What is the World Ethic Forum? Five years in, we still stumble on the question. But we know much of what it isn’t: not a project, not an attempt to fix one problem or offer one solution for one sector, in one region. So what are we? In this bonus episode, recorded after our 2026 gathering in Kenya, we reach for a metaphor that seems to fit: a sourdough mother. Something where the purpose is not to grow larger, because the whole point is to give it away, one piece at a time, so that others can use it to bake their own bread. We speak about what it means to be the starter rather than the loaf, and to metabolise the world together. A bonus conversation with World Ethic Forum co-leads Luea Ritter and Anaïs Sägesser.

Show Notes

• Blog: Public event on the microbiome
• Blog: Beyond cosmological narcissism, kinship with mountains

How do you hold complexity together as a collective, without it fragmenting into silos, or blending into some sort of chunky soup? In this episode of our introductory series, we explore the seven thematic strands that structure the World Ethic Forum’s inquiry: where they came from, and how they weave together. These are not separate topics, but different ways into the same core question: how to cultivate a culture of care and kinship rooted in radically shared aliveness. This is the sixth episode in this series with World Ethic Forum co-leads Luea Ritter and Anaïs Sägesser.

Show Notes

• Thematic Strands
• Blog: A gathering of the kinship group

Ontology, cosmology, epistemology, ethical biome: get ready for the big Greek words. In this episode, we unpack what we call our conceptual lens, a layered model we use to make sense of our own work. But we are not only geeking out, or showing off our academic credentials. We are also talking about dreams, care work, grieving, and connecting to the land. This is the fifth episode in a six-part series with World Ethic Forum co-leads Luea Ritter and Anaïs Sägesser, on cultivating a culture of care and kinship.

Show notes

• Paper: Inquiry into the Prerequisites for Co-creating a Culture of Care and Kinship https://rsdsymposium.org/world-ethic-forum/
• Blogpost: What Happens at a Firekeeper Gathering https://www.worldethicforum.com/what-happens-at-a-firekeeper-gathering/
• Blogpost: Understanding wider ways of knowing https://www.worldethicforum.com/understanding-wider-ways-of-knowing/
• Blogpost: Collective Practices and Collective Capacities https://www.worldethicforum.com/collective-practices-and-capacities-for-radically-shared-aliveness/
• Donella Meadows: https://donellameadows.org/
• Presencing Institute https://www.presencing.org/
• Arne Naess (Deep Ecology): https://trumpeter.athabascau.ca/index.php/trumpet/article/download/44/39/102