Why the Global Economy (and Your Pension) Is Flying Blind | Anastasia Linn

Host Jeni Miles talks to Anastasia Linn, co-founder of the Arketa Institute for Post-Growth Finance, about why sustainable finance is built on flawed economic foundations.

They explore ecological economics, the risks facing pension funds, moral purity in climate action, and why staying inside extractive industries — not leaving them — may offer the greatest leverage for change.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Discover why neoclassical economics, the foundation of all mainstream finance, leaves nature and energy out of its models entirely.
• Understand the shift from an "empty world" to a "full world" economy, and why growth-based finance no longer fits planetary limits.
• Learn why walking away from extractive industries may be less effective than staying and using your position for change.
• Explore how "multi-capital" thinking (natural, social, human and manufactured capital) reframes what a secure retirement actually looks like.
• Hear why UK actuaries are warning that ecological collapse threatens the entire financial system, even as other institutions downplay the risk.
• Move beyond the trap of moral purity, and understand why shame-based climate narratives can hold back real systemic change.
• Find out why hope, in Anastasia's view, isn't something you wait for. It's something you build through action.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Introduction

02:31 Anastasia's journey: from design and organisational psychology into finance

07:40 What's wrong with neoclassical economics

10:40 "Empty world" vs "full world" economics

12:12 Founding the Arketa Institute for Post-Growth Finance

15:27 Why staying inside the system can be more powerful than leaving

23:22 Moving beyond moral purity in climate action

29:58 The UK Actuaries' Planetary Solvency report & the "ground shifting" in finance

35:53 Post-growth pensions and multi-capital thinking

39:21 Why pension funds are unprepared for multiple "bubbles"

46:40 Emotional resilience, climate grief and active hope

50:12 Where to find Anastasia and the Arketa Institute

ABOUT THE GUEST

Anastasia Linn is co-founder of the Arketa Institute for Post-Growth Finance. Her background spans the Center for Sustainable Finance and Private Wealth, the World Climate Foundation, and the House of Beautiful Business. Follow her on Linkedin: https://ch.linkedin.com/in/avlinn

LINKS & RESOURCES

• Arketa Institute — https://www.arketa-institute.org/
• Institute and Faculty of Actuaries — Planetary Solvency report — https://actuaries.org.uk/planetary-solvency-tipping-into-the-wild-unknown/
• A Tale of Two Actuaries (Matt Orsagh) — https://degrowthistheanswer.substack.com/p/a-tale-of-two-actuaries
• Financial activism playbook & zine (Jasmine Rashid) — https://www.jasminerashid.com/
• Rethinking Economics – https://rethinkeconomics.org/
• Triodos Bank — https://www.triodos.co.uk/
• Alexis Shotwell — https://www.alexisshotwell.com/
• Against Purity: Living Ethically in Compromised Times (Alexis Shotwell) — https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816698646/against-purity/
• Joanna Macy — https://www.joannamacy.net/
• Active Hope (Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone) — https://newworldlibrary.com/product/active-hope-revised
• Good Grief Network — https://goodgriefnetwork.org/

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