Small Planet Heroes

Ingrid Waldron's Road to Racial and Environmental Justice Through Community, Law, and Collective ActionGrowing up in Montreal, young Ingrid Waldron never imagined drafting what would become this country's first environmental justice legislation. Bill C-226 acknowledged the historical roots and lived realities of environmental racism. Deeply committed to health equity, Ingrid's research led to her 2018 book and the award-winning documentary There's Something in the Water. Both stressed the need for everybody to have a voice in environmental decision-making, especially when the places we call home can make us sick.Speaking with co-hosts Kai Chan (professor and Canada Research Chair at UBC) and Nancy Kang (professor and Canada Research Chair at the University of Manitoba), Ingrid describes her ongoing drive to challenge interlocking systems of oppression. She highlights the inspiration provided on her career path by various resistance communities, especially activist women. Together, we explore the nexus of race, gender, health, and environment; how Indigenous and racialized communities have long been denied justice in Canada; and how this new law could seed real transformation.There's Something in the Water: Environmental Racism in Indigenous & Black Communities (book)There's Something in the Water (documentary)The ENRICH Project

Eli Enns On Indigenous Conservation and Bringing Balance Back Conservationist Eli Enns' voice exudes warmth, irony, and a nuanced historical awareness of what it is to live in Canada (from kanata, the Haudenosaunee word for “village”) and be Canadian today. This lively conversation, accented by personal stories from his West Coast Indigenous heritage, tackles the fine balance between rights, laws, and responsibilities when undertaking ethical stewardship of traditional lands and waters everywhere.By viewing all inhabitants of present-day Canada as treaty people, Eli highlights the eternal invitation within “Hishuk-ish Tsa-wak,” or the Nuu-chah-nulth phrase describing the oneness of all living and non-living things. He explains to co-hosts Kai Chan (professor and Canada Research Chair at UBC) and Maia O'Donnell (UBC graduate in soil science and producer of the Small Planet Heroes podcast) that rising together means coming to terms with colonial history. The notion of inheritance far exceeds the legacy of trauma; reconciliation is paved with both humility and resistance; and respecting nature entails multi-dimensional healing work for individuals as well as the collective.ISAAK OlamWe Rise Together: Achieving Pathway to Canada Target 1 through the creation of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas in the spirit and practice of reconciliation. Tla-O-Qui-Aht First NationFollow Eli on LinkedInListen to Eli on the Emerging Environments podcastAnnotated Transcript, with Links

From a relatively isolated, “tech-less” childhood in small-town Ontario to the unglamorous frontlines of community-based environmental organizing, Teika Newton shows us the undeniable value of showing up. Whether bridging the work of researchers and activists, catalyzing multi-dimensional partnerships across disparate cultures and worldviews, or simply talking to strangers as a revolutionary act of love and trust, Teika proves how authentic relationships drive successful collaborations.Understanding that lasting change often happens slowly and behind the scenes, she discusses with co-hosts Kai Chan (professor and Canada Research Chair at UBC) and Sam Blackwell (UBC graduate student in urban birds, community-based science and human-nature relationships) how interconnectedness is a protean ethos, one that marries risk with responsibility and conviction with conscience. In viewing each person as an essential point of contact, Teika has transformed her modest beginnings into a living library of values that invite us all to narrate—as main characters—a shared, sustainable future.Connect further with Teika: LinkedInClean50 Award Recipient PageAnnotated Transcript, with Links

Suzanne Simard revolutionized how we understand forests with her discovery of the “wood wide web,” the vast underground network that allows trees to communicate and cooperate. Her research showed the world that forests are not just collections of individuals but living communities bound together through resilience, resource sharing, and reciprocity.In this conversation with co-hosts Kai Chan (professor and Canada Research Chair at UBC) and Nancy Kang (professor and Canada Research Chair at the U of Manitoba), Suzanne shares stories from her scientific journey, the challenges of pushing against entrenched paradigms (including women's roles in forestry), and the urgency of rethinking our relationship with the natural world. Along the way, she reflects on what forests can teach us about kinship, care, and commitment in a time of ecological crisis.https://suzannesimard.com/  @SuzanneSimard: LinkedIn @drsuzannesimard: Instagram@drsuzannesimard.bsky.social: BlueSky@MotherTreeProject: YouTubeAnnotated Transcript, with Links

Alex Morton on Impossible Resilience, the Call to Kindness, and Building Activist Legacies for The Big TeamAlexandra (Alex) Morton has been called a mix of Jane Goodall and Erin Brockovich, but her decades-long fight for wild salmon and orcas is entirely her own. A scientist, activist, and author, Alex shares how she was pulled from whale research into one of BC's most high-stakes environmental battles: challenging salmon farming and the systems that enable it. In this episode, Alex joins co-hosts Kai Chan (professor and Canada Research Chair at UBC) and Clare Price (UBC graduate student in soundscapes and urban transformation) to reflect on impossible resilience, the role of kindness in activism, and the collective power it takes to hold broken institutions accountable and call for lasting change. From lawsuits and grassroots protest to the return of salmon runs once thought lost, her story is both a warning and a source of hard-earned hope.Stay up to date with her work on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexandra.morton.1671/Visit her website here: https://alexandramortonblog.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-morton-1770989a/?originalSubdomain=ca Instagram: @alexmorton4salmon Connect with us at cosphere.netFollow Small Planet Heroes on InstagramFollow CoSphere on Instagram and LinkedIn

