Black Earth Podcast

Nature loss and climate change are driven by values that people hold about themselves, other people and nature. So what can we do?

In this episode, I speak with Ife Kilimanjaro about her work with The Wind and The Warrior collective, where she is integrating spirituality, healing and environmental activism. Throughout our conversation, we explore the values necessary to healing our relationship with nature such as living as nature, balance, honouring our ancestors, justice, and uprooting hierarchy. 

Ife also shares reflection questions for you to clarify your purpose in the environmental movement. No matter your life story, there’s a place for you in the environmental movement.

Episode timestamps

00:00 Introduction to episode

05:18 Ife’s relationship with nature 

13:29 Why Ife started the Wind and the Warrior collective to integrate spirituality, healing and activism  

22:16 The value of honouring our ancestors and each other in the environmental movement

27:00 Justice as an essential value in healing our relationship with nature

30:50 Uprooting hierarchy and moving towards co-operation, reciprocity and care 

34:53 Reflection questions to help you understand your unique purpose in environmental care

44:22 How to support Ife’s work and new book, ‘Re-Membering Purpose’

Support Ife’s work

Ife’s website - https://www.medewnefer.com/about-ife 

The Wind and The Warrior collective - https://www.windandwarrior.com/ 

Ife’s new book, Re-Membering Purpose - https://www.medewnefer.com/remembering-purpose

Support and connect with Black Earth 

Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite podcast platform

Connect with us on Instagram, Tiktok, and LinkedIn: @blackearthpodcast

Share our episodes: https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/

Marjahn is a climate change scientist, educator, and activist. Through her work, she addresses the impacts of severe weather in our changing climate, especially for island nations and communities. 

In this moving episode, we speak with Marjahn about how climate change is affecting severe weather in the Caribbean, how social inequality affects the way people are impacted by hurricanes, and what climate justice means for the Caribbean region. 

Episode timestamps

01:12 Marjahn’s relationship with nature 

02:46 How Earth care is expressed in Bahamian culture 

06:20 The impact of climate change on hurricanes 

12:04 What climate change is and why it’s causing even more severe weather 

17:39 How severe weather affects people and nature

23:28 The injustice of climate financing for Caribbean countries 

28:28 How race, anti-blackness and gender shape the way people are impacted by climate change in the Caribbean 

40:53 The importance of radical change and inclusivity to build new worlds

45:59 Marjahn’s advice for young black women interested in climate science

48:30 How to support Marjahn’s work 

50:30 How to support Black Earth podcast

Support Marjahn’s work

Marjahn’s website: https://climateedubahamas.com/ 

Twitter: @MarjahnF

Instagram: @marjahnf

Support and connect with Black Earth 

Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite podcast platform

Connect with us on Instagram, Tiktok, and LinkedIn: @blackearthpodcast

Visit and share our episodes: https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/ 

Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is an award-winning wildlife vet and the founder of Conservation through Public Health. For more than 20 years, Dr. Gladys has helped local communities and mountain gorillas in Uganda to live healthily and peacefully alongside each other.

In this inspiring episode, we speak with Dr. Gladys about her work with local communities and gorillas, the connection between human health and animal health, and the lessons she has learned as an African woman in nature conservation. 

Episode timestamps

00:00 Introduction 

02:00 Dr. Gladys’ relationship with nature

05:22 What inspired Dr. Gladys to work with mountain gorillas

08:22 Why Dr. Gladys started Conservation through Public Health

12:43 How Conservation through Public Health works with communities to take care of nature and stay healthy

18:43 The impact of Conservation through Public Health

22:30 What is one health?

26:18 How we can support one health in our cities and communities

29:49 Dr. Gladys' experiences as an African woman in nature conservation

35:40 Why we need a homegrown nature conservation movement in Africa  

38:05 Advice for young black people interested in nature conservation

40:04 Dr. Gladys’ new book - Walking with Gorillas

43:00 How you can support Black Earth podcast

Support Dr. Gladys’ work

Conservation through Public Health - https://ctph.org/ 

Gorilla Conservation Coffee - https://gorillaconservationcoffee.org/ 

Dr. Gladys’ new book: Walking with Gorillas - https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Walking-With-Gorillas/Gladys-Kalema-Zikusoka/9781950994267 

Support and connect with Black Earth 

Subscribe and leave a review on your favourite podcast platform

Connect with us on Instagram, Tiktok, and LinkedIn: @blackearthpodcast

Visti and share our website: https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/  

Climate reparations has become an important and often misunderstood issue in climate justice. Whilst much of the discussions focus on paying money to countries that are unjustly impacted by climate change, reparations is so much more than paying compensation for harms done to Earth and communities.

In this episode, we speak with Esther Stanford-Xosei, a leading reparations and law scholar working on reparations policy, research and movement-building around the world. 

Esther shares with us what reparations really is, why reparations is important to healing our relationship with Earth, and how we can all take part in reparations.

