If you look at the work happening in LA with water advocacy, especially in how it relates to climate resilience, you’ll find Accelerate Resilience L.A. (ARLA). Join this inspiring and activating conversation with the team, sharing their hopeful and healing vision for Los Angeles in a time of climate change.  

We dive into ARLA’s work for a water sufficient Los Angeles. In this conversation, we wind through the mythologies of LA as a place of water scarcity that needs to extract water from other places in order to survive. The ARLA team evokes the cultural shifts necessary for Angelinos to be in relationship with water and see their region as a life-giving watershed rather than a desert. 

The team also talks about the tangible infrastructure changes needed to help the municipalities of LA be water sufficient. They describe the exciting development of the Infrastructure Field Kit platform, enabling communities and groups to develop water conserving and regenerating projects. 

About Accelerate Resilience L.A. (ARLA)

Accelerate Resilience L.A. (ARLA) envisions Los Angeles as a climate-resilient region that is safer, healthier, and more prepared for our increasingly dangerous climate reality. They engage in capacity building, cross-sector collaboration, and community engagement to advance multi-benefit approaches that are key to developing individual and collective climate resilience. 

Hosted by: Kate Bunney

Produced & Edited by: Anne Carol Mitchell

Intro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter Strauss

If you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/

For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“The walks have been such a good movement. We’ve made a lot of progress. The walks have been a really good bridge for bringing people together and for us being able to share and connect and help people be more aware. It’s helped us at the tribal level for getting support behind the work and the things we’re needing to do and we do on a daily basis.” – Teri Red Owl, Executive Director, Owens Valley Indian Water Commission

Join us in the circle of community with the Lake to Lake team, our partners, and walkers. In this rich conversation, we hear reflections about the walks from 10 years ago in acknowledgement of the original journey, and we hear visions for the walks to come this September. We will be retracing our path from Mono Lake to Owens Lake/Patsiata as a coalition carrying intentions and prayers for restoring right relationship to water in Owens Valley/Payahuunadü

Our partners Teri Red Owl and Kyndall Noah (Owens Valley Indian Water Commission), Kathy Bancroft (Elder of the Lone Pine Paiute Tribe), and Charlotte Lange (Mono Lake Kootzaduka'a Tribe), talk about the current situation with Los Angeles DWP and the work that has grown since the first walks.

We also hear from the Walking Water Lake to Lake team and other walkers, adding their voices to a vision of restoring our relationship with the lands and waters. 

Hosted by: Kate Bunney

Produced & edited by: Anne Carol Mitchell

Intro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter Strauss

If you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/

For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“We have seen a lot of conflict arising from one community to another because of sharing this water resource. The universe communicated to me when I saw how the soil reacts, because there’s not enough water, how plants are suffering—they’re withering. So, I took the initiative to work with the communities for finding enough clean water. How can we repair our relationship by sharing this resource?” –Philip Munyasia founder OTEPIC

We welcome Ethan Hirsch-Tauber and Philip Munyasia for global and local conversation on how restoring relationships with water brings community healing, food security, and ecological health.

Philip Munyasia founder OTEPIC (Organic Technology Extension and Promotion of Initiative Centre) is based in Kenya. He works with women, farmers, and youth on permaculture techniques for harvesting water for food security and promoting biodiversity. Phillip tells his inspiring story of organizing community around water in the face of adversity and government corruption.  

Ethan Hirsch-Tauber, founder of the The Water Folk, lives and works in Sonoma County, California. He shares his journey of visiting communities from around the world and witnessing the transformation of healing watersheds through water retention and climate adaptive techniques and bringing these techniques back to his local community.

About Ethan Hirsch-Tauber

Before founding The Water Folk, Ethan Hirsch-Tauber spent many years living in a range of communities around the world, working as a sustainability educator, and gaining a deep understanding of the connections between water and climate. He studied the Water Retention Landscapes of Tamera, Portugal, and later traveled with and was mentored by Waterman of India, Dr. Rajendra Singh. In 2018, he founded a US-based company, Worldwide Water Wizards, to start doing this climate-based watershed restoration work himself. Ethan is now passionately piloting The Water Folk to implement water catchment projects in Sonoma County and beyond.

