Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Welcome to the Bristol Conversations, an eight-part podcast and video series by Local Futures featuring Helena Norberg-Hodge in conversation with some of the great minds who joined us in Bristol for the Planet Local Summit.
In the fifth episode of The Bristol Conversations, we hear from Iain McGilchrist, the author of the groundbreaking book ‘The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World’. Iain is a neuroscientist, psychiatrist and scholar; a man who has shed light not only on some fascinating truths about our minds and our experience of the world, but also on how these truths relate to many of the seemingly intractable predicaments we find ourselves in today. He helps us see the world and its problems with a new eye.
In this conversation with pioneer of the new economy/localization movement, Helena Norberg-Hodge, the two draw connections between their seemingly quite different bodies of work. They discuss human psychology, community, connection to nature, spirituality, technocracy, and AI. They illuminate how the struggle between the brain’s left and right hemispheres relates to the global techno-economic system, the damage it’s doing, and exactly how we might change it.
Listen to the podcast with Iain McGilchrist here:
localfutures.org/programs/global-to-local/local-futures-podcast
Find all episodes in The Bristol Conversation series here:
localfutures.org/programs/the-bristol-conversations
The series is produced by Local Futures, an international non-profit organization dedicated to renewing ecological and social well-being by strengthening communities and local economies.
Learn more about Local Futures here: localfutures.org
Sign up to Local Futures´newsletter: localfutures.org/sign-up-to-our-newsletter
Welcome to the Bristol Conversations, an eight-part podcast and video series by Local Futures featuring Helena Norberg-Hodge in conversation with some of the great minds who joined us in Bristol for the Planet Local Summit.
In the fifth episode of The Bristol Conversations, we hear from Iain McGilchrist, the author of the groundbreaking book ‘The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World’. Iain is a neuroscientist, psychiatrist and scholar; a man who has shed light not only on some fascinating truths about our minds and our experience of the world, but also on how these truths relate to many of the seemingly intractable predicaments we find ourselves in today. He helps us see the world and its problems with a new eye.
In this conversation with pioneer of the new economy/localization movement, Helena Norberg-Hodge, the two draw connections between their seemingly quite different bodies of work. They discuss human psychology, community, connection to nature, spirituality, technocracy, and AI. They illuminate how the struggle between the brain’s left and right hemispheres relates to the global techno-economic system, the damage it’s doing, and exactly how we might change it.
Listen to the podcast with Iain McGilchrist here:
localfutures.org/programs/global-to-local/local-futures-podcast
Find all episodes in The Bristol Conversation series here:
localfutures.org/programs/the-bristol-conversations
The series is produced by Local Futures, an international non-profit organization dedicated to renewing ecological and social well-being by strengthening communities and local economies.
Learn more about Local Futures here: localfutures.org
Sign up to Local Futures´newsletter: localfutures.org/sign-up-to-our-newsletter
