071 Indra Adnan – The Politics of Waking Up

  Social psychotherapist, political theorist & entrepreneur and community organizer Indra Adnan joins Terry to explore the politics and power dynamics of "waking up" to the "meta-crisis" and to one another. Indra is in contact with the raw nerve of possibility. While many thinkers look at our civilizational predicament with increasing pessimism, she is both brilliantly theorizing about our potential for agency and proactively applying her influence in embodied, practical, and experimental ways, both locally (in the UK) and globally through "community agency networks" (sometimes called by others "collective action networks".)  Indra and Terry consider how our societal challenges provide an opportunity for "mutually waking up" through deep conversation and relating with those who do not share their worldviews and frameworks. Indra reflects on how her personal practice nurtures her agency and creativity, and she also shares many practical tactics and examples of how the organization and political platform she co-founded, The Alternative UK, is laying the groundwork for a "future politics that is both global and intensely local."  Their conversation then moves on to how we can shift our collective attention from narratives of trauma, disconnection and collapse into the "miracle of our connection" and a radical, embodied certainty that our solutions are available.  Indra Adnan has been writing, consulting and network-building on the themes of future politics, soft power, conflict transformation, the role of the arts, and integral consciousness. She is Founder and Co-initiator of The Alternative UK political platform, which publishes The Daily Alternative, convenes new system actors and builds "cosmolocal community agency networks." Indra is concurrently a psychosocial therapist, journalist and author. Through her work on international relations and soft power she has consulted to the World Economic Forum, Indian and Danish governments, NATO, the Scottish Executive and the Institute of Contemporary Arts amongst others. She is Co-Lead in the social enterprise network Bounce Beyond working to cohere the next global economies. Indra's new book from Perspectiva Press is titled The Politics of Waking Up: Power & Possibility In The Fractal Age. For more information on Indra Adnan and Terry Patten, check out the following resources: Indra Adnan's Website (indraadnan.global) Indra's new book, The Politics of Waking Up (for pre-order) The Alternative UK (thealternative.org.uk) Indra's Writing on "Soft Power" Terry's organization, A New Republic of the Heart Terry Patten's personal website Join us as a Friend of State of Emergence We will be exploring this episode in greater depth during our next State of Emergence live Q&A (date and time to be announced soon). If you haven't already joined us, we invite you to become a Friend of State of Emergence and join these monthly Q&A sessions with me and other listeners, as well as help the podcast become financially sustainable. A vibrant, intelligent, and caring community is already gathering around State of Emergence and we'd love for you to be part of it. Sign up at stateofemergence.org.