Dr. Amy Christianson is the host of Good Fire , a podcast that explores the social, cultural and ecological importance of fires. For thousands of years, Indigenous people have used fire to improve their environment and their community. More recently, however, because of colonialism and the centralization of power, many of those traditional practices have been made illegal, forcing them to stop or suffer legal repercussions. Today, governmental agencies want to integrate cultural burning into the...
Sep 20, 2021•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 23
Kirk Gallardo is the Education Interpretation Manager at the Anchorage Museum. His job has many aspects, including outreach, research and curriculum creation. His education is in linguistics, and that also comes into play. He says that understanding language is an ongoing endeavor that involves considering how it influences identity and culture. Being able to speak and communicate with one another... and convey our thoughts and desires is so embedded within our understanding of the human experie...
Aug 27, 2021•34 min•Ep. 22
Artist and sculptor John Grade's work exists in the intersection of art, education and advocacy. Influenced by the environment and human impact on it, there’s a specific attention paid to the idea of impermanence. He often destroys his art as part of its showing or exhibition because art, like life, is temporary. Both are a journey that rarely turns out how you’d expect. So, it’s important to embrace change. To achieve this vision, John believes in the power of collaboration—that the inclusion o...
Aug 12, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 21
Photographer Jovell Rennie's ingenuity and talent continues to define both his personal and professional ambitions. His drive is influenced by his parents and his upbringing. When he was young, his mom passed away suddenly, leaving him and his dad to navigate life without their cornerstone. Jovell was a quiet, independent kid and his dad had a hands-off parenting approach—he was very present, but allowed his son to learn through experience. They both made it work and even thrived. Jovell holds m...
Aug 03, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 20
Illustrator Ted Kim is known for his unique art style, which includes complex and imaginative scenarios. These scenes have a tendency to depict hope and optimism. He says that this happened naturally—motivated, in part, after he got in the habit of watching documentaries that explored traumatic social issues and events of catastrophic, global failure. His art became his safety net, his method of inspiring self-preservation and hope. Recently, Ted has become more introspective about his life and ...
Jul 02, 2021•59 min•Ep. 19
Charis Gullickson is the Curator and Public Sector PHD Student in Art History at the Arctic University of Norway. Charis has a mantra, and that is: museums are not neutral. They’re institutions of culture and agents of change. This is a relatively new concept because, historically, museums have been repositories of antiquities, often displaying artifacts with problematic pasts. This is an issue because without knowing its past, we may revere certain pieces of art and ignore their origins, which ...
Jun 14, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 18
This is Part 4 of a 4-part series curated by the research collective, Erratics—a curatorial group that creates art that explores geologic phenomena and the effects of human impact on the environment. In this episode, Nina Elder, of Erratics, hosts a conversation about Ghosts, Reliquaries and Memory. It draws on humanity’s handling of climate change and how that reveals our often fraught relationship to the planet, and it explores how artists are moving through this time of ecological loss by see...
Jun 01, 2021•59 min•Ep. 17
This is Part 3 of a 4-part series curated by the research collective Erratics, a curatorial group that creates art that explores geologic phenomena and the effects of human impact on the environment. In this episode, Hannah Perrine Mode, of Erratics, hosts a conversation about futurism and hope. It draws from personal relationships to deep time and geologic forces from past and present, and explores the methods with which artists are questioning, exploring and reimagining what our collective fut...
May 13, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 16
This is Part 2 of a 4-part series curated by the research collective, Erratics, a curatorial group that creates art that explores geologic phenomena and the effects of human impact on the environment. In this episode, Tyler Rai, of Erratics, hosts a conversation about Mutations, Kin and Hybrid Bodies. It explores the ever-changing conditions of climate change, how our interdependence across species presents hybridized forms of collaboration and how, as a result, we are challenged to expand the w...
May 05, 2021•53 min•Ep. 15
Erratics is a curatorial group that creates art that explores geologic phenomena and the effects of human impact on the environment. The group consists of three members: artist and researcher Nina Elder, movement artist and researcher Tyler Rai and interdisciplinary artist and educator Hannah Perrine Mode. In Part 1 of this 4-part series, we meet Tyler, Nina and Hannah and they explain the origins of Erratics, their work within the collective and what unifies that work. The intention of the foll...
Apr 24, 2021•54 min•Ep. 14