Hello and welcome to Outrage and Optimism. I am Cristiana Fighettis. Paul and Tom are off this week, so I am on my own with you.

This week we are presenting an episode I recorded for the way out is in podcast.

Thanks for being here.

So this week during which many people around the world turn inward and others also enjoy a time for reflection, we have decided to take a very different turn with our podcast.

We are motivated by the realization that in many ways we are steering toward breakdown as we read in the news every day.

But that at the same time we know we can change that course and we can chart a path toward break through based on restoration of the damage that we have done and of regeneration of ourselves and of nature.

Actually, believe it or not, alongside the horrors of the day and maybe because of them, I see the emergence of a new paradigm of being and acting.

The current crises that we are seeing all of them are uprooting the beliefs of the past and perhaps opening the possibility for a new human contract.

I see the opportunity of a shift in how we relate to ourselves to each other and to nature.

Now that road is admittedly untraveled and will not be easy but the fact is we don't have any other option.

We have to make the choice to restore and regenerate individually and collectively daily and constantly with conviction and determination.

I remember Gus Speth, a good friend, well-known American environmental lawyer, co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council founder of World Resources Institute, dean of the Yale School of Forestry and sustainability and environmentalist through and through.

And I remember how he famously stated a few years ago, I used to think the top global environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change.

I thought that with 30 years of good science, we could address these problems but I was wrong.

The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy and to deal with these we need a spiritual and cultural transformation.

A quote from Gus Speth, so friends in that spirit we have a different conversation for you today.

The way out is in is the podcast produced by Plum Village, the Buddhist monastery founded by the late Zen master, Tig.Han, who was a vital support to me in the lead up to Paris Agreement and beyond.

Upon his recent passing, I quickly joined my brothers and sisters and friends in Plum Village and spent four weeks there with them.

During that time, I was invited onto their podcast as a guest.

So we have decided to drop the Plum Village episode into our own podcast for this week.

Now friends, here's a little warning, this conversation is longer than our usual episodes, but it is also deeper.

So get ready to be taken by the hand by Ty Fappu, the Abbot of Plum Village and our very good friend, Joe Confino.

...