner that reminds us humans of the ways of indigenous nature awareness. Her consultation work is exclusively with wildlife and peaceful interventions globally via remote work. This includes predator research, wilderness protection, anti-poaching assistance, biodynamic and reforestation initiatives, wildlife management and rehabilitation and numerous public appearances as an inspirational speaker. 

Anna’s communication and conservation work guides people to deepen their connection with all species in an honouring manner. She's inspired by being a voice for wild beings and natural environments. 

www.animalspirit.org
www.youtube.com/c/AnimalSpirit

Anna Breytenbach: Interspecies Communication (E57)

People call Daniel Raphael a "wizard," for reasons that may become apparent in this interview. He weaves an inspiring life story with his work with the body, subtle energies, and spiritual teachings. We touch on topics of perception and reality, self-forgiveness, and the limitations of the modern view of the real.

More about Daniel, please visit:  www.danielraphael.org

Daniel Raphael: The Wizard's Path (E58)

Nathan Riley is a medical doctor trained in OB/GYN and palliative care. In this episode, birth and death, we talk about the role of medicine in society, what
is has been and could be, its beauty and limitations, working in the
system and outside the system. Be sure to listen to the last 15 minutes
especially, where Nathan shares a story that brought tears to my eyes
and is still working me from the inside.

More about Nathan Riley and his work, please visit:
https://www.belovedholistics.com/

Nathan Riley: Birth and Death (E59)

Playwright, satirist, and political commentator CJ Hopkins, creator of the website Consent Factory, joins me for a conversation on totalitarianism, safety, and the ideology of control. We go a little beyond his political writings on these topics to talk about the inner life of a dissident. Another major topic is the phenomenon of the cult, as a lens through which to understand our historical moment.

CJ Hopkins' writings can be found on Substack https://cjhopkins.substack.com/
and the Consent Factory https://consentfactory.org/.

CJ Hopkins: The New Totalitarianism (E60)

Swaady Martin is the daughter of a militant Black Panther who fled to
Africa. She grew up in the Ivory Coast and ended up pursuing an elite
education and corporate career, yet remains at heart and in spirit a
revolutionary. We covered many topics: her background, colonialism, the Covid narrative and attitudes about it in West and South Africa, and the spiritual crisis of the developed world.

Bio: Swaady Martin is an internationally recognized African leader.
Spirituality and African identity are at the heart of all Swaady’s many
and varied roles. Her academic background includes London School of Economics (LSE) and Harvard Divinity School. She is also an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow. A former Corporate Executive at General Electric (GE), Swaady is the founder of Yswara African Tea, Tounché Global Consciousness Summit & Events and LovingKindness Boma (through which she publishes mindful, multicultural picture books for children). She sits on several boards, including the African Leadership Institute(Afli).

More about Swaady Martin, please visit https://www.swaady.com/

Swaady Martin: Fugitivity to Interconnection (E61)

Description: Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. shares stories of his childhood, his family, the origins of his environmental activism, and the spiritual beliefs that keep him sane. The campaign website is https://www.kennedy24.com/.

Why we care: Charles Eisenstein in conversation with RFK, Jr.

Andes-Amazon Ecocultural Corridor

A conversation with Michal Halev, whose only son was murdered by Hamas on October 7. She tells the story of how she came to call for an end to vengeance.

Video link: https://youtu.be/-Lv5xE2rc6o

👉 Charles’ essays on Substack: https://charleseisenstein.substack.com/ 

👉 Charles’ author website: https://charleseisenstein.org/ 

👉 https://www.facebook.com/CharlesEisensteinAuthor

👉 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charles_eisenstein/ 

👉 Twitter: https://twitter.com/ceisenstein

When Only Love Remains

This father-son conversation is the debut of an irregular intergenerational conversation series. Charles and Philip Eisenstein discuss the anxieties and worries of young people about earth's future; why they are drawn to dystopian and nihilistic worldviews; the search for meaning and purpose; embracing the unknown; wonder, and beauty; the truth and the lie in the concept of "deserving"; the problem with rewards and approval, coming of age then and now, and much more.

Intergenerational Conversations:  Charles & Philip

On Bringing a Child into the World: Earth Knows What She is Doing, Charles Eisenstein and friends

On Bringing a Child into the World: Earth Knows What She is Doing

The More Beautiful World progress report, an event of The Turning of the Age program. For more information, please visit charleseisenstein.org/courses/tota/

Hope Begins in the Unknown

Degeneration and Love

This video excerpt is captured from one of the two monthly live calls on NAAS. For more information about NAAS and how to subscribe, please visit https://charleseisenstein.org/

Message for Tumultuous Times

This is a conversation with Maria Scordialos, an activist in Greece. We talk about the referendum, the solidarity economy, the role of fear in politics, the economics and politics of debt, and the revolutionary potential of authenticity in leaders. This is our first recorded podcast, and the sound quality is poor. Please excuse our learning curve.

