The Positive Fantastic
By Mori Natura
The Positive FantasticSep 06, 2021
Urban Homesteading
Sir Cobalot
Miguel Elliot, also known for his natural building "accoblishments" as Sir Cobalot, joins the podcast to discuss the wonderful capacities of cob. He explains how cob is not just a tool for natural construction with durable craftsmanship that is easy on the budget, but also a tool for social justice in support of unsheltered persons. Over the years Miguel has developed some amazing innovations through his company, "Living Earth Structures," which he is making open source so that the word can spread and everyone can have access to his exceptionally functional cob hacks. Miguel has a strong social media presence to help spread the news about an innovative modern twist he has developed on the art and practice of cob building. Tune in to learn about Miguel's process, and to get some giggles about the special cob-centric vocabulary he has created too.
Descriptive Inquiry
Stephane Barile joined me to discuss the "Descriptive Inquiry" process, which is a non-evaluative approach to working with learners. As an educator of many years, Stephane has found the work with the Institute of Descriptive Inquiry to be incredibly helpful to her and her teaching career.
For more information about the Institute and resources to learn the process yourself, you can visit:
https://sites.google.com/idiprocess.org/idi/about-us
Hera Has A Heart
The Food Hub
Art Salon
Medicine Basket
Going Flat
Molly Rinaldi is a breast cancer survivor. Closing out October 2023 breast cancer awareness month, with this interview, we offer up this personal, educational, and thoughtful podcast for your consideration. We want women to know about their options in the event of mastectomy, including "aesthetic flat closure." Rinaldi shares about her personal journey with breast cancer, and explains why women would choose to go flat.
Happy Brain
My guest specialist, Loretta Breuning PhD, founded the Inner Mammal Institute. She has spent the last decade really looking at the ways that our brains are wired. She’s created a podcast of her own to help support folks on their journeys to rewiring. The good news is that we are capable of making big, profound changes in our lives. The harder news is that it takes time, commitment, and discipline. Part of what makes us human though is our capacity to rewire, retrain, and recreate our brains to be in service to more consciousness.
Loretta explains the role of the different feel good chemicals in our brain. Serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, and also endorphins have historic roles in helping keep us alive. Similarly, the stress chemical, cortisol plays an important role in our survival. Looking at the ways that these chemicals served our mammalian ancestors gives us greater perspective about the ways that we have evolved to use these chemicals. And Loretta’s work with the Inner Mammal Institute is all about how we can use this knowledge to live better.
In my own life and reflections, I am somewhat of a perennial seeker, looking to grow. And, I am so impressed by the research the Loretta has done. I hope that you’ll enjoy our conversation and begin to train your own brain!
The Positive Fantastic Soundtrack
Remembering Daniel
Melissa Musings
Flower Power
Healing Tide
Fantastic Friendship
Nature As Muse
In this episode with musical guest Alice DiMicele, we talk about her lifetime of letting song have its way with her. She shares about her singer-songwriter journey and the many albums she’s released along the way. With Nature as her muse, several of Alice’s original ecological songs are featured in this episode, including the title track of her newest album “Every Seed We Plant.” Alice has also graciously said that I can share her music on my other podcast episodes. So, look forward to hearing Alice being featured as one of Season Three’s musical guests & hearing many of her songs in the podcasts to come!
Vital Cycles
Assemblage: Creating a Living Canvas
Old Tech, New Tech, You Tech, Through Tech
Joybi Joyner is an amazing man who has spent the vast majority of his adulthood living in the wilderness. We met last winter when I got to camp with him over the course of a couple weeks. We discussed the fascinating juxtaposition between the ancient ways humans have lived for thousands of years and the modern ways that things are changing so quickly. Joybi reflected on the balance of being out in the bush with being situated in the community so as to be available to share the skills of living life outdoors. He is particularly interested in how we can navigate these times successfully with the merging of old technologies and new technologies
Bring Back the Beaver
The Real Sarahs
I'm excited to welcome Sarah Ryan and Sarah songbird, the two talented vocalists who make up The Real Sarahs duet, to "The Positive Fantastic" podcast. I became close friends with theses two at Herb School, just as they were forming their band. I have had the privilege of hearing them perform many times in formal and informal settings; they are a Mendo local band, but they've gone on tour internationally too. These two have a rootsy Americana sound, infused with their potent lyrical artistry and gorgeous harmonies. Over the years they have come into their own as singer/songwriters. In the podcast episode, they share about their journey through difficulties and healings, with the music continuing to bring them together in lovely, meaningful, and wonderfully harmonious ways.
A Magickal Life
Inextricably Intertwined
Now, I cannot go a day, or hardly an hour without witnessing, listening, and paying lots of attention to the play of the wild world all around me. A world that I am part of, that is inextricably interwoven and interconnected to me and my life. For me, tracking has become this elemental dance of all the sights, sounds, sensations, and signs that I seek out and that seek me!
