On Being with Krista Tippett

Suzanne Simard is the forest ecologist who has proven, beyond doubt, that trees communicate with each other — that a forest is a single organism wired for wisdom and care. Simard found that the processes that make for a high-functioning forest mirror the maps of the human brain that we’re also just now drawing. All of this turns out to be catching up with intelligence long held in aboriginal science. She calls the mature hub trees in a forest “Mother Trees” — parenting, eldering, in a mode of mutuality and reciprocity, modeling what we also know to be true of genuinely flourishing human ecosystems.

Suzanne Simard is Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia. You can connect with her ongoing work at mothertreeproject.org. Her book is called, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.

This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Suzanne Simard — Forests Are Wired For Wisdom." Find the transcript for that show at onbeing.org.

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We are digging into the archives to celebrate some of the conversations listeners have loved the most and that have shaped this project. Béla Fleck is one of the greatest living banjo players. He’s followed what many experience as this quintessential American roots instrument back to its roots in Africa, and he’s taken it where no banjo has gone before. Abigail Washburn is a celebrated banjo player and singer, both in English and Chinese. These two are partners in music and in life — recovering something ancient and deeply American all at once, bringing both beauty and refreshment to what they play and how they live.

Béla Fleck has recorded over 40 albums, most famously with The Flecktones and New Grass Revival. His albums include Flight of the Cosmic Hippo, UFO Tofu, and Rocket Science. He has released two full album collaborations with Abigail Washburn, Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn and Echo in the Valley. In 2020, he released Throw Down Your Heart: The Complete Africa Sessions. His latest album is, My Bluegrass Heart. 

Abigail Washburn is a clawhammer banjo player and singer. Her solo albums include Song of the Traveling Daughter and City of Refuge. Her newest album is Wu Fei And Abigail Washburn, a collaboration with her longtime friend, the renowned guzheng player Wu Fei. 

Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.

This show originally aired in June 2015.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We are digging into the archives to celebrate some of the conversations listeners have loved the most and that have shaped this project. Béla Fleck is one of the greatest living banjo players. He’s followed what many experience as this quintessential American roots instrument back to its roots in Africa, and he’s taken it where no banjo has gone before. Abigail Washburn is a celebrated banjo player and singer, both in English and Chinese. These two are partners in music and in life — recovering something ancient and deeply American all at once, bringing both beauty and refreshment to what they play and how they live.

Béla Fleck has recorded over 40 albums, most famously with The Flecktones and New Grass Revival. His albums include Flight of the Cosmic Hippo, UFO Tofu, and Rocket Science. He has released two full album collaborations with Abigail Washburn, Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn and Echo in the Valley. In 2020, he released Throw Down Your Heart: The Complete Africa Sessions. His latest album is, My Bluegrass Heart. 

Abigail Washburn is a clawhammer banjo player and singer. Her solo albums include Song of the Traveling Daughter and City of Refuge. Her newest album is Wu Fei And Abigail Washburn, a collaboration with her longtime friend, the renowned guzheng player Wu Fei. 

This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn — Truth, Beauty, Banjo." Find the transcript for that show at onbeing.org.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The wonderful writer Luis Alberto Urrea says that a deep truth of our time is that “we miss each other.” He is singularly wise about the deep meaning and the problem of borders. The Mexican-American border, as he likes to say, ran straight through his parents’ Mexican-American marriage and divorce. His works of fiction and non-fiction confuse every dehumanizing caricature of Mexicans — and of U.S. border guards. The possibility of our time, as he lives and witnesses with his writing, is to evolve the old melting pot to the 21st-century richness of “us” — with all the mess and necessary humor required.

We humans have this drive to erect barriers between ourselves and others, Luis Alberto Urrea says, and yet this makes us a little crazy. He is an exuberant, wise, and refreshing companion into the deep meaning and the problem of borders — what they are really about, what we do with them, and what they do to us. 

The Mexican-American border was as close and personal to him as it could be when he was growing up — an apt expression of his parents’ turbulent Mexican-American divorce. In his writing and in this conversation, he complicates every dehumanizing stereotype of Mexicans, "migrants" — and border guards. A deep truth of our time, Luis insists, is that “we miss each other.” He offers a vision of the larger possibility of our time beyond the terrible tangles of today: that we might evolve the old illusion of the melting pot into a 21st-century richness of “us." And he delightfully models that messiness and humor will be required.

