Future Ecologies
by Future Ecologies
Made for nature lovers and audiophiles alike, Future Ecologies explores our eco-social relationships through stories, science, music, and soundscapes. Every episode is an invitation to see the world in a new light — weaving together narrative and interviews with expert knowledge holders.The format varies: from documentary storytelling to stream-of-consciousness sound collage, and beyond. Episodes are released only when they're ready, not on a fixed schedule (but approximately monthly).This ad-free, independent podcast is supported by our listeners: https://www.futureecologies.net/join
Episodes
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FE6.10 - Mussel Memory
On the emerald isle of Ireland, an easily-overlooked creature holds the history of a nation within its shell. From the rise and collapse of heavy industry, to a bloody civil war, the riverbeds of Ireland have been witness — and they tell a story of change and possibility stretching far beyond any...
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Future Ecologies presents Ideas: What the River Wants to Be (Part 1)
We have a soft spot for food systems that challenge the modern convention: food systems like forest gardens or sea gardens that don’t at all look like vast rows of monocultures, but instead blend into the landscape — to the point of being invisible — at least until you’ve learned how to see them....
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[HYPHAEDELITY] Chelsey Armstrong x Leigh Joseph — The State of Ethnobotany
Spring is here, and (not to brag, but) around these parts, the smell of flowers is in the air, and everything seems to be buzzing with life. Times like these, it’s hard not to have plants on the brain, and we fully endorse you getting out to meet your green neighbours. While you do that, we…
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FE6.9 - On Fire: Out of the Green, Into the Black
So you want to put good fire on the ground, but how?? We're taking you to Yurok territory (at the mouth of the Klamath River) to join the Cultural Fire Management Council for 3 days of burning — not just for fuel management, but for all sorts of cultural and ecological values: food, wildlife,...
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[HYPHAEDELITY] Eric Higgs x Laura Govers — Seagrass Restoration on a Moving Island
Eric Higgs (of FE3.1, FE3.2, FE3.3, and FE4.9) sits down with Laura Govers, who has been working on bringing eel grass back to the Netherlands' Wadden Sea — on an island that moves, no less! This conversation covers the low-tech solutions that they concocted to plant hectares of eel grass, the...
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FE6.8 - For Peat's Sake
Bogs are our absolute favourite places to be. They’re not only tremendously important ecosystems, rich in exquisite biodiversity and massive stores of carbon, they’re also uniquely beautiful. These serene, colourful spaces jumble land and water into something at once both alien and familiar. In...
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A podcast for False Creek
Mendel has another show to share with you: Waterbodies It's a video podcast dedicated to a particular body of water we have here in Vancouver, called False Creek, but more generally it’s about how we can transform our urban spaces into thriving, biodiverse, celebrations of living nature — for...
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In conversation with Threshold and Drilled
We had the opportunity to hang out with two of our favourite podcasters: Amy Martin of Threshold, and Amy Westervelt of Drilled. We've previously featured both of their work on the Future Ecologies feed, and we couldn't pass up the chance to talk shop about the latest (fantastic) seasons of their...
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FE6.7 - Critical Mast
What do you call it when a population of podcasts mysteriously drop episodes on the same topic at the same time? It's Critical Mast! We're so proud to present this nutty experiment in community podcasting, with its roots going back to the very beginning of our show (and the beginning of our...
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[HYPHAEDELITY] Sadie Couture x Hannah Tollefson — Tidewater and the Nature of Logistics
We've got another edition of our intermittent interview show for you, this one featuring Sadie Couture in conversation with Hannah Tollefson. You'll remember Sadie as co-producer and reporter of FE3.4 — Dama Drama. Since then, she’s become a PhD student in Communication Studies at McGill…
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Future Ecologies presents: Green Dreams (from Cited)
We’ve got a great guest episode for you today, coming courtesy of our friends over at the podcast Cited. They’ve got a new series out called “Green Dreams” — covering stories of radical environmentalist thought leaders, and the ripples they’ve left on the present day. We wanted to share with you...
