Nearly 500 years ago, African survivors of the transatlantic slave trade built communities of refuge and resistance in Brazil and across Latin America.
Today, those same lands, known as quilombos, are also some of the most biodiverse places on Earth, thanks to generations of care and knowledge by quilombola communities.
In this special Black Earth episode, our host, Marion, meets with Fran Paula, an inspiring quilombola researcher from Brazil. Fran documents and shares the life-giving agricultural practices that sustain her people.
Together, they explore the links between land, freedom, and healing as the world prepares for the historic COP30 climate conference in Belém, Brazil.
🎧 This conversation is in Brazilian Portuguese and English as we bridge languages, communities, and continents across the Black diaspora. Special thanks to Júlia for the translation!
💬 Episode chapters:
00:00 – Intro and Fran’s relationship with nature
07:20 – History of quilombo lands
11:50 – Why quilombo territories hold some of the world’s healthiest natural ecosystems
15:40 – What recognition means and why it’s important for quilombola communities
22:00 – The challenges facing quilombola communities in Brazil
25:35 – Why ‘biocultural reparations’ matters to Fran
29:56 – Healing across generations
40:25 – Fran’s message to leaders and policymakers attending the COP30 climate conference in Brazil
🌍 Listen and subscribe to Black Earth wherever you get your favourite podcasts.
📲 Connect and support Fran Paula - https://www.agriculturaancestral.com/
📲 Connect and support the National Association of Quilombos in Brazil - https://conaq.org.br/
🌱 Join the conversation! Leave a comment below and connect with us: Instagram & LinkedIn & Tiktok @blackearthpodcast. We share more resources, stories, and community activities on our socials.
💌 Connect with Black Earth team for partnerships, speaking and media requests: https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/contactus
As the next climate conference (COP30) approaches, we turn to one of the most urgent and overlooked climate stories of our time: extreme heat.
Eugenia Kargbo, Africa’s first Chief Heat Officer, joins our host, Marion Osieyo, to explore how communities, nature, and social inequality are reshaping how we live and adapt in a warming world.
From Freetown, Sierra Leone to the global stage, Eugenia shares lessons on climate leadership, equity, and resilience. She reminds us that those most affected by climate change are also leading the way forward.
Trigger warning: This episode does include references to the impacts of extreme heat. Please do listen with your well-being in mind first. 💚
🌍 Listen and subscribe to Black Earth wherever you get your favourite podcasts.
📲 Connect with and support Eugenia Kargbo - https://www.climateresilience.org/about-executive-leadership
📲 Join the conversation! Leave a comment below and connect with us: Instagram, LinkedIn & Tiktok @blackearthpodcast. We share more resources, stories, and opportunities from our global community on our socials.
💌 Connect with Black Earth team for partnerships, speaking and media requests: https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/contactus
Episode chapters
00:00 Intro and Eugenia’s relationship with nature
03:28 Why Eugenia was appointed Africa’s first Chief Heat Officer
05:35 What causes rising heat in Freetown, Sierra Leone
07:27 What extreme heat feels like on a daily basis
09:13 Who is more vulnerable to the impacts of extreme heat?
14:35 Why extreme heat is not seen with the same urgency as other climate change events
20:27 How we can improve our understanding of extreme heat
23:40 The Freetown Heat Action Plan
26:50 Why nature and communities are our biggest supporters when building resilience to extreme heat
31:20 Eugenia’s lessons on leadership when working on climate resilience
33:30 How to support Eugenia and Black Earth!
For thousands of years, humans have had a deep relationship with seeds. Seeds are our ancestors. They carry life, culture and memory. But today, the situation is drastically changing. Across Africa and the world, the corporate capture of agriculture is threatening native seeds and the communities who have nurtured them for generations.
In this inspiring and enlightening episode of Black Earth Podcast, Marion speaks with Mashudu Takalani of the EarthLore Foundation about seed sovereignty. Together, they explore:
🌱 Why seeds are essential to life on Earth
🌍 How Indigenous communities in Southern Africa are restoring traditional seed stewardship
💡 The impacts of corporate agriculture on food systems and culture
👩🏾🌾 The role of African women and youth as guardians of seed
🔥 How seed stewardship builds resilience to climate change and biodiversity loss
🌾 Daily practices we can all adopt to honour seeds and support food sovereignty
This is a conversation about protecting biodiversity, reviving Indigenous knowledge, and reclaiming our relationship with the seeds that sustain us.
