We Are The Great Turning

May 16 2024 33

We Are The Great Turning Podcast artwork

We welcome you to the kitchen table of the legendary eco-spiritual teacher Joanna Macy, where we’ll dive into what it takes to live with our hearts and integrity intact in this time of global crisis. You’ll be guided into these conversations by Jess Serrante, a longtime activist and student of Joanna’s. Together, we’ll discover abiding wisdom that can help us stay joyful and energized as we work toward a more just and life-sustaining world.

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Ep 5 Bonus: Breathing Through

May 16 2024 13 mins

This bonus episode will support you to take the main insights from Episode 4: There is No Future if We Go Numb and Episode 5: This Pain Is Not for Nothing, deeper into your life. Both of these episodes are about the second phase in the Spiral of the Work That Reconnects, Honoring Our Pain for the World. This bonus is a recording of Joanna leading a meditation called Breathing Thr

Ep 5: This Pain Is Not for Nothing

May 16 2024 25 mins

Now we get to what may be the toughest part of reckoning with our planet’s situation: dealing with numbness, grief, and despair. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the many crises around us, and natural to want to numb ourselves to the pain. Joanna and Jess speak with great vulnerability and candor about what it takes to navigate our darkest feelings—and the s

Ep 4 Bonus: Breathing Through

May 15 2024 13 mins

This bonus episode will support you to take the main insights from Episode 4: There is No Future if We Go Numb deeper into your life. This bonus is a recording of Joanna leading a meditation called Breathing Through, recorded at a retreat in 2006. In it, she’ll guide you to create space to acknowledge and honor the pain for the world that you carry without numbing or getting ov

Ep 4: There Is No Future if We Go Numb

May 09 2024 22 mins

We recorded this conversation just after news broke of the Biden administration’s approval of the controversial Willow Project, opening up millions of wilderness acres in Alaska to new fossil fuel drilling. Jess captured in real time how Joanna processes the fresh outrage and sorrow of this insult to the planet from the very culpable powers that be. It’s a master class in being

Ep 3 Bonus: Lovingkindness Meditation

May 02 2024 12 mins

This bonus episode will support you to take the main insights from Episode 3, “We Begin with Gratitude,” deeper into your life. In Episode 3, we talked about how in the Work That Reconnects we always start with gratitude, because it gives us the strength to speak the truth and act in service of life. Lovingkindness meditation is a simple and powerful way to feel and express

Ep 3: We Begin with Gratitude

May 02 2024 26 mins

When things are at their darkest, what is it that “allows you to see promise and allows you to see beauty?” Joanna begins her exploration of some of the most difficult emotions and circumstances we face in a surprising place: with gratitude. This episode introduces the concept of the spiral, the basic structure of the Work That Reconnects. In this episode: Why it’s necessa

Ep 2 Bonus: Envisioning the Great Turning

Apr 25 2024 13 mins

This bonus episode will support you to take the main insights from Episode 2, “The Three Stories of Our Time,” deeper into your life. In Episode 2, we talked about the three stories of our time: Business as Usual, the Great Unraveling, and the Great Turning. All three stories are true, and we can choose to give ourselves to the Great Turning—to building a more just and life

Ep 2: The Three Stories of Our Time

Apr 24 2024 30 mins

What’s really going on in the world right now? “Business as Usual”—a comforting narrative in which industrial growth and progress overcomes all? “The Great Unraveling” —a planet careening toward inevitable destruction? Joanna‘s work introduces a third story, “The Great Turning”—a paradigm shift on an epic scale, the creation of a just and life-sustaining socie

Ep 1 Bonus: Open Sentences

Apr 18 2024 29 mins

This bonus episode will support you to take the main insights from Episode 1, “Love and Loss,” deeper into your life. Jess will guide you through a simple yet profound exercise called Open Sentences where you’ll be prompted to speak from your heart. It will take about 25 minutes. All you’ll need is a friend and a place that is quiet enough for you to speak freely and list

Ep 1: Love and Loss

Apr 17 2024 28 mins

As Joanna Macy approaches the end of a long life dedicated to healing our imperiled planet, she begins the conversation with Jessica Serrante, her student and dear friend, “standing afresh with what it’s like to live on Earth at this moment.” As we look into the face of the climate crisis, injustice, and war, difficult feelings arise; all are welcomed. You are invited to joi