Climate Changed

Hosts Nicole Diroff and Autumn Brown reflect on Autumn’s profound conversation with climate chaplain Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner. They explore why radical honesty about our ecological reality is not an act of despair, but the foundation of true hope and agency.

As we navigate a world that feels increasingly like an "extended apocalypse," Nicole and Autumn discuss the "ministry of presence"—the practice of sitting with grief rather than trying to fix it. Their conversation alights on parenting, martial arts, and caring for one another in a world hungry for freedoms. They also dive into the biological "fight or flight" responses triggered by the climate crisis and how we can look to our ancestors and the "more-than-human" world for models of resilience and survival.

Inspired by the conversation, Autumn and Nicole invite you to engage in these small acts of spiritual care this week:

Join us for our next episode, where we speak with Norma Wong (also known as Norma Ryuko Kawelokū Wong Roshi). Norma is a Native Hawaiian and Hakka Zen teacher, the abbot of Anko-in, and an 86th-generation Zen Master. We will explore how she applies Zen and Indigenous values to transformational change in a climate-changed world. Learn more about Norma Wong and her work: https://www.normawong.com/ 

In a world that feels like it’s unraveling, we often feel a desperate urge to "fix" our grief or solve the climate crisis single-handedly. But what if the work of this moment isn't about fixing, but about naming?

In this episode, Autumn Brown sits down with Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner, a climate change chaplain who specializes in accompanying people through the "unfixable." Together, they explore the sacred power of naming our feelings, the importance of moving through endings, and how spiritual leadership is less about providing answers and more about the courage to hold one another through uncertainty.

GROUNDING PRACTICE (Starts at 01:45)

We begin with a reading of the poem "Anthropocene Pastoral" by Catherine Pierce, read by the poet herself. This grounding practice invites us to look directly at the changing world and find our breath amid beauty and loss.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

NEXT STEPS & PRACTICES

RESOURCES MENTIONED

CONNECT WITH US

What reflections are surfacing for you? We’d love to hear from you.

BLESSING

May you know that you are loved, that you are worthy of love, just as you are. And may you know that you are capable of great love.

In our previous episode, Autumn spoke with Tory Stephens, a climate fiction editor and co-founder of Imagine 2200 at Grist, about the profound power of storytelling. If you haven't listened to that conversation yet, don't worry—you can dive right into this episode! In fact, hearing this reflection first will give you a completely different lens when you do go back to listen to the interview.

In this episode, co-hosts Autumn Brown and Rev. Nicole Diroff sit down to unpack the incredible themes Tory raised. They explore why the climate movement desperately needs more imagination and how we can practically incorporate that imagination into our spiritual leadership.

In this conversation, Autumn and Nicole discuss:

Next Steps: Where Imagination Meets Practice The change we need won't happen alone—it grows in community. Here are two invitations from today’s conversation to carry these ideas into your shared lives:

Share Your Visions With Us! We want to hear your flash fiction and find out what you are creating or discovering! Email us at [email protected] or leave a voice message at 207-200-6986. Your insights might ripple out through future episodes.

Explore More:

In the Season Four premiere of the Climate Changed podcast, Autumn Brown engages in a deeply inspiring conversation with Tory Stephens, a storyteller, cultural worker, and climate justice advocate.

They explore the transformative power of climate fiction and its role in helping us envision the future. Tory discusses his groundbreaking work at Grist, where he co-founded Imagine 2200, an initiative that asks a simple yet radical question: What if we wrote stories not about what we fear but about what we hope to create? The discussion dives into how imagination connects with responsibility, how storytelling serves as a profound form of spiritual leadership, and why envisioning a new reality is essential for climate justice.

Link to discussion guide and transcript www.climatechangedpodcast.org

Grounding: To begin the episode, producer Peterson Toscano leads a grounding exercise by sharing a short, speculative story. Modeled on the type of climate fiction discussed in the episode, the story features a message from "Timothy Meadows from the Future" giving a broadcast from the year 2115. Timothy explores the history of how human relationships with pets and animals shifted and adapted in the face of climate change. This strange and wonderful story sets the stage for the episode by letting imagination lead and inviting listeners to envision a workable, adaptable future.

Resources & Concepts Mentioned:

Guest Bio: Tory Stephens is a storyteller, cultural worker, and climate justice advocate. At Grist, he co-founded Imagine 2200, a climate-fiction powerhouse, and has produced two anthologies of climate fiction: Afterglow and Metamorphosis. He now focuses on publishing climate fiction year-round and building partnerships that connect culture, justice, and climate solutions. In addition to his work at Grist Magazine, Tory is also involved with the Hollywood Climate Summit.

