Shows
Muse Ecology#27 Vicki Hird: Rebugging the PlanetBugs are foundational to life on Earth, and their numbers are plummeting due to human activity. In this conversation with Vicki Hird, author of Rebugging the Planet, we explore the wonders of bugs and how we can restore our relationship with them. You can find more information about rebugging, and purchase the book, at . Here's the two papers referenced in Vicki's book that came up in our discussion, on the potential effects of new higher frequency radiation on invertebrates: Arno Thielens et al., Exposure of Insects to Radio-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields from 2 to 120 GHz, Science Reports 8, no. 3924 (2018), Arno Thielens et al., R...2022-02-0255 min
Muse Ecology#26 Addressing the Other Leg of Climate Change, 2nd Panel"Water begets water, soil is the womb, and vegetation is the midwife." -Prof. Millan M. Millan This last episode, for now, in the Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization series, was a great panel conversation with 6 people from 3 different organizations, each working from distinct approaches to restore weather and climate through restoring natural processes. It was a lovely example of the diversity of backgrounds that are beginning to come together around this idea. Juliette Kool and Ties van der Hoeven, Maya Dutta and Jim Laurie, Marcel de Berg and Pieter-Paul de Kluvier, Here is the Here is the And here again is...2022-01-232h 04
Muse Ecology#25 Addressing the Other Leg of Climate Change, 1st PanelThe understanding that we can restore weather and climate systems by protecting and restoring the living surface of the Earth is an idea whose time has come. In these final two episodes in this Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization series, we'll hear discussions of how this understanding is beginning to guide our response to climate change, from grassroots to international levels. In this first of the two panels, I met with three friends from previous episodes who have had a big influence on how I think about our relation to water, life, and climate: , mesometeorologist Li An Phoa, founder of , fil...2022-01-121h 14
Muse Ecology#24 Renewables and Accountability: A Panel DiscussionThis episode is a diverse panel discussion on the implications of renewable energy supply chains on life, water, and local communities, and how we might address them. Saad Youssefi has a background in finance and economics and works in the renewable energy sector, consulting governments and international corporations on energy production projects. He's also coauthored . Mary Gibson is Western Shoshone, and has experienced devastation of life, land, and culture by the mining industry and the colonizing process in general. She is on the board of . Derrick Jensen is a long time activist and advocate for the living Earth, and has wr...2021-08-161h 46
Muse Ecology#23 Life and Lithium at Thacker PassIn this episode in the Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization series, we hear diverse voices from the resistance to the proposed lithium mine at Thacker Pass in northern Nevada, on Paiute and Shoshone ancestral lands. To learn more about and support the blockade camp at Thacker Pass, you can go to . To follow the legal process, you can visit the Great Basin Resource Watch's website at . In our next episode, we'll continue exploring the complexities involved in the renewables industry with a civil panel discussion including expert perspectives from both the renewable energy industry and it's opposition.2021-07-131h 35
Muse Ecology#22 Judith Schwartz and Walter Jehne: Climate Change Narrative ShiftIn this conversation with author Judith Schwartz and scientist Walter Jehne, we discuss the importance of the shift from seeing the Earth as a resource base to seeing ourselves as enmeshed in a web of life that both manages and depends on natural processes. In particular, we focus on how this perspective shift affects how we understand and are empowered to address anthropogenic climate change. Judy: Walter: The banjo bird jam in the intro and outro was recorded in the woods by nature artist Michael DiGiorgio. If you'd like to order a CD of this album he says to email him...2021-04-251h 33
Muse Ecology#21 Paul Cereghino Part 2: Bioregional Restoration and Social ComplexityIn this conversation with Paul Cereghino, we discuss some of the challenges of collaborating in groups and groups of groups to protect and restore the Earth, including such topics as the role of online interactions, the importance of place-based reality, benefits and pitfalls of systems like sociocracy, Covid complications, and much more. You can check out the to read more about Paul and friends' biocultural restoration experiment in the Puget Sound of Washington State . And here's a link to the Paul and others are creating to share ecological restoration knowledge of their bioregion. And thanks to for allowing the use o...2021-04-191h 40
Muse Ecology#20 Paul Cereghino Part 1: Ecosystem Guild and Restoration CampingIn this episode in the Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization series, we explore one of the great challenges on our way back to harmony: humans. Through the lens of his Ecosystem Guild and Restoration Camping project in western Washington State, Paul Cereghino and I discuss some of the interhuman and intergroup complexities of grassroots ecological restoration efforts. And as always, many thanks to for giving the use of her song The Old Ways Restored in the intro to each episode.2021-03-251h 34
