Dear friends,
I cannot believe it’s been a whole 9 months since we began our podcast journey. So much has changed for us, for the world, since January 2020. I am not sure it has been the year any of us had imagined. Through this journey we have explored many topics including our growing waste problem, the isolations and loneliness that is exacerbated by our cities and the ways we can build stronger connections to each other, the environment and how we inhabit this planet. We at TCC have been thinking about our collective well-being as a society and we observed the many ways in which transformative change brought seemingly different ideas together. The Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) report defines transformative change as: “Transformative change means doing things differently—not just a little more or less of something we’re already doing. Truly transformative change is change that becomes sweeping. It often starts small, but it is strategic. It includes individual decisions to help start or build new social norms, and the legal changes that unlock all kinds of other change.”
Transformative change holds so much potential. As we witnessed in our conversations, they often start with small individual actions that help shift small and large things. One of the things that this year has presented before us is the challenge of learning when our visions of the moments ahead are not completely clear; the ability to embrace the uncertainty; accepting that individual care and collective care are not so far apart; and learning that our experiences will change us and thus change the world we inhabit. So many of our guests on our podcast said this to us: “Start. Start even if it is not perfect and make your way through.” It reminded me on this quote by Adrienne Maree Brown, author, doula, women’s rights activist and black feminist, which they said in an interview once: “The results are astounding: humans are capable of anything when we are honest – we have boundaries, work sustainably, do the work most needed by our communities (rather than the easiest funded or most media inducing), get out of unhealthy dynamics, feel seen and appropriately valued, participate in authentic intimacy. This is earth, water, fire, and air level stuff. Without these core connections, injustice flourishes.”
Our connection to our planet, our earth seems to be such an important connection and also one that our daily lives seems to take us away from. One of the things we have discovered in our journey as a team this past year has been to remain true to ourselves, to place individual and collective healing as an everyday part of our lives. Through the year, our conversations attempted to bring together individuals, experts, organisations who envision a society where – to use the cliche – we are the change we want to see in the world. It has involved us looking at our own lives, our consumptions, our actions to see what can be shifted there.
In this last episode on transformative change, we explore the many ways in which our season 1 explored this idea and leave you with some ideas and reflections that have stayed with us. In the article, ‘Child Well-Being in a Post Pandemic World‘, Divya Badami Rao explores the challenges of maintaining a child’s well-being. She also points to how this time can be used to re-evaluate how to approach the well-being of children.
It has been in many ways, a transformative year for us at TCC and we are delighted to have had you share this ride along with us.
Stay tuned to our social media and newsletter as we will be back soon after a short break. You can visit our website: www.thecuriocitycollective.org to fill in a feedback form about our Season 1. Your suggestions are important for us as we prepare for our second season.
We would love to hear from you as always.
Warmly,
Srinidhi
(Team TCC)