Climate Changed

Announcing Climate Changed! A short preview of season one

Climate Changed is a brand new podcast about pursuing faith, life, and love in a climate-changed world. Hosted by Nicole Diroff and Ben Yosua-Davis. Climate Changed features guests who deepen the conversation while also stirring the waters. The Climate Changed podcast is a project of The BTS Center.  In this extended promo you will about the podcast and from some of the guests who will appear on Season One including Corina Newsome, one of co-organizers of the inaugural #BlackBirdersWeek Keyana Pardilla, a young Penobscot woman in Maine who connects modern science with ancient indigenous practices Pacific Islander, poet Craig Santos-Perez Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, a pastor, gardener, and spiritual entrepreneur within the African Methodist Episcopal tradition Each episode includes a moment to help you center–even if you are jogging or folding laundry!  In each episode you will also hear about meaningful, realistic, and achievable next steps you can take to learn more about the topics we discuss or to take action.  We are thrilled to invite you on a journey of learning as Ben and Nicole share and reflect on their conversations with people who are dedicating their lives to making sense of life in a climate changed world.  Season one of Climate Changed premieres in June of 2022 Episode 1: How Do We Stop Doing Things that Make No Sense? With Rev. Mariama White-Hammond Episode 2: Where Do You Find Hope? With Corina Newsome Episode 3: What Do We Tell the Children? With Craig Santos Perez Episode 4: What is Wrong with Me? With Keyana Pardilla, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Sherri Mitchell Episode 5: If I Can’t Make a Difference, then What Do I Do? With Veronice Miles Episode 6: Daddy, Did We Hurt Them? With Ben Yosua-Davis

Season One Promo: Parenting in a Climate Changed World

Ben Yosua-Davis and Nicole Diroff are the hosts of the new Climate Changed podcast. They also have something else in common. They are both parents. Ben is a father to two amazing children. Michael, is his six year-old creative social butterfly. Genevieve is his sweet and ferocious two year old." Nicole is a mother to a second grader. Parenting comes with so many unique joys and challenges, and parenting in a climate-changed world in particular, raises so many questions for us.  As our children are discovering the wonders of the natural world, How much do we tell them about the ecological disasters happening all around us? How do we create space for their grief and anger? How do we prepare them to live in a world that is already different from the one we knew as children? How do we raise resilient children who are prepared for the trauma that’s predicted for their lifetimes? How do we instill in them empathy and love for all earthlings?  As parents, Christians, citizens, and friends, we talk a lot about these issues, so we decided to bring others into the conversation.  In the first season of Climate Changed we connect with thought leaders, ministers, activists, and other parents who are considering similar questions.  People like Corina Newsome, one of co-organizers of the inaugural #BlackBirdersWeek Keyana Pardilla, a young Penobscot woman in Maine who connects modern science with ancient indigenous practices Pacific Islander and poet Craig Santos-Perez Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, a pastor, gardener, and spiritual entrepreneur within the African Methodist Episcopal tradition We do not pretend to have all the answers. In fact, we have many more questions than answers - but we want to share them with you, and invite you to join us, as we wrestle with these big issues.  Subscribe today to Climate Changed Podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. Season one premieres June 2022. The Climate Changed podcast is a project of The BTS Center in beautiful Portland, Maine. Episode 1: How Do We Stop Doing Things that Make No Sense? With Rev. Mariama White-Hammond Episode 2: Where Do You Find Hope? With Corina Newsome Episode 3: What Do We Tell the Children? With Craig Santos Perez Episode 4: What is Wrong with Me? With Keyana Pardilla, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Sherri Mitchell Episode 5: If I Can’t Make a Difference, then What Do I Do? With Veronice Miles Episode 6: Daddy, Did We Hurt Them? With Ben Yosua-Davis

