What does it mean to say that a river is alive? And if a river is alive, could it have legal rights that protect it from abuse and exploitation? What kinds of practices could affirm our interconnectedness with the rest of the living world? Do our Western ideals of enlightenment need to be complemented by ideas of enlivenment?

In this live podcast, writer Robert Macfarlane presents his book “Is a River Alive?” and is joined by ecologist Pella Thiel and podcast host Ingrid M. Rieser. This special episode is a collaboration between the Forest of Thought, the KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory and the On the Rights of Nature podcast.

Robert Macfarlane is internationally renowned for his writing on nature, people and place. His books include Underland, Landmarks, The Old Ways, The Wild Places and Mountains of the Mind . His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, won prizes around the world, and been widely adapted for film, music, theatre, radio and dance. He has also written operas, plays and films and collaborated closely with artists including Olafur Eliasson and Stanley Donwood. He is a Professor of Literature and the Environmental Humanities at the Faculty of English in Cambridge and is a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Pella Thiel is a maverick ecologist, farmer, author and educator. She has co-founded Swedish hubs of international networks, including the Transition Sweden, End Ecocide Sweden and Save the Rainforest Sweden. Her current mission is to support the establishment of an Embassy of the Baltic Sea. She and Henrik Hallgren have written the book “Naturlagen: Om naturens rättigheter och människans möjligheter” (2022, Volante).

A big thank you to Robert Macfarlane’s Swedish publisher Ocean Books for making this event possible.

LINKS:

Video version of this talk

Robert Macfarlane’s books

Pella Thiel’s website

On the Rights of Nature Podcast with Pella Thiel

KTH Environmental Humanities Laboratory

Ocean Books currently releasing “Is a River Alive?” in SwedishSHARE AND SUBSCRIBE

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Birth can be difficult to talk about, because it's so complex and paradoxical. It can be beautiful and traumatic, often at the same time; it’s intensely personal and highly political; it’s something extraordinary that is also entirely ordinary. You give birth to a baby and you also birth yourself as a mother.

Another paradox is how birth has become much safer because of the advancements of modern medicine, and yet that very medicalisation has created new risks. Women who give birth in hospitals are more likely to have complications; the amount of women who have births without any interventions is rapidly declining.

Is it possible to build a culture of birth that takes the best parts of modern medicine and combines them with a deep respect for the wisdom of women’s bodies? Instead of seeing birth as a medical event, how do we honor it as a rite of passage?

In this episode, Ingrid shares some of her personal journey of pregnancy and birth, in conversation with author and birth activist Kristina Turner. They discuss how the view of birth has changed in the past centuries, and what ingredients are needed for a healthier birth culture to take root.

Kristina Turner is a writer, birth activist, and women’s circle facilitator with over 25 years experience. She is the author of Natural Birth – A Holistic Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Breastfeeding and Revolution i BB-fabriken (Revolution in the Birth Factory). Across her work, Kristina returns to one central thread: the sovereignty of the woman’s body — its intelligence, rhythms, rites of passage, and its ability to transform consciousness. Kristina lives between Sweden and the UK and works internationally as a writer, birth educator, and Compassionate Inquiry practitioner supporting women healing from traumatic births.

LINKS:

Kristina’s Substack

Kristina’s book Natural Birth – A Holistic Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Breastfeeding

Kristina’s book (in Swedish) written with Maria Bengtsson Revolution i BB-fabriken

Meta-study finding that births in hospitals gave more complications as compared to home births (in low-risk pregnancies)

Meta-study showing that risks for babies are not higher in home-births (for low-risk pregnancies)

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What healing could be made possible if we began to work in ways that honoured our nervous systems? How could pleasure be a pathway to health? How can we have more true intimacy and eroticism in our lives?

Kimberly Ann Johnson is a Sexological Bodyworker, Somatic Experiencing practitioner, yoga teacher, postpartum advocate, and single mom. Working hands-on in integrative women’s health and trauma recovery for more than a decade, she helps women heal from birth injuries, gynecological surgeries, and sexual boundary violations. Kimberly is the author of the Call of the Wild: How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, and Use It for Good, as well as the early mothering classic The Fourth Trimester, and is the host of the Sex Birth Trauma podcast.

