conscient podcast

• It's a real blessing to feel a sense of purpose that in these times. It's a real blessing to be able to take the feelings of fear and grief and actually channel them somewhere into running a group or to making a film or doing your podcasts. I think it's important that people really tune in to find out what they're given to do at this time, to really listen to what the call is in you and follow it. I think there's something that's very generative and supportive about feeling a sense of purpose in a time of collapse.

michael shaw, conscient podcast, april 12, 2021, australia

Michael Shaw is a teacher and therapist by training. I learned about Michael’s work by viewing his first film, produced in collaboration with Michelle Walter, called Living in the Time of Dying, which he describes as:

The recognition of the stark reality of the climate crisis we are facing, and what it would mean to me in my lifetime, or what’s left of it. When I first began to see it clearly, I felt a sense of shock and fear, as well as a profound sense of sadness. I was unable to pretend I didn’t see what I did and felt internally undone for a considerable amount of time. Eventually I felt a powerful call to action from that place.

Living in the Time of Dying website

Withlittle funds, no experience in the field and knowing that his message might well also be unpopular (I know the feeling!), Michael now makes media projects to engage the public about climate anxiety and grief. 

It is through his film that I learned about the engaging work of dharma teacher Catherine Ingram and her powerful extended essay, Facing Extinction as well as the writings of Dhar Jamail, author of The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption, both of whom I quote in e19 reality. 

Similar to my humble aspirations with this podcast, Michael and Michelle’s work seeks to face the global changes and explore how to best live in this 'time of dying' (as they say). 

This episode was recorded between my home in Ottawa and Michael’s home in Australia on April 13, 2021.  

Michael and I exchanged on a wide range of issues including the role of media to address the climate emergency, support structures for ecogrief, the role of the arts and the concept of hope. 

As I have done in all episodes in season 2 so far, I have integrated excerpts from soundscape compositions and quotations drawn from e19 reality in this episode.

I would like to thank Michael for taking the time to speak with me, for sharing his insights as a fellow producer of climate emergency media projects and for providing a support structure for those struggling with eco anxiety and eco grief. 

For more information on Micheal and Michelle’s work, see https://www.livinginthetimeofdying.com/

*

END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Note : I'm currently 'pressing pause' and am not producing new content until further notice. 

Hey conscient listeners, 

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020. It’s my way to give back.

This Indigenous Land Acknowledgement statement was developed by members of the Algonquin community for my former employer the Canada Council for the Arts. I have adapted slightly to make it my own.

• I acknowledge that my studio, located in Ottawa, is on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial.
• I recognize the Algonquins as the customary keepers and defenders of the Ottawa River Watershed and its tributaries. I honour their long history of welcoming many Nations to this beautiful territory and uphold and uplift the voice and values of our Host Nation.
• Further, I offer my respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land and honour commitments to self-determination and sovereignty that have been made to Indigenous Nations and Peoples.
• I acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures and the original Peoples in what we now know as Canada and fervently believe the Arts contribute to the healing and decolonizing journey we all share together

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

Your feedback is always welcome at claude [at] conscient [dot] ca and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Tik Tok, YouTube and Substack.

Share what you like, etc

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. 

Thanks for listening. 

Claude Schryer

Latest update on March 21, 2026

• The recognition, and finding ways to assist people, in an awareness of all the good, the possible and the beautiful and where those things can lead, is one of the roles that artists can specifically play. 

jil p. weaving, conscient podcast, March 31, 2021, Vancouver

jil p. weaving is a site-specific artist who has created works for presentation in both galleries and unconventional spaces. She was Coordinator of Arts and Culture for the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation where she developed and managed a number of projects, such as the Arts, Health and Seniors Project. I had the pleasure of working with jil while I was at the Canada Council for the Arts on various initiatives to support artists working with communities. She is as a passionate advocate for the arts and well grounded.

I appreciated that jil began our conversation with a land acknowledgment from her base in Vancouver on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm), the Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh) and the Tsleil-Waututh (Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh) peoples.

This episode was recorded on jil’s back deck in Vancouver on March 31, 2021.  You’ll hear her son’s dog Dexter once in a while, who enriched our soundscape.

jil and I exchanged on a wide range of issues including relations with indigenous communities, the role of the arts, definitions and appreciation of different art practices, the work of EartHand Gleaners Society, the importance of speculative fiction, etc. 

As I did in e22 westerkamp and e23 appadurai, I integrated excerpts from previous episodes in this case, from e19 reality and e05 carruthers this episode. 

I would like to thank jil for taking the time to speak with me, for sharing her deep knowledge of the arts and her insights on how to chart a path forward (on my goals in season 2 of the conscient podcast).

For more information on jil’s work, see https://artists-speak.ca/?p=46

*

END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Note : I'm currently 'pressing pause' and am not producing new content until further notice. 

Hey conscient listeners, 

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020. It’s my way to give back.

This Indigenous Land Acknowledgement statement was developed by members of the Algonquin community for my former employer the Canada Council for the Arts. I have adapted slightly to make it my own.

• I acknowledge that my studio, located in Ottawa, is on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial.
• I recognize the Algonquins as the customary keepers and defenders of the Ottawa River Watershed and its tributaries. I honour their long history of welcoming many Nations to this beautiful territory and uphold and uplift the voice and values of our Host Nation.
• Further, I offer my respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land and honour commitments to self-determination and sovereignty that have been made to Indigenous Nations and Peoples.
• I acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures and the original Peoples in what we now know as Canada and fervently believe the Arts contribute to the healing and decolonizing journey we all share together

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

Your feedback is always welcome at claude [at] conscient [dot] ca and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Tik Tok, YouTube and Substack.

