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Something is shifting in the mainstream conversation about capitalism. After decades in which shareholder primacy was treated as economic law rather than ideological choice, a growing chorus of voices from within the financial establishment is acknowledging what impact entrepreneurs have long understood: the extractive model is failing on its own terms. Rising inequality, climate disruption, the hollowing out of community—these are not isolated policy challenges but interconnected symptoms of a system that externalizes costs and concentrates power. The question is no longer whether the current economic paradigm must change, but whether reform from within is sufficient—or whether genuine transformation requires the deeper structural reimagining that the regenerative economy represents.
In this Luminarias webinar and audience Q&A, Impact Entrepreneur’s Laurie Lane-Zucker welcomes award-winning journalist and author Elizabeth MacBride for a wide-ranging exploration of these questions. MacBride’s work—spanning Forbes, The Atlantic, CNBC, and BBC, and most recently the USA Today bestselling book Capital Evolution: The New American Economy (co-authored with venture capitalist Seth Levine)—has consistently investigated the gap between economic narratives and economic reality: the distance between what institutions say they value and what their structures actually produce. Her concept of “Dynamic Capitalism” offers a framework for understanding the emerging post-neoliberal landscape that is both intellectually serious and provocatively different from the regenerative vision our community is building.
The conversation will move across the most pressing questions facing the impact economy today: whether climate can be addressed in isolation or only as part of systemic transformation, how ownership structures must evolve to distribute rather than concentrate power, what distinguishes genuine accountability from sophisticated rebranding, and what it actually takes to move from extraction to regeneration. This is an opportunity for our global community of impact entrepreneurs, investors, and field-builders to engage with a sharp, well-informed voice from the mainstream economic reform conversation—and to test where the common ground lies and where the real disagreements begin.
Co-author, Dynamic Capitalism
Elizabeth MacBride is a journalist, author, and entrepreneur whose reporting and commentary on finance, innovation, and global economic change have reached millions of readers worldwide.
She is the co-author of three books, including the national bestseller Capital Evolution, which examines the future of capitalism and lays out principles for a new, more equitable future: Dynamic Capitalism. Her first book was The New Builders (Wiley, 2021), which reshaped how policymakers understand entrepreneurship in America and informed $250B in U.S. pandemic-era aid; The Little Book of Robo Investing (Wiley, 2024), which draws on her experience at Wealthfront to explain how technology is transforming personal finance.
Her work has long advocated for people who are underrepresented in the global economy because of structural barriers and social norms.
As a reporter and editor, Elizabeth has broken stories at the intersection of finance, technology, and policy for outlets including The New York Times, Quartz, Forbes, MIT Tech Review, the Atlantic, and the BBC. She has reported from everywhere, from the Arkansas Delta and the panhandle of Idaho to Silicon Valley and Wall Street, as well as from conflict and post-conflict zones, including Kenya, Cambodia, the West Bank, and Gaza. Most recently, she has focused on narrative change and information disorder, examining how these forces shape markets, democracy, and the future of work. A graduate of Johns Hopkins SAIS, she is a single mom of two daughters and lives in Alexandria, Virgina.
Laurie Lane-Zucker is Founder and CEO of Impact Entrepreneur, PBC, an impact economy business that hosts the Impact Entrepreneur Network — a large, global network of “systems-minded” entrepreneurs, investors, and scholars of social and environmental innovation — and editor and publisher of Impact Entrepreneur, a digital magazine covering the emerging Impact Economy. For over 30 years, Laurie has been a “pioneer” (Forbes) and recognized leader in sustainability, social enterprise, and impact investing. Laurie was the founding Executive Director of the international environmental organization, Orion Society, which publishes the celebrated Orion Magazine, as well as the founder of a global sustainability think-tank, the Triad Institute, and Hotfrog, a Founding B Corporation, GIIRS Pioneer Company, and the first company ever to complete an equity transaction on an impact investment exchange. Laurie is the bestselling and multiple award-winning publisher and editor of books and magazines on sustainability and social impact — having worked with such acclaimed authors as Wendell Berry, Barry Lopez, Terry Tempest Williams, and David James Duncan — and the author of numerous articles on entrepreneurship and impact investing. Laurie is contributing author to the academic textbook from World Scientific, Sustainability: Business and Investment Implications. His new book, The Impact Entrepreneur Breakthrough: A Field Manual for the Regenerative Economy, will be pubished by Berrett-Koehler in 2026, with global distribution by Penguin Random House.
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