Future Ecologies is an independent podcast about the living world and its interrelations. The show varies in format, but this is a taste of what you can expect. New to the show? Find our whole back catalogue and subscribe for new episodes — right here in your podcast app, or at futureecologies.net Been with us for a while? Send this trailer with someone who shares the planet with you. — — — This ad-free podcast is supported by our listeners on Patreon . Join our community for as little as $1/mon...
Feb 05, 2024•1 min
We’re slowing down for the holidays, and we hope you are too. But we didn’t want to leave you without something great to listen to, so we’re borrowing an episode from one of our favourite podcasters: Ashley Ahearn is the independent science and environmental journalist behind several series covering life in the rural American West. If you haven’t already listened to Grouse , on sage grouse, or Mustang (her latest), on wild horses, you’re missing out. The episode we picked for you today is kind o...
Dec 22, 2023•21 min
How do we account for nature? We can build on it and we can take from it, but what is its intrinsic value — in and of itself? On this episode: Adam Davis (of Ecosystem Investment Partners ), and a cultural transformation happening right now — reshaping the intersection of environmentalism and capitalism. Welcome to the restoration economy. — — — Music: Thumbug , Local Artist , Yu Su , SFML Cover art: Alé Silva Thanks: Ian Wyatt, Ava Stanley, Aila Takenaka, Alex Janz Transcript, Citations, etc: h...
Nov 27, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 5Ep. 6
Meet the Fire Watchers of Skeetchestn: the people keeping their community safe during nearby wildfires, and working to bring good fire back to the land. Join us for this conclusion to our visit to Secwépemc territories as we discuss a way to bring different knowledge systems together: a synthesis of western science and Indigenous understanding. This is the 5th instalment in our series of indeterminate length , "On Fire". While you don't need to listen to them in order, you may want to at least c...
Oct 26, 2023•51 min•Season 5Ep. 5
What happens after the smoke clears? What does recovery look like when the disasters never end? In this episode, we're visiting the sites of some of BC's biggest burns of 2017 and 2021 – making the link between the mega-fires and the floods and landslides that followed. We'll hear about how the land is (and isn't) recovering, and the factors that spell the difference. This is the 4th instalment in our series of indeterminate length, "On Fire", but don't feel obliged to listen to parts 1-3 before...
Sep 29, 2023•1 hr•Season 5Ep. 4
Inherited is a climate storytelling podcast by, for, and about young people. We're bringing you Season 3, Episode 1: "Mama's House", a personal story of family loss, structural resilience, and survival in an era of climate change. Find all of Season 3, including behind-the-scenes interviews with each of the 8 storytellers, wherever you get your podcasts, or at yr.media/inherited/ ––– September 15-17 will hold climate marches and demonstrations around the world (many starting RIGHT NOW). Join the...
Sep 15, 2023•33 min
In this bonus conversation, Adam catches up with Fern Yip (guest producer on FE2.3) about her recent close call with wildfire, with lots of practical advice for those living on forested lands. For photos and a transcript of this conversation, see futureecologies.net/listen/earthkins-trial-by-fire Learn more about Fern at earthkin.ca — — — Find Earthkin's September workshops in Vancouver: earthkin.ca/rewilddays and a 10-weekend course September 2023 through June 2024 at Anderson Lake: earthkin.ca...
Aug 31, 2023•21 min
How do our dreams shape our reality? Tonight, with the help of scientists, artists, philosophers, and historians, we're sprinkling a little stardust on our understanding of the more-than-human — from fish, to demons and gods. This episode features the words and voices of Lucia Pietroiusti , Filipa Ramos, Alex Jordan , Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe , Rain Wu , Nahum Mantra , Onome Ekeh , Federico Campagna , Yussef Agbo-Ola , and Hatis Noit , recorded at The Shape of a Circle in the Dream of a Fish — a re...
Aug 23, 2023•38 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Get to know our friends and collaborators, Miriam Quick and Duncan Geere — the hosts of Loud Numbers , a data sonification podcast. How do data visualization and sonification differ? What are the possibilities and pitfalls? And how can you incorporate the practice into your life? — — — Hear the entire conversation wherever you get podcasts — join our community at patreon.com/futureecologies — — — Haven't heard our own data sonification yet? That's in Spiders Song (Part 2 )...
Jul 20, 2023•9 min
Spiders Song is a story about a quest to hear the greatest symphony on Earth: the music of evolution. Along the way, we get to know some of nature’s most surprising musicians — the paradise jumping spiders. Part 1 is the Spiders Part 2 is the Song Headphones advised. — — — For credits and much more, visit futureecologies.net/listen/fe-5-1-spiders-song Missed Part 1? You can find it wherever you get your podcasts, or at futureecologies.net — — — But there's more to this story than just a couple p...
