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Video Library
An easy way to find all the published videos in The Shared Centre series and it's complementary series: Talking it through.
Part 1 - The Shared and The Private
How come so many bad guys get to the top? Because, all our institutions - political, corporate and intellectual – reward self-interest. We can change that.
Talking it through
Nicholas explores the ideas in Video 1 with Irish comedian Colm O’Regan
Video 1 - Why are our leaders so self-serving?
Main Video
Video 2 - How teamwork made us human
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Humans didn’t rise to the top just because we’re individually smart — we did it by cooperating in large, complex groups. That’s our superpower.
But today, it’s under siege.
Talking it through
Video 3 - How insiders are sabotaging our institutions
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When shared purpose decays, competition turns toxic. Weak governance lets self-interest overwhelm the common good — corrupting our institutions, our politics, and our planet.
Talking it through
Video 4 - We can't talk it through any more: why?
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Conversations should be our most powerful tool for understanding, yet they are increasingly being twisted into manipulative performances.
Talking it through
Video 5 - Shouldn't truth drive our legal system - not winning?
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What happens when justice is treated like a game where the players also act as the umpire? When legal systems reward predation over truth, they corrode trust. Understanding this is essential to make fairer institutions.
Talking it through
Video 6 - The lie hiding in every "expert" opinion
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Our society depends on both private and public goods. By understanding how private and shared purposes thrive together or fall apart, we can start imagining a new Magna Carta for our time.
Talking it through
Video 7 - Why democracy is failing
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Democracy feels like it’s in trouble. We see ferocious political competition, polarisation, and attacks on the very rules of the game. Institutions that were supposed to protect the "shared centre" are being eroded.
Talking it through
Video 8 - How politics became theatre
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Why does modern politics feel so much like theatre? It's a problem that stretches right back to ancient Athens, where the very layout of the citizen assembly favoured the charismatic and the power-hungry.
Talking it through
90% of Voters Hate This, But Politicians Do It Anyway
Interview on #Transitzone podcast
As I’ve watched masked men kidnapping people off the streets in the US and reflected on the obvious hostility to democracy itself from a large faction of the most powerful people in the US, a new kind of urgency has come over me.
Given that, having finished releasing Part One of The Shared Centre with the last video, I’m offering you this recent interview with Peter Clarke on the #Transitzone podcast as my own kind of ‘reset’ to the seriousness of our situation.
Part 2 - Choosing Leaders
Video 9 - The dark secret behind democracy
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We all want good leaders in our democracy, but what if politics, elections, and the very systems we use to choose them actually give narcissists and bad leaders a leg up?
Talking it through
Video 10 - What honest people hate about politics
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Why are so many decent, honest people repelled by politics-as-usual? I use the story of Mal Meninga, the celebrated Australian rugby captain, who famously tried politics and quit 30 seconds into his first interview.