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 download codes on our Patreon ✨

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 silly and deadpan, with a big scoop of mono no aware.

If you’d like to see pictures of the pilgrimage offerings from each stop, you can find them at thewind.org/episodes/the-merry-monarchs, along with complete list of citations, plus the original unabridged 2-part version — where the tour makes an additional stop (in space).

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, etc: https://www.futureecologies.net/listen/fe-5-6-making-a-living

— — —

Help us keep making this show for as little as $1 each month.

Our supporters get access to early episode releases, a community discord server, discounted merch, and exclusive bonus content: for example, a follow-up Q&A conversation with Adam Davis.

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 catch up Part 4 (Under Water) before diving into this one.

– – –

Links, citations, photos, episode transcript and more

– – –

🌱 Future Ecologies is supported by our community of listeners like you.

Join for as little as $1/month to access early episode releases, bonus and behind the scenes content, our discord server, and more at futureecologies.net/join

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 beforehand.

– – –

Links, citations, photos, episode transcript and more

– – –

🌱 Future Ecologies is supported by our community of listeners like you.

Join us for as little as $1/month to access early episode releases, bonus and behind the scenes content, our discord server, and more at futureecologies.net/join

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 fight to end fossil fuels, and find the action near you: fossilfueltreaty.good.do/global-march/map/

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: earthkin.ca/waysofthewild

See also: BC's Emergency evacuee guidance for the public

— — —

VANCOUVER: Spiders Song will return to Lobe Studio on Thursday, September 14th!

Join us for this exploration of the music of evolution, presented in 4DSOUND spatial audio.

2 showtimes: 6:30pm and 8:30pm, both including a Q&A with Mendel.

Tickets available on a sliding scale: eventbrite.ca/e/lobe-artist-residency-series-spiders-song-by-future-ecologies-tickets-695016291437

Get yours soon! Capacity is limited and both of the last shows sold out.

— — —

🌱 Ongoing support for this podcast comes from listeners just like you. To keep this show going, join our community at patreon.com/futureecologies 💖

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 recurrent festival exploring ideas of consciousness, language and the mind across non-human species and beings, initiated in 2018 by the Serpentine Galleries and held in 2022 in partnership with the Galeria Municipal do Porto.

With music by Yussef Agbo-Ola, Hatis Noit, Thumbug, and Any-Angled Light.

Big thanks to Adam's Electric Sheep Radio co-hosts, Ryder Thomas White & Samantha Ruth, to Kostas Stasinopoulos, and to Arda Studios.

— — —

Love and strength to everyone affected by wildfires, floods, hurricanes, or other disasters right now. We're feeling... not great about planetary stability, and we'd bet you're in the same boat.

This episode doesn't directly address the climate breakdown, but we hope it can at least be a reprieve — or even offer some ways to reframe a shared nightmare.

Our next episode (on fire) is in the works. For now, we're wishing you safety, preparedness, and many moments of joy in all the life around you. Get to know your neighbours, and take care of each other. Maybe have a chat about holding climate criminals accountable.

— — —

Our supporters on Patreon get early episode releases, a lovely discord server, and other bonus content, including some of the unabridged presentations that went into this episode.

Join our community at https://www.patreon.com/futureecologies

— — —

VANCOUVER: Spiders Song will return to Lobe Studio on Thursday, September 14th!

Join us for this exploration of the music of evolution, presented in 4DSOUND spatial audio.

2 showtimes: 6:30pm and 8:30pm, both including a Q&A with Mendel.

Tickets available on a sliding scale: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/lobe-artist-residency-series-spiders-song-by-future-ecologies-tickets-695016291437

Get yours soon! Capacity is limited and both of the last shows sold out.

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)

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 than just a couple podcast episodes!

We're also releasing an open-source system which may be used to hear evolutionary patterns as music.

As you'll hear in Part 2, data sonification, the sonic equivalent of data visualization, has found applications in many scientific fields, but never before in phylogenetics: the study of evolutionary relationships.

This sonification system is intended as an experimental platform for evolutionary biologists to explore and communicate their data through sound, and for musicians to take inspiration from biodiversity. It is built in Max/MSP, and released under a GNU-GPLv3 license for customization and further development. 

Find a lovingly illustrated explanation of our sonification at futureecologies.net/listen/fe-5-1-spiders-song#explanation

• Listen to / download the full length sonification on its own
• Get the source code and a detailed technical explanation, and
• Watch a video of the patch in action

— — —

Funding for this series was provided by the Canada Council for the Arts.

But ongoing support for this podcast comes from listeners just like you. To keep this show going and growing, join our community at patreon.com/futureecologies

Our patrons get early episode releases, exclusive bonus audio content, access to a fantastic discord server, 50% discounts on all merch, and more (eg. a livestream tour of the sonification system that we built).

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 series was provided by the Canada Council for the Arts.

But ongoing support for this podcast comes from listeners just like you. To keep this show going and growing, join our community at patreon.com/futureecologies

Our patrons get early episode releases, exclusive bonus audio content, access to a fantastic discord server, 50% discounts on all merch, and more

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

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 Justice Naomi Klein taught a small graduate seminar designed to help young scholars put the emotions of the climate and extinction crises into words. The students came from a range of disciplines, ranging from zoology to political science, and they wrote eulogies for predators and pollinators, alongside love letters to paddling and destroyed docks. Across these diverse methods of scholarship, the students uncovered layers of emotion far too often left out of scholarly approaches to the climate emergency. They put these emotions into words, both personal reflections and fictional stories.

“The Right to Feel” was produced on the unceded and asserted territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.

Find a transcript, citations, credits, and more at www.futureecologies.net/listen/the-right-to-feel

— — —

Part 2: Eulogies

02:15 – Clione by Annika Ord

12:49 –The Abundance Will Be Forever by Judith Burr

24:03 – A Eulogy for Wolves by Niki

33:33 – Return of the Hidden Worlds by Sadie Rittman

44:59 — Eulogy for the Bees by Rhonda Thygesen

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 sounds — from forest to oceans to human music — emerge from life’s community? When did the living Earth first start to sing? We invite you on a journey into deep time and deep sound that will open your ears and your imagination.

Find many more stories exploring the intersection between ecology, culture and spirituality at emergencemagazine.org/

David Haskell’s new book: Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution's Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction

Cover artwork by Daniel Liévano

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 technical and creative process — assembling reconstructed choruses of ancient soundmakers (Parasaurolophus and Permostridulus), and creating music in conversation with the Rocky Mountains — as we nerd out on sound production and paleo art.

To hear the 47 minute conversation in its entirety (and get access to all our other bonus content, discord server, merch, and more) join our community at patreon.com/futureecologies

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 further alter the character of the estuary, with massive implications for the health of Salish Sea and its many residents.

In this episode, we ask: can we find ways to hear each other through all the noise?

This episode was originally published in March 2022. We've added a brief update about some recent developments in 2023. Read more about the news here

– – –

This episode features Janie Wray, Misty MacDuffee, Steven Slə́qsit Stark, Marko Dekovic, and Stephanie Kwetásel'wet Wood

With music by Ruby Singh (with Dawn Pemberton, Inuksuk MacKay, Russell Wallace, Shamik Bilgi, Tiffany Ayalik, and Tiffany Moses), Thumbug, and Sunfish Moon Light.

This episode was produced by Mendel Skulski and Adam Huggins, with help from Megan Hockin Bennet and Lili Li.

A full list of citations and a transcript can be found at our website: futureecologies.net/listen/fe-4-2-terminal

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) in pursuit of the deconstruction of 4 major dams. Part 2 is here.

This episode was originally published in November 2018. We've added a brief update about some recent developments in 2022. Read more about the news here

– – –

This episode features Ryan Hilperts, Erica Terrence, Bill Tripp, and Senator Jeff Merkley.

Music for this episode was produced by Brian D. Tripp, Loam Zoku, Kieran Fearing, Sour Gout, the Western Family String Band, the Clan Stewart Pipe Band, and Sunfish Moonlight.

A full list of citations and a transcript can be found at our website: futureecologies.net/listen/fe1-9-swimming-upstream

We're sharing an episode from our friends over at Drilled. Four years ago, the Drilled podcast asked a question that changed how people thought about climate stories: What if we stopped acting like the climate crisis was inevitable and instead treated it like it truly is...the crime of the century? Now, the original true crime podcast about climate change is back with a new season all about the opportunistic oil industry.

The season is packed with high stakes court cases, intrepid journalists, and a whole lot of intrigue, set in the world's largest oil boom town.

We're dropping you straight into the action with Episode 4. Get all the background, and follow the rest of the story at https://link.chtbl.com/futureecologiesdrilled

We work hard to make sure our music doesn’t just complement our voices, but actually tells a story all of its own. Now that our 4th Season is complete, as per usual, we’ve compiled all the original music that went into it, and we’re releasing it as an album. This year, that album takes the form of two companion volumes.

