Accidental Gods

25/06/2025

How can Bioregionalism supplant the nation state as the natural unit of civilisation?
This week's guest on the , Joe Brewer is living, breathing and teaching the ways we can work together with each other and the natural flows of water and life.
How do we build ways of being that reunite us with the web of life, create new/old ways of letting value flow and become what humanity has been and could be: stewards of that massive, magical, heartbreakingly beautiful living system that is the web of life?
Joe Brewer works at the leading edge of these ideas, testing out answers on the ground in communities of place, purpose and passion around the world. Joe is a trans-disciplinary systems thinker and Earth regeneration designer who has worked in everything from agroforestry work in Bioparque Móncora to starting a Waldorf Forest School (Sueños del Bosque) to co-founding a territorial foundation called Fundación Barichara Regenerativa and starting a trust to bring more local land into the commons. He was founder of the Earth Regenerators study group, which became Design School for Regenerating Earth, and is the author of The Design Pathway for Regenerating Earth.
Increasingly, he’s becoming a leading global voice on the ways we can return to a way of living that is, as you’ll here, how we have lived for over 99% of human history. It’s the way that makes sense, that can heal our relationships to ourselves, each other and the living web of life. The question, always, is how we make this happen? How do we shift our entire culture out of a world where lines drawn on maps are more real than the flows of a river, back to a place where clean air, clean water, clean soil are our priorities, the non-negotiable baselines from which everything else arises? How do we shift our concept of value flows away from the accumulation of stuff in a zero-sum game to a place where human needs are trusted and met? Joe has such heart-warming, inspiring examples of how this is happening around the world: on all 5 inhabited continents, there are groups making this happen. As Joe says, this is the work of now. It’s urgent. It’s also the single most inspiring thing we can do.
https://accidentalgods.life/sit-with-the-river-breathe.../

How can Bioregionalism supplant the nation state as the natural unit of civilisation? Joe Brewer is living, breathing and teaching the ways we can work together with each other and the natural flows of water and life.

22/06/2025

Also in totalitarian states

so when you have a totalitarian state declaring war on another nation, be prepared for a lot of un-truth...

21/06/2025

Here is a for the Solstice – the moment when the sun stands still.

It is suitable for both the summer and winter Solstice (northern and southern hemispheres respectively)

You don’t have to do this at the exact moment of stillness: it’s the connection that counts, the marking of the turning point from days lengthening to shortening (or vice versa if you’re in the southern hemisphere). This is a moment of reflection and a re-affirming of our connection to the web of life.

You don’t have to limit yourself to one pass through – please feel free to explore this more deeply than one single iteration.

https://accidentalgods.life/solstice-meditation-2025-sun-stands-still-by-manda-scott/

Here is a meditation for the shortest night of the year - the time when the sun stands still. It doesn't have to be at the moment of the solstice, it's the connection that counts, the marking of the day. And you don't have to limit yourself to one pass through - please feel free to explore this more...

11/06/2025

How close are we to the edge of Zero Day when no water comes out of the taps? Scarily close. But Tim Smedley has a whole host of ways we can restore our water cycles.

If you listen to this podcast for any length of time, you’ll know that I believe the way forward is predicated on our finding shared values—I’d go for integrity, compassion, courage and generosity of spirit as the baselines—and then a suite of clear asks in the outer world and needs in the inner world. In logistical terms, at an absolute baseline, we need Clean Air, Clean Water, Clean Soil. These are non negotiable and the fact that we currently have none of these is a grim indictment of how much we live in an economy that sucks the life out of everything rather than a society that grows. But we do have people who are working flat out to change the narrative on exactly these topics and this week’s guest, Tim Smedley, is one of these.

Tim is an award-winning sustainability journalist who has worked with the BBC, the Guardian, Sunday Times and Financial Times. He is also a celebrated non-fiction writer. His first book, Clearing the Air: The Beginning and the End of Air Pollution, was shortlisted for the UK’s Royal Society Science Book Prize. His latest: The Last Drop: Solving the World’s Water Crisis was a Times Book of the Year and has been described as ‘Smart, Sobering and Scholarly’ which it certainly is.

