Climate Changed

In this special off-season episode of Climate Changed, we are thrilled to share a podcast swap with Refugia. The show is hosted by our good friend and colleague, Professor Debra Rienstra. Debra explores the biological concept of "refugia"—habitats where life endures in times of crisis. She applies this as a profound metaphor for how people of faith can nurture life-giving spaces today. In this episode, Debra visits Spring Forest, a new monastic community and regenerative farm in North Carolina. She sits down with its founder and abbess, Dr. Elaine Heath, for a beautiful conversation about holy experimentation outside the traditional walls of the church. Episode Highlights: The Metaphor of Refugia: Nurturing life-giving spaces in our earth and spiritual communities during times of severe disturbance. The Church's "Dark Night": Understanding the current confusion in conventional churches as a Spirit-breathed "dark night of the soul". Holy Experimentation: How Spring Forest functions as a dispersed network rooted in a simple rule of life: prayer, work, table, neighbor, and rest. Neighboring Well: A practical starting point for change—forming authentic friendships and sharing meals with the people who live on your street. About This Swap: Rev. Nicole Diroff, Associate Director at The BTS Center, introduces and wraps up this special shared episode. If you are joining us from the Refugia feed, welcome to Climate Changed! If you haven't yet, we highly encourage you to go back and listen to our recently completed Season 4, where we challenge listeners to engage in world-building through spiritual imagination, grief work, and adaptation. Learn more about Debra Rienstra and listen to more Refugia episodes: https://debrarienstra.com/podcast/  Explore More: For full show notes, transcripts, discussion guides, and links to all the resources mentioned in this episode, please visit our website at https://climatechangedpodcast.org/. 

How do we turn spiritual imagination into practical action in a climate-changed world? In Part Two of our Season 4 reflection, Rev. Nicole Diroff, Peterson Toscano, and Ophelia Hu Kinney dive into a flood of inspiring listener voicemails—including a reflection from Susan in Baton Rouge on how local churches coordinated disaster response during Hurricane Katrina—to explore what world-building looks like in real time. From disaster response asset mapping after Hurricane Katrina to congregational solar panel votes, public repair, and indigenous wisdom on building a "bird with two strong wings," this episode offers a roadmap for living, loving, and leading today. Key Takeaways in This Episode: Asset Mapping in Crisis: How local communities and churches organize existing gifts to adapt before disaster strikes. A Bird with Two Strong Wings: Dwayne Tomah's indigenous perspective on moving past political divides toward shared truth and collective action. Dream Seeds & Practical Action: Translating spiritual hope into real commitments like community solar energy. Becoming Good Ancestors: Stretching our moral imaginations to care for generations across time. Opportunity Multipliers: Seeing climate challenges as a catalyst for deeper human connection. Listen in and discover how we can keep building what love requires! 🌐 Learn more & access discussion guides: thebtscenter.org 📧 Email us: [email protected]  

In this season-reflection episode of Climate Changed, Rev. Nicole Diroff, producer Peterson Toscano, and Ophelia Hu Kinney look back on Season Four and the conversations that shaped it. Together, they reflect on imagination, adaptation, grief, ancestors, speculative futures, ritual, and the sacred work of becoming people who can live faithfully in a climate-changed world. Ophelia joins the podcast microphone family for the first time as The BTS Center’s Strategic Communications Director, former board member, and longtime listener. This episode also features listener reflections from Fritz from Portland, Maine, and Grace Pugh Hubbard, along with clips from Season Four guests. In this episode: Spiritual imagination and climate change storytelling Climate stories with culture, longing, and emotional depth Naming our experiences and being witnessed Becoming good ancestors Friendship, grief, and spiritual leadership Accountability, apology, and repair Next Steps Share this season. Send an episode to someone who might need it. Host a listening party. Gather a few people and listen together. Use the discussion guides. Each episode includes questions and activities for groups. Share the videos. Find full episodes, short clips, and bonus material on The BTS Center’s YouTube page. Tell people why. When you share an episode, add a personal note about what moved you. Resources Climate Changed Podcast: https://climatechangedpodcast.org/ The BTS Center: https://thebtscenter.org/ The BTS Center YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBTSCenter Contact: [email protected]  

What does it mean to cultivate freedom for future generations? • Autumn Brown + Nicole Diroff In this episode of Climate Changed, Autumn Brown and Rev. Nicole Diroff continue reflecting on Autumn’s conversation with Francis Weller about grief, ritual, imagination, and “the long dark.” Nicole shares stories from a recent BTS Center retreat, Climate Advocacy and the Sacred Wild, where faith and climate leaders were invited to slow down, step away from project-making, and deepen their relationship with the natural world and one another. Autumn reflects on her work around fugitive practice, drawing from Black liberation and Black feminist thought. She explores freedom not only as something we do, but as something we are — even inside systems that deny freedom. Together, Autumn and Nicole ask what it means to work for a freedom we may not live to see. Autumn reminds us that we are part of a much bigger story of freedom, one that includes future generations whose lives we may never directly know. In this episode: Francis Weller on “the long dark” Seeing differently in a climate-changed world Friendship and spiritual leadership Margaret Wheatley’s question: “Who do we choose to be?” Receiving wisdom with humility and care Autumn Brown on fugitive practice Freedom as a way of being Ritual, conflict, community, and imagination Next Steps Name the hazards and gifts in your place. What are the real hazards where you live? What gifts do you, your neighbors, or your community already carry that could help when crisis comes? Ask who your friends are. Who can help you slow down, tell the truth, and remember that you are not alone? Practice imagination. Make space for dreams, images, and the imaginal. Lie down, cover your eyes, begin with a simple image, and let it unfold. Rest. Francis Weller names rest as a rebellious practice in a culture of productivity. Gather a listening circle. Invite three to five people to sit together for an hour. Turn off your phones. Take turns naming one thing that is weighing on your heart. Do not solve. Just listen. Use shared quiet. At the beginning or end of a meeting, try two or three minutes of silence. Notice what changes when the room slows down together. Resources Francis Weller: https://www.francisweller.net/ Lament with Earth: https://thebtscenter.org/lamentwithearth Climate Changed Podcast: https://climatechangedpodcast.org/ The BTS Center: https://thebtscenter.org/ Contact: [email protected]

What if it doesn’t get better anytime soon? • Francis Weller + Autumn Brown In this episode of Climate Changed, Autumn Brown speaks with psychotherapist, writer, and soul activist Francis Weller about grief, ritual, imagination, and what he calls “the long dark.” Francis invites us to consider that the climate-changed world is not a short crisis with a quick resolution. It is a generational passage that asks for patience, restraint, communal care, ritual imagination, and the courage to see with “a dark-adapted eye.” Before the conversation, Autumn shares a short speculative story called “Island,” opening a doorway into questions of land, belonging, migration, silence, and longing. Together, Autumn and Francis explore why grief and imagination belong together, why sorrow was never meant to be carried alone, and why communities need ritual ground where anguish, rage, shame, and heartbreak can be held. Francis also speaks to spiritual leaders about slowing down, warming the ritual field, and creating spaces where people can be changed rather than merely comforted. The conversation turns toward friendship as essential medicine. In a time marked by overwhelm and uncertainty, Francis reminds us that we do not mature alone. We need friends, elders, ritual, ancestors, community, and the living earth. Guest: Francis Weller https://www.francisweller.net/ Climate Changed Podcast: https://climatechangedpodcast.org/ The BTS Center: https://thebtscenter.org/ Contact: [email protected]