Volume 1: Electrical Storms by Sunfish Moon Light

Volume 2: Sympoiesis by thumbug

Of course we're not responsible for all the music you hear on our show. We've borrowed tunes from so many truly great artists, often connected thematically or geographically to the content of that specific episode. You can discover each of them, and support their work at futureecologies.net/music

— — —

We want to hear from you — take our brief listener survey and help make Season 5 the best yet.

💖 Join our community: support Future Ecologies on Patreon to access our discord server, an exclusive bonus podcast feed, stickers, patches, and more

Vancouver: Join mendel and friends for a PWYC panel on acoustic ecologies, ecopoetics, and biosonification, at the Lobe Spatial Sound Studio Spring Equinox Summit (Saturday March 25 @ 1PM)

— — —

BTW: we release all of our original music from each season. Previous soundtracks (all PWYC CC-BY-NC-SA):

• Season 1
• Season 2
• Scales of Change
• Season 3

– Erin Robinsong, Geopoetics in the Mess/Mesh

Enclosed is the last episode of our 4th season: a sympoietic stream of consciousness; on language, art making, and more-than-human interconnection.

Find a transcript, full credits, and citations here

– – –

We want to hear from you! Please take our brief listener survey

Support our 5th season: Join our community on Patreon

– – –

– Robert Bringhurst

– – –

With the voices and words of Michael Datura, Astrida Neimanis, Cosmo Sheldrake, Rex Weyler, Robert Bringhurst, Jan Zwicky, David Abram, Megan Gnanasihamany, Stephen Collis, Eric Magrane, Hari Alluri, Nadia Chaney, Kaitlyn Purcell, Khari McClelland, Rita Wong, Jessica Bebenek, Vicki Kelly, Mark Fettes, Marjorie Wonham, and Cecily Nicholson

Music by Cosmo Sheldrake, Anne Bourne, Meredith Buck (as arranged by Vanessa Richards), Jonathan Kawchuk, the Time Zone Research Lab, Emily Millard, Khari McClelland, Ruby Singh, and Nathan Shubert, with field recordings by Julian Fisher.

From a distance, mountain landscapes may appear timeless and immutable. Take a closer look, however, and montane ecologies reveal themselves to be laboratories of radical transformation: rocks weather and fall; ecosystems burst into life for brief intervals; tree-lines shift; and wildfires rage. Even the very peaks themselves inch inexorably upwards or downwards with the flow of time.

Amidst all the constant, unyielding change that animates the Earth's high places, people have long sought a vantage from which to survey this shifting terrain. Who can resist the romance of a breathtaking, mountaintop view? Or then to imagine what generations past might have seen from the same spot?

In the mid 1990s, a small group of scientists in western Canada grew dissatisfied with mere imagining — they wanted to see that change for themselves. And in a forgotten corner of a national archive, they found some very heavy boxes that held a rare promise: an opportunity to look back in time at a landscape scale.

– – –

For musical credits, select photos, citations, links, and more, click here.

Support the show and join our Patreon community

– – –

Learn more about the Mountain Legacy Project: mountainlegacy.ca

Explore all the photos and data: explore.mountainlegacy.ca

More on land cover classification | Webinar | Deep Dive

In this episode, Anja and Matthias go on an underground safari through the hidden jungle of the soil. We hear from Diana Wall about a tiny worm that is so tough it survives in Antarctica. Richard Bardgett introduces us to collembola, also known as springtails. Stefan Scheu and Maddy Thakur reveal which animals are considered the “wolves of the soil”, and Kate Scow delves into bacterial communities. How do all these organisms work together as a system?

Find more episodes of Life in the Soil wherever you get your podcasts, or at rilliglab.org/podcast/

For some incredible soil microfauna photography, see Andy Murray’s Chaos of Delight

Catch up on our own treatment on soil carbon sequestration and regenerative agriculture: on FE4.8 — Ground Truthing

Our latest episode — on soil carbon and regenerative agriculture — could never have fit everything that needs to be said on the topic. So, we're leaning on a couple of other podcasts that we think you'll love.

First up, we're running an episode from Hot Farm, from our friends at the Food and Environment Reporting Network. It's all about what farmers are doing (or could be doing) to take on the climate emergency.

In this episode you'll hear about a novel grain that farmers are starting to grow, and that could be part of the solution. This is Hot Farm part 3: "Is Kernza the Grain of the Future?"

