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In this episode, Katie talks to Elle Bower Johnston. Elle (she/they) is a body witch. Their work is the alchemisation of breathwork, somatic, and rest practices with witchcraft and folk magic. She works with creatives, witches, queers, change-makers, weirdos - folks who might not necessarily feel like they belong in ‘wellness’ or ‘spiritual’ spaces - to help them get into deeper their relationship with their body and connect with their magic.
Her work is queer- and trans-centred, trauma-conscious, and rooted in unravelling colonialism and capitalism from the ways we relate to our bodies. They believe that our personal practices can be microcosms of liberation that spiral out and create a better world.
During this Katie & Elle discuss:
The societal pressure to stay "busy" and how it often undermines our well-beingHow moving through space—whether walking, driving, or traveling by train—enhances mental clarity and creativity. Understanding different types of rest and exploring rest from various perspectives—physical, mental, spiritual, and social.The liberating power of saying "no" and how starting from a place of refusal can help reclaim energy and create space for true rest.The paradox of needing to slow down in an urgent worldYou can connect with Elle here
Website: ellebowerjohnston.com
Instagram: @ellebowerjohnston
Free Notion dashboard of rest practices for rebels - Radical Rest Portal
Here are some highlights:
The Pressure of Productivity
"Nobody comes up to me and says, ‘You seem inspired at the moment or happy or well-rested.’ It’s always, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re so busy,’ as if productivity is the only measure of success. But what about asking if my work is bringing me joy?”
Embracing the Chaos of Rest
"Rest isn’t just about napping or yoga Nidra. It’s anything that connects your mind and body, bringing you back to a sense of wholeness. It’s about exploring different layers of self and finding coherence, whether it’s through traditional practices or something as simple as revisiting childhood movies."
The Power of Saying No
"Starting from a place of refusal is a form of reclaiming energy. We often move with this sense of ‘I have to, I have to,’ but by saying no, we allow ourselves to drop back, be present, and reclaim rest as an act of self-care."
The Importance of Listening to the Body
"Listening to your body is key. It’s not just about what your mind wants but also what your body needs. Sometimes, rest is about allowing your body to guide you, trusting its signals, and respecting the need to pause, breathe, and reset."
Books, Podcasts & Articles we mentioned:
Experiments in Imagining Otherwise by Lola Olufemi
The BBC’s Witch podcast
Emergent Strategy by Adriene Marie Brown
Making Design Circular Conference – 2024
LEARN HOW TO TALK ABOUT YOUR ECO-EFFORTS WITH CONFIDENCE so you can connect with values-aligned clients and customers without the fear of getting called out.
10 am–5 PM BST Thursday 05 September 2024
A 1-day virtual conference for purpose-driven founders making imperfect progress towards genuine environmental sustainability.
Broken: Mending and repair in a throwaway world
Katie’s sixth book celebrates 25 artists, curators, menders and re-makers who have rejected the allure of the fast, disposable and easy in favour of the patina of use, the stories of age and the longevity of care and repair. Accompanying these profiles, six in-depth essays explore the societal, cultural and environmental roles of mending in a throwaway world.
Cultivating Hope, 3 part mini course: Are you ready to cultivate hope in the face of the climate crisis? Sign up to Katie’s three-part free mini course that will help you move through feelings of helplessness, reconnect with nature and take aligned action.
Making Design Circular membership: An international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople – join us!
Spread the Word:
Please share Making Design Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow purpose-driven founders of making-based businesses or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show us some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. All that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
Sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ - just click here.
And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), & @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube) & @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram) – and if you’re a designer, maker, artist or craftsperson, join me on IG @making_design_circular_
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is the founder and director of Making Design Circular – an international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople. She is also an author, journalist and podcaster championing a hopeful approach to environmentalism. With more than 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, The Observer, Crafts Magazine and Dezeen. She is currently exploring the question ‘Can craft save the world?’ through her sixth book, Broken: Mending & Repair in a Throwaway World (Ludion, 2023), this very podcast. -
In this episode, Katie talks to Rosie Murphy. Rosie is a consummate communicator and connector.
She is just one of a broad ecosystem of architectural workers uniting for greater social justice and environmental consciousness in all aspects of the built environment. She is an advocate for networks such as Black Females in Architecture, HomeGrown Plus and Architects Climate Action Network.
Rosie's work is centred on youth engagement, creating creative opportunities and experiences for children and young people to be empowered, informed and activated citizens of the future. Rosie works collaboratively across boundaries of design, education and activism in the UK and her new community in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
During this Katie & Rosie discuss:
The importance of a non-linear approach to design thinkingCollaboration as an expression of hope How true collaboration requires honesty about power imbalances and a commitment to sharing power where possible, even when it’s challenging.The idea that collaboration can be deeply informed by observing and learning from natureChallenges in collaborationThe importance of integrating cultural identity into design workYou can connect with Rosie here
Website: https://rosiemurphyme.wixsite.com/onlineportfolio
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosiemurphy.me
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/contact-rosiemurphy/
Here are some highlights:
Embracing Non-Linear Design Thinking
"So this non-linear cycle includes points like ideation, reflection, prototyping and testing, so a lot of aspects of the design process that we're very familiar with, but I feel with a greater sensitivity to community, to ancestry and history, and to a great sensitivity to nature and resources, and yeah, in the way that it's laid out in this koru, this spiral which itself is taken from nature."
Understanding Power Dynamics in Collaboration
"…power is absolutely the most important and most essential aspect of collaboration... collaboration is not equal, there are many different forms of collaboration from community engagement to citizen participation, all the way up to citizen empowerment."
Learning from Nature’s Wisdom
"I just wanted to share a quite beautiful Maori proverb or saying that I was just introduced to recently, which is erere kau, mai te awa nui, mai te kahui, maunga ki tangaroa, pō au te awa, pō te awa, pō au. And that means the river flows from the mountain to the sea, I am the river, the river is me. And for me, that is truly understanding the fact that we are not separate to nature, we are not separate to the natural world, that the way that we operate is part of this global environmental system."
Books, Podcasts & Articles we mentioned:
Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
Drunk Women Solving Crime Podcast with hosts Hannah George and Taylor Glenn
Making Design Circular Conference – 2024
LEARN HOW TO TALK ABOUT YOUR ECO-EFFORTS WITH CONFIDENCE so you can connect with values-aligned clients and customers without the fear of getting called out.
10 am–5 PM BST Thursday 05 September 2024
A 1-day virtual conference for purpose-driven founders making imperfect progress towards genuine environmental sustainability.
Broken: Mending and repair in a throwaway world
Katie’s sixth book celebrates 25 artists, curators, menders and re-makers who have rejected the allure of the fast, disposable and easy in favour of the patina of use, the stories of age and the longevity of care and repair. Accompanying these profiles, six in-depth essays explore the societal, cultural and environmental roles of mending in a throwaway world.
Cultivating Hope, 3 part mini course: Are you ready to cultivate hope in the face of the climate crisis? Sign up to Katie’s three-part free mini course that will help you move through feelings of helplessness, reconnect with nature and take aligned action.
Making Design Circular membership: An international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople – join us!
Spread the Word:
Please share Making Design Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow purpose-driven founders of making-based businesses or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show us some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. All that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
Sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ - just click here.
And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), & @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube) & @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram) – and if you’re a designer, maker, artist or craftsperson, join me on IG @making_design_circular_
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is the founder and director of Making Design Circular – an international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople. She is also an author, journalist and podcaster championing a hopeful approach to environmentalism. With more than 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, The Observer, Crafts Magazine and Dezeen. She is currently exploring the question ‘Can craft save the world?’ through her sixth book, Broken: Mending & Repair in a Throwaway World (Ludion, 2023), this very podcast. -
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**This episode was originally an Instagram Live, so at the point of going live on the podcast, the rest challenge we talk about has already happened – however, the Making Design Circular Conference is happening on Thursday 05 September 2024 – find out more get your ticket for that HERE >>> **
In this episode, Katie talks to Jo Casey. Jo Casey is an Autistic and ADHD speaker and business coach who helps fellow quirky-brained entrepreneurs align their business strategies with their unique mental wiring. With over 20 years of coaching experience and 15 years of successfully wrangling her own neurodivergent business, Jo has mastered the art of turning cognitive curveballs into powerful business assets.
Their innovative approach enables established entrepreneurs to work smarter, often achieving twice the results in half the time - without having to start from scratch or pretend to be neurotypical. At a time when neurodiversity is finally getting its moment in the spotlight, Jo's work is redefining success in the business world, proving that neurodivergent traits can be entrepreneurial superpowers in disguise.
Jo's expertise has sparked meaningful conversations about neurodiversity in business, challenging traditional norms and paving the way for a more inclusive (and interesting!) approach to entrepreneurship. They’ve been featured in the Huffington Post, Kind Over Matter, and Tiny Buddha, among others.
When not kicking the business world up the butt, Jo can be found curating the perfect playlist for her latest textile crafting session or passionately explaining to puzzled friends why Jesus Christ Superstar is, without a doubt, the greatest musical ever written.
During this Katie & Jo discuss:
The difference between physical tiredness and sensory overload How to spot the signs of sensory overloadHow to prevent sensory overload and take care of yourself when it happensHow neurodivergent folk sometimes need sensory rest, but sometimes sensory stimulationWhy physical and sensory rest is so important for purpose-driven founders of making based businesses making imperfect progress towards genuine sustainabilityYou can connect with Jo here:
Website: https://www.jocasey.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jocaseyb/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoCaseyB/
…and Jo has an amazing energy mapping tool, which will help with some of the stuff we discussed, which you can access here: https://www.jocasey.com/nd-energy-kit/
Here are some highlights:
Depletion versus Nourishing
“One of the concepts we talk about is the things that deplete you and things that nourish you – and I really like that concept because I could be doing something that is really calm, but I’m finding it really quite depleting, or I could be doing something that is really energetic, but you’re finding it really nourishing. I really like this idea of what is depleting and what is nourishing.”
How to know when you’re experiencing sensory overload
“Treat yourself like a glorious experiment... tune into to what’s going on in your body.”
