Episode Details
Back to Episodes#87 the Money Koan: towards a new philosophy of curren(t)cy and care with investor Jenna Nicholas
Description
Andrea Hiott in conversation with investor Jenna Nicholas.
Jenna discusses her book The Enlightened Bottom Line and how spirituality, love, and purpose can inform investing and business rather than oppose them. She traces formative experiences from ages 11–14 in a Swiss “Transformation for Peace” program and speaking at Commonwealth Day in Westminster Abbey, including meeting Desmond Tutu, to the confidence instilled by her mother and grandmother, faith, and a lifelong practice of hosting “Saturdays at Jen’s” discussion groups.
After moving from London to Stanford, she was inspired by social entrepreneurs, worked on socially responsible investing in China with mentor Wayne Silby (Calvert Funds), and later organized experiences and interviews exploring profit–purpose paradoxes. She describes practices like symbolic objects to bridge divides, dreams-based decision-making in the Amazon, and a HEAL framework (Hope, Empathy, Abundance, Legacy), emphasizing pauses, stewardship, seven-generation thinking, and money as “currency” valuable when in motion.
Find Jenna’s book The Enlightened Bottom Line here.
Parker Palmer conversation with Andrea is here
Jacob Needleman conversation with Andrea is here.
00:00 Welcome and Book Setup
00:25 Teen Years and Abbey Speech
02:25 Tutu High Five and Lasting Joy
04:01 the Women Who Raised Her
06:48 Holding Paradox in Community
08:56 From Stanford to Impact Investing
11:40 Choosing Stanford by Fate
14:43 Wayne Silby and Legacy Shift
17:18 Bhutan and Business of Happiness
19:24 Enoughness and Inner Compass
22:52 Saturdays at Jens Conversations
25:14 Fierce Love in Organizations
27:25 Creating Listening Spaces
28:03 Building Impact Experience
28:40 Coal Meets Solar Values
30:13 Redefining Money Capital
34:00 Heal Framework Questions
35:37 Hope Empathy Abundance
37:16 Playful Abundance Wand
40:04 Amazon Dream Circles
43:03 Death Joy Legacy
46:31 Stewardship Seven Generations
49:02 Reflection Questions Pauses
52:40 Grandmother Loving Kindness
55:37 Honoring Stories Love
57:15 Podcast Farewell
The Enlightened Bottom Line by Jenna Nicholas
Jenna’s Substack is here.
Jenna on LinkedIn
Books discussed in addition to the Enlightened Bottom Line:
InnSaei: the Icelandic Art of Intuition by Hrund Gunnsteinsdottir
The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist
📍 Hey, everyone. You're listening to Love and Philosophy. This is Andrea Hiott. I'm a philosopher. I'm a professor. a student. I'm a walker. Every now and then, I'm even still a poet. I'm trained in neuroscience, and I love the hippocampus, which is a little seahorse-shaped area of your brain known for memory and movement. For over a decade, I've been working on a philosophy of mind that's navigational, in a nutshell, that means minds are...