episode 291 | Jun 3, 2026 | 84min

Exploring Love, Power and Justice

In this episode we speak with Adam Kahane and Jennifer Garvey Berger about the enduring tension between love and power, and how this cultural moment is inviting us into a deeper understanding of justice, interdependence, and collective flourishing. Together, we explore how individual and collective development, nervous system resilience, and an expanded sense of kinship can help us move beyond fragmentation and into new ways of being and belonging in a rapidly changing world.
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In this podcast we talk about:

00:00 The age-old battle between love and power
06:30 Falling apart and coming back together
14:00 Balancing and integrating love and power
22:00 Internal capacity and external structure
30:00 The nervous system and behavioural regression
36:00 The conflict between power and love
44:00 Evolving our concept of justice
50:00 Safeguarding the “We” as well as the “I”
58:30 The third dimension of Kin
1:07:30 Interdependence and kinship
1:14:30 The invitation of this cultural moment

Resources Mentioned:

Recline Podcast
Power and love, by Adam Kahane
Otto Scharmer 
Paul Tillich
The Big Lebowski
Barry Johnson
Bill Torbert
James Hillman
Lydia Polgreen
Heidi Brooks
John Gottman
Moral Man and Immoral Society, by Reinhold Niebuhr
Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems, by Adam Kahane
Collaborating with the Enemy, by Adam Kahane

About the Guests

Adam Kahane

Adam Kahane is a Co-Founder of Reos Partners, an international social enterprise that helps people move forward together on their most important and intractable issues. He is a leading organizer, designer and facilitator of processes through which business, government, and civil society leaders can work together to address such challenges. He is a Member of the Order of Canada, was named a “Social Innovator of the Year” by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, and is the author of Solving Tough Problems, Power and Love, Transformative Scenario Planning, Collaborating with the Enemy, Facilitating Breakthrough, and Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems.

WEBSITE
https://reospartners.com

Jennifer Garvey Berger

Jennifer Garvey Berger is endlessly curious about how humans grow — especially when things get messy, uncertain, and dizzyingly complex. A Harvard-trained researcher turned global leadership thinker, she has spent decades helping leaders untangle big questions and find more spacious, courageous, and effective ways to be in the world. As CEO and co-founder of Cultivating Leadership, she works with individuals and organizations to bring more wisdom, compassion, and genuine transformation into how people lead. All four of her books — Changing on the Job, Simple Habits for Complex Times, Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps, and Unleash Your Complexity Genius — are published by Stanford University Press. She is American by birth and now lives in the French countryside, where she bought a house with fourteen friends who are trying to keep the dogs from terrifying the cats — and to figure out, in quotidian terms, what it means to live and love well.

https://themeadow.space/
www.cultivatingleadership.co.nz

About the Host

Joel Monk

Joel Monk is a leadership coach, educator and entrepreneur. He co-founded Coaches Rising, a company on the cutting edge of online coach training with a community of over 65,000 coaches. Coaches Rising programs regularly include participants from every continent on the planet and they have collaborated with some of the leading minds in the field of human development and coaching. Joel is also a leadership coach, coaching at companies such as THNK, Booking.com, Siemens and Naspers. Joel has designed and led several entrepreneurial and leadership development programs, at places such as Socionext, THNK and The Impact Hub Amsterdam.

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