Insights from Van Jones and Lynne Twist | Earthx2024

I am here with my beloved Lyn twist and my beloved van Jones uh we've been together for a long time we got a lot we can talk about but I think the first thing that we we should do for earthx TV is just establish who you are who the pat Mama Alliance is and what you've been doing hanging out in these rainforest for the past 20 years 30 past 30 30 years wow that's crazy 29 and a half um well I was lucky enough to called to the AAR people 30 years ago um through a whole series of mystical encounters and events and um once Bill my husband bill as you know and I were there it became clear that there was something calling us that was deeper than the indigenous people the AAR it was actually they were the conduits for the forest you could say being called by the forest and and then the more we got involved with the a in the forest the more we saw we were being called by the spirit of life itself through the forest through the AAR and um and it's now 30 years ago and um we knew nothing about the rainforest we knew nothing about the environment I was working on hunger and poverty as you know and Bill was a business guy and it was so perfect because we had no agenda right we didn't think we knew what we were doing uh uh and we were a blank slate for them to ride on so as you know they they told us you know that if we were coming to help them even though they invited us there don't waste our time but if we were coming because we knew somehow deep in our soul that our Liberation was bound up with them that we could work together and that became so clear um in that encounter and and and so that partnership is not we're helping them uh because they're behind or backwards or anything like that uh or or they're helping us because we're so screwed up uh really it's a collaboration with ancient ways and the modern world which is uh critical for the world we're living in now yeah and the ancient wisdom that the indigenous people carry is uh is not just wisdom it's an actual way of being in the world that we all know deep in our souls is is our own indigenous core but we've lost touch with it very much and being with indigenous people who don't fight for the Earth or not trying to save the Earth they don't they don't even think about that they are of the earth they are of the forest so that's a very different way to work and all these years I've learned that from them makes me cry because I I was fighting for this and fighting for that um but it's it's um not only is that exhausting yeah it's ultimately not that effective yeah um because what's happening now is the Earth is communicating to us big time I mean this is feedback the climate crisis um as Paul Hawkin says it's not happening to us it's happening for us and if we can hold it that way we will receive the message and respond um we as a species I would say so patam mama's been uh a real teacher for me patcha Mama Alliance and um and you know that's I'll just stop there there's plenty more to say but I was um at uh the house with the new babies and uh noem and uh we were clicking on the television uh and Awakening the dreamer series that you did in 2014 popped up did uh like yeah just like I don't know some I don't know but it was I'm not joking and um I said there's some very smart people in this one honey and did you watch it cuz you're in I'm in it exactly I was I'm no dummy I was yeah um so uh so that was 10 years ago uh and um uh Obama gave the speech that made him famous at the 2004 Democratic Convention that was 20 years ago um so we've been doing this for a while been doing this for a while and um you know what I would say is that um uh there's two things that are happening at the same time uh there's this indigenous wisdom that's trying to reassort itself there's is a turn toward Eastern spiritualities uh psychedelics um there's there's a there's a turn back toward wisdom and yet there's an acceleration toward more and more data yeah uh and which of these two things is going to be the predominant are we going to be that's a question um you know AI Quantum Computing biotech these are uh other movements uh all of them claiming they're going to be uh better for life better for health better for the Earth there's a whole AI Initiative for climate but these seem to be very different energies uh one very head very masculine very top down uh the other very heart very embodied very bottom up very feminine I imagine we need each other um but I'm concerned that uh uh this this is a weird date uh that may not work out well how do you think about all this sort of technological stuff that's going on does that play a big role in your mind or well of course oh my God it's terrifying and inspiring everything is terrifying and inspiring yes you know it depends on how you want to look at it it's the frame you use um everything can be used for incredible benefit or it can be used for terrible tra tragic uh outcomes but you know I like to look at the Long View that helps me CU I I worked with Bucky Fuller and Buckminster Fuller always took the Long View and and that helps a lot when you're in the thick of it m and um I like to well I I'll use this one metaphor there's a prophecy uh from the bahay people about the first century of the third millennium so if you think about where we are and it's not like jammed into the tomorrow and the next minute and the next the next minute if you think about where we are we're only 24 23 and A2 years into the third millennium okay so um if you think of it that way we're just getting started mhm and um there's a prophecy several prophecies about the third millennium and one of them that it refers to what you just talked about is a prophecy from the bahay people and it's also the same prophecy comes from the Cherokee People the bahay people and Cherokee people have never talked to each other about this but the prophecy says that in the third uh first century the third millennium uh the bird of humanity which has two great Wings a male wing and a female wing and the bird of humanity uh has been flying they say primarily with the male wing for hundreds and hundreds of years and the male Wing has been fully extended and fully expressed while the female wing of the bird of humanity in all of us has been folded it in and not yet fully expressed and in the first century of the third millennium uh the the male wing of the bird of humanity will have become so strong so overdeveloped so muscular that it will in fact become violent and the bird of humanity will be flying in circles for hundreds of years as a result but in the first century of the third millennium the female wing of the bird of humanity will fully find its expression in all of us in men and women the male Wing in all of us can relax a little bit