The Dandelion Effect

Jim Barngrover has over four decades of experience in organic gardening, farming and marketing local and fairtrade products. In 1987, he co-founded Timeless Natural Foods, a company dedicated to alternative agriculture through annual legumes like peas and lentils. What began as a venture between four friends has put Montana on the map as America’s largest producer of lentils—and to this day Timeless is the only producer of heirloom organic lentils and specialty grains in the country.

As a part time lobbyist for AERO, Alternative Energy Resources Organization, Jim was instrumental in the passage of the Montana Organic Definition Act in 1991, and was awarded AERO’s 40th Anniversary Leadership in Sustainability Award in 2014. Now as a founding board member of Helena Community Gardens, Jim focuses on the organization’s mission of developing gardens within walking distance of every neighborhood in Helena MT. 

In this conversation, Jim walks us through his journey from farmer’s son to ROTC student, activist, gardener, prison horticulture director, and back to farmer. In his young adult life, he moved from Wyoming to Montana in search of a more progressive existence and serendipitously stumbled into the Feathered Pipe Ranch after meeting India Supera in Missoula. Here, he felt more connected to the Earth and the land than he ever had before, and it sparked the inspiration for a life of service both for human health and environmental health. 

Jim speaks to the chemically-dependent industrial farming complex in America, the reasons why he farms with organic and regenerative practices and encourages others to do the same, the lessons that he’s learned from working in harmony with the land, and how lentils work to reduce erosion, build organic matter, and provide natural nitrogen fertilizer for other crops. He’s hopeful about how many young farmers are making the shift to more sustainable practices and emphasizes how much power consumers have in the fight to change our food systems.

Timeless Natural Foods Website

Support the show

Connect with Feathered Pipe Ranch:

Facebook
Instagram
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Check out 2023 Retreats

Dr. Sidhbh Gallagher is double-board certified in general and plastic surgery, and is a leader in the field of gender affirmation surgery. She serves the transgender community through her private practice in Miami, where she performs up to 60 surgeries per month as treatment for gender dysphoria. 

Originally from Ireland, Sidhbh earned her medical degree from University College in Dublin then came to the United States to complete eight more years of intensive surgical training. She served as an assistant professor at Indiana University from 2015 to 2020 where she researched and developed new techniques such as Masculoplasty and was the founding surgical director of the Indiana University Gender Affirmation Surgery Program.

Today, Sidhbh joins us for an inspiring conversation about her path to becoming a surgeon and how she works to support people on their journeys to feeling comfortable and complete in their own bodies. She lets us in on the biggest lessons she’s learned from her patients:  Humans are complex and it’s time we stop pretending that we all like the same things. Sidhbh debunks incorrect ideas about the transgender population that circulate in the media and shares stories about her most memorable patients that will blow you away and restore your faith in humanity.

Gallagher Plastic Surgery Website

Support the show

Connect with Feathered Pipe Ranch:

Facebook
Instagram
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Check out 2023 Retreats

Of Navajo-Ute heritage, R. Carlos is the world’s premier performer of the Native American flute. He began playing the traditional Native American flute in the early 1980s and has released more than 50 albums in his career, earning Platinum status with his album Canyon Trilogy, the first ever for a Native American artist performing traditional solo flute music. 

R. Carlos has received eleven GRAMMY nominations in four different categories and has traveled the world, making sound sculptures, he calls them-- collaborations with artists from other countries and cultures, hearing stories similar and different to his own and transcending the common stereotypes presented in mass media.

On the personal side of things, R. Carlos is wise, gentle, inspiring, a man that values listening, mentoring younger folks and simply BE-ing in this world and enjoying the journey of becoming more of himself every day. In this conversation, we walk through his lifelong musical process--beginning with clarinet and trumpet then discovering the Native American flute when a car accident left him with injuries to the muscles in his mouth that prevented him from playing brass instruments.

He speaks of the flute as a vehicle for telling your authentic story, the self expression that allows you to put yourself in the center of your life, to realize that the gifts and tools you were born with are exactly what you need to be who you are meant to be in this world. He opens up about a near death experience that guided him even more towards service through teaching and mentoring young people, and he leaves us with the question: Who Are You and How Do You Belong?

