Shows
Staying ConnectedBridget Porter (Metz) sharing Connor’s story with Loeys-Dietz syndromeBridget Porter (Metz) joins the show to share her son, Connor’s, story with Loeys-Dietz syndrome, which he was diagnosed with after he died of an aortic dissection at the age of 13. Connor was seen by a geneticist a few years before he died, but was told there was no need for a genetic test. Bridget and her family have been involved in efforts to raise awareness and funds for research since his death in 2020.
Find more information, including support groups and webinars, about VEDS, Marfan, and Loeys-Dietz, at thevedsmovement.org, loeysdietz.org, and marfan.org. You can...
2024-11-151h 06
Staying ConnectedBridget Porter (Metz) sharing Connor’s story with Loeys-Dietz syndromeBridget Porter (Metz) joins the show to share her son, Connor’s, story with Loeys-Dietz syndrome, which he was diagnosed with after he died of an aortic dissection at the age of 13. Connor was seen by a geneticist a few years before he died, but was told there was no need for a genetic test. Bridget and her family have been involved in efforts to raise awareness and funds for research since his death in 2020.
Find more information, including support groups and webinars, about VEDS, Marfan, and Loeys-Dietz, at thevedsmovement.org, loeysdietz.org, and marfan.org.
I...
2024-11-151h 06Staying ConnectedBridget Porter (Metz) sharing Connor’s story with Loeys-Dietz syndrome
Bridget Porter (Metz) joins the show to share her son, Connor’s, story with Loeys-Dietz syndrome, which he was diagnosed with after he died of an aortic dissection at the age of 13. Connor was seen by a geneticist a few years before he died, but was told there was no need for a genetic test. Bridget and her family have been involved in efforts to raise awareness and funds for research since his death in 2020.
Find more information, including support groups and webinars, about VEDS, Marfan, and Loeys-Dietz, at thevedsmovement.org, loeysdietz.org, and marfan.org. You can...
2024-11-151h 06Staying Connected – Staying ConnectedBridget Porter (Metz) sharing Connor’s story with Loeys-Dietz syndrome
Bridget Porter (Metz) joins the show to share her son, Connor’s, story with Loeys-Dietz syndrome, which he was diagnosed with after he died of an aortic dissection at the age of 13. Connor was seen by a geneticist a few years before he died, but was told there was no need for a genetic test. Bridget and her family have been involved in efforts to raise awareness and funds for research since his death in 2020.
Find more information, including support groups and webinars, about VEDS, Marfan, and Loeys-Dietz, at thevedsmovement.org, loeysdietz.org, and marfan.org. You can...
2024-11-151h 06
SustenanceEpisode 12: Plant tendingA super short and sweet and to be honest very impromptu musing on the reciprocal relationship between plants and those that choose to tend them.
Thanks to Rosanna Morris and the Land Workers Alliance for their incredible activism and generous permission to share their images for this show.
2020-09-1305 min
SustenanceEpisode 11: ForagingThis episode is an introduction into foraging and herbal medicine.
An introduction from someone who is still humbly learning what she can from her grandparents, from elders, authors, teachers, peers and from the plants themselves.
There is so much life at our feet. So many wild, edible things to nibble on in the woods. And so much to be curious about. Medicine. Stories. Medicine stories.
2020-09-0420 min
SustenancePractice 10: Forest BathingShinrin Yoku is the Japanese art of forest bathing. Shinrin in Japanese means “forest,” and yoku means “bath.” So shinrin-yoku means bathing in the forest atmosphere, or taking in the forest through our senses.
The scientific benefits of this practice and related so-called nature connection practices are well-researched and described in many good books and papers on the subject in the resources section on the website. The episode itself invites you to find out for yourself how transformative a more immersive approach can be, one which embraces embodied experiences, either in groups or alone, in woods and forests near you...
2020-08-2847 min
SustenancePractice 09: Grounding PracticesThree simple grounding practices to self-soothe, reduce symptoms of panic and stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system. These tools may be helpful for yourself or to share with others by showing someone you care for how to calm themselves down and return to their bodies at a distance. You can skip forward 5 minutes for breathing practices. Skip to 8 minutes for switching and finally skip 10 minutes in for a short, accessible activity called 5,4,3,2,1!
2020-08-2318 min
SustenancePractice 08: Capacitar Tai ChiCapacitar is a collection of movement, breathing and acupressure practices that aim to reconnect people with their own wisdom and capacity. It is designed to help people heal from trauma and to find the courage to challenge oppressive systems and come together in a spirit of empowerment.
