Letting go of having it all, relational intelligence, and psychedelic states
Hello everyone,
I can’t believe we’re already in April! I’m back in Portugal after some winter hibernation in the UK and I’m in re-set mode. My husband and I moved here 6 months before the pandemic so it was really good to go somewhere else for a while and to get some perspective on our move, our new careers, and how life feels now after so much change. I gave some long-standing health challenges some attention and re-connected with myself and the most important people in my life. I feel stronger and lighter and excited for the rest of the year.
I’m experimenting with some different formats for the newsletter. This issue brings you some helpful resources and news of some brilliant projects and opportunities for system changers. I have some great interviews in the pipeline and look forward to sharing them with you soon.
Sending love from Lisboa,
Gen
System Changer resources and tools
When you want more radical action on International Women’s Day: Abigail Bergstrom has been working in publishing for over a decade as a writer, editor and literary agent. She’s guided almost forty books onto bestseller lists and has built some of today’s biggest book brands. She has her own industry-leading publishing consultancy, Bergstrom Studio, she writes for national magazines and broadsheets, including ELLE and Sunday Times and her debut novel is called ‘What a shame’. I really enjoy her Substack
, where she shares brilliant advice for writers and cultural commentary. Her recent piece ‘Has International Women’s Day Lost The Plot’ perfectly captured the dissatisfaction and anger so many of us felt last month.
When you’re ready to challenge your assumptions about relationships at work: Belgian psychotherapist Esther Perel is the New York Times bestselling author of ‘The State of Affairs’ and ‘Mating in Captivity’. Her celebrated TED talks have garnered more than 20 million views and she is also the host of the popular podcast ‘Where Should We Begin?’ Perel is a systems-oriented therapist working to understand and improve relational systems. Watch her interview with Culture Amp CEO Didier Elzinga for Culture First to learn about relational intelligence at work. Think power dynamics, boundaries, expectations, communications, accountability, rupture and repair systems, creativity, freedom and how all of these inform and shape relationships and culture at work.
When you need to learn how to crowdfund: Will Chapman & Ed Lewis Pratt are the Co-Founders of Roarsome, an award-winning sustainable children’s adventure brand on a mission to get kids off screens and help families celebrate the great outdoors. They make clothing from recycled plastic bottles for children aged 1-8 and offer Roarsome family adventures on their fleet of converted American School Buses. They’ve spent the last 10 years building consumer brands, pitching to investors and raising investment in various different ways and they’ve built a comprehensive course on how to crowdfund. Sign up here.
When you’re feeling lost: The New Happy is on a mission is to make the world a better place by helping people understand and find happiness. Based on hundreds of academic studies and original research, their philosophy helps people to understand how to create happiness for themselves and for others, increasing the collective well-being of the planet. I love their free daily newsletter which includes an artwork with a science-backed tip to help you flourish. This one shares a powerful re-frame on feeling lost that will help you celebrate your own unique path and take energising next steps.
When you want some high quality journalism on AI: Ezra Klein is an American journalist, political analyst, New York Times columnist, and the host of The Ezra Klein Show podcast. He is a co-founder of Vox and formerly served as the website's editor-at-large. His book ‘Why We’re Polarized’ offers a clear framework for understanding dysfunction and polarisation in the American political system and how rather than being broken, it’s working exactly as designed. The Ezra Klein Show has done a lot of episodes on AI recently. This short 16 min episode shares Ezra’s own commentary on the current state of the field. From the show notes: “I’ve come to believe that we’re in a potentially brief interregnum before the pace of change accelerates to a rate that is far faster than is safe for society. Here’s why.”
