Talking Water

In this episode of Talking Water we are joined by Lesli Allison, CEO, and Morgan Wagoner Western Water Program Director of The Western Landowners Alliance to discuss the shifts, challenges and wins in environmental conservation in the Western U.S. as well as debunking some myths around the efforts of Landowners contributions in ecological protection and restoration. Lesli and Morgan hold the stories of the many Landowners they are in alliance with; listen in as they dive into experiences and insights from their collective that shape a broader conversation around a delicate balance between nature and economy. Learn more and engage with the Western Landowners Alliance on their website HEREHosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

In Talking Water with renowned wildlife cinematographer Justine Evans, we reflect and dive into Justine's connection to Water. From early childhood memories of playing in the River Thames, to breaking into the nature-documentary industry as a camera woman, to traveling the world and witnessing nature's wonders. We explore her journey from being a uniquely patient and quiet observer, to becoming an outspoken and influential activist for the natural world as she stepped into her role as lead claimant in the UKs largest class-action lawsuit for water protection and environmental justice. About Justine Evans Justine is a well known wildlife cinematographer and filmmaker whose career has spanned over three decades. Her work can be seen on many landmark BBC, National Geographic, Disney and Netflix productions such as Planet Earth 1, 2 and 3 (BBC), Queens (Disney+), Seven Worlds (BBC), Dynasties (BBC), Night On Earth (Netflix) to name just a few. She has been seen in front of camera for the popular BBC Expedition series and many 'behind the scenes' segments of major wildlife documentaries. She is primarily a long lens cinematographer specialising in detailed animal behaviour and teasing out strong stories.  She has worked extensively in the tropics and is very experienced at filming from height, especially in the tropical forest canopy and she is also well known for her iconic night filming, often of never seen before animal behaviour.Justine also mentors less experienced filmmakers making their way into the industry and has an active role with the UK’s National Film and Television School mentoring students on the Science and Natural History MA course.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussHosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

