Green Dreamer: Seeding change towards collective healing, sustainability, regeneration

In 1999, Terence Unity Freitas, the partner of our guest today, along with two other Indigenous activists Ingrid Washinawatok El-Issa and Lahe’ena’e Gay, were murdered in Colombia after they left the U’wa territory, where they were visiting to support the Indigenous U’wa community.Now, in one of her first interviews about her new book, Truth Demands: A Memoir of Murder, Oil Wars, and the Rise of Climate Justice, Abby Reyes is here to share her story — and her journey of navigating grief and healing while fighting for truth and accountability from Big Oil.How has the U’wa community been resisting against colonial-capitalist interests? What does it mean to depart from urgency culture and to tap into the “slow work” of deep, social change? And what is the relationship between engaging in the “inner” and “outer” work of systemic transformation?We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

Transcribed - Published: 13 May 2025

The Ecuadorian government is currently planning to auction off 8.7 million acres of the Amazon rainforest to oil interests.What is at stake — for the Indigenous communities of the Amazon, for people outside of the Amazon, and for the planet — with millions of acres of lively, intact rainforest being put on the line?What can we learn from how the Waorani people won their historic legal victory in 2019 to protect 500,000 acres of rainforest from oil drilling? And how do we go about building solidarity across communities and borders, and between Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous allies?Today, Green Dreamer’s host, Kaméa, speaks with Mitch Anderson, who is, alongside Nemonte Nenquimo, the co-founder of Amazon Frontlines and co-author of We Will Be Jaguars.Join us as we question economic incentives that narrow-mindedly privilege monetary currencies above other currencies of Life, re-examine the concepts of “convenience” and “remoteness,” and more.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

Transcribed - Published: 29 April 2025

(By request, this is the raw, untranslated version of our interview with Nemonte Nenquimo — in which you will hear Nemonte's original responses in Spanish to Kaméa's questions presented in English.)What has been the historical relationship between missionary work and the development of the oil industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon? What does it mean to listen to the voices — both human and more-than-human — of the Amazon Rainforest?And how do the Waorani navigate tensions between their Indigenous cosmovisions and ways of life, and the outside world’s growing influence on their younger generations?For our special Earth Month feature, we are honored to share our powerful conversation with Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo — who recently co-authored We Will Be Jaguars with her partner, Mitch Anderson.How do we recenter our perspectives of “modern” on communities who are, in this modern day, most in tune with the languages of Mother Earth — and reorient our ideals of “futuristic” towards all that enrich and affirm life?We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

Transcribed - Published: 22 April 2025

What has been the historical relationship between missionary work and the development of the oil industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon? What does it mean to listen to the voices — both human and more-than-human — of the Amazon Rainforest?And how do the Waorani navigate tensions between their Indigenous cosmovisions and ways of life, and the outside world’s growing influence on their younger generations?For our special Earth Month feature, we are honored to share our powerful conversation with Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo — who recently co-authored We Will Be Jaguars with her partner, Mitch Anderson.How do we recenter our perspectives of “modern” on communities who are, in this modern day, most in tune with the languages of Mother Earth — and reorient our ideals of “futuristic” towards all that enrich and affirm life?We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

Transcribed - Published: 15 April 2025

What is at stake if we bypass the “inner” work of personal transformation while we rally forward in the “external” work of dismantling systemic injustice?What does it mean to imbue wonder, mystery, and magic within movements for collective liberation?And what if these troubled times actually require us to become strange to its often-normalized values, worldviews, and ways of be-ing?⁠In this episode, Green Dreamer’s host kaméa chayne is joined by Prentis Hemphill, who curiously invites us to honor and unleash the full, weird, and majestic creatures within us.⁠Join us as we unravel the messy layers of healing our humanity in this modern world — including an interrogation of the ways that social media and AI have been distorting our very real human needs for connection.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via Spotify or any podcast app;subscribe to kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

Transcribed - Published: 1 April 2025

A lot of people seem to be struggling with our senses of belonging.So many people have been uprooted and forcibly displaced. Many have chosen out of free will to relocate. Many are born into places where they don't have deep ancestral roots. And many don’t have the privilege of feeling like their families and communities with whom they grew up are safe spaces to call home and find healing within. But if truly holistic medicine is tied to culture, to community, place, and the land, what does it mean to nurture collective healing and rebuild community in a vastly diasporic world?In this episode, Green Dreamer’s kaméa is joined by Serene Thin Elk, who gently guides us to unravel “trauma” in historic, individual, community, and environmental contexts, while beckoning us towards collective, intergenerational healing.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

Transcribed - Published: 20 March 2025

What does it mean to recognize that so much of the world has become “anti-microbial”? Why is it that some bacteria make us sick while others are vital to our wellbeing? And how can we understand social transformation as a form of fermentation?In this episode, we are joined by fermentation revivalist Sandor Katz, who guides us through the foundations of what fermentation is.Sink into this discussion as we explore the ways that wild fermentation invites us to deepen our relationship to place and our local environments.We welcome you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via Spotify or any podcast app;and subscribe to kaméa’s newsletter here to stay posted on our latest interviews.

