Grounding: How do you stay grounded when facing climate chaos? For many, the journey begins with listening.

This episode opens with Jessica David reflecting on how grounding practices can help us remain present and compassionate in a world shaped by climate disruption. She’s joined by podcast producer and longtime BTS Center collaborator Peterson Toscano, who invites listeners into an immersive sonic experience. Through a guided soundscape meditation, Peterson helps us attune our ears — and our hearts — to the world around us.

Main Practice: In this practice-based episode, Peterson shares his love of sound and his approach to listening as a grounding ritual. He encourages us to let go of labeling, to listen without judgment, and to experience sound as connection — to place, to others, and ourselves. By tuning in to the textures and rhythms of daily life, we can awaken to the more-than-human world and our role within it.

Key themes include:

• Reframing “background noise” as presence and meaning
• Listening as an act of compassion and embodied awareness
• How recording sound (even casually) heightens attention
• Soundscapes as spiritual companions

This episode features a short soundscape, recorded and led by Peterson, to help listeners practice listening deeply. Whether you’re familiar with contemplative practices or new to them, this is an invitation to pause, notice, and reconnect.

For the best experience, we recommend using headphones or earbuds.

Next Steps: Try your own soundscape meditation — no fancy equipment required. Sit still and listen. Or take a gentle walk with your phone’s voice memo app.

Share your experience with us: Email: podcast@thebtscenter.org Text or Call: 207-200-6986

Explore additional grounding practices in the upcoming episodes with Madeline Bugeau-Heartt and Jessica David.

Meet the Guest: Peterson Toscano is a performance artist, climate communicator, and the producer of the Climate Changed podcast. He brings playfulness, vulnerability, and storytelling to conversations about faith and climate. Through sound, satire, and personal narrative, he helps listeners discover unexpected ways to connect with the climate-changed world. Listen to more experiments with sound on Peterson’s personal podcast, Bubble and Squeak.

This episode is part of our Behind the Scenes edition — a mini-series offering spiritual and embodied practices from The BTS Center’s team. Learn more at: thebtscenter.org

How do we stay grounded in a time of climate disruption? In this special Behind the Scenes Edition, host Jessica David invites listeners into a conversation with three BTS Center colleagues—Ash Temin, Madeline Bugeau-Heartt, and Peterson Toscano. Together, they explore the importance of spiritual and embodied practices that help us stay connected, present, and resilient in our climate-changed world.

Each guest shares how they engage in grounding practices, what works for them (and what doesn’t), and what these practices offer us in the midst of fear, grief, and uncertainty. The episode features a beautiful, nature-based practice led by Ash, with more practices to come in the next two episodes.

In this episode:

• Ash invites listeners into a practice of creaturely communion.
• Madeline offers reflections on holy noticing and joyful disruption.
• Peterson talks about reclaiming the power of deep listening.
• Jessica opens up about moving beyond words into embodied presence.

Whether you’re seasoned in spiritual practice or just starting to explore, this episode offers a taste of what’s possible when we make time to slow down and notice the world around—and within—us.

🎧 Plus, stay tuned for upcoming practices led by Peterson and Madeline.

Rev. Ash Temin Ash serves as the Communications Manager at The BTS Center and offers spiritual direction through her independent practice in Portland, Maine. An ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Ash is passionate about ecological theology and exploring the experience of ecological grief. She finds joy in coastal walks, creaturely companionship, and practicing connection with the more-than-human world.

Madeline Bugeau-Heartt Madeline is a Program Associate at The BTS Center. A graduate of Harvard Divinity School and NYU Tisch, she brings her background in experimental theater, farming, and caregiving into her work. Madeline is passionate about creating spaces for radical imagination, deep embodiment, and joyful resistance, especially as we navigate life in a climate-changed world.

Peterson Toscano Peterson is the producer of the Climate Changed podcast and a longtime collaborator with The BTS Center. A seasoned podcaster, performance artist, and climate communicator, he helps audiences see climate change from fresh angles. Through storytelling, satire, and sound, Peterson fosters empathy and sparks curiosity.

💌 We’d love to hear from you! Tell us about your own grounding practices. Email: podcast@thebtscenter.org Call or Text: 207-200-6986

🌐 Learn more: climatechangedpodcast.org 🔗 Visit us: thebtscenter.org

In this special episode of Climate Changed, we’re delighted to share an episode from Religion & Justice, a podcast produced by our partners at the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt Divinity School.

Hosted by Gabriella Lisi (she/they/he) and George Schmidt (he/him/ours), Religion & Justice explores the intersections of class, religion, labor, and ecology. In this featured episode, titled “Deep Solidarity and Moralizing”, they sit down with theologian Dr. Joerg Rieger to discuss the relationship between economic power structures, ecological devastation, and the role of religion in building alternative systems grounded in deep solidarity.

Dr. Rieger introduces key distinctions between privilege and power, critiques individualistic approaches to climate action, and invites us to imagine economic and spiritual solidarity that moves from the grassroots upward. He explores how worker co-ops, solidarity economies, and faith-rooted organizing might form the foundation of a more just and life-giving future.

🌱 To learn more about the Wendland-Cook Program and their offerings—including their Solidarity Circles for faith leaders—visit: https://www.religionandjustice.org

📖 Read Dr. Rieger’s article “Theology in the Capitalocene”: https://www.religionandjustice.org/interventions-forum-on-privilege-and-power-in-the-capitalocene

We invite you to reflect on how this conversation resonates with your work in a climate-changed world. Share your thoughts with us by text or voicemail at (207) 200-6986 or by email at podcast@thebtscenter.org.