If you look at the work happening in LA with water advocacy, especially in how it relates to climate resilience, you’ll find Accelerate Resilience L.A. (ARLA). Join this inspiring and activating conversation with the team, sharing their hopeful and healing vision for Los Angeles in a time of climate change.  We dive into ARLA’s work for a water sufficient Los Angeles. In this conversation, we wind through the mythologies of LA as a place of water scarcity that needs to extract water from other places in order to survive. The ARLA team evokes the cultural shifts necessary for Angelinos to be in relationship with water and see their region as a life-giving watershed rather than a desert. The team also talks about the tangible infrastructure changes needed to help the municipalities of LA be water sufficient. They describe the exciting development of the Infrastructure Field Kit platform, enabling communities and groups to develop water conserving and regenerating projects. About Accelerate Resilience L.A. (ARLA)Accelerate Resilience L.A. (ARLA) envisions Los Angeles as a climate-resilient region that is safer, healthier, and more prepared for our increasingly dangerous climate reality. They engage in capacity building, cross-sector collaboration, and community engagement to advance multi-benefit approaches that are key to developing individual and collective climate resilience. Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“The walks have been such a good movement. We’ve made a lot of progress. The walks have been a really good bridge for bringing people together and for us being able to share and connect and help people be more aware. It’s helped us at the tribal level for getting support behind the work and the things we’re needing to do and we do on a daily basis.” – Teri Red Owl, Executive Director, Owens Valley Indian Water CommissionJoin us in the circle of community with the Lake to Lake team, our partners, and walkers. In this rich conversation, we hear reflections about the walks from 10 years ago in acknowledgement of the original journey, and we hear visions for the walks to come this September. We will be retracing our path from Mono Lake to Owens Lake/Patsiata as a coalition carrying intentions and prayers for restoring right relationship to water in Owens Valley/PayahuunadüOur partners Teri Red Owl and Kyndall Noah (Owens Valley Indian Water Commission), Kathy Bancroft (Elder of the Lone Pine Paiute Tribe), and Charlotte Lange (Mono Lake Kootzaduka'a Tribe), talk about the current situation with Los Angeles DWP and the work that has grown since the first walks.We also hear from the Walking Water Lake to Lake team and other walkers, adding their voices to a vision of restoring our relationship with the lands and waters. Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“We have seen a lot of conflict arising from one community to another because of sharing this water resource. The universe communicated to me when I saw how the soil reacts, because there’s not enough water, how plants are suffering—they’re withering. So, I took the initiative to work with the communities for finding enough clean water. How can we repair our relationship by sharing this resource?” –Philip Munyasia founder OTEPICWe welcome Ethan Hirsch-Tauber and Philip Munyasia for global and local conversation on how restoring relationships with water brings community healing, food security, and ecological health.Philip Munyasia founder OTEPIC (Organic Technology Extension and Promotion of Initiative Centre) is based in Kenya. He works with women, farmers, and youth on permaculture techniques for harvesting water for food security and promoting biodiversity. Phillip tells his inspiring story of organizing community around water in the face of adversity and government corruption.  Ethan Hirsch-Tauber, founder of the The Water Folk, lives and works in Sonoma County, California. He shares his journey of visiting communities from around the world and witnessing the transformation of healing watersheds through water retention and climate adaptive techniques and bringing these techniques back to his local community.About Ethan Hirsch-TauberBefore founding The Water Folk, Ethan Hirsch-Tauber spent many years living in a range of communities around the world, working as a sustainability educator, and gaining a deep understanding of the connections between water and climate. He studied the Water Retention Landscapes of Tamera, Portugal, and later traveled with and was mentored by Waterman of India, Dr. Rajendra Singh. In 2018, he founded a US-based company, Worldwide Water Wizards, to start doing this climate-based watershed restoration work himself. Ethan is now passionately piloting The Water Folk to implement water catchment projects in Sonoma County and beyond.About Philip MunyasiaPhilip Odhiambo Munyasia, the founder of OTEPIC, grew up in Mitume in Kenya. He taught people in his neighborhood how to grow their own food and improve their situation. Eager to learn more, he did an internship on the permaculture farm “Ecology Action” in California. Later, he took part in the “Global Campus” training program in Tamera, Portugal where he became familiar with Sepp Holzer's permaculture. In 2008, he founded OTEPIC (Organic Technology Extension and Promotion of Initiative Centre) teaching subsistence farmers, women and youth groups in the “Trans-Nzoia County” in Western Kenya and its surrounding areas to use permaculture as an alternative way to gain food security and to conserve nature and biodiversity.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“I saw when all the relationships in and along the river were healthy and in balance, the emergent property is drinkability for everyone, health for everyone, and beauty for us to admire and be immersed in.” –Li An Phoa We welcome Li An Phoa for a powerful conversation on following the call of water as a teacher and centering water for the health of our communities and world. Phoa, the author of Drinkable Rivers: How the River Became My Teacher, shares a poignant story of the first time she drank from the wild and healthy Rupert River in the Canadian subarctic. This “sip” was a catalyst for transforming her life. She realized through her relationship with this river, which later became polluted, that drinkable rivers are an indicator of a healthy society, benefiting human and more-than-human communities.  Li An shares her work with the organization Drinkable Rivers in service of river health, organizing river walks around the world and mobilizing people to act for the healing and well-being of watersheds. About Li An PhoaLi An Phoa works towards a world with drinkable rivers and founded the charity Drinkable Rivers to raise awareness and to weave this with mobilising people for action. She organises river walks, citizen science and action communities, like Mayors for Drinkable Rivers. Li An walked over 18,500km for drinkable rivers and a documentary film has been made of her 1.000-kilometre walk along the Meuse River. The book Drinkable Rivers: How the River Became My Teacher was published in English in September 2023. Most recently, Li An completed the Thames walk, a 4-week journey from the source in the Cotswolds to the mouth in the North Sea and the walk along the Berkel, a Rhine/IJssel tributary. www.drinkablerivers.orgHosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussHosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“What’s the cost of inaction, and how do we help people afford what we need to invest? How do we convey the preciousness and precariousness of water? How do we get folks to collaborate versus compete?” –Felicia Marcus, Fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program“What can we control right now? We can ensure that we remain focussed on what we know is the most important thing…We all know what needs to be done to build a more resilient water supply, to ensure that our infrastructure is going to be ready for these types of extreme events that are going to happen again.” –Liz Crosson, Sustainability, Resilience and Innovation Officer, LA Metropolitan Water DistrictWe are excited to welcome Felicia Marcus, Fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program, and Liz Crosson, Sustainability, Resilience and Innovation Officer, LA Metropolitan Water District.The guests share a conversation that spans decades of experience in environmental advocacy, water policy, nonprofit work, litigation, and public service in LA, California, and in the West. Marcus and Crosson share deeply thoughtful insights about water policy and climate adaptation in the face of extreme, unprecedented events, such as the recent LA fires. They talk about staying the course and remaining diligent to priorities and clear in purpose despite misinformation from the federal government about water management in California.The guests offer inspiring visions of restoring relationship to water, where water isn’t measured in acre feet or dollars but in the health of rivers, floodplains, and watersheds. Doing the work of collaborating across differences emerges as a guiding light. About the guests:Felicia Marcus is the William C. Landreth Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program, an attorney, consultant and member of the Water Policy Group. She most recently served as chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, implementing laws regarding drinking water and water quality and state’s water rights, hearing regional board water quality appeals, settling disputes and providing financial assistance to communities to upgrade water infrastructure.Liz Crosson is the chief sustainability, resilience and innovation officer for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). She is responsible for developing a district-wide sustainability and resiliency strategy that includes efforts to reduce MWD’s carbon footprint and adapt to immediate climate change impacts. Liz develops and pursues strategies, programs, and policies that address energy use, conservation, pollution, environmental justice, and climate resilience. She also drives initiatives to foster innovation.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“When will we become aware? What will it take? I believe the upside of the challenges we are facing right now is that it’s forcing us to say, ‘That is not the story.’ If ‘that’ is not the story, then what is? Who am I in the story, and who are we?” –Konda MasonWe are honored to have Konda Mason join us for the first Talking Water conversation of 2025. Konda Mason is a social entrepreneur, eco-spiritual thought leader, and justice advocate working at the intersection of social and financial justice and planetary healing. Konda offers a conversation full of insights into becoming conscious of our connections to the land and awakening to our true nature. Konda tells the story of finding home and her calling on a former cotton plantation in Louisiana. She shares how the plantation has become a place of transforming the wounds of slavery through regenerative agriculture and practices of reparative genealogy. The circle widens to include other community voices — sharing stories about farming in the South, offering first-hand accounts of transformational genealogy work, and deep bows of appreciation for Konda’s work that touches so many. About Konda Mason:Konda Mason is a social entrepreneur, eco-spiritual thought leader, and justice advocate working at the intersection of social and financial justice and planetary healing. She is passionate about reversing the harm the extractive economy has had on all living systems. She foresees a world that is environmentally regenerative, spiritually fulfilling, socially just, and economically equitable. Konda is the President/Founder of Jubilee Justice, working to bring climate-resilient farming and economic equity to Black farmers in the rural South. Along with Mark Watson, Konda is the Co-founder of Potlikker Capital, a social justice charitable loan fund designed to deploy “reparative” capital to farmers of color and she is the Strategic Director of RUNWAY, a financial innovation firm committed to dismantling systemic barriers and reimagining financial policies and practices—all in the name of Black Liberation. Konda is on the Spirit Rock teachers' council and teaches mindfulness retreats throughout the country. She sits on the Board of Directors of Krista Tippett’s The OnBeing Project, RSF Social Finance, Soul Fire Farm Institute, and Clayborn Temple in Memphis, TN. Konda lives in Louisiana along the banks of the bayou.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“I really believe that the more people that come together, that are thinking this way, and that are working on solutions, that's what it’s going to take to get us to reimagining what our future is going to be and what LA looks like in the future–they don’t have to rely on our water, on Colorado River water, on water in Northern California. We can look at meeting our needs locally.” –Teri Red Owl (Bishop Paiute Tribe Nüümü from Payahuunadü), Executive Director Owens Valley Indian Water CommissionWelcome to the Water Learning Series: Los Angeles. Throughout 2024, we have hosted conversations with organizations, community projects, tribal organizations, activists, organizers, and leaders from LA and places impacted by LA’s water story. Over the course of this year, our conversations have dove deeply into the complicated elements of the water story, breaking down the complexity to reveal a map of relationships. This is our last session in the series. In this session, we once again welcome Indigenous voices to the forefront, speaking to the future of LA’s water story. We are joined by Tina Calderon (Gabrielino Tongva, Chumash, and Yoeme), Teri Red Owl (Bishop Paiute Tribe Nüümü from Payahuunadü), and Kyndall Noah (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), who were also guests from Session One. We are grateful for completing this series with the insight and presence of these important voices. Session 11 focuses on the future of Los Angeles and water. The guests speak about what it would take for Los Angeles to be an example of water justice and equity, talking about the necessity for honoring and protecting water as a relative–a free-flowing force of life benefitting the people, lands, plants, and animals. At the heart of coming into right relationship with water and land is the restoration and respect for the sovereignty of tribes as the original stewards of the lands. The guests share the importance of Indigenous voices in creating a future of sustainability in water management. The guests also offer their experiences and thoughts about the power of building mutually beneficial coalitions. They reflect on how collaborators can support in ways that are reciprocal and cooperative, being committed to working for the benefit of all parties. The guests speak of the importance of not only having a seat at the table, but being at the center of it, as well as what it means to create their own table when necessary. The circle of conversation widens to include voices from the Walking Water community, inviting the guests to offer stories of courage and resilience. Other community voices from tribal organizing in Payahuunadü and sustainability and equity from the Los Angeles DWP join the discussion, bringing hope to LA’s water story.  Thank you for joining us in this series. We invite you to be part of the ongoing work re-imagining LA’s water story. See the links below to learn more. Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“As an artist, a huge pivot point for me in this work has been to understand that what I once thought of as materials, as object, as resource, are actually collaborators, are actually relations.” –Kate MoralesIn this conversation, we welcome three artists who are deeply immersed in their relationships with water. The weaving and flowing conversation follows how each artist, in their own ways, is guided by water and maps water with their work. Along the way, we uncover their personal journeys of centering water in their artistic practices and how those journeys are transformed and translated into artistic work. Melissa McGill is an artist, activist, and water storyteller who has been featured on Talking Water in the past. Melissa is known for creating immersive public works with water at the center and working with communities to create projects that not only make an impact, but send out long-lasting ripples in the communities they serve.  Melissa talks about her intimate and reciprocal relationship with the Po River, Italy’s longest river, and her recent work with historical maps of the Po River incorporating natural elements. Learn more about Melissa's work at https://www.melissamcgillartist.com/.Kate Morales’ artist practice focuses on somatic scribing, which uses image, story, and intuition to map layers of meaning in conversations in service of decolonial healing. Kate is working with Walking Water on a forthcoming book Waters Becoming, offering narratives inspired by the conversations on Water Learning Series: Los Angeles. The book will bring art and words together locating relationships with water. Kate talks about uncovering contexts in conversations through their work, and shares a growing relationship guided by the waters of the LA River and Payahuunadü. Learn more about Kate’s work at https://www.asthecrowfliesdesign.com/.Debra Scacco, who resides in Los Angeles, is a research-based artist and curator. She shares an artistic practice guided and informed by an exploration of the LA River and tributaries. Her work with lines and maps traverses the intimate and public worlds where urban waters flow and move--seen and unseen. She shares an awareness of the hierarchies and infrastructures that control water with an eye towards illuminating and liberating those structures with her work. Learn more about Debra’s work at https://www.debrascacco.com/.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussTo support Waters Becoming, visit: https://walking-water.org/waters-becoming/.If you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“We need to ask: how do we honor place? How do we embody justice? How do we regenerate life? How do we grow participation? How do we foster resilience?” –Andy LipkisWelcome to the Water Learning Series: Los Angeles. Throughout 2024, we have been hosting conversations with organizations, community projects, tribal organizations, activists, organizers, and leaders from LA and places impacted by LA’s water story. This is Session 10. We have one conversation remaining in the series. We are joined once again by Andy Lipkis, who was also the guest in Session Two. Andy is a visionary and pioneer in urban forestry and watershed restoration in Los Angeles, as well as the founder and project executive of Accelerate Resilience L.A. (ARLA). Through his decades of ground-breaking work on behalf of living infrastructures, Andy has remained faithful to a vision of a water-sufficient Los Angeles despite continued water importation and waste. Drawing on his experiences in organizing, partnerships, public policy, and his love of Los Angeles, as his birthplace and home, Andy articulates a vision of what LA can become, delving into history, philosophy, and logistics. Andy speaks about the necessity of informed, empowered, and engaged communities stewarding water as crucial to shifting LA’s water story from one of scarcity to abundance.  Listen to Session Two to hear Andy Lipkis’s first conversation in the Water Learning Series. Andy LipkisAndy Lipkis has spent his life crowdsourcing climate resilience, both coordinating flood emergency disaster relief and addressing long-term causes and vulnerabilities. At age 18, he founded TreePeople, and served as its president from 1973 to 2019. Lipkis is a pioneer of Urban and Community Forestry and Urban Watershed Management, the principles of which have spread across the world. He has consulted for Los Angeles, Seattle, Melbourne, Hong Kong, London and other megacities, helping plan for climate resilience and adaptation. With climate change impacts already creating a chronic emergency for cities around the world, Andy’s work has demonstrated promising new ways for individuals, communities and government agencies to collaboratively reshape urban tree canopy, soil, and water infrastructure to save lives and grow a more livable future.After retiring from TreePeople in 2019, Andy launched Accelerate Resilience L.A. (ARLA), a fiscally sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, to inspire and enable people and local governments to equitably accelerate climate resilience in Los Angeles.