Transcribed - Published: 4 March 2025

How is the Maasai community continually being displaced and disenfranchised in the name of “wildlife conservation”? What are some of the common propaganda used to justify their mass evictions? And how do the Maasai’s communal land relations, rooted in nomadism and pastoralism, ultimately challenge the laws of their nation-state — revealing the subjective ethics and worldviews that define legality?In this episode, we are honored to be joined by Joseph Oleshangay, a Maasai human rights lawyer who has litigated high-profile lawsuits against their government — notably, regarding forced evictions of the Maasai community in Ngorongoro District for tourism and trophy hunting.What can we learn from the Maasai’s ancestral lifeways that blur the lines between life and “wild” life — showing their food, medicine, culture, spirituality, stories, and music as inextricably woven into the plains and highlands where they call home?We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

Transcribed - Published: 18 February 2025

In this conversation, kaméa chayne is joined by Martín Prechtel, who speaks to us from Northern New Mexico where he presently lives with his family and their Native Mesta horses.Having grown up with a Pueblo Indian upbringing and later becoming a full member of the Tzutujil Mayan community in the village of Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala, Prechtel draws on his deeply embodied knowledge of various Indigenous languages and invites us to unravel the meaning of “real culture.”What does it mean to re-member and re-learn the languages of land, plants, and place?Join us in this enriching conversation as we explore the contentious politics, practice, and (re)embodiment of Indigeneity, and what it means to become culturally indigestible for the sterilizing stomach acids of the “monster of modernity.”We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to Kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

Transcribed - Published: 4 February 2025

How do the biological life forms of the Amazon rainforest — from pollen grains, fungal spores, to microbes — play active roles in their regional water cycle? How might we connect chemistry, biology, physics, ecology, and other less quantifiable measures of aliveness to look at our planetary crises in much more holistic ways? And if the Earth's “systems” were ever-emergent and everchanging, then how do we know what to orient healing and restoring balance towards?In this episode, kaméa is joined by Ferris Jabr, who shares his wealth of ecological knowledge while drawing upon his book, Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life.Join us as we explore some big and larger-than-life questions pertaining to the Earth as a living body — one that gave rise to humanity, one whose living systems we contribute to shaping, and one that will continue reiterating well beyond human timescales.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to Kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

Transcribed - Published: 21 January 2025

What does it mean that Hollywood and the entertainment industry are increasingly relying on AI and consumer data to make decisions about the stories that get funded and produced? How might we expand our perspectives on privilege so that the things we aspire to as being “better off” are more deeply rooted in what can truly enrich life, community, and our interconnectedness?In this episode, we are honored to welcome Nathalie Kelley, an actress of Indigenous Peruvian descent who is passionate about using her gifts as a storyteller to advocate for a variety of issues — from regenerative fashion, systemic justice for Indigenous peoples, wilderness conservation, regenerative farming and the healing power of plants and fungi.Join us in this raw and heartfelt conversation as we explore the ways that the media, films, and stories we engage with add up to shape our collective cultural values and relationships — with each other and the more-than-human world.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to Kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

Transcribed - Published: 7 January 2025

How do we navigate friendships in the context of social change and increasing political divides? What does it mean to ground ourselves in concepts that are much older than us — collectively nurturing our “garden of ideas”? And how do we move away from cancel culture to lovingly call one another in — to return, re-root, and remember our shared values?In this episode, Kaméa is joined in conversation by adrienne maree brown, whose most recent book, Loving Corrections, is now available from AK Press and wherever books are sold.Join us in this nourishing discussion to learn how to move through these troubled times with deeper grounding and impact — without letting possible senses of overwhelm translate into desensitization or disengagement.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to Kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

Transcribed - Published: 10 December 2024

What can we learn from marine mammals in their practices of echolocation? What is the difference between identification as a colonial tool of control and separation, versus identifying with as an invitation to expand and blur boundaries? And how do Audre Lorde’s poetic dreams of survival continue to reverberate during our times — helping us to reorient the ways that we show up for ourselves, for our communities and our planet?In this episode, we are honored to welcome Alexis Pauline Gumbs, a Queer Black Feminist Love Evangelist, an aspirational cousin to all life, and the author of Undrowned and Survival is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde.Join us in this heartwarming conversation as we explore lessons from marine mammals, teachings from the artful life of Audre Lorde, the significance of what it means to survive, and more.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to Kamea’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

