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MagaMama with Kimberly Ann Johnson: Sex, Birth and Motherhood
This is a special re-release of an episode featuring guest host Jackson Kroopf speaking with the incomparable Kimberly Ann Johnson and Stephen Jenkinson. We're bringing this conversation back to let you know about something special happening this weekend from Stephen Jenkinson and the Orphan Wisdom School: Sanity and Soul: Die Wise 10 Years. Taking place on March 15th and 16th at 10am Pacific, this 6-part online event is a deep dive into the wisdom of death, grief, and the soul, 10 years after the publication of Stephen's transformative book Die Wise. You'll get to experience the depth of Stephen's work in a pretty unique way: through 4 recorded grief counsel sessions with dying people, hearing Stephen practice, in 2025, the kind of work described in Die Wise. Plus, he'll be joined by two brilliant colleagues—a neuroscientist studying human consciousness and a filmmaker exploring the afterlife—to discuss the lasting impact of Die Wise on grief counseling, death doulas, and the way these ideas continue to shape our world. If you want to learn more and register, visit orphanwisdom.com/events. But now, enjoy this conversation from March 2023, following Reckoning at Mt. Madonna. Please do consider gifting yourself or a loved one this upcoming offering, Sanity & Soul that promises to provide some ceremony in these troubled times in ways only Stephen and the Orphan Wisdom School can. Link: https://orphanwisdom.com/event/die-wise-sanity-and-soul-ten-years-on/ What You'll Here in this Episode: Reflections on witness from retired birth and death workers The value of disillusionment The power of loneliness The proliferation of self pathologizing The complex politics of feelings The religion of western psychology Adolescents grabbing for pop psychology labels The respect in not offering solutions The eagerness to escape from pain while grieving Is love dead? Blessing not as approval but the emergence of something new Marriage as both celebration and loss Matrimony between cultures An only child and single parent inviting in a new husband Building an escape route as you enter a union The no-go zone of contemporary western marriage 15 minute weddings, 15 minute funerals, 15 minute births The cultural casualties of uniformity Being healthy enough to tend to home and neighbor Links ig @reckoning live Sanity & Soul Sign-Up https://orphanwisdom.com/event/die-wise-sanity-and-soul-ten-years-on/
It's not often I feel nervous. I worked for many years as a photographer and met people from every stratum of society, from the wealthy and famous to the outcast and downtrodden. One thing I learnt early on is that nerves resulted in bad imagery. So when it came time for this podcast with Stephen Jenkinson, a man whose work I've followed for nearly a decade, I was nervous. It's not that Stephen is difficult to talk to or combative; it's because Stephen is a master of the English language, and each word he uses is carefully chosen based on its etymology. He also doesn't let you get away with anything if he believes you've incorrectly identified something. My nerves quickly abaited once I felt Stephen's generosity of spirit. This is one of the most meaningful conversations I've had. Stephen traverses: - What we have lost in our modern societies, if there is a way back, and if there were, to what we think we are to return to. - Death and our lack of education around the ultimate which every life faces. - What it truly means to cultivate a mindset that sees us creating genuine connections to one another to create communities that will benefit future generations. Most of all, Stephen reminded me that our lives are shaped by the questions we ask rather than the answers we seek—in his own words, "I'm far more in favour of the wonder of the question than the certainty of the answer." As the great poet E.E. Cummings phrased it, "Always the most beautiful answer to he who asks the most beautiful question." It was an honor to speak with Stephen, and I know you'll get something significant from his life-long pursuit of asking the most beautiful questions. It was an honor to speak with Stephen, and I know you'll get something significant from his life-long pursuit of asking the most beautiful questions. About Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW ~ Culture activist/ farmer/author ~ Stephen teaches internationally and has authored seven books of cultural critique. He is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded with his wife Nathalie Roy in 2010. The School's new project, The Scriptorium (2025), is creating an archive and library of his life's work. Apprenticed to a master storyteller as a young man, he worked extensively with dying people and their families. He is former programme director in a major Canadian hospital and former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school. Stephen has Masters' degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). In 2023 Stephen received a Distinguished Alumni Honours Award from Harvard University for “helping people navigate grief, exploring the liminal space between life and death, and connecting humanity through ceremony and storytelling.” In August 2025, Sounds True will release Stephen's newest book: Matrimony: Ritual, Culture, and the Heart's Work. He is also the author of Reckoning (co-written with Kimberly Ann Johnson in 2022), A Generation's Worth: Spirit Work While the Crisis Reigns (2021), Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble (2018), the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (2015), Homecoming: The Haiku Sessions (a live teaching from 2013), How it All Could Be: A workbook for dying people and those who love them (2009), Angel and Executioner: Grief and the Love of Life (a live teaching from 2009), and Money and The Soul's Desires: A Meditation (2002). He was a contributing author to Palliative Care – Core Skills and Clinical Competencies (2007). Since co-founding the Nights of Grief and Mystery project with singer/ songwriter Gregory Hoskins in 2015, he has toured this musical/ tent show revival/ storytelling/ ceremony of a show across North America, U.K., Ireland, Israel, Australia and New Zealand. They released their first Nights of Grief & Mystery album in 2017, and at the end of 2020 released two new records: Dark Roads and Rough Gods. A new album release is planned for 2025. Stephen Jenkinson is also the subject of the feature length documentary film Griefwalker (National Film Board of Canada, 2008, dir. Tim Wilson), a portrait of his work with dying people, and Lost Nation Road, a shorter documentary on the crafting of the Nights of Grief and Mystery tours (2019, dir. Ian Mackenzie). He was a stone sculptor turned wood-carver, and learned the arts of traditional birch bark canoe building. His first house won a Governor General's Award for architecture. He now lives on a small scale organic farm in an off-grid straw bale house. The 120 year old abandoned granary from across the river which appeared in Griefwalker was dismantled last year and re-erected at the Orphan Wisdom farm, where it is again a working barn. Site https://orphanwisdom.com/ Events https://orphanwisdom.com/events-list/ Feelings with Strangers Socials https://www.instagram.com/feelings.with.strangers/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@FeelingswithStrangers
My guest today is my good friend Tad Hargrave.Tad is the founder of Marketing for Hippies with a mission to restore the beauty of the marketplace. He teaches folks who have a desire to do good, but hate marketing, how to articulate their work with elegance and effectiveness.Tad has spent years learning his ancestral language of Scottish Gaelic in Nova Scotia and on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. As well, for over a decade we have both attended the Orphan Wisdom School with Stephen Jenkinson in Ontario, where we have many fond memories in the teaching hall. In recent years, he's turned towards studying ancient history, comparative mythology and Indo-European folklore.In our conversation today, Tad has turned towards the fairy tale Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty) and what it might have to stay about the indigenous memory of Europe. Chances are, you've seen the Disney version of the story, though I would highly recommend you pause this episode and read the original Grimm's tale before continuing.Read the Grimm's version hereTad and I focus in on a particular moment, when after a 100 years of enchanted sleep, the prince approaches the briar hedge that encircles the castle and the Beauty lying within. We explore themes of seduction versus courtship and degradation of trust between men and women. We speak about the historical role of the Court and the tragedy of extracting too much from Nature's innate abundance.And finally, we explore how folk tales can hold practical wisdom for modern masculinity and how to sustain the mutual life between humans and the holy.The Mythic Masculine is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.DON'T MISS Tad and his collaborator Kakisimow Iskwew have a number of deeper dives into the story of Briar Rose:* Briar Rose - 6 Week Online Program Begins Jan 5th* All details on Briar Rose OfferingsMORE LINKS* Tad's website Marketing for Hippies* Tad's Substack ‘On Culture Making'SHOW NOTES 03:46 Welcoming Tad Hargrave 04:43 The Origin of Marketing for Hippies 05:47 Exploring the Fairy Tale of Briar Rose 06:56 The Symbolism of Briar Rose 11:50 The Dangers of Seduction and Coercion 14:11 The Pickup Artist Experience 25:14 The Concept of Courtship 25:33 The Etymology of Courtship 31:19 The Modern Mimicry of Courtship 39:19 The King's Riddle and Nature's Abundance 40:40 Indigenous Wisdom and Sustainable Harvesting 41:39 The Consequences of Mistrust and Overextraction 43:56 The Art of Courtship in Different Cultures 45:48 The Tale of the Tree of Life 50:22 Mentorship and the Importance of Timing 58:07 The Beauty of Courtship and True Love 01:08:29 The Wisdom in Stories and EldersThe Mythic Masculine is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to The Mythic Masculine at themythicmasculine.substack.com/subscribe
What if growing food was never meant to be about just the end product? What are we missing from conventional agriculture and gardening? Steven Martyn is an Ontario based teacher and practitioner of sacred agriculture and what he terms wildculturing. He focusses on the traditional living skills of growing food, building and healing and has a unique take on how we can live in the with the earth. Steven had me pondering how agriculture has been used to create culture historically, how we incorporate intentionality into horticulture, he even had me rethinking my morning beverage… About Steven Martyn Steven says “After passing from my body when I was 19 I saw what my life purpose was, and that I had fallen well short. I was given back my body to fulfill a very specific purpose in this life. Since that time forty some years ago I have spent my life spreading the green gospel and bringing people back to be healed by our Great Mother Earth. I spent many years teaching traditional plant use and many more de-programing colonial thinking, opening peoples minds and hearts to a sacred relationship with land, and specifically with the plant people. I practice and teach forms of sacred agriculture and “wildculturing” that our ancestors have practiced since the Paleocene, that generate such abundance the land easily feeds our family, school and friends.” Steven has more than thirty years experience living co-creatively with the Earth, practicing traditional living skills of growing food, building and healing. Steven created Livingstone & Greenbloom in 1986, Toronto's first green landscaping company. In 1996, he created the Algonquin Tea Company, North America's premiere bioregional tea company. He has given talks and run workshops internationally for more than twenty years and taught plant identification and wilderness skills at Algonquin college for 11 years, and at the Orphan Wisdom School for eight years. In 2014, Megan and Steven started the Sacred Gardener Earth Wisdom School. Steven released his first book The Story of the Madawaska Forest Garden in 2016, his second, Sacred Gardening in June 2017 and The Roundhouse in 2022. Steven Martyn: M.A. (traditional plant use), B.F.A. honours, artist, farmer, wildcrafter, builder, teacher, writer, visionary. Links Here are a couple of podcasts that Steven has been on: MYTHIC MASCULINE : Agents of Cultural Regeneration FOR THE WILD: Letting Land Lead www.sacredgardener.ca On instagram Other episodes if you liked this one: Regenerative Design - This episode, my guest is Erik Ohlsen, a US based regenerative designer, permaculturist, landscape contractor, author, farmer, herbalist, storyteller and practitioner of Nordic folk traditions. His approach to regenerative landscaping is rooted in decades of practical experience and a humbleness that allows Erik to be led by what the land has to tell him. The Human Garden - This episode is an interview with environmental landscape artist, TED Speaker and art21 Educator Tobacco Brown. Tobacco connects art and environmental justice and is a visual artist, digital storyteller, master gardener, social practitioner, cultural historian and intuitive environmental advocate. We talk about community green spaces, how humans connect with the land and why it's so important that we do. Please support the podcast on Patreon
On this episode, my guest is , a friend and scholar who recently completed his PhD in Cultural Geography from The University of Edinburgh where his research centered on themes of displacement and memorial walking practices in the Highlands of Scotland. A child of Greek political refugees on both sides of his family, Christos' work looks at ways in which ceremony and ritual might afford us the capacity to integrate disconnection from place and ancestry. Further, his research into pre-modern Gaelic Highland culture reveals animistic relationship with mountains which disrupt easy definitions of colonialism and indigeneity.Show Notes:Summoning and Summiting a DoctorateThe British Empire & EverestThe Three Roots of FreedomHillwalkers and HomecomingThe Consequences of Staying and LeavingThe Romans Make a Desert and Call it PeaceFarming EmptinessLandscapes as MediumsRitualized Acts of WalkingHomework:Christos Galanis' Official WebsiteTranscript:Chris: [00:00:00] Welcome, Christos, to the End of Tourism podcast. Christos: Thank you, Chris. Chris: Thank you for joining me today. Would you be willing to let us know where you're dialing in from today? Christos: Yeah, I'm calling in from home, which at the moment is Santa Fe, New Mexico in the United States. Yeah, I moved out here for my master's in 2010 and fell in love with it, and and then returned two years ago.So it's actually a place that does remind me of the Mediterranean and Greece, even though there's no water, but the kind of mountain desert. So there's a familiarity somehow in my body. Chris: Sounds beautiful. Well I'm delighted to speak with you today about your PhD dissertation entitled "A Mountain Threnody: Hill Walking and Homecoming in the Scottish Highlands." And I know you're working on the finishing touches of the dissertation, but I'd like to pronounce a dear congratulations on that huge feat. I imagine after a decade of research and [00:01:00] writing, that you can finally share this gift, at least for now, in this manner, in terms of our conversation together.Christos: Thank you. It was probably the hardest thing I've done in my life in terms of a project. Yeah. Nine years.Chris: And so, you and I met at Stephen Jenkinson's Orphan Wisdom School many years ago. But beyond that from what I understand that you were born and raised in Toronto and Scarborough to Greek immigrants, traveled often to see family in Greece and also traveled widely yourself, and of course now living in New Mexico for some time. I'm curious why focus on Scotland for your thesis? Christos: It was the last place I thought I would be going to. Didn't have a connection there. So I did my master's down here in Albuquerque at UNM and was actually doing a lot of work on the border with Mexico and kind of Southwest Spanish history.I actually thought I was going to go to UC San Diego, partly because of the weather and had some connections [00:02:00] there. And two things happened. One was that you have to write your GRE, whatever the standardized test is you need to do for grad school here in the US, you don't have to do in the UK. So that appealed to me.And it's also, there's no coursework in the UK. So you just, from day one, you're just doing your own research project. And then I wanted to actually work with what Was and probably still is my favorite academic writer is Tim Ingold, who was based in Aberdeen up in the north of Scotland and is kind of that thing where I was like, "well if I'm gonna do a PhD What if I just literally worked with like the most amazing academic I can imagine working with" and so I contacted him. He was open to meeting and possibly working together and so I was gonna fly to Scotland.I was actually spending the winter in Thailand at the time, so I was like, if I'm gonna go all the way to Scotland, maybe I should check out a couple more universities. So, I looked at St. Andrews, which is a little bit north of Edinburgh, and then Edinburgh, then visited all [00:03:00] three schools, and actually just really fell in love with Edinburgh, and then in the end got full funding from them. And that took me to Scotland. And I didn't know what was in store for me. I didn't even follow through on my original research project, which had nothing to do with Scotland. The sites that I was actually proposed to work with was on the Dine reservation out here in Arizona. There's a tradition, long tradition of sheep herding and there's a lot of, some friends of mine have a volunteer program where volunteers go and help the Diné elders and herd their sheep for them and what's happening is they're trying to hold on to their land and Peabody Coal, a coal mining company, has been trying to take the land forever and so by keeping on herding sheep, it allows them to stay there.So I was actually kind of looking at walking as forms of resistance and at that time, most undocumented migrants trying to enter Europe were walking from Turkey through Macedonia. So I was actually going to go there. And yeah, once I kind of hit the ground, I realized that that's way too ambitious.And I [00:04:00] decided to focus on this really strange phenomenon called Monroe Bagging in the Highlands of Scotland, where people work all week in their office, Monday to Friday, and then spend their weekends checking off a task list of 282 mountains that they summit. There's 282 of them and they're categorized that way because they're all over 3, 000 feet, which for us in North America, isn't that high, but for the Scottish Highlands, because they're very ancient, ancient, worn down mountains is pretty high.And also the weather and the climate and the terrain make it pretty treacherous out there. So it's, it's not an easy thing. Yeah. And I just thought this is a really weird, strange way to relate to mountains and to land. And it seems like a very British thing to do. And I kind of just got curious to figure out what was going on and why people would actually do this.And it came from a very, actually, critical perspective, to begin with. As things unfolded, that changed a fair amount in terms of getting to know people. But, yeah, that was Scotland. And, I think looking back, I think [00:05:00] I was called there by the mountains. I can give the bigger context maybe later on, but essentially one of the main mountain called Ben Cruachan, in Argyle that I ended up most working with and kind of going in and doing ceremony for, and with. I ended up later meeting my what would become my wife and married into her family and on one side of her family, they are literally the Macintyres who are from that mountain. So yeah ended up kind of going there and marrying into a lineage of a mountain that was the center of my my dissertation.So in the end I think I was called there. I think I was called to apprentice those mountains. And then I feel like my time ended. And I think this dissertation is kind of the story of that relationship with that courtship.Chris: Beautiful. Well, thank you so much for that beautifully winding answer and introduction. So, you know, a lot of your dissertation speaks to kind of different notions of mountain climbing, summiting, hiking but you also write about [00:06:00] how our cultural or collective understandings of mountains have defined our ability to undertake these activities.And I'm curious, based on your research and personal experience, how do you think mountains are understood within the dominant paradigm of people who undertake these practices. Christos: Yeah, good question. I would say, I know I don't like to speak in universals, but I could say that one universal is that, as far as I can tell, all cultures around the world tend to not only revere mountains, but tend to relate to mountain peaks as sacred.And so in most cultures, at least pre modern culture, you will always find a taboo around ever actually climbing to the top of a mountain, especially a significant mountain. So ways that you might worship a sacred mountain, for example, you know, in Tibet is to circumnavigate. So hiking, walking around a mountain three times or walking the perimeter of a mountain, kind of circling [00:07:00] around and around the summit.But it would be absolutely abhorrent to actually ever climb to the top. So one thing I was interested in is what happened, what shifted, where in the past people would never think of climbing a mountain summit to that becoming almost the only thing that people were focused on. And I didn't know this, but out of all countries, the country that most intensely kind of pursued that practice was, was England, was Britain, actually.So it's really fascinating. There's this period, the Victorian era, where basically Britain is invading other countries such as Nepal, India, into China, into Kenya, parts of Africa, South America certainly here in North America and the Americas and of course mountain ranges serve as pretty natural and intense frontiers and barriers, especially back then before. You know, industrial machinery and airplanes and things [00:08:00] like that, you're going over land. And so to be able to get through a mountain range was a pretty intense thing. Really only became possible with kind of Victorian era technology and because they were able to penetrate these places that people really couldn't have before it was a way of kind of proving modern supremacy or the supremacy of kind of modern secularism.Because even in places like Sutherland and the Alps, the indigenous Swiss also considered like the Alps sacred, the mountain peaks and wouldn't climb them. And so as the British kind of came up into these mountain ranges. They had the idea of proving that essentially there were no gods on these mountaintops.There was nothing sacred about them. It's just a pile of rock and anybody can climb up and nothing's going to happen to them. And so they really started setting out to start summiting these mountains. And it was mostly military engineers. There's a big overlap between kind of military engineering and surveying and [00:09:00] map making and this kind of outdoor kind of Victorian kind of proving your manhood against nature kind of thing.And so it's a strangely poetic and very grief soaked proposition where increasingly humans had the technology to penetrate anywhere on the planet, you know, more and more. And maybe I'll just go into the story of Everest because it was perceived that the, the earth had three poles.So the North pole, the South pole, and Everest is the highest peak on the whole planet. So there was this race to set foot on the North Pole on the South Pole and on Everest. I don't know much about the North and South Pole expeditions I think they were first but Everest was kind of like yeah I think Everest was the last literally the last place on earth that humans weren't able yet to physically step foot on. And so the British set out to be the ones to do it after World War one. And there's another overlap where most of the men that were obsessed with mountain summiting after World War I had [00:10:00] been through the horrors of World War I and had a lot of PTSD and shell shock and kind of couldn't reintegrate back to civilian life.They kind of needed that rush of risking your life for some kind of larger goal, which warfare can provide. And, slowly they kind of got better technology and eventually by, I think it was maybe 1952, 1953, they finally conquered Everest. And it's almost like the moment that they penetrated this last place of wilderness that was holding out the British Empire started collapsing, which the timing is quite fascinating. You know, they lost India and Pakistan. And as soon as you kind of are able to dominate everything, there comes this nostalgia immediately for wild places. And this is where Scotland comes back in. Where, Scotland, the Highlands have been inhabited for tens of thousands of years.There's nothing wild about them. There were villages everywhere. But what happened through the [00:11:00] 16, 1700s was the Gaelic population, the indigenous population were ethnically cleansed. And then kind of the lands that follow for maybe 100 years. And then when the English started coming in, they were like, "Oh, this is wilderness.These mountains have never been climbed before. We're going to be the ones to conquer them because we're the superior race." And they did so, and when I chose the the title of my thesis used this little known word, Threnody, which is actually from Greek, Threnodia, which translates something as like a song of grief or a song of lament.And I think for me, this incessant kind of like summiting of mountains and risking and sometimes losing your life to penetrate these places where you actually don't retain control, or it's very hard to retain control, right, because of like storms in the weather, that it's almost like a kind of mourning for the loss of the very things that this technology has kind of erased or has compromised.So it's almost, I can't even put into words the feeling around it, but it's almost like, [00:12:00] You're doing the thing that's destroying something, but you have the impulse to keep doing it as a way of connecting to the thing that's being lost, if that makes sense. And I can imagine, you know, maybe all the work that you've done around tourism might have a similar quality to it.There's, I don't know, there's like a melancholy that I experience interviewing and going out with these people that I don't think they would ever be conscious of or even name, but there's a longing for something that's missing. And so that's where also this kind of song of lament theme comes into my, into my dissertation.Chris: Yeah, it's definitely something that shows up over and over again in these conversations and thank you for putting it into such eloquent words is that. I think it really succinctly speaks to the, the condition or conditions at hand. And I guess I'm curious you know, in regards to what you just said about notions of freedom [00:13:00] that are often experienced in touristic experiences or contexts and some of your dissertation centers around the freedom that your friends and hill walking acquaintances experienced there in the Highlands and freedom can often seem like a kind of recurrent trope sometimes in describing the tourist's reasons for travel.And surely outside of a trope for many people's reasons for travel you know, especially in the context of migration. Beyond the surface, we can wonder about the inheritance of ancestrally or ancestral indentured servitude, the commons and the lack thereof in our time and also like a kind of communion or relationship with what you refer to as other than human worlds. And I'm curious what kind of contradictions or insights came up for you in regards to the supposed freedom that was either found or sought after by the Hillwalkers you encountered.