Green Dreamer: Seeding change towards collective healing, sustainability, regeneration

"Poetry has always been a powerful space for healing, dealing with trauma, cultivating resilience in times of crisis or even depression..."

In this episode, we welcome Dr. Craig Santos Perez, an indigenous CHamoru from the Pacific Island of Guam. He is the co-editor of six anthologies and the author of five books of poetry and the monograph Navigating CHamoru Poetry: Indigeneity, Aesthetics, and Decolonization. He is a professor in the English department at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Some topics we explore in this conversation include a glimpse into the recent history of Guam and its Pacific Islander communities, the challenges of demilitarization and de-nuclearization amidst the global empires’ endless pursuit of domination, using poetry as political speech and literary therapy, and more.

(The musical offering featured in this episode Eye of the storm by Ali Dineen. The episode-inspired artwork is by Sneha.)

Green Dreamer would not be possible without the direct support from our listeners. Help us keep the show alive by reciprocating a gift of any amount today: GreenDreamer.com/support

In this episode, we welcome Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen, a Ph.D in History of Religions, researching Brazilian orisha religion. He has lived in a number of countries in Europe, Africa North- and South America. His present work focuses on the rejected animist landconnectedness ecological knowledge and kinship with the greater community of beings in North European Traditional knowledge.

Some of the topics we explore in this conversation include how the construction of Nordic modernity and nationalism led to a rejection of animism in Northern Europe, reclaiming Euro- ‘traditionalism’ from right-wing extremism, understanding myths as stories that produce relations, and more.

(The musical offering featured in this episode is Tear Down The Wall by Forest Veil. The episode-inspired artwork is by Isadora Machado.)

Green Dreamer would not be possible without the direct support from our listeners. Help us keep the show alive by reciprocating a gift of any amount today: GreenDreamer.com/support

“Story helps us weave ourselves into the land and feel a sense of wonder and awe when we step outside. This re-mythologizing, restorying to me is a really important way that we can find belonging to places from which we would otherwise perhaps feel quite alienated.”

In this episode, we welcome Dr. Sharon Blackie, an award-winning writer, psychologist and mythologist. Her highly acclaimed books, courses, lectures and workshops are focused on the development of the mythic imagination, and on the relevance of myth, fairy tales and folk traditions to the personal, cultural and environmental problems we face today.

Some of the topics we explore in this conversation include how the eco-heroine's journey offers more life-enhancing and community-centered visions for our paths forward, embracing menopause and elderhood as liberating and alchemical, what it means to re-enchant our lives with mythology to find belonging in place, and more.

(The musical offering featured in this episode is Power by India Blue. The episode-inspired artwork is by Sabrina Gevaerd.)

Green Dreamer would not be possible without the direct support from our listeners. Help us keep the show alive by reciprocating a gift of any amount today: GreenDreamer.com/support

"In many cases, corporations are using [the museum's cultural capital] to reaffirm their status in a local community... Artists are increasingly concerned about the context in which their work is displayed and also the values of the museum and the sponsor."

In this episode, we revisit our past conversation with Mark Rectanus, a University Professor of German Studies (Emeritus) in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Iowa State University. His publications include research on the German publishing industry, the book and electronic media, contemporary German literature, corporate sponsorships, cultural politics, museum studies, and contemporary art. His most recent book is Museums Inside Out: Artist Collaborations and New Exhibition Ecologies.

Some of the topics we explore in this conversation include the influence of corporate funding on art and culture, what it might mean to decolonize museums in spite of many of their troubled pasts, how artist-activists have been shifting the politics of art from within, and more.

(The musical offering featured in this episode is Black Moss by Johanna Warren.)

Green Dreamer would not be possible without the direct support from our listeners. Help us keep the show alive by reciprocating a gift of any amount today: GreenDreamer.com/support

“So-called ‘development’, envisioned outside of the community, more often than not brings challenges to the community because it doesn't take into consideration the aspirations, the culture, and the way of life of the people. It disregards the right of the people to self-determination. More than anything, it destroys the ecosystem of goods and services that people are reliant on.”

In this episode, we welcome Sinegugu Zukulu, who describes himself as a champion of rural development, having worked all his life to promote development that directly benefits rural people. He works in community development in the Wild Coast, focusing on ecotourism development, agriculture and youth empowerment. It is Sinegugu’s work and life purpose to advocate for rural people living on communal land getting assistance to secure land tenure that supports their way of life without being pressured by imposed development.

Some of the topics we explore in this conversation include resisting top-down, imposed visions of development, the integrative role of heavy metals within living landscapes, the Amadiba community's land defense against industrial mining and oil drilling, and more.