LINKS:

Kimberly’s website.

Kimberly’s Sex Birth Trauma Podcast

To read more about the sympathetic, parasympathetic and social nervous systems, you can download the first chapter of Kimberly’s book for free here.

Somatic Experiencing (Peter Levine)

Organic Intelligence by Steve Hoskinson

The Erotic Mind by Jack Morin

The Wheel of Consent by Betty Martin

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From menarche until menopause, women have a rhythmical companion, whose presence or absence tells us something about our bodies. The menstrual cycle is considered by many medical professionals to be the fifth vital sign, and just like our pulse or our blood pressure, it tells us something important about our health.

And yet the general knowledge about the menstrual cycle, both in the medical community and society at large, is very poor. Many women struggle with pains, mood swings, and infertility without understanding the underlying cause of these.

Why isn’t the cycle considered more important? Could the disregard for women’s bodies be tied to the disregard for nature? What new possibilities emerge if we lean into the cyclical nature of bodies?

Even if you're not a woman – actually, especially then - you may find this episode illuminating.

Jenny Koos is an author and Holistic Reproductive Health practitioner. She has championed fertility awareness and women’s empowerment through body literacy in countless debates, lectures, client sessions and social media for 15 years. Her first book on fertility awareness was published in 2022.

LINKS:

Vulverine - Jenny's website

Menstrual cycle as fifth vital sign

Justisse College

This is the first episode of the 🩸 Blood mysteries🩸 mini-series here on the podcast. Follow us in your podcast app or sign up for our Substack newsletter so you never miss an episode!

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A favorite conversation from the archives, with particular relevance for upcoming episodes! When our societies are faced with challenges we often call on science to provide us with the best course of action; we strive to make evidence-based decisions. But what assumptions are hiding behind this recipe for decision-making? And how can taking control of a situation reduce our capacity for responding with care? We delve back into the Forest of Thought today with Andy Stirling, Professor of Science and Technology Policy at the STEPS Centre, UK.

Andy Stirling is Professor of Science and Technology Policy at the University of Sussex. He co-directs the STEPS Centre, which looks at social, technological and environmental pathways to sustainability. Andy’s research focusses on understanding science and technology in relation to issues of power, uncertainty and diversity.

LINKS:

A video talk and blog post by Andy on modernity, the pandemic and the futilities of control: https://steps-centre.org/news/andy-stirling-on-covid-19-modernity-and-control-video/

Andy’s 4-part blog series on responding to climate disruption with caring struggle rather than technocratic control: https://steps-centre.org/blog/is-the-naming-of-climate-change-a-dangerous-self-defeat/

A lecture by Andy on uncertainty and power in science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDfQ3fIKygQSHARE AND SUBSCRIBE

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What can we learn from plants? 

In Western thinking, plants have usually been seen as the most lowly beings, fixed in one place and without capacity for thinking. But many cultures have known – and modern science is confirming – that plants carry their own kind of vibrant intelligence. They communicate, interpret and elaborate – could it be that we humans are more plant-like than we tend to believe? 

In the 12th century, the mystic Hildegard of Bingen wrote about viriditas, a kind of capacity for self-renewal and vitality expressed most clearly in the vegetal realm. In today’s episode  I speak to philosopher Michael Marder about Hildegard’s ecological theology and what we might learn from plants. 

Michael Marder is Ikerbasque Research Professor of Philosophy at University of the Basque Country, and his work spans the fields of environmental philosophy and ecological thought, political theory, and phenomenology. 

LINKS

Michael Marder website (free articles, book overviews)

Green Mass: The Ecological Theology of St. Hildegard of Bingen

Pyropolitics: Fire and the political

Michael’s Substack

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If you’d prefer to watch the episode, it is available here on Youtube. 