Transcribed - Published: 27 November 2024

How is the common portrayal of Australia’s first peoples as hunter-gatherers who lived on empty, uncultivated land misguided, and wrong? What does the word “Country” mean in Aboriginal Australian thought? And what do we need to interrogate in terms of the subjectivity of how knowledge is produced or how stories are substantiated?In this episode, we are honored to speak with Bruce Pascoe, a Yuin, Bunurong and Tasmanian man best known for his book Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture.Join us in this warm, grounding conversation as we explore Aboriginal Australian agriculture, land practices of working with fire, maintaining respect for and falling in love with Mother Earth, and more.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to Kamea’s newsletters at kamea.substack.com;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid memberships on Patreon or Substack.

Transcribed - Published: 12 November 2024

How might we listen to our hearts more and tune into this “age of loneliness”? What are some vital connections between our public health crises, the loneliness epidemic, and our eco grief and anxiety? And what are the possibilities of intergenerational longings — for things already lost and gone amiss that we may not even have personal relationships with anymore, but that we must nevertheless work to restore and regenerate?In this episode, Green Dreamer’s host, kamea, speaks with Laura Marris about the heart-centered stories, learnings, and inspirations from her book, The Age of Loneliness.*****Independent media is more important than ever! Support our podcast today at Patreon.com/greendreamer.

Transcribed - Published: 1 November 2024

What does it mean to expand political action beyond the voting booth? What are some ways that colonialism and imperialism persist today? And what is the relationship between building community locally and confronting issues abroad that we may be entangled in?In this honest, hard-hitting dialogue, second-time guest Nick Estes returns to invite us to think critically beyond the suffocating cycles of electoral politics.Join us as we honestly face the limitations of representational change, while looking to the peripheries for alternative sources of inspiration and guidance.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;join us on Patreon for the extended version of this episode;and subscribe to our newsletter and latest updates here.

Transcribed - Published: 15 October 2024

In this episode, Sadiah Qureshi invites us to unravel histories of science, race, and empire to understand the social dynamics that we have inherited in the present. How do we begin to heal from constructs of division and racialization that have led to real-life consequences and systemic injustices for so many?Join us as we discuss how historical contexts influence how knowledge is shaped, the presumptions underlying “conservation” and “de-extinction” projects to interrogate, and more.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;join us on Patreon for the extended version of this episode;and subscribe to our newsletter and latest updates here.

Transcribed - Published: 1 October 2024

What does it mean that the labeling of “pests” often relate to how they challenge power and order? How do the ways that “pests” are often targeted and managed further exacerbate socio-environmental injustices? And how might we learn to relate with animals deemed “out of place” beyond the subjective framing of “pests” altogether?In this episode, we are honored to discuss all things related to “pests” with Bethany Brookshire, an award-winning freelance science journalist and author of the 2022 book Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;join us on Patreon for the extended version of this episode;and subscribe to our newsletter at greendreamer.substack.com.

Transcribed - Published: 17 September 2024

What does it mean to expand our perceptions of wealth — and question what it means to build freedom and security in life? How might we re-ground our understandings of democracy in traditional ecological knowledge? And how do we embrace an all-of-the-above approach when it comes to our possibilities for systemic change?In this episode, we are honored to welcome Joseph Gazing Wolf, who offers a wealth of wisdom drawing upon his life experiences growing up in landless, abject poverty.Join us as we explore how what it means to become “uncontrollable” in the eyes of mainstream systems, what we can learn from the diverse Indigenous knowledges rooted in different places around the globe, and more.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;join us on Patreon for the extended version of this episode;and subscribe to our newsletter and latest updates here.

Transcribed - Published: 3 September 2024

What does it actually mean to build “movements” — understanding this word not as a loose terminology overarching certain causes but as a substantive call for intentionally spun and co-conspired webs of relations? How can clarifying the words we use around organizing help to prevent co-optation and dilution? And how do we navigate the paradox of needing funding from often “dirty” sources in order to get by — while simultaneously attempting to subvert the underlying structures of power themselves?In this part 2 of our conversation with Rasul A. Mowatt and Too Black of Laundering Black Rage (tap into part 1 here), we continue to sink in more deeply to unravel our entanglement in systems of exploitation.Join us as we learn about what it means to tether ourselves to “organizations” beyond feeding into the optics of collective action; how we can practice “reverse laundering” to help funnel more resources towards “illegitimate” places of need; how to disentangle movement building from cycles of electoral politics; and more.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;join us on Patreon for the extended version of this episode;and subscribe to our newsletter and latest updates at greendreamer.substack.com