Muse Ecology#19 The Mangrove Action ProjectIn this episode we continue the Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization series with Alfredo Quarto, co-founder and international program director of the Mangrove Action Project. In our conversation with Alfredo, we discuss the importance of mangrove ecologies, their devastation by the shrimp farming industry, and how the mangrove action project uses an approach called Community Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration to facilitate their natural regeneration. Mangrove Action Project website contains further information about mangrove ecology and their important restoration work. You can support their work by purchasing a beautiful 2021 calendar feature mangrove-inspired art from children around the world. And as always, t...2021-02-131h 16
Muse Ecology#18 Neal Spackman; The Business of Restoring the EarthIn this episode, we continue the Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization series with Neal Spackman, ecological restoration designer, regenerative entrepreneur, and bold visionary. In previous episodes in this series, we’ve heard how agriculture and development having long been destroying ecology and hydrology, directly causing desertification and disruptions of weather and climate systems, and leading to the fall of empires. As cofounder and former director of the Al Baydha project in Saudi Arabia and as Founder and CEO of Regenerative Resources Corporation, Neal Spackman is working to change that ancient dynamic. His projects restore ecological function to desertified and degraded la...2021-01-301h 43
Muse Ecology#17 Felipe Pasini, Syntropic FarmingSince millennia before the early states of Mesopotamia, farming has been a complexity-destroying process. In this episode, we'll hear from Felipe Pasini about an agricultural approach called Syntropic Farming that reverses this process, facilitating greater ecological complexity while providing for human needs. Here is a lovely video called Life In Syntropy that Felipe co-created several years ago to introduce the concept. You can learn more about Syntropic Farming at You can learn more about Katharina Serafimova's work at And again, many thanks to Peia for the use of her inspiring song The Old Ways Restored in the podcast introduction. You ca...2020-12-131h 20
Muse Ecology#16 Li An Phoa, Singing Hearts and Drinkable RiversIn this second episode in the Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization Series, I'm grateful to be able to share this inspiring conversation with Li An Phoa, creator of the Drinkable Rivers movement. Li An is a scientist, activist, and river walker, working to mobilize watersheds to engage in citizen science and work together towards the return of drinkability to their river. Li An explains that such properties of a river can emerge when all the relationships along it's banks and in the watershed that feeds it are healthy. She also reminds us of the important role our own singing hearts pla...2020-11-151h 29
Muse Ecology#15 Professor Millan Millan: The Second Leg of Climate Change"Water begets water, soil is the womb, and vegetation is the midwife." -Professor Millan Millan In this episode we learn about what Professor Millan Millan calls "the second leg of human-induced climate change": how our land use changes lead to major disruptions of weather and climate patterns, independently of changes due to warming from carbon emissions. As Millan shares, the international scientific community has known for fifty years that anthropogenic climate change has two legs: greenhouse gases and surface property changes due to land use change. While business and politics have assimilated the greenhouse gas narrative, addressing the climate effects of o...2020-10-302h 31
Muse Ecology#14 Prelude to the Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization SeriesIn this prelude to the upcoming series dealing with the interrelated processes of Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization, we take a look at the historical and mythological roots of civilization's discord, and set the tone for the series with a new song and some poignant clips from the next three episodes that remind us of the dynamic complexity we are interconnected with. From renowned meteorologist, Professor Millan Millan, we'll learn how our land use has been disrupting weather and climate since long before it was accelerated by the industrial revolution, and how land use change can bring about meteorological healing...2020-08-1230 min
Muse Ecology#13 Natural Building at Quail Springs, There's Music in the WallsIn this episode, we visit Quail Springs in the Cuyama Valley of Southern California, a place and community dear to my heart. We'll hear useful knowledge about building with natural materials, and learn of exciting recent developments in the international legalization of cob construction. This episode also contains alot of folk music, including quite a few songs from the soulful Cuyama Mama Jan Smith. There was even a surprise acoustic performance by the talented bluegrass band, Hot Buttered Rum (HBR). Feel free to have hoe-down dance party, and if you'd like to hear even more, Nat from HBR welcomed me...2020-03-291h 45
Muse EcologyGrandma Aggie, Voice for the VoicelessIn this episode, we hear the voice of Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim. She passed on, but her light lives on in so many of us water babies. These recordings of Grandma Aggie are from this past year: a panel at the Global Earth Repair Conference in Washington state, a prescribed fire training exchange in Ashland, Oregon, and finally at her 95th birthday gathering. I hope these words bless you like they've blessed me, and help remind us to be a voice for the voiceless. If you can support her family financially, it would be much appreciated, especially for her daughter...2019-12-071h 08
