For The Wild

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Kurt and Ayana’s conversation explores the powerful memory held by Southern Resident orcas, the threats they face from vessel noise, chemical pollutants, and declining Chinook salmon population, the health of the Salish Sea, and the Lummi Nation’s sacred duty to return Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut (formerly known as Tokitae/Lolita), from where she is being held captive at Miami Seaquarium...Support the show

Jesse Wolf Hardin discusses folk herbalism as a green portal and agent of holistic wellness, the visceral personalities of place, tending unique bioregional cultures and ecologies, the potency of gratitude, and discovery within the weedy margins. We're called to the rich, dynamic ways of our earthly existence towards a reclamation of our embodied wisdom, resilience, and knowledge.Support the show

Uplifting the untold story of mining, this episode braids together the history of the Gold Rush and colonization in B.C., the state of salmon, the practice of free, prior, and informed consent, dirty mining for a “clean” energy revolution, and the urgent necessity of reform. This timely and important conversation pierces the heart of capitalism and our fossil-fuel-hungry, luxury-driven culture. Support the show

Our conversation with Eriel sheds light on what Unist’ot’en Camp represents, the ongoing history of surveillance faced by frontline protectors, how policy can be a tool of forced assimilation, and the illegality of the actions taken by Canada’s federal and provincial governments. Support the show

This discussion with Christian discusses fungal diversity, the global mushroom market, migration patterns, and invasive versus native fungi. We also look at the reality that the Earth is poised to experience a significant decrease in fungal diversity due to climate change. Support the show

Dr. TallBear and Ayana confront western science’s continued appropriation of Indigenous sexuality, ancestry, and creation while unearthing our universal desires for love and belonging. Support the show

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We are invited by this week’s guest, Dr. Bayo Akomolafe, to pause and abandon solutionism, step back from the project of progress, and dance into a different set of questions: What does the Anthropocene teach us as a destabilizing agent that resists our taming? How can we show up in our movements of justice if “the ways we respond to crisis is part of the crisis”? Support the show

Ayana and Kyle discuss Kyle’s body of work on dystopia and fantasy in climate justice, the reproduction of settler structures, Indigenous science, vulnerability discourses, and “decolonizing allyship.” Kyle concludes with the ever present reminder that our work must be rooted in consent, reciprocity, and trust. Support the show

This expansive conversation touches on Dr. Marya’s work to decolonize medicine, the pervasiveness of medical debt, the need for medical reparations, and the fruitfulness of community-based medicine. We explore how society might look like if the pursuit of health and wellbeing for all was at the foundation of our organizing. Support the show

Ayana and Mike’s conversation touches 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.Support the show

We are joined by Mariame Kaba for an expansive conversation on Transformative Justice, community accountability, criminalization of survivors, & freedom on the horizon. Mariame addresses punishment as an issue of directionality while reminding us why it is vital to have the prison abolition movement in conversation with the movement for climate & environmental justice. Support the show

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In honor of Truthsgiving, join us as we meditate upon the true spirit of giving. Lyla and Ayana unravel the great potential held within the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and well as some of its false assumptions, and propose Indigenous-led frameworks for sovereignty. Lyla reminds us that when we yearn to speak the language of life, love and healing, we must turn to poetry.Support the show

Tune into this episode to hear Ayana’s conversations with six storytellers who are shifting the landscape of conservation from behind their cameras, bold media strategies, and work in the field: Tiffany McNeil, Dr. Ayana Flewellen, Meaghan Brosnan, Rodrigo Farias, Kaitlin Yarnall and Faith Musembi.Support the show

Listen in to Part Two of this intimate conversation as Ayana and Pavini share their reflections on the forest as a teacher of wild love, the field of eros within and beyond the realm of sex, the cyclical nature of death as communion, and strategies for connecting with ancestors of blood and heart. Support the show

Join us for Part One of Ayana and Pavini’s conversation as they delve into deep dialogue on the necessity of relational repair, trans and queer belonging, navigating states of trauma, and breaking settler mentalities within healing spaces.Support the show

Last October, the IPCC reported that we must cut global emissions in half by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Faced with the enormous task of decarbonizing our economies and radically transforming nearly all systems of life, we must dream into new and ancient futures. At the heart of this calling for transition lies evermore urgent questions of justice.Support the show

Sefra discusses the current loss of seed diversity, the culture of seed saving, the importance of diversity in the global food supply, the grave impacts of seed relief on local agro-economic systems, undermining seed oligarchies, and the ways in which being in relationship with seeds offer us a deeper connection to all dimensions of life. Support the show