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“In my imagination, we need to decommodify everything natural…No one should have to pay for access to clean water…These are all basic human rights. We need to imagine that we can come back to that…We need to learn what reciprocity means with the Earth.” –Zacarías Bernal, Program Assistant Tía Chucha's Centro Cultural & BookstoreWelcome to the Water Learning Series: Los Angeles. Throughout 2024, we have been hosting conversations with organizations, community projects, tribal organizations, activists, organizers, and leaders from LA and places impacted by LA’s water story. We’ve arrived at Session Nine. Only two sessions remain in the series. In Session Nine, we widen the conversation about the impacts of LA’s water story, inviting youth from Owens Valley/Payahuunadü and Los Angeles County to share their stories, insights, and dreams for a water sufficient Los Angeles. Kaytlynn Johnston (Paiute) was born and raised in Bishop in Payahuunadü and is the Co-President of UNITY, a national network organization promoting personal development, citizenship, and leadership among Native American youth. Kaytlynn shares her experiences growing up in the Paiute reservation community and her cultural identity and sense of belonging as connected to the sacred waters of Payahuunadü. Zacarías Bernal, is part of the program team at Tía Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore in the North East San Fernando Valley and draws from his familial roots in the San Gabriel Valley and his xicano identity. He talks about his upbringing in the “concrete jungle,” the disconnection he experienced from knowing the source of LA’s water, and his work to connect people to “Mother Earth” through music and culture. Katylynn and Zacarías dream in this conversation, imagining what could be if the waters were returned to Payahuunadü. They share their visions for not only their family and communities, but for a world in which the basic human right to clean water is accessible to all people. Santeena Pugliese, youth mentor, facilitator, digital artist, and co-steward of Three Creeks Collective in Payahuunadü, and Kyndall Noah, Communication Specialist of the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission, join the discussion, sharing their perspectives on the importance of youth voices and leadership in influencing LA’s water story and restoring relations with water.Zacarías Bernal (he/him) was born and raised on Tovaangar, in what is otherwise known as the San Gabriel Valley of LA County. He is a third generation xicano, photographer, lover of books, and heavily influenced by Zapatismo. He is currently a Program Assistant with Tía Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore in the North East San Fernando Valley.Kaytlynn Johnston was born and raised in Bishop California and is a member of the Bishop Paiute Tribe. A former member of the Bishop Tribal Youth Council and Female Co-President of the Bishop Tribal Youth Council, she then became Pacific Region representative of all California and Hawaiian Native Youth for 2021/2022. She is currently the Co-President of UNITY, a national network organization promoting personal development, citizenship, and leadership among Native American youth.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired bHosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“The river is the reason why LA was able to be here in the first place. It’s the origin story of Los Angeles. It’s the mother of Los Angeles in many ways.” –Candice Dickens-Russell, President & CEO of Friends of the LA RiverWelcome to the Water Learning Series: Los Angeles. Throughout 2024, we have been hosting conversations with organizations, community projects, tribal organizations, activists, organizers, and leaders from LA and places impacted by LA’s water story. We are joined in Session Eight by two organizations that are instrumental in community advocacy around water and the protection of water in Los Angeles County. We welcome Candice Dickens-Russell, President and CEO, from Friends of the LA River (FOLAR), and Kayleigh Wade, Senior Manager of Outreach, from Heal the Bay. Candice and Kayleigh offer an uplifting conversation about advocating for clean safe water, empowering Los Angeles residents through outreach and education, and reimagining a greener and wilder LA River for a climate resilient and more equitable future.Candice and Kayleigh share the exciting and paradigm-shifting work of Friends of the LA River and Heal the Bay. Candice talks about FOLAR’s mission which centers the River as the origin of Los Angeles, works for safe and strategic concrete removal, and the greening of river spaces. FOLAR’s public advocacy and award-winning environmental education program create equitable places for Angelinos to feel a sense of belonging and ownership of the LA River. Though Heal the Bay is most well-known for massive coastal clean-up days, Kayleigh talks about work that is even more far-reaching. They discuss Heal the Bay’s ‘watershed approach,’ which means looking at all the places in LA County that water travels on its way to the sea. Both guests share the imperative for placing environmental justice at the forefront of their missions and share solution-based approaches to a water sufficient LA, citing tangible ways to move away from water importation and developing a vision of water as a relative to be taken care of and cherished. Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“Owens Lake was the largest emitter of dust from one place in the United States…It [Owens Lake] disappeared in the mid-1920s. The water didn’t come on for the dust project until 2001. For nearly eighty years, the people up here–families, everyone, the wildlife–they were choking on dust.” –Mike Prather, environmentalist and conservationist in the Owens Valley/PayahuunadüJoin us for this special edition of Talking Water, featuring our guest Mike Prather. Mike is an environmental activist and conservationist who has advocated for returning water to Owens Lake/Patsiata and the Lower Owens River. He shares his personal story about fighting for the things you love. For Mike, his love has been the unique and majestic natural beauty of Owens Valley/Payahuunadü where he has lived for nearly 45 years. Mike was instrumental in forming the Owens Valley Committee which was heavily involved in rectifying damages done by Los Angeles to the valley’s water supply and ecosystem. Mike recalls a time when the once massive Owens Lake/Patsiata was completely dry and a health hazard for residents because of alkaline dust. Mike remembers the first moments of water being added to the lake again as a dust control measure. He shares the awe of seeing thousands of shorebirds return to the lake as the waters return. Mike offers listeners a vantage point into a life of defending the sacred–the inspiration, the successes, and the trials.Mike PratherMike has lived in Inyo County since 1972, starting in Death Valley National Park (then Death Valley National Monument) in the 1970s, and later in Lone Pine in 1980. “My focus has been on the desert, as well as the Sierra, with particular interests in water and wildlife issues. For many years, I worked on passage of the California Desert Protection Act and the Inyo/Los Angeles Water Agreement with its Lower Owens River Project. Currently much of my energy is directed toward the massive wildlife return associated with the Los Angeles Owens Lake Dust Project, and also possible increased protection of the Alabama Hills through a federal designation within the BLM’s National Landscape Conservation System. My interests within Friends of the Inyo are seeking sustainability, increasing diversity and spreading FOI’s good works into the southern Owens Valley.” Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“What does your water come from? If we know the answer to that, that’s the first step towards conservation…Then we start to connect with that source. We are water. It’s running through us. No one can own the water. We have it for a time..”  –David Baker, Executive Director and founder the Watershed AssociationThe Watershed Association invites Talking Water listeners into a wholehearted conversation about heeding the call to water advocacy through the guests' reflections on founding the Watershed Association and their continued service decades later. David Baker, Executive Director and founder, and Ellen Evans, Director of Operations, share seminal experiences which guided them to vocations to protect Jacob’s Well, a natural artesian spring and second longest submerged cave which is located in the Hill Country of South-Central Texas. Since 1996, the Watershed Association has worked to conserve the lands and waterways that surround the spring, advocated for state-wide public policies, engaged in legal battles to curb over pumping, formed local and regional partnerships, and developed mentorship initiatives for youth. Ellen and David’s stories are fortifying for those who draw strength from sacred places in nature as well as uplifting for those acting to protect what they love for future generations. Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“Agencies like MWD and DWP are really working on our transparency and trying to bring in different voices into our processes… I think it’s important as we need to build trust in what we’re doing and the investments we need to make locally. I do think holding us accountable and demanding transparency is going to help us move forward.” –Liz Crosson, Sustainability, Resilience and Innovation Officer, Metropolitan Water DistrictWelcome to the year-long Water Learning Series: Los Angeles. Throughout 2024, we are hosting 11 conversations with organizations, community projects, tribal organizations, activists, organizers, and leaders from LA and places impacted by LA’s water story. We are joined in Session Seven by two of the most significant and powerful institutions in Los Angeles’s water story: Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). Our guests, David Pettijohn, Director of Water Resources at LADWP and Liz Crosson, Sustainability, Resilience and Innovation Officer at MWD, offer a comprehensive and historical look at how these agencies became foundational in the growth and development of Southern California and remain central in the importation of LA’s water from hundreds of miles away. They share background about the LADWP constructing the Los Angeles Aqueduct at the turn of the 20th century to import water from Owen’s Valley/Payahuunadü and the formation of Metropolitan Water District of Southern California in 1940 to further supplement water sources through constructing the Colorado River Aqueduct and the California State Water Project which imports water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The guests also discuss forward-looking initiatives responding to climate change. Both LADWP and MWD are diversifying their water supplies to decrease dependency on the aqueduct system which is being severely impacted by droughts and other climate-related conditions. David, from LADWP, talks about long-range programs in the City of Los Angeles to develop local water sources through groundwater clean-up and recharge, stormwater capture, conservation, recycling water, and water efficiency programs that incentivize homeowners to install water saving devices. Liz, from MWD, discusses the necessities of building trust, accountability, and collaboration with the communities in the 26 municipalities that MWD serves as a way of investing in the future. The conversation also includes a discussion about Owen’s Valley/Payahuunadü. Adam Perez, the LADWP Deputy Manager of the Aqueduct for the Water Operations Division, joins the conversation talking about LADWP’s commitments to working with the tribes in Owens Valley, environmental restoration projects, and ensuring that residents in Owen’s Valley/Payahuunadü have their needs met before the water is exported to Los Angeles.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“When you know the historical legacy of systemic racism that’s still baked into housing policies, insurance policies, red-lining, things of that nature, then you have to understand that the fight we’re fighting in Detroit is connected to a global fight. It’s about fighting for national change. It’s about fighting for systemic change, and it’s about fighting for a global resource that we must all have access to.”  –Monica Lewis-Patrick, President & CEO, We the People of DetroitWe the People of Detroit calls the Talking Water community into a spirited and in-depth conversation about water equity in Detroit, connecting their water warrior work to the global movement for safe, clean, and affordable water as an essential human right. Founders of We the People of Detroit, Monica Lewis-Patrick, President & CEO; Debra A. Taylor, Chief Financial Officer; and Cecily McClellan, Director of Water Work/Relief, provide a comprehensive backstory about the Water and Sewerage Department of Detroit shutting off water to nearly 150,000 households since 2014 and the health crisis that has drawn international criticism and continues to plague residents. Baked into the story of the water shut-offs is the account of the City of Detroit’s bankruptcy and the private companies that privatized essential services without voter approval to the detriment of Detroit’s historic residents. Lewis-Patrick, Taylor, and McClellan share their extensive knowledge of Detroit’s inequitable water policies that target predominantly low-income Black and Brown citizens through the research of the We the People of Detroit Community Research Collective (CRC), a collaborative of community activists, academics, researchers, and designers who created a visual map of the socio-economic implications of Detroit’s austerity policies enacted before, during, after the city’s bankruptcy. The guests share their inspired resolve in founding We the People of Detroit in 2008 as an unwavering commitment to support the Black community when Detroit went into emergency management, the public safety net began to disappear, and the economy was in free fall. We the People of Detroit work has been a stalwart foundation, informing, educating, and empowering Detroit residents and providing opportunities for youth leaders on imperative issues surrounding civil rights, land, water, education, and the democratic process. Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“Redesign LA puts people at the forefront. Those projects that are being funded are not coming from the cities…These are the needs in our community.”–Carlos Moran, Sr. Program Manager,  from the Council for Watershed Health Welcome to Session Six of the “Water Learning Series: Los Angeles.” We’re honored to be joined by Carlos Moran, Senior Program Manager from the Council for Watershed Health whose mission is to advance the health and sustainability of the Los Angeles region’s watersheds, rivers, streams and habitat - both in natural areas and urban neighborhoods. Carlos shares his intimate knowledge into the complexity of the siloed municipalities and agencies in the Los Angeles water space. Carlos talks about how the Council’s innovative work connects people and provides assistance to communities and tribes to access public funding for environmental justice and public health around water issues. Carlos shares the history and inner workings of LA County’s Safe Clean Water Program and how the Council’s initiatives, such as Redesign LA, are creating sustainable models for community organizations and tribes to voice their concerns, pose solutions, and access funding from Los Angeles County. Carlos highlights tangible results of the Council’s projects and shows that communities and tribes can have agency in the multi-layered web of LA’s water space.  Carlos Moran, Sr. Program Manager, Council for Watershed Health. With advanced degrees in social work, Carlos Moran’s experience includes designing and implementing high impact strategies that intersect mental health, public health and environmental justice. He regularly engages diverse stakeholders to advance placed based solutions that drive large scale, multi-benefit investments in LA’s most economically, environmentally and health stressed communities.His macro social work experience includes environmental justice planning, environmental justice, community organizing, mental health, public health, program and budget design, needs assessments & evaluation, social and environmental policy, management, project development and financing.He regularly engages local Cities, County, and State agencies and elected officials to address global climate change at the local level through policy change, policy implementation, and placed based solutions that drive large scale infrastructure investments in urban areas.Carlos has played a role in advancing large scale multi-benefit projects throughout the LA Region. In addition to environmental justice planning he has also led teams that engaged tens of thousands of Angelenos and especially those from the most environmentally and economically stressed communities to plant thousands of trees, capture stormwater, and become stewards of their environment. Previously he led a partnership of community-based organizations that empowered children, youth and families to transform an abandoned bread factory in South Los Angeles into a multi-service social service center serving over 3,000 beneficiaries per year.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate heHosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“What we can bring to the future of the river and urban waterways is engineering with nature…Engineering with nature is where we are trying to use more natural ways of solving the problem… working in unison with natural processes.” –Megan Whalen, Ambassador for the LA River Watershed, US Army Corps of EngineersWelcome to the year-long Water Learning Series: Los Angeles, where we will host 11 conversations with organizations, community projects, tribal organizations, activists, organizers, and leaders from LA and places impacted by LA’s water story. We have reached the halfway point in the series with Session Five with the US Army Corps of Engineers. We are joined by Megan Whalen, who serves as the Ambassador for the LA River Watershed, and Hunter Merritt, who works as a social scientist.This session continues to articulate the vision for the Water Learning Series, which is to highlight the people, agencies, and organizations that are instrumental in forming the map of LA’s water story. At the heart of this intention is the inquiry of supporting a water sufficient Los Angeles. Session Five begins with a historical snapshot of the US Army Corps of Engineers and introduces the many projects in the Los Angeles district the Corps is currently involved in. Hunter and Megan break down and explain the concept of risk-management as one of the major responsibilities of the Corps, discussing the integral communication between agencies, partners, and the public to make informed decisions. Megan provides illuminating historical details about the LA River’s flow, its impacts on early residents of Los Angeles, and the Corps work in the 1930s channelizing and concretizing the river. Megan shares a hopeful vision for restoring natural processes and reviving the river through engineering with nature in collaboration with local partners, the Corps, and LA county residents.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“Water is life…Not only does it give life. It is life. When we look at water as a thing, as an object, as a commodity that we can profit off of, if you control water, you control life. You control who gets to live and who does not get to live.” –Dr. Miguel A. De La TorreTalking Water welcomes Dr. Miguel De La Torre: international scholar, documentarian, novelist, academic author, activist, and editor of “Gonna Trouble the Water - Ecojustice, Water, and Environmental Racism.”  Miguel shares a bold perspective on the life-giving powers of water in our lives and how the commodification, pollution, and withholding of water is weaponized in the U.S. on communities of color. Miguel talks about shifting our viewpoints and revivifying our relationship to water. He traces the apocalyptic Eurocentric Christian worldview as detrimental to the Earth.  Miguel shares insights from “Gonna Trouble the Water”, discussing environmental racism in the U.S. where the vast majority of water pollution occurs in communities of color. He shares personal reflections of walking the southern U.S. border, leaving water for migrants making the deadly journey north through the desert, and seeing border agents dumping out those life-saving waters. Miguel challenges the perspectives that fuel these oppressions. He asks the question of how American culture can widen its worldview to come back into relationship with water and the Earth as healing, life-giving, and accessible to all. Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre – international scholar, documentarian, novelist, academic author, scholar activist and editor of 'Gonna Trouble the Water - Ecojustice, Water, and Environmental Racism.'The focus of Dr. De La Torre’s academic pursuit is social ethics within contemporary U.S. thought, specifically how religion affects race, class, and gender oppression. Since obtaining his doctoral in 1999, he has authored over a hundred articles and published forty-five books (six of which won national awards). He presently serves as Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver. A Fulbright scholar, he has taught in Australia, Columbia, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, and South Africa; and lectured in Britain, Costa Rica, Cuba, Palestine, Thailand, Taiwan. Within his guild he served as the 2012 President of the Society of Christian Ethics. He is the recipient of the 2020 AAR Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2021 Martin E. Marty Public Understanding of Religion Award. Within the academy, he served as a past-director to the American Academy of Religion, and served on the editorial board of JAAR. Additionally, he was the co-founder and executive director (2013-2017) of the Society of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion and the founding editor of the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion. Dr. De La Torre has written numerous articles in popular media and has served on several civic organizations. Recently, he wrote the screenplay to a documentary – Trails of Hope and Terror - on immigration which has screened in over eighteen film festivals winning over seven awards. Additionally, he has written an autofiction magical realism novel titled Miguelito’s Confessions.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“We believe that authentic community engagement is really the key to creating and cultivating sustainable projects that are going to be healthier for the residents and create conditions that are more livable…’Direct to Community Engagement’ ensures that, early on, communities are part of shaping projects.” –Jesse De La Cruz, Urbano StrategiesWelcome to the year-long Water Learning Series: Los Angeles, where we will host 11 conversations with organizations, community projects, tribal organizations, activists, organizers, and leaders from L.A. and places impacted by L.A.’s water story. This month’s conversation highlights the incredible work of Urbano Strategies with its founder Jesse De La Cruz. Urbano Strategies is a grassroots, community consulting firm that works to uplift working class communities of color to become engaged in taking action for sustainable development and environmental justice in their neighborhoods. Urbano Strategies plays an important role in the L.A. water story, working directly with neighborhoods affected by environmental racism and disenfranchisement from public processes on solutions for community and climate resiliency. Jesse holds a vision for leveraging collaborations between disadvantaged neighborhoods, non-profits, and public funding to ensure that Angelenos have a seat at the table for community development. As a resident of L.A. from birth, Jesse grew up in South Central Los Angeles and worked in youth development and outreach early in his career,  witnessing how access to parks and open spaces fostered community engagement and enhanced positive impacts in the health of neighborhoods. Urbano Strategies’s mission grew from these early moments and seeks to empower citizens to take an active role in the creation of public spaces. Jesse shares success stories from community-powered projects that Urban Strategies collaborates with, such as networks of urban gardens in food deserts serving hundreds of L.A. residents. He talks about the work of collaborating with public agencies and the use of water saving gardening techniques for remarkable results in water conservation and food production. Jesse illuminates how initiatives with community at the center can make a difference in L.A.’s unfolding water story.  Jesse De La Cruz brings a wealth of experience in driving community growth and engagement across diverse neighborhoods. For over a decade, Jesse has been deeply involved in fostering community connections and advocating for environmental justice, drawing from his roots in South Los Angeles. Fueled by a passion for social justice inspired by his upbringing, Jesse pursued his Bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Irvine, in his commitment to serve and uplift his community for years to come.His expertise spans across strategic community engagement, demographic analysis, green space design, program development, leadership cultivation, and outreach planning. Jesse excels in crafting impactful campaigns and facilitating grassroots decision-making processes.As a seasoned community practitioner, Jesse takes proactive steps, organizing direct actions for policy reform, securing public and private funding for underserved areas, and empowering community-driven initiatives. He’s dedicated to making a differenceHosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“The wisdom of earth is miraculous, unrelenting, infinite, mysterious. We’ll never know everything about how natural ecosystems evolve…When I walk into the world with one foot in wonder, looking at grasslands, forests, and watersheds, my favorite way to do that is not as a designer. The best way to walk in nature is to remind yourself that you know nothing and then allow the wisdom of the natural world to show itself.” –Erik OhlsenTalking Water welcomes Erik Ohlsen, internationally recognized permaculture teacher, author, regenerative designer, storyteller, and practitioner of Nordic folk traditions. Erik offers a conversation steeped in impassioned stories, experiences of the living world, and new mythologies based on sacred connection with the natural world. He reveals seminal moments of awakening to grief, wonder, and reverence for nature calling him into the circle of interconnection. Erik tells the story of his spiritual journey to his ancestral Scandinavian roots leading to a transformation in his work as an earth activist and permaculture designer. His perspectives on working with nature confer luminous perspectives. Erik released “The Regenerative Landscaper” in 2023. He currently runs the award-winning design and build firm Permaculture Artisans and The Permaculture Skills Center. Erik Ohlsen is a master of regenerative design, an internationally recognized Permaculture teacher, a landscape contractor, author, farmer, herbalist, storyteller, and practitioner of Nordic folk traditions.Since 1999 Erik has founded numerous organizations that regenerate ecosystems including his award winning design and build firm Permaculture Artisans and The Permaculture Skills Center where thousands of students around the world learn ecological landscaping and regenerative agriculture.Working as an internationally renowned regenerative designer, he has committed decades to repairing ecosystems and connecting people with the land throughout the globe. He has designed and implemented hundreds of regenerated landscapes ranging from small urban lots to large tracts of land.His many years of experience observing and listening to landscape patterns while managing installation crews have led to an extensive knowledge of ecological land development and planning. He is a specialist in water harvesting systems, food forest design, community organizing, facilitation, vocational education and much more. In all of his work there is a presence of social equity, climate justice, and ecosystem restoration and his stories and achievements continue to empower people worldwide.Learn more about Erik's work at https://www.permacultureartisans.com/ and https://permacultureskillscenter.org/.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“Water is one of the biggest drivers in California of climate change…because our water comes from very far away. In LA, we import our water hundreds of miles–over mountains, over deserts, over farmland from the Colorado River, from the Owens Valley, from the Sacramento River. That treatment and conveyance of water over hundreds of miles is the number one non-utility energy use in the entire state of California.” –Kelly Shannon McNeill, Associate Director, LA WaterkeeperWelcome to the year-long Water Learning Series: Los Angeles, where we will host 11 conversations with organizations, community projects, tribal organizations, activists, organizers, and leaders from LA and places impacted by LA’s water story.  This month’s conversation features LA Waterkeeper, an organization that serves to partner with and also hold accountable municipalities, agencies, and decision makers implementing and investing in LA’s water infrastructure. The guests from LA Waterkeeper, Kelly Shannon McNeill (Associate Director) and Ben Harris (Staff Attorney), share inspiring stories about relentless advocacy for pollution prevention, healthy habitats, and systems change for the future of LA. The conversation features an in-depth discussion about how importing and treating the water in LA drives climate change in California. The guests present an urgent case for local water for a climate resilient future for LA. The guests also take a deep dive into the history and evolution of the LA River. From the river’s pre-colonial form as a year-long meandering waterway that flooded seasonally in the LA Basin, to its transformation into a concrete superhighway engineered to direct water as quickly as possible out of LA and into the Pacific Ocean, the LA River can be seen from a variety of perspectives. The guests share a vision of an ecologically restored LA River, providing intersectional and multi-use solutions for climate mitigation, equitable access to nature, and increased quality of life.Kelly Shannon McNeill, Associate DirectorAs a Southern California native who learned to swim before she could walk and an all-around earth lover, Kelly is deeply invested in preserving our precious habitats, recreation areas and supporting LA’s path to a more sustainable future.With more than 10 years of experience building partnerships that put people and our planet on the path towards success, Kelly was a fellow of the Moving Worlds Institute in 2017, where she learned to apply Human Centered Design in a global development context while working in East Africa. She has since worked as a philanthropy consultant to corporations and high-profile individuals, helped build multi-stakeholder initiatives in collaboration with UN Habitat, and served as a strategy advisor to social entrepreneurs.Kelly holds a BA in International Relations – Economic Development from University of California – San Diego.Ben Harris, Staff AttorneyFrom an early age, Ben knew he wanted to dedicate his career toward protecting marine habitats from environmental harm and improving access to clean water bodies for all California residents.Prior to joining LA Waterkeeper, Ben spent two years as a fellow at the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law, where he represented clients in their pursuit of environmental advocacy Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“One of the greatest learnings through the Walking Water pilgrimage was that we had in between time–between the three parts over three years to incorporate the dialogues, the learning circles, the new relationships, and to give time for those to grow between year one and two and between year two and three. That’s what I’m being moved with today, moved through the honoring of taking time to be with each other, to learn from each other, and continue to build the courage of meeting our outer actions with our inner prayers.” –Krystyna Jurzykowski (Walking Water Stellar)What does it mean for Walking Water to be guided by water in the ways we organize, in the ways we partner, and in the ways we come together?In a reflective conversation, the Walking Water community goes on a deep exploration to review what has been, be with what is, and envision what will be…Walking Water team members Kate Bunney (Co-founder, Team Coordinator & Stellar), Krystyna Jurzykowski (Stellar), Justine Epstein (Stellar), and Gigi Coyle (Co-founder & Guardian) share how water has shaped them, moves through their lives, informs their relationship-building, and inspires the work they feel called to do. During the course of the conversation the circle widens to include reflections from other community members. Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“I’m telling these stories, because change is within our power. It’s within our reach.” –Andy LipkisWelcome to the year-long Water Learning Series: Los Angeles, where we will host 11 conversations with organizations, community projects, tribal organizations, activists, organizers, and leaders from L.A. and places impacted by L.A.’s water story.  We welcome Andy Lipkis to session two of the series. Andy is a visionary and pioneer in urban and community forestry and watershed restoration in Los Angeles, as well as the founder and project executive of Accelerate Resilience L.A. (ARLA). In this conversation, Andy shares his understanding and vision for how Los Angeles could be water sufficient and why it is not. Through his decades of experience working for climate resiliency, he discusses how the legacy of pollution, the removal of LA’s living infrastructure, and the illiteracy and bureaucracy surrounding the potentials for water harvesting and waste water reclamation have led to L.A. importing nearly all its water. Andy tells hopeful stories from other cities in L.A. county and mega cities in Australia and offers solutions for shifting L.A.'s water story to one of healing and abundance through community action, adequate funding, and education.The conversation shifts to a visual presentation about a community engagement and collaborative planning tool to support living infrastructure projects in L.A. called Living Infrastructure Field Kit, developed in collaboration with ARLA, municipalities, community-based organizations, regional engineering firms, and Spherical, a strategic design and integrative research studio. David McConville, Co-Creative Director of Spherical, visually demonstrates the Field Kit, which shows what’s possible when adopting a living systems approach to healing the water and land in L.A. through free resources and an open source,map-based software platform for collaborative project design.  Andy Lipkis has spent his life crowdsourcing climate resilience, both coordinating flood emergency disaster relief and addressing long-term causes and vulnerabilities. At age 18, he founded TreePeople, and served as its president from 1973 to 2019. Lipkis is a pioneer of Urban and Community Forestry and Urban Watershed Management, the principles of which have spread across the world. He has consulted for Los Angeles, Seattle, Melbourne, Hong Kong, London and other megacities, helping plan for climate resilience and adaptation. With climate change impacts already creating a chronic emergency for cities around the world, Andy’s work has demonstrated promising new ways for individuals, communities and government agencies to collaboratively reshape urban tree canopy, soil, and water infrastructure to save lives and grow a more livable future.After retiring from TreePeople in 2019, Andy launched Accelerate Resilience L.A. (ARLA), a fiscally sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, to inspire and enable people and local governments to equitably accelerate climate resilience in Los Angeles.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“More than what you call the capturing or retention of these waters, is speaking up to give the waters their rights. They need to flow freely. We need to stop taking the water from up north, which means we need to figure out how to stop damming up our waters. We had water sources. What happened to them? We need to bring that back. More than what we call things, we need to use our voice to do the right thing.” –Tina CalderonWelcome to the first session of the year-long Water Learning Series: Los Angeles, where we will host 11 conversations with organizations, community projects, tribal organizations, activists, organizers, and leaders from LA and places impacted by LA’s water story.  We begin this series with indigenous voices at the forefront. We welcome Tina Calderon (Gabrielino Tongva, Chumash and Yoeme), Teri Red Owl (Bishop Paiute Tribe Nuumu from Payahuunadu), Annie Mendoza (Gabrieleno-Tongva), and Kyndall Noah (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) to share their stories about what the area that is now Los Angeles once was and how an indigenous perspective is needed in relation to how water is treated in LA. The conversation explores the questions: What is the truth of the past? How does that impact the present? What is the future we want to become? Through the reflections of the guests, we traverse the past when there was a reciprocal relationship with the water, water was a relative, and before reckless and profit driven modes of extraction. The guests share how the history of colonization and ownership of water has informed the present and created a system of scarcity and fear used to push infrastructure in LA with voters kept in the dark about where their water comes from. The guests and the community on the call widen the conversation, sharing stories of youth empowerment through education, developing projects to educate the public about the truth of water in LA, and breaking the isolation by working together towards collective futures.TINA CALDERON (Gabrielino Tongva, Chumash and Yoeme) Tina Orduno Calderon is a Culture Bearer for her family; the descendants of Komiikranga of the Santa Monica mountains which is shared territory for the Chumash and Tongva. Tina is wife, mother, grandmother, sister and auntie to many. Tina is a singer who also enjoys creative writing and composing poems and songs.TERI RED OWL (Bishop Paiute Tribe Nuumu from Payahuunadu) Executive Director at Owens Valley Indian Water Commission. Co-Produced Award-winning film PAYA THE WATER STORY OF THE PAIUTE. She lives in Bishop, California with her husband and children.ANNIE MENDOZA (Gabrieleno-Tongva) Annie is cocreator and director of the “Aqueduct Between Us,” a five-part social justice multimedia radical oral history documentary that aims to educate the people of Los Angeles about the Indigenous communities (Tongva –Gabrieleno and the Owens Valley Paiute/ Shoshone) who have been greatly impacted by their land and water use.KYNDALL NOAH (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma) Project Coordinator/Communication Specialist for the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission, working to ensure that the story of Owens Valley is inclusive and told from the perspective of the Indigenous people. Hosted by: Kate Bunney Produced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“Community power drives our work. It’s the base of our work. We definitely wouldn’t be at the solutions without that community power.” -Erica Diaz, Community Water CenterWe welcome Erica Diaz, Community Solutions Advocate for the Community Water Center. Erica shares inspiration from her work with rural Central Valley communities that are leveraging community-power to assure clean, safe, and reliable drinking water for themselves and generations to come. Erica talks about working towards solutions, in which communities are involved in every step of the process for water safety and reliability. With a water crisis affecting the Central Valley, Erica discusses solutions she is helping to implement that not only benefit drinking water but also benefit food security, health, and climate change.About Erica DiazErica Diaz is originally from Woodlake, CA and joined the Community Water Center in June of 2022 as a Community Solutions Advocate. She is based in Visalia and works closely with communities providing technical support and resources to assist residents in making informed decisions on the best drinking water solutions for their needs.Prior to joining CWC, she worked at Fresno Barrios Unidos as a Health Educator where she facilitated reproductive health curriculum and counseled middle/high school students on reproductive rights.Erica earned her Bachelor of Arts in both Political Science and Chicana/o Studies from San Jose State University.The Community Water Center has 3 offices (Sacramento, Visalia and Watsonville) and focuses on the Central Valley region in California. Its mission is to act as a catalyst for community-driven water solutions through organizing, education, and advocacy in California.Produced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“The power of the experiences I’ve shared…the wake up call opened my eyes, not to scarcity, to the abundance that we don’t see. We create scarcity by throwing away water.” -Andy LipkisWe’re joined by Andy Lipkis, a visionary and pioneer in urban and community forestry and watershed movement in Los Angeles and world-wide. Andy shares with the Walking Water community formative experiences of organizing around climate resilience in Los Angeles both through advocacy and in the face of devastating climate emergencies. He shares lessons from drought stricken mega cities in Australia, drawing inspiration and tangible solutions for responding to a warming climate in order to capture precious rain water. Through Andy’s decades of work advocating on behalf of urban forests and watershed policies in LA, Andy shares first-hand the frustrations and successes of working in collaboration and, at times, in spite of multiple city agencies and bureaucracies. The Walking Water community collaborates in this conversation, including the integral voices of the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission, articulating the impacts of more than 175 years of settler colonialism on the original Paiute water stewards of Owens Valley/Payahuundaü, where LA continues to draw its water supply. About Andy LipkisAndy Lipkis has spent his life crowdsourcing climate resilience, both coordinating flood emergency disaster relief and addressing long-term causes and vulnerabilities. At age 18, he founded TreePeople, and served as its president from 1973 to 2019. Lipkis is a pioneer of Urban and Community Forestry and Urban Watershed Management, the principles of which have spread across the world. He has consulted for Los Angeles, Seattle, Melbourne, Hong Kong, London and other megacities, helping plan for climate resilience and adaptation. With climate change impacts already creating a chronic emergency for cities around the world, Andy’s work has demonstrated promising new ways for individuals, communities and government agencies to collaboratively reshape urban tree canopy, soil, and water infrastructure to save lives and grow a more livable future.After retiring from TreePeople in 2019, Andy launched Accelerate Resilience L.A. (ARLA), a fiscally sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, to inspire and enable people and local governments to equitably accelerate climate resilience in Los Angeles. Learn more about ARLA here.Produced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“What I’m trying to do is create projects that bring us together in awe, wonder, and empathy with water, connecting and reanimating the connection with water as a life force and inspiring support for its regeneration.” -Melissa McGillArtist, activist, and water storyteller Melissa McGill joins Talking Water for a conversation on the transformative power of the arts in connecting and inspiring people to work on behalf of water. McGill’s artistic practice utilizes a deep sense of listening, collaboration, and reciprocity with communities to create projects that not only make an impact, but send out long-lasting ripples in the communities they serve.  As a water storyteller, McGill shares how water moves her to plumb the unknown depths to tell sacred stories that support water advocacy.About Melissa McGillMelissa McGill is an artist, activist and water storyteller.She is known for collaborative, ambitious site specific public art projects and a vibrant studio practice. Her projects are site-specific, immersive experiences that explore nuanced conversations between land, water, sustainable traditions, and the interconnectedness of all living beings. At the heart of her work is a focus on community, meaningful shared experiences and lasting positive impact. Spanning a variety of media including performance, photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, sound, light, video and immersive installation, McGill has presented both independent public art projects and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally since 1991.For more information, please visit her website: melissamcgillartist.comProduced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

