CHARLES EISENSTEIN & IAN MACKENZIE on the Age of Transition /112

Photo by Amandine Pasin

Most of us know that our current economy does not play in our favor... When we choose to monetize all facets of society we disintegrate community and starve ourselves of our basic emotional and spiritual needs through the commodification of our values. So why do we keep fueling an economic system of domination, deception, and separation when very few of us would be brazen enough to proclaim that we are supported by it?

In this week’s conversation, Charles Eisenstein and Ian MacKenzie join Ayana to discuss what features are inherently built into this money system, how economics does not have to be a merciless system, the importance of universal basic income, what it looks like to step into gift giving, and how we can hold healthy boundaries in the process.

Charles Eisenstein is a teacher, speaker, and writer focusing on themes of civilization, consciousness, money, and human cultural evolution. Charles’ books cover much ground: Climate: A New Story makes a case for a wholesale reimagining of the framing, tactics, and goals we employ in our journey to heal from ecological destruction. The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible, offers a highly distilled exposition of our society’s transition in its deep stories. Sacred Economics explores the transition as it applies to the world of money, economy, and gift and The Ascent of Humanity traces multiple crises — ecological, medical, educational, political, and more — to a common origin.

Ian Mackenzie is a filmmaker and writer, who has spent over a decade exploring and amplifying the seeds of emergent culture. His films include Occupy Love (co-produced with director Velcrow Ripper), and more recently Amplify Her, which follows the rise of women in the electronic music scene). His focus covers a range of diverse topics & subjects, though all fall under his mission of exploring the intersection of eros, emergence, and village.

So many of us are aching for gift giving in our personal lives but remain challenged by the mindset of existential scarcity. Let this conversation be a vessel to guide you in the age of transition, in an age where we must simultaneously starve a system that is not serving us while creating our own nourishment and sustainability on the periphery of crisis. Charles and Ian encourage us to step more into the “gift” to radically transform our selves, community, and the systems we build.

♫ Music by Skeppet, NotNotFun Records
▶ Film Sacred Economics

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