A Wild New Work

My guest today, Osprey Orielle Lake, speaks clearly about the limits and possibilities of this moment on our planet. In this conversation, we talk about how dominant culture needs to shift in order for us to respond more intelligently to what the Earth is communicating to us. We also discuss women’s role in this work, Indigenous leadership, and exciting possibilities happening in the climate justi...

We can make so much meaning in our lives by telling the stories that live within our bodies and within the land that we inhabit. In this conversation with author Jane Clark, we explore what it means to be what she calls a “story carrier,” and how telling our stories is a way to root ourselves firmly in the midst of collective change and capitalist pressures. About Jane: Jane Clark is an author, re...

Why should we listen to the land, and how do we even do so? In this gently flowing conversation with Leah Rampy, we discuss the benefits of communing with the Earth and ways to deepen the relationship that we already have with the land and that can never be severed. About Leah: Leah Rampy, Ph. D. is a writer, speaker, retreat leader, and educator who weaves ecology, spirituality, personal stories,...

Welcome to the first episode of the Summer 2024 season of A Wild New Work! In this season, we’ll be exploring how to communicate with the Earth. In today’s episode, we’re looking at a pre-Christian Celtic ritual in which the land and the people were brought into intimate partnership. We’ll explore how our own modern lives could change if we were sovereign and in committed relationships with the en...

When an organism’s needs are met, growth naturally occurs and takes the form of some kind of flower, fruit, spore, or offspring. In the same way, when our needs are met, our blooming is inevitable. In this episode, we explore how that process occurs, how we know when something is blooming in our lives, and how to make more room for it as we head into the Summer season. If you enjoyed this episode,...

Meeting our needs in today’s landscape requires that we remain flexible and shift how we relate to ourselves, our work, our income, and one another. Across the animal world, we find countless options for how to feed ourselves, and in this episode we explore some of the major strategies our animal friends employ and how we can adopt them in our own lives. If you enjoyed this episode, please help ge...

In this episode, we’re learning how plants meet their needs and what it can show us about how to be here in a good way. Plants receive sunlight and carbon dioxide freely and then, in turn, offer us an abundance of oxygen, medicines, building materials, and nourishment. Their truest nature is collaborative and generous, and the same is true for us. If you enjoyed this episode, please help get it to...

In this episode, we’ll learn how fungi meet their needs and the unique teachings they offer us through their millenia of experience adapting to life on Earth. Fungi are masters of absorption, decomposition, and collaboration, and most of us could use a dose of their teachings. If you enjoyed this episode, please help get it to others by subscribing, rating the show, or sharing it with a friend! Yo...

How can we make the tiny area of life that we inhabit more caring, less transactional, and free from extraction? In this conversation with Toi Smith, we discuss strategies for embodying more beauty and less exploitation, whether it’s in our parenting, work, relationships to one another, or our relationships to the wider world. About Toi: Toi Smith is a Growth + Impact Strategist and her work cente...

Many of us yearn for a way of living that is evoked by the term “village,” and it’s true that for millenia, humans met their needs inside of a communal setting such as this. In this episode with anticapitalist, nature-loving co-conspirators Heather Dorfman and Megan Hayne, we discuss what the term “village” means to us, what needs might be met in a village setting that aren’t met in our modern way...

How does a seed grow to become the fruit? It does so by meeting its needs. In this first episode of the Spring 2024 season, we’ll be discussing what our actual, original needs are, the extraneous needs put upon us by capitalism, why it’s so hard to meet our needs in this culture, and why we need fresh strategies for meeting the needs that will actually help us become who we deeply are. If you enjo...

Life happens in cycles, but we work as if we’re walking a straight line. In this encore episode, I’m sharing how you can move through four seasons on your vocational journey and why doing so can bring more ease, alignment, and wisdom to your professional life. If you enjoyed this episode, please help get it to others by subscribing, rating the show, or sharing it with a friend! You can also pitch...

Navigating this murky late Winter / pre-Spring period requires that we know how to make the best choices we can, given the constraints and circumstances we’re dealing with. Does a seed get stuck in analysis paralysis? Probably not. Does a nesting bird get frozen in indecision about when to lay her eggs? No. We can tap into this free flow of energy and choice that we see modeled around us and remem...