(The musical offering featured in this episode is Hummingbird by Lea Thomas. The episode-inspired artwork is by Luise Hesse.)

Green Dreamer would not be possible without the direct support from our listeners. Help us keep the show alive by reciprocating a gift of any amount today: GreenDreamer.com/support

In this Green Dreamer episode, we welcome Brett Scott, a journalist, campaigner, monetary anthropologist and former financial broker. He is the author of Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets (2022), and The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance (2013). He publishes the Altered States of Monetary Consciousness newsletter and tweets as @suitpossum.

Some of the topics we explore in this conversation include how the banking sector functions to extract and centralize financial wealth, the questionable presumptions behind "financial inclusion," how the cash system might ironically serve as a constraint to corporate capitalism, and more.

(The musical offering featured in this episode is The Witness by Rowan Rain. The episode-inspired artwork is by Carolina Altavilla.)

Green Dreamer would not be possible without the direct support from our listeners. Help us keep the show alive by reciprocating a gift of any amount today: GreenDreamer.com/support

"To try and resolve the environmental problems that we're facing from within the same ontological and epistemological frameworks that have created the problem just can't work. The Western world needs to be rethinking the way it approaches what it is to be a human being on this planet, and what relationships are important."

In this episode, we welcome Dr. Christine Winter (Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairoa, Ngati Pākeha), who is a senior lecturer in environmental, climate change, multispecies and indigenous politics. Her research focuses on the ways in which academic political theory, and particularly theories of justice, continue to perpetuate injustice for some people (and more specifically for Māori) and the environment. Her most recent research centers on ensuring the emerging field of a political theory of multispecies justice should have decolonial (and anticolonial) foundations.

Some of the topics we explore in this conversation include questioning the philosophies that underlie settler politics, reorienting towards multispecies and intergenerational justice to become good ancestors, moving beyond rights-based frameworks for protecting the more-than-human world, and more.

(The musical offering featured in this episode is Eye of the storm by Ali Dineen. The episode-inspired artwork is by Sophie Le Grelle.)

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“An animistic worldview is one I think that is deeply embedded in relationality, exactly the kind we need at this moment of crisis. So far from it being a ‘primitive thing,’ I think actually it can show us ways forward about how to be in the world, and how to be in the world with gratitude, knowledge, reciprocity.”

In this episode, we welcome Andy Letcher, a Senior Lecturer at Schumacher College, Devon UK, where he runs the MA Engaged Ecology. He is the author of Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom and numerous papers and chapters about the nature of contemporary psychedelic experience.

Some of the topics we explore in this conversation include different interpretations of ecology and how they influence our approaches to caring for the planet, how the animistic worldview offers guidance for our paths towards collective healing, what it means to root personal engagements with psychedelic medicines within deeper cultural changes, and more.

(The musical offering featured in this episode is Power by India Blue. The episode-inspired artwork is by )

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"The idea of the catastrophic convergence essentially looks at how climate change interacts with the pre-existing crises of the legacy of US imperialism and Cold War militarism and neoliberal economic restructuring."

In this episode, we welcome Christian Parenti, a Professor of Economics at John Jay College, City University of New York. His undergraduate and graduate teaching, and research, focus on: American economic history, environmental history, and the history of capitalism; climate change and sustainable energy; as well as war, policing, and political violence.

Some of the topics we explore in this conversation include what Parenti means by “big storms require big government”, viewing capital in part as social relations, various regional conflicts resulting from the "catastrophic convergence" of climate change, militarism and imperialism, and neoliberal economic restructuring, and more.

(The musical offering featured in this episode is Come The Rain by Maggie Clifford. The episode-inspired artwork is by Luise Hesse.)

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“Freedom and friendship have the same etymological root, which means beloved... [Historically, freedom] was about your people and that collectively, you were able to get the things that you needed for everyone to survive — food, shelter, water — and that children, disabled people, babies, and elders were cared for. This was how you were free — in the collective.”

In this episode, we welcome Mia Birdsong, a pathfinder, author, and facilitator who steadily engages the leadership and wisdom of people experiencing injustice to chart new visions of American life. She has a gift for making visible and leveraging the brilliance of everyday people so that our collective gifts reach larger spheres of influence, cultural and political change, and create wellbeing for all of us.

Some of the topics we explore in this conversation include remembering a wiser and more radical meaning of “freedom”, re-envisioning what it means to feel safe and secure in a community, the generosity of receiving in relationships, and more.

(The musical offering in this episode is Power to Change by Luna Bec.)

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