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FE6.6 - Landings
We’ve got something a little different for you: something a little less in the sciences, and a little more in the humanities — in the realm of language and human experience. Today, through a series of conversations, we’re exploring the notion of what it means to have a relationship to land, to be...
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Future Ecologies presents: Circle of Voices & Javan Hunt
It's a double feature! With help from recordist/anthropologist/podcaster Louise Romain and musician/conservationist Javan Hunt, we're visiting the Caribbean. First, off the coast of Colombia, on the islands of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, and next a musical excursion to Grand…
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[HYPHAEDELITY] Adam Davis x Tim Male — Non-partisan Environmental Policy
Hello! As you know well, we're not the news. The news is generally bad, and we prefer to not be bad news. So, it's a funny thing for us to release an episode about politics. In this edition of Hyphaedelity, our interlocutor Adam Davis (EIP, FE5.6) and his guest Tim Male (EPIC) discuss going from...
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FE6.5 - The Method
The Miyawaki Method of micro-forestry is a viral sensation: sprouting tiny, dense, native tree cover in neighbourhoods all around the world. With the promise of afforestation at a revolutionary speed, this planting technique has become the darling of green-space enthusiasts, industry, and...
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Announcing: Waterbodies
Mendel here with an exciting announcement: I'm producing a new video podcast for a local environmental advocacy organization: the False Creek Friends Society. False Creek, as the name suggests, is not a creek. It’s a tidal slough, and it’s one of the most visible waterways here in Vancouver…
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[HYPHAEDELITY] Sarah Jim x Lucas Glenn — Ecologically-engaged art
We're excited to introduce our brand new spin-off format: Hyphaedelity (which will ironically be somewhat lower-fi than our usual output). Here’s the deal: Hyphaedelity is our experiment in chatcasting, but with a twist. On each episode, we’re inviting a past guest from Future Ecologies to…
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FE6.4 - Humane Being
When is it ethical to kill one thing to save another? Lethal intervention is a common practice in the field of wildlife management, especially when the survival of a species hangs in the balance For as long as we’ve existed, human beings have employed killing as one of our primary responses to...
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Future Ecologies presents: Nature's Genius
Today, it's our pleasure to bring you an episode from our friends at Bioneers, who have just released a 6-part series called Nature's Genius. Follow Bioneers wherever you get podcasts, or listen to the rest of the series at bioneers.org/natures-genius/ This is episode 1 — The Universe Beneath Our...
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FE6.3 - Get Yer Ass Outta Here!
In this very special donkumentary, we’re headed to the Mojave Desert — to Death Valley, in particular — where we find one animal at the centre of a heated debate in land management: the hardy wild burro (AKA donkey, ass, or Equus asinus). These feral burros, beloved by some and reviled by others,...
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[UNLOCKED] Skye Augustine // Diving deeper into Sea Gardens
We’re unlocking one of the conversations from our bonus feed. In this interview, building on episode FE6.2, Mendel speaks with Skye Augustine, a leading voice uplifting the science, history, and culture of Sea Gardens. In a time where so much of the future feels uncertain, the resiliency of Sea...
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Future Ecologies presents: Hark (from Threshold)
We're borrowing an episode from one of our all-time favourite shows: Threshold, a Peabody Award-winning documentary podcast about our place in the natural world. Now in their 5th Season, "Hark", Threshold producer Amy Martin is exploring sound itself: investigating what it means to listen to the...
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FE6.2 - SEA / GARDEN
Food security, climate adaptation, and vibrant biodiversity all in one place — welcome to the ancient and diverse technologies of Sea Gardening. These widespread (but often overlooked) monumental rock features are proof positive of thriving Indigenous maricultural systems all around the Pacific...
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FE6.1 - FOREST / TREE
Season 6 kicks off in the deep dark woods: the simplified, post-industrial forests of the world — the only forests that many of us have ever known. Join us as we meet foresters in British Columbia, Vermont, and Scotland, all working to embrace the messy art of ecological forestry. Because if we...
