34. Black Mountains College: Rethinking Education for Our Times - with Ben Rawlence

Today’s episode explores a simple but urgent question: is our education system still fit for the world we’re entering? Climate disruption, AI, and uncertainty demand new forms of education fit for complexity and change.

A rich lineage of alternative and experimental education has been evolving for decades, seeking to make learning more holistic, place-based, creative, and ecologically grounded. The focus of today’s conversation is one of those institutions: Black Mountains College in Wales. BMC is building a university model explicitly designed for a warming world, where nature is often the classroom and curriculum blends ecology and climate science with the arts, systems thinking, and community-rooted practice.

I’m joined by its co-founder and CEO, Ben Rawlence, award-winning writer and former human rights researcher, to explore:

The historicity of Western educational systemsWhat the role of a university should be in societyBlack Mountains College as model of the future of education The role of ecological imaginationYouth, eco anxiety and the challenges of parenting in today’s planetary momentEpisode Website

Links:

Black Mountains CollegeThink Like a Forest by Ben RawlenceGuardian: ‘We create changemakers’: the new UK college dedicated to climate crisisBMC and ecological imagination by Joseph Rowntree FoundationList of alternative schools and earth centered curriculum centersThe Solutions are Already Here: Strategies of Ecological Revolution from BelowBritt Wray on Climate GriefFuture CouncilRe-imagining education conference Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes.

Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock & Ellie Kidd

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