Reseed

Collective action can lead to real, tangible victories, like halting an offshore oil project proposed by Big Oil, reminding us that collectives of people have the power to challenge destructive and powerful forces. Instead of the individualistic, lonely, consumerism-heavy environmentalism that claimed centre stage in the past - telling us we are guilty for the worsening climate impact and we need...

Our lives interconnect closely with the lives of animals. From the raven to the honey badger to the snake to the fox, we live in relationship with the animals, our neighbours and creaturely kin. When the convenience of our modern life causes animals great violence and harm, many of us are deeply affected, even heartbroken, and many of us privately seek ways to grapple with and grieve the cycle of...

The human animal lives at a fragile moment on Earth. But, even as the world we know erodes, many people leave the comfort of denial and inaction to rise and face a changing world with generosity and brave, active hope. In season three of Reseed, host Alice Irene Whittaker sits down with an animal rehabilitator, a conservation biologist, a birder and author, a beekeeper and grower, a natural-dyer,...

Why do we grow in our gardens? Are we searching for closeness to the mystery and magic of the natural world, or perhaps working towards self-sufficiency by feeding ourselves? Do we grow to create habitat for pollinators or enrich precious soil? Do we grow to foster a knowledge of growing in our children, and to foster community? Do we grow to grasp control in a scary world? Do we grow because we l...

This mini-documentary chronicles the journey of host Alice Irene Whittaker in 2019, when she traveled pregnant with her third child to Colorado to interview acclaimed environmental economist and regenerative rancher Hunter Lovins. Around a kitchen table in her regenerative ranch, Hunter answers curiosities about a circular economy that is modelled on nature’s cycles, and envisions the large-scale...

How do we feed everyone, how do we feed cities? How do we tackle food deserts and food injustice? And what if there is not one answer to these questions - but many? This experiment of how humanity tackles environmental breakdown requires all of us. People will find their niches. For Eddy Badrina, that niche is the intersection of economics, technology - and lettuce. Guest Eddy Badrina is the Chief...

In these dark winter days at the beginning of a new unknown year, this reflective episode invites us to be quietly awake: awake to our true selves, awake to who we are in relationship with, awake to how we honour our responsibilities, and awake to justice. How can we be awake to beauty as well as the darkness of the world and the fragility of ecosystems and species? How can we be awake to the brok...

Imagine creating a food future where all people have access to nourishing affordable food, growing practices are regenerative, and our food systems transition from being global and fragile to regional and resilient. This conversation looks at our isolation from the Earth and food that nourishes us, and wonders about repairing our relationship with land and agriculture. We discuss the extractive sy...

Communicating the Anthropocene is an art and a science. Multiple messages, tactics, messengers, and channels can be harnessed to convey climate change problems and solutions to citizens. Environmental communications are one of the most underutilized solutions we have for rising to meet environmental crises. Every movement, every momentous and terrible human collective shift starts not with weapons...

Looking at species in a landscape, we can see the stories of each creature and what role it plays in that ecosystem. So, what is our role in our landscapes? Are we an invasive species? Too often we hear that we are doomed to be takers, who damage the planet with our very presence. However, it is possible to see ourselves as creative stewards of the Earth while meeting our own needs. Most of us hav...

The ocean - which has always held mystery for us human beings - also holds powerful solutions to climate change and biodiversity loss. By rewilding our oceans and protecting the forests of the sea, we can bring back essential biodiversity, reduce the worst of climate change, and provide a sustainable source of food for humans and many ocean species. In a world of discouraging environmental news, s...

Food justice is interwoven with conversations about our women ancestors and motherhood in this episode of Reseed. Food is interconnected with human health, planetary health, water, soil, animals, culture, and care. At its worst, the production of food is one of the most damaging sources of climate change and biodiversity loss, and it can be cruel to animals and exploitative to people. At its best,...