Connect with Tory & Explore His Work:

Thank Yous: We want to extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who made this episode possible:

How do we live, love, and practice leadership in a climate-changed world?

Welcome to Season 4 of the Climate Changed podcast, a project from The BTS Center! This season, we are diving deep into spiritual leadership and imagination. Join our hosts—Autumn Brown (artist, theologian, mother, and freedom worker) and Rev. Nicole Diroff (Associate Director at The BTS Center)—as they explore what faithful leadership looks like in times of immense uncertainty.

Throughout this season, we’ll hear from spiritual leaders, artists, and healers who are helping us navigate the overlapping crises of our time with courage, connection, and community.

This season's powerful lineup includes:

Katie Mears on navigating the front lines of disaster response and communicating risk.

Tory Stephens on the power of speculative fiction and imagination as our greatest climate tools.

Norma Wong, Zen master and Native Hawaiian leader, on how we breathe together and reconstitute our humanity through collapse.

Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner on finding holiness in uncertainty and rooting into our values when we lose our ground.

Francis Weller on the necessity of ritual, and how grief and love are two sides of the same bridge.

Before the first episode drops, we want to celebrate this new chapter with you. Join hosts Nicole and Autumn, along with producers Ben Yosua-Davis and Peterson Toscano, for a live, interactive launch event.

This isn't your average, boring webinar. We'll be diving into a deep conversation about the current pressure points in American society, politics, and justice, and how they intersect with our climate reality.

When: Monday, March 16th, 2026 at 7:30 PM Eastern

Where: Online! Register for free at thebtscenter.org What to expect at the launch party:

Live conversations with several of our Season 4 guests

Exclusive, behind-the-scenes video footage and bloopers

Giveaways throughout the event!

Episode 1 drops Tuesday, March 17th, 2026, featuring a fantastic conversation with Tory Stephens on speculative storytelling and the futures we actually want to build.

Make sure you are subscribed so you don't miss an episode, and find more resources at www.climatechangedpodcast.com.

Climate change, spiritual leadership, climate resilience, Autumn Brown, Nicole Diroff, The BTS Center, disaster response, speculative fiction, climate storytelling, Zen practice, grief and ritual, climate justice, community building, navigating collapse, podcast launch event

00:00 - Exploring Spiritual Leadership & Imagination

00:24 - Meet Your Hosts: Autumn Brown & Nicole Diroff

00:44 - Katie Mears on Disaster Response

01:07 - Tory Stephens on Speculative Fiction

01:34 - Norma Wong on Breathing Through Collapse

02:21 - Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner on Holiness in Uncertainty

02:50 - Francis Weller on Ritual and Grief

03:52 - You're Invited: Season 4 Launch Event!

05:17 - Sneak Peek: Episode 1 with Tory Stephens

In the fourth and final installment of our special storytelling bonus series, hosts Peterson Toscano and Ben Yosua-Davis conclude our journey through the 2025 BTS Center Convocation with a powerful story about the connection between our physical bodies, marginalized communities, and the health of the planet.

We hear from Tawni White, a registered nurse and congregational health leader, who shares her moving journey from experiencing childhood hunger and scarcity to discovering the empowering, healing abundance of the soil. Tawni reminds us that food sovereignty isn’t just about having food; it's about reclaiming dignity, connection, and hope through the simple act of planting a seed.

Then, we mark a major milestone for Climate Changed as we officially pass the mic to our new Season 4 co-hosts: Rev. Nicole Diroff and Autumn Brown! Nicole and Autumn share their vision for the upcoming season—exploring what it means to live, love, and lead in a climate-changed world—and share exclusive audio clips from their upcoming guests.

Finally, we cordially invite you to our Season 4 Live Launch Event happening on Monday, March 16th, 2026, at 7:30 PM Eastern! 

Episode Chapters

Next season, Autumn and Nicole will be talking with artists, theologians, organizers, and scientists who are helping us imagine new ways of living. Here is a sneak peek at some of the incredible voices you will hear:

Get ready for a deep dive conversation about the current pressure points in American society, politics, and justice, and how they intersect with our climate reality. We will feature exclusive video samples, behind-the-scenes footage, bloopers, and giveaways!

We would love to hear your reflections on these stories! Share how they impacted you or share a story of your own.

