Mother Daughter Earth: an Environmental Sustainability Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode, we have the pleasure of sitting down with an incredible, dynamic duo: Maithreyi Ramdas and Deven Nelson from People Heart Planet! People Heart Planet is an awesome ethical shopping platform that makes it very easy to discover and shop ethical clothing, fashion, and home goods while providing consumers with information about the ethical consumer transformation and lifestyle. Unlike mainstream shopping platforms, they only work with companies and brands that treat people fairly and respect the planet.

Essentially, Maithreyi and Deven do all the legwork for us! They find the brands that we would love to purchase from and make them all available for our perusal on one simple platform. In my mom's own words, "Your website made me want to be a better person and showed me how to do it. I haven’t had a website inspire me this much in years."

Please join our conversation and learn how Maithreyi and Deven met and came up with this wonderful idea, how they find and vet/verify the brands on their website, and why sustainable and ethical consumerism is so important.

We loved our conversation with these two incredible women, and encourage everyone to go check out People Heart Planet!

- Website: https://peopleheartplanet.com/

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peopleheartplanet/ 

- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peopleheartplanet/

Mother Daughter Earth Links:

- Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/motherdaughterearth

- Follow us on Instagram: @motherdaughterearth (www.instagram/motherdaughterearth)

- Visit our website: www.motherdaughterearth.biz

Rice provides 1/5th of the calories consumed worldwide, more than wheat or corn, and you hardly ever hear about it in conversations about sustainable agriculture. In this episode, we sit down with Mike Wagner, whose family has been farming in the Mississippi Delta for generations. He tells us all about the farming practices he and his family implement to have a small ecological, carbon, and water footprint while maintaining production and quality in a symbiotic and biologically dynamic environment.  

He talks about how his fields filter the water they use and create a natural habitat that supports aquatic life. He lets nature take care of nearly all of their tilling needs and the waterfowl provide at least half of their fertilizing requirements. 

It was an incredible conversation with a hilarious storyteller, and we learned so much about a topic we hardly knew anything about. We appreciate everything Mike and his family do on a daily basis to help the environment through their farming practices. Since speaking with Mike, my mom and I have both purchased several bags of rice from their website, and I can honestly say it is probably the most delicious rice I've ever tasted! We highly recommend it!

Go visit their website at https://www.twobrooksfarm.com/ (to purchase some rice!) and follow them on social media @twobrooksrice (on IG and Facebook).

Mother Daughter Earth Links:

Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/motherdaughterearth 

Follow us on Instagram: @motherdaughterearth (www.instagram/motherdaughterearth) 

Visit our website: www.motherdaughterearth.biz

On this episode of Mother Daughter EarthCast, we chat with Ron Mills, the owner of the East Dallas location of Wild Birds Unlimited. Wild Birds Unlimited is the original and largest franchise system of backyard bird feeding and nature specialty stores with more than 300 locations throughout the United States and Canada. They specialize in bringing people and nature together with bird feeding and nature products, expert advice and educational events.  

Ron is incredibly knowledgeable about birds and definitely the biggest bird enthusiast we've ever chatted with. In our conversation with him, we dive deep into the benefits of providing food, water, and shelter for birds in your yard (his answer might surprise you!), what are some simple first steps you can take to start creating a bird haven, what you need to know about the different kinds of bird food, and more!  

Join us on Patreon for our bonus episode with Ron where breaks down what an at-home bird consultation looks like and what his top tips are to create an environment that's conducive to bird watching. My mom had one of his consultations, so we can attest that he's the best!  

Learn more about all the awesome bird products that Ron sells at wbu.com/eastdallas and visit their social media pages for regular updates https://www.facebook.com/wbudallaseast/ and https://www.instagram.com/wbudallaseast/    

Mother Daughter Earth links: 

- Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/motherdaughterearth 

- Follow us on Instagram: @motherdaughterearth (www.instagram/motherdaughterearth) 

- Visit our website: www.motherdaughterearth.biz

The past year and a half seems to have been one lesson in patience after another, and it made us think about how nature has taught us so many things as well. People ask us a lot about how we communicate with nature and what that is like. In this episode, we dive deeper into what learning from nature is like for us and what it has been sharing lately. 

