010, Ayana Young: Unlearn and Rewild

Soul Soil: Where Agriculture and Spirit Intersect with Brooke Kornegay

We are in a unique time in human history. We can order an item from around the world and receive it at our doorstep in a few days. We can live our entire lives indoors. We can exist without interacting with other humans. Unfortunately, this separation from each other and from Nature makes it easier than ever to exploit and destroy nature for our own purposes. The good news is...we are actually in a position to salvage what few wild areas still exist on the planet. There is however, an expiration date on that offer.

Ayana Young is a podcast and radio personality specializing in intersectional environmental and social justice, deep ecology and land-based restoration. Young has a strong academic background at the intersections of ecology, culture, and spirituality. Young lives among the coastal redwood and salmon habitat in Northern California. She established a native species nursery and research center, spearheading the 1 Million Redwoods Project, the most backed farm project in Kickstarter history. Young is also a budding filmmaker. Her debut film, When Old Growth Ends, is an ode to the irreplaceable Tongass National Forest during its last stand as a distinctly wild place in Southeast Alaska. Young is the Founder and Executive Director of millennial media organization and nonprofit For the Wild. Her podcast, For the Wild, has featured over 100 guests, including Chris Hedges, Sylvia Earle, Vandana Shiva, Jill Stein, Winona La Duke, Terry Tempest Williams. Young approaches the mission of "For The Wild" with critical thinking, deep reverence and artistry.

Standing up and speaking out for the Earth is not the easy path...but no one is going to lay on their deathbed regretting caring about and working to protect the Earth. Devoting ourselves to something outside ourselves is what makes us truly worthy.

In this episode...

• Ayana's experience creating a farm and a food forest

• Soil building

• Shattering her own conditioning and the origin of For the Wild Podcast

• The connection between the human inner landscape and Earth's landscape

• Taking responsibility for what it means to be a modern human

• How modern human disconnection from Nature makes it easier to exploit Nature

• Being wary of greenwashing solutions and token consumerism as distractions from the ecological disaster that is happening now

• Addressing our own addiction to consumerism and entitlement is the first step

• Buffers that keep us satisfied and distracted from processing what is actually going on in our world right now

• It's okay to slow down and not "do" something. It's the times when we are quiet, especially in Nature, that we can hear our inner voice

• If we want clean water, if we want clean air, if we want a future for our children...we have to act, and expect to be engaging for the long haul. We need to be in relationship with each other and with the work of standing up for the Earth, rather than only focusing on getting to the finish line.

• Strategies for sustainable activism

Resources

• forthewild.world (info on For The Wild Podcast, 1 Million Redwoods Project, Tongass Campaign)

• Instagram, Twitter, Facebook: @for.the.wild

• [e-mail]

• Emergent Strategy and Pleasure Activism by Adrienne Maree Brown

• A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California by Laura Cunningham

• Terry Tempest Williams

• Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God by Rainer Maria