Website: climatechangedpodcast.org

A special bonus episode mini-series from Climate Changed

Links to Listen

At the 2025 BTS Center Convocation, participants were invited to share climate-centered stories grounded in their own lives. Working with coaches from Stellar Story Company, these storytellers moved beyond the "doom and gloom" binary to find humor, resilience, and spiritual insight in the face of a changing world.

Kate André serves as Pastor of the Mennonite Congregation of Boston and is the Mennonite/Anabaptist Chaplain at Harvard University. In her story, Kate uses the power of "confession" to admit that, despite her work in creation care, she wasn't always a nature lover. She takes us on a journey from the comfort of dark movie theaters to the muddy reality of planting hope, showing us that we don't have to be perfect environmentalists to do good work.

Blair A. R. Nelsen is the Executive Director of Waterspirit and represents the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace at the United Nations. Bringing a global perspective from her time living in Venezuela and Brazil, Blair shares a story about seeking help for eco-anxiety. Expecting to find a room full of despairing peers, she instead encounters a "twist" that reveals the deep, intergenerational resilience found in community.

Cheryl Hamilton is the Founder and Executive Director of Stellar Story Company. An award-winning communications expert, Cheryl has coached over 1,500 people from 80 countries. In this episode, she shares insights on how stories can lead to unexpected connections and richer conversations.

Season Four is coming soon! We are thrilled to welcome incoming co-hosts Nicole Diroff and Autumn Brown, who will explore what it means to live, love, and lead with faith and imagination in a climate-changed world.

Season Four Guests include:

Make sure you are subscribed so you don’t miss the Season Four premiere!

In this second bonus episode from Climate Changed, we return to the 2025 BTS Center Convocation, where participants were invited to flip the script—shifting climate conversations away from data and debate and toward lived experience, spiritual insight, and imagination.

Co-hosts Peterson Toscano and Ben Yosua-Davis introduce two deeply personal stories from members of the BTS Center community: Tyler Mark Nelson and David Arfa. Their stories explore mental health, vocation, migration, lineage, wonder, and responsibility in a climate-changed world—offering listeners not solutions, but companionship, honesty, and renewed attention to the wisdom of place.

At the 2025 BTS Center Convocation, participants were invited to share climate-centered stories grounded in their own lives—stories shaped by courage, vulnerability, and spiritual practice. Rather than expert lectures or policy analysis, these stories center on imagination, grief, hope, and relationships.

In this mini-series, Peterson Toscano and Ben Yosua-Davis share two of those stories in each episode, offering listeners a glimpse of how ordinary people are integrating climate concern with faith, creativity, and daily life. These episodes are especially suited for seasons when exhaustion, uncertainty, and longing coexist—and when stories can help us breathe again.

To bring these stories to life with care and craft, The BTS Center partnered with Stellar Story Company. Months before Convocation, community members were invited to submit story “seedlings” connected to the Convocation theme. From more than twenty proposals, seven storytellers were selected.

Each storyteller worked closely with an experienced storytelling coach over several months, meeting multiple times to shape, revise, and rehearse their narratives. The goal was not polished performance for its own sake, but faithful storytelling—stories lovingly and prayerfully crafted for a shared community.

As Associate Director Nicole Diroff explains in the episode, this process was itself an act of “flipping the script”: centering voices from within the community and trusting that lived experience can open pathways to courage and connection.

Tyler Mark Nelson begins his story seated on a warm rock along the north shore of Lake Superior—a place he returns to when his mental health falters, and his vocational path feels uncertain. Living with long-term depression and anxiety, Tyler finds himself one year away from graduating from Yale Divinity School and questioning everything.

As he watches loons dive and resurface in the cold inland sea, Tyler recalls another moment years earlier when he stood at this same shoreline after dropping out of college. The loons become unexpected spiritual companions, offering a metaphor for nourishment, patience, and survival beneath the surface.

A simple prayer—“God, teach me the ways of the loon”—marks a turning point. Tyler does not emerge with easy answers or dramatic healing, but with breath, presence, and a renewed commitment to care for his body, spirit, and community. His story reframes vocation not as certainty or ordination, but as learning how to swim alongside others in deep water.

Tyler Mark Nelson

David Arfa’s story begins with a childhood encounter with a snake in a Detroit backyard—an early moment of exhilaration and curiosity rather than fear.

As David studies ecology, wrestles with family expectations, and searches for spiritual grounding, he finds unexpected resonance in Jewish ritual, prayer, and lineage. A formative experience with monarch butterflies in California—hundreds falling frozen from eucalyptus trees and lifted back into flight by human breath—becomes a moment of awe and ethical clarity.

