In the second part of a two part series, we will continue talking about The Whale Child, a book written and illustrated by Indigenous authors Keith and Chenoa Egawa. Keith and Chenoa are siblings and enrolled members of the Lummi Indian Nation and of Japanese heritage. This book is a reminder of why we are here, why I am here, and why I am doing this work and this podcast. In the first part of the episode, we hear more about the role of magic in telling the story and about the inspiration for th...
Nov 15, 2022•42 min
In this first episode of a two-part series, we will be talking about The Whale Child, a book written and illustrated by Indigenous authors Keith and Chenoa Egawa. Keith and Chenoa are siblings and enrolled members of the Lummi Indian Nation, and of Japanese heritage. Keith Egawa is a graduate of the University of Washington’s Creative Writing program and author of the novel Madchild Running. Keith’s extensive work experience in the fields of Child and Family Services and Indian Education Reform ...
Nov 01, 2022•42 min
Grace Anderson (she/her) is a network weaver, strategist, and dreamer working at the intersection of race, healing and the environment. While working in the outdoor and environmental sector, she recognized a lack of people of color in that space, not only in leadership, but also in the program. Their stories have not been being told. She soon realized she did not want to spend her time educating white folks. Instead, she wanted to spend her time, resources and energy on people of color and their...
Oct 18, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Dr. Sri has a really interesting story about how he found himself on a path into environmental conservation and eventually water equity after starting as a construction engineer. When I reached out to Sri he was the leader of the water program at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center. Since then, he took a new and exciting opportunity at the Environmental Consulting & Technology, Inc., as the Director of Water Equity and Climate Resilience. Over the past several years, Sri’s work has ad...
Oct 04, 2022•51 min
This is the second episode of a two-part series with Afnan Khairullah and Sofia Gilani. Afnan and Sofia are volunteers with the Green Muslims organization that works to connect Muslims everywhere to nature and environmental activism. In this episode, Afnan and Sofia continue sharing about the role nature played in their life and how they are using their religion, Islam, to educate and connect fellow Muslims to nature. They also give some good examples of how to live responsibly and be good stewa...
Sep 20, 2022•32 min
In this first episode of a two part series, we will hear from Afnan Khairullah and Sofia Gilani, who are volunteers with Green Muslims. Green Muslims is an organization that works to connect Muslims everywhere to nature and environmental activism. Their mission is to serve as a source in the Muslim community for spiritually-inspired environmental education, action, and reflection. Afnan and Sofia share with us about the role nature played in their life and how they are using their religion, Isla...
Sep 06, 2022•43 min
Nadia Ahmad is an author, attorney, law professor, and environmental justice advocate. She has spent her academic career focusing on frontline communities who are the most vulnerable to energy production. She is a Visiting Associate Professor at Yale Law School and an Associate Professor at Barry University School of Law. She teaches environmental law, property, and business organizations. She has presented her research on the law and policy of advanced biofuels in Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Cambridge, D...
Dec 15, 2021•53 min•Season 4Ep. 57
Earl B. Hunter, Jr is an unapologetic business owner of an outdoor recreational and marketing company that is committed to get more Black folks out in nature, and encourage white allies to extend invites on their outdoor excursions. Earl worked in the RV (recreational vehicle) industry as an executive for many years until he realized how people of color and particularly Black folks are rarely to be seen purchasing recreational equipment or even enjoying outdoor spaces like parks. So, he took mat...
Nov 30, 2021•58 min•Season 4Ep. 57
Ecologist Dr. Rodrigo Medellín is one of the most vocal and well-known advocates for the protection of bats and bat habitats. Rodrigo fell in love with bats when he held one for the first time at the age of 13 and today he is known as the “Bat Man of Mexico”. He is especially known for making significant contributions to taking the lesser long-nosed bat off the endangered list in Mexico and the U.S. The lesser long-nosed bat, found in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States, is one of...
Nov 16, 2021•57 min•Season 4Ep. 56
Rocio Villalobos is from Austin, Texas. She's an avid trail runner who promotes mental health, having experienced her own challenges and finding a place to belong in nature. She runs to promote Indigenous values around running to heal the soul and healing one's relationship to the land and to raise awareness on the importance of increasing racial representation in the outdoors. She is also a mentor who helps connect young people to nature and themselves. In addition, she is also an environmental...
