How It Looks From Here

#65 Marilyn Deutsch

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary got to talk with Marilyn Deutsch, a beloved Portland journalist who spent over three decades as a producer at KPTV/FOX 12. Marilyn is known for her dedicated storytelling and recognized by colleagues as a talented, long-standing voice in Oregon media. An award-winning news professional, Marilyn has been recognized for being highly adept at presenting complex topics clearly. She's a skilled listener and polished public speaker.

These days, Marilyn consults with the Oregon Historical Society on their oral history initiatives. She conducts in-depth in-person interviews with leaders in Oregon politics, business, law and related fields. These oral histories become part of the OHS permanent collection for future research purposes and the historical record. Across the past three years, Marilyn has also served as the Oral History Director and Strategist for Clackamas County Historical Society with an eye toward the people and ecosystems of the Willamette River Valley.

Through it all, Marilyn has loved the natural world and paid attention to the shifts in sentiment among the public with whom she's interacted.

You can learn more about Marilyn on LinkedIn and in the articles and posts.

Fond Farewell to Marilyn Deutsch - FOX 12 Oregon https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1893542457662361

On Marilyn’s Facebook Page

And here.

As Marilyn suggests, Keep paying attention - as if you were going to be asked to report on what’s really happening. Marilyn knows, as you do, that with focus and dedication, we can indeed repair our climate.

MUSIC

Under the Olive Tree. Music by Silviu on the street from Pixabay

Flamenco Song. Music by Silviu on the street from Pixabay

Free Soul Guitar and Flute. Music by Kalpesh Ajugia from Pixabay

Original theme music composed and performed by Gary Ferguson.

#64 Heather Bentz

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 09:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary got to spend time with Heather Bentz, a nationally rejowned artist and all around cool person. Heather was raised by artists, and by the natural world she adventured into throughout her childhood. She holds a BFA in Printmaking from Pennsylvania State University, and an MFA in Painting from Montana State University.

Following her rapt attention to play and adventure in nature as a child, Heather whimsically engages with a variety of materials in her art practice of collage, drawing and painting. In her career, she also supported the education of artists even as she continued creating. She served as Assistant Dean of the college of Arts and Architecture at Montana State University, and later as Assistant Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.

These days, her pieces hold found and recycled materials and often reference the plants around her and those she observed as a child.

As Heather puts it, "My art is a physical record of how I process the world around me, organizing and layering its frenetic bits to create surfaces that have history and hold the energy that went into their making. The imagery is reminiscent of something familiar. They're places in which I like to let my mind play and poke around."

Enjoy listening to this episode of HILFH, when Heather and Mary poke around to learn more about how nature and humans dance with each other to create art.

You can learn more about Heather Bintz by visiting her website. You can also follow her on Instagram @heather_bentz where she posts her bobcat sightings and shares her art.

Heather’s art is also featured in two current shows in Tucson, AZ - Small Works at the Untitled Gallery and Beneath the Surface, showing at Steinfeld Warehouse.

She has standing exhibitions at ten Space Gallery in Denver and at the Art3 Gallery in Manchester, NH - both of these galleries serving to represent her work.

In our conversation, Heather mentioned the artist, Clyde Aspevig - a creator worth checking out.

And now, as you move into your next days and weeks, take Heather's advice to do what you can to support climate repair - and make sure to pay renewed (and renewing) attention to the light.

MUSIC

Piano Background Music. Music by Dmitrii Kolesnikov from Pixabay

Background Piano. Music by Nikita Kondrashev from Pixabay

Relaxing Piano Ambient. Music by Mircea Iancu from Pixabay

Original theme music composed and performed by Gary Ferguson.

#63 Mark Spragg

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 09:00:00 -0600

Our February podcast features a conversation between Mary and author Mark Spragg. She describes the time as a unique pleasure.

Mark is a man of the land - a deservedly celebrated author of Where Rivers Change Direction, and the novels The Fruit of Stone, An Unfinished Life, and Bonefire. All four were top-ten Book Sense selections, and his work has also been translated into eleven languages. An Unfinished Life also became a critically acclaimed movie, starring Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez.

From birth, Mark's life has unfolded iin and near rural Wyoming. He lived his younger years with his family on the Crossed Sabers Ranch, a rustic dude ranch eight miles east of Yellowstone National Park. He graduated from the University of Wyoming Laramie in 1974 with a major in English, then proceeded to work on an oil rig, shod horses, and led pack trips to support his writing.

In 1999 he published a memoir - Where Rivers Change Direction - about his unusual childhood - one with no TV or radio but surrounded instead by vast expanses of rugged outdoor beauty.

You can learn more about Mark Spragg at his website markspragg.com. And for truly fine reads, check out his books. Mark is a superb storyteller. He is a master in the craft of writing - fully devoted to serving the exquisite interplay of language and wild nature, the human and the more than human, as they unfold into being.

MUSIC

Raindrops. Music by Sound Music from Pixabay

Inspiring Folk Acoustic Guitar. Music by Music_for_Creators from Pixabay

Inside You. Music by Vitaliy Levkin from Pixabay

Original theme music, composed and performed by Gary Ferguson.

#62 Alex Adams, MD, PhD

Wed, 31 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary had the opportuinity to spend time with Dr Alexandra Adams. Alex is Director of the Center for American Indian and Rural Health Excellence (CAIRHE), an NIH-funded center focusing on building research partnerships with rural and Native communities and mentoring junior investigators. Her research focus is community-based and participatory. She works in close partnership with Native American communities to understand and solve health challenges using both scientific rigor and crucial community knowledge.

Alex has focused her career on the promotion of family and community wellness and healing trauma through community building. Addressing the effects of climate surprises on health has been central to her work. She also uses storytelling, filmmaking, and other strategies to engage communities and support health.

In their conversation, Alex and Mary explored her experience at the interface of Western medicine and rural, American Indian and other indigenous communities. Alex described ways for building healing relationships of trust and sharing - acknowledging the deep wisdom of local communities and of ancestral indigenous knowledge. What Alex describes is medicine at its most responsive. Fully honoring the fact that the health of the land is the health of the people and drawing across the arts to practice what is perhaps the greatest of all healing arts, listening.

You can learn more about Dr. Alexandra Adams by visiting her personal website and substack, Longing for Belonging. and her substack. Also check the website for the Center for American Indian and Rural Health Excellence (CAIRHE) where you can learn more about Alex’s initiatives with that organization. And here's the link to the Turtle Island Tales website and videos Alex described.

Through all of her creative endeavors, Alex lives fully in her relatedness with all beings. This is good medical practice, it’s good art, and it’s solidly consistent with climate repair. Let’s all join her.

MUSIC

Mystical Flute Music. Music by morel dua from Pixabay

Tabla Flute 102. Music by Johnson Cherian from Pixabay

Acoustic Guitar and Flute Fairytale. Music by Denis Pavlov from Pixabay

Original theme music, composed and performed by Gary Ferguson.

#61 Dan Papaj, Ph.D.

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 09:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary got to have a fascinating exchange with Dr. Dan Papaj, a Full Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with the University of Arizona. Vastly dedicated to pollinators - in particular, the Blue Swallowtail, Dan is an esteemed and longstanding researcher and faculty member. He completed his undergraduate work at Cornell University and earned his PhD in zoology from Duke University. He's a fellow in the Animal Behavior Society and has won fellowships with Bellagio and Fullbright. All along the way, he's retained inspiring relationships with his students. His inflluence now spreads through scholarly and ecological communities.

In their conversation, Mary and Dan dipped into the social life of bees, the evolutionary trajectory of humans and the impact of drought on the desert. Listen in for new insights into how it looks to an active entemolotist.

You can learn more about Dan by checking out his University of Arizona faculty profile. Just below, he’s also provided a few links to some of his writing, and to resources on cultural evolution. Check them out. Learn more. And as Dan suggests, always make choices for our relatives, the pollinators.

And a quick postscript. Early in the life of HILFH, we had the delightful honor of welcoming Sara Mapelli Tink as a guest (HILFH episode 5). Sara is known for her activism in support of bees - she dances with them covering her body. Check out her interview - it never gets old!

LEARN MORE

M Baek & DR Papaj. Animal Behaviour 219, 123036

The relationship between preference and switching in flower foraging by bees

DR Papaj & AL Russell. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 78 (3), 40

______

Dan's recommendations for learning more about cultural evolution:

Cumulative cultural evolution. Culture and the Evolutionary Process. (1985). University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo5970597.html

Dan’s comment, “Boyd and Richerson's 1985 Culture and the Evolutionary Process is still in print at U. Chicago Press and for good reason.”

An article by Gerbauly et al. on the development of lactose tolerance in humans. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox/FMfcgzQcqtjBxVGRsHBrrNlBrnwFXxPC?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1

And a very cool photo of Bees ~

https://photoawards.com/winner/zoom.php?eid=8-222523-21

MUSIC

Jazz Restaurant Café Music. Music by Ievgen Poltavskyi from Pixabay

Jazz Background Music. Music by Mykola Sosin from Pixabay

Jazz Lounge Elevator MusicMusic by Andrii Poradovskyi from Pixabay

Original theme music composed and performed by Gary Ferguson.

#60 Karen Tate

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 09:00:00 -0600

This month Mary had the chance to spend some time with Karen Tate, a global leader in Goddess Spirituality. Karen was raised a white woman in the South. In childhood she observed and experienced abuse – and further, saw that abuse routinely rationalized. It wasn't until her adult years that she recognized her unconscious involvement in excusing, and thus perpetuating, the normalization of cruelty and manipulation. Her most recent of seven books (most of which focus on aspects of Goddess Spirituality), is entitled, Normalizing Abuse: A commentary on the Culture of Pervasive Abuse. Drawing on Goddess Spirituality for tools, Karen strives for a world where abuse and exploitation - of people and of the natural world - are simply no longer acceptable.

Across her career, Karen has been a thought leader, speaker, author and activist - all of this at the crossroads of spirituality, personal transformation and social justice. She hosts the long-running Voices of the Sacred Feminine podcast, considered a treasure trove of wisdom for more than a dozen years. Karen has been named one of the Thirteen Most Influential Women in Goddess Spirituality and a Wisdom Keeper of the Women's Spirituality Movement.

In their conversation, Karen and Mary explore the ways Goddess Spirituality and abuse culture are evident as in our relationships with the more-than-human world we've learned to think of as separate - as Nature outside of us.

You can learn more about Karen Tate by visiting her website karentate.net. There you’ll find all of her books, Including Normalizing Abuse, and be able to gain access to her writings and her podcast. We can all learn a great deal about how to restore our health as members of the community of Nature by listening to the ancient wisdom of Goddess Spirituality. As Karen suggests, we are all suited to act from kindness and connection with each other and the whole of being.

Here are a few links that Karen wanted to share in addition:

Heide Goetner-Abendroth - https://goettner-abendroth.de/en/biography

The Center for Partnership - https://centerforpartnership.org/

Karen also offered these words to all of us as an afterthought. Regarding the way the world would look if the tenets of Goddess Spirituality were centered:

We'd pass assets through the mother line instead of the father line, adapt some of the matriarchal values and traditions to keep women and children safe and at the center of society rather than on the fringes.

