The Way Forward Regenerative Conversations
Three Elders explore how to renew the world we helped mess up The Way Forward Podcast is dedicated to Regenerative Conversations about the future of humanity and planet. We think we need to re-think the current paradigm. Each episode explores how we can find a positive future forward for society and for ourselves. We explore the question: What is the Way Forward? We don’t have the answers, but we hope to stimulate all of us to imagine what is possible. We bring a wide variety of guests – including people at the leading edge of their field and willing to think out of the box – and engage into stimulating conversations with them, in a place of open curiosity. Topics will include a wide range of issues including environmental change, technology, governance, organizational design, sustainability, international peace, agriculture, and personal renewal. Alain Gauthier and Dr. John Izzo (the co-hosts) and Jim Burke (the producer) offer together more than a hundred years of organizational experience in the forms of consulting, change facilitation, keynote speaking and research/teaching for a wide variety of businesses, non-profits, government, and universities both in the US and abroad. We would like to thank our sponsors Elders Action Network “Building a movement of elders to address the environmental, governance and social issues of our time“ and Blueprint “Enhancing the well-being of men and communities.” You can reach us at the email address thewayforwardrc@gmail.com
Episodes

Sunday Jan 08, 2023
Sunday Jan 08, 2023
In this episode we explore the role of men and boys in a positive way forward. It is often said that men and the traditional masculine patriarchal model play a significant role in the creation and the persistence of the most crucial problems humanity now faces. Men and boys are falling behind across the globe with higher rates of death by suicide and addiction, increased homelessness, and decreased life expectancy. In this far-reaching podcast we explore what is happening with men and boys while having an important conversation about how men can become an even greater force for good in the way forward.
Our guest, Dr. David Kuhl, is a physician, author and co-founder of an NGO based at the University of British Columbia called Blueprint. After decades of practicing medicine including time as a pioneer in end-of-life care, Dr. Kuhl put down his stethoscope to dedicate himself to enhance the integrity and wellbeing of men and boys for the benefit of families and communities. He is the author of “What Dying People Want” and has been a guest on the Oprah show. He is doing leading edge research on the positive impact of Fathers.
You can reach us at our email address mailto:thewayforwardrc@gmail.com You can listen to our podcast on Podbeam or Apple Podcasts.
We would like to thank our sponsors Elders Action Network and Blueprint NGO. Elders Action Network is building a movement of elders to address the environmental, governance and social issues of our time. . Blueprint is catalyzing a global conversation about the state and impact of men in the world. Together they are mobilizing men to be a force for good.

Saturday Dec 03, 2022
Saturday Dec 03, 2022
While capitalism continues to be the dominant economic system with benefits we describe as innovation, wealth, and prosperity, there is a dark side. Materialism, consumerism, and the financial pressure for continuing economic growth all come with a steep price to pay which includes enormous environmental and social justice impacts that endanger life on Earth.
Our guest today, Molly Young Brown, believes that our society is in the midst of a Great Turning from an Industrial Growth Society to a Life Sustaining Society. Molly’s unique areas of study and experience have prepared her well to help guide us on the Way Forward to regeneration.
Molly earned a master’s degree in humanistic and transpersonal psychology and a Master of Divinity. She has extensive training and coaching experience in Psychosynthesis.
Molly describes her life’s work as based on living systems – which move towards integration, wholeness, learning, complexity, and self-organization. She describes human beings and all their organizations as living systems. She holds possibilities for all of us because living systems are always open to evolution, change and adaptation.
She describes herself as being steeped in psychosynthesis and then discovering the work of Joann Macy. She found this was a logical extension of the work she had been doing and allowed her to bring what she had learned about herself into service to the larger world.
Molly sees us all interconnected. Therefore, in the Work That Reconnects she talks about honoring our pain for the world. This helps us move beyond denial and paralysis by taking action on behalf of life.
Molly talks about how the Great Unraveling is happening because of our need to possess, control, and extract. These needs underlie the current trend toward fascism and authoritarianism all over the world.
Molly has published several books on Psychosynthesis and co-authored, with Joanna Macy, two editions of the book Coming Back to Life. She trains facilitators of the Work That Reconnects and edits the online journal Deep Times: A Journal of the Work that Reconnects.
Molly describes how the Elders Action Network has taken a lead at addressing the issues of our time with the intent of leaving future generations a more loving and sustainable world by offering a doorway to elders to become empowered to make a difference.

Sunday Oct 23, 2022
Sunday Oct 23, 2022
Welcome to The Way Forward: Regenerative Conversations Podcast # 3. I am Jim Burke the producer.
While top-down hierarchal organizations have historically been good at addressing complicated issues, we are now faced with complex problems that need a new way of organizing that engages collectively many people who can feel ownership of the issues. For David Ehrlichman (ehrlichman@converge.net) one of the biggest challenges our civilization faces in the way forward, is how we as humans organize and concentrate power
Our hosts Alain Gauthier and Dr John Izzo talk with David about his journey co-founding Converge and Hats Protocol and writing the book “Impact Networks: Create Connection, Spark Collaboration, and Catalyze Systemic Change”. We learn that in his early work with non-profits David felt that he was just addressing the symptoms of a massively broken system. He began asking himself how he could work across organizations and even across sectors. This led to his work integrating network science and systems thinking into cross-sector multi-stakeholder collaborations. David talks about a quality of leadership that is facilitative and not directive, where it supports people coming together and discovering what they can do collectively. David sees this as a deliberate process which allows for emergent results. It is planful, but it plans for emergence. He shares with us that his personal mission [in life] for many years has been to catalyze others to make their greatest contribution. He feels hopeful because he sees a paradigm shift happening with the increasing focus on networks as a different type of organizing structures.
You can email us at "thewayforwardrc@gmail.com"

Wednesday Oct 05, 2022
Wednesday Oct 05, 2022
Welcome to The Way Forward: Regenerative Conversations podcast number two:
The United State has long history of voter’s rights activism and a history of repeated efforts at voter suppression. Our guest today, John Sorensen, now in his 80s, finds himself and the organization that he founded Elders Action Network at the forefront of the getting-out-to vote movement.
Our hosts Alain Gauthier and Dr John Izzo talk with John, an entrepreneur and former aerospace engineer with a PhD from Stanford, about his journey where he sold his company at the age of 65 and discovered himself spiritually dead.
He shares with us the journey and lessons learned which led him to the founding of Elders Action Network. An organization which has created a movement of elders to address the social, environmental and governance crises of our time.
Contact us at “thewayforwardrc@gmail.com

Saturday Aug 20, 2022
Saturday Aug 20, 2022
John, Alain and Jim as elders talk about why they came together to create this podcast in service of a regenerative future for all and the planet. This podcast is sponsored by the Elders Action Network.