Future Ecologies

Latest Episodes:

FE3.8 - Goatwalker: Sanctuary (Part 2) Jun 02, 2021

Show notes

In the early 1980s, the outbreak of civil war across Central America forced unprecedented numbers of refugees to seek asylum in the United States, putting the recently passed 'Refugee Act' of 1980 to the test. There was just one catch: the Reagan Administration was providing funding to right-wing governments that most of these refugees were fleeing. As a result, Central American refugees making the dangerous journey to the U.S.-Mexico borderlands were being intercepted, denied asylum, and summarily deported.

As this crisis unfolded, a ragtag group of self-proclaimed 'goatherds errant', led by philosopher-turned-rancher Jim Corbett, took it upon themselves to enact U.S. immigration law at the grassroots level. In so doing, they sparked a national movement that continues to the present day, turning the concept of 'civil disobedience' upside-down.

This is the story of the Sanctuary movement – the 2nd part of a 4-part series.

From Future Ecologies, this is Goatwalker, Part Two: Sanctuary.

👉 We suggest you start with Part One of this series 👈

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As of August 2021, Jim Corbett’s "Goatwalking" has been re-issued in a new 2nd edition. You can purchase a hard copy or an e-book here

A 2nd edition of "Sanctuary for All Life" is also now available from Cascabel Books on Amazon or Barnes and Noble

FE3.7 - Goatwalker: On Errantry (Part 1) May 05, 2021

Show notes

Jim Corbett was not your typical rancher. Over the course of decades roaming the borderlands of the desert southwest, he developed a practice that he referred to as 'goatwalking' - a form of prophetic wandering and desert survival based on goat-human symbiosis. For Jim, 'goatwalking' provided both physical and spiritual sustenance, and allowed him to become at home, for a time, in wildlands.

To many, this modern-day Don Quixote would seem an unlikely figure to have sparked one of the most important social movements of the 20th century, but to those who knew him well, it was hardly a surprise. Even today, his influence is felt throughout the borderlands of the Southwestern United States, and beyond.

This is the story of a man behind a movement – the biographical first part of a 4-part series.

From Future Ecologies, this is Goatwalker, Part One: On Errantry.

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For musical credits, citations, and more, click here.

Support the show and join our Patreon community

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As of August 2021, Jim Corbett’s "Goatwalking" has been re-issued in a new 2nd edition. You can purchase a hard copy or an e-book here

A 2nd edition of "Sanctuary for All Life" is also now available from Cascabel Books on Amazon or Barnes and Noble

FE3.6 - Making Sense of Each Other Apr 07, 2021

Show notes

Mushrooms that smell? Fungi can be pungent, provocative, and at times irresistible. While we might not always recognize it, we're in constant chemical communication with the world around us through olfaction. For those with the senses to discern them, aromas, perfumes, stinks, and stenches can all convey useful information. Some scents are warnings, and others are deterrents, but the most alluring are expert portraits of our animal fascinations, honed through evolution to attract, captivate, and compel.

In this episode, we stop to smell the Russulas – examining the fascinating fragrances of Kingdom Fungi, with the help of Michael Hathaway, Merlin Sheldrake, and Anicka Yi.

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For musical credits, citations, and the Mushroom Smelling Wheel, click here.

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Cover artwork by Leya Tess

FE3.5 - What on Earth is Ground? Feb 26, 2021

Show notes

In collaboration with the Serpentine Galleries, Future Ecologies presents a choral, poetic collage featuring the voices of The Understory of the Understory: a virtual symposium bringing together practitioners from many disciplines to consider the ground beneath our feet across ecologies, politics and spiritualities. With vignettes ranging from co-evolution to condensation, from medicine to mycomorphism, and from death to dust and back again, and all generally rooted in a question of earth, soil, and territory.

General Ecology is a long-term, cross-organisational, multi-disciplinary and cross-media research project. Harnessing the network and learnings developed over the last years, the project is the Serpentine’s think tank at the porous thresholds of art, science and the humanities, bringing together the most forward-thinking researchers, artists, activists and practitioners from all disciplines to reflect on the urgent crises of the Anthropocene by thinking ecologically both within the Galleries, across a network of individuals and organisations, and in a wider context.

YouTube Playlists:

The Understory of the Understory Day 1

The Understory of the Understory Day 2

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For musical credits, citations, and more, click here.

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Cover image: Future Ecologies x Giles Round x Bea Leiderman

FE3.4 - Dama Drama Jan 27, 2021

Show notes

Guest producers Sadie Couture and Russell Gendron explore the concept of invasive species through a look at a small island community, a species doing some serious damage to the ecosystem, and the complex issues at play when a plant or animal moves into a new territory.

