Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature

We live in a society dependent on toxic chemicals. Today about 287 such chemicals trespass inside the blood of newborns and inside all of us without our consent. Despite the odds, ecologist, author and mother Sandra Steingraber is an optimist. She’s betting that the burgeoning global environmental human rights movement will free us from our deadly dependency. She believes our grandchildren will lo...

Our misbegotten industrial food system is one of our greatest vulnerabilities. It's dangerously fossil-fueled, toxic, monocultural and centralized. The real cost of cheap food is very high to both people and planet. Urban food innovators are designing vibrant new local food economies built on environmental and ecological integrity, sustalnability, diversity and equity. Join author Michael Pollan,...

As the creation story of Judeo-Christian beliefs, the biblical recounting of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden has long had profound influence around the world. So what’s it like to be named Eve? World-renowned playwright and activist Eve Ensler explores her own personal journey into her namesake. The provocative author of “The Vagina Monologues” and founder of V-Day to end violence against women...

Youth movements are rising to restore people and planet. De’Anthony Jones, a former President of the Environmental Students Organization at Sacramento State, Chloe Maxmin, co-founder of Divest Harvard, and Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, hip-hop artist and Youth Director of Earth Guardians, say there’s no better time to be born than now because this generation gets to rewrite history. It could be known as t...

Archetypal stories guide our lives in profound and largely unconscious ways. Through reframing classic mythologies, we explore the resurgence of the archetypal feminine and its relationship to nature through a multi-cultural lens, with Jean Shinoda Bolen, author and Jungian therapist; Luisah Teish, author and priestess in the Ifa Orisha tradition; Sri Swamini Svatmavidyananda, teacher of Hindu Ved...

As the world’s eighth largest economy, California is emerging as the potential game-changer for global climate leadership. Using strategic alliances and smart policies that integrate ecology, economy and justice, these climate leaders show how: Tom Hayden, lifelong activist and former California State Senator; Vien Truong, Environmental Equity Director, Greenlining Institute; Wade Crowfoot, Senior...

Transformational women leaders are restoring societal balance by showing us how to reconnect relationships – not only among people – but between people and the natural world. This astounding conversation among diverse women leaders provides a fascinating window into the soulful depths of what it means to restore the balance between our masculine and feminine selves to bring about wholeness, justic...

A handful of global business leaders are blazing trails to a biologically based "eco-nomics." They are fundamentally recalculating core assumptions to allow business to make good returns killing the planet. Ray Anderson, leading-edge founder and CEO of Interface, the world's largest modular carpet company, articulates his bold vision to operate the company to take from the Earth only that which th...

Wounded warriors have walked through fire. They carry the scars forever, yet many have somehow managed to heal even the most horrific of their emotional wounds. Rather than turning away from those unimaginable traumas of war, abuse and violence, what can we learn from looking respectfully at their wounds? Our veterans and other survivors are on a transformational, ethical, and spiritual journey. A...

As the consumer feeding frenzy has gone global, each seemingly innocuous purchase of stuff we make today leaves behind a devastating legacy of waste that will envelop and even poison future generations for centuries to come. Ironically, it's not like all this stuff is making us any happier. Acclaimed filmmaker and environmental advocate Annie Leonard says we have choices to make, right now. Are we...

As we navigate the onset of climate change, we're witness to the rapid obsolescence of the human systems built on the assumption of cheap oil. The clock is running out on expensive (and vulnerable) practices such as the long-distance, fossil-fueled global supply chains that transport the average bite of food 1,200 miles to reach our plates. Inevitably communities are moving toward a greater re-loc...

Would you believe, here at the beginning of the 21st century, that every order of fast-food served with a slice of tomato is part of a system of slavery and labor abuse that exists right here in the United States? The intense demand for cheap food from the largest corporate buyers drives farm workers into the ground. The courageous labor organizer Lucas Benitez calls for reform at all levels of th...

For a decade, the award-winning play "The Vagina Monologues" has pro­ vided a startling window into the conflicted complexity of women's relationships to their bodies and pervasive worldwide violence against women. By revealing the deeply personal stories of women and their private parts, world-renowned playwright and women's rights activist Eve Ensler gave birth to a global movement to end violen...

Just how dumb do they think we are? Who would believe that destroying the ecosystems on which all life depends, while dis-employing more and more people, is somehow good for the economy? But exactly that fiction of jobs versus the environment has been successfully marketed to us. Community organizers Van Jones and Majora Carter propose a radically simple solution for both environmental destruction...

For thousands of years, First Peoples have successfully managed the complex reciprocal relationships between biological and human cultures using Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). Yet no prior human civilization has ever faced the globalized ecological collapse occurring now. In the face of unprecedented pressures on their homelands and ways of life, indigenous leaders Enei Begaye, Dune Lanka...

Most American schools are flunking out when it comes to how well they integrate ecological literacy across the curriculum. And many are doing no better than a C average with the idea that schools should be actively engaged in sustaining the natural and social communities in which they exist. Fritjof Capra, co-founder of the Center for Ecoliteracy, Cheryl Charles, from the Children and Nature Netwo...

Some of the best minds on the planet are busy cataloguing possible solutions to the crisis of climate chaos. Scientists, entrepreneurs and educators on technology's cutting edge offer a broad array of bio-based solutions that are already working to transition us to a truly sustainable civilization. Biomimics Janine Benyus, Stephan Dewar, David Orr and Jay Hannan offer a smorgasbord of startling so...

Bathing suits modeled on sharkskin that win the Olympics. Low-energy display screens based on peacock feathers. Nature has done everything human societies want to do technologically-without mining the past or mortgaging the future. Acclaimed author, naturalist and biomimicry leaders Janine Benyus, Jason McCiennan and Bob Hawkins uncork a mind-boggling bouquet of breakthrough innovations that, like...

“For the first time in history, a civilization - its people, companies and governments - is trying to arrest the downspin and understand how to live on Earth, a watershed in human existence.” Globally renowned social entrepreneur and author Paul Hawken eloquently portrays how we will win a sustainable future by losing the delusion we’re here on Earth for only ourselves.

Being an Indian in modern times has given rise to Indian casinos. Chairman Greg Sarris of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria found himself staring down the barrel of massive community resistance. Was it possible to create a casino that would uphold traditional values and benefit Native land and local communitie.

Our physical health is intimately tied to environmental health, and to our emotional and spiritual ecology. Visionary physician Dr. Gabor Maté explores the deepest psychological, emotional and social forces leading to our society’s poor health and unhappiness. He says we have the capacity to heal the planet and ourselves by reconnecting with our true nature as empathic, nurturing social beings.

What might happen when the descendants of a white slave trader and of slaves meet? That is the brave and wrenching journey of Thomas DeWolf , whose white ancestors were once the nation’s biggest slave traders, and Belvie Rooks and Dedan Gills , descendants of enslaved African people.

World-renowned feminist, writer and change-maker Gloria Steinem connects the dots among disparate social movements to reveal the common patterns of oppression that underlie them all. From gender and race to democracy and universal spirituality, she weaves a unifying vision of a richly human and humane world where all people are valued for their uniqueness and full humanity.

Why does “corporate personhood” consistently override the legal rights of citizens? And what about the rights of nature? Join innovative environmental attorneys Thomas Linzey and Mari Margil for breakthroughs on the ground of democracy.

Wounded warriors have walked through fire. Facing the unimaginable traumas of war, abuse, and violence, what can we learn from looking respectfully at their wounds? Aqeela Sherrills , Ed Tick , and Eve Ensler share their inspiring stories to help us discover how we might keep the peace.