Weaving together migration stories of butterflies, ancestors leaving Warsaw, and his own vocational journey, David invites listeners to consider what migrations—spiritual, emotional, generational—have made their own lives possible. His story holds wonder and responsibility together, asking what we are creating now that may not come to fruition for generations.

David Arfa coordinates bereavement services and offers grief counseling at Baystate Hospice. A storyteller and educator rooted in Jewish tradition, David’s work weaves together ecological awareness, spiritual lineage, and narrative as tools for meaning-making, wonder, and ethical responsibility.

Following both stories, Ben Yosua-Davis and Peterson Toscano reflect on the craft and impact of climate storytelling. They note the power of spaciousness, the refusal to rush toward solutions, and the way sound, image, and silence can carry meaning.

Together, they suggest that climate storytelling works best when it trusts listeners—when it offers images rather than explanations and allows sorrow, humor, holiness, and resilience to coexist.

In Season 4, incoming co-hosts Nicole Diroff and Autumn Brown will explore what it means to live, love, and lead with faith and imagination in a climate-changed world. We are especially honored to welcome Autumn—a visionary artist, theologian, and co-host of the acclaimed podcast How to Survive the End of the World with her sister adrienne maree brown—whose profound expertise in community resilience and speculative fiction brings a rare, transformative perspective to these essential conversations.

Season Four Guests

Francis Weller: francisweller.net (Author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow).

Norma Wong: Institute of Zen Studies (Zen Master and leader).

Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner: Climate Change Chaplain

Tory Stevens: Climate Narrative Project (Climate storyteller).

Katie Mears: Episcopal Relief & Development (Disaster response leader).

In this special bonus mini-series, Climate Changed returns to the 2025 BTS Center Convocation, where participants “flipped the script” and stepped forward to share climate-centered personal stories—not lectures, not data, not policy, but lived experience. Co-hosts Peterson Toscano and Ben Yosua-Davis introduce two powerful stories of walking, vision, and spiritual practice from BTS Center community members June Zellers and the Rev. Sara Hayman.

At the 2025 BTS Center Convocation, participants were invited to share climate-centered stories grounded in their own lives—stories shaped by imagination, vulnerability, and courage. In this mini-series, Peterson Toscano and Ben Yosua-Davis share two of those stories in each episode, offering listeners a glimpse of how ordinary people are integrating climate concern with spiritual practice, community, and daily life.

This end-of-year series is designed for a season when many of us are carrying questions about justice, the environment, and the future of our climate-changed world. Reflection, exhaustion, hope, and uncertainty often intermingle. These stories offer a companion for that moment, reminding us that one of the most powerful tools we have is our own voice and our own lived experience.

To bring these stories to life with care and craft, The BTS Center partnered with Stellar Story Company. Months before Convocation, the BTS Center staff invited participants to propose story “seedlings” connected to the Convocation theme. More than twenty community members responded.

From those proposals, seven storytellers were selected. Each worked with an experienced storytelling coach from Stellar Story Company over several months, meeting in multiple sessions to develop, revise, and rehearse their stories. Together they shaped deeply personal narratives—rooted in faith, place, and embodied experience—designed to be shared in a plenary setting rather than as expert lectures.

As Associate Director Nicole Diroff explains in the episode, the intention was to “flip the script”: to center not headline keynotes, but the voices of people sitting at the tables, taking the leap to tell stories they had “lovingly, prayerfully crafted” for this community. The hope is that these stories will not only move listeners but also spark new stories in all of us.

Attorney and long-time BTS Center participant June Zellers takes us back 32 years to Eagle Song Camp in western Montana, where she joined 27 women and Indigenous teacher Brooke Medicine Eagle for a three-week physical and spiritual training culminating in a two-day vision quest.

Sitting within a carefully prepared medicine circle on a grassy mountainside, June seeks “soul-level answers” to why her outwardly successful law career feels so soul-crushing. What follows is a night of galloping horses, a mountain lion stalking a fellow participant, and the unsettling choice to break the rules in order to move toward another’s distress.

The second morning, as she wakes, June hears what she can only describe as the earth itself singing—a three-syllable chant carried first by stillness, then by warm rain, and finally by a brook she has crossed many times before. Tone-deaf and unable to reproduce the melody, she nonetheless carries this silent chant as a mantra through decades of difficulty, sorrow, and grief, a reminder that “regardless of my circumstances, the spirit of life is so incredibly joyful. And my soul, our souls, are designed to be radiant.”

