Earth and Spirit Podcast

Carmel Bowman and Maggie Hettinger describe themselves as ordinary citizens of rural Kentucky, who are trying to help move the needle on climate change. From their own lifestyle choices to their active efforts with the Citizens' Climate Lobby, they are passionately engaged for positive change. In this podcast, recorded during one of the Earth & Spirit Center’s live community conversations events, Carmel and Maggie invite us to consider a realistic path for the U.S. to reach net carbon neutrality by 2050 or earlier.

Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan is a first-generation Arab-American who has spent his life crossing borders. An agrarian ecologist and ethnobotanist whom Time magazine called the father of the local food movement, his work straddles both sides of America’s southern border in Arizona. As a professed ecumenical Franciscan brother, his spiritual practice goes far beyond the walls of institutional religion, and his new book, Jesus for Farmers and Fishers, describes the struggles of those living on the margins of empire, in the ancient Middle East and today. In this conversation, Gary reflects on the richness and challenges of life that unfolds on the wild edges of places, societies, and religion.

Doug Van Houten describes himself as an ardent beekeeper, a visual artist, a wily wanderer, a dream tracker, a deep ceremonialist, and a heart-centered activist. He’s an international wilderness guide with the nonprofit Animas Valley Institute, helping to foster nature-based personal development. In this episode, as part of our Community Conversations series, Doug shares how healing, eco-centric soulwork can help us become fully mature adults and elders, claim our life purpose as a member of the Earth community, and contribute our gifts for the healing of our culture and our planet.

Dan Misleh is the executive director of the Catholic Climate Covenant, a national nonprofit organization devoted to faith-based education, advocacy, and practical actions related to climate change. In this episode, we explore how mainline religious traditions like Catholicism can help address climate issues with moral and spiritual leadership and practical resources and examples, but can also invite us into a deeper and richer belonging with each other and the more-than-human world.

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Malka Kopell has a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard and has over 30 years of experience doing collaborative, intersectional work with government agencies, nonprofits and the philanthropic sector to strengthen civic engagement and democracy. As part of the Earth & Spirit Center’s Community Conversations series, Malka shares her experience and wisdom about how to foster meaningful social change through robust, caring conversations across difference.

Carl McColman is a blogger, author, podcaster, and teacher, with a deep affinity for the Christian mystical tradition. This conversation explores the idea that the mystical path is open to all and that mystics offer practical, grounded wisdom for navigating the personal, social, and environmental challenges of our current moment.

Carl's four-week online course on Christian Mysticism at the Earth and Spirit Center, beginning April 19, 2021:

Shaikh Kabir Helminski is a Muslim educator, retreat leader, and a teacher and translator of Jallaladin Rumi, the beloved Sufi mystic and poet. In this conversation, Kabir unpacks wisdom from Rumi and the Sufi mystical tradition about what it means to be fully human, to engage skillfully with the darkness and disconnection of our time, and to live out of a whole-hearted sense of love and interdependence.

Rev. Karl Ruttan, PhD is a retired Episcopal priest with a doctorate in spiritual formation and over forty years of ministry as a priest and as a spiritual director, especially with men. In this conversation, Karl and I talk about what it means to become a man in a healthy, holistic way, and how this process of spiritual maturity can help bring our entire culture toward a deeper awareness of our connection to our true selves, each other, the more-than-human world, and our common divine source.

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Philip Goldberg has been studying the world’s spiritual traditions for more than 50 years, as a practitioner, teacher, and writer. He is the author or co-author of more than 20 books, including, most recently, Spiritual Practice for Crazy Times. In this conversation, Phil offers a wise village elder’s perspective on how to navigate skillfully the tumult of our inner and outer life.

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In a time of ecological and social crisis, it can be tempting to retreat from the world and pine nostalgically for some earlier, simpler, purer way of life: like the Garden of Eden. In this episode, scripture scholar and back-to-the-land homesteader Rev. Dr. Patricia Tull invites us to consider what lessons we might learn from Eden as we try to create a more just, beautiful, and thriving world. This conversation weaves together erudite scriptural reflection, intimate and practical experience on the land, and heart-felt conviction about what it means to be human.

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Our nation, our communities, and our families are divided more deeply now than they have been in decades, pitting us against each other exactly at a time when cooperation couldn't be more important to address the COVID-19 pandemic, racial justice, climate change, and many other pressing social and ecological needs.  In this community conversation with a live Zoom audience, we speak with Cory Lockhart, who is an artist, writer, public speaker, peace activist and educator, about how compassionate, heart-centered, non-violent ways of communicating, rooted in contemplative spiritual practice, can help repair the torn fabric of our personal and civic relationships.

“The Cosmic Journey” is a new film produced by the Earth & Spirit Center, inspired by our new Cosmic Journey nature trail and outdoor art installation in the Earth & Spirit Center Nature Sanctuary. In this live Community Conversations event, we have a conversation with the film creator, Megan Maybee, the sound designer and voice actor Joe Brown, and the script contributor, Joe Mitchell. We reflect together on the process of creating this film as we share our hopes that it will invite viewers to celebrate the 13.8-billion-year story of our evolving Universe and the special place of the human species within that unfolding story.

