The Canary Collective Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

I sat down (in bed) with fellow chronically ill canary artist Nicole Betancourt, filmmaker and producer of the upcoming film "The Unfixing" about climate crises within our bodies paralleling those on Earth. We dip into conversation about neuroplasticity, environmental toxins, ancestral trauma, Indigenous wisdom, and a future in which all are valued across the gender expression spectrum.

Content warning: There is brief mention of physical symptoms related to trauma from seggual assault, by Kaeley, around 3/4ths of the way through this podcast. The Unfixing film on Nicole's website: https://nbetancourt.com/the-unfixing Nicole Betancourt's instagram:   / n.b.patterns   KPH & The Canary Collective's work: http://www.canarycollective.org/

Filmmaker and environmental activist Adam Hersko-RonaTas says, "I have a deep love of science; however, art – and film specifically – can often be the most compelling and accessible means for us to interpret the state of humanity and our role within Nature. Where are we, how did we get here, and where are we heading?"

And as environmental artist Lauren Bon says, "Artists need to create on the same scale as society has the capacity to destroy."

Kaeley and Adam talk about his experience collaborating with LA-based artist Lauren Bon on her 2023 Desert X project “The Smallest Sea with the Largest Heart.” Through solar-powered electrolysis, Lauren’s installation aimed to transmute polluted Salton Sea water while growing a sculpture over 9 weeks.

Adam's website: https://www.ahrtwork.com/about

Adam's Instagram, specifically his video "Smallest Sea with the Largest Heart": https://www.instagram.com/p/CvDVMQIvUK9/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Lauren Bon's work:

https://www.metabolicstudio.org/about

KPH & The Canary Collective's work:

http://www.canarycollective.org/

The Canary Collective Podcast discusses themes of believing womxn for their pain with indie band Y La Bamba's Luz Elena Mendoza. Join Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm of people power indie folk band KPH & The Canary Collective as she traces the themes of gender, healthcare, and environmental justice issues behind her songs through conversation with her fellow canaries, colleagues, friends and family.  The song "Creer" was co-written, interpreted, and translated in Spanish by Luz Elena Mendoza on KPH & The Canary Collective's album "The Canary Collective: Vol 1."  

You can listen to the full album, including the song "Creer," here: https://open.spotify.com/album/2V3CfUh3oJBz4OTpw2rQUk?si=ig2axxrPSamh2T1HfXhP3A 

Luz's music with Y La Bamba: http://www.ylabamba.com/

Luz's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/luchamontana1/posts

BANDCAMP link to "Creer": https://kphmusic.bandcamp.com/track/creer-feat-luz-elena-mendoza

Join Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm of KPH & The Canary Collective for the second episode of The Canary Collective Podcast, an interview with Chiara DAngelo, Salish Sea activist.  

If you want to support her work on Glenda Brelier's campaign, a woman with Native American ancestry seeking to save the Salish Sea through work in the Washington State legislature, go here: https://www.glendaforwa.com/  

And if you want to support her work saving orca whales and restoring rivers with dam removal: https://www.whaleresearch.com/action?fbclid=IwAR2myxDa9A79aOK7-S02kHBNLJovQFD2jBbO0_zPCXRUS7gW5N9LGG-HgCU

Following the theme of the next track of the album of music, "Dam Dam," we will talk dam removal, orca whales, neurotoxins, housing, and pandemics.  Chiara chained herself like a mermaid to an Arctic oil drilling rig in protest for hours and hours. She's a badass.  I released an album "The Canary Collective: Vol 1" seeking to raise awareness about the connections between human and environmental health cries for healing. As a former community organizer mostly sidelined due to debilitating chronic illness, I have been feeling called to interview my friends and discuss the issues behind the songs and beyond.   

How are we feeling the Earth's ecosystem distress in our bodies' ecosystems? Who's at the forefront of that? What can we do to heal land, water, and bodies at all levels?

This episode features mother-son water rights activist team Luke and Nickie Sekera. Nickie's T-shirt saying "I've Been to the Future...and We Won!" -not to mention Luke and her badass work against water privatization - inspired me to write the first song on "The Canary Collective: Vol 1" album, "Been to the Future." We imagine and even pretend we won and revel in our success during a podcast reunion interview in the year 2045.

Support their work at https://www.communitywaterjustice.com/

Watch the video of our Zoom interview on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qxS5b0gv2s

Hi, I'm Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm of people power indie folk group KPH & The Canary Collective.

Being an activist and a musician have always been a part of who I am. I've always aspired to be a sort of "musical Erin Brockovich," helping connect the dots and not sit silently while my friends and family are made sick because of corporations taking shortcuts in the name of profit. Since becoming disabled by chronic illness in 2015 and sidelined from my job in the non-profit world, I'm feeling more than ever the need for conversation around healing - healing the ecosystems of our bodies and healing the ecosystems of our Earth.