This is one of those books that’s both terrifying, utterly compelling and—I’m glad to say—ultimately inspiring. Yes, the world’s water is in a desperate state. Yes, it has been horribly mismanaged almost everywhere by the kleptocracy that masquerades as a democracy in our modern world. But yes, we do have responses that will work, they have been carefully explored and water is one of those unifying elements that brings people together across tribal boundaries. We all need clean water and getting there means we need to find common principles by which we can live. Spoiler alert: turning water into a for-profit commodity is not a part of the solution. Regenerative agriculture, re-Wilding our waters, beavers (yay!) and sane water saving/sparing practices definitely are.
Tim is so knowledgeable and his books are both brilliantly researched and utterly personal. He goes to the places he writes about and his first-hand experiences are priceless. I have put links in the show notes for both of his books, plus the Medium article on DeGrowth which is where I first came across his work. Please do explore afterwards.

https://accidentalgods.life/rewilding-our-water-from-rain-to-river-to-sewer-and-back-with-tim-smedley-author-of-the-last-drop/

How close are we to the edge of Zero Day when no water comes out of the taps? Scarily close. But Tim Smedley has a whole host of ways we can restore our water cycles.

31/05/2025

We are honoured to bring to Accidental Gods, a recording of three of our generation’s leading thinkers in conversation at the in Sheffield, hosted by Opus Independents.

Kate Raworth meets Indy JoharJohar and James Lock

This is an unflinching conversation, but it’s absolutely at the cutting edge of imagineering: this lays out where we’re at and what we need to do, but it also gives us roadmaps to get there: It’s genuinely Thrutopian, not only in the ideas as laid out, but the emotional literacy of the approach to the wicked problems of our time.

Now we have to make it happen.



We are honoured to bring to Accidental Gods, a recording of three of our generation's leading thinkers in conversation at the Festival of Debate in Sheffield, hosted by Opus. This is an unflinching conversation, but it's absolutely at the cutting edge of imagineering: this lays out where we're at an...

28/05/2025

The only way through the crises we’re facing is to rekindle a deep, abiding respect for ourselves, each other and the living web of life. So how do we make this happen?

The future rests upon us building heart-grounded, spirit-led communities that link humanity to the Web of Life. We know that the key to this is building reciprocal relationships with our food and the land from which it comes. Doing this is…harder.

So this week, we’re speaking with Abel Pearson of . Abel is a friend of the podcast – we last spoke in the depths of the pandemic when he was farming 3 acres and beginning to feed the local community in ways that helped the people in a ten mile radius really to connect with the spirit of the land on which their food was grown.

Now, Abel and the team are farming 138 acres of National Trust property, and still producing food for people in the local area – but so much more than that, they are building communities of place, passion and purpose, centred on the land and the cycles of the seasons and the ways we can build authentic relationship, full of reverence for the many, many layers of life in, on and under it the soil. He says that everything he does now is for his young son and the children to come, in the hope that they might yet enjoy abundant foodscapes, clean rivers and regenerative cultures.

https://accidentalgods.life/farm-as-church-land-as-lover-community-farming-and-food-with-abel-pearson-of-glasbren/

The only way through the crises we're facing is to rekindle a deep, abiding respect for ourselves, each other and the living web of life. So how do we make this happen?

14/05/2025

Our world is more magical than we know – more than we can know. Increasing numbers of us are realising that the ‘citadel theory of mind’ where we see ourselves as isolated units within the boundaries of our own skulls is not how the world works. But if it isn’t, then how do we make sense of the worlds beyond consensus reality? How do we engage with the web of life and all that’s around it in ways that are respect, reciprocal and generative?
Robert (Bob) Falconer is a long time practitioner and trainer. He is the author or co-author of many books, including Many Minds, One Self which he co-wrote with Dick Schwartz, who is credited with founding Internal Family Systems Therapy. For me, this is the form of therapy that leans closest into spiritual work, particularly into shamanic work, and Bob’s book, The Others Within Us: Internal Family Systems, Porous Mind and Spirit Possession is a ground-breaking work that blows open the fallacies of the citadel mind model and opens us to a wide spectrum of other realities in other cultures, all of which acknowledge the existence of non-human, non-embodied energies that have at least a degree of agency and that can interact with human beings in ways that are either to our benefit or our detriment. Very few are neutral.
So as we hurtle towards the edge of a cliff, pushed by our culture’s endemic inability to engage with our own traumas, talking to Bob seemed pretty much essential. We talk quite a lot about IFS, which is Internal Family Systems therapy and at the start, we open up more of what that’s about, though I do encourage you to read the book Bob co-wrote with Dick Schwartz. We also – and this is a trigger warning – explore some of Bob’s own life history of harrowing sexual and physical abuse so if this is likely to trigger parts of you, then please only listen when you’re feeling grounded and well resourced. Beyond that, we range far, wide and deep across the boundaries where science meets spirituality and philosophy meets psychotherapy, all of which is squarely in the area that I think needs most work, for all of us.

