Our planet is sick.

Where do the roots of this sickness lie?

We have to start with Seed. The source of life starts with a seed.

Seeds hold within them nutrition, genetic history, ancient memory. Today we live in a world where 95% of our seed diversity has been systemically killed off by industrial farming over the past few decades.

Do we know what this means for our bodies and minds?

Most of us, city creatures of modernity, live lives severed from the land. We are disconnected, dismembered selves grasping for meaning & belonging. We’ve forgotten what it means to be in right relationship with our planet.

When was the last time your feet touched the earth? When was the last time you asked for permission before you plucked a flower? According to Gregory Pettys, who we journey with today, all our ailments in one way or another are related to our severed relationship with food and the soil that grows our food. It goes far, far deeper than just nutrition and bodily health. It goes right into the seed of the human story and our understanding of ourselves.

In this conversation with Gregory Pettys, we explore:

• Morning Rituals and Mythical Alignment: Gregory shares his daily practice of greeting the sun and how it shapes his purpose and mindset. (00:08:34) • The Sacredness of Seeds: Gregory discusses the critical loss of 95% of seed varieties, the importance of heirloom seeds, and their role in preserving memory, nutrition, and culture. (00:11:39) • Modernity and Forgetfulness: Reflections on how modernity disrupted relationships with land, culture, and ancestors, and why grief is a necessary step toward regeneration. (00:17:39) • Living in Right Relation: A deep dive into the meaning of reciprocity with Earth and understanding what it means to “love what your lover loves” as a metaphor for ecological and social harmony. (00:38:33) • Indigenous Wisdom and Mythology: How intact cultures maintain ecological balance through storytelling, rituals, and practices of reverence. (00:44:55) • Technology, Reciprocity, and Grief: The implications of technology’s extractive nature and the need to honor what has been taken. (00:53:33) • Initiation and Sacred Grief: The role of initiation in building a culture of reciprocity and intergenerational wisdom, and how grief can act as a catalyst for maturity. (00:58:11) Recommendations from Gregory: • Authors and Teachers: ◦ Martine Prechtel: teachings on myth, grief, and the sacred. ◦ Joanna Macy: deep ecology and transformative work. ◦ Gary Snyder: Poet and essayist focusing on nature and culture. ◦ Wade Davis: Anthropologist and author exploring indigenous cultures and ecological sustainability. • Books & Stories: ◦ The Lorax by Dr. Seuss: A tale about environmental destruction and corporate greed. Connect with Gregory Pettys: • Substack: https://gregorypettys.substack.com/ • Pun Pun Center for Self-Reliance: www.punpunthailand.org/index8caa.html?page_id=1593 Connect with Light Forest: • Website: www.lightforest.world • Twitter: Light Forest & @devlewis18 • Instagram: @lightforestworld & @daiyisi🎶 The music for this episode was produced by me using Bandlab and original recordings of a Hapi drum.

Light Forest Podcast: Episode with Cat Lau

It’s been a longer interlude than expected, but I’m excited to hop back on the podcast bike!

In this episode of the Light Forest Podcast, we journey with Cat Lau, a healer and heritage journalist from Bangkok, Thailand.

I first met Cat in Chiang Mai during a Light Forest workshop I hosted as part of one of the Pop-Up Cities. Cat participated in the SEA Punk Playshop, where she shared a trailer for her new documentary project, Wisdom Trails—a journey to unveil the spiritual wisdom of Thailand.

Chances are, if you’ve been to Thailand, you’ve visited a temple or enjoyed a massage. Yet, beneath these experiences lies a deeper wisdom that many of us miss.

In this conversation we touch on the following themes:

Connect with Cat Lau

• Website: www.catlauhealing.com/aboutme
• YouTube: Cat Lau Healing
• Wisdom Trails (Trailer): Watch Here

Connect with Light Forest

• Website: www.lightforest.world
• Twitter: @LightForest & @devlewis18
• Instagram: @lightforestworld & @daiyisi

🎶 The music for this podcast was created by me using a combination of BandLab and an original recording of a Hapi drum (a type of tongue drum) played by yours truly.