[00:14:00] Christos: Thank you. Yeah, I think before I started going deep into this, I probably, I probably shared most people's notion of freedom, which most of us don't ever really sit and wonder that deeply about.But there's a section of my dissertation where I go deep into freedom and I actually look at three different cultural and kind of etymological or linguistic lenses through which to understand freedom. And there's two that the people I interviewed, I think, were most practicing. So the word freedom itself comes from the Germanic, and it's two words.It's broke frei, which is "free," "to be free." And dom, translates kind of as "a judgment." So if you know like doomsday or the doomsday book. What the doomsday and judgment day actually mean the same thing It's just doom is like the older Germanic word for judgment. Okay, and so freedom can kind of translate as like freedom from judgment freedom from constraint and it has this quality of like spatially removing [00:15:00] yourself or getting distance from something that might constrain you, so you mentioned indentured servitude and slavery, which are as old as human civilization across the world.And all these different things that, basically, we are more or less constrained by, whether it's, family, the state, our living conditions, poverty, excess wealth, you know, all these things that might, or the expression of our true life force. And so for a lot of the people that I was working with, that was certainly what they would describe, you know, like I work in an office as a manager Monday through Friday in Edinburgh, and then it's only on the weekends that I get out into the hills and I truly feel alive and free, right? Because I'm in this vast expanse and, I mean, It's not my climate. I'm Greek by both sides. Wet, soggy moss and mold and endless rain and drizzle and cold and dark is not my thing, but it is visually stunningly beautiful. And you know, [00:16:00] and I'm sure we all know the experience of getting up to a peak of something and that sense of kind of almost being removed from the everyday and that sense of like maybe connecting to something higher or bigger.So that sense of freedom is obvious. The other, another lens is through Latin liberty or libertas, which comes from ancient Roman society, which was a heavily hierarchied society where up to 60 percent of people were actually slaves. So, there's a big distinction between those who are free and those who are slaves.And so the idea of liberty, and this also came up with my informants is the idea that you have to compare yourself to another and the more freedom you have compared to someone else, the better it feels. And I think of that as all the mechanics of like air airports and you know, first class lines and first class seating.I had the experience once flying because flying from New York through back to [00:17:00] London to get back to Edinburgh. And for the first and only time in my life I was bumped up to first class for some reason, I don't know why. But it was on, I don't know, one of the newer kind of jumbo jets, and the difference between economy class and first class in many ways is pretty profound.At the same time, it's ridiculous because you're all sitting in the same tube. But I remember the feeling that happened once we took off and they drew the curtain between the first class and everyone in the back. And it was this experience where everyone back there just disappeared.It's just kind of like, you can't see them, they're out of sight, out of mind, and you're just up front. You can lay down completely horizontally in these chairs, you have real glass, glassware and real cutlery, you know, and people treat you super, super nice. But like, in order to enjoy that, you need other people to not be enjoying that, right?So the idea of liberty kind of requires another, or it's almost a zero sum game where someone else has to be losing for you to be winning. And you know, I think of that with tourism, the idea that those of us from the North, you know, are stuck [00:18:00] at home in the winter while those with money, you know, can fly off to Mexico or Costa Rica and stuff like that.So that difference that like your experience is enhanced by other people's discomfort or suffering. And then I came across another lens, which comes from the Greek. So the Greek word for freedom is Eleftheria. And I didn't know the etymology, but one of my office mates in Edinburgh was from Greece, and we sat down with like a Greek etymological dictionary and I discovered that the Greek notion of freedom is completely different.It's almost counterintuitive, and it translates as something close to " loving the thing you were meant to love" or like "being the thing you were meant to be." And even more distinctly, the rios part in Eleftheria would translate into something like "returning to your home harbor after like a long voyage," and it's that, it's literally the experience of coming home, [00:19:00] which in a way is the freedom of not wanting to be anywhere else or to be anyone else, which is in some ways, I think to me, the most true freedom, because you don't want for anything, you actually love everything you are and everywhere you are, and you don't want to go anywhere else.So in that way, I think for me, cultivating a connection to place as an animist, you know, and I think that's a lot of what you and I I imagine experienced, you know, listening to Steven Jenkinson's many stories that keep circling around this idea of, you know, belonging is cultivating that place in you or that muscle in you that doesn't want to be anywhere else, doesn't want to be anybody else, but is actually satisfied and fulfilled by what is, which it's probably at the heart of most spiritual traditions at the end of the day, but to think of that as freedom, I think for me, really, really changed my perspective from, the idea of going around the world as I have and certainly in the past to experience all these different things and to [00:20:00] feel free and to be a nomad versus I would say the freedom I have here of loving Santa Fe and not imagining myself being anywhere else right now.Chris: Well, the theme of homecoming is definitely woven into this work, this dissertation, alongside hill walking.They seem, generally speaking, superficially very disparate or distinct activities, homecoming and hill walking. One is going and then it's coming. And I'm curious if you could elaborate for our listeners a little bit of what those terms mean, and where or how they come together in your work.Christos: Yeah. So the title of my dissertation, you know, is a "A Mountain Threnody: Hillwalkers and Homecomers in the Highlands of Scotland."So I set out to study hill walkers, which is basically a British term for going out for a walk or a hike where the focus is summiting some kind of peak, you know, whether a hill or a mountain, but that's what most people do there. When you set out on a walk, it's just assumed that you're going to end up going to the top of something and then [00:21:00] back down.What ended up happening is actually through Stephen Jenkinson's Orphan Wisdom School, I met several other Canadians of Scottish descent who had already or were planning on going quote "back" to Scotland to connect with their ancestral lands and their ancestors which is a lot of the work with Stephen's school and that, you know, that idea of connecting with your ancestry and with your roots and with your bones.And I kind of just started following along and interviewing people and talking with people that became friends just out of curiosity, because, you know, that's a lot of my background with being first generation Canadian and growing up in a huge Greek diaspora in Toronto and speaking Greek and going back to Greece multiple times and this idea of kind of being Canadian, but really home is in Europe and Greece, even though I've never lived there.So, there's a lot there, personal interest and eventually against my supervisor's advice, I was like, this might be an interesting [00:22:00] conversation to put these two groups together, these people who are spending their weekends summiting mountains in the Highlands and then these other people coming from Canada and the US and New Zealand and Australia who are going to the same mountains to connect with their ancestral, you know, lands and and people. And these two groups are probably the two biggest sources of tourism, like, in the Highlands, which is fascinating. Wow. Except that the one group, the Hillwalkers tend to imagine that they're in a pristine wilderness and that there's never been anybody there. And the homecomers like to imagine that the hills used to be covered in villages and their own people that were there for thousands of years and that they're reconnecting.So it's interesting how the same landscape is both imagined as being repopulated and also emptied. And that both groups are kind of searching again for this kind of belonging, right? This belonging through freedom, for this belonging through ancestry. The other piece that gets, [00:23:00] well, you know, we're interviewing this, we're doing this interview November 21st and we're, I think most people these days are pretty aware of what's going on in Israel and Palestine and this idea of home because to have a homecoming means there has to be somewhere out there that you consider your home.And that's such a loaded, loaded, loaded concept, right? Like many wars are fought over this idea of who a land belongs to, right? I mean, I know you and I have talked about both our families being from the borderlands with Greece, Macedonia, Albania, and those borders just change over and over and where you belong to what is home keeps changing depending on which war has happened, which outcome and things like that.And I think for those of us, I'll say in the Americas, who don't have deep roots here this idea of home being somewhere else other than where you live, is a very complex prospect because certainly when I go to Greece, people don't recognize me as being home, you know, they, they consider me a Canadian tourist. And at the same time growing up in Canada, I certainly never felt [00:24:00] like, "Oh, Canada is like my ancestral home. You know, it's, it's skin deep. My parents came over in the sixties. Right." So this idea of homecoming and, you know, maybe we can just riff on this for a bit. Cause I know you've explored this a lot. It's like, is it tourism or is it something else? Because a lot of people in Scotland, including people I interviewed, just laugh at these Canadians who come over and just start crying, standing over some rocks in the Highlands and who will buy some shitty whiskey at a tourist shop and feel that they're connecting with their roots and buy bagpipes and by kilts and all this stuff, whereas like most Scottish people don't wear kilts and don't blow bagpipes and don't necessarily drink whiskey all day, so there's these kind of stereotypes that have often been just kind of produced by the media, but it's almost like, other than that, how do people actually connect with the homeland, right?Like, what does it even mean to connect with a homeland? And one thing that I found that I think is one of the most powerful things is the idea of walking. So [00:25:00] this is why the comparison and the contrast with hill walking and homecoming is most people, when you go back to your homeland, there's something really central about walking in the footsteps of your ancestors, right?So walking around in the same village, walking the same streets, going to the same house, maybe even if it's not there anymore, going to... I remember going to my mom's elementary school in the little village that she grew up in the mountains of Greece and walking down the same hallways with her, and we went to the auditorium, and she, showed me the little stage where she would literally be putting on little plays when they were, like, in third grade and there's something about standing and stepping in the same place that is so fundamental. And so I'm kind of looking at homecoming through these kind of memorial or commemorative practices of walking. So it's not just walking, but walking and activating a landscape or activating the memories that are kind of enfolded in a landscape. And I've come to believe and understand that walking is a kind of almost magic technology that I [00:26:00] almost see it as really like opening up portals to other times and other places when done in a ceremonial kind of ritualized manner.So a lot of my work again, as an animist and kind of being as far as I know, the first in my field was just cultural geography, to kind of bring an animist lens to the field and kind of look at how, doing ceremony on a mountain, going into these glands and doing ceremony is more than just the material kind of walking, but is actually kind of connecting with these memories and these people in these places.In a way that's, I think, deeper than tourism and that's maybe the distinction between tourism and let's say homecoming on the surface that you might actually be doing almost the same thing, but I think there is this kind of animist lens to understand homecoming through where you let's say you bring a stone from home or you take a stone and bring it back home you know, like these kinds of Ritualize little practices that we do to connect with the place that I don't think tourists do in the same way, [00:27:00] you know?Because in tourism, you're often just trying to get away from where you live and experience something different, where this is trying to reconnect with something that's been lost or something that's in the past. Chris: Yeah, definitely. This leads me into a lot of different directions, but one of them is this question of animism that I'd like to come back to in just a moment but before we do, I want to ask you about. These heritage trips sometimes they're referred to as within the tourism industry, homeland returns which in most cases is a paradox or an oxymoron because most people are not returning to the places that they either were born in or lived in.They, typically, like myself, had never actually been there before. I'll just pull a little quote from your dissertation because I think it precedes this question in a good way. You write that quote, "the commissioner of Sutherland advocated for a state administered program of colonization in the Scottish Highlands, similarly arguing that the [00:28:00] Gaelic race and its inferior temperament presented an obstacle to the onward march of civilization. Locke set out a vision for the colonization, displacement, and reeducation of Gaelic Highlanders, where eventually, quote, 'the children of those removed from the hills will lose all recollection of the habits and customs of their fathers.'Locke's vision has broadly come true," end quote. And so, within the context of the wider spectrum and calendars and geographies that we've kind of been discussing, but more specifically in the context of Scotland, I'm curious if the people that you met there, either locals or visitors and especially in the case of those coming for a homecoming or heritage trip had an understanding of these things, of this history.Christos: No, that's what I found out. [00:29:00] What I've found in my lifetime, cause this isn't the only kind of project around this kind of theme that I've done. Maybe we'll get, I did another project with Mexican friends going back to Spain and kind of repatriating or reconnecting back through the kind of the displacement of the Spanish civil war.But what I've found is those of us of the colonies, that's kind of what I consider myself in ourselves, like people of the colonies. I'm not sure if it's better or worse that we're the ones that hold on to the stories and the memories and the people back quote "home" or in the "homeland" for the large part have moved on and don't really give much thought to these histories of displacement.It's almost, oh my God, it was strange to be in this country where most of the place names in the Highlands are Gaelic, and 98 percent of Scottish citizens cannot read or understand Gaelic, so partly it was this strangeness of being in a country where only two out of every hundred people could even understand the names of the places where they lived, even [00:30:00] though they had never left there and their people had never left there.And you know, if you let that sink in, it's like, let's say you and I being of Greek descent, imagine if 90 percent of Greeks couldn't understand Greek, you know what I mean? And couldn't understand the name of their own village. And well, there's, here's another angle to this in Scotland.When you want to learn traditional Gaelic fiddle, you go to Cape Breton in Nova Scotia in Canada because that's where the Highlanders who immigrated to Nova Scotia in the past kept the tradition pure and kept fiddle playing what it had always been. Whereas, you know in Scotland now, they're into hip hop and trap and drum and bass and stuff like this.And so if you're Scottish and you've never left Scotland in order to connect with the music of your ancestors you have to go to Canada, so most people that I interviewed and I think this is fair, you know to assume of most people Don't [00:31:00] think much about the ethnic cleansing that went on whichever side that they were on And it's kind of left to us in the colonies either to also let it go and move on and try to settle into these new lands or you kind of keep holding on to this memory of a place you've actually never lived, you know, and it's almost like both propositions are grief soaked.Both are kind of almost an impossible poem to hold because obviously there were people here before our European ancestors came. Obviously, we don't have these deep roots or memories or connections to this place. We don't have ceremonies or songs or much that's derived from this land, at least not yet.And yet many of us lose the language and the ceremonies and the traditions of the places where our ancestors came. It's almost like at least we still know where we've come from. Whereas to be in Europe, or at least in Scotland, and to have never left, but to nevertheless have also lost the connection with [00:32:00] your own ancestors and your own language and those places it's almost like a parallel process where there are people that get on the boats and leave, but there are people that are left behind. But it's almost like, regardless whether you leave or whether you stay, the fabric of that culture just gets completely rendered and torn apart by that displacement. And somehow, even though you never leave having so many of your people leave actually kind of compromises the ability to stay where you are, and to be connected to where you are. ⌘ Chris Christou ⌘ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a subscriber!I interviewed one woman who had an ancestor who in Scotland, they call like psychic abilities, the second sight.So the idea of having kind of psychic premonitions or all of a sudden knowing that like your brother has died, even though he's in Australia, you know, that kind of thing. That people had that when I lived in Scotland and when they moved to Canada, they actually lost that ability. You know, so it's this idea that it's not that you carry almost these knowledges or abilities just in you, but it's actually comes from the connection [00:33:00] to the place.And once that connection becomes severed, you lose those capacities. And I've actually never said this out loud, but I wonder how much the people that stayed behind actually lost because of all the people that left, if that made sense. It's almost like, how does a culture stay resilient when almost everyone between the ages of like 20 and 40 leaves and never comes back.I think you could consider that this is all just stuff to wonder about. But like, for those of us that come from these kind of like largely settler countries like Canada and the U. S, we're still living through these questions. We're still living through these implications of like, how long do you hold on to the past? And at what point do you just kind of let go and move forward? And If you do so, how do you move forward in a place that you don't have any roots?Chris: You know. I remember going to see, going to my father's village in northern Greece for the first time some eight years ago, and knowing that I had [00:34:00] one baba or grandmother left there, and after searching for a few hours, she was hard of hearing at the time, finally found her, finally found the house and shared a delicious meal and traded photographs.I had no Greek or Macedonian language ability at the time. And then I was I called a taxi later on some, you know, at the end of the day to go back to the city, to the hotel, and standing in her garden there, she began to weep, right, without having said anything, even with the language barrier, I could understand what she was saying, and she was, she was mourning the migration of my family or my side of the family, or my father's side of the family to Canada, and then, her son and his family to Germany.And so, there's this question of what comes upon the people that quote unquote "stay." that's so often lost in the discourses [00:35:00] around migration, kind of always focusing on the individual, the migrant themselves, or the places that they arrive in.But do we just let it go? And how do we do that? I have this other quote from your dissertation that lands really strangely in this moment, in this conversation and it has to do a little bit with the kind of what I think you refer to as a national geographic imaginary.And so this is the response of the people in Scotland, in the Highlands embedded and engaged and indebted to these hill walking and homecoming industries. And so in your dissertation, it's written that "in February of 2017, an uproar on all sides erupted when, in a rare sign of bipartisan solidarity, both Mountaineering Scotland and the Scottish Gamekeepers Association attempted to pressure the Scottish government to abandon a [00:36:00] proposal to increase woodland cover, trees, from 17 percent to 25%. by 2050. The commitment to plant 10, 000 extra hectares of trees between now and 2022 was made in the government's draft climate plan. The protesting organizations argued that there had not been enough consultation and consideration given to the changes to the highland landscape that would come about by this tree planting initiative.And they were voicing their concern on whether, quote, 'adequate weight is being given to the significant changes this will have on the landscape of Scotland, and in particular, the dramatic open views and vistas which have come to signify to the outside world that which is unique about our country.'" End quote.And so this seems to be, to some degree, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but a manner of contending [00:37:00] with that past in a way that is, you know, perhaps ignorant of it. Or that is perhaps also faithfully serving the needs, the economic needs of the people, of the place.Christos: There's a lot there. I'm, what's coming to me, do you know this quote? It's from ancient Rome. It's a bit convoluted, but this is a Roman text talking about the colonization of Britain, so of the Romans conquering the Gaelic people in the Picts, but it's In a speech written by this Roman historian that he's attributing to like the Gaelic king, basically. So it's not, this wasn't actually said by a Gaelic king, it's just a Roman kind of putting these words in his mouth to kind of create like a battle scene, but but a lot of people quote this and it's from the Gaelic perspective referring to the Romans saying "the Romans make a desert and call it peace."[00:38:00] And that's kind of what's happened in Scotland is the villages were cleansed, literally. You know, the houses were burned down and knocked down. The people were forcibly, sometimes violently, thrown out of their homes into the cold. Many of them just had no prospects to be able to stay and move to Glasgow.And many of them, you know, came to Toronto and Saskatchewan and North Carolina and all this. And so after they left, these highlands kind of became empty, like this vast emptiness. And then once the Victorian English came into that landscape and started painting it and writing Victorian poems about it, this aesthetic of this, treeless, vast expanse became kind of that National Geographic kind of aesthetic of the mountain peak and the colorful heather and then the loch or the lake, kind of [00:39:00] reflecting the mountain.You can just imagine the scene, right? Of like the mountain peak being reflected in inverse in the lake, you know, kind of thing. It's just that perfect kind of symmetrical perspective photograph or painting. And then that kind of became the symbol of freedom and tranquility which is basically like a site of ethnic cleansing becomes a symbol of beauty.And then what happens is you keep managing the landscape to maintain that aesthetic, which is why you find the strangeness of, like, environmental groups arguing that planting trees is ecological vandalism, that you're ruining the ecology of a place because your trees are gonna get away in the way of these vast expanses.So it's it's this weird wondering on, like, how certain aesthetics become symbolic of something. And then you manage the land, to maintain that aesthetic. Even though it's [00:40:00] absolute death for the wild, the wildlife and even the people in that landscape, to maintain it in that way. The thing that might not be obvious to most people which wasn't I didn't know about this whole world before I moved there, but Scotland's one of the few if not only place in all of Europe where you can still be a feudal lord like they call it a laird, l-a-i-r-d, but it's like a lord where all you need to do to be a lord is you just buy land and if you have enough land you're you claim title of Lord Wow.And most people that are lords in Scotland these days are not even British. You have people from Saudi Arabia, from all over that have bought up the highlands in many ways. And they have these estates and you know, Balmoral estate, which is like the Queens, or I guess she's dead now. Now it's King Charles's estate.And what you do is maybe once a year you and all your rich friends from all over the world fly in [00:41:00] and do this traditional game hunt where you might be hunting deer, but more often you're actually hunting wild birds. You know, so grouse especially. If anyone's seen, I find it fascinating watching Downton Abbey, that TV series, because it's kind of, it covers a lot of the kind of that, that time in Britain.And there's an episode or two where they go into the Scottish countryside to go, you know, go hunting. So it's this weird aesthetic where you dress up in a certain way, kind of like an old time Scottish lord, and you go out on the land with dogs and you shoot down birds, and in order for the birds to live there you need the landscape to basically be wide open, because that's actually what they prefer.And so, this is why, again, for the context of that quote, you have an environmental group, and basically, rich, elite gamekeepers working together to keep the government from planting trees in this landscape because it's in both their interest to maintain [00:42:00] this landscape as an ecological wasteland, essentially that people can't sustain themselves off of or people can't live in So you're kind of farming emptiness if that makes sense in a way you're like cultivating emptiness. Yeah. For tourism. Which again I mean, you've been talking to so many people about this subject. To me, it's fascinating what tourism can be or what it can mean, you know, or like what need is trying to be fulfilled in these, in these landscapes that often get kind of territorialized as touristic, you know, because most people, when they travel, they don't go to walk around the suburbs of a city. There's only certain places that tourists are drawn to, right? Hmm. And so I'm always curious about why and what tourists are drawn to, you know, what is like almost like the resource there that is being extracted. In Chris: the context of your work, you know, largely in regards to, to landscapes and we've spoken a fair amount today about [00:43:00] landscapes as, as objects at the very least.But in, in your dissertation, you know, there was a line that struck me certainly I think coming from your animist tendencies and sentiments where you say that "landscapes are mediums and landscapes are a process," and I'm curious, as we kind of wind ourselves towards the end of our time together, if you could elaborate on this for our listeners a little bit, this, this idea of landscapes as mediums or as processes.Christos: Yeah, so I've done my, my PhD in the field of cultural geography, or sometimes called human geography, which is kind of like anthropology except kind of rooted in place, I'd say that's the big difference. It's not as popular here in North America, but in the UK it's much more popular. And probably the primary focus in that field is landscape, which I think most people might be familiar with that term in terms of like, maybe landscape [00:44:00] gardening or landscape painting.But when you get deep into it, which is kind of what grad school is, is you're like a big weirdo and you just get so deep into something so friggin specific that, you know, most people think you might think about once in your lifetime, but you end up spending nine years thinking about and writing about.It's almost like you can't perceive a place without some kind of filter, if that makes sense. It's almost like there's no such