And creativity is a critical part of solving the mess that we found ourselves in right now. It's, you know, I have kind of a thesis that the business world stole the word creativity and repackaged it as innovation because it's more fundable. And yet as all these different music classes and arts classes are being cut, like, we're going to like lose creativity. And if we lose creativity, there's no more new ideas. We're stuck with everything that's already in a textbook. And there's no more progress. There's no more solving of the problems that we've found ourselves in, which requires creative thinking. Yaro Craner is my guest on this episode of Inside Ideas, brought to you by 1.5 Media and Innovators Magazine. Yaro is the founder of Hatch and H360.ai is an Aspen Institute Fellow, RSA Fellow, and named 2015 Top 100 Creatives in the United States by Origins. He's directed projects with Richard Branson, The Rock, P. Diddy, and more. He is a pioneer of social networking and has been building communities for 20 plus years. In 1999, Yaro created an online network, The Hero Project, which grew to 1.5 million users and was acquired by Fox. In 2004, Yaro founded Hatch Connecting Global Influencers to Accelerate Solutions for the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In 2016, Yaro founded H360.ai, a machine learning impact collaboration platform. H360 connects people to resources and unlocks the potential of communities and organizations powering a network of networks. Yaro is featured in the book, Talent for Humanity, was honored with the Audifest Impact Award in 2019 and has led ThinkTanks with Intel, Hasbro, Ernst & Young, NASA, Spoken at TEDx, VivaTech, EarthX, Day 1, and Business Innovation Factory Summit. I could go on and on because he's been at it for a long time. He has a long list of accolades and accreditations. I would like to tickle the surface just a little bit more before we jump into our conversation about some information that I have on Hatch and maybe understand more what this beautiful thing is that he's created. Hatch is a nonprofit ecosystem that consists of two annual summits, year-round mentorship programs, and a global network that connects to accelerate solutions for positive impact. They just finished one of their 24th cohorts. Hatch is not a place of ideas. It's a chemistry set of diverse individuals, industries, and expertise collaborators who cross-pollinate to accelerate solutions for positive impact and hatch a better world, a better Earth. The hope is that 150 curated guests will impact the lives of 100 million people around the world. The topics of discussion and focus feel like a heat map of what's keeping people up at night, climate change, education, gender and race equity, freedom and fairness, the integrity of democracy, creativity, and critical problem-solving tools, and much, much more. It is not just a discussion. There are real projects with real people and real big impact born all from Hatch. I'll leave it at that because we're limited on time and I really want to get to my special guest. Yarl, thank you so much for being here and bearing with me on that long introduction. How are you? Mark, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much. I'm doing fairly well considering a global pandemic, just navigating high seas with blindfold on. Yes, that is my first question. How have you weathered this pandemic? I know a little bit more and we'll get into it about your biography and your life. You've had a lot of things that have taught you resilience and made you a wonderful human being. Has any of that helped you weather this pandemic more in the things that Hatch has done for humanity and along with many wonderful partners? Has that resilience or those learnings helped you get through this time any better at all and how have you been, how have you weathered it? Absolutely. I do believe that I've been tuned up a bit for change and unexpected things and chaos and so forth and so when this happened, just even through my childhood, but when this happened, when things really started getting real kind of stateside in March, there was a couple days where I was really a kind of oxygen mask on myself. I was like, wow, every single revenue stream that we have has been eviscerated. What does this mean for us, for Hatch, for the future? And then I just had this kind of sudden realization that of course everyone's feeling the same sort of questioning and so we kind of very spontaneously did a pop-up called the Global Living Room where we invited all of our guests who have been through Hatch alumni over the last 17 years, 24 summits and the first time watching all of these faces appear and melt down the screen from Turkey and France and Germany and Hong Kong, it was just like Germany, LA, New York, Montana, it was just beautiful to see. It brought tears to my eyes, it brought tears to many people's eyes and there was a kind of a aha moment that like, wow, I can't believe that we've not done this before and all of these people that should know each other that aren't necessarily cross-pollinating and it's turned into a real interesting series of discussions and then into action circles and then we launched something called the Impact Labs which we just wrapped last week and we also opened up the, you know, rather than just creating an invitation for only Hatch and alumni of Hatch but the third week I just realized these conversations were so valuable that we should just put a global invite out and now is not the time for any sort of segregation but it's one, you know, one global community so we just opened up the invitation and people have been coming weekly to these global living rooms and then the Impact Labs and we had 150 impactors from around the world, 12 countries, 34 states across the U.S., coming together to form 20 teams on four topic areas and that was a seven-week rapid ideation design sprint on 20 projects in those four areas which were the future of education, equity and racial justice, the environment and climate change and mobilizing the vote so that was an interesting experiment that has panned out really promisingly so. I'm glad to hear that. Personally, you're okay, you're doing all right, you pivoted all right, you've made it fine. Yeah, you know, I have to say I feel blessed to be a surrounded by nature. I live in Montana now where I originally grew up after and then with the nine years in Los Angeles and came back so Montana really fuels my soul and there's a lot of space and, you know, just natural organic elements and second I, you know, I feel really grateful to have such an amazing community of people that inspire me and really keep me upright. I think that we all kind of plug into each other to support each other and really, you know, collectively give each other strength. That's fabulous. I'm glad to hear. For our listeners, we very first met at Kinnernet and close to Venice at H Farm for an event and I'm so sad that we didn't get more time to talk. I think we got a couple selfies or photos together and we exchanged a little bit but that was my first experience with you live and I since and before met others who've attended the Hatch events. I haven't had the honor to do so or be part of the network but nothing but positive, wonderful, love, resonance, people who are educated, their life changed, the impacts that they were able to give to others were just amazing so not having experience with myself but all I can say is wow I feel left out now that because and just all the amazing things that you've done with Hatch and how that's experienced but it was and it is a physical event until this global living room and so that lockdown that that process I could tell can be obviously something of devastation that you're in all how how do we keep this this community together and how that we grow that if we can't come together and so there's that that is something that's very difficult because I what I've also kind of gleaned out of all the information in the comments from other friends that that mutually know each other is that there's always this connection to nature there's always in the experiences it's this connection to nature to breathing to one another a lot of conversations a lot of discovery and as well as projects and impacts that come out of that and so I I imagine that's a hard thing now to transmit through the digital always and you know it's it's a little bit different um you you're and I've got a question here I promise your human zoo in in Montana that you've created is probably pretty nice but what a lot of people not just in America but around the world are finding in this lockdown and in this pandemic is that the human zoos we've created or that we're forced to live in because our means are at a certain level are not that always that great or haven't been designed in a way that they're great for a lockdown situation they don't give us the opportunity to get out into nature and now we're seeing them much