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Ep 23  |  Tim Watkins

Tim Watkins: “From Living Like Gods to Living Your Own Story”

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Tim Watkins The Great Simplification

On this episode, we meet with author, social scientist, policy researcher, and mental health advocate Tim Watkins.

Watkins gives us a bird’s eye view of how energy, the economy, the environment, and mental health fit together. How important will mental health be to help us navigate uncertain times?

About Tim Watkins

Tim Watkins is the author of “The Consciousness of Sheep”, a social scientist, policy researcher, and mental health advocate. 

Watkins has authored a range of mental health and wellbeing self-help books and booklets, together with two books about charities and a guide to the digital self-publishing revolution. In 2015 he published “Austerity – will kill the economy”, a critique of the economic policies adopted in the UK since 2010; and “Britain’s Coming Energy Crisis – Peak Oil and the End of the World as we Know it”, a guide to the UK’s particular vulnerabilities in a world without cheap oil.

Tim Watkins is a founder-director of Waye Forward Ltd. A qualified Life Coach, he also provides coaching, mentoring and support to other writers.

In French, we have a motto that says that a simple drawing is often better than a long explanation. Jean-Marc Jancovici Carbone 4 President

That’s very understandable because with left atmosphere thinking, one of the problems is that you see everything as a series of problems that must have solutions. Iain McGilchrist Neuroscientist and Philosopher

We can’t have hundreds and hundreds of real relationships that are healthy because that requires time and effort and full attention and awareness of being in real relationship and conversation with the other human. Nate Hagens Director of ISEOF

This is the crux of the whole problem. Individual parts of nature are more valuable than the biocomplexity of nature. Thomas Crowther Founder Restor

Show Notes & Links to Learn More

01:30 – Tim Watkins info, blog, books

03:44 Clever people are somewhere else dealing with everything

04:092008 economic crash

04:26Resource depletion

04:39Quantitative easing

04:45 Global economy requires growth

05:37 Steve Keen

06:32The Central Bank is the pacemaker of the economy

11:02Advance Policy (Password: advance)

13:07Wartime rationing

13:53UK produces 60% of their food and is heavily meat producing

14:40 – How Russian Gas affects Europe

15:17Industrial fertilizer shortages in 2022

16:16Russia is the leading producer of nitrogen and potash fertilizer

16:28 Russia is leading producer of wheat and Ukraine is usually one of the largest

20:30Energy consumption increase over the past century

24:15 The Carbon Pulse

29:24Extinction Rebellion

32:48 Risk of nuclear war

34:56 Different mental health treatments work differently between people

36:05Erving Goffman

40:20How breathing affects the nervous system

42:33Dopamine and mental health

44:29Importance of social interaction for mental health

46:07 – Depression is found in other animals and across other cultures

46:26 Depression is the body telling you to take a break

47:28 David Goodhart The Road to Somewhere

55:25Effects of posture on mental health

1:05:40Cognitive-Behavior therapy

1:09:17Number one cause of death after the breakup of the Soviet Union was alcoholism

1:09:30 30-40% of college students have anxiety or depression

1:10:59 Homelessness issues in the US

1:19:06 Community kitchens of the depression era

1:19:50 Communitarian


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