MUSIC

Meditative Drone, Music by Natalia from Pixabay

New Heights, Music by Alana Jordan from Pixabay

Love Serenity, Music by Dvir Silverstone from Pixabay

Original Theme Music, Gary Ferguson.

#59 Traute Parrie

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 09:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary had the chance to talk with Traute Parrie, an environmental engineer and conservationist who had a career with the U.S. Forest Service. Traute says she’s at her best in high-mountain pika habitat. The small mammals scampering between boulders with their chirping voices capture her curiosity and have long been teachers. She’s also prone to long walks - often days at a time - including a recent hike through the Yellowstone ecosystem from the Lamar Valley on the east side, to Jackson and the Teatons on the west.

Now, on the heels of a long career which culminated in her leading the Custer National Forest Beartooth Ranger District, you can find Traute in ecosystems of every description - wandering and listening to the land. She bikes, hikes, skis, sometimes in dubious weather. And is also known to pound nails as part of fire-lookout restoration projects.

Traute knows wild nature from her work and from her lifelong dedication to the world outside. She’s been watching human and more-than-human behavior for a long time and has plenty to share that can offer all of us additional understanding and ideas for being active participants in climate repair.

You can learn more about Traute by taking a look at the book she helped edit, Voices of Yellowstone’s Capstone: A Narrative Atlas of the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. Celebrated as "A riveting history of the areas animals, plants and soaring mountainsides with historical perspective from the Absalooke people, and the first non-native people to enter and engage with the land."

The book: https://shop.abwilderness.org/products/the-atlas

Video Interview: https://www.anewanglepodcast.com/p/traute-parrie-and-aaron-teasdale-776

Excerpts: https://books.google.com/books?id=2if1xQEACAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

And these resources that Traute mentioned.

The book, The Crazies by Amy Gamerman

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214152457-the-crazies

The poetry of Montana Poet laureate, Chris LaTrey

https://www.chrislatray.com/

As Traute says - we’re all related to each other and to all beings in the natural world. Her career in the Forest Service and her retirement illustrate there’s a lot to guide us in that relationship.

MUSIC

Instrumental Acoustic Guitar Music - Music by Viacheslav Starostin from Pixabay

Upbeat Acoustic Guitar - Music by Tunetank from Pixabay

Acoustic Guitar - Music by Sound Music from Pixabay

#58 Gary Ferguson & Mary Clare

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 09:00:00 -0600

This month we’re moving into the 6th year of this Podcast. As has been our tradition, Gary and I open the season with an episode to catch up on Full Ecology and our work in the world. What an amazing thing to take stock of where we’ve been and to consider where we are and where we’re going.

We hope you enjoy this conversation and look forward to having you along for this season of varied and brilliant voices sharing their view on our glorious planet and its precious life.

You can learn more about Gary’s book Twilight Forest, and Mary’s work with Inner Elderhood by following these links (blue above). You’re also welcome to inquire about these and all things Full Ecology by writing us at connect@fullecology.com or visiting the Full Ecology website.

MUSIC

Acoustic Nature. Music by Dvir Silverstone from Pixabay

Lovely Day. Music by Dvir Silverstone from Pixabay

Instrumental Acoustic Guitar. Music by DELOSound from Pixabay

#57 Jane Close Conoley

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 09:00:00 -0600

This month Mary had the opportunity to meet up with Dr. Jane Close Conoley, who, since January of 2014 was the first woman appointed as permanent president of California State University Long Beach. After nearly 50 years in higher education, we caught Jane on the cusp of her retirement.

Just prior to coming to Cal State Long Beach, Jane served as dean of the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at the University of California Santa Barbara. Along with serving as dean, she was professor of counseling, clinical and school psychology.

Before Santa Barbara, Jane served as dean and professor of educational psychology at Texas A&M University (1996-2005) and associate dean for research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Teachers College (1989-94). In addition, she held faculty positions at Texas Woman's University and Syracuse University.

Jane is the author or editor of 22 books and has written more than 100 chapters, refereed journal articles and technical reports. Her areas of primary interest are interventions with families, and with children with disabilities - especially children with serious emotional disturbance and aggressive children and youth. Her most recent work investigates the application of the science of positive psychology in educational settings.

By the time you're the president of a major University, you've got plenty of credibility. Jane is at the same time a person of great integrity, creativity and heart. You'll hear all of that in their conversation.

[Note from MMC - This was an especially gratifying episode for me. Back when I was in my early 20's, Jane recognized me as someone she could mentor. Because of her confidence in and encouragement of me, I've moved through my own academic career and into the work I do now, here on this good Earth, with all of you. I am forever grateful to and for Jane Conoley.]

You can learn more about Jane by checking out the Cal State University Long Beach website. Especially this link focused on her generous service to CSULB.

And here's a link to a pdf on positive psychology in educational settings that Jane co-authored with her husband, Collie W. Conoley.

And make sure to consider how you can identify approach goals for your own action in support of climate repair. The initiatives of Jane’s University and the city of Long Beach are inspiring. Acting locally - even as locally as our home and family, makes a difference.

Thanks to each of you for refusing to give up. Our choices to do what we can where we can come together with those of people around the globe to truly matter.

MUSIC

Rolled Ankles. Music by Nicholas Panek from Pixabay

Jazz Background 333352. Music by Ievgen Poltavskyi from Pixabay

Romantic Jazz. Music by Soundore from Pixabay

#56 Lucas Black

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 09:00:00 -0600

This month Mary had the chance to spend time with Lucas Black, an environmental economist who currently serves as a staff member for World Wildlife Fund - US. In his work and across the whole of his life, Lucas is an energetically devoted champion of the environment. He can often be found in the wilderness of his current home in Oregon, and is also known to be tucked into a corner at a desk writing essays and longer pieces - odes to the beauty, strength and expanse of the natural world.

Earlier in his life, Lucas was a Peace Corps Volunteer - living for two years in a village in Guinea-Bissau. In his early career, he worked as a financial advisor on Wall Street but elected to pivot into making a career out of developing financial tools and business models to solve environmental problems. In keeping with that focus, Lucas served for 13 years as a staff member for the United Nations. While there, he designed projects in the areas of climate change and biodiversity conservation for some of the world's major environmental trust funds and donors.

Lucas has worked in more than 80 countries and lived on four continents. In his walk and his talk, Lucas is healing climate action. We think you'll enjoy what he has to share.

You can learn more about Lucas on the World Wildlife Fund US website. https://www.worldwildlife.org/experts/lucas-black

Or go to this link to read the recent interview with Lucas and his WWF project partner, Josephina Brana Varella, Laying the Groundwork: WWF's Nature-Based Solutions Origination Platform Marks a Year of Progress.

As Lucas mentioned, the Nature-Based Solutions Platform team is just back from powerful economic and environmental development work in Madagascar.

MUSIC

Middle East in Motion. Music by Dvir Silverstone from Pixabay

Asian Wonders. Music by Dvir Silverstone from Pixabay

World Vision-273608. Music by Dvir Silverstone from Pixabay

#55 Alexis Marie Adams

Sat, 31 May 2025 09:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary got to spend time with Alexis Marie Adams, a freelance writer and journalist. When we recorded, Lexy was in the last few weeks of spending half her year in a remote village in Southern Greece. This is her annual rhythm, with the summer and fall stretch spent in another small community at the edge of Montana's Beartooth Mountain Range.

In these places, Lexy writes. Her focus is cultural and sustainable travel and environmental issues. Her articles and essays explore history and culture in the eastern Meditarranean, traditional and sustainable agriculture and, more recently, old-growth forests and other imperiled ecosystems globally. Lexy's work has appeared in the New York Times, National Geographic, The Guardian, Scientific American, Orion Magazine and The Boston Globe among other outlets.

In their conversation, Mary and Lexy explored the influence of place on various forms of climate activism and the role of journalism in climate repair. They also turned attention to the underlying meaning humans know in relationship with the natural world.

You can learn more about Lexy on her website. There you’ll find access to a great selection of her writing. And, as promised, here's her article on Albania’s wild nature published by the NYT in April 2025.

Don’t miss the chance to take a deeper dive into Lexy’s observations of and inspiration from this magnificent planet. As she says - it’s all about attunement - and that’s all about interdependence and love.

MUSIC

Good Morning Café Jazz. Music by Sleep Volume from Pixabay

Rolled Ankles: Smooth Jazz Flute Instrumental. Music by Nicholas Panek from Pixabay

Piano Jazz-324015. Music by Mircea Iancu from Pixabay

#54 Scotty Johnson

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 09:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary had the chance to speak with career environmental activist, Scotty Johnson. Scotty has spent the last forty years working in conservation, climate education, and as a Permaculture design specialist. During his time, he's lectured extensively for former Vice-President Al Gore's Climate Reality Project, served as National Outreach representative for Defenders of Wildlife and founded the Lanai Permaculture Institute.

Through it all, Scotty has retained a passion for healing inherited from his father who worked as a country doctor in rural Arizona. Tending social ecologies, Scotty studied integrative medicine and Transpersonal psychology with pioneers like Andrew Weil and Stanislav Grof, investigating ancient healing methods practiced by the Tibetan Bon, Celtic, and other cross-cultural traditions. These explorations revealed that the Earth, like the human body, has an innate intelligence, keeping all functions healthy and balanced. Scotty believes that integrating different perspectives to engage this intelligence is uncharted territory with tremendous potential to hasten global restoration. He founded Taproot, a nonprofit effort based in Tucson, AZ, to further this awareness.

You can learn more about Scotty Johnson by visiting the Taproot website https://taprootcollaborative.org/ . For exploring the integration of social ecological work, Scotty suggests the readings listed below.

And remember, as Scotty emphasized, take precious care of yourselves and don’t give up.

Readings:

"Dream of the Earth." Thomas Berry.

"The Secret Teachings of Plants." Harold Buhner.

"Braiding Sweetgrass." Robin Wall Kimmerer

"Entangled Earth." Merlin Sheldrake.

"Cosmos and Psyche." Richard Tamas.

MUSIC

Guitar 5 - Music by Johnson Cherian from Pixabay

Classic Guitar World Music Ajonnah - Music by Jonathan Dube Tembo from Pixabay

Slow Emotion - Music by Rodolphe Rakotomalala from Pixabay

#53 Peter Whitehouse

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 09:00:00 -0600

Another captivating episode! This month Mary had the chance to be in conversation with Dr. Peter Whitehouse. With MD and PhD degrees from Johns Hopkins, Peter has filled roles as Professor of Cognitive Science, Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Psychology, Nursing, Organizational Behavior, Bioethics and History. He's also deeply involved with public education as President of Intergenerational Schools International, and can be found portraying "The Tree Doctor," a metaphorical tree being who shares what trees and forests have to teach humans about being healthy.

In 1986, after filling positions at Harvard and Boston University, Peter established the department of Neurology at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, OH, where he continues on faculty. He is coauthor of The Myth of Alzheimer's: What You Aren't Being Told about Today's Most Dreaded Diagnosis and hundreds of academic papers and book chapters. He is also part of the reimagine aging movement personally and culturally. In 2000, Peter and his wife, Catherine Whitehouse, a developmental psychologist, began opening what are now 3 public schools in Cleveland focused on connecting seniors with school-age children. From the beginning, a key focus of the curricula in these schools has been the wellbeing of the climate.