“There are global water protectors all around the world committed to this work, and we need to do it together. We need to know there are others doing this work, so we don’t feel alone in the work, and know that we are connected energetically through the waterways, supporting one another…” -Elizabeth K Nguyen, MDElizabeth K Nguyen, MD, water keeper, psychiatrist, and author, joins Talking Water this month in a collaborative conversation with the Walking Water community. Dr. Nguyen shares her important work as a psychiatrist and energy worker supporting people to restore their internal bodies of water, freeing up the channels that block connection to self, place, and planet. The conversation widens into a community-sharing about the many ways people are doing the sacred work of protecting water on the planet and how replenishing and healing the internal waterways is both a support to environmental activism and a valuable form of activism. Elizabeth K Nguyen, MD was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her parents were refugees from Vietnam who arrived in Honolulu in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War. She received her BA from Stanford University in Human Biology, her MD from Northwestern University, and her Psychiatry Residency and Child Psychiatry Fellowship training at UC Davis. She started her career in community mental health, with specific interests in cross-cultural psychiatry, the intersection of spirituality and mental health, and the healing power of water and the natural world. She is also the author of Aloha Vietnam and founder of the Water Keeper community. Of the inspiration behind and the intention for Aloha Vietnam, Elizabeth says: "There is so much trauma and healing in the human ancestral lineages, and water, art, and storytelling help us in becoming whole and natural again. This book is my love offering to the land and the people of Vietnam and Hawaii, and the vast Pacific Ocean that connects them. It is my hope that it provides beauty and healing to the trauma and suffering that has come through generations of loss and the struggles of mental illness."Produced & Edited by: Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