Transcribed - Published: 27 August 2024

What does it mean to understand laundering in the context of how Black rage often gets converted to fit the interests of capital — against the very people experiencing that anger as a response to state violence? How do we remain cautious of different forms of co-optation, including through the arts, that end up distancing people from the material conditions that originally sparked the rage?In this part one of our two-part conversation, we are honored to welcome the co-authors of Laundering Black Rage, Rasul A. Mowatt and Too Black — who guide us to critically reflect on key happenings in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd — and more recently, the murder of Sonya Massey.Join us in this vital and sobering dialogue as we discuss how activism for social causes is often subverted, redirected, and laundered into forms deemed palatable by the state — only to be fed back into reinforcing the system itself. We also explore how cities, to be distinguished from “society”, are set up inherently as sites of extraction — enforcing complicity by design.How do we confront our entanglement in such processes of laundering — while staying focused on the types of efforts that can more directly address the sources of systemic harm?www.patreon.com/greendreamer

Transcribed - Published: 20 August 2024

With a significant part of the global population now reliant on paved road systems for the daily functioning of our lives, it is easy to overlook the impacts they have on our human and more-than-human communities.But how did so many of us become seemingly locked into this dependence on the “normalized violence” of these networks? And what does it mean to support harm reduction in the context of built infrastructures — or even dare to lean into possibilities of regenerative road ethics?In this episode, second-time guest Ben Goldfarb of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping The Future of Our Planet (previously featured here) calls on us to confront the harmful-by-default impacts of our road systems. Join us as we uncover the various forms of highway pollution that communities of color are disproportionately subjected to; how roads impact our more-than-human communities beyond roadkill; what road decommissioning projects have entailed in practice; and more.What does it mean to alchemize change for transport systems that are quite literally being rigidified as they further expand — entrenching us deeper into these status quo ways of world-making?We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;join us on Patreon for the extended version of this episode;and subscribe to our newsletter and latest updates here.

Transcribed - Published: 6 August 2024

What does it mean to sit with and tend to our grief as a regular practice rather than something to “get over” — so we can continue to sense and feel more deeply? How do we stay well amidst info overload and the increasingly fast pace of modernity — so we can contribute sustainably in ways that align with our values? How can we maintain our capacities to care for those we have responsibilities for and find things that bring us a bit more ease?In this episode, Camille Sapara Barton invites us to dream with cultures of care and sense into embodied ways of being with our grief — both personally and with our communities.Join us as we explore the nuances of confronting phone and social media addiction while continuing to stay informed about the world; the relationship between numbing for survival and sensing deeply as fuel for activation; the ways that capitalism and dominant cultures have molded people into becoming mechanized, “productive,” and obedient members of society — suppressing our attunement to our bodies and states of being — and more.How might we engage in practices such as honoring our ancestors or creating altars that support a reconnection with our bodies, lands, and sensorial ways of knowing and healing?Join us on Patreon for our bonus and extended episodes: patreon.com/greendreamer

Transcribed - Published: 23 July 2024

What does it mean to remember ourselves as representatives of our rivers, oceans, and other earthly bodies of water? Why is it vital to recognize the failed logic underpinning regulatory systems that take on an “innocent until proven guilty” approach to water pollution? And how can we leverage our tools as artists, storytellers, and creatives to co-create felt change?In this episode, we dialogue with Tzintzun Aguilar-Izzo and Blake Lavia of Talking Wings Collective for a synergistic conversation — where they invite us to think and dream with water.Join us as the artist-activist duo expands on how the legal frameworks surrounding pollution often exist in “grey areas”; why we need to problematize such “bureaucracies of death” as maintaining worldviews of separation between people and our waterful world; and what it means to replace extractivist modes of relating with our ecosystems that better align with the Indigenous framing of “Water is Life.”Tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app; get our show notes at greendreamer.com; and join us on Patreon for the extended version of this episode.www.patreon.com/greendreamer

Transcribed - Published: 9 July 2024

In this conversation with Dr. Juanita Sundberg, we explore how our relationships with the more-than-human world are often shaped by our institutions and knowledge systems — which don’t always honor the diverse cosmologies and relationalities of life. Juanita draws on her work with Indigenous communities and organizations as she highlights how our existence is determined not only by political and societal constructs of borders and boundaries, but by some of the most overlooked elements of the living world.What is the significance of unraveling colonial modes of relating? What does it mean to nuance the concept of “human exceptionalism"? And how do we collectively re-enliven and heal such senses of dissociation?Tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app, and read our episode transcript and show notes at greendreamer.com.

