#137 Critical Ethnobotany and Reimagining Our Role in Ecology with Kelly Moody

Kelly Moody is a critical ethnobotanist, philosopher, teacher, writer, and podcast host. After growing up in rural southern Virginia on her grandmother’s tobacco farm, Kelly’s interest in plants and ecology never left her. She received a B.A. in Philosophy and Religious Studies, and then left Virginia to travel cross-country, studying herbal medicine, land tending, ecology and botany. In the summer of 2020, she hiked the Colorado Trail documenting plants on foot and made notes on wild food and medicine gardens found along the old Ute pathways. Kelly and I discuss what it means to approach fields like ethnobotany, archeology, and anthropology both holistically and with a critical lens, rethinking relationships between people and plants, and questioning the ways we’ve explored, preserved, and defined “ecology”, “nature”, and “wilderness”. We also speak about the limits of capitalism, and reimagine a future in which infrastructure and capital could work toward ecological regeneration instead of against it.Find Kelly at OfSedgeAndSalt.com, on Instagram, on Substack and listen to her podcast The Ground Shots Podcast, available on Substack and all streaming apps.Songs featured: “Feet Keep Moving” by Natural Self & “Desert Dove” by Holly ArrowsmithSign up for the MGSW book club here.Join myself and Christopher Ryan + Cameron and Melayne Shayne in Montana this summer for the 2023 Sex at Dawn Retreat, August 20-25. To apply, click here.How to support the show:Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!Become a paid subscriber on SubstackVisit my website - AnyaKaats.com & Find me on InstagramA Millennial's Guide to Saving the World is a reader and listener-supported project. If you find this content valuable, and have the means to contribute financially, please consider becoming a paid supporter for only $5/month and get access to bonus content, a community book club, and more: anyakaats.substack.com Get full access to Dirt Road Dispatch at anyakaats.substack.com/subscribe