Mother Daughter Earth Links:

- Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/motherdaughterearth

- Follow us on Instagram: @motherdaughterearth (www.instagram/motherdaughterearth)

- Visit our website: www.motherdaughterearth.biz

Matt Stubbs is a Sr. Associate at the Kevin Sloan Studio, an internationally recognized landscape architecture firm based here in Dallas, TX. Matt received his degree in Landscape Architecture from Texas A&M, and he and his colleagues are dedicated to creating spaces where landscape architecture, urban design and the environment meet culture and in turn foster vibrant communities. The Kevin Sloan Studio is at the forefront in our area of addressing environmental concerns through landscaping and has been on our radar for a while now; we're so excited to have Matt on the podcast!

In this episode, we talk to Matt about all things rewilding (or wildscaping). Rewilding is a growing movement that focuses on returning domesticated land back to its natural state, and the Kevin Sloan Studio team members are masters at doing that in an incredibly thoughtful way. Matt talks about a few of the projects they've completed that highlight this landscaping practice and how he goes about thinking about designs that benefit people, the environment, and native wildlife. He has so many nuggets of wisdom to share, one of which was the inspiration for our episode's title: "you don't need to reinvent, you just need to rewild."

If you'd like to get in touch with Matt, you can email him at ms@kevinsloanstudio.com.

Episode links: 

- Kevin Sloan Studio website: http://kevinsloanstudio.com/

- Instagram and Facebook: @kevinsloanstudio

- https://rewild.org/ 

Mother Daughter Earth Links:

- Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/motherdaughterearth

- Follow us on Instagram: @motherdaughterearth (www.instagram/motherdaughterearth)

- Visit our website: www.motherdaughterearth.biz

In this episode, we have a great conversation with two Board Members and volunteers with Friends of the Northaven Trail, an organization in Dallas, TX that supports, maintains, and beautifies one of North Dallas’ most popular hike and bike trail.

Dorothy Buechel and Jeff Kitner tell us about how their project came to be, and they describe the amazing partnerships that were made to transform this dead space around power lines into a bustling, and widely used trail. They share how the got the necessary funding, how an innovative program called “Trail Captains” systemized the trail maintenance, and how they engage trail users with fun activities throughout the year.

The Friends of the Northaven Trail is an amazing example of how a community organization can effectively organize to change a neighborhood for the better, and we hope you take away some tips on how you can do something similar in your neighborhood!

Head over to our Patreon page to catch our bonus episode where Jeff and Dorothy give us a behind the scenes on ways to effectively and successfully manage a community non-profit.

Friends of Northaven Trail links:

• Website: www.NorthavenTrail.org
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/FriendsofNorthavenTrail
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/northaventraildallas
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/NorthavenTrail
• Email: info@northaventrail.org
  

Mother Daughter Earth Links:

- Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/motherdaughterearth

- Follow us on Instagram: @motherdaughterearth (www.instagram/motherdaughterearth)

- Visit our website: www.motherdaughterearth.biz

Chris Wiesinger is the owner of The Southern Bulb Company (https://www.southernbulbs.com/) in Golden, Texas and co-author of The Bulb Hunter. 

In this episode, we have a really fun conversation with Chris about how he got interested in bulbs, the journey of how his name evolved from The Bulb Boy to The Bulb Hunter after being featured in a New York Times article, and how important native, perennial bulbs are to the southern ecosystems. He talks about his experience hunting for bulbs and sharing the love of perennial bulbs through his company. Chris and the team at The Sourthern Bulb Company seek to "recapture something that was once 'lost' to the Southern gardener: bulbs that thrive in warm climates, many of which are heirloom and rare flower bulbs."

We hope you enjoy our conversation with Chris as much as we did! 

