Green Dreamer: Seeding change towards collective healing, sustainability, regeneration

389) Dany Celermajer: Multispecies justice and more-than-human entanglements

“I use the language of entanglement rather than interdependence because entanglement implies that what’s fundamental is relationships.” What are some of the limitations of human rights frameworks and the institutions that uphold them? What does it mean to go beyond recognizing our interdependence to seeing our deep entanglements with our more-than-human world? And how is the much more holistic framing of “multispecies justice” still reductive in terms of the forms of beings that they recog...

388) Daniel Immerwahr: Empire remade in form through technology

“One thing that the United States got really good at doing was basically replacing all colonial products with synthetic ones—swapping technology in for territory and replacing colonies with chemistry.” How have synthetic chemistry and technology allowed the United States as an empire to cease its reliance on colonies? And what is the significance of recognizing the greater history of the empire—beyond the borders of its symbolic “logo map”? In this episode, we welcome Daniel Immerwahr, a...

387) shakara tyler: Black farming as joyous, victorious, glorious

“We often forget that Black farmers were the foundation of the civil rights movement. Actually, a lot of Black agrarian scholars and organizers, and even some policy advocates that have been doing this work for a long time, would say that there’d be no civil rights movement if it wasn’t for Black farmers.” In this episode, we welcome dr. shakara tyler, a returning-generation farmer, educator and organizer who engages in Black agrarianism, agroecology, food sovereignty and environmental jus...

386) Jen Telesca: The managed extinction of the giant bluefin tuna

“What I find worth remarking upon is the fact that the vast majority of people are so alienated from the Bluefin’s life world that they don’t know what an extraordinary creature she is—and instead just widely see her as a foodstuff, trafficked on the global market. It’s imperative for that worldview to change.” In this episode, we welcome Jennifer E. Telesca, Associate Professor of Environmental Governance in the Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment at the Nijmegen School of ...

385) Thom van Dooren: The evolving cultures of the more-than-human world

In this episode, we welcome Thom van Dooren, a field philosopher and writer. Thom is Deputy Director at the Sydney Environment Institute and teaches at the University of Sydney and the University of Oslo. His current research and writing focus on some of the many philosophical, ethical, cultural, and political issues that arise in the context of species extinctions and human entanglements with threatened species and places. This research works across the disciplines of cultural studies, phil...

384) Rebecca Giggs: The world as reflected in the whale

In this episode, we welcome Rebecca Giggs, an award-winning author from Perth, Australia. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, Emergence, the New York Times Magazine, Granta, and in anthologies including Best Australian Essays, and Best Australian Science Writing. Rebecca’s nonfiction focuses on how people feel towards animals in a time of technological and ecological change. Rebecca’s debut book is Fathoms: The World in the Whale. Some of the topics we explore include how whaling accele...

383) Gabes Torres: Re-rooting therapy and re-membering community

“One of the introductions to Counseling Psychology teaches the Freudian concept of neutrality—when the patient’s social identity, when politics leave the door and you start treatment. But if we leave out identity, if we leave out the very sources as to why my client is sick in the first place, then I don’t see why this is not a cycle.” In this episode, we welcome Gabes Torres, a therapist, organizer, and artist who was born and raised in the Philippines. Her work focuses on imperialism and...

382) Min Hyoung Song: From everyday denial to everyday attention

“Where our power comes from actually is in that space between the 'I' and the 'you'—that shared space. If we could tap into that, if we can find ways of working together, to form what I called 'shared agency,' then we can actually gain a lot of power to affect change.” In this episode, we welcome Min Hyoung Song, a Professor of English and the Director of the Asian American Studies Program at Boston College, as well as a steering committee member of Environmental Studies and an affiliated ...

381) Stacy Alaimo: Our bodies are the Anthropocene

“All of these imaginings visually, as if we were in a spaceship and looking down on the Earth—whoever that we is, which is super problematic with the notion of the Anthropocene—safely above, looking at the mess we’ve created... And no. With Trans-corporeality, our bodies are already the Anthropocene.” In this episode, we welcome Professor Stacy Alaimo, Professor of English and Core Faculty Member in Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon. She is the author of Undomesticated Grou...

380) Loren Cardeli: Who really feeds the world?

“For every $1 of aid Africa gets, $24 is taken out. We have to address something deeper, something more systemic, but we don’t want to talk about that. We want to talk about food waste, composting. Those are treating the symptoms of the disease, not the root. ” In this episode, we revisit our past conversation with Loren Cardeli, the co-founder and Executive Director of A Growing Culture, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, advancing a culture of farmer autonomy and agroecological innovation. A Growing C...

