Note: to read this posting on a calm presence see a conscient rethink

a conscient rethink

What needs to be said? Who needs to say it? Who wants to hear it? How does it help? 

February 16th, 2025, on the unceded lands of the Algonquin-Anishinaabe people.

I started publishing the conscient podcast and balado conscient in May of 2020. 

My goal was to ‘explore art and the ecological crisis as a learning and unlearning journey’. 

At that time I believed that ‘the arts and culture could play a critical role in raising awareness about sustainability issues and moving people towards action.’

Maybe. Maybe not. 

At any rate, some 300 episodes later, I felt that this first leg of my conscient journey is complete and that I owe deep gratitude to my collaborators and to you, for listening. 

It’s now time to rethink conscient. 

Some of you might recall in my listen and co-create posting on a calm presence and this quote from the Intercultural Communication Handbook : 

• Sensing, attending and being patient requires slowing down, pausing, and taking time to listen, look, feel and learn. Seeking to activate and use all our senses to relate as part of the world. This involves learning through relationships, through actions and through careful attention, not just through asking questions and talking a lot. Being patient and humble enables recognition of the myriad of messages that humans and non-human beings are always sending out.

These wise words encouraged me to slow me down and inspired me to take a pause from the production of conscient during the winter of 2025 and I tried to follow this good advice.

Others are also advocating for a slow down and a rethink. 

For example Kai writes in Dense Discovery – Issue 326 / When enough outrage is enough :

• We have enough information. We know where we stand. The challenge now isn’t to understand more, but to act on what we already know, redirecting our energy from pointless online reaction to tangible local action. As I’ve said here before, we don’t need more clever dunks. We need more people showing up – in our communities, in our work, in the unglamorous spaces where real change takes root.

What did I do?

I listened to everyday life. 

I stopped judging.

I meditated on presence.

I conversed with colleagues in the 10 week Surviving the Future : The Deeper Dive 2025 course.

I shared some of my experiences in prepare, bend, sustain. 

I read and listened to Shaun Chamberlin’s Dark Optimism, Nate Hagens’ The Great Simplification and Kamea Chayne’s Green Dreamer. 

I also shovelled snow, learned to play tennis and played shinny. 

Lots of shinny. 

I also pondered listener feedback from previous seasons of conscient. Here are a few : 

• your guests are inspiring and the conversations are nourishing : it fills a gap
• why don’t you present more diversity of voices, in particular from young people and the global south 
• your conversations often go on too long. We’re more likely to listen if you edit them down
• you narrate too slowly : I. sometimes. fall. asleep. listening. to. you. drone. on.
• your podcast is not enough fun : why don't you try to be more uplifting and positive
• integrating soundscape compositions actually works well: it makes your podcast unique and compelling
• Why not give us more practical tools to engage with the issues not just philosophical musings and doomist projections
• try to be a bit more humble
• breathe more quietly and smoothly

With this feedback in mind, I came up with a set of questions to guide my work future forward: 

• What needs to be said?
• Who needs to say it?
• Who wants to hear it?
• How does it help?

In other words, what is the point of all this chatter? 

I thought back to why I listen to podcasts in the first place and what keeps me listening?  

I listen to podcasts because they help me:

• break me out of isolation
• accept collapse
• feel solidarity and connection
• unlearn
• generate spiritual and physical energy
• empathise through tone of voice
• nurture presence through hesitation
• laugh and cry
• slow down and listen
• keep going in spite of the odds

conscient podcast studio production space

So, with all of this in mind, I’ve decided to go ahead and produce a 6th season of conscient.

You’ll be able to hear three episode types:

1. fifteens

15 minute ‘composed’ conversations with leading artists and cultural workers exploring the theme of ‘arts and culture in times of crisis, collapse, renewal’ with a focus on actions. A fifteen is a coffee break of insight. 

2. roundtables

Long duration, informal banter with friends and colleagues about their passions, fears and dreams, inspired by the innovative ways of the 1980’s era CBC Radio’s overnight talk show Brave New Waves. Participants are invited to tell a good story and to expect to be interrupted and maybe teased once in a while. A roundtable is an engaging kitchen party. 

3. a calm presence

These bonus episodes are me narrating each a calm presence Substack posting including additional commentary and soundscape compositions. It’s intended for those who, like me, prefer listening over reading. 

I will launch season 6 at spring equinox on Thursday, March 20, 2025 at 5.01am (EDT).

access

• subscribe to conscient podcast or balado conscient (free) on your favorite podcast player : Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Podchaser, Tune in, YouTube
• subscribe to a calm presence (free) on Substack
• follow and comment on conscient social media : Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads and BlueSky 
• visit conscient.ca to search and listen to any individual Episodes or read episode notes and transcripts

As always, if you like something you hear or read, please share. 

Feel free to reach me with questions and comments at [email protected]

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END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Hey conscient listeners, 

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020 on un-ceded Anishinaabe Algonquin territory (Ottawa). 

It’s my way to give back.

In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and its francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I publish a Substack newsletter called ‘a calm presence' see https://acalmpresence.substack.com. 

Your feedback is always welcome at [email protected] and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads or BlueSky.

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. 

Claude Schryer

Latest update on March 26, 2025