Jul 07, 2023•51 min•Season 5Ep. 2
Spiders Song is a story about a quest to hear the greatest symphony on Earth: the music of evolution. Along the way, we get to know some of nature’s most surprising musicians — the paradise jumping spiders. Part 1 is the Spiders Part 2 is the Song Headphones advised. — — — For credits and much more, visit futureecologies.net/listen/fe-5-1-spiders-song You can listen to Part 2 right now — find it wherever you get your podcasts, or at futureecologies.net — — — Funding for this series was provided ...
Jul 07, 2023•47 min•Season 5Ep. 1
From Love and Radio : Adam Zaretsky is a bioartist who explores the manipulation of DNA, the fringes of genetic modification, and butts up against the ethical boundaries of science and beyond. — — — Future Ecologies season 5 arrives July 7. Listen early at patreon.com/futureecologies
Jun 15, 2023•1 hr 15 min
When the Earth Started to Sing Produced by Emergence Magazine, this sonic journey written and narrated by David G. Haskell brings us to the beginning of sound and song on planet Earth. The experience is made entirely of tiny trembling waves in air, the fugitive, ephemeral energy that we call sound. Spoken words combined with terrestrial sounds invite our senses and imaginations to go outward into an experience of the living Earth and its history. How did the vast and varied chorus of modern soun...
May 19, 2023•40 min
We're trying out a new format of bonus content over on our Patreon feed: casual, conversational interviews that go behind the scenes of some of the content on the main feed. In this first edition, our guest is Jonathan Kawchuk : composer, sound artist, and volunteer paleontologist. Jonathan's work is in both FE4.10 Geopoetics and the Emergence Magazine piece we recently featured When the Earth Started to Sing — music in the former, and paleo-soundscapes in the latter. We discuss Jonathan's techn...
May 19, 2023•5 min
At the heart of the Salish Sea lies the Fraser River Estuary: home to over half of the population of the Province of British Columbia, thousands of endemic species, and one world-famous pod of orcas. But as the human population of the region has grown, wildlife populations — including salmonids, orcas, and over 100 species at risk — have been plummeting. As economic imperatives press up against ecological thresholds, a mega-project that has been in development for over a decade is poised to furt...
May 11, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Dams remain one of the ultimate demonstrations of human power over nature. Wild rivers can be tamed to deliver energy for industry, lakes for recreation, and water for agriculture. But severing the link between land and sea has come with grave ecological costs. The impact of dams on salmon populations has been especially obvious and painful. This is part one of a two-part series on dam removals. In this episode, we go to the Klamath river to examine the fierce conflict (and unlikely partnerships...
May 11, 2023•49 min
We're sharing an episode from our friends over at Drilled. Four years ago, the Drilled podcast asked a question that changed how people thought about climate stories: What if we stopped acting like the climate crisis was inevitable and instead treated it like it truly is...the crime of the century? Now, the original true crime podcast about climate change is back with a new season all about the opportunistic oil industry. The season is packed with high stakes court cases, intrepid journalists, a...
Apr 04, 2023•41 min
We work hard to make sure our music doesn’t just complement our voices, but actually tells a story all of its own. Now that our 4th Season is complete, as per usual, we’ve compiled all the original music that went into it, and we’re releasing it as an album. This year, that album takes the form of two companion volumes. Volume 1: Electrical Storms by Sunfish Moon Light Volume 2: Sympoiesis by thumbug Of course we're not responsible for all the music you hear on our show. We've borrowed tunes fro...
Mar 19, 2023•3 min
“ We need geopoetics because geopolitics necessitate other ways of being… Proposing alternate narratives to the hegemonic ones we are caught in is the work and play of geopoetics. ” – Erin Robinsong, Geopoetics in the Mess/Mesh Enclosed is the last episode of our 4th season: a sympoietic stream of consciousness; on language, art making, and more-than-human interconnection. Find a transcript, full credits, and citations here – – – We want to hear from you! Please take our brief listener survey Su...
Feb 25, 2023•52 min•Season 4Ep. 10
From a distance, mountain landscapes may appear timeless and immutable. Take a closer look, however, and montane ecologies reveal themselves to be laboratories of radical transformation: rocks weather and fall; ecosystems burst into life for brief intervals; tree-lines shift; and wildfires rage. Even the very peaks themselves inch inexorably upwards or downwards with the flow of time. Amidst all the constant, unyielding change that animates the Earth's high places, people have long sought a vant...
