Future Ecologies

We've unlocked our 11-episode Patreon series – Dr. Lisa-ann Gershwin, and occasionally the two of us, dive deep into jellyfish species and phyla in this mini-episode compendium.

We’ve dropped an album. Those in the know might recognize the prolific Sunfish Moon Light as the musical alter-ego of Future Ecologies co-host, Adam Huggins. Now you can listen to the original, full-length instrumentals that set the mood for Season 1.

It’s 2019 and we have lots of news! Coming up: a free live event in Oakland on January 8th, a super special album release, and a revamp of our citizen science campaign.

Forever is a really long time. This episode is about death, and its transformative power on the landscape. It’s also the last episode of Season 1. This episode takes a broad view through the lens of ritual, urban planning, and ecological entanglements, with a distinct focus on the Salish Sea.

In this conclusion to our series on dam removal, we travel from the Klamath up to the Olympic Peninsula, and the site of the former Elwha and Glines Canyon dams. What did it actually take to bring the dams down, and what lessons can we take forward to other ambitious ecosystem renewal projects?

Dams: the quintessence of human power over nature. Wild rivers can be tamed to deliver energy for industry, lakes for recreation, and water for agriculture. But severing the link between land and sea has come with grave ecological costs. This is part one of a two-part series on dam removals. In this episode, we return to the Klamath river to examine the fierce conflict (and unlikely partnerships) in pursuit of the deconstruction of 4 major dams.

How are human activities changing our oceans, and why do these changes all seem to support a new age of jellyfish? What are these ancient, diverse beings: harbingers of doom, or simply the most well-adapted form of life in the sea? In this episode we go jellyfishing for answers with preeminent jellyfish researchers Dr. Lisa-ann Gershwin and Dr. Lucas Brotz.

Almost exactly one year ago, a series of devastating earthquakes rocked southern Mexico. But what if it’s not the earthquakes themselves that pose the greatest threat to these communities?

In this second part of our two-episode series, On Fire, we look at ways to move our civilization forward – without continuing to deny the role of fire in our landscapes. We discuss how prescribed burns are currently conducted, radical new (and old) perspectives on land management policy, and practical techniques for everyone in fire country to protect their homes, their communities, and their forests.

The past two years have been the worst fire years on record across the west coast of North America, with whole communities being engulfed in flames and smoke enveloping major cities for weeks. But as the airways fill once again with stories of valiant fire-fighters and people who’ve lost their homes, we answer some burning questions that seem to always fly under the radar.

During the devastating September 9, 2017 earthquake off the coast of southern Mexico, residents of Mexico City and Quetzaltenango, Guatemala witnessed mysterious bursts of light in the sky. These lights, however, were not UFOs, exploding transformers, or evidence of a mysterious government conspiracy - instead, they were representatives of an age-old phenomena known as “earthquake lights.” What could be causing these lights in the sky before, during, and after earthquakes?

What do you do when you find the last individual of a species previously thought to be extinct? The two rarest plants on earth both live in the Presidio of San Francisco, they’re both in the same genus, and there’s only one left of each. Is there a future for these species, and if so, what does it look like? And what can species on the brink tell us about ourselves and the future of our ecosystems?

Dr. Lisa-ann Gershwin introduces us to Aurelia labiata, the Pacific Moon Jelly. This mini-episode is the first of many to be released in weeks alternating our feature-length episodes. The rest of these mini-episodes will be exclusively available to our Patreon supporters. Get the rest at www.patreon.com/futureecologies

The story of modern-day North America begins with the systematic genocide and displacement of indigenous peoples. The social and ecological consequences of this founding trauma have become clearer over time, but so far relatively little has been done to address this at the federal, state, and provincial levels.

Future Ecologies is recorded on the unceded territories of the Musqueam (xwməθkwəy̓əm) Squamish (Skwxwú7mesh), and Tsleil- Waututh (Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh) Nations - otherwise known as Vancouver, British Columbia. But what does that mean?