🎧 Listen and subscribe to Black Earth wherever you get your favourite podcasts.
📲 Connect and collaborate with Mashudu Takalani and EarthLore Foundation https://earthlorefoundation.org/about-us/
📲 Join the conversation! Leave a comment below and connect with us: Instagram & LinkedIn @blackearthpodcast. We share more resources, stories, and community activities on our socials.
💌 Connect with Black Earth team for partnerships, speaking and media requests: https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/contactus
Episode timestamps
00:00 Intro to episode and why we are talking about seeds
02:37 Mashudu’s relationship with nature
04:00 Why seeds are vital to life on Earth
08:00 How Mashudu accompanies communities in Southern Africa to restore their Indigenous seeds and ways of life
13:07 The impacts of the corporate capture of agriculture
16:40 Seed is culture
17:39 Building resilience to climate change and nature loss through seed stewardship
22:40 African women and youth as seed stewards
28:00 How to bring stewardship of seeds back into the hands of small scale farmers and communities
33:00 How we can start or continue to honour the role of seeds in our daily lives
36:42 How to support Mashudu and Black Earth
What does it take to create access and opportunity for more diverse founders in the climate and sustainability space?
In this episode of the Black Earth Podcast, Marion speaks with Mandy Nyarko MBE, a leading climate and sustainability investor, about the power of entrepreneurship to drive solutions for a changing world.
Together they explore:
🌱 What climate entrepreneurship really means
👩🏾💼 Why there are so few Black women entrepreneurs in the UK climate and sustainability sector
💡 How mindset and access to investment shape who gets to be a founder
📈 The role of investing in building a more inclusive climate economy
🔮 The trends to watch in climate and sustainability over the next five years
This is a must-listen for anyone interested in climate justice, entrepreneurship and the future of diverse leadership in sustainability.
📲 Connect with Mandy Nyarko: https://www.mandynyarko.com/
📲 Join the conversation! Leave a comment below and connect with us: Instagram, TikTok & LinkedIn @blackearthpodcast. We share more resources, stories, and community activities on our socials.
🎧 Listen and subscribe to Black Earth wherever you get your favourite podcasts.
💌 Connect with Black Earth team for partnerships, speaking and media requests: https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/contactus
Episode Time stamps
00:00 Intro to episode
01:50 Mandy’s relationship with nature
06:20 Mandy’s journey to working with entrepreneurs
11:56 What is climate entrepreneurship?
15:16 Who gets to be an entrepreneur in the climate and sustainability space
19:26 Why there are so few black women entrepreneurs in the UK working on climate and sustainability
28:38 The power of mindset in being a climate and sustainability entrepreneur
29:30 Why investing is important in widening access for more entrepreneurs
32:50 The trends to look out for in the next five years according to Mandy
34:00 What joy means for Mandy
35:20 How you can support Black Earth!
Who gets to create the future?
In this inspiring episode of Black Earth, Marion Atieno Osieyo sits down with Tracee Worley, founder of Radical Futures, to discover how communities, especially Black women, are using radical imagination and care to reimagine climate futures and environmental justice.
✨ In this episode, we explore:
🌍 Why futures thinking matters for Black-led climate and environmental action
🌍 Lessons from Tracee’s work with the survivors of the 1921 Black Wall Street massacre in Tulsa, Oklahoma
🌍 What “technologies of care” mean for climate justice movements
🌍 How Octavia Butler’s visionary work teaches us to sense the future
🌍 The unique role Black women play in shaping the futures of the world
In connection to this episode, Marion and Tracee are hosting a game on Instagram live, ‘The Best Thing from A Radical Future’ on 3rd September @ 9:00am LA time/ 17:00 UK time. We’d love for you to join us!! Follow us on IG: @blackearthpodcast for more info!
📲 Join the conversation! Leave a comment below and connect with us: Instagram, TikTok & LinkedIn @blackearthpodcast. We share more resources, stories, and community activities on our socials.
📲 Connect with Tracee and her design studio, Radical Futures: https://www.radicalfutures.studio/about-us
🔔 Subscribe to Black Earth for more conversations at the intersection of nature, innovation and culture.
💌 Connect with Black Earth team for partnerships, speaking and media requests: https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/contactus
📌 Timestamps
00:00 Intro to Black Earth and why we are talking about the future today
02:50 Tracee’s relationship with nature
06:46 Why Tracee set up her design studio, Radical Futures
17:55 Tracee’s moving work with Black communities recovering from the 1921 Tulsa Massacre
26:00 The importance of moving at the speed of trust
27:36 Why futures practice matters for Black-led environmental action
33:50 What it means to have ‘technologies of care’
35:46 Community creating their futures is at the heart of climate justice
38:46 What we can learn from Octavia Butler about sensing the future
43:20 What Black women bring to futures practice
46:20 How dying connects to the future
51:38 How to support Tracee and Black Earth!
