Tree Speech

Mar 24 2024 5
Tree Speech Podcast artwork

Alight Theater Guild presents Tree Speech, a blend of narrative storytelling, interviews, and wanderlust at the intersection of the personal, historical and cultural ways that trees impact our lives. Each episode seeks to find new understandings to the tangled relationships we have with the natural world in which we inhabit. We examine folklore, history, holidays, and current events while exploring trees in our conversations around race, religion, and resources with people who all share deep connections to them-from artists and writers to historians and educators, advocates to activists.

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RACIST TREES with filmmakers Sara Newens and Mina T. Son

Mar 24 2024 36 mins  
Welcome back, Tree Speechers! We’re thrilled to begin Season 5 with a new conversation in a clearing, as we continue to find new understandings to the tangled relationships we have with the natural world in which we inhabit. We open this season interviewing filmmakers Mina T. Son and Sara Newens who made the eye-opening and thoughtful documentary, RACIST TREES. This intimate fi

REPLAY-Winter Solstice: Let the Light In

Dec 24 2023 33 mins  
In honor of the recent Winter Solstice and this holiday season, we are re-releasing our episode Let the Light In. Celebrate this moment of transition with a walk in the woods as we share stories of solstice celebration’s from around the world. From old legends to new traditions, join us as we explore how, even during these darker months, we can find ways to let light into our liv

REPLAY-The Return of Spooky Trees

Oct 28 2023 27 mins  
Happy Halloween! We are busy working on future episodes to be released soon, but couldn't let this magical time of year pass without a frightful celebration! As the full moon rises, we gather around the campfire for a replay of our special Spooky Trees episode! Join us for supernatural, mysterious, and unexpected tree tales from around the world to get you into the Samhain spir

REPLAY-The 9/11 Survivor Tree with Ron Vega

Sep 10 2023 38 mins  
To commemorate the anniversary of Sept. 11, we share this replay of our episode that featured the 9/11 Survivor Tree, a Callery Pear tree found during the excavation of Ground Zero in NYC. Our guest, Ron Vega, shares his insightful and touching story of how he championed and helped nurture the tree from a wounded, burned stump to the powerful sign of hope and survival that it repre

REPLAY- Tree of Life and Mother's Day

May 13 2023 38 mins  
We at Tree Speech are incredibly grateful to Stephanie Kaza and our mothers, Miriam Robinson, Anne-Marie Roach and Jackie Vandenberg for joining us today. Dr. Stephanie Kaza is Professor Emerita of Environmental Studies at the University of Vermont and former Director of the UVM Environmental Program. She co-founded the Environmental Council at UVM and served as faculty director fo

Tu B’Shevat and Season Wrap-Up

Feb 10 2023 35 mins  
In the final episode of our fourth season, producer and co-writer Jonathan Zautner interviews podcast host Dori Robinson about the Jewish “New Year of the Trees” - Tu B’Shevat. We continue to commemorate the close of the season by discussing our thoughts on the guests and topics we have covered. Did you have a favorite episode, a thought about family trees, or a suggestion ab

TREES, INC.: Transgender Resource, Education & Enrichment Services with Meghan Buell

Jan 20 2023 34 mins  
In this episode, we speak with Meghan Buell, the founder of TREES, Inc., the Transgender Resource, Education, and Enrichment Services organization that she created and leads to provide transgender education to small towns and rural America. TREES, Inc. is driven by the need to stem the rash of transgender discrimination by using education to create a more inclusive environment for

Open-Air Life with Linda Åkeson McGurk

Jan 06 2023 30 mins  
Happy New Year, Tree Speechers! We celebrate 2023 and our 30th episode by speaking with Swedish-American author Linda Åkeson McGurk, whose book "The Open-Air Life: Discover the Nordic Art of Friluftsliv and Embrace Nature Every Day” shows us how to embody a Frilufsliv life by getting outside and embracing the outdoors no matter the time of year or temperature. Our conversations

Winter Solstice: Let the Light In

Dec 21 2022 33 mins  
In this episode, we celebrate the Winter Solstice through a midwinter walk in the woods while sharing several folk tales about the season, rituals old and new, and an interview with Jonathan Mearns of London Christmas Tree Rental, who offers an environmentally sustainable tree option to celebrate the lights of Yule. Throughout, we explore how we, during these darker months, can fin

Family Trees with Neshama Carlebach

Dec 12 2022 38 mins  
In today’s episode we will examine the origins of the concept of family trees and speak with the award-winning singer, songwriter and educator, Neshama Carlebach, about her artistry, inspirations, and the journey of understanding that she has taken as a direct result of her own family tree as the daughter of the renowned and musical Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. Neshama Carlebach is an