People stand near bullet casings at a crime scene after a shootout in Veracruz, Mexico. Latin America is grappling with a record murder rate. As many of you know, I’ve spent much of my life in Latin America. So far in 2024, I’ve visited five Central and South American countries and one in the Caribbean. To my dismay, I find that violence has reached horrible and unprecedented levels throughout the region. This is the result of growing poverty and drug trafficking and the relationship between the two. Desperation to escape those conditions is one of the main driving forces behind the flood of ..read more

I’ve finally returned to the US! This is after more than a month in four Latin American countries, leading groups to explore, study, perform Indigenous ceremonies, and celebrate our abilities to transform ourselves and the world around us. While traveling with shamans and sharing their ceremonies, personal readings and healings in their sacred sites, the groups I’ve brought over the years have learned that it is up to us to transform our current degenerative systems that are failing us into regenerative ones. I’ve been particularly eager to share a discussion I recently had with the Chief Mark ..read more

With John Perkins I want to devote this month’s newsletter to a discussion I recently had with my friend – and one of the most brilliant people I know – Michael Frank. Michael earned a Ph.D. in theoretical nuclear physics and has authored nineteen publications in refereed journals on the structure of the atomic nucleus. He completed executive education courses in finance at Wharton and strategy courses at the Brookings Institution and rose to Vice President of a major aerospace company. In his second year of early “retirement” he was voted faculty of the year by MBA students at the Milgard Sc ..read more

Against all probability, late one November afternoon, I find myself interviewing the President of the United States. He is sitting directly across a small table from me. I’ve gotten him to agree to discuss the state of the world and a future that seems hopeless to many people. I lay before him a tapestry of today’s harrowing realities: climate change, income and racial inequality, wars in Europe and the Middle East, environmental destruction, starvation – and the many other crises we face today that are symptoms of a degenerative Death Economy.  I look across the table at him. “Mr. Presi ..read more

I remember an afternoon when I’d stood with an Achuar hunter in the rainforest. He aimed his blowgun at a bird in a tree. Then he lowered it without shooting and stared at the bird. “What happened?” I asked. “I realized that it’s the nesting season for that bird. His mate is sitting on eggs. If I kill him, those eggs won’t hatch.” Later that night, as we relaxed around the fire, he told me that Achuar men are raised to understand that the birds and animals they hunt must be loved. “We always ask permission before killing,” he said. “That bird this afternoon did not give me permission.” While ..read more

A short newsletter this month because I’ve been speaking at the Planet Local Summit in England, meeting with Indigenous and other teachers, and visiting sacred sites in Europe. Here, as in much of the world, there is a growing recognition that Indigenous wisdom and practices offer a path to transition away from the precipice of disaster to an Ecological Civilization where human communities are designed to promote the overall well-being of people and the planet – a world that works for all life. I look forward to sharing more with you during the live video course I’m offering this November: In ..read more

Back at my favorite watering hole, I turn away from the newspaper article I’m reading about the assassination of a presidential candidate in Ecuador and glance at the mirror across the bar. The face that stares back at me raises his beer mug. It’s my old friend, Juan. “Ah hah,” he says. “I see you’re reading that article.” He shakes his head sadly. “How tragic.” “Yeah. You know I’m taking a group to the Achuar in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador in January ‘24 and another to the Maya of Guatemala. I’m worried that some people may be scared off by these reports.” “They shouldn’t be,” he shot b ..read more

Echoing applause reverberates from a crowd gathered in a once-bankrupt industrial center, now transformed into a vibrant center for music, art, and world-changing discussions. The silence of the ancient Mayan pyramids, reclaimed by nature, offers lessons about the dangers of unchecked consumption. Nestled deep in the rainforest, an Amazonian tribe provides a model for sustainable living. These diverse stories are threaded together by an urgent, global call to redefine our perceptions of success and wealth. They remind us of the importance of our environment and the powerful change that indivi ..read more

Vancouver company Invinity Energy Systems is investing heavily in large-scale batteries that can store and harness renewable energy. Each of these shipping container-sized batteries is capable of providing enough electricity to power 15 to 20 houses when the sun goes down on solar panels or when the breeze stops turning wind turbines. How do we shift from our current economic system, which is exhausting resources and causing serious, long-term crises, to a more sustainable one? How can we establish an economy that will benefit our children and grandchildren? What some economists refer to as ..read more

“The challenges ahead are formidable. But if the political will exists, there is no reason Central America cannot become the next great success story of the Western Hemisphere.” -President Joe Biden “We also. . .must address the root causes that cause people to make the trek, as the President has described, to come here." -Vice President Kamala Harris “I had to leave my home and family because my farm couldn’t compete any longer with the huge US corporations. I took the dangerous trip and crossed the US border. Now I weed gardens, share a tiny apartment with fifteen other men in Seattle, and ..read more