Earth and Spirit Podcast

Kailea Frederick is a bridge-building climate activist, writer, consultant, and mother with Black and First Nations heritage. In this conversation, Kailea reflects on living deeply out of a sense of place, the existential threat of wildfires, and what it means to expand our sense of family, reciprocity, and responsibility to include the more-than-human world. Kailea’s website: https://www.earthiso...

Joe Phelps is a retired Baptist pastor with a long history of making good trouble in regard to hunger, poverty, race, and other social justice and equity challenges. As part of the Earth & Spirit Center’s Community Conversations series, Joe joined host Kyle Kramer along with a live Zoom audience to talk about the intense racial tensions in Louisville, KY, his many friendships and collaboration...

Joe Phelps is a retired Baptist pastor with a long history of making good trouble in regard to hunger, poverty, race, and other social justice and equity challenges. As part of the Earth & Spirit Center’s Community Conversations series, Joe joined host Kyle Kramer along with a live Zoom audience to talk about the intense racial tensions in Louisville, KY, his many friendships and collaboration...

An acclaimed jazz pianist and composer based in Louisville, Kentucky, Harry Pickens is also a teacher, mentor, and author who does deep healing work to promote the flourishing of individuals and communities. As part of the Earth & Spirit Center’s online Community Conversations series, Harry reflected on what is being asked of us at a time of pandemic and heightened racial tensions, and what op...

An acclaimed jazz pianist and composer based in Louisville, Kentucky, Harry Pickens is also a teacher, mentor, and author who does deep healing work to promote the flourishing of individuals and communities. As part of the Earth & Spirit Center’s online Community Conversations series, Harry reflected on what is being asked of us at a time of pandemic and heightened racial tensions, and what op...

Sr. Gail Worcelo co-founded the Green Mountain Monastery in 1999, encouraged and supported by her friend and mentor, the late Thomas Berry. Berry, a cultural historian and Passionist priest, was a ground-breaking thinker who contemplated the new story science has given us of 13.8 billion-year history of our evolving Universe. He considered the implications of this new story for our religion, educa...

Rae Strobel Barr is an organic farmer, spiritual director and mother, living and working with her partner Adam at Barr Farms in Meade County, Kentucky, a seventh-generation family farm.  She is passionate about building community and combining spirituality with eco-justice and eco-feminism through holding farm-based retreats and providing spiritual guidance and counsel. Our producer Parker Bo...

Dr. Kate Bulinski is an associate professor in the environmental sciences department of Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY, specializing in geology and paleontology. She also claims the moniker of “Catholic scientist.” In this wide-ranging conversation, we explored the relationship between faith and science in the pursuit of truth, and we delved deeply into how thinking in deep geological tim...

Sarah Nunez is a Latinx folk healer and activist in Louisville, KY.  Through her work helping to heal bodies, communities, and unjust systems, Sarah  embraces the deep roots of indigenous wisdom and storytelling.  She envisions a future in which people of all backgrounds can recover our connection with each other and with the natural world that is our home and kin. Related links: Na...

This episode features Ashley Smith, the co-founder of Black Soil.  Black Soil is a nonprofit in Lexington, KY, dedicated to reconnecting Black Kentuckians to their legacy and heritage in agriculture and to empowering Black farmers in Kentucky, who currently make up just 1.4%  of the state's farmers.  Anyone who eats has a stake in there being a just, sustainable food system, so tune...

This episode features Jennifer "Juniper" Owens, the co-founder of Bridge Counseling and Wellness, an integrative mental health and holistic therapy center in Louisville, KY.  Juniper reflected on how our deep connection to the rest of the natural world can help us through our own individual struggles and through the collective trauma we are experiencing with COVID-19.  We explored the Ja...

Dr. Chris Schrodt, MD, is a clinical psychiatrist in private practice in Louisville, a lifelong meditator, and a mindfulness instructor at the Earth & Spirit Center.  Chris joined Earth & Spirit Podcast host Kyle Kramer for a conversation about the mental health issues associated with the coronavirus pandemic.  We discussed the various resources, including mindfulness, that can h...

Karen Newton is a wellbeing and resilience integrator. Formerly the director of health promotion at the University of Louisville, and still on the UofL faculty, Karen is a certified mindfulness teacher specializing in stress resilience and compassion. She’s also an Earth & Spirit Center faculty member. From our respective homes, Karen and I had a virtual conversation about what resilience look...

Glenda Hodges-Cook is a senior meditation instructor on the Earth & Spirit Center faculty - and one of Louisville’s village elders. A mother and grandmother, she spent a career as a psychiatric nurse. With roots in the Christian and Buddhist traditions, Glenda has practiced insight meditation for over forty years and has studied with meditation icons Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kor...

In this episode, Earth & Spirit Podcast host Kyle Kramer sits down for a conversation with Nellie Springston, the Earth & Spirit Center's program coordinator for youth, family, and education.  Nellie offers practical advice for parents who are having to figure out childcare, at-home schooling, and other challenges.  Nellie is also the founder of Calma: Calm and Loving Minds Achie...

Our guest for this episode is Joe Grant. A native of Scotland, Joe is a modern-day mystic, a blogger, and the author of numerous books and articles about scripture, justice and spirituality. Prior to moving to Louisville 25 years ago, Joe worked with indigenous peoples of the U.S. and in Latin America. His work has been rooted in the Catholic Christian tradition, but his sensibilities are deeply i...

This short trailer introduces the Earth & Spirit Podcast, a production of the Earth & Spirit Center, a nonprofit, interfaith spirituality center in Louisville, KY (www.earthandspiritcenter.org).  This podcast is made possible by support from the Kalliopeia Foundation (www.kalliopeia.org).