The Canary Collective Podcast

I sat down (in bed) with fellow chronically ill canary artist Nicole Betancourt, filmmaker and producer of the upcoming film "The Unfixing" about climate crises within our bodies paralleling those on Earth. We dip into conversation about neuroplasticity, environmental toxins, ancestral trauma, Indigenous wisdom, and a future in which all are valued across the gender expression spectrum.

Content warning: There is brief mention of physical symptoms related to trauma from seggual assault, by Kaeley, around 3/4ths of the way through this podcast.

Filmmaker and environmental activist Adam Hersko-RonaTas says, "I have a deep love of science; however, art – and film specifically – can often be the most compelling and accessible means for us to interpret the state of humanity and our role within Nature. Where are we, how did we get here, and where are we heading?"

And as environmental artist Lauren Bon says, "Artists need to create on the same scale as society has the capacity to destroy."

Kaeley and Adam talk about his experience collaborating with LA-based artist Lauren Bon on her 2023 Desert X project “The Smallest Sea with the Largest Heart.” Through solar-powered electrolysis, Lauren’s installation aimed to transmute polluted Salton Sea water while growing a sculpture over 9 weeks.

Adam's website: https://www.ahrtwork.com/about

Adam's Instagram, specifically his video "Smallest Sea with the Largest Heart": https://www.instagram.com/p/CvDVMQIvUK9/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Lauren Bon's work:

https://www.metabolicstudio.org/about

KPH & The Canary Collective's work:

http://www.canarycollective.org/

Captions available via the Youtube of this episode:

https://youtu.be/kErHGqt25vQ

I'm coming back from a year hiatus from The Canary Collective Podcast to share with you a conversation on disability resource access that I had with Alison Sbrana (she/her). Alison got ME/CFS 9 years ago after Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) and now helps support other patients who have ME/CFS and Long COVID through her advocacy and support with organizations such as MEAction, Body Politic (@wearebodypolitic on Instagram) and even a CDC-funded panel of patient and doctor advocates. She's a co-author of the Long COVID Survival Guide.

Thank you, Alison, for sharing invaluable tips you have for "hacking" the broken healthcare system and getting SSDI / SSI / home health help with compensated caregivers who can do things like meal prep and other day to day tasks. It's giving me so much hope!

Body Politics (click here for the Support Group Slack for recommended practitioners): https://www.wearebodypolitic.com/

NPR Article on The Long COVID Survival Guide: https://www.npr.org/2022/11/18/1137661071/the-long-covid-survival-guide-to-finding-care-and-community

Follow Alison's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alisonsbrana/?hl=en

Follow more of Kaeley of KPH & The Canary Collective's work at http://www.canarycollective.org/

Support my (Kaeley's) medical treatment and music on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kph

I, Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm, interview Ssanyu, Bone Healer, who has an M.S. in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. She combines her Ugandan ancestral medicine healing knowledge with many other modalities across the "East" and "West" and in between and we talk about different ways we envision the Western medical system healing into a more holistic, authentic model that works for more people in a deeper way. I was introduced to Ssanyu through my friend Chelsea Rose's wonderful "Bloom" podcast interview with her.  

Connect with Ssanyu's work and learn more at https://www.letgoandletlove.com/work-with-me

Connect with Kaeley's work at http://www.canarycollective.org/

I, Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm of KPH & The Canary Collective, get to speak with Steve Hawley, co-creator of the documentary "Dammed to Extinction," about how we can advocate for justice for orca whales, salmon, and Indigenous communities by calling for the removal of the four lower Snake river dams. We also discuss the parallels between human and orca whale health challenges. 

You can take action in a fun and easy way! Take a selfie with orca art, write a hand-written letter, or dance/sing/play along to a song for a virtual Canary Choir and Orca-stra and post, tag, and mail to public officials who are deciding on whether or not to remove the dams - officials like Governor Jay Inslee and Senator Patty Murray. 

Visit http://www.canarycollective.org/canary-choir-and-orca-stra.html for instructions on how you can take action! 

Visit https://www.dammedtoextinction.com/ to view Steve's film 

https://youtu.be/cw2YmCkVS04 for the trailer

Follow @kphcanarycollective on Instagram for more updates.

I (Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm of KPH & The Canary Collective) got the dirt in this episode for ya!

As Naomi Klein says, "no" is not enough - what do we want to say "yes" to? We say "No" to pesticides making people sick, "no" to the hunger epidemic around the world, "no" to storms and droughts ruining communities. Let's say "yes" to organic and regenerative agriculture!

I interviewed Jeff Tkach of The Rodale Institute about organic farming, soil health, and his own chronic illness story back in May 2020. He is doing some seriously amazing work.  We are living out a nature metaphor in our bodies through our canary chronic illness experience right now - if we don't heal the soil ecosystems on this planet, we will only have 59 years left of food we can grow on this planet and the storms will keep getting more intense. If we don't heal the ecosystems in our bodies (and heal our food, water, and air so that we can heal our bodies), then the storms of chronic illness and inflammation within our bodies will keep getting more intense. Let's save ourselves and the planet with smart, sustainable solutions! 