Fossil fuel narratives seep into our culture, media, politics, and minds like pesticides through soil, water, and food. It can be hard to know where these pervasive and damaging narratives started, or how to extricate them from our lives. Fortunately, we can create our own hopeful narratives of possible climate futures that run like fast-moving rivers from person to person.  Guest Grace Nosek is a...

Oceans, cities, farming, media, storytelling, seeds,  soil, and activism are being reimagined and revolutionized by the captivating guests who join season 2 of Reseed.  Host Alice Irene Whittaker delves into thought-provoking, in-depth conversations with people who are repairing our relationships with nature. Seeds of change are being planted by these guests - and also by millions of us. Individua...

We protect our gentle hearts and our fearful brains by saying things cannot change, telling ourselves it isn’t as bad as it is, or just ignoring environmental and social breakdown all together. Our disillusionment can be a slow erosion of imagination and hope, day by weary day, with global tragedies playing out behind our personal triumphs and pains. As an antidote to disconnection and despair, ar...

From the wonder of watching tiny, wild critters to the grand, complex world of international environmental research, this conversation spans worlds. It navigates the often-separate disciplines of science and stories, threading them together. Guest Kai Chan and host Alice Irene Whittaker discuss our responsibilities on Earth, heroic action, the value of nature, the connection between culture and co...

How do we balance joy with sorrow in the midst of ongoing crises? Seeking freedom is not frivolous but rather essential, so that we are able to care for ourselves as we protect wild places, and so we can be resilient in the face of environmental and social breakdown. This conversation explores the importance of strengthening our relationships to our ancestors, protecting the places where we live,...

We live as part of a wondrous planet, an intricate web of interconnections and relationships. We have been taught, though, to think not in wholes and connections, but rather to break everything into simple, easy-to-digest pieces. What is often lost is our knowledge that we are whole, and that we belong here. Fortunately, systems thinking helps us to see interconnections and complexities, and learn...

There is a strange and haunting beauty to the discarded massive objects like ships, planes, cars, and phone booths that sit in waste graveyards around the planet. These relics of the past and symbols of our disposable culture are spotlighted in Scrap, a new documentary by filmmaker Stacey Tenenbaum, who tells the stories of the human beings who live with and have relationships with these objects a...

Growing our own food and supporting local farmers has multiple, interconnected benefits, and farms in the cities can play a powerful role in regional food systems. Soil is regenerated, human bodies and minds are nourished, emissions are reduced, local economies based on fair labour are supported, beauty flourishes in city environments, and communities are strengthened. All of this is possible - an...

What does wildness mean to us - and what should it mean? What can wildness mean when it is defined not by a few people, but rewritten for all of us? This episode of Reseed revisits the history of conservation to explore its dark corners, going beyond nipping off the buds and leaves to dig at its roots, unearthing information about those who are credited with founding Western conservation. Deconstr...

How do we courageously face our eco anxiety and grief, and find the resources we need to cope with the climate crisis? How do we cultivate the emotional resilience that we need to weather ecological crises? How do we take care of our own mental health, so we can take care of each other and our Earth? Britt Wray joins Reseed for a conversation about climate change, emotions, and mental health. Brit...

The journey to consuming less and reclaiming our collective power is an imperfect, emotional, and challenging one. Consuming stuff is embedded into our identities and our culture. We are told that we deserve to buy things, and that ownership defines our worth. For the sake of our planet’s health and our own freedom, it is well worth the hard work of dismantling our addiction to stuff and asking ou...

Expansive ideas and abundant dreams abound: rewriting environmental storytelling, rethinking climate activism, reorienting economic growth, climate reparations, rethinking conservation, resisting the co-opting of progressive movements, reclaiming green for the people, and repairing place-based relationships are all explored in this thought-provoking conversation. As we pass over that lovely thresh...

Parents have the formidable task of providing care for their own children while also caring for a planet in crisis - all while questioning how to raise the next generation to be caretakers. This episode of Reseed looks at the unique role that parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and other guardians can play, with specific actions that we can take as people who are raising children at an exhaus...