Muse Ecology

Since millennia before the early states of Mesopotamia, farming has been a complexity-destroying process. In this episode, we'll hear from Felipe Pasini about an agricultural approach called Syntropic Farming that reverses this process, facilitating greater ecological complexity while providing for human needs. Here is a lovely video called Life In Syntropy that Felipe co-created several years ago to introduce the concept. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSPNRu4ZPvE You can learn more about Syntropic Farming at https://agendagotsch.com/en/ You can learn more about Katharina Serafimova's work at https://www.katharinaserafimova.com/ And again, many thanks to Peia for the use of her inspiring song The Old Ways Restored in the podcast introduction. You can find her beautiful music at https://peiasong.com/

In this second episode in the Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization Series, I'm grateful to be able to share this inspiring conversation with Li An Phoa, creator of the Drinkable Rivers movement. Li An is a scientist, activist, and river walker, working to mobilize watersheds to engage in citizen science and work together towards the return of drinkability to their river. Li An explains that such properties of a river can emerge when all the relationships along it's banks and in the watershed that feeds it are healthy. She also reminds us of the important role our own singing hearts play in the web of relationships, connecting us to each other and the living world around us. You can connect with Li An Phoa and the Drinkable Rivers project at drinkablerivers.org. And as always, thank you to the amazing singer and musician Peia, for allowing me to use her song The Old Ways Restored in the introduction to each podcast. You can find her music at peiasong.com

"Water begets water, soil is the womb, and vegetation is the midwife." -Professor Millan Millan In this episode we learn about what Professor Millan Millan calls "the second leg of human-induced climate change": how our land use changes lead to major disruptions of weather and climate patterns, independently of changes due to warming from carbon emissions. As Millan shares, the international scientific community has known for fifty years that anthropogenic climate change has two legs: greenhouse gases and surface property changes due to land use change. While business and politics have assimilated the greenhouse gas narrative, addressing the climate effects of our land use will require far more fundamental changes. In these conversations with Professor Millan, we'll hear about the processes involved in the land use leg of climate change, and how we can act to address it. As I mention in the introduction, this episode is a bit long, around two and a half hours, since I wanted to include as much as possible from my time with Millan learning about this important topic. A good breaking point if you need it, after the audio from our first visit, is at 1:24:17. Here's links to papers mentioned in the episode: Millán MM. 2014. Extreme hydrometeorological events and climate change predictions in Europe. Journal of Hydrology 518: 206–224 Science for Environment Policy (2015) Soil and Water: a larger-scale perspective. Thematic Issue 52. Issue produced for the European Commission DG Environment by the Science Communication Unit, UWE, Bristol. https://www.rainforclimate.com/article/water-for-recovery-of-the-climate---a-new-water-paradigm And here are the books mentioned in the episode: Inadverdent Climate Modification, by MIT Press Mesoscale Meteorlogical Modelling, Roger A. Pielke Sr. Mesoscale Atmospheric Circulations, B.W. Atkinson Atmospheric Thermodynamics, J.V. Iribarne and W.L. Godson And thank you to Peia, for gifting the use of her song The Old Ways Restored as the background music for the introduction. She is an amazing singer and songwriter, and carries old folk songs from cultures around the world, from times when folks were more connected to the natural world. https://peiasong.com/

In this prelude to the upcoming series dealing with the interrelated processes of Water, Life, Climate, and Civilization, we take a look at the historical and mythological roots of civilization's discord, and set the tone for the series with a new song and some poignant clips from the next three episodes that remind us of the dynamic complexity we are interconnected with. From renowned meteorologist, Professor Millan Millan, we'll learn how our land use has been disrupting weather and climate since long before it was accelerated by the industrial revolution, and how land use change can bring about meteorological healing. From scientist and inspiring activist Li An Phoa we'll hear about her Drinkable Rivers project, and her mission to awaken folks to the awareness that Drinkable Rivers are a result of all the relationships and processes in a watershed being intact and healthy, including our own singing hearts. Finally, we'll hear from farmer and journalist Felipe Pasini about an agricultural approach called Syntropic Farming, which increases rather than reduces complexity on a landscape. Here's a link to my new song in this episode, called Waves. And here are it's chords and lyrics.

