DAN FITZGERALD: [Laughs].
KAT TAYLOR: I’m so honoured to be asked to do this interview. Honestly Dan! I was
reading about your publication and I totally forgot that Dumbo needed his feather to fly
until he didn’t.
Thank you for the opportunity.
[Laughs]. Yes. And that little baby pug would be bothering
you just as much once again.
Kiwi! As in the kiwi fruit.
[Laughs].
Yes. I have the great privilege of travelling the world and hearing from
other people, learning things. I participated in a panel yesterday that was
even more raucous because I was on with a banking expert. I don’t consider
myself a banking expert. But we are, you know, trying to get the insights of
an actual bank. And she schooled me on a couple of points and I was like,
“We are getting somewhere now.” So at the risk of being hopelessly abstract
I think I am growing ever more committed to something I call “mutualism.” It’s not widely
known, but
We can’t do this alone and when we recognise that we need each other, the second we
realise we might likely need help from somebody means that we learn how to offer help
to everybody. And there’s something quite beautiful and sustaining there that is mutually
respectful and levels society in a way that it desperately needs right now. So you can
eliminate divisions based on wealth or academic opportunity or professional credentialing or
gender or experience. And I don’t mean this in the “Pollyannish” way, like, “I don’t stand for
anything so I won’t offend you and I won’t take offence from anyone!” No, I actually believe
that you can be quite principled and still live in a mutual way. It’s the way we’re going to get
to stay here as a species. ’Cause I’m quite certain if we don’t straighten up, Mother Earth will
spit us out like a watermelon seed and pick right up where she left off, and cure the world.
The species would repopulate and differentiate and the atmosphere and oceans would
recover. So the real dilemma is, are we going to act in a way that allows us to stay on the game
board? This is where I am right now.
Paul Williams, the songwriter who went to the
brink of death and back, has this expression
(I don’t know if it’s his or he borrowed it): “It’s
better to love than be right.” I think it’s very natural
and human from an evolutionary background
to fight for resources, to take care of oneself and
their families and their tribe. It’s all programmed into us. But when we make the tribe as big
as possible we actually get more people over the goal line. It’s about not seeing the world
I’m happy to be chatting with you again. It is
almost as if we were back in your living room,
sitting with your dogs [laughs]. I wish we were!
What was her name?
Kiwi, that’s right. I love Kiwi.
So maybe we can kick off. Kat, I’d
love for you to share with us what,
in this moment, your reason for
being is. And how you’re currently
expressing that in the world.
So what were some of the formative experiences
that led you to this point and to be this courageous
advocate for change? What I was hearing from you just
then was that we can be principled and take opposing
views but it’s from a place of mutual respect and love.
I think at the root of it is just a recognition that as
a species of human beings we need each other.
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KAT TAYLOR
DUMBO FEATHER