Photo by Christine Morro
Conversations, essays, and
other resources
The Mustard Seed Podcast
Conversations on ecological, cultural and spiritual regeneration in times of great change.
Episode 05 · The Wild Redeemer
In this conversation, I speak with herbalist, writer and teacher Seán Pádraig O’Donoghue about grief, wildness and hope, and what it might mean to rewild our consciousness from the forces of civilisation and empire. Beginning with Seán’s Irish ancestry and childhood encounters with the Otherworld, we explore myth, poetry and the older ways of knowing that can return us to a world experienced as alive, animate and sacred.
At its heart is the archetype of the Wild Redeemer: the ancient green force of life that rises through the cracks, reclaiming what has been taken and reminding us of a wilder hope that cannot be extinguished.
Listen / Watch
Episode 04 · The Wild Power of Poetry
In this conversation, I speak with poet and storyteller Tom Hirons about the wild power of poetry and the possibility of language as a form of truth-telling, sacred activism and resistance in dark times. We explore poetry as a practice of tracking the Otherworld, listening to the older voices that live within us, and recovering a language rooted in deeper relationship with the land.
Tom reflects on the wild as a source of his writing, our collective homesickness for older ways of being, and how poetry might help us speak against forces of desecration and denial. He also shares two poems, The Worship of Place and Here’s How We Lie.
Listen / Watch
Episode 03 · Hope in the Dark
In this conversation, I speak with writer, naturalist and environmental activist Yuvan Aves about hope in dark times; not as optimism, but as a discipline and regenerative force. We explore the intimate relationship between our inner and outer landscapes, and what it might mean to compost pain and suffering into beauty and creativity. Drawing on Yuvan’s work defending the living world in South India, we reflect on how healing ourselves and healing the land are intertwined, and how, even in the face of immense forces of destruction, we can continue to choose relationship, regeneration and hope.
Listen / Watch
Episode 02 · The Language of Awe
In this conversation, I speak with Lakota teacher and musician Tiokasin Ghosthorse about language, listening and radically different ways of being in relationship with the living Earth. Moving through Tiokasin’s experiences of the boarding school system and the violence of assimilation, we explore how colonisation sought to sever Indigenous peoples from their languages, lifeways and ways of knowing. Tiokasin reflects on the relational, multidimensional worldview held within the Lakota language, the importance of intuition and listening beyond the Western paradigm of control, and awe as a shared human language that can return us to humility, respect and relationship with the mystery and creative force within all life.
Listen / Watch
Episode 01 · Falling in Love with the Future
n this conversation, I speak with author, activist and Transition Town co-founder Rob Hopkins about his new book, How to Fall in Love with the Future: A Time Traveller’s Guide to Changing the World, and its proposition for a different kind of activism — one rooted not in fear, fighting and narratives of collapse, but in falling deeply in love with the future we want to create. We explore the power of cultivating a collective longing for that future, the influence of Afrofuturism and the radical imagination, and how experiences of nostalgia for the future can help make change feel tangible and possible. At the heart of the conversation is an invitation to recognise that the future we long for is not simply an abstract possibility; its signs and seeds are already present in the world around us, waiting for our attention.
Listen / Watch
Essays & Writings
Seeding the Collective Imagination
Holding a Hidden Promise for the Future
Fire, Ash and the Green Tendril: A Folk Tale
The Healing Power of Fruit Picking: Spiritual Nourishment in an
Age of Injury
Bodies of Grace: Finding the Path to Freedom With the Great Whales
Rivers of Love: A Prayer for Punjab’s Flooding Crisis