Lifeworlds

Are plants conscious? Do they experience forms of cognition and intelligence that go beyond patterned and hard-wired evolutionary behaviors? Do intelligence and consciousness really require a brain and central nervous system? Or should we consider intelligence on Earth to be less brain-bound, perhaps not even residing in the individual self, but rather in an enmeshment within an ecosystem? A swarm intelligence, a networked mind, distributed, adaptive, like a murmuration of starlings in the setting sun. And how would we even begin to start answering these questions empirically? Today it is my explicit intention to change the way that you think about the kingdom of plants and the intelligence that resides within it. This is a controversial topic with scientists on all sides of the spectrum vehemently advocating for or against concepts. It was Darwin who first introduced to the Western world the concept of the "root brain" hypothesis, where the tips of plant roots act in some ways like a brain, a distributed intelligence network. They challenge our very notions of an individual. Plants exhibit qualities that are adaptive, flexible, and goal directed – all hallmarks of an intelligence that goes beyond hard wired impulsive responses. They make decisions, perform predictive modeling, share nutrients and recognize kin. Electrical and chemical signalling systems have been identified in plants very similar to those found in the nervous systems of animals, including neurotransmitters like dopamine and melatonin. Our guest today is Paco Calvo, a professor at the University of Murcia in Spain, where he leads the Minimal Intelligence Lab focusing on the study of minimal cognition in plants. He combines insights from biology, philosophy, and cognitive science to explore plant behavior, decision-making, and problem-solving, challenging conventional perspectives of his field. Paco has said that ‘to ‘know thyself’, one has to think well beyond oneself, or even one’s species. We are only one small part of a kaleidoscopic variety of ways of being alive. Episode Website Link Show Links: MINT labPlanta Sapiens bookTime Lapse Video of vines and plantsMichael Pollan NYTInternational Laboratory of Plant NeurobiologyENG - intelligent-treesMonica GaglianoTED talk** Stefano Mancuso The roots of plant intelligenceScientific American - "Do Plants Think?Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes. Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock & Ellie Kidd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Soulfire Sessions have come to Lifeworlds! These occasional special episodes will be our take on the good old concept of a fireside chat. Intimate, philosophical, challenging, sometimes zany, always insightful, these are discussions with visionaries who don’t often get the airtime to speak about their deeper ways of being and feeling – and what lights their souls on fire. In this first session I speak with my dear friend Daniel Schmachtenberger, a social philosopher and founding director of the Civilisation Research Institute. Daniel has a particular interest in the topics of catastrophic and existential risk, artificial intelligence, civilization and institutional decay and collapse as well as progress, collective action problems, social organization theories, and the relevant domains in philosophy and science. With the fire roaring, we delve into the psychological and metaphysical underpinnings of the metacrisis, traversing topics such as fragmented consciousness, Daoism, wholeness, feeling in service to thinking, dharma enquiries, conflict theory, and what it might mean to live a meaningful life. Links: civilizationemerging.comDharma Inquiryhow to live a meaningful life Civilization Research InstituteBohm and Krishnamurti conversationsMusic: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock & Ellie Kidd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Seeds. Memory keepers. Speckled time travellers. Capsules of deep, earth wisdom. To control seeds is to control life. To be a seed is to hold the genetic code of turning starlight into matter, of morphing your body into soft green tips that tremble in the wind and drink fire. There is a deep co-evolutionary relationship that exists in your bones, between humans, land, ecology, and seeds. And we are losing them. An absence of flourishing seed systems directly correlates with a loss of cultural identity for thousands of communities around the world. Life for rural communities fractures. We’re losing our seed keepers. The freedom of seeds therefore becomes a political act of justice, on food sovereignty, indigenous rights, and restoring power back into the hands of farmers. So how does this rich history weave into the story of today’s guest? Milka Chepkorir Kuto is an anthropologist and climate and human rights activist. She is a member of the Sengwer indigenous community of Kenya’s Rift Valley, and she has become a representative for her people in defending their land rights after violent evictions from their traditional lands. Milka is also a Coordinator of Defending Territories of Life at ICCA Consortium, and has worked the UN Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Her community is now working to revitalize people-land relationships through indigenous knowledge, and Milka works with the women to save and protect their ancestral