From Consumer to Citizen: Falling Back in Love with Humanity - with Jon Alexander

In this thought-provoking conversation, Silke von Brockhausen speaks with Jon Alexander , strategist, storyteller, and co-founder of the New Citizen Project . Jon’s award-winning book Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything Is All of Us has inspired a quiet revolution—reframing us not as passive consumers of systems, but as active citizens shaping the future together. Drawing from his work with governments, NGOs, and social movements worldwide, Jon invites UN staff and international practitioners to see regeneration as falling back in love with humanity. Together, they explore what it would mean for the UN to become a participatory ecosystem—one that harnesses collective intelligence, distributes power, and cultivates belonging across our shared planetary home. Connect with Jon on Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-alexander-11b66345/ Learn more about Jon: https://jonalexander.net/ Key Themes From Consumer to Citizen: Why shifting our collective story is essential for the future of humanity. Safe Uncertainty in Leadership: How to hold space for not-knowing and co-create solutions. Institutional Renewal: Lessons from Taiwan’s crowdsourced pandemic response. Post-Crisis Regeneration: Starting with what’s strong, not what’s wrong. Citizen Assemblies: Democracy under good conditions—and how it could inspire the UN. Distributed Power: Reimagining the UN as a pollinator of regenerative systems. Takeaways Regeneration means falling back in love with humanity. The shift from consumer to citizen is essential for our shared future. Institutions must evolve to support collective intelligence. Leadership is about creating safe spaces for uncertainty. Citizen agency is the foundation for lasting recovery. Citizen assemblies can renew democracy and legitimacy. Crowdsourcing participation can rewrite the social contract. The UN’s future lies in distributed, not centralized, power. We must celebrate existing citizen initiatives. The future is messy, beautiful, and full of possibility. Episode Chapters 00:00 — Introduction to Regeneration and the UN 02:32 — What Regeneration Really Means 05:02 — From Consumer to Citizen: A New Narrative 08:10 — The Power of Collective Intelligence 10:51 — Creating Conditions for Participation 13:40 — The UN’s Role in Crisis Situations 16:26 — Harnessing Citizen Agency 19:05 — Why Citizen Assemblies Matter 21:41 — Reimagining Global Governance 24:28 — The Future of the UN: A Distributed Power Model