Earthaven Ecovillage Podcast

Early childhood educator Lia Grippo interviews storyteller Doug Elliott about his storytelling process. As an example, he shares the background for each of the verses from his iconic black snake song.

Mollie Curry moved to Earthaven in 1996, becoming one of the first village residents and getting involved in natural building. She's taught natural building workshops since 1998, covering cob, plastering, straw bale, straw-clay, earthen paint, earthbag, and carpentry, as well as permaculture. Mollie has been involved in many of the natural building projects at Earthaven, as well as teaching and doing projects in other locations, which has informed her building experience.  Mollie Curry shares what she learned in her nearly three decades of experience designing and building natural buildings at Earthaven and around the country.

In this podcast, Kaitlin Ilya Wolf discusses how creating a cycle of annual seasonal rituals helps Earthaven ecovillagers sink into the cycles around us and within us to become a part of this land. She then shares the parts of a ritual, challenges of facilitating ritual at Earthaven, and offers tips for rituals for people who don't have a community or piece of land to connect with.

Doug Elliott is a naturalist, herbalist, storyteller, basket maker, back-country guide, philosopher, and harmonica wizard. For many years made his living as a traveling herbalist, gathering and selling herbs, teas, and remedies. Doug currently lives in Rutherford County, near Earthaven Ecovillage. Doug shares his early mentor experience while growing up in an estuary of the Chesapeake Bay. Later he moved to North Carolina as part of the back-to-the-land movement, learning from old timers. Along the way, he shares how shoestrings made from groundhog led to him meeting his wife and how important it is to help older people be who they are.

Swami Ravi Rudra Bharati, formerly known as Dr. Rudolph Valentine, has been very committed to the integration of Eastern thought, particularly yoga and tantra, and permaculture, and all that implies, as well as it relates to healing. Swami Ravi shares his background as a physician and holistic healer of Ayurvedic medicine in clinics in India and the US. During his medical career, he studied tantra, which he began teaching after retiring from medicine. In 2004, he moved to Earthaven, continued teaching, and developed the Dancing Shiva retreat center.  Most of the conversation explores a holistic view of soil health, plant health, the health of people and the planet, including the implications and challenges for healing the people and Gaia.

Earthaven Ecovillage co-founder and village philosopher Paul Caron shares how he got involved with the other Earthaven founders, innovations in round-pole timber framing that enabled building Earthaven's iconic Council Hall, and what the Earthaven Ecovillage project is all about... for him.

Academy of Forest Kindergarten directors Erin Boehme, Kelly Villarruel, and Lia Grippo discuss nature connection and young child development. They also talk about the annual Reaching Nature Connection weekend conference at Earthaven Ecovillage.

In this podcast, Zev Friedman shares how he started living and teaching permaculture at Earthaven Ecovillage, and then how that led to forming Co-operate Western North Carolina (Co-operate WNC). Along the way, Zev shares examples of different types of permaculture and the work that Co-operate WNC is doing. Diana Leafe Christian is host.

Earthaven member and SOIL Faculty member Steve Torma discusses how nonviolent or compassionate communication (NVC) has been helpful in his life, neighborhood, and at Earthaven, along with how he discovered and started teaching NVC. Steve has been an Earthaven member since 1994, helped build the village and was a co-founder of two neighborhoods. 

International communities expert Diana Leafe Christian shares what she learned from interviewing people from successful and failed communities, and the questions people who are looking for a community should ask. She tells about how she ended up living at Earthaven and why it's her forever home. She also tells the story of a woman and her snarling German Shepherd who drove into Earthaven without calling ahead – displaying all of the things not to do when seeking a community. Diana shares what she plans to cover in her Finding Your Community Home workshop and how it will benefit both folks looking for a community and communities looking for new members.

Lee Warren shares what she has learned living in community for 27 years. She has lived at Earthaven for over 20 years, co-founded the Village Terraces neighborhood and also the School of Integrated Living. She has many years of experience with farming, both with Imani farm at Earthaven and as Executive Director at a sustainable agriculture non-profit in Asheville. 

Host Eric Wolf interviews Steve Torma about his life in community, starting from growing up in a large family to his current life at Earthaven Ecovillage in Western North Carolina. He shares what he wished he had known before co-developing a neighborhood at Earthaven.