On rest as disruption
“These are my needs – and it’s perfectly fine, in fact it’s admirable, to meet my needs. Exploitative capitalism teaches us to exploit resources to the point of depletion and we are our own primary resource.”
Being the change we want to see
“There is something about being the change that we want to see in the world – and having emotionally grounded, rested, healthy people, we ‘re much more likely to be able to inspire that in others… one of the things we know from neuroscience is that when we’re running on adrenaline and cortisol, the creative activity in our brain is really limited… so our ability to solve problems drops down and if there was a time when we needed people to come up with solutions to really complex, thorny problems, it’s now.”
Books, Podcasts & Articles we mentioned:
Emergent Strategy by Adriene Marie Brown
Maintenance Phase podcast with Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes
Laziness Does Not Exist by Dr Devon Price
How To Discover Your Environmental Superpower – Making Design Circular short course
Making Design Circular Conference – 2024
LEARN HOW TO TALK ABOUT YOUR ECO-EFFORTS WITH CONFIDENCE so you can connect with values-aligned clients and customers without the fear of getting called out.
10 am–5 PM BST Thursday 05 September 2024
A 1-day virtual conference for purpose-driven founders making imperfect progress towards genuine environmental sustainability.
Broken: Mending and repair in a throwaway world
Katie’s sixth book celebrates 25 artists, curators, menders and re-makers who have rejected the allure of the fast, disposable and easy in favour of the patina of use, the stories of age and the longevity of care and repair. Accompanying these profiles, six in-depth essays explore the societal, cultural and environmental roles of mending in a throwaway world.
Cultivating Hope, 3 part mini course: Are you ready to cultivate hope in the face of the climate crisis? Sign up to Katie’s three-part free mini course that will help you move through feelings of helplessness, reconnect with nature and take aligned action.
Making Design Circular membership: An international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople – join us!
Spread the Word:
Please share Making Design Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow purpose-driven founders of making-based businesses or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show us some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. All that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
Sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ - just click here.
And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), & @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube) & @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram) – and if you’re a designer, maker, artist or craftsperson, join me on IG @making_design_circular_
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is the founder and director of Making Design Circular – an international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople. She is also an author, journalist and podcaster championing a hopeful approach to environmentalism. With more than 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, The Observer, Crafts Magazine and Dezeen. She is currently exploring the question ‘Can craft save the world?’ through her sixth book, Broken: Mending & Repair in a Throwaway World (Ludion, 2023), this very podcast. -
In this episode, Katie continues last week’s conversation with Tamu Thomas a renowned transformational life coach, dedicated to guiding women towards achieving work-life harmony by embracing holistic well-being practices that align with their nervous system.
Katie & Tamu explore:
The term ‘high-functioning freeze’Defiant hope & rage Activism v Martyrdom And of course, the final quick fire round of season 4!You can connect with Tamu here
Website: https://www.livethreesixty.com/ and https://www.womenwhoworktoomuch.co/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tamu.thomas/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/livethreesixty/
Learn more about Tamu’s membership here: https://live-three-sixty.mykajabi.com/membership
Here are some highlights:
I learned that it was unsafe for me to express rage
“Rage is part of the human experience, rage, emotion, energy in motion, rage is energy in motion that says you've got to make a change, whether it's externally or internally, but instead, we hold on to it, and have a lot of like, bitterness and resentment inside. And we get sidetracked with that. So we avoid the real issue. And we make it all about the anger or the rage.”
Empowerment to build momentum
"My life is mine, square with a life of service means that your life has to be of service to you too. Because if your life is not a service to you too, if you are giving away all of your lifeforce energy, you're not actually doing activism, you're doing martyrdom. Our planet doesn't need any more martyrs. Social justice causes for human beings, animals around the world doesn't need any more martyrs what they need, or what these things we believe in need, is for us to be and this word, sometimes it gets on my nerves, but it is for us to be empowered. Because when we are empowered, rather than doing things in fits and spurts, we can actually build momentum and have a compounding effect. And I say this to my clients. And I say to myself all the time. Social justice is not just if it's not just for you too, we don't need any more martyrs. "
Books & Podcasts mentioned:10x Is Easier Than 2x, Benjamin Hardy
Upstream Podcast
Broken: Mending and repair in a throwaway world
Katie’s sixth book celebrates 25 artists, curators, menders and re-makers who have rejected the allure of the fast, disposable and easy in favour of the patina of use, the stories of age and the longevity of care and repair. Accompanying these profiles, six in-depth essays explore the societal, cultural and environmental roles of mending in a throwaway world.
Cultivating Hope, 3 part mini course: Are you ready to cultivate hope in the face of the climate crisis? Sign up to Katie’s three-part free mini course that will help you move through feelings of helplessness, reconnect with nature and take aligned action.
Making Design Circular membership: An international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople – join us!
Spread the Word:
Please share Making Design Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show us some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. All that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
Sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ - just click here.
And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), & @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube) & @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram) – and if you’re a designer, maker, artist or craftsperson, join me on IG @making_design_circular_
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is the founder and director of Making Design Circular – an international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople. She is also an author, journalist and podcaster championing a hopeful approach to environmentalism. With more than 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, The Observer, Crafts Magazine and Dezeen. She is currently exploring the question ‘Can craft save the world?’ through her sixth book, Broken: Mending & Repair in a Throwaway World (Ludion, 2023), this very podcast. -
In this episode, Katie talks to Tamu Thomas a renowned transformational life coach and the author of "Women Who Work Too Much: Break Free from Toxic Productivity and Find Your Joy." She is dedicated to guiding women towards achieving work-life harmony by embracing holistic well-being practices that align with their nervous system.
Tamu's groundbreaking book sheds light on the systemic pressures that force women into a cycle of over-functioning, often leading to significant workplace stress and an imbalanced share of emotional and domestic responsibilities. Drawing on her extensive background in social work, she has a profound understanding of the systemic roots of these issues, particularly the disproportionate impact they have on women.
Tamu's unique coaching methodology is deeply influenced by somatic practices and Polyvagal theory, focusing on helping women rebuild a connection with their core selves, establish healthy boundaries, and forming a strong sense of self-trust. She is especially attuned to the nuanced challenges faced by Black women and women of the global majority, navigating what she terms ‘the trinity of oppression’: patriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalism.
In her own words, Tamu asserts, "We don’t need more self-improvement; we need systemic change.” Her approach is not just about personal transformation but about sparking wider societal shifts. Her insights and guidance are invaluable for those seeking a life filled with fulfillment, deep connections, and genuine joy, amidst the demands of our fast-paced world.
Linked with the “nurture” pillar of the Making Design Circular framework, Katie & Tamu discuss:
The new book Women Who Work Too Much – Break Free from Toxic Productivity and Find Your Joy!Toxic ProductivityOur connection with nature and why it’s soWhy it’s so important that we reconnect mind and bodySimple ways we should be honouring our basic needsWhy we shouldn’t be adopting a belief that we’re brokenYou can connect with Tamu here:
Website: https://www.livethreesixty.com/ and https://www.womenwhoworktoomuch.co/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tamu.thomas/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/livethreesixty/
Learn more about Tamu’s membership here: https://live-three-sixty.mykajabi.com/membership
Here are some episode highlights:
Recognise we’re not designed to go it alone
“The beauty is as human beings we're not designed to go it alone. So it can feel really daunting when we feel like oh my goodness, the system is rigged, for most of us to be at fault, for most of us to fail, when we recognise that we can start to embody the genius of our species, which is connection, and compassion, and all of that stuff. And we can start to work together to create systems and structures that care for us and our planet.”
The Idea of Toxic Productivity
“We don't just breathe in, we need to breathe in, we need to exhale. And in fact, something I say all the time is, the rest is quite often more important than the race. The rest is what sets us up. And we often talk about being part of nature. Actually, no, we are nature. We are all children of this earth. Whilst we were born of our mother's wombs, we are all children of this earth, there is nothing on this earth that is productive, that is producing all the time. Even our evergreen trees have times of rest and dormancy. We're not supposed to be doing that all the time. It is unnatural. So as we stepped into the industrial revolution, we started making all of these machines to make our life easier. But once we identified that we could create mass, and people could consume more. And that mass would result into profit it was profit and growth above everything else. So it shifted how we experience ourselves. And generally speaking, we started to compare ourselves to the machines we created to make our lives easier. And that's when we started talking more about consistency.”
Capitalist Conditioning
“let's be real, there are many times in life where we do have to go beyond our bandwidth sometimes. But it's about recognising the difference, so that we can make choices and we can do that for finite periods of time. We have a sympathetic nervous system for a reason, we go into states of fight or flight for a reason, they're not all bad, but it's a finite period of time. What happens in our culture is that the rules of capitalism say, actually, you should always be beyond your capacity, that's a good work ethic, that's being efficient, that is being somebody who is reliable. And it just conditions us, if you think of us like a piece of elastic, it conditions us to always be overstressed over stretched elastic. And so we have situations where people use anxiety as a motivational tool. None of this stuff will happen overnight, but over time, we can start being motivated by what feels good, what's in service of our long term good, as opposed to constantly being motivated by anxiety, which is our body's warning signal for terror.”
Books & Podcasts mentioned:
10x Is Easier Than 2x, Benjamin Hardy
Upstream Podcast
Broken: Mending and repair in a throwaway world
Katie’s sixth book celebrates 25 artists, curators, menders and re-makers who have rejected the allure of the fast, disposable and easy in favour of the patina of use, the stories of age and the longevity of care and repair. Accompanying these profiles, six in-depth essays explore the societal, cultural and environmental roles of mending in a throwaway world.
Cultivating Hope, 3 part mini course: Are you ready to cultivate hope in the face of the climate crisis? Sign up to Katie’s three-part free mini course that will help you move through feelings of helplessness, reconnect with nature and take aligned action.
Making Design Circular membership: An international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople – join us!
Spread the Word:
Please share Making Design Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show us some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. All that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
Sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ - just click here.