From dignity across the lifespan to ecological interdependence and quantum entanglement, Mary and Peter had plenty to talk about.

You can learn more about Dr. Peter Whitehouse by checking out any of his many publications. In particular, The Myth of Alzehimer’s. Also check out these videos.

HAPI - People, Planet and Profit: Health in a Time of Polycrisis (2024)

TEDx - Alzheimer's and the Value of Inter-Generational Schools (2012)

Gerontology Society of America - The Gerontologist Podcast: ”American Dementia” with Drs. Daniel George and Peter Whitehouse (2024). Audio only.

And find a way to take the opportunity Peter offers, to tend deeply to the lessons of trees and all of the natural world. See how wellness and aging are as diverse in people as they are in the wide world of which we are part.

MUSIC

Jazz Café Background Music - Music by Maksym Malko from Pixabay

Easy Listening Jazz - Music by Krzysztof Szymanski from Pixabay

nhac-jazz - Music by Zazz Bossa from Pixabay

#52 Moody, Whitehouse & Clare

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 09:00:00 -0600

This month we're sharing a conversation on the implications of climate change in an aging society. HR (Rick) Moody, a scholar of philosophy and career-long leader in positive aging, pulled together a group of people on Zoom, asking neurologist, educator and creative Peter Whitehouse to join Full Ecology's Mary M Clare in leading a discussion focused on Elders and Climate Change.

Dr. Moody is deeply committed to climate repair and has recently released a new book entitled, CLIMATE CHANGE IN AN AGING SOCIETY, published by Routledge Press. He also edits the weekly newsletter by the same name.

Peter Whitehouse is a leader in Alzheimer’s research, having established that the diagnosis cannot represent a stand-alone disease, but rather a complex combination of challenges that vary from person to person. He is also deeply involved in education. He and his wife have, for 25 years, been champions of three charter elementary schools in Cleveland, Ohio focused on bringing young learners and seniors together to enhance the learning of both. Central to the curricula of these schools is attention to the environment and climate challenges.

Rick then invited Mary M Clare, the host of HOW IT LOOKS FROM HERE, to join as a second primary speaker. Rick was interested in Mary's work with Gary Ferguson on Full Ecology, together with her current work with what she calls “Inner Elderhood.” .

Rick, Peter and Mary join with others who attended the Zoom session to discuss the salience and nuance of Elderhood in times of climate change. You'll hear new links between Elder years and the environment, as well as an enlivened exchange on the intersection of Climate degradation and ageism.

You can learn more about Elderhood and Climate Change by checking out Rick Moody’s newly released book, CLIMATE CHANGE IN AN AGING SOCIETY.

If you’re interested in receiving the weekly newsletter by the same name by going to this newsletter link.

Learn more about Peter Whitehouse by tapping into a few interviews with him recorded on you tube videos. These, of course, are also in the show notes.

And, keep listening to HILFH for more from Mary - you can also stay current by subscribing to the Full Ecology newsletter through the link on the Full Ecology website - www.fullecology.com.

The bottom line here - there’s always more to learn toward doing our parts as good stewards of the planet, no matter our age.

RESOURCES

David mentioned the veteran's organization that advocates for environmental justice and policies that protect communities, Common Defense.

Tara mentioned the book about indigenous people of the Amazon entitled: The Continuum Concept. Jean Liedloff.

MUSIC

Sebuah kenangan. Music by Wahyu Music from Pixabay

Romance. Music by Jourin Hannah Hannah from Pixabay

Relaxing Music. Music by Wahyu Music from Pixabay

#51 Courtney Gambrell

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 09:00:00 -0600

To begin this month of love in all its guises, we reached out to a person who teaches the kind of love that makes communities thrive. Courtney Gambrell brings a long and rich background in behavioral health and spiritual care to wellness work. She’s is a licensed clinical social worker in Texas and practiced psychotherapy there for many years. More recently, with an additional graduate degree she’s served as a board certified spiritual care provider and staff wellness coordinator at Boulder Community Health in Boulder, Colorado. Most of her work has been in high acuity settings like the Emergency Department and Intensive Care Unit. Over the years, Courtney has developed rituals with the wild just outside the hospital door, using it to support humans as nature in life shifting changes for patients, their family members and healthcare staff.

Throughout, Courtney continues awed by self-inquiry processes, humbled and heartened by the benefits of gathering in mutuality and shared purpose. You’ll hear this awe throughout our conversation. Listen closely and you’ll also hear echoes of the breeze, the songs of contented birds and perhaps a whisper of what might be a gentle brook. This is the vibe Courtney brings to things.

Courtney shares her work as one way to affirm the power of community. She honors the connection of human and beyond human community as a source of health, and a source of healing. Our conversation today stands as an invitation to all of us to give abundant attention to the unity that is the living world of which we are a part.

If you're interested in more on how our social ecologies can be tended in ways that are good for all ecologies, Courtney suggests you consider the work of Richard Schwartz on Internal Family Systems. Most recently, Schwartz has teamed up with Melissa Gilbert to produce this audio series.

MUSIC ~

This episode includes music by Gary Ferguson and these other fine artists.

Wave - Music by Tomomi Kato from Pixabay

Excuse Me Cat - Music by Geoff Harvey from Pixabay

Close to Closing - Music by Restum Anoush from Pixabay

#50 Carma Corcoran, Ph.D.

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 09:00:00 -0600

Dr. Carma Corcoran is an Elder and enrolled member of the Chippewa Cree Nation. She lives in Portland, Oregon where she’s a longstanding public leader in response to social justice concerns. Professionally, she directs the Indian Law Program at Lewis & Clark College Law School. She also serves as an adjunct professor of Indigenous Nations studies at Portland State University and of Native American studies at Salish Kootenai College. She’s holds membership on several boards of directors for organizations focused on the interests and concerns of Native American people.

Carma’s devotion to indigenous people and community led her to pursue her PhD with Pacifica University where she studied Gentle Action Theory with Dr. David Peet and applied this set of understandings in working directly with incarcerated Native American women. Her book The Incarceration of Native American Women: Creating Pathways to Wellness and Recovery through Gentle Action Theory is a summary of her original research and was recently published by University of Nebraska Press.

In this episode, Carma shares implications of Gentle Action Theory for climate repair. She speaks specifically of the application of traditional ways for coming into right relationship with ourselves, each other and the natural world.

To learn more about Dr. Corcoran, read the article featuring her in Underscore Native News. Watch Carma’s facebook and instagram pages for where in the country Carma is speaking next and the chance to listen in on more about her work and insights. Finally, as we step into this New Year, bring along Carma’s suggestion that, to be of service in this weary world, we must start by going within - daily - to know and grow ourselves.

MUSIC ~

This episode includes music by Gary Ferguson and these other fine artists.

Flute/Guitar Classical Instrumental Oqu by Creative Freedom from Pixabay

Tabla Flute 102. Music by Johnson Cherian from Pixabay

Flute Drums 106. Music by Johnson Cherian from Pixabay

#49 Alison Cunningham 2

Sat, 30 Nov 2024 09:00:00 -0600

This month – following the recent U.S. presidential election - we wanted to speak to our listeners who may be feeling challenged to be at peace right now, while at the same time staying responsive to right action. In the face of that challenge, we’re thrilled to have as our guest. Alison is an activist and public leader in New Haven, CT. Most recently she's been deeply involved with volunteer work for the Harris/Walz ticket.

Mary and Alison have spoken before - nearly 2 years ago in February of 2023. In the time since, Alison has continued in her role as Director of Professional Formation for Yale University's Divinity School. For two decades prior to that post, she was Chief Executive Officer for Columbus House, a nonprofit organization devoted to providing homes and shelter for people who need them. Still before that, she had a good run as owner of a New Haven women's bookstore.

In their conversation, Alison and Mary considered ways for going forward into this uncertain future ina a way that will contribute to social and environmental justice. Given Alison's involvement in the Harris/Walz campaign, we realize we can't fairly represent thoughts, experiences and anticipations of people who voted otherwise; nonetheless, we trust the listener will recognize that limitation and find something helpful here.

You can learn more about Alison at this link describing her current work with Yale Divinity School, and at this link about her previous role with Columbus House as an advocate and activist for people without houses.

Now, here in this season of darkness turning back toward light, we wish each of you only well. And we know that, no matter the votes we cast, each of us will experience joys and sorrows, big and small triumphs and profound disappointments and losses in the coming days, weeks and years. In times like ours the opportunities are countless for learning ever more about how to live present and with love and kindness - to ourselves, to other people and to all beings. Thank you for listening in and for taking care of yourselves and each other.

MUSIC ~

This episode includes music by Gary Ferguson and these other fine artists.

Relaxing Piano Music

Music by Clavier Clavier from Pixabay

Sad Violin

Music by Restum Anoush from Pixabay

Inspirational Calm Relaxing Piano

Music by Josef Surikov from Pixabay

#48 Neal Aronowitz

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 09:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary had the opportunity to meet with artist and scholar, Neal Aronowitz. They spoke in Neal’s studio in Portland, Oregon - a place where he works with concrete and wood, aluminum, marble, glass and electricity. Neal applies his artistic sensibilities to furniture design - specifically consoles, coffee tables and light fixtures. His style is profoundly affected by his kinship with the natural world.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Neal came to know wild nature in adventures his family would take into the woodlands and mountains of New York State. He studied art and architecture at City University of NY and Massachusetts College of Art exploring the disciplines of metalwork, glassmaking, woodworking, ceramics, photography, and multimedia sculpture. Then, to keep his young family cared for, he developed a construction business. All along, however, he remained powerfully interested and invested in the plant world - expressing his devotion through urban gardens of fruit and vegetables - and gardens of water.

Now he’s essentially finished with construction and spends his time pursuing his life’s love of artistic expression in design. In the short time he’s been giving the majority of his attention to this work, he’s received great acclaim, including being the subject of an award winning documentary, HOW TO BEND CONCRETE IN 108 EASY STEPS. He’s been featured in Interiors Magazine, Luxe, Spaces, Elle, and Kaza - a magazine in Sao Paulo. He won the 2017 Gray Award and was named Best of the Year in 2018 by Interior Design. He was also recognized by Artisan Design and was a finalist in the 2024 NYC by Design Awards.

In this episode Neal shares the story of his artistic pursuits and then weaves that tale directly into ways that we can all be part of climate repair.

You can learn more about Neal and see examples of his designs by visiting his website @nealaronowitz.com. And, in case you missed the link above, here's access to the documentary, HOW TO BEND CONCRETE IN 108 EASY STEPS. For those who are interested, we asked Neal for his recommendations on what to read to learn more about Vedanta and include those with other resources he mentioned during our conversation. We list those below.

Throughout our time Neal emphasized how nothing happens separate from the physical world - from nature, its atomic and subatomic activity and order. The whole world is here and in relationship with each and all. As Neal reminds us, we’re in good company.

