#170 | Predicament-Laden Times: Continuing The Impossible Conversation w/ Dean Spillane-Walker
In this episode, I speak with Dean Spillane-Walker — author of ‘The Impossible Conversation: Choosing Reconnection and Resilience at the End of Business as Usual’ and the host of The Poetry of Predicament podcast. We pick up where we left off from our first discussion on The Poetry of Predicament*, in which we discuss how to approach a more sane and connected means of discussing our "predicament-laden times" in the face of radical social change, abrupt climate disruption, and the collapse of the global economic order in the face of these ongoing crises.
This is wide-ranging discussion with Dean, which is what I ultimately intended for it to be. When one begins to pull on the thread of the “sobering data” of abrupt climate disruption, one begins to the long and convoluted journey of untangling the gargantuan knot we call the “infinite growth paradigm” in which we are all embedded within on the planet. This discussion is a bit like that — after addressing the “impossible conversation” that surrounding the life-changing recognition of the likely near-term extinction of the human species as a result of abrupt global changes associated with anthropogenic climate change and widespread ecological collapse, one can then wonder how we got to this point in the first place. This conversation with Dean unfolds in a similar manner; we discuss our thoughts on such topics as colonization and white supremacy, the economic and social consequences our disconnection with the land and natural systems, the modern conception of the self in relation to the natural world, the importance of developing community and cultivating networks around mutual aid and solidarity in times of crisis, and some thoughts on how proceed in light of the “sobering data” surrounding all the subjects discussed in this episode.
Dean Spillane-Walker is the Founder and Director of Living Resilience, the author of ‘The Impossible Conversation: Choosing Reconnection and Resilience at the End of Business as Usual,’ and the host of The Poetry of Predicament podcast.
*Source: https://youtu.be/aIEwC9kbo1Q
Episode Notes:
- Learn more about Living Resilience: https://livingresilience.net
- Learn more about and purchase Dean’s book ‘The Impossible Conversation: Choosing Reconnection and Resilience at the End of Business as Usual’: https://amzn.to/2UjeZp9
- Listen and subscribe to Dean’s podcast The Poetry of Predicament: http://bit.ly/PoetryPredicament
- Follow Dean on Twitter: https://twitter.com/safecircle
- The song featured in this episode is “You’ve Got To Learn” by Nina Simone from the album I Put A Spell On You