Coming Soon: Climate Changed Podcast

Peterson Toscano, host of Citizens Climate Radio, produces the new Climate Changed podcast. He finds hosts, Nicole Diroff and Ben Yosua-Davis, the perfect friends to talk him down when he is feeling overwhelmed by climate change. Their honesty, vulnerability, and resourcefulness provide him with fresh perspectives and much needed determination.  Episodes One and Two premiere June 2022 Episode 1: How Do We Stop Doing Things that Make No Sense? With Rev. Mariama White-Hammond Episode 2: Where Do You Find Hope? With Corina Newsome Episode 3: What Do We Tell the Children? With Craig Santos Perez Episode 4: What is Wrong with Me? With Keyana Pardilla, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Sherri Mitchell Episode 5: If I Can’t Make a Difference, then What Do I Do? With Veronice Miles Episode 6: Daddy, Did We Hurt Them? With Ben Yosua-Davis

Where Do You Find Hope? with Corina Newsome

In this episode of the Climate Changed podcast you will experience: A centering practice led by poet, Maya Williams.  You will hear Maya read Emily Dickinson’s Hope followed by one of Maya’s original poems, Religious Imposters.  Nicole Diroff has a deep and incredibly honest conversation with Corina Newsome Ben and Nicole’s deep and moving discussion about those remarks Next Steps for Engaged Hope About Corina Newsome Corina Newsome is the Associate Conservation Scientist at the National Wildlife Federation and a recent graduate from Georgia Southern University with a Master of Science in Biology. Corina, who began in the field of wildlife science as an animal care professional, specializes in avian conservation and passionately connects people with the natural world through birds. Having experienced the hurdles faced by marginalized communities in wildlife conservation, Corina’s mission is to center the perspectives and leadership of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in wildlife conservation, environmental education, and exploration of the natural world. Corina is also one of the co-organizers of the inaugural #BlackBirdersWeek    About Maya Williams and Their poem, Religious Imposters From Mayawilliamspoet.com: Maya Williams (she/hers, they/them, and ey/em) is a religious nonbinary Black multiracial suicide survivor constantly writing poems. Maya is the seventh Poet Laureate of Portland, Maine.  Maya's content covers suicide awareness, mental health, the prison industrial complex, faith, entertainment media, grief, and healing. About the poem, Religious Imposters, Maya writes: It is inspired by Baháʼí poet Anis Mojgani's poem "Shake the Dust." His poem is a call for so many different types of human beings to "shake the dust" and come into their own because of how there's so much to admire about them. I created this poem as an expression of love towards religious and non-religious people to let go of imposter syndrome (shake that dust, if you will). There's so much to admire about folks coming into their own worldview. As a Christian writer, I cannot separate my writing process from my faith (especially when I write my prayers in my private journal). There is a sense of sacredness and desire for a community when I engage in writing a poem similar to this one.  Religious Imposters was published in Frost Meadow Review and then shared on the Interfaith Youth Core.  The Conversation “Faith journeys are not soundbites” -Nicole Diroff Corina reveals how taking on racial injustice directly through activism has challenged the straight-forward faith she developed as a child at her church in Philadelphia. The outrage she has felt along with her commitment to engage in the struggle causes her to ask questions about her faith. She is wondering about Jesus as the great community organizer, as Dr. Heber Brown, has preached. To address the overwhelming anger along Corina chooses to engage in the process of deconstructing and reconstructing her faith. Through the process, she feels like a new person—back in touch with God and experiencing a new type of freedom.  She and Nicole talk about this messy and essential process.  “I decided to I would make a career out of my desire to look closely. -Corina Newsome from A Thing with Feathers Nicole first learned about Corina through the essay, The Thing with Feathers. Corina shared the essay in Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis, an anthology edited by  Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade and Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas. In the essay Corina stresses the vial importance of looking closely.  Nicole and Corina talk about the process of paying attention. Coming from a low-wealth background, Corina Newsome, discovered the power of connecting to our life source. Resource deprivation opened her up to the rich resources in nature, even in the city of Philadelphia. She says, “You can feel the difference it makes in your body as far as the stress levels and the constant tension that exists from not knowing and having to ration constantly. That is just such a taxing way to live. The moment you stop for 30 seconds and watch a living thing, something lifts inside of you…life just feels lighter somehow…Looking closely is very much a necessary opportunity that everyone needs to do, but you don’t know if it is there unless you’ve been taught.” You can hear Corina read the essay in the podcast The Art House, a project of Citizens Climate Radio and Artists and Climate Change. Corina also talks about how Black faith communities are now addressing resource inequity and depletion in relation to food sovereignty including  the Black Church Food Security Network. These efforts not only address some of the injustice issues faced in food deserts, they also help people connect to nature right in their neighborhoods through the foods they grow.  They also talk about hope, and the near obsession that many church communities have around the source of hope. Many are asking, Where do we find hope? It was in studying birds, Corina finds hope in these birds. Corina says, “There’s nowhere just about where you can go where there aren’t birds.” Even in the most polluted spaces, you still find birds, ways for life to exist and even thrive. In places where the environment is clearer and birds have a richer habitat, that is where you see them benefit from diversity.  Birds, with hollow bones and delicate bodies, like many marginalized people oppressed by injustices, may appear fragile, but they prove to be much stronger than many people can imagine. “They think we are fragile…” Nicole and Corina spoke with each other for nearly an hour.  Click here to hear longer version of the conversation. Next Steps for Engaged Hope If you want to make your home more bird friendly, Corina links to an article from American Bird Conservancy. Glass collisions kill up to 1 billion birds in the U.S. each year, and almost half happen at home windows. And there is something we can do today to address this! Learn How to Keep Birds from Hitting Your Windows.  You can make a difference by making a donation to Freedom Birders. Freedom Birders is a racial justice education project built on inspiration from the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Lives Matter Movement, and #BlackBirdersWeek.  If you’re looking for an organization to help out with, I’d actually suggest the one that Corinna mentioned, which is the Black Church Food Security Network. Their national organizer, Rev. Heber Brown co-led a presentation for us on imagination back in 2021. Another great place is The Boston Food Forest Coalition, which starts and tends urban food forests throughout Boston.  On-line Trailside Practices facilitated by Aram Mitchell. Wherever you are—looking out the window, strolling through the woods, sitting on a bench in the park—here are some brief invitations to spiritual practice that you can integrate into your day.  

