Earth and Spirit Podcast
106 episodes - English - Latest episode: 24 days ago -The Earth and Spirit Podcast fosters engaging conversations with change-makers working at the intersection of meditative spiritual practice, social healing, and ecology. It is a production of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center (www.earthandspiritcenter.org), a nonprofit, interfaith spirituality center located in Louisville, Kentucky. (Please donate to support this podcast: https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/donate/)
Homepage Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
A Journey of Healing: Mary Underwood on Wholeness for People and Planet
April 15, 2022 11:30 - 1 hour - 150 MBIn addition to a career in nursing and a graduate degree in philosophy, cosmology, and consciousness, Mary Underwood has through-hiked the 2600-mile Pacific Crest Trail and other long-distance wilderness treks. Through all of this, the search for healing – personal and planetary – has been her compass. In this broad, rich conversation about health, spirituality, and deep connection to nature, Mary and I reflect on curiosity and vulnerability as key spiritual virtues, the art of solitude and...
A Made-By-Hand Life: Cameron Howard and a Deep Love of the Local
March 31, 2022 14:02 - 59 minutes - 108 MBFarmer-philosopher-musician Cameron Howard farms with horses on the 71-acre farm that he and his family call home in southern Indiana. In this episode, recorded on the Howard farm amidst the domestic background noises of their hand-built home, we reflect on how the spiritual and material intertwine in the joys and challenges of a made-by-hand life, crafted with deep intentionality and thoughtfulness. NOTES AND RESOURCES: All of the music on this podcast was written and performed by Came...
The Secular Sacred: Kathleen Dean Moore on Moral Integrity and a Ferocious Love of the World
March 15, 2022 14:51 - 1 hour - 146 MBDr. Kathleen Dean Moore is a philosopher, nature writer, and environmental activist who makes her home in Oregon and Alaska. In this conversation, Kathleen reflects on her fierce, reverent love of this worthy and wounded world and its secular sacredness, and how we’re called beyond hope and despair to act with moral integrity for its healing. RESOURCES: Earth & Spirit Center website: https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/ Kathleen’s website and blog: https://www.riverwalking.com/ Kat...
Children at Play: Claude Stephens on Nurturing Free Play in Nature
February 28, 2022 12:00 - 57 minutes - 106 MBClaude Stephens is the Facilitator of Outreach and Regenerative Design for Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest. He’s also the director of Bernheim’s Children at Play Network, an initiative that helps connect children to nature through free play. This conversation explores the importance of free play in nature as an engine of inspiration and imagination, empowerment, equity, and efforts to sustain healthy communities and landscapes. RESOURCES: Earth & Spirit Center: https://earthand...
We Live in a Shared World: Scott Russell Sanders on Awe, Imagination, Compassion, Craft, and Community
February 15, 2022 12:00 - 1 hour - 179 MBScott Russell Sanders is a Cambridge-educated novelist, essayist, conservationist, and a distinguished professor of English, emeritus, at Indiana University. He has written and taught for decades about nature and place, family and community, and the concerns of social justice and ecology, woven together with a spirituality that is rooted in awe and wonder. This conversation explores the joys and disciplines of spiritual imagination, writing, and a well-lived life, in communion with others a...
Loving the Whole World: David Haberman on Finding the Divine in the Landscape of India – And Beyond
January 31, 2022 12:00 - 57 minutes - 105 MBDr. David Haberman is Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University Bloomington. Much of his work focuses on Hindu temple worship traditions of northern India, where he has spent a great deal of time studying how worshippers encounter the sacred in stones, trees, rivers, and all of the more-than-human world. In this conversation I reconnect with my undergraduate mentor from decades ago to discuss the intersection of religion and ecology as it unfolds in the richly diverse religious l...
