Marjorie Kelly has been interviewed for TV and radio and has been a guest on several podcasts focused on employee ownership, growing a democratic economy and systems change. She has also delivered numerous keynotes for a variety of progressive conferences and and occasionally teaches classes on emerging social architectures for a new economy. Below are selected TV, radio, and podcast interviews as well as keynote addresses and panel discussions that feature Kelly and her work promoting system change: moving from an extractive economy that serves the few to one that is democratically controlled and benefits workers, communities, and the planet.
Selected Interviews
Aspen Institute (September 12, 2023). Maureen Conway, vice president at The Aspen Institute and leader of the Economic Opportunities Program, talks with Marjorie Kelly about wealth bias and how this system of bias prevents us from solving problems of economic opportunity that plague our nation.
Laura Flanders Show: Catastrophic Capitalism in 2023 (September 10, 2023). Marjorie Kelly discusses Wealth Supremacy and how the extractive economy is driving today’s ecological, social and political crises, with Laura Flanders and Edgar Villanueva.
Chasing Financial Equality (September 26, 2023). Host Kane Jackson discusses with Marjorie how solving the climate crisis goes hand in hand with solving the finance emergency–there is too much wealth, in too few hands. Democratic ownership, along with a finance system that prioritizes public good, offer potential solutions.
Laura Flanders Show: How to Make a Democratic Economy (October 16, 2019)
On this episode of the Laura Flanders Show, Marjorie and Ted Howard discuss their newly released book, The Making of a Democratic Economy.
The Low Down (July 2019, WOMR Cape Cod). Host Ira Wood interviews Marjorie about The Making of a Democratic Economy. Their discussion focuses on system change: how to move from a corporate-controlled economy to one that infuses democracy into economic life through new forms of broad-based ownership (July 2019).
Radio with a View (July 2019, WMBR Cambridge, MA). Host Marc Stern interviews Marjorie The Making of a Democratic Economy, exploring how to bring the principles of the “common good” into the economy.
Bottom Up (July 2016; Pacifica Radio). Host Rob Kall talks with Marjorie about system change and how we move from the extractive economy to a democratic economy (July 2019).
Next Economy Now: Democratizing the Economy from the Ground Up (August 2018)
In this interview with Lift Economy partner Ryan Honeyman, Marjorie discusses the election of Trump and its correlation with the economic challenges faced in Appalachia and rust belt states as well as The Democracy Collaborative’s work supporting Native American businesses and what listeners can do to support rural economic development.
The ESOP Podcast (June 15, 2021)
Episodes 155: Interview with Marjorie Kelly,
Part I
In this interview, Kelly makes the case for creating a robust investment ecosystem to catalyze more employee ownership conversions. To hear Part II of this interview, go to Episode 156.
The ESOP Podcast (April 12, 2021)
Episode 146: Social Capital Partners & Taylor Guitars Financing
On January 11, 2021, in a video for employees, Taylor Guitars announced that it had transitioned to 100 percent employee ownership. An agreement that could be called the NAFTA of employee ownership, it is majority funded by Canada’s Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, with additional capital from Social Capital Partners, and establishes the first US-based Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) for Mexican workers. In this episode of the ESOP podcast Marjorie and Jon Shell of Social Capital Partners talk with host Bret Keisling.
The Democracy Collaborative produced this short video, in which Marjorie explains how the State Small Business Initiative (SSBCI) could be a game changer for employee ownership.
Aspen Institute (November 2016)
How do you design an economy for broad-based prosperity, for good jobs, for family financial security? That’s an economy with broad-based ownership and community control, says Marjorie Kelly.
Keynotes and Webinars
Kelly has delivered keynote addresses for Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE); the New Economics Foundation in London; the Annual FEASTA Lecture in Dublin, Ireland, for the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability; and the Green Party of Sweden. Other keynotes have included the University of Wisconsin Business and Human Rights Series, the Net Impact Annual Spring Forum at the University of Washington, the Alliance for Democracy Convention, the Hope in Action Conference, the Society for Business Ethics, the Sustainable Business Symposium at the University of Oregon, the Hamline Dialogues at Hamline University, the Association for Moral Education, the Midwest Progressive Elected Officials Network, and others.
R3.0 Conference, Keynote Speaker (September 2020) Marjorie provided the keynote address for the 7th International 3.0 Conference: Redesign for a Regenerative & Distributive Economy: Closing Systemic Gaps.
EcoCiv Dialogues: The Next Economy (April 30, 2020) The coronavirus pandemic revealed the deep failures of our global economic order are being revealed. Is this the end of the neoliberal era? What will the economy look like after COVID-19? Marjorie joins Kate Raworth (Doughnut Economics), Stewart Wallis (Wellbeing Economy Alliance), David Korten (Living Economies Forum), Gunna Jung (Economic Advisor to Seoul Metropolitan Government) to discuss these weighty questions.
Creating a Bold New Economy
(Greenfield, MA, November 15, 2014) From Kelly was the keynote speaker at “Greening Greenfields” Economic Forum at Greenfield Community College. You can also view the Powerpoint presentation from Marjorie’s keynote address.
Who Owns Vermont?, Keynote Address, New Economy Week, October 15, 2014, Montpelier, VT
In her keynote address for New Economy Week, Kelly explained that there are two primary kinds of ownership: EXTRACTIVE, which seeks to extract maximum profits, and GENERATIVE, which is life serving. Generative ownership models are profit-making but not profit-maximizing. You can read about Kelly’s address and the discussion that followed in notes from the event and this story from Vermont Digger. Also, you can watch this video of a panel discussion moderated by Kelly.
From the Fringe to the Leading Edge: Generative Design Goes to Scale May 2012, Grand Rapids, MI
Read the transcript of her opening keynote for the conference of Business Alliance for Local Living Economies in 2012, or view a video.
From the Fringe to the Leading Edge: Generative Design Goes to Scale May 17, 2012, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Classes and Lectures
Kelly has delivered presentations at universities, including Cornell University, the University of North Carolina, Harvard, Macalester College, Scripps College, Boston College, Colorado State University, Hawaii Pacific University, and many others. With Peter Barnes she taught a course at Schumacher College in England entitled “Can the Earth Survive Capitalism? Exploring Sustainable Economic Models.” With Fritjof Capra she taught a four-day residential program at Schumacher called “Business and Sustainability: From Complexity to Responsibility,” looking at systems thinking and its lessons for creating organizations that mirror life’s adaptability and creativity.
Kelly served as Visiting Scholar at Ohio Wesleyan University and was the Jean Kohr Visiting Lecturer at Hood College. At Dharma Field Zen Center in Minneapolis, Kelly taught classes on “A Zen Approach to Building a Just Economy” and “Dogen and Right Livelihood.”
If you need a headshot of Marjorie Kelly to publicize a speaking event, please download the photo to the left.