Mind, Body, and Soil

In this episode, I sit down with anthropologist Alyshia Gálvez to talk about her book Eating NAFTA. The conversation is from two people who came to economic policy through unlikely means, but as Alyshia explains, economic policy in general, and NAFTA in particular - on its 30 year anniversary, has become a part of all of our bodies whether we’re aware of it or not. Alyshia’s work is incredible at connecting dots that aren’t often seen in economics - its about people, landscapes, and cultures and how they are affected by policy that favors corporations. We explore ideas of efficiency, and how the standard definition is anything but, of consumption, and the paradoxes that arise when looking at people, food, and policy. We look at corn as a material that drives our world through corn products and how landrace corn varietals have been lost to the people that first cultivated them. We also look at the health effects of policy, both here in the US, and in Mexico. Alyshia comes with a big message: if you, like us, feel like you’re a stranger to economic policy or that you can’t change it, perhaps you can and it matters now more than ever. Find Alyshia Gálvez:Eating NAFTA: Trade, Food Policies and the Destruction of MexicoPatient Citizens, Immigrant MothersX: @alyshiagalvezWebsite Sponsored By:SUNDRIES FARM GARLICHand grown Sundries Farm Garlic is certified disease-free and grown in the volcanic soils of Idaho. With a range of soft and hard-neck varietals the unmatched flavor and big cloves are perfect for both your seed and culinary needs. Pre-order now for shipping in September. sundriesfarm.comSupport the Podcast:SubstackLeave a one-time TipConnect with Kate:Instagram: @kate_kavanaugh

In this week’s episode, I sit down with geologist Marcia Bjornerud to talk about her new book Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks and to explore how we can gain a sense of feeling embedded in the time and space of Earth, as earthlings. We explore the mentorship rocks have to offer us and putting the story of Earth as a dynamic planet front and center. We talk about how learning about process, not just end product, through the lens of geology, can give us a sense of empathy and story that mirrors our own inner experiences on Earth. It’s also about the paradoxical qualities of geology, the vetoing of the term ‘Anthropocene’ in the geologic community and why it matters, and what it means to look at the future through the lens of the past. This episode is about putting Earth in the foreground, not as a backdrop for our human endeavors, but as a living and active system. Marcia is excellent at being a translator for the Earth and her books and way of speaking both illuminate Earth in an intriguing and dynamic way. Find Marcia Bjornerud:Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of RocksTimefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the WorldReading the Rocks: The Autobiography of EarthGeopedia: A Brief Compendium of Geologic CuriositiesResources Mentioned: In the Weeds Interview with Marcia (Part 1 and Part 2)Sponsored By:REDMOND REAL SALTMine to Table Salt from Utah, Redmond Real Salt is packed full of 60+ Trace Minerals and is a staple in my kitchen. Find their salt, Re-Lyte Hydration Powder, and so much more here. Use code MINDBODYSOIL_15 for 15% off!redmond.lifeSUNDRIES FARM GARLICHand grown Sundries Farm Garlic is certified disease-free and grown in the volcanic soils of Idaho. With a range of soft and hard-neck varietals the unmatched flavor and big cloves are perfect for both your seed and culinary needs. Pre-order now for shipping in September. sundriesfarm.comSupport the Podcast:SubstackLeave a one-time TipConnect with Kate:Instagram: @kate_kavanaugh