Life Wants to Happen: Sisters of Charity of Nazareth on Honoring Earth in Communal Living
January 15, 2022 12:00 - 1 hour - 111 MBSr. Susan Gatz is a member of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, formerly in community leadership and now serving as the chair of the sisters’ international ecological sustainability committee. Carolyn Cromer is the director of ecological sustainability for the sisters. In this conversation, Sr. Susan and Carolyn reflect on how deep spiritual commitments to caring for Creation play out in the context of communal religious life. Resources: Sisters of Charity of Nazareth homepage: https...
The World Will Be Saved by Beauty: Marianne Welch on Conservation and Creativity
December 31, 2021 12:30 - 59 minutes - 109 MBMarianne Welch is an avid gardener, a musician, an artist, a philanthropist, and a conservationist, deeply involved in support of the arts and environmental causes. This deep and broad conversation explores creativity and beauty as paths for the flourishing of people and planet. Resources: Documentary on Netflix about interconnection in forest ecosystems: “Fantastic Fungi” Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard, by Douglas Tallamy. Portland, OR: Timbe...
Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim on Serendipitous Creativity, Religion, and Ecology
December 15, 2021 12:30 - 1 hour - 146 MBMary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim are a husband and wife team of Senior Lecturers and Research Scholars at Yale University in the School of the Environment, the Divinity School, and the Department of Religious Studies, with specializations in East Asian religions and Indigenous religions. They co-direct the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology and are the creators of the new Coursera series, Religions and Ecology: Restoring the Earth Community. In this episode, Mary Evelyn and John discuss thei...
Wonder in All Seasons: Red Oaks Forest School and the Value of Nature-Based Education
November 29, 2021 12:30 - 1 hour - 154 MBTina Brouwer is the co-founder of Red Oaks Forest School in Eastern Kentucky. Amid the beauty and ecological diversity of the Red River Gorge area, Red Oaks invites youth to connect deeply with the natural world in creative ways and in all sorts of weather. In this episode, Tina shares how interweaving nature and education helps cultivate wonder, curiosity, trust, vulnerability, courage, and mindful groundedness. Resources: Red Oaks Forest School: https://www.redoaksforestschool.org/ ht...
Talking to the Rivers, Listening to the Wind and Stars: Victoria Loorz on Church of the Wild and Restoring the Great Conversation with Nature
November 16, 2021 15:08 - 1 hour - 145 MBVictoria Loorz is the co-founder of the Wild Church Network and Seminary of the Wild, and she’s the author of a new book, Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred. In this conversation, we explore what it means to reclaim our place in nature as an essential part of spiritual belonging and how to restore the great, necessary conversation between us, the divine, and the more-than-human world. Resources: Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred: www.victoria...
A Restored Earth: Quaker Environmentalist Justin Mog on Opening Our Hearts to Right Relationships
November 03, 2021 15:53 - 1 hour - 142 MBDr. Justin Mog, Assistant to the Provost for Sustainability Initiatives at the University of Louisville, describes himself as a “car-free, TV-free, vegetarian, beekeeping, gardening Quaker with a fully solar-powered home.” This conversation explores Justin’s vision of a restored Earth, informed by both his faith and his environmental commitments, and how his radical lifestyle choices are far more about joy than sacrifice. Justin hosts his own weekly podcast and community radio show called ...
Freed from Prisons of Our Own Making: The Enneagram as a Tool for Belonging Fully to Self, Society, and the Earth
October 15, 2021 12:30 - 59 minutes - 136 MBHalida Hatic is long-term student of the Enneagram, a tool for personal self-understanding and transformation. She serves as the Community Weaver for the nonprofit Enneagram Prison Project, with a mission to help free people on both sides of the bars from prisons of own making. In this episode, Halida reflects on the Enneagram as a key for personal, social, and environmental healing. Halida’s October 23, 2021 Enneagram workshop (in-person and online): https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/c...
A Spiritual Startup: The Thomas Berry Place as a New Form of Ministry and Mission
September 30, 2021 18:50 - 54 minutes - 124 MBAnthony Mullin is the founding executive director of the Thomas Berry Place, a non-profit center for spirituality, community empowerment, and ecological stewardship, in New York City. In this conversation, Anthony reflects on the vision and values that guide the work of what he describes as a spiritual startup.
