The Last Quiet Places
Gordon Hempton says that silence is an endangered species. He's an acoustic ecologist -- a collector of sound all over the world. He defines real quiet as presence -- not an absence of sound, but an absence of noise. The Earth as Gordon Hempton knows it is a "solar-powered jukebox." Quiet is a "think tank of the soul." In this interview we take in the world through his ears.... posted on Oct 18 2013, 39,660 reads

A Delicious Revolution
"Until we see how we feed ourselves as just as important--and maybe more important than--all the other activities of mankind, there is going to be a huge hole in our consciousness. If we don't care about food, then the environment will always be something outside of ourselves. And yet the environment can be something that actually affects you in the most intimate -- and literally visceral -- way. ... posted on Sep 23 2013, 26,213 reads

Rituals for Wastelands
"We shut ourselves away from wounded places, psychologically, emotionally, and communally, but there is a better way to heal ourselves and our world." As earth-bound beings, when we witness the destruction of the natural environment, we find the darker parts of our humanity staring back at us. How do we heal our relationship with the land and with ourselves when such destruction can be so difficul... posted on Aug 26 2013, 16,978 reads

The Poetry of Childhood
Richard Lewis shares the poetry of children to illustrate how their imagination creates an incandescent moment. Children are at ease with both the visible and invisible, what we know and don't know -- the pure sense of expectation and delight in the mystery of what is happening and about to happen, and they sometimes express it in poetry. Read some of their poems and join in their delight.... posted on Aug 20 2013, 12,497 reads

Not Your Ordinary First Grade Ocean Project
Every year, Joan Wright-Albertini leads her first-grade students in transforming their classroom into a virtual rainforest, a desert, or an ocean -- whatever ecosystem interests her students the most. In recent years, she has also added to the months-long study of habitats an unusual, daring twist. Students come to class one day to find their ecosystem covered in a messy "oil spill." Deciding they... posted on Aug 14 2013, 47,173 reads

An Abiding Ocean of Love: Artist Chris Jordan
The internationally acclaimed artist and cultural activist Chris Jordan explores contemporary mass culture and asks us to consider our roles in becoming more conscious stewards of the world. His work reflects the practices of making the invisible visible and developing empathy for all living things. In his series titled "Running the Numbers," for instance, he creates "beautiful works of art that ... posted on Jul 29 2013, 83,747 reads

Orchestra of the Wild
In this fascinating report which includes actual sounds of the wild, Bernie Krause, known as the father of soundscape ecology, describes how he came to record the voice of the natural world. There wasn't a single experienced or knowledgeable audio technician on whom he could rely. He went forward into a hitherto uncharted territory to discover more than he bargained for. Read on about some of his ... posted on Jul 26 2013, 21,783 reads

Radical Joy for Hard Times
Have you ever loved a place that isn't there anymore? Maybe you had an unkempt field made for exploring, or a patch of woods that was as familiar as your front door and then a fire, flood or bulldozers wiped it away. Trebbe Johnson, founder of "Radical Joy for Hard Times" explores the loss of natural spaces and how we can give back in order to help heal the earth and our own personal cuts and brui... posted on Jul 22 2013, 18,894 reads

Mind In The Forest: The Intelligence of Trees
Scott Russell Sanders spent many meditative days in the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, among the giant trees. He asked himself, How does their intelligence compare with our own? What might we learn from them? He concludes that "only cosmic arrogance tempts us to claim that all this reaching for sunlight, nutrients, and water means nothing except what we say i... posted on Jul 11 2013, 12,745 reads

Elemental: Water, Film & the Human Spirit
Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee is a director, producer, musician and composer who set out on a journey around the world to film a documentary about water -- that integral substance that connects us all and sustains life. In this conversation, Emmanuel talks about his practice of focusing on the process rather than the outcome, staying authentic to himself and those he films, and trusting the ripples. He ref... posted on May 17 2013, 4,795 reads