On July 19th, Joanna Macy, our beloved teacher and past guest, died peacefully at home in Berkeley, California. In honor of her incredible legacy and the significant impact her work continues to have, we are rebroadcasting her episode “The World as Lover and Self,” originally released in January of 2015.

In this tribute to Andrea Gibson, we re-broadcast our original conversation from September of 2023. For so many of us who have been touched by Andrea’s work, their death is a deep wound, one that will stretch and expand our hearts in accordance with its depth.   

Erik shares his spiritual path of recognizing interdependence with the Earth and shares how he dreams towards a future where we exist in a mutualistic relationship to the Earth. His wisdom and groundedness is a balm for those tired by the rhetoric of our overculture. 

Speaking on the theme “Turning Towards Each Other, Not Against Each Other: Bridging in Times of Crisis” the panelists address what it means to build towards co-liberation in difficult times – especially in the context of the war on Gaza.

Sylvia and Ayana consider questions at the very foundation of our cultures. Winding through questions of patriarchy, religion, and violence, Ayana and Sylvia do not find singular answers, but rather a wisdom that arises from questioning the things that are deeply enmeshed in our culture.

Molly details the paths that created the Work That Reconnects, an inspiring, interactive group process for anyone who longs to serve the healing of our world in a more powerful and effective way.

Bayo, Cecile, and Sa’ed explore how honoring each other’s grief may allow us to reclaim each other’s humanity and perhaps shed light on a path forward to belonging in Israel-Palestine, for Muslims, Jews, and Christians, and for all people around the world.

Betty give listeners insight into what she calls “The Wheel of Consent,” and reminds us that access is a gift. No one is born with the knowledge of how to give and receive in the “perfect” way, rather we must learn and feel together.

Róisín offers both timely and timeless wisdom on what it means to live in a body that has experienced trauma. This is a conversation that bears witness to the deep terror and distress of the world and still charges forward with undying compassion and care of wild survival. 

Following ecology, not theology, Perdita calls us to think about the ecological equation – the reality of bodies feeding other bodies, of death opening a portal to another life. This is a reality that animals, plants, and all our more-than-human kin know well. How can we tap into their earthly wisdom?

Envisioning other ways of creating democracy,  Báyò, Madhulika, and Minna describe festival democracy, democracies of contestations and dancing, and democracies of the more-than-human.

Ayana and Stephen contemplate vital questions about the value of tradition, the importance of strangerhood, the possibility of reckoning, and the meaning of ancestry. Stephen’s questions disrupt and unsettle the status quo, and perhaps lead us to the lessons we so deeply need.

As Andrea shares their journey connecting to the eternal, genderless “We,” they invite listeners to contemplate their identities beyond this life alone. As we let the need to know fall away, what miracles might reveal themselves to us? 

Toko-pa considers the ways we may rehabilitate our imaginative capacities and encourages us to take time and pay attention to dreams. What is internally guiding us towards our potential? Connection to ourselves, to nature, and to each other are intertwined.

Amy points out the thresholds of everyday life and the value in sitting with uncertainty calling to mind the importance of making space for contemplation. In this life, we need many therapeutic moments. How can we make space for self-care and self-regulation as we cope with the journeys of life and death? 

Speaking about climate grief and hope, Báyò, Naomi, and Yuria build together to consider the value in tapping into the depth of emotion as we feel it, not as we are told we should feel it.

What if justice gets in the way? Báyò and Keeanga consider how our quest for justice shapes us and is simultaneously shaped by systems of power and control. They ask: how can we move justice out of the existing political paradigm and move beyond a normative sense of justice and reform? 

Indy and Báyò consider our modern crisis as one of the self – a particular version of the objective and singular self that creates space for violence and waste. If we perceive the world through dead and objective things, as Indy supposes, then that is what we become.

Kimberly discusses the depths of pleasure and the dimensions of healing, especially paying attention to the often untended somatic nature of sexual boundary repair and the complicated nature of what we bring into sexual relationships. 

Báyò and V dance and reveal portals of possibility that edge us towards deep change. Discussing the Congo as both place and portal, Báyò and V focus on V’s work with City of Joy, a transformational leadership community for women survivors of violence.