Green Economy pioneer Van Jones addresses the 2009 Bentley University/TIME magazine Leadership Forum. Jones, founder of Green For All and served as President Obama's

Green Economy pioneer Van Jones addresses the 2009 Bentley University/TIME magazine Leadership Forum. Jones, founder of Green For All and served as President Obama's Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. This is Part 1 of a 27-minute address where he addresses the three fallacies that tore the floor out from under the American people:  rely on consumtion, rather than production; credit rather than smart savings and thrift; and ecological destruction rather than restoration.

Since resigning from his White House post, Mr. Jones has been vilified in the press as a communist, fascist and racist. We recommend listening to what he talks about, rather than the talk about him.

Nature’s Genius is a Bioneers podcast series exploring how the sentient symphony of life holds the solutions we need to balance human civilization with living systems. For all the talk about

Nature’s Genius is a Bioneers podcast series exploring how the sentient symphony of life holds the solutions we need to balance human civilization with living systems. For all the talk about the Age of Information, what we’re really entering is the Age of Nature. As we face the reality that, as humans, we have the capacity to destroy the conditions conducive to life, avoiding this fate requires a radical change in our relationship to nature, and how we view it. Looking to nature to heal nature, and ourselves, is essential. 


Traditional Indigenous wisdom and modern science show us that everything is connected and that the solutions we need are present in the sentient symphony of life. We can learn from the time-tested principles, processes, and dynamics that have allowed living systems to flourish during 3.8 billion years of evolution. 


In this enlightening series, we visit with scientists, ecologists, Indigenous practitioners of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, community organizers, and authors reporting from the frontlines of ecological restoration. They explore the intelligence inherent in nature and show us how to model human organization on living systems.


Guests featured in the series include: Jeannette Armstrong - Co-Founder, Enwokin Centre; Brock Dolman - Co-Founder and Program Director, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center; Erica Gies - Author and Journalist; Brett KenCairn - Founding Director of Center for Regenerative Solutions (https://naturebasedclimate.solutions/) ; Toby Kiers - Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Co-Founder of SPUN (https://www.spun.earth/) ; Kate Lundquist - Water Institute Co-Director, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center; Samira Malone - Urban Forestry Program Manager, Urban Sustainability Directors Network; Teresa Ryan - Teaching and Learning Fellow, Forest and Conservation Sciences Dept., Univ. of British Columbia; Merlin Sheldrake - Biologist and Author; Suzanne Simard - Author and Prof. of Forest Ecology, Univ. of British Columbia; Rowen White - Seedkeeper/Farmer and Author from the Mohawk community of Akwesasne


Executive Producer: Kenny Ausubel


Written by Cathy Edwards and Kenny Ausubel


Produced by Cathy Edwards


Senior Producer: Stephanie Welch


Program Engineer and Music Supervisor: Emily Harris


Producer: Teo Grossman


Host and Consulting Producer: Neil Harvey


Post Production Assistants: Monica Lopez and Kaleb Wentzel-Fisher


Graphic Designer: Megan Howe

Published on Jan 22, 2017