We Are Rhythm: Jeshima Lewis on the Sacred Power of Drumming
September 15, 2021 11:00 - 47 minutes - 108 MBJeshima Lewis is a percussionist, a music educator, and a spiritual guide. This conversation explores how drumming, one of the most primordial modes of music, can be a path into deeper mindfulness, a greater sense of well-being, and stronger connections to others and the more-than-human world. www.earthandspiritcenter.org http://drumsmartllc.com/
Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest’s Mission to Connect People with Nature
August 31, 2021 14:08 - 1 hour - 157 MBBernheim Arboretum and Research Forest is a 16,000-acre non-profit nature preserve near Louisville, Kentucky. This conversation features Bernheim’s executive director Dr. Mark Wourms, and Dr. Kristin Faurest, the director of education, discussing the ecological and cultural significance of forest ecosystems and how creativity, play, spirituality, rigorous science, and nature immersion experiences come together at Bernheim to help forge deeper connections between the human and more-than-human ...
Dreaming New Dreams: Johnetta Roberts on the Opportunities and Challenges of Community Development
August 22, 2021 11:30 - 55 minutes - 127 MBJohnetta Roberts specializes in community project development and asset-building initiatives in West Louisville, an historically underserved area of the city. Johnetta played a key role in the creation of the new Village @ West Jefferson real estate development project and is committed to revitalizing West Louisville, from real estate development to fostering the growth of small businesses that provide essential community services. In this podcast, recorded from a live Earth & Spirit Center...
All the Earth Shall Sing: John Gage on Music as a Force for Good
August 15, 2021 11:30 - 55 minutes - 127 MBJohn Gage is a Louisville-based folk singer-songwriter and a former public radio host. For decades, his music has engaged deeply with spirituality, social justice, and care for the Earth. John brought his beloved old Martin guitar with him to the Earth & Spirit Center to add a few live songs to this wide-ranging conversation about music as a force for good in the world. His most recent album, Circles of Our Lives, features several Wendell Berry poems that John set to music, some of which h...
Like River Stones: Zen and the Art of Community, with Jeanette Prince-Cherry
July 31, 2021 11:30 - 58 minutes - 134 MBJeanette Prince-Cherry had careers in the Air Force and as an industrial engineer before dedicating her life to Zen Buddhism. A Zen priest and instructor, she divides her time between the Louisville Zen Center and the Rochester Zen Center in New York. In this episode, Jeanette explains the basics of Zen, how it is similar to and different from secular mindfulness, and how it provides tools and resources for mental health, resilience, and the strengthening of communities, especially in a pos...
Smile at Your Heart: Dr. Andrew McCart on Finding Balance and Energy in Taoism
July 15, 2021 11:30 - 59 minutes - 136 MBDr. Andrew McCart is an assistant professor of health management and systems sciences in the department of public health at the University of Louisville. He has been a practicing Taoist for over two decades and is a certified senior instructor of the Healing Tao Association of the Americas, and he also holds black belts in three martial arts. In this conversation, Dr. McCart not only provides a primer on Taoism, but he also reflects on how Taoist practices and the Taoist worldview can be re...
The Green Land: Joe Grant on Celtic Spirituality
June 30, 2021 10:00 - 1 hour - 143 MBJoe Grant is a Scottish-born poet, author, and spiritual director and was the inaugural guest on the Earth and Spirit podcast. In this episode, Joe reflects on Celtic spirituality and the lessons it offers for fostering awake, aware, abiding relationships with the living Earth and within human communities.
What We Need Is at Hand: Filmmaker Morgan Atkinson on Seeing (Through the Lens) Beyond Division and Polarity
June 15, 2021 10:00 - 1 hour - 146 MBMorgan Atkinson is a documentary filmmaker based in Kentucky. Focusing on a wide range of subjects from the Trappist monk Thomas Merton to waterway pollution in his hometown of Louisville, his work asks deep questions about spirituality, social justice, and ecology. In this episode, Morgan reflects what he has learned over his filmmaking career and how we might navigate our polarized times with nuance, balance, and generosity. Morgan Atkinson’s website: https://morganatkinson.com/ The T...
