How It Looks From Here

Hilary Zaranek is a wildlife biologist, a ranch woman, and a horse woman. A woman who both learns from and is constantly inspired by animals. Riding the range, Hilary spends a good deal of time watching and listening to the predators who share the lands of her family cattle ranch at the doorstep of Yellowstone National Park. The quality, focus of her attention has led to her be...

This month we're rebroadcasting one of our favorites from 2022. Here, Mary talks with Petra Kuppers, a disability culture activist and community performance artist who lives in delighted concert with the natural world, sharing in powerful intelligence, adapdibility and love of True Nature. Petra holds the Anita Gonzalez Professor of Performance Studies and Disability Culture chair in English...

This month, Mary had the chance to meet up with Cyreena BostonAshby, CEO of Girls' Inc of the Pacific Northwest, an organization that serves girls and gender nonconforming and trnas youth in Portland, SW Washington and Seattle. Cyreena grew up in Portland, raised in a family focused on social justice and business leadership. She's an alumna of Spelman College, the Historical Black Colleg...

This month, Mary had the chance to meet up with Michael Zellner, a career journalist and business owner, a leader in local and international commu nity-based conversation and an all around agent of positive change.  Since October of 2020, Mike has served as chief executive officer for the Arizona-based Sonoran Institute.  Mike has 30 years of experience building award-winning collaboratr...

In January, Full Ecology went to Chile. In Santiago, we had the chance to sit down so Mary could speak with two Chilean professionals - friends who share a passion for the environment. Paola Molina Venegas is a lawyer and judge. Much of her practice involves social justice issues. Alongside that work, she has, in recent years, become deeply interested in the wellbeing of the environment. Guille is...

This month, Mary had the opportunity to sit for a talk with Chef Oscar Yip. Oscar is a culinary expert with international experience, as well as a keen sense of the ecologies of humans and food. Oscar was born in Saltillo in the state of Coahuila in Mexico, where he was raised by his Mexican mother and Chinese father. He later completed medical school at the University of Monterrey. But upon earni...

This month, Mary had the chance to talk with Paula McKay, a writer and conservation researcher. Paula has studied wild carnivores for the past two decades, and is currently affiliated with the Living Northwest program at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo. In 2015, she earned an MFA in creative writing from Pacific Lutheran University, and earlier served as managing editor for Noninvasive Survey Methods...

Tyler Mark Nelson is an advanced student in the Masters of Divinity program at Yale Divinity School. He was raised on the northern banks of the Mississippi River, a stretch of the world that figured deeply in helping him come to know who he is. Tyler began his work life with several years in horticulture, supporting human resources and sales at a large Minnesota greenhouse, leading operations with...

This month, Mary has the unique treat of listening to and learning from Dr. Elizabeth Bernays. Liz is an entomologist by training having received her Ph. D. from the University of London. But her love of the natural world began as a child in Australia where she was free to roam and to watch and befriend the animals and insects who lived there. She began her career as a field entomologist for the B...

With this episode we begin our fourth season. Our very first episode  of How it Looks from Here went live September of 2020. The pandemic was just getting going. We were being asked to work from home, to keep our distance from each other. A huge cost of this distance was that we wouldn’t be hearing how other people were making sense of Covid in their lives. How were people coping? How could w...

Dr Zaher Wahab is professor emeritus of Education at Lewis & Clark College, and former senior advisor to the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education. Dr Wahab, also taught at American University of Afghanistan from 2013 to 2020. Zaher was born and schooled in Afghanistan. He was the first person in his family’s history to attend the "village school," a boarding school in Kabul, and later received...

In this episode, Mary spends some time with Mariana Pickering, co-founder of Emu Passive, a consultation group that offers training and consultation on the design and construction of high quality, supremely efficient buildings. Mariana describes herself as a recovering architect who, because of her devotion to the wellbeing of the natural world, has found her way deep into building science. There...

Alison Cunningham is an activist and public leader in New Haven, CT. Currently, she serves as the Director of Professional Formation for Yale University’s Divinity School and this month she speaks with Mary about how circumstances of climate change may be met with activism and spirit. Spirit has always been at the center of Alison's career. She points to the practical expression of spirit whe...

