Turning Season: Conversations with Changemakers in Our Adventure Toward a Life-Sustaining Society

Have you ever noticed that little butterfly on some packaged foods, labeled "Non-GMO Project VERIFIED?" Maybe you even look for the butterfly before you buy, and feel better about eating what's inside because of it. That's you exercising your power in one of the most intimate ways possible: how you take food into your own body.

In this conversation, I'm joined by my dear friend and admired collaborator in the Great Turning, Megan Westgate, founder of The Non-GMO Project and respected speaker on the issue of genetically modified foods.

Click Play now to enjoy her company with me, and you'll hear about: 

• why protecting a non-GMO food supply matters (and it's not only the reasons you'd think!)
• the agency each one of us has to impact food systems -- plus the rest of reality, too
• orienting to "right relationship" with life on Earth
• every bite of food as sacrament -- even when the food is not necessarily non-GMO
• and how The Non-GMO Project takes part in all 3 dimensions of The Great Turning: holding actions to prevent or slow damage to the web of life; nurturing life-sustaining systems; and shifts in consciousness

Plus, how Megan learned to spread out her toes.

May this episode inspire you, spark new questions, and remind you of your power, as you too collaborate in creating the change you wish to see in the world.

Find all the links mentioned in the show notes: turningseason.com/episode15

How do we get from, "We know we have to change," to "We're actually changing"? As a society, or even as individuals? 

As you'll hear my guest Petra Bongartz say at the beginning of this episode, we've known for a long time that we need to change – and yet, we haven't changed.

Why not?

For Petra, the doorway to change is the body. If we don't address the patterns and stories in our bodies, which are THE way we experience and engage in the world, change is incredibly difficult. Petra works with somatic and Earth-based practices to help people move on from their old stories, find more clarity and inspiration, and feel resourced, so we can be changemakers in a joyful, meaningful and sustainable way.

Click Play now to hear:

• some reflections from me, as I'm "seeing with new eyes," about speaking less of change for the sake of the future, and more of change for the sake of the present
• Petra's insights on how our own bodies are the central places we can effect change
• the "Great Unraveling" going on inside each of us, too, as we let old stories go
• Petra's work with clients, including "nature connection" (plus, problems with the word "nature")
• braving our frozen or blocked feelings in community, freeing up the energy to be well, individually and collectively
• having hope in the intelligence of life, and things that are beyond human understanding
• and moving on from the orientation of "being enough," to, "being is enough."

I'm grateful for this true conversation, this rich exchange, with a wise and beautiful soul.

More about Petra: In addition to movement practices, somatics, and connection with outer and inner nature, Petra has a background in international development work. All these have provided her with a "personal and professional learning laboratory when it comes to the question of: How do we create change on both individual and collective levels?" Based in South Africa, she also works with people online worldwide. 

Shownotes & links to connect with Petra: turningseason.com/episode14

How are you dealing with the stress of these times? If you're turning to (or curious about) talk therapy, yoga, other spiritual and energetic practices, or learning to regulate your own nervous system, you'll be interested in my guest for this episode, Morgan Starr-Riestis, therapist at Mind Psy Guidance and creator of the Seven Centers Practice, which combines Western psychology and Eastern philosophy (specifically, the chakra system).

You also might be interested in hearing from her if you're a younger adult, looking for more people your own age engaged in conversations around The Great Turning.

I loved the flow of this conversation. Click Play now to hear us talk about what Morgan loves about being alive and what breaks her heart, and to hear her insights on:

• collapse, catastrophe, and the possibility of "unraveling consciously"
• techniques you can use to tend to your own nervous system, like bilateral stimulation and cultivating present awareness
• the need for therapy that addresses body, spirit, community, and daily practice – and doesn't focus only on mental processing
• and an example of moving through the Seven Centers for an imaginary young architecture student I invented, to give us an idea of what it would be like for someone grappling with global crises to come to Morgan for support

I was grateful to learn more about the tools Morgan uses and teaches, and for the way she clearly honors each individual person as unique and deserving of personalized care. Click Play now and enjoy.

In the beginning of this episode, I mention two organizations you might like to learn more about and support: CAMFED (Campaign for Female Education), and Project Drawdown.

Links to those websites are in the show notes, along with links to Morgan's website and Instagram: turningseason.com/episode13

Adrián is one of the many people I am just so glad to know is out there, enacting The Great Turning in the ways that he is uniquely moved to do. He's a longtime facilitator of the Work that Reconnects, in Spanish and English, in North, Central and South America. I feel like I can hear in the way Adrián speaks that he is, as he calls it, a "practitioner of contemplative disciplines," who has a yearning for personal transformation and socio-ecological viability.

