Episodes
We’re calling in slow media. Feeling into the need for slow, emotionally grounded, and resonant content, we’ll be pausing weekly episodes to fully embody a slow media approach. The past ten years of interviews have shown us how media should be slow, rooted, and steadying, and this shift to slow media will honor all that we have learned from years of beautiful conversations.  Over the coming months, we will be bringing you print, film, long form media, deeply focused podcast series, and...
Published 04/24/24
Published 04/24/24
This  week we are rebroadcasting our episode with Dori Midnight, originally aired in October 2022. “With a prayer to imagine beyond the current structures and systems, and kind of weave ourselves into, and be wrapped inside of, the invisible cloak that is interdependence, that is mutual aid, that supports us to reach towards each other and reach towards a vision of mutually flourishing life.” This powerful vision is shared by this week’s guest, Dori Midnight. In this sweet, meaningful, and...
Published 04/17/24
This week we are rebroadcasting our episode with Kimberly Ann Johnson originally aired in April 2023.  Feeling into the state of our nervous systems and our relationships with each other and ourselves, this episode offers a powerful perspective on the importance of recognizing and tending to how life feels. Together, Ayana and this week’s guest Kimberly Ann Johnson discuss the depths of pleasure and the dimensions of healing. Kimberly brings deep knowledge regarding reproductive and sexual...
Published 04/10/24
This week we are rebroadcasting our episode with Sophie Strand which originally aired in November 2022.  In this winding and lucid conversation, guest Sophie Strand invites us to investigate our relationality, to embrace rot and decay, to welcome our demons to the dinner table, and to prepare for uncertain futures with tenderness. Sophie brings to light the wisdom of the compost heap. What myths do we need for modernity, what wisdom is sedimented within our bodies? Sophie and Ayana tap into...
Published 04/03/24
This week we are rebroadcasting our interview with Maya Khosla which originally aired in November 2022. What can the forest teach us of grief, of joy, of humanity? This week, poet and scientist Maya Khosla invites listeners into the forests of Northern California to find deep reverence for the power of biodiversity. Maya’s expertise on wildfires shines through this deep and well-informed conversation as she and Ayana share a love for the forest and deep-seated awe for the complexity of...
Published 03/27/24
Inviting listeners into his deep connection with the forest and the natural world, Ross Reid brings an inspirational energy and commitment to this interview. Connecting around their shared love for old growth and wild places, Ross and Ayana consider what it means to get people interested in protecting the places that sustain us. How can we inspire the connection with the land that brings people to defend it?  Ross shares the journey behind his work as “Nerdy About Nature,” and the passion...
Published 03/20/24
This week we are rebroadcasting our interview with Jarod K Anderson, originally aired in January 2023.  Bringing us into his world of nature, awe, and magical poetry, guest Jarod K. Anderson reminds us that our human journey is worthy of just as much love and affection as the natural world around us. When we come to nature with intention, how might it guide us towards love and inspiration? In a time where so many of us are feeling lost, confused, and not connected to a purpose, we often...
Published 03/13/24
This week we are thrilled to bring you a special conversation from a dear friend of the podcast, Bayo Akomolafe. Recorded while in Ghana for the Three Black Men Tour, this conversation features the voices of Bayo Akomolafe, Resmaa Menakem, Orland Bishop, Victoria Santos and Okhiogbe Omonblanks Omonhinmin, all of whom were involved with the conversation and presentation of the Three Black Men tour.  In 2023, Resmaa, Bayo and Orland shared space as they visited three cities across three...
Published 03/06/24
This week we are rebroadcasting our interview with adrienne maree brown which originally aired in April 2019. adrienne maree brown begins this week’s episode by asking, “If we were not ashamed of our pleasure, what would become possible? If we started to understand that pleasure is something that everyone should have access to, what would become possible?” This week on For The Wild, we are exploring how to embody pleasure in its many forms with adrienne maree brown. Drawing upon Audre Lorde’s...
Published 02/28/24
Introducing listeners to his way of worship and connection to the Earth, this week’s guest Erik Assadourian offers insight into the religious framing and practical applications of the Gaian way. Erik shares his spiritual path of recognizing interdependence with the Earth and shares how he dreams towards a future where we exist in a mutualistic relationship to the Earth. Ranging from topics of degrowth to tangible spiritual practices for connection to the Earth and its seasons, Erik’s wisdom...
Published 02/21/24
Winding through questions of philosophy, science, and meaning making, this week’s episode brings together vital thoughts on what it means to live an embodied life in an entangled world. Guest Merlin Sheldrake shares the motivations that drew him to study fungi and the complex ways this study has shaped his life and thought.  As Merlin shares, “an account of life that doesn't include fungi is an account of a living world  that doesn’t exist.” Our relationship with fungi is non-negotiable....
Published 02/14/24
This week, Ayana is joined by Sky Hopinka in a conversation that dives deep into the meaning of art and film and the stories and emotions we share between generations. Sky grounds the conversation in his incredible expertise and thoughtful approach to media. Touching on the very questions of who we are and how we make meaning, the questions in this conversation cut to the core of what it means to be human.   The conversation is a beautiful exploration of art, Indigeneity, intergenerational...
