Cory Ames 0:00 
Hey y'all. It's Cory here with the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Podcast. In short, we're back . If you caught the last episode that was published back in the end of summer, August this year, 2022, we announce the short break that we're taking. And in that episode you might have heard that I said we'd be back in October... but, November's here, and I'm learning that might just be the way things go with a baby under a year old and a cross country move.

So, for the record, Annie and I and our baby boy are now back in San Antonio, Texas. This here is a quick episode that's something of an announcement for what's next, both with the podcast and perhaps Grow Ensemble at large. So, as we fire the podcast engines back up here, this time, maybe a bit more slowly, but as well, more deliberately, I'm very excited to invite you to listen in here to what's next with the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation podcast. 

"People protect what they love, they love what they understand, and they understand what they are taught." Jacques Cousteau. 

Let's understand the world we live in to better serve the world we live in. Grow Ensemble has been and continues to be about learning. Learning to understand the world we live in. Because as Jacques Cousteau says, we understand what we've learned and we love what we understand – and most importantly, we protect what we love. And I think this is likewise what Paul Hawken touches on when he says, "The most important thing we can do to leave the world a better place than we found it, is to find out where we live."

By learning about all that's around us – the flora, the fauna, the people, the natural ebbs and flows to the way the planet and people operate and change and adapt – we learn more, we understand more, we love more, and we act more. Grow Ensemble is and will continue to be about an insatiable drive to learn about and understand the world we all inhabit.

This is the who, what, why, and how of building a better world, as we often say here. And this is so more and more of us are inspired and re-inspired to fall in love with the planet and people living on it. So we can together, repeatedly, harness the courage to act, to protect, to preserve, and to make things better – to even know what's better.

And yeah, that might not, on its face, seem unique or appear remarkable. But I think what differentiates what together we're exploring here comes from how we arrive at the material, the stories, and the people that we speak with. It's in our intent and our hopes for a particular outcome. It's who you are. It's who I am.

The thing is, the absolutely wonderful thing is, that I know you listening to this – or you watching this – are someone who feels not just a desire to use your physical and mental capacities to leave the world better than you found it. You, like me, like my wife Annie, feel an obligation to do so. We arrive at the topics of sustainable business, regenerative agriculture, or purpose-driven work, not seeking personal gain or an opportunity to extract profit, but rather a genuine and authentic purpose of understanding how this fits in with a vision forward to make the world a more sustainable and equitable place for all.

See, I know you like me, understand that if we're to find ways to live more sustainably, more equitably, it's not just about the things we do. As importantly, it's about the things we believe and the things that we value. Can we believe that the way we live our lives, run our economies and organize our communities, can be restorative and regenerative just by their nature?

Can we, in fact truly and authentically value the people and the planet living on it? More than power, profits, or GDP, and make systemic and institutional changes that reflect that? Can we come to believe, understand and value that we cannot and do not live separately from nature, but rather as part of it? Can we corral the courage within ourselves, within all of us, to believe that just the way it is only remains as such for as long as we let it?

I think to confidently answer in the affirmative to all those questions, we have to learn. We have to learn what's possible – to believe in and build what's possible. And together here at Grow Ensemble, here with the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Podcast, that's what we're doing. We're learning what's possible to understand what's possible, to create a future we love, to create a vision for the future we feel the courage to build. 

But we must pay attention. Pay attention to what matters, because distractions are a plenty. Do we colonize Mars, or do we restore and regenerate the planet that we have? Do we seek to build the next billion dollar company fighting climate change? Or do we find the wisdom in scaling to depth, not breadth? 

Here at Grow Ensemble, and myself here with the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Podcast, we see our role as guides. Not necessarily as a guide that can tell you where to go, because we can't. We aren't living in an ecotopia, and the world as it is surely isn't just, equal, or fair. It just hasn't been done before. But rather, we're here as guides to point to what we must pay attention to, what we should look out for, because nuance is everywhere. 

There are many different paths we can take. Some get us through up to the summit, and others will not. So, yes, on its face we're gonna talk about sustainability and social impact. We're going to talk about renewable energy. We're going to talk about sustainable, equitable city development. We're going to talk about the many wonders of trees and the billions of microbes beneath our feet. But, with those dives, we're going to talk about and extract what matters. 

What are the principles, ideas, and wisdom we can take with us here as we continue on our journey to a better, more sustainable, more equitable world for all? What can we add to our packs, keep in our back pocket, or share to help others around us? Because we cannot always expect our trail to be clear, well-marked, or even visible at all. As Martin Luther King Jr. reminded everyone, "The arc of the moral universe bends in our favor, but that timeline is long and not without great challenge or confusion for what the next step forward might be."

And so together here at Grow Ensemble and with our podcast moving forward, let's continue to explore where we go from here. One step after another, learning about the who, what, why, and how of building a better world. Because again, the more we know, the more we understand, the more we can all do together. 

So if you've been around for a while, thank you as always. I'm so grateful to have had you reading, listening, or watching all this time. And if you're new here, I'm very, very excited to have you join along for the ride. New episodes, essays, and videos, all dealing in the realm of the possible: coming. Stay tuned, y'all. 

All right, y'all. That's it. Thanks so much for listening. As always, I am so thrilled for you to be continuing along with me here at Grow Ensemble and the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation podcast, where we explore the who, what, why, and how of building a better world. 

And if you'd like to get involved in some deeper discussion in thinking around this very same subject matter, I'd encourage you to sign up for the Better World Weekly Newsletter. This is my newsletter that I write and publish myself and send out every single Monday. You can join literally thousands of other change-makers and innovators from all sectors all over the globe who get this email in their inbox every single Monday by signing up at growensemble.com/newsletter. That's grow ensemble.com/newsletter. 

All right, y'all. Until next time.