Claim OwnershipForum on Religion and Ecology: Spotlights
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© 2025 Forum on Religion and Ecology: Spotlights
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A series of interviews from the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, focusing on people and organizations working at the confluence of religious and ecological perspectives. Interviews cover four main areas: 1) new and forthcoming publications, 2) engagement in practice, activism, and advocacy, 3) teaching and curriculum, and 4) perspectives from environmental humanities. Our Vision is a flourishing Earth community where religious and spiritual traditions join together for the shared wellbeing of ecosystems, life forms, and people on our common planetary home.You can watch the video recordings of this podcast here: https://fore.yale.edu/Resources/Multimedia/Video/FORE-Spotlights-Archive/
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This episode is about a very special issue of The New Ecozoic Reader that has just been released. This special issue, edited by the Forum's own Sam Mickey and Sam C. King, offers retrospective and prospective views on the field of religion and ecology: looking at where we've been, where things stand now, and how the field, and our work together, could evolve going forward. The issue is very intergenerational and includes essays by both esteemed and established figures in the field, and younge...
In this episode, our host discusses the new book by the British writer, Robert Macfarlane, Is a River Alive? It's an exciting contribution to the growing body of literature that expands our imaginations and our legal frameworks to account for the agency and liveliness of the natural world.
This episode features Rachael Petersen, a writer, thinker, and convener. We discuss her life and work at the confluence of philosophy, ecology, and transcendence. As Program Lead of Harvard’s Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative, Rachael guides interdisciplinary explorations into how cutting-edge plant science challenges our ideas of mind, matter, and meaning. She holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School, where her research centered on panpsychism, pantheism, and the more-...
This episode features Natalia Schwien Scott. She is an herbalist, wildlife rescue & rehabilitation apprentice, and Ph.D. candidate in the Study of Religion at Harvard University, where she recently completed a Master of Theological Studies degree with a focus on the intersection of ecology and spiritual practice. She researches relational ontologies, posthuman ethics, and diction on personhood in scientific discourse. She also serves as an Advisor and Program Associate for the Thinking wi...
This episode features Rachael Petersen and Natalia Schwien Scott, who co-launched the “Thinking with Plants and Fungi Initiative” at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University in fall of 2022. We talk about the initiative and its culminating conference, which took place in May of 2025. We discuss their interdisciplinary exploration into how plants and fungi help us rethink the nature of mind and matter and humans’ relationship to the more-than-human world. You can learn...
In this episode, our host (Sam Mickey) reviews two books that engage with questions about the place of life, meaning, and purpose in the universe. First, he discusses the anthology, Towards a Philosophy of Cosmic Life: New Discussions and Interdisciplinary Views, edited by David Bartosh, Attila Grandpierre, and Bei Peng (Springer, 2024). It's notable for its interdisciplinary and transnational perspectives on the inherence of life in the universe. It includes a wonderful chapter by John B. Co...
This episode features Yuria Celidwen, PhD, a native of Indigenous Nahua and Maya lineages from the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. We discuss her work as a scholar, researcher, and writer working at the intersection of Indigenous studies, cultural psychology, and contemplative sciences. We focus in particular on her book, Flourishing Kin: Indigenous Wisdom for Collective Well-Being (2024). We also discuss some of the complexities involved with psychedelic research, including an article she co-a...
This episode features Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder, a writer at the confluence of relationship to place with experiences of the sacred. She has a masters of theological studies from Harvard Divinity School, and she's worked as a staff writer and editor for Emergence Magazine. Her writings have been published in numerous venues. We talk about her personal and professional journey into the intersection of religion and ecology, particularly with reference to her new book, Mother, Creature, Kin: Wha...
On this special Earth Day episode, we feature the work of three writers who focus on the wonderful world of trees: Beth Norcross, Leah Rampy, and Laura Pustarfi. Beth and Leah are the authors of the new book (released on Earth Day 2025), Discovering the Spiritual Wisdom of Trees. Laura is the editor of an anthology (co-edited with David Macauley), The Wisdom of Trees: Thinking Through Arboreality (forthcoming in June 2025). Enjoy this thought-provoking discussion about trees and the questions...