In this episode, we visit Quail Springs in the Cuyama Valley of Southern California, a place and community dear to my heart. We'll hear useful knowledge about building with natural materials, and learn of exciting recent developments in the international legalization of cob construction. This episode also contains alot of folk music, including quite a few songs from the soulful Cuyama Mama Jan Smith. There was even a surprise acoustic performance by the talented bluegrass band, Hot Buttered Rum (HBR). Feel free to have hoe-down dance party, and if you'd like to hear even more, Nat from HBR welcomed me to share the whole recording of their set with you. Here it is, including all their jams with Jan Smith and Andrew Clinard. They are currently doing an indigogo campaign for a musical project they just recorded in Rwanda and Zambia. You can support here. And here's a few more of Jan's songs that were in the episode: Bring It On, The Well, Beauty You can support the important ongoing cob testing work at Quail Springs here. You can find out more about the Cob Research Institute and their work getting cob into building codes here. You can hear more from the musicians in this episode at the following links: Hot Buttered Rum: hotbutteredrum.net Jan Smith: facebook.com/jansmithmusic/ facebook.com/cuyamamama/ facebook.com/muddydaughter/ Andrew Clinard: therealjohngary.com/ Alice Bradley: Alice's Soundcloud And again, thank you to Peia for allowing me to use her song The Old Ways Restored for the introduction, and for her important work in the world. You can find her music and tour dates at peiasong.com/

In this episode, we hear the voice of Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim. She passed on, but her light lives on in so many of us water babies. These recordings of Grandma Aggie are from this past year: a panel at the Global Earth Repair Conference in Washington state, a prescribed fire training exchange in Ashland, Oregon, and finally at her 95th birthday gathering. I hope these words bless you like they've blessed me, and help remind us to be a voice for the voiceless. If you can support her family financially, it would be much appreciated, especially for her daughter Nadine, a great grandmother herself, who has taken care of Grandma Aggie for years. You can donate directly to help Nadine at the following paypal link: http://paypal.me/agnespilgrim If you would like to make a tax deductable donation, you can do it through the Grandmother's Empowerment Project paypal link below, and specify "Support for Nadine" in the comment: https://www.paypal.me/grandmothers And again, thank you to Peia for allowing me to use her song The Old Ways Restored for the introduction, and for her important work in the world. You can find her music and tour dates at peiasong.com/

In spring 2018 I visited the headquarters of the Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap Company in Vista, California, where the Bronner family carries on the legacy of 5 generations of traditional soapmaking and the quirky and passionate All-One vision of Emmanuel Bronner (Dr. Bronner). You are probably familiar with their colorful liquid soap bottles covered with words exuberantly enumerating what Dr. Bronner called the Moral ABC's. The Bronner Family still uses their castillian soap product as a platform for world healing. I met with David Bronner, Emmanuel's grandson, intending to discuss the new Regenerative Organic Certification that they are championing along with Patagonia, The Rodale Institute, and quite a few other companies who are seeking to help create a more harmonious agricultural system. David also invited Mickey Norris and Chris Conrad to join our factory tour and conversation. David described Chris and Mickey as "the godfather and godmother of cannabis" because of their 30 plus years of pioneering advocacy work towards legalizing cannabis. We ended up discussing much more than just regenerative agriculture, but it all fluently flowed together in the All-One story. Legalization of psychedelics and cannabis, regenerative grazing and dietary choices, bison, beaver, David's relationship with his granddad, the history of soapmaking...you can't really draw the line between these threads, for it's All One or None! Exceptions Eternally? Absolute None! All One! All One! ---- You can visit Dr. Bronner's website at www.drbronner.com. Here's the official website for Regenerative Organic Certification: www.regenorganic.org. The silly, swaggery instrumental music used in the intro and outro this episode is instrumental clips from a recording of my song Meter Maid Betty from a few years ago at Dave Clark's (Banjo Dave's) house. Such a pleasure to play with the amazing Ross Plunkett on trumpet and the sweet, sultry sounds of Angelica Pray singing along here and there. Katie was on the flute, but I forgot her last name. Good times. I hope to play with you folks again. Here's that full recording: And again, I want to thank Peia, the angelic Songkeeper who has allowed me to use her song The Old Ways Restored for my Muse Ecology introduction. She writes beautiful Earth songs that soothe the soul and inspire courage, and she carries songs from old cultures around the world, from times when the village was intact and humans were more connected with the greater ecology around them. She has been mostly focusing recently on the music of her own Gaelic ancestry. I highly recommend her music and also performances and workshops if you can make it. You can see what she's up to at peiasong.com