The Rev. Sara Hayman, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ellsworth, Maine, describes how intentional walking has become a primary way she gets grounded amidst overlapping crises, ministry demands, and the weight of liberal religious leadership. From the Camino de Santiago in Spain (500 miles, no blisters—though bedbugs made an appearance) to the wild coasts of Newfoundland and a sheep-covered Dingle Peninsula in Ireland, walking renews her spirit. It reconnects her to land, ancestors, and gratitude.

When Penobscot spiritual leader and activist Sherri Mitchell invites her to help organize a “Journey for Peace and Friendship”—an 82-mile, eight-day prayer walk from Indian Island (Penobscot Reservation) to the State House in Augusta—Sara says yes without asking her congregation’s permission. Alongside Wabanaki leaders and a diverse group of walkers, she experiences ceremony, risk, hostility from passing traffic, unexpected welcome (church bells, homemade chocolate-zucchini muffins, cold sparkling water), and the daily discipline of simply putting one foot in front of the other.

On the State House steps, exhausted and unprepared with formal remarks, she finds herself moved into a litany of gratitude—for Sherri, for fellow walkers, for the chance to remember that she is “from here,” deeply rooted in relationships that change her from the inside out. Six months later, her life has not been transformed in dramatic ways. She is still overwhelmed, still entangled, still wrestling with the demands of leadership. But every time she laces up her boots and walks the local mountain, 17 minutes from her house, she again touches the soul nourishment and connection that walking makes possible. And no matter what, she always feels “a little bit better when I’m walking.”

This bonus episode also offers listeners a first look at Season Four of Climate Changed. Ben and Peterson announce that there will indeed be a fourth season—and that it will bring something new: writer, musician, and organizer Autumn Brown will join Nicole Diroff as a guest host.

Autumn is the recipient of the 2025 Margaret Brent Award from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and a 2020 Auburn Seminary Lives of Commitment honoree. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College who continued her theological studies at the General Theological Seminary in New York, Autumn is a speculative fiction and creative nonfiction writer whose work appears in journals, anthologies, and collected volumes. Her band, also named Autumn, released two EPs in 2024, produced by Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards. Many listeners will also know her as co-host of the podcast How to Survive the End of the World, created with her sister adrienne maree brown.

Season Four will continue to explore what it means to live, love, and lead in a climate-changed world, now with Autumn’s voice and experience adding new depth to the conversation.

June Zellers

The Rev. Sara Hayman

What does it mean to take faithful action in a climate-changed world—especially when the problems feel impossibly large? In this final Behind the Scenes episode of the Climate Changed Podcast, host Jessica David sits down with Allen Ewing-Merrill, Executive Director of The BTS Center, and Rev. Nicole Diroff, Associate Director, to explore a defining BTS Center phrase: “small experiments with radical intent.”

Together, they reflect on how this deceptively simple idea invites spiritual leaders and communities to take creative, courageous steps—grounded in curiosity, rooted in discernment, and open to transformation. Through stories of congregations testing new practices, the BTS Center’s own experiment with reading weeks, and even Nicole’s family’s choice to replace disposable napkins with reusable ones, they reveal how small, intentional acts can lead to profound shifts in culture and worldview.

Jessica, Allen, and Nicole discuss what it means to lower the stakes, embrace failure as a learning opportunity, and approach faith work as experimentation rather than perfection. They unpack the “radical” in radical intent—not as extremism, but as a return to our roots—to what nourishes and sustains life. The result is a conversation that reimagines leadership and community as living laboratories for hope, spaciousness, and renewal.

Allen Ewing-Merrill:

“The root of the word radical is radix, meaning root. What if being radical is really about sinking deeply into our roots—into our essence, our source of life and nourishment and vitality? It takes real discernment to know what that is, but once we do, transformation follows.”

Rev. Nicole Diroff:

“For me, small experiments with radical intent build the muscle of curiosity. They’re manageable but meaningful, and they keep our hearts open in uncertain times. Without curiosity, our hearts can harden—and that’s when transformation stops.”

Allen Ewing-Merrill:

“We’re more likely to act our way into a new way of thinking than to think our way into a new way of acting. A small experiment—taken with radical intent—helps us step toward that new way of being.”

Allen Ewing-Merrill

Rev. Nicole Diroff

Have you tried a small experiment with radical intent in your own life or community? What did you learn?

Share your reflections by email at [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 207-200-6986.

The Climate Changed Podcast is a project of The BTS Center in Portland, Maine. Produced by Peterson Toscano.

Discover more episodes, transcripts, and resources at climatechangedpodcast.org.