Luis Alberto Urrea is a distinguished professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois Chicago. His books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction include Into the Beautiful North, The Devil’s Highway, The Hummingbird’s Daughter, and Goodnight, Irene.

This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Luis Alberto Urrea — On Our Belonging to Each Other." Find the transcript for that show at onbeing.org.

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Through the ruptures of the past year and more, we’ve been given so much to learn, and callings to live differently. But how to do that, and where to begin? Resmaa Menakem’s book, My Grandmother's Hands, and his original insights into racialized trauma in all kinds of bodies, have offered new ways forward for us all. So we said yes when Resmaa proposed that he join On Being together with Robin DiAngelo. She has been a foremost white voice in our civilizational grappling with whiteness. This conversation is not comfortable, but it is electric and it opens possibility. 

Resmaa Menakem (MSW, LICSW, SEP) teaches workshops on Cultural Somatics for audiences of African Americans, European Americans, and police officers. He is also a therapist in private practice, and a senior fellow at The Meadows. His New York Times best-selling book is My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies.

Robin DiAngelo has been a consultant, educator, and facilitator for over 20 years and is an Affiliate Associate Professor of Education at the University of Washington in Seattle. She’s the author of the influential book White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism. Her new book is Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm.

Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org. And listen to Resmaa’s first conversation with Krista, 'Notice the Rage; Notice the Silence.’

This show originally aired in July, 2020.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Through the ruptures of the past year and more, we’ve been given so much to learn, and callings to live differently. But how to do that, and where to begin? Resmaa Menakem’s book, My Grandmother's Hands, and his original insights into racialized trauma in all kinds of bodies, have offered new ways forward for us all. So we said yes when Resmaa proposed that he join On Being together with Robin DiAngelo. She has been a foremost white voice in our civilizational grappling with whiteness. This conversation is not comfortable, but it is electric and it opens possibility. 

Resmaa Menakem (MSW, LICSW, SEP) teaches workshops on Cultural Somatics for audiences of African Americans, European Americans, and police officers. He is also a therapist in private practice, and a senior fellow at The Meadows. His New York Times best-selling book is My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies.

Robin DiAngelo has been a consultant, educator, and facilitator for over 20 years and is an Affiliate Associate Professor of Education at the University of Washington in Seattle. She’s the author of the influential book White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism. Her new book is Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm.

This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Robin DiAngelo and Resmaa Menakem — Towards a Framework for Repair." Find the transcript for that show at onbeing.org. And listen to Resmaa’s first conversation with Krista, ‘Notice the Rage; Notice the Silence.’

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We are digging into the archives to celebrate some of the conversations listeners have loved the most and that have shaped this project. Kevin Kling is part funny guy, part poet and playwright, part wise man — homegrown Minnesota meets Dante and Shakespeare. He was also born with one disabled arm, and a midlife motorcycle accident paralyzed the other. Then again, being so-called able-bodied, Kevin points out, is always only a temporary condition. We take in his wisdom on the losses we’re born with and the losses we grow into — and on why we turn these things into stories.

Kevin Kling is a performer and writer with Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts. He is the author of many plays, including 21A and Lloyd's Prayer and five books, including The Dog Says How and Holiday Inn. 

Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.

This show originally aired in March, 2012.

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As we reflect back on 2020 and look ahead, how do we keep walking forward, and even find renewal along the way? How can we hold to our sense of what is whole and true and undamaged even in the face of loss? Sharon Salzberg is one of the most esteemed meditation teachers in the world. She speaks with Krista about how to care for the world while also learning kindness towards ourselves.

Sharon Salzberg — is a Buddhist teacher and author — and co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA. She is the author of 11 books, including Real Happiness, Lovingkindness, and most recently, Real Change: Mindfulness To Heal Ourselves and the World.

Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.

This show originally aired in October 2020.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

As we reflect back on 2020 and look ahead, how do we keep walking forward, and even find renewal along the way? How can we hold to our sense of what is whole and true and undamaged even in the face of loss? Sharon Salzberg is one of the most esteemed meditation teachers in the world. She speaks with Krista about how to care for the world while also learning kindness towards ourselves.

Sharon Salzberg — is a Buddhist teacher and author — and co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA. She is the author of 11 books, including Real Happiness, Lovingkindness, and most recently, Real Change: Mindfulness To Heal Ourselves and the World.

This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode "Sharon Salzberg — The Healing Is In The Return." Find the transcript for that show at onbeing.org.

This show originally aired in October 2020.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.