Act: Inspiration

Marty Kearns: “Building Networks in Uncertain Times”

October 19, 2022

(Conversation Recorded on September 8, 2022.)

On this episode, Nate is joined by Marty Kearns, a civic organizer and networking specialist. He and Marty discuss why both networks and communities will be critical to the coming challenges we face. How will the social ties we form now influence the outcome of power, peace and new social organization? How can we organize ourselves in order to best meet the future that is coming?

About Marty Kearns

Marty Kearns is the Executive Director of Netcentric Campaigns, leading product design, project oversight, evaluation, development of advocacy network theory and strategic business planning. Prior to that Marty developed communication tools with Green Media Toolshed to help environmental activists. He has also created and organized numerous mass volunteer projects from data collection to wildlife preservation.

Show Notes & Links to Learn More

00:34 – Marty Kearns info + works

03:52 Network vs Community

07:59Georgia River Network

08:25Rand, Networks and Netwars, Valdis Krebs

08:59Marguerite Casey Foundation

10:39Maslow’s hierarchy

11:43War Crimes in DRC

12:02 Collapse in cigarette sales when cell phones hit the market

13:32 – TGS episodes with Daniel Schmachtengerger 1 + 2 + 3, Aza Raskin

15:48 – Is Gen Z more prone to technology/social media addiction? Yes and No

16:58Dunbar’s number

20:12 Wicked problem

21:55 Fracking

22:09Fracking ban in New York

22:18Halt the Harm

37:45Happiness in the Global North vs the Global South

38:08Social Capital in materially poor regions

41:00 Humans are getting shorter

42:40Happiness and increased income are not completely correlated 

47:40 Statehood in DC

54:05Social connection is a basic need

58:25Free field guide for network managers

59:55Voter technology reducing voter suppression

1:06:50Grandma’s Hands Program in Philadelphia

1:07:31Program where wise people offer advice to young people

1:08:04Seeing altruistic acts makes people more likely to be altruistic themselves

1:08:34Some Good News

1:09:20Traffic jams are a mass dynamic that is not well understood

1:11:06Foot binding

1:11:15 The invention of human rights

1:11:20The Evolution of International Human Rights: Visions Seen 

1:13:08 UK repealing ban on fracking

1:16:02Montgomery Bus Boycott during civil rights movements

 

Teaser photo credit: The National City Lines bus, No. 2857, on which Rosa Parks rode before she was arrested (a GM “old-look” transit bus, serial number 1132), is now on exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum.. CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=540885

Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens is the Director of The Institute for the Study of Energy & Our Future (ISEOF) an organization focused on educating and preparing society for the coming cultural transition. Allied with leading ecologists, energy experts, politicians and systems thinkers ISEOF assembles road-maps and off-ramps for how human societies can adapt to lower throughput lifestyles. Nate holds a Masters Degree in Finance with Honors from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont. He teaches an Honors course, Reality 101, at the University of Minnesota.

Tags: building resilient communities, economics of happiness, social networks