And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), & @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube) & @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram) – and if you’re a designer, maker, artist or craftsperson, join me on IG @making_design_circular_
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is the founder and director of Making Design Circular – an international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople. She is also an author, journalist and podcaster championing a hopeful approach to environmentalism. With more than 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, The Observer, Crafts Magazine and Dezeen. She is currently exploring the question ‘Can craft save the world?’ through her sixth book, Broken: Mending & Repair in a Throwaway World (Ludion, 2023), this very podcast. -
In this episode, Katie talks to Lucy Hawthorne. Lucy is a campaigner at heart and Founder of Climate Play. Through play-based training and facilitation for adults, she helps make it safe, light and fun for people to face climate change.
Combining a lot of LEGO with climate psychology, she creates conversation on the topic that teams actually want to have, rather than only feel like they should. Her serious play approach helps people to engage more honestly, deeply and creatively, identifying ways to build alignment and shared action within their organisations, whether they are getting started or have gotten stuck on their sustainability journey.
Climate Play was born after Lucy spent a good while in the charity and NGO-world and became concerned the heaviness of the conversation was affecting energy to act. So now she challenges the norm of serious seriousness as always the best way to get things done. She is a qualified coach and LEGO® Serious Play® facilitator.
During this Katie & Lucy discuss:
How Climate Play came aboutUnderstanding what Play is and how its definedWhere Play comes in to a topic such as the climate crisisHow to use her safe, light, fun form of engagement with environmentalismintrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. The overlap between choice, wonder and delight as well…Play archetypes and how they help us engage with environmentalismYou can connect with Lucy here:
www.climateplay.org
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucyhawthorne/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/climate-play
Monthly Climate Play Meetup (first Thurs of the month 1300 – 1400 GMT) https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/lucy-hawthorne-founderfacilitator-climate-play-29888274577
Here are some highlights:
Origin of Climate Play
“Climate play is in essence, trying to find different ways of really tapping into people's motivations and really trying to create spaces where people can engage in subjects that they don't really want to and that feels very different to a very hard hitting strategic approach that I spent many years, many years doing.”
Become the best version of yourself
“How many people actually fulfil their own moral compass? Very few, even people who are very dedicated, we're not perfect beings. And therefore, there's something about what will you always want to do. I'm not saying that if everyone suddenly untapped their playfulness, then climate change is going to disappear into a puff of smoke. But I think there is just something about reframing the way we engage with things. Whether that is thinking about and understanding (your audiences) motivations? What are they doing? If you're thinking about how you run initiatives in your company, or you're trying to think about how your family considers sustainability, there is just something about finding a combination of the things that you love doing, the things that you're good at doing, and the things that the world needs some support on. It's not a magic silver bullet, but I think there's something about understanding your sense of playfulness, you are highly likely to be more engaged. And when you are engaged, you're likely to be a better version of yourself.”
Books, Podcasts & Articles we mentioned:
The Art of Peace by John Paul Lederach
International School of Billund
Good Bones by Maggie Smith
Play by Stuart Brown
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez
You’re Dead to Me, BBC Radio 4 Podcast
Using Play to Rewire & Improve Your Brain, Huberman Labs Podcast
Broken: Mending and repair in a throwaway world
Katie’s sixth book celebrates 25 artists, curators, menders and re-makers who have rejected the allure of the fast, disposable and easy in favour of the patina of use, the stories of age and the longevity of care and repair. Accompanying these profiles, six in-depth essays explore the societal, cultural and environmental roles of mending in a throwaway world.
Cultivating Hope, 3 part mini course: Are you ready to cultivate hope in the face of the climate crisis? Sign up to Katie’s three-part free mini course that will help you move through feelings of helplessness, reconnect with nature and take aligned action.
Making Design Circular membership: An international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople – join us!
Spread the Word:
Please share Making Design Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show us some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. All that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
Sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ - just click here.
And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), & @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube) & @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram) – and if you’re a designer, maker, artist or craftsperson, join me on IG @making_design_circular_
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is the founder and director of Making Design Circular – an international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople. She is also an author, journalist and podcaster championing a hopeful approach to environmentalism. With more than 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, The Observer, Crafts Magazine and Dezeen. She is currently exploring the question ‘Can craft save the world?’ through her sixth book, Broken: Mending & Repair in a Throwaway World (Ludion, 2023), this very podcast. -
In this episode, Katie talks to Ella Wiles and Andres Roberts from The Bio-Leadership Project. The Bio-Leadership Project’s mission is to change the story of leadership by working with nature. A movement of people and organisations, changing human systems to be more resilient, regenerative, and designed to protect our planet.
Bio-Leadership is about challenging an outdated story of progress, about building organisations and communities that protect and replenish our world. Most importantly, it is about reconnecting human progress back into our planet’s web of life. Working at this deep paradigm level, growing a culture of interconnection, is where we support the greatest change.
During this episode, Katie, Ella & Andres discuss:
How the Bio-Leadership Project can to existenceThe importance of nature connectionHow environmentalism isn’t about sacrifice and punishment and how we can actually be more helpful as environmentalists if we're well resourced and taking care of ourselvesThe three circle model: Self, our community and our workThe idea of ecosophy – deep experiences, deep questioning, deep commitmentYou can connect with Ella & Andres here
https://www.bio-leadership.org/
IG: @bioleadershipproject
Here are some highlights:
Collectively shifting what the story of human progress can be
“The Bio Leadership Project effectively says there are there are different stories of what human progress looks like, and they can work with nature, and they can be inspired by nature. And even more than that, they can place people or humans back into being part of nature. Its about validating as many different stories as possible and needed. What we’ve seen is that there are just hundreds, if not 1000s, of amazing, inspired, courageous people saying, Yeah, we can change the story, we're going to do it. And it's just that they're all still swimming against the tide, you know, including ourselves, and nobody can do it alone. So the bio Leadership Project and the bio leadership fellowship are ways of helping these people and projects to connect, to share learning, hope and encouragement, and hopefully helping collectively to shift what the story of human progress can be, to care for life.
A change is needed in how we measure leadership
“We as individuals, but collectively, and then sort of as human society probably need a different set of qualities around how we navigate this moment in time and how we bring a positive change to the world. And you could argue that we're all a little bit conditioned by a way of acting, a way of being, a way of behaving that's about pushing, it's about driving, it's about achieving outcomes. And so if we were to just continuously repeat those behaviours, we might just end up with the same outcomes, even if the intention is to do good things in the world. What if, as humans, we had a different dashboard, what if we measure our progress in a different way? What qualities would that require? We need more resilience, we need more connection, we need more systemic awareness, the capacity to understand how things work as whole systems and flow as whole system. We need to be able to navigate and adapt better. What if leadership was measured by those things?
Books, Podcasts & Articles we mentioned:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thích_Nhất_Hạnh
Ecology of Wisdom by Arne Naess
There is no point of no return by Arne Naess
Strangers: Essays on the Human and Nonhuman by Rebecca Tamas
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Good to Great by Jim Collins
Sky Above, Earth Below: Spiritual practice in nature buy John P Milton
The Spaceship Earth Podcast with Dan Burgess
BBC Radio 3, Unclassified
Broken: Mending and repair in a throwaway world
Katie’s sixth book celebrates 25 artists, curators, menders and re-makers who have rejected the allure of the fast, disposable and easy in favour of the patina of use, the stories of age and the longevity of care and repair. Accompanying these profiles, six in-depth essays explore the societal, cultural and environmental roles of mending in a throwaway world.
Cultivating Hope, 3 part mini course: Are you ready to cultivate hope in the face of the climate crisis? Sign up to Katie’s three-part free mini course that will help you move through feelings of helplessness, reconnect with nature and take aligned action.
Making Design Circular membership: An international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople – join us!
Spread the Word:
Please share Making Design Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show us some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. All that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
Sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ - just click here.
And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), & @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube) & @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram) – and if you’re a designer, maker, artist or craftsperson, join me on IG @making_design_circular_
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is the founder and director of Making Design Circular – an international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople. She is also an author, journalist and podcaster championing a hopeful approach to environmentalism. With more than 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, The Observer, Crafts Magazine and Dezeen. She is currently exploring the question ‘Can craft save the world?’ through her sixth book, Broken: Mending & Repair in a Throwaway World (Ludion, 2023), this very podcast. -
In this episode, Katie digs into one part of her Making Design Circular framework, the methodology that underpins everything she does. She talks about walk, and walk is short for walk, don't run. It is this idea that you don't have to do everything all at once you can take things step by step. And to support you doing that she has developed a path to sustainability, taking of all the things you could possibly do and put them into an order. By the end of this episode, you will be able to work out whether you are an acorn, seedling, sapling, tree or a forest, and take away at least one action you can do this week to help you move towards the next stage.
Here are some highlights:
One step at a time
“There's 100 different ways to become more sustainable. But what I've done is interviewed hundreds of designers and makers and craftspeople at different stages of their journey and tried to understand what they did when, so that I can put all of the stuff into some sort of order for you. And I think that just takes some of the overwhelm out of it. Because it enables you to take this one step at a time, it enables you to walk not to run.”
Replicate what we celebrate
“…recognise and celebrate how far you've come. In fact, for anybody make a list of 10 things you're already doing really well. And I think it's so important. Positive psychology shows that our brains seek to replicate what we celebrate. So yes, it's important for your well being and your just general sense of joy, but also, celebrating your success and giving yourself credit where it's due actually means you're more likely to achieve more of those things”
Books mentioned:
Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
Broken: Mending and repair in a throwaway world
Katie’s sixth book celebrates 25 artists, curators, menders and re-makers who have rejected the allure of the fast, disposable and easy in favour of the patina of use, the stories of age and the longevity of care and repair. Accompanying these profiles, six in-depth essays explore the societal, cultural and environmental roles of mending in a throwaway world.
Cultivating Hope, 3 part mini course: Are you ready to cultivate hope in the face of the climate crisis? Sign up to Katie’s three-part free mini course that will help you move through feelings of helplessness, reconnect with nature and take aligned action.
Making Design Circular membership: An international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople – join us!
Spread the Word:
Please share Making Design Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show us some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. All that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
Sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ - just click here.
