The Good Council – The official podcast of the World Future Council, season 1 out now

First episode with founder of the World Future Council (@Good_Policies), Jakob von Uexkull, to be launched 6 September 2021 

The new podcast series of the World Future Council, The Good Council, launches today for the first season of intergenerational dialogues involving the World Future Council’s youth forum, Youth:Present. Each dialogue involves two changemakers—Councillors and Youth:Present representatives or young WFC members—who discuss their work towards a sustainable present and a common future.

Established in 2007, the World Future Council is a foundation that envisions a healthy and sustainable planet with just and peaceful societies – now and in the future. To achieve this, the foundation identifies, develops, highlights, and disseminates future-just solutions for the current challenges of humanity. Every year, it celebrates outstanding policies in areas of urgent attention, such as biodiversity, rights of women and children, or protection from hazardous chemicals, with the Future Policy Award. This podcast series provides a behind-the-scenes insight into how a revolutionary idea became reality, from the very beginnings to its current agenda, offering inspiration, best practices, entertainment, and food for thought.

“For the first season of this new podcast series, we’re bringing together our co-founders and Councillors with young activists and entrepreneurs from around the globe in intergenerational dialogues”, says Alexandra Wandel, Chair of the Management Board, “We are very excited by this podcast which covers some inspiring stories, and personal insights between the trailblazers and changemakers who make up the World Future Council”.

The first episode of this brand-new season focuses on the establishment of the World Future Council, told by founder Jakob von Uexkull, as well as his concerns for the present and hopes for the future. How can the course of destruction be reversed? And is humanity still up for the challenge?

Part of the first season are Youth:Present representatives Raina Ivanova (Germany) and Patricia Kombo and Akinyi Obama-Manners (both from Kenya). They talk to German pioneer and thinker Prof. Ernst-Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Kenyan environmentalist Wanjira Mathai (known for furthering the Green Belt Movement founded by Wangari Mathai), and Nigerian human rights activist Hafsat Abiola-Costello, respectively. Together with Greta Thunberg of Sweden, Raina is currently part of the first legal challenge by 16 young activists to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. Patricia is promoting education for sustainable development in Kenya, including by planting trees, for which she has also been named a UNCCD Land Hero by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. And Akinyi Obama-Manners is advancing children’s education at Kenyan foundation Sauti Kuu, founded by Auma Obama.

Also featured in this first season of The Good Council are co-founders Prof Herbert Girardet, expert on regenerative cities and Club of Rome member, and Dr Michael Otto, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Otto Group in Hamburg, Germany. Both discuss successes of the work of the World Future Council, as well as what each person can do in their lives individually.

“In order to build our common future, it is of utmost importance to consult all generations. In particular, young people of today will be leaders of tomorrow – without them, we will not be successful in preserving our planet for future generations. That’s why intergenerational dialogues, as in The Good Council, play a crucial role in that endeavour, and I very much enjoyed being part of it,” says Jakob von Uexkull, Founder of the World Future Council and the Alternative Nobel Price.

Each episode will inform and entertain by providing listeners with inspirational stories of people and best practices that will help people and the planet towards achieving sustainable solutions for our common future. New episodes will be released every other Monday, starting 6 September 2021.

All episodes will be available here, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.