Find more episodes of Hot Farm wherever you get your podcasts, or at https://thefern.org/podcasts/hot-farm/

Catch up on our own treatment on soil carbon sequestration and regenerative agriculture: on FE4.8 — Ground Truthing https://www.futureecologies.net/listen/fe-4-8-ground-truthing

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 a two-year period, associate professor of climate justice and co-director of the UBC Centre for Climate Justice Naomi Klein taught a small graduate seminar designed to help young scholars put the emotions of the climate and extinction crises into words. The students came from a range of disciplines, ranging from zoology to political science, and they wrote eulogies for predators and pollinators, alongside love letters to paddling and destroyed docks. Across these diverse methods of scholarship, the students uncovered layers of emotion far too often left out of scholarly approaches to the climate emergency. They put these emotions into words, both personal reflections and fictional stories.

“The Right to Feel” was produced on the unceded and asserted territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.

Find a transcript, citations, credits, and more at www.futureecologies.net/listen/the-right-to-feel

— — —

Part 1: Climate Feelings

2:38 — Introduction by Judee Burr and Naomi Klein

19:05 — Connection to Jericho Willows by Ali Tafreshi

22:27 — Connection to the Water by Foster Salpeter

27:06 — Connection to Family and Land by Sara Savino

31:01 — Scientists and Feelings by Annika Ord

36:00 — Biking away from the Smoke by Ruth Moore

39:32 — Climate Sensitivity on the Bus by Nina Robertson

43:13 — Grief and Climate Change Economics by Felix Giroux

46:36 — The Age of Sanctuary by Melissa Plisic

52:04 — Age of Tehom by Maggie O’Donnell

Can we sequester our carbon and eat it too?

For the first time in 4 seasons, we're discussing natural climate solutions, and in particular, regenerative agriculture. Joining us is agrologist and fellow podcaster, Scott Gillespie (of Plants Dig Soil) to get into the nitty gritty of farming for soil carbon — its promise, possibility and feasibility.

———

Support Future Ecologies (pay what you can >$1/month) @ futureecologies.net/patrons 🌱 — Get access to our delightful discord server, early episode releases, an exclusive podcast feed for bonus content, and more:

Find a full list of citations, and a transcript for this episode: futureecologies.net/listen/fe-4-8-ground-truthing

We Walk the Earth is a podcast that explores creativity, curiosity, and cultural evolution through personal conversations, and the occasional sonic journey.

In this episode, Mendel and Sergio discuss podcasting, art, music, hope, and lots more besides. We hope you enjoy this peek behind the curtain into the making of Future Ecologies, and Mendel's unfiltered inner monologue.

— — —

Subscribe to We Walk The Earth wherever you find podcasts, or get in touch at wewalktheearth.org

Catch the upcoming Future Ecologies release right now on our Patreon: patreon.com/futureecologies

A story of memory, ghosting, and fire: how we can change the place we call home, and how it too can change around us.

Another version of this story, along with many other works of art, can be found in the pages of Fire Season II

– – –

💖 Support Future Ecologies: join our community on Patreon at futureecologies.net/patrons

You'll get exclusive bonus content, access to one of the best discord servers out there, stickers, patches, early episode releases, and more!

Find credits, citations, transcript, photos, and more at futureecologies.net/listen/fe-4-7-phase-change

What does it mean to live on an island? Is it to be independent from, or inexorably dependent on the rest of the world? And when the ecosystem's physical limitations are so clearly circumscribed, do people behave more "environmentally"?

In this episode, we visit Adam's home island of Galiano, and find out just how big its ecological footprint really is.

– – –

Explore the full One Island, One Earth report (and interactive map)

💖 Support Future Ecologies: join our community on Patreon at futureecologies.net/patrons

You'll get exclusive bonus content (like a blooper reel from this episode and extended interviews), access to one of the best discord servers out there, stickers, patches, early episode releases, and more!

Full credits, citations, transcript, and lots more at futureecologies.net/listen/fe-4-6-an-island-unto-itself

Listening to The Disintegration Loops during wildfire season — a review of William Basinski’s seminal album as a meditation on looping thoughts, physical disintegration, and fire.

– – –

Subscribe to The Wind wherever you get your podcasts, and visit thewind.org

You can find a transcript of this episode at https://the-wind.simplecast.com/episodes/the-disintegration-loops/transcript

The North American Model is just one story of how wildlife conservation can be practiced. In part 2 of this mini-series we tell another: of restorative human–predator relationships and local self-determination.

We're bringing you a success story from the Great Bear Rainforest, and another articulation of how we can relate to wildlife — complete with its own set of guiding principles, naturally.

For musical credits, citations, and more, click here.

Click here for Part 1

– — – — – —

Just over 200 people are making Future Ecologies possible on Patreon!

Meet them all at futureecologies.net/patrons

You too can join our community and help the show to grow @ patreon.com/futureecologies

North America abounds in wildlife — but why?