And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), & @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube) & @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram) – and if you’re a designer, maker, artist or craftsperson, join me on IG @making_design_circular_
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is the founder and director of Making Design Circular – an international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople. She is also an author, journalist and podcaster championing a hopeful approach to environmentalism. With more than 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, The Observer, Crafts Magazine and Dezeen. She is currently exploring the question ‘Can craft save the world?’ through her sixth book, Broken: Mending & Repair in a Throwaway World (Ludion, 2023), this very podcast. -
In this episode, Katie talks to Tom Curran, a World Leading Expert on Perfectionism. With an eye on politics, economics, and society, he takes a cultural lens to the study of perfectionism. His work is groundbreaking and has uncovered a frightening trend of young people breaking under the strain of perfectionistic pressures. Tom brings perfectionism to life and makes it relevant and understandable to the widest audiences. He is a TED speaker and Thought Leader, a regular contributor to high-profile podcasts and has been featured in the national and international mainstream media. With the objective to put perfectionism on the map as a public health concern, Curran draws on his unique sense of wit and self-depreciation when he travels the globe speaking on the topic.
During this episode, Katie and Tom discuss:
How he came into the field of social and personality psychology and what that actually isHis findings from the first systems-level cohort study showing that perfectionism is on the rise in American, Canadian, and British college studentsThe damaging impacts of perfectionismThe difference between perfectionism and the pursuit of excellenceHow to navigate perfectionismHow we can tap into failure as a strengthHow can craftspeople, makers, artists, and designers contribute to a culture of imperfect progressYou can connect with Tom here
LI: @thom_curran
https://www.thomcurran.com/
Here are some highlights:
Seeking approval and validation
“Perfectionists are really concerned about how other people appraise them, whether they're valued and approved and loved by other people. This is a huge part of perfectionistic psychology because deep down, they believe that they're flawed, they're imperfect, that they're deficient. And in order to feel a sense of self-worth, they go about the world trying to hide those deficiencies from other people and seeking their approval and validation all times. Well, that's okay, but what tends to happen is that perfectionistic people are so scared of rejection, so scared of criticism that they can move themselves away from people and away from situations where they feel like they might be judged. That can create some social disconnection which can lead into things like loneliness and there's a lot of data to suggest that perfectionistic people experience quite a lot of loneliness and social disconnection. That's the first reason why it has an impact on mental health”
Pushing past human fallibilities
“Perfectionism has quite an aggressive, aggravated vulnerability built into it, and perfectionist people push themselves to the max and then some, it's this idea of, well, what doesn't kill me makes me stronger, I've got to keep pushing through the pain, I've got to keep grinding, I've got to keep going, I've got to keep my head up and keep moving forward, and that that's an unsustainable way to live. You just don't let yourself rest. You just don't let yourself recuperate. You don't give yourself permission to accept that life sometimes defeats us and that's okay, that's a part of parcel of being human being. Perfectionism is really pushing past those very human fallibilities and vulnerabilities to try and project at all times a perfect persona. But of course, that's not, that's not possible and left untreated, left unchecked, that can be quite, quite different.
Exposing ourselves to failure
“You just got to get comfortable with it. You know, failure is such an intimately, human experience. Look, we're going to fail way, way more than we're going to succeed. That's the first thing to remember. We're fallible, we're exhaustible creatures. I think it's such an important way to go through life acknowledging that failures of this beautiful thing that we shouldn't be afraid of, it's very humanizing. The more we put ourselves out there and the more we can expose ourselves to failure, the more comfortable we get with it. Like taking a sledgehammer to perfectionism. Just putting yourself out there and feeling the fear of doing it anyway.”
Books, Podcasts and articles we mentioned:
The Perfection Trap by Thom Curran
Our Dangerous Obsession with Perfectionism is Getting Worse, Ted Talk with Thom Curran
Nassim Taleb
The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth
Listen, Liberal by Thomas Frank
Chatabix with comedians Joe Wilkinson and David Earl
Resources for Mental Health Support
Whatever you're going through, a Samaritan will face it with you. We're here 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Visit https://www.samaritans.org/ or call 116 123 for free.
Mind provides supportive and reliable information to empower you to understand your mental health and the choices available to you – take a look at https://www.mind.org.uk/
Broken: Mending and repair in a throwaway world
Katie’s sixth book celebrates 25 artists, curators, menders and re-makers who have rejected the allure of the fast, disposable and easy in favour of the patina of use, the stories of age and the longevity of care and repair. Accompanying these profiles, six in-depth essays explore the societal, cultural and environmental roles of mending in a throwaway world.
Cultivating Hope, 3 part mini course: Are you ready to cultivate hope in the face of the climate crisis? Sign up to Katie’s three-part free mini course that will help you move through feelings of helplessness, reconnect with nature and take aligned action.
Making Design Circular membership: An international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople – join us!
Spread the Word:
Please share Making Design Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show us some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. All that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
Sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ - just click here.
And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), & @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube) & @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram) – and if you’re a designer, maker, artist or craftsperson, join me on IG @making_design_circular_
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is the founder and director of Making Design Circular – an international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople. She is also an author, journalist and podcaster championing a hopeful approach to environmentalism. With more than 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, The Observer, Crafts Magazine and Dezeen. She is currently exploring the question ‘Can craft save the world?’ through her sixth book, Broken: Mending & Repair in a Throwaway World (Ludion, 2023), this very podcast. -
This week Katie is doing something a little different.
As you may have heard her mentioned in the previous episode, her latest book, Broken: Mending and repair in a throwaway world came out in April of this year, and she will be reading you the wonderfully. Thought-provoking introduction to give you a flavour of the book.
Here are some highlights:
Making a statement
“Although any form of mending or repair could be seen as a form of activism in today's single use culture, many of today's artists, menders and remakers are choosing to make a statement with their work. A broken object delivers frustration because it doesn't achieve its functionality says Paulo Goldstein, on page 122. But the same principle applies to a broken system that people profiled in repair as activism are deliberately using repair to point a finger at what is broken.”
Broken World Thinking
“If we want new and better stories, and world orders, ones that are better for all of us, not just a tiny minority, we can't look away any longer. We need to hold the stare with what is broken, with what can be repaired or remade, and what needs to be cleaned up and let go. The act of noticing, of paying attention and asking questions enables us to hold space for two radically different realities. Realities that Jackson describes as a fractal world, a centrifugal world an almost always falling apart world on the one hand, and a world in a constant process of fixing and reinvention, reconfiguring and reassembling into new combinations and new possibilities on the other. He describes our broken world as a world of pain and possibility, creativity and destruction, innovation and the worst excesses of leftover habits and power, and suggests that the fulcrum of those two worlds is repair. The subtle acts of care by which order and meaning and complex socio technical systems are maintained and transformed. Human value is preserved and extended, and the complicated work of fitting to the varied circumstances of organisations, systems and lives is accomplished.”
Broken: Mending and repair in a throwaway world
Katie’s sixth book celebrates 25 artists, curators, menders and re-makers who have rejected the allure of the fast, disposable and easy in favour of the patina of use, the stories of age and the longevity of care and repair. Accompanying these profiles, six in-depth essays explore the societal, cultural and environmental roles of mending in a throwaway world.
Cultivating Hope, 3 part mini course: Are you ready to cultivate hope in the face of the climate crisis? Sign up to Katie’s three-part free mini course that will help you move through feelings of helplessness, reconnect with nature and take aligned action.
Making Design Circular membership: An international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople – join us!
Spread the Word:
Please share Making Design Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show us some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. All that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
Sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ - just click here.
And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), & @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube) & @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram) – and if you’re a designer, maker, artist or craftsperson, join me on IG @making_design_circular_
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is the founder and director of Making Design Circular – an international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople. She is also an author, journalist and podcaster championing a hopeful approach to environmentalism. With more than 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, The Observer, Crafts Magazine and Dezeen. She is currently exploring the question ‘Can craft save the world?’ through her sixth book, Broken: Mending & Repair in a Throwaway World (Ludion, 2023), this very podcast. -
In this episode, Katie talks to Minnie Moll, Chief Executive at the Design Council. Minnie spent years in innovation, design, advertising and brand consultancy. She was Managing Partner of HHCL, the ‘Advertising Agency of the decade’ and then Global Marketing Director of Innovation company? What If!, which won Great Place to Work Institute’s ‘Best Place to Work in the UK’ two years running. Minnie was voted Vistage UK Business Leader of the Year in 2020. Always a purpose driven business leader, she has proved you can do well and do good. While Joint Chief Executive of the East of England Co-op, they won Alzheimer’s Society ‘Large Business of the Year’ in 2016. That year she was appointed by HRH Prince Charles as his Ambassador for Responsible Business in the East of England. She has passion for place making and has been a board member of two Business Improvement Districts and a Town Deals Board.
Minnie has a First-Class Degree in Creative Arts. She is also a qualified Transformational Coach. When she’s not working, Minnie can be found animal wrangling and driving her 1952 little grey Fergie tractor.During this episode, Katie speaks to Minnie about how she came to join the Desing Council in 2021 and her involvement with their rebrand and new vision, mission and values which now fully align with ensuring environmental issues are at the heart of everything. We find out more about the 2023 Design for Planet Festival, now in its 3rd year. To find out more about the upcoming Design for Planet Festival, at which Katie with be in conversation with TOAST communications manages Madeleine Mitchell, head here: https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/our-events/design-for-planet-festival/
You can connect with Minnie and The Design Council here:
The Design Council website: designcouncil.org.uk
The Design Council Twitter: https://twitter.com/designcouncil
The Design Council Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/designcouncil/
The Design Council LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/design-council/
Minnie Moll Twitter: https://twitter.com/minniethemoll
Minnie Moll LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/minnie-moll/
Here are some episode highlights:
Why Design for Planet?