Our world is more magical than we know - more than we can know. Increasing numbers of us are realising that the 'citadel theory of mind' where we see ourselves as isolated units within the boundaries of our own skulls is not how the world works. But if it isn't, then how do we engage with the web of...

07/05/2025

Predatory Capitalism is killing us – this is obvious. So how do we create ways to exchange, store and account for value that are just and equitable and will take us towards the future we’d be proud to leave behind?
We are living through a time between stories—where the old economic narratives of scarcity, extraction, and separation are crumbling, and a new one is seeking to be born. At the heart of this transition is the question: What do we truly value, and how do we express that value in ways that nourish life?
Imagine a society where every act of care, contribution, and kindness is not only appreciated but economically recognised. Schools, councils, and local businesses become part of an ecosystem where value flows back and forth amongst the people who create it. This doesn’t replace wages or public services—it enhances them.
This is a good step of the way towards a culture that’s predicated on solid core values of compassion, integrity and generosity of spirit, and where we value what we care about, rather than what we can grab. So how do we build this in ways that work – and do so inside the current system?
This week’s guest, Peter Kemp , calls himself a professional dot-joiner. Peter is a UK-based digital innovator and social entrepreneur whose career has spanned web technology, media production, civic engagement, and alternative economics. As part of his work, Peter has helped to establish Citizen Coin – a digital, values-led complementary currency designed explicitly to recognise and reward social, environmental, and civic contributions that often go unpaid and undervalued in the mainstream economy.
He says, ‘The current economic model—predominantly built around fiat currencies and centralised systems—is increasingly failing to deliver equitable outcomes, community cohesion, or environmental resilience. Citizen Coin offers a new approach: a digital token earned through pro-social actions—such as volunteering, participating in community initiatives, or engaging in sustainable practices.’
Crucially, Citizen Coin is not a replacement for fiat currency. Instead, it operates as a complementary economy—a parallel system that strengthens local resilience, incentivises positive behaviour, and redistributes recognition for care work and civic participation. More than a technology, this offers a shift in worldview—a move from scarcity to abundance, from extraction to contribution.
As we face overlapping crises of inequality, climate, and mental health, complementary economies like this are no longer radical—they are necessary. Citizen Coin is not just about digital infrastructure or economic reform. It is about choosing a new story—one where we honour the unseen, uplift the essential, and move from domination to stewardship. It is about birthing an economy in service to life.
https://accidentalgods.life/radical-change-building-a.../

Predatory Capitalism is killing us - this is obvious. So how do we create ways to exchange, store and account for value that are just and equitable and will take us towards the future we’d be proud to leave behind?

23/04/2025

Our legacy – or status quo – media is owned and run by billionaires for billionaires and the stories they promote are the ones that will keep us all in line. How do we shift the global narrative towards a future of mutual flourishing?

It is axiomatic of this podcast that stories – the good and the bad – are what got us to where we are. We are a storied species. Everything we do arises from the stories we tell ourselves and each other about ourselves, each other and our relationship with the communities of place, purpose and passion around us. Often, we’re seeking respect and the pride of knowing we’ve contributed to the things we care about. But many of us are living in media echo chambers which have no connection to the other bubbles around us.

So how do we bridge the gaps? How do we created a media eco-system, a commons, that works for the people by the people, growing stories of agency and empowerment, motivation and direction in, by and from our communities?

This week’s guest, , is a facilitator, researcher and organiser living in Sheffield. She works for Opus Independents, where she spends most of her time developing relatable, accessible metrics to track progress towards the Sheffield City Goals, and also on the People’s Newsroom Initiative (PNI). PNI is a project housed within Opus broadly focused on journalism innovation, and our recent work has been reimagining journalism as ‘storytelling commoning’ – collective practices of sharing and weaving together stories that can support a just climate transition.