When you’re questioning your relationship with achievement and success: Emma Gannon is a Sunday Times bestselling author, broadcaster, speaker, novelist and host of the no. 1 careers podcast in the UK, ‘Ctrl Alt Delete’. She has been a columnist for The Times, Telegraph and Courier magazine. She’s published five bestselling books, including ‘The Multi-Hyphen Method’; ‘Sabotage’ and ‘Disconnected’. I've recently subscribed to her brilliant newsletter
, an exploration of ideas that have got her thinking in new ways. She wrote her new book ‘The Success Myth’, out in May, after taking a deep look at her own journey and interviewing many other successful people on her podcast and realising that our overly celebrated and popular version of success is making us lonely, unfulfilled and dispirited. “Exploring the most commonly held myths about what it traditionally means to be successful, from money to happiness to ticking society's ready-made boxes, The Success Myth will give you the belief and tools to walk away from 'having it all'. A manifesto to craft work (and life) on your own terms, it encourages you to be honest about what truly sparks your interests, and helps to uncover your individual path to a truly fulfilling life, whatever that may look like.”System Changer projects and opportunities
Help build an innovative organisation supporting homeless people and refugees into stable jobs and homes: Beam is an award-winning Tech for Good start-up and crowdfunding platform that helps turn people’s life around for good. Funded by the Mayor of London and the world's top tech entrepreneurs, and partnered with over 50 government bodies, Beam’s service is transforming how the world supports those left behind. A breakthrough innovation in social mobility, Beam has been covered widely in the media, including by the BBC, The Times, The FT, The Independent, Evening Standard, Sky, Time Out and others. I’m always so impressed by how Beam’s CEO Alex Stephany speaks about nurturing and growing his team. It’s clearly working as they attract superstar talent. They’re looking to hire twenty people into junior operations roles in the coming months and Alex is personally reviewing each application.
Explore an alternative philosophy of life: Iain McGilchrist is a psychiatrist, neuroscience researcher, philosopher and literary scholar. Since the publication of his groundbreaking book, ‘The Master and His Emissary; The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World’ in 2009, his work has reached international recognition and acclaim. Join him in London on 22nd April for a full day seminar on his book ‘The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World’. From the event description:“this work presents the most articulate and compelling argument for an alternative philosophy of life. Following the paths of cutting-edge neurology, philosophy and physics, McGilchrist reveals how each leads us to a similar vision of the world, one that is both profound and beautiful — and happens to be in line with the deepest traditions of human wisdom. It is a vision that returns the world to life, and us to a better way of living in it: one we must embrace if we are to survive.”
Learn about the humans behind the statistics and the headlines on migration: Jaz O'Hara is the founder of The Worldwide Tribe, a charity supporting refugees and asylum seekers globally. Since founding the charity in 2015, Jaz has worked in refugee camps across the world, amplifying the voices of people who too often go unheard via her podcast, Asylum Speakers. As a writer for The Huffington Post, winner of Marie Claire's 'Future Shaper' award and member of Amnesty International's 'Collective', she’s become a leading voice on the topic of migration, speaking everywhere from TedX to the United Nations in NYC. Her book ‘Asylum Speakers: Stories of Migration From the Humans Behind the Headlines’ is a collation of stories from 31 extraordinary people, from refugees and asylum seekers to volunteers working with them, accompanied by beautiful illustrations, maps and personal photography. Available to pre-order here.
Be inspired by a personal account of using psychedelics to transform trauma: I met the brilliant Rose Cartwright when we both worked from Second Home in London. At the time, the daring, hilarious Channel 4 adaptation of her memoir Pure about intrusive sexual thoughts was hitting TV screens. These days she is a writer and executive story editor on The Three-Body Problem, the new Netflix sci-fi series from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. She’s just announced her next book, to be published next year by Harper Collins, inspired by her exploration of her own trauma through a series of experiments with psychedelics, breath, bodywork and EMDR. From the press release: “I’m concerned about psychedelic therapy being plugged into siloed and medicalised psychiatry, where brain is decontextualised from body. Present from past. Science from indigenous wisdom. Individual story from social story. The antidote is integration: bringing people and ideas together, and open-sourcing information. I’ve written this book in that spirit.” In the meantime, listen to this inspiring interview with Rose about her experience of OCD, meditation, psychedelics and trauma work, or find her writing in The Face, Vice and the Guardian.
Celebrate and support one of the most influential charities in the UK: Last month, the Government acknowledged that we cannot grow our economy without an affordable childcare system. Childcare was at the heart of the budget as the Chancellor set out his plans for an investment of £4.2bn in childcare and early years education. This is a huge achievement for all campaigners who’ve been working tirelessly for greater recognition and funding for this sector, not least a charity called Pregnant Then Screwed. If you’ve not yet heard of them, you need to. Founded by Joeli Brearly after her own experience of pregnancy discrimination, this organisation is a really inspiring example of someone taking matters into their own hands to drive change. Their creativity, wisdom and sheer hard graft never cease to amaze me. Read Joeli’s post on why this announcement is worth celebrating and sign up to support their work here. Proud coach moment: my client Lauren, Head of Campaigns and Comms at PTS, was interviewed on Channel 4’s live evening news after the announcement.