You also might hear the influence of the lineages "of beauty, wisdom, and compassion" that he honors, including teachings of the Native Americans, Central and South American Plant Shamanism and ritual, Tibetan Buddhism and Yoga, and Daoism.

Click Play now to hear this conversation, one that was especially nourishing to my heart and mind, and listen to us reflect on:

• the Work that Reconnects as a kind of "truth-speaking work," that can liberate the energy that was busy keeping the truth suppressed
• uncertainty as something to love about life
• the balance between taking the lead and trusting in life, in parenting and in facilitating
• Adrián's experience bringing the Work that Reconnects to Mexico and to Central and South America
• working with ritual as a way of re-orienting ourselves more compassionately and mindfully to ourselves, our relations, and the mystery that underlies everything
• a simple, profound way to relate to the living world: the practice of gratitude
• and the possibility of de-centering human ingenuity and human thinking in addressing global crises, opening up to the creativity and wisdom of the more-than-human world.

I loved connecting with Adrián and I hope you find our conversation as supportive as I did.

Leave a comment and connect with Adrián on the show notes page: turningseason.com/episode12

Music by East Forest

"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

That's a favorite quote of my guest Judyth Shamosh, which she relates to seeing each person's health as a whole system, and as part of even larger whole systems. How can we really understand a cell by looking at it only once it's been removed from the body it was part of? Removed from the pattern of life in which its true nature is expressed?

Judyth is an herbalist, trained in Ayurvedic, Classical Chinese, and Western herbal medicine, as well as in modern physics. Her role in The Great Turning involves practicing and teaching herbal medicine and systems thinking. Exciting for me, of course, because these are passions of mine as well. I see all holistic medicine, and especially medicines that use therapies which are low-impact on the ecosystem, as ways to serve both personal and global healing.

Judyth has been practicing since 1994, and has held multiple leadership and teaching positions including with the American Herbalist’s Guild and Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. She's brought together much of her wisdom in her new book, The Physics & Poetry of Eastern Herbal Medicine: How Modern Physics Validates Eastern Medicine, which is geared toward herbalists and other medical professionals, as well as laypeople. Click Play above to hear us talk about her book, and so much more. You'll also hear:

• an intro from me about the idea that some approaches to medicine "just suppress symptoms," and how to understand when Ayurvedic and Chinese Medicine practitioners say things like, "cold and damp is stuck in your body"
• how ancient medical wisdom and the new language of modern physics are giving us ways of seeing what it takes to have a life-sustaining society
• how even herbal medicine and plant-based diets need to be looked at in context, as parts of whole systems, if they're going to truly support health and sustainability
• and some practical info about how to eat healthfully with the six tastes, or flavors, according to Ayurvedic medicine (like how sweet foods can make us more "heavy and damp," and why we need bitter and sour foods too)

Be sure to check out the Turning Season resources page as well, to find ways to keep learning and, if you'd like, take a quick, simple action in support of The Great Turning by donating to one of the organizations I'm highlighting right now:

• the Rainforest Information Centre (also currently collecting signatures on a petition to protect Ecuador's rainforests)
• TreeSisters
• and the Nonviolent Peaceforce.

Show notes & more links: turningseason.com/episode11

This one's a treat for you lovers of wild lands, you who are curious about wilderness survival, my dreamers and dreamworkers, and anyone seeking out their path in a world of so many possibilities, and so many needs.

I knew that in conversation with Claire Dunn - who lived alone in the bush for a year, spent almost a decade in grassroots environmental activism, has authored two books, and facilitates vision quests, re-wilding, and the Work that Reconnects - there would be so many directions we might go. And that was even before I found out she loves dreamwork.

Though our time went by quickly, it was a delight to find such depth and richness in our wander. Click Play to hear us talk about:

• what Claire loves (there are flying foxes…) and what breaks her heart 
• her path from childhood on a farm, to an eco-awakening as a young adult, becoming an activist, and then devoting herself to re-wilding
• the choice to change her focus from "holding actions" (protecting forest and marine ecosystems) to "shift in consciousness" work
• Claire's time in the bush, practicing the skills of survival, and surrendering to the unknown
• a recent dream of mine (and being "enlivened by uncertainty")
• and how healing the rift between ourselves and the more-than-human world brings each of us into deeper contact with ourselves, fostering "a culture of initiated adults" who can bring their own gifts to the world.

