Earth and Spirit Podcast

Anthony Mullin is the founding executive director of the Thomas Berry Place, a non-profit center for spirituality, community empowerment, and ecological stewardship, in New York City. In this conversation, Anthony reflects on the vision and values that guide the work of what he describes as a spiritual startup.

Jeshima Lewis is a percussionist, a music educator, and a spiritual guide. This conversation explores how drumming, one of the most primordial modes of music, can be a path into deeper mindfulness, a greater sense of well-being, and stronger connections to others and the more-than-human world. www.earthandspiritcenter.org http://drumsmartllc.com/

Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest is a 16,000-acre non-profit nature preserve near Louisville, Kentucky. This conversation features Bernheim’s executive director Dr. Mark Wourms, and Dr. Kristin Faurest, the director of education, discussing the ecological and cultural significance of forest ecosystems and how creativity, play, spirituality, rigorous science, and nature immersion experiences...

Johnetta Roberts specializes in community project development and asset-building initiatives in West Louisville, an historically underserved area of the city. Johnetta played a key role in the creation of the new Village @ West Jefferson real estate development project and is committed to revitalizing West Louisville, from real estate development to fostering the growth of small businesses that pr...

John Gage is a Louisville-based folk singer-songwriter and a former public radio host. For decades, his music has engaged deeply with spirituality, social justice, and care for the Earth. John brought his beloved old Martin guitar with him to the Earth & Spirit Center to add a few live songs to this wide-ranging conversation about music as a force for good in the world. His most recent album, Circ...

Jeanette Prince-Cherry had careers in the Air Force and as an industrial engineer before dedicating her life to Zen Buddhism. A Zen priest and instructor, she divides her time between the Louisville Zen Center and the Rochester Zen Center in New York. In this episode, Jeanette explains the basics of Zen, how it is similar to and different from secular mindfulness, and how it provides tools and res...

Dr. Andrew McCart is an assistant professor of health management and systems sciences in the department of public health at the University of Louisville. He has been a practicing Taoist for over two decades and is a certified senior instructor of the Healing Tao Association of the Americas, and he also holds black belts in three martial arts. In this conversation, Dr. McCart not only provides a pr...

Joe Grant is a Scottish-born poet, author, and spiritual director and was the inaugural guest on the Earth and Spirit podcast. In this episode, Joe reflects on Celtic spirituality and the lessons it offers for fostering awake, aware, abiding relationships with the living Earth and within human communities.

Morgan Atkinson is a documentary filmmaker based in Kentucky. Focusing on a wide range of subjects from the Trappist monk Thomas Merton to waterway pollution in his hometown of Louisville, his work asks deep questions about spirituality, social justice, and ecology. In this episode, Morgan reflects what he has learned over his filmmaking career and how we might navigate our polarized times with nu...

Carmel Bowman and Maggie Hettinger describe themselves as ordinary citizens of rural Kentucky who are trying to help move the needle on climate change. From their own lifestyle choices to their active efforts with the Citizens' Climate Lobby, they are passionately engaged for positive change. In this podcast, recorded during one of the Earth & Spirit Center’s live community conversations event...

Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan is a first-generation Arab-American who has spent his life crossing borders. An agrarian ecologist and ethnobotanist whom Time magazine called the father of the local food movement, his work straddles both sides of America’s southern border in Arizona. As a professed ecumenical Franciscan brother, his spiritual practice goes far beyond the walls of institutional religion, and...

Doug Van Houten describes himself as an ardent beekeeper, a visual artist, a wily wanderer, a dream tracker, a deep ceremonialist, and a heart-centered activist. He’s an international wilderness guide with the nonprofit Animas Valley Institute, helping to foster nature-based personal development. In this episode, as part of our Community Conversations series, Doug shares how healing, eco-centric s...

Dan Misleh is the executive director of the Catholic Climate Covenant, a national nonprofit organization devoted to faith-based education, advocacy, and practical actions related to climate change. In this episode, we explore how mainline religious traditions like Catholicism can help address climate issues with moral and spiritual leadership and practical resources and examples, but can also invi...

