Accidental Gods - The Thrutopian Podcast

How can the dream of a jaguar - or any dream - help us to overcome our own fears? 
This week's guest, John Perkins has written a book about this. Touching the Jaguar is a memoir of an extraordinary life, and it's an invitation to walk across what he calls the Bridge of Perception to see the world differently - in his words to remember that we are a part of nature, not apart from nature.  Which - with slightly different vocabulary, is exactly what we're about, and what we say every week.  But John is not only a shamanic practitioner with many decades of training in Ecuador and elsewhere deep in the Amazon  - he's a man of many often divergent parts.
If you're in the shamanic world, then you know him as the animating energy behind the Pachamama Alliance - and he describes its founding in Touching the Jaguar.
Then again, if you're in the world of heterodox - which is to say not-orthodox - economics, or regenerative economics, or renegade economics or any of the various ways we explore how money works in the world, you'll know him as the author of the book, 'Confessions of an Economic Hitman.' It's not an easy read, but if you ever want proof of the utter hypocrisy of the US and the UK - of all the western countries - of the appalling damage and absolutely unacceptable behaviour our governments have promoted around the world... it's an essential read.  In the early decades of his professional life, John was exactly what he says - an economic hitman who went into sovereign nations, in his case mostly in central and south America, and he offered the carrot to the nation's leadership: take our bribes, let us develop our commercial and military outposts in your country, sell us your oil, your rare earths, your land at bargain basement prices... and we'll let you live.  If they refused…two of the people John worked with closely did refuse. And both are now dead in 'accidents' where their planes crashed, leaving nobody on board alive. He believes they were assassinated by the CIA and when he first decided to write about it, his young daughter was threatened and then he was bribed with a half million dollar 'consultancy' the existence of which was predicated on his not-writing his book.
You can read that book today. Or you can watch the short animation of it, which covers the basics and which I watched when I was reading for the Masters in Regenerative Economics at Schumacher... so John's been a kind of a hero since then.  I didn't know he'd been poisoned and half 70% of his bowel resected and nearly died. I didn't know about the death threats or the doors that had closed in his face. I also didn't know that, alongside his work for the US government, he was being trained by a series of indigenous shamans, whose prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor, required them to 'touch the jaguar' by connecting with that which they most feared - white people - and changing their perception.
So - I came to this podcast thinking we'd explore Touching the Jaguar and his new book, The Art of the Steal which shows how the Trump administration brought all the old techniques that used to be used against other nations and operated them at home.  But actually, this turned into something much more interesting.  John spends a lot of time with indigenous peoples and they believe we're in the time between worlds, an inflection point where everything can shift.  So we talked more about that. We did have some technical glitches for which I apologise - Caro and Lou have done their best with the audio and the video.  In the hope that they succeed, please do enjoy this week's episode.
Links
John's Website
John's blog: Change the Dream
Confessions of an Economic Hitman (short animation version)
John's Latest  Book - The Art of the Steal
John's previous book - Touching the Jaguar

—About Accidental Gods—

We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass
Our next Open Gathering offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme is 'DREAMING YOUR YEAR AWAKE' which will run on Sunday 3rd January from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT  - Details here.  You don't have to be a member of Accidental Gods to come along, but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.

If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life.
If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here.
If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here
Manda and Louise both offer one-to-one Mentoring Calls.  Manda is writing a book just now, but if you'd like to contact Louise, details are here.

What are the actual steps we could take, from our dysfunctional political, economic, media systems and all they support  - towards a future that would actually work in service to life?
We ask this question all the time on the podcast - and then I went away for a weekend's planning with the core team of our Thrutopian Convergence. We played a Solar Punk Futures game (thank you Natalia!) and Every Single One of us crafted a fictional character from a post-collapse semi-dystopian future in which we were all -
 - not working a day job
 - not paying rent/mortgage/power/water/food bills
 - not trapped in the death cult of predatory capitalism
 - everyone was working cooperatively for food, health, technology
 - the bad guys were out there, but they were losing.
It was lovely - if you don't mind the fact that we were basically subsisting and not necessarily meeting our core needs.
and
It was blindingly depressing.
Because if I fall into this easy/lazy/safe way of thinking - if I, too, am unable to see past the fuzzy, hand-waving bits of detail that get us from here to there - the bit I'm calling the Uncanny Chasm -  how can I expect anyone else to see them more clearly?
So this podcast is working past this Uncanny Chasm - starting the hard work of figuring out the details.
There will be more.  This is just a start.  All thoughts welcome.
Links
Democracy in Chains my Nancy MacLean
Hostage Nation by Jamie Driscoll
Richard Murphy's YouTube

—About Accidental Gods—

We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass
Our next Open Gathering offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme is 'DREAMING YOUR DEATH AWAKE' which will run on Sunday 1st November 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT (NOTE THE TIME! - We'll be out of summertime then)  - details are here. You don't have to be a member of Accidental Gods to come along, but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.

If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life.
If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here.
If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here
Manda and Louise both offer one-to-one Mentoring Calls.  Manda is writing a book just now, but if you'd like to contact Louise, details are here.

