If you missed the previous two episodes, go here

This is Part Three of Four -- A deep dive of Richard David Hames’ essay, “Beyond The Cracked Mirror: The Psychic Contract of a Dying Paradigm"

Key highlights:

1. The Psychic Contract: The Illusion of Change Without Real Change

2. Truth as Territory: The Fragmentation of Reality

3. The Masculine Shell: Power, Vulnerability, and Leadership

Because Doing Better Starts with Seeing Clearly

Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.

The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.

Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.

Continuing oue deep dive into the work of Richard David Hames, using his essay "The Mirror Cracks: Donald Trump and the American Psyche” as a lens to examine the foundational patterns driving both climate crisis and the broader malaise of modern capitalism, the episodes looks at the final three of Richard's six insights.

-The Epistemological Break

-The Civilization Crisis

-Nature as a Resource

You may also find this 2018 talk illuminating

Key Takeaways for Leaders:

Are we defending comfortable but flawed realities in our sustainability efforts?

How can we shift from treating nature as a resource to honoring it as a living system?

Recognize that climate action, democracy, and economic systems are deeply interconnected.

Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.

The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.

Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.

Let’s face it: the world is on fire—sometimes literally. The systems that built our prosperity are now threatening our future. As host Charlene Norman puts it, “You cannot build regenerative systems on extractive foundations. You cannot create sustainable solutions using the same logic that created the crisis.”

This episode isn’t about bashing the U.S. or any one leader. It’s about recognizing the global export of American-style capitalism and its consequences. If you’re leading a business, you’re not just a bystander—you’re a participant. The question is: are you perpetuating these patterns, or are you ready to help break them?

Diving deep into the work of Richard David Hames, using his essay "The Mirror Cracks: Donald Trump and the American Psyche” as a lens to examine the foundational patterns driving both climate crisis and the broader malaise of modern capitalism, the episodes looks at three of Richard's six insights

-The Extractive Imperative

-The Spectacle State

-The Fortress Fantasy

You may also find this 2018 talk illuminating

Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.

The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.

Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.

Business leaders and executives know exactly what power and dominance are. That is the goal behind every scaling move for market share, for revenue and for profit. It works until it doesn't. There is a race in the geo political landscape that will suffer the exact same fate. The pursuit of energy.
Whether fossil fuel or clean tech, both will indeed scale. Both will work, until they don't. Because both are EXTRACXTIVE. Both do nothing for planetary health. So, why are we doing them? Power and Dominance. And who will win that race?

Tune in for the better questions we need to ask. Because simply swapping one for another comes with a complete set of different issues.

Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.

The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.

Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.

Business leaders and executives are no strangers to tough decisions, but what happens when the stakes are nothing less than the future of our planet?

Host Charlene Norman presents a masterclass in leadership under uncertainty. She weaves together the urgency of the climate crisis, the fragility of democracy, and the overwhelming complexity of our times. Drawing on insights from sustainability leader Richard Threlfall and climate architect Christiana Figueres, she challenges us to rethink not just what we do, but what we value. You can find the countdown clock here.

Key HIghlights

-The Climate Countdown: Why Urgency Is Non-Negotiable

-The Interconnected Crises: Climate, Democracy, and Human Systems

-Beyond Technology: The Real Work Is Cultural

-The Power of Voice: Why Silence Is Not an Option

-Three Frameworks for Sustainable Action

-The Human Work: Shifting Values from Wealth to Stewardship

-Your Voice Is Enough—History Proves It

Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.

The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.

Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.

Host Charlene Norman explores the premise that while this podcast has helped build a bridge between business and the planet, the world on both sides of that bridge is shifting. And super fast. The question is no longer just how to get across the bridge , but what to do when the ground itself is unstable and the river is rising.

She identifies four critical “gaps” that business leaders must now confront:

1. Collective Grief
2. Intergenerational Repair
3. Power Dynamics
4. Scale and Triage

In other words, the real work now lies in the messy, uncertain territory beyond:

Facing grief, repairing generational divides, challenging entrenched power, and making hard choices about where to focus our efforts. Clearly there are no easy answers left.

Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.

The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.

Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.

Host Charlene Norman unpacks the key themes of the past podcasts and explores what it truly takes to drive transformation in the face of climate change and entrenched business systems. Spoiler: it’s not about quick wins or clever marketing. It’s about trust, courage, and a willingness to play the long game.

What gets covered

-Trust is Infrastructure: Rebuilding What We Broke

-Market Forces: Not Natural Laws, But Human Constructions

-Design for the Margins: Why Inclusion Benefits Everyone

-Time Horizons: Aligning Business with Planetary Timelines

-Putting It All Together: The Path Forward

Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.

The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.

Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.

A reflection of the podcast learnings of the last nearly four years. With host Charlene Norman

Covering these key highlights

-The Myth of the Success Story

-The Decades-Long Timeline of Real Change

-Individual vs. Systemic Change: The Paradox at the Heart of Transformation

-A Realistic Timeline: The Five Stages of Transformation

-Asking Better Questions Together

Ready to benchmark your leadership impact? Take this 5-minute Stewardship Quiz and get a personalized report showing exactly where you rank - plus actionable strategies to elevate your performance.

The 5Cs Podcast connects forward-thinking executives who are building sustainable competitive advantages while driving positive impact. Think of it as an exclusive network of leaders who understand that stewardship isn't just good ethics - it's good business.

Connect with Charlene Norman on LinkedIn, find her at her website, subscribe to our Substack for strategic insights, or download the full series on Spotify and Apple.