Transcribed - Published: 26 June 2024

How do we recalibrate the metrics of mainstream politics, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) often used to define a nation's “success” — and recenter them on our collective and planetary wellbeing? What could a truly regenerative economy encompass, and what might that mean for our immediate and long-term activism?In this episode, we welcome Amanda Janoo, who feels called to help build just and sustainable economies through goal-oriented and participatory design policies.Join us as Amanda shares about the limitations of mainstream economics; what the “Wellbeing Economy” is all about; how it relates to other models such as circular economy or degrowth economy; and more.Tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app, and get our show notes at greendreamer.com.

Transcribed - Published: 11 June 2024

In this episode, Sophy Banks shares her rich wealth of knowledge, teachings, and experiences about what it means to truly support ourselves and others through both collective and personal traumas. Cultures of individualism often lead us to navigate trauma on our own— without rituals of shared and collective space holding. For some, particularly those who have been victims of oppression, colonialism, and dispossession, the rivers and oceans of grief held within are often too vast and too deep to be carried alone.Join us in this episode as Sophy offers medicine for our souls, asking vital questions about collective grief tending. How do we notice trauma? How do we disrupt ways of managing grief that possibly reinforce systems and cultures of destruction? And what does it mean to truly care for and hold one another through times of darkness and despair?Tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app, and join us on Patreon for the extended version of this episode.

Transcribed - Published: 29 May 2024

What do the terminologies we often use to describe plants reveal about human and human-plant relations? How is the current landscape of the plant world entangled with human histories of desire, power, and imperialism?Drawing from her experience living across various countries and continents as a third-generation migrant, Jessica J. Lee delves into the nuances of shifting attitudes towards both plant and human migration stories throughout time. Join us as we explore how terms such as “weeds,” “naturalized” or “invasive” are defined and used to describe the plant world, how we might expand our understandings of belonging through recognizing the movement, as well as rootedness, of plants, and more.Subscribe to Green Dreamer and support our show at Patreon.com/GreenDreamer.

Transcribed - Published: 14 May 2024

How do we show up as sensitive, creative and intuitive beings in a system that does not honor the uniqueness of our spirits? How can we stay true to our calling when we’re so busy simply trying to survive?In this episode, Niharika Sanyal shares sweet fruits of wisdom on the radical act of honoring our unique gifts as offerings during times of darkness. In guiding us towards the deepest desires and whispers of our hearts, Sanyal draws from her personal experiences, yoga philosophy, and Vedic myths. Her teachings shine a light on the collective pathways that can lead us towards more divine ways of being, feeling and co-existing through tuning into our innate inner wisdom, knowledge and unconditional love.Get our transcript and episode show notes at greendreamer.com; support our show at patreon.com/greendreamer.

Transcribed - Published: 30 April 2024

“We consume not only stuff but also knowledge, experiences, critique. And this consumption, many times, is not even digested. It is the consumption for consumption’s sake so that we can feel better.”What might it mean for humanity to reach a level of maturation to be able to confront the multilayered crises we now face—calling upon us to “grow up and show up” for ourselves and our planet? And how might recognizing the differing historical contexts that we were raised within help us to have more empathy when navigating our generational differences?In this episode, we revisit our past conversation with Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, a Brazilian educator and Indigenous and Land Rights advocate. She is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Race, Inequalities, and Global Change at the University of British Columbia. She is one of the founders of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Arts/Research Collective and part of the coordination team of the "Last Warning" campaign.Vanessa is also the author of Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity's Wrongs and Implications for Social Activism.

Transcribed - Published: 23 April 2024

What could it mean to heal our relationship with the dead, the decaying, and the dark in order to move towards more liveable futures? What possibilities might arise when we shift from cultural narratives of fear, discomfort, and disgust with these unseen worlds — to ones which honor the wisdoms that they may be able to offer?In this episode, Perdita Finn draws on her book Take Back the Magic to invite us to find kinship and guidance from beings that have passed.Through a renewal of ancient practices and rituals, Finn invokes the reclamation of our bodies, inner wisdom, and personal mantras that keep us whole and grounded during the troubled times of modernity.Subscribe and listen to Green Dreamer via any podcast app and read on for our episode transcript.

Transcribed - Published: 17 April 2024

In this episode, geographer, writer, and sound artist AM Kanngieser invites us to reconsider the diverse ways in which we register both sound and silence — pushing back against the idea that listening itself is a virtuous act with universality in experience.Through their own journey as a geographer and sound artist, Kanngieser sheds light on the colonial repercussions of extracting sound, knowledge, and information from landscapes and communities that have historically been taken from without consent. What are the moral considerations for using recording technologies initially developed for military surveillance? How do we ask for permission to capture sounds—not just from the people of a place but also from the land themselves? And what does it mean to blur the boundaries of our various senses as we become more attuned and responsive to the world?

