Common Good Podcast

Common Good Podcast x The Liminal Space Episode 5: Reorienting Towards Community and Radical Imagination with Leila

What would it look like if any two people could sit at a table and have a conversation? In this episode, Tristan and Rashid begin with a wide-ranging exploration of shared consciousness, Ubuntu, and the Hebrew concept of tzedakah, before introducing Leila Kidson, a social systems researcher, facilitator, and designer who co-founded the social design studio OCTOPI.Through a clip from the original Liminal Space episode, Leila paints a picture of radical imagination that is refreshingly honest. Not a world where everyone is happy, but one where we have the capacity to sit across from someone we disagree with and recognise their humanity. She asks what happens when survival needs are met, when communities are modular rather than insular, when walls become picket fences. Tristan and Rashid then reflect on the impediments to even simple human connection, from visa hierarchies to the way wealth privatises our lives, and close with questions about neighbours, kindness, and bridging the distance from your front door to theirs.THEMESUbuntu. Radical imagination. Communal vs individual living. Any two people at a table. Shared consciousness. Picket fences, not walls. Future generations. Tzedakah and right standing.LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODEThis episode features clips from The Liminal Space Season 2, Episode 13: Reorienting Ourselves Toward Community and Building Bridges with Leila Kidson. The full conversation is available on all podcast platforms.Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyWatch on YouTubeFEATURED VOICESLeila Kidson is a social systems researcher, facilitator, and designer focused on better integrating grassroots voices into systems design, advocacy and action. She is co-founder of OCTOPI, a South African social design studio.Tristan Pringle is a life and executive coach, facilitator, and poet based in Cape Town.Rashid Adams is a musician, songwriter, music producer, and ethnomusicologist based in Cape Town.CREDITS| Produced by | Rashid Epstein Adams| Music by | Rashid Epstein Adams (AKA Arkenstone) and Pursuit| A collaboration between | The Common Good Podcast & The Liminal Space PodcastLINKS| Podcast | linktr.ee/theliminalspacepod | Substack | theliminalspacepodcast.substack.com | Instagram | @theliminalspacepod

Common Good Podcast x The Liminal Space Episode 4: Music, Courage and Resisting Collusion with Ncedisa

What does it take to stop colluding with systems that dehumanise us? In this episode, Tristan and Rashid explore the role music plays in grounding us, reminding us of our humanity, and giving us the courage to resist. They introduce us to Ncedisa Nkonyeni, an African-centred systems change and field learning partner who teaches organisations to apply systems change to their strategies and partners with collectives committed to organisational well-being.In a clip from the original Liminal Space episode, Ncedisa shares a story about a Tori Amos lyric that gave her the courage to walk away from a scholarship when she realised the research she was being asked to do was fundamentally afrophobic. From there, Tristan and Rashid reflect on what it means to negotiate our own complicity within unjust systems, and whether giving, in all its forms, could become an act of laying down power rather than exercising it.THEMESMusic as resistance. Non-collusion. Ethical courage. Complicity and the status quo. Giving as laying down power. Joy as humanizing. Systems change.LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODEThis episode features clips from The Liminal Space Season 2, Episode 10: Systems Thinking and Rehumanising Narratives with Ncedisa Nkonyeni. The full conversation is available on all podcast platforms.Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyWatch on YouTubeFEATURED VOICESNcedisa Nkonyeni is an African-centred systems change and field learning partner. She teaches systems change, helps organisations apply it to their strategies, and partners with collectives committed to discovering organisational well-being.Tristan Pringle is a life and executive coach, facilitator, and poet based in Cape Town.Rashid Adams is a musician, songwriter, music producer, and ethnomusicologist based in Cape Town.CREDITS| Produced by | Rashid Epstein Adams| Music by | Rashid Epstein Adams (AKA Arkenstone) and Pursuit| A collaboration between | The Common Good Podcast & The Liminal Space PodcastLINKS| Podcast | linktr.ee/theliminalspacepod | Substack | theliminalspacepodcast.substack.com | Instagram | @theliminalspacepod

Common Good Podcast x The Liminal Space Episode 3: Critical Hope and the New Imagination with Ashley and Helene

