Curious Planet

The Virgin Mary Tree of Polk City, Iowa, inspires us to imagine and improvise as we engage with the world around us.

Mentioned in today’s episode:

• The Virgin Mary Tree of Polk City on the Roadside America website, https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/45877
• Lawrence Buell, The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture, Belknap Press, 1995.
• Stephen T. Asma, The Evolution of Imagination, University of Chicago Press, 2017.
• Luca Tateo, A Theory of Imagining, Knowing, and Understanding, Springer, 2020.
• Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Macmillan and Co., 1872.
•  “What Life Means to Albert Einstein,” George Sylvester Viereck, Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929. https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/uploads/satevepost/what_life_means_to_einstein.pdf

We begin on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, then travel to places of lived experience and spaces of sensed experience.

Mentioned in today’s episode:        

• Joyful Hearts, Seasons of Prayer
• J. E. Malpas, Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography, Cambridge University Press, 1999, page 176.
• Ilia Delio, Compassion: Living in the Spirit of St. Francis, St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2011.
• Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods, Algonquin Books, 2008.
• Wallace “J.” Nichols, Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected and Better at What You Do, Little, Brown, 2014.
• Angela Hanscom, Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children, New Harbinger Publications, 2016.

How can we have hope in a world that sometimes feels like a hot mess? Watching the seasons change in the backyard with a new puppy, we consider the real question: “How can we not?”

Mentioned in today’s episode:        

• Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Social Good Summit 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiZduBO2bQM
•  Jane Goodall, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, Thorndike Press, 2021. 
• George Steiner, “Remembering the Future,” Remembrance Sunday 1989 address, King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. First published in Cambridge Review. Reprinted in Theology, November 1990, Volume 93, Issue 756, pp. 437-444.
• Iowa Learning Farms, https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/
• Iowa Learning Farms Virtual Field Day, A Vision for Iowa: Growing Food for People through Diversified Agriculture Systems, https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/resources/field-day-diverse-ag-systems
• New Voices in Water Quality in Iowa, https://newvoicesinwater.org/
• Water Rocks!, https://www.waterrocks.org/
• Water Rocks! Earth Day Poetry Slam, https://www.waterrocks.org/poetry
• Dallas Whitefield, Water tank, 2022
• Summer Awad, Confluence, 2022
• DK, Swimming pools, 2022

Host Jacqueline Comito opens our conversation about engaging wonderment to heal and protect the environment— with a little help from some apes.

Mentioned in today’s episode:

• Jane Goodall, October 1960, from Jane (documentary film), National Geographic, 2017. https://films.nationalgeographic.com/jane-the-movie
• Pierre Boulle, La Planète des Singes, published in the United States as Planet of the Apes, 1963.
• Planet of the Apes (film), Twentieth Century Fox, 1968.
• “Go Ape!” television spot, 1974. http://space1970.blogspot.com/2012/07/planet-of-apes-go-ape-marathon.html
• Gus Speth, It’s Already Tomorrow: Poems by Gus Speth, Shires Press, 2020.
• Ronald Rolheiser, The Holy Longing, 1999.

Curious Planet is a podcast exploring wonderment to heal and protect the earth. Subscribe to Curious Planet on your favorite streaming platform. Season One drops on March 19, 2024!