Stories Lived. Stories Told.

What have you learned in 2025?...Today, Abbie offers one last, short episode for Season 4. In it, she explores her own reflections on the past year and hopes for the coming year. She invites listeners to join the conversation however they can- emailing [email protected], commenting on YouTube, subscribing and following the CMMi Substack, and joining the CMM LinkedIn Group. ...Stories Lived. Stories Told. is created, produced & hosted by Abbie VanMeter.Stories Lived. Stories Told. is an initiative of the CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution....Music for Stories Lived. Stories Told. is created by Rik Spann....⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Explore all things Stories Lived. Stories Told. here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Explore all things CMM Institute here.

How can you be proactive in your inclusivity?...Today, Abbie, Jamie, and Celia explore disability through the lens of a communication perspective, talking about transforming exclusion into inclusion in every space, changing narratives to focus on "the problem" as an inaccessible society rather than any one disabled individual, unlearning our internalized ableism as a necessary step for all of us, becoming proactive rather than reactive in our inclusive accessibility practices, and creating space for more stories that acknowledge both the systemic nature of ableism with the individual experiences of disability. ...Jamie Shields is a multi-award-winning Disability, Speaker, Trainer and Consultant, Content Creator and Disability Advocate, Registered Blind AuDHD Rhino, the UK’s 2nd most influential grassroots Disability advocate. Celia Chartres-Aris is a Disabled Government Advisor, Founder & Investor, Multi-Award Winning Campaigner and Lobbyist, Researcher, Policy and Legal Expert, Speaker and Consultant, recognised as the UK’s most influential Disabled person. Together, they are the founders of Disabled By Society, a 100% Disabled owned and led business transforming exclusion to inclusion. 17% of the world’s population identifies as Disabled, making us the largest minority group in the world. Despite this, ableism is one of the most under addressed, under-discussed, and underrepresented conversations in society. Society is failing to unlearn our inherent ableism. Everyday, Disabled people face aggressions, encounter inaccessible barriers, are excluded, overlooked, treated as a burden, or seen as a problem to be fixed. As a result, Disabled people are often left to manage internalised ableism in this ableist society. We are on a mission to change this. We cant sit back and do nothing. We partner globally across all sectors to remove the ableism ingrained in cultures, recruitment, products and services, policies, and everything in between. We make the uncomfortable comfortable, ending cycles of oppression and creating an inclusive society that is accessible, empowers, represents and provides opportunity for everyone. Our ground-breaking research and policy work has fed into reviews and cited across the world as never-before-seen data by and for the Disabled community. And through policy, lobbying, consultancy, training, an award-winning podcast, Celia and Jamie deliver award-winning solutions that transform Disability exclusion to inclusion. Having worked with some of the biggest brands and charities in the world, creating systematic change for the 2 billion people affected by ableism.Order Jamie and Celia's book, Unlearning Ableism: The Ultimate No-Nonsense Guide to Understanding Disability and Unlearning Ableism. ...Stories Lived. Stories Told. is created, produced & hosted by Abbie VanMeter.Stories Lived. Stories Told. is an initiative of the CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution....Music for Stories Lived. Stories Told. is created by Rik Spann....⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Explore all things Stories Lived. Stories Told. here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Explore all things CMM Institute here.

