A forthcoming book · Weekly essays

Changing Stories,
Finding Hope.

The world we have is not inevitable. It is the product of stories — about human selfishness, the necessity of growth, the virtue of competition, our right to dominate nature — repeated so often they feel like facts. They are not.

Forthcoming

Changing
Stories

Finding Hope

Oliver Dudok van Heel

A book in the making — coming soon.

The Book

Each story is a culturally determined narrative which, once seen for what it is, can be changed — creating the possibility of a better future.

Changing Stories, Finding Hope critiques the societal narratives destroying people and planet — selfishness, endless growth, competition, dominion — and traces clear, practical ways beyond them. It is for anyone who senses that the way things are is not the way they have to be.

Coming soon. Subscribe for chapter previews and release news.

Weekly Essays

From the Substack

New writing every week — short essays on the narratives shaping our economy, politics and ecology.

Recent essays

  1. Despite our differences

    Let's talk, let's listen, let's find our shared humanity

    Read on Substack →

  2. Normalising the abnormal

    Nothing about extreme weather events, institutional poverty or fascism is normal. It’s time to call this out.

    Read on Substack →

  3. This crisis is the perfect opportunity for sustainable companies

    They just need a little help.

    Read on Substack →

  4. Is the profit motive a barrier to a better society?

    How not for profit business can be the key to a sustainable future

    Read on Substack →

  5. Why Saturday's rallies give me hope for the future

    Have we finally seen the awakening of the silent majority?

    Read on Substack →

  6. System blindness, or have we just lost our senses?

    How our obsession with fossil fuels is killing people, planet and future.

    Read on Substack →

  7. Why competition is harming us

    Competition is a choice. So is collaboration. Let’s make better choices.

    Read on Substack →

  8. What my Mother taught me about tribalism

    War in the Middle-East is fuelled by constant dehumanisation of the other. There is another way.

    Read on Substack →

  9. The dirty waters of dysfunctional capitalism

    How the sole pursuit of growth blinds us to its systemic impacts

    Read on Substack →

See all essays on Substack →

Portrait of Oliver Dudok van Heel

About

Oliver Dudok van Heel

Writer, musician, music promoter — and recovering corporate sustainability consultant.

It took Oliver a quarter of a century to realise that corporations cannot become truly sustainable within our current economic system. He now teaches sustainability at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership and is writing Changing Stories, Finding Hope — a critique of the societal narratives destroying people and planet, and a map of the ways to move beyond them.

Based in the Scottish Highlands, he plays in festival busking legends The Magnificent Kevens, promotes grassroots music events, and is passionate about shaping a better world for current and future generations.

Get in touch

For talks, interviews, or a quiet hello.

oliverdudokvanheel@gmail.com