Nov 02, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 4Ep. 55
One would think that food insecurity doesn't exist in one of the richest countries in the world - United Kingdom. Deidre (Dee) Woods who currently lives in London sheds light on the stark disparities that exist in the community she serves. As a food and farming action-ist Dee advocates for good food for all and a just, equitable food system, challenging the systemic barriers that impact marginalized communities and food producers. Having experienced food insecurity herself, Dee found a way to or...
Sep 29, 2021•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 54
In this episode we talk about the implications of free trade on African women especially from a food sovereignty perspective. Often free trade agreements are advertised to boost trade between countries, and ultimately encourage and strengthen economic growth in a geographic region. However, this is not the case, especially with African women farmers and small holder farmers who are the back bone of the agriculture sector on the continent. Susan Nacakwa and Leonida Odongo share their experiences ...
Sep 15, 2021•453245 hr 7 min
This is the second episode of a two part series with three wonderful changemakers - Laura Diaz, Samrat Pathania from Environmental Collective for Environmental Justice or EC-EJ and Isabel Lopez and Raizes Collective. This is yet another wonderfully informative and descriptive conversation with phenomenal environmental justice activists on what inspired them to create their own movements and how they are collaborating to help strengthen and empower their communities. Topics Discussed: The power o...
Sep 07, 2021•39 min•Ep. 52
This is the first episode of a two part series with three wonderful changemakers - Laura Diaz, Samrat Pathania from Environmental Collective for Environmental Justice or EC-EJ and Isabel Lopez and Raizes Collective. This is yet another wonderfully informative and descriptive conversation with phenomenal environmental justice activists on what inspired them to create their own movements and how they are collaborating to help strengthen and empower their communities. Topics Discussed: How to teach...
Sep 01, 2021•54 min•Season 3Ep. 52
A queer farmer of color, Edgar Xochitl is the Farm Manager at Hummingbird Farm a collective farm in the Excelsior, San Francisco. Edgar focuses on cross-polinating traditional ecological knowledge. In this episode we talk about: What is Queer Ecology? What does it mean to decolonize the flower? How to apply principles of queer ecology How to challenges the gender binary mindset? Follow Edgar: IG - @ecoxicano Twitter: @ ecoxicano Watch/Learn More: YouTube - Breaking Green Ceilings Podcast IG - @b...
Aug 20, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 51
Why is modern conservation failing? And what can we do to improve its effectiveness? As a social research consultant, Leander Lacy notes that traditional approaches are fragmented, not adequately considering the social dimensions of environmental issues. His transformative solutions— rooted in empiricism and critical Human-Nature connectedness, help conservation groups and eco-minded businesses achieve optimal outcomes from conservation action: business growth, stronger community relationships, ...
Aug 03, 2021•1 hr 1 min
Billy Almon is an Astrobiofuturist. Billy helps people explore solutions to improve human experiences on earth and in space. He is an inventor and immersive storyteller who aims to reach the next generation of inventors, designers, scientists and engineers – showing them how to design the future they wish to see. Billy is also the co-host of Little Giants, a new TV series on Animal Planet that features some of his global explorations of the nature-inspired design process called Biomimicry. In th...
Jul 20, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 49
Benjamin Von Wong is an award-winning Canadian who's work lies at the intersection of fantasy and photography and combines everyday objects with shocking statistics. It has attracted the attention of corporations, like Starbucks, Dell, and Nike and has generated over 100 million views for causes like ocean plastics, electronic waste, and fashion pollution. Most recently, he was named one of Adweek's 11 content branded masterminds. In this episode Ben talks about some of his conceptual photograph...
Jul 06, 2021•1 sec•Season 3Ep. 48
We're back! Here are some highlights: Video for season 2 and season 3 episodes are on our youtube page - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdv_elfXXh0fbb_s6QYLZHg Still sticking to an every other week schedule First episode comes out on July 6th so lookout! Let's connect!: IG - @breaking_green_ceilings Website: breakinggreenceilings.com
Jun 29, 2021•4 min
Stacey Isaac Berahzer, founder of IB Environmental, has spent more than 16 years in the environmental field, most of it immersed in water resource management as a senior project director with the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. As a passionate proponent of clean, affordable water who is deeply connected to work in the water industry, she’s helps her clients overcome the constant challenges related to funding and managing these projects. Stacey’s p...