Tara Remington, or “Remi,” is a Louisville-based artist who specializes in outdoor murals and other public-facing, large-scale media.  In this podcast, recorded during a live online Community Conversations event, Remi reflected on Cosmic Journey Trail art installation she created on the Earth & Spirit Center campus. We also broadened the lens to contemplate the role of art for reweaving the social fabric and connecting us deeply to ourselves and to the rest of the natural world.

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Lois Luckett is a Louisville-based therapist in private practice. Especially during the coronavirus pandemic, Lois has cultivated close relationships with trees. In this podcast, recorded from a live online Community Conversations event, Lois invites us to explore what we might learn about being human from our other-than-human-kin, the trees.

Lois Luckett is a Louisville-based therapist in private practice. Especially during the coronavirus pandemic, Lois has cultivated close relationships with trees. In this podcast, recorded from a live online Community Conversations event, Lois invites us to explore what we might learn about being human from our other-than-human-kin, the trees.

Kailea Frederick is a bridge-building climate activist, writer, consultant, and mother with Black and First Nations heritage. In this conversation, Kailea reflects on living deeply out of a sense of place, the existential threat of wildfires, and what it means to expand our sense of family, reciprocity, and responsibility to include the more-than-human world.

Joe Phelps is a retired Baptist pastor with a long history of making good trouble in regard to hunger, poverty, race, and other social justice and equity challenges. As part of the Earth & Spirit Center’s Community Conversations series, Joe joined host Kyle Kramer along with a live Zoom audience to talk about the intense racial tensions in Louisville, KY, his many friendships and collaborations across color lines, and how he has sustained his engagement and advocacy over time.  This extended version includes the Q&A segment from the Zoom audience, which comes after the formal close of the podcast.

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Joe Phelps is a retired Baptist pastor with a long history of making good trouble in regard to hunger, poverty, race, and other social justice and equity challenges. As part of the Earth & Spirit Center’s Community Conversations series, Joe joined host Kyle Kramer along with a live Zoom audience to talk about the intense racial tensions in Louisville, KY, his many friendships and collaborations across color lines, and how he has sustained his engagement and advocacy over time.

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An acclaimed jazz pianist and composer based in Louisville, Kentucky, Harry Pickens is also a teacher, mentor, and author who does deep healing work to promote the flourishing of individuals and communities. As part of the Earth & Spirit Center’s online Community Conversations series, Harry reflected on what is being asked of us at a time of pandemic and heightened racial tensions, and what opportunities we have to create a more just, more loving, more peaceful world.  This extended version includes the Q&A from the live Zoom audience.

An acclaimed jazz pianist and composer based in Louisville, Kentucky, Harry Pickens is also a teacher, mentor, and author who does deep healing work to promote the flourishing of individuals and communities. As part of the Earth & Spirit Center’s online Community Conversations series, Harry reflected on what is being asked of us at a time of pandemic and heightened racial tensions, and what opportunities we have to create a more just, more loving, more peaceful world.

Sr. Gail Worcelo co-founded the Green Mountain Monastery in 1999, encouraged and supported by her friend and mentor, the late Thomas Berry. Berry, a cultural historian and Passionist priest, was a ground-breaking thinker who contemplated the new story science has given us of 13.8 billion-year history of our evolving Universe. He considered the implications of this new story for our religion, education, economy, and government. In this conversation, Sr. Gail reflects on how Thomas Berry’s vision has guided the Green Mountain Monastery community and offers wisdom for all of us, here at the choice point between an ecozoic or a technozoic future.

Rae Strobel Barr is an organic farmer, spiritual director and mother, living and working with her partner Adam at Barr Farms in Meade County, Kentucky, a seventh-generation family farm.  She is passionate about building community and combining spirituality with eco-justice and eco-feminism through holding farm-based retreats and providing spiritual guidance and counsel. Our producer Parker Bowling traveled to meet Rae on the piece of land that she calls home, for an engaging conversation on what it means to listen to the movement of spirit: in the land, in ourselves, and in our collective body.

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Sarah Nunez is a Latinx folk healer and activist in Louisville, KY.  Through her work helping to heal bodies, communities, and unjust systems, Sarah  embraces the deep roots of indigenous wisdom and storytelling.  She envisions a future in which people of all backgrounds can recover our connection with each other and with the natural world that is our home and kin.

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This episode features Ashley Smith, the co-founder of Black Soil.  Black Soil is a nonprofit in Lexington, KY, dedicated to reconnecting Black Kentuckians to their legacy and heritage in agriculture and to empowering Black farmers in Kentucky, who currently make up just 1.4%  of the state's farmers.  Anyone who eats has a stake in there being a just, sustainable food system, so tune into this episode to learn more about Black Soil's work and the powerful bonds of community that Black Soil is helping to cultivate in a state that still reckons with its history of slavery.

Karen Newton is a wellbeing and resilience integrator. Formerly the director of health promotion at the University of Louisville, and still on the UofL faculty, Karen is a certified mindfulness teacher specializing in stress resilience and compassion. She’s also an Earth & Spirit Center faculty member. From our respective homes, Karen and I had a virtual conversation about what resilience looks like amid the stress of a pandemic, and how mindfulness practices can help us not only survive, but thrive.