Episode Highlight: Landings from Future Ecologies

Today I'm taking a meander through some thoughts and ideas to get you to an absolutely phenomenal episode of Future Ecologies. Come on this path with me, I'm really excited to share it with you...

There are too many cares to care about everything. The constant deluge of news and information from every corner of the world with an internet connection creates a level of anxiety we haven’t seen. This is a societal sensation of despair that permeates our days, nights, and souls. 

I think there’s another piece of this, though. The world has been ending for over 5,000 years. It’s a type of FOMO that permeates the human psyche. We have an expiration date, and it can be hard to imagine the world going on without us, so it creates this existential anxiety that turns into the end of the world. See also, every prediction of the rapture and the end of the world. Amplify that with the internet. We’re really not doing ourselves a favor here. 

It doesn’t change the fact that with or without us, this planet will be spinning. We, as a species in a community are figuring out how to reckon with this fact. Especially considering that we have no choice but to deal with what we are given. We are given the results of the decisions made by the people who came before us, and we move forward with that. We have no choice but to hold the results of the past, and move forward with a better intention. Breaking these cycles is a long, and slow process. 

It starts with cracks in the façade. We might be handed something, an idea or a system that was already breaking. We could be continuing that work, or we might be the first ones to question and create the cracks of change for the next to take on the torch. 

Change doesn’t start with some big, huge, global realization of something. It begins with a small thought, a loud reaction, and sometimes a painful look at self or something else entirely. Borne out of individual realities, these small changes can grow and expand as we connect and share our stories – the most human experience we have. 

Artists scratch at these ideas and issues with a type of hyperfocus that I envy and fear. They create art, communicating feelings and more in a way that strangers can connect with. It’s a beautiful process despite the fact that it can be extremely uncomfortable. How else are we supposed to pick at these things that can be the beginning of a shift? I’m sure art isn’t the only way, but it’s a great way to communicate what the empirical can’t exactly grasp. 

One of the most gripping examples of this that I have seen in a while is the episode of Future Ecologies titled “Landings”. This podcast stepped out of a box and conversely looked so deep into themselves that this episode feels like the beautiful sort of breaking that leads to a type of growth we can only dream of. This episode is a small step in breaking for a better future, and one that is extremely well produced. 

If you don’t know, Future Ecologies usually talks about environmental studies and the creatures in our world. Their episodes range from land management to those invasive, lovable burros, and more. They brilliantly use the tools of artistic audio to bring the listeners a tapestry of information and entertainment that is so beautifully creative – I could spend hours talking about it. They communicate so well through storytelling and design such difficult ideas in the realm of these sciences, it makes it feel not just accessible, but comfortable. 

In this episode, they flip that on its head a little. In an interview format, layering sound as gracefully as they usually do – they talk about place and art. They are using the humanities to push ideas further, to push science further, and to try to grasp something that isn’t empirical, but impacts ecology just the same. 

We can’t separate arts from science, because we can’t separate humans from science. Art is the language of the human soul, science is the language of human reason. Two things that feel so far apart from each other but are profoundly linked. Rather than highlighting the conflict of this seemingly antagonizing relationship, “Landings” feels like a celebration. We can’t study ecology without studying land, and we can’t study land and its organisms without considering our personal relationships to it. In a global world, we get little choice in where we live. Even if we move to the places of our ancestors, we can’t dismiss the impact of where we have been on how we see where we are. Our place was decided generations ago, and we have to navigate what it means to hold the decisions of the past with the possibility of the future. 

We wouldn’t have a lot of the modern miracles without the pain of the past. Usually, we think of it as humans being awful to each other through wildly harmful medical experiments, or worse. Ideas on ethics, and what it means to be good change, and we are just coming to terms with how we have gotten to where we are. What “Landings” does is open up new layers of this conversation through interviews with three artists who focus on relationships with place and space. What does it mean to be indigenous when you live in a city, Black, and living on a farm, an artist navigating a cultural and historical context from where is home to you, but not to your parents?

An individual can’t separate themselves from this, even if they can’t identify it. We’re all figuring out what it means, and the science of it all can’t always explore ideas as well as the art of it all can. I’m so glad Future Ecologies released this episode. Not just because I love the overall content, but also because it is a challenge for them and their audience. The podcast overall already subscribes to exploring these ideas and you hear it in every episode. It’s woven through the content and craft of the podcast itself, even when it’s not outright discussed. Now, through a slightly different episode, they’re giving themselves and their audience a little bit more of a challenge, a compliment of “we can all think about this too”. It is beautiful, and something more podcasts should do. 

We all need this permission to take a step out of a box and explore, not just as listeners, but as humans and creators. As much as we want to, we can’t categorize everything down to a perfect genus and genre, and maybe sometimes we should use that as a power, rather than a limiter. 

I hope you add this podcast and this episode to your queue this week. It’s well worth it. 

Happy Queuesday!

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