Today, it's our pleasure to bring you an episode from our friends at Bioneers, who have just released a 6-part series called Nature's Genius. Follow Bioneers wherever you get podcasts, or listen to the rest of the series at bioneers.org/natures-genius/ This is episode 1 — The Universe Beneath Our Feet: Mapping the Mycelial Web of Life Imagine an underground web of mind-boggling complexity, a bustling cosmopolis beneath your feet. Quadrillions of miles of tiny threads in the soil pulsate with real-time messages, trade vital nutrients, and form life-giving symbiotic partnerships. This is the mys ..read more

In this very special donkumentary, we’re headed to the Mojave Desert — to Death Valley, in particular — where we find one animal at the centre of a heated debate in land management: the hardy wild burro (AKA donkey, ass, or Equus asinus). These feral burros, beloved by some and reviled by others, are an introduced species in the desert southwest, but are uniquely entangled in its human history. Since before the establishment of Death Valley as a national monument, they have been widely regarded as overpopulated on the Mojave landscape. In recent years, rising costs, public controversy, and som ..read more

We’re unlocking one of the conversations from our bonus feed. In this interview, building on episode FE6.2, Mendel speaks with Skye Augustine, a leading voice uplifting the science, history, and culture of Sea Gardens. In a time where so much of the future feels uncertain, the resiliency of Sea Gardens over millennia is (at least to us) a source of deep comfort and inspiration. What’s more, if you’re as inspired as we are, and you want to learn how your community could build a clam garden, we’ve got you covered. Don't miss our conversation with Joseph Williams, Community Shellfish Liaison for ..read more

We’re slowing down for the holidays, and we hope you are too. But we didn’t want to leave you without something great to listen to, so we’re borrowing an episode from one of our favourite podcasters: Ashley Ahearn is the independent science and environmental journalist behind several series covering life in the rural American West. If you haven’t already listened to Grouse, on sage grouse, or Mustang (her latest), on wild horses, you’re missing out. The episode we picked for you today is kind of a teaser for our own next series. It’s a look at livestock, the regenerative ranching movement, and ..read more

We're borrowing an episode from one of our all-time favourite shows: Threshold, a Peabody Award-winning documentary podcast about our place in the natural world. Now in their 5th Season, "Hark", Threshold producer Amy Martin is exploring sound itself: investigating what it means to listen to the nonhuman voices on our planet — and the cost if we don’t. With mounting social and ecological crises, what happens when we tune into the life all around us? Other episodes from Hark cover the sounds of the primordial microbial ooze, of insects, of fish, and of plants. Today, we're featuring episode 3 ..read more

Food security, climate adaptation, and vibrant biodiversity all in one place — welcome to the ancient and diverse technologies of Sea Gardening. These widespread (but often overlooked) monumental rock features are proof positive of thriving Indigenous maricultural systems all around the Pacific Rim, since time immemorial. These spaces are not only simply stunningly beautiful spots to hang out, they're also a powerful symbol of ecocultural restoration; of Indigenous sovereignty, self-determination, and internationalism; of relationship building; and of the kind of future that is possible as we ..read more

We're excited to share another beautiful guest episode with you today. In this piece, originally broadcast in 2 parts on The Wind (one of our favourite podcasts), producer Eleanor Qull is taking us on a pilgrimage in honour of, and in tribute to that most collective monarch — the monarch butterfly. Through those lepidopteran migrants, it’s a story of scale, agency, and spiritual offering in a changing world. Eleanor cooked up a special ~1 hour version just for us. It's spacious, equal parts silly and deadpan, with a big scoop of mono no aware. If you’d like to see pictures of the pilgrimage of ..read more

Season 6 kicks off in the deep dark woods: the simplified, post-industrial forests of the world — the only forests that many of us have ever known. Join us as we meet foresters in British Columbia, Vermont, and Scotland, all working to embrace the messy art of ecological forestry. Because if we want our forests to be old growth-ier, we might not be able to just wait and leave them alone. It might mean challenging some assumptions and getting out of our comfort zone, but that's what it'll take to see the forest for the trees. — — — With the voices of Ethan Tapper, Brian Duff, Kei ..read more

Hey y’all. Did you miss us? We’re back! Well, almost. Check your podcast feed tomorrow for the first episode of Season 6. Or, if you’re one of our dear supporters on Patreon or Apple podcasts (or if you’d like to become one at futureecologies.net/join), you can find episode 6.1 already waiting for you on the bonus feed ..read more

Future Ecologies presents "The Right to Feel," a two episode mini-series on the emotional realities of the climate crisis. The second and final episode, “Eulogies,” is based on fictional writing from the class. Students imagine and eulogize something that could be harmed by the climate emergency, and then imagine a speculative future in which action was taken to mitigate that harm. Over a two-year period, associate professor of climate justice and co-director of the UBC Centre for Climate Justice Naomi Klein taught a small graduate seminar designed to help young scholars put the emotions of th ..read more