Described by many as a sacrifice zone and subsidized timber colony of the US, Prince of Wales Island is one of the most heavily logged areas of the Tongass; there are over 2,500 miles of logging roads on an island that’s only 135 miles long. Our guest this week, Elsa Sebastian, knows this region well, having grown up in the fishing village of Point Baker on northern Prince of Wales Island.Support the show

This week, in Part Two of our episode with brontë velez, we dive into the capacity for pleasure amidst times of great uncertainty and historical oppression. What does “pleasure in the apocalypse” mean? How might this conversation take on different meanings depending on whether we are talking about climate change as an abstraction versus the current lived experience of planetary uncertainty? As brontë defines it, pleasure is what makes us come alive, so how can we create a culture that is deeply attuned to our senses and directs our desire towards Earth and each other? By feeding our senses, how might we confront the isolation and industrialization of our bodies, while acknowledging the limitations of grief in that “suffering is not accountable to the Earth.”brontë velez (they/them) is guided by the call that “black wellness is the antithesis of state violence” (Mark Anthony Johnson). a black-latinx transdisciplinary artist and designer, they are currently moved and paused by the questions, “how can we allow as much room for god to flow through and between us as possible? what affirms the god of and between us? what is in the way? how can we decompose what interrupts our proximity to divinity? what ways can black feminist placemaking rooted in commemorative justice promote the memory of god, which is to say, love and freedom between us?”they relate to god as the moments of divine spacetime that remind us we are not separate, the moments that re-belong us to the earth. they encounter these questions in public theology, black prophetic tradition & environmental justice through their eco-social art praxis, serving as creative director for Lead to Life design collaborative, media director for Oakland-rooted farm and nursery Planting Justice, and quotidian black queer life ever-committed to humor & liberation, ever-marked by grief at the distance made between us and all of life.Part Two of brontë and Ayana’s ripe conversation explores topics including appropriating propaganda and memetics, reorienting ourselves away from the spectacle of terror, tending to erotic energy and sensual spaces, and the nuances around beauty and aesthetics in dominant culture. In closing, we are asked to assess our capacity and privilege and then grow ourselves to create pleasurable pathways, ensure accessibility to embodiment, and foster environments where people are in their senses.♫ Music by Jennifer Johns and members of the Thrive Choir and Jiordi Rosales on cello, recorded at the 2019 Lead to Life Oakland ceremony, a ceremony that melted weapons into the constellations above Oscar Grant the evening he was murdered. The event closed the annual Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy March, hosted by the Anti Police-Terror Project.Additional ♫ Music by Jeremy HarrisSupport the show

In Part One of this expansive conversation, Ayana and brontë delve into topics surrounding authentic expression, the distortion of feminine and masculine powers, beauty and aesthetics, queerness, dominatrix energy, and power as agency. Support the show

Heidi, Alicia and Ayana break through the limits imposed by dominant languages, and invite radical freedom of expression to enrich our unique identities, experiences, our relationships with each other and with the earth. Support the show

Raj and Ayana discuss cheapness in relation to the prison industrial complex, the invisibility of domestic labor and care work, the fallacies of fair trade, and the enclosure of the commons. As the commodification and devaluation of life plunges us deeper into ecological crisis, may we awaken to the truth that cheapness can’t last forever.Support the show

Ayana and Corey discuss the implications of southern pine beetle expansion, how forest structures will shift, the threat to native biodiversity, the importance of cold winters, and how, ultimately, forestry measures are not the solution to a transformation that is propelled by our own short-sightedness in choosing consumerism as the dominant expression of this culture.Support the show

Ayana and Pádraig explore the language of uncommon belonging; how we must learn from our shame and the danger of forgetting history, the life cycle of violence, the nature of colonial power, the poetic origins of violence embedded in policy, and how to confront the inheritance of privilege. Support the show

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This episode discusses man camps, resistance movements, the banking system and corporatocracy. Through strategy and story, we learn how to target the heart of petro-capitalism with our dollars, and reflect on how the end-goals of divestment must lead to a just transition.Support the show

Rachel and Roxanne share their experiences from the frontlines of resistance and call out the patriarchy and settler colonialism that underpins how we navigate issues of land, money, and resource extraction. Together, they discuss the complexity of jurisdictional issues on reservations, the need for free, prior, and informed consent, and potential paths towards justice, healing, and reconciliation.Support the show

Ayana and Donna’s conversation explores topics like the reclamation of truth and “situated knowledge,” the importance of mourning with others, the etymology of “Anthropocene,” the place of forgiveness in movement building, and the urgency of making non-natal kin. Support the show

