Green Dreamer: Seeding change towards collective healing, sustainability, regeneration

(By request, this is the raw, untranslated version of our interview with Nemonte Nenquimo — in which you will hear Nemonte's original responses in Spanish to Kaméa's questions presented in English.)What has been the historical relationship between missionary work and the development of the oil industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon? What does it mean to listen to the voices — both human and more-than-human — of the Amazon Rainforest?And how do the Waorani navigate tensions between their Indigenous cosmovisions and ways of life, and the outside world’s growing influence on their younger generations?For our special Earth Month feature, we are honored to share our powerful conversation with Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo — who recently co-authored We Will Be Jaguars with her partner, Mitch Anderson.How do we recenter our perspectives of “modern” on communities who are, in this modern day, most in tune with the languages of Mother Earth — and reorient our ideals of “futuristic” towards all that enrich and affirm life?We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

What has been the historical relationship between missionary work and the development of the oil industry in the Ecuadorian Amazon? What does it mean to listen to the voices — both human and more-than-human — of the Amazon Rainforest?And how do the Waorani navigate tensions between their Indigenous cosmovisions and ways of life, and the outside world’s growing influence on their younger generations?For our special Earth Month feature, we are honored to share our powerful conversation with Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo — who recently co-authored We Will Be Jaguars with her partner, Mitch Anderson.How do we recenter our perspectives of “modern” on communities who are, in this modern day, most in tune with the languages of Mother Earth — and reorient our ideals of “futuristic” towards all that enrich and affirm life?We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

What is at stake if we bypass the “inner” work of personal transformation while we rally forward in the “external” work of dismantling systemic injustice?What does it mean to imbue wonder, mystery, and magic within movements for collective liberation?And what if these troubled times actually require us to become strange to its often-normalized values, worldviews, and ways of be-ing?⁠In this episode, Green Dreamer’s host kaméa chayne is joined by Prentis Hemphill, who curiously invites us to honor and unleash the full, weird, and majestic creatures within us.⁠Join us as we unravel the messy layers of healing our humanity in this modern world — including an interrogation of the ways that social media and AI have been distorting our very real human needs for connection.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via Spotify or any podcast app;subscribe to kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

A lot of people seem to be struggling with our senses of belonging.So many people have been uprooted and forcibly displaced. Many have chosen out of free will to relocate. Many are born into places where they don't have deep ancestral roots. And many don’t have the privilege of feeling like their families and communities with whom they grew up are safe spaces to call home and find healing within. But if truly holistic medicine is tied to culture, to community, place, and the land, what does it mean to nurture collective healing and rebuild community in a vastly diasporic world?In this episode, Green Dreamer’s kaméa is joined by Serene Thin Elk, who gently guides us to unravel “trauma” in historic, individual, community, and environmental contexts, while beckoning us towards collective, intergenerational healing.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

What does it mean to recognize that so much of the world has become “anti-microbial”? Why is it that some bacteria make us sick while others are vital to our wellbeing? And how can we understand social transformation as a form of fermentation?In this episode, we are joined by fermentation revivalist Sandor Katz, who guides us through the foundations of what fermentation is.Sink into this discussion as we explore the ways that wild fermentation invites us to deepen our relationship to place and our local environments.We welcome you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via Spotify or any podcast app;and subscribe to kaméa’s newsletter here to stay posted on our latest interviews.

How is the Maasai community continually being displaced and disenfranchised in the name of “wildlife conservation”? What are some of the common propaganda used to justify their mass evictions? And how do the Maasai’s communal land relations, rooted in nomadism and pastoralism, ultimately challenge the laws of their nation-state — revealing the subjective ethics and worldviews that define legality?In this episode, we are honored to be joined by Joseph Oleshangay, a Maasai human rights lawyer who has litigated high-profile lawsuits against their government — notably, regarding forced evictions of the Maasai community in Ngorongoro District for tourism and trophy hunting.What can we learn from the Maasai’s ancestral lifeways that blur the lines between life and “wild” life — showing their food, medicine, culture, spirituality, stories, and music as inextricably woven into the plains and highlands where they call home?We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

Martín Prechtel, an award-winning writer and teacher with deep roots in Indigenous cultures, shares his insights from Northern New Mexico. He explores the vital connection between language and identity, emphasizing the need to revitalize Indigenous languages to combat cultural loss. Prechtel critiques modernity's impacts on 'real culture' and highlights the beauty of communal and organic connections to the land. He encourages embracing human complexity and the inherent wisdom found in everyday life, fostering a deeper appreciation for cultural heritage.

How do the biological life forms of the Amazon rainforest — from pollen grains, fungal spores, to microbes — play active roles in their regional water cycle? How might we connect chemistry, biology, physics, ecology, and other less quantifiable measures of aliveness to look at our planetary crises in much more holistic ways? And if the Earth's “systems” were ever-emergent and everchanging, then how do we know what to orient healing and restoring balance towards?In this episode, kaméa is joined by Ferris Jabr, who shares his wealth of ecological knowledge while drawing upon his book, Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life.Join us as we explore some big and larger-than-life questions pertaining to the Earth as a living body — one that gave rise to humanity, one whose living systems we contribute to shaping, and one that will continue reiterating well beyond human timescales.We invite you to…tune in and subscribe to Green Dreamer via any podcast app;subscribe to Kaméa’s newsletters here;and support our show through a one-time donation or through joining our paid subscriptions on Patreon or Substack.

Nathalie Kelley, an actress of Indigenous Peruvian descent, uses her storytelling power to advocate for systemic justice and environmental sustainability. She critiques Hollywood's reliance on AI in storytelling, debating how it impacts cultural narratives. The conversation delves into the importance of reconnecting with roots and understanding privilege in new contexts. Nathalie emphasizes collaborative efforts in environmental advocacy while celebrating the joy and fulfillment found in community and ancestral wisdom.

adrienne maree brown, Author of Loving Corrections, dives into nourishing discussions about building connections amidst social change. She explores the delicate balance of nurturing friendships through political divides, emphasizing the shift from cancel culture to calling each other in. The conversation touches on fostering open communication and genuine relationships for effective activism. With a focus on community resilience, brown advocates for grounding ourselves in shared values, nurturing our 'garden of ideas' together.