Mar 24, 2021•51 min
Stephen Awoyemi is a PhD student at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy. For his PhD research, he looks at how sociological theories can help explain and solve the conservation problem of trade in vulture parts for traditional medicine in Nigeria. He holds an MPhil degree in Conservation Leadership (2014) from the University of Cambridge, UK and Bachelors degree from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Before starting this PhD program, Stephen worked with the Nigerian Conservation...
Mar 16, 2021•58 min•Season 2Ep. 46
Raya Salter is an attorney, educator and clean energy law/policy expert, focusing on climate justice. She is a member of the New York State Climate Action Council, which is developing NY’s plan to reach the nation’s leading climate action goals, and a policy organizer with the NY Renews environmental and climate justice coalition. Raya is an experienced advocate, having practiced energy law and regulation in multiple jurisdictions, including New York and Hawaii. In prior roles she was a Senior A...
Mar 09, 2021•55 min•Season 2Ep. 45
Deondre Smiles is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography and is a citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. His research interests include Indigenous geographies, science and technology studies, and tribal cultural resource protection/preservation. His current dissertation research focuses on historical and contemporary disrespect and disturbances of deceased Indigenous bodies and Indigenous burial grounds in his home state of Minnesota. Deondre is also teaching a course this spring on...
Mar 02, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 44
Weldon Wade was born and raised in Bermuda and has been active in the Bermuda diving community for over 10 years. The first and only Bermudian certified as freediver/scuba diver/closed-circuit rebreather diver, Weldon is also the founder of an ocean conservation organization called Guardians of the Reef. With important missions that include inviting new divers to explore and protect the ocean, encouraging divers to continue diving, they empower more young Bermudians to see for themselves what li...
Feb 23, 2021•56 min•Season 2Ep. 43
This is a re-release of an episode from Feb 2020 season 1 of the podcast. This episode is with the only African American River Keeper in the world, Fred Tutman. Fred is the river for the Patuxent River in Maryland, a north eastern state in the US. This episode is especially meaningful for me because it was the first time I gained the perspective of an elder in the environmental justice movement. Fred’s words still echo in my thoughts because I learned about how segregated the environmental movem...
Feb 16, 2021•52 min•Season 2Ep. 42
Nicole Jackson, Ivory Levert and Angela Mitchell are co-creators of Black Women in Nature (BWN), an initiative to connect Black women with nature through meditation, nature, hiking, and reflection in Columbus, Ohio. Nicole is an environmental educator and co-organizer for Black in National Parks Week and Black Birder’s Week. Ivory Levert is a certified yoga guide and leads the meditation and mindfulness segments of the BWN sessions. Angela Mitchell is a professional athlete and health and wellne...
Feb 09, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 2Ep. 41
Hey All! Season 2 is here! I can’t believe that we made it this far. Season 1 was exhilarating and hectic at the same time. We had 40 episodes in 9 months. At that time I didn't think to take a break for various reasons, I was exhilarated by all the amazing guests I found and their stories. I also wanted to get the hang of podcasting and it was new, fun and exciting to me so I just kept going. That said, we are not going to do a repeat of that. This year, I am breaking down the seasons into thre...
Feb 09, 2021•9 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Jason Baldes is a member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe from the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Land Resource Sciences from Montana State University. Jason's interests have led to work and travel with Indigenous peoples in East Africa, New Zealand, Mexico, Russia, and Denmark. Much of his work has been surrounding the restoration of bison to the Wind River Indian Reservation. Jason currently serves as the Eastern Shoshone Tribal Buf...
Nov 24, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 40
Ambika Rajyagor is a 24 year old Indian-American Outdoor/Adventure Blogger, Special Needs Advocate, and Activist. She is also the cofounder of DisablednOutdoors an online BIPOC-run community focused on representation and accessibility in the outdoors, wants to ensure that these efforts are intersectional, too—especially after nearly four years of policies that worked against Americans with disabilities . As someone who goes outdoors to look within, she can’t stand silent knowing that there is no...
Nov 17, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 39
Francisco, recently retired from his position as the director of recreation tourism, heritage and wilderness resources for more than 22 million acres of national forests and grasslands and national monuments in the Forest Service’s Southwestern Region. He served at the U.S. Forest service for more than 35 years. Valenzuela helped guide the development of over $500 million in infrastructure at the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. It is the largest comprehensively planned investment in...
Nov 10, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 38