About Philip Munyasia

Philip Odhiambo Munyasia, the founder of OTEPIC, grew up in Mitume in Kenya. He taught people in his neighborhood how to grow their own food and improve their situation. Eager to learn more, he did an internship on the permaculture farm “Ecology Action” in California. Later, he took part in the “Global Campus” training program in Tamera, Portugal where he became familiar with Sepp Holzer's permaculture. In 2008, he founded OTEPIC (Organic Technology Extension and Promotion of Initiative Centre) teaching subsistence farmers, women and youth groups in the “Trans-Nzoia County” in Western Kenya and its surrounding areas to use permaculture as an alternative way to gain food security and to conserve nature and biodiversity.

Hosted by: Kate Bunney

Produced & Edited by: Anne Carol Mitchell

Intro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter Strauss

If you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/

For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“I saw when all the relationships in and along the river were healthy and in balance, the emergent property is drinkability for everyone, health for everyone, and beauty for us to admire and be immersed in.” –Li An Phoa 

We welcome Li An Phoa for a powerful conversation on following the call of water as a teacher and centering water for the health of our communities and world. Phoa, the author of Drinkable Rivers: How the River Became My Teacher, shares a poignant story of the first time she drank from the wild and healthy Rupert River in the Canadian subarctic. This “sip” was a catalyst for transforming her life. She realized through her relationship with this river, which later became polluted, that drinkable rivers are an indicator of a healthy society, benefiting human and more-than-human communities.  

Li An shares her work with the organization Drinkable Rivers in service of river health, organizing river walks around the world and mobilizing people to act for the healing and well-being of watersheds. 

About Li An Phoa

Li An Phoa works towards a world with drinkable rivers and founded the charity Drinkable Rivers to raise awareness and to weave this with mobilising people for action. She organises river walks, citizen science and action communities, like Mayors for Drinkable Rivers. Li An walked over 18,500km for drinkable rivers and a documentary film has been made of her 1.000-kilometre walk along the Meuse River. The book Drinkable Rivers: How the River Became My Teacher was published in English in September 2023. Most recently, Li An completed the Thames walk, a 4-week journey from the source in the Cotswolds to the mouth in the North Sea and the walk along the Berkel, a Rhine/IJssel tributary. www.drinkablerivers.org

Hosted by: Kate Bunney

Produced & Edited by: Anne Carol Mitchell

Intro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter Strauss

“What’s the cost of inaction, and how do we help people afford what we need to invest? How do we convey the preciousness and precariousness of water? How do we get folks to collaborate versus compete?” –Felicia Marcus, Fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program

“What can we control right now? We can ensure that we remain focussed on what we know is the most important thing…We all know what needs to be done to build a more resilient water supply, to ensure that our infrastructure is going to be ready for these types of extreme events that are going to happen again.” –Liz Crosson, Sustainability, Resilience and Innovation Officer, LA Metropolitan Water District

We are excited to welcome Felicia Marcus, Fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program, and Liz Crosson, Sustainability, Resilience and Innovation Officer, LA Metropolitan Water District.

The guests share a conversation that spans decades of experience in environmental advocacy, water policy, nonprofit work, litigation, and public service in LA, California, and in the West. Marcus and Crosson share deeply thoughtful insights about water policy and climate adaptation in the face of extreme, unprecedented events, such as the recent LA fires. They talk about staying the course and remaining diligent to priorities and clear in purpose despite misinformation from the federal government about water management in California.

The guests offer inspiring visions of restoring relationship to water, where water isn’t measured in acre feet or dollars but in the health of rivers, floodplains, and watersheds. Doing the work of collaborating across differences emerges as a guiding light. 

About the guests:

Felicia Marcus is the William C. Landreth Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program, an attorney, consultant and member of the Water Policy Group. She most recently served as chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, implementing laws regarding drinking water and water quality and state’s water rights, hearing regional board water quality appeals, settling disputes and providing financial assistance to communities to upgrade water infrastructure.

