Welcome to the Urgent Futures podcast, the show that finds {signals} in the noise. Each week, I sit down with leading thinkers whose research, concepts, and questions clarify the chaos, from culture to the cosmos.
👉 Never miss an episode! 👉 Subscribe to Urgent Futures now: Youtube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify.
And if you’re loving the show, please share it with a friend who you think would as well!
My guests this week are Morgan Phillips and Manda Scott.
Morgan Phillips is Director of Education and Youth Engagement at Global Action Plan. He volunteers for The Glacier Trust, Black Mountains College and at New Quay Primary School. Previously Morgan worked as the UK Co-Director for The Glacier Trust, a charity that enables climate change adaptation in Nepal. He worked for three years as Education Manager at Keep Britain Tidy where he led the Eco-Schools programme in England. He has also lectured on the Politics of Climate Change at Brunel University. Morgan holds a PhD in Environmental Education from University of Gloucestershire and studied Environmental Science, Policy and Planning at University of Bath. He is author of ‘Great Adaptations - In the shadow of a climate crisis’, and co-author of Transformative Adaptation - another world is still just possible. His TEDx talk Why is environmentalism failing? was viewed over 4,000 times in the first week of release.
Born in Scotland at 318ppm CO2, author and podcaster, Manda Scott's writing has spanned the eras from pre-Roman Britain with the Boudica: Dreaming series to the SOE/Maquis in WWII—and her latest novel, Any Human Power, looks forward to future five minutes from now.
Previous works have been shortlisted for the Orange Prize, nominated for an Edgar and won the McIlvanney Prize.
Co-creator of the Thrutopia Masterclass and host of the international chart-topping Accidental Gods podcast, Manda has a degree in veterinary medicine and an MA in Regenerative Economics. She lives with her wife on a smallholding in the liminal space where England meets Wales.
It is well-documented that the polycrisis is intensifying across scales. It’s also well-documented that humanity is not doing nearly enough to preserve the habitability of our planet. It will be demanded of us to engage in extensive mitigation in order to rise to the stakes of this crisis, but mitigation alone isn’t enough. We also have to adapt—in ways across the scales of micro to macro, from a renewed meaning of what we mean when we talk about “the good life” for ourselves, to an overhaul in our collective practices and policies.
Earlier this year, today’s guests, Morgan and Manda—along with former Urgent Futures guest Rupert Read—published an incredible book called Transformative Adaptation: Another world is still just possible, a quick read faces this reality head on. It is a clear guide to the array of transformations that we humans necessarily must undertake if we’re going to make it.
Grab your copy of Transformative Adaptation now!
The book has been wisely picked up for distribution in the US by Penguin Random House, and is out with all US booksellers now, so these two graciously agreed to sit down for a sort of companion episode to Rupert’s. Given the subject, there’s inevitably some overlap in the conversations, but by and large I see them as complementary, foregrounding Manda’s and Morgan’s respective viewpoints and experiences, for a conversation that gets into everything from relocalization and regenerative agriculture to how folks who get the gravity of the crisis can meaningfully engage with their own confusion, grief, and rage toward healing ends.
I could not be happier with how it turned out, so I’m excited for you to hear this conversation with Morgan Phillips and Manda Scott.
Another episode you might like:
Rachel Donald: Why is the World in Crisis—& What Can We Do About It? | Urgent Futures #40
Welcome to the Urgent Futures podcast, the show that finds {signals} in the noise. Each week, I sit down with leading thinkers whose research, concepts, and questions clarify the chaos, from culture to the cosmos.
Support Reality Studies
NOTE: Thank you for supporting my work by purchasing these products through the links provided. I will only ever share products I actually believe in.
Health & Wellness:
ZBiotics: Right now, get 10% off ZBiotics. Just head over to zbiotics.com and use code JESSEDAMIANI. If you have an evening with drinking and a morning you need to feel fresh, these are a great help. Genetically engineered by a team of PhD microbiologists, ZBiotics is a probiotic drink that breaks down the byproduct of alcohol responsible for rough mornings after drinking (acetaldehyde).
MUD\WTR: Right now, save $20 on starter packs using this link. There’s four different blends to choose from, but my current favorite is :rest. “This is our protest to hustle culture,” they say, and that resonates with me. Not only does it actually help me ramp down to sleep, but since I froth a little milk and make a latte with it, I get the warm cozy feeling of morning coffee at night. (For the evening tea drinkers out there: I’m not saying it’s better, just different!)
Mission Farms CBD: Right now, get 25% off your first order using this link to sign up for emails. Mission Farms CBD crafts full-spectrum CBD products for specific conditions like sleep, stress, and discomfort, using a combination of CBD and terpenes found in essential oils. I swear by this stuff. All of Mission Farms’s CBD comes from a small farm in Bend, Oregon. They farm the hemp organically, tend every plant by hand, and test for purity four times: the soil, the hemp, the hemp-extract, and the final products. This CBD is designed for wellness and it shows.
Digital Hygiene:
NordVPN: For a limited time, get up to 72% off using this link. Some people tell me that “VPN” brings to mind ideas of hackers and the dark web, but honestly VPNs are just an extremely easy way to stay much safer online. I’ve used NordVPN for the past four years, and appreciate what they offer, including Threat Protection against malware, 24/7 customer support, fast speeds, and more. One account can protect up to 6 devices (phone and computer), and they don’t track or share what you do online. Another benefit: you can always access the content/apps you have at home, wherever in the world you are.
1Password: Listen, I know from personal experience that password managers don’t make for the most riveting dinner party conversation, but I need to express 3 things: 1) They make your life so much easier—it’s called “1Password” because once you get set up it’s the only password you’ll ever need to remember again. 2) They make your online life so much safer, ensuring that you use unique passwords for every account, stored with a high degree of encryption. 3) They are not nearly as complicated to set up as you think they are! Head over to 1Password using this link for a free trial, and individual plans for less than $3/mo after that.
CREDITS: This podcast is edited and produced by Adam Labrie and me, Jesse Damiani. Adam Labrie also directed, shot, and edited the video version of the podcast, which is available on YouTube. The podcast is presented by Reality Studies. If you appreciate the work I’m doing, please subscribe and share it with someone you think would enjoy it.
Find more episodes of Urgent Futures at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures. Past conversations include Taylor Lorenz, Lisa Messeri, Legacy Russell, William E. Rees, Renée DiResta, and more. Here is another recent Rapid Response episode with yours truly, in which I analyze the rebrand of the Department of Defense to the Department of War:
