Last week we got very engrossed in our conversation with David Rovics, so much so that we ended up doing 2 shows of interviewing in one long session, so we have David back this week to provide 5 more songs and the remainder of the conversation. To recap from last week, David Rovics has produced something like 50 albums, and while his style is mostly folk-based, he does some songs which are folk-punk, metal and rock, but there were also a couple years where he was mainly making children's music. First & foremost, he's a powerful voice for protest, activism, social change, and he aims as best he can to make this a better world. We interviewed him back 18 years ago, so this is part two of his second full Song of the Soul & he joins us from Portland, Oregon.
Past/present religious/spiritual influences: Atheist, Humanist, Quaker, Taoism, Jewish
In this special Spirit in Action episode, guest-host Nicole Diroff welcomes a new Climate Changed host, Autumn Brown, and the focus is on learning to create stories leading us into a better future, nurturing our wholeness as we find our path forward. Guests & topics include Tory Stephens, Imagine 2200, Thrutopia, & more, and they'll entool you to make a better version of our Climate Changed world. The Climate Changed Podcast is a gift of The BTS Center, produced with the help of Peterson Toscano.
After 18 years we welcome back David Rovics today to share his 2nd Song of the Soul. David has made an expansive career in writing and sharing music of protest, providing energy for & insight into the issues & mechanics of making a better life for those in the US & around the world. His many dozens of albums cover the gamut, with genres especially of folk, and folk-punk, but also touches of children's music, metal, & rock. With inspiration from & parallels to activist folks like Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, & Phil Ochs, nothing stops David. With lots of songs to share, today is part one of a 2-part song of the soul with David. David Rovics joins us from Portland, Oregon.
Past/present religious/spiritual influences: Atheist, Humanist, Quaker, Taoism, Jewish
We welcome back David Wilcox to share his second Song of the Soul, following up on his 2013 interview. David has a hearty laugh even while digging deep in the challenges and pains of our lives, managing to keep grace and gratitude percolating without rose-colored glasses. His gift is sharing the full story, without inundating us with all the words, thereby calling them out of us as well. He joins us from Asheville, NC.
All featured music is written & performed by David Wilcox, and are from The Way I Tell the Story:
The Beautiful
The Way I Tell the Story
I Made it Rain - co-written with Adam Levy
We have an amazingly creative, thoughtful, and passionate guest with us today. Jamie Logan produces media to move our consciousness toward veganism and animal liberation. The wide diversity of video productions Jamie has created is truly impressive, both in the videos she created with Jordan Ehrlich, as part of Cavelight Films, and in the separate work she has done as Jamie's Corner and available on her website itsjamiescorner.com. Touching on issues like health, compassion, animal liberation, environmental issues, and women's lingerie, Jamie finds fruitful ways to move us toward peace and wholeness along with all of our fellow travelers on this globe.
In the third installment of songs inspired by the Minnesota Uprising, the songs are harvested from Minnesota, Nashville, Bethlehem, PA, and the Southern coast of England. All four musicians and songs you'll be hearing are energy & affirmation for the valiant community of the Twin Cities of Minnesota, and a spotlight on the vile government force the community has stood up against. Billy Bragg has a few decades of resisting the system under his belt, reaching all the way across the Atlantic Ocean. Peter Mayer lives a scant 30 or 40 minutes from Minneapolis, examining the world through a wonderful microscope of science & spirituality. Mary Gauthier inhabits the warmer climes of Nashville, TN, and she shares a song she co-wrote with Eliza Gilkyson.
Our guest-host today is Jan Spencer, bringing with him insights and guidance about sustainability and what he calls A Primer for Paradigm Shift. Jan has been at this for some decades, observing others moving toward sustainability, learning various systems, ideas, and techniques to support the transition, and experimenting with it on his own suburban property in Eugene, Oregon. In this episode, Jan takes a look at 5 organizations that teach values, principles & actions that are a perfect fit for paradigm shift. Then he'll share a story about Benicia, a city in the NW corner of the San Francisco Bay area, which is in the process of losing its most single important employer and source of taxes, a sprawling oil refinery. The Primer describes a choice Bernicia could take, moving the people and the city toward sustainability and financial well-being.
I interviewed Peter Mayer back in 2011 – so 15 years ago – and for some bizarre reason I've waited all this time to have him back. The recent impetus was a song Peter wrote, called “Heroes,” inspired by the recent Minnesota uprising, so near to my home and to his. But Peter's music is endless reason to visit him time and again, because it's not only beautiful, but it's deeply reflective and inspirational, dancing on the line between spirituality and science, between inward magic and outward miracles.
Past/present religious/spiritual influences:
All featured music is written & performed by Peter Mayer and all were released as singles:
Holy, Holy, Holy
This Freedom
Greyhounds
Happiness
The Miracle of Life
Little Heart
Peterson Toscano is guest-host today, and he's leading across a vast tapestry of people & subjects, starting with issues surrounding Period Poverty & Menstrual Cups. This and more is discussed as Peterson talks to 4 remarkable women: Christine Garde Denning is founder of Could You?, a global nonprofit providing menstrual cups, malaria prevention tools, and practical pathways out of extreme poverty, Mary Maker, who is the force behind Could You?'s community work across Africa, Fran Stoffer, who is Chair of the Northwest CT Community Foundation Women & Girls Fund, and Mona Norfleet, who is a community advocate, YMCA leader, equity organizer, and member of local anti-racist initiatives.
Today we're sharing part 2 of songs inspired by the Minnesota Uprising, and today's songs were birthed in West Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina, highlighting the heart & spirit threads that knit the diverse regions of our country together with a shared passion and activism. Chris Haddox is a musician, but also an Associate Professor of Sustainable Design at West Virginia University. John McCutcheon is Wisconsin-born, attended college in Minnesota, but has lived in Virginia and then Georgia for some 5 decades. John is amazingly prolific, with more than 45 albums, and amazingly creative, funny, serious, & moving. Our third guest is David Wilcox who found a home for his body, heart, and guitar, in Asheville, NC, while biking the Blue Ridge Mountains.