Chrysalis Podcast

19/04/2023

We just released an episode of the Chrysalis Podcast featuring Vernon Haltom and Junior Walk of Coal River Mountain Watch. This is the first episode in our new Chrysalis Projects series, which highlights the work of community-based environmental projects:

https://www.chrysalispodcast.org/p/7-vernon-haltom-and-junior-walk-coal

Vernon and Junior are working hard to stop mountaintop removal, which is a particularly destructive form of coal mining. Mountaintop removal got a lot of press years ago went there was a big fight to stop it. Coal mining is down in West Virginia, and much of the press attention and activism around coal mining in West Virginia has dissapated, but mountaintop removal is still ongoing and having a massive impact on ecosystems and human health in West Virginia.

This is a story about not just coal and activism but about the media and how how we forget and move on to new things.

Check out the show to hear what Vernon and Junior are working on every day to keep the spotlight focused on the ecological destruction and environmental justice nightmare that stems from coal mining in West Virginia.

We encourage you to donate to the amazing work that Coal River Mountain Watch is doing with very few resources in West Virginia:

https://www.crmw.net/donate.php

Listen now (62 min) | Chrysalis Projects | Many assaults on the environment happen slowly and continually, almost invisibly to us: starting a car engine, buying meat at the grocery store, throwing away a plastic straw.Mountaintop removal is different. It is sudden and violent and intentionally, unmi...

05/04/2023

THE CHRYSALIS PODCAST IS BACK!

Check out the trailer for the new series we've been working on:

https://www.chrysalispodcast.org/p/6-were-back-with-poets-artists-cooks

And please sign up for our free newsletter at ChrysalisPodcast.org.

We'll be releasing new shows every week starting next week, and look out for some exciting news about a live event in Buffalo for Earth Week.

Listen now (1 min) | We’re back! I’m super-excited about the new series of shows we’ve been recording over the past year here at the Chrysalis podcast. The new series focus on poets, artists, cooks, and community organizers, and we’ll be releasing them alongside more of our original Conversa...

16/06/2022

To kick off the summer, I sit down with my good friend and colleague, Heather Houser, who is an environmental humanities scholar, a dancer, and an overall wonderful person.

Our conversation explores climate information overload, the idea of what she calls eco-sickness in literature, the thorny topic of human population size, and whether artists should reject or rework artistic tools of the past that might be tainted by colonialism, racism, or other forms of oppression.

https://johnfiege.substack.com/p/heatherhouser?s=w

Keep up with the podcast and get an invitation to join the Chrysalis Discord server by subscribing for free on Substack.
I hope you enjoy my conversation with Heather Houser!

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Chrysalis is produced and edited by Gabriela Cordoba Vivas, with music by Daniel Rodríguez, design by Unai Reglero, and mixing by Quiet Gecko. Shubh Jain is our web developer and assistant editor, and Isabella Nurt is our social media producer and assistant editor.

Listen now (86 min) | Here’s something we hear all the time: if only more people knew more about environmental problems, then they would certainly act in some ecologically beneficial way. But the problem is, it’s not true. We’re now deluged with data about the climate crisis; and yet, this abu...

14/04/2022

The Chrysalis Podcast is back for Earth Day! This is a special episode for me: I’m in conversation with my advisor from grad school and now good friend and colleague at University at Buffalo, Adam Rome.

Adam is an environmental historian who has written a brilliant history of the first Earth Day, in addition to a variety of other work, from the origins of the American environmental movement to the business world’s attempts to become more sustainable.

I talk to Adam all the time, but we’ve never before gone this deep on the range of his work all at one time. Check it out here:

https://www.chrysalispodcast.org/episodes/adam-rome

Keep up with the podcast and get an invitation to join the Chrysalis Discord server by subscribing for free on Substack:

https://johnfiege.substack.com

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Adam Rome!

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Chrysalis is produced and edited by Gabriela Cordoba Vivas, with music by Daniel Rodríguez, design by Unai Reglero, and mixing by Quiet Gecko. Shubh Jain is our web developer and assistant editor, and Isabella Nurt is our social media producer and assistant editor.

Learn more at ChrysalisPodcast.org.

From Our Environmental History to Our Environmental Future

11/04/2022

The Chrysalis Podcast will be back this month in time for Earth Day. If you missed our last show with Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap of the Evangelical Environmental Network, check it out here:

https://johnfiege.substack.com/p/rev-kyle-meyaard-schaap-the-biblical-314?r=prabz&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

I had a wonderful time talking to Kyle about the emerging creation care movement—diving deep into his own ecological awakening, what scripture says about caring for the environment, and how Christians and non-Christians alike can find common values and build power together to care for life on Earth across cultural lines that often divide us.

