At the core of the climate crisis we are experiencing today is the ideological separation between human and natural environment. Tracing ideas of human exceptionalism and separation back through histories of colonialism, we can begin to understand the ways in which we have been conditioned into lifestyles and mindsets based on individuality and productivity. Drawing on the Gaia hypothesis, indigenous cosmologies, and the beautiful symbiosis of forest ecosystems, we can construct a new framework for understanding life, in which we are all deeply interdependent. Storytelling and community-building become the keys to finding a sustainable and just path forward in a time of ecological devastation.

A written transcript of the podcast episode. 

An amazing paper on human exceptionalism and sustainability by Samantha Gillen, a student at Queen's University.