At the turn of the last century, many observers believed that species that we take for granted today would disappear forever. In this episode, we share a story about the way that wildlife conservation came to be practiced, the lives that it privileged, and the lives that it left out.

But despite any controversy, one aspect of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation (or "the NAM" for our purposes) is indisputable: its principles explain the landscape of laws and institutions in which North Americans enjoy nature today.

– – –

For musical credits, citations, and more, click here.

– – –

Future Ecologies is only possible with the support of you, our listeners!

Our patrons get early episode releases + other bonus content, a community discord server (which runs the gamut from meme trading, recipes and fermentation, nature sightings, media suggestions, to discussions on environmental restoration), plus stickers, patches, and more!

We are an independent and unaffiliated podcast. Listener contributions make it possible for us to keep producing stories that matter, make them sound great, and keep them ad-free.

Join our community of supporting listeners on Patreon for as little as $1/month

What can a brand new patch of nature tell us about Europe's ancient history?

In this episode, we touch down in the Netherlands, where an unconventional experiment (the Oostvaardersplassen) has shaken up both the field of ecology and Dutch society. What started as a bird watcher’s obsession with thousands of trekking geese, led to a criticism of one of the central tenets in ecology: ecosystem succession.

Enter a counter-theory that would return the rarest of birds, butterflies, and a once-extinct mega mammal to one of the most densely populated countries on earth.

For photos, transcripts, citations, and musical credits, head to www.futureecologies.net/listen/fe-4-3-a-tiny-wilderness

– – –

Future Ecologies is independent and ad-free. This podcast is possible thanks to our supporters on Patreon

Join our community of supporting listeners (for as little as $1 per month) for access to early releases, a rad discord server, and more:

✨https://www.patreon.com/futureecologies ✨

If you'd prefer to support the show with a one-time donation, you can do so at https://www.futureecologies.net/donate

And if you can't support the show financially, you can always leave us a nice rating (or even a review) wherever you listen. We post our favourites at https://www.futureecologies.net/#reviews 💖

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 further alter the character of the estuary, with massive implications for the health of Salish Sea and its many residents.

In this episode, we ask: can we find ways to hear each other through all the noise?

– – –

For lots of photos, transcripts, citations, musical credits, and the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority's responses to our questions, head to www.futureecologies.net/listen/fe-4-2-terminal

The decision to approve Roberts Bank Terminal 2 was announced on April 20, 2023 by Steven Guilbeault, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, who said “With 370 environmental protection measures that the port must meet, we have set a high bar for this project to proceed. For the first time ever, we are asking a proponent to put up $150 million to guarantee the strict environmental conditions are met and habitats are protected for species such as the Western Sandpiper. Moreover, this decision is paired with massive government investment in the protection of threatened species like Chinook salmon and endangered Southern resident killer whales. “

The measures that have been announced have not addressed the concerns of the environmental and labor movements that oppose the project.  Misty MacDuffee, who you heard in this episode, responded: “All viability assessments of southern resident killer whales indicate their threats must be significantly lowered for recovery to occur. Approving this project does the opposite. It increases threats, worsens their feeding conditions and increases their likelihood of extinction.”

While the approval has been made, this story is far from over.  The project faces additional regulatory hurdles, a changing market environment, and continued opposition as it enters an estimated six years of construction.  We’ll continue to follow the story as it unfolds and we’ll keep you updated.

Read more about the Roberts Bank decision

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Future Ecologies is independent and ad-free. This podcast is possible thanks to our supporters on Patreon

Join our community of supporting listeners for access to early releases, a rad discord server, and more

✨https://www.patreon.com/futureecologies ✨

If you'd prefer to support the show with a one-time donation, you can do so at https://www.futureecologies.net/donate

And if you can't support the show financially, you can always leave us a nice rating (or even a review) wherever you listen. We post our favourites at https://www.futureecologies.net/#reviews 💖

Are agriculture and biodiversity always at odds? In the late 1970s, a radical environmental movement rejected this dichotomy — rebuking conventional farming in favour of holistic & mutualistic principles, with the dual promise of plentiful food and a vibrant ecosystem.

When Permaculture was first articulated, it emerged from a simple question: why don’t our food systems look more like forests? In the tropics, traditional Indigenous agriculture integrated perennial foods crops so densely that their gardens had often been mistaken for jungle.

Inspired by these techniques, permaculturists adapted forest gardening for the temperate world. But, in their enthusiasm, they too may have been missing the forest for the trees.

Wherever you are, whatever you're going through, we hope you find solace by spending some time with us — in the garden.

