Lifeworlds

With his hilariously sharp-witted, no-nonsense approach and radiating descriptions of nature’s landscapes, Derek Gow is a force to contend with.

He’s been one of the most vocal actors in the reintroduction of missing keystone species in England such as the beaver, the water vole and the white stork, butting heads with obnoxious lobbyists and government officials. He is currently rewilding his 300-acre farm on the Devon/Cornwall border where the Eurasian lynx, wild boar and harvest mice make home.

Our conversation ranges from the obstacles that prevent society in re-introducing critical species, all the way to Elizabethan fat bishops and voles that Gorgonzola river banks for other species to thrive. What is the mindset that sees all of land as "mine"? When were wolves seen as Gods, and what would it have been like to be a medieval traveller coming across one of these creatures “sodden like a Michelin man on a country path”? What barbarities have we committed against other species, and why should you think twice when buying herds of prehistoric Heck cattle?

Yep, this is a fun and brilliant one. (Listener tip: Derek packs more into a sentence that I could hope to do in a lifetime. Play at 1.5x at your own peril!)

Episode Website Link: lifeworld.earth/episodes/rewildingderekgow

Show Links:

• Lifeworlds Resource Page: Rewilding
• An Ark For Vanished Wildlife: Derek Gow in the New Yorker
• Derek’s Books ‘Bringing Back the Beaver’ & ‘Birds, Beasts and Bedlam’
• Derek’s Twitter
• Beavers Given Legal Protection in England
• Beaver just doesn’t quit (must watch!)

Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes.

Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd

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The wonderful father-daughter duo of Dr John Borrows and Lindsay Borrows explore questions such as: Is law a noun or a verb? How can we read the archive of the law that is written upon the Earth? What exactly is indigenous law, and how can it serve to revitalise colonial law?

John Borrows has transformed Canada’s understanding of how indigenous and non-indigenous law can co-exist and created the world's first dual Indigenous law program at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. His publications include Recovering Canada; The Resurgence of Indigenous Law and Drawing Out Law. He is the 2017 Killam Prize winner in Social Sciences and the 2019 Molson Prize Winner from the Canada Council for the Arts, the 2020 Governor General’s Innovation Award. He was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2020. John is a members of the Chippewa First Nation in Ontario, Canada.

Lindsay Keegitah Borrows is mixed-rooted Anishinaabe and a citizen of the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation. She is a lawyer, writer and teacher, whose work aims to support Indigenous communities to revitalize their traditional laws for application in contemporary contexts. She has worked with many legal traditions including Anishinaabe, Haíɫzaqv, Mi’kmaq, nuučaan̓uł, St’át’imc, Denezhu, Tsilhqot’in and Māori. She has worked as a lawyer at the Indigenous Law Research Unit (University of Victoria Faculty of Law), and at West Coast Environmental Law. She is a new professor at Queen's University Faculty of Law.

Episode Website Link: lifeworld.earth/episodes/lawjonandlindsay

Show Links:

• University Victoria Joint Degree in Indigenous Law:
• Dark Matter Labs article
• Otter’s Journey through Indigenous Language and Law

Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes.

Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Derek Gow & Kris Tompkins.

The rewilding movement is currently sweeping across the world’s landscapes, restoring ecologies and species, re-naturalising rivers and forests.

Our two guests are trailblazers in this space – first we hear from Kristine Tompkins, ex-CEO of Patagonia who, together with her late husband Doug Tompkins, have protected over 14 million acres of wildlands and national parks across Latin America, along with over 30 million acres of marine areas. Kristine is Chair of the National Geographic Society’s Last Wild Places campaign and was the first conservationist to be awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.

Then we speak with Derek Gow, who is infamous amongst insider rewilding circles for his leadership in the re-introduction of the beaver back into European landscapes. Through Derek, and his delightfully funny and informative book 'Bringing back the Beaver', I’ve become somewhat obsessed with beavers. He’s been one of the most vocal actors in the reintroduction of missing keystone species in England such as the beaver, the water vole and the white stork, butting heads with obnoxious lobbyists and government officials. He is currently rewilding his 300-acre farm on the Devon/Cornwall border where the Eurasian lynx, wild boar and harvest mice make home.