Dec 17, 2022•56 min•Season 4Ep. 9
In this episode, Anja and Matthias go on an underground safari through the hidden jungle of the soil. We hear from Diana Wall about a tiny worm that is so tough it survives in Antarctica. Richard Bardgett introduces us to collembola, also known as springtails. Stefan Scheu and Maddy Thakur reveal which animals are considered the “wolves of the soil”, and Kate Scow delves into bacterial communities. How do all these organisms work together as a system? Find more episodes of Life in the Soil where...
Nov 16, 2022•34 min
Our latest episode — on soil carbon and regenerative agriculture — could never have fit everything that needs to be said on the topic. So, we're leaning on a couple of other podcasts that we think you'll love. First up, we're running an episode from Hot Farm, from our friends at the Food and Environment Reporting Network. It's all about what farmers are doing (or could be doing) to take on the climate emergency. In this episode you'll hear about a novel grain that farmers are starting to grow, a...
Nov 09, 2022•30 min
Can we sequester our carbon and eat it too? For the first time in 4 seasons, we're discussing natural climate solutions, and in particular, regenerative agriculture. Joining us is agrologist and fellow podcaster, Scott Gillespie (of Plants Dig Soil ) to get into the nitty gritty of farming for soil carbon — its promise, possibility and feasibility. ——— Support Future Ecologies (pay what you can >$1/month) @ futureecologies.net/patrons 🌱 — Get access to our delightful discord server, early ep...
Oct 29, 2022•51 min•Season 4Ep. 8
We Walk the Earth is a podcast that explores creativity, curiosity, and cultural evolution through personal conversations, and the occasional sonic journey. In this episode, Mendel and Sergio discuss podcasting, art, music, hope, and lots more besides. We hope you enjoy this peek behind the curtain into the making of Future Ecologies, and Mendel's unfiltered inner monologue. — — — Subscribe to We Walk The Earth wherever you find podcasts, or get in touch at wewalktheearth.org Catch the upcoming ...
Oct 28, 2022•1 hr 38 min
A story of memory, ghosting, and fire: how we can change the place we call home, and how it too can change around us. Another version of this story, along with many other works of art, can be found in the pages of Fire Season II – – – 💖 Support Future Ecologies: join our community on Patreon at futureecologies.net/patrons You'll get exclusive bonus content, access to one of the best discord servers out there, stickers, patches, early episode releases, and more! Find credits, citations, transcri...
Sep 10, 2022•58 min•Season 4Ep. 7
What does it mean to live on an island? Is it to be independent from, or inexorably dependent on the rest of the world? And when the ecosystem's physical limitations are so clearly circumscribed, do people behave more "environmentally"? In this episode, we visit Adam's home island of Galiano, and find out just how big its ecological footprint really is. – – – Explore the full One Island, One Earth report (and interactive map) 💖 Support Future Ecologies: join our community on Patreon at futureec...
Aug 13, 2022•54 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Listening to The Disintegration Loops during wildfire season — a review of William Basinski’s seminal album as a meditation on looping thoughts, physical disintegration, and fire. – – – Subscribe to The Wind wherever you get your podcasts, and visit thewind.org You can find a transcript of this episode at https://the-wind.simplecast.com/episodes/the-disintegration-loops/transcript...
Jul 12, 2022•34 min
The North American Model is just one story of how wildlife conservation can be practiced. In part 2 of this mini-series we tell another: of restorative human–predator relationships and local self-determination. We're bringing you a success story from the Great Bear Rainforest, and another articulation of how we can relate to wildlife — complete with its own set of guiding principles, naturally. For musical credits, citations, and more, click here. Click here for Part 1 – — – — – — Just over 200 ...
Jun 13, 2022•55 min•Season 4Ep. 5
North America abounds in wildlife — but why? At the turn of the last century, many observers believed that species that we take for granted today would disappear forever. In this episode, we share a story about the way that wildlife conservation came to be practiced, the lives that it privileged, and the lives that it left out. But despite any controversy, one aspect of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation (or "the NAM" for our purposes) is indisputable: its principles explain the l...
May 20, 2022•59 min•Season 4Ep. 4
What can a brand new patch of nature tell us about Europe's ancient history? In this episode, we touch down in the Netherlands, where an unconventional experiment (the Oostvaardersplassen) has shaken up both the field of ecology and Dutch society. What started as a bird watcher’s obsession with thousands of trekking geese, led to a criticism of one of the central tenets in ecology: ecosystem succession. Enter a counter-theory that would return the rarest of birds, butterflies, and a once-extinct...
Apr 01, 2022•59 min•Season 4Ep. 3