Reconnecting to the Strength We Have: Maria Scordialos (E00) A New and Ancient Story

This is a podcast featuring a discussion between Charles Eisenstein and Nipun Mehta, the founder of Service Space, on kindness and generosity, non-monetary wealth, and how even small, simple acts of kindness alter the fabric of our world to have potentially enormous social and political consequences.

Changing the Story with Kindness (E01) - A New and Ancient Story

A conversation between Charles and Amy Lansky, a computer scientist and NASA researcher who was propelled down the road less traveled through her son's autism and its subsequent "impossible" cure. We talk about radicalization, skepticism, and gateways to synchronicity.

Synchronicty and the Impossible (E02) - A New and Ancient Story

A conversation with Chris Martenson, creator of the Crash Course, who like I have has moved beyond (way beyond) economics to explore systems change and narrative change. We talk about real wealth and fake wealth, community, technology, healing, and the impossible. A deep dive!

Deep Wealth and Transformation (E03) - A New and Ancient Story

Charles talks with Francis Weller about grief as a gateway to joy, to reverence, and to community, and the power of public grief to bring healing on a personal, community, and political level.

Join our community: www.newandancientstory.net
Francis Weller's organization: www.wisdombridge.net

Of Grief and Reverence (E04) - A New and Ancient Story

This podcast is a recording of a second conversation between me and Rupert Sheldrake, one of my favorite renegade scientists and the number one target of the defenders of scientific orthodoxy. He hardly needs any introduction, but I'll say he is prolific author and researcher with a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Cambridge University.  I see him as an elder or a pioneer in the liberating of science from its metaphysical dogmas of reductionism and mechanistic materialism, and a true practitioner of the Scientific Method in its original humble spirit. I hope you'll enjoy the intellect and refinement of this man as much as I did.

In Conversation with Rupert Sheldrake (E16)- A New and Ancient Story

Charles Eisenstein in conversation with Orland Bishop

New and Ancient Story Podcast

Orland Bishop Part 1 (E26)

Orland Bishop is in my eyes a treasure on this earth. In this conversation we talk about the cosmological and geological dimensions of the current evolution of culture and consciousness, along with other topics. Please do avail yourself of the information carried by Orland's words and -- even more -- by his voice.

Orland Bishop - Part 3 (E31)

Daniel Schmactenberger is a brilliant and innovative social philosopher and founding member of the Consilience Project. Here he outlines some of the foundations of his worldview as we discuss exponential tech, self-terminating social and technological processes, the future of humanity, the nature of the present crisis, and the necessity of a transition to non-rivalrous systems.

Daniel Schmachtenberger: Self-terminating Civilization (E34)

Brian Swimme is a mathematical cosmologist and philosopher. We went really deep in this conversation: the limits of human knowledge, cosmic evolution, science as a road to the sacred, and other speculations. I loved this fun, humorous, and mind-stretching conversation, and had the feeling that together we reached a place that neither could have reached alone.

Brian Swimme: The Cosmos Watching Itself (E35)

Helena Norberg-Hodge is a revered elder in the movement seeking alternatives to the present course of economic globalism and cultural homogenization. Her film on Ladakh, Ancient Futures, was a major influence on my work. Here we talk about what is drawing so many people back to the local, back to the land, back to place, and back to a culture of belonging.

A New and Acient Story

Helena Norberg-Hodge: Local is the Future (E36)

Lynne Twist is the author of The Soul of Money and co-founder of the Pachamama Alliance. This conversation weaves together various themes explored in my online course, Living in the Gift: https://charleseisenstein.org/gift

Lynne Twist: A Conversation About Living in the Gift (E37)

This conversation with my good friend Cynthia Jurs was originally recorded for my online course, Living in the Gift. It was a meditative, engaging experience with synchronicities that showed up to support the flow of our stories and connection with one another. Truly, it was a lived experience of gift just to be in her presence and allow meaning to unfold, as I hope you will also sense in listening to this slow, deep, and joyful conversation on ideas that are central to synchronicity and sacrifice.