Muse EcologyDavid Bronner and the All-One LegacyIn spring 2018 I visited the headquarters of the Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap Company in Vista, California, where the Bronner family carries on the legacy of 5 generations of traditional soapmaking and the quirky and passionate All-One vision of Emmanuel Bronner (Dr. Bronner). You are probably familiar with their colorful liquid soap bottles covered with words exuberantly enumerating what Dr. Bronner called the Moral ABC's. The Bronner Family still uses their castillian soap product as a platform for world healing. I met with David Bronner, Emmanuel's grandson, intending to discuss the new Regenerative Organic Certification that they are championing along with Patagonia, Th...2019-07-131h 34
Muse EcologyWorth a Dam and the Tale of the Martinez BeaverWhile later this year there will be an in depth Muse Ecology series on the beaver, in this episode we hear one one the more inspiring beaver stories I've come across: the tale of the Martinez Beaver. When the beaver moved in to downtown Martinez, CA, the city originally intended to exterminate them, but thanks to community involvement, the Martinez Beaver became protected and celebrated as a cultural icon. In this episode, we hear this story from beaver advocate and founder and president of Worth a Dam, Heidi Perryman. Important Announcement: If you are anywhere near Martinez tomorrow (Saturday, June 29th...2019-06-2825 min
Muse EcologyPeia; The Old Ways RestoredIn this inspiring episode of Muse Ecology, we hear songs and conversation from my visit early spring of this year with musical artist Peia. While many restoration ecologists and regenerative agriculturalists are working to restore harmony at the ecosystem level, Peia is one of the bards doing important work at the level of human emotion and narrative; inspiring open, courageous hearts and reminding us of what is sacred. Starting with this episode, Peia's song The Old Ways Restored will now be the theme music for the Muse Ecology introduction, setting a magical and adventurous tone for each episode before we he...2019-06-251h 08
Muse EcologyHolistic Management, The Savory Institute, and Wild BisonIn this fifth and final episode in this series on the bison in the Great Plains, we visit the Savory Institute Headquarters in Colorado and speak with Daniela Howell, Director of the Savory Institute, and Allan Savory, inventor of the Holistic Management framework. We also hear some collaborative discussion about how regenerative cattle ranchers might support efforts to facilitate the return of large roaming herds of wildlife to the prairie. You can find the Muse Ecology Webinar Wild Bison and Holistic Management, A Collaborative Conversation at You can find out more about The Savory Institute at Here's links for each of...2019-06-221h 26
Muse Ecology#7 Wild Idea Buffalo Company Wild Idea Buffalo Company is a bison ranching business that exists to conserve and restore the prairie ecosystem of the northern Great Plains. With no roundup, and an innovative field harvesting method, they care for the well-being of the bison, and as much as possible allow them to express their co-evolved behaviours. You can follow their blog and order their bison meat at Michael DiGiorgio recorded the banjo-bird jams I'm using in the intro and ending. You can find his amazing nature art at . Mike says that if you'd like to buy the album of his nature-banjo jams, you can f...2019-04-151h 21
Muse Ecology777 Bison RanchIn this episode, we continue our investigation of the Great Plains Bison with a visit to 777 Bison Ranch near Rapid City, South Dakota. Owner Mimi Hilenbrandt and fellow operations manager Moritz Espy gave us a tour of the pastures and corrals. Along the way, we discussed differences and similarities between bison and cattle, the possibility of a buffalo commons, their business model and how it affects the bison, and how their decades of Holistic Management and bison grazing have led to regeneration of the prairie landscape. We also discussed a few of the complex questions the bison forces us to wre...2019-04-061h 47
Muse Ecology#5 Bonus: Protecting the Black HillsIn our visit with Mark Tilsen in the Black Hills for Episode 5 about Tanka Bar, our interview happened to take place right before a prayer walk to a proposed gold mining site up the creek from Mark's place. As I began to include this synchronous content in the Tanka Bar episode, I realized that it lit up a section of the rabbit hole that needed it's own episode for a proper introduction, so I created this bonus episode to explore some of the complexities that emerged while looking at gold mining in the Black Hills. It includes another historical introduction, au...2019-02-101h 26
Muse Ecology#5 Tanka Bar: for the Buffalo, the Land, and the PeopleIn this episode, the second of four in this series on the bison in the Great Plains, we visit the lands of the Oglala Lakota in the Black Hills of Western South Dakota, where we met with Mark Tilsen, cofounder of Tanka Bar. Tanka Bar, a company owned and operated by the Oglala Lakota of the Pine Ridge Reservation, created the first commercial bison meat and fruit bar based on one of their sacred foods, called wasna. The mission of Tanka Bar is to restore the Pine Ridge landscape and economy by bringing back the buffalo. Before the interview with Mark...2019-01-201h 46