Published 02/07/24
This week we are excited to continue our collaboration with UC Berkeley's Othering and Belonging Institute to bring you a conversation from The Othering and Belonging Conference in Berlin, Germany. This conversation is introduced by Monica Jiang, is moderated by Cecilie Surasky and features the voices of Udi Raz and Yasmeen Daher.  Speaking on the theme “Turning Towards Each Other, Not Against Each Other: Bridging in Times of Crisis” the panelists address what it means to build towards...
Published 01/31/24
Tracing ancestry through the motherline, this week’s guest Sylvia V. Linsteadt introduces listeners to the world of matrilineal myth and wisdom. For Sylvia, story and myth are very much alive and can offer valuable insight especially as we consider what it means to inhabit a place. From stories of female monks, to the practical wisdom of weaving, to the veneration of The Virgin Mary, Sylvia reminds us of what it means to value the feminine.  Throughout the episode, Sylvia and Ayana consider...
Published 01/24/24
What beckons us, calls to us from beyond? Tuning into a magic that flows from the universe, not from an individualized self, Tyson Yunkaporta offers lucid insight into the current state of the world in this week’s episode. In maddening times of dissonance and disconnection, Tyson speaks to the need for the Right Story, for LORE. As he dives into his new book Right Story, Wrong Story, Tyson discusses rampant disinformation, the stories that prop up empire, and the need for lore that cuts...
Published 01/17/24
In a timely and heart-wrenching episode, returning guest Layla K. Feghali shares the power and perseverance of homeland, even in the face of colonial violence. As the genocide in Palestine continues and worsens, Layla offers a powerful call to listen to our rage and take real action against empire.  Layla reminds us that in urgent times, action must come before grief and before healing. You cannot heal a wound that is still actively bleeding. Remembrance is a key part of liberation from the...
Published 01/10/24
What if we started with gratitude? With love? In this episode Ayana is joined by longtime mentor Molly Young Brown in a discussion that tends to what it means to be human in times of polycrisis and unraveling. Grounding the conversation in practice of group processing, activism, and relationality, Molly speaks to the reality of our time. We simply can’t go on like this, and it is dizzying to pretend anything else. This truth is illuminating, but does not need to be wholly devastating. At the...
Published 01/03/24
In the spirit of the solstice, we are taking a pause from our regular episode schedule. We’re also taking the time to express our immense gratitude for the wonderful community that makes For The Wild possible – our lovely team, our community of guests, our Patreon community, and our listeners all over the world. The past year has been one of beautiful synthesis. We released over 40 new episodes, and it is incredible to see the conversations, actions, and connections that have been sparked by...
Published 12/20/23
Continuing the conversation series, “The Edges in the Middle,” presented in collaboration with UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute, For The Wild is delighted to share this conversation between Báyò Akómoláfé, Sa’ed Atshan, and Cecilie Surasky.  Starting from the premise that all people belong and all lives are grievable, Bayo, Cecilie, and Sa’ed will explore how honoring each other’s grief may allow us to reclaim each other’s humanity and perhaps shed light on a path forward to...
Published 12/13/23
“No organism is an island.” As Sandor Katz reminds us in this delightful and informative episode, all life on earth is deeply interdependent. Though modern food systems alienate us from our environments and from the ways, we cannot totally sever ourselves from the environments and nutrients that make life possible. Sandor shows that alienation and disconnection will not free us. Rather, settling into the overlapping and diverse entwinement of the more-than-human world may bring connection and...
Published 12/06/23
In this week’s episode we tap deep into the trust, desire, intimacy, and vulnerability that come from relationality. Betty Martin offers her vast knowledge of bodywork, somatics, and consent to give listeners insight into what she calls “The Wheel of Consent,” a quadrant that details a practice of giving and receiving.  Betty reminds us that access is a gift. No one is born with the knowledge of how to give and receive in the “perfect” way, rather we must learn and feel together –...
Published 11/29/23
How can a relationship with one animal open the door to the depths of humanity? In this episode, returning guest Kurt Russo shares how he came to see the world through Tokitae, a Southern Resident Orca held captive in the Miami Seaquarium for decades. As he mourns Tokitae’s recent death, Kurt reflects on the ways nature gives us signs of the greater mysteries of life.  This conversation is equally rooted in the material realities of protecting the Salish Sea, the Snake River, and the...
Published 11/22/23
Blending theory, practice, and fascinating cultural vision, this week’s conversation with Erin Manning calls into question the systems and practices that keep us stuck.    Erin’s imagination and openness seem endless as she describes how we may work to create movements for other ways of being. Crucially, Erin describes her understanding of modalities of being, explaining that neurotypicality is a system that undergirds our ways of knowing and our ways of being a body. There is no singular...
Published 11/15/23
This week we are taking a pause from our regularly scheduled releases to rebroadcast Corrina Gould’s potent and powerful episode that originally aired in November 2020.  We hope that this episode serves as a reminder of humanity and land rematriation in the face of deep colonial violence. The genocide in Palestine highlights the ways colonial forces of greed, extraction and brutal disregard for life and ties to the land are bearing their bloody teeth. We cannot return to “normal.” How can...
Published 11/08/23