Ecosystem Member

In this engaging interview, Neville Wakefield, a renowned curator and artistic director, shares insights on how art interacts with nature, the importance of immersive site-specific projects like Desert X, and the future of art in space and remote environments. Discover how curators and artists collaborate with landscapes to create dynamic, living artworks that challenge traditional gallery spaces....

In this episode, Pablo Usobiaga, co-founder of Arca Tierra and Baldio in Mexico City, shares insights on the importance of Chinampas, sustainable food systems, and the role of chefs and consumers in ecological responsibility. Discover how ancient practices can shape the future of food and environmental resilience. Keywords Chinampas, sustainable farming, regenerative agriculture, Mexico City, loca...

Summary In this episode, chef Rob Rubba shares his journey towards creating a sustainable restaurant, Oyster Oyster, emphasizing the importance of seasonality, local sourcing, and innovative waste reduction practices. Discover how his overzealous approach to sustainability is shaping the future of responsible dining. Keywords sustainable restaurant, seasonality, local sourcing, waste reduction, oy...

Summary In this episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast, chef Ben Shewry discusses his journey from rural New Zealand to running Attica in Melbourne. He reflects on his deep connection with nature, the importance of indigenous ingredients, and the role of terroir in cooking. Shewry emphasizes the need for ethical sourcing and the moral obligations chefs have towards their ingredients and the envir...

Summary In this episode of the Ecosystem Member Podcast, Rick Evans interviews Paula Camiña Eiras, a designer specializing in material innovation and biodesign. They discuss Paula's relationship with nature, the principles of biodesign, and the importance of regenerative thinking in design. Paola shares insights from her project Co-Obradoiro Galego, which connects the fishing industry with bas...

Rethinking Beauty: Transforming Landscape Design with Ecological Wisdom In this episode, landscape architects Kasey Toomey and Hannah Pae of TERREMOTO challenge traditional notions of garden design, emphasizing a living, evolving ecosystem that integrates native species, wildlife, and community. They share their approach to designing with humility, patience, and respect for the land, advocating fo...

Summary In this episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast, host Rick Evans welcomes back Jeff Perry, founder of Angel City Lumber, to discuss the profound impact of recent wildfires in Los Angeles and the innovative responses that have emerged from them. Jeff shares his evolving relationship with nature, particularly in light of the devastating Palisades and Eaton wildfires, which have reshaped his...

Summary In this episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast, Baratunde Thurston shares his evolving relationship with nature, emphasizing the importance of viewing ourselves as part of the ecosystem. He discusses his experiences from the show America Outdoors, highlighting stories that reveal the deep connections between people and nature. The conversation explores cultural perspectives on nature, les...

Jewish Teachings on Nature and Responsibility with Rabbi Laura Bellows, Dayenu Rick Evans interviews Rabbi Laura Bellows about her relationship with nature and the intersection of Judaism and climate action, exploring how Jewish teachings inspire environmental responsibility and the work of Dayenu, a Jewish call to climate action. Key Topics Judaism, climate action, Dayenu, Jewish teachings, envir...

Hey folks, thanks for tuning in to the latest episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast. Today’s episode is one that I had in mind when I first started formulating the idea for this podcast about two years ago and is a fitting end to season two of the podcast. Dr. Susan Murphy Roshi is the founding teacher of Zen Open Circle in Sydney, Australia, as well as a writer, radio producer, film writer and...

For those of you who have listened to a range of our first 40 something episodes, you know that I think deeply and widely about our human relationship with nature and the more than human world. I love talking to artists and curators about the big, thorny questions they are asking us to think about in their work. I also love talking to adventurers in business and athletics who are pushing the bound...

Our guest for this week is a follow on to our guest from last week. Dr. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is an artist based in the UK who has a piece in the “More Than Human” exhibition at the Design Museum that our guest last week Justin McGuirk curated. That exhibition opens July 11, but if you’re watching this episode on YouTube or Spotify, you’ll get a sneak peek of her piece in this episode.  Daisy’s...

