Recent breakthroughs in science show we have just the capacities we need to face our planet's challenges. We're "soft-wired" for cooperation, empathy, fairness, along with a deep need to "make a dent," as social philosopher Erich Fromm put it. My hunch is that one reason depression is a global pandemic is that the dominant mental map denies so many of us expression of these deep needs and capacities.

Women can succeed in villages all over the world today without relying on heavy machinery or debt. They can take leadership roles in agriculture, eliminating hunger and inequity.

Our food system takes abundant grain,which people can't afford,and shrinks it into meat,which better-off people will pay for.

My path has not been smooth. But the great thing about getting to be an elder is that you can look back and see the intense times of confusion and challenge, and see that if you keep walking through them, they can lead to times of great satisfaction and reward.

There are surprising turning points; there is the straw that breaks the camel's back, and you never know if your action could be the straw.

Democracy is not what we have. It is what we do.

We didn't evolve to be passive victims or shoppers.