Episode 16: Quick Hits - Stop Defending the Past and Start Imagining the Future with Nuin-Tara Key

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What if resilience is not a finish line, but a way of moving through the world?

In this episode, Nuin-Tara Key, Executive Director of Programs at California Forward, shares a sharp reframe on resilience and adaptation. She unpacks why these terms are often confused - and why that confusion holds us back.

Adaptation is about responding to specific climate impacts. Resilience, she explains, is something deeper:  an ongoing process of learning, connection, and evolution. It is not a box to check or a one-time investment. It is about building communities that can adapt, thrive, and imagine new futures in the face of change.

Nuin-Tara also speaks candidly about her own sources of hope. From the creativity and compassion of people doing this work every day, to the freeing realization that we do not need to exhaust ourselves defending outdated systems - we can invest in building what comes next.

California Forward’s work reflects this mindset: advancing regional resilience while centering equity and sustainable local economies.

This conversation will change how you think about climate work, resilience, and what it means to show up for your community.

🎧 Listen in.  If it sparks something, share it with someone who would benefit from this perspective.

If you are not yet subscribed to Shared Ground, now is a good time to join us. We are building a library of voices on resilience, generosity, and rebuilding what comes next.

Shared Ground is produced by Sean Knierim and Allan Marks. Thanks to Cory Grabow, Kara Poltor, Corey Walles (from The Recording Studio) for your support in launching this effort.

For more stories of resilience & rebuilding, kindness & generosity: visit shared-ground.com and subscribe to Sean's substack. We invite you to share your own stories of resilience at the Shared Ground website - whether in response to the January fires in LA or other situations.

Follow us at seanknierim.substack.com, Instagram, or wherever you listen to podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc).

Episode Transcript

Sean Knierim (00:01):
Thank you so much for joining me here.
Could you introduce yourselfand tell me what you do for a
living?

Nuin-Tara Key (00:06):
Absolutely.
I'm Nuin- Tara Key.
I'm Executive Director ofPrograms at an organization
called California Forward, andwe're a statewide nonprofit that
really is working to build anew California economy, which is
one that's sustainable,inclusive and resilient, and
what that means for us is wework to enable and build
capacity across all regions ofthe state to really advance

(00:31):
policy, but also action on theground that helps communities
whether changing climate helpthem transition to a new economy
that is inclusive and abundantand one that really helps meet
the needs of our future.

Sean Knierim (00:46):
Great.
We're here at this event todaytalking about a resilient
rebuild in Altadena and thePalisades and then wider
geographies, and we've talked alot about the word resilience,
but I'm not sure if we've comeup with a definition yet
collectively.
So for you, how would youdefine resilience or resiliency?

Nuin-Tara Key (01:04):
Yeah, I love that question and it's one I
actually love to start withbecause I have worked in climate
resilience and adaptation herein California for just about a
decade, and I think it's reallyimportant to understand what is
it that we are building towards.
What is it that we are actuallytalking about and for me, I like
to start with the distinction,but also relationship, between

(01:27):
adaptation and resilience.
They often get usedinterchangeably, but in my mind,
they're not the same to adaptto a changing climate, one we
are all living in and livingwith every day, and resilience,

(01:47):
to me, is not a static outcome.
It's a process.
It is a process of learning howto live in a very different
world, but one in whichcommunities can thrive.
People can live in a community,and really, I think one of the
important things around how wedefine resilience is, again, not

(02:08):
thinking of it as a staticoutcome where, if we invest one
set of money or a certain dollaramount, we will get there and
it will be done.
It is a collective andcommunity process, and one that
we're living in, hopefully toget to.

Sean Knierim (02:22):
I love that answer and the dynamism in situations
where there's not enoughinformation yet to even decide
on, and then as we're learninghow to move with others that are
experiencing their own worlds.
So, in adaptation, in your work, in resilience, where are you
finding hope?
Where do you find the hope tokeep chugging along on this
journey?

Nuin-Tara Key (02:40):
Yeah, I find hope in a few ways.
One is I just inspired everyday by the compassion and care
that people bring to the work inresilience and adaptation, and
I just count myself so luckyevery day that I get to work
with some of the most brilliant,creative and compassionate

(03:03):
people who are trying to findsolutions to a problem that
we've never dealt with before.
So that brings me hope and alsofuels me to get up in the
morning and keep doing this.
The other thing and it may notsound like I'm starting with
hope or where I start with, butI will come around to your
question is in this moment intime where I think we're feeling

(03:26):
so many different forces andpressures and you know whether
it's kind of in a political oreconomic and in a climate
environment, I think one of thethings that brings me hope is.
A few months ago, I was talkingto a very good colleague and we
were kind of trying to figureout how do we step out of this
existential moment we're in.

(03:46):
It was post-LA wildfires.
It's in the midst of all ofwhat is happening in our country
and the divides, and we bothrecognized that to find hope
means we can't just defend whatwas we actually need to think
and reimagine of what could be,and so that really was both a

(04:08):
helpful frame, but it also wasfreeing for me because I didn't
have to find a strategy to tryto defend the way things were.
There are things we need topreserve and sustain, but
actually that freedom to thinkabout what is a vision for the
future that we want and what isthe world we want to live in and
I think a lot of people arekind of coming up to that same

(04:30):
place where actually what weneed to do is chart a vision for
the world we want to live in,and that brings me hope.

Sean Knierim (04:36):
That's wonderful.
Thank you so much for spendinga few minutes talking today.

Nuin-Tara Key (04:40):
Thank you so much .