Liz Crosson is the chief sustainability, resilience and innovation officer for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). She is responsible for developing a district-wide sustainability and resiliency strategy that includes efforts to reduce MWD’s carbon footprint and adapt to immediate climate change impacts. Liz develops and pursues strategies, programs, and policies that address energy use, conservation, pollution, environmental justice, and climate resilience. She also drives initiatives to foster innovation.

Hosted by: Kate Bunney

Produced & Edited by: Anne Carol Mitchell

Intro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter Strauss

If you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/

For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“When will we become aware? What will it take? I believe the upside of the challenges we are facing right now is that it’s forcing us to say, ‘That is not the story.’ If ‘that’ is not the story, then what is? Who am I in the story, and who are we?” –Konda Mason

We are honored to have Konda Mason join us for the first Talking Water conversation of 2025. Konda Mason is a social entrepreneur, eco-spiritual thought leader, and justice advocate working at the intersection of social and financial justice and planetary healing. 

Konda offers a conversation full of insights into becoming conscious of our connections to the land and awakening to our true nature. Konda tells the story of finding home and her calling on a former cotton plantation in Louisiana. She shares how the plantation has become a place of transforming the wounds of slavery through regenerative agriculture and practices of reparative genealogy. 

The circle widens to include other community voices — sharing stories about farming in the South, offering first-hand accounts of transformational genealogy work, and deep bows of appreciation for Konda’s work that touches so many. 

About Konda Mason:

Konda Mason is a social entrepreneur, eco-spiritual thought leader, and justice advocate working at the intersection of social and financial justice and planetary healing. She is passionate about reversing the harm the extractive economy has had on all living systems. She foresees a world that is environmentally regenerative, spiritually fulfilling, socially just, and economically equitable. Konda is the President/Founder of Jubilee Justice, working to bring climate-resilient farming and economic equity to Black farmers in the rural South. Along with Mark Watson, Konda is the Co-founder of Potlikker Capital, a social justice charitable loan fund designed to deploy “reparative” capital to farmers of color and she is the Strategic Director of RUNWAY, a financial innovation firm committed to dismantling systemic barriers and reimagining financial policies and practices—all in the name of Black Liberation. Konda is on the Spirit Rock teachers' council and teaches mindfulness retreats throughout the country. She sits on the Board of Directors of Krista Tippett’s The OnBeing Project, RSF Social Finance, Soul Fire Farm Institute, and Clayborn Temple in Memphis, TN. Konda lives in Louisiana along the banks of the bayou.

Hosted by: Kate Bunney

Produced & Edited by: Anne Carol Mitchell

Intro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter Strauss

If you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/

For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“I really believe that the more people that come together, that are thinking this way, and that are working on solutions, that's what it’s going to take to get us to reimagining what our future is going to be and what LA looks like in the future–they don’t have to rely on our water, on Colorado River water, on water in Northern California. We can look at meeting our needs locally.” –Teri Red Owl (Bishop Paiute Tribe Nüümü from Payahuunadü), Executive Director Owens Valley Indian Water Commission

Welcome to the Water Learning Series: Los Angeles. Throughout 2024, we have hosted conversations with organizations, community projects, tribal organizations, activists, organizers, and leaders from LA and places impacted by LA’s water story. Over the course of this year, our conversations have dove deeply into the complicated elements of the water story, breaking down the complexity to reveal a map of relationships. This is our last session in the series. 

In this session, we once again welcome Indigenous voices to the forefront, speaking to the future of LA’s water story. We are joined by Tina Calderon (Gabrielino Tongva, Chumash, and Yoeme), Teri Red Owl (Bishop Paiute Tribe Nüümü from Payahuunadü), and Kyndall Noah (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), who were also guests from Session One. We are grateful for completing this series with the insight and presence of these important voices. 

Session 11 focuses on the future of Los Angeles and water. The guests speak about what it would take for Los Angeles to be an example of water justice and equity, talking about the necessity for honoring and protecting water as a relative–a free-flowing force of life benefitting the people, lands, plants, and animals. At the heart of coming into right relationship with water and land is the restoration and respect for the sovereignty of tribes as the original stewards of the lands. The guests share the importance of Indigenous voices in creating a future of sustainability in water management. 

