The Nurture Pod

We've reached the finale of Season One of the Nurture Pod! Iris and Ginger started the Nurture Pod one year ago on Spring Equinox 2024. Somehow that time has turned into 35 podcasts and thousands of downloads!  Thanks to you our listeners for making this podcast a success and for listening to us talk Nurture week after week.  In this episode we are reflecting, recapping and honing in on what...

In this episode Iris and Ginger delve into the wildness of the moment we are living in on Planet Earth. With the forces of oligarchy, climate change, social upheaval on all sides choosing a positive way forward becomes increasingly mired in confusion.  The full moon in Virgo is a total lunar eclipse. The shadow world of what has been lying beneath so much of what America has been built upon is bei...

In this episode Iris and Ginger dig into how we survive in times when we are called into community action. How do we create community and connections in a culture that has emphasized individualism and competition.  Netflix and chill is ending. We are in the era of potluck and organize- and with that comes it's own set of skills and challenges of how to get along with others. What models do we...

In this episode of the Nurture Pod Iris and Ginger discuss the state of these here United States from the perspective of the Unified State theory. In challenging times it's easy to be overwhelmed, afraid, checked out and just plain baffled that these are the circumstances we now find ourselves in. Many are feeling unsure of what to do.  While this episode provides no easy answers, it will hop...

An auspicious new moon in Aquarius ushers in the year of the Wood Snake. This new moon also marks lunar Imbolc- the midpoint between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Change is in the air and deep in the soil as the Northern Hemisphere begins to awaken from it's winter slumber. Sap runs from root to branch and seeds in the earth begin to stir. As chaos bubbles in the cauldron of cul...

In this episode Iris and Ginger chat about time. How it works us or how we work it.  Life in the modern world can easily become chunks of time segmented into work lists and goals. Do we intentionally create times to escape that dynamic or does that become more of the same? When are we free from time? Why does every minute need to count? How much time do we spend worrying about how much time we hav...

In this episode Iris and Ginger welcome in 2025 with a big announcement. If life is change then 2025 will be living with no holds barred.  A shorter episode in recognition of one giant step at a time.  The reminder to pace yourself when change is underway is the nurture lesson of the day.  If you are inspired by this conversation please leave us a "tip" in the form of your feedback!  Whe...

Welcome to the longest night of the year. (in the Northern Hemisphere)   The cold dark winter stretches out before us as the Earth tilts it's northern hemisphere to it furthest point away from the Sun.  From this portal of solar alignment comes Solstice images, symbols and mythology that cultures across the planet celebrate.  The world tree.  The virgin birth.  Light entering the darkness.  J...

As 2024 draws to a close Iris and Ginger spiral around creativity. What does it mean to live a creative year, month, day or even life?  The struggle of being a working artist and knowing how to value your creative process and output.  The culture of conformity and productivity and how that filters our creative vision.  The big picture of life being the ultimate creative act on a wildly creative pl...

In this episode Ginger celebrates her 51st birthday and dives into what it means to be a woman entering the time of the Cailleach, the Celtic Goddess of Winter and Iris visualizes how we can graph our life movements to create a bigger picture.  Both discuss the energy of the end of the year and ways to drop out of the cultural hustle and into the starry darkness of becoming.  What are you nurturin...

Gratitude will get a whole lot of lip service this week in a culture that's rife with political and social divisions.   Is it possible to still be grateful when you're feeling frustrated and resentful towards others or are in deep grief around the state of the world?  Our ancestors may have the keys to unlock the power of this dark time of the year and how winter rituals were used for he...

In this post election episode Iris and Ginger discuss the national election results in 3 different ways. In a culture dominated by the mind they include the heart and gut into the process to understand the place we have newly arrived at in America.  Wit:  the mental understanding of the results. Ideas, perceptions, thoughts and judgements.  Knowing: the somatic experience of the heart and body. Ho...

In this episode Iris and Ginger talk red roots, the color of blood, power, sexuality, Queen Madder root and the portal between this world and the next.  In the Celtic lands this time of year was known as Samhain (aka Halloween) when the veils between the seen and unseen energies were thin.  Protection charms and bonfires to ward off harm, illness, the oncoming winter darkness mixed over time with...

