Happy New Year + Top 10 Social Change Favorites
Happy New Year,
Every December/January I like to send an update to friends, connections, and clients to express appreciation and reflect on the year. In 2022, I had the pleasure of supporting clients to advance gender justice, addiction recovery, interrupting dominant narratives on poverty, and more. (Extra proud of BROKE, particularly the timeline!)
I wanted to share some of my 2022 social change favorites—podcasts, essays, research, toolkits, books, films, etc. This year, I spent a lot of time thinking about imagining, healing, and practicing our way into a liberatory, post-capitalist future. You’ll see this throughout the favorites.
Looking forward to collaborating in 2023,
Trina
2022 Top 10: Social Change Favorites
The below were new to me in 2022, not necessarily published in the last year:
To Change the World, Transform Narrative Oceans - Bridgit Antoinette Evans, on how as a sector, we need to challenge our impulse to change “the narrative” on a particular issue, and instead embrace the work of transforming whole narrative oceans—that is, the ecosystems of narratives, ideas, and cultural norms that shape the behaviors, mindsets, and worldviews of millions of people.
Deserving, Gifting, and Needs - Miki Kashtan’s seminal essay calling the entire notion of “deserve” into question, and proposing instead a framework of needs and willingness on which to base the flow of resources in the world.
Building Resilient Organizations (essay) & Designing for Transformation in the 21st Century (AMC remarks, starting at 46:06) - Maurice Mitchell diagnoses with clarity and empathy the challenges in movement spaces, and offers concrete ways to build the movement of our dreams.
How the Left Can Govern - Half Past Capitalism, an interview with Gopal Dayaneni on creating a commons of capital, forced compliance vs. consent, organizing ourselves to meet our needs, and the practice of self-governance at scale.
The Third Harmony - Metta Center for Nonviolence, a documentary telling the story of the powerful history—and future potential—of nonviolence. I keep coming back to the line, "I withhold cooperation with this injustice." What would happen if we, en masse, withheld cooperation with injustice?
Culture and the Anthropocene - Culture Hack Labs, on how exposing and disrupting narratives, cultural codes, and belief systems that sustain the Anthropocentric culture and pushing for post-humanist, life-centric alternatives is how we can change culture.
Daniel Schmachtenberger: “Bend not Break” - The Great Simplication, a six-part series of podcast interviews providing 30,000-foot-view sensemaking on how we got here.
Healing Wealth in the Time of Collapse - Awakin, an interview with Alnoor Ladha & Lynn Murphy on the paradox of post-capitalist philanthropy, and the lived possibilities of ways of knowing, sensing, and being that can usher in life-centric models.
Liberate Abortion Resource Hub - a toolkit for reporters, activists, movement partners, elected officials, community members, etc. providing policy resources, messaging, and guidance needed to secure liberated abortion access in a post-Roe U.S.
With Land We Can: A New Narrative for Land - Future Narratives Lab. An intriguing reframe of land that could be a stepping stone to moving into right relationship with land—as stewards and custodians, not owners or exploiters.
There is so much out there. What were your favorites?
P.S. Like these? Sign up to receive short email updates with similar content a few times a year (quarterly-ish).