We welcome Dr. Crystal Cavalier-KeckDr. Crystal Cavalier-Keck is the co-founder of Seven Directions of Service with her husband. She is a citizen of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation in Burlington, NC. She is a board member of the Haw River Assembly, the Women's Resource Center in Alamance County, and Benevolence Farm. Crystal was a Fall Cohort of the Sierra Club's Gender Equity and Environment Program and Women's Earth Alliance (WEA) Accelerator for Grassroots Women Environmental Leaders in 2020. Crystal completed her Doctorate in Organization Leadership at the University of Dayton in August 2022, and her dissertation focused on the Social Justice issue of Missing Murdered Indigenous Women in Gas/Oil Pipelines in frontline communities. Her current projects focus on missing, murdered indigenous women, burden, exposure, risk, and health disparities among American Indians in environmental justice communities. Secondly, Crystal is working on inequities in our food system, which continue to disproportionately burden communities of color. Dismantling these inequities is imperative to achieve a sustainable food system and ultimately food justice. We talk about the Rights of Nature as an indigenous led movement and the current status of the campaign against the MVP pipeline. Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena Pugliese and Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

Walking Water, Three Creeks and the Owens Valley Paiute-Shoshone Cultural Center invites you to listen to this conversation with local and global Water Protectors.Together we welcome Dr. Rajendra Singh, the "Waterman of India," along with Kathy Bancroft (Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Lone Pine Paiute Shoshone Tribe), Paul Huette (Acting Chairman of the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission), Noah Williams (Water Program Coordinator of the Big Pine Paiute Tribe). We also welcome Zach Weiss (Water Stories), Ethan Hirsch-Tauber (Water Folk), and other protectors coming from the recent UN 2023 Water Conference in New York.This event was held in person at the Owens Valley Paiute-Shoshone Cultural Center in March 2023. Produced & Edited by: Teena Pugliese and Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