closer and we're realizing boy I've made a mistake because this isn't a place I want to be 24 seven for weeks at end for months at end you know I had a guest who's also a kid on that David Barrett Tomas David Barrett and we talked about this human zoos and he does a podcast in a show called human beasts with this connection to nature with hatch and the experiences that you you you get um I hear that it was all created and developed over time through your experiences of of life from what you experience with your your parents your mother and father your mother being a prime example for your life and moving and and all those that have shaped you to this point in time to be really in tune with nature our world and other human beings and to see them in a different light that's why I asked you that question of how have you weathered the pandemic is there some resilience and and how it would be so so I really thank you for that answer but that leads me into my first question is do you feel like you're a global citizen and what would you feel like or react to a world without divisions nations borders or this distance from one another as human beings well yes mark I made I am definitely a global citizen uh Buckminster Fuller was the first to coin the term spaceship earth and I remember feeling so proud at cop 21 in Paris which was the very first time that we had a leader from every single country present that I was there as well with the group called earth of Paris and just recognizing that we all share this living room together that the pollution that happens on one side of the planet makes its way around the whole planet and it was a really proud moment I think that we've kind of you know gone backwards a few steps since then and this pandemic has pulled back the facade the layer is to reveal a lot of flaws of systems and humanity and you know I on one hand I feel grateful to be in Montana and on the other hand I feel heartsick about so many people that are going through such hardship right now and we're seeing a huge influx of people that are coming from San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and cities to inquire about you know coming to Montana permanently and moving to places like Idaho and Wyoming like they're looking for more space and and there's a real kind of silver lining in that people are kind of re aligning themselves with the the integrity of this living system that we're a part of as opposed to just thinking about it as such an extraction people are starting to really rethink how we can integrate and compliment these you know mother earth and these living systems a world with borders and walls would make me very sad and it's already happening in some places clearly but you know we're one one species one human race and and I my optimistic hopeful side thinks that we may get there one day but it's going to take a lot of work it is can can you maybe give me some insights or some things that you're working on or that are emerging or evolving that not just the sustainable development goals in the paris agreement but that that you're kind of hashing out with with hatch or many many of your other projects that are kind of working towards not only achieving the 2030 agenda the sustainable development goals but also this global citizenry this one that where where this current civilization framework that we have is really not working for us all over the world it's dividing us create a lot of different problems but we don't want to go into all those we want to be optimistic but maybe some things that we could be hopeful coming from your great track record of projects and events and things that you've been involved in with super fabulous people well the impact labs is a real I mean post-covid I should say um because we do a lot of these things in person normally and and I you know there will never be anything that can fully substitute you know being face to face and being able to read people's body language and feel the energy as we're having conversations but virtually like the attempt that we're moving on right now is this that first iteration of the global or the impact labs and the global living rooms but the impact labs specifically because it's co-creating with diverse teams from different cultures and and countries and so forth and and that framework now is something that we're looking applying to a lot of different applications for instance we're working with a series of schools there's a school in Los Angeles that we're going to use remote learning impact labs it's called the global classroom we have a you know one school in Los Angeles it's almost 100 Latin Latinx and then we have another school that we're working with it's almost 100% african-american and chicago and another one that's almost 100 white in montana and we're you know now it's trying to weave some schools together and on the east coast as well Atlanta New York Philadelphia Maine and so I can imagine these kids helping them like building teams of diversity expanding their world view beyond the the immediate cultures around them to co-create these solutions that can impact their backyards and that's a really beautiful vision and we're working hard to kind of manifest that but we're also working to you know you know John Hagel who's a member of the Hatch community who's a longtime mentor mentored tons of Silicon Valley CEOs and currently still does Deloitte gave him his own center of research called the Center for the Edge and I called John toward the beginning of this and we had several conversations that are like John you know are the CEOs of these big companies are they calling you and asking for advice he's like yes they are I'm like well what are they asking and well they ask how to get back to normal as fast as possible like what do you tell them he's like not to get back to normal because that was broken and it wasn't working and now is our opportunity right and so like well how do you transform institutions well you don't like you transform the leaders within those institutions well how do you do that well through opportunity-based narratives I'm like so you're saying that right now is one of the most important times in history for storytellers and he said yes because if we can inspire through opportunity-based not fear-based but these opportunity-based narratives of what the world could look like then you know these leaders within these institutions which can steer you know a bit of the trim tab within this long arc of humanity we stand a chance so we've been working with a lot of regenerative thinkers you know Jeanine Banias and Bill Reed and Daniel Christian Wall we've been having like some really fascinating conversations about how regenerative philosophies can be kind of taken and planted and placed over as an overlay into other systems and industries as a way in which it's not just sustainable but it's actually giving back and growing the ecosystem around it so that's where a lot of our efforts have been in the last six months or five months that's beautiful John Hagel's also a kinder net groupie I guess I don't know what the kinder netter and so I know him from there and singularity university as well but he's a fabulous great person and so that's nice to hear and I know you're working on a bunch of other things I totally agree with you and with what he says as well during this lockdown has been the biggest not only pause but opportunity my projects have tripled I have also received calls from the CEOs and from the executive team that I've talked to in the past says boy we should have listened to you we should have divested and started moving towards ESG we should have really gotten on the ball we're in trouble can you help us get back up to up to speed and and make some changes and that is really something that is so important because if during this COVID-19 time you as a corporation organization have not implemented or set in the expedient schedule aside to restructure your business models your operations how your organization works then you are just returning to this normal and and the term is and not only in the U.S. but but as we know business as usual business as usual is bad it's just going back to a broken old system through the inflammation implementation of reactionary personal protection equipment hygiene disinfection social distancing masks and things you're only ushering in a dystopian type of a future which will continue with more reactionary measures putting out the fires solving the problems after they've already occurred that's a bad business model and eventually organizations and I hate to be dramatic or put it out there you know what's the next step after mass it'll be a gas mask oxygen mass a spacesuit in order to do people's jobs and work as an organization as they actually watch these organizations crumble in front of them because those are just band-aid measures and don't actually solve the root of the problem which which is so important that these these organizations really need to ask themselves the burning question WTF and and we've heard many different iterations of what WTF is the the swear word or whatever else but it's what's the future if you push the current models that the companies and organizations have been operating on out into the future you can see what what that effect has right and we we need to change those models that's a Einstein's problem theory you can't solve our problems with the same thinking we use when we created them so I'm totally in alignment with that and that's why I love what what you do because you push those boundaries you think of ways that we can grasp those plans for the future that are already in place and how we can change our thinking and shift this this mindset I want to back up a little bit because it's important that our listeners kind of get us a little bit more history about what shaped you to this place and you and I have some similar experiences that will strongly influence from my mother a female figure in our life that for me taught me languages taught me showed me the world travel and it made me a global citizen from birth and taught me resilience and many things I believe you had a similar experience that also shaped how your views and your creativity and many things up to this point if you don't mind I'd love to hear and our listeners would love to hear a little bit of that story because I think it's also part of the philosophies and the why and the mission that's gone into hatch and how you act and treat other people certainly um well yeah I mean my mother was definitely the first example of a superhero that I remember and she left an abusive relationship with 25 cents in her pocket with me in one arm and and just said she was going to the grocery store and never looked back and ended up you know raising enough money working several jobs to get a car to drive to Minneapolis where she put herself through her family's first college degree that's where she went to undergrad then we moved to bozeman montana and she worked several jobs at the same time while putting herself through grad school every house we lived in for three or four years was condemned in bulldoze and I remember in one year we lived in like five different houses and you know there was it was just a it was a time of a lot of change and you know every every couple years it was just something very very different I mean at one point we were living in a cabin that was gifted to us from a uh a Mormon family that actually wanted us to become Mormons and the the cabin had no electricity and had no running water we had to carry water up to the cabin there was no glass in the windows it was plastic windows and we had wood fire and all of these you know I just remember is kind of more of like an adventure than really anything else it was I never felt sorry for myself I do remember you know the houses that she was cleaning I remember going into some of those homes and just thinking like wow this is how people can live this is amazing and then her first teaching job you know she finally graduated and I was I couldn't wait we were we were moving up in the world and her first teaching job was on a reservation a Native American reservation in northern Montana and it was a pretty rough place and I moved there and in seventh and eighth grade I moved there playing cello and soon I realized you know the very first day I couldn't wait to get the last box off that truck into the house and run down these long stairs across the street to the playground where there was a couple folks playing basketball and I just like like hey and the ball stopped bouncing one guy walked up to me and just punched me right in the face and from that point forward you know they called me a little custard I was the entertainment if I could make it home at the end of the day it was kind of a game I could you know I was safe and if I didn't make it home that get up these long steps before they caught me if they did catch me they would hold me down and I'll take turns kind of beating on me and kicking me and and it was pretty traumatic and I remember I started like doing push-ups and like finding rocks that I could lift weights with and and by the time I was leaving in eighth grade I was on my way to be you know kind of shirking the world of creativity and becoming a an athlete I got into wrestling and and I ran into some of these kids a couple years later I had kept growing and and they'd stopped growing and and I just remember like seeing them in the hallway and just like framing them up and just had this moment of like wow like I can completely eat their lunch right now this is my time for retribution and and it was a real visceral moment it was like like just like thousands of flashcards just you know images kind of moving through my mind about where hatred comes from and why they have those feelings and that they've been put through so much injustice through the course of their lifetimes and their generations you know before them and everything that had happened since white colonialization and and I just remember just like this full recognition that you can either be another link in the chain or break that part of the chain and that I had been given this gift you know the white male you're already kind of given this privilege an advantage a head start and to a certain degree and to a large part really and I've learned a lot more about that even this year as I dug in after the George Floyd murder about systemic oppression and white supremacy and but I just remember feeling that that almost that I've been feeling I've been given this gift to really hone my empathy and and understanding and I think that that experience has really informed a lot of what I've done since then and really focusing on teams of diversity and and equality and and justice in the world I've seen that and and the people that I know have attended as well but also in your past videos that you've opened up and shared of hatch experiences and things that you've created that there's an extreme amount of diversity and global citizens that are coming together as one mind for a bigger mission it's all almost say to how do you save the world type of a mission you know how do we hatch this this new earth this new world which is one of your slogans as well that I really loved to see that I think there was one other thing in there that you because you had so many things that have shaped you one your your mother gave you a camera which created you know struck you out in a kind of a creative direction as well but also mentioned big brothers and big sisters to you which you probably lacking a father figure at the time or just wanted someone to show you and hang out with and do things with that you had some fabulous experiences that also showed you not only by being at an all Indian school only white the white boy there the white person there that you you've seen these diversities in this the other side of things because it's it's kind of rare to hear your side of the story like that that we don't hear those that often we always hear the other side of the story which is beautiful to hear because I've also experienced them but we need to hear these messages yeah I agree I mean I think we need to elevate as many of these messages as possible and they're they're hard to find honestly I mean to you have to work to go find these messages and people who need a platform and a microphone and like I'll never remember I'll never forget this this young man Royce man who's a young poet at the age of 14 did a slam poet to contest and won in eighth grade and it was called white boy privilege about being you know born on this like you know further up the ladder and he wants to turn that ladder into a bridge and just recognizing that he has been given this white privilege and we brought him to hatch he blew everyone away I mean you know what's interesting is that when that someone posted it was just like shot on a phone or something someone posted that video and it sat there for you know a couple months without any sort of movement and suddenly some a couple members of a hate group got a hold of it and they're the ones ironically enough that started kind of blowing it up and we invited them to hatch it came and his his awareness and exposure started to grow really quickly and he called me one time he was like look I have to ask you something I'm feeling very uncomfortable about being the one with the microphone like this was not my intention like I don't want to be you know the figurehead for this I'm like well Royce I mean there's been some amazing African-American figureheads for this but what you're doing is expanding the audience so like you're bringing more people into this conversation because there are people that are listening and like use the platform and then hand the mic off like grow your platform and make sure that you can help elevate you know other people you know of color that that need that microphone