Shows
The Big Chew PodcastA Progressive Views The Environmental Costs of U.S. Immigration: Ethicist Dr. Philip CafaroMartin Luther King, Jr. called it "the modern plague" and challenged us to heal it, especially since we knew how.
That "plague" is overpopulation—but in Dr. King's time, U.S. population was driven by a high birth rate.
Today, the major driver of U.S. population growth is mass immigration—up to 1.5 million people come to live in the U.S. every year, and have for years, through legal and illegal means.
What does that have to do with the environment? Well, the last thing this planet needs is more overconsuming Americans, says environmental ethicist, author, progressive activist, and phil...2017-11-2100 minThe Big Chew PodcastWhere Do Babies Come From? Laura Carroll on Reproduction MythsBabies come from stories. From beliefs. Some of those stories are beautiful: I want to love and care for someone; I have a lot to share with a growing human.
But a whole lot of baby-making beliefs aren't true for everyone, and many aren't true, period. Here are a few of the harmful and expired: I won't feel fulfilled without a child; It's nobody's business if I want to make a lot of kids; I'm not a real woman/man if I don't become a mother/father; People who don't have kids are selfish.
With a population at 7.6 billion, and...2017-11-1100 minThe Big Chew PodcastPopulation: An Epic Problem and A Solution Waiting to HappenThere are too many humans on Earth, it's screwing everything up, and we have to change. There. I said it. Environmentalists used to say this frequently and passionately, and then they stopped:talking about population took on racial overtones ("too many of those brown people!"), or fears of "control" and force, as became the case in China.
Meanwhile, there are even more people on Earth, and many more expected, and it's screwing everything up. But don't take my word for it:
The only choice...limited number, happy life...meaningful life. Too many...miserable life and always bullying one another, exploiting...2017-10-2600 minThe Big Chew PodcastMissionary Re-Position: Wendy Marsman on Faith, Atheism, and WomenWendy Marsman was raised in a strict Evangelical community in rural Canada. She fulfilled her dream of being a missionary by moving to the Brazilian Amazon for eight years with her then-husband and children. What followed was an unraveling of what she believed, and a painful realization that, as a woman, she was a second-class citizen in Christianity.
Wendy has faced some stark personal truths, and has surmounted major changes to found Women Beyond Belief, a podcast where other women (and men) finding their way out of religious beliefs can also find community.
We talk about:
How she feels about...2017-10-1100 minThe Big Chew PodcastHumans and Water, with Big River Guide, Fluvial Geologist, and Writer Becca LawtonWater: It's not just a "resource." It's not a "thing" that happens. Our bodies are mostly water. Maybe our souls are, too.
Becca Lawton would know. She's a veteran river guide on the great rivers of the American West who became a fluvial geologist. She's also a beautiful writer whose prize-winning books and essays have helped her understand the connections between humans and wild water.
If you live in the Western Hemisphere, you've heard a lot about water lately—mostly in the form of epic floods. No matter where you live, there's some kind of water issue going on (droughts, ep...2017-09-1700 minThe Big Chew PodcastThe Rewards of Green Activism: Beyond "Lifestyle" to "Lifeway" with Stephanie KazaMaybe life feels so nuts—environmentally, politically, economically, culturally—you're hitting the streets. Or hitting your head against the wall. WTF? What to do?
First, calm down and listen to this episode.
My guest, Stephanie Kaza, has been there. She cut her teeth as a
biologist back when U.S rivers were on fire. She's spent decades in Zen Buddhist practice. She's professor emerita of environmental studies at the University of Vermont, where she guided their campus sustainability program. She's got perspective, tools, and an activist heart that seeks to connect the dots and connect people. She's written terrific books, incl...2017-08-2900 minThe Big Chew PodcastThe Myth of Progress: Tom Wessels on Earth and the EconomyProgress! Economic growth! Affluence! Forget about it—at least while basic laws of science are in effect. I talk with Tom Wessels, ecologist, professor, and one of New England's clearest environmental voices. We focus on Tom's gem of a book, The Myth of Progress: Toward a Sustainable Future. In it he explains how any economy focusing on economic growth (which differs from economic development) conflicts with basic scientific laws. And that never ends well.
Here's the deal: Life on Earth isn't linear. It's much more interesting, dynamic, and creative. Most aspects of our lives—the biotic world we live in, our...2017-08-0400 minThe Big Chew PodcastChange of Life: How Lynn Margulis Revolutionized EvolutionBiologist Lynn Margulis gave us a new way to look at life—and perhaps, a new way to live it. She showed life doesn't evolve just through random DNA mistakes and competition. Instead, interdependence is the key. Cells are the baseline—not "selfish" genes. Loops and new relationships replace linear branches of life. Nothing is an individual: everything is a community. Every living thing is conscious of its surroundings.