thing as just like a place or land that's just objectively out there. Like, I spent most of a winter, you know, down where you are in Oaxaca, but you having lived there for this long, like if you and I walk around in the streets of Ciudad Oaxaca, you're going to perceive so much more than I am, or at least many different things than I am, right?I'm going to be purely a tourist, I'm going to be reading on a surface level where you might have dozens of memories come up from your time living there and different things that have happened. And [00:45:00] so, in that way, like a landscape is almost, is always like a medium, meaning like our own perceptions, our own projections, our own memories are always affecting the way that we perceive a place.And so cultural geography, the field that I'm in, kind of looks at that. It looks, literally at the kind of the, the collision of culture and geography and like the politics of a place. You know, I was talking about like earlier about landscape management. You know, there are people that are choosing how to manage the landscape in the highlands, where to allocate money and where to cut money from.And all of those decisions are based on preferences of aesthetics and land use, in terms of landscape. So for anyone that's interested, it's a fascinating field to start looking at what we perceive in a place or in places [00:46:00] and how, what we perceive or what we wish to be there affects, you know, the politics of a place.And again, the contemporary crisis right now, Israel Palestine, this question of like, who belongs there? Whose land is it? What do you see in that landscape? For some people, they see an ancient Jewish homeland that these persecuted people are trying to return to and reclaim and for other people, they see, you know, an indigenous Arab people that are being displaced by outside colonizers and, you know, both in their way are right and wrong.I'm not going to wade into the politics of it, but the way that landscape is used as a medium, politically, economically, culturally, is a really fascinating subject, at least for me.Chris: Well, thank you for that, and to finish up with a question around pilgrimage, which Jerusalem being the quote unquote, "holy land" and where so many pilgrimages landed in in previous times and of course in contemporary ones as [00:47:00] well. I'm curious about what you could describe as ritualized memorial acts of walking. And I'd like to finish by asking what have been the most achieved and enduring acts of ritual that you've encountered? What lessons might they have to teach us in a time of hypermobility?Christos: Again, that's like a huge question. Okay, I'll try to be succinct if I can. I don't know why I'm drawn to these kinds of histories, but anywhere I go in the world, I tend to be drawn to, yeah, histories of displacement, I would say.It's a strange thing to be interested in for most people, but it probably speaks to the fact that I am the fourth generation of men to leave the country that I was born. You know, that's between both sides of the family, it's not all one lineage. But being of Greek descent, Greece has long been a country where people leave, you know?Like, right now, the [00:48:00] United States is a country where people come to, but to be claimed by a place where for hundreds of years now, so many people, whether by choice or circumstance, leave their home probably does something to you, you know? And so Anywhere I've traveled in the world, I tend to either seek out or be sought out by these kinds of histories, and so I referred a bit earlier to this project I did years ago where I was spending a lot of time in Mexico and ended up meeting what became a friend is an artist from Mexico City, Javier Arellán, and he was second generation Mexican.His grandfather was from Barcelona in Spain and was a fighter pilot for the Spanish Republic, so like the legitimate democratically elected government of Spain. And when Franco and the fascists kind of staged a coup and the Spanish Civil War broke out you know, he was on the side [00:49:00] of the government, the Republican army.And Barcelona was basically the last stand of the Republicans as the fascist kind of came up from the from the south and when Barcelona fell everyone that could literally just fled on foot to try to cross into France, nearby to try to escape, because knowing that if they were captured they would be imprisoned or killed by the fascists who had basically taken over the country now.But the French didn't want tens of thousands of socialists pouring into their country because they were right wing. And so rather than letting people escape they actually put all the Spanish refugees in concentration camps on the French border. And that's where my friend's grandfather was interred for like six months in a place called Argilet sur Mer, just over the French border.And then from there, Algeria took a bunch of refugees and he was sent to Algeria. And then from there, the only countries in the whole world that would [00:50:00] accept these left wing Spanish refugees was Mexico and Russia. And so about 50, 000 Spanish Republican refugees relocated to Mexico City. They had a huge influence on Mexican culture.They started UNAM, like the national university in Mexico City. And my friend Javier Grew up in Mexico city, going to a Spanish Republican elementary school, singing the Spanish Republican National Anthem and considering themselves Spaniards, you know, who happened to be living in Mexico. And so when I met him, with my interests, we, you know, overlapped and I found out that him and his wife were soon setting out to go back to that same beach in France where his grandfather was interred, in the concentration camp and then to walk from there back to Barcelona because his grandfather had died in Mexico before Franco died, so he never got to return home. You know, maybe like a lot of Greeks that left and [00:51:00] never did get to go back home, certainly never moved back home.And so we went to France and we started on this beach, which is a really kind of trashy touristy kind of beach, today. And we thought you know, that's what it is today, but we then found out talking to people that that's actually what it was back in the 1930s, 1940s was this touristy beach and what the French did was literally put a fence around and put these refugees on the beach in the middle of like a tourism beach literally as prisoners while people on the fence were like swimming and eating ice cream and, you know, and being on vacation.So even that site itself is pretty fucked up. A lot of people died there on that beach. And it was 15 days walking the entire coast from the French border back to Barcelona. And whereas Javier's community in Mexico city actually raised [00:52:00] funds for us and we're really excited about this idea of homecoming and going back home to Spain.We quickly discovered when we started talking to locals about what we were doing, they would stop talking to us and walk away and they didn't want anything to do with us. They did not want to know these histories. They didn't want to touch it. And what we found out is like Spain has never really dealt with this history.And it's such a trauma and nobody wants to talk about it. So again, it's this strange thing where it's like us from the Americas, you know, my friend from Mexico was wanting to return home and it was a strange trip for him because he thought of himself as a Spaniard returning home and these Spaniards were like, "you're a Mexican tourist and I don't want to talk to you about the civil war, you know?"And I think that really hurt him in a lot of ways because he almost kept trying to prove that he wasn't a tourist, whereas for me, I knew that I was a tourist because, you know, I have no history there.[00:53:00] In terms of pilgrimage, I've done other pilgrimages, other walks I won't get into now, but there's something about walking a landscape or walking a land as opposed to driving, obviously, or flying that the pace of walking, I think, allows you to interact with people and with places at a rhythm that is maybe more organic, maybe more holistic. I did do the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage in Spain, like I did that another 15 days as well. And for me there's nothing like walking. You know, there's, there's something that happens. To your mind, to your body, to your spirit when you're moving that I've never experienced through any kind of other travel.And unfortunately there are only so many places in the world where you can walk for days or weeks on end that have the infrastructure set up to do so. And I know that here in the Americas other than walking on busy roads, it's pretty hard to get long distances through walking.And so I think another thing that tourism has done is kind of cut off the transitional kind of walking and you just kind of fly off and just kind of plop yourself [00:54:00] down and then get extracted out through an airplane, but you don't have the experience of seeing the landscape change day by day, footstep by footstep, and experiencing the place at that speed, at that pace, which is, you know, a very slow pace compared to an airplane, obviously.Chris: Mm hmm. Perhaps, perhaps very needed in our time. Christos: I hope so. I think there's something about it. I think there's something humanizing about it. About walking. Chris: Well, I've asked a lot of you today, my friend. And we've managed to court and conjure all of the questions that I've, that I had prepared for you.Which I thought was impossible. So, on behalf of our listeners and perhaps all those who might come to this in some way, your dissertation at some point down the road, I'd like to thank you for your time and certainly your dedication.And I imagine a PhD, nine year PhD [00:55:00] research process can be extremely grueling. That said, I imagine it's not the only thing that you have on your plate. I know that you're also an artist a teacher, writer, and Kairotic facilitator. I'm saying that right. To finish off, maybe you'd be willing to share a little bit of what that entails and how our listeners might be able to get in touch and follow your work.Christos: Yeah, first I'll just say thanks for reaching out, Chris, and inviting me to do this. I've listened to your podcast and love these kinds of conversations around these topics of place and belonging. It's obviously deep in my heart and I said this to you earlier, other than my supervisors and my examiners, I think you're the first person to read my dissertation, so I appreciate that you took the time to read it and to draw quotes and to discuss it with me because, I think most people that have done a PhD know that it can be a pretty solitary process to go so deep into such a tiny little corner of like knowledge that for most people is not what they're interested in every day and to [00:56:00] share these stories. Thank you. So yeah, my website is ChristosGolanis. com. And part of what I do is working with this Greek term, kairos. So in Greek there are at least three words for time. One is chronos, which is like linear time. One is aeon, which is like kind of eternal time.And one is kairos, gets translated as kairos, which is like almost the appropriate time or ceremonial time. And my best definition of that is you know, there are some things that are scheduled, like you and I for months ago planned this particular time and this particular day to do this interview.But deciding, let's say, when to get married with your partner doesn't follow any kind of rational, linear timeline. That's more of a feeling. And so the feeling of like when some, when it's appropriate for something is what Greeks consider to be keros, like, you know, keros for something like it's, it's the appropriate time for something.So. What I do is I kind of counsel people to craft [00:57:00] ceremonies or rituals for big transitions in their lives to mark things in their life through ritual or ceremony. Like I said, for like a homecoming two weeks of walking the coast of Spain can be a ceremony, right, of kind of walking your dead grandfather back home. I think there's something about the impulse to go out into the world, to find something, to integrate something, to process something, right versus staying right where you are and kind of with community, with others. It's kind of ritually marking it, integrating it, and you know, it's cheaper, it's easier on the environment, and sometimes can, can go a lot deeper than going away and coming back, and maybe not much has changed.But it can be dealing with the transition of someone from life into death or a birth or a career change. And so basically using ceremony and ritual to really mark and integrate these significant moments in our lives so that we can be fully with them as they're happening or as they've happened in the past, but haven't been able to be integrated.So that's some of the kind of [00:58:00] work that people can do with me if you want to reach out through my website. Chris: Well I very much look forward to seeing and hearing your dissertation in the world outside of these small groups of podcast interviewers and academics. So, hopefully one day that's the case if there's any editors or publishers out there who enjoyed what you heard today and want to, want to hear more, please get in touch with me or Christos and we can, we can get that into the world in a good way.Christos, thank you so much brother. It's been a pleasure and I hope to have you on the pod again soon. Christos: All right. Thank you. Get full access to ⌘ Chris Christou ⌘ at chrischristou.substack.com/subscribe
Enjoy this deep and soulful conversation with “The Griefwalker” Stephen Jenkinson. My guest Stephen Jenkinson is the author of the award-winning book Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul and the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School. He discusses the Nights of Grief and Mystery project, which he created with singer/songwriter… Continue reading Ep. 440 Nights of Grief and Mystery with Stephen Jenkinson
In this special podcast edition of the live event "From the Ruins of a Greenhouse", Campfire Stories founder Mattias Olsson interviews activist, farmer and author Stephen Jenkinson. The evening opens with a song by Petronella Sjöö, followed by part one of the interview, where the topics range from farming to village mindedness to animism. The set is closed out by a live performance from Stephen Jenkinson and Gregory Hoskins' show "Nights of Grief and Mystery". This event was recorded live at the farming collective Under Tallarna in Järna, Sweden.Please consider becoming a Patreon supporter of Campfire Stories: https://www.patreon.com/mattiasolssonOr, to make a one-off donation, visit: https://campfire-stories.org/boxoffice/To watch all of the Campfire Stories' films, visit: https://campfire-stories.org/film-library/And to listen to all podcast episodes, check out: https://campfire-stories.org/podcast-library/Follow Petronella Sjöö on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petronellasjoo/Find out more about Gregory Hoskins here: https://gregoryhoskins.com/Read more about Stephen Jenkinson and the Orphan Wisdom School here: https://orphanwisdom.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“We're not trying to be right. We're trying to see if we can see clearly.” In this agile and authentic episode, returning guest Stephen Jenkinson offers a lucid view of the world. How might our understanding of the world change if we approached life with a willingness to see things as they are rather than a need to only affirm that which we desire? Ayana and Stephen journey together to consider what had brought us to this modern time – prompting vital questions about the value of tradition, the importance of strangerhood, the possibility of reckoning, and the meaning of ancestry. Stephen asks questions that disrupt and unsettle the status quo, and perhaps these questions will lead us to the lessons we so deeply need. STEPHEN JENKINSON, MTS, MSW is an author, culture activist, ceremonialist and farmer. He teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010. With Master's degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work), he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, is a former programme director in a major Canadian hospital and former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school. He is the author of several books including 'Reckoning', 'A Generation's Worth', 'Come of Age', 'Money & the Soul's Desires' and the award-winning 'Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul'. Stephen is the subject of the National Film Board of Canada documentary 'Griefwalker', and 'Lost Nation Road', a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the wheelhouse of a mystery train. Nights of Grief and Mystery world tours, with singer/ songwriter Gregory Hoskins, are odes to wonder, love letters for the willingness to know endings. Music by Nights of Grief and Mystery. Visit our website at forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.Support the show
Grief literary advocate Stephen Jenkinson connects with Raghu for a thought-provoking conversation on palliative care and dying wise.In this episode, Stephen Jenkinson and Raghu Markus peruse:The importance of storytelling and the human voiceFinding an alternative outlet for divinityExistential fear and dying wiseMoral and ethical dilemmas within the healthcare systemWhat constitutes care and the many gaps in medical practice wisdomMedical assistance in dying to relieve sufferingWhy limits and endings give life meaningThe wisdom and belonging of sadnessBargaining for more time instead of examining the quality of timeA better way to relate to the transition of life into deathThe idea of being ‘too late' and the consequences of our perceptionsHope as a mortgage on life and the certainties we falsely rely onDeath as a deity that we should accommodateTwo cultural icons. Two unique perspectives... One understanding of the presence of the way.Ram Dass' Love Serve Remember Foundation and the Alan Watts Organization invite you to open your mind, open your heart, and tap into the living truth of Alan Watts and Ram Dass. Learn more about this special 4-week Virtual Course:"The Presence of the Way: The Dharma of Alan Watts and Ram Dass"“I think if we cultivated a capacity to be sad we would make enormous headroads into our propensity for fear. I think sadness is an absolutely compelling and legitimate alternative but it needs at least as much tuition as fear does. You have to learn to be afraid, obviously, and you have to learn sadness as well.” – Stephen JenkinsonAbout Stephen Jenkinson:Stephen Jenkinson is a cultural activist, international teacher, and author. He is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School and has Master's degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). Apprenticed to a master storyteller when a young man, he has worked extensively with dying people and their families. He is the former program director in a major Canadian hospital and former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school. Stephen is also a sculptor and traditional canoe builder.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW, is a spiritual activist, author, ceremonialist and farmer. Stephen teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010. With Master's degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work), he is the author of several books including the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble and A Generation's Worth. Stephen is the subject of the National Film Board of Canada feature length film documentary, Griefwalker. http://orphanwisdom.com RUNE HJARNO Rune Hjarnø Rasmussen is a Historian of Religion, Ph.d from Uppsala University in Sweden. His research into Afro-diasporic strategies for maintaining animist reality in the modern world has lead him towards reading North European cultural history from the perspective of rejected animist knowledge and practice. The objective is to recover Euro-traditional forms of land-connectedness ecological knowledge and kinship with the greater community of beings. Rune has lived in a number of countries in Europe, Africa North- and South America and presently runs the platform “Nordic Animism.” https://nordicanimism.com/
This conversation blew my mind. It's one of the deepest, poetic and most profound conversations I've had in many years. A must listen to episode. This episode is not just about dying but about LIVING Today we're joined by Stephen Jenkinson, an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Canada and the author of four books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, the award-winning book about grief and dying, and the great love of life. In this episode we discuss: Spiritual/wellness industry and death Self healing or healing in community? How to navigate living & death Living well so you die well. Our collective Echo chamber and how it impacts us Cancel culture Story telling & creativity to process endings What has Stephen's work taught him about himself Ways to Connect Stephen GET “NIGHTS OF GRIEF & MYSTERY” TOUR TICKETS- HERE Website- HERE Ways to connect with NATALIE Carry on the conversation on Substack Visit - www.natalie-miles.com for all her offerings and services. Including mediumship and psychic reading sessions Instagram - Follow Natalie Instagram- Follow Things That Die Credits Podcast Music: “Things That Die” by Baljit Rayat Editing - Kelly Whinnem
My guest today is someone I consider an important teacher in my life, Stephen Jenkinson. He is a cultural activist, he is a farmer and a philosopher. He is the author of a number of books including some that are my favourites. He presents life as it really is and because he has worked with the dying for so many years, he attempts to anchor us in the reality of where we are. There isn't a time that we need this more.This might not appear to be a very cheerful conversation but if you understand my work, I expect to have one of the most cheerful conversations about the reality of where we are today. This is definitely an important moment in my life when I meet one of my teachers. Stephen Jenkinson is an author, a farmer and a philosopher. He has years of experience as a palliative care worker and is a former programme director at a major Canadian hospital. Stephen has Master's degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). He is also a co-founder of The Orphan Wisdom School. Listen as we discuss:03:30 - Tie your camel 05:00 - The internal shift 07:00 - A Wondering Dervish 08:00 - A useful compromise 11:30 - The human struggle 15:00 - Is it too late? 16:30 - Finding peace 22:00 - The answer is asking the right question 26:30 - Hunger for money 30:00 - What the soul needs 33:00 - The spirit work 37:30 - From awful to awe 40:00 - A drop of the Divine in us all 42:00 - Gilgamesh 45:30 - More God than you need? Find out more about Stephen Jenkinson and his work here.YouTube: @mogawdatofficialInstagram: @mo_gawdatFacebook: @mo.gawdat.officialTwitter: @mgawdatLinkedIn: /in/mogawdatWebsite: mogawdat.comDon't forget to subscribe to Slo Mo for new episodes every Saturday. Only with your help can we reach One Billion Happy #onebillionhappy
MagaMama with Kimberly Ann Johnson: Sex, Birth and Motherhood
In this episode, guest host and podcast producer Jackson Kroopf interviews Kimberly and Stephen Jenkinson about their ongoing event series Reckoning: Birth and Death Among Us. They discuss the role of witness in their work as birth and death workers, the politics of feelings in a culture where pop psychology has become a religion, and dive deeply into their relationship to matrimony. In anticipation of their final event this summer, “Reckon and Wonder: Grief, Elderhood and Spirit Work,” taking place this June 29th-July 2nd, 2023 at the Orphan Wisdom school in Ontario, they reflect on the difference between recording and live events and the unique impact that their convergence has revealed in their respective relationships to the oral tradition. What You'll Here Reflections on witness from retired birth and death workers The value of disillusionment The power of loneliness The proliferation of self pathologizing The complex politics of feelings The religion of western psychology Adolescents grabbing for pop psychology labels The respect in not offering solutions The eagerness to escape from pain while grieving Is love dead? Blessing not as approval but the emergence of something new Marriage as both celebration and loss Matrimony between cultures An only child and single parent inviting in a new husband Building an escape route as you enter a union The no-go zone of contemporary western marriage 15 minute weddings, 15 minute funerals, 15 minute births The cultural casualties of uniformity Being healthy enough to tend to home and neighbor Bio Stephen Jenkinson is a cultural worker, teacher, author, musician and ceremonialist. He is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010 with his wife Nathalie Roy. He has Master's degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). Since co-founding the Nights of Grief and Mystery project with singer/ songwriter Gregory Hoskins in 2015, he has toured this musical / tent show revival / storytelling ceremony across North America, U.K. and Europe and Australia and New Zealand. They released their Nights of Grief & Mystery album in 2017 and at the end of 2020, they released two new records; Dark Roads and Rough Gods. Stephen is the author of Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble (2018), the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (2015), Homecoming: The Haiku Sessions (a live teaching from 2013), How it All Could Be: A workbook for dying people and those who love them (2009), Angel and Executioner: Grief and the Love of Life – (a live teaching from 2009), and Money and The Soul's Desires: A Meditation (2002). Most recently, Stephen published Reckoning (2022) with Kimberly Ann Johnson. Links Reckon & Wonder: Grief, Elderhood, Spirit Work ~ A weekend at Orphan Wisdom, Ontario
Stephen Jenkinson (Harvard-trained theologian, activist and elder) is an expert in dying. During his 20 years working in “the death trade” he counselled more than 1500 people to their death. He is also the founder of The Orphan Wisdom School, a teaching house for the skills of deep living, he's the subject of the documentary Griefwalker and author of Die Wise: A Manifesto For Sanity and Soul.Stephen's wild idea is that we must learn to die well…so that we can live well. This is a challenging and poetic conversation. We cover euthanasia (it's death-phobic), elderhood (current boomers have failed at it) and not being “too late” to work it all out. Stephen reads from his book A Generation's Worth and we reference his recent books Die Wise and ReckoningYou can get hold of all three at Orphan WisdomStephen is touring his Nights of Grief and Mystery show internationallyIf you need to know a bit more about me… head to my "about" pageSubscribe to my Substack newsletter for more such conversationGet your copy of my book, This One Wild and Precious Life Let's connect on Instagram! It's where I interact the most Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
What constitutes dying well in a death-phobic culture? Stephen Jenkinson points out that life is a time-limited offer and our “obligation is to obey. Obey doesn't mean submit; obey means attend to. What is this asking of me now?” There is much to ponder in this dialogue, whether or not you are actively dying. Stephen Jenkinson is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He has a master's degree in theology from Harvard University and a master's degree in social work. He was formerly a program director at a major Canadian hospital and medical-school assistant professor. He has worked extensively with dying people and their families and is a consultant to palliative care and hospice organizations. He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Canada and is the subject of the documentary film, Griefwalker. Heis the author of Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (North Atlantic Books 2015)Date: 3/14/2016 Tags: Stephen Jenkinson, med-tech, death-phobic, death centered care for the dying, euthanasia, failure to thrive, death-phobic culture, Michael Toms dying, the death trade, palliative care, the angel of death, heartbrokenness, sorrow, grief, love, solitude, Brother Blue, Hugh Hill, prayer, Death & Dying, Personal Transformation, Philosophy
