Hello everybody. this is Brad Swift of Gaia’s Call and this is Gaia’s call, but this is 2.0. And as you will notice, it’s not just me, it’s also Marla from the Eco Chapter. Hey Marla.

Hi. How are you?

I’m good. I’m good. And I’m looking forward to this.

And I’m a little trepidatious about it, you know, it’s it is a first, a lot of firsts are coming my way these days. but I’m also excited about it because we’re here. first we’re going to kind of just share our background and how we got connected. also who we’re kind of directing this to, you know, the, the people that we would really like to reach with this.

one of the things that we talked about, and may end up, you know, renaming this at some point, but, certainly a segment of this is called, is. Regeneration with capital GE in, because as you can see, we’re not of exactly the [00:01:00] same generation. I’m a couple years older. So there’s some differences.

And we actually want to, given the, the nature of the world these days and how much we are, pointing to the, in a bad way, the differences. We wanna embrace the differences. So I’m, white skinned. And Marla is brown skinned and I’m a male and she’s a female, and I live in the mountains of North Carolina and we don’t really know where we might find Marla at any time, but right now you are where?

Right now I’m in Singapore.

Right?

The other side of the world from you.

Yes. So right now we are at like nine 40 in the morning here in the North Carolina mountains. And it is what time there?

Those are differences. Now, there’s some things that we share, which is, well, certainly first and top most for me would be [00:02:00] our deep love and compassion for planet.

And all of its, all of its beings. Not just human beings, but all the beings, the plants and animals that we share this planet with. So, and that’s kind of what has connected us. So, let’s just take a, moment or two Marla, and share, from our own memories, how did, we get connected?

Yeah, so hi everyone.

My name is Marla, and yes, I’m all the way over here in Singapore. I am an Earthling. I like to call myself that and I run the eco chapter. And the eco chapter is a ecoliteracy and regenerative storytelling consultancy. and the crazy thing is that me and Brad, we met on Substack, through my company, the eco chapter.

I write a lot. articles that translate science and complex concepts into easier to digest and more accessible, literature. So articles with metaphors, and I sometimes write poetry. just any kind of way to get the science to [00:03:00] be a little bit easier. And so the nice thing was. read my stories.

and it was Brad, so it’s crazy because it was almost exactly a year ago. We met in December, I think 2024. so it’s, yeah, it’s been a journey. Brad, you wanna add anything to, that?

Yeah, I, I had a major, revelation, insight, whatever you want to call it. about two days. After the, USA, elections of a year ago when, they did not go the way I wanted, I did not have a whole lot of hope for either party, directing much attention to the, climate crisis, and the crisis that, you know, the climate crisis is a part of.

But when, president Trump became president, I got really clear there’s something, something that I’ve gotta do. I’ve gotta up my game, so to speak around that. And, The, other piece that was kind of woven in there at the same time, at that [00:04:00] time, I had a, grandson, three and a half, Logan and Piper, one and a half.

So now a year later, four and a half and two and a half. and I, it was on YouTube was where I ran into this thing about. 3:00 AM in the morning and I cannot sleep because my great-great-grandchildren are asking me what did I do? What did I do when I realized the earth was burning and the democracy was falling, and da da die, it goes on beautiful peace.

And it woke me up to like, yeah, what will I tell Logan and Piper as they get older? What did I do? And about that time I was reading, you know, I read, a couple of pieces from Marla and thought, wow, this is a real connection there. And I started writing one cause, which is now written and in revision stages.

And we’ll be released sometime, hopefully in the first quarter, first half of, 2026. [00:05:00] And it’s my take on. what is the fundamental causes of climate change? That climate change is not a cause, it’s the effect of something. And so, that’s, kind of the evolution. And then, I think somewhere in the mix of that, you, expressed an idea about.

Wanting to write a book, a, more positive book of, positive narratives. And given that, one of the things I still do is as a coach. I coach aspiring authors. I was like, I wanna work with this woman. I, wonder how much I’m gonna have to pay her to let me coach her. And you were kind enough to not charge me anything for that.

So, that was another piece of it. So why don’t you say just a little bit about, where that went.