This month our guest is Jack Pearson, another young leader who, as a recent college graduate, is currently on a Fulbright study grant in Jordan. Mary and Jack spoke over Zoom, Jack in his apartment in Amaan and Mary in her closet which is still doubling as a recording studio. Jack’s undergraduate degree included studies in the history of science, the microbiology of ice and English. In his study a...

Ali keeps a relatively low profile these days. She runs ultra marathons, applies her knowledge of physical therapy as a pilates instructor extraordinaire, and ventrues out far and wide in the wild nature of the Yellowstone ecosystem with her rescue dog, Lola. You can find out a bit more about her on her LinkedIn site. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-ali-ramirez-pt-dpt-72a0999/ The resources Ali rec...

This month, Mary talks with poet Sean Hill. Sean is currently on faculty with University of Montana in Missoula. His path to that post began in Milledgeville, GA where he spent his childhood fascinated with the workings of nature. That homeland remains a big part of the stories Sean tells of his family and community from enslavement to today. Sean has lived in Minnesota, Texas,...

This month Mary speaks with Scott Bosse, Regional Director of the Northern Rockies Office of American Rivers, a non profit devoted to clean water and healthy rivers. Since they were recording for the month of February, Scott and Mary took the opportunity to talk about the quality of Love that is at the core of relationship with the natural world. First and foremost, Scott is a champion of wild nat...

This month, Mary speaks with Jesine Munson, an artist, historian and philosopher. Jesine landed on the planet in 1988, a Montanan born and raised. She's currently completing a PhD dissertation specifically considering the work of John Dewey and, more generally, the way we humans come to make sense of our lives and the world. In this episode, Mary and Jesine talk about how Jesine's work as a s...

This month, Mary speaks with Thomas Doherty, PhD Clinical Psychologist and internationally recognized expert on the psychology of living in and with climate change.  Thomas is best known for bringing forward awareness of ecopsychology - the understanding that psychological wellbeing is significantly affected by our relationship with the environments in which we live and make our lives. Thomas...

Mary speaks with Lill Erickson, Executive Director of Western Sustainability Exchange. Western Sustainability Exchange is a nonprofit organization in Livingston, Montana dedicated to, "preserving the best of the West—wide open spaces, fish and wildlife habitat, and farming and ranching heritage—by providing sustainable solutions that promote environmental stewardship and rural economic prosperity....

Tune in for PART 2 of the panel of the five authors who spoke of the way the world looks to them in last episode of How It Looks from Here. In August, Gary & Mary were on the faculty of the  Elk River Writers' Workshop  in the Paradise Valley of Montana. As a part of that week, we had the opportunity to record a panel of five of these authors for two episodes launching...

To open Season 3 of HILFH, Gary & Mary were part of an unequaled faculty of writers in support of an equally astonishing group of students, all of us at the Elk River Writers' Workshop in the Paradise Valley of Montana. As a part of that week, we had the opportunity to record a panel of five of these authors for the first and second episodes of Season 3. Mary facilitated this conversation that...

This episode, Mary speaks with Asher Jay, an award-winning conservationist artist, entrepreneur, National Geographic Explorer, and philosopher. Their conversation goes deep: from the psychological roots of our separation with nature and burgeoning reconnection, to the power of looking into the eyes of a wild animal. Listen in to hear about it. Find Asher Jay at: www.asherjay.com www.henoscene.com

This episode, Mary speaks with Lavoy Tolbert, legendary educator and wilderness therapist. Lavoy speaks of his connection to place near Loa, Utah, his understanding of the lessons that nature is ready to teach us, and how we can be right sized humans on the land.

In this episode, Mary speaks with Chuck Hudson, Hidatsa Elder and longtime expert in Tribal/Federal policy and government relations. Chuck speaks of his and his family's history and experiences as they relate to the times we are living in, now. He draws stories from his time advocating for the four treaty tribes of the Columbia River Intertribal Fish Commission Throughout, he reflects on...