This episode covers the basics of rewilding and goes into different models of restoring ecosystems into their rightful states, all the while discussing the mental impediments and frustrations that can occur in the attempt to rewild the most stubborn species of all — the human being.

Episode Website Link: lifeworld.earth/episodes/rewilding

Show Links:

• Lifeworlds Resource Page: Rewilding
• Tompkins Conservation
• Kristine Tompkins: Let's make the world wild again | TED Talk
• An Ark For Vanished Wildlife: Derek Gow in the New Yorker
• Derek’s Books ‘Bringing Back the Beaver’ & ‘Birds, Beasts and Bedlam’

Look out for meditations, poems, readings, and other snippets of inspiration in between episodes.

Music: Electric Ethnicity by Igor Dvorkin, Duncan Pittock, Ellie Kidd & The Rising by Tryad CCPL

Photo of flower: Maewenn Bourcelot @maochan.talamoni

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A necessary and beautiful episode on the emotional terrain of climate grief, loss, sadness, anxiety, and all the ways we can cope either maladaptively or adaptively to this challenging moment in time.

This is an intimate conversation that makes the case for allowing ourselves to ‘feel it all’. Because from the depth of feeling comes the power of action, hope, resilience and community. If we ignore the reality of this mental health crisis, we are turning our backs on the potential that can emerge on the other side of initiation. We discuss different frameworks for processing climate anxiety - practical resources, approaches and philosophical underpinnings of a phenomenon that is sweeping the world, especially among youth populations.

Dr Britt Wray is one of the world’s most esteemed and loved researchers on this topic, having published the viral newsletter and book Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis. She is Director Special Initiative of the Chair on Climate Change & Mental Health in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences of Stanford Medicine, advancing research and approaches in the field with communities facing the reality of ecological and social breakdown.

Show Links:

• Lifeworlds Resources Page
• Britt’s website
• Britt’s books: Generation Dread & Rise of the Necrofauna
• Joanna Macey: World as Lover, World as Self
• Edwards & Buzzel: The Waking Up Syndrome
• Blanche Verlie: Learning to Live with Climate Change
• Good Grief Network
• Elizabeth Bechard: Parenting in a Changing Climate
• Jo McAndrews: Supporting children in the face of climate change
• Martin Shaw: We Are In The Underworld And We Haven’t Figured It Out Yet
• Climate Psychiatry Alliance
• Roy Scranton: Learning to Die in the Anthropocene

Music: Electric Ethnicity

Photo: Midsummer Eve Celebration

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This musical journey has been produced for Lifeworlds by the vocal artist Moncaya. It is a sonic ode to the waters of the Earth and the rivers that flow, and a deep and loving conversation between two dear friends.

Moncaya is a singer-songwriter and composer whose namesake derives from the mountain that rises in a vast dry plain in Northern Spain, her homeland; a mecca for the Iberian Celts and generations of healers, witches, and spiritual practioners. In this musical journey, she has woven our words with the sounds of the Rio Magdalena, a powerful estuary that flows through the state of Mexico bringing water to the entire city, and stitched it all together with her hauntingly beautiful voice and utterances. Listen to the end, where you can catch the track in its full splendor.

This song is part of a wider movement – an open call for musicians around the world to create music, using water samples mainly gathered by Splice, a global library of musical resources for artists and creators. The movement is founded with the intent to give voice to water through different sonic universes made available to any musical artist, anywhere.

I ask Moncaya at one point in this conversation how she as an artist can translate with integrity the experience of a whole other lifeworld – that of water itself. She chuckles, and with her characteristic clarity and warmth, responds, “You don't give voice to the waters.... You just explore with a pure heart, and whatever comes is good enough”.

Moncaya was trained as an engineer and worked developing technology for conflict resolution and peace-building in countries at war, including Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia, Syria and Tunisia. Currently based in Mexico City, her expression flows through her creations which blend the timeless essence of folk and world music with the freshness of electronic elements, creating a powerful bridge between tradition and innovation.

So my friends, my invitation is to listen to this episode quietly, with a spacious heart, and let it wash over you.

Links

• Moncaya’s Website
• Moncaya Spotify
• Splice
• Contigo Todo
• Linktree
• Contact: [email protected]

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.