Claire Dunn is a writer, speaker, barefoot explorer, rewilding facilitator and founder of Nature’s Apprentice. Claire is passionate about human rewilding and believes that a reclaiming of our ecological selves and belonging is key to regenerating wildness on the planet. For the last 15 years, Claire has been facilitating individuals to dive deeply into the mysteries of nature and psyche through the pathways of deep nature connection, ancestral earth skills, deep ecology, ecopsychology, soulcentric nature-based practice, village building, dance, ceremony and contemporary wilderness rites-of-passage. Claire is the author of memoir My Year Without Matches, which tells the story of her year living wild. Her soon to be released memoir Rewilding the Urban Soul explores how we might embody wild consciousness within a modern city context. Claire lives in Melbourne where she lovingly tends her garden, community and her own wild heart.

Connect with Claire, find links to books, and leave a comment at: turningseason.com/episode10

What do desire and pleasure have to do with The Great Turning? Oh so deliciously much.

I asked Ann Nguyen to join the Turning Season conversation not only because she facilitates trauma resolution – which is a huge piece of personal and global healing – but also because she facilitates a deepened connection to Love itself, and to a thrumming, radiant kind of aliveness that many of us are longing for. She helps women experience pleasure as liberatory, and as fuel for personal empowerment and stronger leadership.

Click Play now to hear us talk about:

• the aliveness and satisfaction that’s available to us (and might make us less inclined to be consumeristic or extractive)
• how the awakening of self-love in more individuals gives rise to more voices being expressed and heard, nurturing that essential characteristic of healthy ecosystems: diversity
• the desire for “more” as not necessarily destructive, but as a regenerative, life-giving force
• how Ann’s been influenced by Black feminist thought leadership about eroticism and pleasure
• why some of her online groups are for women of color only, where connection through joy, power, and pleasure is part of the medicine
• how pleasure can fill us up enough to serve from our overflow; or help us stay within the nervous system’s “window of tolerance” (even when “overflow” feels far away)
• and an invitation from Ann into “ecosexuality”

I checked the little “E” for explicit on this one. For some of you it won’t seem very explicit at all, but I also know that some of you will decide this one isn’t for you (or maybe not for the ears of little ones you’re around). 

You’ll hear the word “p*ssy,” and general enthusiasm about erotic aliveness. So, if that sounds great to you, hit Play, and if not, no hard feelings, you can catch the next one. 

As to how working with Ann has impacted me, you’ve probably felt her influence on my approach if you’ve joined me in the past year to learn acupressure, or be part of group exploration of physical and emotional health through Chinese Medicine. She’s helped me open up to the wonder of our bodies as miracles of nature, see them through the eyes of love, and not be afraid to talk about it. She’s also helped me along my path to discover how to serve from my own overflow.

I’ve learned through this process that self-acceptance is one thing. A beautiful, vital thing – but not necessarily pleasurable. It can even have an air of resignation to it. But then there’s self-LOVE, which is indeed pleasurable. Something to sink into, to be held by, to savor. Ann and I touch on a related theme in the podcast conversation, when we talk about wanting to survive on Earth vs. desiring to thrive on Earth.

Always such a pleasure for me to talk with Ann. I hope you enjoy it thoroughly.

To connect with Ann or see the books mentioned for diving deeper into the interconnections between pleasure, sensuality, community and shifting into a life-sustaining society for all, visit: turningseason.com/episode9

Music by East Forest.

Have you ever donated to "save the rainforest?" I remember placing a globe-shaped piggy bank on the secretary's desk at my elementary school in about 1991. The Kids for Saving Earth club asked people to drop in their spare change so we could buy a $25 acre of rainforest, and protect it "forever." 

It's been eye-opening to connect with Liz Downes, who works with John Seed, who has himself been devoted to rainforest protection since 1979. Liz is the director of the Rainforest Information Center in Australia. The Center recently supported a successful legal case in Ecuador's constitutional court. The court's decision was announced at the end of 2021: Los Cedros Reserve will not be open to mining. This was an area that was protected "forever" as a reserve, but had been opened to mining exploration in 2017. Wouldn't this be counter to the "Rights of Nature" enshrined in Ecuador's constitution? A couple months ago, Ecuador's constitutional court ruled that yes, mining here would violate the Rights of Nature, and the reserve is protected once more.

I loved hearing from Liz, someone devoted to the day-in, day-out tasks of activism, of "holding actions" to protect the Earth and all of us living beings.