This is the full recording of the latest Solar Session, a live conversation via The School of Mythopoetics. Join the School http://schoolofmythopoetics.com Charles Sue-Wah-Sing is a leadership and whole life coach, facilitator and guide with a focus on conscious leadership, and practicing safe conversations. He works with people from all walks of life who are longing for or in the midst of major shifts in their personal lives, careers, relationships and families. He's a self-described seeker for divine wisdom. His curiosities include art, music, religion, cultural traditions and ceremonies, mythology, science, psychology and social justice issues. He's an avid blogger and has a couple of book projects on the go. In 2022, he started a virtual men's group for men of color. They gather weekly for his Open Jam sessions where they talk about life as Black, Brown and mixed race men living in a White-dominant culture. Charles is also a long-time scholar at the Orphan Wisdom School with Stephen Jenkinson. Learn more about Charles https://www.suewahsing.com/
Today I interview Kimberly Johnson and Stephen Jenkinson about their new book, Reckoning (Iron God of Mercy, 2022). Reckoning is an encounter, not only of two people trying to make sense of how to be human—and humane—in what they call our “troubled times,” but also of how to live in a world that's larger than us, a world that has its own designs and aims and needs which surpass us and, if we don't attend to them, surprise us. Death comes to us, whether we're ready or not. Gods and ancestors appear, whether we recognize them or not. And, amid it all, sometimes we find ourselves alongside a companion who's willing to reckon with these larger truths, even as we're undone, even as our hearts break. That's the encounter of Reckoning, one Johnson and Jenkinson invite us to join. Stephen Jenkinson the author of six books. He is a worker, author, storyteller, culture activist, and co-founder of the Orphan Wisdom School with his wife Nathalie Roy. He is also the subject of the feature length documentary film Griefwalker, a portrait of his work with dying people, and Lost Nation Road, a shorter documentary on the crafting of the Nights of Grief and Mystery tours, which he undertakes with his band and collaborator Gregory Hoskins. Kimberly Johnson is the author of multiple books, including Call of The Wild: How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, And Use It For Good and the early mothering classic The Fourth Trimester: Healing Your Body, Balancing Your Emotions and Restoring Your Vitality published in seven languages around the world. Her work has been featured on the Goop! podcast, The New York Times, Forbes, Vogue, New York Magazine's The Cut, Harper's Bazaar, Today.com and many more. She is the host of the Sex Birth Trauma podcast. Eric LeMay is on the creative writing faculty at Ohio University. He is the author of five books, most recently Remember Me. He can be reached at eric@ericlemay.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Today I interview Kimberly Johnson and Stephen Jenkinson about their new book, Reckoning (Iron God of Mercy, 2022). Reckoning is an encounter, not only of two people trying to make sense of how to be human—and humane—in what they call our “troubled times,” but also of how to live in a world that's larger than us, a world that has its own designs and aims and needs which surpass us and, if we don't attend to them, surprise us. Death comes to us, whether we're ready or not. Gods and ancestors appear, whether we recognize them or not. And, amid it all, sometimes we find ourselves alongside a companion who's willing to reckon with these larger truths, even as we're undone, even as our hearts break. That's the encounter of Reckoning, one Johnson and Jenkinson invite us to join. Stephen Jenkinson the author of six books. He is a worker, author, storyteller, culture activist, and co-founder of the Orphan Wisdom School with his wife Nathalie Roy. He is also the subject of the feature length documentary film Griefwalker, a portrait of his work with dying people, and Lost Nation Road, a shorter documentary on the crafting of the Nights of Grief and Mystery tours, which he undertakes with his band and collaborator Gregory Hoskins. Kimberly Johnson is the author of multiple books, including Call of The Wild: How We Heal Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, And Use It For Good and the early mothering classic The Fourth Trimester: Healing Your Body, Balancing Your Emotions and Restoring Your Vitality published in seven languages around the world. Her work has been featured on the Goop! podcast, The New York Times, Forbes, Vogue, New York Magazine's The Cut, Harper's Bazaar, Today.com and many more. She is the host of the Sex Birth Trauma podcast. Eric LeMay is on the creative writing faculty at Ohio University. He is the author of five books, most recently Remember Me. He can be reached at eric@ericlemay.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature
Never before had I met a man so interested in ending the suffering of men and the suffering caused by men like Stephen Jenkinson. As you may know, it is one of the many times that we have had Stephen as our guest, and it is because this man speaks with such wisdom that it is impossible not to learn something from him. In this episode, Stephen and I will be talking about the 60's revolution, the pandemic, freedom, grief, and suffering. He will also tell us about his tour, Nights of Grief and Mystery. I promise you will love this episode. Stephen spoke in such a poetic way that it will make you feel like you are having a piece of his tour. Can't miss it. ABOUT STEPHEN Culture activist, worker, author ~ Stephen teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded the school with his wife Nathalie Roy in 2010, convening semi-annually in Deacon, Ontario, and in northern Europe. Apprenticed to a master storyteller when a young man, he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, is former programme director in a major Canadian hospital, former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school. He is also a sculptor, traditional canoe builder whose house won a Governor General's Award for architecture. Since co-founding the Nights of Grief and Mystery project with singer/ songwriter Gregory Hoskins in 2015, he has toured this musical/ tent show revival/ storytelling/ ceremony of a show across North America, U.K. and Europe and Australia and New Zealand. They released their Nights of Grief & Mystery album in 2017 and at the end of 2020, they released two new records; Dark Roads and Rough Gods. CONNECT WITH STEPHEN Website: https://orphanwisdom.com/ Stephen's tour: https://orphanwisdom.com/nights-of-grief-and-mystery/ WHAT YOU WILL HEAR [3:28] The hardest challenges of being on tour. [7:18] What's Stephen calling? [14:14] Where did Stephen get the relationship he has with words? [18:10] The 60's revolution [21:23] The 2020 pandemic. [33:54] Nights of Grief and Mystery tour. [39:55] What's suffering? [48:02] Where to find Stephen. If you look at the civilized world and think, "no thank you," then you should subscribe to our podcast, so you don't miss a single episode! Also, join the uncivilized community, and connect with me on my website, YouTube, or Instagram so you can join in on our live recordings, ask questions to guests, and more. Take a look Behind the Mask as we dive into elements of masculinity with Anger, Relationship, and Sex. Get a copy of one of my books, Man UNcivilized and Today I Rise Click here to sign up for the Kill the Nice Guy course. Join The UNcivilized Nation when we open registration in January
New Lessons on Dealing with Grief in a Me-First Era with Stephen Jenkinson, Canadian writer, teacher and grief literacy advocate. Stephen is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Tramore, Canada and the author of several books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, an award-winning book about grief and dying and the great love of life. [https://orphanwisdom.com
Stephen Jenkinson is an author, storyteller, musician, and cultural activist. He is best known for his books Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, and Come of Age: A Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble. He founded the Orphan Wisdom School, located outside Ottowa, in Canada.Outline00:00 - 02:19 — Episode introduction02:19 - 08:48 — Broadening our understanding of ancestry08:48 - 18:33 — Culture, limits, and the extension of the human will18:33 - 22:45 — Entitlement and privilege22:45 - 29:44 — The cultural poverty behind white supremacy29:44 - 40:53 — Education, learning, and ambivalence40:53 - 54:49 — Getting older versus becoming an elder54:49 - 58:15 — Episode wrap-upLinks and ResourcesOrphan Wisdom SchoolDie Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and SoulCome of Age: A Case for Elderhood in a Time of TroubleQuillwood AcademyTelling Tales of ChangeSupport the show
Join Banyen Books & Sound in conversation with Stephen Jenkinson and Kimberly Ann Johnson on their forthcoming co-written book, Reckoning. Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW, is a spiritual activist, author, ceremonialist and farmer. Stephen teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010. With Master's degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work), he is the author of several books including the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble and A Generation's Worth. Stephen is the subject of the National Film Board of Canada feature length film documentary, Griefwalker. Kimberly Ann Johnson is a Sexological Bodyworker, Somatic Experiencing trauma resolution practitioner, birth doula, and single mom. She specializes in helping women prepare for birth, recover from birth injuries and birth trauma, and heal from sexual trauma. She is the founder of Magamama.com, an international holistic women's health care resource for expectant and new mothers. She is the author of The Fourth Trimester and Call of the Wild.
Sounds of SAND presents an in-depth and provocative conversation from Science and Nonduality's “Death and Dying” online summit. A long-time friend of SAND Stephen Jenkinson offers a frank dialog with SAND co-founders Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo. This conversation took place during the first months of COVID which you'll hear Stephen talk about as “the plague” they also touch upon: the meaning of death and dying in a death-phobic culture the idea of death as a god the differences between death culture in North America and Europe and other cultures Stephen's perspectives on Euthanasia. plus some original music from Stephen and Gregory Hoskins at the end of the episode! Stephen Jenkinson is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He's the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Tramore, Canada, and the author of four books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, the award-winning book about grief and dying and the great love of life. And stick around until the end of the podcast to hear a spoken word musical collaboration from Stephen and Gregory Hoskins from their Nights of Grief and Mystery project. orphanwisdom.com Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo are the co-founders and directors of SAND and their many offerings, events, and films. Their latest film is The Wisdom of Trauma which has been viewed by over six million people in 230 countries around the world. https://scienceandnonduality.com
Join this live conversation around the new book 'Reckonin' with Stephen Jenkinson and Kimberly Johnson. Find the book here https://orphanwisdom.com/reckoning Reckoning is an unguarded, sober meeting with Spirit Work, Conspiracies, Elderhood, Grief and Plague and Building Culture in a Me First Era. Try this at home. With Companions. Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW, is a spiritual activist, author, ceremonialist and farmer. Stephen teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010. With Master's degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work), he is the author of several books including the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble and A Generation's Worth. Stephen is the subject of the National Film Board of Canada feature length film documentary, Griefwalker. Kimberly Ann Johnson is a Sexological Bodyworker, Somatic Experiencing trauma resolution practitioner, birth doula, and single mom. She specializes in helping women prepare for birth, recover from birth injuries and birth trauma, and heal from sexual trauma. She is the founder of Magamama.com, an international holistic women's health care resource for expectant and new mothers. She is the author of The Fourth Trimester and Call of the Wild.
This bonus episode is actually a conversation recorded for another podcast The End Of Tourism. The host is my good friend Chris Christou, who I initially met through Stephen Jenkinson's Orphan Wisdom School. We have spent many a time gathering on the farm in Ontario where the School is held, and have woven threads of companionship over the years. A few months back, he invited me on his show to discuss subjects of which I've rarely spoken publicly, including my former years working for an online travel magazine, my own self-created initiatory adventures to Australia, the paradox of being a traveller in the modern age, and more. Listen to more episodes of The End of Tourism https://www.theendoftourism.com Support on Patreon http://patreon.com/theendoftourism
Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Ontario, Canada and the author of six books, including Reckoning, co-authored by Kimberly Johnson and Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, the award-winning book about grief and dying, and the great love of life. In 2015, he created Nights of Grief & Mystery with Canadian singer-songwriter Gregory Hoskins. Get his new book today by visiting: RECKONING ON THIS EPISODE: Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW | Orphan Wisdom Adam Jackson | @adam___jackson SACRED SONS TRAININGS & EVENTS: CONVERGENCE 7 - GENERATIONS | OCTOBER 13 - 16 | CANTON, NC | Convergence 7 is the inter-generational bridge between the youth and the elders of our world. We implore you to reach out your hand and invite the generations in your life to connect, confront, and celebrate life alongside you this fall. All stages of manhood will be represented at Convergence 7 from youth to elder. EMX ARIZONA | SEP 8 - 11 | SKULL VALLEY, AZ | The Embodied Masculine Experience is a 40 man initiatory event. Join us in Skull Valley, AZ for 4 days of Connection, Confrontation, and Celebration with Sacred Sons regional Leadership. EMX COLORADO | SEP 15 - 18 | WARD, CO | The Embodied Masculine Experience is a 40 man initiatory event. Join us in Skull Valley, AZ for 4 days of Connection, Confrontation, and Celebration with Sacred Sons regional Leadership. CONNECT: Shop | Sacred Sons Apparel & Merch Website | sacredsons.com YouTube | Sacred Sons Instagram | @sacredsons Events Calendar | All upcoming Sacred Sons Trainings and Experiences!
Christos Galanis (MFA) is an interdisciplinary artist and human geographer who has spent the past 15 years tracking and making visible the various 'spells' through which colonialism, human-supremacism, and In-Animism inhabit and inhibit relationships - both individually and culturally. In addition to his academic publishing, lecturing, and ethnographic field-work, he also brings years of experience teaching workshops on walking, play, performance, kink, and eco-sexuality. A practicing Animist, he is a graduate of Stephen Jenkinson's Orphan Wisdom School, and is soon completing a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. He enters the Garden today to discuss animism and so much more. We only scratched the surface with this topic, folks.
Stephen is a culture activist, teacher, author, and co-founder if the Orphan Wisdom School. His work centers around grief, elderhood, community, and is rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry, and working for a time we won't see. Stephen and I speak about how a lack of generational connection and transmission has provoked deep rupture and brokenness. We discuss the difference between communities and collectives, the danger of individualism and personal “sovereignty,” and how grief is an inevitable outcome of true “awakening”. We also touch on guru/student relationships, societal misconceptions about power and privilege, how to cultivate belonging as a state of being, and the devastating effects of living in a culture that has traded grief for grievance.Purchase a copy of Reckoning by Stephen Jenkinson and Kimberly Ann Johnson here.Songs featured: “Invocation” by Nights of Grief and Mystery, “The Future” by Leonard CohenHow to support the show:Rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!Become a paid subscriber on Substack.Visit my website - AnyaKaats.com & Find me on InstagramA Millennial's Guide to Saving the World is a reader and listener supported project. If you find this content valuable, please consider becoming a paid supporter for only $5/month. Get full access to A Millennial's Guide to Saving the World at anyakaats.substack.com/subscribe
Welcome to “The Emergent Human where we explore Optimizing Health, Embodied Spirituality and Post Conventional Living. I am Michael Ostrolenk, a therapist, coach and educator and I am your host Today's show is brought to you by Cosper Scafidi, an amazing body worker in the Northern Virginia area who has integrated different somatic practices into his work. To learn more about his work, visit his website: www.cosperscafidi.com/. A shoutout to my mentor, colleague and friend Stuart Sovatsky, a scholar of kundalini Yoga and author of “Advanced Spiritual Intimacy: The Yoga of Deep Tantric Sensuality” Ostrolenk speaks to Christos Galanis (MFA) who is an interdisciplinary artist and human geographer who has spent the past 15 years or so tracking, and making visible, the various 'spells' through which colonialism, human-supremacism, and narcissism inhabit and inhibit relationships - both individually and culturally. His recently launched business - Kairos - helps clients to integrate more meaning and beauty into their lives through individualised ceremonies and rituals. In addition to his academic publishing, lecturing, and ethnographic field-work, he also brings years of experience teaching workshops on walking, play, performance, kink, and eco-sexuality. A practicing Animist, he is a graduate of Stephen Jenkinson's Orphan Wisdom School, and is completing a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. LINKS: Website: www.christosgalanis.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christmas7 We will close out today's show with one of my favorite singer/song writers Stuart Davis and his song “Nothing in Between”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdRqCc3LfDI BOOKMARKS: 00:00 Intro 01:30 Christos' life-path, describing a spiritual awakening in his early 20s and a moment of grace one morning 06:30 What led from there to working with ceremony and ritual through Kairos, focusing on humans' capacity for creating beauty 10:30 Describing temporality as medicine and the meaning of time as Kairos, Chronos, and Aion in Greek. 15:15 Christos describes contexts where tuning into Kairos supports significant beginnings, endings, and transitions in life. How to slow down and allow your being to 'catch up' with what has already transpired in your life, where perhaps you didn't have the time and space to properly mark it 22:55 Christos shares the story of a significant rite of passage that he undertook, travelling to Spain to walk a pilgrimage to support the transition of a close family member's spirit who died tragically 26:40 Christos describes how his walking and movement practice is central to his maintaining a link to receiving input from Creation, which then serves as a source for the seeds of ceremonies and rituals. 30:30 Christos uses an example from Michael's own life to walk through what it might look like to work with Kairos with a prospective client. He describes how he supports the client to 'tune-in' to the un-rational, embodied intelligence that is Kairos in order to discover what the proper way to proceed might be. Christos also describes the importance of community and gathering together to witness, and to share stories. 36:40 Michael asks Christos to describe his relationship with beauty and how it's central to his work with ceremony and ritual. Christos then recounts a youtube video which documents a chimpanzee in a state of awe and exuberance as he interacts with a waterfall. 43:02 Michael and Christos discuss how important it is to bring more ceremony and ritual into our lives, especially for those who are not connected to any of the major world religions or ancestral traditions. Christos describes how ceremonies also ground us in place and connect us to our corners of the world and also to our non-human neighbours. 49:03 Christos gives info for how to reach him and work with him #EmergentHuman
Encountering the presence of grief and mystery is a common experience we have in our lives. As we continue from last week's podcast episode, we hear more about the finality of death, grief, and mystery. Stephen also shares with us his wisdom and experiences with regard to children and generational transmission. Join us in this episode as we acquire a deeper understanding of the different concepts surrounding death and life. ❂ About our special guest: Stephen is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded the school with his wife Nathalie Roy. He is the author of four books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, the award-winning book about grief and dying and the great love of life. Guest's website: https://orphanwisdom.com
Christos Galanis (MFA) is an interdisciplinary artist and human geographer who has spent the past 15 years tracking and making visible the various 'spells' through which colonialism, human-supremacism, and In-Animism inhabit and inhibit relationships - both individually and culturally. In addition to his academic publishing, lecturing, and ethnographic field-work, he also brings years of experience teaching workshops on walking, play, performance, kink, and eco-sexuality. A practicing Animist, he is a graduate of Stephen Jenkinson's Orphan Wisdom School, and is soon completing a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. He enters the Garden today to discuss animism and so much more. We only scratched the surface with this topic, folks.
Christos Galanis (MFA) is an interdisciplinary artist and human geographer who has spent the past 15 years tracking and making visible the various 'spells' through which colonialism, human-supremacism, and In-Animism inhabit and inhibit relationships - both individually and culturally. In addition to his academic publishing, lecturing, and ethnographic field-work, he also brings years of experience teaching workshops on walking, play, performance, kink, and eco-sexuality. A practicing Animist, he is a graduate of Stephen Jenkinson's Orphan Wisdom School, and is soon completing a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. He enters the Garden today to discuss animism and so much more. We only scratched the surface with this topic, folks.
Encountering the presence of grief and mystery in life is not something out of the ordinary. These are things that occur naturally, as well as the stories of the love of life and grief. In this new podcast episode, Stephen Jenkinson shares with us his encounter with children and delivers the news of death to them. He also shares with us knowledge and wisdom about his discipline. ❂ About our special guest: Stephen is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded the school with his wife Nathalie Roy. He is the author of four books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, the award-winning book about grief and dying and the great love of life. Guest's website: https://orphanwisdom.com
On this episode, our guest is Ian MacKenzie, a filmmaker and writer who lives on the Salish Sea with his partner and young son. For over 13 years, he's been tracking the global emergence of new culture. From the desert of Burning Man to the heart of Occupy Wall St, he has sought and amplified the voices of visionaries, artists and activists who have been working toward planetary system change. Ian is best known for his films Sacred Economics, Lost Nation Road, Amplify Her, Dear Guardians, and Occupy Love (directed by Velcrow Ripper). More recently, he founded The Mythic Mascline Podcast and Network, exploring in-depth conversations about emerging masculinities, as well as A Gathering of Stories, an online mythopoetic ceremony. I met Ian some years ago at the Orphan Wisdom School near Ottawa, Canada. Since then, we've become friends and co-conspirators in the deep work of apprenticing the culture, what is absent in it, and what might be done about it. Ian joins me to discuss the backpacker "gap year" and the lack of initation for young men and women, the difference between a tourist and a traveller, the theatre that the tourist industry creates for tourists, what it means to be a guest, creating ritual space, and Joseph Campbell's "hero's journey." Enjoy! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ian Mackenzie's Official Website The Mythic Masculine Podcast & Network A Gathering of Stories Support Ian via Patreon ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Support the pod & movement via our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theendoftourism Discover more episodes and join the conversation: http://www.theendoftourism.com Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @theendoftourism
Grief is a way of loving that which has slipped from view and love is a way of grieving that which is not yet done so. In today's episode, I am speaking with Stephen Jenkinson who is a storyteller, activist, author, and farmer. He graduated from Harvard University with a master's degree in theology as well as a master's degree in social work from the University of Toronto. His journey thereafter led him in and out of palliative care and hospice organisations. He is renowned for his workshops and teachings that accompany him around the world and is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School. Grief is something I have always felt close to yet a difficult sensation to sit with and here in the Southern Hemisphere it is the season of grief, Autumn invites this elder to dine with us in a way we are not culturally used to or taught to welcome. Tending to grief is a lifelong task, one that you must stay close to. May it be the letting go of old parts of yourself, that feeling when night sets in and that day has ended, or even the simplest way a conversation ends. There are many ways to grieve and tis the season to befriend this backbone that sets its twin flame, love, free.In This Episode We Explore:Grief as a way of loving what is The architecture of grief Human freedom and the future of connection Ways to honour rite of passages The connection animals play on farms and how that connects us to life / deathStephen's perspective on the state of the world and how to be with thisResources:Orphan Wisdom SchoolBooks MusicFilms
Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Ontario, Canada, and the author of five books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, the award-winning book about grief and dying, and the great love of life. In 2015, he created Nights of Grief & Mystery with Canadian singer-songwriter Gregory Hoskins. On this Episode: Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW | Orphan Wisdom Adam Jackson | @adam___jackson THE BROTHERSHIP: Online Community and Mobile App | Experience online men's councils and workshops as well as weekly master classes led by Sacred Sons Facilitators. Join for 2 Weeks FREE Now! TRAININGS & EVENTS: WILD RITES | COCHISE, AZ | APR 23 - MAY 1 | An opportunity to personally and collectively engage with the reciprocity between humans and nature. It brings forth relationships that have been dormant within the terrain of soul and the natural world. Marked by three distinct phases, the innate intelligence of the vision quest brings you through a cycle of life, death, and rebirth. EMX | UTAH | APR 28 - MAY 1 | The Embodied Masculine Experience is a 40 man initiatory event. Join us in Oakley, UT for 4 days of Connection, Confrontation, and Celebration with Sacred Sons regional Leadership. EMX | SOUTHEAST | MAY 19 - 22 | The Embodied Masculine Experience is a 40 man initiatory event. Join us in Westminster, SC for 4 days of Connection, Confrontation, and Celebration with Sacred Sons regional Leadership. EMX | OREGON| MAY 26 - 29 | The Embodied Masculine Experience is a 40 man initiatory event. Join us in Dufur, OR for 4 days of Connection, Confrontation, and Celebration with Sacred Sons regional Leadership. EMX | AUSTIN | JUNE 9 - 12 | The Embodied Masculine Experience is a 40 man initiatory event. Join us in Austin, TX for 4 days of Connection, Confrontation, and Celebration with Sacred Sons regional Leadership. CONNECT: Shop | Sacred Sons Apparel & Merch Website | sacredsons.com YouTube | Sacred Sons Instagram | @sacredsons Events Calendar | All upcoming Sacred Sons Trainings and Experiences!