Welcome back to Black Earth with me, Marion Atieno Osieyo. In each episode, I speak with pioneering Black women from around the world who are re-imagining our relationship with Earth and each other.
This is the first episode of our new season, Season 4, and you can watch the video version on our new YouTube channel here!!
Today, I meet Agnes Agyepong, founder of Global Child and Maternal Health, for a deep, urgent, and hopeful conversation about air pollution, pregnancy, and environmental justice in the UK.
In this episode, we explore:
🌍 Groundbreaking research on how air pollution affects the health of Black pregnant women and unborn babies in London
🌍 How Black mothers are leading change for clean air
🌍 What you can do now to reduce air pollution in your home, on your street, and across the UK
💬 “Clean air isn’t a luxury. It’s a birthright. For everyone.”
🎧 If you liked this episode, you might also enjoy our previous one: "Breathing Air, Breathing Justice with Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah" → Listen on our website or wherever you are listening to this podcast.
📲 Join the conversation! Leave a comment below and connect with us: Instagram, TikTok & LinkedIn @blackearthpodcast. We share more resources, stories, and community activities on our socials.
📲 Connect with Agnes and support her organisation, Global Child and Maternal Health: https://globalcmh.org/about-us/
💌 For partnerships, speaking requests, and media inquiries, contact us here: https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/contactus
xx B.E.
Thank you so much for tuning into Season 3 of Black Earth Podcast. In this season, we have been meeting visionary black women who are creating innovations inspired by nature.
In this season finale, Black Earth team, Marion and Anesu, reflect on their changing relationships with nature as well their key take-aways from Season 3. We also discuss what is to come for Black Earth Podcast.
Although Season 3 has completed, we have some upcoming plans that you can get involved in that we will be announcing on our social media and website. So make sure you stay connected with us:
Thank you for joining us on this incredible journey of Earth care.
Love xx B.E.
Episode timestamps
00:00 - Intro to podcast episode
02:00 - Anesu’s relationship with nature
03:45 - Marion’s relationship with nature
13:30 - Our key take-aways from Season 3, ‘Innovation Inspired By Nature’
23:55 - What we are learning about humanity’s relationship with other living beings
35:41 - What’s coming up for Black Earth Podcast
‘How do we practice this revolution in a way that embodies the best of what we have as humans and the best of what we can observe in other species?’ - Marion
In Season 3 of Black Earth Podcast, we are meeting visionary black women who are creating innovations inspired by nature.
Today we meet Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs from North Carolina, United States. Alexis is a queer black feminist, love evangelist and an aspirational favourite cousin to all living beings.
They are also the author of numerous works including the incredible book, ‘Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals.’
In this inspiring and deeply moving episode, Alexis and I explore ways to uncolonise our humanity, our creativity and our relationships with more-than-human beings.
Timestamps
00:00 - Introducing Alexis
02:15 - Alexis’ relationship with nature
09:00 - Alexis reads the preface from their book ‘Undrowned: Black feminist lessons from marine mammals’
27:00 - Alexis shares an example of black feminist lesson they learned from witnessing the harbour seal
37:15 - What we can learn from apes about mothering and care
43:50 - Why it’s important for black people to reconcile with other living beings and how decoloniality helps us
56:55 - Alexis’ advice on how to give ourselves radical permission to create
01:06:00 - Alexis’ upcoming book on Audre Lorde
01:18:00 - How to support Alexis
01:20:00 How to support Black Earth podcast
How to support Alexis Pauline Gumbs
How to support and connect with Black Earth Podcast
In Season 3 of Black Earth Podcast, we are meeting visionary black women who are creating innovations inspired by nature.
In this episode, we meet Dr. Mfoniso Antia who is a scientist and Programme Manager at the Health of Mother Earth Foundation in Nigeria. Health of Mother Earth Foundation is a pioneering ecological think tank advocating for environmental justice and food sovereignty in Nigeria and Africa at large.
Dr. Mfoniso is from the Niger Delta in Nigeria, which is a culturally and resource rich region that has been tragically impacted by fossil fuel extraction for several generations. Fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas are burned to be used as sources of energy for human activity around the world.
In this episode, we discuss the environmental, human, and political impacts of fossil fuel extraction in Nigeria.
We also discuss what a socially just energy transition looks like that centers the dignity and well-being of most-affected communities.
Join us for this powerful and enlightening episode.
Timestamps
00:00 - Welcome
3:13 - Dr. Mfoniso’s relationship with nature
6:28 - Why we need to talk about energy in the context of climate and environmental justice
8:36 - The links between fossil fuel extraction and climate change in Nigeria
12:34 - How fossil fuel extraction drives power inequalities within countries and across the world
22:38 - How fossil fuel extraction impacts social relationships and cultures
28:45 - How to respond to people who still argue for fossil fuel extraction in Africa to help with development.
36:40 - Introducing the vision and work of Health of Mother Earth Foundation
44:30 - What does it look like to innovate with communities most affected by energy injustice?
50:50 - What life-giving energy systems look like
58:40 - How to support Dr. Mfoniso and Health of Mother Earth Foundation
01:00:30 - How to connect with and support Black Earth Podcast
How to support Dr Mfoniso
How to support and connect with Black Earth Podcast
In Season 3 of Black Earth Podcast, we are meeting visionary black women who are creating innovations inspired by nature.
In this episode, we meet the amazing Etta Madete. Etta is an architect, advocate and real estate developer from Kenya. As the founder of Zima Homes, her passion and life’s work is building affordable, inclusive and sustainable housing for communities who need it the most.
In our conversation, we unpack what affordable and sustainable housing means, why spatial justice is important and how we can design urban spaces for all living beings to thrive.
Timestamps
Welcome - 0:00
Etta’s relationship with nature - 02:10
Etta describes her four principles of well-living - Earth, Fire, Water, Air - 06:48
Etta’s vision for affordable and sustainable housing and why it matters - 16:30
Why affordable and sustainable includes the welfare of nature - 31:53
Spatial justice and what that looks like in Africa - 47:00
How to support Etta and her work - 58:30
How to support Black Earth Podcast - 01:00:30
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Etta’s Four Principles of Well-living - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyrtXQEOoR4
How to support and connect with Etta
How to support and connect with Black Earth Podcast
Welcome to Black Earth Podcast! Today, we have a special treat for you!
In Season 3, we are meeting visionary black women who are creating innovations inspired by nature.
In last week's episode, we met Bryony Ella. Bryony is an inspiring artist-researcher who creates immersive and engaging public artworks that help us reimagine our relationship with nature.
This episode is taken from her project, The Colour of Transformation. The Colour of Transformation is a documentary and artist film that celebrates the pioneering work of women of the global majority working in the UK nature sector.
The musical score you are listening to in this episode is created in response to those interviews, in which the women share their unique and personal journeys of transformation, as they each carve out their own space within the sector, learning how to nourish themselves and their communities for the benefit not only of the human world, but also the more-than-human world.
Enjoy!
Credit:
Bryony Ella
Orphy Robinson
Bunmi Thomas
How to support and connect with Bryony Ella
How to support and connect with Black Earth Podcast
In Season 3 of Black Earth Podcast, we are meeting visionary black women who are creating innovations inspired by nature.
In today’s episode, we meet Bryony Ella. Bryony is an inspiring artist-researcher who creates immersive and engaging public artworks that help us reimagine our relationship with nature.
In this episode, Bryony talks to us about her incredible artistic practice and how an emerging idea called embodied ecology can help us reconnect with nature and rediscover ourselves as nature.
Timestamps
00:00 - Introduction
02:03 - Bryony’s relationship with nature
08:09 - How Bryony’s relationship with nature shapes her practice as an artist
17:59 - Understanding embodied ecology
26:10 - The importance of trusting your experiences as a guide for creating and learning
27:30 - How embodied ecology helps us think about the world differently
33:10 - Discussing Bryony’s art project honouring Wangari Maathai
44:05 - Discussing Bryony’s art project ‘The Colour of Transformation’
53:19 - Discussing Bryony’s latest project, Melting Metropolis, and an opportunity for you to get involved!
57:00 - More info on the PhD opportunity to work with Bryony Ella
01:00:00 - How to support Bryony
01:02:00 - How to support Black Earth Podcast
How to support and connect with Bryony Ella
How to support and connect with Black Earth Podcast
Today is World Biodiversity Day!!
It's a day for us to celebrate the incredible diversity of life on our beautiful planet. Biodiversity is all about the variety and interconnectedness of life on Earth, from the soil beneath our feet to the birds above and everything in between.