Malka Kopell has a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard and has over 30 years of experience doing collaborative, intersectional work with government agencies, nonprofits and the philanthropic sector to strengthen civic engagement and democracy. As part of the Earth & Spirit Center’s Community Conversations series, Malka shares her experience and wisdom about how to foster meaningful social c...

Carl McColman is a blogger, author, podcaster, and teacher, with a deep affinity for the Christian mystical tradition. This conversation explores the idea that the mystical path is open to all and that mystics offer practical, grounded wisdom for navigating the personal, social, and environmental challenges of our current moment. Carl's four-week online course on Christian Mysticism at the Earth a...

Shaikh Kabir Helminski is a Muslim educator, retreat leader, and a teacher and translator of Jallaladin Rumi, the beloved Sufi mystic and poet. In this conversation, Kabir unpacks wisdom from Rumi and the Sufi mystical tradition about what it means to be fully human, to engage skillfully with the darkness and disconnection of our time, and to live out of a whole-hearted sense of love and interdepe...

Rev. Karl Ruttan, PhD is a retired Episcopal priest with a doctorate in spiritual formation and over forty years of ministry as a priest and as a spiritual director, especially with men. In this conversation, Karl and I talk about what it means to become a man in a healthy, holistic way, and how this process of spiritual maturity can help bring our entire culture toward a deeper awareness of our c...

Philip Goldberg has been studying the world’s spiritual traditions for more than 50 years, as a practitioner, teacher, and writer. He is the author or co-author of more than 20 books, including, most recently, Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times. In this conversation, Phil offers a wise village elder’s perspective on how to navigate skillfully the tumult of our inner and outer life. Resources: Phil...

In a time of ecological and social crisis, it can be tempting to retreat from the world and pine nostalgically for some earlier, simpler, purer way of life: like the Garden of Eden. In this episode, scripture scholar and back-to-the-land homesteader Rev. Dr. Patricia Tull invites us to consider what lessons we might learn from Eden as we try to create a more just, beautiful, and thriving world. Th...

Our nation, our communities, and our families are divided more deeply now than they have been in decades, pitting us against each other exactly at a time when cooperation couldn't be more important to address the COVID-19 pandemic, racial justice, climate change, and many other pressing social and ecological needs.  In this community conversation with a live Zoom audience, we speak with Cory...

Being a parent or a grandparent during a pandemic is a challenge for which none of us were prepared.  As COVID-19 stretches on, it's clear that we need strategies we can sustain for the long haul.  In this community conversation, we check in with mindful parenting expert Nellie Springston about how to bring mindfulness to your (grand)parenting amidst the extraordinary challenges presente...

“The Cosmic Journey” is a new film produced by the Earth & Spirit Center, inspired by our new Cosmic Journey nature trail and outdoor art installation in the Earth & Spirit Center Nature Sanctuary. In this live Community Conversations event, we have a conversation with the film creator, Megan Maybee, the sound designer and voice actor Joe Brown, and the script contributor, Joe Mitchell. We...

Tara Remington, or “Remi,” is a Louisville-based artist who specializes in outdoor murals and other public-facing, large-scale media.  In this podcast, recorded during a live online Community Conversations event, Remi reflected on Cosmic Journey Trail art installation she created on the Earth & Spirit Center campus. We also broadened the lens to contemplate the role of art for reweaving t...

Lois Luckett is a Louisville-based therapist in private practice. Especially during the coronavirus pandemic, Lois has cultivated close relationships with trees. In this podcast, recorded from a live online Community Conversations event, Lois invites us to explore what we might learn about being human from our other-than-human-kin, the trees. https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/class/community-co...

Lois Luckett is a Louisville-based therapist in private practice. Especially during the coronavirus pandemic, Lois has cultivated close relationships with trees. In this podcast, recorded from a live online Community Conversations event, Lois invites us to explore what we might learn about being human from our other-than-human-kin, the trees. https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/class/community-co...