Vedanta:

You can learn more here about Vedanta and Neal’s spiritual path and sangha for the last 28 years. www.SRV.org

Other resources:

Carl Jung. Man and His Symbols.

Nathan Cabot Hale. Abstraction in Art and Nature.

Frank Lloyd Wright. A Testament.

MUSIC ~

This episode includes music by Gary Ferguson and these other fine artists.

Smooth Jazz Saxophone Solo with a LoFi Vibe

Music by Nicholas Panek from Pixabay

Podcast Jazz Waltz Cozy Relaxing Vibes

Music by Denis Pavlov from Pixabay

By the Sea

Music by Krzysztof Szymanski from Pixabay

#47 Katja Biesanz

Sun, 29 Sep 2024 09:00:00 -0600

For this episode, Mary spoke with Katja Biesanz, Katja says of herself, "I help people like you to discover and to integrate different parts of themselves." She provides this service as a professional counselor, drawing on her experience as a dancer, poet, masseuse, and forest farmer.

By the time she was 12, Katja and her family had livied in four different countries. Several of these countries, and ones they traveled through, were dictatorships; the things she saw through her child's eyes have stayed with her. She routinely draws on them. including using them to help shape how she thinks about climate change and climate action.

Katja is also profoundly skilled in dance and movement. She draws on this knowledge in her therapeutic work. That service is also significantly influenced by her immersion in Latin American cultures, experience she credits with seeding in her the capacity to sense the energy people carry.

Finally, it's important to mention Katja's commitment to land stewardship and restoration. As you can imagine, ours was a wide-ranging and rich conversation, entirely in keeping with the suggestion that each of us is our own wilderness.

You can learn more about Katja by visiting her website at katjabiesanz.com. You can also check out this facebook link to - The Land - TEMENOS where Katja and her partner practice forest farming - tending and harvesting only the plants that grow in the ocean-front rainforest ecosystem.

Below you’ll find references for the three books authored by Joanna Macy that Katja mentioned early in our conversation. You’ll also find the list of characteristics shared by dictators that Katja has compiled as a diagnostic tool and as a warning.

Perhaps most powerful in our time talking together were Katja’s offers of ways for considering our energy fields in relation to those of each other and all of the natural world. Let’s take what she suggests and open to the possibilities.

Joanna Macy (2012). Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re In Without Going Crazy.

Joanna Macy (2007). World as Lover, World as Self.

Joanna Macy (1991). Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory.

Distilled List Dictator Traits (in progress)

Admires “Strongmen”
Showmanship — Entertainment — Display
Emphasizes Masculinity & Denigrates Women
Violence - Instigating and Threatening
Uses Military Domestically
Uses Plausible Deniability to Instigate Chaos
Special Clothing of Followers - Cult
Demagoguery - Becoming what the Crowd Wants
Emotion - Anger, Fear, Mean Humor and Hate
Desensitization, Numbing, Dehumanizing
Uses Religion, Usually Cynically
Jingoistic Nationalism vs. Patriotism
Scapegoating/Playing the Victim
Self Enriching, Feeding Plutocracy (if Loyal)
Cultivates “True Believers”
Creates Division
Lies Repeatedly & Discredits Reliable Sources
Projects Unowned Parts of self
Government is Self Serving — Retribution, Money & Power
Harms Minorities, Women and Ultimately the Country
Drains Resources, Steals Wealth, Harms the Natural World,
...
Not taken seriously until too late

MUSIC ~

This episode includes music by Gary Ferguson and these other fine artists.

Jazz Waltz - Music by Denis Pavlov from Pixabay

Southern Jazz Bossa Nova - Music by Denis Pavlov from Pixabay

Beautiful Piano and Flute Instrumental- Music by Denis Pavlov from Pixabay

#46 Gary Ferguson & Mary Clare

Sat, 31 Aug 2024 09:00:00 -0600

With this episode, we begin our 5th season of How it Looks from Here - Life in the time of Climate Change. As we've done in the past, we're launching into year 5 with an episode involving the two of us - co-creators of the Full Ecology programs.

Ten years ago, we began creating the programs and ideas we hold under the canopy of Full Ecology. Among those initiatives is this podcast. In this episode, we look back together over the past four years and share our sense of where we've come, where we are now, and where we're going. We also interview each other to learn how the world is looking to each of us these days.

Listen in to hear about our extension of Full Ecology into each of our current projects, our continuation of programs from the past, and what we're seeing going forward. Gary shares updates from his writing on the Ponderosa pine forests of the American Southwest. And Mary speaks about her new work on Elderhood and wilderness. Finally, with the opening of this HILFH season, we take a step toward keeping our programming real and growing by introducing a way you can help support our work (see below).

You can learn more about our work by visiting our website, www.fullecology.com. We also invite you to drop us a note. As I said in the podcast - Do Not Be Shy! We truly want to hear from you and welcome you as part of the Full Ecology community. Write us about Elderhood or aging. Write us about Ponderosa pine. Share your stories. Ask for a recent newsletter and join us on the second Tuesday of each month for a Deep Dive into topics linking all ecologies.

The thing we can guarantee is lively conversation about trees and wilderness, about devoted hearts, and about wild Elderhood.

Finally, do check out the two friends Mary mentioned. Listen to Paris Mullen speak of his experience in two early HILFH episodes [Episode #3, and Episode #4], and dive into the profound work of Dr. Carma Corcoran, Chippewa Cree scholar and Elder. Dr Corcoran's book, published by University of Nebraska Press is entitled: The Incarceration of Native American Women: Creating Pathways to Wellness and Recovery through Gentle Action Theory You can also learn about Carma in this recent Underscore Native News article.

HOW YOU CAN HELP~

If you like what you’re hearing on HILFH, make sure to subscribe. Let’s get these perspectives out there. Tell your friends and family. Share a link right now with someone you know would enjoy learning how it looks from another viewpoint. As you know, you can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you find your podcasts.

And remember, there’s a new way to support us by going to VENMO and sharing a donation of $5, $10, heck $25 with How It Looks from Here and Full Ecology. Go to @FullEcology. And thanks for helping us keep it all real and growing.

MUSIC~

This episode includes music by Gary Ferguson and these other fine artists.

Good Morning Café Jazz - Music by Sleep Volume from Pixabay

Podcast Smooth Jazz Instrumental - Music by Denis Pavlov from Pixabay

Harapan Ku (this is the only credit listed)

#45 Jacqueline Courteau

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 09:00:00 -0600

Jacqueline Courteau, Ph.D. is an ecologist, consultant and writer. She's also a teacher of university ecology courses in the field, and focused on restoration, sense of place, natural history and environmental writing.

Most recently, Jacqueline has established NatureWrite, LLC to provide ecological assessment and monitoring, and to measure forest regeneration, deer impacts on vegetation, and other interactions between plants and animals. Earlier in her career, she worked as a science and environmental policy analyst in Washington, DC contributing to an early 1990's report to Congress on how federal agencies could plan for an uncertain climate

In this episode, Mary and Jacqueline consider plant ecology, medicinal plants and love - all in exploration of avenues into climate repair.

You can learn more about Jacqueline by checking out her articles in Feb/Mar and Apr/May issues of Rural Heritage magazine where she offers a two-part series on herbal remedies.

Throughout our talk, Jacqueline continued to call our attention back to relationship with nature - no matter the ecosystem and no matter how urban. Her contention is that paying attention in this way helps us rediscover the love we have for the natural world - a world of which we are and have always been a part.

Jacqueline also mentioned these resources including books on observing plant life, and apps for Citizen Science.

BOOKS:

Kimmerer, Robin Wall (2015). Braiding sweetgrass. Milkweed Editions.

David Haskell, David. (2012). The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature. Viking Books.

CITIZEN SCIENCE:

Spring phenology

Budburst: https://budburst.org

Nature’s Notebook: https://www.usanpn.org/nn

Others

Firefly Atlas: https://www.fireflyatlas.org/get-involved/how-to-participate

Species identification

iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org

This is a species ID app, but if you allow your location to be used, every time you look up a species (and the community confirms it), your finding is mapped, so there’s a great collection of what species have been found nearby.

eBird: https://ebird.org/home

For those of you interested in birds.

And a recent compilation from the Smithsonian, which might list a few additional apps:

https://ssec.si.edu/stemvisions-blog/mobile-apps-citizen-science

Additional Citizen Science Efforts focused on weather:

Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network

cocorahs.org

Skywarn Storm Spotter Program

https://www.weather.gov/skywarn/

MUSIC~

This episode includes music by Gary Ferguson and these other fine artists.

Peaceful Guitar - Music by Tung Lam from Pixabay

Thinking of Home - Pixabay, No credits available.

Cozy Guitar - Music by Olexy from Pixabay.

HILFH 44 Jeanne Cuff

Sat, 29 Jun 2024 09:00:00 -0600

Jeanne Cuff is a Director with the Information Services Group in Chicago. In that role, she does what she likes best - tackling thorny tech problems by applying her superpower of making sense of chaos, and doing what she describes as interpreting IT speak for the masses. At 50, Jeanne returned to school to earn her Masters of Science in Technology Management from Columbia University in New York City. With that credential, she burst onto the scene unknotting tech tangles left and right while, at the same time, advocating energetically and constantly for advancement of women and girls in IT.

In the conversation Mary and Jeanne had this month, they looked together at the way Jeanne's passion for supporting women in tech, and for encouraging girls into the sector, links with climate repair. Listen and catch the inspiration.

Jeanne mentioned Tech Equity for All, the nonprofit she’s established to support girls moving into IT. You can find that organization here.

Jeanne also spoke of other tech focused organizations supporting women and girls - Chick Tech, Girls4Science, Girls Inc and We are BGC (Black Girls Coding).

You can learn more about Jeanne and her initiatives by catching up with her on the podcast she hosts - ISG Digital Dash. Finally, she recommends a recent discussion on LinkedIn featuring women in tech and entitled: Clean Tech - The Future of Sustainable Technology.

Get inspired! Join Jeanne in supporting girls and women in tech roles. It’s good for everybody - and everything!

MUSIC ~

This episode includes music by Gary Ferguson and these other fine artists.

Jazz by Denis Pavlov from Pixabay

Jazz Easy Listening Music by Denis Pavlov from Pixabay

Jazz Streets by Michael Daniel from Pixabay

HILFH 43 Hilary Zaranek

Thu, 30 May 2024 09:00:00 -0600

Hilary Zaranek is a wildlife biologist, a ranch woman, and a horse woman. A woman who both learns from and is constantly inspired by animals.

Riding the range, Hilary spends a good deal of time watching and listening to the predators who share the lands of her family cattle ranch at the doorstep of Yellowstone National Park.

The quality, focus of her attention has led to her becoming internationally recognized for her pioneering work in predator-livestock conflict reduction.

Together with her husband, Hilary is committed to ranch resiliency through regenerative agriculture. She's also a mother of four children who learn every day from the land and its wild beings.

This month Mary had the chance to spend time with Hilary to learn about how we can reclaim our kinship with both animals and the land that holds them. As you'll hear, there’s much to be learned about how to live well, simply by opening fully to our relationship with all beings.

