Show Notes

Welcome to The Wild Spectacle Podcast, a flash-cast limited series with host Janisse Ray about ongoing and meaningful participation in a world that matters.

Michelle Dowd is the author of Forager: Field Notes on Surviving a Family Cult. The book showcases her life growing up on an isolated mountain in California as part of an apocalyptic cult, called The Field, started by her grandfather. In the Angeles National Forest she learned to identify flora and fauna, navigate by the stars, forage for edible plants, and care for the earth. Her memoir details how she found her way out of poverty and illness by drawing on the gifts of the wilderness. What saves her, ultimately, is her biblical relationship with the natural world. Michelle is a contributor toThe New York Times, The Los Angeles Book Review, The Alpinist, and other fine publications. A journalism professor at Chaffey College, she founded their award-winning literary journal, The Chaffey Review and has been named lecturer of the year.

Highlights

2:30—Michelle chooses an 8 on the wild scale. Find out her three reasons why.

3:26—She tells about her wildest experience, living off and sleeping on the land when she was 16 years old.

4:09—“In my case I did not hunt.”

5:45—Why Michelle was afraid to talk about her childhood for a long time.

6:10—Embarrassment and shame.

7:00—How the cult used the latrine while on mission trips to Mexico.

7:27—Michelle’s feelings on the proselytizing she was asked to do as a child.

8:39—What her yard looks like.

9:00—She has never used a pesticide of any sort.

9:15—Concerns about the word “natural.”

10:30—The question Michelle asks herself every day.

10:55—Michelle suggests a surprising way to rewild.

11:20—Finding a relationship with the earth through the feet.

11:37—How this changes your relationship with the sky.

12:00—How we can become more comfortable eating wild food.

“Think about epiphany. Think about change. Think about the moments that make your face burn, your fingers tingle. Wild Spectacle is about those shocks, encounters that shift the way we see the world and ourselves in it…If the water we drink is maybe older than the sun, then ancient magic pounds inside our skins, too. So speak it. Tell it forth. Cry aloud and call it back home.”

            -Joni Tevis, author of The Wet Collection and The World is On Fire

Thank you for listening.

Please give this show a thumbs-up, leave a comment, post it on your socials, and/or forward it to your friends.

Janisse Ray’s book Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humansinspired the podcast. If you’d like a copy of the book, visit your favorite bookstore or library. Or you may order at www.janisseray.com/bookshop.

Find Janisse on Facebook at Janisse Ray and on Instagram @janisseray_writer.

Thanks to Axletree for their beautiful music, “Clothe the Fields with Plenty,” an orchestral piece inspired by a traditional Hampshire folk song, “The Painful Plough,” from Axletree’s project “Music from a Hampshire Farm.” Thanks to the Free Music Archive.

We’re eager for new voices on the show, so if you’d like to come on and tell a story, be in touch at Janisse Ray’s website, janisseray.com/contact.

Go Out & Play

If we’re going to make a dent in changing our world, we have to understand what kind of amazements it contains. So many people begin to work on behalf of the planet because they see a natural phenomenon, large or small, that infuses them with admiration and wonder. So get out in nature. Take a friend with you. Especially a child. Go see a wild phenomenon. Amaze yourself. Connect yourself. Let’s get wild!

Welcome to The Wild Spectacle Podcast, a flash-cast series with host Janisse Ray about ongoing and meaningful participation in a world that matters.

I want to welcome you to the show with a very special guest, the writer and my dear friend Susan Cerulean. Susan and I met in the mid-80s in Tallahassee, Florida, started a writing group, and basically still carry it on with a decades-long conversation about nature writing. In 2006 she published Tracking Desire: A Journey after Swallow-tailed Kites, which was named an Editors’ Choice title by Audubon magazine. Her book Coming to Pass: Florida’s Coastal Islands in a Gulf of Change was followed by I Have Been Assigned the Single Bird, which Terry Tempest Williams called “an elegant memoir of devotion and imagination.” Susan has worked ceaselessly on behalf of wildness—she is especially drawn to the coast and to birds.

Highlights

2:20—Susan explains her place on the wild chart.

3:40—She talks about her book I Have Been Assigned the Single Bird.

4:45—This was a day when her father was in hospice and she was getting a “breather of a day.”

5:56—The bird in the middle was a red knot.

