Babylonian Banter
The most impressive thing we’ve ever designed—or even the collection of all such things—is absolute child’s play next to Life in evolved, ecological relationship. Humility serves us well.
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Beyond the Right to Roam
Two recent books, Wild Service, a collection of essays edited by Nick Hayes with Jon Moses and Uncommon Ground by Patrick Galbraith, share a common theme: they both seek to address the “disconnectedness” of the mass of the public from nature and the countryside. Yet the two books could hardly be more different.
You Don’t Miss What Doesn’t Exist
“Anthropause” is an amazing word and the latest book about it is an eye-opener. Stan Cox’s Anthropause: The Beauty of Degrowth (2026, Seven Stories Press), does what far too few degrowth books do – it first focuses readers’ attention to the positive experiences we could enjoy in a society less dedicated to producing unnecessary stuff. It then details the destructiveness of overproduction.
Notes From An Old Farmer: Revitalizing Our Rural Communities
There is a new energy among our younger citizens to seek a more meaningful life in the country. Now is the time to take advantage of their new-found passion to live and work in a rural community.
A Primer For Paradigm Shift
There are near endless reasons to downsize to elevate our own value for what it means to be human. There are untold benefits to be gained when consumers become citizens. Paradigm shift starts at home and so do the benefits.
When Infrastructure Falls Apart, Living Systems Take Over
Resilience under prolonged crisis is not built through heroic acts or perfect systems. It grows from networks, from biological processes allowed to heal, from appropriate technologies, from communities that remain open rather than retreat inward.
Wide Boundary News: Japan, Silver, Venezuela, and More – the Biophysical Phase Shift Cometh
This week’s Frankly inaugurates a new category for videos on The Great Simplification platform, Wide Boundary News, in which Nate invites listeners to view the constant churn of headlines through a wider-boundary lens.
In Defence of a Basic Land Income
The minimum living wage has reignited the debate on basic income. But would it be viable in the face of eco-social collapse? A basic land income could be an alternative suited to this scenario.
Lewis Hyde on Gift Economies and Cultural Commons
As Hyde shows, gift economies of reciprocity are particularly important to artists and creative communities in their functioning as commons.
Environmental Leadership: Stubborn Optimism, Tending Your Inner Fire, and Why Hope Is Not Enough
In this episode, Nate is joined by Indigenous environmental justice activist and Planetary Guardian, Xiye Bastida, to discuss how her Indigenous heritage and leadership in the youth climate movement have helped guide her to continue her work toward a more ecologically attuned world.
The Role of Assertive Communication in the Effectiveness and Sustainability of Nature-Based Solutions (NbS)
In the context of risk management and in the face of environmental and economic challenges such as climate change, coastal erosion, water insecurity, and the accelerated loss of biodiversity, among others, the concept of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) has emerged.
Transition as a Social Technology
After nearly two decades deeply engaged in this field, the organizing model developed by the international Transition Towns Movement is still the most holistic, accessible, and effective social technology I’ve found for cultivating more resilient, equitable, sustainable, and regenerative local communities from the bottom up.