You can learn more about Hilary and her family in these articles. This inspiring look into Hilary’s life on the land from National Geographic entitled: Discovering Hope on the Range. Also Bugs, Bovine and Beavers, Oh My! - from Western Sustainability Exchange, and Field notes: An Entire Ecosystem of Conservation on the JbarL Ranch - from Vital Ground Foundation

Each is fascinating and, like Hilary herself, provides generous insight into the natural world that is, in the end, who each of us is. We are nature and Hilary shows us how both to remember and to revel in that.

MUSIC ~

This episode includes music by Gary Ferguson and these other fine artists.

Forest Lullaby

Music by Oleksii Kaplunskyi from Pixabay

River Tram

Music by Olexy from Pixabay

Relaxing and Calming Acoustic Guitar

Music by Premankur Adhikary

#42 Encore - Petra Kuppers

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 09:00:00 -0600

This month we're rebroadcasting one of our favorites from 2022. Here, Mary talks with Petra Kuppers, a disability culture activist and community performance artist who lives in delighted concert with the natural world, sharing in powerful intelligence, adapdibility and love of True Nature.

Petra holds the Anita Gonzalez Professor of Performance Studies and Disability Culture chair in English and Women's & Gender studies departments at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She also teaches on the low-residency MFA Interdisciplinary Arts faculty at Goddard College. In her work, Petra uses somatic and speculative writing as well as performance practice to engage audiences toward more socially just and enjoyable futures. She has written academic books on disability arts and culture, medicine and performance, and community performance.

In their conversation, Mary and Petra explore the natural world and its diversity, alongside the political, spiritual and activist considerations that arise from being embodied.

Learn more about Petra Kuppers’ art, writing and activism by visiting her website at https://www.petrakuppers.com

Check out Petra’s poetry books like Gut Botany, her speculative fiction like Ice Bar and her scholarship, most recently in her book Eco Soma with the University of Minnesota Press in the Art After Nature series. You can find more on disability culture in the anthology, Disability Visibility edited by Alice Wong, available as a pdf at the link.

And, in the meantime, Petra has been awarded and is currently a Guggenheime Fellow spending recent months at the Camargo Foundation in Southern France. You can check out the video work she's completed there - Crip/Mad Archive Dances project: a final 35 min video documentary.

She's also completed a new poetry collection, Diver Beneath the Street -- true crime meets eco poetry at the level of the soil, out May 2024.

#41 Cyreena BostonAshby

Sat, 30 Mar 2024 09:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary had the chance to meet up with Cyreena BostonAshby, CEO of Girls' Inc of the Pacific Northwest, an organization that serves girls and gender nonconforming and trnas youth in Portland, SW Washington and Seattle.

Cyreena grew up in Portland, raised in a family focused on social justice and business leadership. She's an alumna of Spelman College, the Historical Black College for Women in Atlanta, Georgia.

For 19 years, Cyreena has been a leader for high-profile public affairs campaigns focused on health care access, youth development and non-profit leadership. She was the first director of the Portland African American Leadership Forum, Imagine Black, and led the Oregon Public Health Institute as that organization's CEO. More recently, she's co-directed the Oregon office of D.C.-based Hilltop Public Solutions as a Partner in providing strategic solutions for non-profit and private sector clientele. Cyreena is also an International Women's Forum Global Leadership Fellow.

In our conversation, Cyreena and Mary take a close and loving look at the climate interests and concerns of girls, young women, and gender nonconforming, gender non-binary and trans youth. You'll also hear Cyreena's insights at the intersection of Black Feminism and environmental thought.

You can learn more about Cyreena BostonAshby by taking a look at the Girls Inc. PNW website. Also, check out her OpEd on STEAM in eschool news and her recent interview on the podcast, At the Core entitled, “Unapologetic Leadership.” Cyreena is so worth learning from and with. Keep your eye on this radiant and generous leader for inspiration and sisterhood into the future.

MUSIC ~

This episode includes music by Gary Ferguson and these other fine artists.

Sensual Jazz Medium 2

Music by Grand_Project from Pixabay

Background Acoustic Calm

Music by Yevhen Onoychenko from Pixabay

Jazz Lounge Street Food

Music by Alex Cristoforetti from Pixabay

#40 Michael Zellner

Sun, 25 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary had the chance to meet up with Michael Zellner, a career journalist and business owner, a leader in local and international commu nity-based conversation and an all around agent of positive change.

Since October of 2020, Mike has served as chief executive officer for the Arizona-based Sonoran Institute. Mike has 30 years of experience building award-winning collaboratrions for global organizations, including The Nature Conservancy, Dow Jones & Co., and Euromoney. He has helped regional and local stakeholders to conserve more than 450,000 acres and mobilize more than $30 million foer conservation in the Americas.

As a business journalist in Mexico and the Americas, Mike played a leading role in the lalunch of the editorial operations of AmericaEconomia (a Dow Jones & Co. publication) in Mexico City, Sao Paulo, and Miami. He also served as editor-in-chief and owner of the Miami based business magazine LatinTrade.

In our conversation, you'll hear Mike speak of the power of community-based conservation and share perspectives from across his career.

To learn more about Michael Zellner, check out the Sonoran Institute. And while you're on the site, take a look at the informative and inspiring blogs Mike has written over his time as CEO of that organization.

Finally, take Mike's invitation to look around your community for how you, too can become involved in community-based conservation initiatives. It’s good for the land, for your neighbors, for you - it's for all beings.

MUSIC ~

This episode includes music by Gary Ferguson and these other fine artists.

Wind Troubles the Water

Music by Aleksey Chistilin from Pixabay

Vigilance

Music by Roman Senyk from Pixabay

Touch and Sound

Music by Juan Sanchez from Pixabay

#39 Paola Molina Venegas & Guille Vargas Pohl

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0600

In January, Full Ecology went to Chile. In Santiago, we had the chance to sit down so Mary could speak with two Chilean professionals - friends who share a passion for the environment.

Paola Molina Venegas is a lawyer and judge. Much of her practice involves social justice issues. Alongside that work, she has, in recent years, become deeply interested in the wellbeing of the environment.

Guille is a professional photographer and videographer. He works in the fashion industry and in film. He sees art as vital to truth and community wellbeing. He is a powerfully concerned citizen with interests in doing what he can to support climate repair and every aspect of social justice.

Throughout our interaction, Paola and Guille collaborated on the answers to questions, diving into the most challenging issues facing Chile's vastly varied ecologies and acknowledging the inescapable interdependence of social ecology with the wellbeing of nature.

You can learn more about the issues Paola and Guille describe at the links below. As they said in our time together, we are all connected by air, water, land. The solutions may only be global. It is vital for us to learn of the profound interactions of social and environmental justice as illustrated in Chile and so many other countries around the world.

2021 Constitutional Election

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Chilean_Constitutional_Convention_election

Climate change data

https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/country/chile

Coup 1973

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

Environmental injustice threats in Chile

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/05/experto-de-las-naciones-unidas-advierte-que-chile-enfrenta-una-tormenta-de

MUSIC ~

This episode includes music by Gary Ferguson and these fine artists.

--Ahmad Mousavipour 24575281 - Historia de un Amor

from Pixabay

--Sergei Chetvertnykh - Bossa In My Heart

from Pixabay

--William_King - Latin Summer

from Pixabay

HILFH #38 Oscar Yip

Sun, 31 Dec 2023 09:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary had the opportunity to sit for a talk with Chef Oscar Yip. Oscar is a culinary expert with international experience, as well as a keen sense of the ecologies of humans and food. Oscar was born in Saltillo in the state of Coahuila in Mexico, where he was raised by his Mexican mother and Chinese father.

He later completed medical school at the University of Monterrey. But upon earning that degree, he realized his heart was with the culinary arts, and changed his life path. Training in Austin, Texas with a prominent restaurant group, Oscar would also land an opportunity to cook in a 3 star Michelin restaurant. Known by the name “Martin Berasategui,” it was set in the Basque country of Spain, in the town of St. Sebastian.

Oscar continues deeply attuned to the intimate connection between human wellbeing and the wellbeing of the natural world. His culinary craft and practice hold this connection as a lodestar guiding his work with food as well as his presence in life.

In our conversation we explore this relationship and the way it's available for anyone open to the inquiry.

You can learn more about where Oscar is preparing food by contacting him through Wolf House, an event venue he established in Austin. You can also follow him on instagram at oscarmyip.

Several years ago, Oscar moved out of cheffing for restaurants. Now his main focus is cooking as a private chef for high-end events. That means there's another great way to learn more about Oscar. Come to one of our Full Ecology Retreats this June on the JbarL ranch in the Centennial Valley of Montana. Oscar will be the chef for each of those, and will contribute additional guidance on food for the Full Ecology Solstice Retreat. Check the Full Ecology website or drop an email to Meg at JbarL Ranch - meg@jbarl.com.

Plan now for June, 2024. Come spend time with beautiful land, deep inquiry over Summer Solstice and, the following week, close attention to weaving your writing craft with your kinship to the natural world.

~MUSIC

This episode includes music by Gary Ferguson and these fine artists.

Same Bossa - Music by William_King from Pixabay

Latin Summer - Music by William_King from Pixabay

Feel Bossa Nova - Music by William_King from Pixabay

HILFH #37 Paula MacKay

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary had the chance to talk with Paula McKay, a writer and conservation researcher. Paula has studied wild carnivores for the past two decades, and is currently affiliated with the Living Northwest program at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo.

In 2015, she earned an MFA in creative writing from Pacific Lutheran University, and earlier served as managing editor for Noninvasive Survey Methods for Carnivores (Island Press). Her work has been published in Deep Wild, Wild Hope, Earth Island Journal, and elsewhere.

A central part of Paula's research is the practice of non-capture-based survey methods, opting to use cameras and other noninvasive techniques in the wild rather than more invasive practices like trapping. At the heart of her vision and mission is rewilding - that now-global effort to restore natural processes and species, to allowing nature to express its full genius.

Paula lives on an island near Seattle with her husband and more-than human dog in the company of elder trees. Today we talked about why and how of being in deep relation with the wilderness - within and around us.

You can learn more about Paula by visiting her website . Spend some time with her published essays and with her blog, Wild Prose. Check out her essays on rewilding, wolverines, grizzlies and urban mammals, among many more.

~MUSIC

This episode includes music by Gary Ferguson and these fine artists.

Sedative - Music by Oleksii Kaplunskyi from Pixabay

Coniferous Forest - Music by orangery from Pixabay

Far from the City - Music by Zakhar Valaha from Pixabay

HILFH #36 Tyler Mark Nelson

Sun, 29 Oct 2023 09:00:00 -0600

Tyler Mark Nelson is an advanced student in the Masters of Divinity program at Yale Divinity School. He was raised on the northern banks of the Mississippi River, a stretch of the world that figured deeply in helping him come to know who he is.

Tyler began his work life with several years in horticulture, supporting human resources and sales at a large Minnesota greenhouse, leading operations with a university vermiculture and compost program, and farming at an organic lavender farm in eastern Washington state. He’s also spent a great deal of time in the wilderness, most recently with people new to time in wild nature.