that that deserve that microphone and so that was I mean a I just had a lot of respect for him for feeling like that and b he's continued to just grow that platform and working BIPOC and and you know lgbq like he's he's really expanded that platform to really help march for our lives he works really closely with so he's a young activist and he's he's gonna turn into an amazing leader he just graduated high school this year and I think he's running for school board in valenta so that's fabulous that's absolutely fabulous the the the camera probably wasn't the direct transition into that but it was probably the spark that got creativity and and some skills and and interest in that direction but you kind of involved into a photograph a photographer and then video audio direction uh can you tell us a little bit about that story and it's done some amazing things like we said p diddy and virgin and and and many others give us a little teaser a little experience on that journey and how how that evolved and progressed and how you've nicely combined it with your work at hatch and and other things to kind of make it a movement of positivity certainly uh when i was in third or fourth grade i can't exactly remember my mom gave me a present and it was a camera and at that time like we had zero money we have you know people were dropping food baskets on our door and so i was really touched by the fact that you know it looked expensive and i don't really know if it was or not but the camera changed my life and it's because we we're sitting on the steps one morning and a neighbor came by and asked if they could take our photograph and i remember just like looking at that camera just like wonder how that works exactly like what are the mechanics behind it and she saw my you know curiosity and when that camera arrived in my in my hands uh i just started taking it everywhere with me you know shots of the school walking cross guard and uh just the shortcuts to you know where she would go to school and so forth i spent a lot of time by myself and um roaming around with that camera and it became a vessel for um imagination and and really trying to you know like seeing things that other people don't necessarily see if they're not stopping to really look at you know i do this a lot because like now i do it not just with my hand but just like zoom in on stuff if you're like you know you can dissect the world around you into small pieces and all these little details exist and and it's fascinating i've been carrying a camera my whole life ever since and it was my goal my dream to become a filmmaker i went to film school actually that's not entirely true it was my goal to become a filmmaker until i wanted this you know my mom became the on our teacher and then i wanted to do everything opposite of creativity and you know i got a college in football wrestling scholarship and for you know two years in you know you know we did really well in nationals and wrestling and so forth but i just realized like it wasn't really my game um i was i was an artist and so i had to kind of come to terms with that and left that school went to a different school enrolled in film school in montana state university uh which was you know highly ranked so highly respected film school and started a production company um started telling stories went to los angeles i was now a director i was bound and determined to be a director like i was going to do nothing less than direct and after starving in los angeles for four months pretty soon i was on set as a production assistant which is kind of the lowest person in the totem pole you're getting coffee and taking out the trash but i was still carrying my camera with me and and so even while you know i was running around taking the trash and doing errands and so forth i was taking photographs of the different crew members and then later i would have a printed and like pass out these photos of people doing their work and it got the attention of a couple people uh michael bay i worked on several of his sets for a while and and at one point um you know it came to me as like look you gotta go do your own thing you know you're fired i'm like what i'm like one of the best kids you have and and he supported me going to follow my dream as a director and it was not that long after that that i was you know i was on a uh the set with bone thugs in harmony who just want to grant me for uh for this music video that we were doing for the batman movie that just came out and so i'm like on top of the skyscraper in downtown los angeles with the bat plane and and the batmobile down down below and just it was all very surreal and you know telling those stories in a really meaningful way and then i started my own production company when i came back in montana uh hatch was 100 volunteer driven for you know over a decade and so i would have to make my living still as a filmmaker and the we made a real commitment to sculpt stories that make a difference and and so that you know but still even then toward the end i just felt like all i could think about was hatch when i was even on a film set and at that point i realized it was no longer my dream to be a director that i should be supporting other people who have creative visions and dreams and that i really wanted to just focus on impact and creativity is a critical part of solving the the mess that we found ourselves in right now it's you know i have kind of a thesis that the business world stole the word creativity and repackaged it as innovation because it's more fundable and yet as all these different music classes and arts classes are being cut like we're going to like lose creativity and if we lose creativity there's no more new ideas we're stuck with everything that's already in a textbook and there's no more progress there's no more uh solving of the problems that we've found ourselves in which requires creative thinking so i think it's one of the most important ingredients that that we we look for we cultivate the people that we curate and bring together for hatch i'm always trying to find those that you may you may be in tech or finance or the business world but if you have a little bit of creative vent now you can ideate and and think of things that that you know previously didn't exist yeah i mean there's numerous examples of big creative movements uh bob gildoff and bandaid live aid you know three billion people watching him live and his concerts and uh the not only the creativity the amount of help and the amount of monies that that can be raised but also the amount of political influence that you can have out of creating and just a simple event like that where you could call up which he did call up margaret thatcher and say you know i've got three billion people watching us live and i've got your phone number obviously i can obviously give that to about 500 million of them and have them call you to make some political changes and and what happens in the future and you know and then there's other organizations like global citizens and my catch and and that i truly believe that that creativity is so important there's a little bit of a rabbit hole that you opened up that i'd like to poke our heads down and maybe get into a little bit deeper deeper i have this strong feeling that a lot of the past 10 15 years media has not truly improved in many ways we have more dystopian movies more dystopian type of doom and gloom you know whether it's waterworld total recall or or apocalypse or zombies or whatever it is it's us fighting over something in the future water resources against each other that's very dark not a lot to be hopeful for from our generation when we were younger and didn't watch a lot of tv back then but Star Trek and and some of those were more sci-fi showing interracial couples and genders and no smoking sets and and you know these tricorders and hollow rooms and all these cool things transporters uh that we could even though it was sci-fi we could engineer create architects could build that we could try to figure out how to make that reality even though at that time it was movie magic and that's what we've done today there's not a lot of beautiful whether it's utopian or not images of of a resilient desirable future even 2030 we don't have any visions what what does the world look like and what can we engineer and create and and try to strive for that's only dystopian and maybe i'm over generalizing um but as someone who's a creative director and and you still produce not only events but uh obviously videos and have have teens that pull things together do you think if we had some tv series some some media out there that was like really showing us a beautiful vision of what it would be like if we reached the paris agreement and all the the sustainable development goals of what that future would look like would feel like and we could see it a little bit that we would maybe work harder to try to to reach it to engineer for it yeah i