Tackling Climate Change Crisis: Carmel Bowman and Maggie Hettinger on Personal and Policy Change
May 31, 2021 19:44 - 57 minutes - 132 MBCarmel Bowman and Maggie Hettinger describe themselves as ordinary citizens of rural Kentucky who are trying to help move the needle on climate change. From their own lifestyle choices to their active efforts with the Citizens' Climate Lobby, they are passionately engaged for positive change. In this podcast, recorded during one of the Earth & Spirit Center’s live community conversations events, Carmel and Maggie invite us to consider a realistic path for the U.S. to reach net carbon neutral...
Tackling the Climate Change Crisis: Carmel Bowman and Maggie Hettinger on Personal and Policy Change
May 31, 2021 19:44 - 57 minutes - 132 MBCarmel Bowman and Maggie Hettinger describe themselves as ordinary citizens of rural Kentucky who are trying to help move the needle on climate change. From their own lifestyle choices to their active efforts with the Citizens' Climate Lobby, they are passionately engaged for positive change. In this podcast, recorded during one of the Earth & Spirit Center’s live community conversations events, Carmel and Maggie invite us to consider a realistic path for the U.S. to reach net carbon neutral...
Life on the Edge: Gary Paul Nabhan on Borders, Margins, Empires, and Wildness
May 14, 2021 16:30 - 1 hour - 148 MBDr. Gary Paul Nabhan is a first-generation Arab-American who has spent his life crossing borders. An agrarian ecologist and ethnobotanist whom Time magazine called the father of the local food movement, his work straddles both sides of America’s southern border in Arizona. As a professed ecumenical Franciscan brother, his spiritual practice goes far beyond the walls of institutional religion, and his new book, Jesus for Farmers and Fishers, describes the struggles of those living on the marg...
Discovering Your Soul Purpose: Doug Van Houten on Eco-Centrism and Wholeness
April 30, 2021 13:00 - 58 minutes - 134 MBDoug Van Houten describes himself as an ardent beekeeper, a visual artist, a wily wanderer, a dream tracker, a deep ceremonialist, and a heart-centered activist. He’s an international wilderness guide with the nonprofit Animas Valley Institute, helping to foster nature-based personal development. In this episode, as part of our Community Conversations series, Doug shares how healing, eco-centric soulwork can help us become fully mature adults and elders, claim our life purpose as a member of...
A Faithful Response to Climate Change: Dan Misleh on the Spiritual and Moral Aspects of the Climate Crisis
April 15, 2021 12:53 - 54 minutes - 126 MBDan Misleh is the executive director of the Catholic Climate Covenant, a national nonprofit organization devoted to faith-based education, advocacy, and practical actions related to climate change. In this episode, we explore how mainline religious traditions like Catholicism can help address climate issues with moral and spiritual leadership and practical resources and examples, but can also invite us into a deeper and richer belonging with each other and the more-than-human world. Links: ...
Building Social Muscle: Malka Kopell on Creating Conversation and Community Across Difference
March 31, 2021 14:50 - 39 minutes - 91.3 MBMalka Kopell has a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard and has over 30 years of experience doing collaborative, intersectional work with government agencies, nonprofits and the philanthropic sector to strengthen civic engagement and democracy. As part of the Earth & Spirit Center’s Community Conversations series, Malka shares her experience and wisdom about how to foster meaningful social change through robust, caring conversations across difference. Malka's nonprofit organization: https...
Connecting to the Love that Powers the Universe: Carl McColman on Everyday Mysticism
March 15, 2021 17:26 - 42 minutes - 97.6 MBCarl McColman is a blogger, author, podcaster, and teacher, with a deep affinity for the Christian mystical tradition. This conversation explores the idea that the mystical path is open to all and that mystics offer practical, grounded wisdom for navigating the personal, social, and environmental challenges of our current moment. Carl's four-week online course on Christian Mysticism at the Earth and Spirit Center, beginning April 19, 2021: https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/class/interfa...