Tyler is a Christian. He is a writer and theologian. He’s a climate activist and he’s also a person who has lived with significant mental health challenges. Tyler finds eco-theology and his own experience in the natural world to be reliable supports for living well these days on Earth.

In our conversation we weave childhood clarity with adult wisdom and consider how we may all reach out to the natural world for guidance when the going gets tough.

You can learn more about Tyler by visiting the links below. In particular check out his recent article - Environmental Justice and the Religious Imagination - recently published in the Yale Divinity School Journal, Reflections.

You’ll also find below links for several resources Tyler mentioned today. Each of them helpful to considering how, religious or not, your way of making sense of the world is affected by listening to nature’s wisdom and honoring that kinship.

Tyler's work with the BTS Center in Maine

GreenFaith

Dr. Willie James Jennings, The Christian Imagination.

William Blake. 18th Century. "To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower, hold Infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour."

~MUSIC

This episode included music by Gary Ferguson and these fine artists.

Calm My Mind, Music by LesFM from Pixabay

Relaxing by Music for Videos from Pixabay

Touch and Sound by Juan Sanchez from Pixabay

HILFH #35 Elizabeth Bernays

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 09:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary has the unique treat of listening to and learning from Dr. Elizabeth Bernays. Liz is an entomologist by training having received her Ph.D. from the University of London. But her love of the natural world began as a child in Australia where she was free to roam and to watch and befriend the animals and insects who lived there.

She began her career as a field entomologist for the British government, took an academic post at Berkeley, and followed that with service as head of Entomology at the University of Arizona where she is currently a Regents' Professor Emerita. Along the way, she obtained an MFA in writing and has since been contributing beautiful literary nonfiction with the effect of reawakening any reader's love for the natural world.

Liz describes herself as a biologist turned writer with over 200 scientific papers, books and several popular biology articles. She's also published fifty poems and essays in a variety of literary journals and authored three nonfiction books. Her newest - Across the Divide: The Strangest Love Affair - was published to great acclaim in May of 2023. With her wife, Linda Hitchcock, she's also published three children's books.

You can learn more about Liz’s work and life at her website elizabethbernays.com.

But don’t miss checking her out on Google. There you’ll find jewels of literary nonfiction like Kamquat, Time in the Desert, and Pond.

Give a read to Liz's recent essay, In Praise of Looking.

Along the way, treat yourself to her books,

Six Legs Walking: Notes from an Entemological Life Across the Divide: The Strangest Love Affair.

Let yourself be captivated by Liz’s wonder, awe and kinship with the natural world - a delight that carries the sense of truly coming home.

This episode's music:

Endless Beauty - Music by Zakhar Valaha from Pixabay

Far From the City - Music by Zakhar Valaha from Pixabay

Playing in Color Music by 29811401 from Pixabay

HILFH #34 Gary Ferguson & Mary Clare

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0600

With this episode we begin our fourth season. Our very first episode of How it Looks from Here went live September of 2020. The pandemic was just getting going. We were being asked to work from home, to keep our distance from each other. A huge cost of this distance was that we wouldn’t be hearing how other people were making sense of Covid in their lives. How were people coping? How could we learn from each other with so little face-to-face contact? How did the world look to the people we weren’t seeing on the street, at work, in the grocery? Our first season was dedicated to hearing from people across the country and in many different roles about how they were navigating life in the time of Covid.

By September of 2021, we began extending our focus, keeping an eye on the pandemic, and looking to see what more we could learn from each other for living well in the time of climate change. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with poets and dancers, with wildfire experts, ranchers and reproductive health advocates from all walks of life. The archives are live and worth diving into to learn from this wide range of perspectives.

That brings us to today - to launch this fourth season. In this episode, I speak with Gary Ferguson, a highly acclaimed nature writer, co-creator of Full Ecology, and my life partner.

Only recently have we realized that, in January of 2024, we’ll have been developing and learning from Full Ecology for 10 years. It only seemed right to begin this season with a conversation on what Full Ecology has taught us - and what it continues to teach.

Gary is the author of 27 books in which he renders science in story. In this podcast, we revisit the origins of Full Ecology and make our way to speaking about the impact Full Ecology has had on Gary’s work as a writer and mine supporting organizations committed to healthy work culture.

To learn more about Full Ecology visit the Full Ecology website. Drop us a line at connect@fullecology.com and we'll get your name on the list for the monthly newsletter.

Also, if you'd like a slightly different slant on what we talk about in this podcast episode, check out our Full Ecology September Viedo Update on YouTube. After all of that you won't be able to keep yourself from writing to let us know what your thinking and seeing in your own life. And we'll love hearing from you.

In addition to our theme song, you heard music by:

LesFM | Acoustic Love - Creative Commons CC BY 3.0

Michael Kobrin | NightLife - 95bpm

Chris Haugen | Campfire Song

HILFH #33 Dr. Zaher Wahab

Sun, 30 Jul 2023 09:00:00 -0600

Dr Zaher Wahab is professor emeritus of Education at Lewis & Clark College, and former senior advisor to the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education. Dr Wahab, also taught at American University of Afghanistan from 2013 to 2020.

Zaher was born and schooled in Afghanistan. He was the first person in his family’s history to attend the "village school," a boarding school in Kabul, and later received scholarships to attend college in Lebanon and the US. He earned a BA in sociology from The American University of Beirut, an MA in comparative education from Teachers College at Columbia University, and both an MA in anthropology and a PhD in international development education from Stanford University.

Zaher is dedicated to praxis - the practical application of our best thinking to real life challenges. He and Mary take this time to dig deep into the ways praxis can be applied in support of climate justice and repair.

In our conversation you will get a sense of the vast and direct knowledge Zaher has of education and society across the globe. Listen to this advocate for global understanding and respect. Consider with us how these fundamental ways of being naturally show up in our honoring of both interdependence and sovereignty.

You can learn more about Dr. Wahab's work and vision by searching through his abundant contributions on the internet.

Peace Action: https://www.peaceaction.org/tag/zaher-wahab/

Columbia University Center for Oral History: https://oralhistoryportal.library.columbia.edu/document.php?id=ldpd_8095968

Connect with Zaher’s most recent thoughts by watching the you tube of his 2022 talk, with the Schiller Institute and entitled, “Dialogue, Not a Clash of Civilizations.”

Learn more about the Brazilian educational philosopher Paolo Freire who has been such an inspiration to Zaher.

FACTS:

Kabul is ranked the 12th most polluted capitol in the world.

Afghanistan is the 6th environmentally the most damaged country in the world.

Ecological disasters in Afghanistan have displaced millions of Afghans.

Only 13% of Afghans have safe drinking water and 15% electricity.

MUSIC CREDITS:

Podcast score: Original music by Gary A Ferguson.

Arabic Instrumental, Music by DMD_Production from Pixabay

Islam Dream, Music by SergeQuadrado from Pixabay

Desert, Music by ArtSlop_Flodur from Pixabay -

HILF #32 Mariana Pickering

Sun, 25 Jun 2023 09:00:00 -0600

In this episode, Mary spends some time with Mariana Pickering, co-founder of Emu Passive, a consultation group that offers training and consultation on the design and construction of high quality, supremely efficient buildings.

Mariana describes herself as a recovering architect who, because of her devotion to the wellbeing of the natural world, has found her way deep into building science. There she discovered a powerfully energy friendly building standard - The International Passive House standard. Now, she and her business partner travel the country to train construction professionals in this remarkable system.

Listen in as Mariana describes her work and the collaboration she and her colleagues continue to establish with building construction professionals across the globe. Learn with Mary about the powerful actions being taking by builders to address and alleviate the climate breakdown.

You can find out more about Mariana and Emu Passive at the organization’s website, https://emupassive.com/. You can also follow these links to essays by Mariana and the rest of the Emu crew.

By Mariana:

https://passivehouseaccelerator.com/articles/denver-city-council-approves-green-code-and-lists-passive-house-certification-as-compliance-path

More writing available on the Emu website:

https://emupassive.com/services/reports/

Mariana also has a playlist on YouTube titled "Monday BS with EmuMariana" (BS= Building Science). https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoDR94ljwiBEGsaPo13i1PhJcKWb1Pnrz There, she talks about high-level passive building concepts in more simple terms.

In a company named for that amazing big bird, Mariana and her colleagues at Emu Passive "run wild and build passive." They inspire as they lean fully into maximizing the opportunity to support building construction practices that retain ecological wellbeing.

HILFH #31 Alison Cunningham

Tue, 30 May 2023 09:00:00 -0600

Alison Cunningham is an activist and public leader in New Haven, CT. Currently, she serves as the Director of Professional Formation for Yale University’s Divinity School and this month she speaks with Mary about how circumstances of climate change may be met with activism and spirit.

Spirit has always been at the center of Alison's career. She points to the practical expression of spirit when prior to her Divinity School position, Alison spent most of two decades as Chief Executive Officer for Columbus House, also in New Haven and a nonprofit organization devoted to providing homes and shelter for people who need them.

In their conversation on this episode of HILFH, Alison and Mary dig deep into questions of housing, public policy, climate challenges and the role of spirituality in response.

You can learn more about Alison Cunningham by taking a look at the articles below. And following on Alison’s suggestions, keep an eye out for how you can become more involved in community initiatives and public policy that respond to the needs of people and land near you. If you’re already involved, invite more people into being part of the solutions.

Learn about Alison at Yale:

https://divinity.yale.edu/news/protecting-homeless-people-during-pandemic-alison-cunningham-84-mdiv

Learn about Alison at Columbus House:

https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Homeless-advocate-Alison-Cunningham-leaving-13969586.php

HILFH #30 Jack Pearson

Sun, 30 Apr 2023 09:00:00 -0600

This month our guest is Jack Pearson, another young leader who, as a recent college graduate, is currently on a Fulbright study grant in Jordan. Mary and Jack spoke over Zoom, Jack in his apartment in Amaan and Mary in her closet which is still doubling as a recording studio.

Jack’s undergraduate degree included studies in the history of science, the microbiology of ice and English. In his study and research, Jack brings to bear his perspective and insight as a scholar born in the year 2000. For his senior thesis he wrote a science fiction and fantasy novel exploring the ways human imperialism, industrialization and classism can unfold into the future, particularly in their impact on the planet and its ecosystems. These days, he’s learning Arabic and studying water conservation communication in Jordan, where water is precious, especially in these times of climate change.

You can learn more about Jack here:

https://www.montana.edu/news/22133/montana-state-grad-jack-pearson-wins-fulbright

And here's an article Jack wrote with a few colleagues on the Jordan River:

https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/holy-river-risk

HILFH #29 Ali Ramirez

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 09:00:00 -0600

Ali keeps a relatively low profile these days. She runs ultra marathons, applies her knowledge of physical therapy as a pilates instructor extraordinaire, and ventrues out far and wide in the wild nature of the Yellowstone ecosystem with her rescue dog, Lola. You can find out a bit more about her on her LinkedIn site. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-ali-ramirez-pt-dpt-72a0999/

The resources Ali recommends for listeners who want to know more about the Foreign Service and ways to keep up with global perspectives include The Economist and Foreign Affairs.