6:20—A short reading from the book.

7:40—Beside the dying bird’s head was a sanderling. At the rear flank was a second red knot. Nearby were two lesser yellowlegs.

9:00—These four birds were vigil birds.

10:30—“They were just being with.”

11:44—“We all continued to breathe.”

12:00—Shorebirds tie our planet together with their journeys.

13:15—Janisse talks about two words that particularly moved her.

14:08—Susan names the common spectacles she sees around her home.

14:49—The day cedar waxwings arrive & the day they leave.

15:10—A mulberry tree is a place of gathering.

16:16—The word that names Susan’s role in the world.

18:07—Think about your place as a bioregion. How does the place define herself?

20:50—Final advice.

“Think about epiphany. Think about change. Think about the moments that make your face burn, your fingers tingle. Wild Spectacle is about those shocks, encounters that shift the way we see the world and ourselves in it…If the water we drink is maybe older than the sun, then ancient magic pounds inside our skins, too. So speak it. Tell it forth. Cry aloud and call it back home.”

            -Joni Tevis, author of The Wet Collection and The World is On Fire

Thank You for Listening

If you like what we’re doing here, give this show a thumbs-up, post it on your socials, and/or forward it to your friends.

Janisse Ray’s book Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans inspired the podcast. If you’d like a copy of the book, visit your favorite bookstore or library. Or you may order a signed copy here. 

Find Janisse on Facebook at “Janisse Ray, Author” and on Instagram @janisseray_writer.

Thanks to Axletree for their beautiful music, “Clothe the Fields with Plenty,” an orchestral piece inspired by a traditional Hampshire folk song, “The Painful Plough,” from Axletree’s project “Music from a Hampshire Farm.” Thanks to the Free Music Archive.

We’re eager for new voices on the show, so if you’d like to come on and tell a story, be in touch.

Go See Some Nature

If we’re going to make a dent in changing our world, we have to understand what kind of amazements it contains. So many people begin to work on behalf of the planet because they see a natural phenomenon, large or small, that infuses them with admiration and wonder. So get out in nature. Take a friend with you. Especially a child. Go see a wild phenomenon. Amaze yourself. Connect yourself. 

Welcome to The Wild Spectacle Podcast, a flash-cast series with host Janisse Ray about ongoing and meaningful participation in a world that matters.

Episode 2 | Dr. Anandam Kavoori

Andy is a professor of Entertainment & Media Studies at the University of Georgia, where he coordinates the Environmental Communication Initiative of Grady College. In his writing, Dr. Kavoori, who was born in India, engages with issues of place, identity, and media culture in a transnational context. He spent the summer of 2020 on a Fulbright in U.S. Studies at the Universidad Veracruzana in Mexico. Dr. Kavoori is the author of The Logics of Globalization; Thinking Television; and Global Bollywood. He is also a novelist.

Highlights of the Story 

2:14—Where Andy falls on the wild chart.

3:45—He describes the dry, thorny forests of his youth.

3:49—The Hindi word for slingshot is “gulei.”

6:28—What he learned from a wild monkey.

7:15—“Your listeners need to know that I grew up in a world without television.”

7:45—Mimicking monkeys.

8:30—The small spectacles that happen regularly for Andy.

9:25—He marvels at Trichonephila clavate, or joro spider, an invasive that is colonizing the East Coast

10:48—one suggestion for how to rewild yourself.

12:00—how a natural artifact represents a story.

Thank you for listening. If you like what we’re doing here, give this show a thumbs-up, post it on your socials, and/or forward it to your friends.  

Janisse Ray’s book Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans inspired the podcast. If you’d like a copy of the book, visit your favorite bookstore or library. Or you may order at www.janisseray.com/bookshop.  

Find Janisse on Facebook at “Janisse Ray, Author” and on Instagram @janisseray_writer. 

Thanks to Axletree for their beautiful music, “Clothe the Fields with Plenty,” an orchestral piece inspired by a traditional Hampshire folk song, “The Painful Plough,” from Axletree’s project “Music from a Hampshire Farm.” Thanks to the Free Music Archive. 

We’re eager for new voices on the show, so if you’d like to come on and tell a story, be in touch at Janisse Ray’s website, janisseray.com/contact.