You can learn more about the Ian and his work at his website, https://www.ianmack.com/. Here are a few more links related to our discussion: You can read about the 1982 movie The Last Unicorn here. You can read the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest written stories known, here.You can learn about Stephen Jenkinson and his Orphan Wisdom School here.This episode of the Mythic Masculine features Pat McCabe, whose work we also discuss on the show: http://newstoryhub.com/2020/02/thriving-life-and-a-prayer-for-all-men-with-pat-mccabe-woman-stands-shining/.
Stephen Jenkinson is a culture activist, worker, author, and the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School. He has Master's degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). Apprenticed to a master storyteller when a young man, he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, is former programme director in a major Canadian hospital, former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school. He is the author of numerous books, including the just released “A Generations Worth: Spirit work while the crisis reigns.” These notes met the realities of COVID 19, the lockdowns and upheavals, and turned into something of a plague document. The book's entries are dispatches from the front lines of a strange occupation undeclared. What does a life's work mean in a time of undoing? Explore the full Series http://agatheringofstories.com/pandemic Pre-Order the Book http://agatheringofstories.com/pandemic-book
Stephen Jenkinson is a culture activist, worker, author, and the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School. He has Master's degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). Apprenticed to a master storyteller when a young man, he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, is former programme director in a major Canadian hospital, former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school. He is the author of numerous books, including the just released “A Generations Worth: Spirit work while the crisis reigns.” These notes met the realities of COVID 19, the lockdowns and upheavals, and turned into something of a plague document. The book's entries are dispatches from the front lines of a strange occupation undeclared. What does a life's work mean in a time of undoing? Explore the full Series http://agatheringofstories.com/pandemic Pre-Order the Book http://agatheringofstories.com/pandemic-book
I've been running ManTalks for almost a decade and I've met a ton of amazing people who can speak truthfully and bluntly. But no one speaks carries their truth as authentically as Stephen Jenkinson. I find a lot of what Stephen says is medicinal: you might not think it tastes great, but damn if it isn't what you need to hear. This is a deep dive into why things are the way they are. Fear of submission, love of consumption, death-phobia, the commodification of trauma, endings, what the pandemic tried to tell us, and so much more. This is from a series I produced recently called The Wisdom of Elders, featuring experts on elderhood and culture to discuss what an “elder” actually is, where we are as a species, how we got here, and where we're headed. Basically, what the f*** happened? Culture activist, teacher, and author, Stephen Jenkinson teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded with Nathalie Roy in 2010, convening semi-annually in Ontario, and in northern Europe. He has a Masters degree in Theology from Harvard University and a Masters in Social Work from the University of Toronto. Apprenticed to a master storyteller when a young man, he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, was a program director in a major hospital, and an assistant professor in a prominent medical school. He is also a sculptor and traditional canoe builder, whose house won a Governor General's Award for architecture. Since co-founding Nights of Grief and Mystery with Gregory Hoskins in 2015, he has toured across North America, the U.K., Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. His new book, A Generation's Worth: Spirit Work While the Crisis Reigns, sets out to learn liveable answers. Dying and death, love and matrimony, money and soul, aging and elderhood, drawn through the eye of a pestilential needle: this is the spirit work, and that is the crisis. https://orphanwisdom.com/a-generations-worth-spirit-work-while-the-crisis-reigns He is also the author of Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble, the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, Homecoming: The Haiku Sessions, How it All Could Be: A Workbook for Dying People and Those Who Love Them (2009), Angel and Executioner: Grief and the Love of Life (a live teaching from 2009), and Money and The Soul's Desires: A Meditation. He is contributing author to Palliative Care – Core Skills and Clinical Competencies. Stephen Jenkinson is also the subject of the feature-length documentary film Griefwalker, a portrait of his work with dying people, and Lost Nation Road, a shorter documentary on the crafting of the Nights of Grief and Mystery tours. Connect with Stephen: -Website: https://orphanwisdom.com -Latest book: https://orphanwisdom.com/a-generations-worth-spirit-work-while-the-crisis-reigns -Books: https://orphanwisdom.com/shop/ -Griefwalker documentary: https://www.nfb.ca/film/griefwalker/ Did you enjoy the podcast? If so, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Podchaser. It helps us get into the ears of new listeners, expand the ManTalks Community, and help others find the self-leadership they're looking for. Are you looking to find purpose, navigate transition, or fix your relationships, all with a powerful group of men from around the world? Check out The Alliance and join me today. Check out our Facebook Page or the Men's community. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify For more episodes visit us at ManTalks.com | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On this episode, our guest is Stephen Jenkinson, activist, teacher, author, and farmer. In the second part of our conversation, we explore the themes of tourism as the trauma of homeless people. Rights are discussed in contrast to responsibilities. Stephen takes us on a deep dive into how the idea of the stranger or foreigner came to be, principally through travel and trade and what this all might offer us in our time. Finally, we contend with the notion that the only responsible way of being a tourist is to stop being one, is to stay home and honour the place one lives in. Stephen has masters' degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Tramore, Canada and the author of four books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, the award-winning book about grief and dying, and the great love of life. In 2015, he created Nights of Grief & Mystery with Canadian singer-songwriter Gregory Hoskins. With a 5-piece band, they have mounted international tours and released three albums, the most recent of which are "Dark Roads" and "Rough Gods." I first encountered Stephen in 2014 at a chocolate shop in Toronto. In the midst of a life-changing, 3 hour-long story, he whispered to us, that “in this place, they eat teachers.” Later on, digesting the fact that I was, very much, one of the hungry, I decided to join his teaching school in the Ottawa Valley. Since then, Stephen has travelled here, to Oaxaca, Mexico, mostly as a “pulmonary refugee,” as he refers to it. Alongside his wife Nathalie and others, I have been witness and accomplice to much of their co-conspiracy, here. Over the years, many of those conversations revolved around tourism, exile, and radical hospitality, which are the themes of these two episodes. Part 2 is entitled “Trauma Intelligence, the Stranger, and Radical Hospitality.” Throughout the episodes you will hear what are cicadas, emerging after a 17 year underworld life to die. Their songs, as I've heard it said here in Oaxaca, are prayers to local Gods, asking for rain to once more kiss the parched soils of this place. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Orphan Wisdom School: https://orphanwisdom.com/school/ Stephen's Books: https://orphanwisdom.com/books/ Nights of Grief and Mystery: https://gregoryhoskins.bandcamp.com/album/nights-of-grief-and-mystery ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Discover more episodes and join the conversation: http://www.theendoftourism.com Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @theendoftourism Join the Conspiracy! Support us via Patreon @ https://www.patreon.com/theendoftourism
Manda Aufochs Gillespie/ Folk U - Stephen Jenkinson is an author, activist, worker, creator of the Orphan Wisdom School, and co-creator of the Night of Grief and Mystery project with singer/songwriter Gregory Hoskins: which brings him to Cortes Island (see below) and to Folk U Radio live this Friday September 24th from 1 p.m. Stephen Jenkinson is known for his work with living and dying and as a master story-teller. He says of his tour: "These nights have the mark of our time upon them, and they're timely, urgent, alert, steeped in mortal mystery. They're quixotic. They have swagger. They are nights devoted to the ragged mysteries of being human, and so grief and endings of all kinds appear." This starts a series of Folk University offerings: Radio, in person, and co-created on the topic of What Is Essential for living in these times? Who knows where Friday's show will go: but what is assured is that we will talk about things as essential as life itself and death. And how we can tell stories that prepare us for doing both well. We will discuss what it means to witness, to be an orphan, and to create safety in these times. It should be great. I hope you will tune-in.
Culture activist, teacher, and author, Stephen Jenkinson teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded with Nathalie Roy in 2010, convening semi-annually in Ontario, and in northern Europe. He has Master's degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). Apprenticed to a master storyteller when a young man, he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, was a program director in a major hospital, and an assistant professor in a prominent medical school. He is also a sculptor, traditional canoe builder whose house won a Governor General's Award for architecture. Since co-founding Nights of Grief and Mystery with Gregory Hoskins in 2015, he has toured across North America, the U.K., Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. His new book, A Generation's Worth: Spirit work while the crisis reigns, sets out to learn liveable answers. Dying and death, love and matrimony, money and soul, aging and elderhood, drawn through the eye of a pestilential needle: this is the spirit work, and that is the crisis: https://orphanwisdom.com/a-generations-worth-spirit-work-while-the-crisis-reigns He is the author of Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble (2018), the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (2015), Homecoming: The Haiku Sessions (a live teaching from 2013), How it All Could Be: A workbook for dying people and those who love them (2009), Angel and Executioner: Grief and the Love of Life – (a live teaching from 2009), and Money and The Soul's Desires: A Meditation (2002). He is contributing author to Palliative Care – Core Skills and Clinical Competencies (2007). Stephen Jenkinson is also the subject of the feature-length documentary film Griefwalker (National Film Board of Canada, 2008, dir. Tim Wilson), a portrait of his work with dying people, and Lost Nation Road, a shorter documentary on the crafting of the Nights of Grief and Mystery tours (2019, dir. Ian Mackenzie). His books, recordings, and DVDs are available for purchase at the Orphan Wisdom Shop: https://orphanwisdom.com Watch the Lost Nation Road documentary here: https://orphanwisdom.com/lost-nation-road _______________________________________ To check out CURED nutrition and their various wonderful CBD products, click here: https://bit.ly/3hVQivi. Use the code LOVEBOMBS at checkout, and you will save an extra 10% and get FREE shipping. I use it every day and cannot recommend it more highly. They're fantastic (especially the ZEN pills)! Seriously. SO GOOD. _______________________________________ Follow me on Instagram @LongDistanceLoveBombs: https://www.instagram.com/longdistancelovebombs Looking for a heartfelt gift? Visit my print shop here: https://www.longdistancelovebombs.com/theshop Sign up for my weekly newsletter! Click here: http://eepurl.com/T0l91. It's easy and takes five seconds. Check out a list of my favorite books here: https://www.amazon.com/shop/longdistancelovebombs --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/longdistancelovebombs/message
Stephen Jenkinson shares wisdom from his new book, A Generation's Worth: Spirit work while the crisis reigns. In this conversation, Stephen Jenkinson addresses questions about vaccines, mass hysteria and conspiracy thinking, ecology, aging and elderhood, hope and being hope free, and more. Stephen Jenkinson has described A Generation's Worth as "something of a plague document... dispatches from the front lines of a strange occupation undeclared." What does a life's work mean in a time of undoing? A Generation's Worth sets out to learn liveable answers. Dying and death, love and matrimony, money and soul, aging and elderhood, drawn through the eye of a pestilential needle: this is the spirit work, and that is the crisis. Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW is a spiritual activist, author, ceremonialist and farmer. Stephen teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010. With Master's degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work), he is the author of several books including the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul and Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble. Stephen is the subject of the National Film Board of Canada feature length film documentary, Griefwalker.
On this episode, our guest today is Stephen Jenkinson, activist, teacher, author, and farmer. In this conversation, we explore the themes of weekend warrior tourism, the so-called freedom to travel, and the abandonment of place that tourist towns endure. Tourism has a particular history, and we discuss the idea of modern tourism as a cultural grandchild of European immigration to the Americas. Stephen explains what it means to be indigenous, what tourism does to that capacity, and what we might do about it. Stephen Jenkinson has masters' degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Tramore, Canada and the author of four books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, the award-winning book about grief and dying, and the great love of life. In 2015, he created Nights of Grief & Mystery with Canadian singer-songwriter Gregory Hoskins. With a 5-piece band, they have mounted international tours and released three albums, the most recent of which are "Dark Roads" and "Rough Gods." I first encountered Stephen in 2014 at a chocolate shop in Toronto. In the midst of a life-changing, 3 hour-long story, he whispered to us, that “in this place, they eat teachers.” Later on, digesting the fact that I was, very much, one of the hungry, I decided to join his teaching school in the Ottawa Valley. Since then, Stephen has travelled here, to Oaxaca, Mexico, mostly as a “pulmonary refugee,” as he refers to it. Alongside his wife Nathalie and others, I have been witness and accomplice to much of their co-conspiracy, here. Over the years, many of those conversations revolved around tourism, exile, and radical hospitality, which are the themes of these two episodes. Part 1 is entitled, “Immigration and Cultural Homelessness” Today , I am honoured to introduce Stephen Jenkinson: Throughout the episodes you will hear what are cicadas, emerging after a 17 year underworld life to die. Their songs, as I've heard it said here in Oaxaca, are prayers to local Gods, asking for rain to once more kiss the parched soils of this place. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Orphan Wisdom School: https://orphanwisdom.com/school/ Stephen's Books: https://orphanwisdom.com/books/ Nights of Grief and Mystery: https://gregoryhoskins.bandcamp.com/album/nights-of-grief-and-mystery ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Discover more episodes and join the conversation: http://www.theendoftourism.com Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter @theendoftourism Join the Conspiracy! Support us via Patreon @ https://www.patreon.com/theendoftourism
In this episode, I speak with Matthew Stillman a writer, creator, connecter, deep listener, re-imaginer, documentary film maker, the list goes on. We talk about our mutual love of improv, the ways it weaves into our daily lives, along with the yet to be cult book Matthew wrote comparing improv and the 10 Commandments (yes those 10 Commandments)! Matthew shares his experience as a scholar at Stephen Jenkinson's Orphan Wisdom School and his 10+ years experiment in New York City's Union Square, offering creative approaches to what others have been thinking about!
The only inevitable thing in this life is death. Today we have an episode full of questions, with answers that will make you think deeper and ask for a better question. This episode will undoubtedly make you appreciate every second you spend alive and make you feel better about death. All of us, at some point in our lives, have been afraid of death. Today's guest, Stephen Jenkinson, will drop a bomb of knowledge that will blow our minds and change our point of view about this controversial topic. ABOUT STEPHEN JENKINSON He is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He has a master's degree in theology from Harvard University and a master's degree in social work from the University of Toronto. Formerly a program director at a major Canadian hospital and medical-school assistant professor, Stephen is now a sought-after workshop leader, speaker, and consultant to palliative care and hospice organizations. He is the founder of The Orphan Wisdom School in Canada and the subject of the documentary film Griefwalker. CONNECT WITH STEPHEN Orphan Wisdom Website Book: Come of Age Orphan Wisdom Shop WHAT YOU WILL HEAR: [5:14] Why are we so afraid of death? [12: 41] How to be a human? [19:33] The downside of living forever. [22:10] The near future of humanity. [28:30] The characterization of losing someone. [37:20] The importance of having a good death. [45:02] What does a wise death bring? [51:45] Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul. If you look at the civilized world and think, "no thank you," then you should subscribe to our podcast so you don't miss a single episode! Also, join the uncivilized community, connect with me on my website and Instagram so you can join in on our live recordings, ask questions to guests, and more. This episode is sponsored by Zensquatch Apparel. Checkout www.Zensquatch.com and use promo code " UNcivilized " for 20% off your purchases AND FREE SHIPPING for the month of August 2021. Find Traver on Instagram @traverBoehm Get a copy my book, Man UNcivilized Start your journey to become the man the that the world failed to teach you how to be.
What is fear of death anxiety? Stephen Jenkinson aka the Griefwalker explains why our fear of death anxiety is present and breaks down what's wrong with The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker. Stephen Jenkinson is also the subject of the feature length documentary film Griefwalker and the author of Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul. Stephen Jenkinson is a culture activist, worker, and author. Stephen Jenkinson teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded the school with his wife Nathalie Roy in 2010, convening semi-annually in Deacon, Ontario, and in northern Europe. He has Master's degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). You can support Stephen Jenkinson here: https://orphanwisdom.com/ You can watch the documentary film Griefwalker here: https://orphanwisdom.com/griefwalker/ Stream the Welcome Home Podcast with Takis: https://www.liinks.co/welcomehome Connect with Takis: https://www.instagram.com/petertakis/ https://www.instagram.com/welcomehome.podcast/ https://twitter.com/petertakis https://www.takismusic.com/ Contact Takis: welcomehometakis@gmail.com Takis (real name Peter Takis) is a DJ/ producer from Winnipeg, Canada.
Some of you might remember that Stephen Jenkinson was my first guest when this podcast changed name to The RegenNarration, back in episode 35. For those who are newer to the podcast, Stephen's a special presence in the world – a wonderful lyricist and story teller, teacher and ceremonialist, author and farmer. Our last conversation delved into his new book at the time, Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble, in which the case is made that we must birth a new generation of elders, one poised and willing to be true stewards of the planet and its species. That episode culminated in some of his gripping music and spoken word. Today we talk more about that art form, for last year he and key collaborator Gregory Hoskins released a studio and accompanying live album – called Rough Gods and Dark Roads, respectively. They were to be toured globally. But we all know what happened then. I've had guests and listeners alike speak to me of their respect for Stephen, since he was first on the podcast. So when Stephen's wife Nathalie reached out to update me on the new releases, I was keen to speak with him again. We dwell deeply in the new music this time, and particularly on one track – called Fate - that's acutely relevant in the wake of the latest global student climate strike last month. It's featured in its full 13 minutes at the end of this episode. More on Stephen: Stephen is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Tramore, Canada and the author of four books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, the award-winning book about grief and dying, and the great love of life. In 2015, he created Nights of Grief & Mystery with Canadian singer-songwriter Gregory Hoskins. With a 5-piece band, they have mounted international tours and released three albums, most recently DARK ROADS and ROUGH GODS. Most recently, a four-part livestream speaking series, A Generation's Worth, was presented in Winter 2020. A book of the same name, emerging from that series, is due out soon. Title slide image: Stephen Jenkinson (supplied). See the episode web page for more photos - https://www.regennarration.com/episodes/086-a-generations-worth This episode was recorded on Tuesday 24 May 2021 (Australian time), a few days after the most recent global student climate strike. Music: Fate, by Stephen Jenkinson and Gregory Hoskins (with band), a 13 minute track featured in full at the end of this episode. Faraway Castle, by Rae Howell and Sunwrae. Get more: You can find more from Stephen at his Orphan Wisdom website, the home of his writing and teaching work. It's described there as ‘a redemptive project that comes from where we come from. It is rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry, working for a time we won't see' - https://orphanwisdom.com Thanks very much to the generous supporters of this podcast, for making it possible. If you too value what you hear, please consider joining them by heading to our website at https://www.regennarration.com/support. Thanks for helping to keep the show going! Get in touch by text or audio at https://www.regennarration.com/story And thanks for listening.
Culture activist, teacher, author ~ Stephen Jenkinson teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded with Nathalie Roy in 2010, convening semi-annually in Deacon, Ontario, and in northern Europe. He has Master's degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). Apprenticed to a master storyteller when a young man, he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, is a former program director in a major Canadian hospital, former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school. He is also a sculptor, traditional canoe builder whose house won a Governor General's Award for architecture. Since co-founding Nights of Grief and Mystery with Gregory Hoskins in 2015, he has toured this musical/tent show revival/storytelling/ceremony of a show across North America, the U.K. and Europe, and Australia and New Zealand. He is the author of Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble (2018), the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (2015), Homecoming: The Haiku Sessions (a live teaching from 2013), How it All Could Be: A workbook for dying people and those who love them (2009), Angel and Executioner: Grief and the Love of Life – (a live teaching from 2009), and Money and The Soul's Desires: A Meditation (2002). He is contributing author to Palliative Care – Core Skills and Clinical Competencies (2007). Stephen Jenkinson is also the subject of the feature-length documentary film Griefwalker (National Film Board of Canada, 2008, dir. Tim Wilson), a portrait of his work with dying people, and Lost Nation Road, a shorter documentary on the crafting of the Nights of Grief and Mystery tours (2019, dir. Ian Mackenzie). His books, recordings and DVDs are available for purchase at the Orphan Wisdom Shop: https://orphanwisdom.com Watch the Lost Nation Road documentary here: https://orphanwisdom.com/lost-nation-road --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/longdistancelovebombs/message
Culture activist, worker, author ~ Stephen teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded the school with his wife Nathalie Roy in 2010, convening semi-annually in Deacon, Ontario, and in northern Europe. He has Master's degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). Apprenticed to a master storyteller when a young man, he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, is former programme director in a major Canadian hospital, former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school. He is also a sculptor, traditional canoe builder whose house won a Governor General's Award for architecture. Since co-founding the Nights of Grief and Mystery project with singer/ songwriter Gregory Hoskins in 2015, he has toured this musical/ tent show revival/ storytelling/ ceremony of a show across North America, U.K. and Europe and Australia and New Zealand. They released their Nights of Grief & Mystery album in 2017 and at the end of 2020, they released two new records; Dark Roads and Rough Gods. He is the author of Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble (2018), the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (2015), Homecoming: The Haiku Sessions (a live teaching from 2013), How it All Could Be: A workbook for dying people and those who love them (2009), Angel and Executioner: Grief and the Love of Life – (a live teaching from 2009), and Money and The Soul's Desires: A Meditation (2002). He was a contributing author to Palliative Care – Core Skills and Clinical Competencies (2007). Stephen Jenkinson is also the subject of the feature length documentary film Griefwalker (National Film Board of Canada, 2008, dir. Tim Wilson), a portrait of his work with dying people, and Lost Nation Road, a shorter documentary on the crafting of the Nights of Grief and Mystery tours (2019, dir. Ian Mackenzie). His books, recordings and DVDs are available for purchase at the Orphan Wisdom Shop.