R. Carlos Nakai Website

Support the show

Connect with Feathered Pipe Ranch:

Facebook
Instagram
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Check out 2023 Retreats

Lauren Walker is the founder of Energy Medicine Yoga, a highly intuitive, simple healing method that marries her extensive studies in yoga with the transformative power of energy work. She is the author of two books: Energy Medicine Yoga: Amplify the Healing Power of Your Yoga Practice and The Energy Medicine Yoga Prescription, and she also has a new book on the way: The Energy to Heal. Lauren has been teaching yoga and meditation since 1997, and now teaches EMYoga across the United States and internationally, both general courses and training teachers on her method.

Today, she tunes in from her home in Northwest Montana, and we cover a topic so relevant to what we’re facing on a collective and an individual scale: trauma. This conversation aims to be a safe and open container where we unpack and give context to the word that’s become so common in mainstream vernacular. We explore trauma, not from an intellectual stance, but from the lens of how our bodies relate to and process experiences that are deemed “traumatic.” It’s incredibly subjective what constitutes a trauma, and Lauren walks us through the physiological cascade that occurs when one does experience an event that changes their lives.

Most importantly, we talk about how to get out of what she calls the trauma field—the phenomenon when you or someone you know continues to attract chaos, pain, heartbreak, unhealthy relationships and drama—a feat she only began to understand once she met Donna Eden and added energy medicine into her yoga practice. 

Lauren’s brilliance is apparent as we weave through complex subject matter, but her gift for simplifying and translating is just as impressive—thank goodness! She graciously leads us through 15 minutes of practical ways to touch, massage and hold points on your own body to help you release pain, move through challenging events and process emotions. Things that you can begin doing today with no prior experience. It simply works because we are all energy. Remember E=MC²? Don’t worry, we break that down too.

Energy Medicine Yoga Website

Support the show

Connect with Feathered Pipe Ranch:

Facebook
Instagram
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Check out 2023 Retreats

Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, and an internationally known author and speaker who has deep ties with the Feathered Pipe Ranch, hosting women’s workshops in Montana since the 1980s. She is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and is the author of thirteen books in over one hundred foreign editions, including Goddesses in Every Woman and Like A Tree: How Trees, Women and Tree People Can Save the Planet.

Jean has been an outspoken feminist activist for decades and is an NGO Permanent Representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women from the Women’s World Summit Foundation  in Geneva. She also represents Pathways To Peace, The Millionth Circle, Earthchild Institute, Women’s Perspective, and the International Public Policy Institute.

In today’s conversation, we float through topics as if riding a leaf down a stream—beginning with her upbringing as a Japanese American during World War II, her first memories of recognizing injustices and privilege, moments of divine connection and humility, the Age of Aquarius and so much more. We discuss the possibility of transformation during this liminal space of global pandemic--a topic she covered in a recent TedTalk titled: Crisis as a Turning Point: The Gifts of Liminal Time.

Perhaps most synchronistic is the thread that weaves itself through our entire conversation: The Dandelion Effect. It was Jean who coined the phrase and gave us permission to use it to name this podcast, so its extra special to share this time with her on the show and hear her interpretation of the phrase.

Jean's Website

Support the show

Connect with Feathered Pipe Ranch:

Facebook
Instagram
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Check out 2023 Retreats

Gary Lemons is a poet, yogi, activist and long-time member of the Feathered Pipe Ranch Community, venturing to Helena, MT for 20 summers in a row to study with renowned yoga and dharma teacher Erich Schiffmann. An author of eight books of poetry, Gary’s latest book Original Grace is the final book of a series he’s titled the Snake Quartet, a visceral and insightful journey that follows the end of our world as we know it—and what Mother Earth decides to do with us humans in order to prepare to create a more sustainable existence.

Gary tunes in today from his home in Washington state and we allow our exploration to take on a life of its own: discussing what it was like being “born into a house of women with no mother,” his early involvement in the counterculture movements of the 1960s in DC., his courtship with poetry, the laws of nature, genderlessness in infinity and much more.

We recognize here, together, that poetry was a form of meditative awareness for Gary long before he even knew what meditation was, and he reflects on the evolution of his craft over the decades--studying and perfecting the formal structure first so that he knew exactly how to break free of it.

Now, in his more recent works, he sees his role as a listening post or a channel for the ideas that want to move through him, a force that’s not coming from the structural side, but rather a deeper connection with his quartet’s character, Snake, that allows the words to flow when the boundaries are released.