truly believe that there is an opportunity to to co-design co-create and manifest a desirable future and it's something that we've had considerable amount of conversations with nasa and jpl and and some other folks within the hatch network uh there's a good friend of mine who's part of the hatch network named uh mark gurner and he used to work in hollywood with james cameron and on you know avatar and x-men and uh superman in like like envisioning is an illustrator like a really beautifully like he's an amazing artist but always envisioning these futures and he and after over time they're all dystopian and it started kind of wearing on him and he decided to shift gears partially inspired by his coming to hatch and put those creative uh aspirator or creative talents to use in manifesting a more desirable future he started a company called ecogo which is a transparency engine that helps you identify which project or products that you can buy in the marketplace have do do less the least amount of harm to the planet and people but also help inform companies to improve their eq score to you know supply chain all the way to delivery to market um and you know recently we had what's interesting is when the you know star trek was such a beautiful vision um and you know that when when this when the there was a charter that was written in the 70s that that stated basically that no country can own a piece of the moon or space yet they didn't anticipate that the future of space would be private right so jeff bezos elon musk richard branson that uh the charter does not state that a person or company cannot own a piece of the moon in space and the moon is now looking like it's ripe for minerals and mining and extraction and so we uh i was invited to this round table at nasa uh to to really think about if you could start from scratch like what is the the manifesto for humanity if you're kind of building from the ground up like really an opportunity to restructure the thinking around a lot of different uh ways in which our humanity is kind of flawed right now where do we where do we build it into a more desirable future and i think that you know herald night heart also from the internet and he has a really great company called future i o about the moonshots for desirable futures um i have a great deal of respect for the work that he's doing and you know ultimately you know the one of the projects that we're working on or that we've discussed with uh david delgado at jpl is working with youth and bringing in uh illustrators and conceptual artists and storytellers and filmmakers to co-create and manifest these desirable futures in a real tangible way in a storytelling way and that project really excites me and i think that we can do it even now you know during covet virtually with one of these impact labs uh methodologies around the um you know manifesting like designing and defining uh the desirable future that we'd like to manifest but if that translated into a modern day piece of media a television show to your earlier question i think that would be really beautiful uh we're we're we're light on inspirational content these days yeah i think we have plenty of documentaries but during this time of lockdown you know all the netflix have gone up like crazy all the streaming so whether it's amazon prime or disney plus or whoever it is has just went up but the type of non-dystopian content or documentaries that uh usually not all doctor documentaries or that uh non-dystopian either they're usually showing what's bad in our world and how how we need to get active and fix it is just really lacking and i think that would be a nice big push if every single week there was at least one tv series that was guaranteed to be there every single week that showed us a different version of what the future would be and uh you know however that is whether it's electric vehicles and totally renewable and and you know breathable clean air and we've started living within the planetary boundaries and and reconnecting cities with nature more um also you know you and i are probably fans of uh uh of uh carl sagan and some of his wise words and not just the pale blue dot but about cities and the future we humans are capable of extraordinary things yeah favorite pieces from carl sagan yeah and you know i'm sure you're familiar like paul hawken and Amanda joy raven hills uh worked with project dry down but i would love to see you know these outputs of project dry down on things that we as humans can do on a daily weekly basis tethered into a piece of media so that that piece of media if it was a series that happened every week has the call to action and a website that you can go to to really like create a really simple roadmap on how you can i mean you know one of my favorite kind of personal mantras is how do you save the world start with where you are and that doesn't necessarily always just mean your backyard and community it also means inside and so human transformation and mindfulness that matriculates out to your backyard and if everyone was you know hatch a better world you have to hatch your best self if we were spending more time in thoughtful mindful practices um but also really had a roadmap for the the youth on how they can impact their backyards which was one of the you know components of the earlier social network that we started from 99 in 2003 you know gamifying uh community interaction and impact like i would love to see that come back to in play again i would too that that would be a beautiful thing i think we've gone down that rabbit hole enough and and well let's let's keep shouting that uh and try to take part in those i'm trying to work with a few organizations and groups to pull together a team that maybe could realize some kind of a series or or something that that gets pushed forward in the future but i would love to see that that leads me to my um very first hardest question that uh you know i i kind of touched upon in the beginning and it's the burning question wtf not what the fuck but what's the future and i want to know what's the future for you yara do you have a vision or a pretty good picture of where we could be there's a lot of different outcomes right i mean there's a lot of different things that can happen when i hear wtf what's the future i also think of we the future and that's a project that that we're working on together you myself laura stein uh kind of leading the helm on that laura is an amazing human being that uh launched and started the ted exes and the women's global march and and now has bomba global and this idea of bringing together a network of networks as a we to encompass um all of the different possibilities for these desirable outcomes in the future uh right now you know it's one of the things that i've been um really just i've loved seeing in covid is that i'm part of like several of these network of networks conversations right now with people that are leading their own communities and and amazing you know kind of impactful uh organizations but they're all you know a lot of us are coming together and having more collective conversations on how we can link arms and link communities and and start to move the needle at a faster pace which is you know honestly why i launched the h360 ai platform is it's the power of communities and then link them together in a way that they can share a database of impact projects and and and nonprofits that are doing important work in the world and also mobilize employee engagement for large enterprise companies and you know the ai and the machine learning match makes people to their projects of interest so that we can really start mobilizing uh i mean i imagine just having a a central database we're able to see all of the stgs number three number ten number eleven stacking those and seeing where there's redundancies and duplication of efforts where there's uh opportunity for collaborations like oh like mark you should be working with herald on this boom the ai can just like bring us a queue of those projects that we want to accelerate so um and then let's see we the future what's the future um so recently in the global living room we had michelle thaler who's this incredible astronomer from nasa and she's also the chief communications officer for goddard space center and she's a beautiful storyteller but an amazing data scientist nasa just released uh like a month and a half ago or so uh a data set that was fairly um humbling and scary and the two to four foot ocean rise that we've all been kind of hearing about and projected over the next 150 to 200 years uh that's been moved up because the just even from the carbon that's already been released it's like no more carbon got released already been released this particular data set that nasa released shows that two to four foot ocean rise will happen within the lifetime of our children before the end of the century so the next 65 to 75 years we're going to see two to four foot ocean rise and