Final Gifts for 2022
Greetings friends,
As we approach the end of the year, I wanted to send you some of the last good news from 2022. It’s been almost a year since Politics of Being was published, and what an eventful year it has been!
One big piece of news is that I have just signed a publishing contract with French leading publisher Robert Laffont, so you can expect a French version of Politics of Being to become available by early 2024. As they acquired rights to my book, they will also look for different publishers in different languages across the world. It is very encouraging to hear the potential they see in the book as a detailed guide to change that can be brought into mainstream conversations. We even talked about potential declinations of the book. I am glad to see they seem to have understood very well the spirit of this work, which is getting attention from key thought leaders.
Indeed, last month I had the pleasure to give a presentation to the UNDP Human Development Report Team and appreciated our rich conversation, particularly around their definition of human development: “help people lead lives they value by expanding their capabilities”. I argued in particular that we should be more specific about what kind of lives they should value based on the science of human flourishing and the need for sustainable lifestyles.
It has also been wonderful to recently share this work at the UN Alliance of Civilizations’ 9th global forum in Fez, Morocco. You can watch the recording here. I was invited by Mr. Miguel Ángel Moratinos, High Representative, United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, after meeting together in September in New York. He talked about the Politics of Being during our panel discussion at minute 46.30: “In his book, [Thomas] really addresses this issue of how we have, in today’s societies, to redefine this element of culture, in order to really understand ourselves much better. The book impacted me, the book is the Politics of Being, that is what we are trying to defend through “culture”: it is our being, our identity, our sense, our history, and I think that it could be also a very good instrument.” The forum was the opportunity to connect with great leaders and initiate collaborations around cultural and civilizational diplomacy.
Here are also the most recent podcasts/ events I took part in:
The Flourishing education podcast: a very fluid conversation beautifully convened by Fabienne Vailes;
with Bobby Austin, as part of the Public Kinship Conversation series, on democratic and civic values, public kinship, community empowerment and racial divides in the US, recorded just before the US midterm election.
The first online Politics of Being presentation in spanish, organized with the Spanish Plum Village Sangha;
If you are thinking of a special gift for your loved ones, consider helping spread the word by sharing the Politics of Being book if you think they belong to this dream.
Wishing you a break that restores your being!
With love and gratitude,
Thomas