Rose George is the author of four fantastic books (Nine Pints, Ninety Percent of Everything, the Big Necessity, and a Life Removed) that share a common theme: much of her work is about seeing the unseen. It’s about those things that are ubiquitous and unnoticed, or more likely, obfuscated from us. In this episode, we focus on human waste, the shipping industry, and blood. Much of our conversation is about how we begin to see the waters we swim in, stop sanitizing our language to further obscure things, and use our awareness to create changes large and small. It’s about breaking down taboos and letting individual stories of tragedy and triumph bring us into issues that matter. It’s also a little bit about the shipping industry and how 90% of our goods get to us, how toilets can transform lives, and how period products can dramatically improve the lives of girls. Find Rose George:Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of BloodNinety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your PlateThe Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It MattersA Life RemovedRose’s SubtackOn XResources Mentioned: Surfer’s Against SewageMonterrey Bay Fish GuideSponsored By:REDMOND REAL SALTMine to Table Salt from Utah, Redmond Real Salt is packed full of 60+ Trace Minerals and is a staple in my kitchen. Find their salt, Re-Lyte Hydration Powder, and so much more here. Use code MINDBODYSOIL_15 for 15% off!redmond.lifeSUNDRIES FARM GARLICHand grown Sundries Farm Garlic is certified disease-free and grown in the volcanic soils of Idaho. With a range of soft and hard-neck varietals the unmatched flavor and big cloves are perfect for both your seed and culinary needs. Pre-order now for shipping in September. sundriesfarm.comSupport the Podcast:SubstackLeave a one-time TipConnect with Kate:Instagram: @kate_kavanaugh

Mariele Ivy is an artist. Known for her work in making jewelry and in lapidary, she is also a ceramicist, a maker of talismans and sacraments. In this episode, Kate sits down with Mariele Ivy from Young In the Mountains to talk about what it means to be an artist and to work with things of the earth. We talk about Mariele’s dedication to her supply chain - to fair trade gold, American mined inlay stones, American mined sapphires, and recycled diamonds and we talk about how she extends that care to every aspect of her business. This episode is about earth’s processes and artistic processes both - about how we can make our inner feelings tangible. It’s also about what distraction, inspiration, and contentment mean in the creative process, about how working with your hands can change your mind, and about those things in us that are most ancient. Mariele is a delight and you’ll love her work and words both. Sponsored By:REDMOND REAL SALTMine to Table Salt from Utah, Redmond Real Salt is packed full of 60+ Trace Minerals and is a staple in my kitchen. Find their salt, Re-Lyte Hydration Powder, and so much more here. Use code MINDBODYSOIL_15 for 15% off!redmond.lifeSUNDRIES FARM GARLICHand grown Sundries Farm Garlic is certified disease-free and grown in the volcanic soils of Idaho. With a range of soft and hard-neck varietals the unmatched flavor and big cloves are perfect for both your seed and culinary needs. Pre-order now for shipping in September. sundriesfarm.comFind Mariele:Young In the MountainsInstagram: @younginthemountainsResources Mentioned: The Covenant of Water by Abraham VergheseEat Like a Human by Dr. Bill SchindlerSupport the Podcast:SubstackLeave a one-time TipConnect with Kate:Instagram: @kate_kavanaughemail: kate@groundworkcollective.com

Steven Kurutz grew up in a town of 1500 people in the mountains of Pennsylvania. It was a formative rural experience. He set pins at a local bowling alley. He frequented the town library. It’s where he learned to love books, writing, and the characters of small town America - including the towns themselves. He puts all of that to practice in his new book ‘American Flannel: How a Band of Entrepreneurs are Bringing the Art and Business of Making Clothes Back Home'. Steven and Kate sit down to talk about the tension between urban and rural environments. To talk about how the last 50 years of economic policy has changed small towns, fashion, and what quality means. We talk about the clothing brands American Giant and Zkano socks and what they’re doing to bring manufacturing back to America while making beautiful and quality goods that are as economically accessible as possible and the grit and determination (and relationships) it takes to do just that. Find Steven: American Flannel: How A Band of Entrepreneurs are Bringing the Art and Business of Making Clothes Back Home by Steven KurutzX: @skurutzNYT WorkSelected Other Pieces:On Small Town LibrariesOn Being a Pin BoyResources Mentioned:American GiantZkano SocksSponsored By:REDMOND REAL SALTMine to Table Salt from Utah, Redmond Real Salt is packed full of 60+ Trace Minerals and is a staple in my kitchen. Find their salt, Re-Lyte Hydration Powder, and so much more here. Use code MINDBODYSOIL_15 for 15% off!Redmond.lifeSupport the Podcast:SubstackLeave a one-time Tip