While later this year there will be an in depth Muse Ecology series on the beaver, in this episode we hear one one the more inspiring beaver stories I've come across: the tale of the Martinez Beaver. When the beaver moved in to downtown Martinez, CA, the city originally intended to exterminate them, but thanks to community involvement, the Martinez Beaver became protected and celebrated as a cultural icon. In this episode, we hear this story from beaver advocate and founder and president of Worth a Dam, Heidi Perryman. Important Announcement: If you are anywhere near Martinez tomorrow (Saturday, June 29th), it's the 12th annual Martinez Beaver Festival! Warning: beaver enthusiasm is highly contagious! You can find more information on the beaver and Worth A Dam at martinezbeaver.org The feautured image for this episode, of a beaver mother and her kit, was taken by Cheryl Reynolds in Martinez, CA. The Ballad of the Martinez Beaver in this episode was written by Mark Comstock. The theme song in the Muse Ecology introduction is The Old Ways Restored, by Peia. You can find her music and tour schedule at peiasong.com

In this inspiring episode of Muse Ecology, we hear songs and conversation from my visit early spring of this year with musical artist Peia. While many restoration ecologists and regenerative agriculturalists are working to restore harmony at the ecosystem level, Peia is one of the bards doing important work at the level of human emotion and narrative; inspiring open, courageous hearts and reminding us of what is sacred. Starting with this episode, Peia's song The Old Ways Restored will now be the theme music for the Muse Ecology introduction, setting a magical and adventurous tone for each episode before we hear some of the voices and grooves of people and place as we make our way back to harmony. You can find out more of Peia's work, and see a schedule of her upcoming shows and workshops at peiasong.com

In this fifth and final episode in this series on the bison in the Great Plains, we visit the Savory Institute Headquarters in Colorado and speak with Daniela Howell, Director of the Savory Institute, and Allan Savory, inventor of the Holistic Management framework. We also hear some collaborative discussion about how regenerative cattle ranchers might support efforts to facilitate the return of large roaming herds of wildlife to the prairie. You can find the Muse Ecology Webinar Wild Bison and Holistic Management, A Collaborative Conversation at www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CW2X289Asc You can find out more about The Savory Institute at www.savory.global Here's links for each of the organizations in this bison series Buffalo Field Campaign, Tanka Bar, Tanka Fund, 777 Bison Ranch, Wild Idea Buffalo Company DiGiorgio. . You can find his amazing nature art at https://www.mdigiorgio.com. Michael says that if you'd like to buy the album of his nature-banjo jams, you can find his email on his website and he can mail you a CD. Many thanks to Michael for letting me use it for this first year of episodes. This will be the last episode with this introduction music, as next episode begins year two with an intro song by the beautiful musical artist Peia. You can support the production of Muse Ecology at patreon.com/museecology, or with the Paypal donate button on the side of the page at museecology.com.