Episode Links:

- Southern Bulb Company Instagram: @TheSouthernBulbCo

- Chris' blog: https://bulbhunter.com/ 

- Chris' book, The Bulb Hunter: https://www.southernbulbs.com/the-bulb-hunter-by-chris-wiesinger/ 

Mother Daughter Earth Links:

- Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/motherdaughterearth

- Follow us on Instagram: @motherdaughterearth (www.instagram/motherdaughterearth)

- Visit our website: www.motherdaughterearth.biz

In this episode, Janet Smith paints an amazing picture of what life is like for a Monarch butterfly, what the state of their population is, why we should be concerned, and what we can do to help them.

Janet is a North Texas Master Naturalist, one of the main leaders of the Dallas County Native Plant Society and one of the most requested speakers on the Dallas County Master Gardeners Speakers Bureau; after speaking with her and experiencing her passion and depth of knowledge firsthand, we can see why!

In this weeks’ bonus episode, Janet goes more in depth about what we can do to help the Monarchs and become Citizen Scientists.

Helpful links

- Citizen Science: https://www.citizenscience.gov/#

- Journey North: https://journeynorth.org/?arb-home

- Dplex Monarch Butterfly discussion list: https://lists.ku.edu/listinfo/dplex-l

- Monarch Watch: https://www.monarchwatch.org/

Mother Daughter Earth links:

- Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/motherdaughterearth

- Follow us on Instagram: @motherdaughterearth (www.instagram/motherdaughterearth)

- Visit our website: www.motherdaughterearth.biz

Shreya Ramachandran is a high school senior and global leader in water conservation. We talk about her passion for water conservation and grey water reuse and what an integral piece of the larger environmental conservation puzzle it is. She touches on how many aspects of sustainability flow back into the need to conserve and protect our water resources. She shares how personally experiencing a terrible drought in California five years ago sparked her interest in water conservation and after a trip to India she realized what a global issue water scarcity is and how similarly it affects people around the world.

She created her non-profit, The Grey Water Project, in 2016 because she wanted to do her part in promoting the safe reuse of grey water and water conservation through outreach, advocacy, policy changes and grey water curricula. Her curricula is available for free and so far has impacted more than 50,000 people in 90+ schools across four countries.

Shreya has some many amazing accomplishments, but here are a few highlights: in 2017, she was awarded the President’s Environmental Youth Award and invited to become a member of the United Nation’s Global Waste Water Initiative, her research received a grand award at the 2019 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, she was named a Top 20 Global Finalist in the 2019 Google Science Fair, and she also received the 2019 Children’s Climate Prize, an international award given to one environmentalist each year.

Go check out her website and learn more about her amazing work!

The Grey Water Project website: https://www.thegreywaterproject.org/home

Ambassador program: https://www.thegreywaterproject.org/programs

Mother Daughter Earth links:

- Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/motherdaughterearth

- Follow us on Instagram: @motherdaughterearth (www.instagram/motherdaughterearth)

- Visit our website: www.motherdaughterearth.biz

Matt White is the author of Prairie Time: A Blackland Portrait, an intriguing book where he describes connections with native prairies through stories of discovery and inspiration as he searches for their dwindling parcels. Matt White made prairies come alive for us during this conversation! We’ve never met someone so passionate about native prairies and the important role they play; we tend to get inspired by oceans, mountains, and forests, but people don’t place the spotlight on prairies often enough!

Matt talks about how his passion for prairies started with a school project and progressed to him deciding to go out and hunt for prairies on his own to then being inspired to write a book about them. We talk about why we should care about prairies; Matt gives a very unique answer to that and ties it to our nation’s history in such a thought provoking way. He teaches us that several hundred years ago, prairies were actually sprinkled among forests and mountains. Matt also talks about how America has a different idea of what a frontier is: for Americans, frontier is an “empty” space that we migrate to, and the prairies have been considered empty space in our history and they still are. It’s both a prairie lesson and a history lesson all in one!

- Native Prairie Association of Texas: https://texasprairie.org/ 

- More Prairie Time blog: https://moreprairietime.wordpress.com/ 

Mother Daughter Earth links:

- Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/motherdaughterearth

- Follow us on Instagram: @motherdaughterearth (www.instagram/motherdaughterearth)

- Visit our website: www.motherdaughterearth.biz