In 1962 , a young man named Satish Kumar set out with his friend Prabakhar Menon on a pilgrimage for peace that would take him around the world, forever changing the course of his life.  Later on, Satish dedicated himself to the work of making peace with nature,  as the editor of the ecological magazine Resurgence, and in helping to found Schumacher College, a school for transformative learning. 

We first met when I did my master’s at that college more than a decade ago. In this conversation we talk about the power of walking and of pilgrimage, about the kind of education we are in need of today, and about whether working for peace means the same thing today as when Satish was young. 

Peace-pilgrim, life-long activist, and former monk, Satish Kumar has been inspiring global change for over 50 years. He undertook a pilgrimage for peace, walking for two years without money from India to America for the cause of nuclear disarmament. Now in his 80s, Satish has devoted his life to campaigning for ecological regeneration and social justice. He is a world-renown author and international speaker, founder of The Resurgence Trust and Editor Emeritus of Resurgence & Ecologist – a change-making magazine he edited for over 40 years. 

LINKS TO THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

Satish Kumar’s autobiography No Destination – autobiography of a pilgrim.

Satish's mentor Vinoba Bhave

Satish’s peace pilgrimage – if you’d like to hear more details about his trip, I can recommend this episode of Follow your Blissters. 

Schumacher College – support the college here.

Resurgence magazine

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As we are faced with multiplying crises, we often rush into trying to fix the world through words and busy action. What if an adequate response is to simply listen? What new worlds can be made, what wounds can be healed, through listening deeply? In this episode, Keri Facer returns to the podcast to explore the subtle art of listening.

Keri is Professor of Educational and Social Futures at the University of Bristol, and co-founder of the Society for Transformative conversations at the Swedish Agricultural university. 

LINKS TO THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

My previous conversation with Keri

Keri’s paper “Beyond voice: Listening and silence in climate change education”

Momo by Michael Ende

Lisbet Lipari

Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta

Tim Ingold - the pause as the moment of thought

Ways of Council and Keri’s mentor Pip Bondy

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What could art making and aesthetics mean to us in these difficult times? Can we justify going off to paint or to spend time in nature when there is so much destruction going on in the world? Aesthetics is about opening up our senses to the world - but do we even want to stay sensitive when there is so much pain? How do we deal with that paradox? 

Today’s episode is with artist and educator Jan van Boeckel. Jan’s work brings together art, education and ecology. He has been Professor in Art & Sustainability at Hanze University in the Netherlands and is now a Senior Research Associate there. He is also an avid painter, and hosts wild painting courses throughout Europe. 

LINKS TO THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT

Jan’s website

Jan’s Wild painting courses

Active Facebook group on arts-based environmental education

“Call of the mountain” – a film on Arne Næss and deep ecology

Everyone is an artist - Joseph Beuys

Enabling constraints

James Hillman: Our crisis is an aesthetic crisis

Gregory Bateson writes about “the pattern that connects” in Mind and Nature

David Abram (who talks about Eros)

Robert Jay Lifton and psychic numbing

Renée Lertzman’s book Environmental Melancholia

Bayo Akomolafe: the times are urgent, let’s slow down.

F. Scott Fitzgerald : Superior intelligence is the ability to embrace two completely contrary ideas, and still retain the ability to function

Bill Wahpepah of the American Indian Movement

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I was born into a world where many of the things that are most important to me, like art, beauty, relationships, embodied experience, love, and the sacred, are not really considered very important to our understanding of the cosmos. They are thought of as ‘extra fluff’ rather than being at the core of our existence and reality.

One of the thinkers who has tried to create a science more attuned to these philosophical questions was mathematician turned philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. In the early 20th century, this really radical time when quantum and relativity theory had begun to undermine the old mechanistic view of physics, Whitehead developed his process philosophy, which focused on the co-creative processes of the world’s becoming, and where lived experience, creativity and a poetic God took centre stage. Matthew David Segall, PhD, is a transdisciplinary philosopher and Associate Professor at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. His scholarship challenges dualistic and mechanistic paradigms and bridges process philosophy with contemporary science and spirituality. 

LINKS

Matthew David Segall’s website and Substack

California Institute of Integral Studies

Centre for Process Studies

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