379) Hi'ilei Hobart: Ambient sovereignty and the question of temperature control

“When it comes to refrigeration, so many of us have just come to accept that that’s how things are done. But I think in the food sovereignty conversation, those dependencies can sometimes be overlooked when we’re talking about what it means to become sovereign.” In this episode, we welcome Hiʻilei Julia Kawehipuaakahaopulani Hobart (Kanaka Maoli), who is Assistant Professor of Native and Indigenous Studies at Yale University. An interdisciplinary scholar, she researches and teaches on issu...

378) Asad Rehman: The end of imperialism in a radical green new deal

“Our economies globally have forced the Global South to be commodity-driven, export countries, with powerful multinationals. [The] profits that come from the exploitation of countries in the Global South flow to the Global North. As I say, imperialism is as alive today as it was then.” In this episode, we welcome Asad Rehman, the Executive Director of the radical anti-poverty and social justice organisation War on Want. Asad is a leading climate justice activist whose work has helped to re...

377) Heather Davis: Living in 'Petrotime' and seeing plastic as grand-kin

“What [the plastiglomerate] really highlights is the fact that plastic is now so incredibly ubiquitous that it can’t be taken out or removed. It is, in fact, a part of geology at this point in time.” In this episode, we welcome Heather Davis, an assistant professor of Culture and Media at The New School in New York whose work draws on feminist and queer theory to examine ecology, materiality, and contemporary art in the context of settler colonialism. Her most recent book, Plastic Matter (...

376) Craig Santos Perez: Poetry as therapy and political speech

"Poetry has always been a powerful space for healing, dealing with trauma, cultivating resilience in times of crisis or even depression..." In this episode, we welcome Dr. Craig Santos Perez, an indigenous CHamoru from the Pacific Island of Guam. He is the co-editor of six anthologies and the author of five books of poetry and the monograph Navigating CHamoru Poetry: Indigeneity, Aesthetics, and Decolonization. He is a professor in the English department at the University of Hawaii at Mano...

375) Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen: Reclaiming 'traditional' and recovering nordic animist relations

“Mythology is a language that places knowledge of relation into relation with people—[in a] way that appeals to our emotions and imaginations. It is a language that reaches deep into our instinctual system and our whole human constitution in order to make relational knowledge workable for us.” In this episode, we welcome Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen, a Ph.D in History of Religions, researching Brazilian orisha religion. He has lived in a number of countries in Europe, Africa North- and S...

374) Sharon Blackie: Re-enchanting the earth through mythology

“Story helps us weave ourselves into the land and feel a sense of wonder and awe when we step outside. This re-mythologizing, restorying to me is a really important way that we can find belonging to places from which we would otherwise perhaps feel quite alienated.” In this episode, we welcome Dr. Sharon Blackie, an award-winning writer, psychologist and mythologist. Her highly acclaimed books, courses, lectures and workshops are focused on the development of the mythic imagination, and on...

373) Mark Rectanus: Reclaiming the arts from corporate influence

"In many cases, corporations are using [the museum's cultural capital] to reaffirm their status in a local community... Artists are increasingly concerned about the context in which their work is displayed and also the values of the museum and the sponsor." In this episode, we revisit our past conversation with Mark Rectanus, a University Professor of German Studies (Emeritus) in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Iowa State University. His publications include research on t...

372) Sinegugu Zukulu: Resisting imposed development in the Wild Coast

“So-called ‘development’, envisioned outside of the community, more often than not brings challenges to the community because it doesn't take into consideration the aspirations, the culture, and the way of life of the people. It disregards the right of the people to self-determination. More than anything, it destroys the ecosystem of goods and services that people are reliant on.” In this episode, we welcome Sinegugu Zukulu, who describes himself as a champion of rural development, having ...

371) Brett Scott: Money consciousness and the war on cash

"If you're looking at the broad trajectory of corporate capitalism, it's towards institutional intermediation in everything... This 'unbanked' concept is always presented as if somehow it obviously represents a step up in the world. But [really], you're getting captured within an institutional framework or a type of conglomeration of institutions." In this Green Dreamer episode, we welcome Brett Scott, a journalist, campaigner, monetary anthropologist and former financial broker. He ...

371) Brett Scott: The war on cash

"If you're looking at the broad trajectory of corporate capitalism, it's towards institutional intermediation in everything... This 'unbanked' concept is always presented as if somehow it obviously represents a step up in the world. But [really], you're getting captured within an institutional framework or a type of conglomeration of institutions." In this Green Dreamer episode, we welcome Brett Scott, a journalist, campaigner, monetary anthropologist and former financial broker. He is the...