when you and when michelle shows that map of what's currently inhabited on the planet shrinking but all the coasts and all the islands like by 25 percent billions of people will be displaced and migrate and suddenly those of us in the u.s who think about you know immigrants and refugees is something that happens somewhere else we're all going to become impacted and affected by the billions and then of course there's going to be resource wars over water and minerals and and land and nutrients and so like there has to be a full court press another friend of mine david mcconville who was a you know worked with the he was the president of the buckminster full institute for many years he's a really brilliant scientist uh i mean he moved from ashville north carolina to the bay area uh five or six years ago and i flew down to you know he loved nature and obviously so loves nature but i flew down to san francisco oakland had a had a beer with him asked him why he moved and he flipped over the snap he drew these six lines he like this this this this isn't reversed not just like mitigated but reversed in the next 18 to 19 years we've passed the point of no return and i'm like did you say 80 90 years like no 18 to 19 years i moved here to accelerate my work because here is a place where work can get accelerated and i was like holy shit eight to nine years and that that was like six or seven years ago and so on the plane ride home i'm you know wondering to myself am i being selfish by being tucked away up in here in montana should i like re-engage into an urban community again should i go back to los angeles or san francisco to help you know take lunch meetings every single day and and i really considered it i actually made my mind up to move back and then started thinking about how focused i am when i'm in nature and like i can go to a city and see a bunch of the people that are in my communities and tribes and and do lots of meetings and then get back on a plan and come back and just be very centered in montana but what's interesting like we it's an all hands on deck moment in time and this race between consciousness and catastrophe if we don't start to to elevate these regenerative philosophies and implement those into multiple domains and business practices we are going to lose out on our opportunity for these more desirable outcomes that's absolutely certain and so true this year this decade of action was a release of many different data sets not just from nasa that are disheartening you've you've probably heard it before that by 2050 all the there'll be more plastic in the oceans than fish that's been moved up to 2040 so um what what humanity is really missing the boat on is understanding the exponential function that's something that singularity deals uh university deals with and and uh peter diamantes and and many others in our circle who understand it really well how the exponential function works the other thing is most people don't realize that the united nations uh fao food and agriculture organization said in 2015 we have 50 more harvests left of traditional agriculture we have 50 harvests left so now we've got 45 left 45 harvests left in traditional agriculture methods that are causing deforestation soil degradation uh pesticides that are not using regenerative permaculture no-till practices to save our soils to reduce deforestation and things like that so um that and many other horrifying or dystopian type of statistics we can release there's this problem if if there's a bear or a lion or a dinosaur t-rex whatever it is in front of a human being we tend to say oh my gosh fight or flight and we've got to do something to react but when a statistic a graph a data set is thrown in front of us we're gonna what we tend to react a little bit differently you say oh that's a data set oh that's a graph or that that's a temperature timeline or ice core data sampling and we don't put it into an existential threat and we also it's so big we're like how do you deal with that that's such a huge problem how do you tackle that I think well yeah go ahead well I think storytelling really has a lot to do with that you look at documentaries like The Cove that have like massive legislative outcomes for that and like you know another uh dear friend and Hatcher runs a company called Soap Buffalo Dave Ford he put together an incredible initiative last year that we helped co-curate and kind of produce some some lab sprints on that boat it was Ocean Plastics Leadership Summit and we had 250 250 billion dollars of aggregate revenue between you know some of the largest creators of plastics in the world Nestle, Dao along with some historically adversarial relationships Greenpeace, Ocean Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund all on a boat out in the Sargasm Sea at the site of one of the largest plastic gyres uh in the world and these like business leaders and NGOs coming together to work on solving ocean plastics it was humbling to see and transformative because people that thought they were doing a lot to to improve the situation like are in tears like recognizing that we have to like really push push the pedal down on the metal so Dave has created the Ocean Plastics Leadership Network right now that has that I'm the advisory board for and there's a really great group of brands that have come on uh so there are these you know pieces of hope but those stories need to be amplified and elevated out into the press we need you know magazines like Fast Company and Forbes and you know newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and the Atlanta like to really start to elevate these stories of hope because that creates like you know there's a beautiful Jane Goodall quote like you know thousands of years from now we'll look back at a species called the human race you know very similar to what that species will have evolved into and just wonder like how could we let all of this happen how could we let all of these other species die and just crumble within the the construct of this planet earth and yet there's still so much worth fighting for and if we fall into hopelessness and apathy we're done like we we have to to tether into hope and that's done through you know these opportunity-based narratives and inspiring storytelling so it's really is a time to elevate the stories but the media needs to be able to grab those and help push them out to the rest of the world I I told him in the line that we need more of these stories because the more we have them and it's kind of like you you've surrounded yourself with fabulous people with hatch and try to find not only the diversity but people who are on a mission to to save the world to make the planet a better place to to to leave our home better than we found it not only for us but for our future generations multiple generations and that kind of ties to two things one the golden rule treat people and planet how you'd like to be treated but also to leave it better than we found it and the second thing is that we don't get a get or understand a lot and I don't and by no means with this analogy or this example do I want to be dystopian or negative but a lot of corporations a lot of organizations good bad or ugly who might have been on that ship or or might have be doing something else negative in the world they come out with these annual reports and in those annual reports to say this year we're going to go reduce our carbon or greenhouse gas emissions 70% 80% by 2030 we're going to go plastic free no more plastic they come out with these reports but what they're telling us one is absolutely nothing they're telling us that they're going slower in the wrong direction they're still doing harm they're still polluting they're just doing it a lot slower and people say well at least they're doing something they've got they've got to do something and you're being too hard and and and every any corporation can come back I agree any corporation can come back and do the right thing the problem that we don't understand that this is a story that needs to be told in a very positive uplifting way is if the entire world were to stop today absolutely stop reverse our direction and go in the right direction I promise you that poof all the plastic emissions all the greenhouse gas emissions all the pollution that we put into our our planet historical emissions do not disappear just like that and so somebody's left for that cleanup so as a corporation as an organization as an NGO as a consumer we actually need to go in the positive direction and clean that up and there are organizations I can't think of the young gentleman's name a university student who created created these super system for cleaning up our waterways with this boat that boy and slap boy and slap yep yeah and so um fabulous projects like that and numerous others coming on board every single day that we have the will and we can hit that exponential function we just need to get the stories and