The unsung heroes of queer liberation, elephants calling each other by name, and our new path to mental health
A monthly digest of inspiring projects, useful resources and opportunities to create systemic change.
Hello! For anyone new here, this is my monthly digest. Each month I look out for interesting things to share with you from my travels and conversations with clients and collaborators.
We’re talking culture-shifting campaigns, rallying calls to action, breakthrough technologies, impactful learning experiences, uplifting stories, exciting job opportunities... These digests provide you with a monthly dose of inspiration and support for all the brilliant work you do. They’ll also encourage you to look after yourself and everything you need to thrive whilst you do it.
Curating these resources is one of my favourite things to do. I hope you find something here to fuel your growth and feed your soul. I love to include what you’re working on, please reach out if you’ve got something to share with us!
Did you know that more than 60 countries still criminalise homosexuality? My former client James Lewis, Head of Studio at The Good Side, is making Queer The Way, a vital documentary charting the lives and court cases of LGBTQ+ heroes, and the shocking colonial history of queer criminalisation. The team is currently raising the remaining 50% of funds for the project, and looking for sales agents and distributors to help them share the film as widely as possible. Watch the trailer here, follow their journey here, and get in touch with James if you can help.
A recent AI study has shown that elephants call each other by name. Researchers have used a combination of machine learning and playback experiments in the field to analyse calls by two herds of African savanna elephants in Kenya. They’ve discovered that African savannah elephants address members of their family with specific name-like calls. “The evidence provided here that elephants use non-imitative sounds to label others indicates they have the ability for abstract thought,” the senior study author George Wittemyer said.
Sounds Right is a music initiative to recognise the value of nature and inspire millions of fans to take environmental action. For the first time, nature can generate royalties from its own sounds to support its own conservation. Explore the feat.NATURE playlist with tracks crediting nature as an artist, including collaborations with artists like London Grammar and David Bowie. Sounds Right is a Museum for the United Nations – UN Live initiative delivered in partnership with music, acoustic ecology, conservation, and campaigning organisations. Together they aim to spark a global conversation about how we value nature, then inspire a sense of agency in our collective efforts to protect the planet.
The Inner Development Goals is a non-profit, open-source initiative committed to fostering inner development towards more sustainable futures. They research, collect and communicate science-based skills and qualities that help us to live purposeful, sustainable and productive lives. Their annual Summit brings together a network of cross-sector changemakers shifting the narrative on sustainability and human development towards more hope and action by harnessing the power of inner development for outer change. Find out more about the IDG Summit 2024 ‘The Space In Between’ and join online or in Stockholm this October here.
The KlimaSeniorinnen, a group of 2,400 Swiss women, have secured a major legal victory in the climate action and litigation movement. In April, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Switzerland had violated the rights of the group of older Swiss women to family life. The highly strategic case, proposed by Greenpeace campaigners a decade ago, addresses a major challenge in climate litigation: the risk of overwhelming legal systems if they were to admit every case brought by individuals against big polluters, given the universal impacts of climate change. Swiss lawyers focused on a specific, highly impacted group—older women—arguing that their right to life is disproportionately violated by rising temperatures. In this landmark decision the ECHR has raised judicial pressure on governments to reduce emissions that increase the risk of extreme weather.
My former client Christian Tooley is the Founder of i³ investing, the first and only registered organisation in the UK and Europe solely dedicated to queering venture capital - for both LGBTQ+ founders and investors. He is hosting the inaugural iiF (un)conference in London on 16th July. Speakers include Debbie Weinstein, Managing Director at Google UK & Ireland, Ramzi Rafih, General Partner at No Label Ventures and Anisah Osman Britton, Startup Life Reporter at Sifted and Founder of Brown Bodies.
In her new book Climate, Psychology, and Change, Steffi Bednarek reimagines psychotherapy in an era of Global Disruption and Climate Anxiety. The book brings together a diverse group of psychologists and mental health healers, and reckons with the ways in which relationships of power, colonialism and capitalism both reflect and inform the discipline of psychology. Join the online book launch sharing the main findings from the book and a panel conversation with the author and Thomas Hübl, Bayo Akomalafe, Nora Bateson, Francis Weller, Deepa Mirchandani, James Vaccaro, and Caroline Lucas here.