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For musical credits, episode transcript, citations, and more:

https://www.futureecologies.net/listen/fe-4-1-forest-garden

🌱

Future Ecologies is independent and ad-free. This podcast is possible thanks to our supporters on Patreon

Join our community of supporting listeners for access to early releases, a rad discord server, and more

✨https://www.patreon.com/futureecologies ✨

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 us to the misty rainforests of Chile and back to report on what might just be the world’s most extraordinary plant — hidden in plain sight.

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With music by Modern Biology, Mort Garson, Hotspring, Thumbug, and Sunfish Moon Light.

For credits, citations, transcript, and more, visit futureecologies.net/listen/fe-5-10-everything-will-be-vine

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🌱 Future Ecologies is an independent, ad-free, listener-supported podcast.

Be the first to hear new episodes, and get exclusive bonus content, behind the scenes updates, and access to our discord server, plus stickers, patches, and toques @ futureecologies.net/join

We're featuring another guest episode. This time, from Canada's National Observer: a new podcast called Race Against Climate Change

Episode 1 – How We Eat

SUMMARY:

Everybody’s gotta eat, but who’s feeding us, and what else are we eating up along the way? In this episode we chew on the ways our food affects our climate, and what can be done about it. Professor and author Lenore Newman discusses food security and this summer’s heat dome with National Observer founder Linda Solomon Wood. Plus, the surge in regenerative farming in Canada, and a future of real beef with no real cows. Yes, you read that right.

GUESTS:

●     Robyn Bunn, Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture

●     Fawn Jackson, climate lead for the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association

●     Karen Ross, director of Farmers for Climate Solutions.

●     Lenore Newman, Director of the Food and Agriculture Institute and Canada Research Chair in Food Security and Environment at the University of the Fraser Valley

●     Isha Datar, Executive Director of New Harvest

Find more episodes of Race Against Climate Change wherever you enjoy podcasts, or on their website: nationalobserver.com/podcast/race-against-climate-change (where transcripts are also available)

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Support Future Ecologies Season 4 for as little as $1/month to get access to our rad discord server and other fun perks: patreon.com/futureecologies

Browse our episode archive and explore our website: futureecologies.net

Say hi to us on social media: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, iNaturalist

We're featuring another podcast we think should be in your feed (if it isn't already): MEDIA INDIGENA.

This episode, originally released on May 27 2021, features a conversation with Dr. Max Liboiron – Director of the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research, and author of the new book Pollution is Colonialism.

Don't miss Part Two of this important discussion. Find episode 259 of MEDIA INDIGENA wherever you listen to podcasts, or visit https://mediaindigena.libsyn.com/pollution-is-colonialism-part-two-ep-259

For a copy of Dr. Liboiron's book: https://www.dukeupress.edu/pollution-is-colonialism

For more on the CLEAR Lab: https://civiclaboratory.nl/

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Thanks to all our Patrons who are making Future Ecologies Season 4 possible.

To join our community, hang out with us on discord, get stickers, patches, and bonus audio content, head to https://www.patreon.com/futureecologies

We’ve got an amazing 4th Season headed your way! While we’ve got our heads down for the rest of the year, we’re going to feature some episodes from other podcasts we think you’ll love.

First up is an episode from the kind folks at How to Save a Planet. Dedicated Future Ecologies listeners might notice that this episode connects nicely with some of the work we covered in our first season, specifically episodes six and nine. There’s fire, there’s dam removal, there’s land back, and much more.

Find more episodes of H2SAP on Spotify or at how2saveaplanet.show

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PS. Our amazing supporters on Patreon are not only making our Season 4 possible, they’re keeping it ad-free for everyone to enjoy. If you are in a position to help (even just $1/month), it goes a long way. We’re almost at 200 supporting listeners, so please join us at patreon.com/futureecologies

PPS. Listen on for a big announcement before the episode 📻(& send your campus and community radio stations to futureecologies.net/radio )

A few quick announcements!

Get in touch with us: https://www.futureecologies.net/#contact-section

Meet the musicians we've featured: https://www.futureecologies.net/music

Download the Official Soundtrack of Season 3: https://www.futureecologies.net/season-3-ost

💖Support the show and join our Patreon community: https://www.patreon.com/futureecologies

What is a border? Is it simply an edge: a sharp transition between one state and another? Or does it stretch beyond a single dimension, warping land and people through a self-perpetuating 'otherness'?

In this final chapter of Goatwalker, we uncover the ties that bind ecosystems, identities, and communities of all sorts – migrant or otherwise. We'll walk a path to restorative justice: a way to foster new livelihoods through conservation programs and the many uses of an oft-overlooked keystone species of the desert southwest.

