conscient podcast
I’m on a break from hosting and producing conscient podcast and balado conscient until early 2026 with my 7th season featuring a mix of conversations, roundtables, documentaries and narrations of my ‘a calm presence’ Substack. I will also regularly publish ENCORE episodes. Subscriptions are always free. Comments and questions are always welcome: [email protected].
- Update frequency
- every 3 days
- Average duration
- 29 minutes
- Episodes
- 256
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
e127 halfway - towards what are you midway?
Note: the podcast recording was improvised based on this script and therefore has additional material.
This 127th episode of the conscient podcast marks the halfway point of season 4, which, as you mi…
e126 sleepless - what keeps you up at night?
(soundscapes of east vancouver at c. 5am)
I can’t sleep tonight.
What about you?
I love nighttime soundscapes.
They’re so bareboned, minimal, like the rumble that you hear now, mostly from Vancouver h…
e125 observer - how do you respond to climate news?
(bell)
I take stock of climate news by reading the headlines of the excellent daily newspaper, national observer, for example, on Tuesday April 25th, 2023 these were the headlines :
‘We might have a c…
e125 promenade - how do you soundwalk?
I decided to go for a walk this morning here in Kitchener, Ontario. A soundwalk.. Just because it's something to do; to be connected to a place.
This is a settlement of course : a city.
What I try to …
e123 maps - what possibilities do you not yet know?
(Bell and breath)
I sometimes try to map out, on a piece of blank paper like this, where I think humanity is at with the ecological crisis…
This helps me, among other things, to come to terms with rea…
e122 quiet - stop and listen
(bell and breath)
(Sounds of forest in winter with icicles)
Sometimes we just have to stop and listen.
Without passing judgement.
Just listen….
Sometimes we just have to stop and listen
*
Recorded at our …
e121 rumble - what killed dr decibel?
(bell)
(humming to urban drones)
This is Dr. Decibel. Your sonic superhero on the unseated ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations otherwise known as… Well, I think…
e120 metro - stop and listen
(bell and breath)
(sounds of a subway car throughout)
Sometimes we just have to stop and listen.
Without passing judgement.
Just listen….
Sometimes we just have to stop and listen.
*
Recorded on February …
e119 construction - how does the sound of construction affect you?
In this episode I invite you to listen to a construction site, unaltered and raw.
How does the sound of construction affect you?
*
This episode was recorded at the corner of Frances St and Salsbury Dri…
e118 toilet - where does your shit go?
(bell and breath)
where does your shit go?
(toilet flush 1)
where does your shit go?
(toilet flush 2)
where does your shit go?
(toilet flush 3)
where does your shit go?
(toilet flush 4)
where does your shit g…
e117 - deeper into the forest
(in memoriam Robin Mathews : November 1, 1931 - April 25, 2023)
(bell)
(Deeper Into the Forest (2023) poem by Robin Mathews, narrated by Robin Mathews with sound design from field recordings by me)
Deep…
e117 - deeper into the forest (bonus)
a conversation between robin and myself about the origins of this poem (in memoriam Robin Mathews : November 1, 1931 - April 25, 2023)
(in memoriam Robin Mathews : November 1, 1931 - April 25, 2023)
Tr…
e116 loss - what does ecological loss sound like where you live?
(bell and breath)
(muffled sound of ocean waves)
This recording filters out all high and mid-range frequencies that I captured of ocean waves at Canaveral National Seashore in Florida, on March 23, 202…
e115 ordinary - open your window and listen, what do you hear?
(bell)
I got up this morning, or I was awoken rather by the most beautiful sound. It was a snow plow, very gently pushing the snow from the sidewalk. It was a beep and I could hear it, at a distance, …
e114 privilege - what are the privileges in your life?
(Claude Schryer n 2023)
It's March 6, 2023 and I’m at Trout Lake Park in Vancouver. About 2 years ago, I went for a long soundwalk with climate activist, and now politician, Anjali Appadurai, which be…
e113 soundwalk (part 2) - how can we deepen our listening?
(Jacek Smolicki)
The ultimate question I'm asking is how can we move away from soundwalk as a kind of framed aesthetic experience or artistic experience and turn it into an existential practice or bas…
e113 soundwalk (part 1) - what is my position in listening ?
(Claude Schryer)
Jacek, what is soundwalking?
(Jacek Smolicki)
That's a very broad question, but I'll try to answer from two perspectives: my own and from what is kind of more generally considered soun…
e112 listening - how can listening help ?
(various layered excerpts from my soundscape compositions throughout this episode)
Conclusion 1 : we need to face reality and learn how to unlearn
- Mayer Hillman, e01: ‘We’re doomed. The outcome is dea…
e111 traps - what are the traps in your life?
(bell, breath and occasional balloon sounds)
Me : have you ever had the feeling that you were being observed?
Observer : I’m observing you.
Me: Who are you and what are you observing?
Observer: Ah, wel…
e110 drain - where does your bathwater go?
(sound of bath draining, at first with a strong oscillating rhythm followed by water flowing and silence)
It goes down the drain (again) and into the sewer system to be processed and dumped into the O…