Podcast
#20 Dr. Mordecai Ogada
This week, we talk to Dr. Mordecai Ogada, carnivore ecologist and co-author of The Big Conservation Lie. We dive into the intersections between conservation and food systems, the racist assumptions underpinning conservation in Africa, the Disney-fied myths that perpetuate problems in Western perception of Africa and its wildlife, the fallacy of tourism and capitalism being necessary to protect wildlife, the removal of the sacred during Christian colonization, how conservation today reinforces the institutions of colonialism, and how the language of crisis maintains these dubious institutions.
#18 Jesse Smith
This week on “Death in The Garden” we return from our hiatus to share our interview with Jesse Smith, Director of Land Stewardship at White Buffalo Land Trust, a Savory Hub in Santa Barbara, CA. This was a pivotal interview which planted innumerable seeds in our heads, which have since germinated into such a deeper understanding about the direction of our project; “regeneration as self-preservation”; what regeneration truly means; what sustainability truly means; the reconciliation and healing from colonialism that is necessary for progress; the epigenetics of livestock/landscapes/humans; the energetic relationships between all things; the problems with Enlightenment thinking; how technology must “be in the service of more life”; the spiritual/cultural/physical regeneration that will punctuate our transition from this paradigm to the next; and understanding that we are surrounded by a living, mysterious world.
#17 Steven Donziger
On this episode, Jake and Maren interview human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, who has been under house arrest for nearly 2 years due to a baseless criminal contempt charge for having the courage to stand up against the atrocities committed in the Ecuadorian Amazon by oil behemoth, Chevron.