Capacitar Tai Chi simplifies some of the most basic movements from traditional Tai Chi and shares them through popular education to make them accessible and memorable.
I want to acknowledge all the traditions and teachers that have contributed to the development of Capacitar. May these practices continue to...
2020-08-1657 min
SustenancePractice 07: Water RitualWater is sacred. Water is life. Water sustains us. What if we gave our lives to the life-giving source that sustains us? What if we gave our blood, sweat and tears to protect our rivers, lakes and oceans?
Many people have a relationship with water that somehow sustains, soothes, renews and rejuvenates. For many people, their love of ocean, river, lake and even rain can also be a powerful reason to act to protect that source of life.
Look for traditions from your culture and land to honour water or co-create new rituals with friends...
2020-08-1005 min
SustenancePractice 06: Altar SpaceThis is a short practice to help you create a sacred space that is somehow meaningful to you. An altar that does not appropriate other cultures but acknowledges the lineages from which practices, plants and objects come. A place to support your journey of rest, recovery, solidarity and resistance.
2020-07-2711 min
SustenancePractice 05: Dream TendingWe have been dreamed into being by our mothers and fathers and in many ways we live lives beyond the wildest dreams of our not-so-distant ancestors.
For people who have had to fight to survive in our racist, transphobic, sexist society, dreaming is an act of rebellion. Dreaming can be a radical way of envisioning and then stepping into the future we wish to see, today and for generations to come.
And so, whatever it is that calls you to come into relationship with the dream realm, individual and collective, this practice episode is an...
2020-07-1914 min
SustenancePractice 04: Radical Body LoveIn societal contexts that can dissociate us from our bodies, and try to sell us what it means to be beautiful, it is radical to show ourselves, our bodies and our friends, lovers and communities attention, care and love. And when the media narrows the definition of beauty to exclude so many bodies – in racist, ageist, sexist ways – practicing and sharing radical body-love is an act of resistance.
This practice can be done after a shower or bath or just before bed. If you are in the grips of self-loathing or hatred about your body, doing one thing...
2020-07-1331 min
SustenancePractice 03: Love LettersIf you like writing letters, like I do, then you will love this practice of writing love letters to yourself every full moon.
If I had to choose to share only one practice from all the practices that have helped me recover from despair and depression, writing letters to my future self would be it.
https://www.sustenanceradio.com/love-letters/
2020-07-0516 min
SustenancePractice 02: Collective-Care ToolkitHow do we stay sane in a society that is sick? How do we work in a world that doesn't work?
This practice will accompany you while you create your own box of 'tools' to stay well. You will finish with a 'toolkit' or 'toolbox' of some sort, but it will look and be completely unique to you.
2020-06-2827 min
SustenancePractice 01: Spirals of SustenanceWhat brings you life? What encourages you? What are the things deaden you?
In this first episode, Sustenance Radio host Bridget Holtom shares a 30 minute practice which helps you to see what sustains or drains your energy. This practice helps to identify activities, things, people, places, practices that can help us find balance between giving on the one hand and receiving or letting in on the other.
Some of us will be working harder than others to re-fill our stores of energy due to structural inequalities and differences in society. While we can never fully...
2020-06-2130 min
SustenanceEpisode 07 : Eco-Poetry with Priya HuffmanIn this interview, Priya Huffman and Sustenance Radio host, Bridget Holtom, explore the work of the eco-poets and their place in walking the line between hope and despair. Eco-poetry is the name given to a genre of poetry that speaks to /and of / our relationship to the natural world. In a period when she was feeling the weight of what difficulties children may face in the years to come, Priya asked her son if he was scared for the future. He replied: “the only ones who are scared are the ones not working to make it better, we don’t ha...
2020-01-2038 min
SustenanceEpisode 06 : Poetry as Power with Janet Marie Rogers"Reclaim the culture that is rightfully yours. Use the language you have inherited. Our mission is to empower people to take action. "
Join Sustenance Radio host Bridget Holtom in a conversation with Janet Marie Rogers about what it means to find your voice and speak truth to power. How can poetry be a source of energy as well an outlet for self-expression? Janet argues that creativity changes the conversation and that artistic expression may be the only truly sustaining avenue for people to challenge historic colonisation and ongoing oppression for Indigenous peoples in so-called British Colombia.