To keep up with Chrysalis, subscribe for free on Substack:

https://johnfiege.substack.com/subscribe

We also just launched the Chrysalis Discord server. Once you sign up with Substack, we'll send you an invitation, where you can discuss an episode, ask a question, suggest future guests, and explore related topics with the Chrysalis community. Log in now to get a brief preview of our upcoming Earth Day show.

Hope to see you on Discord!

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Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap
The Biblical Call for Ecological Care

Environmental activists often focus on facts and data, as if more climate information will lead to more climate action. That strategy may be effective with some communities, but overall it hasn’t prevented global emissions from climbing year after year or habitats from being destroyed day after day.

Many folks in the environmental movement are thinking a lot about how to make messaging more effective. But it’s not just the message we need to question—it’s also the messenger.

In the U.S., white evangelical Christians are not known for their strong support of environmental protections or for believing that humans are even causing climate change, but maybe they haven’t had the right messengers.

Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap is an evangelical Christian climate activist, which is not a combination of descriptors we often hear. Kyle has spent years building a movement of young messengers from within the evangelical community who speak a new language of creation care.

He believes that Christians don’t need to look any further than the Bible to become fierce and passionate advocates for ecological protection and climate action.

Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap was National Organizer and Spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Action before becoming Vice President at the Evangelical Environmental Network.

https://johnfiege.substack.com/p/rev-kyle-meyaard-schaap-the-biblical-314?r=prabz&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Listen now (85 min)| Environmental activists often focus on facts and data, as if more climate information will lead to more climate action. That strategy may be effective with some communities, but overall it hasn’t prevented global emissions from climbing year after year or habitats from being d...

21/10/2021

The first episode of the Chrysalis podcast is up!

A huge thank you to our first guest, Jacqui Patterson, for her time, passion, and deep commitment to environmental justice.

Listen to "Jacqui Patterson - Envisioning Eco-Communities amidst Toxic Legacies” for free on Substack and other podcast platforms:

https://johnfiege.substack.com/p/jacqui-patterson

Please rate, review, and share to help us spread the word!

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Jacqui Patterson
Envisioning Eco-Communities amidst Toxic Legacies

“Forthright but also full of grace”: that could be a mantra for how we should all live our lives. It’s also how Jacqui Patterson has described her ideal as she fights for environmental justice in a world that can feel like it’s submerged completely in environmental injustice.

From the South Side of Chicago, to Jamaica, to South Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, Jacqui has continually asked what deep, transformative change looks like. She grounds her theory of change in community-led advocacy. She envisions a world of eco-communities and works with real communities across the country who have already created elements of these utopian visions.

But never does she lose sight of climate change and environmental exploitation as multipliers of injustice.

Jacqui Patterson directed the Environmental and Climate Justice Program at NAACP from 2009 to 2021. Most recently, she is founder and executive director of The Chisholm Legacy Project: A Resource Hub for Black Frontline Climate Justice Leadership.

I’ve had the great privilege of knowing Jacqui for the last few years, and she’s an advisor on my current documentary film in post production, called Raising Aniya.

In our conversation, Jacqui discusses the origins of the environmental justice movement and the importance of community-led activism, and she charts her path to a life devoted to the struggle for environmental justice.

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Chrysalis is produced and edited by Gabriela Cordoba Vivas, with music by Daniel Rodriguez Vivas, design by Unai Reglero, and mixing by Juan Garcia. Isabella Nurt is our social media producer and assistant editor, Shubh Jain is our web developer and assistant editor, and Arianna Lone is our editing intern.

Learn more at ChrysalisPodcast.org.

12/10/2021

Welcome to Chrysalis with John Fiege!

You can listen to the 1-min. trailer and support this project by subscribing here:

https://johnfiege.substack.com/p/introducing-chrysalis-with-john-fiege

Please also rate and review the podcast on podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart, Pocket Casts, Amazon Podcasts, and Google Podcasts.

If you’re in Austin, please come out to the event on Wednesday, October 27, 2021, at UT’s DMC Auditorium, from 6-8 PM CDT. If you can’t make the event in person, you can participate via the webinar, which will also allow you to ask questions during the event. Register for the webinar here:

https://utexas.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BLdfQgGsRleCD2ZHtCoI2g

You can RSVP for the event (in person and webinar) via the Facebook event page.

https://fb.me/e/LIZUfyyB

Please also like this page and follow us on social media: (Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok).

Learn more at ChrysalisPodcast.org.