In part 2 of this conversation with Michel Bauwens, founder and director of the P2P Foundation, we cover:

• Historical perspective on how belief systems and worldviews interplay with civilisation-level system transitions.
• Crypto as a social elite in the creation of new open infrastructure and institutions.
• a Cosmolocal view on how crypto can play a role in the pulsation of the commons.
• [43:00] Michel's personal journey: a difficult childhood growing up in Belgium, becoming a revolutionary Marxist in early adulthood, living in Osho's Rajneeshpuram, inspired to create as an entrepreneur & documentary film maker, going through major life crises and being twice-born, setting up P2P Foundation and interest in civilisation history.

Connect with Michel Bauwens:

• Substack: 4th Generation Civilization
• X (formerly Twitter): @mbauwens
• P2P Foundation: P2P Foundation Wiki

Connect with Light Forest:

• Website: www.lightforest.world
• Twitter: Light Forest & @devlewis18
• Instagram: @lightforestworld & @daiyisi

🥁The music for the podcast is produced by me using a combination of Bandlab and original recording of a Hapi drum (a type of tongue drum) played be me.

Rage, despair, anger, sadness, disbelief…these emotions define our moment. In times of war, violence, and environmental disasters, how else can we feel? Is this what it means to be civilised"

It's clear that our institutions are fundamentally misaligned with addressing these problems. Michel Bauwens writes: “Corporations and states are competitive entities, geared towards extraction to serve the relative strength of their owners and citizens. These institutions are problematic by themselves, in an age facing a planetary meta-crisis.” Could it be that the design of the institutions themselves is why we have these crises in the first place? In an interconnected living system, where is the ‘external’ to outsource to? What are the alternatives to States and Markets?

In part 1 of a two-part conversation, I speak to Michel Bauwens, founder and director of the P2P Foundation, a person who has spent decades studying these questions.

Themes Covered: • Michel’s civilization history perspective of our world today and why we might be living through a moment of transition and the birth of new commons-centric institutions. • A cosmo-local view of the world with institutions that are neither market- nor state-centric, but commons-centric. • How Open Source Software and Technology are creating the conditions for the return of the commons and the creation of new institutions outside of the market and state. Upcoming in Part 2: In part 2, we will explore the role of Web3 and Crypto in the rise of the commons and delve into Michel’s journey that led him to founding the P2P Foundation and studying civilization history. Connect with Michel Bauwens: • Substack: 4th Generation Civilization • X (formerly Twitter): @mbauwens • P2P Foundation: P2P Foundation WikiConnect with Light Forest: • Website: www.lightforest.world • Twitter: Light Forest & @devlewis18 • Instagram: @lightforestworld & @daiyisi🥁

The music for the podcast is produced by me using a combination of Bandlab and original recording of a Hapi drum (a type of tongue drum) played be me.