This episode features Cathy Coleman, Ph.D., a former dean of students at California Institute of Integral Studies, president of Kepler College, and director of IONS’ EarthRise Retreat Center. We discuss her new anthology, Ralph Metzner, Explorer of Consciousness: The Life and Legacy of a Psychedelic Pioneer. Cathy was Ralph Metzner’s wife of 31 years, and they worked closely together. We discuss the vast impact of Ralph Metzner’s healing therapies and wisdom on colleagues, students, clients, ...
This episode features Russell Duvernoy, PhD, Associate Professor of Philosophy at King's University College at Western University in London, Ontario. We discuss Russell’s engagement with process philosophies, environmental philosophy, contemporary Continental philosophy, and comparative philosophy (including classical Daoism, Mahayana Buddhist philosophy, and world Indigenous philosophies). We touch on topics like attention, affect, tensions between speculative and existential philosophies, a...
This episode of Spotlights features the Rev. Dr. Lisa Dahill, Miriam Therese Winter Chair for Transformative Leadership and Spirituality and Director of the Center for Transformative Spirituality at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace. We talk about her personal and professional engagement with ecological theology, her study of the German Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the liturgical and ritual practices involved in rewilding Christianity, and much more.
This episode turns the spotlights onto our host, Sam Mickey. Kimberly Carfore came back on the podcast to interview Sam and talk about the way that his experiences, personal life, and religious commitments relate to his work in the field of religion and ecology. This podcast has been running for five years, and one of the frequent request we receive is to hear more about Sam's perspective, so we finally decided to have an episode where the interviewer becomes the interviewee.
This episode features the Rev. Dr. Nancy Wright, Pastor of Creation Care with the Evangelical Lutheran church in America. We discuss many facets of her life and work, from personal experiences with faith, interpretations of ancient scripture, the theology of Martin Luther, process theology, and much more, including attention to water stewardship, interreligious perspectives, and forest therapy. This episode is full of information and inspiration that provides a beacon of hope during our compl...
This episode features our host reviewing the latest book by Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, focusing specifically on the idea of a gift economy. The book invites us to transition from the extractive and exploitative market economy that is dominant around the globe to a gift economy oriented around abundance, reciprocity, and gratitude. It is an informative and inspiring book that works as a good introduction to Kimmerer's work for t...
This episode focuses on the enduring legacy of President Jimmy Carter (1924-2024). We feature a plenary address that Carter gave for the American Academy of Religion in San Diego on November 24, 2014. The Plenary Panel was called The Role of Religion in Mediating Conflicts and Imagining Futures: The Cases of Climate Change and Equality for Women. He led with comments on women’s issues as his book on women had just been published, A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power. Thi...
This episode features Kimberly Carfore, PhD, co-chair of the religion and ecology unit at the American Academy of Religion (AAR). We discuss the religion and ecology events at this year's annual meeting of the AAR, including some of the panel presentations, receptions, overarching themes, and future directions for this unique unit. Hope, happiness, Indigenous values, and feminist theology are among the topics we cover. Many previous podcast guests are mentioned in the process, underscoring ho...
This episode features Ricardo Rozzi, PhD, a Chilean ecologist and philosopher who is a professor at the University of North Texas and the Universidad de Magallanes (UMAG). His research combines ecology and philosophy through the study of the interrelations between the ways of knowing and inhabiting the natural world, proposing a dynamic continuous reciprocal feedback between both domains. We discuss his work with biocultural conservation, field environmental philosophy, and liberation theolog...
This episode features Beth Norcross, founder and director of the Center for Spirituality in Nature, which provides numerous programs that offer spiritual guidance for developing deep, sustained, loving relationships with nature. She is also the co-author (with Leah Rampy) of a forthcoming book, Discovering the Spiritual Wisdom of Trees, which will be published with Broadleaf Books on Earth Day (April 22) 2025. We discuss her perspective on the intersection of spirituality and nature, and her ...
This episode features Paul Waldau, an educator, activist and scholar who works at the intersection of animal studies, law, ethics, religion, and cultural studies. Former professor at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, where he is the senior faculty for the Master of Science program in Anthrozoology, he is an author and editor of several books on animal studies, including The Specter of Speciesism: Buddhist and Christian Views of Animals (Oxford University Press, 2001), Animal Studies: An ...
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