370) Christine Winter: Rethinking the philosophies underlying settler politics

"To try and resolve the environmental problems that we're facing from within the same ontological and epistemological frameworks that have created the problem just can't work. The Western world needs to be rethinking the way it approaches what it is to be a human being on this planet, and what relationships are important." In this episode, we welcome Dr. Christine Winter (Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairoa, Ngati Pākeha), who is a senior lecturer in environmental, climate change, multispecies and i...

369) Andy Letcher: Cultivating reciprocity with animistic views of relationality

“An animistic worldview is one I think that is deeply embedded in relationality, exactly the kind we need at this moment of crisis. So far from it being a ‘primitive thing,’ I think actually it can show us ways forward about how to be in the world, and how to be in the world with gratitude, knowledge, reciprocity.” In this episode, we welcome Andy Letcher, a Senior Lecturer at Schumacher College, Devon UK, where he runs the MA Engaged Ecology. He is the author of Shroom: A Cultural History...

369) Dr. Andy Letcher: Cultivating reciprocity with animistic views of relationality

“An animistic worldview is one I think that is deeply embedded in relationality, exactly the kind we need at this moment of crisis. So far from it being a ‘primitive thing,’ I think actually it can show us ways forward about how to be in the world, and how to be in the world with gratitude, knowledge, reciprocity.” In this episode, we welcome Andy Letcher, a Senior Lecturer at Schumacher College, Devon UK, where he runs the MA Engaged Ecology. He is the author of Shroom: A Cultural History...

368) Christian Parenti: Recognizing capital as a social relation

"The idea of the catastrophic convergence essentially looks at how climate change interacts with the pre-existing crises of the legacy of US imperialism and Cold War militarism and neoliberal economic restructuring." In this episode, we welcome Christian Parenti, a Professor of Economics at John Jay College, City University of New York. His undergraduate and graduate teaching, and research, focus on: American economic history, environmental history, and the history of capitalism; climate c...

367) Mia Birdsong: Deepening our interdependence with community

“Freedom and friendship have the same etymological root, which means beloved... [Historically, freedom] was about your people and that collectively, you were able to get the things that you needed for everyone to survive — food, shelter, water — and that children, disabled people, babies, and elders were cared for. This was how you were free — in the collective.” In this episode, we welcome Mia Birdsong, a pathfinder, author, and facilitator who steadily engages the leadership and wisdom o...

366) Daniel Heath Justice: Indigenous literature and decolonial libraries

“English embeds certain things just by virtue of its structure. It’s a very thing-ifying language; it’s very noun-heavy. Most of the Indigenous languages that I know of are very relational and verb-heavy. It’s a fundamentally different way of relating to the world and to community. If [the] Indigenous literature [you see] is all in English, then you’re missing a significant reality in terms of Indigenous forms of expression.” In this episode, we welcome Daniel Heath Justice, a Colorado-bor...

365) Sophie Strand: Rewilding myths and storytelling

"The transition from oral cultures into written cultures, for me, really signals a conceptual change that then uproots us from an embedded, environmental, relational existence, in such a way that a certain analytical, linear, and reductionist thinking becomes possible." In this episode, we welcome Sophie Strand, a writer based in the Hudson Valley who focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. Her first book of essays The Flowering Wand: Rewilding the Sacred Ma...

364) Helena Norberg-Hodge: Reorienting towards economics of happiness

“There’s a lot of awareness about the direct lobbying of big money in politics. But that doesn’t take into account the much more dangerous way that big money is shaping the narrative through the media, even through funding in science and academia. That has led to this narrow fixation on carbon and an embrace of robots and satellites as the way to deal with climate change.” In this episode, we revisit our past conversation with Helena Norberg-Hodge, a pioneer of the new economy movement and...

363) Annie McClanahan: The possibility of a world disentangled from wages

“Under a capitalist system of production or any system of production based on the extraction of value via wages, it’s always going to be the case that mechanization leads to more work and lower wages...” In this episode, we welcome Annie McClanahan, an Assistant Professor of English at UC Irvine, where she is also a faculty advisor for UCI-LIFTED, a prison education program. Her first book, Dead Pledges: Debt, Crisis, and 21st Century Culture, was published in 2016, and she is currently fi...

362) Catriona Sandilands: Botanical colonialism and biocultural histories

"We sometimes forget that the knowledge systems we use to conceptualize the world are not necessarily exactly the same thing as the world that we're conceptualizing. We mistake the model of the model for the thing that is being modeled. We mistake the map for the territory. We mistake the word for the thing." In this episode, we welcome Catriona Sandilands, a professor of environmental arts and justice at the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, York University. Having written, edite...