In this episode of the Light Forest we dive into the emerging concepts around Regeneration and its intersections with Web3/Crypto communities. You will notice ‘regeneration’ within Light Forest’s mission. According to the American Heritage and Cambridge dictionaries, definitions of ‘regeneration’ include: a change or improving through renewal, spiritual revival, rebirth, and retaining a sense of balance with nature. The etymology of the term has its roots in biology, but the concept has been extended to encompass a range of disciplines, and often used around improving the health of systems. Unlike the term ‘sustainability’ which implies sustaining the equilibrium or status quo paradigm, ‘regeneration’ hits closer to both the scale and form of paradigm shifts we’re interested in at Light Forest: 1. It involves a recognition and remembrance of ancient wisdom and practices forgotten. 2. It also allows for radical imagination for new perspectives, technologies, and ways of being that fosters a coming together on our planet in new ways. My introduction into this space has come through my interactions with Web3 (Blockchain, smart contracts, decentralised networks) communities. What i've seen is a meeting of people who recognise the need for regeneration and are trying to use these technologies to push the paradigm. Taking us on this journey into unpacking regeneration and the intersections with Web3 we have Maya Dentzel. Maya is a researcher and social entrepreneur passionate about building regenerative systems with emerging technologies. She has written about and organized events on Regenerative Finance aka ReFi. You can read her breakdown on the state of ReFi 2024 report, here. In this conversation we touch on the following areas: 9:45 Maya’s vision of a regenerative world: solar punk ,architecture, transport, energy, food, local governance, money, decentralised networks and smart contracts, community living, and open source. 22:40 understanding the ‘emerging’ concept of regeneration and working with nature's patterns. 30:40 Regenerative Economics through the work of ⁠John Fullerton⁠ & ⁠Kate Raworth⁠ 35:00 tracing the emergence of ‘ReFi’ and meeting of crypto and regeneration 39:20 emerging Crypto 'ReFi’ tools 49:00 Regen Network and biodiversity credits 54:20 the problem with measurement, incentives, and ‘tokenisation of nature’ 61:10 hanging out with the ReFi community in North America and Europe 62:20 Regenerative California initiative and its potential to take regeneration mainstream 65:30 Maya’s journey from the UN and Climate Activism, learning Yoga during the pandemic, to alignment between “inner” and planetary regeneration. 70:45 Coordi-nations and seeing the world as bioregions 74:18 Maya’s podcast on ReFi Connect with Maya • Website: https://www.mayazdentzel.xyz/⁠ • Twitter: https://x.com/mayazdentzel • Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayazdentzel/?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAABeHn6kBYgcuHtOCL56xEGDp0xEztdEOLc0 Checkout her podcast: https://blog.refidao.com/season-4-refi-podcast-announcement/ Connect with Light Forest • Website: ⁠www.lightforest.world⁠ • Twitter: ⁠⁠Light Forest⁠⁠ & ⁠⁠devlewis18⁠⁠ • Instagram: @lightforestworld @daiyisi 🥁The music for the podcast is produced by me using a combination of Bandlab and original recording of a Hapi drum (a type of tongue drum) played be me.

In this episode I speak to Andrea Farias, a digital researcher, strategist, and storyteller on a mission to support the transition to a regenerative civilisation.

In this conversation we touch on the following themes:

• Andrea's vision for a regenerative civilisation looks through the layers of cultural materialism and how this framework can help us understand change.
• We unpack the concept of regeneration and particularly in the context of economics.
• We examine the role that technology can play in assisting us, raising both caution and opportunities, particularly around how we might tap into collective human intelligence.
• We talk about the role of institutions in our current crises and why we need new types of institutions to steward us.
• Andrea shares some episodes and experiences in her life that led to question many assumptions about life and the world, and eventually a regeneration of her own life by going through episodes of pain and suffering and finding a new authentic sense of joy for life. The regeneration also led to shifting course from working in the startup and corporate innovation space, where she led projects for clients such as ⁠⁠Change.org⁠⁠ and Mozilla to the path that she is on now.

Connect with Andrea

• Website: https://diome.xyz/
• Twitter: andrea_is_a
• Farcaster: Diome

Connect with Light Forest

• Website: www.lightforest.world
• Twitter: ⁠Light Forest⁠ & ⁠devlewis18⁠
• Instagram: @lightforestworld @daiyisi

🥁The music for the podcast is produced by me using a combination of Bandlab and original recording of a Hapi drum (a type of tongue drum) played be me.

Welcome to the Light Forest Podcast, a journey of exploration to bring more Light into how we live and regenerate our planet.

I'm your host, Dev, and in Season 0 join me for conversations with change makers from around the world as we dive deep into areas such as Asian Philosophy, Indigenous knowledge, regenerative economics, Spirituality, and more, searching for the interconnected roots to the many crises engulfing our planet, from war and digital technology governance to climate and health.

Tuning in to this podcast you will hear from thinkers and builders helping us transition away from the ‘dark forest’ paradigm of infinite extraction, fear, and violence we live in today. You will also hear guests share their own “inner” journeys of regeneration and unlearning to live more authentic lives.

My name is Dev and my own journey has spanned think tanks and the private sector, taking me from Bombay to Rhode Island, Shanghai to Chiang Mai. I am a recognised thinker and convenor in the space of technology law and policy in Asia.

Join me on a journey with an open mind to see the world and our own selves in a fresh light and let us create a Light Forest world.

Connect with me

• Website: ⁠www.lightforest.world⁠
• Twitter: ⁠Light Forest⁠ & ⁠devlewis18⁠
• Instagram: @lightforestworld @daiyisi