Transcribed - Published: 3 April 2024

Why is the North Africa and Middle East region so vital to center in discourses on climate justice? How does the current global energy transition reinforce colonial, extractivist power dynamics? And what is the meaning of “eco-normalization” in the context of the Arab world?Join us in this episode as Algerian researcher and activist Hamza Hamouchene dissects crucial narratives surrounding the notion of “green energy colonialism.” Posing critical questions about the current beneficiaries of renewable energy projects, Hamouchene offers thought-provoking perspectives that empower listeners to unpack the systemic injustices of “green colonialism.”Listen via our website or any podcast app, and find the transcript below.

Transcribed - Published: 21 March 2024

Who does “fair trade” as a certification program speaking to conscious consumers really serve? How might it fall short of what it promises—supporting farmers and producers from falling into the deepest pits of poverty while paradoxically also keeping them at a certain level? What does the process of rebuilding power entail for communities who are grappling with local inequalities within a larger global corporate agricultural chain?In this episode, we converse with author and geography Lindsay Naylor as she delves into the daily acts of resistance and agricultural practices by the campesinos/as of Chiapas, Mexico, in their pursuit of dignified livelihoods and self-declared autonomous communities. Drawing from her fieldwork, Naylor explores interaction with fair trade markets and state violence within the context of the radical history of coffee production.

Transcribed - Published: 8 March 2024

What does it mean to recognize the limitations of “biodiversity” as a gauge of planetary wellbeing? How do we make sense of the heads of big corporations like Shell being major patrons of the largest conservation organizations? And how might a politics of disability justice shape diverse futures beyond an exclusive framework of Western-Scientific conservation?In this episode, we converse with scholar and anti-oppression activist Audra Mitchell on how intersecting forms of systemic violence work to extract, eliminate, and conceal cultural and ecological plurality—and how the survival, preservation, and organization of oppressed and marginalized communities alone resist such violence.Extended episode: patreon.com/greendreamer

Transcribed - Published: 23 February 2024

“What we’re talking about are plants that people desire for ornamental collection and will oftentimes go to great lengths to get them. Sometimes, that desire leads to conservation problems, and sadly… in the worst-case scenario, the extinction of an entire species.”Where does cacti and succulent life fit within the realm of illegal/illicit wildlife trade? What conversations might arise when we include them in a wider picture of political ecology and colonial histories? And how might the entanglement of desire, care, and conservation complicate trends of in-vogue succulent and cacti collecting?Join us in this episode with our guest Jared Margulies, author of The Cactus Hunters, as we delve into prickly themes of globalized trade networks, desire, and preservation.

Transcribed - Published: 9 February 2024

What can grief teach us about being truly alive? And how might seeds, and the compassionate acts of tending to them, be the “helpers and teachers” of mediating our collective grief?In this episode, we are honored to welcome Vivien Sansour, founder of the Palestinian Heirloom Seed Project—an initiative centered on caring for and preserving seeds as keepers of ancestral connection and models of subversive advocacy.Join us as Vivien shares about the systemic violence of disconnection and relational severance, the socio-economic pressures turning many historically food-centered farms into monocultural plantations of commercial tobacco for export, how Palestinian agriculturalists are standing up to reclaim food sovereignty, and more.

Transcribed - Published: 26 January 2024

What might the histories of human and gray whale relations show us in terms of how the stories we tell shape the texture of our relationships to our more-than-human kin? How can adopting a plurality of narratives and cultural perspectives in and around a particular species disrupt the kinds of binaries that so often underly academic research methods? And what might a more diverse, accessible, and context-specific approach to field research look like with humility and deep-listening at its core?  Tune in to this episode with our guest, Anna Guasco, to explore these questions and more.

Transcribed - Published: 11 January 2024

This is a behind-the-scenes conversation with Gabes Torres, a contributor and the program advisor of alchemize, and Green Dreamer's team members Anisa Sima Hawley and Kamea Chayne. We explore the themes of imagination, escapism, dissociation, and discomfort when it comes to dreaming, sensing, relating, and becoming otherwise.Enroll in alchemize through January 12th, 2024: www.greendreamer.com/alchemize

Transcribed - Published: 3 January 2024

“One in four bites of our food is pollinated by honeybees, but at what cost in the system that we are in now? How could that look different if our agriculture was more localized, regionalized, and sustainable?”In this episode, we warmly welcome Ang Roell—founder of They Keep Bees—to discuss their practice of working and learning with honeybees as models of resilience, care, and responsiveness. Ang’s work, which demystifies bees to decenter logics of power-over relations and consumer-driven work culture, frames a conversation around how we might learn from hive-lives in times of collapse.Join us in this invitation to re-member our webs of interdependence—to slow down, swarm together,  and work within rhythmic fields of collective care. And join us in alchemize: radical imagination for collective transformation, to experience two practices led by Ang: “You are a honeybee” and “Pollinating networks of collective care.”