What does it mean to be a Small Planet Hero? In this pilot, co-hosts Kai Chan (professor and Canada Research Chair at UBC) and Clare Price (UBC graduate student in soundscapes and urban transformation) pull back the curtain on the vision behind the podcast.They dive into the origins of the show's name, the idea of our “small planet,” and why being a hero isn't about capes or perfection- it's about purpose, power, and finding our unique place in driving systems change.This season, you'll hear from a range of impactful figures, some of whom are household names and others whose work tends to happen behind the scenes, but whose stories are just as transformative. Together, these voices help us imagine and build a better small planet for everyone. Links to things we talked about:Kai's idea of Critical IngredientsAyana Elizabeth Johnson Climate Action Venn DiagramKai's TEDxSurrey Talk: Special Agents, Rubik's Cubes, and How to Solve the Climate CrisisDisney's “It's A Small World”False Creek Friends

Climate change is poised to worsen the refugee crisis badly as people flee floods and fires, as life becomes untenable in places with prolonged droughts, and rising seas swallow low-lying islands. The suffering of vulnerable people has not always received much attention from the environmental community.  Instead, there's a disturbing history of people being displaced in creating parks and protected areas. As we seek a future in which people and nature coexist harmoniously, today we'll delve into the refugee crisis and the systems we have in place to resettle refugees from someone who has experienced these firsthand.  A key theme in today's conversation—this season's last episode—is community. Understanding the community in the refugee system will help us welcome refugees warmly and without backlash. It also offers insights into how we might build a community to effect the system change necessary to combat the climate and ecological crisis. If you want to support the refugee community in BC, donate or volunteer at mosaicbc.org or other local refugee organizations.

The path to sustainable futures is one that overcomes polarization, not just about the climate crisis and solutions to it, but all manner of things. We can't change systems to work for people and the planet if we're deeply divided and fighting about the most basic issues. Our guest believes, and shows, that art and effective communication are key to overcoming divides, that they offer a path to empathy, and that if we can laugh together and cry together, we can work together. But neither art nor communication is intrinsically powerful. They are only powerful in the context of our audience, and the relationship we build with them. So today's themes are diversity, listening, actually hearing people, and building relationships.   Maia joins as well virtually due to a case of covid at the time!

Self-sacrifice: We tend to celebrate it. But when celebrating self-sacrifice becomes a culture of overworking for the sake of one's employer and one's own career, as if that's heroic, the economy seems to grow, but people suffer. Families suffer. And the planet suffers. When we overwork, we often lose sight of what really matters. We're too busy for key relationships or being good citizens. We overspend, and that fuels a cycle of resource extraction and production that pollutes the planet, warms the climate, and degrades nature. Join Dr. Chan in talking with Derek Strokon!

In today's economy, people are being guided to move back home or take on roommates to make housing affordable. This may seem strange and unwelcome after decades of it being normal to live apart. But some people argue that living with others can be deeply rewarding, if we approach it right. All this has deep connections to the climate and ecological crisis. As nuclear families and single-occupant homes became normal, consumption was boosted by the proliferation of households. For the same number of people, more households means more stuff and more energy, which means more pollution, climate change, and habitat destruction. This episode we speak with Dr. Tanya Gee on the importance of love and empathy. These traits are not only important if you're hoping to live with others; they're also key to being a small-planet hero. Overcoming the division and polarization that surrounds environmental and social issues will take a hippo's dose of love and empathy.

Our vision of a sustainable future embraces a diversity of people as equals, whether they're unlike us in their gender, sexuality, or in their understanding of these topics. On Small Planet Heroes, we seek to understand how people are bringing about the social and system change that enables a benign climate and healthy biosphere. As a parallel, one area that has seen rapid progress is diversity and inclusion about gender and sexuality. In recent years, gender has also been a battleground, inciting backlash from the conservative right, and a deep polarization across political divides. Much like climate change. So, today we embrace gender and sexuality diversity and inclusion, as topics of intrinsic interest, and for what we can learn about the path to a planet both better and wilder. A key theme is overcoming polarization by accepting apparently contradictory truths. Along the way, understandably, we will hit some dark spots, including discussions of alcoholism, which may be triggering or traumatizing for some listeners.

On today's episode, we'll be speaking to Kai Chan, our future host and an interdisciplinary professor and Canada Research Chair at UBC. He is a sustainability scientist whose work straddles social and natural systems with a focus on values, rewilding, and transformative change. Kai takes us on a journey through his academic career, what inspired him to create Cosphere, and how it led to launching this podcast.