If we’re going to make a dent in changing our world, we have to understand what kind of amazements it contains. So many people begin to work on behalf of the planet because they see a natural phenomenon, large or small, that infuses them with admiration and wonder. So get out in nature. Take a friend with you. Especially a child. Go see a wild phenomenon. Amaze yourself. Connect yourself. Let’s get wild!

“Think about epiphany. Think about change. Think about the moments that make your face burn, your fingers tingle. Wild Spectacle is about those shocks, encounters that shift the way we see the world and ourselves in it…If the water we drink is maybe older than the sun, then ancient magic pounds inside our skins, too. So speak it. Tell it forth. Cry aloud and call it back home.”

            -Joni Tevis, author of The Wet Collection and The World is On Fire

Novelist, publisher, and cultural icon Tina McElroy Ansa tells the story of visiting a plantation on St. Simons Island along Georgia's Coast, only to find that something was not right. As she says, "I didn't think it through."

Tina's first novel, Baby of the Family, earned all kinds of accolades, including New York Times Notable. Most recently she edited and published (through her DownSouth Press) an anthology called Meeting at the Table: African-American Women Writing on Race, Culture, and Community. Above all, Tina is an unforgettable human being and a friend I’ve known for two decades.

Show Notes

Welcome to The Wild Spectacle Podcast, a flash-cast series with host Janisse Ray about ongoing and meaningful participation in a world that matters.

Bio

Susan Usha Dermond is a teacher. She began her career teaching English in public high schools, then pivoted and taught for many years in the Education for Life system, mostly in the fourth through ninth grades at the first Living Wisdom School at Ananda Village in northern California. She is the author of a handbook for teachers and parents, Calm and Compassionate Children (Random House). She lives in the Sierra foothills of northern California in an intentional community based on yoga and meditation principles.  Her favorite activities are gardening, reading, and watching tufted titmice.

Highlights

2:20—Susan names how wild she is.

3:00—The story begins.

4:05—“I noticed a little movement.”

4:55—The snake looks as if it has crawled through ashes.

6:00—“I was one with everything.”

7:05—We talk about people who animals trust.

8:15—Why Susan doesn’t put up feeders.

8:50—She names her favorite bird.

10:35—Susan names a very different way to rewild.

11:25—She calls for planting living growing things other than grass as space and cover for wildlife.

“Think about epiphany. Think about change. Think about the moments that make your face burn, your fingers tingle. Wild Spectacle is about those shocks, encounters that shift the way we see the world and ourselves in it…If the water we drink is maybe older than the sun, then ancient magic pounds inside our skins, too. So speak it. Tell it forth. Cry aloud and call it back home.”

            -Joni Tevis, author of The Wet Collection and The World is On Fire

Thank you for listening.

If you like what we’re doing here, give this show a thumbs-up, post it on your socials, and/or forward it to your friends.

Janisse Ray’s book Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humansinspired the podcast. If you’d like a copy of the book, visit your favorite bookstore or library. Or you may order at www.janisseray.com/bookshop.

Find Janisse on Facebook at “Janisse Ray, Author” and on Instagram @janisseray_writer.

Thanks to Axletree for their beautiful music, “Clothe the Fields with Plenty,” an orchestral piece inspired by a traditional Hampshire folk song, “The Painful Plough,” from Axletree’s project “Music from a Hampshire Farm.” Thanks to the Free Music Archive.

We’re eager for new voices on the show, so if you’d like to come on and tell a story, be in touch at Janisse Ray’s website, janisseray.com/contact.

Get Outside Today

If we’re going to make a dent in changing our world, we have to understand what kind of amazements it contains. So many people begin to work on behalf of the planet because they see a natural phenomenon, large or small, that infuses them with admiration and wonder. So get out in nature. Take a friend with you. Especially a child. Go see a wild phenomenon. Amaze yourself. Connect yourself. Let’s get wild!

Show Notes

Welcome to The Wild Spectacle Podcast, a flash-cast series with host Janisse Ray about ongoing and meaningful participation in a world that matters.

Ep #9 | Gary Grossman | Swimming with Fishes 

Gary is a scholar and multi-dimensional creator from Athens, Georgia. Gary recently retired as distinguished research professor of animal ecology at the University of Georgia, with most of his work in the area of fisheries. His graphic memoir is My Life in Fish: One Scientist’s Journey. He is a poet, musician, and a lover of sustainable writing pens.