Rigid borders are a foundational source of inequity. For as long as they persist, we face a growing need to care for the earth and for each other: to discover our own capacity for Sanctuary.

From Future Ecologies, this is Goatwalker, Part Four: An Open Wound.

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Before this episode, we suggest you start with Part One of this series: On Errantry

And then listen to Part Two: Sanctuary

And then Part Three: Saguaro Juniper

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For musical credits, citations, and more, go to futureecologies.net/listen/fe-3-10-goatwalker-pt4-an-open-wound

Help make Season 4 our best yet: Support the show and join our Patreon community at patreon.com/futureecologies

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As of August 2021, Jim Corbett’s "Goatwalking" has been re-issued in a new 2nd edition. You can purchase a hard copy or an e-book here

A 2nd edition of "Sanctuary for All Life" is also now available from Cascabel Books on Amazon or Barnes and Noble

Having finished his work in the Sanctuary Movement, Jim Corbett allowed his focus to broaden, bringing his system of ethics to the land itself. Jim had gathered many people around him throughout the Sanctuary days: a group that shared a deep, abiding love for the more-than-human world. Together they would establish a herding community – a herd in which they would all be members – grounded in a practice of ‘pastoral symbiotics’, and guided by a prescient ecological covenant: a bill of rights for the land.

From Future Ecologies, this is Goatwalker, Part Three: Saguaro Juniper

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Before this episode, we suggest you start with Part One of this series 

And then listen to Part Two

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Get in touch with the community at Saguaro Juniper

As of August 2021, Jim Corbett’s "Goatwalking" has been re-issued in a new 2nd edition. You can purchase a hard copy or an e-book here

A 2nd edition of "Sanctuary for All Life" is also now available from Cascabel Books on Amazon or Barnes and Noble

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For musical credits, citations, and more, click here.

Support the show and join our Patreon community

In the early 1980s, the outbreak of civil war across Central America forced unprecedented numbers of refugees to seek asylum in the United States, putting the recently passed 'Refugee Act' of 1980 to the test. There was just one catch: the Reagan Administration was providing funding to right-wing governments that most of these refugees were fleeing. As a result, Central American refugees making the dangerous journey to the U.S.-Mexico borderlands were being intercepted, denied asylum, and summarily deported.

As this crisis unfolded, a ragtag group of self-proclaimed 'goatherds errant', led by philosopher-turned-rancher Jim Corbett, took it upon themselves to enact U.S. immigration law at the grassroots level. In so doing, they sparked a national movement that continues to the present day, turning the concept of 'civil disobedience' upside-down.

This is the story of the Sanctuary movement – the 2nd part of a 4-part series.

From Future Ecologies, this is Goatwalker, Part Two: Sanctuary.

👉 We suggest you start with Part One of this series 👈

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For musical credits, citations, and more, click here.

Support the show and join our Patreon. We've got bonus episodes, stickers, patches, and a rad discord community.

– – –

As of August 2021, Jim Corbett’s "Goatwalking" has been re-issued in a new 2nd edition. You can purchase a hard copy or an e-book here

A 2nd edition of "Sanctuary for All Life" is also now available from Cascabel Books on Amazon or Barnes and Noble

Jim Corbett was not your typical rancher. Over the course of decades roaming the borderlands of the desert southwest, he developed a practice that he referred to as 'goatwalking' - a form of prophetic wandering and desert survival based on goat-human symbiosis. For Jim, 'goatwalking' provided both physical and spiritual sustenance, and allowed him to become at home, for a time, in wildlands.

To many, this modern-day Don Quixote would seem an unlikely figure to have sparked one of the most important social movements of the 20th century, but to those who knew him well, it was hardly a surprise. Even today, his influence is felt throughout the borderlands of the Southwestern United States, and beyond.

This is the story of a man behind a movement – the biographical first part of a 4-part series.

From Future Ecologies, this is Goatwalker, Part One: On Errantry.

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For musical credits, citations, and more, click here.

Support the show and join our Patreon community

– – –

As of August 2021, Jim Corbett’s "Goatwalking" has been re-issued in a new 2nd edition. You can purchase a hard copy or an e-book here

A 2nd edition of "Sanctuary for All Life" is also now available from Cascabel Books on Amazon or Barnes and Noble

Mushrooms that smell? Fungi can be pungent, provocative, and at times irresistible. While we might not always recognize it, we're in constant chemical communication with the world around us through olfaction. For those with the senses to discern them, aromas, perfumes, stinks, and stenches can all convey useful information. Some scents are warnings, and others are deterrents, but the most alluring are expert portraits of our animal fascinations, honed through evolution to attract, captivate, and compel.