Transcribed - Published: 26 December 2023

In Green Dreamer's episode 413, we welcome Dr. Hilding Neilson, who shares with us his knowledge of the night skies and expertise as an astronomer traced by his Mi’kmaw lineage. Trained in the Western-scientific sphere of astrophysics and shaped by Mi'kmaq methodologies, Dr. Neilson aims to disrupt the Euro-centric claim on the night sky as codified through historical and modern Astro-colonial pursuits of objectivity, discovery, nomenclature. In demanding that Indigenous stories and systems of knowledge not only be heard but given a leading role on the stage of public policy making, Hilding invites us to reflect upon the value of night sky knowledge and ponder how it reflects and shapes life on earth, as well as how we choose to ethically engage with this knowledge moving forward.

Transcribed - Published: 14 December 2023

In this episode, we are joined by A. Laurie Palmer: a writer, artist, and author of the book The Lichen Museum. In paying attention to lichen, Laurie looks to these symbiotic organisms as a template for enriching human and multi-species relationality. How might lichen, and their refusal to be scientifically categorized, offer a model of living that nurtures slowness, adaptability, and diversity? In what ways do they remind us how to practice mutual aid, and reconfigure narratives of dominance? Join us in conversation with Laurie as she invites us to dream and play with lichen through artistic explorations of multiplicity and prosperity. And join us in alchemize to be invited into imagination practices inspired by lichen ways of worlds.

Transcribed - Published: 30 November 2023

In this episode, we welcome our guest Dekila Chungyalpa, who reminds us of our intra-dependant existence with all of life. Traced by a lineage of Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, Dekila weaves together teachings from her cultural and religious upbringing with her work as an environmental program director—from which she invites us to reflect on the ways in which Western conservation efforts fall short. In her work with faith-based organizations, Dekila prompts a dialogue around binary paradigms that persist even within environmental and activist movements.Join us as we dive further into Dekila’s world and unravel the intricacies of interdependence, deep time, and more.Episode song feature: Scissor-tailed Flycatcher by Ben White via Spirit House RecordsSupport our podcast: patreon.com/greendreamer

Transcribed - Published: 11 November 2023

“My life goal is to get our governments to understand that Indigenous sovereignty and freshwater fish futures are completely linked.”In this episode, we welcome Dr. Zoe Todd, who invites us to think alongside a critical lens of Indigenous fish philosophy and examine relationships between Indigenous sovereignty and fish well-being in Canada. By asking how we can learn with fish as they “listen with their whole being,” Zoe prompts discussions on compassionate listening, the fundamental link between the future of fish wellbeing and Indigenous sovereignty worldwide, and their relationship with art as research practice.Tune in as we swim in waters of critical attunement to our wider ecological entanglements, as inspired by Zoe’s devotion to fish as companions of care.Music credit: Spirit House RecordsSupport our work: Patreon.com/greendreamer

Transcribed - Published: 27 October 2023

In this episode, we welcome our guest Charlotte Wrigley, who invites us to contemplate the upheaval of extinction as a discontinuous process—a becoming, rather than an end. Charlotte’s inquiry into this matter straddles the edges of human relations, geography, climate science, and ethics against the backdrop of permafrost and its changing form. Unveiling the intra-connected worlds of thawing permafrost and de-extinction efforts, Charlotte waltzes with sticky tensions of a rapidly heating planet and the need to “cool down” expeditious techno-races. How might we learn from permafrost itself, as well as Arctic communities / biomes, and stay with the trouble of the unfixed and unpredictable?  Support our show: patreon.com/greendreamerGet the transcript and episode references: greendreamer.comSong feature: Concept of Love by Cheery via Spirit House Records

Transcribed - Published: 13 October 2023

“Once folks start to pick away at that scab of understanding how much of a role microbes play in the lives of other things in good ways and bad ways temporally, spatially, physically, and spiritually, it really does open up a rich vein of a new dimension — to start considering the world around us and how we fit in that world.”In this episode we are joined by Siv Watkins, founder of the platform “Microanimism”. Inviting us to deepen our intimacy with the complex, multi-faceted microbial world, Siv deploys the lenses of science, mysticism, and animism to advocate for some of the smallest, and most mysterious, beings on the planet.We glimpse into the depth of entanglement between microbes (also referred to as “the smalls”) and their ancient relationship with cycles of life and death; sink into a purview of deep time; and explore questions of “what makes us human?”. Are “our” micro-biomes even “ours”?Join us as we “shrink down” to expand cosmic perspectives in relation to the reverent, and sometimes terrifying, microbial kin.(The musical offering featured in this episode is Scissor-tailed Flycatcher by Ben White.) Enjoying our podcast and want to see it continue? Join us on Patreon today starting at $2/mo: www.greendreamer.com/support  