Highlights

2:10—Gary chooses his place on the wild chart.

3:15—He donned a mask and snorkel and stuck his head in a California stream.

3:50—“It was an eye-opening experience.”

4:00—Deer Creek in the Sacramento Valley.

4:20—Gary speaks of the high biodiversity of the southern U.S. 

4:30—Salamanders in Appalachia.

4:40—The number of fish species he would see in Appalachia.

5:18—He defines a microhabitat in stream ecology.

6:12—Streams in the West are typically quite clear.

6:45—Why humans are fascinated by fish.

7:00—There are more fish species than all other species vertebrates combined.

7:28—The strangeness of fish.

8:18—Riffle sculpin & tulle perch & rainbow trout & more

8:58—Why, if you walk up on a stream, the fish scatter.

9:15—But if you’re in the water, you’re a log. They don’t recognize you as danger.

9:55—As if Gary was seeing reality for the first time.

10:40—Nature in Athens, Georgia.

11:05—He speaks of mindfulness. Be in the moment.

12:25—Gary offers his tips on how we might rewild ourselves.

13:00—Place yourself in habitats where there are things to see.

13:10—The restoration of peregrine falcons.

13:40—The practice of studying nature.

14:20—The two books from which Gary learned how to forage.

 “Think about epiphany. Think about change. Think about the moments that make your face burn, your fingers tingle. Wild Spectacle is about those shocks, encounters that shift the way we see the world and ourselves in it…If the water we drink is maybe older than the sun, then ancient magic pounds inside our skins, too. So speak it. Tell it forth. Cry aloud and call it back home.”

            -Joni Tevis, author of The Wet Collection and The World is On Fire

Thank you for listening. 

If you like what we’re doing here, give this show a thumbs-up, post it on your socials, and/or forward it to your friends.  

Janisse Ray’s book Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans inspired the podcast. If you’d like a copy of the book, visit your favorite bookstore or library. Or you may order at www.janisseray.com/bookshop.  

Find Janisse on Facebook at “Janisse Ray, Author” and on Instagram @janisseray_writer. 

Thanks to Axletree for their beautiful music, “Clothe the Fields with Plenty,” an orchestral piece inspired by a traditional Hampshire folk song, “The Painful Plough,” from Axletree’s project “Music from a Hampshire Farm.” Thanks to the Free Music Archive. 

We’re eager for new voices on the show, so if you’d like to come on and tell a story, be in touch at Janisse Ray’s website, janisseray.com/contact. 

Go See Some Nature 

If we’re going to make a dent in changing our world, we have to understand what kind of amazements it contains. So many people begin to work on behalf of the planet because they see a natural phenomenon, large or small, that infuses them with admiration and wonder. So get out in nature. Take a friend with you. Especially a child. Go see a wild phenomenon. Amaze yourself. Connect yourself. Let’s get wild!

Welcome to The Wild Spectacle Podcast, a flash-cast series with host Janisse Ray about ongoing and meaningful participation in a world that matters.

Bio of Guest

Roseanna is an activist who lives in the Olympic Peninsula, in Port Townsend, Washington. She is a full-time volunteer. Born in Texas, she spent 30 years as an educator, teaching English and reading, most of that time spent at Darton College and Albany State University. There she was editor of the Flint River Review. She and her husband retired to the Pacific Northwest, where she serves on many boards and committees aimed at making the world a better place. She is a poet and a keen observer of nature.

Roseanna’s hyphenated surname is pronounced All my ee-Neigh jaw dee.

Note

Roseanna and I had trouble with a bit of distortion during the recording. Although she moved closer to her modem, we were not able to eliminate all of it. I apologize for any flaws you hear in the sound.

Highlights

2:00—How Roseanna’s wildness comes out.

2:43—We think of fog as a blanket.

3:13—Fog was not just a blanket in fairy tales and mythology.

3:38—She is sitting in Snoqualmie Pass next to a dropoff thousands of feet deep. Here is a short video captured by Seth Yates of fog rolling like a waterfall in Snoqualmie.

4:17—“I sense something or someone over my left shoulder.”

6:45—You can’t see the end of your car.

7:30—Something is very different about the fog in the Pacific Northwest.

8:00—Microclimates change the way fog acts in a place.

9:08—La Push, in the rainforest of the Olympic Peninsula, is home to the Quileute Nation.

