Listening to the Thoughts of the Forest
"To speak of intelligence in a forest is, on its face, an anthropomorphism, a violation of the creed of ecologists and science writers alike: Don/t treat other species like charming little humanoids! Trees are not leafy people and forests are not woody brains. But just as dangerous as projecting human fairytales onto forests is the overzealous rejection of all analogy between human minds and the n... posted on Aug 29 2022, 1,848 reads

To the Logari Who Asked About the Sun
"In this essay, Jamil Jan Kochai takes us to a landscape he left behind years ago--Logar, Afghanistan, a river valley south of Kabul. His story unfurls in a field behind his grandfather's compound, set against the splendor of a Logari sunset. It's a stunning essay, teeming with the particulars of rural Afghanistan--the smell of woodsmoke, the mountains' dark silhouettes--while rendering a universa... posted on Aug 28 2022, 1,431 reads

Robin Wall Kimmerer: Returning the Gift
"Though we live in a world made of gifts, we find ourselves harnessed to institutions and an economy that relentlessly asks, What more can we take from the Earth? This worldview of unbridled exploitation is to my mind the greatest threat to the life that surrounds us. Even our definitions of sustainability revolve around trying to find the formula to ensure that we can keep on taking, far into the... posted on Aug 27 2022, 2,270 reads

The Nettle Dress
Over the course of seven years Allan Brown makes a dress by hand from foraged nettles. In the process, as he experiences the loss of two loved ones, he weaves his love into the fabric that he is creating. He spends seven summers harvesting the nettle and seven winters spinning it into fabric to make a dress for his daughter. The thread he creates carries his grief and his love, so that the cloth r... posted on Aug 26 2022, 3,025 reads

Women at the End of the Land
"For centuries, the nomadic Nenets reindeer herders of the Siberian arctic have migrated across one of the most challenging environments on Earth. Today, the permafrost is melting, posing significant threat to their unique way of life. This is the intimate story of Lena, a young Nenets mother, and her journey to birth."... posted on Aug 25 2022, 2,095 reads

Jack Healey: Create Your Future
Jack Healey, a former Franciscan priest and former head of Amnesty International-USA, has pioneered the use of music activism to exponentially raise the visibility of human rights and inspire nonviolent action by youth. Called "Mr. Human Rights" by U.S. News and World Report, Jack over a 60-year career has "helped move the topic of human rights from closed-door diplomatic negotiations to widesprea... posted on Aug 24 2022, 2,348 reads

Once I Took a Weeklong Walk in the Sahara
"Tracing an ancient route across the Sahara Desert once caravanned by pilgrims on their journey to Mecca, Anna Badkhen contemplates human movement across shifting landscapes, the impermanence of memory, and what remains eternal in the face of erasure."... posted on Aug 23 2022, 1,920 reads

Haenyeo: The Sea Women of South Korea
"My first encounter with the Haenyeo was through their song. I was hiking in the Seongsan crater on Jeju, an island off the southern coast of South Korea, when I wandered down a winding cliff path to the waterfront. On the rocky beach, an empty seaside restaurant offered seafood to absent crowds. It was obvious that Covid had taken a toll on the local tourism industry. Then the sound of singing ca... posted on Aug 22 2022, 2,615 reads

Mary Ruefle's Stunning Color Spectrum of Sadnesses
"Nearly two centuries after Goethe contemplated the psychology of color and emotion, Mary Ruefle's chromatic taxonomy of sadness cracks open the eggshell of our fragility to reveal within it a kaleidoscope coruscating with irrepressible aliveness. What emerges is the feeling -- something beyond the reasoned understanding -- that sadness is not the tip of the Atlantis-sized iceberg of our hard-wire... posted on Aug 21 2022, 5,986 reads

When I Die Recompose Me
What if our bodies could help grow new life after we die, instead of being embalmed and buried or turned to ash? Join Katrina Spade as she discusses "recomposition" -- a system that uses the natural decomposition process to turn our deceased into life-giving soil, honoring both the earth and the departed.... posted on Aug 20 2022, 3,184 reads