First interview with Ed Gillespie -- "father, inspirational keynote speaker and futurist". Also, co-presenter of The Great Humbling and John Richardson and the Futurenauts, director of Greenpeace UK, a facilitator with The Forward Institute, and involved with 12 or so. different, ethical environmental startup businesses -- or, as he puts it: facilitation, activism, and investment in businesses which might help shape a better future).
This episode was recorded at the start of December 2021 (so before Ukraine and other big news). Ed uses a few swear words (one b*ll*cks, a few f*cks), which would make this a post-watershed programme, just.
Links
-Ed's piece The Omerta of consultancy
-"Hospicing Modernity" is the title of a book by Vanessa Andreotti (writing as Vanessa Machado de Oliveira). That book draws on her work on Gestures Towards Decolonial Futures.
-David Graeber and David Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything
-Ed quoting my late wife ("Look. Over there. Follow me!") comes form this piece I wrote on Facing the Future.
-James Plunkett, End State
Timings
0:32 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there?
10:45 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why?
18:27 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why?
23:26 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next?
25:23 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them?
27:27 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach?
28:13 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say?
Transcript - here
Themes
-A creeping, nagging doubt that the successful sustainability consultancy was actually in defence of the status quo, despite public protestations to the contrary.
-Life experience of grief leading into embracing a far more profound sense of uncertainty and being more comfortable with that.
-Resting in uncertainty have the emergence of three strands of work (facilitator, activist, investor)
-Tension between improving the current and improving the next (which will eventually replace the current).
-Tired of urgent pragmatism that says there is no time for moral awakenings.
-Let's explore all the different possible futures, rather than we should definitely had an only this one direction.
-Every single thing that we've been told was a brilliant idea in hindsight was essentially resisted as being unworkable, impractical, unaffordable, impossible. beforehand.
-Working hypothesis that there's gonna be more radicalization, as the circumstances become more clear.
-Priority: stretching people's imaginations on what's possible.
-Priority:
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Thank you for listening! -- David