So I started a podcast! During a global public health epidemic. What better time than now to interview canaries who are at the forefront of human and environmental crises? We'll talk about problems of the world - from orca whales going extinct to the rise of autoimmune diagnoses. And most importantly, we'll talk about solutions. And we'll even sometimes sing and play games on air dreaming up what the world would look like if it were healed of these problems.

In February 2020, I released an album of music called "The Canary Collective: Vol 1" full of songs about healing and building the world we want.

So this podcast is going to start out by tracing the steps of these songs and delving deeper through conversation, exploring the people and topics that inspired me to write these tunes.

So welcome! Join us! Let's sing our way out of this mine together!

Captions available via the Youtube of this episode:

https://youtu.be/kErHGqt25vQ

I'm coming back from a year hiatus from The Canary Collective Podcast to share with you a conversation on disability resource access that I had with Alison Sbrana (she/her). Alison got ME/CFS 9 years ago after Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) and now helps support other patients who have ME/CFS and Long COVID through her advocacy and support with organizations such as MEAction, Body Politic (@wearebodypolitic on Instagram) and even a CDC-funded panel of patient and doctor advocates. She's a co-author of the Long COVID Survival Guide.

Thank you, Alison, for sharing invaluable tips you have for "hacking" the broken healthcare system and getting SSDI / SSI / home health help with compensated caregivers who can do things like meal prep and other day to day tasks. It's giving me so much hope!

Body Politics (click here for the Support Group Slack for recommended practitioners): https://www.wearebodypolitic.com/

NPR Article on The Long COVID Survival Guide: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/18/1137661071/the-long-covid-survival-guide-to-finding-care-and-community

Follow Alison's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alisonsbrana/?hl=en

Follow more of Kaeley of KPH & The Canary Collective's work at http://www.canarycollective.org/

Support my (Kaeley's) medical treatment and music on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kph

I, Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm, interview Ssanyu, Bone Healer, who has an M.S. in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. She combines her Ugandan ancestral medicine healing knowledge with many other modalities across the "East" and "West" and in between and we talk about different ways we envision the Western medical system healing into a more holistic, authentic model that works for more people in a deeper way. I was introduced to Ssanyu through my friend Chelsea Rose's wonderful "Bloom" podcast interview with her.  

Connect with Ssanyu's work and learn more at https://www.letgoandletlove.com/work-with-me

Connect with Kaeley's work at http://www.canarycollective.org/

I, Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm of KPH & The Canary Collective, get to speak with Steve Hawley, co-creator of the documentary "Dammed to Extinction," about how we can advocate for justice for orca whales, salmon, and Indigenous communities by calling for the removal of the four lower Snake river dams. We also discuss the parallels between human and orca whale health challenges. 

You can take action in a fun and easy way! Take a selfie with orca art, write a hand-written letter, or dance/sing/play along to a song for a virtual Canary Choir and Orca-stra and post, tag, and mail to public officials who are deciding on whether or not to remove the dams - officials like Governor Jay Inslee and Senator Patty Murray. 

Visit http://www.canarycollective.org/canary-choir-and-orca-stra.html for instructions on how you can take action! 

Visit https://www.dammedtoextinction.com/ to view Steve's film 

https://youtu.be/cw2YmCkVS04 for the trailer

Follow @kphcanarycollective on Instagram for more updates.

I (Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm of KPH & The Canary Collective) got the dirt in this episode for ya!

As Naomi Klein says, "no" is not enough - what do we want to say "yes" to? We say "No" to pesticides making people sick, "no" to the hunger epidemic around the world, "no" to storms and droughts ruining communities. Let's say "yes" to organic and regenerative agriculture!

I interviewed Jeff Tkach of The Rodale Institute about organic farming, soil health, and his own chronic illness story back in May 2020. He is doing some seriously amazing work.  We are living out a nature metaphor in our bodies through our canary chronic illness experience right now - if we don't heal the soil ecosystems on this planet, we will only have 59 years left of food we can grow on this planet and the storms will keep getting more intense. If we don't heal the ecosystems in our bodies (and heal our food, water, and air so that we can heal our bodies), then the storms of chronic illness and inflammation within our bodies will keep getting more intense. Let's save ourselves and the planet with smart, sustainable solutions! 

To find out more about The Rodale Institute and become a monthly sustainer of their work, visit https://rodaleinstitute.org/
To find a Functional Medicine practitioner, visit: https://www.ifm.org/find-a-practitioner/

This episode was recorded across space and time on occupied lands of Arapahoe and other indigenous First Nations communities across the "United States of America."