9:23—Everything is alive, everything is sentient.

9:37—Roseanna lives among the fog people.

10:15—Three hundred deer people live in the city limits of Port Townsend. Here is a Facebook page for the deer, filled with interesting photos.

11:30—How to get out in nature, even if you’re not athletic.

12:33—A plea that you not cut your lawn so often.

“Think about epiphany. Think about change. Think about the moments that make your face burn, your fingers tingle. Wild Spectacle is about those shocks, encounters that shift the way we see the world and ourselves in it…If the water we drink is maybe older than the sun, then ancient magic pounds inside our skins, too. So speak it. Tell it forth. Cry aloud and call it back home.”

            -Joni Tevis, author of The Wet Collection and The World is On Fire

Thank You for Listening

If you like what we’re doing here, give this show a thumbs-up, post it on your socials, and/or forward it to your friends.

Janisse Ray’s book Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humansinspired the podcast. If you’d like a copy of the book, visit your favorite bookstore or library. You may order a signed copy here.

Find Janisse on Facebook at “Janisse Ray, Author” and on Instagram @janisseray_writer.

Thanks to Axletree for their beautiful music, “Clothe the Fields with Plenty,” an orchestral piece inspired by a traditional Hampshire folk song, “The Painful Plough,” from Axletree’s project “Music from a Hampshire Farm.” Thanks to the Free Music Archive.

We’re eager for new voices on the show, so if you’d like to come on and tell a story, be in touch.

Enjoy Nature

If we’re going to make a dent in changing our world, we have to understand what kind of amazements it contains. So many people begin to work on behalf of the planet because they see a natural phenomenon, large or small, that infuses them with admiration and wonder. So get out in nature. Take a friend with you. Especially a child. Go see a wild phenomenon. Amaze yourself. Connect yourself. Let’s get wild!

Show Notes

Welcome to The Wild Spectacle Podcast, a flash-cast series with host Janisse Ray about ongoing and meaningful participation in a world that matters.

Bio

Although I share a surname with Mark Ray, we haven’t figured out a kinship other than our love of nature. Ray is a natural resources consultant who has managed over 500 environmental projects in 30 states. His jam is habitat restoration, but he also does endangered species surveys, mitigation banking, and much more. Both his paying job & his passion for nature combine to ensure that he’s outside a lot. He’s also a gardener and a photographer. 

Highlights 

2:08—Mark reveals, on the chart, how wild he is.

2:45—When he turned 30, he headed to the American West.

3:55—Near Big Bend, he passes one other car in a 100-mile stretch of highway.

4:30—He found the West very different from the Midwest, where he was from.

5:05—He finds himself at Bitterlake National Wildlife Refuge.

5:15—He’d heard that thousands of snow geese were there.

5:45—“A beam of light came flying over these hills.”

6:00—What 140,000 wings sound like.

7:27—The Copper Mountains of New Mexico are also called the Bridgers.

7:30—Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

7:50—The temperature lowers to 12 degrees.

8:00—“A sound environment.”

9:00—Only the legs of the cranes are showing, beneath a blanket of fog.

10:00—He estimates the numbers of cranes in the hundreds.

12:30—Three coyotes sing to the moon.

13:15—He tells where he finds small amazements.

14:15—Mark tells how he teaches his students to use their senses. 

16:05—He likes to take wild notes.

16:25—He birds at Kennesaw Mountain.

17:10—“You have a superpower.”

17:30—Practice the art of using all of our senses.

“Think about epiphany. Think about change. Think about the moments that make your face burn, your fingers tingle. Wild Spectacle is about those shocks, encounters that shift the way we see the world and ourselves in it…If the water we drink is maybe older than the sun, then ancient magic pounds inside our skins, too. So speak it. Tell it forth. Cry aloud and call it back home.”

            -Joni Tevis, author of The Wet Collection and The World is On Fire

Thank You for Listening

If you like what we’re doing here, give this show a thumbs-up, post it on your socials, and/or forward it to your friends.  

Janisse Ray’s book Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans inspired the podcast. If you’d like a copy of the book, visit your favorite bookstore or library. Or you may order at www.janisseray.com/bookshop.  

Find Janisse on Facebook at “Janisse Ray, Author” and on Instagram @janisseray_writer. 