What kind of hope is worth holding onto? In this episode, Tristan and Rashid unpack the idea of critical hope, drawing on the work of Jeff Duncan-Andrade and a powerful quote from Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of Hope. They introduce us to Ashley and Helene Visagie, founders of Bottom Up, a Cape Town youth organisation that equips teenagers with tools of critical thought to question the systems around them rather than simply plugging gaps.In clips from the original Liminal Space episode, Ashley describes the shift from fixing broken toilets to asking why they’re broken in the first place, and how capitalism alienates us from our work, each other, and the environment. Helene speaks about telling kids the truth without leaving them stranded in despair, and what it takes to move forward together. Tristan and Rashid reflect on when they first encountered critical thinking, and why imagining a new world requires us to question the imagination behind the current one. The episode closes with a guided imagination exercise inviting listeners to picture their neighbourhood 20 years from now.THEMESCritical hope. Democratizing critical thought. Stop plugging gaps. Alienation under capitalism. Education as liberation. Imagination as action. Youth as co-constructors of change.LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODEThis episode features clips from The Liminal Space Season 1, Episode 3: Critical Hope and Being Human with Ashley Visagie. The full conversation is available on all podcast platforms.Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on SpotifyWatch on YouTubeFEATURED VOICESAshley & Helene Visagie are the founders of Bottom Up, a Cape Town-based youth organisation that develops socially engaged leaders who can critically analyse how political, economic, and cultural systems produce inequality, and then organise to change them.Tristan Pringle is a life and executive coach, facilitator, and poet based in Cape Town.Rashid Adams is a musician, songwriter, music producer, and ethnomusicologist based in Cape Town.CREDITS | Produced by | Rashid Epstein Adams | Music by | Rashid Epstein Adams (AKA Arkenstone) and Pursuit | A collaboration between | The Common Good Podcast & The Liminal Space PodcastLINKS| Podcast | linktr.ee/theliminalspacepod | Substack | theliminalspacepodcast.substack.com | Instagram | @theliminalspacepod

Common Good Podcast x The Liminal Space Episode 2: A Safe Space in a Not-So-Safe Place with Bongeka and Aphiwe

In this episode, Tristan and Rashid take us to Khayelitsha, one of South Africa’s largest townships, about 20 miles southeast of central Cape Town. Built during apartheid-era forced removals, Khayelitsha continues to bear the scars of spatial inequality. But in the heart of its informal settlements, two young founders, Bongeka and Aphiwe (Qhama), have created something remarkable: Thembisa Ratanga, a community space they describe as “a safe space in a not-so-safe place.”Through a clip from the original Liminal Space episode, we hear Bongeka and Aphiwe reflect on the deep connection between nature, spirituality, and the body. Yoga poses that imitate trees and birds. Sunsets you don’t plan but can’t avoid. The quiet gift of a wetland on the edge of a township. Tristan and Rashid then unpack what it means to “just be” in a world that demands we constantly produce or consume, and ask whether rest itself might be a revolutionary act.THEMESComing home to our bodies. Being vs doing. Nature as teacher. Rest as resistance. Spatial apartheid and its legacy. Yoga in the township. Eliminating economic isolation.LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODEThis episode features a clip from The Liminal Space Season 2, Episode 11: What happens when we reclaim our stories and find home in our bodies? With Bongeka and Aphiwe. The full conversation runs about an hour and is available on all podcast platforms.Listen on Apple PodcastsFEATURED VOICESBongeka & Aphiwe (Qhama) are the founders of Thembisa Ratanga, a Khayelitsha-based NPO that uses education, art, and sport as tools for community development and self-empowerment. Their space has been dubbed “a waterfront in the township.”Tristan Pringle is a life and executive coach, facilitator, and poet based in Cape Town.Rashid Adams is a musician, songwriter, music producer, and ethnomusicologist based in Cape Town.SUPPORT THEMBISA RATANGABongeka and Aphiwe are currently running a BackaBuddy campaign to support day-to-day logistics and building improvements for the kids in their community. If you’d like to contribute, visit the link below.CREDITS | Produced by | Rashid Adams | Music by | Arkenstone | A collaboration between | Common Good Podcast & The Liminal Space PodcastLINKS| BackaBuddy | backabuddy.co.za/campaign/tembisa-ratanga | Full Episode | Listen on Apple Podcasts | Podcast | linktr.ee/theliminalspacepod | Substack | theliminalspacepodcast.substack.com | Instagram | @theliminalspacepod

Common Good Podcast x The Liminal Space Episode 1: Welcome to the Liminal Space with Tristan and Rashid

What happens when imagination meets reality? In this pilot episode, we kick off a special miniseries in collaboration with The Liminal Space Podcast, bringing voices from Cape Town, South Africa to the Common Good conversation. Hosts Tristan Pringle and Rashid Adams introduce themselves, share what drew them to the idea of liminality, and explore the stories that ground them right now, from earth as a shared garden to the liberating power of intuition. The episode closes with a collectively written poem on imagination, storytelling, and the search for glimpses of a better world.ABOUT THE SERIESOver seven episodes, this miniseries brings a Global South perspective to the Common Good Podcast’s core themes: the significance of place, eliminating economic isolation, and the structure of belonging. Through conversations with guests in Cape Town, from yoga practitioners in Khayelitsha to musicians, educators, and community organisers, we explore what it looks like to rebuild belonging in the wake of extraction and inherited inequality.ABOUT THE GUESTSTristan Pringle is a life and executive coach, facilitator, and poet based in Cape Town. He works across faith-based, corporate, and grassroots organisations to hold space for dreams of a better world, and to make them real.Rashid Adams is a musician, songwriter, music producer, and researcher based in Cape Town. His academic work explores how indigenous music-making within decolonial Christian frameworks functions as a form of sacred resistance.CREDITS | Produced by | Rashid Adams | Music by | Arkenstone | A collaboration between | Common Good Podcast & The Liminal Space PodcastLINKS| Podcast | linktr.ee/theliminalspacepod | Substack | theliminalspacepodcast.substack.com | Instagram | @theliminalspacepod