Instead of a regular Black Earth episode, we want you to spend one hour this week listening to nature.
Have a listen to the episode to find out why biodiversity is so important and also really, really good for your wellbeing.
Share this challenge with your loved ones and if you share your experiences online, use the #ListenToNature and tag us! Let's celebrate and protect our beautiful living planet together.
Love,
B.E.
In Season 3 of Black Earth Podcast, we are meeting visionary black women who are creating innovations inspired by nature.
In this episode, we meet Dr Melissa Sikosana. She is a biomaterials scientist who is passionate about connecting art, science and design to solve society’s problems.
Dr Melissa speaks with us about an exciting discipline called biomimicry. Biomimicry is the art and science of learning how nature creates life in order to redesign a more regenerative and resilient world.
Dr Melissa shares with us what biomimicry is and how we can apply it to change the world around us and our relationship with nature.
Get ready for an inspiring episode that will leave you in awe of nature.
Timestamps
00:00 - Introductions
4:37 - Melissa’s relationship with nature
13:08 - How Melissa came across biomimicry
16:52 - What is biomimicry?
21:35 - The three seeds (principles) of biomimicry
27:23 - An example of how to apply biomimicry to design something
34:50 - Biomimicry is practiced across cultures all around the world
44:58 - Decolonising knowledge
51:40 - Using biomimicry to redesign our social and political institutions
01:02:00 - Affordable or free resources for you to learn more about biomimicry
01:02:43 - Marion’s experience with eco-grief and how biomimicry is helping her
01:06:30 - How to support Melissa and Melissa’s work
Resources mentioned in the episode
How you can support Black Earth Podcast:
How you can support Melissa
In Season 3 of Black Earth Podcast, we are meeting visionary black women creating innovations inspired by nature.
In this episode we meet Tinuke Chineme. Tinuke is an inspiring scientist and innovator based in Calgary, Canada.
She is working with black soldier flies and African Indigenous Female Entrepreneurs to develop a new economic model that transforms organic waste into wealth.
Join us for this enriching conversation as we learn how to create economies that promote dignity, wellbeing and sustainability for people and our living planet.
Connect with Black Earth Podcast
Connect with Tinuke via LinkedIn - Tinuke Chineme
Episode time stamps
00:00 Introduction
01:18 - Where is home? Unravelling ties between territories and identity
05:19 - Tinuke’s relationship with nature
08:57 - What led Tinuke to her work as a scientist and innovator on waste
13:07- Tinuke explains her biowaste innovation
22:39 - Connecting waste and environmental justice in black communities
28:54 - How waste is defined in Yoruba culture and Indigenous cultures
32:59 - Zero waste is a part of African cultures
33:57- How nature sees waste
40:00 Why our dominant economic system is unnatural
41:53 - Introducing an economic model fit for the future
47:55 - The difference between the dominant economic model and a social circular economy
51:00 - Why it’s important to talk about the purpose of an economy
56:08 - The power of African Indigenous Female Entrepreneurs
01:06:00 - What animal welfare looks like in life-giving economies
01:11:43 - How to support Tinuke
Hello Black Earth fam!
We are so excited to be back for Season 3 of Black Earth Podcast!!
The theme for this season is 'Innovation Inspired by Nature'. Join us for this juicy and world changing season as we meet incredible black women inventors, scientists and artists who are building new worlds with the genius of mama nature. Check out the trailer to find out more.
Make sure to subscribe wherever you listen to your favourite podcast and connect with us on Instagram, Tiktok and LinkedIn @blackearthpodcast.
Love xx
B.E
Season 2 is complete!
In this episode, the Black Earth team, Marion and Anesu, reflect on their highlights and lessons from Season 2. We reflect on how our relationships with nature are evolving, the importance of radical imagination and re-defining community. We also discuss what active hope means in a world undergoing immense change and crises.
Thank you for being part of our amazing listener community from more than 110 countries! See you in Season 3, which will bloom early 2024. In the meantime, you can listen to our other episodes, stay updated by subscribing to our podcast wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts and connect with us on Instagram and LinkedIn @blackearthpodcast.
