“An account of life that doesn't include fungi is an account of life that doesn’t exist.” Our relationship with fungi is non-negotiable. Merlin invites listeners to pay attention to what this relationship means and how it shapes not only our lives, but the entanglement of life across the world.

Kurt shares guided wisdom about the realities of commodification, ecocide, and the capacity of the human soul for intentional cruelty. How we fight against such darkness matters not just for humanity, but for all with whom we share this precious earth. 

We are honored to once again share this episode with you as a profound reminder of the place we share with the qwe 'lhol mechen, their capacity for memory, grief, and love, and the many ways that the Lummi Nation continues to protect, defend, and restore the Salish Sea.

We look at how the attention economy takes on a new meaning in the digital age and the anxiety we experience in a consumer-driven society. Jenny Odell shares the brilliance of doing “nothing”, tending to the ecological self, and growing deeper forms of attention through a commitment to bioregionalism.

Vandana and Ayana piece apart the threads of our global culture that lead to exploitation and extraction - focusing on the policies of division and distraction that keep us from each other. The divisions that world-leaders focus so much time on are created in order to dominate and exploit the nature on which the earthly community depends.

We are challenged to think about our capacity, or willingness, to know invasive plants - Tusha queries listeners, “Do we know their reasons for making home in unfamiliar soils? Or what gifts and responsibilities they carry?” We are left with much to think about in the realm of curiosity and acceptance.

Yoalli brings us to the Chacahua-Pastoría Lagoons in Oaxaca, Mexico, to investigate deep connections with land, ongoing colonial violence, and the grief that comes alongside loving a place; a heartening conversation about the importance of ecological grief, rage, and sadness.

Ang reveals the complex relations within the hive and the multitude of lessons if we listen rather than impose. Rooting into the rich history of beekeeping and the folk traditions of their ancestors, Ang reminds us of the deeply interconnected world humans and bees share and the reciprocity inherent in right relationship.

Dr. Carroll pushes back against dominant settler histories about Cherokee migrations and relations to homeland and provides insight into what audience members ought to glean from Indigenous philosophies imparting practices of deep reciprocity, responsibility, and relationship to the land and each other.

Alexis elucidates that it is only through the messy process of owning up to these broken relations throughout time and seeing how we might participate in and take on culturally appropriate relations of repair, responsibility, friendship, and comradeship in the struggles for liberation that we can survive these times.

Covering the neuroscience of trauma, the habit of racism, and various typologies of systemic trauma, Dr. Ward provides insight into how we might consciously choose to activate our neuroplasticity toward justice rather than collectively rewarding our neuroplasticity for violence and oppression.

We slow down to acknowledge the beauty and power of fungal decomposition with guest Giuliana Furci who shares a lesson in divine time, the transformation of energy, and the necessity of decomposition.

K’asheechtlaa shares the oral history of herring abundance in context to what a typical herring harvest looks like today, industry’s inability to act with reverence, and how Herring Protectors are working to protect the herring and the culture tied to them.

Ruth shares how tending to the future must center Indigenous values and lifeways and shares the ways in which a just transition can be understood as a cyclical movement inspired by kinship, care, and reciprocity

Woman Stands Shining coalesces topics of Indigenous sovereignty, land back, how gender and consent behave in different paradigms, and the vital importance of moving out of modernity’s obsession with intellectualism.

Dr. Shiva warns that the ruling class operates from a place of fear of any being alive and free on their own terms. We end this conversation with a call to a paradigm shift away from capitalism, control and fear to one of partnership with the earth.

Corrina reminds us that Ohlone territory still holds tremendous abundance and that the land can sustain us in a way that would provide for our wellbeing should we choose to really re-examine what it is we need to survive.

Ayana and Mike touch on the history of cattle ranching and grazing rights, trophic cascades and the vitality of death, the violent lineages of conservation, and ecological restoration as an antidote to species loss.

Along with Dr. Kate Stafford, we listen to the many songs the ocean body sings, asking; how does a warming climate alter the Arctic’s soundscape? Why are the waters of the Arctic becoming louder, and what does this mean for kin like the bowhead?