What makes you a designer? ...Today, Abbie, Claudia, and Chris explore radical changes in learning around systems thinking and design over time, along with the implications for future designers, which includes all of us. This conversation was recorded in front of a live audience as part of the RSDX Online Festival on Sunday, October 5, 2025. Join the RSDX Zoom Event here to watch the recording of Claudia and Chris' presentation 'Configuring Incompossible Futures'....Claudia Westermann is an artist-researcher and licensed architect. She is Associate Professor of Creative Practice in the School of Design and the Built Environment at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, a member of the German Chamber of Architects, Vice President of the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC), and co-editor of the journal Technoetic Arts. Claudia Westermann's projects have been widely exhibited and presented, including at the Venice Biennale, the Moscow International Film Festival, ISEA Symposium for the Electronic Arts, and the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Germany. She has received awards for her practice and teaching, including two provincial and three national awards. For her visionary engagement fostering systemic education, research, and practice, she received the Margaret Mead Prize from the American Society for Cybernetics in 2024.Chris Speed FRSE, FRSA is Professor of Design for Regenerative Futures at RMIT, Melbourne, where he works with communities and partners to explore how design supports transitions toward regenerative societies. He has a strong record of leading major grants and educational programmes with academic, industry and third-sector collaborators, applying design and data methods to address social, environmental and economic challenges. From 2022 to 2024, he served as Director of the Edinburgh Futures Institute, where he led the transformation of the historic Old Royal Infirmary into a world-leading centre for interdisciplinary teaching, research and innovation. Between 2018 and 2024, he directed Creative Informatics, a £7.4 million UKRI-funded cluster that supported data-driven innovation in the creative industries. From 2012 to 2022, he was Co-Director of the Institute for Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, which he helped build into the College’s largest research centre and a nationally recognised leader in interactive media. In 2020, he received the University of Edinburgh Chancellor’s Award for Research and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh....Stories Lived. Stories Told. is created, produced & hosted by Abbie VanMeter.Stories Lived. Stories Told. is an initiative of the CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution....Music for Stories Lived. Stories Told. is created by Rik Spann....⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Explore all things Stories Lived. Stories Told. here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Explore all things CMM Institute here.

In what ways are you a designer?...Today, Abbie, Hannah, and Mathilda explore the dissonance between prioritizing the present and/ or the future; the discomfort (and opportunity for learning) that comes with awkward spaces; the power of storytelling for expanding our imagination; and the importance of designing with emergence in mind. This conversation was recorded in front of a live audience as part of the RSDX Online Festival on Friday, October 3, 2025. Join the RSDX Zoom Event here to watch the recording of Mathilda and Hannah's presentation, 'Retrospective and Prospective Storytelling of Metadesign Research and Education Impacts—A 60-Year Arc.'...Hannah Jones is a design educator and researcher with over 20 years of experience in co-designing sustainable, inclusive futures. She currently supervises PhDs with a focus on metadesigning at University of Wales Trinity St. David, Wales, UK. Her teaching practice, research and workshop facilitation brings together metadesign tools and approaches inspired by her research at Goldsmiths, University of London and designing thinking and intersectional approaches to designing from her time working at Stanford University at the Institute for Design (d.school).Mathilda Tham is Professor of Design at Linnaeus University, Sweden and affiliated with Goldsmiths, University of London.Her metadesign research seeks to develop uncompromisingly systemic and holistic approaches to living within Earth's limits, connecting environmental issues with social justice and mental health, and individual needs with global sustainability. It has resulted in: new ways to meet around the infected forest issue, new rituals to integrate different generations, a recipe book for making homes within Earth's limits, new professional designer roles, new policy initiatives.  She is co-creator of + Change education and research environment, co-author of the Earth Logic Fashion Action Research Plan and co-founder Union of Concerned Researchers in Fashion. See www.mathildatham.com...Stories Lived. Stories Told. is created, produced & hosted by Abbie VanMeter.Stories Lived. Stories Told. is an initiative of the CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution....Music for Stories Lived. Stories Told. is created by Rik Spann....⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Explore all things Stories Lived. Stories Told. here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Explore all things CMM Institute here.

Welcome to the RSD14 Participant Podcast!...Today, Abbie is joined by the participants of the Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD14) Conference in Toronto to reflect on their own experiences of both the online and in-person conference, the stories and contexts around design that they bring with them, and the conversations they are a part of and what they hope is next for this community. In this episode, you will hear from 13 conference participants who stopped to speak with Abbie during the conference itself. These conversations were recorded onsite at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada at the RSD14 Conference between October 16-18, 2025. Please excuse the sometimes wonky audio quality, as this was an experiment in podcasting on the go in a public space :) ...Stories Lived. Stories Told. is created, produced & hosted by Abbie VanMeter.Stories Lived. Stories Told. is an initiative of the CMM Institute for Personal and Social Evolution....Music for Stories Lived. Stories Told. is created by Rik Spann....⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Explore all things Stories Lived. Stories Told. here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Explore all things CMM Institute here.