Can Money Serve Life? How to Fund Communities Doing the Real Work with Matthew Monahan

**Matthew Monahan** (0:00)
There's always this invisible thread of people acting on behalf of life. We need to be much more coordinated across the planet, and money is the predominant coordinating tool and technology amongst humans on this planet right now. And so the question is, how do we actually bring those resources into the communities and the front lines work? Regenerative Finance and Regenerative Economics is an effort to put life back at the center.

**Nate Hagens** (0:32)
You're listening to The Great Simplification. I'm Nate Hagens. On this show, we describe how energy, the economy, the environment and human behavior all fit together and what it might mean for our future. By sharing insights from global thinkers, we hope to inform and inspire more humans to play emergent roles in the coming Great Simplification.
Today, I'm pleased to welcome a leading voice in regenerative funding for community-led projects, Matthew Monahan, to discuss the frontier methods that he and his organization are exploring to break free of the limitations of conventional philanthropy and conventional financing. Matthew Monahan is the co-founder of Ma Earth, a community-led movement aiming to align economic incentives with planetary health and regeneration. He also hosts The Regeneration Will Be Funded, a podcast that explores the intersections of regenerative finance, technology and ecological health. He's also involved in regenerative agriculture, specifically through Mangaroa Farms in Eotoria, New Zealand, a regenerative farm and educational hub. This farm works on transforming dairy and pine plantations to more regenerative systems and reforesting and building local food infrastructure and engaging communities. This conversation centers heavily on regenerative finance, which is maybe somewhat of a niche for many viewers on this channel. With that said, a central piece of our content is to cover a wide breadth of topics with the understanding that we're trying to connect many siloed pieces of our shared predicament, and whether you love it or hate it, finance is a social technology that will be a key component of whatever futures arise, including exploring what a more regenerative financial system might look like, and how it could serve our collective future.
If we consider finance itself to be a social technology akin to money or governance, I think Matthew is on the leading edge of such innovation. As of the release of this episode, Ma Earth, his organization, is on their third round of funding for land stewardship and regenerative land projects. The link to which you can find in the description below or in the show notes on our website, thegreatsimplification.com. With that, please welcome my friend Matthew Monahan.
Matthew Monahan, at long last.

**Matthew Monahan** (3:23)
Hey, Nate.

**Nate Hagens** (3:24)
Welcome to the program. I've been on your show, and we've been scheduling this for over two years. So finally, we are here. Thank you for getting up very early in Hawaii to speak with me today.

**Matthew Monahan** (3:38)
It's my pleasure.

**Nate Hagens** (3:38)
Thanks. I've invited you despite the fact that we are friends because of your work at Ma Earth, which is a nonprofit focused on sharing ideas and building tools for planetary health and regeneration through podcasts like you have Ma Earth, but also funding initiatives and other projects, while also utilizing financial technologies like cryptocurrencies and blockchain. So maybe to start, could you give us an overview on why our current monetary and financial systems prevent capital and then projects from the capital, from getting to these critical regeneration ideas, and why that is limiting our ability to create systems that better serve humanity, the future, and the planet?

**Matthew Monahan** (4:33)
Thanks for having me on, Nate. And yeah, it's a very big question.
I think people who listen to your show and watch your show, like it's well understood that the economic system is not really conducive to the conditions for life on the planet, or directly at odds in many cases, with kind of the thriving of life on this beautiful earth. And so, you know, the question is like, what's preventing that and why is it that it's more profitable to destroy old growth Amazonian rainforest for palm oil plantations, or why are we squeezing out margins for this quarter's fishing company at the expense of bottom trawling our precious ocean ecosystems. But then, you know, I think my experience is that the regenerative spirit that we all share, like is very alive and well. It may not be mainstream culture and discourse, but if you go into any small town, any urban center, any rural community, like, there's always this invisible thread of people, they may not call it regeneration, but really acting on behalf of life. You know, whether they're starting a community compost program or organizing with teachers and parents to put a garden in a school, or creating the nursery to try to increase the reforestation efforts, or, you know, picking up trash. Like, there's just this, like, incredible tapestry of regenerative activities that is happening all the time.