In this episode, Kate sits down with author Ferris Jabr, whose book Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life comes out on June 25th. Ferris’ love of other animals and plants started at an early age and that fascination has grown into an incredible career as a journalist, exploring the perspective of ecosystems, animals, and the earth itself. Beginning with his garden in Portland, Kate and Ferris span out into the garden of earth itself and the way life creates the conditions for its own existence. From the young ages of the earth and the reciprocal processes between bacteria and our atmosphere, they explore some of the salient cycles that bend chronological time and minds alike. Plankton, and their jaw-dropping role in earth, become a vehicle for talking about how Saharan Africa fertilizes the Amazon which causes rain in the midwest. They discuss how throughout earth’s timescale, complexity grows and with it, the complexity of the relationships between life and environment and earth. They also explore the human animal’s role on earth and its cycles and what it might mean to tell ourselves a new story. An excellent episode to explore complexity, cooperation, mutuality, and beauty. Sponsored By:REDMOND REAL SALTMine to Table Salt from Utah, Redmond Real Salt is packed full of 60+ Trace Minerals and is a staple in my kitchen. Find their salt, Re-Lyte Hydration Powder, and so much more here. Use code MINDBODYSOIL_15 for 15% off!redmond.lifeSUNDRIES FARM GARLICHand grown Sundries Farm Garlic is certified disease-free and grown in the volcanic soils of Idaho. With a range of soft and hard-neck varietals the unmatched flavor and big cloves are perfect for both your seed and culinary needs. Pre-order now for shipping in September. sundriesfarm.comSupport the Podcast:SubstackLeave a one-time TipFind Ferris:Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life X: @ferrisjabr Instagram: @ferrisjabrFerris’ ArticlesThe Story of StorytellingHow Beauty is Making Scientists Rethink EvolutionResources Mentioned: An Immense World by Ed YongThe Ends of the World by Peter BrannenHow to Be Animal by Melanie Challenger

In this episode, Kate sits down with author and co-host of the Gastropod Podcast, Nicola Twilley, to talk about her new book Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves. Nicola has written an absolute page-turner exploring the massive and far-reaching impacts of refrigeration on just about every aspect of our lives, not since the dawn of agriculture has something changed our world so radically. In this episode, her and Kate explore the domestication of cold - which, very much unlike fire - is a recent phenomenon. The cold chain is new - not even 150 years old - and its impacts on our health and the environment, on biodiversity and flavor, are big. It’s a technology that can slow time, delay death, and shift our geography. It has led to the marketing of an apple by an astronaut, the reinvention of the tomato many times over, and so much more. We talk about biodiversity loss, death, and also how we might re-imagine the cold chain in light of the global cold rush. This is an episode not to be missed and a book you won’t be able to put down!Sponsored By:REDMOND REAL SALTMine to Table Salt from Utah, Redmond Real Salt is packed full of 60+ Trace Minerals and is a staple in my kitchen. Find their salt, Re-Lyte Hydration Powder, and so much more here. Use code MINDBODYSOIL_15 for 15% off!redmond.lifeSUNDRIES FARM GARLICHand grown Sundries Farm Garlic is certified disease-free and grown in the volcanic soils of Idaho. With a range of soft and hard-neck varietals the unmatched flavor and big cloves are perfect for both your seed and culinary needs. Pre-order now for shipping in September. sundriesfarm.comSupport the Podcast:SubstackLeave a one-time TipFind Nicola:Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves (out June 25th)GastropodInstagram: @nicolatwilleyX: @nicolatwilleyConnect with Kate:Instagramemail: kate@groundworkcollective.com

