Spirit In Action

There are many aspects to care for the Earth, experiencial & experimental. Sam Thayer of Forager's Harvest in one of the preminent experts in harvesting from the Earth's bounty. He shares here the concluding essay of his new book, 3rd in a series, called Incredibile Wild Edibles: 36 Plants That Can Change Your Life, speaking of Ecoculture instead of Agriculture. Our second guest is Crispin Pierce, Prof of Environmental Public Health at UW-EC, and member of Eau Claire's Sustainability Advisory Committee, speaking of his research & paper on Monitoring of Airborne Particulates Near Industrial Silica Sand Mining & Processing Facilities. Original Air Date: 04/14/2018

Inspirational stories of participants of the March For Our Lives in Washington DC & St Paul, Minnesota: Myron Buchholz, retired high school history teacher, Donna Wagner Backus, former high school math teacher who attended with her daughter & granddaughter, and Christine Ashley, Quaker Field Secretary for FCNL, who hosted marchers at their DC lobbying center.

Though every day should be Earth Day, we are generally ignorant of so much of what nature holds for us, near at hand. Erin LaFaive of Full Circle Herbals has produced her Learning Herbalism Wookbook to help people learn their way to health through our plant resources. Samuel Thayer of Forager's Harvest has released his 3rd-in-a-series book, Incredible Wild Edibles: 36 Plants That Can Change Your Life, with ever more penetrating understanding of ways forward to healing the gulf between modern life and a healthy rootedness in the land.

Our ways of thinking about the Earth, and our place in it, produce radically different outcomes for life on the planet, including a possible ecological crash for humanity and many other species. Changing those ways of thinking will be central to a better future, which led Jeremy Lent, author, integrator, and founder of The Liology Institute, to shine a light on our journey, of thought & action in his profound new book is The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity's Search for Meaning. This is the last in a 3-part series. All Featured Music: Creation Is Laughing - by Carol Johnson

In searching for the why of what we need to do to have a sustainable world, we need to sort out our connection to the Earth, and Jeremy Lent, author, integrator, and founder of The Liology Institute, does that in his amazing new book is The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity's Search for Meaning. This is part 2 of a 3-part series. All Featured Music: We Belong to the Earth - by Magpie Swimming to the Other Side - by Magpie Earth Anthem - by The Turtles

Jeremy Lent, has an MBA, is an author, integrator, and founder of The Liology Institute. His amazing new book is The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity's Search for Meaning, which is all about understanding and leveraging humanity's fundamental drives toward sustainability of our species and the planet. All Featured Music: If Baboons Can Work It Out - by Charlie King & Karen Brandow

Getting past propaganda & agendas by sharing first-hand Israeli & Palestinian stories of the Occupation. Lucy Duncan of the AFSC's Friends Engage program and who is on the steering committee of the Quaker Palestine Israel Network guides sharing by Dalit Baum, an Israeli Jew, who started the on-line resource Investigate and who is cofounder of WhoProfits.org, and first-generation US Palestinian, Sandra Tamari, who currently works with the Adalah Justice Project on Arab minority rights in Israel, and who has worked for years with the St. Louis Palestinian Committee and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.

A key element to changing the world is having a voice, and that is what Jim Page provides for a wide variety of Peace & Justice efforts, using his bully pulpit to call for free speech, freedom from corporate tyranny, and much more. Since the 1970's Jim has broadcast the message loud and clear from ground zero in Seattle, WA. All Featured Music is by Jim Page: Whose World Is This - from Whose World Is This Didn't We - from Music from Big Red Over My Dead Body - from Ghost Bikes The Great Stone Wall - from Collateral Damage

Peterson Toscano uses Citizen's Climate Radio to find earth-healing work everywhere, with Indy car racer Aaron Telitz, in the sculpture of Emily Puthoff about Bee Habitat, Chantal Bilodeau's Arctic-located climate change play, and Grant Samms' research about wind power in Oklahoma.

In an atmosphere where so often there is religious intolerence & distrust, it's beautiful to see diverse spiritual communities sharing deeply together. At Eau Claire's Interfaith Prayer Service for Peace & Unity, conceived by Bob Lesniewski, a Benedictine oblate, prayers were shared from Presbyterian, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Ba'hai, Catholic, & Quaker representatives. It was a rich sharing of diverse faiths, warming a cold winter night. The next Eau Claire Interfaith Prayer Service will be May 23, 2018. When will yours be? Presenters: Music by Karol Hommen, piano & Ryan Poquette, violin Kathy Reid Walker - First Presbyterian Church Sarah Harless & Suzon Gordon - Temple Shalom Imam Tammer Abdelaziz - Islamic Center and Mosque Hyejung Hwang - Hope United Methodist Church Lama Yeshe - Buddhist Faith Alicia Reed & friends - Baha'i Faith Tom Krieg - St. James Catholic Church Mark Helpsmeet - Eau Claire Quakers Bob Lesniewski - St. Benedict's Monastery

We mostly take it for granted in the USA, but many places in the world are risking their lives to have a drink of water. In the midst of rape, war, & crushing poverty, Friendly Water for the World performs & witnesses miracles. Using appropriate technology & native ingenuity, the organization helps people in decimated areas of Africa & India to find new, transformed life. David Albert is co-founder and board chairman. The Seeds of Hope movie and trailer will give you some visuals of the kind of places this work is being done. Original Air Date: 01/20/2018

We want a better world, and Gordon Whitman shows us how in Stand up! How to get involved, speak out, and win in a world on fire. With 25 years experience in Chile & the USA, and as deputy director of Faith in Action, Gordon is well-situated to see what works and how to guide willing hands to more powerful work. Original Air Date: 01/13/2018

Steve Chase did a major course correction about Israel/Palestine, a journey he shares in a30-page pamphlet Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions? A Quaker Zionist Rethinks Palestinian Rights. With insights from Jewish Voice for Peace, BDSMovement.net, and AFSC, he found a better way forward. Steve taught 12 years at Antioch University New England as founding Program Director of their Advocacy for Social Justice and Sustainability masters program, and is currently with the Intl Center on Nonviolent Conflict.