that positive narrative out there um I know you have to go we don't have that much time I've got two more questions for you and then we'll say goodbye the this is the last hardest question I have for you and you might have already answered it in one way or the other it's a little bit of a twist what does a world that works for absolutely every human being look like for you what does a world that works for everyone look like for you well that's a beautiful question I mean the first thing that comes to my mind is that everyone has a seat at the table uh where these discussions are happening where these decisions are being made um I'm on plenty of calls where everyone's you know talking about by pock and yet there's no one that's on the on that call that's of color and it's like like we can't have conversations for other people they need to be at the table and so you know thankfully like the black lives matter movement that's happening right now across the the US um is is retooling some of the boardrooms and and some of the the company leadership and so we're you know we're moving in the right direction but I mean the one first thing is like everyone needs a seat at the table um how can we solve for the migration and displacement of you know the indigenous islanders in the pacific um because of you know this two to four foot ocean rise and climate change if we're not having those discussions with those people at the table as well it's like and second I mean you know this can start to you know in our conversation with Jeanine Banias from the Biomemigra Institute uh she references you know any any problem that we're looking for a solution for can be found in nature and nature is very much a collaborative mycelial behavioral system it's like one living system and we are a part of that system and you know unfortunately we treat that system as if we are the kind of owners or rightful extractors of that system but we're not and every once in a while we're slapped down and humbled by nature just through its mighty uh voice and and these like major storms now a global pandemic um we're being given these reminders that are not that subtle but some people choose not to read into those as real reminders that we're not in balance with nature right now so you know I think the second part would be that we are in balance with nature this one living system and that we treat each other as nature does uh in a in a form of collaboration and mycelium um like the mycelial network is just so fascinating we have you know thousands of miles of forests that are connected by one underground mushroom fungi and if there's a sick tree in the forest like other trees are sending it nutrients and there's and they're receiving it back they're exchanging wisdom and intelligence through these neural networks underground like there's a lot to be learned from nature and so I would that's where I would look I you know in terms of what that looks like or is how it's designed I would just really uh reference nature for that yeah that that mycelium and this micro risa this network under underground the beginnings of life are really right in nature and we are star stuff like Carl Sagan says and we're part of this earth we're made up of the same elements and full alignment that was another powerful woman as well where she got that information from Lynn Margolis who was Carl Sagan's first wife and um so that that's where that comes from she's the biggest scientist ever who discovered that I have also just one last reference on that Michelle Thaler who I'm like so much respect for the astronomer from NASA has a very short video called we are dead stars and it breaks it down in a really really short and poetic way so I would recommend that as well I need to watch that absolutely watch it matter of fact I had Carl Sagan's daughter on the show just a couple days ago Sasa Sagan she was 14 when he passed away sadly but she's also written a book and I had her on the show so I really believe that our world would draw down as Paul Hawkins says if we had more empowered women and girls with their great wisdom their great knowledge and uh to depart that to humanity and the stories that we've been talking these narratives that need to come out that people need to know these fabulous women uh existed and what they brought to our world and an understanding of how we can better become part of a symbiotic earth which is essentially what you're saying my last question is more not a question I would yeah yeah before we move on from that I just want to point out there was a study that came out recently about how the different countries responded to COVID and those countries that were led by women had the most thoughtful responses and the most successful outcomes and I can't wait until our country is led by a woman with I mean we we definitely need more feminine energy in boardrooms and in places of leadership across the planet yeah my mother was the best leader you could ever imagine and shaped who I am and was not only my best friend but my best mentor and I tell you that whether it's my grandmother or any other woman in my life or that I've read about or admire have really shaped me tremendously so yeah the board of hatches is a majority of women and and I'm just so grateful that to have that wisdom helping drive our own initiatives and mission my last uh ask for you is actually I would like to see if you could give a sustainable takeaway a tool a tip something of empowerment that would help the innovators the entrepreneurs the creatives that are listening to make their life better to feel more empowered something that they could put into their toolbox or quote or wisdom that would that would say wow I need to go to to hatch or that word of wisdom that it gave for me for free is something that that's really helped me move forward or I've had that aha moment now because of it well it kind of makes me think of the the core tenets of hatch we have this the tenets of the culture of hatch and one is to be for each other to to really by default be for each other to listen deeply and authentically to offer full heart to offer full praise so you know people don't not often enough I think there's a fairly competitive atmosphere in the world and to just really offer generous praise and support for people makes a huge difference and just to ask how you can be of service so all of those things and keep commitments you know accountability one of the things we say at a hatch is you're going to get excited you're going to get inspired you're going to start saying I can help you with this this and this but when you start to think about your bandwidth on Monday and what you're actually capable of following through on if you can only make two promises that you can keep then save them up make and count and keep your commitments but I think more to your question you know drawdown has some great ways in which you can make a difference on kind of a sustainable planet and then really you know looking in your own backyard I mean I think if we all looked within our own communities and how we can engage in our own communities and then you know one of the flaws that was revealed during this global pandemic is just how broken and kind of a centralized governmental system is if it were hyper localized and distributed and everyone was able to really just kind of respond within their own communities and like old you know like the old times you know just villages of people that would you know work on each other's gardens with each other and and become more sustainable together in these many many microcosms all of those would be a little step in the right direction but you know asking how you could be of service your own community is I think probably a really good place to start I love that and it actually ties again to Lynn Margolis she she had a saying and actually contradicted what the major science for many many decades had thought is that this neoliberalism neo-darwinism it just does not exist there is no survival of the fittest only the strong survive natural selection that's not how our world works our world works and in cooperation and collaboration with each other that we helped solve this because we are all members on spaceship earth crew members none of us are passengers with that I have to say goodbye I know you have another meeting and thank you so much thank you yarrow for being on the show it's my pleasure and I hope our pass cross very very soon and that we can collaborate many times yeah me too mark I have a lot of honor for what you're doing thank you for elevating your stories out into the world keep it up let me know how I can help and I hope to see you in person soon if not online and much love hatch a better world talk to you bet we'll we'll be on a couple projects together for sure so we'll see each other take care bye bye