Share what you like, etc

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. 

Thanks for listening. 

Claude Schryer

Latest update on March 21, 2026

• The climate crisis and the broader ecological crisis is a symptom of the deeper disease, which is that rift from nature, that seed of domination, of accumulation, of greed and of the urge to dominate others through colonialism, through slavery, through othering – the root is actually othering – and that is something that artists can touch. That is what has to be healed, and when we heal that, what does the world on the other side of a just transition look like? I really don’t want to believe that it it looks like exactly this, but with solar. The first language that colonisation sought to suppress, which was that of indigenous people, is where a lot of answers are held.

anjali appadurai, conscient podcast, April 2, 2021, Vancouver

Anjali Appadurai is a climate justice advocate, communicator and consultant who works to strengthen climate change messaging and discourse in Canada by centering the stories of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis. She currently works at Sierra Club BC.

Anjali contacted me while I was in Vancouver in March 2021 to help with her and Seth Klein, author of A Good War : Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency (who will be a guest on a future episode) to mobilize the arts and cultural sector as part of their Climate Emergency Unit. I was honoured to accept their offer.

This episode was recorded at Trout Lake Park in Vancouver on April 2, 2021. Anjali kindly accepted to go on a ‘soundwalk’ with me (see e22 westerkamp for more on soundwalking). Anjali and I exchanged on a wide range of issues that I do not know enough about, including: 

• Who is the ‘we’ and issues of privilege
• Distribution of the remaining carbon budget
• Atmospheric space as a human right
• The long history of human extinction

As I did in e22 westerkamp, I integrated excerpts from e19 reality into this episode. 

I would like to thank Anjali for taking the time to speak with me, for sharing her deep knowledge about the climate emergency and her passion for the arts.

For more information on Anjali’s work, see https://sierraclub.bc.ca/anjali-appadurai/

*

END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Note : I'm currently 'pressing pause' and am not producing new content until further notice. 

Hey conscient listeners, 

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020. It’s my way to give back.

This Indigenous Land Acknowledgement statement was developed by members of the Algonquin community for my former employer the Canada Council for the Arts. I have adapted slightly to make it my own.

• I acknowledge that my studio, located in Ottawa, is on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial.
• I recognize the Algonquins as the customary keepers and defenders of the Ottawa River Watershed and its tributaries. I honour their long history of welcoming many Nations to this beautiful territory and uphold and uplift the voice and values of our Host Nation.
• Further, I offer my respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land and honour commitments to self-determination and sovereignty that have been made to Indigenous Nations and Peoples.
• I acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures and the original Peoples in what we now know as Canada and fervently believe the Arts contribute to the healing and decolonizing journey we all share together

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

Your feedback is always welcome at claude [at] conscient [dot] ca and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Tik Tok, YouTube and Substack.

Share what you like, etc

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. 

Thanks for listening. 

Claude Schryer

Latest update on March 21, 2026

• We need toallow for time to pass without any action, without any solutions and to just experience it. I think that a slowdown is an absolute - if there is any chance to survive - that kind of slowing down through listening and meditation and through not doing so much. I think there's some hope in that.

Hildegard Westerkamp, conscient podcast conversation with Claude Schryer, March 31, 2021, Vancouver

Hildegard Westerkamp emigrated to Canada in 1968 from Germany and lives in Vancouver on the ancestral lands of the Coast Salish peoples - the Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh), Tsleil-Waututh (Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh), and Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm) Nations.

Like myself, after completing formal music studies, Hildi was drawn beyond music to the acoustic environment as a broader cultural context and a space for deep listening. Hildi and I have collaborated on many projects over the years, most notably, we were founding members of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology in 1993 at the Banff Centre. 

Our conversation covered a lot of ground, including the art of soundwalking and how we can we better understand the climate emergency through listening. With Hildi's permission, I have added a few field recordings and soundscapes from my collection, as a well as some excerpts from e19 reality, to accompany our exchange. 

Launched on Hildi's 75th birthday (April 8, 2021) - happy birthday Hildi - I would like to warmly thank Hildi for taking the time to speak with me and for sharing her knowledge. 

For more information on Hildi's work, see https://www.hildegardwesterkamp.ca/

*

END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Note : I'm currently 'pressing pause' and am not producing new content until further notice. 

Hey conscient listeners, 

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020. It’s my way to give back.

This Indigenous Land Acknowledgement statement was developed by members of the Algonquin community for my former employer the Canada Council for the Arts. I have adapted slightly to make it my own.

• I acknowledge that my studio, located in Ottawa, is on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial.
• I recognize the Algonquins as the customary keepers and defenders of the Ottawa River Watershed and its tributaries. I honour their long history of welcoming many Nations to this beautiful territory and uphold and uplift the voice and values of our Host Nation.
• Further, I offer my respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land and honour commitments to self-determination and sovereignty that have been made to Indigenous Nations and Peoples.
• I acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures and the original Peoples in what we now know as Canada and fervently believe the Arts contribute to the healing and decolonizing journey we all share together

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

Your feedback is always welcome at claude [at] conscient [dot] ca and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Tik Tok, YouTube and Substack.