Thanks to Axletree for their beautiful music, “Clothe the Fields with Plenty,” an orchestral piece inspired by a traditional Hampshire folk song, “The Painful Plough,” from Axletree’s project “Music from a Hampshire Farm.” Thanks to the Free Music Archive. We’re eager for new voices on the show, so if you’d like to come on and tell a story, be in touch at Janisse Ray’s website, janisseray.com/contact. 

Go See Some Nature

If we’re going to make a dent in changing our world, we have to understand what kind of amazements it contains. So many people begin to work on behalf of the planet because they see a natural phenomenon, large or small, that infuses them with admiration and wonder. So get out in nature. Take a friend with you. Especially a child. Go see a wild phenomenon. Amaze yourself. Connect yourself. Let’s get wild!

Show Notes

Welcome to The Wild Spectacle Podcast, a flash-cast series with host Janisse Ray about ongoing and meaningful participation in a world that matters.

Jeanne is an eco-therapist or nature-based counselor who practices in the beautiful mountain region of South Carolina, her native state. She holds a Masters in clinical mental health counseling from Clemson, and is a nationally board-certified Licensed Professional Counselor with 40 years of experience. Her specialty is partnering with Mother Earth to use the transformative power of nature in the healing arts. Jeanne writes a terrific Substack newsletter called Rx Nature—field notes from a psychotherapist whose office is in the woods. She is a teacher of forest bathing and nature mindfulness. She believes that nature is the best medicine. Her motto is Calm Mind, Open Heart.

2:22—Jeanne puts herself on the wild chart.

3:13—Dry Falls is between Highlands, NC and Franklin, NC: why they are called “dry.”

4:15—We used to be able to sneak away for a day.

4:55—“We were young, we were in love, and we were in the mood for adventure.”

5:22—The flow of water was completely immobilized.

6:00—The magical world of ice.

7:04—How strong the memory is, almost fifty years later.

7:32—A connection to nature is visceral.

7:54—“The beauty of nature is love.”

8:18—Here’s a lovely practice: Jeanne’s notebook of beautiful things that happen every day.

10:24—A key, according to Jeanne, is being open. Keep your eyes open, your senses open. Pay attention.

11:49—The oddity of beech leaves hanging onto their leaves, “daubs of gold in the woods.”

13:11—Mary Oliver’s instructions for living a life.

“Think about epiphany. Think about change. Think about the moments that make your face burn, your fingers tingle. Wild Spectacle is about those shocks, encounters that shift the way we see the world and ourselves in it…If the water we drink is maybe older than the sun, then ancient magic pounds inside our skins, too. So speak it. Tell it forth. Cry aloud and call it back home.”

            -Joni Tevis, author of The Wet Collection and The World is On Fire

Thank You

Thank you for listening. If you like what we’re doing here, give this show a thumbs-up, post it on your socials, and/or forward it to your friends.  

Janisse Ray’s book Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans inspired the podcast. If you’d like a copy of the book, visit your favorite bookstore or library. Or you may order at www.janisseray.com/bookshop.  

Find Janisse on Facebook at “Janisse Ray, Author” and on Instagram @janisseray_writer. 

Thanks to Axletree for their beautiful music, “Clothe the Fields with Plenty,” an orchestral piece inspired by a traditional Hampshire folk song, “The Painful Plough,” from Axletree’s project “Music from a Hampshire Farm.” Thanks to the Free Music Archive. 

We’re eager for new voices on the show, so if you’d like to come on and tell a story, be in touch at Janisse Ray’s website, janisseray.com/contact. 

Go See Some Nature 

If we’re going to make a dent in changing our world, we have to understand what kind of amazements it contains. So many people begin to work on behalf of the planet because they see a natural phenomenon, large or small, that infuses them with admiration and wonder. So get out in nature. Take a friend with you. Especially a child. Go see a wild phenomenon. Amaze yourself. Connect yourself. Let’s get wild!

Show Notes

Welcome to The Wild Spectacle Podcast, a flash-cast series with host Janisse Ray about ongoing and meaningful participation in a world that matters.