Transcribed - Published: 29 September 2023

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Patricia Kaishian, a mycologist, writer, and educator who gestures to mycology as a queer discipline. Situated as a queer member of Armenian diaspora, Patricia threads connections between the often misunderstood and mis/under-represented displacement of mycelial bodes and her own. Offering a glimpse of the complex, fascinating, taxonomy-defying world of fungi, Patricia invokes reflections on how we can learn from, dream with, and reclaim queer existence with our fungal kin.What stories of diversity, fluidity, and resilience do they sporulate? What lessons can they inspire in an age of ecological collapse? And what narratives can they invite us to decompose and re-birth? (The musical offering featured in this episode is When You Carried Me by Oropendola.) This episode was brought to you by our supporting listeners. Join us on Patreon to help us keep our show alive: www.greendreamer.com/support

Transcribed - Published: 14 September 2023

In the episode, we welcome Dr. Eshe Lewis to discuss her life and learnings as an activist, anthropologist, and storyteller. Eshe walks us through glimpses of her time with Afro-Peruvian women as part of her doctoral research and how this experience transfigured beyond the siloed parameters of academic study into personal, historical, and political realms.Eshe’s conscious intent of questioning, complicating, and re-positioning anthropology not only as an academic discipline, but a field of ethical practice, casts an inspirational light on the role and reachability of storytelling. Join us as she voices this critical exposure of in-between, multi/cross-lingual modes of communicating—not only as a means of empowerment but as an invitation to lean into joy and awe. (The musical offering featured in this episode is Scissor-tailed Flycatcher by Ben White. The episode-inspired artwork is by Taylor Tinkham.) This episode was brought to you by our supporting listeners. Join us on Patreon to help us keep our show alive: www.greendreamer.com/support

Transcribed - Published: 25 August 2023

“[...] The United States started to heavily invest in subsidizing growing wheat for exporting purposes. That resulted in flooding international markets, including Jordan’s markets. Cheap American wheat left many of the small-scale farmers unable to compete under record prices.”In this episode, we welcome Lama Khatieb, co-founder of Zikra for Popular Learning: a Jordan-based collective that aims to empower community members to revalue their identity and culture, through the cultivation and sharing of their local and traditional knowledge. We visit themes of agricultural interdependence in relation to Jordan’s history of wheat and bread production, how small grassroots initiatives are taking matters of food sovereignty into their own (literal) hands, and more. Lama endeavors to draw the richness of village life and local harvesting practices to our attention. Through the efforts of the Al-Barakeh Wheat Project (whose name also entails the practice of blessing and abundance), Lama and fellow participants respond not only to Jordan’s current dependence on imported wheat but aim to tap into the wider cultural and ecological ramifications of losing local practices. Join us as we dive into what the spirit and practice of “Barakeh” teaches in terms of cultural reclamation, small-scale initiatives, food interdependence, and relationships with the land. (The musical offering featured in this episode Concept of Love by Cheery. The episode-inspired artwork is by Lucy Halsam.) This episode was brought to you by our supporting listeners. Join us on Patreon to help us keep our show alive: www.greendreamer.com/support

Transcribed - Published: 10 August 2023

In this episode, we welcome anthropologist Daniel Ruiz-Serna, whose work, situated in the Choco region of Colombia, aims to expose the entanglement of political and ecological violence whereby echoes of conflict/healing reverberate through place. In light of the enmeshment between war and land, Daniel welcomes a framework of living territories, as traced by his life/work with the diversity of human and more-than-human communities of Bajo Atrato, Choco.Tune in as Daniel invokes questions around: What stories do the land and its respective guardians cry out in the face of ongoing damage—that which exceeds designated categories of violence, and thus, so-called systems of repair? Accordingly, when it comes to human and more-than-human rights, what are the shortcomings of legal justice systems insofar as they fail to consider the life and spirit of territory, as well as those who are inextricably tied to the life of such territory? How might the legal language of “justice” and “repair” be limited by, even tethered to, the roots of oppression? And what kinds of schisms, shifts, and stories are needed to reframe these concepts? The musical offering featured in this episode When You Carried Me by Oropendola. Support Green Dreamer: GreenDreamer.com/support

Transcribed - Published: 27 July 2023