We had our first meeting in December last year, just around Christmas, I think. And I was so stumped that [00:06:00] somebody on the other side of the world wanted to coach me because, well, obviously had read my articles and thought it would be good for me to write a book.

and the crazy thing is like a year later, the book is here. So it’s called Dreams of Unwritten Futures. And this book was actually written by five of us. And, Brad was coaching me and I was editing this book, with a few of my friends. And now, the whole point of it is to have a series of books, and I wanna put it under project called The Better Future Narratives Project, where I found that everything that I was reading in terms of like climate fiction or the news or.

science, a lot of it was doom and gloom and, really a post-apocalyptic, chaos. so then my idea was like, how do we then. better stories into the world where we didn’t have to become zombies and eat people’s faces first, before we, started doing better things. and that’s kind of how the idea was born.

I wrote an article in October, 2024. And that article [00:07:00] became the spine of this book. And so I sent that article to five friends, who wrote, their parts and their Better Future narratives, which then I compiled into this book and we just got it published in October. So, I think, Brad’s pushing me to write something, really helps, because I had so many ideas already, and it was just that little poke to say, Hey, you’re good enough.

Go write. so it’s really exciting. So it’s now I am also writing proposals to bring this, project to schools and, I’m planning like a six months project with kids that they can turn their eco anxiety and feelings of helplessness or depression into more better future narratives and that we can publish more books and, put them out into the world.

because I think a lot of people, when they say better future, they just. immediately of money and cars and material wealth and things. but if you talk to lots of people, they’ll tell you those are not the things that make your future better. Yeah, it’s really [00:08:00] simplicity of things. It’s the connection with people.

It’s the community. It’s a time to read a really good book and have a coffee undisturbed. It’s those quiet moments at the beach or under a tree. usually with nature or with friends, you know? So that’s the whole point of trying to put these imaginations into, people’s worlds where they can think of better future narratives that are not coupled with material wealth and, and consumerism.

Yeah. hopefully kind of change the whole narrative, of a society through through writing.

Yeah. Very good. And yeah, I hear again, I hear some other cross, cross connections there. Out of your book has come a, project, you know, and you’re out to reach young, young people and kids.

And same here with me. I, you know, in my background, I’ve been writing for about 30, oh gosh, 35 plus years. I have about 30, I think one cause will read my 38th book. [00:09:00] But in the last several years, most of my writing has been in the eco fiction or eco fantasy area. So you can see kind of in the background there, see if I can point to ‘em.

These books here are part of the Zach Bates Eco Adventure series. So that was one of the other things is, because of my, I just have such a deep love for Logan and Piper. And a deep love for, kids in general, that’s, you know, those are the generations that we are leaving planet Earth to.

And I’ll be honest, I’m not proud of how my generation, the baby boomer generation is leaving the planet. we, and while we’re still, able to, what can we do to. a trim tab, moved this big spaceship earth in a more positive, direction of truly being connected to, nature itself.

So from one cause has come, and is [00:10:00] emerging the, eco guardian’s, youth project. And again, it includes, you know. and inspiring children to express themselves through writing and through art. and, helping them to get really in touch with their love of nature, before they get so.

Caught up in jagged, you know, adults. We wanna get them early enough to, encourage that natural love for, nature, as, they grow, grow into adulthood itself. So that’s kind of who we’re out to reach. So you wanna say a little bit about our. if somebody’s listening to this, who you could share this with, you know, like that.

Yeah. So we’re trying to reach out to anyone who wants to listen, really anyone that’s interested in the eco crises that are happening all over the world, everywhere. sometimes it can be really lonely and also quite. helplessness and, that you have no idea what’s going on. so I guess we’re [00:11:00] also reaching out to educators that don’t have the ability or the, knowledge to share this information with your students.

send them our way. We’re both teachers, so happy to help with that. Also to the carers of students and children, parents who are too busy working or also don’t have the, knowledge or the know-how about the climate crisis. Now this would be really great for you too, because it’s a way for you to understand a little bit more.

so then you can, kind of comfort your, children and tell them that, you know, with us all working towards this together, it’s all going to be okay. And apart from from the work that we’re doing here on the podcast, I’m also doing as part of the eco chapter, lots of webinars for people who are.

working in either small to medium enterprises or school teachers, and also with people doing, like nonprofit work and organizations. So I do like regenerative consultancy for, those groups of people who like maybe need something a little bit [00:12:00] more in depth or specified to your company or organization as well.

Yeah, for this podcast, like it’s really for the generations, right? That’s why we’re calling it possibly regeneration, from kids who want to come on the show And talk to us about how you feel, you know, about parents who are drowning in, how do I do this because I’m new parent and I’ve never done this before.