ways and seed systems. As Milka speaks, you can feel in her spirit this visceral connection to place, story, food, culture, a weaving of seed, hand, heart, human, forest. Milka herself is a seed, a story keeper, a culture holder, an inspirational tie between ancestral knowing and the modern world. Episode Website Link Show Links: Milka’s Crowdfunding Site for Lifeworlds listeners: “Help the Indigenous Sengwer Peoples of Kenya” Revitalizing Sengwer People-Land Relationships Seed savers network Kenya Global Alliance for Future of Food Open Seed Sharing Earthed course: Saving Seeds for a Better Future Will Bonsall, Scatterseed Project Movie: SEED, The Untold Story Gaia Foundation Seed Sovereignty Seeds of Freedom Trilogy Navdanya from Vandana Shiva Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock & Ellie Kidd Cover Photo by AI Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This musical journey has been produced for Lifeworlds by the vocal artist Moncaya. It is a sonic ode to the waters of the Earth and the rivers that flow, and a deep and loving conversation between two dear friends. Moncaya is a singer-songwriter and composer whose namesake derives from the mountain that rises in a vast dry plain in Northern Spain, her homeland; a mecca for the Iberian Celts and generations of healers, witches, and spiritual practioners. In this musical journey, she has woven our words with the sounds of the Rio Magdalena, a powerful estuary that flows through the state of Mexico bringing water to the entire city, and stitched it all together with her hauntingly beautiful voice and utterances. Listen to the end, where you can catch the track in its full splendor. This song is part of a wider movement – an open call for musicians around the world to create music, using water samples mainly gathered by Splice, a global library of musical resources for artists and creators. The movement is founded with the intent to give voice to water through different sonic universes made available to any musical artist, anywhere. I ask Moncaya at one point in this conversation how she as an artist can translate with integrity the experience of a whole other lifeworld – that of water itself. She chuckles, and with her characteristic clarity and warmth, responds, “You don't give voice to the waters…. You just explore with a pure heart, and whatever comes is good enough”. Moncaya was trained as an engineer and worked developing technology for conflict resolution and peace-building in countries at war, including Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, Syria and Tunisia. Currently based in Mexico City, her expression flows through her creations which blend the timeless essence of folk and world music with the freshness of electronic elements, creating a powerful bridge between tradition and innovation. So my friends, my invitation is to listen to this episode quietly, with a spacious heart, and let it wash over you. Links Moncaya’s Website Moncaya SpotifySplice Contigo TodoLinktree Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Audacious, spunky, courageous, defiant, sensitive, compassionate, fierce… These are just some of the words that I feel radiating from the formidable spirit and woman that is Cristina “Mitty” Mittermeier. Hailed as one of the most influential conservation photographers of our time, this Mexican national has dedicated her entire life to protecting the world's oceans - and through her work, has inspired millions of people to do the same. Cristina was one of the first pioneers in the concept and field of conservation photography. Once told to sit down and be quiet early on in her career when she asked how photography could be used as advocacy for the world’s last wild places, Cristina now has millions of followers, who are drawn to the stunning and strategic communications of her non-profit organisation Sea Legacy (which she founded with her husband Paul Niklen). It serves as a platform for many storytellers and local communities doing critical conservation work - in that way, they are amplifiers of the world’s most far flung voices and the ocean’s precious inhabitants. With that photography, should we be pushing out pictures showing the majesty of nature? Or should conservation photography also run a whole gamut of realistic but potentially emotionally distressing content? As we discuss today, it's a fine line and a delicate balance to tread in telling it as it is, whilst infusing hope in others, AND not wearing oneself down in anger or despair as we do so. We also speak about common myths or misconceptions that exist about the ocean as well as speculate on the creation of blue economies, what justice looks like for coastal communities, and how the world might change the immense value of these blue natural capital ecosystem would be entered into the PNL of a country. Episode Website Link Show Links: homepageSea Legacy“Areas of Impact”100 For the OceanKey Conservation Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes. Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock & Ellie Kidd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can satellite data and computation fundamentally shift how we understand our place on a changing Earth, and amongst other species? Can we use all that newfound knowledge, transparency, and intelligent data architecture to become better stewards? Allowing the earth to behold itself and its own lifeworld in a whole new way… And what are the ethical implications of having the power of such oversight? In whose hands? Today our guest is Dan Hammer, Managing Partner at Ode, a data and design agency for the environment, and prior chief data scientist at the World Resources Institute, where he co-founded Global Forest Watch, a tool that tracked and monitored global deforestation patterns. He is founder of Spaceknow, a satellite image analytics start-up, and was a senior advisor in the Obama White House, a Presidential Innovation Fellow at NASA, creator of Global Plastic Watch and Amazon Mining Watch. His work has used direct earth observation to locate every wastewater pond in rural Alabama; to watch illegal mining unfold in the Amazon; and to find every plastic waste site along rivers in Vietnam. He created the application Climate TRACE for former Vice President Al Gore, the first facility-level global inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, and much more. In this episode speak about his new endeavour which is attempting to create an open source foundation model for nature – where you can “start to query the landscape like you would Google Maps”. I ask Dan how he manages to strike a balance between high level global information layers, and local relevance, and whether is it really possible that a global model can actually help people on the ground develop a deeper intimacy and action with the lifeworlds of where they reside. Episode Website Link Show Links: Dan HammerClimate TRACECarbon Mapper - methane plumeswatch illegal mining unfold in the Amazonfind every plastic waste site along rivers in VietnamAmazon Mining WatchGlobal Plastic WatchLook out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes. Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock & Ellie Kidd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A guided meditation to bring you into a state of communion and intimacy with the Earth through the daily, sacred act of eating. Many ancient traditions have their ways of giving thanks to our connection with food and the planet’s bounteous harvest. Here, I have been inspired by the Zen Buddhist lineage of Plum Village, and the tenderness and beauty of bringing in all of life through every bite. I recommend you do it as you are about to enjoy a special meal… (Audio: New Earth - Beautiful Koshi Wind Chimes Healing Spring Meditation 432hz; Image: grapevinedesigns.in) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A special three part episode recorded onboard a Climate and Oceans expedition in the Norwegian Arctic. We’ll hear about the dark mysteries of the deepest realms of the ocean from “Her Deepness” herself, Dr. Sylvia Earle (possibly the most admired and loved oceanographer of the last century). Followed by the latest Planetary Boundaries Earth science from Johan Rockstrom, and the role of ocean storytelling and immersive art installations from Taylor Griffith. Together, their voices weave a tale of the predicament and possibility of the Arctic and high seas; how to sense the lifeworlds of all the creatures who glow and sparkle and live in the dark within the greatest unexplored part of Earth's biosphere; we learn about ocean exploration in the 21st century, the dangers of deep sea mining, and the role of discovery and art in bringing us into the pulsing heart of the planet’s watery body. I love this episode so much, and I hope you will too. Episode Website Link Show Links: Sylvia Earle biographyMission Blue Hope SpotsDeep Ocean Exploration and Research (DOER Submarine vessels)Johan RockstromPlanetary BoundariesMission Blue DocumentaryDeep Sea Mining Challenges - Oxygen ProjectTaylor Griffith artist pageCampaign Against Deep Sea MiningAnna Atkins Ocean cyanotypesPope’s new Laudato DeumLook out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes. Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd & The Rising by Tryad CCPL Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A necessary and beautiful episode on the emotional terrain of climate grief, loss, sadness, anxiety, and all the ways we can cope either maladaptively or adaptively to this challenging moment in time. This is an intimate conversation that makes the case for allowing ourselves to ‘feel it all’. Because from the depth of feeling comes the power of action, hope, resilience and community. If we ignore the reality of this mental health crisis, we are turning our backs on the potential that can emerge on the other side of initiation. We discuss different frameworks for processing climate anxiety - practical resources, approaches and philosophical underpinnings of a phenomenon that is sweeping the world, especially among youth populations. Dr Britt Wray is one of the world’s most esteemed and loved researchers on this topic, having published the viral newsletter and book Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis. She is Director Special Initiative of the Chair on Climate Change & Mental Health in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences of Stanford Medicine, advancing research and approaches in the field with communities facing the reality of ecological and social breakdown. Show Links: Lifeworlds Resources PageBritt’s websiteGeneration DreadRise of the NecrofaunaWorld as Lover, World as SelfThe Waking Up SyndromeLearning