Sadie and Russell talk to current and former residents of Mayne Island, Indigenous elders, and conservation professionals to think through what it means to call something an “invasive species,” how to manage our ever-changing relationships to plants and animals, and how we might prepare for the certainty of change in the future.

This episode was originally a short piece on the Mayne Island Sound Map, entitled “The Joy of Cooking Fenison.”

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We rely on listener support to make this work possible.

Support Future Ecologies for $1/month, and join the producers for a discord Ask-Us-Anything on February 3rd

https://www.patreon.com/futureecologies

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For musical credits, citations, and photos click here.

FE3.3 - Nature, by Design? Freakological Fallacies (Part 3) Dec 30, 2020

Show notes

Sometimes it feels like we're all living in a garbageosphere – an ecosystem of trash and detritus. But despite the extent of anthropogenic impacts, life is resilient and infinitely creative.

Hyper-ecologies, novel ecosystems, freakosystems – different names for the same thing: never-before-seen assemblies of lifeforms, born of human disturbance. These profoundly weird ecologies are persistent, and (through a certain lens) often functional.

In this final chapter of "Nature, by Design?", we meet again with Oliver Kellhammer and Eric Higgs to discuss what we can learn from these ruderal places, and how they can empower a new way of thinking about ecological restoration.

This episode is the last in a 3-part series. Before listening to this one, you may want to catch up with Part 1: Taking the Neo-Eoscenic Route [FE3.1] & Part 2: The Path to the Wilderness Lodge [FE3.2]

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FE3.2 - Nature, by Design? The Path to the Wilderness Lodge (Part 2) Nov 25, 2020

Show notes

This episode is the second in a 3-part series. Before listening to this one, you may want to catch up with FE3.1 - Nature, by Design? Part 1: Taking the Neo-Eoscenic Route

As we continue to discuss the practice of ecological restoration, an important question emerges: is wilderness itself an illusion? We all have a picture of wilderness in our minds, but how did that image come to be? Join us for a tale of two simulacra.

For musical credits, citations, and more, click here.

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[UNLOCKED] Seaweed Sojourning 1: Light and Colour Nov 13, 2020

Show notes

For a new season of bonus Patreon mini-episodes, we’re going beyond kelp worlds to meet the rest of our seaweed sojourners.

Today, we’re stepping into a world of colour – of light, and shadow. Our first algal introduction is a stunning seaweed, known to some as rainbow leaf (or Mazzaella).

We're unlocking this first episode of of our Patreon-exclusive series: “Seaweed Sojourning”, as we explore The Curious World of Seaweed with Josie Iselin. Pay what you can – as little as a $1 per month – to get the rest of the series, and our whole back catalogue of bonus content.

https://www.patreon.com/futureecologies

Episode artwork by Josie Iselin (from The Curious World of Seaweed). For more images of Mazzaella in its iridescent glory, check out our Instagram

FE3.1 - Nature, by Design? Taking the Neo-Eoscenic Route (Part 1) Oct 30, 2020

Show notes

Is “Nature” a real thing, or is it just an idea? When we talk about restoring ecosystems, what are we restoring them to? Or more precisely, when?

This episode is the first part of a conversation between Mendel, Adam, and two of Adam’s mentors, wherein we explore what it means to practice ecological restoration as a form of art.

Click here for photos and details of Oliver’s artwork / restoration project in the Grandview Cut.

For musical credits, citations, and more, click here.

Two corrections for this episode:

Prototaxites and giant horsetails (Calamites) were extant ~350 million years before the Eocene
It is indeed a telescope, and not binoculars.

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Future Ecologies presents: Back to Earth - Queer Currents Oct 08, 2020

Show notes

What is queer ecology? How do queer theory and artistic practice inform environmental activism and climate justice? How can we think decolonisation and queerness together?

Victoria Sin welcomes guest host Serpentine Assistant Curator, Kostas Stasinopoulos to dive into transformation, queerness, the natural and unnatural, wild, decolonial and submerged perspectives. Together with guests Ama Josephine Budge, Macarena Gómez-Barris and Jack Halberstam they ask: “where does wildness live?” and they collectively explore questions of desire, pleasure, queer resistance and affinity within apocalyptic world making.

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Future Ecologies presents this episode from the Serpentine Podcast series Back to Earth – a nine part podcast series that follows artists and an art organisation developing projects, interventions and campaigns at the crossroads of art and the climate emergency.

Learn more about the Serpentine Galleries at https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/

Subscribe to the Serpentine Podcast at https://playpodca.st/serpentine

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