This week sees the launch of the Climate Popularism Report written for the Climate Majority Project by friend of the podcast Professor Rupert Read, co-Director of the Climate Majority Project, and Caroline Lucas, former Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales and for a long time, the sole Green party member of the UK's Parliament.
We were supposed to record a podcast together earlier this week, but I had to cancel and so we are instead bringing you a rather wonderful conversation in which TED speaker, pro-democracy activist and author of the book Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us, Jon Alexander, talked to Rupert and Caroline about their report - what it is, why now is the crucial moment and how they hope it will reshape politics in the UK and beyond. 
So this is a star-studded cast and I hope you enjoy their conversation and head off and read the report. Then do whatever you can to become engaged in the new wave of citizen popularism.
Links
Climate Popularism Report

Climate Majority Website
Rupert Read Website
Caroline Lucas Website
Jon Alexander Website

—About Accidental Gods—

We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass
Our next Open Gathering offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme is 'DREAMING YOUR DEATH AWAKE' which will run on Sunday 1st November 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT (NOTE THE TIME! - We'll be out of summertime then)  - details are here. You don't have to be a member of Accidental Gods to come along, but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.

If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life.
If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here.
If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here
Manda and Louise both offer one-to-one Mentoring Calls.  Manda is writing a book just now, but if you'd like to contact Louise, details are here.

What happens when someone who has trained for years in the Cartesian model of science, of medicine in particular  - who has been trained to look at bodies the way a mechanic looks at a car, to take them apart and fix one thing and put it back together and get it back on the road… what happens when that person begins to question everything?
This week's guest has done just this.  Of all the people we've been asked to invite onto the podcast, Zach Bush, MD, is top of the list.  For those of you who know him, he needs no introduction.  For the rest, here's the short version of a very long CV.
Zach Bush, MD, trained in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism, as well as Hospice Care. He is an internationally recognised scientist and industry pioneer, innovating solutions at the intersection of human and planetary health. He is Founder and CEO of Waveform Inc, and Board Chair of Project Biome and the Origin global event series. He delights in working with teams around the world to realise the alignment of human nature with the emerging rebirth cycle of the earth.
Today, we're exploring both the Origin event and his new book, Biological Elegance, a conversation with AI that generated what he believes is the clearest articulation of the worldview beneath it all: health is not something we manufacture. It is something we participate in.
And key to all this is that Zach is part of a global unity event taking place on October 17th online and in person in South Africa. It's called Origin and Zach talks about it at the end of the podcast, but if you're listening to this the day it comes out, then you have 3 days to click the link in the show notes and head over and explore what's on offer.  If you're in South Africa, you can go in person. If you're online, the core work, the one that the Heart Math Institute will be measuring, is at 21:00 South Africa time. So work out when that is for you and if you can be there, then please do. 
We did have some technical issues with the sound and it's not quite as easy on your ears as usual - for which we all apologise, but I think the content is well worth it.   So for a wide, deep dive into health at all its fractal levels, please welcome this week's guest, Zach Bush, MD.  Enjoy!
Links
Zach's Website - Join the Journey to read his book
Origin Event Trailer
Origin Festival and Live Connection
OurOrigin.earth Substack

—About Accidental Gods—

We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass
Our next Open Gathering offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme is 'DREAMING YOUR DEATH AWAKE' which will run on Sunday 1st November 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT (NOTE THE TIME! - We'll be out of summertime then)  - details are here. You don't have to be a member of Accidental Gods to come along, but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.

If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life.
If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here.
If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here
Manda and Louise both offer one-to-one Mentoring Calls.  Manda is writing a book just now, but if you'd like to contact Louise, details are here.

We all know we need to wake up, grow up, show up, but how do we actually do the inner work of growing into interdependence and then the outer work of healing our relationships and holding whole, generative spaces for all parts of ourselves, ourselves and each other, ourselves and the web of life?
That's this week's question and our guest on this episode has written a book that absolutely answers this, and more.
Dr. Robyn Short is an organization systems design consultant, peace-building trainer, and mediator who works with individuals, corporations, and nonprofit organizations in discovering the root causes of conflicts, so they may transform their relationships and create new and productive paths forward individually, as teams, and ultimate as an organization. She also works with community leaders and political and governmental leaders to develop initiatives for building sustainable peace in areas of historic conflict. In this capacity, she has been featured in news outlets internationally.
She is founder and CEO of The Workplace Peace Institute, responsible for its mission, vision and values - and those values are explicitly generative: equity, diversity, empathy, courage and curiosity.
She is the author of four books, the latest of which is 'The Matriarch Effect: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Organizations and the New Logic of Power' and it's this we'll be talking about today - what it is, and how it can transform our worlds of work—and life.
Links
Book Link
The Matriarch Effect
The Workplace Peace Institute
Dr Short on LinkedIn
—About Accidental Gods—

We offer three strands all rooted in the same soil, drawing from the same river: Accidental Gods, Dreaming Awake and the Thrutopia Writing Masterclass
Our next Open Gathering offered as part of our Accidental Gods Programme is 'DREAMING YOUR DEATH AWAKE' which will run on Sunday 1st November 2026 from 16:00 - 20:00 GMT (NOTE THE TIME! - We'll be out of summertime then)  - details are here. You don't have to be a member of Accidental Gods to come along, but if you are, all Gatherings are half price.

If you'd like to join us at Accidental Gods, this is the membership where we endeavour to help you to connect fully with the living web of life.
If you'd like to train more deeply in the contemporary shamanic work at Dreaming Awake, you'll find us here.
If you'd like to explore the recordings from our last Thrutopia Writing Masterclass, the details are here
Manda and Louise both offer one-to-one Mentoring Calls.  Manda is writing a book just now, but if you'd like to contact Louise, details are here.