Share what you like, etc

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. 

Thanks for listening. 

Claude Schryer

Latest update on March 21, 2026

• I think capitalism is over, but the problem is we have nothing to replace it with. Here's when we need artists, and others, to tell us what kind of vision they have for a future that is different than that: a future of play and meaningful work would be one future that I think is not just utopic, but very possible. So there's a possible future moving forward that could be much better than it is right now, but we're not going to get there without democracy of suffering as we're experiencing it now and will at least over the next 20, 30, 40 years until we figure this out, but we need to figure it out quickly.

Dr. Todd Dufresne, conscient podcast, April 1, 2021,

Dr. Todd Dufresne is Professor of Philosophy at Lakehead University who specializes in Critical Freud Studies and is author or editor of 12 books. 

I first heard about Dr Dufresne’s most recent book, The Democracy of Suffering, on CBC Radio Ideas during the fall of 2020. I was impressed, upset and energized by the book. I used the following quote by Dr. Dufresne in e19 reality :

We’re all being “radicalized by reality.” It’s just that for some people it takes a personal experience of fire, landslide, or hurricane to get their attention. I’m afraid it takes mass death and extinction.

Whoever survives these experiences will have a renewed appreciation for nature, for the external world, and for the necessity of collectivism in the face of mass extinction. There’s hope in this — although I admit it’s wrapped in ugliness.

Dr. Todd Dufresne, For the Love of Wisdom: Climate Change and the Revenge of History

Our conversation covered a range of issues in and around reality and grief, from the philosophical to the pragmatic, including the unique role of arts and culture. 

For more information on Todd Dufresne see: https://todddufresne.com/about-todd/

*

END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Note : I'm currently 'pressing pause' and am not producing new content until further notice. 

Hey conscient listeners, 

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020. It’s my way to give back.

This Indigenous Land Acknowledgement statement was developed by members of the Algonquin community for my former employer the Canada Council for the Arts. I have adapted slightly to make it my own.

• I acknowledge that my studio, located in Ottawa, is on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial.
• I recognize the Algonquins as the customary keepers and defenders of the Ottawa River Watershed and its tributaries. I honour their long history of welcoming many Nations to this beautiful territory and uphold and uplift the voice and values of our Host Nation.
• Further, I offer my respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land and honour commitments to self-determination and sovereignty that have been made to Indigenous Nations and Peoples.
• I acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures and the original Peoples in what we now know as Canada and fervently believe the Arts contribute to the healing and decolonizing journey we all share together

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

Your feedback is always welcome at claude [at] conscient [dot] ca and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Tik Tok, YouTube and Substack.

Share what you like, etc

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. 

Thanks for listening. 

Claude Schryer

Latest update on March 21, 2026

(episode script)

[frogs 2017 05 22, Preston River, QC]

Welcome to the conscient podcast. My name is Claude Schryer. 

Season 1 was about exploring how the arts contribute to environmental awareness and action. 

I produced 3 episodes in French, 15 in English as well as a series of bilingual blogs and videos. You can see and hear them at https://www.conscient.ca/. 

Season 2 is about accepting reality, working through ecological grief and charting a path forward. 

Today you’ll hear episode 1, called reality. It touches upon our perception of reality, the possibility of human extinction, eco anxiety and eco grief, hope, arts, storytelling and the wisdom of indigenous cultures. 

The episode mixes quotations from 28 authors with field recordings from my simplesoundscapescollection and from my soundscape composition, Au dernier vivant les biens. 

This poetic layering of ideas and sound is how I make sense of life and the world around me.

A complete transcript of this episode, including weblinks to the source each of quotation and field recording, can be found in the episode notes. 

The rest of season 2 will feature interviews with thought leaders, in English ou en francais, about their responses and reactions to episode 1. 

This is where I will be fleshing out some of the questions I raise in the episode with experts and thought leaders. Please stay tuned. 

Veuillez noter que cette émission est également disponible en français. 

[e11 Arrival 2017 09 19, Dash-8, Ottawa Airport, ON]

*

Journalist Jack Miles, If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

• Reality, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is “the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them.” Instead of being the method through which we observe a thing, reality is the nature or truth of this thing.  

[e55 crôute, 2018 01 28, Duhamel QC]

Definition of Reality in Buddhism,Wikipedia

• Buddhism seeks to address any disparity between a person’s view of reality and the actual state of things.

[e97 raven 2018 07 24 Saturna Island, BC]

Writer Sherri Mitchell, Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change

• We must tune in to our ability to see beyond the physical reality that surrounds us and awaken to the vast unseen world that exists. 

[e169 chorus 2018 05 26 Duhamel, QC]

Cultural theorist Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth

• Our challenge is to create a new language, even a new sense of what it is to be human. It is to transcend not only national limitations, but even our species isolation, to enter into the larger community of living species. This brings about a completely new sense of reality and value. 

Historian Paul Krause (also known as Hesiod),Francis Bacon’s Philosophy of Scientific Conquest

• For Francis Bacon, man is superior to nature. But man is also alienated from nature. Nature is harsh and unforgiving and something that needs to be conquered. Rather than seeing man as part of the web of nature, Bacon sees man as existing in a natural empire.

[chainsaw, 2016 12 04, Duhamel QC] 

[ice falling, 1990 North Bay, ON]

Political science professor Thomas Homer-Dixon, Commanding Hope

• Today’s globe-spanning crises all stem from common sources: beliefs and values that are too self-centered, political systems that are too hidebound, economies that are too rapacious, and technologies that are too dirty for a small, crowded planet with dwindling resources and fraying natural systems.

