PODCAST: Salmon, Sculpture, and the Art of Disappearing

This week on Enlightened Omnivore, I sit down with Shannon Ninburg, an artist and salmon educator whose work lives right at the intersection of ecology, attention, and awe.If you’ve ever watched a salmon run, really watched it, you know it’s not just a biology lesson. It’s a story about endurance, memory, return… and the strange beauty of an ending that becomes a beginning all over again.Shannon teaches that story through Salmon in the Schools, a Seattle-area program where kids raise salmon from eggs in classroom tanks and release them into local creeks and streams.But Shannon doesn’t only teach these cycles.She sculpts them.Enlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Her recent work features endangered animals carved in salt, and then shared with goats who lick away sections of the sculpture—leaving behind voids, absences, and a kind of visual grief that is hard to unsee.Shannon admits that constructing the body of a disappearing creature felt unexpectedly powerful. And then she put that body into the world.She let the goats do what goats do, making the sculpture a collaboration—equal parts beautiful, grotesque, and devastating.What’s left isn’t just an image of an animal.It’s the experience of absence.The emotional lesson underneath the scienceWhat I loved about this week’s conversation is how seamlessly it moves between the literal and the metaphorical The salmon story is already a masterclass in keystone species: the fish return, lay their eggs, break down, become food and fertilizer. Teachers of reciprocity. Shannon’s art echoes the same truth—just in a form our modern brains can’t scroll past. We can know species are disappearing. We hear it constantly. But feeling it, really feeling it, is something else entirely. Both are reminders that our modern culture loves beginnings… tolerates middles… and struggles mightily with endings.And I guess that’s what this episode kept circling for me:Life moves in seasons.Things arrive, take form, dissolve, and become nourishment for what comes next.And when children learn that rhythm early, they grow up understanding not just how the world works—but how a livable future is made.Links and Resources* Shannon Ninburg — Artist, sculptor, salmon educator * Salmon in the Schools – Seattle (SIS-Seattle)* Fauntleroy Watershed Council / Fauntleroy Creek salmon info* Elwha River dam removal + ecosystem restoration (National Park Service)* NOAA Fisheries: Elwha River restoration case study* Salmon carcasses and tree growth (Quinn et al., Ecology, 2018)* Salmon olfactory imprinting and natal homing (Bandoh et al., 2011)* Robin Wall Kimmerer — Braiding Sweetgrass Substack Live! February 1st: Food MemoriesDon’t forget, I’m hosting an Ask Me Anything Substack Live on Saturday, February 1st at 8am PT/11am ET. I’ll be sharing some behind the scenes Podcast conversations, talking a little more about how I pick my topics, what I’ve been reading, and what I’m working on for the month.Stay Connected* Follow along on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok for video content, reels, and behind-the-scenes thoughts. I’m also on Facebook and LinkedIn.* Say hi on Substack Notes—I’m posting almost every day about my random reflections on life.* Join me in Chat. It’s a space just for subscribers, kind of like a group text but less embarrassing. Download the app, tap the Chat icon (it looks like two speech bubbles at the bottom), and find the latest “Enlightened Omnivore” thread.Enlightened Omnivore is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit enlightenedomnivore.substack.com/subscribe