This week we are rebroadcasting our interview with Kerry Knudsen, originally aired in April of 2019. Lichens make up around eight percent of our planet’s biomass, yet rarely do we pay much attention to these symbiotic, part algae, part fungi organisms. In this episode, For The Wild speaks to one of the world’s leading lichenologists, Kerry Kent Knudsen. Ayana’s conversation with Kerry spans the dreamiest of worlds, from the surreal and psychedelic presence of lichens to the magic of creating life post-capitalism. In addition to Kerry’s field-based understanding of lichen, Kerry also speaks to the times we are living in, “just like the butterfly that beats its wings and causes a rainstorm around the other side of the world, we have to embrace the chaos of our lives.” In embracing this chaos, Kerry reminds us that we may very well find creation, bring our magic to fruition, and embody complete unity with reality wherever we may be. Kerry Kent Knudsen is a mycological taxonomist and lichenologist at the University of Life Sciences in Prague. Kerry founded a lichen herbarium at the University of California at Riverside and has published 215 papers and articles on lichens. He is a specialist in the lichen biodiversity of southern California and in the order of Acarosporales, which occur around the world. With his wife Jana Kocourkova, who is also a lichenologist, they have begun a four-year project working on lichen biodiversity in the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico. Music by The Savage Young Taterbug. Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.

For The Wild

KERRY KNUDSEN on Lichen and Life after Capitalism [ENCORE] /258

As the ocean warms and grows more hostile, the icy waters of the Taku river have served as refuge for salmon and an abundance of more-than-human kin. However, threats from mining and resource extraction are posed to forever change the habitat of the watershed. The 1957 abandonment of the Tulsequah Chief Mine in British Columbia left a disastrous environmental impact. This mine still requires billions of dollars worth of clean up action and constant monitoring to ensure the protection of this river system. The Tulsequah Chief serves as just one example of threats to the vital river systems of so-called Canada and The United States. The Taku, the Unuk, and the Stikine are all transboundary rivers beginning in British Columbia, Canada, and flowing through to Alaska. They are unique both in their beauty and abundance, and in the inter-governmental action required to regulate them. The Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909 dictates relations across international borders, but the treaty alone will not protect these rivers from acid mine drainage and continued extraction. Chris Zimmer invites us to imagine what clean, healthy rivers can bring us, and to propel love for these rivers towards ethical action. Chris Zimmer is the Alaska Campaign Director of Rivers Without Borders. Based in Juneau, Chris has been with Rivers Without Borders since 2001. Chris enjoys fishing and hunting in the watersheds he helps to protect.Music by Jon Yonts, GoldenOak, and Larkhall.Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.

CHRIS ZIMMER on a River Ethic /257

The abundance of the Klamath River has been severely restricted since the late 1700s by way of mining, logging, and damming. Once home to the third-largest salmon run in the lower 48, now Northern California is risking the collapse of its entire salmon population. After two decades of activism, the Klamath River dams will finally be removed by 2023, restoring salmon access to more than 400 miles of habitat. However, this is merely one example of the ways in which land has been chronically mismanaged across the so-called United States. This week we speak to Yurok fisherman and activist, Samuel Gensaw III, on the ways in which Northern California has served as a continuous extraction site for colonial development. This expansive conversation begins by looking at resource extraction, but moves into a larger dialogue on our collective responsibility to world renewal, bringing back balance to our relationships, how to instill new values without appropriating cultural traditions, and the Ancestral Guard’s Victorious Gardens program featured in the film Gather. Samuel Gensaw III is the founding director of the Award-winning Ancestral Guard program. Currently, he is the youngest person to serve as the vice-chairman of the Yurok tribe’s natural resources committee. He and fellow Ancestral Guard members are featured in the documentary, Gather, which focuses on the growing movement among Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political, and cultural identities through food sovereignty. Music by Lake Mary, All The Queen’s Ravens, Jess Williamson. Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.

SAMUEL GENSAW III on the Restorative Revolution /256

This week we are rebroadcasting our interview with Dallas Goldtooth, originally aired in December of 2018. Dallas Goldtooth joins Ayana in a conversation around toxic masculinity, accountability, and dismantling patriarchy. So often, conversations around gender wounds quickly deteriorate into oversimplifications of, and accusations towards, one gender or another – failing to realize how we are all hurting under patriarchy. Toxic masculinity, settler colonialism, and white supremacy are impelling us to a point of no return. If you are coming to this conversation as an environmental advocate, understand that in order to shift our relationship from that of domination over “nature” to one of reciprocity and understanding of the ecosystem we are a part of, we must examine our values with one another. “Dallas Goldtooth is the Keep it in the Ground Campaign Organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network. He is also the co-founder of the Indigenous comedy group The 1491s. Dallas is Dakota and Diné, a loving husband, dedicated father, comedian, public speaker, recovering exotic dancer, plastic shaman extraordinaire, and body double for that guy who plays Thor in them Thor Movies.” Music by Lyla June Johnston. Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.

