#3: Greetings from quarantine š·
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Hey folks, welcome to the third issue of my newsletter where I share āwhat Iām paying attention toā.
Iāll start with an update on my situation in locked down Italy, followed by a big juicy list of articles and podcasts to read and listen to when you want to not be thinking about the pandemic.
Me & COVID-19
Nati & I are safe and sound, a few hours south of the worst affected zone in Italy. Weāre feeling the full force of exponential change: imperceptibly gradual at first, and then suddenly overwhelming. Iām still dizzy from the acceleration, it took two weeks to get from āno big dealā to ātotal lockdown for 60M peopleā and now a couple weeks later Iām somewhere near āthe biggest historical event since WWIIā.
Itās quite surreal and I havenāt processed it enough to write articulately yet. My publishing on the topic has so far been restricted to the cold hard math of the curve.
Physically and emotionally we are both doing pretty well. The financial side is more precarious: most of our upcoming work has been cancelled, and as recent migrants we are not entitled to social security.
Thankfully, weāve spent the last 3 months adapting our training workshops for a digital environment. Weāve learned so much from working with thousands of people in decentralised organisations all over the world, so Iām feeling proud and excited to share our brand new online course! If youāre curious to learn how to make self-organising teams really work, now would be a really good time for you to buy the course š
You can find out all about it here.
I have been utterly absorbed in pandemic news and action for the past 3 weeks, so for the rest of this issue I am going to think about something else!
Recommended reading/listening/watching
I loved this interview with Daniel Christian Wahl on the Jim Rutt Show. Itās an exceptionally good conversation about systems change.
I also appreciated this series of interviews with Integral philosopher Ken Wilbur on the Future Thinkers Podcast (available as video or audio).
Another favourite: Notes From Underground is a series of essays/podcasts by Dougald Hine. He contemplates worst case scenarios in a way thats intellectually stimulating and emotionally nourishing. The series was initially focussed on the vast cultural shifts brought about by climate change, but I anticipate heāll step gracefully into pandemic thinking too.
Bayo Akomolafe always makes me happy with his poetic philosophy. Recommend listening to his interview on For The Wild: slowing down in urgent times.
Someone shared this TEDx talk by Akilah S. Richards, and since then Iāve been listening to her podcast about āunschoolingā, i.e. raising liberated children. Iām quite excited by this intersection between social justice and developmental thinking.
Another curious intersection: General Intellect Unit is a podcast by ācybernetic Marxistsā, i.e. complexity thinkers on the far left. They interviewed my colleagues at Loomio about how that cooperative maps across to Stafford Beerās āViable Systems Modelā.
Microsolidarity updates
I published People, Practices & Place, which is like a āminimum viable structureā for a high trust, small scale mutual aid community.
Rebel Wisdom invited me to speak about relational practices in their short film Resilience in Times of Crisis.
I recorded 3 conversation with microsolidarity practitioners in Ireland, Catalunya and the Netherlands: theyāre published on the Youtube playlist and podcast feed.
Okay, I hope some of those podcasts and stories keep you occupied while you are cooped up at home. Stay safe and look after each other!
Love from Rich