This week's episode of the Forum on Religion and Ecology podcast features Norman Wirzba, PhD, the Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Theology at Duke University, and Senior Fellow at Duke's Kenan Institute for Ethics. He discusses his new book, This Sacred Life: Humanity's Place in a Wounded World (Cambridge University Press, 2021), which gives a deep philosophical and religious articulation of humanity's identity and vocation by rooting people in a symbiotic, meshwork world that is saturated with sacred gifts. We reflect on numerous topics, including the Anthropocene, transhumanism, food, faith, farming, creativity, and much more.

This is a clip from the episode of Spotlights  featuring Matthew David Segall, PhD, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Reflecting on his new book, Physics of the World-Soul: Alfred North Whitehead’s Adventure in Cosmology (SacraSage Press, 2021), he describes the role of worldly divinity in Whitehead's cosmology. You can listen to the full episode here.

This episode of Spotlights features Matthew David Segall, PhD, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Religion in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He discusses his new book, Physics of the World-Soul: Alfred North Whitehead’s Adventure in Cosmology (SacraSage Press, 2021), describing the context and key concepts of Whitehead's process philosophy. We reflect on Whiteheadian contributions to debates on a variety of topics, including panpsychism, panentheism, environmental ethics, dialogue between science and religion, and the future of philosophy.

Welcome to a new season of Spotlights. This podcast began around a year ago, and since we’re starting our second year, this episode features our host, Sam Mickey, reflecting on the year and looking ahead toward the year to come. He talks about the aim, scope, and themes of the podcast, while also inviting suggestions for any new developments or potential interviewees. He also mentions the Religion and Ecology Early-Career Scholar reading group (REECS), which was launched on episode 17, featuring Russell Powell and Timothy Grieve-Carlson. For anyone interested in participating in that ongoing group, details can be found in the original episode here.

Thanks to everyone for participating in this podcast as guests or audience members so far. If you would like to watch this podcast instead of listening to audio only, you can find an archive of videos for episodes here.

This week’s episode of Spotlights is a remix of two previous episodes, featuring guests who work at the intersection of Buddhism and ecology. First, we hear from Dekila Chungyalpa, Director of the Loka Initiative at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She discusses her personal journey into the world of Buddhist environmentalism. Then we hear from Chris Ives, PhD, Professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College. He discusses his teaching and research in Buddhist environmental ethics, specifically with a view to Zen Buddhism.

Links for their full episodes: Dekila Chungyalpa & Chris Ives.

More information on Buddhism and ecology can be found at the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology website.

This week’s episode of Spotlights is another short clip from our full episode with Dr. Todd LeVasseur, visiting assistant professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. We discuss the importance of integrating activism into academia in order to facilitate viable responses to the climate emergency. We reflect on this issue for academia in general and for the academic field and activist force of religion and ecology in particular.

You can listen to the full episode here.

This week’s episode of Spotlights is a clip from our full episode with Dr. Todd LeVasseur, visiting assistant professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Reflecting on his new book, Climate Change, Religion, and our Bodily Future, he discusses the profound importance of religious studies and academia getting climate change right.

You can listen to the full episode here.

 This week’s episode features Dr. Todd LeVasseur, visiting assistant professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, where he is also the director of the Sustainability Literacy Institute. We discuss his recently published book, Climate Change, Religion, and our Bodily Future (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), including topics related to posthumanism, queer ecologies, ecological animisms, indigenous knowledges, material feminisms, deep adaptation, and more. We also discuss “A (Tough) Love Letter to Religious Studies,” which he wrote for Religion Dispatches in February 2021.

You can find more information about religion and climate change at the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology website.

This week’s episode of Spotlights is another short clip from our episode featuring Rabbi Laura Duhan Kaplan, PhD, Director of Inter-religious Studies and Professor of Jewish Studies at Vancouver School of Theology in British Columbia, Canada. In this clip, Rabbi Laura talks about the symbolic meaning of donkeys in the Bible as well as the question of animal agency or personhood, reflecting on her book, Mouth of the Donkey: Re-imagining Biblical Animals (Wipf & Stock, 2021).

Listen to the full episode here or watch it here.

This week’s episode of Spotlights is a short clip from our episode featuring Rabbi Laura Duhan Kaplan, PhD, Director of Inter-religious Studies and Professor of Jewish Studies at Vancouver School of Theology in British Columbia, Canada. Reflecting on her book, Mouth of the Donkey: Re-imagining Biblical Animals (Wipf & Stock, 2021), she discusses questions of anthropocentrism, the ethical treatment of animals, and the order of creation.

Listen to the full episode here or watch it here.