S2 Trailer / Asking Big Questions About Our Relationship with Nature through Art
A new season and focus for the Ecosystem Member podcast.
Watch our Season Two trailer above or read the transcript below!
The core idea of Ecosystem Member is to examine the relationships a wide range of people have with nature and the more than human world.
Through this examination, my hope is to show the multitude of ways people find meaning through these relationships and in the process, change the narrative of nature in our lives, not as a place we to go to, but something we’re very much a part of.
I’m grateful for all of the amazing guests we had on season one of Ecosystem Member, from business and community leaders to writers, rappers, foragers and scientists. I learned something from every single guest and I hope that you did too.
Yet, as in nature, everything has a season. And Season One of Ecosystem Member is coming to an close. But I’m really excited about what we have in store for Season Two.
One of the themes that stuck out to me in Season One was a near universal belief that we need to find new ways to connect people with nature and the more than human world - to spark relationships that don’t exist yet.
While admirable and necessary, the way we’re going about sustainability, conservation and preservation is not connecting with people in a way that is driving meaningful change.
As Obi Kaufmann put it, often times, the perception is that it is environmentalists debating non-environmentalists to score points. This divisive approach isn’t changing minds and surely isn’t winning hearts. We don’t need to prove a point, we need to tell a better story. A mountain is not trying to convince you of its awesomeness.
So when I look across the breadth of Season One guests, the episodes that resonated the most with me weren’t about making business more sustainable or even protecting or preserving nature. These are vital functions that a lot of folks are engaged in and doing great work, often in the face of indifference and even opposition. Yet, we should not see ourselves as anthropocentric saviors, but biocentric partners with the things we share planet Earth with.
The episodes I am most drawn to are the chats with Ersin Han Ersin of Marshmallow Laser Feast who asks us to think about what it is like to be a tree and with Professor Marc Berman about why we’re comforted by and attracted to the sounds and scenes of the natural, organic world, and with Melanie Challenger asking us to think more deeply about the artificial separations we’ve created between human and non-human animals.
These are big, fundamental, meaty questions about how we exist on Planet Earth. And I think they stretch beyond the realm of responsible materials in product production and documentation of the effects of climate change. So for Season Two, we’re shifting our focus ever so slightly to an area an area I think often asks the biggest questions - the arts.
Artistic works - from music and writing to film, photography and painting - can ask foundational questions about how we engage, experience and interpret the world around us. They can also be an expression of the relationships we hold with the more-than-human world.
If we’re going to figure out how to manage the challenges of climate change and maybe even find the opportunities in this change, I don’t think it will be by finally breaking through with some stats about carbon emissions and plastic pollution.
I believe it will be through curiosity and creativity and creation.
I believe it will be by asking exploratory questions often without clear answers that can provide direction like navigational arrows as to how to experience the more-than-human world around us in more ways than just as a background for our Instagram selfies.
So we’ll be talking with artists who engage with nature and the more-than-human as a partner through artistic creation. Nature could be the inspiration for work or appear as a moving representation of the more-than-human world. It could even be work from artists where the natural world is very much alive and is actually participating in the creative act itself. Art and creativity are powerful mediums through which people can connect with both the scientific and the spiritual elements of nature.
To feel and act as a member of an ecosystem - or as a member of a community as Aldo Leopold would say - is a privilege, but I don’t think it is reserved for the privileged. It’s a recognition available to us all. We aren’t asking you to BUY into sustainability or feel guilt for the choices you’ve made. We’re here to consider what it means to express the idea that we are a part of everything and that we are all in this together.
So please stick around for Season Two and join me on this journey.
While I love art and creative work of all kinds, I don’t have the education or vocabulary of a critic or curator or artist, so expect conversations that are approachable and in everyday terms. You’ll hear challenging and sometimes obtuse discussion as we feel our away around abstract ideas and issues, but always with the intention of thinking more deeply about our relationship with nature.
As I heard art critic Jerry Saltz remark on the Dave Chang Podcast - people who make things aren’t content with just making in private, they need to dance naked in public.
So let's dance. Let's howl with the coyotes at the moon, bask in the sun with the snakes, share our fears of existing on a changing planet, recognize what we're losing and have lost, and examine the beauty in the creative expression of artistic practice as humans have for centuries. As Robert Rauschenberg said “The artist’s job is to be a witness to his time in history.” This is our time to bear witness.
Make sure you are signed up to get Season Two episodes from Ecosystem Member as soon as they drop on your favorite podcast platform: