In this very special donkumentary, we’re headed to the Mojave Desert — to Death Valley, in particular — where we find one animal at the centre of a heated debate in land management: the hardy wild burro (AKA donkey, ass, or Equus asinus). These feral burros, beloved by some and reviled by others, are an introduced species in the desert southwest, but are uniquely entangled in its human history. Since before the establishment of Death Valley as a national monument, they have been widely regarded ...
Feb 10, 2025•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast We’re unlocking one of the conversations from our bonus feed. In this interview, building on episode FE6.2 , Mendel speaks with Skye Augustine, a leading voice uplifting the science, history, and culture of Sea Gardens. In a time where so much of the future feels uncertain, the resiliency of Sea Gardens over millennia is (at least to us) a source of deep comfort and inspiration. What’s more, if you’re as inspired as we are, and you want to learn how your community could build a clam garden, we’v...
Feb 04, 2025•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast We're borrowing an episode from one of our all-time favourite shows: Threshold , a Peabody Award-winning documentary podcast about our place in the natural world. Now in their 5th Season, "Hark", Threshold producer Amy Martin is exploring sound itself: investigating what it means to listen to the nonhuman voices on our planet — and the cost if we don’t. With mounting social and ecological crises, what happens when we tune into the life all around us? Other episodes from Hark cover the sounds of ...
Jan 08, 2025•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Food security, climate adaptation, and vibrant biodiversity all in one place — welcome to the ancient and diverse technologies of Sea Gardening. These widespread (but often overlooked) monumental rock features are proof positive of thriving Indigenous maricultural systems all around the Pacific Rim, since time immemorial. These spaces are not only simply stunningly beautiful spots to hang out, they're also a powerful symbol of ecocultural restoration; of Indigenous sovereignty, self-determinatio...
Dec 10, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Season 6 kicks off in the deep dark woods: the simplified, post-industrial forests of the world — the only forests that many of us have ever known. Join us as we meet foresters in British Columbia, Vermont, and Scotland, all working to embrace the messy art of ecological forestry. Because if we want our forests to be old growth-ier, we might not be able to just wait and leave them alone. It might mean challenging some assumptions and getting out of our comfort zone, but that's what it'll t...
Oct 30, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Hey y’all. Did you miss us? We’re back! Well, almost. Check your podcast feed tomorrow for the first episode of Season 6. [EDIT FROM THE FUTURE] it's here: futureecologies.net/listen/fe-6-1-forest-tree (or in your favourite app) Or, if you’re one of our dear supporters on Patreon or Apple podcasts (or if you’d like to become one at futureecologies.net/join ), you can find episode 6.1 already waiting for you on the bonus feed....
Oct 29, 2024•1 min•Transcript available on Metacast As is tradition, we're releasing all the original music we composed for the latest season of Future Ecologies as a set of soundtracks. For the first time ever, they are also available on all major music streaming services. Enjoy! Auditory Compost by Sunfish Moon Light Bandcamp , Spotify , Apple Music Convergence by Thumbug Bandcamp , Spotify ( Side A | Side B ), Apple Music ( Side A | Side B ) – – – Find all of our seasonal soundtracks at futureecologies.net/albums And get free downloa...
Aug 23, 2024•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast We're excited to share another beautiful guest episode with you today. In this piece, originally broadcast in 2 parts on The Wind (one of our favourite podcasts), producer Eleanor Qull is taking us on a pilgrimage in honour of, and in tribute to that most collective monarch — the monarch butterfly. Through those lepidopteran migrants, it’s a story of scale, agency, and spiritual offering in a changing world. Eleanor cooked up a special ~1 hour version just for us. It's spacious, equal parts sill...
Aug 19, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Future Ecologies presents "The Right to Feel," a two episode mini-series on the emotional realities of the climate crisis. The second and final episode, “ Eulogies ,” is based on fictional writing from the class. Students imagine and eulogize something that could be harmed by the climate emergency, and then imagine a speculative future in which action was taken to mitigate that harm. Over a two-year period, associate professor of climate justice and co-director of the UBC Centre for Climate Just...
Jul 17, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Future Ecologies presents "The Right to Feel," a two episode mini-series on the emotional realities of the climate crisis. This first episode, “ Climate Feelings ,” is a collection of students’ non-fiction essays and reflections on their personal realities of living with and researching the climate crisis. The first episode opens with an introductory conversation between Naomi Klein and series producer Judee Burr that contextualizes how this class was structured and the writings it evoked. Over ...
Jul 17, 2024•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Vision without eyes? Intelligence without a brain? Are plants more akin to us than we have been prepared to acknowledge? Or are they different in ways we will forever strain to imagine? One way or another, a vine with some unusual abilities is shaking the field of botany to its foundations. On this episode: Zoë Schlanger (author of the newly-released, New York Times bestselling book The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth ) takes u...
Jun 06, 2024•47 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast In this conclusion to our trilogy, we're looking at a proposal to move beyond the concept of "rangelands" through the rewilding of the American west — meaning, the return of forgotten landscapes, species, and ecologies not commonly seen in generations (not to mention improved water and carbon storage). But at least one thing isn't compatible with this vision: grazing cattle on public lands. Catch up with Part 1 and Part 2 And find citations, a transcript, and credits on our website — — ...
Apr 29, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast Our series on cows and rangelands continues in the weeds and in the thorns, looking at a specific piece of public land where livestock are being employed to give some endangered species a new lease on life. In this 3-part series, we're hearing from impassioned scientists and land managers with diametrically opposed opinions on the concept of "rangelands" — by some estimates, accounting for 50-70% of the earth's surface. Missed Part 1? Catch up here — — — Find credits, citations, a tran...
Mar 18, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast The introduction of cattle to western North America has undeniably contributed to massive ecosystem change. But could cows be as much a part of the solutions as they are the problem? In this 3-part series, we're hearing from all sides of this issue: impassioned scientists and land managers with diametrically opposed opinions on the concept of "rangelands" — by some estimates, accounting for 50-70% of the earth's surface. Part 1 kicks things off with a look at the special case of California, and ...
Feb 09, 2024•53 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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, e...
Nov 27, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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: earthk...
Aug 31, 2023•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Jul 07, 2023•51 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Jul 07, 2023•47 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
May 19, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 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•Transcript available on Metacast 