So now we turn to Mr. Narayayan who Who is who is the last but we know of course that means he is the first So please sure. Yeah Who is going to further expand our agenda as though it didn't need further expansion? Thank you Marcus It's a privilege to be here at the 10th World Policy Conference and special thanks to Manjia theory for a stewardship of the WPC in these very fractured times the last speaker has Some advantages and some disadvantages much of what I would like to say has been covered But I've been assured by Marcus that I can take in the couple of extra minutes if it comes to that so From what we have just heard from the previous speakers One thing is obvious that the shift in the geopolitical center of gravity from the Euro Atlantic To the Indo-Pacific further overshadowed by the rise of China has led to a very significant churn in relationships and events in Asia Today most of the rivalries in Asia are being played out in Northeast Asia the Indo-Pacific the so-called up bark region and West Asia Asia may today be an area of economic growth but the truth is that Many of the old sources of stability in Asia have broken down Earlier ideological divisions have weakened no doubt but religious orthodoxy Radical Islamist ideology and the terror imperative had become more marked We've heard a lot just now about what's happening in North Korea So I don't have to dilate on that at any point Accepting to say that all of us agree that North Korea poses one of the gravest threats seen to peace In the region and beyond then at any then any other one We also heard a lot about what's happening in in East Asia into some extent Southeast Asia I only want to say that most most of us in Asia are concerned about Where China stands? It's a great civilization But there is an impression that China wishes to exert its authority It's insist on its exceptionalism and its uniqueness and Most nations particularly in East and Southeast Asia are concerned as to where China is headed the 19th Party Congress did little to assuage such concerns and Following China's announcement of its great power ambitions its projection as a military and economic superpower and especially the contents on presidential Make China great against speech has added to these concerns but I'm here basically to speak about South troubles in South Asia and West Asia South Asia Afghanistan in South Asia is today one of the most troubled regions not only in Asia but across the world Afghanistan may be in South Asia, but I think it is the heart of Asia The situation here is extremely fragile The elected government in Afghanistan has lost control over much of the countryside almost 40 percent perhaps even more None of the other groups that are present in Afghanistan Can claim any control any any large-sized control over areas and territories The most distinctive aspects of Afghanistan is the degree of violence that is present there I don't think it's being reflected the same extent as as I think we should as well At least what people of us who live in South Asia and perhaps Southeast Asia are aware of Today the so-called Afghan Taliban the Hakani network The ISIS that is the Islamic State Apart from several other terrorist groups in the indigenous to Afghanistan such as the Hizbe Islami and the Harkat Ilahi Islami They are the defining aspect of Afghanistan The elected government counts for much less than the actual degree of violence that is taking place Almost on an on an average Minimum of about 30 to 40 people are being killed in Afghanistan and this does hardly finds much mentioned there Achieving peace in Afghanistan is entirely dependent on getting the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table This can be achieved only through the exercise of force without Afghan Taliban Agreeing to accept some of the conditions for talks no peace can exist At the same time you can't do that Do the exclusive thing of only the Taliban because there is the ICs specter or the Islamic State specter which has to be there so we have a conflict of of Priorities as far as the region is concerned. I show you that the situation is extremely complex and complicated the occasional increase in troops Listening of troops etc. Has not added to the city and had not brought any bit more measure to the situation There are Efforts being made for peace in Afghanistan There is a Pakistan led quadrilateral Coordination group which includes the United States and China apart from Pakistan and Afghanistan But it is not making any headway Only loud only this month. I think on the sorry last month The Quadrilateral meeting held but two days after the meeting was held there were two devastating attacks in Afghanistan There is another one which is being organized by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization the contact group that is also meeting with the same unfortunate fate Michael mentioned about two other critical areas of conflict in South Asia One is of course the Pakistan India in Brolia, which is going on. I Agree that there are tensions in between the two countries the situation has to some extent deteriorated in the past two years But I think there is a great deal of restraint on both sides So I and I would like to assure this house that the possibility of a major conflict or a Confrontation is not present. It is it is present. It is an ever-present reality But I think the leadership on both sides is aware of the nature of the threat and the seriousness of that threat There's a reference Michael also made to the China India conflict. I was the special representative for border talks with China During the years of the National Security Advisor. We have differences. We have a very long border There are difficulties across the border, but I can assure you that a Conflict an open conflict other than border incursions and border kinds is out of the question We recently had a standoff at a place called Doklam It is it is in Bhutan on the tri-junction between Bhutan India and China and I Can assure this house that Both India and China are conscious of the complications that can arise if they go beyond Certainness there will be tensions for the tensions can will be maintained. So I think China India border problem is not something that we Need to be concerned as a long term that there's a clash between two civilizations, and I think that will continue. I Do think there was there was no mention here about West Asia and I think that is an area which requires a great deal of attention because Four of the of the countries in the world which have the largest Muslim populations are in Asia Indonesia Bangladesh Pakistan India So what happens in West Asia? particularly not so much maybe the clashes as much as the ideological clash that is taking place between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran Creating the possibility of a basic divide Down the middle is highest potential for countries which have large Muslim populations The Shia Sunni balance is something that I think we need to we are in Morocco here We are on the on the periphery of the reason It is something that is going to be going to remain with us for some time It has implications which are not too obvious at this moment. It is not going to be confined to Saudi Arabia I'm sorry to West Asia. It is going to be much beyond that The Qatar standoff with Saudi Arabia is an instance and point of this kind There is also another aspect the Isis Facing is facing some setbacks in areas like Syria and and Iraq and whatnot But do remember that as the Isis is so-called suppressed in this region there Their stormtroopers are moving across the rest of the world We need to be aware that this will Michael touched on this point that Terrorism will be magnified as a result of excessive pressure that has been applied here There's also the aspect that as the Isis weakens other forces are emerging in this area The courts for instance are trying to redraw the boundaries of some of the countries. I Do believe that the next phase of the struggle in West Asia May be determined by the by who control the territory once held by the Isis but Do remember that notwithstanding water was happening in terms of the conflict between countries except the ideology and Appeal of radicalized Islamist movements Especially the Isis and Al Qaeda remains unaffected one word of caution if The Iran nuclear deal was unravelled. I think we will have New area of tensions arising in the region the implications of this. I think I Wish we could have a special session on that what I would like to stress is that Asian security today one of the speakers said that things are better My assessment is that Asian security today is in a state of flux There are major centers of violence that have emerged. There's West Asia, which I briefly touched on There is Afghanistan, which I dealt with in a little more detail There are problems across in parts of Southeast Asia where nations are concerned about the rise of China's Ambitions and of course there are the conflicts in East Asia itself the South China Sea East China Sea sign. Thank you very much