2020-01-1927 min
SustenanceEpisode 05: Swimming As Sustenance with Carrie SaxifrageIn her book, The Big Swim, Carrie Saxifrage shares 12 ideas and actions that sustain her, while she works to sustain the world we live in. She circles around big questions of how species might survive the sixth extinction, or avert catastrophic climate change. She shares how swimming is something that sustains her, while she attempts to stay with the suffering of the current situation, in order to face the harsh reality, to feel the urgency with sinking into despair, in order to act, again and again. In our interview on Cortes Island, BC, Canada, she reflects on the privilege...
2020-01-141h 16
SustenanceEpisode 04 : Swimming as Resistance with Rama Delarosa"How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean" Arthur C. Clarke
The oceans sustains us in so many invisible ways, how do we save and sustain the sea in return? The loss of keystone species such as salmon will impact our coast and more-than-human communities in ways in which we can not imagine yet. Salmon sustain bear, wolf, whale and seal as well as feeding the forest floor as they are dropped from the sky by eagle and become the nitrogen rich soil that make the temperate rainforest trees grow so tall.
2019-09-0229 min
SustenanceEpisode 03 : Part 4 : Koksilah Music Festival with Emily Doyle-YamaguchiEmily Doyle-Yamaguchi and Sustenance Host Bridget Holtom talk about what it means to them to take part in a movement for change, to stand together in solidarity. They navigate with honesty some messy but necessary questions about privilege, accountability and equity in community. We are all entangled in the struggle for reconciliation and repatriation, we are all part of the shared history of colonisation and oppression.
As the festival organisers partner once again with Quw’utsun elders and traditional leaders to host Koksilah 2019, this compilation shares some of the highlights from Koksilah 2017. 2017 marked Canada’s 150th but also mo...
2019-09-0120 min
SustenanceEpisode 03 : Part 3 : Koksilah Music Festival with Meeka Noelle MorganWhen are we surviving and when are we thriving? What positions of privilege in society enable some people to take a break while others shoulder the burden of struggle and survival?
The horrific history of residential schooling, genocide and cultural repression of First Nations People in so-called Canada has impacts that reverberate and continue to re-traumatise people today. What might reconciliation look like? How can people support cultural resurgence?
Thank you to Meeka Noelle Morgan for her courageous conversation about how trauma and oppression can become a source of unending energy and how witnessing and...
2019-09-0149 min
SustenanceEpisode 03 : Part 2 : Koksilah Music Festival with Mob BounceWe have so many heartbeats, but we only have so many. How do you spend yours? How can you wake up to the possibility of what you can do to make your life speak. Listen to the rhythm of your life and use your feet to dance to the drum beat.
Join Sustenance Radio host Bridget Holtom for a conversation with Travis and Craig from Mob Bounce about solidarity, music as medicine and the power of transformation and social change.
Mob Bounce is a Hip Hop duo from Northwest Turtle Island, Canada. Their musicianship is...
2019-08-3050 min
SustenanceEpisode 03 : Part 1 : Koksilah Music Festival with La kwala ogwa Emma Joye Frank“This is all we’ve got, its a beautiful planet we live on…from the waters of Cowichan Bay and all the way to the rivers of the Koksilah and Cowichan Rivers, that is truly a powerful, powerful medicine within itself”.
The opening words of this special episode are those spoken in the opening ceremony by Tousilum, a Quw’utsun elder who greeted those gathered for the very first Koksilah Festival. Koksilah festival is reconciliation in action. The festival is organised in recognition and celebration of the sovereignty of Indigenous Nations in the unceded territories of British Colombia, C...
2019-08-3028 min
SustenanceEpisode 02 : Lean on Me with Lea-Dee Jenelle HuppeLearning to look after ourselves means learning to lean on others while being someone to lean on. All their life, LD has been a loving caregiver. When a doctor asked: “when are you going to start taking care of you?” it was the wake up call they needed to take a break and embark on a journey of self-love and self-discovery.
Lea-Dee Jenelle Huppe, aka LD, works in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. In an area often stigmatised for its high rates of homelessness and visible drug-use, LD’s small organisation, Vancouver Street Soccer, celebrates our common humanity in a sic...
2019-08-2927 min
SustenanceEpisode 01 : Wider Circles with Rising AppalachiaWhat sustains your activism and fuels your fire for hope and change in the world today? What is burnout? How do we look after ourselves and each other in an unequal society?
Singer-songwriter sisters Chloe and Leah from the band, Rising Appalachia, answer challenging questions about their journeys with spirituality and social justice. Now is the time to ask impossible questions and live the questions together, today.
2019-08-2836 min