“I think the biggest area that we've worked in (over the past 2 years) has been what I'd call, curating and convening. So a big, big focus on designers and commissioners of design. We knew that, following research, that of the 1.97 million people working in design in this country, a massive majority said, I really want to design for planet and I don't really know that I have all the right skills and tools to do so. So a lot of our focus in the last two years has been on galvanising and supporting designers. The key thing that we've done has been our Design for Planet festival, we did the first one in the in support of COP, that was held in Glasgow in 2021. And then we held the second one last year with Northumbria University. And that's been about bringing together thought leaders, really inspiring people working in design, some of them at the very cutting edge of thinking, some of them that are actually really making a difference in the organisations that they're in. So that sense of bringing in evidence, inspiration for designers, you know, we can do this.”
Intelligent Collision
“And I think there's also a sense of one of the one of the values of making design circular is collaboration over competition. And I think there's a sense isn't there, that the sort of apprentice style of doing business, it's all about winning because someone else is losing, whereas I think to solve this problem, we have to work together. We need scientists and techie people and strategists, but we also need designers and we need to plug design into those spaces that perhaps it hasn't always had a voice in…. And one of my favourite phrases is intelligent collision. So it’s almost, the more unlikely the partnership, probably the more dynamic it will be. And the sense of intelligent collision between architects, fashion designers, engineers, scientists, boy if there was ever a time for us to come together, and work in a collaborative way it's now.”
Design can be regenerative
“We are acutely aware that a regenerative world for all is a quite out there, far reaching vision, you know, that's not a five-year vision, that's it, I probably won't be here, kind of vision. But we feel so passionately that that is what we have to be shooting for. Because if you take the meaning of sustainability, sort of literally the sense of sustaining, we do not want to sustain floods, drought, catastrophic, biodiversity loss, you know, so you don't sustain that. And so this point that acknowledging that we have so depleted and so broken, some of the really important systems, we have to be looking for every opportunity where design can be regenerative”
Books, podcasts and articles we mentioned:
The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
Material Matters Podcast by Grant Gibson
The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
Dolly Parton’s America Podcast
Tiny data centre used to heat public swimming pool
Broken: Mending and repair in a throwaway world
Katie’s sixth book celebrates 25 artists, curators, menders and re-makers who have rejected the allure of the fast, disposable and easy in favour of the patina of use, the stories of age and the longevity of care and repair. Accompanying these profiles, six in-depth essays explore the societal, cultural and environmental roles of mending in a throwaway world.
Cultivating Hope, 3 part mini course: Are you ready to cultivate hope in the face of the climate crisis? Sign up to Katie’s three-part free mini course that will help you move through feelings of helplessness, reconnect with nature and take aligned action.
Making Design Circular membership: An international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople – join us!
Spread the Word:
Please share Making Design Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show us some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. All that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
Sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ - just click here.
And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), & @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube) & @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram) – and if you’re a designer, maker, artist or craftsperson, join me on IG @making_design_circular_
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is the founder and director of Making Design Circular – an international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople. She is also an author, journalist and podcaster championing a hopeful approach to environmentalism. With more than 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, The Observer, Crafts Magazine and Dezeen. She is currently exploring the question ‘Can craft save the world?’ through her sixth book, Broken: Mending & Repair in a Throwaway World (Ludion, 2023), this very podcast. -
In this episode, Katie is joined by Laura Eigel PhD, the founder of The Catch Group, a leadership coaching firm accelerating women into the C-suite, and the host of the You Belong in the C-Suite podcast. Known for her direct feedback and her passion for living a life guided by her values, she has been an HR executive at Fortune 50 companies, joined the C-suite as a Chief Learning Officer, and now coaches high-achieving women to build fulfilling lives inside and outside of the boardroom. She's also a mom, wife, and true-crime podcast fan who loves indoor rowing.
You can connect with Laura below:
www.thecatchgroup.com (you will find her free Values worksheet in the footer of this site)
LinkedIn: @lauraeigel
Insta: @thecatchgroup
Katie and Laura discuss,
How being aligned to our values can make us be more successful in businessLaura’s six-part Values First frameworkHow to get clarity around what your values areWhy your values shouldn’t just sit on your pinboard!What a boundary is, how we set them, how we enforce them, and how they help to create businesses that are in alignment with your values when it comes to sustainability and environmentalismThe importance of uplifting others by modelling behaviours and getting the support of your communityThe red flags that might suggest the situation is not in alignment and what are some of the traps we can fall into that move us out of alignment and into conflictHow we can navigate conflict of valuesHow we can run values aligned creative practices for the long haulHere are some highlights:
The six-part Values First framework
“So it spells out values, and the V for Values is all about identifying your values, the A stands for Audit Time so just identifying like, what, how am I spending my time, is it aligned with my values or not? The L is for Life Boundaries and that's a really important, I think we should dig into a bit in our conversation today. And it's all about how you create, you know, systems and routines that align with your values in any way, and the U is for Uplifting Others and that's the idea of modelling it other for others, right to create those cultures. And E is for Experiencing Conflict, so it's not going to be, you know, if it's when we experience conflict, and I find that it's a lot of internal conflict, not just external conflict. And so how do you navigate through your values, and there's some ways to do that. And then S is for Sustaining Values and this idea that it's an ongoing journey, and you're never really done, it's always about what and how to dig in to what matters most to you now, and that next time in your life.”
Boundaries are not about other people, they are about you!
“When I ask people, “What do you think a boundary is?” generally people say, it's kind of a wall or restriction or a guideline or a hard line. I really like to think of it in a different way. And so if you think about your values, you have that in the centre. And then I think about like holding my values in my hand, and your boundaries are your hands. And it kind of creates care for your values. And that's really what I want you to do with boundaries, I want you to create care for yourself, for what's important. And so that can look like a lot of different things. That could look like who you work with, it could look like how you make decisions, it could be how you spend your time, right. And so as a business owner, it could be all of those things, it could be none of those things, it could be a mindset, it could be the story that you tell yourself.“
A decision doesn't have to be a lifetime one, it's okay to do things in a different way
“I used to like to do this, but I don't like do it anymore. We don't have to, once we do something, once we make a decision, we do not have to say it and do it forever. And so that's another kind of knowing, sometimes it's your body, sometimes it's just like procrastination, sometimes it's something else. But I think we do a lot of things for lots of different causes that might mean giving time or money or both, or whatever it is. And a decision doesn't have to be a lifetime one. And it's okay to do things in a different way. And so I think one of the things that we can do is to think about, if we feel like I'm not super excited about this thing I used to be really excited about, like, why is that? And to kind of dig into that. I think that's a big thing for business too. Right? So just because you did it this way in the past, do you have to do it in the future?”
Books & Podcasts we mentioned:
Values First by Laura Eigel
The Waymakers by Tara Jaye Frank
Crime Junkie
Spread the Word:
Please share Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show me some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. I’ll be honest, I don’t really understand how it works, but apparently, all that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
And finally, sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ landing gently in inboxes most Fridays - just click here. And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram), @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), & @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube). If you’re a designer-maker, DM me a ♻️ to be added to my close friends group especially for sustainable craftspeople and check out Making Design Circular at www.katietreggiden.com/membership
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is a purpose-driven journalist, author, podcaster and keynote speaker championing a circular approach to design – because Planet Earth needs better stories. With 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, Crafts Magazine, Design Milk and Monocle24. She is currently exploring the question ‘can craft save the world?’ through an emerging body of work that includes her fifth book, Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure (Ludion, 2020), and this podcast.About our partners:
Inhabit hotels, located in the Bayswater area of London, offer restorative environmentally and socially conscious places to stay in the city. Wellness and well-being also play a major part in the brand's ethos Mindfully designed for the modern traveller, everything at this new hotel has been considered with a genuine commitment to environmental initiatives and meaningful community partnerships. To find out more please check out our Instagram @inhabit_hotels.
Surfers Against Sewage is a grassroots environmental charity that campaigns to protect the ocean and everything that the ocean makes possible. They campaign against everything that threatens the ocean; plastic pollution, the climate emergency, industrial exploitation, and water quality, by taking action on the ground, that triggers change from the top. If like me, you'd like to support surfers against sewage, head over to https://www.sas.org.uk/
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In this episode, Katie talks about Define, another element of the Making Design Circular framework, this is all about working out your niche, your unique contribution to environmentalism, and letting go of the idea that you have to save the planet single-handedly.
Here are some highlights:
The Starfish Story
“…this particular story is about a little girl who is walking on the beach, and there's been a big storm. And lots and lots of starfish have been thrown up onto the beach after this storm, and they're starting to dry out in the sun. So there is a danger that these 1000s and 1000s of starfish are all going to die. And the little girl is picking up the starfish one by one and throwing them into the ocean. And an old man asked the little girl what she's doing and says, ‘Well, you know, you can't possibly make a difference, look at all these starfish, there's no way you can throw all these starfish back into the ocean, what you're doing is pointless.’ And the little girl picks up another starfish and throws it back into the sea and says ‘well, it made a difference to that one.’ And I think that is the point, right? We don't have to save the planet but if we pick a tiny area of focus, if we find our starfish, we can make a huge impact.”
Doing less will have a bigger impact
“The idea that by offering less, you'll actually have more business success is counterintuitive, and yet absolutely correct. If you tried to be all things to all people, you're much less likely to attract a loyal band of customers. Whereas if you really focus on a very niche product, you'll have much more success, because those customers that are right for you will really be attracted to what you're doing. And that requires bravery because it's counterintuitive, because it requires you to turn down business. But I think when you when you apply that to sustainability requires even more bravery. Because not only have you got to believe that this approach is going to make for a successful business, you've also got to believe that the people around you are going to pick up all the other stuff”
The Sweet Spot
“…this idea of finding the sweet spot between the things you love the things you're good at, the things the planet needs, and the things you can make money from doing, that you can support yourself and your creative business from doing. And I think that's really powerful, and really important, because this is going to be the work of your lifetime, I hope. And so it's really important that it fills your cup, and that it nurtures and nourishes you, it's really important that it plays to your strengths, so that you can have a sort of disproportional impactby doing this thing because it's stuff you're better at than other people might be. And stuff that you're better at than other stuff you might try to do. It's something that will enable you to have a financially sustainable business as well as an environmentally sustainable business. And it's also stuff that world needs, right that that is important to the environmental movement.”
