Conversation

One of sixty-seven. Same opening question, a different world behind the answer.

← All conversations

Rufus Pollock is an entrepreneur, researcher and technologist working to create an open information age. Founder and President of Open Knowledge, a leading international non-profit that empowers people and organizations with access to information and the tools and skills to make sense of it. A recognized global expert on open data and open knowledge. He has worked with multiple governments, IGOs such as the World Bank and the UN, businesses and CSOs.

You can find more about his projects here:
https://lifeitself.org/
https://secondrenaissance.net/
https://secondrenaissance.net/oasis
https://secondrenaissance.net/paper
https://lifeguild.earth/

About Life Itself
We’re a collective of pragmatic utopians, committed to practical action for a radically wiser, weller world. Our team includes artists, technologists, researchers and contemplatives. We create conscious coliving hubs, start businesses, do research and engage in activism to pioneer a wiser culture and plant the seeds of a second renaissance.
We’ve created startups, been exhibited in galleries, developed global non-profits and carried out academic research. We are ordinary people choosing an extra-ordinary path, a community seeking to integrate presence with purpose.

Second Renaissance

Our current civilization is crumbling, leading to a period of crisis and potential rebirth – what we call a second renaissance. There are many terms associated with it: great turning, metamodern, metacrisis, integral, teal, liminal web, gameB, regenerative and more.The Second Renaissance initiative provides an introduction to this moment of civilization crisis and awakening — and a home for a growing community of people who are supportive of a Second Renaissance and working to make it happen.

Every conversation with this guest

Keep listening

67 conversations in all

All conversations

Probability Spaces

What does it mean to consciously participate in the evolutionary movement of life? In this conversation, Alexander Laszlo and I explore Syntony, the dynamic harmony of life, and how love, consciousness, surrender and agency can help us become living expressions of the Third Attractor.

84 min · 14 Oct 2026 · 140 views

Indigenous Wisdom

In this conversation, Tiokasin Ghosthorse brings a Lakota perspective on intuition, consciousness, our relationship with Earth and the possibility of rediscovering a way of living that modern civilization has largely lost.

69 min · 10 Oct 2026 · 298 views

Falling in Love with the Future

What can twenty years of the Transition movement teach us about creating a different future from the ground up? Rob Hopkins and I explore community-led change, local economies and why rebuilding our collective imagination may be one of the most important steps towards a Third Attractor.

68 min · 28 Sep 2026 · 143 views

Leadership and Complexity

How do we stay open and creative when complexity makes us want to contract into certainty and simple answers? We explore leadership, human development, relationships, AI and why creating a different future requires us to grow our capacity to meet the unknown.

80 min · 22 Sep 2026 · 87 views