First up, let me say thank you for joining my newsletter. I feel very encouraged by the early support: nearly 300 subscribers in a couple of days! I’m excited 😁

I imagine I’ll post once or twice a month with a summary of what’s interesting to me right now. Mostly this will be a list of links to articles, podcasts, or books without a lot of editorial comments. I’ll also include brief updates about my work (e.g. new articles, resources, events).

As this is the first instalment though, I’ll start with some context to catch you up on some of my big personal headlines over the past year or so. Then I’ll wrap up with a list of my ultra-favourite podcasts: self-management, complexity, metamodernism, ecology, democracy...

Headlines

• My partner Nati and I got married and moved to Italy. 😍

• We work together as The Hum, a little consulting/training/facilitation company that supports decentralised organisations. Subscribe to The Hum newsletter if you want to stay updated with our work there.

• I’m not working day-to-day at Loomio anymore, but the team is doing amazing things, including a major overhaul of the software.

• I’ve joined the board at Enspiral. We’re planning to seed a new Enspiral community experiment in Europe in 2020.

• About a year ago I launched the Microsolidarity project, documenting a specific methodology for weaving dense relationships of mutual aid in small high-trust communities. This is a major focus for the coming years: expect an update in the next newsletter.

• My thinking has gone through a significant upgrade over the past 18 months or so, especially since reading The Listening Society, which introduced me to political metamodernism. This shift in thinking is most evident in my recent articles Hierarchy is Not The Problem and Leaving the Church of Social Justice.

My Ultra-Favourite Podcasts

I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts while walking around this Italian village. I love being able to listen in on a couple of wise people having good deep conversation.

To launch this newsletter, I’ve curated my Top 10 All Time Super Favourite Podcast Episodes. They’re all seriously amazing. If you listen to all of these you’ll have a good idea of what I’m thinking about these days.

In no particular order:

• Ronan Harrington: Metamodern Political Change (Emerge)

• Miki Kashtan: Three Shifts Needed for Self-Managing Organisations to Thrive (Leadermorphosis)

• Daniel Schmachtenberger: Solving the Generator Functions of Existential Risks (Future Thinkers)

• Audrey Tang: How to Hack a Democracy (Steal This Show)

• Bayo Akomolafe: The Insurgency of the Invisible (Emerge)

• Mara Zepeda: An Ethical & Inclusive Startup Ecosystem (Looks Like New)

• Guy Sengstock: Circling For Collective Intelligence (video or audio) (Rebel Wisdom)

• John Seed: Deep Ecology (For The Wild)

• Nora Bateson: Complexity & the Transcontextual (The Jim Rutt Show)

• Richie Reseda: Dismantling Patriarchy (For The Wild)

That’s it for this episode. If you made it this far and you still want more Rich in your life: you can find more of my writing, interviews, and resources on my personal website, or plug into my stream of consciousness on Twitter.

Thanks again, I’m looking forward to sharing a lot of exciting ideas and projects with you over the coming months.

Until next time! Arrivederci!
Rich 😘

Hello! I’m Richard D. Bartlett. Join this newsletter if you want to occasionally receive an update from me. I’ll share highlights from the articles, books, videos, podcasts that I’m paying attention to, and let you know when I publish new work.

Content will be varied. Expect some themes like decentralised organisations, bottom-up politics, self-management, participatory culture, mutual aid networks, co-ops, autism, adult development, anarchism, interpersonal power dynamics, political metamodernism, collapse, and spreadsheets.

You’ll find more about me on my website richdecibels.com.