Books Katie mentioned:
The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley
Values First by Laura Eigel
Cultivating Hope, 3 part mini course: Are you ready to cultivate hope in the face of the climate crisis? Sign up to Katie’s three-part free mini course that will help you move through feelings of helplessness, reconnect with nature and take aligned action.
Find out more about The Seed, Katie’s online course to help you Identify your unique contribution to environmentalism – either as a self-paced course or live digital course running in May 2023.
Broken: Mending and repair in a throwaway world, This new book celebrates 25 artists, curators, designers and makers who have rejected the allure of the fast, disposable and easy in favour of the patina of use, the stories of age and the longevity of care and repair. Accompanying these profiles, six in-depth essays explore the societal, cultural and environmental roles of mending in a throwaway world.
Spread the Word:
Please share Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show me some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. I’ll be honest, I don’t really understand how it works, but apparently, all that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
And finally, sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ landing gently in inboxes most Fridays - just click here.
And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), & @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube) & @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram) – if you’re a designer-maker, DM me a♻️ to be added to my close friends group especially for sustainable craftspeople and check out Making Design Circular at www.katietreggiden.com/membership
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is a purpose-driven journalist, author, podcaster and keynote speaker championing a circular approach to design – because Planet Earth needs better stories. With 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, Crafts Magazine, Design Milk and Monocle24. She is currently exploring the question ‘can craft save the world?’ through an emerging body of work that includes her fifth book, Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure (Ludion, 2020), and this podcast.About our partners:
Inhabit hotels, located in the Bayswater area of London, offer restorative environmentally and socially conscious places to stay in the city. Wellness and well-being also play a major part in the brand's ethos Mindfully designed for the modern traveller, everything at this new hotel has been considered with a genuine commitment to environmental initiatives and meaningful community partnerships. To find out more please check out our Instagram @inhabit_hotels.
Surfers Against Sewage is a grassroots environmental charity that campaigns to protect the ocean and everything that the ocean makes possible. They campaign against everything that threatens the ocean; plastic pollution, the climate emergency, industrial exploitation, and water quality, by taking action on the ground, that triggers change from the top. If like me, you'd like to support surfers against sewage, head over to https://www.sas.org.uk/
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In this episode, Katie talks to Ray Dodd a Money Coach who helps those who have traditionally been excluded from making money, to make life-changing amounts of money. All without compromising who they are.
If you’re hearing the term ‘money coach’ and wincing a little – imagining fluffy talk of manifesting millions in your sleep, – prepare to have your fears soothed – because you’re in for a treat. Ray is a money coach with a difference. You won’t hear ‘think good thoughts and watch the money come rolling in’ from her. Ray believes that money, business and intersectional feminism are inextricably linked and that there’s a lot more to making money than simply manifesting it.
During this episode, Katie speaks to Ray about the ways in which your social conditioning is stopping you from having the impact you want to have, whether that's in your creative practice, in your business and money making or in your environmental work.
You can connect with Ray below:
IG: @ray_dodd
www.raydodd.co.uk
Download Ray’s free Pricing with Feeling Guide
Listen to Ray’s podcast, Real You Real Money
Here are some highlights:
Eye Opening Experiences
“All our lives as, particularly as people conditioned as women, we’re told that our bodies aren't good enough, right? That they need, fixing, improving, and all of that. And then as soon as I was pregnant, everyone's like, Oh, my God miracle of life, you just really need to trust your body. And I was like, hang on, you've told me my body is terrible, for the whole of my life, and now you're like glorifying it suddenly… it was just a really eye opening experience in terms of how I'd been conditioned to be and I'm sure we're going to talk a lot about conditioning today, versus what the actual experience in the world is.”
Social Conditioning keeps us small
“I 100% believe that we have been tricked into believing many things are not possible for us that absolutely are. And so we've been tricked by a culture and a society that conditions us to believe that there's only certain spaces that certain people are allowed to occupy… but I really think that we all have these spaces that are perfectly us sized in the world. And so for a lot of the designer makers listening, designing and making will be part of like, it's not just something they like, “oh that seems like a good idea, that's what I'll do”. There's something intrinsic in them that needs to create, needs to be in that cycle of putting work out and having people respond to it. There's something innate in them. And so what can happen, when we have these very narrow spaces to operate in, is we don't believe that the space that is intrinsically ours is even available to us.”
The stigma around coaching
“When you think about the general narrative around power, it's somebody at the top getting it all right, telling us all what to do. And actually having support is its own version of redistributing power. It is a version of saying, you know what, I don't have all the answers I do need help. You don't have to be lost to have coaching. But this conditioning that we've talked about runs so deep, and if we're not careful we recreate things like, we recreate systems that we actually are very, very much against because we're just not conscious of how it plays out in our lives.
Books, Podcasts & Articles we mentioned:
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow: The word of mouth sensation by Gabrielle Zevin
The Soul of Money: Transforming your relationship with money and life
Serena Hicks is talking about money again
Dare to Lead with Brené Brown
Cultivating Hope, 3 part mini course: Are you ready to cultivate hope in the face of the climate crisis? Sign up to Katie’s three-part free mini course that will help you move through feelings of helplessness, reconnect with nature and take aligned action.
Find out more about The Seed, Katie’s online course to help you Identify your unique contribution to environmentalism – either as a self-paced course or live digital course running in May 2023.
Broken: Mending and repair in a throwaway world.
This new book celebrates 25 artists, curators, designers and makers who have rejected the allure of the fast, disposable and easy in favour of the patina of use, the stories of age and the longevity of care and repair. Accompanying these profiles, six in-depth essays explore the societal, cultural and environmental roles of mending in a throwaway world.
Spread the Word:
Please share Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show me some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. I’ll be honest, I don’t really understand how it works, but apparently, all that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
And finally, sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘_Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalist_s’ landing gently in inboxes most Fridays - just click here.
And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), & @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube) & @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram) – if you’re a designer-maker, DM me a♻️ to be added to my close friends group especially for sustainable craftspeople and check out Making Design Circular at www.katietreggiden.com/membership
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is a purpose-driven journalist, author, podcaster and keynote speaker championing a circular approach to design – because Planet Earth needs better stories. With 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, Crafts Magazine, Design Mil_k and _Monocle24. She is currently exploring the question ‘can craft save the world?’ through an emerging body of work that includes her fifth book, Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure (Ludion, 2020), and this podcast.About our partners:
Inhabit hotels, located in the Bayswater area of London, offer restorative environmentally and socially conscious places to stay in the city. Wellness and well-being also play a major part in the brand's ethos Mindfully designed for the modern traveller, everything at this new hotel has been considered with a genuine commitment to environmental initiatives and meaningful community partnerships. To find out more please check out our Instagram @inhabit_hotels.
Surfers Against Sewage is a grassroots environmental charity that campaigns to protect the ocean and everything that the ocean makes possible. They campaign against everything that threatens the ocean; plastic pollution, the climate emergency, industrial exploitation, and water quality, by taking action on the ground, that triggers change from the top. If like me, you'd like to support surfers against sewage, head over to https://www.sas.org.uk/
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In this episode, Katie explores another of the pillars of the making design circular framework – Believe. The idea that we need to bring about change and that we need to believe that it's possible, but as ever it’s easier said than done. Maintaining hope, and believing that we can sort all this out, is the work. It’s one of the hardest things we have to do as environmentalists so Katie is diving into how to maintain that stubborn optimism, how to cultivate hope in the face of the climate crisis through feeling, naming and acknowledging your feelings, rebuilding your connection with the natural world and to taking aligned action.
Katie has built a three-part mini course around this subject,are you ready to cultivate hope in the face of the climate crisis? Sign up to her three-part free mini course that will help you move through feelings of helplessness, reconnect with nature and take aligned action. Cultivating Hope | Katie Treggiden
Here are some highlights:
Where it all started
“We'd hit 40 degrees for the first time, you know, there was this sense of I can't even enjoy the sunny weather because of this sense of impending doom that comes with it. And my husband and I went camping that weekend. And I just felt so down. I remember feeling that I had the rare sort of privilege and space and luxury of just being allowed to feel my feelings. So we went camping and I just spent a couple of days feeling properly gloomy about the future of our species. You know, the state of the planet what as humans, you know, the damage we’re racking on this planet. And I just allowed myself to feel those feelings. And then because we were in the countryside camping, I was just accidentally more connected to nature than I would normally have been.”
Name those feelings
“…name, acknowledge, and really feel your feelings. So cultivating hope is not about toxic positivity. It's not about emotional bypassing, the only way out is through. So the first thing that we have to do is make space for those emotions… And, you know, in the middle of a busy life, it's not easy, it's not always easy to carve out that time to feel hard feelings, but it is necessary. So if you are feeling overwhelmed by the news cycle, you know, if you're feeling helpless, if you're feeling sad, if you're feeling angry, the first thing to do is to carve out a little bit of space, and name those feelings.”
Rebuild your connection with the natural world
“It's not that being in nature does something magical, it's that being separated from nature is inherently bad for us, we are supposed to be connected… and not only will that do your emotional well being the world of good there's also evidence that shows that people who are more connected with nature in whatever way are more likely to take actions that are good for the planet. So there's a sense of just by reconnecting with nature in ways that make us feel good, help us to take more planet positive actions. And then once you're in that space, once you've moved through those feelings, and reconnected with the natural world, you're ready to take action.”
Resources & Quotes mentioned:
Cultivating Hope, 3 part mini-course
Are you ready to cultivate hope in the face of the climate crisis? Sign up to Katie’s three-part free mini course that will help you move through feelings of helplessness, reconnect with nature and take aligned action - Cultivating Hope | Katie Treggiden
Find out more about The Seed, Katie’s online course to help you Identify your unique contribution to environmentalism – either as a self-paced course or live digital course running in May 2023.
“Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would become religious overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night, and we watch television.”
