Lars Veraart is a veterinarian and agroecological farmer. Together with his wife Robyn, Lars moved from the Netherlands to a small village in the mountains of Romania, where he co-founded ALPA – Land for Life — an initiative supporting small-scale ecological farming, young farmers and bioregional regeneration. He and Robyn also run Provision Transylvania, an example farm and centre for agroecology and non-violence.

In this episode of Planet Local Voices II, Lars offers a concise and lovely story of social, cultural, and ecological regeneration in action. He describes the process of 'becoming a peasant' in Romania and the surprise of the local villagers as he and his family began to emulate their ways. He speaks of change and ecocide, but also of hopeful signs, stressing the oft-overlooked relationship between small-scale farming and wild biodiversity conservation. He also shares about how non-violent communication and localisation have informed his work.

Mattias Desmet is a professor of clinical psychology in the Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences at Ghent University (Belgium), a practicing psychoanalytic psychotherapist, and author of The Psychology of Totalitarianism.

In this episode of Planet Local Voices II, Mattias explains how the poly-crises roiling the world today ultimately stem from a metaphysical crisis, a "de-souling" of the world produced by a rationalism in Western science that lost sight of its own limitations. Excessive rationalism, he argues, is actually deeply irrational, and the socio-ecological breakdowns we are witnessing today, in many cases produced by the most advanced science applied to technology, are a clear illustration of this. Unless subordinated to deeper values and ethics, science and rationalism will continue to lead the world to ruin.

Mattias also argues that the fading of local exchange, craft and economy have contributed to the psychological crises of loneliness and meaninglessness. Accordingly, rebuilding local, grassroots economies are vital to repairing peoples' sense of meaning, purpose and mattering.

Shrishtee Bajpai is a researcher, writer and activist working at the intersections of environmental justice, earthy governance, indigenous worldviews, and systemic transformations. She is a member of Kalpavriksh , and coordinates Vikalp Sangam (Alternatives Confluence) in India. She is part of the facilitation team of the Global Tapestry of Alternatives. She also serves on the executive committee of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature.

In this episode of Planet Local Voices II, Shrishtee lays out the profound nature of indigenous worldviews rooted in collective care and respect for, and intimate relationship with, the rest of the living Earth, and the work of bringing this ancient sensibility into contemporary practice through movements for the Rights of Nature and Earthy Governance. She explains how local, indigenous and other land-based and communities around the world are defending their territories and building locally-rooted alternatives to the destructive dominant economic system. Finally, she reflects on the political nature of hope, as a disciple through which we push back against the closure of the imagination, and allow ourselves to dream of - and enact - better futures.