Earthworms

Sometimes, here on Earthworms, we focus our conversation on one unique element of Life on Earth. This time it's Squirrels.

Don Corrigan - respected local newspaper editor, college professor and ranconteur - has done this too, with his new book Nuts About Squirrels, The Rodents That Conquered Popular Culture (McFarland, 2019). His talks on this topic are wildly popular, hear?

Don's research has unearthed nuggets about TV, movie, radio, cartoon, sports, community and Civil War squirrels. He also finds squirrels raising genuine enviro-awareness, right in our own backyards:

• Is climate change causing squirrels in America to migrate north, or move up into mountain elevations?
• Do humans bear any responsibility for disrupting squirrel habitat?
• Are squirrels better equipped than we are to deal with effects of climate change?

Keep your mind open and the holes in your house eaves closed up, to enjoy this salute to SQUIRRELS!

Thanks to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms fellow-enviro engineer

Music: Agnes Polka, performed live at KDHX by Chia Band

Popular Culture Related Earthworms Conversations:

Population Media Center: Educating through Soap Operas (July 2017)

Jeff Ritter: KDHX 1st Voice On Air (and Ph.D. in American Culture, July 2017)

And for those not so nuts about Squirrels: Humane Wildlife Solutions with Garry Guinn (March 2019)

State bird of Missouri and New York, symbol of happiness, poet's inspiration, and indicator of ecological health. All true of Siala sialis, a small thrush found in woodlands, farmlands, orchards - and your yard, if you're lucky and smart enough to offer them habitat.

Ann Earley and Bob Siemer are true friends and helpers of nature - also certified Master Naturalists. Missouri Prairie Foundation recently honored them with the Prairie Volunteer(s) of the Year Award, well deserved. Their knowledge of Bluebirds comes from keen, joyful observation and conserving care.

Ann and Bob are also members of the Missouri Bluebird Society, a feathered fan club about to hold their annual conference in St. Louis, July 12-14, 2019.

As we humans encroach on habitats of others, bluebird lore can inspire a more caring, savvy and careful approach - while singing!

Music: For Michael, performed live at KDHX by Brian Curran

Thanks to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms fine-feathered engineer

Related Earthworms Conversations: Purple Martins: America's Most Wanted Bird (May 2016) The Owl Man of Forest Park (2015)

Bears! July 2018

Wild Bird Rehab: Supporting Songbirds with Joe Hoffman (June 2016)

Bluebird songs in the background courtesy of xeno-canto.

What does local food mean? And what do you need to know - and to prove - to grow capacity for local-food producers, and get their foods to an equitable range of eaters?

Missouri Coalition for the Environment is digging deep, strategically, into these questions, and raising a healthy crop of results! Two big ones are the launch of Known & Grown STL, a branding campaign to help progressive farmers working within 150 miles of St. Louis spread the word about their practices, their products and the sustainable principles grounding their work, and a Farm to Institution Feasibility Study.

Rae Miller (left), MCE's Local Food Coordinator, and Food & Farm Director Melissa Vatterott (right) lead a regional effort to better promote local foods and cultivate connections between farmers and consumers, at both individual and institutional scales. Developing data, partnerships and sound policy supporting Healthy Food Access is one of four areas of priority focus for the Coalition.

This Earthworms conversation is the first in a series that will celebrate MCE achievements and leadership during this 50th Anniversary year.

Music: Hunter's Permit, performed live at KDHX by Mister Sun

THANKS to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms green-savvy engineer

Related Earthworms Conversations:

The Farm Bill: A Citizen's Guide (January 2019)

The Easy Chicken: Fowl Fun Comes to You (Dec 2018)

Custom Foodscaping with Matt Lebon (December 2018)

Farm on a Building Raises the Roof! (August 2016)

Urban Agriculture Guide: New Tool for City Farmers (June 2016)

Just 7 years back, in 2012, Green-hearted architects Frank and Gay Lorberbaum and woodworker Paul Krautman launched an enterprise for city kids. Into an on-loan school gym space, they hustled wood supplies and sets of tools to empower children to design and build: furniture for their rooms and problem-solving skills for their own bright futures, every single Saturday morning.

Today Building Futures continues Saturday workshop sessions, takes tools and skill-building out to schools, collaborates with neighboring writing and cultural groups, runs very cool summer camps, and more STEAM-based project learning - in their own well-equipped city studio building!

Earthworms talked in 2013 with BF students, one of whom is about to enter Ranken Technical College. Today we welcome back Mister Frank (Lorberbaum), and meet program manager Mister Lawrence (Prograis) and Mister Jay (Reeves), BF's board VP who will take the helm in August of Boat Building Camp. Before this interview, these guys worked with 300 school kids, a normally constructive BF day.

Building Futures Summer Camps are registering now. Triple Play camp for students entering grades 4-6 fills each day of camp week (July 8-12 and 22-26) with with Design & Build, Printmaking and Caribbean Festival Arts, as BF partners with neighboring arts groups. Boat Building Camp (July 29-August 2), open to children entering grades 4-8. Scholarships are abundantly available.

Congratulations to visionary leaders whose work building futures for urban children is creating structures with wood, in many lives. Could yours be touched too? Volunteer help is WELCOME!

Music: Big Piney Blues, performed live at KDHX by Brian Curran THANKS to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms deep-Green engineer

Related Earthworms Conversations: The Big Book of Nature Activities (June 2016)

We love good food, and going out to eat it. Thanks to the St. Louis Green Dining Alliance, food and restaurant culture here is sustainably vibrant!