Our conversation weaves together various themes explored in Living in the Gift. To learn more, go here: charleseisenstein.org/gift

A New & Ancient Story

Cynthia Jurs: On Synchronicity and Sacrifice (E38)

I describe Kelly Brogan as a “renegade psychiatrist” – someone who abandoned a prestigious career “in the system” to become a critic of pharmaceutical psychiatry and an advocate for holistic therapy. She is also a dear friend and ally whom I appreciate for her courage, creativity, and intellect. We covered a lot of ground in this conversation, medical, philosophical, and spiritual. Some of the main themes were: ending the war on pain, reclaiming personal sovereignty in physical and mental health,  the power of “I don’t know,” and the passage to authentic personal and cultural adulthood. We also discuss her powerful new book, Own Your Self (https://amzn.to/32XjBpF).

New & Ancient Story

Kelly Brogan: Get Real, Get Well, Get Free (E39)

What is mine to do? This is the mantra of Gigi Coyle, a revered veteran of social, political, and spiritual movements going back to the 1970s. Gigi was instrumental in the founding of the Ojai Foundation, Youth Passageways, Beyond Boundaries, and other groups. She is a true elder, someone whose experiences, successes, and especially failures give birth to wisdom in the soil of her humility. I hope listeners benefit as much from this conversation as I did.

This is Part One of a two-part conversation. You can find Part Two at:
https://charleseisenstein.org/podcasts/new-and-ancient-story-podcast/gigi-coyle-what-is-mine-to-do-e42/

More about Gigi's work: 
http://schooloflostborders.org/content/virginia-gigi-coyle

Gigi Coyle: What is Mine to Do? Part 1 (E42.1)

Gigi Coyle: What is Mine to Do? - Part 1 (E42)

Part Two of my conversation with Gigi Coyle explores the process of transforming pain and turmoil that is intensely reflecting back to us from the world (natural disasters, forest fires, potlics, etc..). How do we find the gifts hidden in these situations? How do we not go crazy trying not to go crazy?

This is Part Two of a two-part conversation. You can find Part One at:
https://charleseisenstein.org/podcasts/new-and-ancient-story-podcast/gigi-coyle-what-is-mine-to-do-e42/

More about Gigi's work: 
http://schooloflostborders.org/content/virginia-gigi-coyle

Gigi Coyle: What is Mine to Do? Part 2 (E42.2)

Gigi Coyle: What is Mine to Do? - Part 2 (E42)

Luz Gonçalves Brito is a Brazilian anthropologist who brings academics and spirituality together in an exquisite way. Our conversation was like a meditation, touching on the inseparability of the spiritual from the ecological and political. For example: ecology, like spirituality, is ultimately a search for connection. Luz's research is not only scholarly -- you may feel chills as I did upon hearing her sing the song given to her by a river.

Luz Gonçalves Brito: Spirituality is the Search for Connection (E44)

Sayer Ji is a prominent holistic health researcher and the founder of one of the largest alternative health websites, greenmedinfo.com. We talk first and foremost about the coronavirus and the multiple fear narratives surrounding it, then venture into some other controversial topics: body ecology and the "virome," vaccines, internet censorship, science and its limitations, biological transmutation of elements, water bubble cavitation, and my favorite topic of late, ideological polarization and peace.

Link to his new book, Regenerate: Unlocking Your Body's Radical Resilience through the New Biology: 
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/599585/regenerate-by-sayer-ji/ 
Other resource site: https://regenerateproject.com/

New and Ancient Story

Sayer Ji: Beyond the Coronavirus (E45)

Rishi Kumar(https://farmerrishi.com), a former software engineer, is a gardening evangelist who uses gardening for personal, social, and ecological healing. We talk a lot about regeneration: how it is not just a set of techniques, but an orientation, a way of seeing, and a way of relating to the earth. We humans don't have to be outsiders to nature; we too are an organ of Gaia and can join the gift circle of life. I hope our conversation gives whomever listens a little extra encouragement to begin or to deepen their gardening, and to look at the nonprofit Rishi works with, Kiss the Ground (https://kisstheground.com).

Farmer Rishi: The Gift Circle of Life(E46)

Farmer Rishi: The Gift Circle of Life (E46)

Vivian Dittmar is a teacher, speaker, and writer, author of the book The Power of Feelings. In this conversation we talk about the collective global field of uncertainty, the dynamics of birth and death, and the opportunity that Covid offers to befriend fear and follow its evolutionary power. 