Evolution geographer James MacAllister was Lynn Margulis's graduate student, friend, swimming buddy, and assistant for 10 years, until her sudden death in 2011. He created animations of many of her discoveries, was her teac...2017-07-1400 minThe Big Chew PodcastA "First World" Woman Finds Her True Self in the AmazonDonna Mulvenna left a busy professional life in Australia to live in the Amazon rainforest of French Guiana. She thought it would be a temporary adventure with her partner, an Olympic canoe racer. After many local frustrations, a serious illness, and some profound spiritual experiences in the forest, she's a changed person in how she views Nature, humans, and what's really necessary for a beautiful life.
Donna and I spoke while she and her partner, Franck, were visiting relatives in his native France. She's now back in the Amazon. We talked about:
How she now views her anxiety and discontent...2017-06-1900 minThe Big Chew PodcastLiving the One-Straw Revolution, with Larry KornNatural Farming" is as much a life philosophy as a way of farming. Larry Korn has dedicated his life to teaching Natural Farming, which he learned from his mentor, the late, great Masanobu Fukuoka, author of One-Straw Revolution. This "no-method method"arose from a spiritual revelation Fukuoka had about healing the rift between humans and the natural world. Larry likens Natural Farming to indigenous agriculture, emphasizing relationship and humility instead of intellect and control. The reward is abundant food and an authentic life.
Larry Korn helped translate One-Straw Revolution and Fukuoka's other books into English. He also traveled with Fukuoka-san...2017-05-3000 minThe Big Chew PodcastLife, Death, Forensics—and Why the West Freaks Over Death, with Jennifer KissingerWe weren't supposed to die, says the Book of Genesis and many Christian sources that have been marinating this culture for two millennia. No wonder the West sees death as a catastrophe. My guest, Jennifer Kissinger, sees it as part of life—and it was a daily part of her life during her years as a deputy coroner/medicolegal death investigator. She'd like people to consider their mortality, plan for it, and accept it. Which doesn't mean you don't grieve at a loved one's death; it just means we see our mortality as part of our biology.
Jennifer and I ta...2017-05-1500 minThe Big Chew PodcastSam Guarnaccia: Music for Our UniverseMusic can bring us into new, profound kinds of awareness. Composer and classical guitarist Sam Guarnaccia is doing his part. We talk about his new musical work that calls on orchestra, chorus, and soloists to celebrate the evolving universe we all share. I've heard Sam's Emergent Universe Oratorio—it's lush and evocative and includes praise for life forms and forces you don't often hear about in concert halls, like cell membranes, tree roots, and gravity.
There are selections from Sam's Emergent Universe Oratorio in this episode. He and I talk about stuff like:
-The role music plays in heightening our aw...2017-04-2200 minThe Big Chew PodcastThea Alvin, Who Dances with StoneWe live on a rocky planet. Thea Alvin knows that language. She creates fantastic structures of stone all over the world. Thea lives here in Vermont and has had some powerful interactions with Icelandic caves, ancient English burial mounds, and Chinese mountaintops. She teaches all over (we talk about her Italian workshops, which feature fantastic food and the opportunity to get really dirty rebuilding ancient stone villages). Among the ideas we talk about:
-The difference between stone and rock
-How Thea creates a project--music and movement
-Stones have "hearts," "faces," and a purpose
-The Chinese philosophy of stone as a...2017-04-0200 minThe Big Chew PodcastTBC012: We Are All Starinese: The Universe Story Grows In King's Cross, LondonA flourishing garden in dumpsters; a beehive to show how communities work; children learning their "cosmic address" by growing carrots. Inspired by the Universe Story of evolution, Jane Riddiford and Rod Sugden of Global Generation are helping to shape London's busiest construction zone. Jane and Rod, staff and volunteers are catalyzing a community with opportunities to garden, eat, and learn together. Here, construction workers, local families, refugees, Muslim immigrant kids, and office workers connect with each other and with natural rhythms still pulsing under the concrete.
Some ideas we talk about:
-The Universe Story as a source of values
-How...2017-03-1100 minThe Big Chew PodcastPsychedelics, Healing, and TransformationCan psychedelic drugs, and breathing techniques that achieve similar states, help heal our individual and collective emotional pain? Can they help us transform our society?
I talk with Joe Moore and Kyle Buller of Psychedelics Today, a podcast that features professionals involved with psychedelics and breathwork as tools for mental health and spiritual growth.
Joe and Kyle are also facilitators in Holotropic Breathwork, developed by the Czech-born psychiatrist and researcher Stanislav Grof.
Here's what we talk about in this episode's delicious stuffing:
-The Multidisciplinary Assoc. for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and their peer-reviewed research
-How the War on Drugs delayed this...2017-02-2300 minThe Big Chew PodcastSandor Katz--Living with Bacteria, TastefullyWe can't live without bacteria. Nor would we want to—bacteria help flavor and preserve some of our favorite foods. My guest, fermentation activist Sandor Ellix Katz, explains why we humans should rethink our relationship with these tiny creatures who actually run the place.
Sandor Ellix Katz is the award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of two great books, Wild Fermentation and The Art of Fermentation. He's a really smart, fun guy on a mission—to reconnect people with their food. (Thanks to his books, my cellar shelves hold jars of homemade sauerkraut, pickled beets, pickled green tomatoes...)
