Emergence Magazine Podcast
Emergence Magazine is an online publication with annual print edition exploring the threads connecting ecology, culture, and spirituality. As we experience the desecration of our lands and waters, the extinguishing of species, and a loss of sacred connection to the Earth, we look to emerging stories. Our podcast features exclusive interviews, narrated essays, stories and more. During this pandemic, we are publishing new content that explores the deeper themes and questions emerging at this time. These stories reveal new opportunities to deeply connect with each other and the living world—in the midst of this crisis and beyond. www.emergencemagazine.org
101
A Forest Walk – Practice Guided by Kimberly Ruffin
Kimberly Ruffin is a Certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide and author of Black on Earth: African American Ecoliterary Traditions. As a companion to Kimberly’s essay “Bodies of Evidence” from our Faith issue, she created a guided practice...
46 min
102
Ancient Root – Linda Hogan
For Chickasaw novelist and poet, Linda Hogan, hope lives where faith has fallen away. During an encounter with caged elephants, she experiences a wave of profound and startling love in the presence of beings so very different from—and so very...
40 min
103
Wave Patterns – Aylie Baker
In this narrated essay, Aylie Baker reflects on her experiences sailing by canoe under Micronesian Master Navigator Sesario Sewralur and shows how we can draw on an innate ability to orient ourselves in a shifting world. Born in Maine, Aylie is...
34 min
104
Radical Dharma – angel Kyodo williams
In this in-depth interview, Reverend angel Kyodo williams reflects on our widespread crisis of story, the failure of institutional religions to offer a new way forward, and her philosophy of Radical Dharma—a path to individual and collective...
38 min
105
The Religious Value of the Unknown – George Pro...
In an age when the fate of the world is frightfully unknown, George Prochnik, author of “In Pursuit of Silence: Listening for Meaning in a World of Noise,” makes a case for uncertainty as a form of faith and hope. If we unravel our desire for the...
46 min
106
Bodies of Evidence – Kimberly Ruffin
As Kimberly Ruffin revisits her upbringing and spiritual heritage, she compiles the bodies of evidence that have invigorated her spirit. A certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide and a new member of a church, Kimberly explores where “spirit...
15 min
107
Lone Moon Lights Cold Spring – Bill Porter (Red...
In this in-depth interview, Bill Porter, famously known as the translator Red Pine, reflects on his encounters with Chinese hermits and his long history with the great Taoist and Buddhist poets of China.
39 min
108
A Letter to my Husband – Hala Alyan
Struggling to explain her belief in God to her atheist husband, award-winning Palestinian American poet Hala Alyan reflects on her Muslim faith as inextricably linked to her family, to Palestine, and to histories of erasure.
20 min
109
Imagining Burial – Lia Purpura
In this narrated essay, writer and poet Lia Purpura delves into the horrified wonder and holiness of death, exploring burial practices that are intended to nourish the earth, as it has nourished us.
30 min
110
Ecological Conversion – Paul Elie
Struck by the thought that the Catholic Church and the natural world have traded places as sources of transcendence, Paul Elie wonders how religion and the natural world might come together for shared renewal. Paul is the author of the award-winning...
25 min
111
Hallowed Ground – Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder
The roots of religious belief and the sacredness of nature were once closely entwined: the ancient yew grows in the churchyard; the forest monks of Thailand follow the Buddha’s example of meditating beneath trees. Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder profiles...
32 min
112
Myrtle's Medicine – Kinitra Brooks
In a world where the cosmologies of black women are continually erased and excluded from knowledge traditions, Kinitra Brooks seeks connection with her late great-grandmother, Mama Myrt, who first introduced her to rootworking traditions and inspired...
24 min
113
On the Road with Thomas Merton – Fred Bahnson
In the summer of 1968, Christian mystic Thomas Merton undertook a pilgrimage to the American West. Fifty years later, writer Fred Bahnson set out to follow Merton’s path, retracing the monk’s journey across the landscape. This narrated essay...