Polishing the Mirror of our Hearts: Kabir Helminski on Rumi, Sufism, and Becoming Fully Human
March 01, 2021 01:06 - 36 minutes - 82.8 MBShaikh Kabir Helminski is a Muslim educator, retreat leader, and a teacher and translator of Jallaladin Rumi, the beloved Sufi mystic and poet. In this conversation, Kabir unpacks wisdom from Rumi and the Sufi mystical tradition about what it means to be fully human, to engage skillfully with the darkness and disconnection of our time, and to live out of a whole-hearted sense of love and interdependence. The Stages of the Journey with Rumi & Sufism: From Presence, to Heartfulness, to Intima...
Becoming a Whole Man: Rev. Karl Ruttan, PhD on Authentic Spirituality for Boys and Men
February 15, 2021 13:48 - 58 minutes - 134 MBRev. Karl Ruttan, PhD is a retired Episcopal priest with a doctorate in spiritual formation and over forty years of ministry as a priest and as a spiritual director, especially with men. In this conversation, Karl and I talk about what it means to become a man in a healthy, holistic way, and how this process of spiritual maturity can help bring our entire culture toward a deeper awareness of our connection to our true selves, each other, the more-than-human world, and our common divine sourc...
Philip Goldberg: Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times
February 01, 2021 23:40 - 1 hour - 144 MBPhilip Goldberg has been studying the world’s spiritual traditions for more than 50 years, as a practitioner, teacher, and writer. He is the author or co-author of more than 20 books, including, most recently, Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times. In this conversation, Phil offers a wise village elder’s perspective on how to navigate skillfully the tumult of our inner and outer life. Resources: Phil’s website: www.PhilipGoldberg.com Phil’s podcast: http://spiritmatterstalk.com Phil’s cours...
Recreating Eden: Dr. Patricia Tull on the Human Vocation of Belonging in the World
January 15, 2021 15:55 - 1 hour - 150 MBIn a time of ecological and social crisis, it can be tempting to retreat from the world and pine nostalgically for some earlier, simpler, purer way of life: like the Garden of Eden. In this episode, scripture scholar and back-to-the-land homesteader Rev. Dr. Patricia Tull invites us to consider what lessons we might learn from Eden as we try to create a more just, beautiful, and thriving world. This conversation weaves together erudite scriptural reflection, intimate and practical experience...
Crossing the Great Divide: Cory Lockhart on Compassionate Communication for Contentious Times
December 30, 2020 16:26 - 1 hour - 142 MBOur nation, our communities, and our families are divided more deeply now than they have been in decades, pitting us against each other exactly at a time when cooperation couldn't be more important to address the COVID-19 pandemic, racial justice, climate change, and many other pressing social and ecological needs. In this community conversation with a live Zoom audience, we speak with Cory Lockhart, who is an artist, writer, public speaker, peace activist and educator, about how compassion...
Long-Haul Pandemic (Grand)Parenting with Nellie Springston
December 15, 2020 14:30 - 58 minutes - 134 MBBeing a parent or a grandparent during a pandemic is a challenge for which none of us were prepared. As COVID-19 stretches on, it's clear that we need strategies we can sustain for the long haul. In this community conversation, we check in with mindful parenting expert Nellie Springston about how to bring mindfulness to your (grand)parenting amidst the extraordinary challenges presented by the pandemic. We dive into how to create an environment of predictability, normalcy, and safety even...
The Cosmic Journey: Finding Our Place in the Universe
December 01, 2020 01:24 - 1 hour - 138 MB“The Cosmic Journey” is a new film produced by the Earth & Spirit Center, inspired by our new Cosmic Journey nature trail and outdoor art installation in the Earth & Spirit Center Nature Sanctuary. In this live Community Conversations event, we have a conversation with the film creator, Megan Maybee, the sound designer and voice actor Joe Brown, and the script contributor, Joe Mitchell. We reflect together on the process of creating this film as we share our hopes that it will invite viewers...