Gary shares, tearfully, the incredible story of he and his father’s reconciliation after 35 years without communication or contact, and we get to sit back as Gary reads two poems: “The Elephant in the Room” from his newest book Original Grace (available in May) and “Freedom” from his book Fresh Horses.

Gary's Website
Red Hen Press: Buy Original Grace

Support the show

Connect with Feathered Pipe Ranch:

Facebook
Instagram
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Check out 2023 Retreats

Brant Secunda is an internationally acclaimed shaman, healer, and ceremonial leader in the indigenous Huichol tradition of Mexico. During an intensive 12 year apprenticeship, Brant became the adopted grandson and close companion of Don José Matsuwa, the renowned shaman who passed away in 1990 at the age of 110. 

Brant’s initiation into the Huichol tradition began when he was 19 years old, and rights of passage during his apprenticeship included completing a five-day vision quest without food and water in the sacred Cave of Grandmother Growth, capturing and releasing a wild rattlesnake with his bare hands, enduring a 14-month fruit fast to enhance his sensitivity to the natural world, and surviving an extended nine-day vision quest to learn the language of the gods.

For nearly 40 years, he has led conferences, workshops, and retreats around the globe, has been a lecturer at the Mayo Clinic, the American Holistic Medical Association Conferences and a faculty member of the Five Branches Institute of Chinese Medicine. He co-authored the award-winning book Fit Soul, Fit Body: 9 Keys to a Healthier, Happier You, and he is a co-founder of the American Herbalist Guild, the Peace University in Berlin, Dance of the Deer Foundation Center for Shamanic Studies and the Huichol Foundation.

Brant tunes into today’s conversation from his home in Santa Cruz, CA. He introduces us to the practice of Huichol Shamanism, and shares stories of the ways that he learned from Don José—slowly, methodically and almost by osmosis of simply spending time together, completing daily tasks of growing corn, listening to rivers, gathering around the fire and each day deepening his understanding of the earth cycle’s and the language of the plants, animals and natural elements.

A humble man of gentleness and humor, Brant reflects on his friendship with India Supera, founder of the Feathered Pipe Ranch, and Pat Kennedy, a late Cree elder that included Brant in Montana-based Peace Encampments that brought together leaders from various indigenous traditions in the U.S. and Canada. We talk about the importance of laughter medicine, connecting to nature and what it means to “find your life,” a saying in Huichol Shamanism that Brant shares in his workshops.

This conversation flows much like one big prayer or ritual. I invite you to slow down and take this in, not just filtering the words through your mind, but seeing if you can tune into this episode with your entire body, your heart and your spirit. The beauty is in the simplicity, and you may be surprised what transmits.

Shamanism.com

Support the show

Connect with Feathered Pipe Ranch:

Facebook
Instagram
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Check out 2023 Retreats

Dr. Joseph Lamb is the owner of the Personalized Lifestyle Medicine Clinic by Metagenics in Gig Harbor, Washington. He works in partnership with his patients to create optimal health and well-being by using Functional Medicine approaches including lifestyle modification, herbal and nutritional supplementation, cognitive therapy and care that considers the soul as part of the whole picture of health.

Dr. Lamb has an impressive resume: He’s double board-certified in Internal Medicine and Holistic /Integrative Medicine and is a Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner. He has lectured internationally, co-authored a text book on vascular biology and published numerous academic papers outlining his work as the principal investigator in over 75 clinical trials. Dr. Lamb spent 4 years in Tennessee at the Hypertension Institute and 17 years of private practice at the Integrative Medicine Works in Virginia. He’s also the Principal Investigator of LIFEHOUSE, a Lifestyle Intervention and Functional Evaluation Health Outcomes Survey.   

Needless to say, this man knows a thing or two about the human body. However, it’s his consideration of the spiritual component of life that sets him apart from others in his field. Dr. Lamb’s work in medicine and his upbringing in the Catholic Church have continued to guide him towards a vocation of service, helping people uncover their unique purpose, motivation and mission, which as a result, propels them towards greater health, longevity and quality of life.

In this conversation, he helps us redefine what it means to be ‘healthy’ or ‘live well’—a standard much higher than the absence of disease and one that takes into account cognitive, emotional, physical, metabolic and behavioral aspects. The latter being what he describes as the outer expression of the other four categories.

