As children, we have our own hidden worlds. This beautiful conversation with children’s author Jon-Erik Lappano looks at being our innate selves, while finding pockets of wildness, writing, and wonder.

We talk about unmitigated and imaginative play in nature. We look at the joy of the creative process, and what it feels like to make something (like a beautiful book) that you can hold in your hands. We talk about good storytelling, what it feels like to have a secret language with animals, and how we each relate to the world, even if that is quiet or quirky. We talk about darkness—the painful fleetingness of time, being swallowed up by the forest—but also wonder and magic.

Jon-Erik Lappano is a Governor General’s Literary Award-winning Canadian author of books for children. He stays up unreasonably late working on things, and at his age, he should really know better. He lives in Stratford, Ontario, in a wild old house occupied by his wonderful, patient wife, three lovely, lawless children, and an unseemly number of pets.

His new book, The Language of Birds, was published this week by Random House Studio and is illustrated by Zach Manbeck.

Publisher’s Weekly wrote about The Language of Birds, “Two kindred spirits connect.…in this sensitive interpersonal portrait from Lappano and Manbeck.” Booklist says, “Lush illustrations glow with soft light, inviting readers into a warm world….where it feels safe to follow passions and interact on other terms. A refreshingly quiet story with a lot to say.”

This is a really special conversation—a glimmer of wonder in a dark time. You can listen at reseed.ca.

We can be helpers, we can be witnesses, we can refuse to give up. While the fragile ceasefire is cause for some timid relief, we can’t look away. Action needs to be sustained.

To mark the 50th episode of Reseed, this episode will be a bit different: here are 50 actions for Gaza.

Here are 50 actions to take—but the intent is to start with one action. This is meant to be helpful, afterall, not overwhelming. This episode is is also not meant to be perfect or prescriptive, but rather a map to help guide us as helpers when we get overwhelmed by grief and despair.

Actions are organized by learning, reflecting and discussing, in-person actions, donating, creating, advocating, caring, and praying or meditating. Listeners can pause anytime and take the action, and come back to it when you need more ideas. Some actions might be right for you, while some might not. Fortunately, effective movements are made up of people each finding their own unique role.

Whether you are an outspoken leader in this movement, or somewhat involved, or completely new and feeling out of place and uncomfortable: be a helper.

Find show notes and listen at reseed.ca.

This is a conversation about discovering sacredness and deconstructing empire.

Sacredness can be found in our forests, streams, parks, and backyards, rather than building walls around religion and isolating human beings from creation. That is why Church of the Wild brings nature, spirituality, and reverence together, regardless of specific religion. But many of us, despite feeling a spirituality in nature, are out of practice with prayer and have lost sacredness in our daily lives.

This episode of Reseed is a conversation about how to find sacredness, and how doing so is a rejection of empire building, patriarchy, and violence. As sacred creatures, humans can build refugia: havens of growth in the midst of unstable terrain.

Guest Victoria Loorz is a wild church pastor, an eco-spiritual director and co-founder of several transformation-focused organizations focused on the integration of nature and spirituality. After twenty years as a pastor of indoor churches, she launched the first Church of the Wild, in California, after which she co-founded the ecumenical Wild Church Network. She is the author of Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred.

Listen to hear more about how—at a moment where almost nothing is sacred—to find sacredness in our lives and in our wild world.

reseed.ca

We are witnessing revolution, and that’s what this episode is about: witnessing, in the form of journalism, and revolution, in the form of climate justice that is interconnected with social justice.

Guest Eric Holthaus is a meteorologist, a climate journalist, and the author of The Future Earth: A Radical Vision for What's Possible in the Age of Warming. Rolling Stone called him the rebel nerd of meteorology. He lives in Minnesota and, as he says, has really gotten into birding in his 40s.

Against a backdrop of interconnected struggles, we are seeing great humanity and great inhumanity. For every leader who lacks courage, millions of regular people are showing conviction and bravery. For every tyrant who cracks down with oppression and violence, with the great weight of extractive systems and aggressive power behind them, there are millions more who are leaving their screens and their homes to stand up for what they believe in.

In this conversation, we get into life after capitalism, radical stewardship, and the links between genocide, fossil fuels, power and money. There is a balance between grim realities and possibility, between grief and imagination. This is a conversation about revolution, the state of climate journalism, community, and many possible futures.

Listen at reseed.ca.

Collective action can lead to real, tangible victories, like halting an offshore oil project proposed by Big Oil, reminding us that collectives of people have the power to challenge destructive and powerful forces. Instead of the individualistic, lonely, consumerism-heavy environmentalism that claimed centre stage in the past—telling us we are guilty for the worsening climate impact and we need to solve it all alone—the collective climate justice movement encourages us to turn towards each other.