My guest today is Matthew Stillman, a dear friend who has been obsessed with how modern humans fit into an ancient world since, forever. He has a wildly eclectic background, from highlighting the connection between food and culture as a programming executive on the Food Network. He co-produced an acclaimed documentary on The End of Poverty. He even created a traditional skincare company, called Primal Derma, delivered from his home in Harlem, New York. I first met Matthew as a scholar in the Orphan Wisdom School with Stephen Jenkinson, and we have spent many hours wondering about many things, from love, to poetry, and beyond. In our conversation today however, he shares about his upbringing in the world's most mystical bookstore. He tells the tale of sitting at the feet of Robert Bly in the time just before his book Iron John would ignite the mythopoetic men's movement. Matthew also speaks of the divine presence in the art of improv comedy, and the rules that govern finite and infinite games. And finally, he shares the ancient myth of Phaethon and being undone by his own awakening into fatherhood. Support this podcast http://patreon.com/ianmack Join the network http://themythicmasculine.com/network
Spontaneous poet, culture activist, and shamanic bard Stephen Jenkinson joins Terry to explore the totally disarming ordeal of bearing witness to death up close — both our individual mortality and our collective mortality. They also drop into felt contact with Terry’s present, uncertain situation — recently on his 70th birthday, Terry was suddenly informed that there was probably metastatic cancer in his lungs and he spent five nights in the hospital undergoing a series of tests. Now, almost a month later, there is still no clarifying diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment plan, so he’s learning to be in radical not-knowing, returning to the miracle of this moment, and this breath. Stephen meets Terry in his characteristic uncompromising way, with tenderness, unflinching clarity, and humor. They wonder together about the overwhelming nature of beauty, and the vividness that dying well can bring to the living. Ultimately, they both confess that after decades and careers of practice, neither of them claim to be fully prepared for their own dying process. Its nature is to break us open. Even so, they both deepen in grief and gratitude, and learn to open unconditionally. As Stephen says, we can “get better at missing it” before life is gone. Stephen Jenkinson is an activist, teacher, author, farmer and performing poet. He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Tramore, Canada and the author of four books, including Die Wise and Come of Age: The Case of Elderhood in a Time of Trouble. He’s also the subject of a documentary film Griefwalker. In 2015, Stephen created Nights of Grief & Mystery with Canadian singer-songwriter Gregory Hoskins. With a 5-piece band, they have mounted international tours and released three albums, most recently DARK ROADS and ROUGH GODS. They hope to begin performing again in June — make contact on his website to see if you might be able to attend. Most recently, a four-part livestream speaking series, A Generation’s Worth, was presented in Winter 2020. For more information on Stephen Jenkinson and Terry Patten, check out the following resources: Stephen’s two new records, DARK ROADS and ROUGH GODS Nights of Grief and Mystery World Tour Stephen’s teaching school, Orphan Wisdom Stephen’s recording partner Gregory Hoskins Stephen’s Upcoming Events Stephen’s books, Die Wise, Come of Age, How It All Could Be, and Money and the Soul’s Desires State of Emergence podcast website Terry Patten’s nonprofit, A New Republic of the Heart Terry Patten’s personal website Join Us as a “Friend of State of Emergence” We hope you appreciate this week’s episode with Stephen Jenkinson. If you would like to support our podcast, we invite you to become a “Friend of State of Emergence” by making a small monthly donation. As a supporter, you will also receive invitations to our monthly Q&A events, when we explore recent episodes in greater depth. If you’d like to help the podcast continue and become sustainable, simply register as a Friend of State of Emergence on our website. A vibrant community is gathering and we’d love for you to be part of it.
This episode features a conversation with Stephen Jenkinson. He's an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Tramore, Canada and the author of four books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, the award-winning book about grief and dying, and the great love of life.In 2015, he created Nights of Grief & Mystery with Canadian singer-songwriter Gregory Hoskins. With a 5-piece band, they have mounted international tours and released three albums, most recently DARK ROADS and ROUGH GODS.You can find more about him and all the links at https://orphanwisdom.comFOLLOW ME:☆ NEW APPAREL FOR SALE ON WEBSITEhttps://davidwhipple.com/apparel-made-by-david-whipple☆ TELEGRAM CHANNELhttps://t.me/thewhippleeffect☆ ALL LINKS BIO SITEhttps://bio.site/dawhippIn this episode, we talk about his band, their tour, and how life on the road is for him.I ask him what is needed in these troubled times. And I share with him that I fear our freedoms are under threat.A concern of mine is a potential Communist revolution, so I ask him if he's concerned about Communism.Stephen is a generous man and I'm honored to have spoken with him. I hope this episode lands well with you.Visit https://orphanwisdom.com to learn more about Stephen and his work.
It’s difficult to really articulate the kind of man Stephen Jenkinson is. I’ve interviewed hundreds of brilliant people and studied many more, but very few approach the same level of profoundly medicinal wisdom as Jenkinson. To say I’m a fan is an understatement. Bear with the occasional rough patch of audio and listen to some challenging depth. Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Tramore, Canada, and the author of four books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, the award-winning book about grief, dying, and the great love of life, and Come Of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble. In 2015, he created Nights of Grief & Mystery with Canadian singer-songwriter Gregory Hoskins. With a 5-piece band, they have mounted international tours and released three albums, most recently DARK ROADS and ROUGH GODS. Most recently, a four-part livestream speaking series, A Generation’s Worth, was presented in Winter 2020. Orphan Wisdom is the home of Stephen Jenkinson’s writing and teaching work. Orphan Wisdom is a teaching house for the skills of deep living and making human culture. It is a redemptive project that comes from where we come from. It is rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry, working for a time we won’t see. Connect with Stephen -Website: https://orphanwisdom.com/ -Books: https://orphanwisdom.com/books/ -DARK ROADS/ROUGH GODS trailer: https://youtu.be/85KPoBISv_0 -DARK ROADS album: https://orphanwisdom.com/shop/dark-roads/ -ROUGH GODS album: https://orphanwisdom.com/shop/rough-gods/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is a segment of episode #289 of Last Born In The Wilderness “Love Is Limitation: Disillusionment & Obligation In Troubled Times w/ Stephen Jenkinson.” Listen to the full episode: http://bit.ly/LBWjenkinson3 Learn more about and purchase DARK ROADS and ROUGH GODS: http://bit.ly/DarkRoadsRoughGods Stephen Jenkinson, author of ‘Die Wise’ and ‘Come of Age,’ returns to the podcast to discuss love, or how we commonly understand love to be, versus what love really is and is practiced, and what it asks of us in the time allotted to us on this earth. Intersecting with Stephen's work in the "death trade" and his interrogation of the death-phobic culture of the United States and Canada, he frames our exploration of love within the deeper understanding of how limits make us human. Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Tramore, Canada and the author of four books, including ‘Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul,’ the award-winning book about grief and dying, and the great love of life, and ‘Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble.’ In 2015, he created Nights of Grief & Mystery with Canadian singer-songwriter Gregory Hoskins. With a 5-piece band, they have mounted international tours and released three albums, most recently DARK ROADS and ROUGH GODS. Most recently, a four-part livestream speaking series, STONE FENCE SAGAS, were presented in Fall 2020. WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness DONATE: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast / https://venmo.com/LastBornPodcast BOOK: http://bit.ly/ORBITgr ATTACK & DETHRONE: https://anchor.fm/adgodcast DROP ME A LINE: Call (208) 918-2837 or http://bit.ly/LBWfiledrop EVERYTHING ELSE: https://linktr.ee/patterns.of.behavior
[Intro: 13:25 | Outro: 1:17:23] Stephen Jenkinson, author of ‘Die Wise’ and ‘Come of Age,’ returns to the podcast to discuss what he and musical collaborator Gregory Hoskins have been up to since their Nights of Grief and Mystery global tour was cancelled when coronavirus lockdowns began last year. Released in November, they put together two albums, DARK ROAD and ROUGH GODS. “In the idleness that’s been forced upon us we’ve made two records. I learned this: music is human scaled miracle. “They call it fishing, not catching. That’s because, though there may be fish galore in the places you can’t see, none of them are in the world to satisfy your hook, and mostly they don’t come. I don’t really know where these records came from, but I know they came to two men willing to sit quietly for hours upon days, keeping their faithless wits about them, paying attention, paying for it. We’ve been often quizzed at the border: what do you do? what kind of music? what’s with the Grief and Mystery thing? Palms up, shrugging: that’s an honest answer.” (http://bit.ly/DarkRoadsRoughGods) In discussing this subject, we move into a conversation about love, or how we commonly understand love to be, versus what love really is and is practiced, and what it asks of us in the time allotted to us on this earth. Intersecting with Stephen's work in the "death trade" and his interrogation of the death-phobic culture of the United States and Canada, he frames our exploration of love within the deeper understanding of how limits make us human. Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Tramore, Canada and the author of four books, including ‘Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul,’ the award-winning book about grief and dying, and the great love of life, and ‘Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble.’ In 2015, he created Nights of Grief & Mystery with Canadian singer-songwriter Gregory Hoskins. With a 5-piece band, they have mounted international tours and released three albums, most recently DARK ROADS and ROUGH GODS. Most recently, a four-part livestream speaking series, STONE FENCE SAGAS, were presented in Fall 2020. Episode Notes: - Learn more about and purchase DARK ROADS and ROUGH GODS: http://bit.ly/DarkRoadsRoughGods / https://orphanwisdom.com/shop/dark-roads / https://orphanwisdom.com/shop/rough-gods - Learn more about Stephen’s work: https://orphanwisdom.com - The songs featured are “Invocation” and “Bittersweet” from ROUGH GODS. - To contact Hannah Dwyer about her Friend Farm invitation, you can email or DM her on Instagram: dwyer96@gmail.com / https://www.instagram.com/hannahrdwyer - Read her article ‘Magic Can Create a Decolonial Future' at Gods&Radicals Press: http://bit.ly/3uL0k9m WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness DONATE: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast / https://venmo.com/LastBornPodcast BOOK: http://bit.ly/ORBITgr ATTACK & DETHRONE: https://anchor.fm/adgodcast DROP ME A LINE: Call (208) 918-2837 or http://bit.ly/LBWfiledrop EVERYTHING ELSE: https://linktr.ee/patterns.of.behavior
Here at SDI we have an initiative that brings emerging spiritual companions in the first half of life to our community, helping us weave a web of intergenerational wisdom and practice, which we call the New Contemplatives initiative. These New Contemplatives enrich the SDI community with new forms and paradigms of spiritual care, bringing their voices to the center of the organization and the broader field of spiritual companionship. In this episode, our New Contemplatives Coordinator, Lizzie Salsich, talks with one of the 2021 New Contemplatives, Nathan Bettger. Nathan talks about the importance of having elders, and how people in the first half of life need to be in community with those in second half of life – and allowing wisdom to flow. --- Nathan Bettger is a board-certified hospital chaplain and spiritual director from Oshkosh, WI, where he lives with his wife (Kat), his two sons (Brendan Arthur and Owen Raine) and his Welsh Terrier (Wendell). Nathan is committed to nurturing connection and community, through our relationships, our bodies, our sense of self, the land that we live on, and our experience of the Divine. Deeply grounded in contemplative and mystic Christianity and nature-based spirituality, Nathan seeks to consistently invite others into more unitive and loving life, whether it be through spiritual companioning, caring for those in the hospital, advocating for more natural earth keeping, caring for his honey bees and his garden, or writing. Nathan has led community groups for many years focused on spiritual integration, conversations on death and dying, grief support, and men’s spirituality. He received his Masters in Divinity from Bethel Seminary in St Paul, MN and Certificates of Spiritual Formation and Spiritual Direction from George Fox Seminary in Portland, OR. Nathan served on the founding board for the men’s spirituality non-profit, Illuman and is a graduate scholar of the Orphan Wisdom School, led by teacher, story teller and author, Stephen Jenkinson. --- Join us at SDI for an unprecedented virtual conference in April 2021 which we are calling Renaissance – the meaning of the word being, “rebirth”. This season of pandemic, and political uncertainty in many countries around the world, have been difficult for all of us. But for every season, there are new beginnings, and out of the mulch and the compost, new life can grow. This conference is going to be a gigantic sandbox for spiritual companionship and contemplative community. No travel costs, no hotel or meal expenses. Attend from your home, participate from anywhere, around the world. Live, or on-demand. This promises to be the biggest and most extensive gathering of spiritual companions in SDI history. Registrations for SDI Renaissance 2021 are now open. Everyone is welcome to attend, and be nourished, by this conference. Go to sdicompanions.org for the details and registration options.
STEPHEN JENKINSON, MTS, MSW is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Tramore, Canada and the author of four books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, the award-winning book about grief and dying, and the great love of life. In 2015, he created Nights of Grief & Mystery with Canadian singer-songwriter Gregory Hoskins. With a 5-piece band, they have mounted international tours and released three albums, most recently DARK ROADS and ROUGH GODS. For more information you can visit orphanwisdom.com In this conversation, Stephen discusses approaching art as a citizen as opposed to an individual, the illusion of control in health and fitness, and his new albums DARK ROADS and ROUGH GODS. And, the episode closes with the track "Exegesis" from ROUGH GODS.
My guest today is Stephen Jenkinson, a culture activist, teacher and author, and principle instructor of The Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded with his wife Nathalie Roy. He has Master's degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). Stephen's most recent books are the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (2015), and Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble (2018). I first encountered Stephen back in 2012, when a friend invited me to a summer teaching that was close to my home in Vancouver. That first morning, he gathered us at first light and told a story about the sun, rising. I was never to be the same again. That meeting has altered my life completely. That winter, I joined the Orphan Wisdom School on his farm in Ontario, and have returned to many gatherings and teachings over the years. I have also produced numerous short films on Stephen's work, including The Meaning of Death, the Making of Humans, and Lost Nation Road (2019). If you've listened to this podcast for some time, you know that I usually quote Stephen at least once an episode. And this interview has been a long time coming - largely because I wished to record it in person, and not over Zoom. I finally had that opportunity last September when I travelled to Ontario on a whirlwind trip to the farm. If you'd like to hear more of that story, I've shared an additional recording which is available to my Patreon supporters. Head over to the Mythic Masculine website and click ‘Become a Supporter' if you'd like to gain access. For now, I'm very pleased to share our conversation, where we explore personal and profound territory, including: the lost origins of the mythopoetic men's movement, the times Stephen met Robert Bly and James Hillman, the deep etymology of the word ‘patriarchy', and the mythic understanding that a culture needs its fathering, as much as it needs its fathers. And so, enjoy my conversation with Stephen Jenkinson. Support this podcast http://patreon.com/ianmack Join the Conversation http://themythicmasculine.com/network
Mia was born in Calgary, Canada, and studied at Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, graduating in 1998. From there she practiced both chiropractic and craniosacral therapy until committing solely to cranial work and prebirth and birth healing in 2003. After opening Emerging Families, a centre dedicated to therapy, research, and education for the prebirth and birth period, she published her first book, The Secret Life of Babies: How Our Prebirth and Birth Experiences Shape Our World, 2014. Her second book, It's Never Too Late: Healing Prebirth and Birth At Any Age, out this year, is a practical guide to for parents, caregivers, and health care providers. She follows in the tradition of R.D. Laing through her mentor, Andrew Feldmar—whose only approach is to suspend any protocol and labels, and to respectfully follow the patient who is entrusted to guide his or her own life. Her techniques are also influenced by Osteopathy, Body-Mind Centering, and her time serving the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, as well as by her years in The Orphan Wisdom School in Ontario, Canada, and studying with Dr. and Elder, Malidoma Some.
This week we’ll be hearing from Stephen Jenkinson whose wisdom on the cycle of life and elderhood offers so much that makes the ancient in us sit up and listen. This episode was first aired in January of 2018. We are living through a time when there are more people, more creatures, more plants, more cultures, dying than ever before. Where we are forced to recognize that growth untethered to consequence is like cancer. The debts of generations past have accrued to us, but not the wisdom. Our inheritance of obligation, of reciprocity, has been broken and we are left with what is dying, but without any understanding of how to be with it. We are deeply addicted to the thing that got us here: a stratagem for relief. And what is it really that brought us to hunger, at almost any cost, for such relief? One of Stephen’s answers is the loss of elderhood. Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW, is a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School, a teaching house and learning house for the skills of deep living and making human culture. Music by Jess Williamson. Visit our website forthewild.world for the full episode description, references, and action points.
We cover: * The effects hope has on grief * What we are really avoiding when it comes to grief * What would change if we were grateful first And much more Sarah Hines I met a man one blurry night in Manhattan, and little did I know, he would be the soil in which my passion for grief work was to be planted. He had been rejected by his family for his life choices and was preparing for death without them. Helping him through his struggle to come to terms with his love for them and in turn his forgiveness while going through treatments, rejection, and coming to terms with his own death and grief was an unimaginable amount of stress and it literally set me in activism mode. It was shortly after his death, I completed training in Palliative Care Home Hospice. I volunteered in men's homes for 5 years before the medications became reliable and being gay wasn't always breaking family ties. Some of the most amazing times I have had in my life have been in the homes of dying. Strange, yes.. but so beautifully honest and raw. I then completed the Children's Palliative Care Training and dove into the heartbrokenness of dying children. It is in these years I really came to understand just how fickle death can be and how important it is to embrace death and learn to live with our grief. It seems that in times of what we would consider the most unimaginable, we are able to find glimmers of beauty, cracks of light and the nourishment in tears. Over the last 20 years, I have carried on with my education in a variety of ways including Coach and Leadership Training, Orphan Wisdom School and Grief Groups. My connection to corporate grief has been slow, as is expected. I am grateful for my individual clients who inspire me everyday with their courage and their vulnerability and their willingness. Stay connected with Sarah: Website: www.ameaningfuldeath.com Website: www.deathandgrief.com Catch up on past conversations as well as see the entire lineup of contributors at the "A Handful of Hope" website: https://jessebrisendine.lpages.co/a-handful-of-hope (https://jessebrisendine.lpages.co/a-handful-of-hope) Stay connected with Jesse: Website: https://jessebrisendine.com/ (https://jessebrisendine.com/) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessebrisendine (https://www.facebook.com/jessebrisendine) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JesseBrisendineCoaching/ (https://www.facebook.com/JesseBrisendineCoaching/) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessebrisendine/ (https://www.instagram.com/jessebrisendine/) Twitter: https://twitter.com/jessebris (https://twitter.com/jessebris) Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/JesseBrisendine (https://www.youtube.com/user/JesseBrisendine) Grab Your Free Copy of The Happiness Guide: https://jessebrisendine.leadpages.co/happiness-guide/ (https://jessebrisendine.leadpages.co/happiness-guide/)
This interview with Stephen Jenkinson is required listening … not once … not twice, but three times. It is a hard realization to accept all our concepts about death, and the culture around the dying have been squandered to remove us from life’s greatest lesson … how to die.Stephen is an author of numerous books, like Die Wise and Come of Age:The Case of Elderhood in a Time of Trouble. He has a Master’s degree from Harvard University in theology and a Master’s degree in sociology from the University of Toronto. After many years as programme director for palliative care counselling he has been at the bedside of hundreds of dying patients. He has taught internationally as part of the Orphan Wisdom School and toured with Nights of Grief and Mystery to sold out crowds. He is a profound thinker of our time, a cultural activist, musician, poet, and Canadian farmer.Find out more about Stephen Jenkinson and download his music here - The Orphan Wisdom School &Nights of Grief & Mystery Join the Dying Your Way conversation on our FaceBook group, search for Dying your Way. Or to learn more or contact us go to www.dyingyourway.com.
We had such an enlivening conversation with Steven which we’re so excited to share with you! In this conversation we talk about Steven’s history - which included leaving civilization as a young man to live in the wild and forage to sustain himself. He eventually felt called to returned to civilization, pursued higher education and eventually growing food and medicines in new/old ways. He offers a beautiful short exercise on how to listen to plants. We also talk about the habit of gratefulness and the orientation toward illness as a great teacher and healer. We explore ways of inhabiting the great give and take with Earth and the importance of loving our food. We also explore a less human-centric approach to gardening - which he calls wildculturing. What a beautiful and inspiring conversation about connecting more deeply with the intelligence of earth through our food, our gardens, our own bodies, and more. We’re now dreaming of visiting Steven and Megan’s Sacred Gardener school when travel is possible again. It looks amazing! Steven is an artist, farmer, wildcrafter, builder, teacher, writer and visionary who has more than thirty years experience living co-creatively with the Earth, practicing traditional living skills of growing food, building and healing. In 1996, he created the Algonquin Tea Company, North America’s premiere bioregional tea company. He has given talks and run workshops internationally for more than twenty years and taught plant identification and wilderness skills at Algonquin college for 11 years, and at the Orphan Wisdom School for eight years. In 2014, Megan and Steven started the Sacred Gardener Earth Wisdom School. Steven released his first book The Story of the Madawaska Forest Garden in 2016, and his second, Sacred Gardening, was released in June 2017. “The Sacred Gardener was chosen for our farm/school’s name because it conveys something that we feel is unique in our approach to both growing and teaching here on the farm. While there are many places, books and ways to learn about gardening or working with the Earth, there are very few that put the needs of the Earth first. This means not just thinking about production and convenience for ourselves but making the effort to step forward gently with real ecological/spiritual integrity. In everything we do we try to honor the ancient agreements with Nature. These agreements, which enabled our ancestors to survive and us to be here now, have long since been ignored and forgotten by western culture. Even radical forms of “environmental” action like organic gardening, permaculture and wilderness skills such as hunting and foraging are done with little or no thought as to the consequences of what we’re taking. We are always in the center of our thoughts and move forward with unflinching entitlement to what we take.” Find out more about Steven, his beautiful books, the incredible Sacred Gardener school and more at www.thesacredgardener.ca
Episode 146 - Stephen Jenkinson Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund are honored to have as our guest, Stephen Jenkinson. Culture activist, teacher, author ~ Stephen teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded the school with Nathalie Roy in 2010, convening semi-annually in Deacon, Ontario, and in northern Europe. He has Master's degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work). Apprenticed to a master storyteller when a young man, he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, is former programme director in a major Canadian hospital, former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school. He is also a sculptor, traditional canoe builder whose house won a Governor General's Award for architecture. Since co-founding Nights of Grief and Mystery with Gregory Hoskins in 2015, he has toured this musical/tent show revival/storytelling/ceremony of a show across North America, U.K. and Europe and Australia and New Zealand. He is the author of Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble (2018), the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (2015), Homecoming: The Haiku Sessions (a live teaching from 2013), How it All Could Be: A workbook for dying people and those who love them (2009), Angel and Executioner: Grief and the Love of Life – (a live teaching from 2009), and Money and The Soul's Desires: A Meditation (2002). He is contributing author to Palliative Care – Core Skills and Clinical Competencies (2007). Stephen Jenkinson is also the subject of the feature length documentary film Griefwalker (National Film Board of Canada, 2008, dir. Tim Wilson), a portrait of his work with dying people, and Lost Nation Road, a shorter documentary on the crafting of the Nights of Grief and Mystery tours (2019, dir. Ian Mackenzie). His books, recordings and DVDs are available for purchase at the Orphan Wisdom Shop. Website: https://orphanwisdom.com The Curiosity Hour Podcast is hosted and produced by Dan Sterenchuk and Tommy Estlund. Please visit our website for more information: thecuriosityhourpodcast.com The Curiosity Hour Podcast is listener supported! To donate, click here: thecuriosityhourpodcast.com/donate/ Please visit this page for information where you can listen to our podcast: thecuriosityhourpodcast.com/listen/ Disclaimers: The Curiosity Hour Podcast may contain content not suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion advised. The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are solely those of the guest(s). These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of The Curiosity Hour Podcast. This podcast may contain explicit language.