Art, Us, and the Living World: Tara Remington and the Cosmic Journey Art Installation
November 30, 2020 22:57 - 56 minutes - 129 MBTara Remington, or “Remi,” is a Louisville-based artist who specializes in outdoor murals and other public-facing, large-scale media. In this podcast, recorded during a live online Community Conversations event, Remi reflected on Cosmic Journey Trail art installation she created on the Earth & Spirit Center campus. We also broadened the lens to contemplate the role of art for reweaving the social fabric and connecting us deeply to ourselves and to the rest of the natural world. Links: Tar...
[Extended version with Q&A] - The Wisdom of Trees: Lois Luckett on Learning from our Sylvan Kin
October 31, 2020 00:46 - 56 minutes - 103 MBLois Luckett is a Louisville-based therapist in private practice. Especially during the coronavirus pandemic, Lois has cultivated close relationships with trees. In this podcast, recorded from a live online Community Conversations event, Lois invites us to explore what we might learn about being human from our other-than-human-kin, the trees. https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/class/community-conversations/ https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/
The Wisdom of Trees: Lois Luckett on Learning from our Sylvan Kin
October 31, 2020 00:35 - 30 minutes - 56.6 MBLois Luckett is a Louisville-based therapist in private practice. Especially during the coronavirus pandemic, Lois has cultivated close relationships with trees. In this podcast, recorded from a live online Community Conversations event, Lois invites us to explore what we might learn about being human from our other-than-human-kin, the trees. https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/class/community-conversations/ https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/
We Are All Family: Kailea Frederick on Whole-Earth Kinship and Responsibility
October 23, 2020 17:26 - 54 minutes - 99.5 MBKailea Frederick is a bridge-building climate activist, writer, consultant, and mother with Black and First Nations heritage. In this conversation, Kailea reflects on living deeply out of a sense of place, the existential threat of wildfires, and what it means to expand our sense of family, reciprocity, and responsibility to include the more-than-human world. Kailea’s website: https://www.earthisohana.com/ Loam Magazine: https://loamlove.com/ Kalliopeia Foundation: https://kalliopeia.org/...
[Extended version with Q&A] - Doing the Work of Love: Rev. Joe Phelps on Playing the Long Game for Racial Equity
October 05, 2020 16:39 - 54 minutes - 100 MBJoe Phelps is a retired Baptist pastor with a long history of making good trouble in regard to hunger, poverty, race, and other social justice and equity challenges. As part of the Earth & Spirit Center’s Community Conversations series, Joe joined host Kyle Kramer along with a live Zoom audience to talk about the intense racial tensions in Louisville, KY, his many friendships and collaborations across color lines, and how he has sustained his engagement and advocacy over time. This extended...
Doing the Work of Love: Rev. Joe Phelps on Playing the Long Game for Racial Equity
September 30, 2020 13:43 - 36 minutes - 66.9 MBJoe Phelps is a retired Baptist pastor with a long history of making good trouble in regard to hunger, poverty, race, and other social justice and equity challenges. As part of the Earth & Spirit Center’s Community Conversations series, Joe joined host Kyle Kramer along with a live Zoom audience to talk about the intense racial tensions in Louisville, KY, his many friendships and collaborations across color lines, and how he has sustained his engagement and advocacy over time. Links and Res...
One Nation, Under Love: Harry Pickens on Calm and Care within Chaos and Crisis - Extended Version with Q&A
September 18, 2020 13:01 - 58 minutes - 133 MBAn acclaimed jazz pianist and composer based in Louisville, Kentucky, Harry Pickens is also a teacher, mentor, and author who does deep healing work to promote the flourishing of individuals and communities. As part of the Earth & Spirit Center’s online Community Conversations series, Harry reflected on what is being asked of us at a time of pandemic and heightened racial tensions, and what opportunities we have to create a more just, more loving, more peaceful world. This extended version ...