HILFH #28 Sean Hill

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 06:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary talks with poet Sean Hill. Sean is currently on faculty with University of Montana in Missoula. His path to that post began in Milledgeville, GA where he spent his childhood fascinated with the workings of nature. That homeland remains a big part of the stories Sean tells of his family and community from enslavement to today. Sean has lived in Minnesota, Texas, and Alaska, and has traveled the world. Echoes of those journeys mix in with Sean's particular brand of truth telling to render poems of justice, awe and honor.

You can read Sean’s poetry by visiting his website https://www.seanhillpoetry.com/. Pick up one of his books, BLOOD TIES & BROWN LIQUOR published by University of Georgia Press, or DANGEROUS GOODS published by Milkweed Editions.

Also check out these brand new anthologies including Sean's work.

A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars edited by Erin Sharkey

Solastalgia: Anthology of Emotion in a Disappearing World edited by Paul Bogard

HILFH #27 Scott Bosse

Sun, 29 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0600

This month Mary speaks with Scott Bosse, Regional Director of the Northern Rockies Office of American Rivers, a non profit devoted to clean water and healthy rivers. Since they were recording for the month of February, Scott and Mary took the opportunity to talk about the quality of Love that is at the core of relationship with the natural world.

First and foremost, Scott is a champion of wild nature. He's a hunter, angler and gatherer of other wild foods. He is a conservation scientist who currently advocates for rivers and their ecosystems in ways that influence policy and legislation at the federal and state levels.

Mary and Scott talk of the love in each of these aspects of his connection with nature. Love also shows up in the way Scott works with local citizens, sports people, businesses and conservation organizations to build support for river protection efforts in eastern Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. In every interaction, Scott brings his devotion to and passion for the wellbeing of all beings, including the people with whom he works.

Listen for how Scott anchors his way of knowing in a clear, present and reciprocal love of the natural world. There are clues here for all of us.

You can find out more about Scott and American Rivers at www.americanrivers.org .

Here are a few of Scott's essays:

American Rivers Update from the Field https://www.americanrivers.org/2021/12/update-from-the-field-montana-dam-malfunction-impacts-madison-river/

Smith River Copper Mine https://www.americanrivers.org/2019/07/whats-next-for-the-proposed-smith-river-copper-mine/

And check out Gary Snyder's beautiful writing - especially Turtle Island (1974), the inspiring collection of poems and essays Scott mentioned at the close of the podcast.

HILFH #26 Jesine Munson

Fri, 30 Dec 2022 09:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary speaks with Jesine Munson, an artist, historian and philosopher. Jesine landed on the planet in 1988, a Montanan born and raised. She's currently completing a PhD dissertation specifically considering the work of John Dewey and, more generally, the way we humans come to make sense of our lives and the world.

In this episode, Mary and Jesine talk about how Jesine's work as a scholar, artist, young business woman and co-founder of the nonprofit, The Compassion Project is inextricably woven in with the natural world and her devotion to climate repair.

The works of John Dewey that have been most influential for Jesine: The Public And It's Problems (1927) and Art as Experience (1934)

Modern Dewey Scholarship:

John Dewey's Theory of Art, Experience, and Nature: The Horizons of Feeling - Book by John Dewey and Thomas M. Alexander

The Human Eros: Eco-ontology and The Aesthetics of Existence - Book by Thomas Alexander

Pragmatism as Post-Postmodernism by Larry Hickman

Jesine also mentioned Lauren Berlant's - Cruel Optimism

Compassion Project https://www.compassionpject.org/

HILFH #25 Thomas Doherty

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 09:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary speaks with Thomas Doherty, PhD Clinical Psychologist and internationally recognized expert on the psychology of living in and with climate change.

Thomas is best known for bringing forward awareness of ecopsychology - the understanding that psychological wellbeing is significantly affected by our relationship with the environments in which we live and make our lives. Thomasoffers therapeutic sessions to individuals, couples, families and groups. He consults with corporate entities interested in supporting the ecologial health of employees and provides mentorship for therapists interested in building ecopsychology into their practices.

Mary and Thomas discuss the ways connection with place helps us find purpose and even happiness in our work to address climate change.

Learn more about Thomas Doherty and his work on his website, Sustainable Self.

And check out his international podcast with colleague Panu Pihkala, Climate Change and Happiness.

And for an alternative to the usual 24/7 headlines, check out Solution-Focused Journalism. Thomas was right. it takes some digging. Go to the Solutions Story Tracker and then under the 'advanced search' tab, activate 'full text.' If you enter 'climate change' you get some options. Play around. See what you find.

HILFH #24 Lill Erickson

Fri, 28 Oct 2022 09:00:00 -0600

Mary speaks with Lill Erickson, Executive Director of Western Sustainability Exchange.

Western Sustainability Exchange is a nonprofit organization in Livingston, Montana dedicated to, "preserving the best of the West—wide open spaces, fish and wildlife habitat, and farming and ranching heritage—by providing sustainable solutions that promote environmental stewardship and rural economic prosperity."

Mary and Lill discuss the details of regenerative agriculture, down to its roots, and how local communities can support their family-run ranching businesses.

Learn more about Western Sustainability Exchange.

Learn about Regenerative Agriculture practices around the country and the world.

Read about the roots of this practice in indigenous ways of being with the world over thousands of years and up to today.

HILFH #23 Elk River Writer's Workshop Part 2

Fri, 30 Sep 2022 09:00:00 -0600

Tune in for PART 2 of the panel of the five authors who spoke of the way the world looks to them in last episode of How It Looks from Here. In August, Gary & Mary were on the faculty of the Elk River Writers' Workshop in the Paradise Valley of Montana. As a part of that week, we had the opportunity to record a panel of five of these authors for two episodes launching the 3rd season of our podcast HOW IT LOOKS FROM HERE. This second episode features lively and important conversation among the panel participants. Mary facilitated the exchange that included poets, fiction and non-fiction writers, Beth Piatote, Camille Dungy, J Drew Lanham, Gary Ferguson and Pam Uschuk.

Elk River Writer's Workshop:

www.elkriverwriters.org

Beth Piatote - Domestic Subjects: Gender, Citizenship, and Law in Native American Literature (Yale, 2013), and The Beadworkers: Stories (Counterpoint 2019) https://complit.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/beth-piatote

Camille Dungy - Guidebook to Relative Strangers (W. W. Norton, 2017), [POETRY] Trophic Cascade (Wesleyan UP, 2017), Smith Blue (Southern Illinois UP, 2011), and Suck on the Marrow (Red Hen Press, 2010). https://camilledungy.com/

J Drew Lanham - The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature (Milkweed Editions, 2016), [POETRY] Sparrow Envy (Hub City Press, 2016). https://jdlanham.wixsite.com/blackbirder

Gary Ferguson - The Eight Master Lessons of Nature (Dutton, 2019), The Carry Home (Counterpoint, 2015), Full Ecology - Repairing Our Relationship with the Natural World (Heyday, 2021) https://fullecology.com

Pam Uschuck - Refugee (Red Hen Press, 2022), Blood Flower (Wings Press, 2014), Crazy Love (Wings Press, 2009) http://www.pamelauschuk.com/index.html

HILFH #22 Elk River Writer's Workshop Part 1

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 00:45:00 -0600

To open Season 3 of HILFH, Gary & Mary were part of an unequaled faculty of writers in support of an equally astonishing group of students, all of us at the Elk River Writers' Workshop in the Paradise Valley of Montana. As a part of that week, we had the opportunity to record a panel of five of these authors for the first and second episodes of Season 3. Mary facilitated this conversation that included poets, fiction and non-fiction writers, Beth Piatote, Camille Dungy, J Drew Lanham, Gary Ferguson and Pam Uschuk.

Elk River Writer's Workshop:

www.elkriverwriters.org

Pam Uschuck - Refugee (Red Hen Press, 2022), Blood Flower (Wings Press, 2014), Crazy Love (Wings Press, 2009) http://www.pamelauschuk.com/index.html

HILFH #21 Asher Jay

Wed, 27 Jul 2022 09:00:00 -0600

This episode, Mary speaks with Asher Jay, an award-winning conservationist artist, entrepreneur, National Geographic Explorer, and philosopher. Their conversation goes deep: from the psychological roots of our separation with nature and burgeoning reconnection, to the power of looking into the eyes of a wild animal. Listen in to hear about it.

Find Asher Jay at:

www.asherjay.com

www.henoscene.com

HILFH #20 Lavoy Tolbert

Tue, 28 Jun 2022 09:00:00 -0600

This episode, Mary speaks with Lavoy Tolbert, legendary educator and wilderness therapist. Lavoy speaks of his connection to place near Loa, Utah, his understanding of the lessons that nature is ready to teach us, and how we can be right sized humans on the land.

HILFH #19 Chuck Hudson

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 09:00:00 -0600

In this episode, Mary speaks with Chuck Hudson, Hidatsa Elder and longtime expert in Tribal/Federal policy and government relations. Chuck speaks of his and his family's history and experiences as they relate to the times we are living in, now.

He draws stories from his time advocating for the four treaty tribes of the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission

Throughout, he reflects on contemporary Native American culture and the longstanding challenges to Tribes' interests in protecting land and water, salmon and bison.

Many Dances Family Fund https://oregoncf.org/ways-to-give/donor-stories/responsibility-and-resilience/

Traditional Indigenous Knowledge - Article by Helen Thomas (Lakota) https://www.edsurge.com/news/2022-01-13-indigenous-knowledge-is-often-overlooked-in-education-but-it-has-a-lot-to-teach-us

Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission

https://critfc.org/

**In recent days, we have learned that Charles Bearstail's body has been found on the banks of the Missouri River. Given up by the river, his family may now lay him to rest.

HILFH #18 Petra Kuppers

Sat, 09 Apr 2022 09:00:00 -0600

This month Mary talks with Petra Kuppers, a disability culture activist and community performance artist. Petra holds the Anita Gonzalez Professor of Performance Studies and Disability Culture chair in English and Women's & Gender studies departments at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She also teaches with the low-residency MFA Interdisciplinary Arts faculty at Goddard College. Petra uses somatic and speculative writing as well as performance practice to engage audiences toward more socially just and enjoyable futures. She has written academic books on disability arts and culture, medicine and performance, and community performance.

In their conversation, Mary and Petra consider the natural world and its diversity, alongside the political, spiritual and activist considerations that arise from being embodied.

Links to Petra's work:

Eco Soma: Pain and Joy in Speculative Performance Encounters.

Gut Botany (poetry collection)

Disability Visibility

https://www.alexispauline.com/

https://www.petrakuppers.com/presentbreath

Music this week by Cedar Mathers-Winn and Gary Ferguson

HILFH #17 Susan Bragdon

Tue, 29 Mar 2022 09:00:00 -0600

In this episode Mary talks with Susan Bragdon, the executive director and founder of SEEDS FOR ALL, an organization devoted to global food security. Seeds for All supports agroecology and regenerative agriculture by bringing the voices and participation of small-scale farmers into food policy and governance. Susan brings to this work her experience as an international lawyer and natural resource ecologist with 25+ years of experience working with governments, UN agencies and small-scale farmers to create policy change in support of agriculture that nourishes both people and the planet.