― Paul HawkenSpread the Word:
Please share Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show me some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. I’ll be honest, I don’t really understand how it works, but apparently, all that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
And finally, sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ landing gently in inboxes most Fridays - just click here. And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram), @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), & @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube). If you’re a designer-maker, DM me a ♻️ to be added to my close friends group especially for sustainable craftspeople and check out Making Design Circular at www.katietreggiden.com/membership
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is a purpose-driven journalist, author, podcaster and keynote speaker championing a circular approach to design – because Planet Earth needs better stories. With 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, Crafts Magazine, Design Milk and Monocle24. She is currently exploring the question ‘can craft save the world?’ through an emerging body of work that includes her fifth book, Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure (Ludion, 2020), and this podcast.About our partners:
Inhabit hotels, located in the Bayswater area of London, offer restorative environmentally and socially conscious places to stay in the city. Wellness and well-being also play a major part in the brand's ethos Mindfully designed for the modern traveller, everything at this new hotel has been considered with a genuine commitment to environmental initiatives and meaningful community partnerships. To find out more please check out our Instagram @inhabit_hotels.
Surfers Against Sewage is a grassroots environmental charity that campaigns to protect the ocean and everything that the ocean makes possible. They campaign against everything that threatens the ocean; plastic pollution, the climate emergency, industrial exploitation, and water quality, by taking action on the ground, that triggers change from the top. If like me, you'd like to support surfers against sewage, head over to https://www.sas.org.uk/
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In this episode, Katie talks about perfectionism, about:
Liberating yourself from perfectionism, the second part of the first pillar of the MDC frameworkHer personal journey with perfectionism including publishing her first foray into the online learning and recording a podcastThe idea of toxic professionalism – the sense that any deviation from a white, straight, cis, tall, able-body bodied man in a suit is seen as unprofessional – and the similarities between this and perfectionism – the sense of perfect being dictated by other peopleThe shift needed towards an acceptance of imperfection in sustainability workHow to be an ‘imperfectionist’, understanding that the outcome will actually be better by letting go of perfectionism by embracing vulnerability, about taking risks and showing the cracksHere are some highlights:
Connection
“…I think that's quite exciting, because I think we sort of connect at our points of imperfection and vulnerability. So perfectionism is not the pursuit of excellence, it's something different from that. It's this idea that if you show up in a way that is ‘perfect’, you won't be criticised or rejected or hurt.”
Natural and human
“We tend to think of perfect as something that is flawless, something that's consistent perhaps. And often, when we think about objects, those things are mass produced. They're machine made. They come from a globalised economy. And yet, as designer makers, craftspeople and artists, you are used to embracing imperfection. The throwing rings in a pot are the sign of a human hand, the knots in wood are the sign of a natural material. And we talk about embracing these imperfections, because they're human, because they're natural and yet in our sustainability work, we feel the need to get it right to be perfect. But do we want sustainability work that is informed by machines, by consistency, by globalisation, by mass production? Or do we want sustainable thinking that is informed by the human hand, by nature?”
Be Brave
“…we've always been led to believe that if we hold ourselves to these high standards, we're more likely to achieve them. Actually, it's not true, we are more likely to achieve high standards, if we play and experiment and do something a lot because we're not frightened of getting it wrong. And so, I think in order to achieve what we need to achieve in sustainability, in order to make progress, we need to not be frightened of getting it wrong, we need to do it a lot, we need to do it playfully the same things apply.”
Research, Books, Podcasts & Articles we mentioned:
The dangerous downsides of perfectionism - BBC FutureWhy Aiming for Perfection Won’t Help You Achieve Your Goals (jamesclear.com)Atomic Habits by James ClearSpread the Word:
Please share Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show me some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. I’ll be honest, I don’t really understand how it works, but apparently, all that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
And finally, sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ landing gently in inboxes most Fridays - just click here. And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram), @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube). If you’re a designer-maker, DM me a ♻️ to be added to my close friends group especially for sustainable craftspeople and check out Making Design Circular at www.katietreggiden.com/membership
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is a purpose-driven journalist, author, podcaster and keynote speaker championing a circular approach to design – because Planet Earth needs better stories. With 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, Crafts Magazine, Design Milk and Monocle24. She is currently exploring the question ‘can craft save the world?’ through an emerging body of work that includes her fifth book, Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure (Ludion, 2020), and this podcast.About our partners:
Inhabit hotels, located in the Bayswater area of London, offer restorative environmentally and socially conscious places to stay in the city. Wellness and well-being also play a major part in the brand's ethos Mindfully designed for the modern traveller, everything at this new hotel has been considered with a genuine commitment to environmental initiatives and meaningful community partnerships. To find out more please check out our Instagram @inhabit_hotels.
Surfers Against Sewage is a grassroots environmental charity that campaigns to protect the ocean and everything that the ocean makes possible. They campaign against everything that threatens the ocean; plastic pollution, the climate emergency, industrial exploitation, and water quality, by taking action on the ground, that triggers change from the top. If like me, you'd like to support surfers against sewage, head over to https://www.sas.org.uk/
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[Trigger Warning: Matt mentions female genital mutilation (FMG) in this episode, so listener discretion is advised.]
In this episode, Katie talks with Matt Hocking from Leap.eco, an award-winning design studio who has proven it’s possible to create inspiring work which delivers positive outcomes for people, planet and profit.
He has been passionate about working sustainably since long before it was cool. Every project he’s delivered doesn’t just meet a client’s business goals, it helps make the planet a better place – either directly or by changing the way a business thinks and works.And he’s not kept that knowledge a secret, priding himself on sharing what he’s learnt with the industry – helping define and develop a model for sustainable design and working with creatives across the world to ensure design remains at the forefront of change.
He is committed to building a better future: one that is progressive, collaborative and thoughtful.
We discuss:
Matt’s development of the Giving Budget, a model where, when you feel called to be generous, and to give something away, you can put certain boundaries around that to make sure that it's a good thing.Why it’s important for Matt to not just run a design agencyThe fascinating role creatives can play in asking the difficult questionsHow creativity is one of the three pillars of the change we need in in the world for a better outcomeThe clients he has supported with the Giving Budget and the surprises along the wayHere are some highlights:
Designing for Change
“…using my design skills to sort of make a living making a difference, kind of working with social and environmental issues, challenging projects to amplify what they're saying and what they're changing, the world they're trying to sort of manifest.”
Reframing the transaction of Kindness
“.. we all do free stuff, there's always somebody asking a creative can you do this or friend that saying, help me do this. You know, and a lot of people don't actually value how long that creativity takes or how much industry knowledge and training, I wouldn't want my creativity and a fee to be a barrier to get something great done that would support society to the planet…how do I reframe that while still giving back to say thank you for the creative journey that I'm on, so became our giving budget.”
Be Valued
“Look at what's sustainable for you, everything comes from you and if you break you, then the rest of the change you want to make in the world won't happen. Do you, look after yourself first, be valued, and be really thorough. A lot of people are takers and leeches in business, just really be careful about how this happens, this transaction, this agreement between you both, and do it in a way that works for you.”
Books, Podcasts & Ted Talks we mentioned:
The Path of the DoerThe Four AgreementsOutrage & OptimismJohn Richardson & The FuturenautsHow to Start a Movement or ‘the lone dancer’Other interesting things we talked about:
Leap’s Impact Report: Love LanguagesYou can find out more about Leap here, and connect with Matt on LinkedIn
Spread the Word:
Please share Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show me some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. I’ll be honest, I don’t really understand how it works, but apparently, all that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
And finally, sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ landing gently in inboxes most Fridays - just click here. And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram), @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube). If you’re a designer-maker, DM me a ♻️ to be added to my close friends group especially for sustainable craftspeople and check out Making Design Circular at www.katietreggiden.com/membership
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is a purpose-driven journalist, author, podcaster and keynote speaker championing a circular approach to design – because Planet Earth needs better stories. With 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, Crafts Magazine, Design Milk and Monocle24. She is currently exploring the question ‘can craft save the world?’ through an emerging body of work that includes her fifth book, Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure (Ludion, 2020), and this podcast.About our partners:
Inhabit hotels, located in the Bayswater area of London, offer restorative environmentally and socially conscious places to stay in the city. Wellness and well-being also play a major part in the brand's ethos Mindfully designed for the modern traveller, everything at this new hotel has been considered with a genuine commitment to environmental initiatives and meaningful community partnerships. To find out more please check out our Instagram @inhabit_hotels.
Surfers Against Sewage is a grassroots environmental charity that campaigns to protect the ocean and everything that the ocean makes possible. They campaign against everything that threatens the ocean; plastic pollution, the climate emergency, industrial exploitation, and water quality, by taking action on the ground, that triggers change from the top. If like me, you'd like to support surfers against sewage, head over to https://www.sas.org.uk/
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In this episode, Katie talks about the idea of absolving yourself from guilt. The climate crisis is not your fault, but it is your responsibility, and you have an incredible opportunity to bring about change.
Katie talks about:
The idea of absolving yourself of the guilt that comes with the climate crisisHow the energy industry has not only contributed the vast majority of the carbon in the atmosphere, but has also worked really hard to curb regulations and undermine public understanding of climate changeHow the climate crisis might well have been resolved before you were even born!How we are the last generation that have the opportunity to do something about thisThat there are no magic bullets, tech is not going to save usHere are some highlights:
It’s Not Your Fault
“…80% of the environmental impact of an object is determined at design stage. And that's true, right? From material choices to end of life considerations by the time an object goes into production from a sustainability point of view, its fate is largely sealed.”
This stuff didn’t all happen in the past!
“There are very big online retailers selling and shipping 1000s of dollars worth of products every second, with business models that are built on what Greenpeace describes as greed and speed… If we're looking to apportion blame, let's look to massive globalised companies, and global leaders who are not doing their bit to make the big changes that they could make.”
Get excited about this responsibility about this opportunity!
“… the soil in which creativity thrives is curiosity, optimism and collaboration, all impulses, I'm guessing that drew you to our industry in the first place. Right? So we need designers to stop feeling guilty so they can reconnect with those feelings of curiosity, optimism and collaboration and tap into their creativity to become part of the solution.”