Sandor and I talk...2017-02-0700 minThe Big Chew PodcastHow A Creative Universe Invites Mythic Lives: Jennifer Morgan, Part TwoWhether we plunder the Earth or participate in it depends on deep notions of who we are. Jennifer Morgan of the Deep Time Journey Network says in Part Two of our conversation about the Universe Story, "What's going on every single second is so stunning that if we were truly present to it, we would fall down on our knees and kiss the ground."
While she admits most of us aren't able to maintain that presence through our day-to-day lives, learning how our Earth creates and functions can help us live them. That kind of awareness invites us to live "...2017-01-1900 min
The Big Chew PodcastCan Learning About the Universe Change Your Life? Jennifer MorganThe Big Bang. Supernovae. Evolution. What do they have to do with real, everyday life?
My guest, author Jennifer Morgan, has spent decades helping people appreciate how our universe works, how we got here, and why that matters. In this first of two conversations, we talk about how knowing this evolutionary story can guide us, as stories have always guided humans. (Even better: This one doesn't require "belief"; it has data!)
Jennifer directs the Deep Time Journey Network, where people worldwide explore how this science-based "new story" can inspire creativity, awe, connection, and better ways to live. She worked with...2017-01-0600 min
The Big Chew PodcastFrom Evangelical to Atheist, Family-Style: ConclusionAfter leaving your Christian faith with its god and demons, speaking in tongues, and life everlasting, where do you find fulfillment? In the conclusion of my two-part interview with Steve and Krissy Hilliker, we talk about mourning what they left behind; the excitement of learning who you are and what's important to you; the novelty of movie binging and exploring evolution; and where they find spirituality now;
Music in this episode is "You Need Sleep" by the Colin L. Orchestra, Live from WFMU's Airborne Event; Podcast theme song is "She Say Go" by the Birdinumnums. Both used via Creative Commons...2016-12-1500 minThe Big Chew PodcastFrom Evangelical to Atheist, As a Family: Part 1What happens when you and your young family are counting on your career path as an Evangelical Christian minister--and you realize you've become an atheist?
Steve and Krissy Hilliker were deeply religious. They married young, had two kids right away, and believed that God had a plan for them. Every element of their lives tied into their faith--until Steve started losing his religion.
Do you disrupt your whole family when your beliefs change? What if your wife still believes? And, as Krissy recalls her situation, how do you reconcile the intellectual honesty of your husband's religious questioning when you believe...2016-12-0900 min
The Big Chew PodcastWhy Are Americans Leaving Religion? Interview with James NagleWhy are record numbers of Americans and Europeans exiting the religions they grew up with--especially Christians? Is Christianity toast? What might come next?
James Nagle studies this "deconversion" at Fordham University. He considers himself a "deconvert" and describes his path--from a tattooed, skateboarding, Mass-missing kid to a seminarian training for the Catholic priesthood; to his years of teaching high school religious studies and then leaving his belief behind. Now a doctoral candidate at Fordham, Nagle researches why people leave religion (and explains that often it's for "religious" reasons). We talk about how the nonreligious "nones" seek meaning outside religion, why...2016-12-0300 min
The Big Chew PodcastTradd Cotter: Our Future is FungalTradd Cotter is a researcher and mycologist who's doing amazing things with mushrooms. Mushrooms can fight disease-causing bacteria, can purify water, help disaster victims...and they're delicious! (Not always the same ones, btw.) Mushrooms are also being studied now for treating end-of-life depression and PTSD. And then there are shamanic reindeer and eating the yellow snow...
Get more Big Chew episodes at www.meetyourmyth.com. You can also find out how to contact Tradd, where to buy Tradd's book, Growing Organic Mushrooms, and how to subscribe to future episodes.2016-08-1300 min
The Big Chew PodcastPlant Life with Herbalist Julie MitchellMaria talks with herbalist Julie Mitchell about the modern revolution in herbal knowledge. We talk about how to get to know plants, and if they’re sentient; what herbs can do for humans; the ecstatic approach of the poet Goethe to the study of plants; and who I would kill if I could go back in time.2016-08-1300 min
The Big Chew PodcastGuided Meditation: Grounding Back Into the EarthIntuitive counselor Laura Lomas leads a wonderfully accessible meditation to reconnect us to our true selves and to the earth.2015-05-2700 min
The Big Chew PodcastLaura Lomas, Intuitive: Is Our Spiritual Culture Shifting?Maria talks (and cracks up!) with intuitive Laura Lomas, who helps people worldwide reconnect to their more authentic natures and to the Earth. Why are so many people bailing on religion? And what will take its place? How gigantic was Maria's head as a child?
Show Notes:
If you’d like to know more about Laura and her work, here’s her website.
http://divineintuitivehealing.com/
Books we mention in the podcast:
The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, written by Michael A. Singer, is a profound book. It’s deceptively simple to read, in the way Shaker furniture is simple...2015-05-2400 min