to Live with Climate ChangeGood Grief NetworkParenting in a Changing ClimateSupporting children in the face of climate changeWe Are In The Underworld And We Haven’t Figured It Out YetClimate Psychiatry AllianceLearning to Die in the Anthropocene Music: Electric Ethnicity Photo: Midsummer Eve Celebration Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An essential part of living into different lifeworlds resides in the mythic realm – the currents of poetry, mysticism and story that stream in the archetypal world below the world. Today I bring you a myth, from Darren Silver, rite of passage and vision quest guide; it is a myth that has laid dormant for many years and is finally here to be told. On the surface it’s a story of twins, of a brother and a sister, and of their initiation. There is magical surrealism here, and mythic beings, ancient and enduring laws of reciprocity, of the ways of the forest, of how to barter in ancient exchanges of the soul. There are riddles and agreements and creatures that speak and weave wisdom through grit and pain and love. The enduring message that this myth leaves me with is that initiation does not come bundled in cozy sound baths and sipping cacao on a beach — initiation is painful and tears us to our bones, and yet it is a sublime liberation, because through initiation, we manifest our gifts into the world. And as Darren says, for our gift to manifest, we have to wager our own skin. So sit back and listen to this one closely. Be present, receptive, and dignify the messages that are coming through as medicine for you, because something will strike you close. Allow yourself to be carried away by the myth. And so we begin. Credit: Photo of Stag (Flickr) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The roads on which we drive are unlikely to strike us as an exciting source of design innovation or interspecies dialogue. And yet, some of the most fascinating experiments and living laboratories are taking place around the world in how humans can build structures of hope and creativity for other species to flourish, despite having their habitats sliced in half by concrete veins. Earth is a fluid organism and needs connected landscapes like a canvas upon which to paint its life. Roads, on the other hand, are the single most destructive element in the process of habitat fragmentation (not to mention the millions of deaths due to collisions and the massive economic cost of these accidents). Over the coming 30 years, an additional 25 million km of roads will be built across the planet’s surface. So today in the show, we speak to pioneers in the world of wildlife crossings and design competition leaders who have spurred the process of globally rethinking and redesigning human structures to grapple with the concept of “wilderness” and the radical interconnectedness of nature and culture. Jeremy Guth is a trustee of the Woodcock Foundation, and an ARC founding sponsor. Nina-Marie is the Graduate Director of the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Toronto Metropolitan University where she leads the Ecological Design Lab, and has created a series of courses at the Harvard Graduate School of Design called Wild Ways. Episode Website Link: https://www.lifeworld.earth/episodes-blog/reweavinglandscapes Show Links: ARC websiteCrossings for Wildlife websiteBiophilic Cities NetworkEcological Design Lab.caWild Ways Harvard CourseWild WaysInteractive map of wildlife crossings in the USAeon article: Reweaving the Wild(Re)Connecting Wild filmNYT wildlife crossing article Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes. Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd & The Rising by Tryad CCPL Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A clarinet plugged into an underwater hydrophone, playing with liquid humpback whale songs below the surface. A huddled group of musicians under a night-time forest in Berlin, singing with nightingales. A 17-year swarm of cicadas alighting upon a sole jazz musician. These are the scenographies that David Rothenberg provokes with his interspecies music compilations, asking us, why should we only play music with other humans and not improvise along with the original musicians of the planet herself? For human music and song emerged from a world that sings, hums, beats, chirps, and human translations of these sounds have captured our imaginations from our tribal origins through to the first recordings of humpback whales that spurred anti-whaling conventions in the 70s and electronic synthesizers. Today’s episode brings us into this creative engagement with the planet, exploring how we are transformed when we open up to a world of music, beauty and art created by nature every day. So my friends, listen wider, expand your sense of music, and have David Rothenberg, interspecies musician, writer, and philosopher, show us how to become not just passive listeners but active participants in the symphony. Episode Website Link Show Links: David’s websiteDavid Rothenberg music on Spotifyall David Rothenberg books on AmazonNYT making music with cicadasIf Nietzche were an animal bookTim D recording windSlowing down nightingale song into whale songOn making music with whalesSounding SoilsBernie KrauseDavid’s workshop in Costa RicaLook out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes. Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock & Ellie Kidd Songs: Nightingale sounds are from David, and the Monkey Chant is from Kecak from Bali (Bridge Records) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The world around us is constantly vibrating with sounds we cannot hear. This magical soundscape evades our senses, tempts us by its elusive presence and beckons us to look deeper. Our ability to listen in is rapidly evolving. Over the last decades, scientists have begun installing digital listening devices in nearly every ecosystem. This process of deciphering what nature is saying is called “bioacoustics” and “ecoacoustics”. Massive advances in both hardware and artificial intelligence are permitting us to go where no artificial ear has gone before. Recent breakthroughs unveil that many more species are speaking in ways we didn’t know were possible, with far richer behaviors than were previously known. Karen Bakker - Canadian scientist, author, Professor at UBC and Rhodes Scholar - tells us how bioacoustics is poised to alter humanity’s relationship with our planet by expanding our sense of sound. We can develop mobile protected areas for animal climate refugees. Simply by singing, a whale can turn aside a container ship. Acoustic enrichment can help corals regenerate. Acknowledging these forms of communication requires us to confront our entrenched ideas of sentience and intelligence. This seeks to understand non-human communication on its own terms and brings up new ethical and moral dilemmas. Who grants us consent to listen in to the conversation of bats? And as we inhabit such different lifeworlds, might we have enough shared concepts that would enable any kind of translation? Episode Website Link Smart Earth ProjectSounds of LifeYale articleProject CETIInterspecies InternetEarth Species ProjectSonificationElephant listening projectWild Dolphin ProjectSounds of ReefMarine mammal communication & cognitionBiologgersPhoto: Karen’s Book Music: Electric Ethnicity Coral sounds Tim Lamont Bat sound Tomáš Bartonička Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a meditation I wrote and recorded to plunge us through epochs of cosmic time, through the tremendous evolutionary processes that preceded us, became us, and are us. It grants us invaluable context on the great tales of life whose memories are held in our bones. This is our origin and lineage. I hope you find yourself nourished and moved by the experience. This script is inspired by and takes language from the deep time practices of Joanna Macy and the Deep Time Walk of Stephan Harding and colleagues, along with some of the evolutionary notions explored in Otherlands by John Halliday – to them I am deeply grateful. My script here. Please credit if used or shared. Music attribution: Take Off and Shoot a Zero. Stunt Island Album. Written, produced, and performed by Chris Zabriskie. Published by You've Been a Wonderful Laugh Track (ASCAP). © 2011 Chris Zabriskie. Art made with… You guessed it. Midjourney. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode weaves live narrative, interview and descriptions on Romanian bison, wild forest adventures, and the lost ancient art and science of tracking. Tracking is an ancient sensorial and survival strategy that our nomadic ancestors cultivated as state of profound observation. It led to the development of many innate abilities of the human mind and indeed, tracking is so ingrained in our very cells that it is synonymous with being human. There is a movement today to revitalise tracking into a new modern profession, into a science that can help to monitor the impact of climate change and biodiversity loss and nature conservation. More on this in the show… Here I bring you into my own story of tracking animals and wild bison in the mountains of Romania with We Wilder, a social enterprise and cooperative founded by WWF Romania and local community members. We were engaging in a 4 day experience led by Toni Romani, a certified Cyber Tracker facilitator, and organised as part of building a local circular economy and connecting more people to the practicalities and experience of rewilding. Episode Website Link Show Links: How the return of the Bison will transform Europe (by Mossy Earth)Cyber Tracker The Art of Tracking resourcesWe Wilder Romania Research GateCyberTracker ItalyMovebank technology approach to animal tracking (Max Planck institute)Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes. Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock & Ellie Kidd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Carl Safina is an ecologist, author, conservationist, and animal translator whose body of work probes how free-living animals experience life. His books Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel and Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace have won numerous awards. Audubon named Carl Safina among its “100 Notable Conservationists of the 20th Century.” Carl uncovers the rich truth that many species and animals have entire cultures, traditions, familial stories, and individual quests, that all are part of this symbiotic tapestry of tales that we call “nature”. He travels alongside the sweeping wingspans of albatrosses, the elephants of East Africa, the wolves of Yellowstone, the Orcas of the Pacific Northwest, sperm whales, seals, turtles, deciphering the role of matriarchs and