[birdsong, 2020 03 14, Biosphere2, AZ]

Activist Naomi Klein, This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate

• What the climate needs to avoid collapse, is a contraction in humanity’s use of resources and what our economic model demands, to avoid collapse, is unfettered expansion. Only one of these sets of rules can be changed, and it’s not the laws of nature. 

Philosophy professor Todd Dufresne, For the Love of Wisdom: Climate Change and the Revenge of History

• We’re all being “radicalized by reality.” It’s just that for some people it takes a personal experience of fire, landslide, or hurricane to get their attention. I’m afraid it takes mass death and extinction.
• Whoever survives these experiences will have a renewed appreciation for nature, for the external world, and for the necessity of collectivism in the face of mass extinction. There’s hope in this — although I admit it’s wrapped in ugliness.

[2 appel, Au dernier vivant les biens, 1996 Montréal QC]

Environmental humanitiesprofessor Jennifer Atkinson, Facing It 

• Eco-anxiety and climate grief are sometimes framed as “disorders” but in fact these feelings typically arise from an accurate perception of our ecological crisis. It may be more appropriate to identify eco-anxiety as a “moral emotion” – a sign of compassion, attachment to life, and desire for justice. 
• Our future remains unwritten, and by embracing the unknown we are better able to reframe our thinking in empowering ways. 

Writer Rebecca Solnit, Hope is a​n embrace of the unknown​: Rebecca Solnit on living in dark times

• Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. 

[33 nuage, Au dernier vivant les biens, 1996 Montréal QC]

Dharma teacher Catherine Ingram, Facing Extinction

• Love, what else is there to do now?  Here we are, some of the last humans who will experience this beautiful planet since Homo sapiens began their journey some 200,000 years ago. Now, in facing extinction of our species, you may wonder if there is any point in going on.  

Journalist Dahl Jamail, The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption

• My heart breaks for what we have done and are doing to the planet. I grieve, yet this ongoing process has become more like peeling back the layers of an onion — there is always more work to do, as the crisis we have created for ourselves continues to unfold.  And somewhere along the line I surrendered my attachment to any results that might stem from my work. I am hope-free.

Journalist Richard Heinberg, The Big Picture

• Hope is not just an expectation of better times ahead; it is an active attitude, a determination to achieve the best possible outcome regardless of the challenges one is facing.

[protest, 2017 01 21 Ottawa, ON]

Activist Greta Thunberg, Message to world leaders at #DavosAgenda 

• For me, hope is the feeling that keeps you going, even though all odds may be against you. For me, hope comes from action not just words. For me, hope is telling it like it is.

[8 capital, Au dernier vivant les biens, 1990 Montréal QC]

Law Professor Shalanda Baker, Revolutionary Power: An Activist’s Guide to the Energy Transition

• Will we redesign systems to replicate the current structures of power and control, or will we reimagine our system to benefit those are so often left out of discussions regarding systems design? 

[49 temps, Au dernier vivant les biens, 1998 Montréal QC]

Writer Britt Wray, Climate tipping points: the ones we actually want

• When a small change in a complex system produces an enormous shift, that new pathway gets reinforced by positive feedback loops, which lock in all that change. That’s why tipping points are irreversible. You can’t go back to where you were before. A tipping point that flips non-linearly could be the thing that does us in, but it could also be the thing that allows us to heal our broken systems and better sustain ourselves. 

[7 brassage, Au dernier vivant les biens, 1996 Manitoba]

Public policy professorEric Beinhocker, I Am a Carbon Abolitionist

• Humankind is in a race between two tipping points. The first is when the Earth’s ecosystems and the life they contain tip into irreversible collapse due to climate change. The second is when the fight for climate action tips from being just one of many political concerns to becoming a mass social movement. The existential question is, which tipping point will we hit first?

[41 profondeur, Au dernier vivant les biens, 1980s Ice breaker, Nunavut]

Zen teacher David Loy, Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis

• The Buddhist solution to this predicament is not to get rid of the self, because there is no such thing to get rid of. The sense of self needs to be deconstructed (‘forgotten’ in meditation) and reconstructed (replacing the ‘three poisons’ of greed, ill will and delusion with generosity, loving-kindness and the wisdom that recognizes our interdependence). 
• Just as there is no self to get rid of, we cannot ‘return to nature’ because we’ve never been apart from it, but we can realize our nonduality with it and begin to live in ways that accord with that realization. 

[43 réveil, Au dernier vivant les biens, 1990s Church bells, Europe]

Actor Dominic Champagne, Le fond de ma pensée (in French only)

• Knowing that I will be leaving my three sons a world in worse condition than the one I inherited from my parents, knowing that we are contemporaries in a world where our actions are jeopardizing the future of life on Earth and knowing that the situation may get worse, what am I doing with my life? How can I keep putting on shows and spinning balloons on my nose as if nothing had happened?

Journalist Julia Rosen,An artist set out to paint climate change. She ended up on a journey through grief

• Society tends to see climate change as a scientific issue, rather than a cultural and political challenge that demands our full humanity — the kind more often explored and addressed through art.

Composer R. Murray Schafer, Au dernier vivant les biens

• Look at war. People who want to use noise as a kind of weaponry. To frighten them.  To scare them. To beat them down. To pulverize them. If you want to destroy people. One of the first resorts you have is to noise.

