Shows
2025-01-2315 minCurious PlanetSparkles of JoyWe remember how fireflies have sparked joy, enchantment, and wonder in our lives, and contemplate a world where their light is forever extinguished. Mentioned in today’s episode:Sara Lewis, Silent Sparks: The Wondrous World of Fireflies, Princeton University Press, 2016.
2025-01-0913 minCurious PlanetA Dog, a Woman, an Owl, and a StarWe consider our beginnings, and take up a second gratitude challenge, this time with the help of a backyard Barred Owl.
2024-12-1909 minCurious PlanetMusic Can Change the WorldWhether you learned the alphabet to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, or memorized the contents of the periodic table with the help of Tom Lehrer and The Elements, you’ll recognize the connection between music and memory. We tune into the power of music, and hear how it is helping young Iowans learn key concepts of water science. Mentioned in today’s episode:Water Rocks!: The Musical. Iowa State University, 2022. https://www.waterrocks.org/musicalDaniel Levitin, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine, W. W. Norton & Company, 2024.David McCall, Scho...
2024-12-0514 minCurious PlanetRemember Who We Were Before We Spoke EnglishMeskwaki elders inspire us to recall the stories of our past that connect us to the land we live on and the land of our ancestors.Mentioned in today’s episode:Seed-saving. Here’s another Italian family whose seeds saved for five generations became an important part of an international seed vault: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2017/03/03/meet-south-side-family-who-saved-its-beloved-pepper-seed-5-generations/98599460/
2024-11-2120 minCurious PlanetHonest BeesWe learn the buzz on wise group decision-making by observing the habits of those whose lives depend on it—honeybees.Mentioned in today’s episode:Thomas Seeley, Honeybee Democracy, Princeton University Press, 2010.Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton: An American Musical, 2015.Water Rocks! Teacher Summit, https://www.waterrocks.org/summit
2024-11-0727 minCurious PlanetWhat Our Bodies Know, Our Minds Don’t Always RememberThe stories we tell preserve our collective human memory—but we’re also part of a profound connection steadfastly held by the natural world. Host Jacqueline Comito ponders this wondrous web, as well as her relationship with some of its tinier residents, as we open Season 2 of the podcast.Mentioned in today’s episode:Alice Walker, The Color Purple, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982.Elie Wiesel, “Hope, despair and memory,” 1986 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, December 11, 1986. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1986/wiesel/lecture/Maurice Halbwachs, On Collective Memory (L. A. Coser, Ed.), University of Chicago Press, 1992.Richard Powers, The Overst...
2024-10-2409 minCurious PlanetMusic Extra: BlessingJoyful Hearts, Postcards of HomeFeatured in Season 01 | Episode 02
2024-03-1902 minCurious PlanetMusic Extra: Wade in the WaterSmiling Stone Soup, GreenFeatured in Season 01 | Episode 07
2024-03-1904 minCurious PlanetMusic Extra: Thank You for Your SongSmiling Stone Soup, GreenFeatured in Season 01 | Episode 03
2024-03-1904 minCurious PlanetMusic Extra: Io Sono Chi SonoJoyful Hearts, Seasons of PrayerFeatured in Season 01 | Episode 03
2024-03-1903 min2024-03-1904 minCurious PlanetMusic Extra: Barn QuiltsJoyful Hearts, Back to Our RootsFeatured in Season 01 | Episode 02
2024-03-1902 minCurious PlanetMusic Extra: Straight and LeveedJoyful Hearts, Back to Our RootsFeatured in Season 01 | Episode 01
2024-03-1903 minCurious PlanetMusic Extra: Native WindsJoyful Hearts, Postcards of HomeFeatured in Season 01 | Episode 01
2024-03-1902 minCurious PlanetCuriosity, Not ConvictionHost Jacqueline Comito opens our conversation about engaging wonderment to heal and protect the environment— with a little help from some apes.Mentioned in today’s episode:Jane Goodall, October 1960, from Jane (documentary film), National Geographic, 2017. https://films.nationalgeographic.com/jane-the-moviePierre Boulle, La Planète des Singes, published in the United States as Planet of the Apes, 1963.Planet of the Apes (film), Twentieth Century Fox, 1968.“Go Ape!” television spot, 1974. http://space1970.blogspot.com/2012/07/planet-of-apes-go-ape-marathon.htmlGus Speth, It’s Already Tomorrow: Poems by Gus Speth, Shires Press, 2020.Ronald Rolheiser, The Holy Longing, 1999.