In this episode, we stop to smell the Russulas – examining the fascinating fragrances of Kingdom Fungi, with the help of Michael Hathaway, Merlin Sheldrake, and Anicka Yi.

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For musical credits, citations, and the Mushroom Smelling Wheel, click here.

Support the show and join our Patreon community

Cover artwork by Leya Tess

In collaboration with the Serpentine Galleries, Future Ecologies presents a choral, poetic collage featuring the voices of The Understory of the Understory: a virtual symposium bringing together practitioners from many disciplines to consider the ground beneath our feet across ecologies, politics and spiritualities. With vignettes ranging from co-evolution to condensation, from medicine to mycomorphism, and from death to dust and back again, and all generally rooted in a question of earth, soil, and territory.

General Ecology is a long-term, cross-organisational, multi-disciplinary and cross-media research project. Harnessing the network and learnings developed over the last years, the project is the Serpentine’s think tank at the porous thresholds of art, science and the humanities, bringing together the most forward-thinking researchers, artists, activists and practitioners from all disciplines to reflect on the urgent crises of the Anthropocene by thinking ecologically both within the Galleries, across a network of individuals and organisations, and in a wider context.

YouTube Playlists:

The Understory of the Understory Day 1

The Understory of the Understory Day 2

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For musical credits, citations, and more, click here.

Support the show and join our Patreon community

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Cover image: Future Ecologies x Giles Round x Bea Leiderman

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

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This ad-free podcast is supported by listeners just like you! Join our Patreon to get early episode releases, bonus content, merch, discord server access, and now toques! Head to futureecologies.net/join and choose whatever option works best for you.

Guest producers Sadie Couture and Russell Gendron explore the concept of invasive species through a look at a small island community, a species doing some serious damage to the ecosystem, and the complex issues at play when a plant or animal moves into a new territory.

Sadie and Russell talk to current and former residents of Mayne Island, Indigenous elders, and conservation professionals to think through what it means to call something an “invasive species,” how to manage our ever-changing relationships to plants and animals, and how we might prepare for the certainty of change in the future.

This episode was originally a short piece on the Mayne Island Sound Map, entitled “The Joy of Cooking Fenison.”

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We rely on listener support to make this work possible.

Support Future Ecologies for $1/month, and join the producers for a discord Ask-Us-Anything on February 3rd

https://www.patreon.com/futureecologies

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For musical credits, citations, and photos click here.

Sometimes it feels like we're all living in a garbageosphere – an ecosystem of trash and detritus. But despite the extent of anthropogenic impacts, life is resilient and infinitely creative.

Hyper-ecologies, novel ecosystems, freakosystems – different names for the same thing: never-before-seen assemblies of lifeforms, born of human disturbance. These profoundly weird ecologies are persistent, and (through a certain lens) often functional.

In this final chapter of "Nature, by Design?", we meet again with Oliver Kellhammer and Eric Higgs to discuss what we can learn from these ruderal places, and how they can empower a new way of thinking about ecological restoration.

This episode is the last in a 3-part series. Before listening to this one, you may want to catch up with Part 1: Taking the Neo-Eoscenic Route [FE3.1] & Part 2: The Path to the Wilderness Lodge [FE3.2]

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For musical credits, citations, and more, click here.

Please consider adopting an episode for transcription

💖 Support the show and join our Patreon community

This episode is the second in a 3-part series. Before listening to this one, you may want to catch up with FE3.1 - Nature, by Design? Part 1: Taking the Neo-Eoscenic Route

As we continue to discuss the practice of ecological restoration, an important question emerges: is wilderness itself an illusion? We all have a picture of wilderness in our minds, but how did that image come to be? Join us for a tale of two simulacra.

For musical credits, citations, and more, click here.

Please consider adopting an episode for transcription

Support the show and join our Patreon community

For a new season of bonus Patreon mini-episodes, we’re going beyond kelp worlds to meet the rest of our seaweed sojourners.

Today, we’re stepping into a world of colour – of light, and shadow. Our first algal introduction is a stunning seaweed, known to some as rainbow leaf (or Mazzaella).

We're unlocking this first episode of of our Patreon-exclusive series: “Seaweed Sojourning”, as we explore The Curious World of Seaweed with Josie Iselin. Pay what you can – as little as a $1 per month – to get the rest of the series, and our whole back catalogue of bonus content.

https://www.patreon.com/futureecologies

Episode artwork by Josie Iselin (from The Curious World of Seaweed). For more images of Mazzaella in its iridescent glory, check out our Instagram