Curious Planet
Season 1
by Jacqueline Comito
The Virgin Mary Tree of Polk City, Iowa, inspires us to imagine and improvise as we engage with the world around us. Mentioned in today’s episode: The Virgin Mary Tree of Polk City on the Roadside America website, https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/45877 Lawrence Buell, The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture, Belknap Press, 1995. Stephen T. Asma, The Evolution of Imagination, University of Chicago Press, 2017. Luca Tateo, A Theory of Imagining, Knowing, and Understanding, Springer, 2020. Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Macmillan and Co., 1872. “What Life Means to Albert Einstein,” George Sylvester Viereck, Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929. https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/uploads/satevepost/what_life_means_to_einstein.pdf
We begin on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, then travel to places of lived experience and spaces of sensed experience. Mentioned in today’s episode: Joyful Hearts, Seasons of Prayer J. E. Malpas, Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography, Cambridge University Press, 1999, page 176. Ilia Delio, Compassion: Living in the Spirit of St. Francis, St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2011. Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods, Algonquin Books, 2008. Wallace “J.” Nichols, Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected and Better at What You Do, Little, Brown, 2014. Angela Hanscom, Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children, New Harbinger Publications, 2016.
How can we have hope in a world that sometimes feels like a hot mess? Watching the seasons change in the backyard with a new puppy, we consider the real question: “How can we not?” Mentioned in today’s episode: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Social Good Summit 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiZduBO2bQM Jane Goodall, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, Thorndike Press, 2021. George Steiner, “Remembering the Future,” Remembrance Sunday 1989 address, King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. First published in Cambridge Review. Reprinted in Theology, November 1990, Volume 93, Issue 756, pp. 437-444. Iowa Learning Farms, https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/ Iowa Learning Farms Virtual Field Day, A Vision for Iowa: Growing Food for People through Diversified Agriculture Systems, https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/resources/field-day-diverse-ag-systems New Voices in Water Quality in Iowa, https://newvoicesinwater.org/ Water Rocks!, https://www.waterrocks.org/ Water Rocks! Earth Day Poetry Slam, https://www.waterrocks.org/poetry Dallas Whitefield, Water tank, 2022 Summer Awad, Confluence, 2022 DK, Swimming pools, 2022
Host Jacqueline Comito opens our conversation about engaging wonderment to heal and protect the environment— with a little help from some apes. Mentioned in today’s episode: Jane Goodall, October 1960, from Jane (documentary film), National Geographic, 2017. https://films.nationalgeographic.com/jane-the-movie Pierre Boulle, La Planète des Singes, published in the United States as Planet of the Apes, 1963. Planet of the Apes (film), Twentieth Century Fox, 1968. “Go Ape!” television spot, 1974. http://space1970.blogspot.com/2012/07/planet-of-apes-go-ape-marathon.html Gus Speth, It’s Already Tomorrow: Poems by Gus Speth, Shires Press, 2020. Ronald Rolheiser, The Holy Longing, 1999.
Curious Planet is a podcast exploring wonderment to heal and protect the earth. Subscribe to Curious Planet on your favorite streaming platform. Season One drops on March 19, 2024!