4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 22 November 2023
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
How can a relationship with one animal open the door to the depths of humanity? In this episode, returning guest Kurt Russo shares how he came to see the world through Tokitae, a Southern Resident Orca held captive in the Miami Seaquarium for decades. As he mourns Tokitae’s recent death, Kurt reflects on the ways nature gives us signs of the greater mysteries of life.
This conversation is equally rooted in the material realities of protecting the Salish Sea, the Snake River, and the more-than-human kin that call those places home, and the spiritual questions that cruelty and disregard for the more-than-human provoke. How has humanity gotten to such a point? Kurt shares guided wisdom about the realities of commodification, ecocide, and the capacity of the human soul for intentional cruelty. How we fight against such darkness matters not just for humanity, but for all with whom we share this precious earth.
Kurt Russo is currently the Executive Director of the Indigenous-led nonprofit, Se’Si’Le, that is dedicated to the application of ancestral knowledge to reimagine our relationship to the nature of nature. He worked for the Lummi Nation from 1978-2020 in the area of sacred sites and treaty rights. He also served as Executive Director of the Native American Lands Conservancy in California from 1998-2016 and was Senior Advisor to the Kumeyaay-Digueno Land Conservancy of southern California. He was the co-founder and Executive Director of the Florence R. Kluckhohn Center for the Study of Values from 1987-2002. He has a BS and MS in Forestry and a PhD in History. He has worked abroad with Indigenous communities in their efforts to preserve their ancestral lands and knowledge in Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile.
For an extended version of this episode, join us at patreon.com/forthewild
Music by Francesca Heart and Julius Smack. Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.
Support the showClick on a timestamp to play from that location
0:00.0 | This episode is brought to you by our incredible community of listener supporters on Patreon. |
0:05.3 | Our Patreon offers listeners exclusive archival content, extended episodes, |
0:10.3 | and access to community conversations diving deeper with past guests. |
0:14.0 | Your monthly pledge ensures that for the wild has the funding to keep producing |
0:18.0 | informative, thoughtful, and rooted conversations in programming. |
0:23.0 | All funding supports our small team of creatives, |
0:26.0 | podcast production, and special for the wild projects, |
0:29.0 | like our Zines and slow study courses. |
0:32.0 | To support us on Patreon, please visit Patreon.com slash for the wild. |
0:37.5 | Or if you would rather make a one-time donation or recurring donation outside of |
0:41.8 | Patreon, |
0:42.6 | please visit for the Wild dot world slash donate. |
0:47.4 | Hello and welcomed for the wild podcast. I'm I am Iana Young today we are speaking with |
0:56.3 | Kurt Russo. |
0:58.3 | These correspondences that are telling us, are telling us through her life, through your life, to life. |
1:09.0 | There's something essentially divine about all of this. |
1:14.0 | Every bit of it, every bit of it. |
1:18.0 | I don't have a denominational religion, |
1:21.0 | but I love nature, and I'm willing to take a risk to understand her. |
1:27.0 | Kurt Russo is currently the executive director of the indigenous-led nonprofit that is dedicated to the |
1:35.4 | application of ancestral knowledge to reimagine our relationship to the nature of nature. |
1:41.7 | He worked the Lummy Nation from 1978 to 2020 in the area of |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from For The Wild, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of For The Wild and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.