We welcome Tala Khanmalek to Talking Water. Tala Khanmalek (she/they) is a writer, activist, educator, and sailor-in-training. She is the creator of Sailing for Social Justice, which was a sponsored project of the Detroit-based Allied Media Projects. Her water work links sailing with social, environmental, and healing justice in both theory and practice.Sailing for Social Justice began with a dream that immediately led Tala to sailing. After learning how to sail for several years, Tala developed SSJ and led her first public workshop at the 2018 Allied Media Conference. SSJ is a grassroots project that links sailing with social, environmental, and healing justice in both theory and practice. At its core, SSJ seeks to transform dominant sail culture by: *Bringing attention to past and present activist movements in which water vessels (e.g., canoes, boats, ships) play a central role*Making connections between navigating waterways and navigating systems of oppression*Uplifting the significance of seafaring traditions for building a livable and sustainable future.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena Pugliese and Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

Join us for a conversation with Teri Red Owl, Kyndall Noah, Paul Huette, Rosanna Marrujo and Ian Bell of the Owens Valley Indian Water Commission, Gigi Coyle, Teena Pugliese, Jen Schlaich and Cassandra Ferrera as we discuss an exciting water & land back moment in Payahuunadü and a watering hole known as Three Creeks. Three Creeks is on the traditional homelands of the Nüümü (Paiute) and Newe (Shoshone) people, and the place where the dream and vision for Walking Water first emerged. This intergenerational cross cultural moment has brought together the Three Creeks Collective. A group committed to the continued care of this 5 acre oasis while supporting cultural revitalization, contributing to food sovereignty, nurturing connections that build alliances, and engaging young and elders in community with global stewards. Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena Pugliese and Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

W e welcome Rabea Herzog and Benjamin von Mendelssohn from the Tamera peace research center in Portugal. O ur focus is on the design of Water Retention Landscapes as developed and built by the Tamera community and its connection with the themes of love and sexuality. Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena Pugliese and Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

We welcome you to join the Walking Water team - Kate Bunney, Krystyna Jurzykowski, Justine Epstein, Rina Kedem and Guardians - Gigi Coyle and Orland Bishop - for our Renewal and Review. Our intention is to offer an end of year review of the work and events of Walking Water and a shared renewal space together with you. We believe in being transparent with how we have moved through the year, the decisions we have made, those elements that worked well and those that were challenges, things that didn't go so well and why. And we ask you to join us, as witness, with your questions, curiosities, critics and blessings. We hope this will be a space of learning, humility, accountability, inspiration, fun and widening of our community. Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena Pugliese and Anne Carol MitchellIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