Episode timestamps
00:00 - Welcome to our final episode
02:26 - How our relationship with nature is changing
13:00 - Our reflections on Season 2
19:32 - How Valerie’s episode inspired Marion to reframe her definition of community
28:25 - How Evie’s episode has inspired Anesu to practice imagination daily
31:26 - The importance of reclaiming radical imagination
38:35 - Active hope in a world of immense change and crises
01:01:00 - How to support Black Earth Outro
Support Black Earth Podcast
Connect with us on Instagram, LinkedIn and Tiktok: @blackearthpodcast
Subscribe and read episode transcripts: https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/
Support us through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BlackEarthPodcast
In our final conversation of Season 2, Environmentalism Reimagined, we meet with Atwooki, creator of Yuniya.
Named after her grandmother, Yuniya is a storytelling platform using African mythology to educate children, parents and caregivers about climate change and Earth care.
Join us in this inspirational conversation as we explore how African mythology and storytelling is making climate action and ‘joyful activism’ more relatable, empowering and culturally relevant.
Through reclaiming African knowledge and building relationships across generations, Yuniya is bringing conversations on climate change, out from policy spaces and street protests into homes and community centres, where they belong.
This is an episode of active hope, enjoy!
Episode time stamps
00:00 - Intro to episode
02:52 - Atwooki’s relationship with nature
06:23 - How a conversation with her son, led Atwooki to create Yuniya
15:11 - What Yuniya do
20:04 - The life-changing impact of Yuniya on children, parents and caregivers
23:31 - How Yuniya has empowered a boy to lead a campaign to change the world map
28:35 - The importance of community education spaces in black liberation movements
30:38 - Marion shares a framework to define what growth looks like in social change
34:05 - Lessons on how we can engage children on climate change and joyful activism in an empowering way
39:48 - How to support black parents and caregivers of black children to feel empowered in Earth care
46:51 - Why the binary of ‘individual action versus systemic change’ limits our possibilities to engage everybody
52:16 - Atwooki’s recommendations to policy-makers
54:31 - How to support Atwooki and Yuniya
01:01:00 - How to support Black Earth
Support Atwooki and Yuniya
Yuniya - https://yuniya.com/pages/home
Support Black Earth Podcast
Connect with us on Instagram, LinkedIn and Tiktok: @blackearthpodcast
Subscribe and read episode transcripts: https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/
Support us through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BlackEarthPodcast
Song credits
The Kora music in this episode is courtesy of Malamin and Yuniya platform
Resource mentioned in the episode
A framework on measuring impact in social change (Scaling Up, Scaling Out, Scaling Deep) by Michele-lee Moore, Darcy Riddell, and Dan Vocisano
Valerie Novack is an incredible policy researcher working at the intersections of disability justice, emergency management response and inclusive city design.
In today’s episode, we dive deep into disability justice and the connections with Earth care. We explore some core elements of disability justice including rest, sustainability, the ability to learn and interdependence and why they are key to helping us reimagine the environmental movement.
Valerie also explains why our definition of community should include our more-than-human beings and how that is connected to disability justice.
This episode is not one to be missed!
Episode timestamps
00:00 Introduction
03:12 Valerie’s relationship with nature
06:27 How Valerie got into disability justice
16:18 What is disability justice
23:40 How rest and sustainability enables disability justice in Earth care
30:02 How the ability to learn enables disability justice in Earth care
31:37 How interdependence is crucial for disability justice
35:32 How and why ableism shows up in Earth care
39:50 Individual action versus systems change
46:18 Why our definition of community should include our relationships with other species
52:15 How disability justice invites us to live values aligned with Earth care
59:55 Disability and wholeness
01:07:00 How to support Valerie and Valerie’s work
01:09:00 How to support Black Earth Podcast
Read the disability justice principles by Sins Invalid
https://www.sinsinvalid.org/blog/10-principles-of-disability-justice
Support Valerie Novack
Valerie on X - https://twitter.com/MADtastically
Support Black Earth Podcast
Connect with us on Instagram, LinkedIn and Tiktok: @blackearthpodcast
Subscribe and read episode transcripts: https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/
Support us through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BlackEarthPodcast
Wanjiku 'Wawa' Gatheru is the pioneering Executive Director and Founder of Black Girl Environmentalist. Black Girl Environmentalist is a U.S. organisation dedicated to addressing the leadership pathway and retention issue in the climate movement for Black girls, women and gender-expansive people in the United States.
In this inspiring episode, we explore the mission and vision of Black Girl Environmentalist and its impact in the world. Wawa and I discuss important elements to help you create an empowering, mission-aligned and impactful career in the environmental justice movement. As the rising and returning generation of environmentalists, we also take time to re-member and honor the contributions of our African American elders to the modern environmental justice movement.