Purpose Disruptors is a network of UK advertising and marketing comms professionals working together to meaningfully tackle climate change. They’ve just published the findings from their 6-month journey to imagine radical visions of the future and how to take action for their industry to change. Read the report Towards Reimagining Advertising here. Shoutout to my fellow Substacker
who supported this work as a facilitator.We Are The Great Turning is an incredibly moving and empowering podcast series from the legendary eco-spiritual teacher, scholar of Buddhism, systems thinking and deep ecology, Joanna Macy and her co-host, climate activist, leadership coach and facilitator, Jess Serrante. The series explores “what it takes to live with our hearts and integrity intact in this time of global crisis.” Each episode is paired with a bonus episode providing an exercise to explore the themes shared in greater depth.
After escaping the deadly bomb attack at the Manchester Arena with her son in 2017, Cath Hill suffered with survivors’ guilt and anxiety. So she decided to do something positive to help and together with a professional choir leader, she started Manchester Survivors Choir. Meeting twice a month, the choir brings together a cross-generational group with as many as 120 members. They’ve sang at many events, including the concert for the anniversary. Speaking about her experience, Cath said “the choir has given me a focus, and a chance to do something positive. I had always really struggled with the fact that I didn’t help on the night – not with medical aid, but I knew there were young people who were traumatised and separated from their parents, and I didn’t stay in the city to help. Connecting with other survivors led me to realise that I could be proactive months afterwards, and offer support and help in a way that I didn’t on the night.”
After 50 years of campaigning, the UK has banned live animal exports. The new Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Act will mean that farmed animals can no longer be exported from Great Britain for slaughter or fattening. The campaign involved protests at ports, large rallies supported by MPs and high profile patrons, undercover investigations highlighting the horror of live exports and numerous petitions calling on the UK Government to end the trade. Learn more about this victory and Compassion in World Farming here.
Rose Cartwright is a screenwriter and author. She is a writer on the Netflix sci-fi series 3 Body Problem, from Game Of Thrones' creators Benioff & Weiss. Rose wrote a memoir called Pure about intrusive sexual thoughts that became a Channel 4 drama series. Her writing about psychedelics, consciousness and mental health has been published in The Face, Vice and the Guardian. Her paradigm-shifting new book about psychedelics, The Maps We Carry, is part radical manifesto, part revealing memoir, providing a new path to understanding and re-evaluating our approaches to mental health. Listen to her three-part BBC Radio 4 series about psychedelic therapy here.
Becoming Crew offers experiential (un)learning adventures, designed to deepen connection to our unique authentic selves, to our fellow human beings as community and to nature. They are currently hosting a series of online participatory events with a distributed faculty of guest teachers rooted in this question: ‘How might we compost and re-imagine the dominant story of our times, the story of our separation?’ Find out more and join the events here.
Where Olive Trees Weep is a documentary giving background to the current crisis in Israel/Palestine. Beyond raising awareness, the vision for the film is to truly move hearts and minds and inspire audiences to echo their calls for freedom, equality and dignity. The filmmakers dream for an end to the occupation in Palestine, the attainment of equal rights and fair treatment for Palestinian people, and the spreading of healing for all intergenerational cycles of trauma in the region. The film was produced over three weeks in May-June 2022, in Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, and the occupied territory of the West Bank: Jericho, the Jordan Valley, Hebron, Bethlehem, and the outskirts of Ramalah. Watch the film, and attend the 21 day conversation online, supporting the planting of olive trees in Palestine with Treedom for Palestine, humanitarian aid in Gaza with Middle East Children Alliance and trauma healing in Palestinian communities with Catharsis Holistic Healing, here.
Thanks for reading! Please introduce yourself, what you’re working on, and how this resource can be helpful to you on our introductions thread. With subscribers based in 60+ countries and leading systemic change in human rights, venture capital, climate and sustainability, education, psychotherapy, healthcare, media, politics, art, farming, finance, housing and philanthropy and more, System Changers is a diverse community packed full of opportunities to connect and collaborate with others. Let’s get to know each other 🧡