Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature

The worlds of psychedelic research and culture have historically been heavily male, and the stories of some of the great women pioneers in these domains have not received the attention they deserve. This historic panel discussion brought together some of the most extraordinary women who have contributed to this field in their own very diverse ways. The intrepid ethnobotanist, artist and co-founder of Botanical Dimensions, Kat Harrison was joined by the legendary Carolyn “Mountain Girl” Garcia, a key figure in the Merry Pranksters and former wife of the late Grateful Dead guitarist; Annie Oak, founder of the Women’s Visionary Congress; and family nurse midwife with decades of experience, Mariavittoria Mangini, Ph.D.

"Three-quarters of our military expenditure is for forces whose primary mission is intervention in the Persian Gulf. If we got off the oil, we wouldn't need most of the forces we have, it would be a very different world, and I think a much safer as well as a fairer and richer one."The concept of national security is moving beyond bullets, bombs, soldiers and warcraft to encompass the country’s internal resilience, health and environmental sustainability. What’s needed, say two leading environmental visionaries, is the equivalent of a wartime mobilization to create a sustainable planet including a far more decentralized infrastructure. Global energy strategist Amory Lovins and Oberlin College Professor David Orr advocate sustainability as the strategic imperative and foundation for a new national security narrative. The military is starting to agree.

Shamanic botanical traditions and modern reinventions propose that certain plants may offer people a direct line to a profound ecological intelligence. Hosted by Bioneers Associate Producer J.P. Harpignies, editor of Visionary Plant Consciousness; with ethnobotanist, artist and plant-person extraordinaire Kat Harrison; CODEPINK co-founder, and board member of the Drug Policy Alliance, Jodie Evans; and Erik Davis, a scholar of spiritual subcultures, author of several classics, including Techgnosis, Nomad Codes, and The Visionary State: A Journey Through California’s Spiritual Landscapes.

Join a diverse circle of women media-makers to hear how each learned to trust her own voice. They share stories and discuss effective strategies that can be applied to lift the voices of women of every age and perspective. Hosted by Jodie Evans, women’s media champion.With: Jensine Larsen, founder of World Pulse; Neema Namadamu, internationally renowned Congolese civil society leader, founder of Hero Women Rising; Nicole Middleton, GlobalGirl Media activist.Recorded Friday, October 16, 2015 at the National Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, California.

Leading women designers gathered by the Buckminster Fuller Institute (BFI) explore the principles of participatory design—inclusion, cooperation, community, regeneration—and how we can design a human world that meets everyone’s needs without harming the bio- sphere. Hosted by Elizabeth Thompson, BFI Executive Director. With: Erin Meezan, VP of Sustainability, Interface, Inc.; Jane Harrison, co-founder, PITCHAfrica/Waterbank Schools; Dawn Danby, Senior Sustainable Design Program Manager, Autodesk, Inc.

In October 2016, before Trump was elected, Eve Ensler gave a visionary call at the Bioneers conference for men to put ending rape culture front and center in their lives and work.Candidate Trump, said Eve, is a phenomenon – something larger than the person - because he’s channeling the unprocessed darkness in the environment and swirling it into ever-greater darkness. He’s carrying our collective karma, and we can change that.Since then, serial scandals have continued to escalate until the dam burst with the Weinstein wake-up-call and the cultural tsunami of the #metoo movement. It’s a watershed moment, but little will actually change, says Eve, unless and until men step up to dismantle the patriarchy, transforming themselves in the process of ending this vicious system that destroys men’s souls as well.The gender wound may be the deepest social wound of all. At this epic moment of seismic cultural change, what we do now will determine the future for decades to come. This is the moment to begin healing the gender wound once and for all. Please let us know what Eve’s words mean to you.- Kenny Ausubel, Bioneers Co-Founder

LaDonna Redmond and Wil Bullock live in communities where 12-year-olds suffer heart attacks, and where it's easier to buy a semi-automatic weapon than an organic tomato. But they are changing that reality, providing access to fresh, healthy foods, and re-establishing the connections between food and community.

Hosted by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). New research is providing a provocative look at the healing potential of certain psychedelic substances, possibly yielding a scientific foundation for re-evaluating public policies of prohibition and repression. With Ralph Metzner, consciousness explorer whose groundbreaking books include The Psychedelic Experience and Green Psychology; Rick Doblin, MAPS founder/President; and Valerie Mojeiko, a MAPS analyst of the healing potentials of MDMA (Ecstasy), LSD, lbogaine and other psychedelics.

In 2018, Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter shared a moving speech at a Bioneers Conference. Cullors is a performance artist and award-winning organizer from Los Angeles, and is one of the most effective and influential movement builders of our era. She was a key figure in the fight to force the creation of the first civilian oversight commission of the LA Sheriff’s Department, but is most widely known as one of the three original co-founders of Black Lives Matter and for her recent, best-selling book, “When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir.”

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