The Realisation Festival Podcast

• Presence, soul and AI. A conversation with Ben R Smith

  Understanding AI has is a recurrent challenge. Should we be afraid or more sanguine or some combination of the two?Ben is a good person to talk to as he works in the front line of AI developments and is alert to the wonder and complexity of things. He found the Realisation Festival through the work of figures such as Iain McGilchrist and John Verveake and brings their insights to bear upon his work and sense of things.In this conversation, he discusses his own story of moving from a mechanistic and reductive worldview towards one aware of phenomena such as emergence. He explores how notions of quality and the sacred have developed his engagement with the movements such as Effective Altruism.

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• The good, the beautiful and the truth. A philosophical godfather of the Realisation Festival, with Esmé Partridge

  The Realisation Festival is held at St Giles House, Wimborne, the home of the Earls of Shaftesbury. The place is loaded with the history of social reform and philosophical innovation - not least when it comes to ideas that inspire our gathering. In this episode of the podcast, Mark Vernon talks with Esmé Partridge about one figure in particular.The Third Earl of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, was born in the latter stages of the seventeenth century and seeded in his genius the genius of thinkers as diverse as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Adam Smith. During his own lifetime he was as well known as the British empiricist, who was his tutor.So what were the ideas Shaftesbury extolled? How did he understand notions like beauty, truth and the good? Why did he reject Locke’s ideas about waste lands and the tabula rasa? And in what ways is Shaftestbury still shaping the political landscape today?For more on Esmé’s work - https://www.esmelkpartridge.com/For more on the festival - https://realisationfestival.com/

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• The joys of spring. A conversation with Indra Adnan

  If politics is broken how might people rediscover agency? If capitalism favours the powerful are there alternative forms of power to be found? If life often feels fragmented how can the fractal become revelatory? And further: how might practises like improvisation and resources like spiritual traditions assist?Indra Adnan explores these themes and more in conversation with Mark Vernon. Indra is a Co-Initiator and Founder of The Alternative which seeks to surface new ways of coming together. She is a regular contributor to the Realisation Festival and a member of the festival’s advisory committee.Indra and Pippa Evans, who is one of the festival directors, will be hosting a local Realisation Festival gathering in Edinburgh on 17th May 2025, 3pm-6pm. For further details direct message Indra if you are on the festival group WhatsApp or email her at [email protected] more on The Alternative see https://thealternative.org.uk/.

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• Poetry as a tool for transformation. A conversation with Josiane Smith

  What good is a poem? How might poetry be a tool for transformation, both personally and collectively? And how does poetry help us to better understand the spirit of our times? In this conversation, Mark Vernon and Josiane Smith explore the ways in which poetry goes beyond 'the poem', towards a more soulful way of living; engaging more deeply with the forces of nature and change all around. It can be used in surprising places to console and challenge, it can be a catalyst for our dreams and actions, but can also uplift the mundane everyday. Carrying the spirit of realisation throughout, Mark and Josiane explore poetry as an education into, and a language for, the energetics of our times.In this podcast episode, Josiane reads two of her poems, "The Nightingale" and "Do we have enough faith?” which can be found here - .rockpa.org/poetry-philanthropy-and-climate-action-opening-reflections-at-the-skoll-world-forum/. She also reads from Audre Lorde’s essay, “Poetry Is Not A Luxury”.Josiane is a poet, philanthropic advisor and Quaker trustee. For more see - https://www.linkedin.com/in/josianesmithFor more about the Realisation Festival see - https://realisationfestival.com/

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• The Spiritual Function of Myth. A conversation with Martin Shaw, 2025 Realisation Festival guest speaker

  What is the function of myth and story? How can they help us  become more human? What do they teach us about the nature of reality and how we might orient wisely in a time such as ours when the world is in turmoil? In this conversation, Michael Bready of the Realisation team explores these questions with writer, mythographer and master storyteller, Martin Shaw. With warmth, wisdom and wit Martin shares from his deep experience as a wilderness guide, lover of mythology, and christian thinker.

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