Plus, we suss out a statement that had me lying on the floor for hours afterwards contemplating my life path. Dr. Lamb says, “One of the biggest obstacles on the journey of achieving full wellness is the brokenness of our dreams." The role that our unrealized childhood dreams or goals for our lives plays into our ability to reach our full potential of energy, joy, service and health.

Dr. Joseph Lamb's Website

Support the show

Connect with Feathered Pipe Ranch:

Facebook
Instagram
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Check out 2023 Retreats

Chris Cappy founded Pilot Consulting in 1994, a firm specializing in leadership development, action learning, executive coaching and change/ transition management for companies throughout the world. He has over thirty years of consulting, teaching and speaking experience, and has helped develop and implement systems that create greater cohesion, clearer vision and sustainable growth for global brands like General Electric, Disney, IBM and more. He is the lead author of Driving Leaders, a book that demonstrates how the principles of top-level automobile racing—vision, planning, training, and exquisite execution over a long period of time—can teach us a great deal not only about leadership, but also about life.

Chris brilliantly marries the spiritual with the practical, using his own healing journey in the first 30 years of his life to build the foundation for what he offers now to his clients. His approach to executive coaching is rooted in an intimate understanding of human’s search for meaning, a driving force behind why we live our particular lives, and a critical component in how we begin to build a life of fulfillment, freedom and financial health.

In this conversation, Chris walks us through the adolescent trials and tribulations that set him on the path of seeking at a young age, leading him through martial arts, meditation, yoga, philosophy and landing him at the Feathered Pipe Ranch in Helena, Montana in the 1970s, drinking wine with Joseph Campbell in the Lake Cabin! We talk about his transition from wandering and looking for answers to life’s big questions to how he built a thriving consulting business that allows him to carry out his personal life mission--and help others do the same.

We discuss the building blocks on the path to finding your purpose, explore the experiential learning model he uses to bring companies together and help them relate as humans--outside of their titles, roles and identities--and reflect on the different phases of life, focusing in on what one researcher calls "The Second Mountain," a time when many people move from career, accumulation and providing for family to putting effort and energy into nurturing community, relationships and giving.

Chris has worked with some of the greatest spiritual leaders and the most focused business minds in the world, and his life story is one of exploration, constant learning and service, wrapped up in an organized reflection--as any fellow Virgo will appreciate.

Pilot Consulting
'Driving Leaders' book

Support the show

Connect with Feathered Pipe Ranch:

Facebook
Instagram
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Check out 2023 Retreats

Cho Cho is the co-founder and chairlady of Studer Trust, an organization dedicated to building educational facilities and providing proper equipment to schools in Southeast Asia, specifically in the remote regions of Myanmar. As the former Country Manager for Studer Trust, Cho Cho spent over a decade traveling back and forth from the United States to Myanmar every three months to oversee the school projects, a passion for education that stems from overcoming the cultural and societal obstacles in her own childhood in Mandalay, Myanmar.

Cho Cho has always been a revolutionary soul. Having grown up in a male-dominated culture and lived through several military government regimes, she rebelled against the traditional systems early on and paved her own life path—running away and marrying her high-school sweetheart, getting an education and growing a career in the travel industry then moving to the United States in 2006 to provide her daughters with the freedoms she desired and knew she deserved her entire life.

Her ties to the Feathered Pipe Ranch and to Montana happened serendipitously, as so many of ours do: Cho Cho was working as a travel agent in Myanmar when she met VJ Supera, India Supera’s sister, and John P. Anderson, a long-time friend of the Ranch and a resident of Missoula, MT. Meeting these two travelers rerouted her entire immigration plan, and instead of moving to New York City like she originally intended, VJ and John P. helped her move her family to Missoula with a warm welcome from the community and plenty of friends upon arrival.

Cho Cho’s life story is one of sass and stubbornness, courage and strength, mixed in with an endearing sense of humor that carries her through the hard times. We talk about her childhood heroes, the women who showed her it’s possible to rise above the stifling sexist rules, and taught her the importance of speaking up for herself and speaking out for what she believed will lead to a better world. We also touch on the current situation in Myanmar following the military coup a few weeks ago, an ongoing battle for power that Cho Cho is all too familiar with. 

StuderTrust.org

Support the show

Connect with Feathered Pipe Ranch:

Facebook
Instagram
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Check out 2023 Retreats