Interviewing Meghan, I felt eternally grateful for her efforts to live as a tracker in a modern paradigm that has forgotten how interconnected we all are to everything that is, and also I’m in awe of her commitment to spread the knowledge of this fundamental skill into the world.
Sovereignty By Design
Maggie is an Amazon #1 best-selling author, arousing public speaker, beloved teacher, and highly intuitive and skilled mentor-coach. When they work with her, Maggie’s clients deepen their sense of destiny and true value, develop their Feminine Sovereignty, and live into their own definitions of success.
Maggie is a certified Quantum Human Design Specialist Level 4, a certified Clarity Breathwork practitioner, a certified Radiant Body Yoga teacher, online education expert, and creator of the 8 Pillars of Feminine Sovereignty and the Six Feminine Sovereign Archetypes.
She has served tens of thousands of students, and hundred of clients all over the world through her online programs.
Community Therapy
Spirit Full Woman
Feather shares more about the ancient jade egg practice in our podcast interview. Additionally, she shares about other Daoist techniques, which I have heard referred to as Sexual Kung Fu in the past, but which she describes as Pelvic floor therapeutics to foster sensual joy.
Feather gives a sneak peek into her classes and workshops offerings too. She kindly elaborated on the topic of “Vulva Mapping” which, in my extensive overview of yoni-related practices I had yet to encounter, but have since become super intrigued by.
Also, our Spirtfull woman, Feather shares at length about a conversation she had with the planet Venus. And, the dialogue birthed a course for tracking our cycles and the celestial cycles: sacred geometry in tune with women’s bodies, that Feather is launching in 2022.
Home Birth For Every Body
Northern California Women's Herbal Symposium
Musical Alchemy
The Chicktionary
Loving Animal Care
School for Self Healing
Engaging With Life
Heart of Health
Reclaim Your Voice
Trauma Informed Friendships
Jen Dalton and I recently sat down for an author chat in her home in the hills of Ukiah to discuss trauma informed friendships. She self published a book about girl bullying this year, and has many offerings to make about the ways that we can both heal from childhood bullying and address the roots of why we bully so that we can dismantle this traumatic girlhood ritual.
Food as Medicine
Let your food be your medicine & hear how nutrition consultant Mary Sheila Gonnella recommends not only what to eat for health but truly HOW to eat for optimal health. Learn about what Mary calls "Vitamin T," and the ways that you need more of this in a lifestyle focused on healthy eating.
Be Rooted Botanicals
Barnyard Midwife
Julia Green helps support thriving barnyards by doing farm consultations where she helps farmers and potential farmers to assess their space, their animals, their needs, and the best way to holistically manage all of the above. Drawing on her extensive farmstead experience and herbalist background, Julia guides the way for a happy, healthy, and successful farm.
Paleotechnics
Matriarchal Gift Economy of the Ancient Future
Yeshe Matthews is a Priestess of the Tsogyal Lhamo Drayang Ling, the Mt Shasta Goddess Temple in Dunsmuir, CA. She is a dharma practitioner and a licensed minister, ordained and initiated in several different mystery traditions. The Temple she created serves Mt Shasta spiritual pilgrims and worldwide Goddess enthusiasts with online and in-person divinations, classes, ceremonies, and retreats. Yeshe has dedicated her life to female mysteries, sacred healing practices and the ways of the Goddess, with ongoing study and practice in Tibetan Buddhism, Siberian/Mongolian Shamanism, Ifa, Mayan Cosmology, herbal healing, and Dianic Goddess Spirituality. With a Master's degree in Women's History from Sarah Lawrence College in New York, she has studied women's mysticism, shamanism, and matriarchal communities for over twenty years. Join us for an auditory journey as we explore the matriarchal gift economy of the ancient future!
Got Goats
Feed The People
The Art of Drag
Join Kimber Holmes, male illusionist, for an auditory adventure into the heart of Drag. A lifelong performance artist, Holmes created a drag king persona by the name of Max Manchester. This episode explores the process of becoming "Max" step by glorious drag step.
History Speaks in Art
Join artist Lauren Sinnott as she explains the recent mural she created on the 200 ft long wall outside the Ukiah Conference Center as it pertains to the local history, the present, and the future of the area.
Mushroom Cultivation
Have you ever wanted to grow your own mushrooms on logs you harvested sustainably from the forest? If yes, then this is the episode for you. I'm gonna break down the ins and outs of how to process and cure your logs, obtain your mycelium on plug spawn, and ultimately foster the ideal conditions so that your preferred mushrooms can bear fruit. In this episode, I focus on growing shiitake mushrooms on oak logs in Northern California.
The Forest People
Frey Family Vineyards
Welcome to my world. I live surrounded by my Frey family on Frey Vineyards where we practice gardening, farming, and land stewardship. This season one finale episode is an interview with my aunt, Katrina Frey, about our green family business. Join us as Katrina & I weave a story about how Frey Vineyards became the first certified organic winery in the country, and the ways that the family continues to evolve as an ecologically sound enterprise.