Artist David Haley, Going beyond Earthly

• We now need aesthetics to sensitize us to other ways of life and we need artists to sensitize us to the shape of things to come.

[28 liquide, Au dernier vivant les biens, 1998 Montréal QC]  

Artist Diego Galafassi, How the arts might help us grapple with climate change

• Art is a space where we can ask very difficult questions and explore things in a more open-ended way and not be committed to solutions. 

Artist Lance Gharavi,In a climate crisis, artists have a duty to speak up – but what should they say?

• While individual works of art, ‘however genius,’ may have value, they won’t do the trick. What we need is for all art to be about climate change.

[Marche sonore 1, Grenouilles, 1992 Montréal QC]  

Composer Robert Normandeau, Marche sonore 1

• It’s a bit like taking a frog, which is a cold-blooded animal, and putting it in a jar of water and heating the water, little by little. The frog will get used to the temperature rising and rising, and it will not notice that the temperature has risen and one day the temperature will be too hot for it and it will die. Therefore, our civilization, in terms of sound, looks a bit like that, that is to say we get used to it, we get used to it, we get used to it and at some point, we are going to have punctured eardrums. 

Historian Yuval Harari,Why Did Humans Become The Most Successful Species On Earth?

• If you think about any religion, any economic system, any political system, at the basis you will find some fictional story about God, about money, about human rights, about a nation. All these things are fictional stories. They are not a biological reality, but it’s a very powerful and convincing and benign fiction that helps us organize our political and legal systems in the modern world.

Writer Charles Eisenstein, To Reason with a Madman

• Expository prose generates resistance, but stories touch a deeper place in the soul. They flow like water around intellectual defenses and soften the soil so that dormant visions and ideals can take root. 

Writer Richard Wagamese, Embers: One Ojibway’s Meditations

• To use the act of breathing to shape air into sounds that take on the context of language that lifts and transports those who hear it, takes them beyond what they think and know and feel and empowers them to think and feel and know even more.  We’re storytellers, really. That’s what we do. That is our power as human beings.

[fireplace, 2021 01 26, Duhamel QC]  

Composer Claude Schryer, story from participation at How does culture contribute to sustainable futures?

• Here’s a story.  Once upon a time… I think it was during the fall of 2019, I was at a meeting about how the arts and cultural sector, and in particular indigenous traditional knowledge community, could play a much larger role in the fight against climate change. I was very fortunate to be there, and I was very excited to learn more. So, we sat around a table, not quite a circle, but close enough, and each person shared knowledge and some stories. I spoke about how the institution that I worked for was trying to become greener and walk its talk on environmental issues. Others spoke about issues like built heritage and intangible culture and hat kind of thing. Then, the representative from an indigenous cultural organization took my breath away when he said that it would ‘likely take as long to resolve the ecological crisis as it did to create it’. Now, I played this back in my mind: take as long to resolve the ecological crisis as it did, or as it does, to create it. How is this possible? and then I said: ‘but, but we do not have that kind of time’. Or do we? We all looked at each other in silence. I’ll never forget that moment. 

[e105 thunder, 2018 08 04, Duhamel QC]

Activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Our survival utterly depends on living in nature, not apart from it

• It’s important to recognize how closely linked environment, health, economics, culture and rights are in our society. The Earth is a living, breathing entity just the same as our bodies are. Our survival utterly depends on living in nature, not apart from it. 

Writer Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

• The land is the real teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness.

[frogs 2017 05 22, Preston River, QC]

Dharma teacher Catherine Ingram, Facing Extinction : 

• Despite our having caused so much destruction, it is important to also consider the wide spectrum of possibilities that make up a human life.  Yes, on one end of that spectrum is greed, cruelty, and ignorance; on the other end is kindness, compassion, and wisdom. We are imbued with great creativity, brilliant communication, and extraordinary appreciation of and talent for music and other forms of art. 
• There is no other known creature whose spectrum of consciousness is as wide and varied as our own.

*

I agree with Catherine that we humans are conscient beings, with an unlimited capacity for, yes, greed, cruelty, ignorance and selfishness but also for kindness, compassion, wisdom, creativity and imagination.

My own understanding and perception of reality have been transformed since I started writing this episode. 

Yuval Harari’s statement about how ‘fictional stories are not a biological reality’ shook me up and woke me up.

More and more, I now see, and more importantly, I now feel in my bones, ‘the state of things as they actually exist’, without social filters or unsustainable stories blocking the way. 

So where do we go from here? 

Eric Beinhocker reminded us earlier in the program that humankind is in a race between two tipping points: irreversible collapse or mass social movement.  

My heart, of course, is with massive social movement, there are signs of it growing, however, my rational mind, informed by science, sees irreversible collapse as the most likely outcome. and this collapse has already begun and so we must make every effort, for the benefit of future generations, to slow down the collapse while a mass social movement grows. 

Personally, my hope is that we find a way to accept reality, to work our way through ecological grief and to chart a path forward. 

My dream, as zen teacher David Loy suggests, is that one day, we can ‘realize our nonduality with nature and begin to live in ways that accord with that realization’.  

*

You’ve been listening to reality, episode 1 of season 2 of the conscient podcast. My name is Claude Schryer. 

I would like to warmly thank the 28 individuals who I quoted in this program. Some of their quotes have been slightly abbreviated for concision and clarity. 

