Building the Solidarity Economy: Awakening to Our Mutuality and Shifting the Terrain of Power | Manuel Pastor

Building the Solidarity Economy: Awakening to Our Mutuality and Shifting the Terrain of Power | Manuel Pastor

Author: Bioneers September 9, 2026 Duration: 31:15
At the core of our civilizational breakdown is an extractive economy that wastes both nature and people, at the same time it is Hoovering extreme wealth up to the billionaire class. But with breakdown comes breakthrough. Professor Manuel Pastor believes we’re living through a moment of profound transformation. It will come down to what we do – or don’t do – at this moment of radical change. In this episode, we hear from Pastor on how shocks to the system are precipitating a great awakening and growing movements to transform the economy to our economy. Featuring Manuel Pastor, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at USC and Director of its ⁠Equity Research Institute⁠, has long been one of the most important scholars and activists working on the economic, environmental and social conditions facing low-income urban communities and the social movements seeking to change those realities. He has held many prominent academic posts, won countless prestigious awards and fellowships for his activism and scholarship, and is the author and co-author of many important, highly influential tomes. Resources ⁠Solidarity Economics: Why Mutuality and Movements Matter⁠ | 2021 Book by Manuel Pastor and Chris Benner ⁠SolidarityEconomics.org⁠ | Joint Project of the Equity Research Center (ERI) at the University of Southern California and the Institute for Social Transformation at UC Santa Cruz ⁠Manuel Pastor – Solidarity Economics: Mutuality, Movements and Momentum⁠ | 2021 Bioneers Keynote Address ⁠Solidarity Economics: Our Economy, Our Planet, Our Movements⁠ | 2021 Bioneers Panel ⁠Bioneers Reader: Our Economic Future⁠ | Free eBook This is an episode of the Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature series. Visit the ⁠radio and podcast homepage⁠ to learn more.

There's a quiet revolution unfolding, one that draws its most profound ideas not from boardrooms or labs alone, but from the living world itself. Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature gives voice to that movement, presenting conversations that feel both urgent and deeply grounded. This award-winning podcast, curated by Bioneers, acts as a gathering place for some of the most compelling social and scientific thinkers of our era. Each episode explores how the genius of natural systems can inform our approach to modern crises. You’ll hear detailed discussions on topics ranging from practical biomimicry and ecological design to the interconnected realms of social justice, indigenous wisdom, and restorative psychology. The series refuses to silo these subjects, instead weaving them into a coherent vision for transformation. What emerges is a kaleidoscopic view of solutions that are as much about healing our communities as they are about restoring the planet. Tuning in, you encounter a rare depth of perspective, where the separation between ecological and social health dissolves. It’s a space where leading-edge ideas feel less like abstract concepts and more like a viable path forward, all explored through genuine dialogue and a celebration of human ingenuity working in concert with nature’s intelligence. This is a podcast for those looking to move beyond the headlines and into the heart of what it means to build a truly regenerative future.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 50

Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature
Podcast Episodes
Beaver Believers: How to Restore Planet Water [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:36
In this age of global weirding where climate disruption has tumbled the Goldilocks effect into unruly surges of too much and too little water, the restoration of beavers offers ancient nature-based solutions to the tangl…
The Native American LandBack Movement Reaches Urban America [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 30:15
Corrina Gould is a celebrated activist of the First Peoples of the Bay Area and a leader in the LandBack Movement. She has helped forge a model for returning stolen land to Native American Tribes and restoring sacred sit…
The Quest to Decode Whale-speak [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:53
When members of Project CETI (the Cetacean Translation Initiative) witnessed the birth of a sperm whale, they observed a breathtaking scene of cooperation and communication that few humans on earth have ever seen. The ex…
How Would Nature Do It? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:29
Mother Nature is the ultimate designer. After all, since life first emerged on Earth, she’s had 3.8 billion years of evolutionary R&D to get it right. Biomimicry is the art and science of learning from this ineffable gen…
Reconnecting the River [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:45
Yurok Attorney Amy Cordalis is one of many Indigenous leaders who have fought for the un-damming and healing of the majestic Klamath River Basin, spanning Oregon and California. She tells the story of the decades-long st…
How the Chicken Crossed the Road To Build a Regenerative Food System [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:59
Visionary agricultural innovator Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin unearths a startling natural-world template for building a global movement that puts the chicken at the heart of bioregional food systems. These Poultry-Center…
More than Human Life: Advancing Rights for The Natural World [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:02
Scientific evidence is increasingly supporting the theory that the Earth is alive and replete with intelligence. In fact, the wild diversity of earthly organisms exhibits the characteristics that human beings attribute t…
What if Plants are Conscious? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:18
Plants make up over 80% of life on earth. No animal would exist without plants’ ultimate magic trick of turning sunlight into food. Today, scientists are unearthing a wild, weird world of vegetal genius. But how can we t…
Social Medicine:  Restoring Public Health by Changing Society [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 31:15
We are told that our personal health is our individual responsibility based on our own choices. Yet, the biological truth is that human health is dependent upon the health of nature’s ecosystems and our social structures…