DALLAS GOLDTOOTH on Responding to Toxic Masculinity [ENCORE] /255

When one thinks about iron, copper, and gold mining, Sweden is not the first place that comes to mind, but in the past few years the country has granted roughly 500 mining exploration permits as it positions itself to become one of the largest mining centers for all of Europe. The price of mining in Sweden has largely been paid by the Sámi, whose lifeways are permanently changed once the government and multinational corporations seek to extract so-called natural resources from their traditional territory of Sápmi. In this week’s episode, we look at extractive mining in Sápmi and how Sweden’s colonial government exploits their very limited definition of Sámi indigeneity to further land grabs and resource extraction with guest Josefina Skerk. Josefina Skerk is a Sámi politician with a background in law. She is the General Manager of Sijti Jarnge, a Sámi Language and Culture Centre in Norway. Skerk has been a member of the Sámi Parliament in Sweden since 2013, and has held office as its former Vice President. Indigenous rights, especially connecting to land and language rights, are key issues that she is passionate about. Music by Andy Tallent, Dana Anastasia, and West of Roan. Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.

JOSEFINA SKERK on Sámi Lifeways /254

“What might happen if we saw a migrant child at the border as our own daughter? Or George Floyd gasping for breath as our own brother? Or Brianna as sister? Or the Asian American women slaughtered in Atlanta as our own aunties? What might happen? What would we risk? What movements would we build? What would we demand? How would we harness our rage? How would we reimagine a world in which all of us are safe? What might happen if we made love the ethic that guided all of our actions?” This week we ground down in visioning our shared survival with guest Valarie Kaur, who reminds us that for millennia prophetic voices have been trying to remind us that we belong to each other, here on Earth, and if we were to recognize this simple truth, what would the world look like? Valarie shares that in recognizing this reality of inherent belonging, we might have to “love beyond what evolution requires.” A revolutionary love for each other, our opponents, and ourselves. Valarie Kaur is a seasoned civil rights activist and celebrated prophetic voice. Valarie now leads the Revolutionary Love Project to reclaim love as a force for justice in America. As a lawyer, filmmaker, and innovator, she has won policy change on multiple fronts – hate crimes, racial profiling, immigration detention, solitary confinement, Internet freedom, and more. She founded Groundswell Movement, Faithful Internet, and the Yale Visual Law Project. A daughter of Sikh farmers in California's heartland, Valarie earned degrees at Stanford University, Harvard Divinity School, and Yale Law School. Valarie's new book is See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love. Music by AMAARA and Madeleine Sophia. Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.

VALARIE KAUR on the Ancient Call to Love /253

In this magnetic conversation, Ruth and Ayana consider where a politics of love can breathe, radical softness, mindsets of abundance, climate justice advocacy, and the steps we can take to create systems of wellness. In recognition of what might feel like a painful transition for many, Ruth guides us to think about what practices and acts of care we can implement with each other as a way of willing a more beautiful world back into existence. 

RUTH ŁCHAV'AYA K'ISEN MILLER on Relations of Reciprocity /252

In the fast-paced movement of today’s media, it’s easy to become entangled in narratives of extinction, loss, a lack of time, and a tremendous amount of misanthropy. However, when we pause to look within the ecosystems around us we can find examples of life pushing through the most difficult of circumstances. Our more than human kin continues in defiance, refusing to cease their own lineage under the current modern paradigm of exploitation and desecration. In this week’s episode, we look into a thriving life paradigm, which places a reverences for life at the center of all action, with guest Woman Stands Shining (Pat McCabe). In this expansive conversation, Woman Stands Shining coalesces topics of Indigenous sovereignty, land back, how gender and consent behave in different paradigms, and the vital importance of moving out of modernity’s obsession with intellectualism as the primary way of knowing, into a powerful call to choose a timeless paradigm that is life-affirming for us all. Woman Stands Shining (Pat McCabe) is a Diné grandmother, activist, artist, and international speaker. Her primary work is proposing to the Five-Fingered-Ones, that paradigm is a choice, and pointing to Indigenous cultures as examples that we have evidence that human beings can participate in paradigms in which we can become beings capable of causing all life to thrive. Music by The Range of Light Wilderness, Violet Bell, and Sea Stars. Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.

WOMAN STANDS SHINING (Pat McCabe) on Humanity's Homecoming /251

For The Wild Podcast is a forum where we discuss the critical ideas of our time and parlay them into action for the regeneration of natural communities. Key topics include the rediscovery of wild nature, ecological renewal and resistance, and healing from the trauma of individualistic society. We will travel deep into ancient forests, and enter the minds of Earth-based people, rekindling the mysteries of intuition. We will join today’s brightest visionaries in this momentous work of reimagining a world where humanity can find its way back into the web of life.

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For The Wild

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