This episode begins in Fairbanks, AK.  Yo-Yo Ma is at a house concert with drag queen environmentalist Pattie Gonia, singer/songwriter Quinn Christopherson and Princess Daazhraii Johnson, a writer and filmmaker from the Gwich’in Nation.  They were all performing to help their communities process the negative effects of climate change in Alaska.  Salmon have been disappearing for decades, but now there are laws preventing fishing along the Yukon River, an ancestral practice for many Alaska Native people.  Host Ana travels up to the 2024 Gwich’in Gathering in Circle, Alaska to learn how the Gwich’in nation uses its centuries-old tools of music and discussion to speak with one voice and  bring back the salmon.

Featuring music by Yo-Yo Ma, Quinn Christopherson and Pattie Gonia, poetry by Princess Johnson, and traditional music by members of the Gwich’in Nation.

• Watch Pattie Gonia performing "Won't Give Up" featuring Yo-Yo Ma and Quinn Christopherson (video) 
• Watch Yo-Yo Ma playing Bach in a birch forest damaged by melting permafrost on Lower Tanana Dene lands near Fairbanks, Alaska
  Listen to the Our Common Nature EP.

Credits: Our Common Nature is a production of WNYC and Sound Postings 
Hosted by Ana González
Produced by Alan Goffinski
With editing from Pearl Marvell
Sound design and episode music by Alan Goffinski
Mixed  by Joe Plourde
Fact-checking by Ena Alvarado
Executive Producers are Emily Botein, Ben Mandelkern, Sophie Shackleton, and Jonathan Bays.

Our advisors are Mira Burt-Wintonick, Kamaka Dias, Kelley Libbey, and Chris Newell

Episode photo by Austin Mann; Episode and show art by Tiffany Pai

This podcast was inspired by a project of the same name, conceived by Yo-Yo Ma and Sound Postings, with creative direction by Sophie Shackleton, in collaboration with partners all over the world.

Our Common Nature is made possible with support from Emerson Collective and Tambourine Philanthropies

Our Common Nature is a production of WNYC and Sound Postings.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts

Visit the website at ourcommonnaturepodcast.org

In the Smoky Mountains, traditions layer and intersect. Yo-Yo Ma believes that story and song can help us grapple with America’s complicated history. This episode highlights two stories of people who are reclaiming their connections to the land. The first brings us to Cherokee, North Carolina, where Lavita Hill and Mary Crowe are working to change the name of the tallest mountain in the range back to its original Cherokee name.

Then, we go to the other side of the mountains, where musician Eric Mingus meets up with some long-lost family, and grapples with the weight of his family’s history. His performance reconnects him to a lineage he never thought he’d find.

Featuring music by Eric Mingus, Rhiannon Giddens and Yo-Yo Ma.

“Grinds My Bones/The Mill” was composed and performed by Eric Mingus. 

Flute and vocal performance in this episode by Jarrett Wildcatt. Additional audio recording provided by Taylor MacKay.

Credits: Our Common Nature is a production of WNYC and Sound Postings 

Hosted by Ana González
Produced by Alan Goffinski
With editing from Pearl Marvell 
Sound design and episode music from Alan Goffinski
Mixed by Joe Plourde
Fact-checking by Ena Alvarado

Executive Producers are Emily Botein, Ben Mandelkern, Sophie Shackleton, and Jonathan Bays

Our advisors are Mira Burt-Wintonick, Kamaka Dias, Kelley Libbey, and Chris Newell

Episode photo by Austin Mann; Episode and show art by Tiffany Pai

And if you want to listen to more music from this series, you can check out the Our Common Nature EP, featuring Yo-Yo playing with Eric Mingus, Jen Kreisberg and an Icelandic choir, now available on all streaming platforms.

This podcast was inspired by a project of the same name, conceived by Yo-Yo Ma and Sound Postings, with creative direction by Sophie Shackleton, in collaboration with partners all over the world.

Our Common Nature is made possible with support from Emerson Collective and Tambourine Philanthropies.

Our Common Nature is a production of WNYC and Sound Postings.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts

Visit the website at ourcommonnaturepodcast.org

A cave can hold secrets. Louisville Orchestra conductor Teddy Abrams knows that, which is why he wrote a piece for symphony orchestra to be performed entirely underground. This episode takes us into Mammoth Cave to hear a performance that unlocks a centuries of stories preserved by the caves' seemingly endless walls. One of those is the story of Jerry Bransford, who brought the Bransford name back to Mammoth Cave 80 years after his ancestors were removed from  their jobs as cave guides because of their race.