This week we are rebroadcasting our interview with Pua Case, initially aired in December of 2017. In the past two and a half weeks we have seen the powerful swelling of protectors across the globe in reverence for Mauna a Wākea. Support the show

We join Cinta Kaipat to learn how the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth, are impacted by militarization.Support the show

This conversation explores the nature of festival culture and our inherent desire for community. You will also hear some of our favorite presentations covering topics like creativity, collective liberation, sovereignty, and ancestral wisdom. Included in this interview are Dr. Vandana Shiva, Desirae Harp & Niria Alicia, Eve Bradford & Isis Indriya, Climbing Poetree and Paul Stamets.Support the show

Last summer, the world watched as mother Orca, Tahlequah, carried her dead calf on a “tour of grief” for more than 1,000 miles over a 17-day period. The Lummi Nation of the Salish Sea believes that Tahlequah’s display of her dead offspring was an intentional act —not only an act of grieving, but intended to stir an empathetic reaction from those who live above the water....Support the show

Lyla June retraces the origins of oppression of European women, men and earth-based cultures through to recent histories of genocide, inter-generational trauma, and the enduring forces that seek to destroy Indigenous women and the earth. Industrial activities that impact the lands and humans at local levels reverberate at an energetic level that has bred today’s crises...Support the show

Ayana speaks to these three key members of ER about creating high-priority changes through nonviolent civil disobedience and economic disruption, while working with citizen’s assembly. They explore the importance of non-violent movements for climate momentum, discussing how regenerative culture and people’s assemblies create inclusive and democratic groups which work against ecofascism and moreSupport the show

Michael and Ayana discuss topics such as the power of creative imagination and youth, the danger of hyper-individualism, pretentious heroism, and the obsession with newness. Michael explores the relationships between wounds and dreams, chaos and beauty, and meditates on his own journey of initiation and the archetypal ground of ancestors, as well as the potent nature of retelling stories.Support the show

Rob and Ayana reflec on growing food and foraging, reimagining wealth and de-monetizing your life, how to hold and move through hypocrisy, and the importance of addressing intersectionality and structural oppression in this work. Support the show

Chris discusses wealth inequality, deindustrialization and the rise of the gig economy, the birth of fascism and Christian fundamentalism, and the fusion of corporate and government power under the reigning umbrella of the security state. Candidly reflecting on his own experiences, he implores us to rise up in our power and defend our agency through civil disobedience and mass resistance.Support the show

Michael and Ayana discuss our widespread culture of disposability, the ecological services and benefits of healthy soil, the beauty of decay and decomposition, the necessity of circular economies, the importance of individual responsibility and community action, and the lessons that compost teaches us about humanity, value, and reverence for what we cannot see.Support the show

Ayana and Mary Evelyn explore how spiritual traditions can respond to environmental crisis, why it is so valuable to understand the emergence of the early universe as we navigate the Anthropocene, and how we can nourish stories of birth, inheritance, and long lineage between body and universe.Support the show

This week’s conversation between john and Ayana explores the frameworks of “othering and belonging” and "targeted universalism," as well as ideologies of supremacy, global dislocation, rethinking citizenship, and lastly, how we can co-create shared visions and practices of humanity that bring us back into belonging.Support the show

Dr. Shiva explores how systems of domination have been artificially constructed, the pervasiveness of GMOs in our food, the roots of violent agriculture, the importance of seed saving, cultures of violence, economies of care, and the role of women in changing paradigms.Support the show

James candidly speaks of the simultaneous beauty and horror of documenting the Anthropocene, the complicity of industries like the arts and entertainment in contributing to fossil fuel emissions, and the importance of language and imagery in mobilizing climate momentum. Ayana and James’ conversation reminds us that amongst the staggering statics, we cannot fall victim to despair...Support the show

Kerry and Ayana discuss the fragility of lichens in changing climates, what our understanding of lichens reveals about our value systems, the invaluable work of citizen scientists, the limitations of science as a “rational” data-driven field, and how the Anthropocene is shaping our understanding of biodiversity and extinction.Support the show

This captivating conversation explores how the denial of pleasure contributes to our own oppression, how radical honesty and kindness can transform our relationships, moving through the limitations placed on radical imagination and desire, the importance of pleasure beyond sex, and how our pain and sorrow is a measurement of our pleasure and joy. Support the show

Ayana and Dr. Wagner discuss insects as biological controls, insect decline in relation to political and economic destabilization, how cultural understandings of insects influence the field of entomology, and the main drivers behind insect decline. It is certainly true that while some people can’t live with insects, we know we can’t live without them…Support the show