Here is a guided meditation she offers on accessing the power of fear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eqOXGUgBWY

She also shares with the audience a chapter on the power of fear from her book: 
https://viviandittmar.net/wp-content/uploads/The-Power-of-Fear.pdf

Vivian's book, The Power of Feelings is here:
https://viviandittmar.net/en/books/the-power-of-feelings/ 

Her upcoming book, The Inner GPS is here:
https://viviandittmar.net/en/books/your-inner-gps/

Vivian Dittmar: Befriending Fear (E47)

This rich dialog treats the evolution of activism beyond us-versus-them thinking, with special reference to current events around race, the indigenous, and the Amazon rainforest. Alnoor Ladha’s work focuses on the intersection of political organizing, systems thinking and narrative work. He was the co-founder and Executive Director of The Rules (TR), a global network of activists, organizers, designers, coders, researchers, writers and others focused on changing the rules that create inequality, poverty and climate change. Currently, he is active with Cura Da Terra (#CuraDaTerra), a campaign of and for the indigenous of the Amazon in their role as healers of the earth. Alnoor comes from a Sufi lineage and explores/writes about the intersection between politics and spirituality in times of crisis.

The Rules: https://therules.org/

Alnoor Ladha: Oppression, Interconnection, Healing (E48)

Here I talk with Zach Bush, MD, a doctor with a background in endocrinology who "went holistic" and turned toward gut/brain health, the microbiome, and soil science. Our conversation covered a lot of ground: evolution, the importance of biological diversity for personal, social, and ecological health, the inventive fecundity of life, the role of viruses in sharing genetic information, and more. I expect this conversation will help expand people's horizons in trying to understand health and sickness in the Covid era.

Del Bigtree podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXI0UEmCsEw
About Zach: https://zachbushmd.com/video/the-highwire/

Dr. Zach Bush: Life is a Community (E49)

Dr. Edith Ubuntu Chan has an unusual background -- studied mathematics at Harvard, became a Doctor of Oriental Medicine... Actually, nothing I could say about her can do justice to the stories she carries: about the soul's journey, the nature of life and death, illness and healing, and the vastness of human potential. I was on her podcast a couple months ago, and she has graciously returned the favor here. Also check out her new book, Super Wellness via http://www.superwellness.com/

Another podcast of Dr. Chan and Charles is available via http://www.dredithubuntu.com/thedreshow/our-great-initiation-into-the-more-beautiful-world-w-charles-eisenstein

Dr. Edith Ubuntu Chan: A Trillion Points of Light (E50)

This was a delightful conversation. We hadn't intended to talk about race, but I'm glad we did, because Mellody shared some unique, unorthodox insights worthy of considering in our troubled times. The conversation ranged into the territory of psychedelic therapy, mysticism, and principles of personal and collective transformation. Her riff on spiritual bypass near the end is not to be missed! Mellody Hayes is a physician-writer, speaker, and spiritual teacher and the Executive Director of Ceremony Health, a faith-based psychedelic healing center.  She is graduate of Harvard College and UCSF Medical School and Anesthesiology Residency, John Kenneth Galbraith Scholar, and a Voices of Our Nation Alum.

Links:
Mellody Hayes: https://www.mellodyhayes.com/
Refuge with Last Black Man in San Francisco: https://adelaidemagazine.org/nf_mellody_hayes33.html

Mellody Hayes: Roots of Healing (E51)

Welcome to this moving conversation with prison activist and filmmaker Fritzi Horstman, in which we discuss her powerful short film Step Inside the Circle. Please watch it first. We talk about prisons, trauma, healing, and the bankruptcy of the punishment paradigm. The underlying theme of the conversation is compassion, which, as Fritzi's work makes obvious, is the animating principle of any truly radical action.

Fritzi Horstman bio: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQ-wertyFyx2n4q2WZBtiRgO3FqhEMKe-G2RC5DNBh8S3YiT8s3jdhehmfEmdEO4JhYQqXb83qfzna7/pub

Compassion Prison Project website: https://compassionprisonproject.org/

Donate to Compassion Prison Project: https://compassionprisonproject.org/donate-to-cpp/

Wesley Purkey Blog Post (man on death row who was executed on July 16, 2020):
https://compassionprisonproject.org/portrait-of-a-human-wesley-purkey/

Fritzi Horstman: Step Inside the Circle (E52)

Galina Angaraova is an indigenous rights activists and the Executive
Director of the nonprofit Cultural Survival. Her stories from her native indigenous village in Siberia illuminate vividly and poignantly the topics we visit, such as gift culture in indigenous societies, the
tragedy of "development," the power of ceremony, healing trauma, and the nature of true wealth. What she describes in Siberia -- the damage and the healing -- applies powerfully to our modern condition.

Articles on philanthropy -https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/reimagining-philanthropy-towards-relationships-trust-abundance-and-radical-love  and
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/indigenizing-philanthropy-rematriating-distribution-wealth    
Website: www.cs.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/culturalsurvival/
@culturalsurvival
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/culturalsurvival/  @culturalsurvival 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CSORG   @CSORG

Charles Eisenstein

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