To find out more about The Rodale Institute and become a monthly sustainer of their work, visit https://rodaleinstitute.org/

This episode was recorded across space and time on occupied lands of Arapahoe and other indigenous First Nations communities across the "United States of America."

Explicit Language warning! We get feisty with a few f-words, but who can blame us after what we've been through thanks to gaslighting doctors?!

In this special extended episode of The Canary Collective Podcast, I, Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm, interview author and musician Sarah Ramey. Sarah and I share many similarities, the most important being that our devastating illnesses that hit us in our twenties launched us into a "medical labyrinth" that connected us with all kinds of other sick womxn. We were told our debilitating chronic illness and chronic pelvic pain symptoms were rare, and then proceeded to meet thousands of others like us - "WOMIs," as Sarah likes to call us, or "Women with Mysterious Illness," - or "canaries," as I like to say.

Sarah wrote an absolutely riveting, "oh-snap!"-moment-filled, deliciously humorous book called "The Lady's Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness: A Memoir," which was reviewed by the likes of Chelsea Clinton and published by Penguin Random House. I interviewed her before I had read her book, just to capture the conversation of "you too? me too!" I thought we might have.

Follow Sarah Ramey's work, order the book, plus listen to her excellent music she releases as "Wolf Larsen": https://www.sarahmarieramey.com/

Watch the Sarah Ramey interview on youtube: https://youtu.be/17K0nHG0QYg

Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm of The Canary Collective Podcast interviews Geoship co-founders Bas Kools and Morgan Bierschenk about their vision for the future of sustainable, non-toxic, fire and climate crisis-resilient housing. There are some audio issues with this episode, so if you're having trouble hearing, please go to the Youtube link here:

https://youtu.be/_sJAQr63hxA

and turn on "closed captions" here on Youtube and hopefully the auto-generated subtitles will give you a bit better of an idea of what the heck we're saying. If you'd like to support this podcast and the music behind it so that the one-woman volunteer tech team for this podcast can improve the quality of future interviews, you can pledge $1/month or more on https://www.patreon.com/kph  

Geoships are geodesic domes made out of non-toxic bioceramic material that is made to live in harmony with the land, in communities of people, for healthy humans and a healthy planet. As the canaries of the world feel the effects of our toxic housing crisis in our bodies through chronic illness, Geoship provides hope for solutions that are affordable and accessible to more people of all abilities. Plus, they are built based on ancient principles of sound healing and harmonizing architecture pioneered by Egyptians during the time of the building of the pyramids.

We mention in the podcast that you can invest in Geoships through a crowdfunding site. That window has since closed, but there are more ways to get involved with and invest in Geoship still!

 Learn More about Geoship: https://geoship.is/

Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm of The Canary Collective Podcast goes into themes behind her song "One Sided Glass" with her grandmother, Mary Magaret Pruitt. Mary Margaret is a retired nurse and social justice activist. They discuss healing and grieving after a death in the family and tell a hard-to-believe story about Kaeley's interaction with a psychic medium who claimed she had a message from Kaeley's great grandmother, Mary Margaret's mother, who dealt with similar chronic illness and barriers to healthcare as Kaeley has been dealing with as a canary in a world with rising difficult-to-diagnose disease. This interview was conducted in May 2020 between Kaeley's location in Joshua Tree and Mary Margaret's location in Seattle. 

Listen to the full Canary Collective album of songs, including "One Sided Glass" and download for free or pay what you can: https://kphmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-canary-collective-vol-1 

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2V3CfUh3oJBz4OTpw2rQUk?si=ig2axxrPSamh2T1HfXhP3A 

Support Kaeley's medical treatment on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/kph

Kaeley Pruitt-Hamm of KPH & The Canary Collective interviews Daniel Lee, Culver City Council Member and James Lawson Institute Program Coordinator. They talk about civil disobedience, nonviolent struggle, being an activist and elected official with chronic illness, and what allies can do to support the Movement for Black Lives, which are themes that originally inspired KPH to write the song "Disobey."  

The Canary Collective podcast features interviews with canaries who are at the forefront of feeling the effects of the Earth’s ecosystem distress in our bodies. I write songs seeking to raise awareness about the connections between human and environmental health. As a former community organizer mostly sidelined due to debilitating chronic illness, I have been feeling called to interview my friends and discuss the issues behind the songs I write, talk solutions to those problems, and imagine what healing and winning justice for all would feel like. 

Read more about Daniel Lee on his City Council website: http://danielwaynelee.com/sample-page/ 

And here's more about the James Lawson Institute: https://jameslawsoninstitute.org/