Or, teachers who are just hearing stories from your students and, you don’t know what to do. You know, like we’re also very happy to have interviews. with, anyone from around the world. I mean, we’re already in two different continents. Why not? Why stop there,

right? Yeah, for sure. And while right now the, eco Guardian Youth Project is primarily local here in the North Carolina Mountains.

I do an event, in fact, I did two in the past, week called the Story. story maker event where you come together with small groups of children and we actually help them [00:13:00] understand that storytelling is great fun and story making, actually writing and, composing your own stories can be fun.

And so we actually go through and collectively together, create the beginnings of a story and follow that up with the, for those who want to, the eco guardian. writer’s challenge. So all that’s pretty much local right now, but we do want, you know, my, one of my intentions, you know, in 2026 is to find ways to have it be,

Scaled so it can be done not just with me, but other people can do it in their local communities, wherever those local communities are. And I see we have another compadre there in the background.

So this is rha. And another similarity between me and Brad is Brad just got two kittens. Ah,

we do, and, they may be on the show before too long, but right now they’re, acclimating to our own lifestyle here.

Yes, for [00:14:00] sure. So obviously we’re both. animal lovers. My background is a small animal veterinarian before I turn to writing. And, and mine is science

and wildlife conservation.

Yes. And, if I’m not careful, I put my feet in the wrong places. I’ll end up stepping on Rascoe, who’s right at my feet sleeping at the moment.

So, let’s see, what else did we want to share today as this, introduction that, that we haven’t already shared?

I think a few things. If you are a writer, I think the first thing is keep writing because the world needs more stories and more art and put more beautiful, literature into the world.

I think we’re, losing that. if you’re someone who feels like you want to come onto the show, please get in touch with either of us. in. we’ll give you ways to contact us, that’s for sure. and also if you are. wanting to come on the show and just wanting to listen.

I hope you also know that Yeah. are listening and we’re [00:15:00] here. Like, you don’t have to just write to us if you wanna come onto the show, if you want us to talk about something for you, please send us your, your thoughts or your ideas and or your fears or doubts, and we’ll be happy to make a podcast, especially for that for you.

Yes. Yeah. Very good. So, there’s a new word that I’ve come across, We, all know about dystopia. You know, dystopian fiction right now is super popular. I’m not quite sure why it’s become so popular. we’re living in a dystopia, maybe that has part something to do with it. And there’s also the term that most people are familiar with is utopia.

You know, kind of almost kind of airy, magical, you know, land. I was just the other day through a podcast was introduced to which is kind of in the middle area. It’s about how do we, in the face of what we’re dealing with. recreate or regenerate a, life thriving, ecology and, planet and, not, you know, not at a [00:16:00] utopian type way, but, you know, some, very specific ways that we can do that.

And for and I, part of it is changing the narrative, you know, writing stories that, really do speak to, And not in a way, but in a positive way. Changed that narrative. So again, one cause is a big part of, that for me, you know, identifying the four great untruths and the four great truths.

And I’m sure in other podcasts we’ll get into that, you know, in, more depth itself. So, yes. You know, if you are writer, if you have thought about writing on, you know, on, you know, whether it’s, Climate fiction or eco fiction or there’s a number of different, you know, ways of speaking about it. But if that’s something that, you are either doing or you would want to do, we, would love to support you in that as well.

Yeah, and Brad has a, whole library, so once you have your books, we can put it up there. you can also [00:17:00] find dreams of Unwritten Futures in Brad’s library.

Yes. I’m, glad you, mentioned that ‘cause part of the, eco Guardians, Project that we’re working with is the Eco Guardian Secret Society Library that nobody’s supposed to know about except that just spilled the beans.

So I can, you know, blame her for it. But, and again, all of my eco fiction books are. there’s two or three, other books from other authors that I have coached, including book itself. And, there will be a, growing resource of, both fiction and nonfiction and other, you know, pertinent information, to support.

Other, eco guardians in training as I like, refer to it. And the reason I call it Eco Guardians in training is we’re all in training. We’re all continuing to deepen our relationship and our appreciation for, Mother Earth. [00:18:00] So, that’s what it is to be an eco guardian. Thank you for sharing that.

So I think, covered the, basis to begin with. Yeah. And, any, last comments before we kind of sign off and you go to bed and I go into the rest of my day.

I am good. I’m looking forward to our next podcast and, hopefully we get some people writing in to come talk to us.

Yes. Very good. Okay, everybody, we’re signing off from Gaia’s Call slash Regeneration. Take care.

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