W e welcome Brock DolmanBrock Dolman is a co-founder of the Sonoma County based Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, where he co-directs with Kate Lundquist the WATER Institute and the Bring Back the Beaver Campaign. He is a wildlife biologist who is nationally recognized as a restoration ecologist and renowned innovator in watershed management and Permaculture design. Brock integrates wildlife biology, native California botany and watershed ecology with education about regenerative human settlement design, ethno-ecology, and ecological literacy to illuminate what it is to live in partnership with a living, emergent Earth and engender societal transformation. He has been actively promoting the idea of Rewilding Beaver in California since the early 2000’s. He was given Salmonid Restoration Federation’s coveted Golden Pipe Award in 2012: “ …for his leading role as a proponent of "working with beavers" to restore native salmon habitat. In 1992 he completed his BA in Agro-Ecology & Conservation Biology, graduating with honors from the University of California Santa Cruz with the Biology Department and Environmental Studies Department.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena PuglieseIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

We welcome brontë velez and justine epstein on the theme of water and eros. aboutOur friendship, scholarship and praxis has many and ever-evolving intersections as comrades and clowns hospicing dying systems and reckoning towards repair with ancestors and the earth in times of deep unrest. we enter these conversations and inquiries from different contexts, with different bodies and stories and find solidarity and mutual liberation in queerness, black feminist scholarship, practices of sabbath and land-based rites of passage, and a shared vision for reparations, ancestral healing, and a world where we’re all free. we’re guided alone and together on the healing path by our ancestors, and the abiding love of the earth we are humbly re-becoming. we’ve found great joy in collaborating on the Weaving Earth board, the steal a way fellowship, the Ancestors & Money cohort, and the Kinship Course by Advaya, and we’re looking forward to continuing to dream together in this conversation on water & eros.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena PuglieseIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

W e welcome Betsy Damon to join us in conversation. Betsy Damon is an internationally acclaimed artist who has been called a practical visionary and a humanist. Her work has been widely reviewed, exhibited, and taught. She’s known for her performance works, like 7000 Year Old Woman (1976), and her large-scale ecological designs like The Living Water Garden (1998) in Chengdu, China. She has directed many collaborative public performance events, most notably in Chengdu and Lhasa. Currently, she is in communication with international exhibitions, museums, and activists in Ireland, Poland, Turkey, and China, and is exhibiting at Stony Brook University and the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands. Betsy’s awards include the Bush Foundation, Heinz Foundation, NEA, UN Habitat, Waterfront Center Top Honor, five awards from the ASLA, and others. A solo exhibition of Betsy’s performance work, curated by Monika Fabijanska, took place at La MaMa Galleria in Manhattan in 2021.For the past four decades, Betsy’s work has focused on a central subject: water, which she reveals as the connective, creative, and collaborative medium behind all life. Betsy promotes public consciousness of Living Water and invites us to place water itself as the foundation of all planning and design. Her work traverses the complexities of water, from the molecular scale to the levels of ecosystems and societies. Betsy’s work has been archived by Asia Art ArchiveHosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena PuglieseIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

Join us in welcoming Emmett Brennan. Emmett is an artist and story teller who uses film as a way to orient humanity towards care, curiosity, and repair. Both poetic and practical, his work gives momentum to the cautiously hopeful dreams in our hearts and offers deep insight into the interdependent relationship we share with the whole of life. He is most well known for producing ‘Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective’ and directing ‘Reflection: a walk with water,’ which premiered at Tribeca and won an Audience Favorite award at Mill Valley. 'Reflection: a walk with water’ was in part inspired by the work and walks of Walking Water and Emmett's own relationship with water. We talk about the film, the pilgrimage that Emmett took to create it and his own most intimate inquiry into what it means to restore our relations with water. Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena PuglieseIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

Join us in welcoming Rina Kedem (Israel) and Sami Awad (Palestine). Our conversation focuses on the effects of the long running conflict in Israel/Palestine on water issues. Also Rina and Sami share about their work together based on Sacred Activism. This episode was recorded on October 09th 2021Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena PuglieseIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

Join us in welcoming Sofia Sadogurska and Mariia Diachuk of EcoAction, Ukraine. Our conversation focuses on both the beauty of Ukraine and also the impact the Russia/Ukraine war is having on communities, the earth and the waters. The effects of war on the environment are devastating for generations to come. This episode was recorded on June 22nd 2022Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Sam Gray EdmondsonIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

Join us in welcoming Barbara Vlamis of AquAlliance and MaMuse. Our conversation focuses on the work of AquAlliance whose mission is to defend northern California waters and to challenge threats to the hydrologic health of the Northern Sacramento River watershed.We also receive some beautiful music from MaMuse including a song called 'River Under the River' written to support this important water work. This episode was first recorded in November 2021Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena PuglieseIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

Join us in welcoming Marcela OliveraOur conversation focuses on themes such as water privatization, the human rights of water and ways of community building around water. Also, Marcela shares about the water wars in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and how the peoples uprising reclaimed the water from the private water company, Bechtel. Marcela Olivera is a water commons organizer based in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Since 2004 she has been developing and consolidating an inter-American citizens’ network on water justice named Red VIDA. She sits on the coordinating committee of the Platform for Public and Community Partnerships of The America (PAPC). Since 2019, she has been working as the regional coordinator for the Blue Planet Project.This episode was first recorded in May 2022Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena PuglieseIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussPhoto: Jasmine BeaghlerIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

In this important episode, Marsela Pecanac and Lejla Kusturica of ACT talk about the water situation in the Balkans and the work of ACT. ACT supports activists and artists in the Western Balkans by helping them rebuild their communities and by challenging systemic injustice through frontline partnerships and strategic campaigns. ACT’s nomination helped secure the 2021 Goldman Environmental Award for Europe for the Brave Women of Kruscica in Bosnia and Herzegovina in celebration of their epic river defense.This episode was first recorded in October 2021Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena PuglieseIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

In this deeply moving conversation, Orland Bishop and Gigi Coyle explore the essence of water and what it represents to us as human beings. Gigi Coyle is the co-founder of Walking Water,  and founder of Beyond Boundaries, an inter-generational pilgrimage of service and a response team for our times. She continues today as a rite of passage guide for organizations and individuals as well as a council trainer, community activist, and mentor. Gigi is now Guardian to Walking Water.Orland Bishop is a lineage holder in African Gnosis Traditions and works at the intersection of human consciousness and societal development. He is the Founder and Executive Director of ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation in Los Angeles, California, a unique organization of social architects and entropenures devoted to creating new social forms and collaboratives for systems change. Orland is Guardian to Walking Water.This episode was first recorded in June 2021Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena PuglieseIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

In this episode we welcome Zachary Wise, Creator of Water StoriesZach is the protégé of revolutionary Austrian farmer Sepp Holzer. He is the first and only person to earn a Holzer Practitioner certification directly from Sepp - through a rigorous two-year apprenticeship. After learning from Sepp, he set out to create Elemental Ecosystems, a business that provides an action-oriented process to improve clients' relationship with their landscape.Elemental Ecosystems is an ecological development contracting and consulting company specializing in watershed restoration and ecosystem regeneration. Harvesting time and the productivity of natural systems is the guiding principle - resulting in abundant oases with the potential to last until the next ice age. Elemental Ecosystems has worked in 25 countries, on 6 continents, spanning a wide range of climates, contexts, landforms, and ecosystems. After 10 years of doing projects for Elemental Ecosystems, Zach began to see the limits of his availability and need for water retention work at scale, and thus felt a call to share this knowledge with others. This is where Water Stories was born.Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena PuglieseIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

Maude Barlow is a Canadian author and activist. She is the chair of the Blue Planet Project and the Washington-based Food & Water Watch. She is a Councilor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council. In 2008/2009, she served as Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd President of the United Nations General Assembly and was a leader in the campaign to have water recognized as a human right by the UN.In this episode of Talking Water we talk with Maude on themes such as water privatization, the human rights of water and the international defense of water. This was recorded as a live zoom call in March 2022. Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena PuglieseIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

Kathy Bancroft is the Tribal Historic Preservation officer and Elder of the Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone tribe and Alan Bacock is the former water coordinator with the Big Pine Paiute Tribe. Both have been instrumental on the path of Walking Water. We will hear some of the water history of Payahuunadü (Owens Valley, Eastern Sierras, CA), what is happening currently in the valley's relationship with Los Angeles and about the vision that is held by the Paiute Shoshone, Nuumü/Newé peoples of Payahuunadü.   This was recorded as a live zoom call in June 2021.  Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena PuglieseIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/

Gigi Coyle and Rajendra Singh share story about the importance of love in activism, and the relationship between community and the healing of water. This was recorded as a live zoom call in February 2022. Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Teena PuglieseIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here.For more info go to Walking Water website Hosted by: Kate BunneyProduced & Edited by: Jay LamarsIntro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter StraussIf you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/