Advertise on podcast: Forum on Religion and Ecology: Spotlights

This episode of Spotlights features Dr. Patricia Wright, a renowned American primatologist, anthropologist, and conservationist. She is famous for her extensive fieldwork in Madagascar, where she discovered the golden bamboo lemur and spearheaded the creation of Ranomafana National Park. She discusses her work, especially the challenges of conservation, the connections between humans and nature, and the incredible world of Lemurs. You can learn more about her work by exploring the Pat Wright Lab at Stony Brook University. https://patwrightlab.weebly.com/pat-wright.html

This episode features Cory Eft, founder and CEO of Astoria, an online marketplace and network connecting buyers and sellers of regenerative livestock. He talks about his background in physics and software engineering, as well as his turn to the regenerative movement in agriculture. Some of the topics discussed include the importance of technology, community, and spirituality, as well as the harmful effects of industrial agriculture. For more information about Astoria, be sure to visit the website: https://astorialivestock.com

This episode features Ryan Shea, a researcher and educator working with the Nature Institute, which develops ways of thinking and perceiving that integrate self-reflective and critical thought, imagination, and careful, detailed observation of nature's phenomena. He brings to his work at The Nature Institute a broad knowledge of ancient philosophical biology (especially Aristotle), the scientific revolution, phenomenology, German idealism, and Goethean qualitative science.

In this episode, our host reflects on the new encyclical from Pope Leo XIV, Magnifica Humanitas. While this letter focuses on artificial intelligence and integral human development, there are also several points that connect with the intersection of religion and ecology, including the idea of integral ecology as 6well as an ecology of communication.

Recorded on Earth Day 2026, this episode features Devin O'Dea, who has been a long-time collaborator with people and projects affiliated with the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, including the Journey of the Universe project and the Human Energy project. We discuss his background, his passion for material and meaningful participation in our evolutionary unfolding, and his latest venture: Days & Seasons.  Days & Seasons is a social enterprise rooted in awareness, movement, embodied cosmology, philosophy, ecopsychology, neurophysiology, ecological education, environmental restoration, social impact, and conscious capitalism. Days & Seasons was founded to create opportunities for people to reconnect with nature, build stronger communities, and live more intentional lives. Inspired by the interconnectedness of all living things, they combine science, philosophy, and experiential learning to help individuals thrive in alignment with the cycles of the Earth.

This episode features Osprey Orielle Lake, with an inspiring conversation of great breadth and depth, as she exemplifies the brilliance and bravery required to remake a world in crisis. We talk about a wonderful variety of topics, including her work as the founder and executive direction of Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN). We also discuss the idea of the rights of nature. Osprey is on the executive committee for the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. The conversation would not be complete without also talking about her amazing book, The Story is in Our Bones: How Worldviews and Climate Justice Can Remake a World.

In this episode of the Forum podcast, Paul Koberstein discusses his book (co-authored by Jessica Apple), Canopy of Titans: The Life and Times of the Great North American Temperate Rainforest. We talk about the importance of protecting forests, including the important concept of proforestation. Many issues are covered, including governance, the logging industry, science, environmental justice, Indigenous communities, climate change, and more. You can find more information about the book on the publisher's website here: https://orbooks.com/catalog/canopy-of-titans/

In this episode of the Forum podcast, our host performs a reading of “The Meadow Across the Creek,” a well-known essay by a very influential figure in the field of religion and ecology: Thomas Berry. It speaks to the importance of having meaningful connections to our embodiment and embeddedness in a living Earth community and an evolving universe. As we approach the end of the calendar year, a new year is returning, giving us time to re-read works that mean a lot to us. You can find this piece in Berry’s book, The Great Work: Our Way into the Future (1999). You can also find it posted at https://thomasberry.org/the-meadow-across-the-creek/

This episode of the Forum podcast follow a years-long tradition of giving a review of the place of religion and ecology at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR). In this episode, our host Sam Mickey talks with the co-chair of the religion and ecology unit of the AAR -- Kimberly Carfore -- to discuss the present and future of this field of study. You'll hear about important attention to Indigenous traditions, interreligious dialogue. religious practice, extractivism, and more.

This episode of Spotlights features Tyler Mark Nelson, a core team member for the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology. Tyler is an educator, eco-theologian, and artist exploring the ways that humans make sense of their creaturely existence in relation to the more-than-human world. Currently he is assisting with the launch of the exciting Living Earth Community project. We talk about his personal journey into the intersection of religion and ecology, as well as his key contributions to the Living Earth Community project. Tyler brings enthusiasm and creativity into his inquiries into the intelligences of nature, ecological worldviews, and Earth law. For more information about the Living Earth Community project, visit the website: https://livingearthcommunity.com/

In this short episode, our host Sam Mickey introduces the new season of the podcast for the Forum on Religion and Ecology. The episode covers some personal details about our host as well as some discussion of what is to come for this exciting new season. A big part of this new season will be attention to the new website that has emerged from the Forum team: Living Earth Community. https://livingearthcommunity.com/

This episode is about a very special issue of The New Ecozoic Reader that has just been released. This special issue, edited by the Forum's own Sam Mickey and Sam C. King, offers retrospective and prospective views on the field of religion and ecology: looking at where we've been, where things stand now, and how the field, and our work together, could evolve going forward. The issue is very intergenerational and includes essays by both esteemed and established figures in the field, and younger scholars, just emerging on the scene.  The issue includes a foreword by Iyad Abumoghli of UNEP Faith for Earth Coalition, a preface by Sam King and Sam Mickey, an Introduction by Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, and contributions from: Heather Eaton, David Haberman, Elizabeth Allison, Whitney A. Bauman, Ibrahim Ozdemir, Jason Brown, Kim Carfore, Sarah Pike, Lisa E. Dahill, Nancy Wright, Jim Robinson, Melanie L. Harris, Christopher Key Chapple, Dan Smyer Yu, Charisma K. Lepcha, Philip P. Arnold, Sandra L. Bigtree, Graham Harvey, Russell C. Powell, Rachael Petersen, Terra Schwerin Rowe, and Larry Rasmussen.  More information is available here: https://ecozoicstudies.org/the-new-ecozoic-reader/

In this episode, our host discusses the new book by the British writer, Robert Macfarlane, Is a River Alive? It's an exciting contribution to the growing body of literature that expands our imaginations and our legal frameworks to account for the agency and liveliness of the natural world.

This episode features Rachael Petersen, a writer, thinker, and convener. We discuss her life and work at the confluence of philosophy, ecology, and transcendence. As Program Lead of Harvard’s Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative, Rachael guides interdisciplinary explorations into how cutting-edge plant science challenges our ideas of mind, matter, and meaning. She holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School, where her research centered on panpsychism, pantheism, and the more-than-human world, with a special focus on German philosophy. You can learn more at her personal website: https://www.rachaelnpetersen.com/

This episode features Natalia Schwien Scott. She is an herbalist, wildlife rescue & rehabilitation apprentice, and Ph.D. candidate in the Study of Religion at Harvard University, where she recently completed a Master of Theological Studies degree with a focus on the intersection of ecology and spiritual practice. She researches relational ontologies, posthuman ethics, and diction on personhood in scientific discourse. She also serves as an Advisor and Program Associate for the Thinking with Plants & Fungi Initiative at the Center for the Study of World Religion, which we discussed in our previous episode. Learn more about her amazing work here: https://www.selkieprojects.com