Future Ecologies

We're excited to share another beautiful guest episode with you today. In this piece, originally broadcast in 2 parts on The Wind (one of our favourite podcasts), producer Eleanor Qull is taking us on a pilgrimage in honour of, and in tribute to that most collective monarch — the monarch butterfly. Through those lepidopteran migrants, it’s a story of scale, agency, and spiritual offering in a chan...

Future Ecologies presents "The Right to Feel," a two episode mini-series on the emotional realities of the climate crisis. The second and final episode, “ Eulogies ,” is based on fictional writing from the class. Students imagine and eulogize something that could be harmed by the climate emergency, and then imagine a speculative future in which action was taken to mitigate that harm. Over a two-ye...

Future Ecologies presents "The Right to Feel," a two episode mini-series on the emotional realities of the climate crisis. This first episode, “ Climate Feelings ,” is a collection of students’ non-fiction essays and reflections on their personal realities of living with and researching the climate crisis. The first episode opens with an introductory conversation between Naomi Klein and series pro...

Vision without eyes? Intelligence without a brain? Are plants more akin to us than we have been prepared to acknowledge? Or are they different in ways we will forever strain to imagine? One way or another, a vine with some unusual abilities is shaking the field of botany to its foundations. On this episode: Zoë Schlanger (author of the newly-released, New York Times bestselling book The Light Eate...

In this conclusion to our trilogy, we're looking at a proposal to move beyond the concept of "rangelands" through the rewilding of the American west — meaning, the return of forgotten landscapes, species, and ecologies not commonly seen in generations (not to mention improved water and carbon storage). But at least one thing isn't compatible with this vision: grazing cattle on public lands. Catch...

Our series on cows and rangelands continues in the weeds and in the thorns, looking at a specific piece of public land where livestock are being employed to give some endangered species a new lease on life. In this 3-part series, we're hearing from impassioned scientists and land managers with diametrically opposed opinions on the concept of "rangelands" — by some estimates, accounting for 50-70%...

The introduction of cattle to western North America has undeniably contributed to massive ecosystem change. But could cows be as much a part of the solutions as they are the problem? In this 3-part series, we're hearing from all sides of this issue: impassioned scientists and land managers with diametrically opposed opinions on the concept of "rangelands" — by some estimates, accounting for 50-70%...

Future Ecologies is an independent podcast about the living world and its interrelations. The show varies in format, but this is a taste of what you can expect. New to the show? Find our whole back catalogue and subscribe for new episodes — right here in your podcast app, or at futureecologies.net Been with us for a while? Send this trailer with someone who shares the planet with you. — — — This a...

We’re slowing down for the holidays, and we hope you are too. But we didn’t want to leave you without something great to listen to, so we’re borrowing an episode from one of our favourite podcasters: Ashley Ahearn is the independent science and environmental journalist behind several series covering life in the rural American West. If you haven’t already listened to Grouse , on sage grouse, or Mus...

How do we account for nature? We can build on it and we can take from it, but what is its intrinsic value — in and of itself? On this episode: Adam Davis (of Ecosystem Investment Partners ), and a cultural transformation happening right now — reshaping the intersection of environmentalism and capitalism. Welcome to the restoration economy. — — — Music: Thumbug , Local Artist , Yu Su , SFML Co...

Meet the Fire Watchers of Skeetchestn: the people keeping their community safe during nearby wildfires, and working to bring good fire back to the land. Join us for this conclusion to our visit to Secwépemc territories as we discuss a way to bring different knowledge systems together: a synthesis of western science and Indigenous understanding. This is the 5th instalment in our series of indetermi...

What happens after the smoke clears? What does recovery look like when the disasters never end? In this episode, we're visiting the sites of some of BC's biggest burns of 2017 and 2021 – making the link between the mega-fires and the floods and landslides that followed. We'll hear about how the land is (and isn't) recovering, and the factors that spell the difference. This is the 4th instalment in...

Inherited is a climate storytelling podcast by, for, and about young people. We're bringing you Season 3, Episode 1: "Mama's House", a personal story of family loss, structural resilience, and survival in an era of climate change. Find all of Season 3, including behind-the-scenes interviews with each of the 8 storytellers, wherever you get your podcasts, or at yr.media/inherited/ ––– September 15-...