Stephen Jenkinson is a culture activist, teacher, and author. Stephen Jenkinson is also one of the most articulate and thought-provoking public intellectuals I know. From his website: Stephen is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded the school with Nathalie Roy in 2010, convening semi-annually in Deacon, Ontario, and in northern […] The post #40 – Recovering Our Humanity in a Time of Trouble with Stephen Jenkinson appeared first on Zachary Stockill.
Stephen Jenkinson is a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School, a teaching house and learning house for the skills of deep living and making human culture. It is rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry, working for a time yet to come. He is a Harvard Educated Theologian and author of: Money and the Soul’s Desires Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble In perhaps one of the most cosmically timed conversations in Inner Truth's brief history, we navigated a conversation through this current situation with the Covid-19 outbreak through the lens of 20-30 years of his work contemplating what it means to die wisely and correspondingly of course, what it means to live wisely.
Filmmakers Ian MacKenzie and John Wolfstone discuss their upcoming documentary Love School, which is about the Tamera Institute, a communal research village founded on and dedicated to systems change in love and sexuality as a foundation for planetary healing. Together, Ian and John produce new paradigm films and events through their media collaborative, Re/Culture Media. Ian MacKenzie's work has appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic TV, CBC Documentary, The Globe and Mail, Adbusters, and film festivals around the world. He is the director of the shorts Lost Nation Road (2019), featuring Stephen Jenkinson; Reactor (2013); Sacred Economics (2012), featuring Charles Eisenstein; and The Revolution Is Love (2011). He co-directed Amplify Her (2018), about the rise of the feminine in electronic music and co-produced the feature film Occupy Love (2013). He is also the host of the podcast The Mythic Masculine. John Wolfstone is a filmmaker, ritualist, wilderness rites-of-passage guide, emergence facilitator and sacred clown focused on the work of cultural redemption. He has wielded these tools in service of restorative justice, ancestral healing and peace building in conflict zones from rural Guatemalan villages, to Middle Eastern refugee camps and inner cities in the U.S. John has studied intensively the 8 Shields Cultural Regeneration model, been a scholar at the Orphan Wisdom School, and trained with the Weaving Earth Relational Education.
Stephen Jenkinson is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer with a master's degree in theology from Harvard and an MSW from the University of Toronto. A former programme director and assistant professor, Jenkinson co-founded The Orphan Wisdom School and is the author of How It All Could Be, Money and the Soul’s Desires, Die Wise, and Come of Age: The Case of Elderhood in a Time of Trouble. With Gregory Hoskins and band, Stephen has offered Nights of Grief & Mystery to sold out houses on three continents. For more information on Stephen Jenkinson and Terry Patten, check out the resources below: Stephen Jenkinson's Orphan Wisdom School: https://orphanwisdom.com/ Stephen's band's new album, Nights of Grief and Mystery: https://orphanwisdom.com/shop/nights-of-grief-mystery/ Griefwalker Film Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLQWM2j3AVg Terry Patten website: https://www.terrypatten.com/ To learn more about the work we are doing, visit: A New Republic of the Heart website: https://www.newrepublicoftheheart.org/ State of Emergence podcast website: http://stateofemergence.org/
Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW, teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School, and Zack have a deep and authentic conversation on the current state of culture, society and how to experience life through being in touch with death. Highlighted in this conversation is Stephen’s “Night’s of Grief & Mystery Tour”, a participatory event of poetry, reading and music that you leave understanding less than you did when you arrived.Please visit https://orphanwisdom.com/event/2019-nights-of-grief-mystery-tour-nelson-bc/ to learn more about Stephen, his work and the tour.
Today my guest is Stephen Jenkinson.Stephen is a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School, a teaching house and learning house for the skills of deep living and making human culture. It is rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry, working for a time yet to come.Stephen worked for many years in the “death trade”, helping people come to terms with their illnesses in a culture that has no real relationship with the death and dying process. He is a trained Harvard theologian and writes urgently and eloquently about how to create culture that relates to the cycles of life and death (Die Wise). His latest book, Come of Age, grapples with the paradox of elderhood in North America: “we are awash in the aged and yet somehow lacking in wisdom; we relegate senior citizens to the corner of the house while simultaneously heralding them as sage elders simply by virtue of their age.”Stephen is currently on the Nights of Grief and Mystery Tour.Find out if he’s in your town. If so, do yourself a favor.
This is a segment of episode #213 of Last Born In The Wilderness “Sacred Gardener: The Seeds Of Co-creative Partnership With The Earth w/ Steven Elliot Martyn.” Listen to the full episode: http://bit.ly/LBWmartyn Learn more about Steven and the Sacred Gardener Earth Wisdom School: https://thesacredgardener.ca In this segment of my discussion with Steven Elliot Martyn, author of ‘Sacred Gardening: Seeds for the Reemergence of Co-Creative Agriculture’ and ‘The Story of the Madawaska Forest Garden: Co-creating Integrated Polyculture’ and co-creator of the Sacred Gardener Earth Wisdom School, Steven explores the roots of our dominant culture’s profound disconnection from the sacred roots of agriculture and land use. On his path of exploration into this subject, Steven has cultivated an intuitive and deeply expressed capacity of truly listening to the spirit(s) of the land and the living beings that reside there, having gained superb insights into how to reacquaint our culture with our sacred capacities of participating in a co-creative relationship with the living Earth. Steven’s development of this intuitive knowledge has manifested into something that is altogether missing in much of the dominant Western culture’s models of land use and agricultural production in the modern age (a culmination of the dominant culture’s obsession with logic, or as Steven has called it, the “cult of Reason”). In this interview, Steven refutes the idea that the development of agriculture in human societies is the result of a “wrong turn” in our development as a species (a primitivist assertion), and instead asserts that the roots of agricultural land use is rooted in our intuitive, sacred, and co-creative capacities as cultural beings with the living Earth, and that deprograming ourselves from the overly-reductionist approach to land use is essential in reclaiming our right role within the broad matrix of life, both on the local and global scale. Steven Martyn (M.A. in traditional plant use, B.F.A. honours) is an artist, farmer, wildcrafter, builder, teacher, writer, and visionary. Steven has more than thirty years experience living co-creatively with the Earth practicing traditional living skills of growing food, building and healing. Steven created Livingstone & Greenbloom in 1986, Toronto’s first green landscaping company. In 1996, he created the Algonquin Tea Company, North America’s premiere bioregional tea company. He has given talks and workshops internationally for more than twenty years and taught plant identification and wilderness skills at Algonquin college for 11 years, and at the Orphan Wisdom School for 8 years. In 2014, Spencer and his wife Megan started the Sacred Gardener Earth Wisdom School. Steven released his first book, The Story of the Madawaska Forest Garden in 2016, and his second Sacred Gardening in June 2017. WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness DONATE: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast DROP ME A LINE: Call (208) 918-2837 or http://bit.ly/LBWfiledrop EVERYTHING ELSE: https://linktr.ee/patterns.of.behavior
[Intro: 9:23 | Outro: 1:11:40] In this episode, I speak with Steven Elliot Martyn, author of ‘Sacred Gardening: Seeds for the Reemergence of Co-Creative Agriculture’ and ‘The Story of the Madawaska Forest Garden: Co-creating Integrated Polyculture’ and co-creator of the Sacred Gardener Earth Wisdom School. In this discussion, I ask Steven to expound on his journey of becoming a “sacred gardener,” which has included years of deep intellectual and spiritual introspection and experimentation with agricultural production, gardening, and foraging — a journey that has led to him to a recognition of the roots of our dominant culture’s profound disconnection from the sacred roots of agriculture and land use. On this path of exploration (fleshed out more fully in ’The Story of Madawaska Forest Garden’ and ‘Sacred Gardening’), Steven has cultivated an intuitive and deeply expressed capacity of being able to truly listen to the spirit(s) of the land and the living beings that reside there, having gained superb insights into how to reacquaint our culture with our sacred roots of participation and co-creative relationship with the living Earth. Steven’s development of this intuitive knowledge has manifested into something that is altogether missing in much of the dominant culture’s conception of land use and agricultural production in the modern age (a culmination of our culture’s obsession with logic, or as Steven has called it, the “cult of Reason”). In this interview, Steven refutes the idea that the development of agriculture in human societies is the result of a “wrong turn” in our development as a species (a primitivist assertion), and instead asserts that the roots of agricultural land use is rooted in our intuitive, sacred, and co-creative capacities as cultural beings with the living Earth, and that deprograming ourselves from the overly-reductionist approach to land use is essential in reclaiming our right role within the broad matrix of life, both on the local and global scale. Steven Martyn (M.A. in traditional plant use, B.F.A. honours) is an artist, farmer, wildcrafter, builder, teacher, writer, and visionary. Steven has more than thirty years experience living co-creatively with the Earth practicing traditional living skills of growing food, building and healing. Steven created Livingstone & Greenbloom in 1986, Toronto’s first green landscaping company. In 1996, he created the Algonquin Tea Company, North America’s premiere bioregional tea company. He has given talks and workshops internationally for more than twenty years and taught plant identification and wilderness skills at Algonquin college for 11 years, and at the Orphan Wisdom School for 8 years. In 2014, Spencer and his wife Megan started the Sacred Gardener Earth Wisdom School. Steven released his first book, The Story of the Madawaska Forest Garden in 2016, and his second Sacred Gardening in June 2017. Episode Notes: - Learn more about Steven and the Sacred Gardener Earth Wisdom School: https://thesacredgardener.ca - Learn more about and purchase ‘Sacred Gardening’ and ‘The Story of the Madawaska Forest Garden’: http://bit.ly/sacredgardener / http://bit.ly/madawaskaforest - The song featured in this episode is “Miguk'asha” by Eijra Woon from the album Fae: https://eijrawoon.bandcamp.com WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness DONATE: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast DROP ME A LINE: Call (208) 918-2837 or http://bit.ly/LBWfiledrop EVERYTHING ELSE: https://linktr.ee/patterns.of.behavior
In this episode we speak with Stephen Jenkinson. Stephen is a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School. He has written several books, including Die Wise: A Manifesto For Sanity and Soul, and Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in Times of Trouble. In this conversation we speak about Stephen's Nights Of Grief and Mystery tour that is coming to our home, Salt Lake City, November 16th, and is touring through North America during the fall of 2019. If your are close to one of the spots on the tour, we encourage you to attend this extraordinary event. Stephen speaks of how he and Gregory Hoskins were being faithful to what had not yet appeared in terms of a gathering, likening Nights of Grief and Mystery more to a ritual or ceremony, where everyone attending is a participant as opposed to having an audience and performance. Stephen speaks about what it is to be a deeply claimed person, and how to be faithful to what you are born into. Stephen unpacks the words "grief" and "mystery" and their importance in these times. We deeply enjoyed speaking with Stephen, and truly value the wisdom, and the challenging questions he offers. We hope you enjoy the conversation. If you would like to hear more, we had a previous interview with Stephen on our podcast last year entitled "A Case for Elderhood." For more about Stephen's work, his school and the tour, visit http://www.orphanwisdom.com
Stephen Jenkinson is a Harvard educated theologian, culture activist, educator, and creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School. For years he headed the counselling team of Canada’s largest home-based palliative care programme and he was assistant professor at a prominent medical school. Working with hundreds of dying people and their families, care-givers, nurses, doctors and social workers he encountered the deep death phobia and grief illiteracy that exists in the West. This motivated him to redefine what it means to live, and die well. He’s the author of several books including: How It All Could Be, Money and the Soul’s Desires, the award winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, and Come of Age: The Case of Elderhood in a Time of Trouble. He’s also the subject of the National Film Board of Canada documentary, Griefwalker, a lyrical, poetic portrait of his work with dying people. Most recently, he has been performing his Nights of Grief & Mystery Tour, a rich and powerfully nuanced evening woven together by deep storytelling, wondering and music, to sold out venues across three continents 00.00 Trailer 00.12 Introduction 02.00 What do people never ask Stephen that he wishes they would? 03.50 Stephen on his communication 08.50 How do you communicate to someone that they are dying? 11.40 What does a good death look like? 16.30 What does the word God mean to Stephen? 19.10 Why does Stephen think age intolerance exists today? 25.20 The degradation of culture 31.20 Stephen on his ancestry 34.40 Stephen on his purpose 40.30 Stephen on his legacy 41.20 What kind of imprint has witnessing so many deaths left on Stephen’s psyche? 44.20 How does Stephen define success? 46.40 Best piece of advice 48.30 Speaking to 20 year old self 49.50 Changing the world 51.40 Being the change you want to see in the world You can find Stephen at: https://orphanwisdom.com/ https://www.facebook.com/orphanwisdom/ https://www.youtube.com/user/orphanwisdommedia Find Inspired Edinburgh here: http://www.inspiredinburgh.com https://www.facebook.com/INSPIREDINBURGH https://www.twitter.com/INSPIREDINBURGH https://www.instagram.com/INSPIREDINBURGH
This is a segment of episode #206 of Last Born In The Wilderness “Our Devotional Act: Nights Of Grief & Mystery w/ Stephen Jenkinson.” Listen to the full episode: http://bit.ly/LBWjenkinson2 Show times, locations, and information on the ‘Nights of Grief & Mystery’ tour: http://bit.ly/GriefMystery Watch Ian MacKenzie’s short film ‘Lost Nation Road’: https://www.lostnationroad.com In this segment of my discussion with culture activist, teacher, author and ceremonialist Stephen Jenkinson, we discuss his most recent performative project ‘Nights of Grief & Mystery,’ made in collaboration with “song and dance man” Gregory Hoskins — as documented in the recent short film ‘Lost Nation Road,’ directed by Ian MacKenzie. After watching Ian MacKenzie’s short documentary film ‘Lost Nation Road,’ I finally began to understand more fully the real spirit and essence of Stephen Jenkinson and Gregory Hoskins’ exquisite and subversive project ‘Nights of Grief & Mystery.’ By that, I mean the immersive and ritualized nature of this performative act. To describe this act merely as a storytelling/spoken word and musical performance is to reduce the unifying purpose to its individual components. ‘Nights of Grief & Mystery’ subverts our notions of what performance is and could be in this time of deep trouble, and as Stephen elaborates in this interview, this act taps into something far older than that of theatrical performance — ritual. Ritual engages with the collective, requiring the participation of all involved — which stands in contrast with proper theatrical performance as we often conceive and experience it, which as Stephen expresses, is a disfigurement of ritual, creating an arbitrary division between the “audience” and the “performers.” In subverting our notions of performance, Stephen and Gregory conjure an experience that alludes to the question: In these times of deepening trouble, how do we conduct ourselves? “These are nights in which love letters to life are written and read aloud. There’s some boldness in them. They have that tone. These nights have the mark of our time upon them, and they’re timely, urgent, alert, steeped in mortal mystery. They’re quixotic. They have swagger. What would you call such a thing? We call them Nights of Grief & Mystery.” Stephen Jenkinson (MTS, MSW) is the author of numerous books, including 'Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble' and 'Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul.' Stephen teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010. With Masters degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work), he is revolutionizing grief and dying in North America. Apprenticed to a master storyteller, he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, is former program director in a major Canadian hospital, former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school, consultant to palliative care and hospice organizations and educator and advocate in the helping professions. He is also a sculptor, traditional canoe builder whose house won a Governor General’s Award for architecture. Stephen Jenkinson is also the subject of the feature length documentary film ‘Griefwalker’ (National Film Board of Canada, 2008), a lyrical, poetic portrait of his work with dying people. WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness DONATE: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast DROP ME A LINE: Call (208) 918-2837 or http://bit.ly/LBWfiledrop EVERYTHING ELSE: https://linktr.ee/patterns.of.behavior
[INTRO: 12:37 | OUTRO: 1:22:37] In this episode, I speak with culture activist, teacher, author and ceremonialist Stephen Jenkinson. We discuss his most recent performative project ‘Nights of Grief & Mystery,’ made in collaboration with “song and dance man” Gregory Hoskins — as documented in the recent short film ‘Lost Nation Road,’ directed by Ian MacKenzie. After watching Ian MacKenzie’s short documentary film ‘Lost Nation Road,’ I finally began to understand more fully the real spirit and essence of Stephen Jenkinson and Gregory Hoskins’ exquisite and subversive project ‘Nights of Grief & Mystery.’ By that, I mean the immersive and ritualized nature of this performative act. To describe this act merely as a storytelling/spoken word and musical performance is to reduce the unifying purpose to its individual components. ‘Nights of Grief & Mystery’ subverts our notions of what performance is and could be in this time of deep trouble, and as Stephen elaborates in this interview, this act taps into something far older than that of theatrical performance — ritual. Ritual engages with the collective, requiring the participation of all involved — which stands in contrast with proper theatrical performance as we often conceive and experience it, which as Stephen expresses, is a disfigurement of ritual, creating an arbitrary division between the “audience” and the “performers.” In subverting our notions of performance, Stephen and Gregory conjure an experience that alludes to the question: In these times of deepening trouble, how do we conduct ourselves? “These are nights in which love letters to life are written and read aloud. There’s some boldness in them. They have that tone. These nights have the mark of our time upon them, and they’re timely, urgent, alert, steeped in mortal mystery. They’re quixotic. They have swagger. What would you call such a thing? We call them Nights of Grief & Mystery.” Stephen Jenkinson (MTS, MSW) is the author of numerous books, including 'Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble' and 'Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul.' Stephen teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010. With Masters degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work), he is revolutionizing grief and dying in North America. Apprenticed to a master storyteller, he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, is former program director in a major Canadian hospital, former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school, consultant to palliative care and hospice organizations and educator and advocate in the helping professions. He is also a sculptor, traditional canoe builder whose house won a Governor General’s Award for architecture. Stephen Jenkinson is also the subject of the feature length documentary film ‘Griefwalker’ (National Film Board of Canada, 2008), a lyrical, poetic portrait of his work with dying people. Episode Notes: - Show times, locations, and information on the ‘Nights of Grief & Mystery’ tour: http://bit.ly/GriefMystery - Watch Ian MacKenzie’s short film ‘Lost Nation Road’: https://www.lostnationroad.com - Learn more about Stephen’s body of work: https://orphanwisdom.com - Purchase John Halstead’s book ‘Another End of the World is Possible’: http://bit.ly/2Mr1Uur - The intro features audio from ‘Lost Nation Road’: http://bit.ly/2Z1ImhW - The outro features the song “Take A Little Walk / All The Songs of Love” by Gregory Hoskins and Stephen Jenkinson from the album Nights of Grief and Mystery: http://bit.ly/2Z8BNtO WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness DONATE: https://www.paypal.me/lastbornpodcast DROP ME A LINE: Call (208) 918-2837 or http://bit.ly/LBWfiledrop EVERYTHING ELSE: https://linktr.ee/patterns.of.behavior
Stephen Jenkinson asks if just being older makes you an elder, than why are there more older people on this planet than ever before in history, but so few wise older people? Author of Come of Age; the case for Elderhood in a Troubled World and Die Wise; A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul, Stephen drills down into the reasons for Boomers to stop working on self improvement and become stewards of our planet. This is not a light hearted conversation, but a compelling one that just might change your life. The music on today's episode is Gregory Hoskins - Nights of Grief and Mystery The 2019 Grief and Mystery Tour Dates click here Lost Nation Road, Film by Ian McKenzie click here Other Films by Ian McKenzie click here and here Info about Orphan Wisdom School and Stephen's website click here Books (click on the links below) Come of Age: A Case for Elderhood in Troubled Times Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul LondonReal Interview June 2019 click here
Our guest for this week is Stephen Jenkinson, a culture activist, teacher, author, ceremonialist and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School.Stephen’s educational background includes masters degrees in Theology and Social Work. He is renowned for his work regarding grief and dying all over North America. Years of working with people who are either dying or experiencing the loss of a loved one have given him profound insight into how we perceive, interpret and deal with death. Throughout his career, he was performing roles such as programme director in a major Canadian hospital and assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school. He has also worked as a consultant to palliative care and hospice organizations and educator and advocate in the helping professions.Stephen founded Orphan Wisdom School back in 2010, a teaching house and a learning house for the skills of deep living and making human culture. The name “orphan” describes people whose culture has been built upon mass migration, but as Stephen puts it “not knowing where you are from is not the same thing as being from nowhere”. The philosophy of Orphan Wisdom School is rooted in “knowing history, being claimed by ancestry and working for a time we may not see”.He was also the subject of the feature-length documentary film titled “Griefwalker” released in 2008. In the film, you get to experience and witness not only Stephen’s work and teachings of palliative care but his thoughts on culture, community, and the need for elders. He has produced a 10 part series called “The Haiku Sessions” which are created based on his live recorded teachings.Stephen has authored two books. In 2015, he published “Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul” which works as a guide for dying well by learning the right skills through the process of living well. His latest book is called “Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble”. It was released in 2018 and in it, Stephen makes the case for birthing “a new generation of elders, one poised and willing to be true stewards of the planet and its species”.For the next several weeks, Stephen will be touring Australia and New Zealand with his latest book. You can expect events such as author reading and reportage, all day talks and festival appearances. Check out the dates of his tour here!Connect with Stephen:Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orphanwisdom/Website: https://orphanwisdom.com/Stephen’s Journey of Inspired Evolution“Anyone who speaks with authority about one’s own life has been reading the wrong mail.” - Stephen JenkinsonStephen plays an active role in something that he likes to call “the death trade”. To give a better explanation of what he means by that, he takes us back to a moment in his life when it all began. He was approached with an offer and the idea behind it was that Stephen would organize a support group for men who were having trouble coping with losing important people in their lives.“I would take the little job which was to do a six-week group for these guys and I didn’t have any idea what I was going to do.” - Stephen JenkinsonEven though he wasn’t a “corporate guy”, he decided not to pass on an opportunity to help others in their time of need. But he was faced with a new conundrum. It became pretty clear to him that men aren’t that open to participating in emotional support groups that were exclusively for men. Most people would either give up in a situation like this, or try to change the conditions of their role, but Stephen actually saw potential in this particular challenge. He knew that even though he would have to face some drawbacks and that people would be reluctant to join his group, he also knew that all of these men were sharing the same situation and had several characteristics that would allow them to bond.“That’s the group it’s going to be. A men’s group for men who don’t want to be in a group for men.” - Stephen JenkinsonStephen managed to persuade and form a group that had around 7 or 8 members in the beginning. After a few sessions, it became apparent to Stephen that the main topic they should devote their time to in their discussions is anger. Because even though anger is a perfectly natural response, it has been completely rejected by Western society. He noticed that the members of his group were very reliant on their anger but were also very ashamed for feeling and responding in such a way to the situation they’re in.“They were so good at anger, basically, to cover something that they had very little practice at and that was the art and the skillfulness of being sad.” - Stephen JenkinsonThe shift in the topic actually resulted in the group being dubbed as “Sad School” but the value of these meetings is reflected in the fact that the six-week group ended up lasting around 18 months. It was there that Stephen had found his calling and discovered a new sense of purpose.What Does It Mean to Be an Elder?The variety and scale of topics discussed in this podcast surpass the limits of our humble show notes. But let’s focus on Stephen’s understanding of the roles elders play or at least should play in our society. A lot of other concepts in Stephen’s teachings can be connected to this theme. He goes on to explain the meaning behind the phrase “respect your elders” and essentially analyses the implications of different ways of comprehending this message. He believes the formula has a sort of a “two-part interpretation” and that in our society only one is present.“The part that never appears, that nobody talks about… is, you respect your elders in part because they have carried themselves in a respectable way.” - Stephen JenkinsonOne of the most profound aspects of his teaching regarding the topic of elders is that Stephen understands it is a role to be earned. It’s not a simple consequence of having lived a certain number of years, you should have also behaved and represented yourself in a manner that will incite the respect of younger generations. It should also be pointed out that “respect” in this context is a complex term that also holds within itself the idea of “seeking guidance”. We dive very deep into the very core of the topic in our conversation.Stephen’s Message of Inspired EvolutionTalking to Stephen feels like talking to a profound-quote machine, but you immediately understand that the description would make no sense because of the fact his sincere humanity takes over you in an instant. I’ve been a fan of his work for quite some time and making this podcast was an amazing experience and a true privilege. I hope you’ll discover much of the same things that drew me to him in the first place when you listen to our conversation. Finally, I could probably take any of his innumerable messages he has crafted with such verbal excellence that there’s no hiding the fact he is a true artist as well. I’ve decided to go with one that resonates with the heart of our show and I’m sincerely hoping it will inspire an evolution within all:“What limit really is, is the opportunity for your style finally to appear.” - Stephen Jenkinson See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Stephen Jenkinson is an author, teacher, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer, and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School. He talks with Eric about the link between the paucity of initiatory experiences and elderhood in the Western world, how grievance is a childish occupation, the risks of becoming lazy with our use of language, the intricacies of sustainability, and the need to reconstitute how we see citizenship, among other things.
