By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 12 Jul 24
Dreaming of the Ogallala :: The Second DayWe continue exploring what it would take to #RegenerateTheOgallala…On our second day, we went out into the landscape to feel the southern edge of this massive groundwater system that spans from Amarillo, Texas all the way north into Nebraska and Wyoming. This is the beginning of the high plains and an arid region that fundamentally depends on infrequent rainfall for all who live here.In the morning, we visited ponds where trees have grown high around their edges to provide shelter and shade We observed the sandy soils and smooth rocks that piled up here in alluvial
Dreaming of the Ogallala :: The Second DayWe continue exploring what it would take to #RegenerateTheOgallala…On our second day, we went out into the landscape to feel the southern edge of this massive groundwater system that spans from Amarillo, Texas all the way north into Nebraska and Wyoming. This is the beginning of the high plains and an arid region that fundamentally
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 11 Jul 24
Dreaming of the Ogallala :: The First DayOur dreaming about how to #RegenerateTheOgallala begins…We arrived in Amaraillo, Texas and were received by our friend Will Masters who has been doing dryland restoration work in these beautiful landscapes for several years now.Our first few days will be spent at Kritser Ranch — a 33,000 acre piece of land that seems to go on forever. As we journey into stream beds that no longer have flows of water, I can feel what it would take to restore their former abundance.We are already deep in conversations about intergenerational change among those who own this land, how to organize
Dreaming of the Ogallala :: The First DayOur dreaming about how to #RegenerateTheOgallala begins…We arrived in Amaraillo, Texas and were received by our friend Will Masters who has been doing dryland restoration work in these beautiful landscapes for several years now.Our first few days will be spent at Kritser Ranch — a 33,000 acre piece of land that seems to go on forever. As we
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 5 Jul 24
“We are what we say and do. The way we speak and are spoken to help shape us into the people we become. Through words and other actions, we build ourselves in a world that is building us. That world addresses us to produce the different identities we carry forward in life: men are addressed differently than are women, people of color differently than whites, elite students differently than those from working families. Yet, though language is fateful in teaching us what kind of people to become and what kind of society to make, discourse is not destiny. We can
“We are what we say and do. The way we speak and are spoken to help shape us into the people we become. Through words and other actions, we build ourselves in a world that is building us. That world addresses us to produce the different identities we carry forward in life: men are addressed differently than are women, people
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 4 Jul 24
See that patchwork of blue that spans the Great Plains? It is the Ogallala Aquifer — one of the largest and most important groundwater systems on Earth.Next week, Penny Heiple, Will Masters and I gather in Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado to explore how to #RegenerateTheOgallala. We know that this a region that has been profoundly transformed by colonization, displacement of local people, destruction of grasslands, and the creation of a profoundly unsustainable industrial agricultural system.This will be a different kind of bioregional activation tour. Our focus is less on who the humans are that we might come into contact with — and much more about
See that patchwork of blue that spans the Great Plains? It is the Ogallala Aquifer — one of the largest and most important groundwater systems on Earth.Next week, Penny Heiple, Will Masters and I gather in Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado to explore how to #RegenerateTheOgallala. We know that this a region that has been profoundly transformed by colonization, displacement of local people, destruction
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 29 Jun 24
Earlier this year, I shared that we are designing a regeneration fund for the Northern Andes. It is an ambitious effort growing out of the movement of territorial foundations in Colombia that is spearheaded by the support organization Territoria based in Bogota.We are excited to announce that we are receiving our first significant grant of $150,000 to catalyze this fund into being. Our focus will be to prototype a bioregional funding ecosystem that spans several distinct territories of the Northern Andes that are all based in Colombia.As you can see in the map below, there are local efforts to establish territorial
Earlier this year, I shared that we are designing a regeneration fund for the Northern Andes. It is an ambitious effort growing out of the movement of territorial foundations in Colombia that is spearheaded by the support organization Territoria based in Bogota.We are excited to announce that we are receiving our first significant grant of $150,000 to catalyze this fund into
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 4 Jun 24
This is an essay written on June 8, 2018 when I was the director for the Center for Applied Cultural Evolution I am reposting it as part of the original 3-part series from that time. Find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.Let me begin by acknowledging those who came before me. The runner-up for a 1 billion euro grant from the European Union nearly a decade ago was FuturICT with their vision for modeling complex social systems to avoid (or manage) future economic collapses. So I am not the first person to propose that a massive effort is needed to
This is an essay written on June 8, 2018 when I was the director for the Center for Applied Cultural Evolution I am reposting it as part of the original 3-part series from that time. Find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.Let me begin by acknowledging those who came before me. The runner-up for a 1 billion euro grant from
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 4 Jun 24
This is an essay written on June 1, 2018 when I was the director for the Center for Applied Cultural Evolution I am reposting it as part of the original 3-part series from that time. Find Part 2 here and Part 3 here.Let me start by saying that literally every social problem humanity now confronts will benefit from taking a rigorous, evidence-based approach to developing interventions that work. If I believe this — you might wonder — why would I title an article this way?The answer is simply that I have been trying to manifest into the world a science of large-scale social change for 18
This is an essay written on June 1, 2018 when I was the director for the Center for Applied Cultural Evolution I am reposting it as part of the original 3-part series from that time. Find Part 2 here and Part 3 here.Let me start by saying that literally every social problem humanity now confronts will benefit from taking a rigorous,
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 28 May 24
“What is culturally relevant teaching?” That is the question I set out to answer four years ago. Back in 2020, my wife and I were preparing to be parents and I had started researching the state of our educational system. I quickly realized that I knew essentially nothing about what was happening in our schools, despite attending them for the first twenty-two years of my life. The buzzwords were everywhere – “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI),” “social-and-emotional learning (SEL),” “restorative justice (RJ),” and “culturally relevant teaching,” to name a few. I was completely lost, but I knew that some people
“What is culturally relevant teaching?” That is the question I set out to answer four years ago. Back in 2020, my wife and I were preparing to be parents and I had started researching the state of our educational system. I quickly realized that I knew essentially nothing about what was happening in our schools, despite attending them for the
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 10 May 24
This article explores why focusing on the subject matter alone in the student/teacher relationship is a restrictive and non-comprehensive approach to higher education. Such a narrowly focused relationship seems to impede the overall health and development of both the teacher and student. The process of avoiding so much of our lives “to teach” leaves many dissatisfied and thirsting for something deeper and more whole. This post was originally published on Integral Life.
This article explores why focusing on the subject matter alone in the student/teacher relationship is a restrictive and non-comprehensive approach to higher education. Such a narrowly focused relationship seems to impede the overall health and development of both the teacher and student. The process of avoiding so much of our lives “to teach” leaves many dissatisfied and thirsting for something
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 24 Apr 24
Now that we have completed the first three webinars of our learning journey to regenerate bioregions, we would like to share more information about where we go from here.From the beginning, Penny and I have envisioned the full six months of this learning journey as having two phases — each lasting for three months. The first phase is more theoretical. Together we need to create shared language, take the time to be sure that when we use words like bioregional learning center we are talking about the same thing. And when we create frameworks for collaboration at the bioregional scale that they share
Now that we have completed the first three webinars of our learning journey to regenerate bioregions, we would like to share more information about where we go from here.From the beginning, Penny and I have envisioned the full six months of this learning journey as having two phases — each lasting for three months. The first phase is more theoretical. Together we need