Podcast Club: Forests

Like a book club, but for podcasts!

Every month we listen to a curated list of podcast episodes (see list below) on a particular topic or theme and then we meet to discuss them. It’s the perfect discussion for time-starved folks. No long books to read! Listen to the podcasts while you commute, do chores or go for a walk. Listening to podcasts is such a great way to learn something new and then further reinforce that knowledge by discussing with others.

To register: email Heather at hgoldik@nelson.ca

In March we’re going deep into the forest to learn how trees communicate and collaborate, the role of Good Fire for ecological health and Indigenous cultural empowerment and what we humans can learn from trees. We’ll look deep into the ground and up into the canopy and even into the place the forest has in our imaginations.

BBC World Service: The Compass 

Episode: Under The Canopy: Forests of Folktale and imagination (27 minutes) 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct2cb1 

Jessica unpicks the profound role that forests play in our imaginative life. We know of course that they feature heavily in the fairy tales and myths we use to navigate life as children, and as we hear from writers like Max Porter, Richard Powers and Melissa Harrison, they also offer ways of understanding the complexities of desire, politics and history in our adult lives. Poet Carl Phillips describes how forests mirror the wilderness within us, while Jinni Reddy tells of how she found beauty in the forest through facing down her fears. 

 

Radiolab 

Episode: Forests on Forests (25 minutes) 

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/forests-forests 

We journey up into the sky and discover Forests above the forest. We learn about the secret powers of these sky gardens from ecologist Karuna Mafune, and we follow Nalini Nadkarni as she makes a ground-breaking discovery that changes how we understand what trees are capable of.  

 

Good Fire 

Episode: Welcome to Good Fire (23 minutes) 

https://yourforestpodcast.com/good-fire-podcast/2019/9/2/welcome-to-good-fire 

Wildfire is often portrayed in the media as being ‘destructive’ and ‘catastrophic’. In this podcast we explore the concept of fire as a tool for ecological health and cultural empowerment by Indigenous people around the globe. Good Fire is a term used to describe fire that is lit intentionally to achieve specific ecological and cultural goals. Good fire is about balance. 

 

BBC World Service: The Compass:  

Episode: Under the Canopy: Forests of science and knowledge (26 minutes) 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct2cb2 

Writer Jessica J Lee, sets out to describe the myriad ways that forests operate in our lives and the life of the planet. She outlines the exciting developments that have taken place in our understanding of the ways forests work over recent decades, with science offering radical new ways of recognising these places as communities of mutually supportive trees rather than competitive spaces where individual trees fight one another for survival. 

 

Science of Happiness 

Episode: What Humans Can Learn From Trees (17 minutes) 

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/podcasts/item/what_humans_can_learn_from_trees 

Trees don’t just compete with one another for resources, they also cooperate. Scientist and author Suzanne Simard explains the surprising science of trees. 

 

How to listen to podcasts:
Click on the links above to listen or to download to your device, check out this how to article on downloading to your phone or tablet.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/oct/07/how-to-listen-to-podcasts-everything-you-need-to-know

If you’ve never listened to podcasts before and want to learn, call the library at 250-352-6333 to book an (online) appointment with one of our librarians.