The guests also offer their experiences and thoughts about the power of building mutually beneficial coalitions. They reflect on how collaborators can support in ways that are reciprocal and cooperative, being committed to working for the benefit of all parties. The guests speak of the importance of not only having a seat at the table, but being at the center of it, as well as what it means to create their own table when necessary. 

The circle of conversation widens to include voices from the Walking Water community, inviting the guests to offer stories of courage and resilience. Other community voices from tribal organizing in Payahuunadü and sustainability and equity from the Los Angeles DWP join the discussion, bringing hope to LA’s water story.  

Thank you for joining us in this series. We invite you to be part of the ongoing work re-imagining LA’s water story. See the links below to learn more. 

Hosted by: Kate Bunney
Produced & Edited by: Anne Carol Mitchell
Intro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter Strauss
If you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/
For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“As an artist, a huge pivot point for me in this work has been to understand that what I once thought of as materials, as object, as resource, are actually collaborators, are actually relations.” –Kate Morales

In this conversation, we welcome three artists who are deeply immersed in their relationships with water. The weaving and flowing conversation follows how each artist, in their own ways, is guided by water and maps water with their work. Along the way, we uncover their personal journeys of centering water in their artistic practices and how those journeys are transformed and translated into artistic work. 

Melissa McGill is an artist, activist, and water storyteller who has been featured on Talking Water in the past. Melissa is known for creating immersive public works with water at the center and working with communities to create projects that not only make an impact, but send out long-lasting ripples in the communities they serve.  Melissa talks about her intimate and reciprocal relationship with the Po River, Italy’s longest river, and her recent work with historical maps of the Po River incorporating natural elements. Learn more about Melissa's work at https://www.melissamcgillartist.com/.

Kate Morales’ artist practice focuses on somatic scribing, which uses image, story, and intuition to map layers of meaning in conversations in service of decolonial healing. Kate is working with Walking Water on a forthcoming book Waters Becoming, offering narratives inspired by the conversations on Water Learning Series: Los Angeles. The book will bring art and words together locating relationships with water. Kate talks about uncovering contexts in conversations through their work, and shares a growing relationship guided by the waters of the LA River and Payahuunadü. Learn more about Kate’s work at https://www.asthecrowfliesdesign.com/.

Debra Scacco, who resides in Los Angeles, is a research-based artist and curator. She shares an artistic practice guided and informed by an exploration of the LA River and tributaries. Her work with lines and maps traverses the intimate and public worlds where urban waters flow and move--seen and unseen. She shares an awareness of the hierarchies and infrastructures that control water with an eye towards illuminating and liberating those structures with her work. Learn more about Debra’s work at https://www.debrascacco.com/.

Hosted by: Kate Bunney

Produced & edited by: Anne Carol Mitchell

Intro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter Strauss

To support Waters Becoming, visit: https://walking-water.org/waters-becoming/.

If you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/

For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“We need to ask: how do we honor place? How do we embody justice? How do we regenerate life? How do we grow participation? How do we foster resilience?” –Andy Lipkis

Welcome to the Water Learning Series: Los Angeles. Throughout 2024, we have been hosting conversations with organizations, community projects, tribal organizations, activists, organizers, and leaders from LA and places impacted by LA’s water story. This is Session 10. We have one conversation remaining in the series. 

We are joined once again by Andy Lipkis, who was also the guest in Session Two. Andy is a visionary and pioneer in urban forestry and watershed restoration in Los Angeles, as well as the founder and project executive of Accelerate Resilience L.A. (ARLA). Through his decades of ground-breaking work on behalf of living infrastructures, Andy has remained faithful to a vision of a water-sufficient Los Angeles despite continued water importation and waste. 

Drawing on his experiences in organizing, partnerships, public policy, and his love of Los Angeles, as his birthplace and home, Andy articulates a vision of what LA can become, delving into history, philosophy, and logistics. Andy speaks about the necessity of informed, empowered, and engaged communities stewarding water as crucial to shifting LA’s water story from one of scarcity to abundance.  

