Special Collections:
Transforming Our Economy
Nobel laureate Richard Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein's "Nudge: The Final Edition" explores how to guide people toward better decisions without restricting their freedom of choice. The book highlights that individuals often make unwise choices due to inherent biases, and that choices are never presented neutrally. It advocates for helping people make optimal decisions for themselves, their families, and society.
Thaler, awarded the 2017 Nobel Memorial Prize for his contributions to behavioral economics, co-authored this work. Get the book here.
Richard Wolff's "Democracy at Work: Curing Capitalism" was presented at Talks at Google.
Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he taught from 1973 to 2008. He currently serves as a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs at New School University in New York City.
Thanks for visiting GerdTube! Gerd Leonhard is a Futurist, Author, and Keynote Speaker based in Zürich, Switzerland. Explore his work further at his main website, futuristgerd.com, and learn about his latest book at techvshuman.com.
Audio-only versions of most videos are available on SoundCloud (soundcloud.com/gleonhard/tracks) and Spotify (gerd.fm/spotify). Follow Gerd on Twitter: @gleonhard.
The "Future of Sustainability 2020" webinar, held on July 8, 2020, explored how the radical disruption of the COVID-19 crisis can drive a truly sustainable, just, and resilient future.
Forum for the Future believes reverting to "business-as-usual" would be tragic. This moment offers an unprecedented opportunity to reinvent the future, and they call on business, governments, civil society, and communities to seize it for a more just, sustainable, and resilient world.
The discussion featured Dr. Sally Uren, CEO of Forum for the Future, co-host Hannah Pathak, and other leading experts from organizations including Laudes Foundation, Innovate UK, Bettys and Taylors, and Unilever.
Anna Rosling Rönnlund's project explores daily life globally, from brushing teeth in Sweden to making beds in Rwanda. She sent photographers to 264 homes in 50 countries, documenting items like stoves, beds, and toys across all income levels.
This initiative uses data visualization to reveal diverse living conditions worldwide. Rosling Rönnlund demonstrates how families live, from Latvia to Peru, fostering a better understanding of our interconnected world.
Find more TED Talks here.
Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett's *The Spirit Level* demonstrated how less equal societies perform worse across various social measures, including health, education, and wellbeing. This work significantly heightened public awareness of inequality's impacts.
Their subsequent book, *The Inner Level*, argues that societies built on fundamental equality, sharing, and reciprocity foster greater wellbeing. It contrasts these with societies driven by excessive individualism and aggression, offering new perspectives on how we should organize our collective lives.
In her TEDxSantaCruz speech, Dr. Riane Eisler proposes four actions to transform economics. A distinguished social scientist, attorney, and author, Dr. Eisler's work on cultural transformation has influenced fields from history to education.
As President of the Center for Partnership Studies, she champions peace, sustainability, and economic equity. Her pioneering human rights work expanded international focus to include women and children. Dr. Eisler's book, *The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics*, advocates for an economic model that values caring for people and nature.
The current economic system, driven by growth and profit, depletes resources and exacerbates inequality. Sustainable Human proposes a new path: a voluntary global gift economy designed to foster abundance for all by transcending scarcity economics.
This initiative invites individuals to share their unique gifts and skills, collaborating on projects to create goods and services given freely. Powered by Hylo, the Sustainable Human Gift Economy Network aims to build a bottom-up, participatory system, reducing reliance on the traditional industrial economy. Learn more and participate at sustainablehuman.com.
Environmental and economic problems like low wages and unemployment are often blamed on a hard-to-regulate U.S. economy. However, this system is intentionally rigged for the wealthy. Laws and policies overwhelmingly favor them, allowing control of vast resources and lavish living, while most Americans struggle paycheck to paycheck.
Despite ample resources, our economic system is designed for the wealthy, who manipulate it via political influence. It could easily be regulated to ensure decent jobs, healthcare, and homes for all. Yet, we largely complain without taking action.
Consumers bear responsibility for the entire product lifecycle, from resource extraction and manufacturing to eventual disposal. Despite holding admirable sustainability values, our purchasing behaviors often fail to align, impeding progress in environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Individual actions form the foundation for meaningful change.
For more insights, see Part One: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TFWbpgCFjg
By Kat McDearis and Eric Pappas. Copyright 2015.
Published on August 29, 2016, by Google Talks, this features Otto Scharmer. He is a Senior Lecturer at MIT, co-founder of the Presencing Institute and the Global Wellbeing Lab, and chairs the MIT IDEAS program.
Scharmer introduced the concept of "presencing"—learning from the emerging future—in his bestselling books *Theory U* and *Presence*.
To order his book, *Theory U*, visit Amazon or your local bookstore.