In this bonus conversation, Adam catches up with Fern Yip (guest producer on FE2.3) about her recent close call with wildfire, with lots of practical advice for those living on forested lands. For photos and a transcript of this conversation, see futureecologies.net/listen/earthkins-trial-by-fire Learn more about Fern at earthkin.ca — — — Find Earthkin's September workshops in Vancouver: eart...

How do our dreams shape our reality? Tonight, with the help of scientists, artists, philosophers, and historians, we're sprinkling a little stardust on our understanding of the more-than-human — from fish, to demons and gods. This episode features the words and voices of Lucia Pietroiusti , Filipa Ramos, Alex Jordan , Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe , Rain Wu , Nahum Mantra , Onome Ekeh , Federico Campagna...

Get to know our friends and collaborators, Miriam Quick and Duncan Geere — the hosts of Loud Numbers , a data sonification podcast. How do data visualization and sonification differ? What are the possibilities and pitfalls? And how can you incorporate the practice into your life? — — — Hear the entire conversation wherever you get podcasts — join our community at patreon.com/futureecolog...

Spiders Song is a story about a quest to hear the greatest symphony on Earth: the music of evolution. Along the way, we get to know some of nature’s most surprising musicians — the paradise jumping spiders. Part 1 is the Spiders Part 2 is the Song Headphones advised. — — — For credits and much more, visit futureecologies.net/listen/fe-5-1-spiders-song Missed Part 1? You can find it where...

Spiders Song is a story about a quest to hear the greatest symphony on Earth: the music of evolution. Along the way, we get to know some of nature’s most surprising musicians — the paradise jumping spiders. Part 1 is the Spiders Part 2 is the Song Headphones advised. — — — For credits and much more, visit futureecologies.net/listen/fe-5-1-spiders-song You can listen to Part 2 right now —...

From Love and Radio : Adam Zaretsky is a bioartist who explores the manipulation of DNA, the fringes of genetic modification, and butts up against the ethical boundaries of science and beyond. — — — Future Ecologies season 5 arrives July 7. Listen early at patreon.com/futureecologies

When the Earth Started to Sing Produced by Emergence Magazine, this sonic journey written and narrated by David G. Haskell brings us to the beginning of sound and song on planet Earth. The experience is made entirely of tiny trembling waves in air, the fugitive, ephemeral energy that we call sound. Spoken words combined with terrestrial sounds invite our senses and imaginations to go outward...

We're trying out a new format of bonus content over on our Patreon feed: casual, conversational interviews that go behind the scenes of some of the content on the main feed. In this first edition, our guest is Jonathan Kawchuk : composer, sound artist, and volunteer paleontologist. Jonathan's work is in both FE4.10 Geopoetics and the Emergence Magazine piece we recently featured When the Earth Sta...

At the heart of the Salish Sea lies the Fraser River Estuary: home to over half of the population of the Province of British Columbia, thousands of endemic species, and one world-famous pod of orcas. But as the human population of the region has grown, wildlife populations — including salmonids, orcas, and over 100 species at risk — have been plummeting. As economic imperatives press up against ec...

Dams remain one of the ultimate demonstrations of human power over nature. Wild rivers can be tamed to deliver energy for industry, lakes for recreation, and water for agriculture. But severing the link between land and sea has come with grave ecological costs. The impact of dams on salmon populations has been especially obvious and painful. This is part one of a two-part series on dam removals. I...

We're sharing an episode from our friends over at Drilled. Four years ago, the Drilled podcast asked a question that changed how people thought about climate stories: What if we stopped acting like the climate crisis was inevitable and instead treated it like it truly is...the crime of the century? Now, the original true crime podcast about climate change is back with a new season all about the op...

We work hard to make sure our music doesn’t just complement our voices, but actually tells a story all of its own. Now that our 4th Season is complete, as per usual, we’ve compiled all the original music that went into it, and we’re releasing it as an album. This year, that album takes the form of two companion volumes. Volume 1: Electrical Storms by Sunfish Moon Light Volume 2: Sympoiesis by thum...