Bioneers: Revolution From the Heart of Nature

With the illustrious anthropologist Francis Huxley of the renowned Huxley clan; a leading figure in Native American and American Studies, the late, beloved professor John Mohawk; and groundbreaking anthropological thinker and author Jeremy Narby. Practices by different Indigenous people around the world were labeled "shamanism" by anthropologists and dismissed as irrational superstition, but in the 20th century cultural observers began to see shamans in a new light, as creators of meaning. Are science and shamanism compatible? Is Indigenous knowledge safe for a modern, secular world?

After decades of the repression and demonization of these substances, research trials around the country have been achieving remarkable results that validate the profound healing potential of psychedelics such as psilocybin and MDMA. Mounting evidence suggests they positively address such varied conditions as end-of-life anxiety, PTSD, and cluster headaches. Hosted by J.P. Harpignies, Bioneers Conference Associate Producer. With: Robert Barnhart, filmmaker of A New Understanding: The Science of Psilocybin; Philip Wolfson, M.D., leading MDMA researcher; Mitch Schultz, director of the film DMT: The Spirit Molecule.Recorded Saturday, October 17, 2015 at the National Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, California.

Although powerful global corporations and their allies are trying to undermine progress toward sustainable and just food systems, unexpected collaborations among labor, women’s rights activists, family farmers and environmentalists are innovating strategies and alliances to assure a new course for our food systems. Hosted by Joann Lo, Executive Director, Food Chain Workers Alliance. With: Saru Jayaraman, Co-Director/founder, ROC United; Sriram Madhusoodanan, Value [the] Meal Director at Corporate Accountability International; Ben Burkett, President of the National Family Farm Coalition.

The late Terence McKenna was one of the most extraordinary personalities ever associated with visionary plants. One of the most gifted orators of the late 20th Century, he was a fascinatingly paradoxical figure: an absolutely charming but somewhat misanthropic mystic, a blindingly erudite genius who never achieved mainstream recognition, and a down-to-earth guy who advanced a range of astonishing prophetic scenarios. He brought verve and excitement to this field, and, since his tragic death in 2000, things have never been quite the same. Quite simply put, there will never be another like him. In this 1993 talk he initially delved into what was for him not his usual area of primary focus—our planetary environmental crisis, but in the end, Terence linked, in his inimitable voice, the fate of the biosphere to visionary plant use. Because time is so short, he argued, we need radically powerful means to communicate with the intelligence of the natural world because there has never been a time when hearing what that intelligence is trying to communicate has been more crucial, and sacred plants with long histories of shamanic use are, he argued, while not free of risks, the best tools for that job.

Breakthrough food literacy initiatives are transforming communities, bringing people together in meaningful conversations. Learn how to design an effective food literacy program for your community, organization or school. With: Kirk Bergstrom, Executive Director, Nourish Initiative; Alyson Wylie, Health Education Specialist, Center for Nutrition and Activity Promotion, California State University, Chico.

“Our soils have a carbon debt. Our atmosphere is gushing with carbon. The carbon over our heads is literally in the wrong place.”… Rebecca BurgessThe solution to climate change is under our feet. Rebecca Burgess, of the Fibershed Project, explains how drawing carbon from the atmosphere and capturing it in the soil can reverse climate change. Rebecca, who is developing climate friendly local clothing production and carbon farming certification for her suppliers, is joined, in this excerpt from a Bioneers workshop, by holistic grazers Ariel Greenwood and Guido Frosini who are managing livestock while regenerating natural ecosystems.

Four extraordinary women leaders share their perspectives on how to break through the stalemates that impede progress to build a world in which we can all thrive. They work in different spaces – from challenging governments and corporations to defending Indigenous people’s rights, education reform, movement building and investing in green businesses.With: Eriel Deranger, Communications Manager of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation; Adrianna Quintero, Senior Attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council and founder/Director of Voces Verdes; Annie Leonard, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA; Christiana Wyly, Executive Director of Food Choice Taskforce, Director of My Plate Planet initiative. Hosted by Osprey Orielle Lake, co-founder and Executive Director, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN).

A rare interview with Jeremy Narby and the late Francis Huxley, legendary anthropologists in conversation with Bioneers Radio Host and consulting producer Neil Harvey. The interview took place at a Bioneers conference in 2002.

What if we stop perceiving power and privilege as limited commodities? How do we collaborate in ways that generate dynamic power and create win-win strategies? Join J. Miakoda Taylor, Founding Director of Fierce Allies, in this interactive exploration.

For thousands of years, First Peoples have successfully managed the complex reciprocal relationships between biological and human cultures using Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). Yet no prior human civilization has ever faced the globalized ecological collapse occurring now.In the face of unprecedented pressures on their homelands and ways of life, indigenous leaders Enei Begaye, Dune Lankard, and Hawk Rosales are organizing in new ways to protect the environment--and spread their knowledge for the sake of all life on Earth and future generations.