Biography

Sally is the author of the memoir, Turning the Tide, which tells her story as founder of a highly successful sea turtle restoration program in South Carolina and as an international leader in sea turtle protection. When Sally graduated with a Masters from the University of South Carolina, loggerhead sea turtles were dying at horrible rates. For example, In 1980 alone, 600 died in South Carolina. Sally was the first woman nongame biologist hired in the Southeast, and she spent her career studying sea turtles and working for them—nest protection, migration research, exclude devices on shrimp boats. Now retired, she lives in coastal SC.

Highlights

3:45     Sally tells how she got to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.

5:23     She can’t forget the dangers of sharks and sea snakes.

5:45     She lists the reef’s beauties.

6:45     “It’s very disturbing to know that what I saw then may not be around in the future.”

8:20     Why snorkeling in the southern US is difficult.

8:30     Sally recommends wading bird rookeries.

8:40     Plan a visit to a rookery in downtown Port Royal, South Carolina.

10:00   Sally’s one suggestion on beginning to re-wild: “Just watching a nature show won’t do it.”

11:30   She recounts a transcendent experience with a nesting sea turtle whose shell becomes Turtle Island.

 “Think about epiphany. Think about change. Think about the moments that make your face burn, your fingers tingle. Wild Spectacle is about those shocks, encounters that shift the way we see the world and ourselves in it…If the water we drink is maybe older than the sun, then ancient magic pounds inside our skins, too. So speak it. Tell it forth. Cry aloud and call it back home.”

            -Joni Tevis, author of The Wet Collection and The World is On Fire 

Thank You 

Thank you for listening. If you like what we’re doing here, give this show a thumbs-up, post it on your socials, and/or forward it to your friends. 

Janisse Ray’s book Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans inspired the podcast. If you’d like a copy of the book, visit your favorite bookstore or library. Or you may order here.  

Find Janisse on Facebook at “Janisse Ray, Author” and on Instagram @janisseray_writer. 

Thanks to Axletree for their beautiful music, “Clothe the Fields with Plenty,” an orchestral piece inspired by a traditional Hampshire folk song, “The Painful Plough,” from Axletree’s project “Music from a Hampshire Farm.” Thanks to the Free Music Archive. 

We’re eager for new voices on the show, so if you’d like to come on and tell a story, be in touch. 

Go See Some Nature 

If we’re going to make a dent in changing our world, which means changing ourselves, we have to understand what kind of amazements it contains. So many people begin to work on behalf of the planet because they see a natural phenomenon, large or small, that infuses them with admiration and wonder. So get out in nature. Take a friend with you. Especially a child. Go see a wild phenomenon. Amaze yourself. Connect yourself. Let’s get wild!

Show Notes

Welcome to The Wild Spectacle Podcast, a flash-cast limited series about ongoing and meaningful participation in a world that matters.

Episode #4 | Peter Peteet | Not Walking Away

18 minutes long

Bio

In this podcast my friend Peter Peteet does something that few people will do. He took the bold and frightening step of reporting to authorities a major environmental crime taking place. Here he talks about his moment of reckoning and how he arrived at it, and he encourages all of us to not walk away.

Peter Peteet is a published poet, photographer, and environmentalist. His poems are deeply felt and beautifully rendered moments in time. He lives in Atlanta, where he takes long walks through stream-beds and old forests, in the middle of the city, and then posts really stunning photos of his walks. He is one of the most soulful and kind people I know.

Highlights of the Story

2:55     Peter places himself on the wild chart.

3:19     He stands at the edge of the South River, under a railroad trestle.

4:00     He holds a smoking gun.

6:30     Peter reports an environmental travesty.

7:42     How he first noticed.

8:00     On power.

8:45     Thoreau: “Wildness is in our brains & bowels.”

9:40     On thinking and feeling.

10:00   What it’s like to call the law on someone for a major crime.

10:35   Where the wild spectacle was actually taking place.

10:53   How Peter connects with nature.

13:27   His encouragement to be responsible to the earth.

14:20   “Once you begin to walk away, you go away forever.”

14:50   Why we should speak out.

16:00   Peter offers a cure for alienation.

“Think about epiphany. Think about change. Think about the moments that make your face burn, your fingers tingle. Wild Spectacle is about those shocks, encounters that shift the way we see the world and ourselves in it…If the water we drink is maybe older than the sun, then ancient magic pounds inside our skins, too. So speak it. Tell it forth. Cry aloud and call it back home.”

            -Joni Tevis, author of The Wet Collection and The World is On Fire

Thank You

Thank you for listening.

If you like what we’re doing here, give this show a thumbs-up, post it on your socials, and/or forward it to your friends.

My book Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans inspired the podcast. If you’d like a copy of the book, visit your favorite bookstore or library. Or you may order at www.janisseray.com/bookshop.

Find me on Facebook at “Janisse Ray, Author” and on Instagram @janisseray_writer.

Thanks to Axletree for their beautiful music, “Clothe the Fields with Plenty,” an orchestral piece inspired by a traditional Hampshire folk song, “The Painful Plough,” from Axletree’s project “Music from a Hampshire Farm.” Thanks to the Free Music Archive.

Thanks to John Picciuto for sound design. This was one of the first episodes I recorded, and any glitches in sound quality are patently my own mistakes. 

We’re eager for new voices on the show, so if you’d like to come on and tell a story, be in touch here or at my website, janisseray.com/contact.

Go See Some Nature

If we’re going to make a dent in changing our world, we have to understand what kind of amazements it contains. So many people begin to work on behalf of the planet because they see a natural phenomenon, large or small, that infuses them with admiration and wonder. So get out in nature. Take a friend with you. Especially a child. Go see a wild phenomenon. Amaze yourself. Connect yourself. Let’s get wild!

Show Notes

Welcome to The Wild Spectacle Podcast, a flash-cast series with host Janisse Ray about our ongoing and meaningful participation in a world that matters.

Hermina Glass-Hill is like a rainbow or a bouquet--many things wrapped in one beautiful human. She’s a writer, historian, preservationist, sustainability advocate, Afro-Eco strategist, social justice activist, wife, mother, and friend. Hermina directs the Susie King Taylor Women's Institute and Ecology Center, an eco-sanctuary that flourishes at the nexus of research, experiential education, and empowerment. She is the preeminent scholar on the life of Susie King Taylor, a woman who was born into slavery, became educated, escaped, and then served with the Union Army. Hermina is currently organizing to establish the Susie King Taylor Escape to Freedom Underground Railroad Park in Taylor’s birthplace in Liberty County, Georgia. 

2:45—How wild is Hermina? She locates herself on the wild chart.

3:29—She talks about being on the Bartram Trail.

3:35—Hermina leads a plant-based life.

4:00—She is on indigenous lands on the Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.

5:19—The local, indigenous plant that Hermina searches for.

6:00—LeConte pear comes from this LeConte plantation.

7:00—Roaring engines are approaching.

7:21—Hermina realizes that she is in danger.

8:05—What elders tell her about being alone in the wild.

8:35—“Foraging while black.”

12:48—Every day Hermina is in awe of nature.

13:30—A bird builds a nest in the mailbox.

15:00—Hermina gives us one suggestion for rewilding.

*

“Think about epiphany. Think about change. Think about the moments that make your face burn, your fingers tingle. Wild Spectacle is about those shocks, encounters that shift the way we see the world and ourselves in it…If the water we drink is maybe older than the sun, then ancient magic pounds inside our skins, too. So speak it. Tell it forth. Cry aloud and call it back home.”

            -Joni Tevis, author of The Wet Collection and The World is On Fire

*

Thank you for listening.

If you like what we’re doing here, give this show a thumbs-up, post it on your socials, follow it, and/or forward it to your friends.

Janisse Ray’s book Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans inspired the podcast. If you’d like a copy of the book, visit your favorite bookstore or library. Or you may order at www.janisseray.com/bookshop.

Find Janisse on Facebook at “Janisse Ray, Author” and on Instagram @janisseray_writer.

Thanks to Axletree for their beautiful music, “Clothe the Fields with Plenty,” an orchestral piece inspired by a traditional Hampshire folk song, “The Painful Plough,” from Axletree’s project “Music from a Hampshire Farm.” Thanks to the Free Music Archive.

We’re eager for new voices on the show, so if you’d like to come on and tell a story, be in touch at Janisse Ray’s website, janisseray.com/contact.

If we’re going to make a dent in changing ourselves and how we live on this earth, we have to understand what kind of amazements it contains. So many people begin to work on behalf of the planet because they see a natural phenomenon, large or small, that infuses them with admiration and wonder. So get out in nature. Take a friend with you, especially a child. Go see a wild phenomenon. Amaze yourself. Connect yourself.

Now go get wild!