Conclusion of a musical adventure into awakening men via Ebenezer's Make Over, Peter Alsop's eye-opening reconceptualization of Ebenezer Scrooge facing dysfunctional manhood presented by the 3 ghosts of the Christmas Carol, rewritten. How do men support one another & our kids, and not kill each other & themselves, own their bodies, and work together. Featured Music from Ebenezer's Make Over (plus one other song): The Hug - written & performed by Peter Alsop Give Yourself a Hand - written & performed by Peter Alsop Kill The Children - written & performed by Peter Alsop Foolish Notion - written & performed by Holly Near The Matador - written by Geof Morgan, performed by Charlie Murphy It's My Penis - written by Geof Morgan, performed by Peter Alsop Singing For Our Lives - written & performed by Holly Near Earth Song - from Chris Moose Holidays

A different type of Spirit In Action show, where we do our learning about dead-end and promising directions for men's growth in a kind of musical called Ebenezer's Make Over. Peter Alsop master-minded the project and contributed a lot of the songs, along with many of his friends in the feminist men's and women's movements. Whole lot of eye-opening in a reconceptualization of Ebenezer Scrooge facing dysfunctional manhood presented by the 3 ghosts. Featured Music: Jacob Marley - written & performed by Peter Alsop It's Only a Wee-Wee - written & performed by Peter Alsop Men Are Good - written & performed by Joe Jencks You Are My Spoon - written & performed by Amy Fix Let The Woman in You Come Through - written & performed by Peter Alsop Shoulder to the Wheel - written & performed by Geof Morgan Chromosoma Phobia - written by Bob Blue, performed by Allan Arnaboldi You Ain't Been Doing Nothin' - written & performed by Peter Alsop Burning Times - written & performed by Charlie Murphy

Occasionally big issues, like sex abuse, are tackled through fiction - all the better when enhanced through an alternative detective approach. In St. Mary's Private Dancer, Blair Hull explores the underworld of sex work in a murder mystery, and in Quaker Witness the issues are sexual harassment, rape, & murder, written by E. Kirsten Peters under the pen-name Irene Allen. Kirsten's Ph.D. is in Geology and her books include The Whole Story of Climate: What Science Reveals About The Nature of Endless Change, while Blair is a writer, singer of folk music and jazz standards, pastor at the Congregational UCC in Whitewater, WI, and participates in the UW-Madison Write-by-the-Lake Writer's Workshop & Retreat.

When we find that even well-loved and previously-respected icons are dropping left & right, we need to be asking what we can do to encourage healthy, thoughtful, & non-predatory male sexuality. Fortunately, Peter Alsop has been exploring & walking just such a path with his music for decades, taking on all the related, thorny issues with wit, insight, & song. After all, Peter is an educational psychologist, as well as a wonderful musician. Also find him on Facebook. All Featured Music is by Peter Alsop: A Good TIme - on Asleep At The Helm and on Songs On Sex & Sexuality Give Yourself A Hand - on Fan Club Favorites Hollaback - on River of Life, and check out iHollaback.org - Global, People-powered Movement to End Harassment Let's Not Do This Anymore - on River of Life

In Keeping It Halal: The Everyday Lives of Muslim American Teenage Boys, John O'Brien looks at the lives of the Legendz, a small group of members of the Muslim Youth Program of a mosque John worked with. The tensions of be a member of a too-often-feared religion and to be accepted as a teenager in the USA can be a real challenge, and John explores the way it works. John is Assistant Professor of Sociology at NY University - Abu Dhabi.

Linley Dixon is senior scientist of the staff of The Cornucopia Institute, our leading organic standards watchdog & advocate. With a masters degree in Plant & Soil Science, a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology, 2 years work with the USDA, and hands-on experience with her organic farm (Adobe House Farm) in Durango, Colorado, Linley combines the knowledge and work to advocate for honest & accurate organic standards. Original Air Date: 11/18/2017

Peterson Toscano of Citizens' Climate Radio hosts today with perspectives from people of color on climate change, from organizations and individuals about environomental & climate justice, speaking with Peggy Sheppard of WE ACT For Environmental Justice and Dr. Beverly G Ward, Field Director for Earthcare for SE Yearly Meeting. Plus a look at 3 books, and visit with Singer/Songwriter Anna Fritz. What do people of color concerned about climate change and environmental impacts to their communities want white climate advocates to know? What roles do climate organizations with mostly white members play in environmental justice work? How do you define "the environment," and what is climate justice? Today we take on a big story. Bigger than any single extreme weather event, we explore the topics of environmental justice and climate justice. We look at how injustice in society, particularly in the USA, deepens suffering during a time of climate change First Half Peggy Sheppard, the co-founder and executive direc