Guest Tori Tsui is a Bristol-based climate justice activist, organiser, writer and speaker from Hong Kong. You might have seen her on the cover of Vogue with a host of young environmental leaders and Billie Eilish, on panels like one hosted by Emma Watson at the New York Times Climate Hub, or in Instagram posts with inspiring activist friends like Mya-Rose Craig, Greta Thunberg, Daphne Frias, and Dominique Palmer. Tori is one of the wise, outspoken, and youthful leaders of a collective climate justice movement that is expanding environmentalism, intellectually, philosophically, equitably, and emotionally. Her recent debut book, It’s Not Just You, explores the intersections between climate change and mental health from a climate justice perspective.

The climate justice movement shows us how taking care of the Earth does not have to mean the death of our mental health, requiring non-stop urgent action and burnout. Instead, activists like Tori remind us that climate action is lifelong work, requiring rest, mutual care, and joy. This conversation reveals concrete steps for creating welcoming, nuanced, and flexible spaces that allow for imperfection and conviction. It provides wise reflections on successful movement building and sustaining, and shows how recent wins have been accomplished by collective-minded organizing that is required for these dark times.

~

This is part of a series of replays from the archives, in which we are sharing some of our most beloved episodes. Listen to all episodes at reseed.ca.

Democracy is under threat—an erosion that is deeply connected to the breakdown of a shared truth, of civility, of conversation. The ruptures feel permanent and impossible to repair. When we deeply disagree with people over the high stakes issues we face, courageous conversations can be a powerful way to find common ground. Prioritizing relationships and connection can potentially prevent pushing people into more extreme views and communities.

Courageous conversations can also be very difficult. Sometimes the space between opinions and realities is too far, such as when having a good faith conversation is not safe or will cause harm. When should we concede, and when should we fight?

Guest Jane Porter is the co-founder and President of Bridge Building Group, where she leads a growing network committed to healing divides and driving meaningful change. A sought-after facilitator, she brings clarity and momentum to high-stakes conversations. For over 15 years, she’s helped leaders across sectors tackle complex issues like Indigenous climate leadership, plastic reduction, and responsible resource extraction. Her recent TEDx Talk explores bridge building for democracy.

This conversation is about listening in a divided world, rather than shouting or shutting down. It is about choosing love rather than fear. We talk about knowing which issues matter about us and being able to speak out about them, even when it is uncomfortable or comes at a cost.

Listen at reseed.ca.

We are midwives of a transformation, in a time of crisis and grief. Now is a moment to find our most expansive definitions of motherhood, nature, and ancestry in order to equip us for this moment. This episode of Reseed explores mothering in these times of ours, writing through emergency, a ceasefire in Palestine, and the power of togetherness.

Kerri ní Dochartaigh is an Irish mother, writer, and grower. Her work explores ideas of emergency, interconnectedness and ecologies of care. For her first book, Thin Places, she was awarded the Butler Literary Award 2022, and highly commended for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing 2021 in the UK. Cacophony of Bone was longlisted for the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing. Kerri is currently actively engaged with Irish Artists for Palestine, a coalition of artists focused on active solidarity and fundraising.

This conversation invites us to bear witness to the grief, atrocities, and brutalities of the genocide in Palestine and say not in our name. As we grapple with these horrors, we are called to bring our deepest reserves of tenderness and remember our deep love for each other.

Listen at reseed.ca.

Fire, food, and the future come together in this conversation about relearning forgotten skills we need in the modern world. We explore permaculture, regenerative farming, seeds, and cycles, as well as six seasons of activities that people can do to nourish, create, feast, ritualize, and localize.

Jade Miles is a regenerative heritage fruit farmer. Together with her husband and three kids, Jade runs Black Barn Farm, a biodiverse orchard, nursery and workshop space in Northeast Victoria, Australia. She is the author of Futuresteading: Live like tomorrow matters and Huddle: Wisdom, skills and recipes for building a tomorrow of togetherness. Jade’s podcast Futuresteading has 150 episodes spanning 10 seasons. She’s an active presence in the regenerative space, hosting school programs, permaculture and homesteading workshops – all in the name of reconnecting people to nature, food and a simpler existence.

This conversation is about challenging an anesthetized numbness, to instead living differently through embracing old and new skills, building community, and cultivating mutual aid. We are not designed to be cogs in an industrialized machine but rather we are a custodial species.

Listen at reseed.ca.