The Modern Maze

On our previous episode, Adrian Röbke and myself discussed the process to identify your unique niche to contribute to a regenerative and just future. If you did not, check out part one of this conversation here.But what now?You might feel:* ⁠ ⁠Uncertain on how to create collaborative & impactful projects* ⁠ ⁠Anxious about being able to pay your bills when you pivot your career.* ⁠ ⁠Overwhelmed by how to safeguard your well-being when engaging with complex problems.Contributing to systemic change can feel like a leap of faith.But, there are proven strategies to make it work.In part two of this podcast, Adrian Röbke and I explore tips and strategies on:* ⁠ ⁠How to message your work to attract aligned opportunities.* ⁠ ⁠How to make an income to pay your bills.* ⁠ ⁠How to care for your well-being & preserve focus.Through this process, you will be able to implement your visions in practical ways.There are many ways to make both an impact and an income.It's time to create yours.Resources:Dive deeper into this process with the articleSubscribe to the Systemic Shift Newsletter for weekly tools, tips and opportunitiesConnect with Adrian on LinkedInAdrian Röbke builds the capacity of impact networks to co-create systemic change. He is a network weaver, facilitator, capacity-builder & social entrepreneur. For a decade he is showing up each day to catalyse regenerative & just futures. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themodernmaze.substack.com

Wow what a year 2024 has been. In our final episode of the year, we pause to reflect on the state of our hearts, minds and souls as we navigate the turbulence we've faced.Together, we'll craft a vision for 2025 - one born from our collective yearning for change and our shared journey.What lies ahead for The Modern Maze will be shaped by our desire for wholeness, healing and a deeper connection to the world. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themodernmaze.substack.com

With our summers growing hotter and longer, we are confronting relentless heat that reshapes daily life. Heat waves have become our deadliest environmental disaster and will increasingly become more common as the planet continues to heat up. We are joined by Emma Bacon, the founder and executive director of Sweltering Cities. Sweltering Cities, founded in 2020, focuses on advocating for liveable and equitable communities affected by extreme heat. Emma highlights the critical need for better housing, transportation, and urban planning to mitigate the impacts of heat waves, especially for marginalised communities. We discuss extreme heat's physiological and societal effects, underlining the importance of cross-sector solutions, systemic changes and greater government involvement to truely address the growing risks of climate change. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themodernmaze.substack.com

During the COVID-19 lockdowns in Melbourne, I began a daily gratitude practice to cope with rising anxiety and uncertainty. While life’s pace caused the practice to fade, the first half of 2024 brought intense challenges that made gratitude feel distant. However, once those challenges passed, I realised that gratitude had quietly sustained me, evolving from a daily ritual into a deep, unconscious connection with life’s simple joys and Mother Earth. Now, recognising gratitude's power within me, another question began forming in my mind. “Could gratitude save our planet?” Science reveals that consistent gratitude can rewire our minds, fostering a lasting, albeit subtle, increase in happiness. However, it’s crucial to acknowledge that our existence is rooted in duality—light and dark, creation and destruction. True harmony is found in embracing joy and sorrow as essential to our growth. Gratitude, when genuinely expressed, not only deepens our resilience but also strengthens our connections with others, subtly transforming our lives. Like a wave gathering strength, gratitude can spread its warm light around the world. By fostering gratefulness for those close to us and ourselves, we brighten up our community and our inner worlds. And that’s enough. Feel the gratefulness, breathe it in. Sip it.How does it make you feel in your body?How does it make your heart feel? Deeply think about all the beautiful things your community gives you. Give thanks. Hug deeply. Look into their eyes and feel the connection. Be vulnerable; let your heart shine through. Show others how much they mean to you. Be optimistic, and see the good in others. Acknowledge the shadows, the darkness. Without darkness, we couldn’t see the light. It’s always there; it’s just a question of how hard we look. And ask yourself, if gratitude was allowed to flow through the world like a gentle creek, why couldn’t that change the world? References:📄 Kurian, R.M. and Thomas, S. (2023) ‘Gratitude as a path to human prosperity during adverse circumstances: A narrative review’, British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 51(5), pp. 739–752. doi:10.1080/03069885.2022.2154314.📄 Kates, S. and DeSteno, D. (2020) Gratitude reduces consumption of depleting resources [Preprint]. doi:10.31234/osf.io/k95rj.🌐 https://www.wri.org/insights/interactive-chart-shows-changes-worlds-top-10-emitters🌐 https://www.ecowatch.com/wind-solar-energy-production-coal-us-2024.html🌐 https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/07/09/deforestation-in-colombia-fell-to-historic-lows-in-2023-how-did-they-achieve-the-drop🌐 https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/06/20/greatest-recovery-of-a-cat-species-ever-achieved-iberian-lynx-is-no-longer-on-brink-of-ext📺 Andrew Huberman: The Science of Gratitude & How to Build a Gratitude Practice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVjfFN89qvQ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themodernmaze.substack.com