I also want to thank all those who have helped me produce this episode, in particular my wife Sabrina Mathews and podcast consultant Ayesha Barmania.

Please keep in mind that this podcast is a work in progress and that I’m aware that my work has moments of incoherence, contradiction, unconscious bias, a bit of panic and some naïveté, among other things, so please feel free to challenge my assumptions, share your thoughts and join the conversation through conscient.ca. 

Also keep in mind that these are troubling and challenging issues, so please do not hesitate to reach out to support groups or counselling services in your community for help. 

A reminder that episode 2 (é20 réalité) is the French version of this program and episode 3 will be the first in a series of conversations with guests about their response to the reality episode.

Take good care and thanks for listening.

[e74 sky, 2018 08 04, Duhamel QC]

Thanks to Hélène Prévost and Lolita Boudreault for their support.

*

END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Note : I'm currently 'pressing pause' and am not producing new content until further notice. 

Hey conscient listeners, 

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020. It’s my way to give back.

This Indigenous Land Acknowledgement statement was developed by members of the Algonquin community for my former employer the Canada Council for the Arts. I have adapted slightly to make it my own.

• I acknowledge that my studio, located in Ottawa, is on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial.
• I recognize the Algonquins as the customary keepers and defenders of the Ottawa River Watershed and its tributaries. I honour their long history of welcoming many Nations to this beautiful territory and uphold and uplift the voice and values of our Host Nation.
• Further, I offer my respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land and honour commitments to self-determination and sovereignty that have been made to Indigenous Nations and Peoples.
• I acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures and the original Peoples in what we now know as Canada and fervently believe the Arts contribute to the healing and decolonizing journey we all share together

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

Your feedback is always welcome at claude [at] conscient [dot] ca and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Tik Tok, YouTube and Substack.

Share what you like, etc

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. 

Thanks for listening. 

Claude Schryer

Latest update on March 21, 2026

• I think the arts and culture more widely has a huge role to play in shaping our belief systems and values that determine the way that we relate to the environment.

Sholeh Johnston, e08, conscient podcast

Creative Climate Leadership USA  (ccl usa) was developed by Julie’s Bicycle, an international  leader in arts, culture and climate change based in London (led by Alison Tickell) and brought together 25 arts and culture leaders from the US and Canada to Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Arizona from March 8-14, 2020 thanks to a collaboration of EcoArts Connections, the University of Arizona and the Colorado European Union Center of Excellence  (CEUCE) based at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

e18 excerpts from e08-17 brings together 10 excerpts from conscient podcast episodes 8 to 17 drawn from the Creative Climate Leadership USA series. To hear the complete interviews, go to :

e08 johnston

e09 mcmahon

e10 mwase

e11 dunlap

e12 liverman

e13 freiband

e14 kirn

e15 chasansky

e16 delaparra

e17 piro

Audio introduction for this series, Saturday, March 14th, 20

 + complete excerpts

Note: below is transcription of an audio introduction for this series of episodes that I recorded on Saturday, March 14th, 2020.

I'm at the biosphere in Oracle, Arizona. 

I just ended my participation in the creative climate leadership course, and I recorded a number of episodes for the conscient podcast during this week. 

I decided to present them as a series because they are a set of conversations with participants and they all have interconnections in terms of discussions about leadership, climate change, cross sectoral collaboration between art and environment and other things: storytelling, circus arts, aesthetic, technical, methodological… 

There's lots of very interesting content that I was able to capture here and so I present them as a set of podcast episodes that have connections between them and that I encourage listeners to explore, because they all, in one way or another, touch upon the theme of leadership in and around the climate crisis. 

What happened this week was also very troubling for all of us because the COVID-19 virus started hitting very strong this week and many governments around the world started imposing restrictions and self-imposed isolation, for people like me, for instance, coming back from the US to Ottawa. 

What was really interesting was how this group of leaders discussed and developed language about the role of the arts in times of crisis. (note: see Crisis: Principles for Just and Creative Responses)

I was part of that group and it was certainly a highlight for me, having had the privilege to be here and having spent time thinking through not only the role of art, in and around change, but specifically in situations of crisis, which, of course, the climate, is, in crisis. 

We had the opportunity to think as a group about what we want to move forward as a proposal in terms of the increased role of arts and culture in and around climate change. 

I hope you enjoy the series and explore the work of these artists and cultural workers.

I thank them from the bottom of my heart for sharing the knowledge, their tools and resources so generously and I wish you the listener lots of good encounters about how the arts can better contribute to environmental awareness and action.

Note: below is a transcription of excerpts of interviews recorded the week of March 8-14 2020 at the Creative Climate Leadership USA course. See https://www.conscient.ca/series/conscient-english/ to hear the individual podcast episodes from this course (e-08 to e17)

Creative strategist, coach and facilitator Sholeh Johnston

• I think the arts and culture more widely has a huge role to play in shaping our belief systems and values that determine the way that we relate to the environment.
• The leadership challenges is one both of being conscious that how we make and what we make in the cultural sector influences the consciousness of our society and therefore the cultural paradigm that people are living in and living out their lives through, so that means that the concepts that we present and work with, but also the ways that we behave, the ways that we make work with what materials, in what spaces, really tells the story of who we are. I really think cultural leadership connects in the climate crisis, connects everything from greening, the spaces that we work in, to become beacons of what's possible, the possible and emerging future and also using the creative skills that we have to really facilitate, empowerment and change.

