Reforming the education system is a bit like providing cough syrup for severe Covid-19. Hope, I am afraid, will not come from reform. We will only find it in total and complete system transformation.

As the hottest year in history draws to a close, we are faced with a world both literally and figuratively on fire. Months of fires across Canada, Greece and Siberia. We began 2023 with the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and are ending it with a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. Almost forgotten is the ongoing civil war in Sudan.

Finding hope, finding solace in the face of this is increasingly difficult. One option is of course the ostrich approach. Stop reading the news and hunker down in our own little bubble. Another is to face it head-on. Acknowledge the horror. Admit the destruction.

Recently, I stumbled upon "The Great Humbling" a podcast that poses the question "What if our current crises are neither an obstacle to be overcome nor the end of the world, but a necessary humbling?" The podcast, which began in the first year of the pandemic, is a series of long conversations between Ed Gillespie and Dougald Hine.

Ed Gillespie is a self-confessed "recovering sustainability expert" while Dougald Hine is an author, editor and social entrepreneur. Part of the task of these conversations -- elaborated...