In this episode of the Ground Work podcast, Kate sits down with author John Vaillant to begin to tease out some of the themes of his 4 incredible books, 3 works of non-fiction, and one work of fiction. At the recording, John had just been awarded as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World. John and Kate talk about what it means to consume, how we as human animals interact with our environments and resources, and about how we reconcile the cognitive dissonance we experience born into the Petrocene age. It’s about the multi-dimensional reckoning we’re in right now, as human and geologic time scales merge, and we are thrust into an acceleration of everything we know. A lot of this interview comes down to a sense of urgency many of us are feeling and this one fact: what happens next is not inevitable. John also shares some about his process as a writer and what it means to tell stories at this moment in time. REDMOND REAL SALTMine to Table Salt from Utah, Redmond Real Salt is packed full of 60+ Trace Minerals and is a staple in my kitchen. Find their salt, Re-Lyte Hydration Powder, and so much more here. Use code MINDBODYSOIL_15 for 15% off!redmond.lifeSUNDRIES FARM GARLICHand grown Sundries Farm Garlic is certified disease-free and grown in the volcanic soils of Idaho. With a range of soft and hard-neck varietals the unmatched flavor and big cloves are perfect for both your seed and culinary needs. Pre-order now for shipping in September. sundriesfarm.comSupport the Podcast:SubstackLeave a one-time TipResources Mentioned: Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins Find John:X: @JohnVaillantFire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter WorldThe Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and GreedThe Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and SurvivalThe Jaguar’s Children: A Novel Connect with Kate:Instagramemail: kate@groundworkcollective.com

Cate Havstad-Casad is leading the revolution in supply chains that nourish communities, ecosystems, and so much more with her regenerative leather company Range Revolution. In this episode, Cate breaks down what it means to re-build and repair the hide to leather supply chain from regenerative ranches, build a regenerative business, and implore capital and funders to think regeneratively, too. We talk about natural fibers vs the petroleum based fibers we’ve grown accustomed to and what it might mean to change our minds about fashion into something that is both lasting and well-made to stand the test of time and will degrade again when we give it back to the earth. It’s about using what’s here - taking something, like animal hides, that are being thrown away and incinerated and building a business around them. It’s also about taking what we’ve inherited and re-imagining it, knowing that we’re at a tipping point. We may not know if we’ll reap what we’re sowing, but we must keep growing towards a future for our children. It’s also about play, contentment, and friendship. Check out Range Revolution BagsSPONSORED BYREDMOND REAL SALTMine to Table Salt from Utah, Redmond Real Salt is packed full of 60+ Trace Minerals and is a staple in my kitchen. Find their salt, Re-Lyte Hydration Powder, and so much more here. Use code MINDBODYSOIL_15 for 15% off!redmond.lifeSUNDRIES FARM GARLICHand grown Sundries Farm Garlic is certified disease-free and grown in the volcanic soils of Idaho. With a range of soft and hard-neck varietals the unmatched flavor and big cloves are perfect for both your seed and culinary needs. Pre-order now for shipping in September. sundriesfarm.comSupport the Podcast:SubstackLeave a one-time TipFind Cate: Listen to Keep on Growing by Nicki BluhmCheck out Range Revolution BagsFind Range Revolution: @rangerevolutionFind Cate: @havstadhatcoResources Mentioned:Fibers FundMAD Agriculture

HELEN CZERSKI is a physicist with a background in bubbles and experimental explosives. Her books The Blue Machine: How the Ocean Works and Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life are incredible explorations of looking at the processes of how things that we often don’t truly see in our daily lives are deeply affecting us. In this episode, we tease at some bigger themes around how to ask questions and leverage our own curiosity, what it means to find perspective, and how we might begin as a culture to look at our participation in the interconnected web of life with a different lens. We also touch on the ocean engine and how it’s time to ask ourselves what the blue in this “blue marble” really means and look at it in depth. This conversation barely touches the tip of the iceberg of Helen’s work, but hopefully it will serve as a door of curiosity for you to explore her books on your own. Helen shares insights on the importance of curiosity, the humility needed to understand natural processes, and the vital role of the ocean in history, culture, geology, ecology, and the nutrient cycles of this world. SPONSORED BYREDMOND REAL SALTMine to Table Salt from Utah, Redmond Real Salt is packed full of 60+ Trace Minerals and is a staple in my kitchen. Find their salt, Re-Lyte Hydration Powder, and so much more here. Use code MINDBODYSOIL_15 for 15% off!redmond.life SUNDRIES FARM GARLICHand grown Sundries Farm Garlic is certified disease-free and grown in the volcanic soils of Idaho. With a range of soft and hard-neck varietals the unmatched flavor and big cloves are perfect for both your seed and culinary needs. Pre-order now for shipping in September. sundriesfarm.comSupport the Podcast:SubstackLeave a one-time TipFind Helen:The Blue Machine: How the Ocean WorksStorm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday LifeBubblesRare Earth Podcast/Radio ShowInstagram: @helen_czerskiX: @helenczerskiResources Mentioned:Wasteland by Oliver Franklin WallisThe Curious Mr. FeynmanCosmic Shambles

In this episode, Kate sits down with author Jay Owens to talk about her book Dust: The Modern World in a Trillion Particles. Together, they unravel the paradoxes and challenges posed by dust - a small particle that makes a big impact throughout history. Discover how dust connects the Sahara to the Amazon, influences snowmelt, and carries historical significance, embodying both awe and horror. Dust underpins everything - it is, as Jay says, “a boundary crosser, a transgressor” and makes itself known in ice cores, the aftermath of the atomic bomb, in the drying up of bodies of water, and the pollution from our highways. It is the mark of the modern world and our incalculable impact on it. It underlines our interconnectedness and highlights the uncertainty about what happens next. This is also a call to salvage, to look at the externalities, and embrace hope at a local level. SPONSORED BY SUNDRIES FARM GARLICHand grown Sundries Farm Garlic is certified disease-free and grown in the volcanic soils of Idaho. With a range of soft and hard-neck varietals the unmatched flavor and big cloves are perfect for both your seed and culinary needs. Pre-order now for shipping in September. sundriesfarm.comSupport the Podcast:SubstackLeave a one-time TipFind Jay:Dust: The Modern World in a Trillion ParticlesInstagram: @hautepopX: @hautepopOther WritingResources Mentioned:Ways of Being by James BridleHow Infrastructure Works by Deb Chachra The Shepherd’s Life by James RebanksAlso Check Out These Episodes:Infrastructure with Deb ChachraWater with Heather Hansman Current Discounts for MBS listeners:15% off Farm True ghee and body care products using code: KATEKAV1510% off Home of Wool using code KATEKAVANAUGH

In this episode, Kate sits down with author and journalist Rachel Slade to discuss her books Making It In America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the USA (and How It Got That Way) and Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastore, and the Sinking of El Faro. Rachel’s books are incredible explorations of humanity and she deftly weaves together complex threads. We focus on Making It In America in the episode. The book is so much about where trade, manufacturing, farming, immigration, the textile industry, unions, and the history of the hoodie itself meet. We start by exploring how manufacturing made America and touching on the complex series of events that led to the offshoring of the majority of American manufacturing after NAFTA. This episode is about grit and determination and a commitment to vision by American Roots, the hoodie company featured in the book, and what entrepreneurship means and what it might mean to manufacture in America once again. It’s a wide-ranging conversation about history, geopolotics, economics and the externalities of focusing solely on the bottom line. It’s about building and re-building community and networks of support and it’s about what it means for us, as humans, to make things by hand. We also talk about;Men’s mental healthSupply chainsFind Rachel:Making It in AmericaInto the Raging SeaArticles + EssaysInstagram: @rachelmsladeMade in USA BrandsResources Mentioned:Fields of Gold by Madeleine Fairbairn: 90% of Everything by Rose GeorgeEating Nafta Rachel on the Julian Dorey Podcast: Melanie Challenger’s On ExtinctionAlso Check Out Episodes-Kate’s Solo on Resources-Melanie Challenger