Featuring original music from Louisville Symphony Orchestra conductor Teddy Abrams, performed by the Louisville Symphony Orchestra, Davóne Tines, and Yo-Yo Ma.

Special thanks to: Mammoth Cave National Park and Louisville Orchestra for their recording of Mammoth used throughout this episode. Find out more about their projects and concerts by visiting louisvilleorchestra.org  

To learn more about all the history of enslaved guides at Mammoth Cave, read Making Their Mark: The Signature of Slavery at Mammoth Cave, written by Joy Lyons.

Listen to the Our Common Nature EP. 

Credits: Our Common Nature is a production of WNYC and Sound Postings 

Hosted by Ana González
Produced by Alan Goffinski
Editing from Pearl Marvell
Sound design and episode music by Alan Goffinski
Mixed  by Joe Plourde
Fact-checking by Ena Alvarado
Executive Producers are Emily Botein, Ben Mandelkern, Sophie Shackleton, and Jonathan Bays.
Our advisors are Mira Burt-Wintonick, Kamaka Dias, Kelley Libbey, and Chris Newell

Episode photo by Austin Mann; Episode and show art by Tiffany Pai

This podcast was inspired by a project of the same name, conceived by Yo-Yo Ma and Sound Postings, with creative direction by Sophie Shackleton, in collaboration with partners all over the world.

Our Common Nature is made possible with support from Emerson Collective and Tambourine Philanthropies

Our Common Nature is a production of WNYC and Sound Postings.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts

Visit the website at ourcommonnaturepodcast.org

The series opens with a window into the Yo-Yo universe, one where music and nature work together. Host Ana González guides us into Yo-Yo Ma’s mindset, connecting Bach to leaves, birds, and sunlight. That takes us to a sunrise in Acadia National Park in Maine, where Chris Newell leads Yo-Yo and Wabanaki musicians in a musical performance to welcome the dawn. 

Featuring music by Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Newell, and Lauren Stevens.

Yo-Yo’s performance of In the Gale by Anna Clyne

Additional audio provided by the Upstander Project. Watch the Upstander Project film about this sunrise performance here: https://www.reciprocity.org/films/weckuwapok

Listen to the Our Common Nature EP here.

Preview more videos on @wnyc Instagram/Facebook 

Credits: 
Our Common Nature is a production of WNYC and Sound Postings 

Hosted by Ana González
Produced by Alan Goffinski
Editing from Pearl Marvell
Sound design and episode music by by Alan Goffinski
Mixed  by Joe Plourde
Fact-checking by Ena Alvarado
Executive Producers are Emily Botein, Ben Mandelkern, Sophie Shackleton, and Jonathan Bays.

Our advisors are Mira Burt-Wintonick, Kamaka Dias, Kelley Libbey, and Chris Newell

Special thanks to Acadia National Park. 

This podcast was inspired by a project of the same name, conceived by Yo-Yo Ma and Sound Postings, with creative direction by Sophie Shackleton, in collaboration with partners all over the world.

Our Common Nature is made possible with support from Emerson Collective and Tambourine Philanthropies.

Episode photo by Austin Mann; episode and show art by Tiffany Pai

Our Common Nature is a production of WNYC and Sound Postings.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts

Visit the website at ourcommonnaturepodcast.org

When the world stopped in 2020, cellist Yo-Yo Ma started thinking about how music can reconnect people to nature. In this limited podcast series, Yo-Yo travels around the country to make music and meet people who have deep connections to the earth.  Host Ana González joins him to uncover stories of the ways that culture binds us to nature, from Maine to Appalachia and Hawaii. 

The result is a seven-episode series that fuses music, personal narratives, and local histories from across the United States. We travel into the world's largest cave to hear the Louisville Orchestra perform. In Hawai‘i, an elder says her “chants are our contribution to the human orchestra of the world.” And the Wabanaki teach us about their duty to welcome the sun each day in Maine. For Yo-Yo Ma, who has spent most of his career indoors, a connection to the natural world is “what doesn’t exist in my life, that I know is missing.”  Our Common Nature helps to bridge the gap – for Yo-Yo and for all of us.  

Our Common Nature is a production of WNYC and Sound Postings.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts

Visit the website at ourcommonnaturepodcast.org