Artist and Professor in the School of Art and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Arizona in Tucson Ellen McMahon

• In the broadest sense, it's like this critter, this virus, this nature, has moved in to this realm of culture and we're watching things drop away that we created : music events, art, everything... school, all the things that basically we use to define ourselves to ourselves as human, versus animal, this little virus is just going Bing, Bing, Bing, Bing being these aren't real.

Theatre and performance artist, consultant, and cultural organizer Rebecca Mwase

• Art is a practice (or it can be, I should say: I don't think it always is) a practice of expanding consciousness. So much of what we do as artists is find relationality and connection points, and then explore the possibility of a present or a future that we haven't quite attained yet and so thinking about that in the age of the climate crisis, I think gives us a tremendous opportunity to explore and to embody possibility for engaging with the earth as it continues to change, for engaging with each other and for doing so in ways that are more, symbiotic and hopefully interdependent than we currently are. I think the way that we interpret and tell the story of ourselves - arts in a way to reflect back to ourselves who we are and how we came into being that - that then also offers the opportunity to shift a narrative, to become more in alignment with who we want to be and how we want to operate, as opposed to what is.

Multidisciplinary and circus artist Eliana Dunlap

• I would say ask yourself a lot of questions. Ask yourself, what are you, what do you, as an artist, want to perpetuate in the world and, and ask whether what you're doing is perpetuating that. I often I talked to a lot to other circus artists and something I've noticed is there's a lot of people that end up performing things that they don't actually feel that great performing, because it sort of puts forward or perpetuates some sort of cultural narrative that they don't agree with and they feel uncomfortable about that. I've been in that position before where I've been told, okay, this is what you're performing. This is how you're doing it and I felt very uncomfortable on stage and I realized that you don't always have to, as an artist, sometimes, as a circus performer, your role is to interpret someone else's vision. So you don't always have that control, but I would just encourage people that when they do have that control or when, whenever there is a dialogue between the performer and the director to kind of bring up those ideas of what are we trying to perpetuate in the world and is what we're doing now doing that. Is it perpetuating the values and the culture that we want to see? I think starting from that fundamental place there are a lot of different avenues you can take in that exploration, but I think you kind of need to start from that foundation.

Climate scientist and Regents Professor and Director of the School of Geography and Development at the University of Arizona Diana Liverman

• One of the things I look for is for artists and the cultural sector to help us envisage a future that's positive. I'm not really looking for more, the vision of the apocalypse that science is presenting is hard enough, I'm not sure whether we need to elaborate on what we're saying, but what we're looking for as scientists is ways to have human behavior change. So that emissions come down and we're helping the disadvantaged to adapt to climate change and to the extent the cultural sector can help us imagine those positive futures. That's one of the gaps. I think we've tended to spend our whole time talking to each other about how bad it is and I'm always looking for some hope. And I think maybe the partnership for hope would be a good place to look.

Artist, filmmaker and educator Andrew Freiband

• Our outcomes, the products of our work, are the very tiniest part of our existence as artists. Our processes are really fast: thinking and reflection, engagement with others, participation in our surroundings and our environment and our community, our relationships. I talk about this sometimes in terms of three texts. I'm using texts here in a kind of loose form: a film as a text or a picture as a text. So, the kind of artists texts, the final text is the artwork itself, the painting let's say. Then there's an audience text or a set of audience texts: audience texts are responses to that painting for people's feelings, emotions, questionnaires, like whatever it might be reviews. It's basically the people experiencing the artwork itself. And then the biggest thing of all is what we call the producer texts. Producer texts are all of our sketchbooks, our memos, our notes and in that body of text there's a huge amount of knowledge that is really valuable, because that's actually how we spend most of our time as artists, producing producers texts. The stuff that no one ever sees, the stuff that never finds a home on a gallery wall or in a theatre but it's really, really valuable. That's where we do all our learning.
• There's another metaphor, there's like a textile metaphor, of culture where our actions just weave into the weft that's already there and change the pattern and shift things, alter things, but not in a profoundly impact way. So we need activism because we do have things like elections and we do have structures that respond to that, but we also live in a super divisive society that's being divided algorithmically right now. I often fear that activism feeds into that and the art that I'm excited about really actually brings people together in a way that doesn't satisfy this kind of righteous spirit. A lot of people feel in an activist moment, like, no, we're right and they're wrong. We have to beat them, you know. But that's gonna get us, that's gonna ruin us all. And, not to be like too pious about it, but art is something we should all be able to respond to and allow us to all like recognize our flaws and our faults and then grow through them and get better. I think the art that I'm excited about has unifying potential but is kind of slow acting as opposed to activism.

Ecoarts activist, art-science connector and founding director of EcoArts Connections (EAC), Marda Kirn

• I realized that it's one thing to have the scientists and the artists coming together and a very important thing, but to go beyond awareness and into action, you really have to have the sustainablists involved. And I sort of came up with this equation: the scientists can tell us the, what the observable evidence of what's happening or what's what they believe to be coming. The artists can provide the, so what, why is it important? What does it mean? Why should we care? The sustainablists can provide the now what, what do we do and how do we move forward?
• A quote that I love so much from the native American activist, Wynonna LaDuc. And she said, one time it's as if we're on a raft and we all know we're drowning. She said, but if we could, and we don't know how to swim, she said, but if we could see another raft up ahead, even those of us who can't swim would dive into that water and make our way to that raft. Help me build that raft. I feel like that's one of the things that artists can be so incredibly involved and helpful at this moment, along with scientists and sustainablists and all kinds of people to really come and say, we have to shift, it could be really hard. It could be really fun. We just have to try and go for it.