Muse EcologyEpisode 4: The Buffalo Field Campaign, Protecting the Last Wild BisonThis episode of Muse Ecology is the first in this four part series beginning to explore humankind's relation to the bison in the Great Plains of North America. This buffalo series features diverse voices of folks involved in the bison's return that Alison and I met on our buffalo investigation journey in February 2018. While the next three episodes feature entrepreneurs and ranchers who are working to restore bison to the landscape, this first episode features voices of wildlife advocates who see the buffalo as a wild elder whose right to roam long precedes our recent human constructs. The first visit o...2018-12-092h 38
Muse Ecology#3 A Bonn Voyage with John D. LiuEpisode 3 closes out Muse Ecology's inaugural series recorded in December 2017, about ecosystem restoration and the work of John D. Liu. In this episode, John and I have a conversation on the way to the airport that weaves through many topics currently affecting our global situation, and we discuss how a large scale shift to focusing on ecosystem restoration addresses the roots of all of them. John D. Liu is Ecosystem Ambassador for Commonland Foundation and Visiting Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology of the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also catalyzed the Ecosystem Restoration Camps movement. You...2018-08-2852 min
Muse Ecology#2 Global Landscapes Forum V, Economy and Indigenous SovereigntyThis is the fifth and final part of episode 2 at the Global Landscapes Forum in Bonn, Germany with John D. Liu. In this part we hear two conversations about the important but historically ignored voices from indigenous nations, including their long history of oppression by globalizing civilization, the distinct worldviews inherent in the global economy and indigenous cultures, and the importance of bridging these differences and working together to protect and restore the Earth. John D. Liu is Ecosystem Ambassador for Commonland Foundation and Visiting Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology of the Royal Academy of Arts and Sci...2018-08-161h 04
Muse Ecology#2 Global Landscapes Forum IV, Economy and PeatlandsWhile largely unfamiliar to many, peatlands perform crucial funcions in Earth's carbon and water cycles. For many centuries we have been draining peatlands to free up land for commodity agriculture, destroying these important living systems. We now are growing aware of the effects of draining peatlands, and some folks are exploring ways to preserve and restore these wet ecologies while still being able to produce and harvest biomass and other crops from these areas. This sort of peatland agriculture is called paludiculture. In part 4 of this 5 part series at the Global Landscapes Forum in Bonn, Germany, we will hear John D...2018-08-0151 min
Muse Ecology#2 Global Landscapes Forum III, Economy and TreesIn Part 3 of this episode at the Global Landscapes Forum in Bonn, Germany, we will hear conversations between John Liu and folks who are working to restore degraded forest lands around the world through research, international business, and volunteer initiatives. John D. Liu is Ecosystem Ambassador for Commonland Foundation and Visiting Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology of the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences. He also catalyzed the Ecosystem Restoration Camps movement. You can find his films and research papers at Patrick Worms is President of the European Agroforestry Federation and Senior Science Advisor for the World Agrof...2018-07-091h 13
Muse Ecology#2 Global Landscapes Forum II, Economy and Landscape RestorationIn Part 2 of Episode 2, we hear some voices of folks who are working to bridge the world of global finance with the preservation and restoration of ecological function. Caroline van Leenders is the Senior Policy Advisor of Greening Finance at the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. She facilttes community of practice groups for investors to help them move their money to more benficial projects. She is also a writer and advocate of regenerative economic system change. Nanno Kleiterp is chair of the &Green Fund, which funds projects that show how highly productive commodity agriculture can be done in a way that protects ad r...2018-06-2548 min
Muse Ecology#2 Global Landscapes Forum I, Commonand FoundationEpisode 2 consists of some fascinating interviews conducted by John Liu at the Global Landscapes Forum in Bonn, Germany. I've arranged them into five parts. Part 1 focuses on Commonland Foundation, an organization that catalyzes regenerative projects around the word. We heard of Commonland in Episode 1 at the ecosystem restoration camp in Spain, and how it had played a crucial role in the context that facilitated that project. We hear from Willem Ferwerda, founder and CEO of Commonland Foundation. I found his words to be clear and insightful, as John Liu's questions ranged from advice to youth seeking to enter the emerging rege...2018-06-1934 min
Muse Ecology#1 Ecosystem Restoration Camps, An Idea Takes RootThe Ecosystem Restoration Camps movement has begun with the pilot camp in the Altiplano of southern Spain. In this episode I visit the camp to hear from the resident restoration volunteers and the land owner, Alfonso Chico de Guzman, cofounder of the Alvelal initiative. Links: Find out more and become a supporting member of the Ecosystem Restoration Camps at You can find scholarly work and films of John Liu at Find out more about the AlVeLal Association at At you can set up Ecosia as your search engine where your searches pay for trees for restoration projects around the world. The...2018-04-011h 06