In this episode, we continue our exploration into the origins of capitalism. Following the enclosures of Europe, the next chapter of this story follows the Age of Discovery, as Europeans took to the seas in search of resources, wealth and new trading routes. When Europeans started to colonise the Americas after 1492, they were not driven by the romance of 'exploration', 'discovery' and 'adventure' as our schoolbooks tell us.Guided by Dr. Jason Hickel's book 'Less is More', we will trace how colonisation wasn't merely an expansion of territories but a fundamental reshaping of global economies and societies. As we unravel this chapter, we discover that colonisation was far from the benign process often depicted in conventional narratives. Instead, it involved aggressive strategies that deliberately imposed scarcity on abundant resources, securing the wealth and power structures that laid the groundwork for modern capitalism.This journey through the darker passages of history invites us to reflect on how deeply ingrained ideologies of capitalism and colonisation continue to influence our world.In our next episode, we will be discussing the Melbourne Doughnut! I am very excited to sit down with Alison Whitten, The Director of Research from Regen Melbourne, and discuss the Melbourne Doughnut in all its glorious detail. I highly recommend checking out the Melbourne Doughnut before our conversation, which is scheduled to take place in two weeks.https://doughnut.regen.melbourne/References:📚 Less is More - Dr Jason Hickel📄 Degrowth: A theory of radical abundance - Dr Jason Hickel📄 Arora, S. and Stirling, A. (2023). Colonial modernity and sustainability transitions: A conceptualisation in six dimensions. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, [online] 48, p.100733. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2023.100733.🌐 What Was the Age of Exploration? - ThoughtCo This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themodernmaze.substack.com

Recently, I've been unable to get off my phone when I start looking at the news; it usually begins with one story, and then before I know it, it's been half an hour, and I've gone down the rabbit hole. After that, I feel emotionally and physically drained. Has something like this happened to you before? This is more common than you might think. Named "doomscrolling", refers to a state of media use typically characterised as someone scrolling through their social media newsfeeds with an obsessive focus on distressing, depressing, or otherwise negative information. This term really became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic.What are the reasons for this? Why does it seem like we have a predisposition towards consuming negative media?In this episode, we'll explore why our brains are predisposed to focus on the negative and how both traditional and social media amplify this effect. More importantly, we'll provide practical strategies to break free from this negativity loop.To balance the discussion, we'll also share four uplifting news stories to remind us of the good in the world.Join me as we embark on a journey to navigate and balance our media consumption. Our goal is to achieve a healthier mental outlook, free from the negative impacts of excessive media consumption.References:Vaish, A., Grossmann, T. and Woodward, A. (2008) ‘Not all emotions are created equal: The negativity bias in social-emotional development.’, Psychological Bulletin, 134(3), pp. 383–403. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.134.3.383.Robertson, C.E. et al. (2023) ‘Negativity drives online news consumption’, Nature Human Behaviour, 7(5), pp. 812–822. doi:10.1038/s41562-023-01538-4.Sharma, B., Lee, S.S. and Johnson, B.K. (2022) ‘The dark at the end of the tunnel: Doomscrolling on social media newsfeeds.’, Technology, Mind, and Behavior, 3(1). doi:10.1037/tmb0000059.Aoki, N. et al. (2024) ‘Soundscape enrichment increases larval settlement rates for the brooding coral porites astreoides’, Royal Society Open Science, 11(3). doi:10.1098/rsos.231514.https://earth.org/can-soundscapes-save-coral-reefs/https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/04/16/greece-to-become-first-in-europe-to-ban-bottom-trawling-in-all-marine-protected-areashttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-24/australasian-bittern-returns-to-lagoon-of-islands/103754336https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/66275/climate-justice-international-court-hearings-klimaseniorinnen-duarte-careme/https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/04/09/top-european-human-rights-court-could-rule-that-governments-have-to-protect-people-from-cl** If you are feeling overwhelmed by the news and would like to speak to someone about it, please use the following resources**Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636Lifeline: 13 11 14www.ruok.org.au This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themodernmaze.substack.com

In this episode, we embark on a journey through the provocative insights of Kate Raworth's "Doughnut Economics", the book that began my journey towards the Modern Maze. Diving into the heart of our modern economic system, we question the long-held pursuit of endless economic growth and its alignment with the realities of our planet and society. We explore the ambitious quest to redefine the very goals of economics, shifting from the singular focus on GDP to the holistic vision of the Doughnut. This model balances human prosperity with ecological sustainability. We unravel the seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist, each a stepping stone towards an economy that nurtures human nature, embraces system thinking, and designs for distributive justice and regenerative capacity. This book and its concepts invites us to reimagine our economic systems, not as self-contained entities but as interconnected parts of a larger societal and environmental whole. References:Doughnut Economics by Kate RaworthLess is More by Jason Hickel This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themodernmaze.substack.com