How It Looks From Here

This month our guests are Rob and Lori Byron, two MDs devoted to health as its affected by changes in our climate and air quality. Lori is a career Pediatrician and Rob, An Internist. Through much of their work life they've worked to draw the attention of healthcare professionals to the immediate implications of climate change and air polution. Together they launched a nonprofit, Montana Health Pr...

This month, Mary met up with Dr. Beronda Montgomery, a plant biologist, writer, researcher and scholar. Dr. Montgomery works to understand how individuals perceive, respond to, and are affected by the environments in which they live. By investigating the response of photosynthetic organisms (i.e., plants and cyanobacteria) to external light cues, she is able to identify related roles for innovativ...

Known by many as "the most at-large Montanan," Steve Held is a rancher, a civic leader and dedicated advocate for the environment – not to mention a former Hollywood star. This month, he took time out to speak with Mary about how the world looks to him. Steve's ranch covers 7000 acres at the southeastern edge of the state. It’s a sprawling, magnificent landscape, one that’s been shaping him since...

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...

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...

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. A...

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...

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 Univers...

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...

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 - includ...

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 brill...

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...

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 w...

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 i...

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...

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 Inte...

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....

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’...

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...

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 volu...

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...

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 countri...

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...

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...

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 N...