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Auditory Compost / Convergence: The Music of Season 5
As is tradition, we're releasing all the original music we composed for the latest season of Future Ecologies as a set of soundtracks. For the first time ever, they are also available on all major music streaming services. Enjoy! Auditory Compost by Sunfish Moon Light Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple…
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Future Ecologies presents: The Merry Monarchs
We're excited to share another beautiful guest episode with you today. In this piece, originally broadcast in 2 parts on The Wind (one of our favourite podcasts), producer Eleanor Qull is taking us on a pilgrimage in honour of, and in tribute to that most collective monarch — the monarch…
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Future Ecologies presents: The Right to Feel (Part 2 — Eulogies)
Future Ecologies presents "The Right to Feel," a two episode mini-series on the emotional realities of the climate crisis. The second and final episode, “Eulogies,” is based on fictional writing from the class. Students imagine and eulogize something that could be harmed by the climate emergency,...
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Future Ecologies presents: The Right to Feel (Part 1 — Climate Feelings)
Future Ecologies presents "The Right to Feel," a two episode mini-series on the emotional realities of the climate crisis. This first episode, “Climate Feelings,” is a collection of students’ non-fiction essays and reflections on their personal realities of living with and researching the climate...
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FE5.10 - Everything Will Be Vine
Vision without eyes? Intelligence without a brain? Are plants more akin to us than we have been prepared to acknowledge? Or are they different in ways we will forever strain to imagine? One way or another, a vine with some unusual abilities is shaking the field of botany to its foundations. On…
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FE5.9 - Home on the Rangelands: Where the Deer and the Antelope Play (Part 3)
In this conclusion to our trilogy, we're looking at a proposal to move beyond the concept of "rangelands" through the rewilding of the American west — meaning, the return of forgotten landscapes, species, and ecologies not commonly seen in generations (not to mention improved water and carbon...
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FE5.8 - Home on the Rangelands: The Beef and the Butterflies (Part 2)
Our series on cows and rangelands continues in the weeds and in the thorns, looking at a specific piece of public land where livestock are being employed to give some endangered species a new lease on life. In this 3-part series, we're hearing from impassioned scientists and land managers with...
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FE5.7 - Home on the Rangelands: Welcome to Cowlifornia (Part 1)
The introduction of cattle to western North America has undeniably contributed to massive ecosystem change. But could cows be as much a part of the solutions as they are the problem? In this 3-part series, we're hearing from all sides of this issue: impassioned scientists and land managers with...
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Welcome to Future Ecologies
Future Ecologies is an independent podcast about the living world and its interrelations. The show varies in format, but this is a taste of what you can expect. New to the show? Find our whole back catalogue and subscribe for new episodes — right here in your podcast app, or at…
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FE presents: Women's Work
We’re slowing down for the holidays, and we hope you are too. But we didn’t want to leave you without something great to listen to, so we’re borrowing an episode from one of our favourite podcasters: Ashley Ahearn is the independent science and environmental journalist behind several series...
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FE5.6 - Making a Living
How do we account for nature? We can build on it and we can take from it, but what is its intrinsic value — in and of itself? On this episode: Adam Davis (of Ecosystem Investment Partners), and a cultural transformation happening right now — reshaping the intersection of environmentalism and...
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FE5.5 - On Fire: Walking on Two Legs
Meet the Fire Watchers of Skeetchestn: the people keeping their community safe during nearby wildfires, and working to bring good fire back to the land. Join us for this conclusion to our visit to Secwépemc territories as we discuss a way to bring different knowledge systems together: a synthesis...
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FE5.4 - On Fire: Under Water
What happens after the smoke clears? What does recovery look like when the disasters never end? In this episode, we're visiting the sites of some of BC's biggest burns of 2017 and 2021 – making the link between the mega-fires and the floods and landslides that followed. We'll hear about how the...
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Future Ecologies presents: Inherited
Inherited is a climate storytelling podcast by, for, and about young people. We're bringing you Season 3, Episode 1: "Mama's House", a personal story of family loss, structural resilience, and survival in an era of climate change. Find all of Season 3, including behind-the-scenes interviews with...