Economist and writer Christian Felber presents his "Economy for the Common Good" initiative. He explores whether businesses can achieve both endless growth and be fair and sustainable, and if an economic model untainted by our current financial system is possible. Learn more about Felber's work and his book Felber Book on Common Good.
Launched in 2010, the 'Economy for the Common Good' is now supported by over 2000 businesses across 40 countries. It aims to create systemic change by awarding legal benefit points to socially responsible companies, encouraging their pursuit of the common good. Felber demonstrates how this shift can be achieved, and his book "Change Everything" is available for purchase.
The RSA presented "The Inequality Debate" with Danny Dorling. This discussion explores whether London's economic success justifies growing inequality, and if the city can maintain economic efficiency amidst such disparities.
Watch Professor Dorling, from the University of Oxford, in the latest RSA Spotlight – an edited highlight of the event. For the full replay, click here.
Sabbath Economics is an economic practice rooted in the belief that there are sufficient resources for all. It recognizes our fundamental role as economic beings interacting with creation's resources for survival and flourishing.
A key tenet is debt forgiveness, viewed as biblical, just, and healing. This approach aims to narrow the divide between the wealthy and the poor.
Explore Sabbath Economics further at sabbatheconomics.org. Additional insights are available in these clips: Clip 2 and Clip 3.
Streamed live on May 19, 2016, Rachel Botsman visited the RSA to discuss the rapidly growing sharing economy, popularized by platforms like Airbnb and Uber. She addressed its "growing pains," exploring how to unlock its full social potential and ensure it empowers, not exploits. Botsman examined the sector's future, including new ventures, the importance of diversity, and critical issues such as monopolization, provider power, and the future of work.
A six-minute version of this discussion is available here. Follow RSA Events on Twitter, Facebook, SoundCloud for podcasts, and Instagram for behind-the-scenes.
Capitalism is often seen as a dual force: a driver of prosperity that has lifted billions from poverty, yet also a system that can foster greed. Both views contain truth.
While free enterprise promotes global prosperity, we must guard against materialism, remembering that money serves as a means to greater ends. Join Arthur Brooks—New York Times columnist, bestselling author, and president of the American Enterprise Institute—for this thought-provoking discussion.
Sam Pizzigati, an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, discusses his new book, "The Rich Don't Always Win: The Forgotten Triumph Over Plutocracy That Created the American Middle Class, 1900-1970."
Pizzigati also edits the Too Much blog. Explore more content from the Institute for Policy Studies on their YouTube channel.
The book is available to order from Amazon or at your local bookstore.
Award-winning FT columnist and author Gillian Tett investigates the pervasive issue of organizational silos. She explores why we create them and how to break free.
At the RSA, Tett lays bare the perils of the "silo effect." She explains how individuals and institutions can overcome these barriers to foster more effective, productive, and creative thinking and action.
Raj Patel, author of *The Value of Nothing*, critiques the free market's impact on freedom and resource management. He argues that prices often mislead us, revealing "hidden costs" that distort true value. For instance, a hamburger's real price could be $200 when factoring in environmental and health expenses.
Patel, an activist and academic, suggests Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom's concept of collaborative governance, known as "the commons," offers a better alternative for resource management than the current free market system. Visit Raj Patel's website: rajpatel.org.
Published on January 29, 2015, an article in The New York Times titled "Oil Prices and the 'Spectrum of Pain'" examines the global impact of plummeting crude oil prices.
The piece investigates why some nations are faring significantly better than others, despite crude oil falling over 50% since last summer.
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The Thinking Game | Full documentary | Tribeca Film Festival official selection
The inside story of the AI breakthrough that won a Nobel Prize.
The Thinking Game takes you on a journey into the heart of leading AI lab DeepMind, capturing a team striving to unravel the mysteries of intelligence and life itself.
Filmed over five years by the award-winning team behind AlphaGo, the documentary examines how DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis’s extraordinary beginnings shaped his lifelong pursuit of artificial general intelligence. It chronicles the rigorous process of scientific discovery, documenting how the team moved from mastering complex strategy games to solving the 50-year-old "protein folding problem" with AlphaFold - a breakthrough that would win a Nobel Prize.
Following its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival and a successful international tour, the film is now available here to watch for free.
Interested in hosting a screening of The Thinking Game for your classroom, community, or workplace? Visit: https://rocofilms.com/films/the-thinking-game/
Director Greg Kohs
Producer Gary Krieg
Executive Producers Tom Dore, Jonathan Fildes
Co-Producer Greg Kohs
Editor Steve Sander
Cinematographer Greg Kohs
Composer Dan Deacon






















