The Seed Field

In a world facing many crises, where should we focus our efforts? For today’s guest, Zoe Weil, the answer is clear: education. “If we can transform educational systems,” she says, “then we may be able to transform our economic system, our political system, our food system, our production system, our legal system, all these different systems, so that they’re more just and more sustainable and more...

Many Americans know the seasonal rhythms of our songbird neighbors: they arrive in the spring and leave in the fall. But where do the birds go in winter? For biologist Mike Akresh, studying Kirtland’s warbler, wood thrush, and whistling warbler has led him all over the Caribbean and Central America. But the most remarkable connection are the local people he has met during this work, who have becom...

Peter Palmiotto believes that outdoor classrooms can be much more intentional than the cliché of students enjoying a sunny day out on a manicured quad. Instead, he says, outdoor classrooms can be designed to work in any weather—and the natural world can be a key part of the learning they facilitate. Peter should know: he has spent the past dozen years building Antioch’s 80-acre teaching forest, Gl...

Over 20 years ago, Kriss Kevorkian coined the term “environmental grief” to describe the emotional impacts experienced by scientists and activists working around the clearcutting of redwood forests. In the intervening decades, more and more people have taken up this term to explain and explore their own emotions during a time of changing climate and environmental degradation. In today’s episode, K...

Over 30% of people who start a PhD don’t graduate within ten years. This can be a grand disappointment and a real setback—and it can hold learners back from contributing to their full ability. But today, degree completion programs are helping some of these students to return to the academy, finish their studies, complete their research, and claim their diplomas. So what goes into designing a degre...

Visit Antioch’s website to learn more about the MS in Athletic Training that Ally chairs. You can also visit the main page for the Graduate School of Nursing and Health Professions . To learn more about the Coalition for the Common Good, visit the CCG website .  This episode was recorded October 22, 2025 via Squadcast and released November 19, 2025.  – – – The Seed Field Podcast is produced by Ant...

Physical and mental health are deeply connected, yet the medical field too often treats these as entirely separate domains. Deana Batross says that this is unfortunate, because medical procedures (like heart transplants) often have psychological side effects, and mental health conditions (like complex PTSD) often have physical causes. Luckily, Deana is a  Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners trained in...

From their position on the frontlines of healthcare, nurses intimately understand the issues facing their patients and communities. To tackle these big-picture problems, mid-career nurse practitioners are increasingly returning to school to get their Doctor of Nursing Practice degree (DNP). As today’s guest, Jeffrey Fouche-Camargo explains, “It's all about the clinical settings and how we can take...

In higher education, we rarely have the chance to stop, take a year, and thoughtfully redesign entire programs. But that’s just what the faculty of Antioch University’s newly founded Graduate School of Nursing and Health Professions have been doing this last year: taking the highly regarded programs previously offered through our partner, Otterbein University, and working to bring them to a nation...

The Critical Skills Classroom was founded forty years ago. This approach to classroom teaching pulls together experiential learning, cycles of action and reflection, and the cultivation of emotional intelligence. But today’s guest, Laura Thomas, says that the Critical Skills Classroom is still in some ways a secret—a good idea that more people should know about. That’s part of why she is marking t...

Surveys show that almost half of bisexual folks report experiencing moderate to severe psychological distress in the last year. These rates are roughly double that of straight, gay, and lesbian populations. So why isn’t it being treated as a crisis? In this conversation with the psychologist and researcher Rachel Chickerella, we discuss this mental health crisis; the many factors leading to it; ho...

Today, Antioch University is announcing our next President: Lori Erica Varlotta. In preparation for this announcement, we sat down with Lori for a wide-ranging conversation about what makes Antioch special, her experiences and wisdom drawn from decades as a leader in higher education, and the challenges and opportunities that she, as our next university leader, sees for our institution during a ti...

Our society places high value on advanced degrees. So what happens when students are able to claim the growth experiences that naturally occur in the course of a human life—from a career change to an experience of oppression—and bring it into their graduate studies, not just reflecting on what they learned but also earning credits towards their degree? This practice, known as Prior Learning Assess...

