Emergence Magazine Podcast

In the summer of 1968, Christian mystic Thomas Merton undertook a pilgrimage to the American West. Fifty years later, writer Fred Bahnson set out to follow Merton’s path, retracing the monk’s journey across the landscape. This narrated essay offers an intimate meditation on Merton’s life and the relevance of the spiritual journey today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this interview, writer Paul Kingsnorth discusses some of the central themes explored in his work. The conversation centers on the "myth of progress," the failure of technology to deliver the "good life," and how both have led us into the environmental crisis. He describes how old myths offer a way to be with the uncertainty embedded in our time, and how we can listen for new stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bayo Akomolafe is a writer and lecturer from western Nigeria. In the age of the Anthropocene and entrenched politics of whiteness, this essay brings us face-to-face with our own unresolved ancestry, as it becomes more and more apparent that we are completely entwined with each other and the natural world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this in-depth investigative story, Emergence Magazine staff writer Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder explores the collision of values unfolding on the summit of Mauna Kea, the proposed site for what would be the largest telescope in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Paul Kingsnorth is a writer living in rural Ireland. Recalling a visit from a dark figure in a dream, who reappeared in his novel "The Wake," Paul reflects on writing as an alchemical process, one involving transformation, discipline, and purification. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a writer, scientist, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is author of the acclaimed book "Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants." In this essay, Robin reflects on the ancient technology embedded in our relationship with maize, recalling that a grinding stone, an irrigation system, and an ear of corn are also technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

David Abram is a cultural ecologist and philosopher. In this essay, he reflects on our undying urge to recreate a primal experience of intimacy with the surrounding world, offering notes on technology and animism in an age of ecological wipeout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nick Hunt is a writer, journalist, storyteller, and self-described wind-walker. His latest book, "Where the Wild Winds Are," tells the story of four European winds and their effects on the landscape, people, and culture. In this essay Nick continues this exploration, focusing on the mythological understanding of winds as gods, experiencing their power firsthand as cause for awe, exhilaration, and fear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a captivating discussion, Martin Shaw, a renowned writer, teacher, and mythologist, delves into the profound intelligence embedded in myths. He shares the tale of the Lindworm, weaving themes of transformation and emotional connection. Martin emphasizes the sacred art of storytelling and listening, urging a return to authentic narratives that resonate with our ancestral roots. He also reflects on the paradox of choice in modern life, and how true engagement with our environments fosters personal growth and deeper connections to place.

In this essay Kara visits a primordial, old-growth forest in Poland. Here she meets a herd of bison, encounters loggers and felled trees, tracks wolves, and observes how a healthy forest is in a constant cycle of death and rebirth. Upon returning to her home in the sheep-grazed moors of Wales, she asks how this example of regeneration can be healing, not just for the desolated Welsh landscape she wants to re-wild, but for herself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices