Radio Ecozoic

Today we're exploring a question many of us have wondered after sitting through another exhausting conference or overly scheduled retreat: why do so many professional gatherings leave us feeling drained when they could leave us feeling inspired?In this episode, we're joined by two people who have spent years experimenting with ways to make that possible. Our guests, Dina Spigelski and Deissy Perilla, share practical, concrete advice for designing conferences, retreats, and team gatherings that people actually enjoy attending. We're talking about everything from choosing locations that foster connection, to building planning committees that share responsibility, to creating space for play alongside serious intellectual work. Between Dina's experience coordinating large collaborative research projects and Deissy's background in anthropology, popular education, and grassroots organizing, the two have spent years thinking about what helps groups of people meaningfully connect and learn together. Through their work with the Leadership for the Ecozoic initiative—Dina as Associate Director of Leadership and Deissy as Project Coordinator—they developed and refined an approach to designing professional gatherings that aim to leave participants feeling energized rather than depleted.In this conversation, they generously share the lessons they've learned along the way, including what has worked, what hasn't, and what has surprised them most. So if you're planning a work gathering of any kind, you'll come away with ideas you can put into practice right away to make it more engaging and memorable.--Links: L4E:⁠ ⁠l4ecozoic.org⁠⁠Critical Media Lab: ⁠⁠criticalmedialabmcgill.com⁠⁠Radio Ecozoic is created and hosted by Bobi Steel, Juliana Neira and Lindsay Ofrias. It is executive produced by Julian Flavin and Alana Redden. Music by Marxist Jargon. The show is a project of the Leadership for the Ecozoic initiative, which is based at McGill University and the University of Vermont, as well as the Critical Media Lab, which is housed in McGill’s University Department of Anthropology.

In this episode, we are joined by Katie Horner and Anisah Madden — two badass agroecologists in the Leadership for the Ecozoic (L4E) community. Katie is a former PhD Fellow at L4E who later completed a postdoc at UVM's Institute for Agroecology (IfA). Anisah is a political geographer whose work focuses on the micro politics of building food sovereignty across scales. She is currently a Postdoctoral Associate at IfA and L4E.  Our conversation explores how agroecology, as an academic discipline and social movement, is inherently political. You will hear about the historical roots of agroecology, as well as reflections on movement building locally in Vermont and internationally. Katie and Anisah dive into their personal experiences about how food, the land, and the struggle for justice all drive their work as agroecologists. We wish to express our gratitude and solidarity with all those struggling for food sovereignty and agroecology across the world. Juliana Neira, whose PhD research is on political agroecology, had the pleasure of hosting this conversation. ---Links: Institute for Agroecology: https://www.uvm.edu/instituteforagroecologyL4E: ⁠l4ecozoic.org⁠Critical Media Lab: ⁠criticalmedialabmcgill.com⁠Radio Ecozoic is created and hosted by Bobi Steel, Juliana Neira, Lindsay Ofrias, and Shaun Sellers. It is executive produced by Julian Flavin and Alana Redden. Music by Marxist Jargon. The show is a project of the Leadership for the Ecozoic initiative, which is based at McGill University and the University of Vermont, as well as the Critical Media Lab, which is housed in McGill’s University Department of Anthropology.

This episode was motivated by a shared desire to discuss the increased state violence in the United States that particularly targets immigrant communities. This past winter, the national spotlight was on Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained people without warrants, harassed community members in their streets and homes, and fatally shot people who were supporting their neighbors. Then, in March, ICE illegally targeted Ecuadorian and Hunduran community members in Burlington, VT – home to many in our community. After a day-long standoff between community protectors and ICE, Vermont State Police, and local police departments, ICE detained three of our immigrant community members. Not only were these collateral arrests, it also turned out that none of these people were named on the criminal warrant ICE used to arrest them. Our community rallied, and the combination of community organizing, fundraising, and collective pressure resulted in the release of all three people after they were held in jail for more than a week. Our shared experience of heartbreak and outrage following these episodes of state-inflicted cruelty is the focus of today’s episode. You will hear from Leadership for the Ecozoic (L4E) Fellows Juliana Neira, Liam Grima, Shashank Poudel, Matias Vaccarezza Sevilla, Francis Guarascio, and Bobi Steel, as well as L4E staff member Alana Redden. We share our reflections and analyses of today’s political climate, its impacts on ourselves and the people and places we love, and how we find meaningful forms of resistance. While we are all members of L4E, we showed up to this conversation as individuals, and we speak only on behalf of ourselves. Links: To read Matias’ related blogpost: https://www.l4ecozoic.org/reflections-detail/building-community-and-hope-to-resist-fascism-in-the-usa-feelings-from-an-international-studentTo learn more about the ICE operation in South Burlington on March 11: https://www.rakevt.org/2026/03/18/local-and-state-police-were-essential-to-ices-raid-in-south-burlington/L4E: l4ecozoic.orgCritical Media Lab: criticalmedialabmcgill.comRadio Ecozoic is created and hosted by Bobi Steel, Juliana Neira, Lindsay Ofrias, and Shaun Sellers. It is executive produced by Julian Flavin and Alana Redden. Music by Marxist Jargon. The show is a project of the Leadership for the Ecozoic initiative, which is based at McGill University and the University of Vermont, as well as the Critical Media Lab, which is housed in McGill’s University Department of Anthropology.

Today we are delighted to welcome Josh Farley. Josh is the Ecological Economics lead for Leadership for the Ecozoic, a professor in Community Development & Applied Economics, and a Fellow at the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont.Josh’s research interests span a wide range—including the economics of food, the democratization of monetary systems, the rethinking of ecosystem services, agroecology in Vermont and Brazil’sAtlantic Forest, the evolution of cooperation, economics of information, and the commons. But Josh is more than an academic. He’s a community builder and mentor who brings people together through the way he lives. He often hosts spaces beyond the university, to garden, forage, fish, and cook together. Any meal with Josh and his family includes food from his garden or caught, hunted, or raised by people he knows.The textbook that Josh wrote with Herman Daly is currently being updated for publication, see the 2nd edition here: https://islandpress.org/books/ecological-economics-second-edition#desc AboutRadio Ecozoic is created and hosted by Bobi Steel, Juliana Neira, Lindsay Ofrias, and Shaun Sellers. It is executive produced by Julian Flavin and Sean Cannon. Music is by Marxist Jargon. The show is a project of the Leadership for the Ecozoic Initiative, which is based at McGill University and the University of the Vermont, as well as the Critical Media Lab, which is housed in McGill University's anthropology Department.Leadership for the Ecozoic - https://www.l4ecozoic.org/Critical Media Lab (CML) - https://criticalmedialabmcgill.com/

A few weeks ago, we had the privilege of hosting Aaron Vansintjan and Vijay Kolinjivadi at McGill University to discuss their new book, The Sustainability Class: How to Take Back Our Future from Lifestyle Environmentalists. This episode is a recording of their campus talk, where they share the personal experiences that led them to co-author the book, revealing what goes on behind the scenes at international climate negotiations. From backroom deals to corporate greenwashing, they break down how these summits shape the mainstream environmental agenda—and why that can be a problem. More than a critique, they present a compelling vision for a more sustainable future–one that is grounded in collective action.Vijay is an assistant professor at the School for Community and Public Affairs at Concordia University in Montreal. He’s also a co-editor of the website Uneven Earth and has contributed to Al Jazeera, New Internationalist, Truthout, and The Conversation.Aaron is the founder and co-editor of Uneven Earth and co-author of The Future Is Degrowth. His work has been featured in The Guardian, Truthout, openDemocracy, and The Ecologist.Check out their book here: https://thenewpress.org/books/the-sustainability-class/Follow The Sustainability Class on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sustainability_class/-----AboutRadio Ecozoic is created and hosted by Bobi Steel, Juliana Neira, Lindsay Ofrias, and Shaun Sellers. It is executive produced by Julian Flavin and Sean Cannon. Music is by Marxist Jargon. The show is a project of the Leadership for the Ecozoic Initiative, which is based at McGill University and the University of the Vermont, as well as the Critical Media Lab, which is housed in McGill University's anthropology Department.Leadership for the Ecozoic - https://www.l4ecozoic.org/ Critical Media Lab (CML) - https://criticalmedialabmcgill.com/