Our guest is Justin McGuirk, the Director of Future Observatory and the curator of an upcoming exhibit at the Design Museum in London called “More Than Human” that brings together art, science and radical thinking to ask how design can help our planet thrive by shifting its focus beyond human needs. The exhibition opens July 11 and runs to October 5, so get your tickets today so you don't miss...

Today’s guest is an alpinist, mountain guide and mother and the subject of a new three part film series from the team at Patagonia titled “Parenting: Disaster Style”. Pulled from the vocabulary of climbers, disaster style is all about giving it everything you’ve got. It’s hard, messy and adventurous with some risk in pursuit of big rewards. Zoe Hart asks what it would be like to bring that approac...

Today’s guest is one of the people I first had in mind when I started to concept the idea of Ecosystem Member. His approach to life is really inspiring and I think he has a really unique connection to place. I am extremely envious of the adventures he’s had and it was a real privilege to get some of his time.  Rickey Gates is our guest, he is a conceptual runner, which he explains exactly what tha...

Our guest for today’s episode is Katrina Spade, the founder of Recompose, which is a human composting service based out of Seattle, Washington.  Before I get into the details of our conversation, as you can imagine, our conversations centers around death. If the topic stirs up personal feelings and situations you would not rather than experience at this time, then please do not listen to this the...

Our guest for this episode is Auden Schendler, the author of a new book called “Terrible Beauty: Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering our Soul”. Published by Harvard Business Review Press, it is part memoir, part reflection, and part prescription from 30 years of working in corporate sustainability. If you aren’t familiar with Auden, he learned about corporate sustainability at the...

In past episodes, we’ve talked with Kiran Gandhi aka Madame Gandhi about turning Antarctic glacier recordings into popular music and Arctic Ascent star Dr. Heidi Sevestre about glacier research and science communication. Today we’re bringing those two areas together with environmental composer Konstantine Vlasis, who is studying the sound of glaciers in Iceland as a means to diagnosis planetary he...

Hey folks, welcome to a bonus episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast. Some of you are probably aware that Ecosystem Member is actually my second podcast project. My first called You Can't Eat Money looked specifically at the relationship between humans and nature and the more-than-human world through the medium of food. Given that our food system accounts for about a third of global greenhouse ga...

Hey folks, welcome to the latest episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast. This is our first episode of a new set of recordings after a little break. I recorded a bunch of episodes at the end of 2024 to get us to March. I used that break to write a fiction book exploring a lot of themes from this podcast and I’m really proud of the result. I put my whole heart into the story so I am hoping we’ll be...

We are back with a new episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast! Thank you for tuning in. Our guests for this episode are Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey, who make up the incredible artist duo Ackroyd & Harvey. I first came across their work at the Dear Earth exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London (which also featured past guest Jenny Kendler) and as we discuss in the episode, re-engaged wi...

Hey folks, thanks for tuning in to the first episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast for 2025 with the incredible award-winning musician, producer and activist Madame Gandhi. Madame Gandhi is the stage name of Kiran Gandhi who uses her music and voice to support personal expression, female empowerment and most recently - nature.  She began producing music in 2015 after her story of free-bleeding w...

Episode Page Our guest for this episode is the filmmaker and artist, Maja K. Mikkelsen. And the occasion of our conversation is her latest film - ‘The Last Observers’ - which comes out December 18 in the United States and has already been out in Europe.  It’s a brilliant portrayal of a Swedish couple’s 36 year commitment to record the weather, every three hours, every day for 36 years. And for you...

Episode Page The latest episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast is with the amazing interdisciplinary artist and environmental activist, Jenny Kendler. Many of you listening are probably familiar with Kendler's work thanks to her most recent solo project on Governors Island being reviewed and featured on the front page of The New York Times. The exhibition included nine sculptures that used materi...

Hey folks, welcome to the latest episode of the Ecosystem Member podcast. We’ve got a really great episode for you today with musician, writer and nature campaigner, Sam Lee. If you aren’t familiar with Sam, he is a Mercury Prize-nominated folk musician who has broken through to the mainstream. His latest album ‘songdreaming’ earned a five-star review from The Guardian and was named Mojo’s Album o...