In their conversation, Mary and Susan unpack global policy actions to make clearer how that level of deliberation supports the nourishment and resilience of people and our world.

Music this episode by Cedar Mathers-Winn and Gary Ferguson.

HILFH #16 Karuna Eberl

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 09:00:00 -0600

This month Mary talks with Karuna Eberl, a freelance journalist, photographer and filmmaker specializing in environmental issues, nature, travel, science and history. Karuna is an award winning author of travel and nature books who lives her life in the fullness of the wide wild world. She describes her life as centered in the natural world, from her childhood in the mountains above 8000 feet to the recent year she and her husband, Steve, spent exploring the country in their van.

In their conversation, Mary and Karuna dig into what we as individuals can really do to make a positive difference in the progression of climate change.

Koruna's Blog: https://www.naturerising.world/

Koruna's Website: https://www.wanderingdogcreations.com/

HILFH #15 CMarie Fuhrman

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 09:00:00 -0600

This week, Mary speaks with CMarie Fuhrman, a poet and essayist. They talk about love, the deep, interconnected integrity that humans share with the natural world, and the grief that we must allow ourselves the time to feel, in order to act to repair our world during a time of climate catastrophe. Listen to gain insight and heart from this touching conversation.

CMarie Fuhrman's Website: https://www.cmariefuhrman.com/

CMarie's Essays:

"Aspen"

"Hells Canyon Revival"

"Coyote Story"

Music this week by Alexei Desmarais and Gary Ferguson.

You can find Mary and Gary's work at www.fullecology.com

HILFH #14 Alayna Rasile Digrindakis

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0600

This week, Mary speaks with Alayna Rasile Digrindakis, about Alayna's work with plant-based textiles, fine art, and environmental activism. As an emerging young artist and designer, Alayna is keenly aware of the need to leverage her skills to make money, but that doesn't mean she needs to sacrifice her values: in fact, leaning into those values can open entrepreneurial opportunities, as Alayna found while working with milkweed fibers.

Find Alayna's work at:

https://alaynarasile.com/projects/

https://www.absorka.com/

Music this week by:

Cedar Mathers-Winn: https://kgvm.org/show/cedar-mathers-winn-naturalist/

Gary Ferguson - www.fullecology.com

HILFH #13 Dustin Hunt

Sat, 04 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0600

This month, Mary talks with Dustin Hunt, a muralist, art educator, and DJ at large in Lansing, Michigan. Dustin describes the challenges and triumphs of teaching math to youth through art. Within these lessons, there is a deeper lesson, about belonging, self-love, and a holistic understanding of the world.

Check out Dustin's work at https://www.muralmatics.com/

Music this episode is by Mikeyy Austin. Mickey's music can be found here: Mikeyy Austin (https://mikeyyaustin.bandcamp.com/). To learn more about his work, check out this excellent interview: Rising Music Star Mikeyy Austin.

HILFH #12 J. Drew Lanham

Sun, 31 Oct 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Listen to how it all looks to Dr. J. Drew Lanham - ornithologist, scholar, activist and author of the celebrated memoir, The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature. Drew Lanham and Mary cover a lot of ground - from childhood, to the truths of American history, to the way the world looks to a Mississippi kite flying overhead.

Read Drew's incredible poem Joy Is The Justice We Give Ourselves, here: https://emergencemagazine.org/poem/joy-is-the-justice-we-give-ourselves/

Find more information about Mary and Gary's new book, Full Ecology, here: https://www.heydaybooks.com/catalog/full-ecology-repairing-our-relationship-with-the-natural-world/

Music this week by Alexei Desmarais and Gary Ferguson.

HILFH #11 Pamela Reed Sanchez

Wed, 29 Sep 2021 09:00:00 -0600

For the second episode of Season 2, Mary interviews Pamela Reed Sanchez, the president and CEO of the Seneca Park Zoo Society in Rochester, NY. Pamela holds close the connection of people with the natural world - with their truest nature. She sees supporting that connection as activism of the highest order. As a public leader and a writer of literary nonfiction, she describes what it means to be part of the solution.

Music this week by Cedar Mathers Winn and Gary Ferguson. Find us online, at https://howitlooks.captivate.fm/

HILFH #10 Gary Ferguson

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 09:00:00 -0600

In our first episode of Season 2, Mary talks with her co-author and partner Gary Ferguson about their shared work, and recently published book, Full Ecology: Repairing our Relationship with the Natural World. Season 2 expands the focus of our podcast to larger questions about climate change. We look at how living through the COVID-19 pandemic bridges into circumstances of climate breakdown and presents us with opportunities of repair.

Everyone who Mary interviews has their own perspective on what climate change means for their lives, their work, and the world. So tune in, to find out how it looks from here.

Full Ecology: Repairing our Relationship with the Natural World is available now from Heyday Books at: https://www.heydaybooks.com/catalog/full-ecology-repairing-our-relationship-with-the-natural-world/

HILFH #9 Jon Trapp

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 09:00:00 -0600

In this episode, Mary Clare speaks with Jon Trapp, a wildland firefighter and fire behavior analyst, emergency search and rescue volunteer, and wolf biologist. Jon describes his experience working on wild fires during COVID, being challenged by exposure events, social distancing at fire camps, and increased mental health struggles among his teams and patients.

Find out more about Jon's work at https://travelmontana.com/yellowstone-wolf-experience-with-jon-trapp/

Also, keep an eye out for the release of Full Ecology, the new book from Mary Clare and Gary Ferguson, out on Earth Day, April 22, 2021 from Heyday Books. Attend the virtual launch with Sister Helen Prejean by signing up here: https://www.wildboundlive.com/events/walkinthewild

HILFH #8 Graham Stacy

Sat, 20 Mar 2021 09:00:00 -0600

In this episode, Mary talks with Graham Stacy just a few days before his 16th birthday. Graham lives in Gardiner, Montana. Gardiner has grown up around the Yellowstone Arch - the original entryway to the world's first National Park, established March 1, 1872.

Graham is a musician, an actor, an artist and a scholar. He loves history and is becoming increasingly fluent in Mandarin. He's clear that the land on which he and his friends live makes a difference in everything they do. Graham's perspective on his small town in COVID and his extension of that perspective into matters of climate health open windows for all of us. In particular, Graham kept coming back to the idea of deliberate diversity - a topic he's been exploring lately for it's expression among people and in the natural world. He came upon this term in his application for a spot in the United World College which has advanced him into final interviews.

Find out more about Graham's community here - https://www.visitgardinermt.com/

And about United World College here - https://www.uwc-usa.org/

Also referenced in the show is our soon-to-be released book, Full Ecology - Repairing our Relationship with the Natural World. Forthcoming April 20, 2021 from Heyday Books. Find it here: https://heydaybooks.com/catalog/full-ecology-repairing-our-relationship-with-the-natural-world/

Music this episode by Graham Stacy and Gary Ferguson. Editing by Joe Loviska.

HILFH #7 Meagan Lannan

Sat, 30 Jan 2021 09:00:00 -0600

In this episode, Mary talks to Meagan Lannan, a regenerative rancher, mother, and sustainable foods advocate in Paradise Valley, Montana. Meagan describes her work on the land, with her cows, goats, sheep, ducks, husband, and children. Life took a turn when COVID hit last year, but Meagan, her family, and her ranch have remained resilient.

Find out more about Meagan's ranch at: https://www.barneycreek.com/

Also referenced in the show is The Eight Master Lessons of Nature by Gary Ferguson. Find it locally here: https://www.countrybookshelf.com/book/9781524743383

Or find it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Eight-Master-Lessons-Nature-Teaches-ebook/dp/B07N5GRGWF

CORRECTION: Music this episode by Alexei Desmarais, EJMJ, and Gary Ferguson.

HILFH #6 Michelle Browder

Mon, 04 Jan 2021 09:00:00 -0600

Mary speaks with artist, alternative tour guide, and activist Michelle Browder. Based in Montgomery Alabama, Michelle Browder comes from a long line of civil rights and community activists. Michelle uses her artistic flair to build brands, send messages of truth, and heal the souls and psyches of the students she works with.

Find Michelle's work at https://www.anarchalucybetsey.org/. You can donate to her team's effort at https://www.fundraisingbrick.com/online-orders/anarcha/

Additional audio in this week's episode is used courtesy of www.unstrippedvoice.com

Music this week by Cedar Mathers-Winn and Gary Ferguson.

HILFH #5 Sara Mapelli

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 09:00:00 -0600

In this episode, Mary Clare speaks with healer, activist, and artist Sara Mapelli about her life in Oregon and her work with bees. This year, Sara has endured hardships ranging from the immanent threat wildfire at their home in the Columbia River gorge, to the collapse of her bee hives due to pesticides, to the challenges of working through the coronavirus pandemic. Through it all, Sara maintains her wellbeing in unique ways.

Find out more about Sara Mapelli at her website: https://www.saramapellibeequeen.com/ You can also find many intriguing videos of Sara dancing with bees on YouTube.

Music this episode is by Cedar Mathers-Winn and Gary Ferguson. Gary has a new book called Full Ecology coming out in April of 2021, co-authored by our host Mary Clare. You can pre-order a copy now: https://www.amazon.com/Full-Ecology-Repairing-Relationship-Natural/dp/1597145181

HILFH #4 Paris Mullen part 2

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0600

Mary and Paris continue their conversation, this time focusing on the intersections of the environment and social movements. Our social ecologies inform environments large and small, from global climate change to our individual well-being. Paris describes his strategies for finding wellness in stressful times.

Music this episode by

Cedar Mathers-Winn: https://cedararran.bandcamp.com/

Gary Ferguson: www.fullecology.com

Alexei Desmarais: https://medium.com/@alexeidesmarais

HILFH #3 Paris Mullen - part 1

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 09:00:00 -0600

In the first of our two-part interview with public health worker and activist Paris Mullen, Mary and Paris talk about the recent protests for racial justice in Chicago and the ways in which the coronavirus pandemic is perpetuating inequities in public health for black and brown communities. With hope held high, Paris outlines his vision for equality and freedom in the context of health in America.

HILFH #2 Carmen Yupe

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 12:00:00 -0600

Host Mary Clare speaks with Shoshone-Bannock tribal member Carmen Yupe about Carmen's pillars of strength in this time of COVID. Carmen tells stories of her training as a yoga instructor and her childhood trauma, and the support that she has found in her chosen communities: how she is supported by others, and how she, in turn, holds others up.

Music this episode is by Cedar Mathers-Winn and Alexei Desmarais.

Find Cedar at https://cedararran.bandcamp.com/

Find Alexei at https://medium.com/@alexeidesmarais

Check out Mary's work in Full Ecology with Gary Ferguson at www.fullecology.com

Find future episodes of How It Looks From Here at our website https://howitlooks.captivate.fm/

HILFH #1 Joe Loviska

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 09:00:00 -0600

Welcome to How It Looks From Here. In this first episode, creators Mary Clare and Joe Loviska talk about how Joe's work in higher education has changed in times of COVID-19.

Check out Mary's work in Full Ecology with Gary Ferguson at www.fullecology.com

Find future episodes of HILFH at our website, https://howitlooks.captivate.fm/