On this episode of the Nurture Pod Iris and Ginger dive into the owners manual for the body- ody-ody. Just because the culture has a speedometer that goes up to 180mph doesn't mean our bodies can or should try to go that fast.  What are the dash lights that we ignore on our way to physical and emotional breakdowns? When do we pull over and let our engine cool down and when do we limp it down...

In this third and final episode of grief conversations with therapist and retreat leader Joshua Lowe, we talk about what it means to live in a culture without  connection to ancestors. Ancestral grief is the 5th gate in Francis Weller's book "The Wild Edge of Sorrow". Here's where we grieve the loss of connection not to our personal family line but also to  cultural traditions...

In this episode Iris and Ginger talk once again with therapist and grief ritual leader Joshua Lowe about the different ways that grief shows up personally and collectively in the culture. How can we create lasting change if we aren't willing to let go of the past? How do we let go of the past unless we willing to grieve it? Click here to sign up for the Oregon Coast Community Grief Ritual hap...

In this episode Iris and Ginger welcome their very first Nurture Pod Guest!  Therapist, grief tender, community ritual leader (and Ginger's cousin) Joshua Lowe joins the pod to talk about this misunderstood emotion and the role it plays in our lives and culture.  On October 11-13th Joshua Lowe will be coming to Nehalem to co-facilitate a weekend community grief ritual with Ginger and other co...

In this episode Iris and Ginger discuss the nature of reality and the concept of dream time.  One hemisphere of our brain is tuned into the mystical, non linear world of connection and creativity with the ability to see reality in a very different way than the other side of our brain.  Western Industrialized Culture could be just a massive dream projection of a part of brain that is obsessed with...

Recorded the eve of the full blue moon in Aquarius!  The astrology of this moment can't be put in a jar and saved for later. It's happening right now.  In this episode Iris and Ginger check in on the vibes as we are bathed in the light of a rather sticky, squared up retrograde opposition between the collective (Aquarius moon) vs the personal (Leo sun).  What does it mean to be self suffi...

In this episode Iris and Ginger discuss the idea and practice of working with the material realm. How and why we imbue the objects around us with meaning.  Is there such a thing as sacred outside of our own minds and beliefs?  Do things mass produced in China become talismans if we fill them with intention or is the magic in the handcraft and time we put into it.  What matters when it comes to mat...

In this episode Iris and Ginger discuss the ways that we come back to ground.  The different ways of understanding how the body restores and draws power from our connection to nature.  What we perceive as real/important in the dominant culture is designed to make us feel overwhelmed and pulled in many directions at once.  Nurture Culture is rooted in the Earth and our ability to connect to what is...

In this episode Iris and Ginger discuss how nature uses the heat of mid July to sort out what seeds will ripen for the fall harvest. This is often a moment when we realize that not all our spring plans are going to make it this year.  Call it a sense of overwhelm or despair or maybe even relief... but some apples must drop in order for the tree to be healthy. Some plants won't survive a summe...

In this episode Iris and Ginger discuss The Fifth Sacred Thing - a novel by Starhawk of two potential futures that play out in California.   The book gives a glimpse into the power of writing a future that inspires rather than the apocalyptic wasteland that's shown so often in the media. A key part of nuture culture is the ability to understand what seeds we are planting for future generation...

In this episode of the Nurture Pod, Iris and Ginger discuss this Summer Solstice /Full Moon in Capricorn moment and what it is revealing to us about how and where we place our energy.  This is the halfway point of the year. From this point on we are working with waning solar energy leading towards the Winter Solstice in December.  Nature is at it's peak bloom and yet not everything will make...

Social media is always changing, evolving and learning from us just as we laugh, numb out and learn from it. It wasn't always this hard or easy to connect back before the turn of the century.  Nature teaches us about what vast interconnected networking is for but are our monkey brains able to go there?  Maybe AI will sort it out for us. Send more cat memes! If you are inspired by this convers...