and the bird of humanity for the first time in hundreds of years will sore H so I love that prophecy because it doesn't make the male Wing wrong and the female ring right it it it shows how out of whack we are out of balance yinyang [Applause] isely yeah so that's one metaphor for our time and then and and that's a real prophecy I think that's has some weight another metaphor that I I really think is useful the indigenous people during Co said uh to us that Humanity has been yearning and longing for something powerful and sacred enough to disrupt the way we've been living that we couldn't do ourselves because we know we're we're off course um and so the mother the Earth everything comes from the Earth including the virus impacted only one species not any other species got sick just one happens to be ours and um that disruption Co yeah I'm talking about Co the the virus um uh they call it an announcement the indigenous people an announcement a accurate powerful blessed disruption helping us see that we needed to reinvent reee recreate the way we're living and I call covid morning sickness for a pregnant species that doesn't know it's pregnant and thinks it's sick uh which is giving birth in a long probably pregnancy pregnancy is hard you know about that I mean you didn't have a baby but you I watch had a baby I saw it um uh you know when you're having it when you're in labor the the more it hurts the closer you are to having a child and there's this phrase pain pushes until Vision pulls and we're in pain we're in pain and the pain is pushing us but we need a vision that pulls us through the pain that's so strong it pulls us through the pain and when you're having a baby you know that it it hurts so much but you know that the more it hurts the closer you are to having a baby so you can stand it it it's like we need a big big big Vision now that we can align on because everybody wants the same thing but we're so caught in the pain so this uh birth process that I think we're in um that's messy and difficult and hurts and if you didn't know you were having a baby You' think there was something horribly wrong with you and if we can create a framework for what's happening now and know that there's some Grand Design you know I I think it's a spiritual crisis I think that's right and when we don't address it as a spiritual crisis we miss the the opportunity of what's being given to us right now uh you know and it's a mess but um having a baby is really messy yeah I noticed um so those are ways of looking at what's happening I I think it's helpful um we're definitely are at the end of something yeah I just don't know what we're at the beginning of yeah and um you know I I get a chance because of my role at CNN um it's such a weird place to work because in the Green Room everybody comes through Republican Governors Democratic Congress people police uh the celebrity of the day uh you you get it's this weird little place where you get a chance to see everybody feeling a little bit vulnerable a little bit scared about to go on National Television they're getting their makeup on they're looking at their notes and it's very human it's very humanizing kind of process and having been there for 12 years you know it's it's been 12 years 12 years you've been there for 12 years I've been there 12 years kidding my God yeah go ahead I start I started um uh December I mean I started for the 2012 election cycle when Obama was going up against Romney that's when I started oh my God and I've been sitting next to Anderson uh for 12 years now election night after election night oh my god um but you know the the crazy thing about it is you know if you you kind of get a chance to see people up close you get a chance to see how vulnerable they are and I've watched the loss of confidence on the part of leaders up close wow everybody's afraid everybody is personally afraid personally insecure personally worried about getting cancelled about getting dragged on Twitter or X um getting primary losing market share getting hauled before Congress and this is at the top top levels and then when I spend time in the housing projects and the prisons and the reservations and in Appalachia people are also very afraid uh very insecure and um I don't think it's a political problem I think it's a spiritual problem it's a spiritual problem there's a lack of faith um um and a lack of and a and a and a displacement I think this fight around climate around ecological Solutions um this fight is youed to always say for the children of all species for all time for all time um I think it should bring out the best in us I think it's a it's it's it's the the framework Seven Generations whatever you want to call it that framework I think puts people in the right frame of mind right uh we're only here for a short period of time uh we're just passing on the torch it really doesn't matter if you get blown up on Twitter this week or you know for the next half an hour um that wisdom that's what I think is is missing and the wisdom Traditions um the old monotheisms uh in which I still participate as a Christian they don't have the same power they don't have the same mph um um uh the the new or renewed indigenous and spiritual Traditions uh they they still feel a little thin and a little hypocritical uh sometimes in the in the west a little bit of play acting a little bit doesn't really seem like it's a real thing um and so I think that we are on a quest together and I think we have to to reinvent and reimagine and recreate together and I I think that's why it's so important to me as I said earlier that we erase a chalkboard on who your friends and enemies are I found it I've been so disappointed by people I thought were my friends and so shocked and delighted by people I thought were my enemies and it's happened so many times that I'm beginning to think that I've got the wrong mental map right of reality that I thought the world work a certain way but I can't support a death cult terror group running a nightmare next to Israel I I'm not that's not I want Palestinians to be free I want Israelis to be free but I I when you have a country have to live under an Iron Dome in peace time yeah it's peaceful and you got rocket falling on your head that doesn't seem right to me and so people are surprised when I say that which not that my heart's not breaking for the Palestinians I just don't think that it's as easy right it's not as reductionist things are the the truth is always messy yeah you know that's like the messy truth that was my TV show the messy truth cuz the truth is always messy if it's too clean it's false yeah right if it's too easy if the white people are always good or the white people are always bad either way it's not true the truth is always messy and contradictory and