Listen to Session Two to hear Andy Lipkis’s first conversation in the Water Learning Series. 

Andy Lipkis
Andy Lipkis has spent his life crowdsourcing climate resilience, both coordinating flood emergency disaster relief and addressing long-term causes and vulnerabilities. At age 18, he founded TreePeople, and served as its president from 1973 to 2019. Lipkis is a pioneer of Urban and Community Forestry and Urban Watershed Management, the principles of which have spread across the world. He has consulted for Los Angeles, Seattle, Melbourne, Hong Kong, London and other megacities, helping plan for climate resilience and adaptation. With climate change impacts already creating a chronic emergency for cities around the world, Andy’s work has demonstrated promising new ways for individuals, communities and government agencies to collaboratively reshape urban tree canopy, soil, and water infrastructure to save lives and grow a more livable future.

After retiring from TreePeople in 2019, Andy launched Accelerate Resilience L.A. (ARLA), a fiscally sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, to inspire and enable people and local governments to equitably accelerate climate resilience in Los Angeles.

Hosted by: Kate Bunney

Produced & edited by: Anne Carol Mitchell

Intro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter Strauss

If you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/

For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“In my imagination, we need to decommodify everything natural…No one should have to pay for access to clean water…These are all basic human rights. We need to imagine that we can come back to that…We need to learn what reciprocity means with the Earth.” –Zacarías Bernal, Program Assistant Tía Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore

Welcome to the Water Learning Series: Los Angeles. Throughout 2024, we have been hosting conversations with organizations, community projects, tribal organizations, activists, organizers, and leaders from LA and places impacted by LA’s water story. We’ve arrived at Session Nine. Only two sessions remain in the series. 

In Session Nine, we widen the conversation about the impacts of LA’s water story, inviting youth from Owens Valley/Payahuunadü and Los Angeles County to share their stories, insights, and dreams for a water sufficient Los Angeles. 

Kaytlynn Johnston (Paiute) was born and raised in Bishop in Payahuunadü and is the Co-President of UNITY, a national network organization promoting personal development, citizenship, and leadership among Native American youth. Kaytlynn shares her experiences growing up in the Paiute reservation community and her cultural identity and sense of belonging as connected to the sacred waters of Payahuunadü. Zacarías Bernal, is part of the program team at Tía Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore in the North East San Fernando Valley and draws from his familial roots in the San Gabriel Valley and his xicano identity. He talks about his upbringing in the “concrete jungle,” the disconnection he experienced from knowing the source of LA’s water, and his work to connect people to “Mother Earth” through music and culture. 

Katylynn and Zacarías dream in this conversation, imagining what could be if the waters were returned to Payahuunadü. They share their visions for not only their family and communities, but for a world in which the basic human right to clean water is accessible to all people. 

Santeena Pugliese, youth mentor, facilitator, digital artist, and co-steward of Three Creeks Collective in Payahuunadü, and Kyndall Noah, Communication Specialist of the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission, join the discussion, sharing their perspectives on the importance of youth voices and leadership in influencing LA’s water story and restoring relations with water.

Zacarías Bernal (he/him) was born and raised on Tovaangar, in what is otherwise known as the San Gabriel Valley of LA County. He is a third generation xicano, photographer, lover of books, and heavily influenced by Zapatismo. He is currently a Program Assistant with Tía Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore in the North East San Fernando Valley.

Kaytlynn Johnston was born and raised in Bishop California and is a member of the Bishop Paiute Tribe. A former member of the Bishop Tribal Youth Council and Female Co-President of the Bishop Tribal Youth Council, she then became Pacific Region representative of all California and Hawaiian Native Youth for 2021/2022. She is currently the Co-President of UNITY, a national network organization promoting personal development, citizenship, and leadership among Native American youth.

Hosted by: Kate Bunney

Produced & Edited by: Anne Carol Mitchell

Intro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter Strauss

If you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/

For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/