Click Play to hear her talk about:

• being an activist in "David and Goliath" type situations (local communities vs. mining corporations)
• how she is fueled somewhat by anger, and more deeply by love
• why, as John Seed said, human activists are not defending the rainforest, they are "the rainforest defending itself"
• a problem with our tech solutions to the climate crisis, like electric vehicles: the need for copper, much of which is under indigenous homelands and some of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems
• why activists with so much common ground come to different conclusions about what's most urgent
• Ecuador’s unique biodiversity, from Andes to Amazon rainforest to cloud forests
• issues with how mining companies interact with local communities
• and how the idea that "people are bad for the Earth" seems to overlook all the human beings who are not only living in a less destructive way, but all the human cultures that have solutions to our ecological crises in their ways of thinking

How about you? I'd love to hear what "holding actions" or protections you are supporting. Share them in the comments at turningseason.com/episode8

Music by East Forest.

When you click Play, you'll hear the voice of Jamie Harvie, reflecting on the mindset that's at stake as he works on one practical project: ending the use of single-use bags. 

When I first connected with Jamie, he told me about this campaign in Duluth, MN, to move on from single-use bags and promote a culture of reuse. Pretty quickly, though, I learned how much wider his scope of action and reflection has been: he led the effort to phase mercury out of healthcare here in the U.S., he's involved in a Rights of Nature campaign, he serves as the executive director of the Psychedelic Research and Training Institute (PRATI), and he holds questions like how can we have an economy that's in service of the sacred? How do we see the sacred in one another? What kinds of shifts in perspective can come out of the Rights of Nature conversation, that are even more important than any laws?

Click Play now to hear us talk about all that, and:

• how Jamie relates to "the three stories of our time," and the importance of loving the parts of ourselves that are still living in "Business as Usual"
• our bodies, all life forms, and the planet as complex, adaptive, self-healing systems
• legal campaigns for Rights of Nature, the paradigm shift they can usher in, and the paradox of taking away or giving rights to "nature"
• the magic of seeing individuals recognize their potential to create change
• how inseparable we are from one another (as in, this isn't about "good" people stopping "bad" people with laws)
• working with physicians and healers who use psychedelic plant medicines (or, plant teachers), the mystical experience, and how all 3 stories of our time play out in this field
• and betting on the possibility that The Great Turning will involve unpredictable "emergence", as the shifts in different places continue to connect

Once you listen, leave a comment at turningseason.com/episode7 and let me know what you think, what you feel, what you wonder. Let's keep this conversation going! 

And be sure to share this episode with a friend. You can click on the Share icon wherever you're listening to this, and text it to someone who'd appreciate it.

Show Notes: turningseason.com/episode7

Have you ever glimpsed your interconnection with the rest of the living world? Felt it in your own body?

Maybe breathed in that knowing for a moment, or a few, but then slipped back into our dominant culture's habitual perspective of separateness?

I adored this conversation with Skye and Miraz, who are devoted to re-membering our interconnection, as many times as it takes. They have walked through many doorways into this mode of perception, and they help guide others through these various doorways, too. Though they actively support "holding actions" to slow damage to the Earth and all of us living here, they are most passionate about addressing the "crisis of perception" that has led us to our current ecological and social situation.

I can't wait to share this conversation with you. Click Play now to hear us talk about all of the above, plus:

• the practice of dieta, which Skye and Miraz learned from their years with Shipibo teachers in Peru, and the relationships they cultivate with the more-than-human world
• fulfillment through primary satisfactions, vs. trying to fill our voids with secondary satisfactions (as taught by Francis Weller)
• experiencing The Work that Reconnects (aka Deep Ecology), as taught by Joanna Macy and John Seed
• how Skye and Miraz relate to "the three stories of our time," and to the three dimensions of The Great Turning (holding actions, structural alternatives, and shifts in consciousness)
• how essential it is to feel and tend to our grief in community - both the grief we've carried, and the grief we will feel as we continue to open
• the hugely important legal case going on in Ecuador, around protecting the rainforest in the Los Cedros Reserve from copper mining, and supporting the local communities there who have become dependent on that mining
• urgency, and slow, imaginal time, and the ecstasy of eating an avocado with presence
• and a poem by Thich Nhat Hanh, read by Miraz, that I long for you to hear

This conversation nourished me deeply. May it feed you, too.

To connect with Skye and Miraz, support the campaign in Ecuador, and find links to learn more about the teachers they mention, come to the shownotes at turningseason.com/episode6