66 min
114
Corn Tastes Better on the Honor System – Robin ...
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a writer, scientist, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is author of the acclaimed book "Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants." In this essay, Robin...
56 min
115
When You Meet the Monster, Anoint His Feet – Ba...
Bayo Akomolafe is a writer and lecturer from western Nigeria. In the age of the Anthropocene and entrenched politics of whiteness, this essay brings us face-to-face with our own unresolved ancestry, as it becomes more and more apparent that we are...
57 min
116
The Great Work: Alchemy and the Power of Words ...
Paul Kingsnorth is a writer living in rural Ireland. Recalling a visit from a dark figure in a dream, who reappeared in his novel "The Wake," Paul reflects on writing as an alchemical process, one involving transformation, discipline, and purification.
21 min
117
Magic and the Machine — David Abram
David Abram is a cultural ecologist and philosopher. In this essay, he reflects on our undying urge to recreate a primal experience of intimacy with the surrounding world, offering notes on technology and animism in an age of ecological wipeout.
50 min
118
Myth of Progress — An Interview with Paul Kings...
In this interview, writer Paul Kingsnorth discusses some of the central themes explored in his work. The conversation centers on the "myth of progress," the failure of technology to deliver the "good life," and how both have led us into the...
27 min
119
Born was the Mountain – Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder
In this in-depth investigative story, Emergence Magazine staff writer Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder explores the collision of values unfolding on the summit of Mauna Kea, the proposed site for what would be the largest telescope in the world.
77 min
120
Winds of Awe and Fear — Nick Hunt
Nick Hunt is a writer, journalist, storyteller, and self-described wind-walker. His latest book, "Where the Wild Winds Are," tells the story of four European winds and their effects on the landscape, people, and culture. In this essay Nick continues...
27 min
121
Mud and Antler Bone — Martin Shaw
Dr. Martin Shaw is a writer, teacher, and mythologist. His books include: "A Branch from the Lightning Tree," "Snowy Tower," and "Scatterlings." He is the founder of the Westcountry School of Myth, a learning community located on...
50 min
122
Wildwood — Kara Moses
Kara Moses is a writer and educator. Her work focuses on land management, social change, and nature connection. She has written for the Guardian, the Ecologist, and BBC Wildlife. In this essay Kara visits a primordial, old-growth forest in...
32 min
123
On Being Alone — Craig Childs
Craig Childs writes about adventure, wilderness, and science. His books include "Atlas of a Lost World," "Apocalyptic Planet," "Finders Keepers," and "The Animal Dialogues." In this essay Craig takes a solo canoe trip down the Green River,...
25 min
124
From Dirt — Camille T. Dungy
Camille T. Dungy is an award-winning author, poet, editor, and professor. Her work includes the collection of essays "Guidebook to Relative Strangers" and the poetry collections "Trophic Cascade," "Suck on the Marrow," and "What to Eat, What to...
16 min
125
Creaturely Migrations on a Breathing Planet — D...
In this narrated essay, cultural ecologist and philosopher David Abram questions the deep intelligence that lies at the heart of crane, butterfly, and salmon migration patterns.
51 min
126
A Storm Blown from Paradise — Paul Kingsnorth
Beginning with W. B. Yeats's iconic poem, "The Second Coming," acclaimed writer Paul Kingsnorth narrates his essay "A Storm Blown from Paradise," an inquiry into linear and cyclical time and the sweeping momentum of progress.
28 min
127
Wild Fire, Flat Water — Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder
In this episode, Emergence Magazine staff writer Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder travels to the Great Plains of Nebraska and South Dakota, to speak with people who are restoring the native prairie and learning what it means to listen to the land. From an...
60 min
128
Widening Circles — Joanna Macy
In this interview, Buddhist eco-philosopher Joanna Macy discusses her personal journey into the worlds of anti-nuclear activism, Buddhism, and deep ecology. Sign up for our newsletter to receive more stories from Emergence Magazine:...
33 min