Episode time stamps

00:00 Welcome to Black Earth and why we are talking about reparations 
1:50 Esther’s relationship with nature
5:34 What is reparations?
10:01 The five principles of reparations 
16:46 The connection between reparations, environmental justice, and cognitive justice and why it’s important to healing Earth
23:50 Why Esther started the Mbuya Nehanda Afrikan women and reparations project
29:20 Why Mbuya Nehanda’s remains are still in a British museum
32:17 How individuals can take part in reparations

How to support Esther’s work

Mbuya Nehanda Project - https://www.maangamizitrust.org/mbuya-nehanda-project 

Support and connect with Black Earth 

We are on Instagram, Tiktok, and LinkedIn:  @blackearthpodcast

Our website: https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/ 

Leah Penniman is a Black Kreyol farmer, mother, soil nerd, author, and food justice activist from Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York. She co-founded Soul Fire Farm in 2010 with the mission to end racism in the food system and reclaim black people’s ancestral connection to land. 

In this episode, I speak with Leah about her personal journey into farming and what it means to cultivate a healthy and just relationship with land through farming. Throughout this inspiring conversation, we celebrate the contributions of black farmers and black growers in America and around the world.

Episode timestamps

00:00 Introduction 

1:27 Leah’s relationship with nature 

3:55 Landscapes that have shaped Leah’s passion for social justice, farming and food justice

6:02 The connection to land is personal, political and cultural for African-Americans 

9:15 How food apartheid shaped her journey to co-founding Soul Fire Farm

12:57 The four elements of a healthy and just relationship with land

16:25 What a healthy and just relationship with land looks like at Soul Fire Farm

18:58 The four wings of the butterfly of transformative social justice 

20:42 Why it’s important to remember and center Afro-Indigenous farming practices 

24:26 bell hooks, love and trauma in black people’s relationship with nature 

31:33 How to talk about food and land justice when living for many is unaffordable right now

35:46 Advice for people who want to take part in food justice in their communities

37:30 Leah’s upcoming book, Black Earth Wisdom

41:49 How to connect with Black Earth podcast

Support and follow Leah’s work: 

Soul Fire Farm - https://www.soulfirefarm.org/ 

Black Earth Wisdom book - https://blackearthwisdom.org/ 

Support and connect with Black Earth 

We are on Instagram, Tiktok, and LinkedIn:  @blackearthpodcast

Our website: https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/ 

Jennifer Uchendu is an ecofeminist and sustainable development advocate from Lagos, Nigeria. She is the founder of SustyVibes, a youth-led organisation making sustainability actionable and relatable for young Africans. Jennifer is also a pioneering researcher in eco-anxiety, and most recently launched The Eco-Anxiety in Africa Project. 

In this episode, I speak with Jennifer about what eco-anxiety is, how power and anti-blackness shape our emotions of eco-anxiety and practical things we can do to safeguard our emotions of eco-anxiety. Grab a cup of tea, this is a powerful episode.

Episode timestamps

00:00 - Welcome to Black Earth podcast

02:13 - Jennifer’s relationship with nature 

06:11 - What is eco-anxiety? 

09:00 - Why the climate conference in Madrid (COP25) changed her  

11:10 - How power shapes our emotions of eco-anxiety 

14:52 - What eco-anxiety means for communities most affected by climate change 

18:53 - Where’s the place of race in eco-anxiety? 

28:55 - Four ways to safeguard eco-anxiety 

31:07 - The power of hope and eco-anxiety as climate emotions 

35:06 - Connect with us at Black Earth podcast 

Support Jennifer’s work 

Susty Vibes - https://sustyvibes.org/

The Eco-Anxiety in Africa Project - https://www.teap.sustyvibes.org/ 

Connect with Black Earth Podcast - https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/ 

In this episode, we meet Rosamund, a clean air advocate from South London. She has been named by Vogue as one of the most influential women in the UK. In 2013, Rosamund’s nine-year-old daughter, Ella Roberta, died from toxic levels of air pollution 25 metres from their home.  

In this powerful episode, Rosamund shares with us her personal journey of turning the injustice of her daughter's death into purpose. We discuss the causes and effects of air pollution on our health and the health of the environment. We also explore how air pollution particularly affects black, Asian and ethnic minoritised communities in the UK, and solutions that will make a positive difference in the long-term.

Episode timestamps

00:00 - Welcome to Black Earth podcast 

03:13 - Rosamund's relationship with nature

06:21 - Ella's passion and gift for music

07:13 - Ella's story and Rosamund’s journey for justice

11:44 - Grief 

12:33 - What is air pollution 

13:22 - Impacts of air pollution

14:20 - Sources of air pollution

14:54 - Why it's important to address inequality and air pollution

16:56 - Perspectives that black community can bring to addressing air pollution

18:26 - Long term solutions for clean air

20:29 - Individual choices that make a difference

22:29 - Ella's Law

23:26 - Ella Roberta Family Foundation

25:38 - Connect with us at Black Earth podcast

Support and follow Rosamund’s work: https://ellaroberta.org/  

Support and follow Black Earth 

We are on Instagram, Tiktok, and LinkedIn:  @blackearthpodcast

Our website: https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/ 

Welcome to Black Earth Podcast. Listen to our trailer to find out what's in store for you!