How Do We Stop Doing Things That Make No Sense? with special guest Rev. Mariama White-Hammond

In this very first episode of the new Climate Changed podcast you will experience: Introductions by the co-hosts, Nicole Diroff & Ben Yosua-Davis A centering practice led by Peterson Toscano Remarks about the state of our world and churches by Rev. Mariama White-Hammond Ben and Nicole’s deep and moving discussion about those remarks Next Steps Next Steps for Engaged Hope Hear more of Rev. Mariama White-Hammond from the 2021 Convocation Do one small thing to defy the powers that be Stage a small protest at a street corner Hand out cookies or free bottles of water Greet a stranger or knock on a neighbor’s door and introduce yourself or just say hello Journal or write an email to a friend as you reflect on the following prompt:  Imagine you must evacuate your home in 5 minutes from an extreme weather event. Besides loved ones and pets, what will you take with you and why? Once you answer, I encourage you to share the prompt and your answer through Facebook or some other social media and invite others to share their answers. Links Climate Changed podcast: https://climatechanged.podbean.com/ The BTS Center: https://thebtscenter.org/ Convocation 2021 Mariama White-Hammond keynote address: https://vimeo.com/620459476 “I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address those problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy... and to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation...” — James “Gus” Speth About Rev. Mariama White-Hammond Rev. Mariama White-Hammond is a pastor, advocate, facilitator, and farmer whose work spans issues and sectors as she seeks to create a more just and sustainable world. She was recently appointed Chief of Energy, Environment and Open Spaces for the City of Boston under Mayor Kim Janey. In that role she oversees everything from Archeology to Animal Control. In particular, she is focused on what Boston can do to combat climate change, reduce environmental inequities and protect Boston’s urban ecosystem for everyone to enjoy. She is the founding pastor of New Roots AME Church, a multi-racial, multi-class community that is innovating new ways of doing church. Rev. Mariama uses an intersectional lens in her ecological work, challenging folks to see the connections between immigration and climate change or the relationship between energy policy and economic justice. She was a fellow with the Green Justice Coalition, which brings together eight social/environmental justice groups from around Massachusetts. She is the chair of the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund and the co-chair of RENEW New England.  