Day has been captivated by nature and art ever since first viewed the work of artist, Andy Goldsworthy as a child. Day’s very first altars were on the side of his driveway after every rainstorm, where his five year old self was devoted to saving the displaced worms by digging little holes and then decorating them in a mandala-like fashion. But it wasn’t until a major relationship breakup that he began to cultivate Morning Altars as a daily spiritual and beauty-making practice as a way to process his grief and heartache. For much of his adult life, Schildkret has been traveling three distinct but converging paths of art, nature and education. On the artistic road, he worked on and off Broadway from 2001-2007 with luminaries such a Steve Martin (The Underpants), Jessie Tyler Ferguson (The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged), Duncan Sheik (The Nightingale), and Kristen Bell and Nikki M. James (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer). As an educator and public speaker, Schildkret began his career teaching teenagers and mentoring them to connect their spiritually with a deeper nature connection. He was the winner of the prestigious Helen Diller Award for Excellence in Education with his widely popular ‘Fire Circle’ class. For over 10 years, Schildkret gathered hundreds of students around a fire to learn about ancestry, spirituality, responsibility and impermanence. Schildkret is also the Founder of Legacy As Livelihood, a creative purpose coaching practice, and The Break Free Lab, a nationally touring workshop designed for creative and spiritually minded people who long to find their creative purpose and live a life devoted to serving their creative calling. Schildkret understands that to be a teacher, he also needs to be a student. Over the course of his career, he has learned from nature connection expert, Jon Young (8 Shields Institute), studied and danced with Shoshonee elder Clyde Hall (the Naraya) and is currently a devoted scholar with the author, spiritual activist and public speaker Stephen Jenkinson (Die Wise - Nautilus Book Award Winner) and a recent graduate of his school (the Orphan Wisdom School) in Canada. While Schildkret has been building earth altars his entire life, he has been building an altar every morning as a practice for the past six years inside Wildcat Canyon in Richmond, CA. Inspired to share the benefits of this daily practice, he has gathered communities all over the United States and Canada to attend his altar and mandala making workshops. His work proves there is real healing and connection happening when people create intentional earth art. morningaltars.com
Stephen is a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer, and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School, a teaching house and learning house for the skills of deep living and making human culture. It is rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry, working for a time yet to come. Find me on Instagram or Twitter. Please consider supporting this podcast on Patreon. This Amazon affiliate link kicks a few bucks back my way.
You know those times you listen to a voice, a talk, a something that when it’s over you feel changed? That’s how I felt the first time I listened to Stephen Jenkinson talk. Even more so after interviewing him. In this episode we talk about *elderhood and the disappearance of elders in our society *wisdom and what it is to be wise *his new book ‘Come of Age’. *his work with people facing death His way of presenting these important themes is not full of fear, it is full of life and hope. Enjoy his words. STEPHEN JENKINSON is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He has a master's degree in theology from Harvard University and a master's degree in social work from the University of Toronto. Formerly a program director at a major Canadian hospital and medical-school assistant professor, Stephen is now a sought-after workshop leader, speaker, and consultant to palliative care and hospice organizations. He is the founder of The Orphan Wisdom School in Canada and the subject of the documentary film Griefwalker.
Stephen is a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School. His latest book, Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble, was released in July 2018. In his landmark provocative style, Stephen Jenkinson makes the case that we must birth a new generation of elders, one poised and willing to be true stewards of the planet and its species. Come of Age does not offer tips on how to be a better senior citizen or how to be kinder to our elders. Rather, with lyrical prose and incisive insight, Stephen Jenkinson explores the great paradox of elderhood in North America: how we are awash in the aged and yet somehow lacking in wisdom; how we relegate senior citizens to the corner of the house while simultaneously heralding them as sage elders simply by virtue of their age.
Stephen Jenkinson is a culture activist, teacher, author and ceremonialist. In this thought-provoking and soul-stirring conversation we speak about elderhood, initiation and uncovering your ancestral roots.Stephen Jenkinson BioStephen teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010. With Master’s degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work), he is revolutionizing grief and dying in North America. Stephen is redefining what it means to live, and die well. Stephen lives a handmade off the grid life on a farm beside the River of Abundance and Time in the Ottawa Valley in Ontario, Canada.Stephen's website: http://orphanwisdom.comFree StuffCheck out my short film The Shamanic Roots of YogaNew eBook on a yogic approach to integrating ecstatic experiences Wisdom of the HeartSupport the Podcast!1. Leave a review on iTunes, or share with your friends on social media2. Become a Patreon supporter at http://patreon.com/brianjamesteaching and gain access to many hours of yoga practice resources including vinyasa sequences, breathwork, chanting and guided meditations.Intro Music: Steer Your Way by Leonard CohenOutro Music: Narco Disbelief from Nights of Grief and Mystery by Stephen Jenkinson & Gregory HoskinsAbout Brian JamesBrian James is a yoga teacher, musician and artist currently living in Montréal, Canada. He has been exploring the intersection of music, yoga and shamanism for over 20 years.medicinepathyoga.combrianjamesyoga.cominstagram.com/brianjamesyogaSupport the Medicine Path PodcastSubscribe! RSS / iTunes / Google Playtags: stephen jenkinson, elderhood, initiation, spirituality, language, men
In this episode (our longest yet, and worth every minute!) we have the great pleasure to speak to the inimitable Stephen Jenkinson. Stephen is a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School. In this conversation, we explore topics such as how to strengthen your "wonder muscle," what it means to be a good ancestor, the importance of dwelling in not-knowing, what learning actually is, the etymology of the word "belonging," the importance of rites of passage and the need for wise elders, becoming permeable and letting the world soften our edges, the simultaneity of longing and peace of mind, living with a broken heart, and more. The conversation closes with Stephen reading a wonderful story from his new book, Come of Age: The Case For Elderhood in a Time of Trouble.
In this segment of our conversation, Stephen Jenkinson discusses how the dominant culture of North America, as Stephen frames it, is awash in aged people, but bereft of elders - in the truest sense of the word. Stephen “argues that elderhood is a function rather than an identity – it is not a position earned simply by the number of years on the planet or the title ‘parent’ or ‘grandparent.’” Why is it that the dominant culture of North America has been unable to produce the conditions necessary for elderhood to flourish, especially in this time of trouble we find ourselves in? Stephen points to what elderhood in our time of great crisis (ecological, spiritual, political, and otherwise) would possibly look like, framing it within the profound realization that elderhood can only flourish when the appetite exists for it. “I am making the case for elderhood, not for easy agedness. I’m doing so mostly by wondering what happened. Because something happened. Something happened to ancestors and elders and honour. There’s work to be done, and there’s an old wisdom to be learned where there used to be the wisdom of old, and you can’t fix what you don’t understand. That’s where we’re headed: to grievous wisdom. Let us see if we can bear the sound, the particular sound, of no hand clapping. This is a plea and a plot for elders in training.” Learn more about and purchase ‘Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble’ here: http://bit.ly/2mojOia Stephen Jenkinson (MTS, MSW) is a culture activist, teacher, author and ceremonialist. He is the author of numerous books, including ‘Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble’ and ‘Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul.’ Stephen teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010. Learn more about Stephen and his work at https://orphanwisdom.com This is a segment of episode #134 of Last Born In The Wilderness “Elderhood: Coming Of Age In Troubled Times w/ Stephen Jenkinson.” Listen to the full episode: http://bit.ly/2zTXTsL Podcast website: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com Support the podcast: PATREON: www.patreon.com/lastborninthewilderness ONE-TIME DONATION: www.ko-fi.com/lastborninthewilderness Follow and listen: SOUNDCLOUD: http://bit.ly/LBWSOUNDCLOUD ITUNES: http://bit.ly/LBWITUNES GOOGLE PLAY: http://bit.ly/LBWGOOGLE STITCHER: http://bit.ly/LBWSTITCHER RADIOPUBLIC: http://bit.ly/LBWRADIOPUB YOUTUBE: http://bit.ly/LBWYOUTUBE Social Media: FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/lastborninthewildernesspodcast TWITTER: www.twitter.com/lastbornpodcast INSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/patterns.of.behavior
In this episode I speak with Stephen Jenkinson - founder and lead instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School and the author of numerous books, including ‘Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul’ and most recently ‘Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble.’ In this discussion, we discuss how the dominant culture of North America, as Stephen frames it, is awash in aged people, but bereft of elders, in the truest sense of the word. Stephen “argues that elderhood is a function rather than an identity – it is not a position earned simply by the number of years on the planet or the title ‘parent’ or ‘grandparent.’”☨ Why is it that the dominant culture of North America has been unable to produce the conditions necessary for elderhood to flourish, especially in this time of trouble we find ourselves in? Stephen discusses what the historical and cultural conditions have been that has lead to this unexplored and unexamined crisis, and points to what elderhood in our time of great crisis (ecological, spiritual, political, and otherwise) would possibly look like, framing it within the profound realization that elderhood can only flourish when the appetite exists for it. Stephen states it better than I ever could: “I am making the case for elderhood, not for easy agedness. I’m doing so mostly by wondering what happened. Because something happened. Something happened to ancestors and elders and honour. There’s work to be done, and there’s an old wisdom to be learned where there used to be the wisdom of old, and you can’t fix what you don’t understand. That’s where we’re headed: to grievous wisdom. Let us see if we can bear the sound, the particular sound, of no hand clapping. This is a plea and a plot for elders in training.”☨ Stephen Jenkinson (MTS, MSW) is a culture activist, teacher, author and ceremonialist. He is the author of numerous books, including ‘Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble’ and ‘Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul.’ Stephen teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010. With Master’s degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work), he is revolutionizing grief and dying in North America. Apprenticed to a master storyteller, he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, is former program director in a major Canadian hospital, former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school, consultant to palliative care and hospice organizations and educator and advocate in the helping professions. He is also a sculptor, traditional canoe builder whose house won a Governor General’s Award for architecture. Stephen Jenkinson is also the subject of the feature length documentary film Griefwalker (National Film Board of Canada, 2008), a lyrical, poetic portrait of his work with dying people.✧ ☨ Source: http://bit.ly/2mojOia ✧ Source: http://bit.ly/2uxJ9uG Episode Notes: - Everything you need to know about Stephen Jenkinson and his work can be found at the Orphan Wisdom website: https://orphanwisdom.com - You can learn more and purchase ’Come of Age’ at the Orphan Wisdom website (http://bit.ly/2mojOia) and at the publisher’s website (http://bit.ly/2LtA9wV). - Follow Orphan Wisdom on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orphanwisdom - WEBSITE: https://www.lastborninthewilderness.com - SUPPORT THIS PROJECT: Patreon: http://bit.ly/LBWPATREON Donation: http://bit.ly/LBWKOFI - FOLLOW & LISTEN: SoundCloud: http://bit.ly/LBWSOUNDCLOUD iTunes: http://bit.ly/LBWITUNES Google Play: http://bit.ly/LBWGOOGLE Stitcher: http://bit.ly/LBWSTITCHER RadioPublic: http://bit.ly/LBWRADIOPUB YouTube: http://bit.ly/LBWYOUTUBE - SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook: http://bit.ly/LBWFACEBOOK Twitter: http://bit.ly/LBWTWITTER Instagram: http://bit.ly/LBWINSTA
Stephen Jenkinson uses the English language to disrupt clinging and confusion, and to make the ancient in us sit up, wide-eared and listen deeply. Part of his magic is in illuminating where we have come from by masterfully tracing language down dark burrows to ancient roots. Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW, is a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School, a teaching house and learning house for the skills of deep living and making human culture.
Death, Sex, Money, Power, Age: all sacred – orthodoxed into Taboo, now liberated back to vernacular sacred, through the agency of Stephen Jenkinson – filing scouting reports from the life-death border… Guiding us to “Come of Age,” by honoring age. “Stephen is a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School, a teaching house and learning house for the skills of deep living and making human culture. It is rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry, working for a time yet to come.”Author of “Die Wise,” “Money and the Soul's Desires,”and the forthcoming “Come of Age, The case for elder hood in a time of Trouble.” www.OrphanWisdom.com and, as KPFA is in Fund Drive, when we release our guest back to Midnight in Athens, we will be playing excerpts of James Hillman on the 1st Visionary Activist Show (one of the pledge incentives we are proffering this week). Support The Visionary Activist Show on Patreon for weekly Chart & Themes ($4/month), and more… *Woof*Woof*Wanna*Play?!* The post The Visionary Activist Show – Death, Sex, Money, Power, Age appeared first on KPFA.
Stephen is a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School, a teaching house and learning house for the skills of deep living and making human culture. It is rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry, working for a time yet to come. https://orphanwisdom.com/
Leah Lamb, studied with many masters of story in theater, film, as well as Neighborhood playhouse school of theater and received a masters in social work. She has produced documentaries, PSA's and interactive theater events. Her work focuses on strengthening communities, and creates unique gatherings where participants can explore the mythic forms while exploring their consciousness. Leah created the storytelling ceremony, a place where complex social issues are addressed such as The Story of The Witch, and She Rises, A New Creation Story for a New Paradigm. Lamb is committing to using story to meet the moment of the times we are living in, and views stories as the vehicle to explore the world we are living in. For seven years she worked as a wilderness guide with youth with youth at risk. Her storytelling has taken on several mediums, including launching the Green Channel at the Emmy award winning television network, Current TV, and has written about the environment for National Geographic News Watch, Planet Green, Huffington Post Spirituality & Health Magazine and Fast Company. Lamb is a graduate of the 13 Moon Mystery School, and is a scholar at the Orphan Wisdom School, and is the creator of Soul Stories, a form of mystical storytelling that allows for people to explore their archetypal structure and examine their lives through the metaphors presented in the mythic landscape from a one of a kind story created just for them.
“To grieve is part of the human experience. That's the great dare of being human and being conscious- to be willing to love something that's not going to last; that's a grief-endorsed understanding of life.” Author, teacher, activist, ceremonialist, and founder of Orphan Wisdom School, Stephen Jenkinson muses about life, death, grief, the natural world and the condition of being awake. This profound, provocative, and deeply insightful podcast is an invitation to explore the depths of our existential loneliness and be awake to the inter-connectedness of life so that we can live and die wise and our existence contributes to sustaining life for future generations.
Our guest today is Stephen Jenkinson a Harvard-trained theologian and a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School, a teaching house and learning house for the skills of deep living and making human culture. Before founding the school, he headed the counsel team of Canada's largest palliative care program and in 2008 a film ‘Griefwalker' was made about his work with the dying and their families and he's the author of several books including ‘Money and the Soul's desires' and ‘Die Wise' .
Stephen Jenkinson is back on ReWild Yourself Podcast to stretch our minds and hearts as he shares with us a bit of his elder wisdom on restoring real human culture. Stephen is a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School, a teaching house and learning house for the skills of deep living and making human culture. In our last interview (Episode #34) — a humbling conversation for me — Stephen shared insight into dying wise in our death phobic society. In today’s conversation, we focus on living wisely and meaningfully in our modern culture of self-hatred, entitlement, unwillingness to live deeply and lost connection to what makes us human. He leaves us with an empowering message on living a purposeful life, not just for ourselves, but for our collective culture and future generations. As Stephen so perfectly puts it, "Now is the time for work, not the time for getting paid.” EPISODE BREAKDOWN: Show Introduction: New SurThrival product coming soon! Hunt + gather updates: Cattail pollen-bearing flowers, Milkweed flowers, Wild strawberries, Shadbush & Self-heal CNN reports on the hunter-gatherer diet Q&A: Milkweed harvesting tips Introducing Stephen Jenkinson The absence of village-mindededness The story of Orphan Wisdom Growth and the issue with "how-to" questions The measure of a sane society Your generational spiritual project What is real sorrow? Real human culture Stephen’s prognosis for the future of the human species
We welcome Stephen Jenkinson to the Free Your Mind Podcast. Stephen is a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School, a teaching house and learning house for the skills of deep living and making human culture. It is rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry, working for a time yet to come. https://orphanwisdom.com https://www.patreon.com/freeyourmind
Stephen Jenkinson is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. He has a master's degree in theology from Harvard University and a master's degree in social work. He was formerly a program director at a major Canadian hospital and medical-school assistant professor. He has worked extensively with dying people and their families and is a consultant to palliative care and hospice organizations. He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Canada and is the subject of the documentary film, Griefwalker. He is the author of: Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (North Atlantic Books 2015)Tags: Stephen Jenkinson, writing a letter to your mother, encounter with dying, heartbrokenness, Brother Blue, Hugh Hill, initiation, Death & Dying, Indigenous Wisdom
As we throw off the mental shackles of the dominant culture and seek sanity and meaning amid the fragments of heritage and conquest, we turn for guidance to a veteran of challenging transitions. Stephen Jenkinson is an activist, teacher, author, and farmer. His book Die Wise recently received the Nautilus Book Award. He has a masters degree in theology from Harvard University and a masters degree in social work from the University of Toronto. Formerly a program director at a major Canadian hospital and medical-school assistant professor, Jenkinson is now a sought-after workshop leader, speaker, and consultant to palliative care and hospice organizations. He is the founder of the Orphan Wisdom School in Canada and the subject of the documentary film Griefwalker.
I was humbled by my conversation with Stephen Jenkinson, teacher, author, storyteller and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School. This, my friends, is a very powerful interview. Stephen will make you re-think everything you thought you knew about dying. Episode Breakdown: * How to come to terms with death * The hallmarks of "dying badly" * What "dying well" looks like * The consequences of being kept away from ground zero of human mortality * We live our lives as if dying is the annihilation of life * Considering “after-life" * Understanding that your death does not belong to you * A disconnection from our ancestors * Learning from death