conscient podcast

This is a narrated version of my 'hunkering down' essay on a a calm presence.

This essay is inspired by interviews with and writings by David Suzuki, Seth Klein, Joanna Macy and Thich Nhat Hanh. 

The e…

• The question the book asks is obviously transforming the system is not an individual task, it's a collective activity. But it still begs the question, if we're trying to contribute to that, what do w…

• To me, there's three key things and it's community, beauty and nature. I think if we connect with nature and if we produce beauty, that is something that we as humans I think is our biggest gift. And…

• I love policy because it allows for surrealism, it allows for creativity, it allows for dancing, it allows for all the skills and disciplines and interests and tools that as artists we have gravitate…

This is a special edition of conscient roundtable featuring Aaron Lui-Rosenbaum, Barry Truax, Jacek Smolicki (for more on Jacek’s work also see conscient e113 part 1 and e133 part 2)  Kathy Kennedy, …

• Artistic practice, cultural traditions, cultural practice, folk traditions… These are all places where we have where wisdoms that might otherwise have been lost have been protected, sheltered or foun…

• The environmental issues currently at hand, including global warming, are related, but I believe that at their root lies the decline of our listening ability and the power of listening as humanity. T…

• My advice to artists would be drop every garb that you have, drop every piece of knowledge that you think you have. Head to the jungles, head to the rural places. We are living in a time of crisis. W…

• Alongside the responsibility of holding people accountable and calling out what they see as unjust, I think that there's also an element of hope with artists, even when we're maybe a little bit melan…

• If we start to pay attention to what we pay attention to then we start to naturally slow down. We disconnect from the urgency, the crisis, and we start to realize that care, and I don't just mean car…

• Even being confronted with something that is weird or uncomfortable: it’s character growth. You have to ask the question: why is this person doing this weird thing? It's a good exercise in empathy, t…

• Part of the answer to that question lies in the arts and culture understanding the role it can have in a time of collapse or crisis, and to understand that itself is not in crisis. I think that's a b…

• How can we reciprocate since the world keeps us alive on the one hand, and on the other hand, all these things, birds and you name it, right? Fish and moose and beaver, these are things we love. So, …

• There are a lot of people that don't have the kind of talent that you do, Claude, or for that matter, I do and they have voices, but you can't hear them. So our job in the art world, I would say, is …

• The role of artists is the role of dreaming. I've worked as a poet, as a multimedia artist, sound artist, storyteller. I think we hold the capacity to shape the narratives that build our present, our…

• In a time when it's easy to become defeated, when one can succumb to despair and negativity, a question I use when I reflect on the state of the world right now is what gives me energy, what animates…

This is a special edition of conscient roundtable featuring Lara Felsing, Adrian Avendaño, Hildegard Westerkamp, Toni-Leah C. Yake as part of the Listening in Relation gathering at Emily Carr Univers…

This is a conscient podcast update. It's June 28, 2025, and I'll erase this bonus episode message in about a week. 

I wanted to give listeners a heads up of what's happening with this sixth season of …

• The first thing that comes to mind is my young activist in me that says, of course, let's just fight. Let's just do what we can to speak out against, be revolutionary, be, you know, like we were when…

• The approach of the Canadian Centre for Food & Ecology (CCFE) is what has been so attractive to me. It's a conviction around joyful, immersive experience and it starts with the conviction that until …