361) Micha Rahder: Thinking through the ecology of knowledges

“We are all pretty familiar with the concept of the ‘biosphere’, which is the ‘living layer’ of the earth. The ‘noosphere’ is the ‘thinking layer’ of the earth that grows in and from that biosphere. It includes human thought and activity but is also much more than that.” In this episode, we welcome Dr. Micha Rahder, the author of An Ecology of Knowledges and an independent scholar, freelance editor, indexer, and writing coach living in North Carolina. Her research and writing address e...

360) Sophie Chao: Pluralizing justice amidst the expansion of palm oil projects

“Lies, deceit, and dupery are also very much part of the story. Often, these promises are made in the early stages of oil palm development, but they do not end up materializing in practice.” In this episode, we welcome Dr. Sophie Chao, a Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) Fellow and Lecturer at the Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney. Her research investigates the intersections of Indigeneity, ecology, capitalism, health, and justice in the Pacific. Chao is the au...

359) Gavin Van Horn: The practice of kinning as porous beings

"Instead of being head over heels, be heels over head—privilege your sense of touch. I think that shifts the weight of an overactive mind back into the body, [towards] our full body-mind experiences." In this episode, we welcome Gavin Van Horn, Ph.D, Executive Editor at the Center for Humans and Nature and leads the Book Series for the Center for Humans and Nature Press. He is the co-editor, with Robin Wall Kimmerer and John Hausdoerffer, of the five-volume series, Kinship: Belonging in a ...

358) Dimah Mahmoud: The power in culture and the revolution of consciousness

"We are not a lacking people. We are more than capable to provide for ourselves. The issue is those who continue to pretend that they are here to help are here for other intentions.” In this episode, we welcome Dimah Mahmoud, who facilitates order by manipulating chaos and stops at nothing for Truth, Justice and Love. She co-creates grassroots solutions by growing her knowledge, skills and community to build alliances for inclusive collective growth. As a self-proclaimed Warrior of Tru...

357) Guillaume Pitron: The shifting conflicts and costs of ‘green’ energy

  “The sooner we are able to get rid of these two commodities, oil and coal, the better it will be... But 'green' technologies such as electric cars, solar panels, and wind turbines, don’t come out of thin air.” –Guillaume Pitron In this episode, we revisit our past conversation with Guillaume Pitron, an award-winning journalist and documentary-maker for some of France’s leading TV channels. From Chinese rare earth metals, oil extraction in Alaska, to Sudanese gum arabic and khat tradi...

356) Rami Barhoush: Occupation, identity, and olive trees in Palestine

“For Palestinians, agriculture seems to be the only option. This is why we see the vicious, atrocious, and systematic attacks against Palestinian farmers.” In this episode, we welcome Rami Barhoush, an activist and president of the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature, known as APN, based in Amman, Jordan. The independent non-profit organization seeks to enhance the capacity of Arab peoples, including those living under occupation and armed conflicts, to protect, sustain, and establ...

355) A. Naomi Paik: Sanctuary for all, sanctuary everywhere

“If you’re actually targeting migrants as the source of the problem, if we’re thinking about climate migration as one of the amplified 'threats' from the Department of Defense’s point of view, then you’re never actually going to solve the problem because you’re only addressing the symptom and not the root cause.” In this episode, we welcome A. Naomi Paik, an interdisciplinary scholar whose work examines the relationship between law and cultural politics, centering racism, state violence, ...

354) Johann Hari: Reclaiming our capacities for deep thinking and intimate engagement

"“There’s a lot of evidence that the world, and our experience of life, has massively sped up... We’re all speed-reading life now, and we’re living at a pace that makes deep thought impossible.” In this episode, we welcome Johann Hari, a writer and journalist who has written for the New York Times, Le Monde, The Guardian and other newspapers. His TED talks and NowThis viral video have been viewed almost 100 million times, and his work has been praised by a broad range of people. Johann i...

353) Jason Moore: The impossible endless accumulation of capital

In this episode, we welcome Jason W. Moore, an environmental historian and historical geographer at Binghamton University, where he is professor of sociology. He is author or editor of several books: most recently, of Capitalism in the Web of Life; and, with Raj Patel, A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things. His books and essays on environmental history, capitalism, and social theory have been widely recognized, and he coordinates the World-Ecology Research Network.  Support our co...

