Sentient Planet

This week's episode is from the field! Susan interviews whale researcher Ken Balcomb. The interview takes place at Ken's Big Salmon Ranch property on the beautiful Elwha River, acquired to preserve a key salmon-spawning habitat that is vital to feeding J, K and L pods.

Calls to Action: For more stories, photos and videos about the individual whales in the Southern Resident pods, as well as information on how to help them, visit the Center for Whale Research site.

Support growing calls to breach the Lower Snake River Dams.

Read the Outside article about Ken (that Susan refers to in the episode) here: "Is It Too Late for the Southern Resident Orcas?"

In North America, you can view wild orca on the West Coast, especially around the San Juan and Gulf Islands, in the summertime.

Intro music: "The Spaces Between" by Scott Buckley.

Interstitial music: "To the Great Beyond" by Stellardrone.

Photo: Susan Woodward.

Thanks to OrcaSound and Ocean Networks Canada for the audio clips of J, K and L pods and to BBC Sounds for ocean waves audio clips.

Rena Priest is an award-winning poet and writer, a National Geographic Explorer and a member of the Lummi Nation.

In April, she was named Washington State Poet Laureate - the first time Washington has awarded this role to an indigenous poet.

Today, we discuss Rena’s calling to write about the Southern Resident Orca, whom the Lummi consider their "relatives under the sea."

Rena also honors us with indigenous storytelling and worldviews.

Call to Action: Join the campaign to free Tokitae and sign the petition here.

Intro music: “The Spaces Between,” by Scott Buckley.

Interstitial music: "Endeavor," by Stellardrone.

Congratulations to Rena Priest, named Washington's Poet Laureate in April 2021. She is the first indigenous poet to hold this prestigious position in Washington state.

"Words of Encouragement" appears in For Love of Orcas: An Anthology, published in 2019 by Wandering Aengus Press.

Photo: The Whale Sanctuary Project.

In honor of Earth Day, we dedicate the first ever Sentient Planet audio documentary to Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut (also known as Tokitae and Lolita) – a wild Southern Resident orca confined to a tank in the Miami Seaquarium for the past 50 years – and to her indigenous relatives, who are working tirelessly to bring her home.

This is their story.

May humans wake up and end the captivity of cetaceans and all other caged and shackled sentient beings throughout our world.

Call to Action: Join the campaign to free Tokitae and sign the petition here.

Traditional music: The Blackhawks, “Lummi Nation Anthem, Survivors of the Great Flood,” led by singers Lawrence and Denise Solomon; Lawrence is chairman of the Lummi Nation.

Music: “The Spaces Between,” by Scott Buckley.

And love to Ocean Networks Canada for the L Pod recordings.

Witnessing the decline of species and habitat in this time of mass extinction is deeply painful.

In 2001, thanatologist Dr. Kriss Kevorkian gave a name to what many of us are feeling – environmental (and ecological) grief. In our first Sentient Planet guest interview, Kriss talks about her journey from a love of whales to working in death and dying, climate change, and now the Rights of Nature movement.

The inescapable truth is that we humans have created our current crises. How can we return to a right relationship with nature and all sentient life?

Call to Action: If you love orca (and salmon) as much as we do, please support Legal Rights for the Salish Sea by signing Kriss’ Declaration of the Rights of the Southern Resident Orcas here.

Intro music: “The Spaces Between,” by Scott Buckley.

Interstitial music: “Breathe in the Light,” by Stellardrone.

A short conversation with the creators of Sentient Planet about the podcast's intention and what to expect in Season 1.

Music (with great thanks): "Galaxies" by Stellardrone.

A new podcast about our kinship with animals. Our first episodes land on Earth Day, April 22.

Music: "The Spaces Between" by Scott Buckley.