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 this sixth episode of The Bristol Conversations, we hear from Manish Jain, a leading voice on rethinking education and development. In another life, Manish Jain was educated at Harvard, became an investment banker with Morgan-Stanley, and worked with the UN. Since then, he has been on a journey of unlearning, deschooling and decolonising, returning home to India to learn from his illiterate village grandmother. Manish is the founder and coordinator of Shikshantar Andolan, which has been instrumental in shaping the larger unschooling movement in South Asia. He's the co-founder of Swaraj University, Udaipur, as a Learning City, the Indian Multiversities Alliance, the Ecoversities Network and more.
In this conversation, Manish and Helena Norberg-Hodge, founding-director of Local Futures, bounce of each other in a radical questioning of concepts like progress, freedom, wealth, empowerment and knowledge. Manish shares his personal story of disillusionment with the dominant system, sketching the profound worldview shift he had to undergo in order to come back to life, love, and local wisdom.
Listen to the podcast version of this episode: localfutures.org/programs/global-to-local/local-futures-podcast/the-bristol-conversations-manish-jain
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 organisation 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 this sixth episode of The Bristol Conversations, we hear from Manish Jain, a leading voice on rethinking education and development. In another life, Manish Jain was educated at Harvard, became an investment banker with Morgan-Stanley, and worked with the UN. Since then, he has been on a journey of unlearning, deschooling and decolonising, returning home to India to learn from his illiterate village grandmother. Manish is the founder and coordinator of Shikshantar Andolan, which has been instrumental in shaping the larger unschooling movement in South Asia. He's the co-founder of Swaraj University, Udaipur, as a Learning City, the Indian Multiversities Alliance, the Ecoversities Network and more.
In this conversation, Manish and Helena Norberg-Hodge, founding-director of Local Futures, bounce of each other in a radical questioning of concepts like progress, freedom, wealth, empowerment and knowledge. Manish shares his personal story of disillusionment with the dominant system, sketching the profound worldview shift he had to undergo in order to come back to life, love, and local wisdom.
Listen to the podcast version of this episode: localfutures.org/programs/global-to-local/local-futures-podcast/the-bristol-conversations-manish-jain
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 organisation 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