One Nation, Under Love: Harry Pickens on Calm and Care within Chaos and Crisis
September 17, 2020 21:46 - 38 minutes - 71 MBAn acclaimed jazz pianist and composer based in Louisville, Kentucky, Harry Pickens is also a teacher, mentor, and author who does deep healing work to promote the flourishing of individuals and communities. As part of the Earth & Spirit Center’s online Community Conversations series, Harry reflected on what is being asked of us at a time of pandemic and heightened racial tensions, and what opportunities we have to create a more just, more loving, more peaceful world. Earth & Spirit Center:...
Moving Toward the Light: Sr. Gail Worcelo on the Vision and Legacy of Thomas Berry
August 31, 2020 15:45 - 1 hour - 98.8 MBSr. Gail Worcelo co-founded the Green Mountain Monastery in 1999, encouraged and supported by her friend and mentor, the late Thomas Berry. Berry, a cultural historian and Passionist priest, was a ground-breaking thinker who contemplated the new story science has given us of 13.8 billion-year history of our evolving Universe. He considered the implications of this new story for our religion, education, economy, and government. In this conversation, Sr. Gail reflects on how Thomas Berry’s vis...
The Work of our Hands: Community Connections for Just Farms and Food Systems
August 15, 2020 11:00 - 39 minutes - 90 MBRae Strobel Barr is an organic farmer, spiritual director and mother, living and working with her partner Adam at Barr Farms in Meade County, Kentucky, a seventh-generation family farm. She is passionate about building community and combining spirituality with eco-justice and eco-feminism through holding farm-based retreats and providing spiritual guidance and counsel. Our producer Parker Bowling traveled to meet Rae on the piece of land that she calls home, for an engaging conversation on ...
Science, Faith, and Deep Time: A Conversation with Geologist and Paleontologist Dr. Kate Bulinski
July 31, 2020 15:24 - 52 minutes - 83.7 MBDr. Kate Bulinski is an associate professor in the environmental sciences department of Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY, specializing in geology and paleontology. She also claims the moniker of “Catholic scientist.” In this wide-ranging conversation, we explored the relationship between faith and science in the pursuit of truth, and we delved deeply into how thinking in deep geological time offers a wise and rich perspective for our own lives and for the human legacy to this planet.
Radical Self-Care: A Conversation with Folk Healer and Activist Sarah Nunez
July 16, 2020 02:05 - 46 minutes - 74.3 MBSarah Nunez is a Latinx folk healer and activist in Louisville, KY. Through her work helping to heal bodies, communities, and unjust systems, Sarah embraces the deep roots of indigenous wisdom and storytelling. She envisions a future in which people of all backgrounds can recover our connection with each other and with the natural world that is our home and kin. Related links: National Mijente Movement: https://mijente.net/ Louisville Mijente is on Facebook at Mijente Louisville Aflor...
Black Soil: Honoring a Legacy, Cultivating A Future for Black Farmers
June 30, 2020 20:21 - 28 minutes - 51.4 MBThis episode features Ashley Smith, the co-founder of Black Soil. Black Soil is a nonprofit in Lexington, KY, dedicated to reconnecting Black Kentuckians to their legacy and heritage in agriculture and to empowering Black farmers in Kentucky, who currently make up just 1.4% of the state's farmers. Anyone who eats has a stake in there being a just, sustainable food system, so tune into this episode to learn more about Black Soil's work and the powerful bonds of community that Black Soil is...
Rewilding: Healing for Mind, Heart, and the World
May 30, 2020 15:12 - 48 minutes - 77.7 MBThis episode features Jennifer "Juniper" Owens, the co-founder of Bridge Counseling and Wellness, an integrative mental health and holistic therapy center in Louisville, KY. Juniper reflected on how our deep connection to the rest of the natural world can help us through our own individual struggles and through the collective trauma we are experiencing with COVID-19. We explored the Japanese practice of shinrin yoku, or forest bathing, the idea of "rewilding mental health," and pulled back...