Going Locavore: Urban Food Innovation and Community Transformation | Michael Pollan and Oran Hesterman

Our misbegotten industrial food system is one of our greatest vulnerabilities. Its dangerously fossil-fueled, toxic, monocultural and centralized. The real cost of cheap food is very high to both people and planet. Urban food innovators are designing vibrant new local food economies built on environmental and ecological integrity, sustainability, diversity and equity. Join author Michael Pollan, Fair Food Foundation CEO Oran Hesterman, faith-based change-maker James Ella James and student leader Victoria Carter for a smorgasbord of nourishing morsels from the emerging locavore movement.

Find out more about Michael Pollan at his website, and the work Oran Hesterman is doing at the Fair Food Network website.

Becoming a Habitat: Motherhood, Faith and the Environmental Human Rights Movement

We live in a society dependent on toxic chemicals. Today about 287 such chemicals trespass inside the blood of newborns and inside all of us – without our consent. Despite the odds, ecologist, author and mother Sandra Steingraber is an optimist. She’s betting that the burgeoning global environmental human rights movement will free us from our deadly dependency. She believes our grandchildren will look back on us and marvel that our economy was once dependent on toxic chemicals – and they will think of it as unthinkable.

To find out more about the work of Sandra Steingraber, please visit her website.

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Why the World Doesn’t End: Recreation Myths of Nature and Culture | Michael Meade

When a culture is disintegrating and the stories everybody believed in no longer fit, its time to rekindle our connection to ancient wisdom and universal truths. Mythologist, author and storyteller Michael Meade, founder of the Mosaic Multicultural Foundation, reminds us that the word apocalypse – which has come to mean the end of the world, actually means an unveiling. Once we penetrate that veil, its not the end – but the beginning of a new story.

To find out more about Michael Meade’s work, visit the Mosaic Voices website.

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Sisters in Spirit: Women Transforming the World | Jensine Larsen and Sally Roesch Wagner

History is a tale told by the winners. How then can we reclaim the voices of those who have been historically written out – silenced through the ages? Perhaps as women write herstory into history, well see clearly the eternal power, brilliance and unique value of women’s contributions. Join media innovator Jensine Larsen and feminist historian Sally Roesch Wagner as they share the emerging landscape of an inclusive, sustainable and just society at whose heart is the leadership of women.

To learn more about the work of Jensine Larsen, visit the World Pulse website. To find out what Sally Roesch Wagner is doing, check out her Facebook page.

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Earth Justice: Corporate Rights vs. The Rights of Nature

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have long been held as the inalienable rights of the American people. Then why is it that corporate personhood consistently overrides the legal rights of citizens? And what about the rights of nature? Do rivers, mountains, whales or ecosystems – have inalienable rights that guarantee their interests? Join innovative environmental attorneys Thomas Linzey and Mari Margil for breakthroughs on the ground that are redefining democracy. In the 21st century, is it time to move from a Declaration of Independence to a Declaration of Interdependence?

To find out more about Mari Margil and Thomas Linzey’s work, visit the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund.

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Reinhabit, Rehydrate, Regenerate: Permaculture Designs for an Enduring Planet | Darren Doherty…

Half of Americans cannot name one component of the water cycle upon which all life depends. Yet water is at the root of every human endeavor – from manufacturing to agriculture, energy production and waste management. No water, no life. Join master permaculture designers Darren J. Doherty and Brock Dolman for both practical and poetic ways to re-educate earthlings in soil and water literacy. Their practical vision for regenerating ecological integrity and social resiliency prepares us for the challenges of climate change and environmental stress. But above all, they illuminate inspired pathways for restoring nature and people in the re-enchantment of Earth.

Find out more about the work of Darren Doherty at Regrarians and Brock Dolman at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center.

Planting Buildings: The Living Building Challenge | Jason McLennan

A living building is like a flower, planted and rooted to its place. It collects its energy from the sun. It harvests its water from the rain. This building does not pollute. It engages actively with the environmental around it. And it’s beautiful and inspiring. This is nature’s blueprint for building a better world, says visionary architect Jason McLennan. He designed the Living Building Challenge 2.0 to raise the bar on green building: meet or exceed what nature provides. While the standards seem impossibly high, it may be simpler than we imagined.

To learn more about Jason McLennan and the Living Building Challenge, please visit the website.

Generation Green: Fulfilling the Promise of Jobs and Justice | Jerome Ringo and Billy Parish

Climate change. Energy crisis. Economic collapse. We live in a time of unprecedented global crisis and opportunity. There’s a monumental amount of work to be done to make the transition to a restored world, yet young people are unemployed at astonishingly high rates. How can we unlock the green economic opportunities that will open the door to doing well by doing good for generation green and generations to come? Join Apollo Alliance president Jerome Ringo and clean energy leader Billy Parish for a hopeful glimpse into the organizations and programs that will give our children the opportunity to make a living and make a better world.

To learn more about the work the guests in this podcast are doing, visit Jerome at Zoetic Global, and Billy Parish at Mosaic.

From Bows and Arrows to Laptops: Marrying Traditional Knowledge with Web Technology

Forty years ago when a logging road was blasted deep into the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, the outside world discovered the Surui people. Contact with the Western world led to their decimation by disease, warfare and illegal logging and mining. The Surui organized to save themselves and their homeland by electing a young leader to tell their story to the world. Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui traveled from the Amazon rainforest to the Google-plex to ask for help to bring his people back from the brink of extinction and save their precious rainforest. The collaboration with Google Earth Outreach manager Rebecca Moore has helped map a next world that marries the best of tradition and conservation with the best of high technology. Translation by Vasco van Roosmalen.

To learn more about Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui and the mapping of Indigenous lands, visit his facebook page.

Where Angels Fear to Tread: Making Art that Heals the Broken Places

How do we transform a vicious circle into a virtuous circle? How do we move from environmental degradation and the deterioration of human relations to restoration? From war to peace – from hatred to compassion – from isolation to community? How can one person make a crucial difference? Painter and professor Lily Yeh‘s approach to community healing takes that which is broken and creates something whole and wholly new and beautiful through public art. From Philadelphia to Rwanda, broken places are her canvases. People’s stories are the pigments. People’s talents and creativity are the tools. At the heart of her work is the transformation of human heart.

To find out more about the work of Lily Yeh, visit her website.

Molecular Psychology: Good Chemistry with Nature’s Green Chemistry (Podcast)

Did you ever ask yourself who in their right mind would invent a convenience to keep food fresh that would one day litter the landscape, wash up on every beach around the world and release toxic substances into the web of life and your body long after its short disposable life? Master green chemists and educators John Warner and Amy Cannon say all that is changing — by necessity and by design. The radical growth of green chemistry is showing we can have good chemistry with the Earth by emulating natures green chemistry and do good business at the same time.

For more on the work of John Warner and Amy Cannon, visit the Warner Babcock website.

The Organic Revolution: From Hippie to Hip to Scale

Though still small in the big picture, organic food has come all the way — from hippie to hip to mainstream since the Sixties. But can organic food and fair food ever feed seven billion people? How can the entire food chain become sustainable? And does sustainability stack up to profitability? Visionary food entrepreneur Gary Hirshberg answers those questions with a resounding yes. As founder and CEO of Stonyfield Farm, the world’s largest organic yogurt company, Hirshberg has demonstrated that environmentally and socially responsible business can also be profitable.