With a background in media research and campaigning for a transformed media system, she previously worked for the Media Reform Coalition running the ‘BBC and Beyond’ campaign, which also developed ideas of a ‘media commons’. Alongside her role at Opus, she is currently working with the independent press regulator IMPRESS on various projects, including presenting Dis/Mis, a podcast on dis- and mis-information and how we build a trustworthy media.

https://accidentalgods.life/red-pill-blue-pill-green-pill-true-pill-creating-a-trustworthy-media-commons-with-debs-grayson-of-opus-independents/

Our legacy - or status quo - media is owned and run by billionaires for billionaires and the stories they promote are the ones that will keep us all in line. How do we shift the global narrative towards a future of mutual flourishing?

12/04/2025

The current system is not broken – it is doing what it was always designed to do – which is to shovel wealth and power from the many to the few at a human scale and from the more-than-human world to the industrial/technical maw of predatory capitalism at an ecological scale.

This is a death cult and it is in its death throes, but it will take us all down with it if we let it.

Suppose then, we accept that, while the current system may not be broken, it is absolutely not fit for purpose, if that purpose is the continuation of complex life on earth; if it is the flourishing of humanity as an integral part of the web of life; if it is a world predicated on values of compassion, decency, integrity, generosity-of-spirit and absolute confidence in our place as conscious nodes in the web of life.

If this is the case – then we need a whole new system. We need a movement that will bring this system into being.

This is another solo podcast, in which I explore what the baselines of a new system might look, feel and work like.

https://accidentalgods.life/bonus-thoughts-from-the-edge-if-the-current-system-is-not-fit-for-purpose-whats-our-core-response/

The current system is not broken - it is doing what it was always designed to do - which is to shovel wealth and power from the many to the few at a human scale and from the more-than-human world to the industrial/technical maw of predatory capitalism at an ecological scale.

26/03/2025

Modernity is collapsing around us. So how can we compost its remains, to grow something constructive, generative, connected communities that can act as a bridge from where we are towards that future we’d be proud to leave behind?

We all know the current system of predatory capitalism is not fit for purpose. We don’t (yet) all agree on how to fix it, but for sure, no problem is solved from the mindset that created it. So how do we begin to compost the debris of the failing system and grow something constructive, generative, connected communities that can act as a bridge from where we are towards that future we’d be proud to leave behind?

This week's guest on the , James Opus (aka James Lock) is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Opus Independents Ltd, a not-for-profit social enterprise, working in culture, politics and the arts. Opus works to encourage and support participation, systemic activism and creativity with project strands that include Now Then Magazine & App, Festival of Debate. Opus Distribution, the River Dôn Project and Wordlife.

I met James and other members of Opus in Sheffield last summer when we were all part of the Sheffield Social Enterprise Network summer conference and I was really blown away by their understanding of systemic thinking, by their absolute commitment to total systemic change and by the flexibility of their thinking. Here were people who were taking the concepts that we talk about and making them real, amongst real people in a real place. So we agreed that we’d talk first to James for an overview of what Opus is and does, how the thinking comes together and how we can each take ideas from here and scale them up and out in the places we live. Clearly each city, town, village, street is unique, but some principles are universal and I think we can all learn from the ways James thinks about things as he strives to create the bridges towards a new system.

https://accidentalgods.life/now-then-building-networks-of-citizen-power-with-james-lock-of-opus-in-sheffield/

Modernity is collapsing around us. So how can we compost its remains, to grow something constructive, generative, connected communities that can act as a bridge from where we are towards that future we'd be proud to leave behind?

19/03/2025

The old systems are no longer fit for purpose. What does an education system look like that’s fit for the twenty-first century? Where we put self care, people care, earth care at the heart of what we do?

This week’s guest, Rachel Musson, has made it her life’s work to fashion ways of learning for all ages that put this Triple Wellbeing principle into action. In everything she does, from leading ThoughtBox Eduction, to creating the Transforming Leadership Course, to writing her glorious, inspiring children’s books, to her podcast, Two Inconvenient Women, with her fellow Thoughtboxer Holly Everett, she is being the change we need in the world. At this time where the old is breaking apart and the worst are full of passionate intensity, Rachel is a living example of the fact that the best of us can also be full of passionate intensity and that this can sow seeds of change that ripen into something close to miraculous transformation.

Rachel is a beacon of inspiration and optimism, of how we can connect to the web of life and build networks of mycelial change in our personal and collective lives.

https://accidentalgods.life/be-more-hawk-being-the-courage-to-follow-whats-right-with-rachel-musson-of-thoughtbox-education/

What does an education system look like that's fit for the twenty-first century? Where we put self care, people care, earth care at the heart of what we do?