'Chaos, Distraction and the Danger to Democracy' with George Pappas

The Commons, Prefigurative Imagination and Political Transformations—with David Bollier

David Bollier is an American activist, writer, thinker and author whose work focuses on the commons as a paradigm for re-imagining economics, politics, and culture. He is a director of the Reinventing the Commons Program at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics and is co-founder of the Commons Strategies Group. In this conversation, Anna and David have a wide-ranging, invigorating discussion of commons and related subjects. You can find his free audiobook Think Like a Commoner (2nd ed) at www.thinklikeacommoner.com/audiobook. There is also a free readable version just below the audiobook. To find out more, visit https://www.youtube.com/@BodyGuru-AGx

'Chaos, Distraction and the Danger to Democracy' with George Pappas

In this conversation, Anna explores some contemporary political and geopolitical tensions with former US immigration judge George Pappas. George covers the the challenges currently facing democracy, in the US in particular, and names chaos, the politics of cruelty and culture war distractions (including around immigration) as techniques being used to distract from the deeply material challenges faced by so many, and that are now in such urgent need of addressal. To find out more, visit https://www.youtube.com/@BodyGuru-AGx

'Hydrojustice'—Moving Towards Horizontality—with Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos

Andreas and Anna discuss the figuration of 'hydrojustice'—a justice 'always defined in relation to water, the element that constitutes and unites all bodies, human and nonhuman. Hence justice is not an ideal state reached through merely human procedures (legal, political, economic, etc.) but also a planetary one, always conjoined with the element of water that both constitutes and transcends the boundaries of the human. In short, hydrojustice is the just confluence of all bodies, human and nonhuman' (from the book cover).  Andreas and Anna flow within wave-reach of the book and beyond, exploring the need to move beyond the obsessive verticality that has led politics, social life, planetary systems and much more, to the present collective inflection point.  There need for new imaginaries—ways of imagining 'otherwise'. Here, Andreas and Anna explore a powerful imaginary towards worlds otherwise and for 'staying with the trouble' in ways vital for human ongoingness. "Hydrojustice is a poetic weave of water, life and legal theory. More than a political treatise, it is a timely manifesto for how to make a shared home in a world of constant fluctuation." Elizabeth R. Johnson "Hydrojustice invites us to embrace horizontally, to remain fluid in adversity, to be aware of our limits and our possibilities, and to do so without judgment. This is perhaps the only way we can avert the disastrous effects of verticality. The book will be of interest to those engaged in critical theory and the arts. Its poetics and method, its ontology and theory of justice, will inspire new ways of being, being together, assembling, writing, and thinking." e-flux You can find the art performance that Andreas mentions here: https://youtu.be/lI_dWNA3qx8?si=LJ0UAaw86hCO-4y4 To find out more, visit https://www.youtube.com/@BodyGuru-AGx

'Onto-Justice'—When Our Maps Fail the Territory (Feral Wisdoms Collection)

What if the deepest crisis of our time isn't primarily political, economic, or even ecological — but ontological? What if the frameworks we're using to understand and respond to reality are themselves part of the problem? In this reflection, transformation practitioner, healer, and former legal scholar Anna Grear introduces the concept of onto-justice — the idea that justice—real justice—requires an adequate account of what is actually here.  Drawing on systems thinking, assemblage theory, rhizomatic thought, and the philosophy of Karen Barad, Anna explores what it means to open toward complexity rather than contract away from it — and why that opening is not merely intellectually interesting but urgently necessary. Along the way she introduces original theoretical concepts including the idea of 'ontic thickening' — the way certain patterns accrete material weight and gravitational pull over time — and 'intra-lapping', a way of holding apparently opposed structures (rhizomatic and arboreal, complex and causal) as mutually constitutive rather than competing. This is a reflection about fear, rigour, humility, and what feral wisdom might actually look like in practice. Topics include: ontology and justice · systems thinking · assemblage theory · Deleuze and Guattari · Karen Barad · complexity and politics · ontic thickening · embodied healing · chronic fatigue · new materialism · onto-justice To find out more, visit https://www.youtube.com/@BodyGuru-AGx

The Box We Opened — Myth, Politics and Staying with the Trouble (Feral Wisdoms Collection—A Conversation) with Alex Andreou

What happens when the box is already open? Anna Grear and Alex Andreou begin with Pandora — and find themselves moving through myth, politics, and the stories and frames shaping our world, now and in the past. Wide-ranging and exploratory, this conversation weaves between the archaic and the contemporary: the double-edged potential of the narratives we inherit, the political turbulence of our moment, the role of community and embodied connection in times of fracture, and what it might mean to stay with the trouble together, in all its messy complexities. Nothing is neatly resolved — and that's precisely the point. To find out more, visit https://www.youtube.com/@BodyGuru-AGx