In this week’s episode Kate sits down with the lovely, the ineffable, the effervescent May Lindstrom. Together they explore themes of grace, slowness, and the intricate dance between our inner and outer worlds. May shares many of her incredible stories and laces throughout them a call to live a life full of compassion and love and a cherishing of the everyday. She invites us to think about how we connect to ourselves and to nature, about what it might mean to grow old while integrating the perspectives of ourselves when we were younger, and to follow a north star of love. Throughout is a conversation about what it means to have a body that is bodying - whether that’s your body, a worm body, or to imagine all the other bodies that surround us. She also dives into frontloading pleasure, making a mess, and building something you really believe in. May’s words and wisdom shine in this episode that is really about coming home to yourself. Find May:May Lindstrom SkinInstagram: @maylindstromskinIf you loved this episode:With Caroline Nelson With Lacey Jean Support the Podcast:SubstackLeave a one-time TipConnect with Kate:Instagramemail: kate@groundworkcollective.comCurrent Discounts for MBS listeners:15% off Farm True ghee and body care products using code: KATEKAV1510% off Home of Wool using code KATEKAVANAUGHKateK20 for 20% off Herbal Face Food

In this episode, materials scientist and engineering professor Deb Chachra shares about infrastructure. Her book ‘How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems that Shape Our World’ is a multi-layered dive into infrastructure. In this episode, Deb and Kate explore ideas of how we move resources to bodies and waste away from bodies. It is a brief exploration of the rise of globalization and our telecommunications, physical infrastructure, and roads, but it is also an exploration of how access to energy is also access to agency. In it, the concept of ‘away’ is explored - whether it’s the away that we send our waste or the away from which we extract resources using human labor and the complexities of infrastructure’s harms and benefits. It’s also a re-imagining of what the future could look like, which Deb reminds us “is not inevitable” and how we can ask ourselves questions about our values and how we might shape the our care for people now and in the future. Infrastructure is a big and complex subject and Deb’s book deftly explores it. This episode is a small peek into her work. Find Deb:How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World by Deb ChachraMetafoundry NewsletterX: @debchaInstagram: @debchaBooks Mentioned:Crossings by Ben GoldfarbDo Artifacts Have Politics? By Langdon WinnerThe Power Broker by Robert Moses Golden Gulag by Ruth Wilson GilmoreOther Episodes of Interest:With Ben GoldfarbSolo on InfrastructureSupport the Podcast:SubstackLeave a one-time TipConnect with Kate:Instagramemail: kate@groundworkcollective.comCurrent Discounts for MBS listeners:15% off Farm True ghee and body care products using code: KATEKAV1510% off Home of Wool using code KATEKAVANAUGHKateK20 for 20% off Herbal Face Food

Sand. It’s everywhere and it’s foundational to the built and digital worlds, yet we rarely see or think about it. Vince Beiser’s the World in a Grain tells the story of sand as it makes its way into the materials that make up our world: concrete, glass, silicon chips, and beyond. In this episode of the podcast, we explore some of the broader implications of sand - what it means to build worlds, how to grapple with the largesse of sand’s impact as we run out of this critical resource, and what, if anything, we can change in our relationship to sand. It’s about infrastructure, but it’s also about our relationship to infrastructure and how often the use of more resources begets the use of… more resources. We dive a little into the magic of sand, not just to house and transport us, but also the creation of the lens and how sand allows us to see things really small, really far away, and also really everyday - through glasses. We also talk about time, which sand is a measurement for and also a manifestation of, with the average grain of sand created over 200 million years. This is a conversation that will change the way you see and relate to your world. Find Vince:World in a Grain: the Story of Sand and How It Transformed CivilizationPower Metal NewsletterX: @VinceBeiserWebsiteBooks Mentioned:Crossings and Eager by Ben GoldfarbNinety Percent of Everything with Rose GeorgeOther Episodes of Interest:With Ben GoldfarbSolo on InfrastructureSupport the Podcast:SubstackLeave a one-time TipConnect with Kate:Instagramemail: kate@groundworkcollective.comCurrent Discounts for MBS listeners:15% off Farm True ghee and body care products using code: KATEKAV1510% off Home of Wool using code KATEKAVANAUGHKateK20 for 20% off Herbal Face Food