2024-03-1909 minCurious PlanetHope is Remembering the Future How can we have hope in a world that sometimes feels like a hot mess? Watching the seasons change in the backyard with a new puppy, we consider the real question: “How can we not?”Mentioned in today’s episode: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Social Good Summit 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiZduBO2bQM Jane Goodall, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, Thorndike Press, 2021. George Steiner, “Remembering the Future,” Remembrance Sunday 1989 address, King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. First published in Cambridge Review. Reprinted in Theology, November 1990, Volume 93, Issue 756, pp. 437-444.Iowa Learning Farms, h...
2024-03-1912 minCurious PlanetThank You for Your SongWe begin on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, then travel to places of lived experience and spaces of sensed experience.Mentioned in today’s episode: Joyful Hearts, Seasons of PrayerJ. E. Malpas, Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography, Cambridge University Press, 1999, page 176.Ilia Delio, Compassion: Living in the Spirit of St. Francis, St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2011.Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods, Algonquin Books, 2008.Wallace “J.” Nichols, Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected and Better at What You Do, Little...
2024-03-1910 minCurious PlanetImagine ThatThe Virgin Mary Tree of Polk City, Iowa, inspires us to imagine and improvise as we engage with the world around us. Mentioned in today’s episode:The Virgin Mary Tree of Polk City on the Roadside America website, https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/45877Lawrence Buell, The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture, Belknap Press, 1995.Stephen T. Asma, The Evolution of Imagination, University of Chicago Press, 2017.Luca Tateo, A Theory of Imagining, Knowing, and Understanding, Springer, 2020.Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Macmillan and Co...
2024-03-1915 minCurious PlanetCurious CoyoteWe find wild curiosity on a series of walks with dog Charlie through a local urban trail.Mentioned in today’s episode:Meister Eckhart, The Essential Sermons, Paulist Press, 1981.
2024-03-1917 minCurious PlanetGifts of GratitudeWe flunk a gratitude challenge, and decide to try again in collaboration with a backyard barred owl. Mentioned in today’s episode:Robert A. Emmons, Gratitude Works! A 21-Day Program for Creating Emotional Prosperity, Jossey-Bass, 2013.Angeles Arrien, Living in Gratitude: A Journey That Will Change Your Life, Sounds True, 2011.Louise Hay, Gratitude: A Way of Life, Hay House Inc., 1996.Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough, “Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2003, Vol. 84, No. 2, pp. 377-389.Monica Bartlett and David DeSteno, “Gratitude...
2024-03-1911 minCurious PlanetWade in the WaterWe seek conversation and find connection on a rainy slope of Ireland’s Croagh Patrick. Mentioned in today’s episode:Wallace “J.” Nichols, Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected and Better at What You Do, Little, Brown, 2014.
2024-03-1914 minCurious PlanetCurious Planet TrailerCurious Planet is a podcast exploring wonderment to heal and protect the earth. Subscribe to Curious Planet on your favorite streaming platform. Season One drops on March 19, 2024!
2024-03-1100 min
Rhymes With DecorahRWD21 Ross Evelsizer - NE IA RCDRWD #21 Ross Evelsizer – NE Iowa RCD
Ross Evelsizer is the Natural Resource Projects Director for NE Iowa RC&D (Resource Conservation & Development) - a Decorah native, avid outdoorsman, husband, Dad, and even a part time chef! But the heart of Ross’s work is in the form of projects that focus on the health of our region’s watersheds, through many channels obvious, and less obvious.
Ross’s work has most recently been recognized through a 2022 “New Voices in Water Quality Award” from ISU Extension and Outreach’s Conservation Learning Group. The award celebrates the...
2022-10-0431 min