In this episode of the Coconut Thinking Podcast, I take a hard look at what school really does, and what it would cost to truly change it. We keep saying education needs fixing, but maybe it’s doing exactly what it was built to do: sort, rank, and hold the world in place.

Drawing on Bourdieu, cultural capital, and the myth of meritocracy, I unpack why mastery and competency models only repaint the same house, why knowledge has to be understood as situated rather than transferable, and why real transformation demands letting go of the symbolic capital many of us depend on.

From learning&doing in service of Life to the testimonies of humans and more-than-humans, this episode asks: if learning isn’t serving Life, what are we still schooling for?

What if the way we eat could root us back into place, instead of tearing it apart?

In this episode, I speak with Elspeth Hay. Elspeth is a writer, public radio host, and food systems advocate whose work explores what it means to live thoughtfully in place. Raised in Maine by birdwatcher parents, she grew up seeing how species adapt seamlessly to their ecosystems, while human communities eroded them, often just to feed ourselves.

For more than 15 years, Elspeth has interviewed farmers, harvesters, cooks, policymakers, and visionaries, asking how we might eat and live without extraction. Her work reveals a paradox: humans are highly adaptable to ecosystems everywhere, yet we’ve forgotten how to belong to them. Based in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, she co-founded the Wellfleet Farmers Market and Commons Keepers, and works on community food initiatives like the Wicked Oyster restaurant.

We discuss:

🥥 How food connects us to place and to all the living beings we share it with.

🥥 The flow state that comes from engaging with what grows around us.

🥥 How disconnection from story shows up materially, and why storytellers must tell stories of what we are for to nurture imagination and possibility.

Check us out: www.coconut-thinking.com

Check out Elspeth's website: https://elspethhay.com/

What if sustainability’s future was driven by passion, shaped with youth, and told through real stories?

In this episode, I speak with Josh Dorfman. Josh is a climate entrepreneur, author, and media voice at the intersection of sustainability, innovation, and culture. He is the co-founder, CEO, and host of Supercool, the climate-tech podcast and media brand spotlighting the bold founders, investors, and policymakers designing a low-carbon future. His interviews reveal the business models, technologies, and cultural shifts redefining prosperity in an age of ecological disruption. A serial entrepreneur, Josh launched Plantd, a carbon-negative building-materials company recognized by Fast Company in 2024 as one of the world’s most innovative ventures. Before that, he created Vine.com, Amazon’s first natural and organic e-commerce store, and Vivavi, an award-winning sustainable furniture company honored on Inc.’s “Green 50” for leading eco-design. Josh first captured attention as The Lazy Environmentalist, a blog that grew into a SiriusXM radio show, a Sundance Channel TV series, and two books blending wit with pragmatic eco-living. His work consistently challenges the status quo, reframing climate response as an opportunity for creativity, commerce, and cultural transformation. We discuss:

🥥 Influencing through interests and passions, appealing to the heart, not just cognitive spaces (with all the data we already know);

🥥 How industry might collaborate with young people on projects relating to sustainability, to develop careers;

🥥 The importance of telling great stories of sustainability, with successes and failures, which can influence and inspire others and not just virtue signal.

Check us out www.coconut-thinking.com

And check out Supercool: https://getsuper.cool/