weird and surprising uh like the rainforest um if it's if it's if if it's that clean it's a plastic plant and a plastic you know uh uh a container so I've been I've been um open for new friends I've been my heart is open for new friends I want to keep my as many my old friends as I can in but my heart's open for new friends I I don't know enough uh I don't think our political parties are fit for purpose and I there was a time when there were no political parties there was there was a time when there was that was an invention people came up with that uh George Washington said he didn't want any of them and he said no thank you um there was a time when there were no 501 c3s there a time when there were no think tanks there's a time when none of the stuff that we have EX existed somebody thought it up there was a time when there was no money the time when there was no money yeah that was a good time that good that was probably good times um uh so what I would say is that what do we have to invent together that we don't have was a time when there was no religion yeah what do we have to invent together that we don't have and I think the main thing we have to invent together are better stories better Stories the earth is made of stone but the world has made of stories H you want to change the world change the stories yeah uh when I was younger my hero was malcol X today my hero is Mr Rogers Mr Rogers that's my hero can we be nice yeah can we love each other can we get along can we be kind can we be kind I miss Jim Henson Sesame Street you know and I think that we have to be like that we have to be innocent we have to be open we have to be loving we have to be children have to be chosen we everybody is getting a PhD in something really really complicated and failing kindergarten yeah in how we deal with each other we got to get back to passing kindergarten again can we share can we be kind can we listen can we wait our turn it's we're we we're so off on the the the trying to get to Mars and trying to get robots that are smarter than people and trying to reprogram the human genome and we're failing kindergarten yeah and that's what I that's that's that's what I I'm more and more convinced we got to focus on that that's why you had more children so you can learn from them Hey listen it's amazing these little people um they're so so amazing you know and it's so funny too because people ask me you such a late age I mean my my my mid late 50s why would you have kids again and I honestly I didn't think about it that way yeah I really didn't think about it that way I'm so glad I have them you know Bucky Bucky Fuller was one of my great teachers and um one time he came for dinner at our house and my kids were little they were well they were four six and8 and um my daughter Summer's in the middle uh she we were sitting in a kitchen table round table in the kitchen he he wanted to eat in the kitchen he wanted to eat with the kids and he was in his 80s you know he just loved kids and my daughter said something profound like kids do um and I can't remember what it was but um Bucky turned to my husband and I and he said never forget your children are your elders in Universe time wow they've come into a more complete more evolved Universe than you can ever understand except through their eyes and that that rearranged my experience of being a parent being a a mother my um my granddaughter was born in 1999 she's her father is white my son her her mother is black Helma you know and um and they're Muslim so here she's born in 1999 I looked at her she's mixed race She's mixed ethnic everything and um I Can Tell She's going to live probably she's going to experience three centuries wow the 20th century she'll probably make it all the way through the 21st into the 22nd cuz she's a female yeah sure probably live to 102 or something sure sure what she will see in her lifetime I can't even fathom I mean I didn't even couldn't even imagin an iPhone you know when I was in college no um so this thing about our children our elders and universe time is a really awesome way that's powerful to look at what's happening what's being born you know what's the what's showing up I'll tell you two things then we'll go the best advice I got for my kids was cut a deal with them when they're born that you're going to teach them as best you can everything that you know and let them teach you everything you forgot that's good let them teach you everything you forgot cuz it's amazing how much fun a paper bag is like a paper bag is like a whole afternoon of stuff you know and uh I would I forgot I forgot you know Zen teaches me that stuff but as long as we're trading Stories the last um two cities ago somebody was asking me what's going to happen very worried about the election very worried about the geopolitical situation very worried about the ecological situation very worried about AI this person was worried and um I think a lot of people are worried and um and I said I'm going to answer your question about what's going to happen like a black preacher I had a I grew up in the black church as you know in the rural South and uh they would always tell a story us kids about the old wise man and the young rebellious boy so this this old wise man in the village and this young rebellious boy was just really wanted to show this old wise man to be a fool and he spent the whole summer thinking how am I going to prove that this old man is not as smart as everybody thinks he is and he came up with the perfect plan and he got all his little friends around him he said we're going to I'm going to go I'm going to show you this old so-called wise man is a fool and he gets all his friends he goes to the to the Elder and he holds his hand out and he he had grabbed a bird a little bird along the way he holds his hands out and he says I've got a bird in my hand and if you're so wise tell me is this bird alive or is it dead and the old man says what goes I got a bird in my hand you tell me is a bird alive or if it's dead now the Elder immediately knew this is a trick yeah if he says the bird is dead the boy's going to open his hands it's going to fly away if he says the bird is alive he's going to crush the bird and then show a dead bird so this is a very clever little boy it's a very wise man he looks a little boy looks at his friends looks at the little boy and he says young man I don't know for sure but I know one thing it's in your hands Ah that's good it's in your hands that's good so I don't know for sure right we could fix a whole ecology thing we could save democracy we could have the robots be our friends I don't know for sure but I know it's in our hands yeah and I'm glad to be in this fight with you I'm glad to be in this fight with you I appreciate all right that's good