Cultivate the Possible
Reading & Listening References – Core Influences
Game Design & Theory
Playing Oppression: The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games – Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson
A critical analysis of how colonialist narratives are embedded in mainstream board games. This work directly influenced the foundational shift in New SUM’s mechanics toward community-based, decolonial frameworks.
Cooperative Structures & Collective Action
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds – adrienne maree brown
Blends movement-building, biomimicry, and radical imagination into a philosophy of decentralized, adaptive change. Emphasizes relationships, iteration, and resilience as organizing principles.
Activating the Common Good: Reclaiming Control of Our Collective Well-Being – Peter Block
Focuses on rebuilding community through connection, shared values, and civic responsibility. Advocates for asset-based development and relational power.
The Partnership Way (Audio segment) – Riane Eisler
Introduces Eisler’s model of partnership systems—based on equity, care, and mutual empowerment—as an alternative to domination-based hierarchies in economics, education, and governance.
Community Resilience & Ecological Thought
Paradise Built in Hell – Rebecca Solnit
Explores how people come together to build solidarity, care, and mutual aid during disasters—challenging assumptions about panic and selfishness.
Mycelium Running – Paul Stamets
A deep dive into the ecological power of fungi, offering insights into healing soil, filtering toxins, and forming regenerative networks.
Fantastic Fungi (Documentary)
A visually striking companion to Stamets’ work, showcasing the beauty, science, and cultural role of mushrooms in ecological repair and human consciousness.
Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer (Also listed under Indigenous Perspectives)
A lyrical blend of botany, Indigenous knowledge, and storytelling that explores reciprocity and kinship between humans and the natural world.
Climate, Environment, and Ecological Futures
What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures – Ayana Elizabeth Johnson et al.
Presents imaginative, achievable visions of just and joyful climate futures shaped by community, equity, and creativity.
To Speak for the Trees – Diana Beresford-Kroeger
Part memoir, part ecological manifesto—bridges Indigenous wisdom and Western science to advocate for global tree planting and environmental stewardship.
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate – Naomi Klein (In Progress)
Argues that climate change is a civilizational wake-up call—and capitalism as we know it must be fundamentally restructured.
On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal – Naomi Klein (In Progress)
A passionate collection of essays advocating for intersectional climate justice and systemic economic transformation.
Depth Psychology & Visionary Systems
Jung: A Biography – Deirdre Bair (Completed)
A thorough biography of Carl Jung, tracing his inner life, intellectual development, and relationships. Essential for understanding archetypal theory and Jung’s impact on spiritual and psychological traditions.
The Earth Has a Soul: C.G. Jung on Nature, Technology & Modern Life – C.G. Jung (Started/In Progress)
A collection of essays and excerpts where Jung addresses humanity’s disconnection from the natural world, arguing for a reawakening of the soul through ecology and myth.
The Possible Human – Jean Houston (Completed)
A foundational text in human potential studies, offering exercises and frameworks to expand consciousness, creativity, and perception.
Jump Time: Shaping Your Future in a World of Radical Change – Jean Houston (Completed)
Explores how to navigate rapid global change through inner development, mythic frameworks, and collective awakening.
Life Force: The Psycho-Historical Recovery of the Self – Jean Houston (Completed)
Blends history, psychology, and mysticism to explore the transformation of the human spirit across time and cultures.
A Mythic Life: Learning to Live Our Greater Story – Jean Houston (Completed)
Part memoir, part guide—invites readers to live from a mythic perspective, drawing on symbolic, sacred, and imaginative dimensions of everyday life.
Critical Path – R. Buckminster Fuller (Completed)
Outlines Fuller’s global design science strategy to solve planetary problems through systems thinking, renewable energy, and holistic planning.
Indigenous Perspectives
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States – Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
A foundational reframing of U.S. history through the lens of Indigenous resistance, survivance, and sovereignty.
Our History Is the Future – Nick Estes (Started/In Progress)
Traces the roots of the Standing Rock movement through centuries of Indigenous resistance, situating climate justice in the long arc of colonialism and liberation.
Becoming Kin – Patty Krawec (Started/In Progress)
Combines memoir, Indigenous theology, and decolonial analysis to examine how settler colonialism shaped identity, faith, and belonging—and how to build right relationship with land and people.
Restoring the Kinship Worldview – Wahinkpe Topa (Four Arrows) and Darcia Narváez (Started/In Progress)
Presents 28 Indigenous worldview principles as a counterbalance to Western paradigms, offering guidance for personal, ecological, and social healing.
Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer (Also listed under Ecological Thought) (Started/In Progress)
Blends ecology, botany, and Indigenous philosophy to inspire a life rooted in reciprocity, attention, and gratitude for the natural world.
The Lakota Way: Stories and Lessons for Living – Joseph M. Marshall III
Shares twelve Lakota virtues—such as humility, respect, and bravery—through personal reflections and traditional stories, offering a grounded moral framework rooted in Indigenous values.
Food Justice & Agricultural Sovereignty
Black Food Matters: Racial Justice in the Wake of Food Justice – Hanna Garth and Ashanté M. Reese (Eds.)
Explores how race and food justice intersect in U.S. cities, communities, and policy—highlighting the limitations of race-neutral food movements.
Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land – Leah Penniman
A foundational manual on ecological farming, land access, and ancestral practices rooted in Black agrarian traditions. Blends step-by-step guidance with stories, policy critiques, and a vision for land-based liberation.
The Urban Farmer: Growing Food for Profit on Leased and Borrowed Land – Curtis Stone
A practical guide to small-plot intensive (SPIN) farming in urban environments. Focuses on business efficiency, production planning, and viable low-capital startup models.
We Are the Harvest – Camille T. Dungy
A poetic and narrative exploration of land, labor, ecology, and mothering that connects deeply with ancestral foodways and environmental justice.
Feminist, Spiritual, and Sociocultural Influences
When God Was a Woman – Merlin Stone
Traces the historical suppression of goddess-centered religions and explores how patriarchal systems replaced older matriarchal traditions.
Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation – Silvia Federici
Links the rise of capitalism with the violent subjugation of women, enclosure of commons, and destruction of communal knowledge.
Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Brains, Lives, and Future – Riane Eisler and Douglas Fry
Explores how societies rooted in domination or partnership affect development, relationships, and collective well-being.
Burning Woman – Lucy H. Pearce
Celebrates feminine creative power and spiritual reclamation through the metaphor of fire, tracing cycles of fear, silence, and emergence.
You Are a Goddess: Working with the Sacred Feminine to Awaken, Heal and Transform – Sophie Bashford
Offers intuitive guidance and stories tied to goddess archetypes to support personal healing and empowerment.
Loving Corrections – adrienne maree brown
A community-rooted zine focused on compassionate accountability, peer correction, and care-centered transformative justice.
The Double Goddess: Women Sharing Power – Vicki Noble (Started/In Progress)
Explores the double goddess archetype across ancient cultures and mythology, restoring feminine models of co-creation and sacred duality in contrast to patriarchal monotheism.
Visionary Fiction & Afrofuturism
Parable of the Sower – Octavia Butler (Read)
A prescient dystopian novel set amid climate collapse and social unraveling, where a young visionary seeds a new spiritual and social path rooted in adaptability and mutual care.
Parable of the Talents – Octavia Butler (Started/In Progress)
Continues the story of Earthseed, exploring authoritarianism, community survival, and generational legacy in a fragmented America.
Cooperative Structures & Collective Action
Activating the Common Good: Reclaiming Control of Our Collective Well-Being – Peter Block
Focuses on rebuilding community through connection, shared values, and civic responsibility. Advocates for asset-based development and relational power.
The Partnership Way (Audio segment) – Riane Eisler
Introduces Eisler’s model of partnership systems—based on equity, care, and mutual empowerment—as an alternative to domination-based hierarchies in economics, education, and governance.Anti-Racism & Whiteness Studies
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism – Robin DiAngelo
Explores the defensive moves white people make when challenged racially and how they reinforce systemic racism.
White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White – Daniel Hill
A spiritual and emotional guide for white readers seeking deeper self-awareness and anti-racist transformation.
Personal Archive & Practice-Based References
Loving Corrections – adrienne maree brown (Also listed above)
Pre-2010 Civic Sources
The Century of the Self – BBC Documentary
Explores how Freudian psychology was co-opted by corporations and governments to shape consumer culture and mass compliance.
Iraq for Sale
A documentary investigating war profiteering during the Iraq War, exposing corporate influence over U.S. military operations.
The Ground Truth
Centers the voices of American soldiers before, during, and after their deployments, highlighting the psychological and moral costs of war.
The Corporation
Analyzes the modern corporation as a legal "person" and investigates its systemic role in global inequality, environmental damage, and power consolidation.
Imagine: What America Could Be in the 21st Century – Edited by Marianne Williamson
A collection of visionary essays proposing progressive policies and cultural shifts rooted in compassion and justice.
Nonviolence: 25 Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea – Mark Kurlansky with Dalai Lama
Traces the power of nonviolent resistance across history—from Gandhi to civil rights movements—framing it as a strategic and moral imperative.
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism – Naomi Klein
Exposes how governments and corporations exploit crises—wars, disasters, economic collapses—to implement unpopular neoliberal reforms.
Terrorism and War – Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove
Concise, critical essays challenging mainstream narratives around U.S. foreign policy, imperialism, and the language of terrorism.
A People’s History of the United States – Howard Zinn
A foundational counter-narrative to traditional U.S. history, told from the perspective of workers, Indigenous peoples, women, and civil rights organizers.
Many Children Left Behind: How the No Child Left Behind Act Is Damaging Our Children – Deborah Meier et al.
Critiques the NCLB Act for widening educational inequality, undermining critical thinking, and pushing test-based metrics over learning.
Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America – Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose
Humorous and scathing reporting on the social and environmental fallout of early 2000s U.S. policy decisions.
Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch’s Assault on America’s Fundamental Rights – Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose
Documents the erosion of civil liberties in post-9/11 America through expanded surveillance, indefinite detention, and secrecy.
The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina – Frank Rich
A media-focused critique on how the Bush administration manipulated public perception from the War on Terror to domestic disasters.
Ongoing Media Sources
What if We Get it Right (Podcast)
New York Times
Democracy Now!
Civil Eats
Make Matriarchy Great Again (Podcast)