Reports we mentioned:
Explore the stats shared in this article written by Katie for DezeenInside Climate News – Exxon: The Road Not TakenNew report shows just 100 companies are source of over 70% of emissions - CDPMargaret Thatcher - UN General Assembly Climate Change Speech (1989)Spread the Word:
Please share Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show me some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. I’ll be honest, I don’t really understand how it works, but apparently, all that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
And finally, sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ landing gently in inboxes most Fridays - just click here. And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram), @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube). If you’re a designer-maker, DM me a ♻️ to be added to my close friends group especially for sustainable craftspeople and check out Making Design Circular at www.katietreggiden.com/membership
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is a purpose-driven journalist, author, podcaster and keynote speaker championing a circular approach to design – because Planet Earth needs better stories. With 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, Crafts Magazine, Design Milk and Monocle24. She is currently exploring the question ‘can craft save the world?’ through an emerging body of work that includes her fifth book, Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure (Ludion, 2020), and this podcast.About our partners:
Inhabit hotels, located in the Bayswater area of London, offer restorative environmentally and socially conscious places to stay in the city. Wellness and well-being also play a major part in the brand's ethos Mindfully designed for the modern traveller, everything at this new hotel has been considered with a genuine commitment to environmental initiatives and meaningful community partnerships. To find out more please check out our Instagram @inhabit_hotels.
Surfers Against Sewage is a grassroots environmental charity that campaigns to protect the ocean and everything that the ocean makes possible. They campaign against everything that threatens the ocean; plastic pollution, the climate emergency, industrial exploitation, and water quality, by taking action on the ground, that triggers change from the top. If like me, you'd like to support surfers against sewage, head over to https://www.sas.org.uk/
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In this episode, Katie talks with Sarah Fox a coach and mentor helping organisations and individuals who are motivated to do good and do well, being drivers of positive social change. Sarah’s mission is to help people who care about the world to live a life of fulfilment, a life that is truly well lived, meaningful, purposeful and creative.
We discuss:
Sarah’s strive to always do good and her journey with ‘kindness’What is means to be good, not just to the natural world but to ourselves.Sarah’s values of kindness, compassion, cooperation, collaboration and courage (added during the podcast!)…and how these relate to our self-worth.Why this group of people, who are working so hard to look after everybody else and bring about positive change in the world, find it so difficult to take care of themselves.Do we need to learn to look after ourselves in order to look after the planet, are those things connected?The importance of connecting with nature, observing nature in the human world and reminding ourselves of the bigger picture.Here are some highlights:
What does it mean to be good?
“Essentially for me, the doing good bit is what it's about it's about leaving the world or trying to leave the world in a better place than you found it. Really stepping into what we can do that somehow contributes positively and whilst doing that, really thinking about how we do well based in terms of quality. But also in terms of our own well-being. When I talk about wellbeing, I'm talking about physical well-being emotional well-being and financial well-being. So how can we bring those things together so that we are making an impact of some kind and we're doing that in a way that is conscious and we have a self-awareness about that. But also, how can we do it so that we're not breaking in the process.”
I have value in the world!
“It’s as much about being kind to ourselves, as it is to everybody else. And if we can hold up a mirror, if we can talk to ourselves in the way that we talk to other people, if we can take action, and be kind to ourselves in the way that we are with other people, then I think the world would be a much better place, because it's coming from people feeling like they are enough already, without having to do all the things.” “if you already feel safe and enough, then you can really focus on delivering benefit in a way that most benefits the people you're trying to serve.”
How can we step into our wise Jedi self?
“I think if we're going to have these regenerative, restorative businesses, there needs to be a complete self-awareness as much as possible. We need to be in our autonomy, not standing in the narrative pattern that we have been in in the past. And how do we kind of step into, I call it the wise Jedi self, rather than that kind of inner critic? How do we step into that? So that we can create these businesses that are making a difference, that is having the impact that we want to have and that we don't get distracted?”
Books & Podcasts we mentioned:
Consumed by Aja BarberBetween the Stops by Sandi ToksvigThe Choice by Edith EgerHow to Own the Room by Viv Groskop | How To Own The Room on Apple PodcastsHow to be Hopeful by Bernadette RussellYou can find out more about Sarah here, connect on LinkedIn and listen to her podcast on Spotify or Apple
With reference to our conversation on what is “good” and who gets to decide – here is Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg’s PhD “better”: https://www.daisyginsberg.com/work/better
Spread the Word:
Please share Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show me some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. I’ll be honest, I don’t really understand how it works, but apparently, all that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
And finally, sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ landing gently in inboxes most Fridays - just click here. And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram), @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube). If you’re a designer-maker, DM me a ♻️ to be added to my close friends group especially for sustainable craftspeople and check out Making Design Circular at www.katietreggiden.com/membership
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is a purpose-driven journalist, author, podcaster and keynote speaker championing a circular approach to design – because Planet Earth needs better stories. With 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, Crafts Magazine, Design Milk and Monocle24. She is currently exploring the question ‘can craft save the world?’ through an emerging body of work that includes her fifth book, Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure (Ludion, 2020), and this podcast.About our partners:
Inhabit hotels, located in the Bayswater area of London, offer restorative environmentally and socially conscious places to stay in the city. Wellness and well-being also play a major part in the brand's ethos Mindfully designed for the modern traveller, everything at this new hotel has been considered with a genuine commitment to environmental initiatives and meaningful community partnerships. To find out more please check out our Instagram @inhabit_hotels.
Surfers Against Sewage is a grassroots environmental charity that campaigns to protect the ocean and everything that the ocean makes possible. They campaign against everything that threatens the ocean; plastic pollution, the climate emergency, industrial exploitation, and water quality, by taking action on the ground, that triggers change from the top. If like me, you'd like to support surfers against sewage, head over to https://www.sas.org.uk/
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We’re kicking off with Katie guiding us through her Making Design Circular Framework, all based around the goal to “rewild your creative practice, so that you, your business, and the planet can thrive”, and you can find the image Katie promised HERE. (It turns out you can’t add images directly to show-notes!)
We discuss:
The 3 distinct areas of the framework, Release, Plant and GrowAbsolving yourself from guilt about the climate crisis and the things you were doing right or wrong when it comes to sustainability, liberating yourself from guilt, duty, and perfectionism. And moving away from the idea of right or wrong, and towards the idea of alignment.Finding purpose, joy, and curiosity, in a sustainable creative practice.Building a sustainable business that enables you, your creative practice and the planet to thrive.Here are some highlights:
Why the word rewild?
“There is a sense that we all ought to do things certain ways, there is an element of duty, there's an element of guilt around environmentalism. But there's also just this sense of being in a box, of how one ought to behave, how one ought to run a small business, run a creative practice. The meaning of rewild that I love is about breaking free of all of that, letting go of that social conditioning and stepping into your full power, as an environmentalist, as a designer maker. So ‘rewild your creative practice’ is the kind of call to action, I guess. And then the benefit of doing that is that you, your business, and the planet all get to thrive.”
It’s not YOUR fault
“Climate crisis is not your fault. It's not, 71% Of all the carbon released into the atmosphere, since the Industrial Revolution, has been emitted by just 100 companies. Countless governments have had the chance to solve this issue, probably before you were even born. And there are billionaires mass producing crap, and sending rockets to Mars. So none of this is your fault. It's just not. So you can let go of that guilt. And you know why that's important, because guilt is not the soil in which creativity thrives. We need creative people to solve this problem.“
Regeneration, it’s not just for the planet
Are you taking resources from yourself without replenishing them? We need to build creative practices that regenerate and nourish us as humans, that fill our cup that feed our soul, give us energy. If they're just draining us and exhausting us and taking from us that's not sustainable. It's also not good for the planet because if you're trying to create a planet positive, creative practice, and you burn out, the benefit that you're having is no longer being delivered. This is about building businesses that nourish you, that nourish the people who work with and for you, that nourish the communities around you, and the ecosystems around those.”
Katie is walking you through this framework because everything else she talks about in this season of the podcast is going to be informed by it in some way!
Don’t forget to follow and review this podcast to help other people to find it – thank you!
Books we mentioned:
Future We Choose by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac (Not ‘Carnatt’ as Katie pronounced it in the recording!)Spread the Word:
Please share Circular with Katie Treggiden with wild abandon — with your friends, family, and fellow designer-makers or wherever interesting conversations about creativity happen in your world!
If you love what you’re listening to, show me some love by following Circular with Katie Treggiden in this app and leaving a review. I’ll be honest, I don’t really understand how it works, but apparently, all that good stuff tells the ‘algorithm Gods’ to show the podcast to more people, and that can only be a good thing, right?
And finally, sign up for our my e-newsletter ‘Weekly(ish) Musings for Curious, Imperfect and Stubbornly Optimistic Environmentalists’ landing gently in inboxes most Fridays - just click here. And find me on the Interwebs: @katietreggiden.1 (Instagram), @katietreggiden (Twitter, TikTok), @katietreggiden3908 (YouTube). If you’re a designer-maker, DM me a ♻️ to be added to my close friends group especially for sustainable craftspeople and check out Making Design Circular at www.katietreggiden.com/membership
About Katie:
Katie Treggiden is a purpose-driven journalist, author, podcaster and keynote speaker championing a circular approach to design – because Planet Earth needs better stories. With 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, Crafts Magazine, Design Milk and Monocle24. She is currently exploring the question ‘can craft save the world?’ through an emerging body of work that includes her fifth book, Wasted: When Trash Becomes Treasure (Ludion, 2020), and this podcast.About our partners:
Inhabit hotels, located in the Bayswater area of London, offer restorative environmentally and socially conscious places to stay in the city. Wellness and well-being also play a major part in the brand's ethos Mindfully designed for the modern traveller, everything at this new hotel has been considered with a genuine commitment to environmental initiatives and meaningful community partnerships. To find out more please check out our Instagram @inhabit_hotels.
Surfers Against Sewage is a grassroots environmental charity that campaigns to protect the ocean and everything that the ocean makes possible. They campaign against everything that threatens the ocean; plastic pollution, the climate emergency, industrial exploitation, and water quality, by taking action on the ground, that triggers change from the top. If like me, you'd like to support surfers against sewage, head over to https://www.sas.org.uk/
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