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Earthkin's Trial by Fire
In this bonus conversation, Adam catches up with Fern Yip (guest producer on FE2.3) about her recent close call with wildfire, with lots of practical advice for those living on forested lands. For photos and a transcript of this conversation, see futureecologies.net/listen/earthkins-trial-by-fire...
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FE5.3 - Cosmopoetics
How do our dreams shape our reality? Tonight, with the help of scientists, artists, philosophers, and historians, we're sprinkling a little stardust on our understanding of the more-than-human — from fish, to demons and gods. This episode features the words and voices of Lucia Pietroiusti, Filipa...
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[TEASER] Miriam Quick and Duncan Geere // Data Sonification
Get to know our friends and collaborators, Miriam Quick and Duncan Geere — the hosts of Loud Numbers, a data sonification podcast. How do data visualization and sonification differ? What are the possibilities and pitfalls? And how can you incorporate the practice into your life? — — — Hear the...
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FE5.2 - Spiders Song (Part 2)
Spiders Song is a story about a quest to hear the greatest symphony on Earth: the music of evolution. Along the way, we get to know some of nature’s most surprising musicians — the paradise jumping spiders. Part 1 is the Spiders Part 2 is the Song Headphones advised. — — — For credits and much...
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FE5.1 - Spiders Song (Part 1)
Spiders Song is a story about a quest to hear the greatest symphony on Earth: the music of evolution. Along the way, we get to know some of nature’s most surprising musicians — the paradise jumping spiders. Part 1 is the Spiders Part 2 is the Song Headphones advised. — — — For credits and much...
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Future Ecologies presents: Love and Radio
From Love and Radio: Adam Zaretsky is a bioartist who explores the manipulation of DNA, the fringes of genetic modification, and butts up against the ethical boundaries of science and beyond. — — — Future Ecologies season 5 arrives July 7. Listen early at patreon.com/futureecologies
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Future Ecologies presents: Emergence Magazine
When the Earth Started to Sing Produced by Emergence Magazine, this sonic journey written and narrated by David G. Haskell brings us to the beginning of sound and song on planet Earth. The experience is made entirely of tiny trembling waves in air, the fugitive, ephemeral energy that we call…
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[TEASER] Jonathan Kawchuk // Paleo-Acoustics
We're trying out a new format of bonus content over on our Patreon feed: casual, conversational interviews that go behind the scenes of some of the content on the main feed. In this first edition, our guest is Jonathan Kawchuk: composer, sound artist, and volunteer paleontologist. Jonathan's work...
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[UPDATE] FE4.2 - Terminal
At the heart of the Salish Sea lies the Fraser River Estuary: home to over half of the population of the Province of British Columbia, thousands of endemic species, and one world-famous pod of orcas. But as the human population of the region has grown, wildlife populations — including salmonids,...
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[UPDATE] FE1.9 - Swimming Upstream
Dams remain one of the ultimate demonstrations of human power over nature. Wild rivers can be tamed to deliver energy for industry, lakes for recreation, and water for agriculture. But severing the link between land and sea has come with grave ecological costs. The impact of dams on salmon...
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Future Ecologies presents: Drilled
We're sharing an episode from our friends over at Drilled. Four years ago, the Drilled podcast asked a question that changed how people thought about climate stories: What if we stopped acting like the climate crisis was inevitable and instead treated it like it truly is...the crime of the…
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Electrical Storms / Sympoiesis: The Music of Season 4
We work hard to make sure our music doesn’t just complement our voices, but actually tells a story all of its own. Now that our 4th Season is complete, as per usual, we’ve compiled all the original music that went into it, and we’re releasing it as an album. This year, that album takes the form…
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About this show
Made for nature lovers and audiophiles alike, Future Ecologies explores our eco-social relationships through stories, science, music, and soundscapes. Every episode is an invitation to see the world in a new light — weaving together narrative and interviews with expert knowledge holders.The format varies: from documentary storytelling to stream-of-consciousness sound collage, and beyond. Episodes are released only when they're ready, not on a fixed schedule (but approximately monthly).This ad-free, independent podcast is supported by our listeners: https://www.futureecologies.net/join
Hosted by
Future Ecologies