• Even being confronted with something that is weird or uncomfortable: it’s character growth. You have to ask the question: why is this person doing this weird thing? It's a good exercise in empathy, to be perfectly honest. Why is this person doing this thing? Why does that make me uncomfortable? What, what is it about my perception that has shaped this experience for me? I feel like those are really essential questions for us to be constantly asking ourselves, especially in an age where there's a lot of discord, a lot of dissent and a lot of disagreement. And the better we understand ourselves, the better we're able to engage with humans who are different than us.

My conversation with Meghan Moe Beitiks, assistant professor in theatre at Concordia University in Montreal. Meghan Moe is an artist and designer working with associations and disassociations of culture, nature and structure. Our mutual friend Ian Garrett thought we might get along. We did. Our conversation focused on Meghan Moe’s Angles of Consequence project, a season of site-specific performances with Canadian performers to create work with reflected sunlight in key sites of climate advocacy and destruction in Québec. Meghan Moe and I had tea in Montreal. It was a very, enlightening, conversation. 

Show notes generated by Whisper Transcribe AI:

Action points

• Recognize art’s crucial role in processing emotions and spreading information during crises.
• Explore the use of reflected sunlight in art to highlight climate change issues.
• Support Indigenous resistance against fossil fuel expansion as an effective climate action.
• Consider the impact of positionality (literal and cultural) on our perspectives.
• Utilize resources like Canada Green Tools to calculate and reduce the carbon footprint of events.

Story Preview

Imagine art that dances with the sun, revealing hidden truths about our planet’s climate crisis. Megan Moe’s ‘Angles of Consequence’ uses reflected sunlight in powerful performances, sparking dialogue and demanding action.

Chapter Summary

00:00 The Power of Empathy
01:05 Introducing Megan Moe
01:31 Angles of Consequence
03:08 Art as a Tool for Understanding
04:35 Reflected Sunlight and Climate Change
07:09 Indigenous Resistance and Environmental Impact
09:49 Collaborating with Nature

Featured Quotes

• We also need moments of digestion…to absorb and understand what we’ve experienced and what we’ve learned.
• The sun is not going to show up on your time. It doesn’t care whether you’re giving a performance.
• Being able to witness that up close and consider what that human is doing in relationship to your own humanness, I feel like makes us all clearer, more grounded and better.

Behind the Story

Megan Moe’s project, ‘Angles of Consequence’, emerged from pandemic isolation and a fascination with reflected sunlight. It evolved into a series of site-specific performances addressing climate change in Québec, highlighting both the destructive forces of fossil fuels and the powerful resistance of Indigenous communities. The project aims to create an open-access guide, encouraging global engagement with sunlight performance art.

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END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Hey conscient listeners, 

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

It’s my way to give back.

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

Your feedback is always welcome at [email protected] 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. 

Claude Schryer

Latest update on July 8, 2025