In the fast-paced movement of today’s media, it’s easy to become entangled in narratives of extinction, loss, a lack of time, and a tremendous amount of misanthropy. However, when we pause to look within the ecosystems around us we can find examples of life pushing through the most difficult of circumstances. Our more than human kin continues in defiance, refusing to cease their own lineage under the current modern paradigm of exploitation and desecration. In this week’s episode, we look into a thriving life paradigm, which places a reverences for life at the center of all action, with guest Woman Stands Shining (Pat McCabe). 

For those of us who feel so deeply misfitted in this current paradigm, this conversation asks us to dream into who we could be in another paradigm. How could a thriving life paradigm re-instill the honor and integrity of being human on Earth? Where can we look to in humanity’s history to find examples of human presence on Earth as a blessing that fostered biodiversity and sustainability? In this expansive conversation, 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 as the primary way of knowing, into a powerful call to choose a timeless paradigm that is life-affirming for us all.

Woman Stands Shining (Pat McCabe) is a Diné grandmother, activist, artist, and international speaker. Her primary work is proposing to the Five-Fingered-Ones, that paradigm is a choice, and pointing to Indigenous cultures as examples that we have evidence that human beings can participate in paradigms in which we can become beings capable of causing all life to thrive. 

♫ The music featured in this episode is "ohhhiiiii" by The Range of Light Wilderness, "Honey in My Heart" by Violet Bell, and "Rain" by Sea Stars.

Episode References

“Native on Native Studies” by Woman Stands Shining (Pat McCabe)

The Biology of Transcendence by Joseph Chilton Pierce

Take Action

Support Covid Relief work in Indigenous communities: “Urgent Cause - Honoring our Diné (Navajo) Elders)” Fundraiser organized by Andy Dann

Support the return of stewardship at all levels to Indigenous peoples with traditional land management practices.

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