elders, describing how individual personalities affect all kinds of behaviors, and how these creatures too experience mourning, loss, and grief. Here we speak about all these interlocking animal worlds and lives, their highly evolved and complex cultural systems, how the world is awash in waves of communication, the imperfect evolutionary work in progress known as human empathy, and how knowledge of their existence should drastically influence strategies of conservation and regeneration. We end on a profound note speaking to the role of beauty across species and minds. (Tip: Listen to the end of this episode, the closing is particularly special...) “Culture is Life itself adjusting and responding and expressing to the corner of this galaxy in which it finds itself” - Carl Safina Episode Website Link. Show Links: Carl Safina Website with links to books, articles, podcastsThe Safina Center Non ProfitZebra Fish and empathy/oxytocin responseThe Mind of a Bee bookGuardian: Australian Songbird forgetting love songs Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes. Photo Credit: Whales, Clark Miller Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock & Ellie Kidd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My 2023 Reflections and Resolutions from Season One! I created this podcast to explore how people can learn to inhabit the world from multiple perspectives, with the ultimate goal of being able to feel the Earth’s body as our own body. In this episode, I start the year and tie the bow on the closing of Season One, by looking back over our twenty or so conversations and harvesting the rich learnings and patterns that emerged across the show. There are three consistent topics I unearthed: It’s just me today with you in this episode, so lie back and I hope this harvest brings you inspiration and breadcrumbs to follow into the new year… Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd The Rising by Tryad CCPL Photo Source: Imgur Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever since I watched Naima Penniman (from the duet Climbing Poetree) recount her poem in this bewitching video, I’ve returned time and time again to these words, to the simplicity, playfulness, and sheer beauty of her message. For me this poem is medicine. It reminds me of all the silly and wondrous things we human get caught inside of, and then we can wonder, how do other beings on Earth live their experiences of doubt, fear, joys, sorrows… What can we learn from them? Does it really have to be all so complicated after all? Read full poem here: https://www.lifeworld.earth/episodes-blog/poembeinghuman (Photo source) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jon Young brings us into the ancient practice of nature connection mentoring. He describes how mentoring is a virtually extinct craft, and yet occupies critical importance in building the sensory awareness and neurology of young children. We delve into his rich tales of living among the San bushmen of Southern Africa, the role of wildlife tracking and bird language, insights on building ropes with the universe, and a turkey called Pete. For over 40 years, Jon young has been a deep nature connection mentor, wildlife tracker, peacemaker, author, workshop leader, and storyteller. A pioneer in the Western field of nature-based education, he co-founded the Wilderness Awareness School in Washington and the 8 Shields Institute in California. Jon has authored the seminal books What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World (2013), and Coyote's Guide to Connecting to Nature (2007). In 2016, he received the Champion of Environmental Education Award for his life’s work and for fostering the growth of the nature connection movement on a global level. Episode Website Link Show Links Tom Browne Tracker SchoolFascinating biography of Jon’s lifeJon’s websiteCoyote’s Guide to connecting with NatureWhat The Robin Knows: Bird Language, Revealing the Secrets of NatureDescription of 8 ShieldsSan bushmenAnimas Valley InstituteSchool of Lost Borders Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You may not yet know what a “vision quest” or a rite of passage is. But these traditions are as ancient as our bones. No matter whom your ancestors were, I would wager that if you travel the family branchings back far enough, you would discover that they too engaged in these ritual processes that tethered them into deeper connection with the earth’s forces. Darren Silver is a rite of passage guide, nature-connected coach, ceremonialist, and educator. For two decades he has been working with ritual, wilderness living skills and guiding transformational experiences into land. A gifted storyteller and apprentice to the old myths, Darren weaves the power of the natural world, vision, and community in devotion to the remembrance of all that we are. We ask: Why does human culture need rites of passage and initiatory ceremonies? What is the role of myth in society? How does the Earth communicate to us, and how can we respond? What is the role of courage in all this? How can we test our limits? Episode Website Link Show Links: Darren SilverSibling Society by Robert BlyArnold Van Gennup - Three StagesMyth of the Handless MaidenTom Brown Tracker SchoolFox WalkingCore Routine - Sit SpotAnimas Valley InstituteSchool of Lost Borders Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.