Therapy is so often based around conversation and storytelling that it’s been called “the talking cure.” But recently, mental health professionals have been finding healing power in asking their clients to write down their stories. Can keeping a journal, writing a memoir, or otherwise engaging in “expressive writing” help heal the wounds in our minds? In this conversation with Stephen Southern we...

When people mention Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion—DEI for short—it’s often in the context of political fights and high-stakes arguments about what universities should and shouldn’t be allowed to do. But what if we backed up and asked, What is the positive case for DEI in higher education? For this episode, we talk to Stephanie Helms Pickett, a scholar and administrator who currently serves as A...

Five librarians discuss questions of democracy, censorship, libraries, and books. The panelists—Antioch’s Jen Sturge and Miranda Doyle, incoming AASL President Becky Calzada, 2023 Maryland School Librarian of the Year Sheri Anita Massey, and U of Baltimore librarian Allison Jennings-Roche—discuss how librarians can best serve students in the current political reality, the duty to present a wide va...

For both Judy Richardson and David Goodman, 1964 was a pivotal year. That year, Judy moved to Mississippi to help organize “Freedom Summer,” the famous drive to register Black voters in the heart of the Jim Crow South—work that led her to a career as a civil rights-focused activist, filmmaker, and educator. Meanwhile, 1964 touched David’s life in a more tragic way: during a trip to Mississippi, hi...

Black women have long stood at the crossroads of democracy and liberation. Their voices, advocacy, and resilience have driven progress toward equity and justice, yet the full acknowledgment of their contributions remains elusive. In this wide-ranging conversation, three formidable leaders—Judge Ashleigh Parker, Judge Faye R. Chess, and Cassandra Stokes—come together to share their experiences and...

How do we make art in times of oppression? Do artists have a responsibility to explore questions of democracy, censorship, and human rights? In this conversation, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Viet Thanh Nguyen talks with poet and Antioch faculty member Cathy Linh Che about their experiences of democracy as Vietnamese American immigrant writers whose work engages vistas of American democracy amids...

As we face this century’s challenges—from climate change to democratic backsliding to multinational cooperation—we need new models of leadership. That’s what Antioch alum, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and President of Timor-Leste José Ramos-Horta says. And he should know. He was one of the leaders of Timor-Leste’s long effort to win freedom from colonization and the right to democratically elect it...

In May, Antioch University announced a robust set of democracy-promoting initiatives called Antioch Works for Democracy. Now, the effort’s six pillars are all in motion, from the announcement of twelve awardees from the Fund for Democratic Initiatives to the first Employee Days of Action to the many events being hosted through Education for Democracy, and more. In this special episode, we tell the...

Diane shares her background, her focus on diversity and social justice in healthcare education, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted existing inequalities. The conversation also touches on Diane’s personal journey towards understanding health inequities and her goals for the new school in fostering graduates who can create positive change in the healthcare system. Diane White has the hard...

Jen Sturge was working as a librarian supervisor when, “in about 2021, 2022,” she explains, “the nature of my work changed—and it wasn't for the better.” Organized parent groups started challenging books and getting them banned from the library. In today’s conversation with Jen Sturge and her colleague Christie Kaaland, we discuss how these book challenges take up time, resources, and enthusiasm,...

Jude Bergkamp is a true believer in the potential of psychology to transform lives and help heal society—but he doesn’t believe that this can happen without reconciling the field’s problematic foundations with a knowledge of how systems of power impact practitioners and clients. This insight guides his work directing the Doctor of Psychology program at Antioch’s Seattle Campus as well as his contr...

Visit Antioch’s website to learn more about the Certificate in Play Therapy that Cary founded and directs. This episode was recorded April 22, 2024 via Riverside.fm and released May 14, 2024.  ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The Seed Field Podcast is produced by Antioch University Host: Jasper Nighthawk Editor: Johanna Case Web Content Coordination: Jen Mont Work-Study Interns: Georgia Bermingham, S...