We can sense how chaotic, disconnected, and troubled our world is, and many of us feel the need for sturdier skills to help us be with these times. In this conversation with trauma recovery practitioner, clinical hypnotherapist, and kitchen witch Carmen Spagnola, we explore the poignancy of being alive right now as well as the frameworks and practices that can help us metabolize what’s happening a...

Learning how to recognize new growth in your life and make the right type of room for it is an advanced practice. In this in-between time before the Spring Equinox, we explore how to notice and honor the seeds that are alive within us, how to create an environment in which they can grow, and why some of them may not activate in this growing cycle. To learn more about “Eating Capitalism,” my new wo...

Trees hold a special and mythic place in the hearts of humans, and in this conversation with Heather Dorfman, the founder of Rose and Cedar Forest Therapy, we explore these amazing beings and how we can build relationships with them in a thoughtful way. About Heather Dorfman: Heather Dorfman, LMSW (she/her) is the founder of Rose and Cedar Forest Therapy. Heather guides groups and individuals in t...

Blood is the red thread that connects all of humanity through time, and there is an intelligence to our circulatory systems that we really need right now. In this episode, I share some surprising insights about blood, the cardiovascular system, and how it mirrors a greater wisdom flowing around us that we can tap into at any time. To learn more about the upcoming workshop series, Eating Capitalism...

Welcome to the first episode in our 2024 Winter Season, where we’re exploring our vast connections. What does it mean that your body is composed of over 50% water? What do you already know about what it means to be hydrated, fierce, fluid, and purifying? Why are things so arid in our culture? This is some of what we explore in today’s episode! To learn more about the upcoming workshop series on Ca...

If the Autumn is the great dying, and Spring is the great rebirth, what is the Winter? It is the time in-between, after death and before something is born again. In this episode, we explore why this period between the Winter Solstice and the first stirrings of Spring invites us into a great dreaming, where we tend to our inner soil, our deep visions, and trust that new life will come when it’s tim...

In this conversation with bard, somatic practitioner, coach, and student of myth Ben Murphy, we explore the mythic imagination, re-villaging, and what it might take to heal the broken kinship ties that so many of us feel in relation to ourselves, our human community, and the land. To connect with Ben, visit https://www.bend-in-gratitude.com/ or @bend_in_gratitude on Instagram The School of Mythopo...

Our addiction to light is emptying our lives of mystery and renewal, having a devastating impact on our health, and is a root cause of larger ecological collapse. In this interview with writer, poet, and co-founder of The Way of the Rose, Clark Strand, we discuss the impacts of an over-lit existence and how the darkness and the divine feminine can help us find our way in these chaotic times. *****...

The Crow brings its liquid black color and mystical intelligence into our light-filled days and reminds us how to hold it all right now. In this episode, I share some facts and lore about this incredible creature as well as some ways I think Crow can educate us in this darkening season. Thank you to those of you who have already supported the show financially! If you’d like to pitch in to make thi...

What could we gain by embracing and understanding our own cycles? We can access so much more in the larger cycles of life when we know the cycles of our bodies more intimately. In this conversation with menstrual circle facilitator Megan Hayne, we explore how the seasons manifest in our bodies, what’s possible when we allow our inner Autumn to unfold, and visions of the village. To connect with Me...

How do we die well inside of a culture that rewards us for dissociating from what’s actually happening? Is it possible to witness and transform death phobia into something more true? In this conversation with visionary artist, writer, and end of life caregiver, Rachael Rice, we explore nondualism, death work, collapse, folk art and more. To connect with Rachael, visit: *Rachaelrice.com *Rachaelric...

Orb weaver spiders create strong, spiral webs suspended in space and wait for what they need to come to them. What can we learn from them as we travel further into the darkest time of year, when we’re asked to let go of our pursuits, ambitions, linear thinking, and Summer ways of being in the world? If you enjoyed this episode, please help get it to others by subscribing, rating the show, or shari...