What Do We Tell the Children? with Craig Santos Perez

In this episode of the Climate Changed podcast, you will experience: A centering practice as Craig Santos Perez reads his poem, “Thanksgiving in the Anthropocene” from his book of poetry Habitat Threshold. Music: Hymn for the Brave by Miles Avida. Ben Yosua-Davis and poet Craig Santos Perez have a moving conversation about raising children in a time of climate change. Craig also reads two of his original poems. Ben and Nicole’s discussion and reflections about the conversation.  Next Steps for Engaged Hope. About Craig Santos Perez Dr. Craig Santos Perez is an indigenous Chamoru from Guam. He is the co-editor of five anthologies and the author of five books of poetry and the academic monograph, Navigating Chamoru Poetry: Indigeneity, Aesthetics, and Decolonization. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the U of San Francisco and a PhD in Ethnic Studies from the U of California, Berkeley. He is a professor in the English department, and affiliate faculty with the Center for Pacific Islands Studies, at the U of Hawai'i at Manoa, where he teaches Pacific literature, creative writing, and eco-poetry.  Click here for a full transcript of this episode.  Some Highlights from the Conversation “Butterball, Butterball, Butterball,” a line from “Thanksgiving in the Anthropocene” One of the major themes Craig writes about is food, as well as agriculture and food supply systems. “I think food is such a wonderful way for us to think about these larger issues and think about diet and the ethics of eating, the use of plastic and other packaging materials, the routes that the food takes to get to our plate, the animals that are slaughtered, as well as the workers who are often exploited.” The poem offers a searing commentary, but Ben notes, “However, there's also something incredibly playful about the poem in the reading.” "What am I supposed to do with this damaged future that I'm giving them?" — Ben Yosua-Davis Ben and Craig pull back the curtains on parenting and reveal their own fears and concerns about possibly sharing too much too soon with their young children. When and how do you tell your children that the more-than-human world they love is at great risk? When do you shelter a child with silence and when do you begin the conversation? “...it gives them a space for creative expression and for healing.” — Craig Santos Perez Criag talks about his university students and how writing poetry that takes on ecological disasters helps them come closer to the issues and find a path forward. Craig explains, “I've also noticed how, you know, once students learn about these issues, once they write their own poetry about what is happening, they're much more inclined to actually, you know, go to a beach cleanup, or to march in the climate change rally or to attend other environmental events.” “Knowing how to grieve teaches us how to love.” — Nicole Diroff  Nicole Diroff joins Ben to discuss the themes that came up in the conversation. She explains the ways she talks to her eight-year-old, Elliot. “I've made a real commitment to finding the right language, because my child may be five, or six, or eight, or 12, to find the right language to have the conversation, but making sure that that my son knows that I'm the sort of person to talk about these topics with that I'm desiring to learn and live in this world at the same time that he is. It's really important with our children, and I say with our children, but I kind of mean just with other people to allow the space for authentic expression of emotion.”   Next Steps for Engaged Hope Even if we are not poets like Craig, it is always helpful to do creative work around these topics. I imagine there are listeners who will benefit from writing a poem about one of the topics that came up in the podcast. If you write the poem, you can share it with others through social media or face to face with family or friends. You can even send us a copy.  Craig suggests, “Spend some time those dawn and dusk hours outside with loved ones, with a favorite beverage to really just be in that moment and to connect to the deeper spirit of things.” For any of you who are interested in playing with painting as compared to poetry, Nicole invites you to go to look at the Earthbound Practices on The BTS Center website.  There you learn about the creativity practices, led by our friend Bronwen Mayer Henry, where she invites you to take out some coloured pencils, or chalk, or pens, and play with a notebook. To check out more of Craig Santos Perez's work, you can visit his website. You will find links to his books, including Habitat Threshold, which was published in 2020. You can also see videos, read essays, and learn more about his research. Climate Changed is a brand new podcast about pursuing faith, life, and love in a climate-changed world. Hosted by Nicole Diroff and Ben Yosua-Davis. Climate Changed features guests who deepen the conversation while also stirring the waters. The Climate Changed podcast is a project of The BTS Center. The show is produced by Peterson Toscano