352) Jessica Hernandez: Healing with Indigenous science and holistic thinking

“In a way, Western science compartmentalizes a lot of the information through those boxes or as I say, through those puzzle pieces. Indigenous science looks at the entire picture to formulate our information and our questions.” In this episode, we welcome Dr. Jessica Hernandez, a transnational Indigenous scholar, scientist, and community advocate based in the Pacific Northwest. Her work is grounded in her Indigenous cultures and ways of knowing. She advocates for climate, energy, and envir...

352) Jessica Hernandez

351) Chelsea Mikael Frazier: Learning environmentalism through the lens of Black feminism

“One of the most powerful untapped resources is spirituality. Spirituality—particularly spirituality from Black and Indigenous communities all over the world—has been so denigrated and so viciously attacked that many people are unaware of its transformative potential.” This is a replay of our past interview with Chelsea Mikael Frazier, Ph.D., a Black Feminist eco-critic who writes, researches and teaches at the intersection of Black feminist theory and environmental thought. (The musical o...

350) Brad Evans: Reclaiming community and the power of silence

“We’ve collapsed the idea of community with 'connectivity'. But being 'connected' doesn’t mean you have any sense of community. To have a community, you need something very visceral, you need to be in close proximity with people, to communicate on a day-to-day basis, to understand the flaws of people. It’s not about curated existences.” In this episode, we welcome Brad Evans, a political philosopher, critical theorist, and writer, who specializes in the problem of violence. His work is par...

349) Amalia Leguizamon: A mass consent for socio-ecological injustice

"Why is it important to focus on regular people, people in the in-between, people who bear some cost but also reap some profit? Because it gives us an insight into most people’s lives. As long as we don’t understand how we become acquiescent, not much will change." In this episode, we welcome Amalia Leguizamón, Associate Professor of Sociology and core faculty at the Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane University. Her research examines the political economy of the environment...

348) Kregg Hetherington: The paradox of destroying lands in the name of social welfare

“This is what I call the agrobiopolitical paradox at the center of the modern agricultural state: Paraguay trying to push hard to get more soybeans out there and on the other hand trying to create institutions to protect people from all the soybeans that the left hand is putting in place.” In this episode, we welcome Kregg Hetherington, Ph.D., who is a political anthropologist specializing in the environment, infrastructure, and the bureaucratic state. He is the author of The Government of...

347) Kai Bosworth: Mobilizing through pipeline populism

"That neoliberal, technocratic environmentalism is also what we would call depoliticizing... it avoids the more transformative types of policies or solutions that extend outside of the policy realm and are necessary for confronting the climate crisis as we recognize it today." In this episode, we welcome Kai Bosworth, a geographer, political ecologist, and Assistant Professor at the School of World Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the author of Pipeline Populism: Grassroots...

346) Emma Dowling: Understanding the care crisis

Emma Dowling IS a sociologist at the University of Vienna in Austria. She has previously held academic positions in Britain and Germany, and her most recent work asks what our economy looks like when viewed from the perspective of care, charting the material conditions that shape its configurations. Emma is the author of The Care Crisis - What Caused It and How Can We End It? published with Verso Books. Support our community-powered show to continue: GreenDreamer.com/support (The musical...

345) Bram Ebus: Power, poverty, and criminality in the gold industry

Bram Ebus has worked on resource conflicts, drug policies, and state-corporate crimes in Latin America since 2010. He holds a master's degree from the University of Utrecht in Global Criminology with a focus on environmental and state-corporate crimes. In recent years, Bram has been active as an NGO consultant and investigative journalist, publishing for a variety of international media, and worked as the lead journalist for an award-winning interactive media production on mining conflicts...

344) Scott Timcke: Algorithmic capitalism and digital dehumanization

Scott Timcke, Ph.D., is a comparative historical sociologist who studies race, class, and technology in modernity. He is a research associate with the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Social Change and a fellow at the University of Leeds’ Centre for African Studies where he studies the overlap between algorithmic capitalism, FinTech, and neocolonialism. He is also the author of Algorithms and The End of Politics. The song featured in this episode is Debt by Luna Bec. Green Dreamer is ...

343) Beatriz Caiuby Labate: Sacred plant medicines and healing psychedelics

Dr. Beatriz Caiuby Labate (Bia Labate) has her core interests in the study of psychoactive substances, drug policies, shamanism, ritual, and religion. She is the author, co-author, and co-editor of seventeen books, one journal special edition, and several peer-reviewed articles. She is also the Executive Director of the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. The song featured in this episode is Magic Hits by Adrian Sutherland. The episode artwork is by Danii Pollehn. Green D...