Jenn De Rose, Program Manager for our town's GDA, supports Green efforts of chefs, owners, managers and staff of over 110 restaurants, food trucks and catering companies, currently certified by GDA. Earthworms reviews the menu of options these food pros use to guide their integration of Green efforts into the demanding, glorious business of Food.

Joining De Rose and Earthworms host Jean Ponzi is Hamish Bahrami, owner of Cafe Natasha - certified with 4 Stars in their first GDA year - whose efforts have helped her culturally rich South Grand neighborhood become a Green Dining District.

KDHX connection: Jenn De Rose has DJ'd on FM-88 and GDA Program Assistant Victoria Donaldson serves on the KDHX Program Committee. THANKS for music contributions, too!

Music: Butter, performed live at KDHX by Ian Ethan Case

THANKS to Andy Heaslet, engineering Earthworms, working for Sierra Club Related Earthworms Conversations: Custom Foodscaping with Matt Lebon (Dec 2018)

Kakao Chocolate: Best of the Bitter and the Sweet (Dec 2017)

Farmer Girl Meats: Pasture to Porch, Sustainably (June 2016)

Yes, Nature can probably get along without us, but we are here and we're part of Nature, our nature creates as well as whacks. How can we renew this connection? To heal and protect Nature - and us!

Andres Edwards - educator, media professional and welcomed returning Earthworms guest - brings ideas and heart to this conversation from his new book Renewal - How Nature Awakens Our Creativity, Compassion, and Joy (2019, New Society Publishers).

THANKS to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms engineer

Music: Brandenburg No.4, composed by J.S. Bach, performed by Kevin MacLeod

Related Earthworms Conversations: In the Company of Trees from Forest Bather Andrea Sarubbi Fareshteh (January 2019)

Handprints: Retouching Human Impacts with Gregory Norris (March 2019)

The Big Book of Nature Activities (January 2016)

Can we humans be "good" when our collective and individual actions contribute to environmental crises like climate change, habitat loss and species extinction? What does "good" mean? And how do we proceed in the face of consequences of our impacts? These are deep questions. Philosopher and environmental spirituality scholar Roger Gottlieb explores the ambiguities, challenges and opportunities we face, in his new book "Morality and the Environmental Crisis," and in this conversation with fellow enviro-advocate and deep thinker/feeler, Earthworms host Jean Ponzi.

Give a listen. Your thoughts and responses will not disappoint. And you may well come away motivated and encouraged.

Music: Abdiel, performed live at KDHX by STL's own Dave Black

Thanks to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms techno-sustainable engineer

Related Earthworms Conversations: Handprints: Retouching Human Impacts with Gregory Norris (March, 2019)

Native Science: All Our Relations (Oct 2018)

Community Radio: Purpose, Value and Insider Insights (Aug 2015)

Listening to: the thread of a tale, voice music, history, mystery, action conveyed through words direct into heart and ears, eyes and mind. Teller and Audience merge in the story exchange.

The St. Louis Storytelling Festival is the largest free storytelling festival in the world. Celebrating its 40th year, for all ages of humankind, the alchemy of this event strikes sparks around our Big River town. Tellers of international to local renown will take their tales to public and special venues April 25 - May 4, 2019.

Current and former festival directors Lisa Overholser and Nan Kammann-Judd bring their love of this interaction to the Earthworms studio - and the festival brings a night of Irish tales to The Stage at KDHX on Tuesday, April 30.

Throughout time, people have preserved their culture, values, and beliefs through storytelling. Giving voice to the human experience, storytelling allows families and communities to pass on their history to succeeding generations, and it remains an evolving, dynamic art form.

Music: Butter II, performed live at KDHX by Ian Ethan Case Thanks to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms Green-savvy audio engineer

Related Earthworms Conversations:

The Patterning Instinct in Human Nature with Jeremy Lent (June 2017)

The New Territory: Traversing the Literary Midwest with Tina Casagrande (May 2017)

Mid-way along his marathon cycling trip from CA to MA, Tim Oey is educating humans of all ages about: Oceans, Plastic, Climate Change and Kids. His two wheeling fleet travel mode packs everything he needs, with (as is his life practice) ZERO WASTE.

Tim's stop here with KDHX Earthworms followed three talks this morning at our neighboring Performing Arts Academy. He's on track for his goal of 180 talks in 95 days. Some are presentations, many are conversations. All are likely - as you can hear - thoughtful, encouraging, and gently intense about serious stuff.

Music: Magic 9, performed live at KDHX by Infamous Stringdusters Thanks to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms Green-living engineer.

Related Earthworms Conversations: David Henry, Climate Walker (Dec 2015)

Brian Ettling's Climate Change Advocacy Marches On! (Oct 2018)

Climate: A New Story with Charles Eisenstein (Nov 2018)

American Hemp, the new book from Earthworms guest Jen Hobbs (Skyhorse Publishing, 2019), details "how growing our newest cash crop can improve our health, clean our environment, and slow climate change." Hobbs details these claims for a plant brought to North America by British colonists, banned and pressed into service and banned again, and now legalized by the 2018 Farm Bill. Its seeds are a superfood. Its stalks house you in "HempCrete." Its oil, the substance CBD, can calm anxiety, control seizures, and more.

With real potentials for this flowering plant to earn as much as $30K per acre, its story is growing fast.

Music: Washboard Suzie, performed live at KDHX by Zydeco Crawdaddies Thanks to Andy Heaslet, Earthworms green-savvy audio engineer