Municipal arts funder and museums educator Matthew Chasansky

• The way to think about this is that the way to make artists and arts organizations thrive is to make sure that climate change is a part of their thoughts, their business plan and their strategic plans. Now that we know that the timeline is short and severe climate change effects are within a time horizon that is within a strategic planning time horizon. So if we hope for them to thrive, we need to help them move that forward. And so hopefully through our grants and policies, that's going to happen.
• We need to ensure that current artists, but also two and three generations down, are building on what they're doing to make sure that by the time we are dealing with the most difficult part of climate change, which is certainly coming, that we have the right sort of mental, psychological tools to protect and go on and, and be successful.

Writer, artist, and climate resilience plannerLauren de la Parra 

• I think you kind of got at it in the way that you framed the question, you know, it's, it's about asking where do I start? And maybe you don't know exactly where, where you want to end up yet, but if you start somewhere and you do that in a way that is curious and you try things and you get feedback and you keep iterating and keep trying things, I think ultimately meaningful things will emerge, if not at the outset, then over time, because we're all in this constant learning process.

Change agent, disruptor, artist, counselor, sparkplug and community architect Em Piro For me, some of the things is I was kind of working through this question of like, what does it mean to be essentially creative facilitators in the age of climate change in the midst of a disaster? Some of the things that were really resonant for me were the idea that self-care is community care. That solution scale up more effectively than they trickled down and something I've been paying a lot of attention to is the real position prime position that we're in to work, especially with Asian Pacific Islander producers, and practitioners and neighbors who, who I think have been disproportionately targeted in this time and I think we've created these really mechanisms of mutual support that can also be really targeted and engage a broader community, kind of through addressing the people who are being the most unfairly kind of attacked in this moment.

Note: This is the last episode of season 1 of the conscient: art & environment podcast. I'll be back with season 2 during the spring of 2021.

*

END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Note : I'm currently 'pressing pause' and am not producing new content until further notice. 

Hey conscient listeners, 

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020. It’s my way to give back.

This Indigenous Land Acknowledgement statement was developed by members of the Algonquin community for my former employer the Canada Council for the Arts. I have adapted slightly to make it my own.

• I acknowledge that my studio, located in Ottawa, is on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial.
• I recognize the Algonquins as the customary keepers and defenders of the Ottawa River Watershed and its tributaries. I honour their long history of welcoming many Nations to this beautiful territory and uphold and uplift the voice and values of our Host Nation.
• Further, I offer my respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land and honour commitments to self-determination and sovereignty that have been made to Indigenous Nations and Peoples.
• I acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures and the original Peoples in what we now know as Canada and fervently believe the Arts contribute to the healing and decolonizing journey we all share together

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

Your feedback is always welcome at claude [at] conscient [dot] ca and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Tik Tok, YouTube and Substack.

Share what you like, etc

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. 

Thanks for listening. 

Claude Schryer

Latest update on March 21, 2026

• What does it mean to be creative facilitators in the age of climate change in the midst of a disaster? Some learnings: self-care is community care, good solutions scale up and the need to work with those who have been disproportionately targeted.

Em Piro, Creative Climate Leadership USA, March, 2020

(episode 10 of 10 in Creative Climate Leadership USA Series)

Creative Climate Leadership USA  was developed by Julie’s Bicycle, an international  leader in arts, culture and climate change based in London (led by Alison Tickell) and brought together 25 arts and culture leaders from the US and Canada to Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Arizona from March 8-14, 2020 thanks to a collaboration of EcoArts Connections, the University of Arizona and the Colorado European Union Center of Excellence  (CEUCE) based at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Em Piro has been called a change agent, disruptor, artist, counselor, sparkplug, + community architect.

Her practice is in performance, urbanism, futurism, + environmental economics.

She is currently rooted in Seattle + St Louis, with tendrils in Toronto, Denver, and on the road.

She’s ‘arted’ + ideated across Turtle Island (US/Canada), South America, Europe/Scandanavia, UK + in the expansive virtual landscape.

Her work’s been highlighted in NYTimes, CNN, Riverfront Times, a history textbook, + the Kickass Awards.

*

END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Note : I'm currently 'pressing pause' and am not producing new content until further notice. 

Hey conscient listeners, 

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020. It’s my way to give back.

This Indigenous Land Acknowledgement statement was developed by members of the Algonquin community for my former employer the Canada Council for the Arts. I have adapted slightly to make it my own.

• I acknowledge that my studio, located in Ottawa, is on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial.
• I recognize the Algonquins as the customary keepers and defenders of the Ottawa River Watershed and its tributaries. I honour their long history of welcoming many Nations to this beautiful territory and uphold and uplift the voice and values of our Host Nation.
• Further, I offer my respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land and honour commitments to self-determination and sovereignty that have been made to Indigenous Nations and Peoples.
• I acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures and the original Peoples in what we now know as Canada and fervently believe the Arts contribute to the healing and decolonizing journey we all share together

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

Your feedback is always welcome at claude [at] conscient [dot] ca and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Tik Tok, YouTube and Substack.

Share what you like, etc

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. 

Thanks for listening. 

Claude Schryer

Latest update on March 21, 2026