Listen as Mackenzie and Nissa work their way through the spectrum of exchange from gift economies to the financialization of the economy. How and why do local currencies arise? And what can you do to create a resilient, diverse, and relational personal economy?

Although ecology and economy share linguistic roots, they’re often pitted against each other as competing priorities. So how are they related? How did they become so disparate? What happens when we focus instead on their interconnections? Just as pairing wines and cheeses can bring out new flavors we might not have otherwise noticed, listen as Nissa and Mackenzie explore how they’re connected in unexpected and enlightening ways.

Like many young boys, Josh Bossin, Sterling College Faculty in Outdoor Education, found a sense of belonging in the outdoors as a child. Unlike others, Josh resisted the many forces that draw adults indoors and keep us there for 90% of our lives, on average and kept his love for the outdoors alive, well, and thriving. Inspired by conservationist Kris Tomkins's notion that people only protect what they love and only love what they identify with, Josh set up to cultivate a love of the natural world in others. He does that by sticking to fundamentals, reducing barriers to getting outside, eschewing the culture of excess and consumption that often make outdoor adventure seem exclusive, and helping folks safely traverse unfamiliar spaces. This episode is best downloaded and listened to while walking beneath a canopy of new Spring leaves. Move Outdoors with Josh Bossin. 

[03:22]-NOLS-National Outdoor leadership school, began working in Alaska, enjoying other people finding their ah-ha! moment, teaching became his focus and was inspired by Conservationist Kris Tomkins and her the idea that people only protect the things they love, and to love something you first have to inherently identify with it  

[08:36]-Countering “Guide Halo” and encouraging students to ask questions and challenge leadership and how challenge is valuable, we don't naturally have it anymore, creating opportunities to challenge and grow  in outdoor programing 

[13:02]-reducing barriers to entry, Sterling provides opportunities to use top of the line equipment, and redefining wilderness and backcountry experience, experiential education

[18:57]-asking questions about inclusivity in outdoor recreation, from different segments of the population

[24:37]-acknowledging there is a climate emergency and managing expectations in the outdoor industry, inspired by Kitty Calhoun and the last known ascent of a glacier and inviting conversations

[29:54]-gets hope from seeing Sterling students seeing themselves as a part of that outdoor movement

Putting Ecological Thinking into Action:

Selected Resources for Further Learning & Doing

• Yi -Fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience (book)
• David Naguib Pellow, What Is Critical Environmental Justice? (book)
• Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass (book)
• Tricia Hershey, The nap Ministry  (website)

Putting Ecological Thinking into Action:

Selected Resources for Further Learning & Doing

• Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There (book)
• Alice Outwater, Water: A Natural History (book)
• My Octopus Teacher, Documentary film (movie)
• Local watershed Associations, The watershed institute (website)
• Majora Carter

Since she was a small child, Farley Brown '85, Faculty in Ecology, has had a firm connection to and curiosity about the land and how humans make use of it. Her formative experiences in the woods of suburban NJ and in the waters of the Hudson River caused her to wonder about how we make land use decisions, who influences those decisions, who gets to decide. Always an educator -- even when not working with students -- Farley encourages landowners, loggers, and legislators throughout Vermont to consider how they can work together to protect the working landscape and preserve wildlife habitat. Over the past 25 years, Farley has witnessed and participated in the emergence and evolution of the land conservation movement in Vermont -- consistently holding and living into those questions of how to steward this verdant lands and cool waters of this special place. Still connected, still curious, Farley can often be found clad in boots and waders, sampling streams, counting macroinvertebrates, and translating bio-indicators data into the stories about how human activity impacts riparian ecosystems and riverine health.  

[03:56]-out of college came to sterling and fell and in love with land and future husband

[08:44]-defining a watershed and thinking on it from different dimensions 

[13:19]-gathering data, research with students mostly in rivers doing "Bio-Assessments"-indicators of river health and the macro-invertebrate are telling a story of the river and the rivers are telling us about our land use

[21:00]Student's practicing skill sets in Black river in Vermont and use them traveling to the Monkey River in Belize

[24:21]-people now understanding and translating watershed information into environmental ethics

[27:55]-definition of environmental justice growing out of the civil rights movement

Liz Chadwick, Sterling’s Director of Dining Services (AKA the hard working woman who feeds all, also affectionately referred to as "Mom") dishes about Sterling's Kitchen, which AASHE recently ranked #1 in sustainable food & dining on the latest episode of Emergency to Emergence. Our conversation with Liz charts her own professional journey, explores the emotional potency of food, and details the dynamics of ethical and intentional food sourcing, all of which were amplified during the pandemic. Liz talks about how she collaborates with students and farm staff to create weekly menus; how food at Sterling connects individual experience, learning, and community life; and how to handle the heat of both the kitchen and our passionate discourses about food. It's a delicious listen.

[03:19]-How does food make people feel; collaborating with students and farm to create menu  

[07:52]-more than farm to table; students living and growing food values in a constant community dialogue

[12:00]-dynamic sourcing of food; roots of kitchen culture are challenging monoculture and cultivating discourse

[13:27]-challenges of plastic and trash during a pandemic 

[20:11]-value of food to create a space for our emotional and physical nourishment; community and student engagement, incubator for student ideas

[27:15]-dialogue about hostility in kitchen culture; Sterling fostering energy of kindness and expressed in food served

Richard Miscovich works with essential, elemental forces to produce nourishment -- with water, air, fire, and grains from the earth, he makes the kind of bread that tells us a lot about what it means to be human. Baking, in the style Miscovich teaches at Sterling -- involves harnessing primal forces, respecting their inherent variability, and responding with a grounding in science but from a place of intuition. Making bread is so tangible, so substantial -- and yet the metaphorical power of making bread this way must also be respected. Listen to School of the New American Farmstead instructor Richard Miscovich share insights from several decades of foodcraft and then sign up to study with him in our upcoming Artisan Breadmaking & Heritage grains short course.

[04:01]-Journey to authoring the book "The Wood-Fired Oven", began baking at home in the early 90's, learned from many and at his time with the San Francisco Baking Institute and oven builder Alan Scott

[06:51]-defining a wood fired oven, thermal mass, high and low temp usage, discussing communal ovens and community  

[12:16]-Heritage Grains, influenced by Stephen Jones from the WA State Bread Lab, growing food appropriate to the bio-region

[15:58]-new generation of young bread makers and a new perspective on the traditional rules and how they can be reshaped, Essential questions like is Baking an Art, Science or Craft

[19:16]-Many concerns like GMO's and corporate food culture yet  optimistic, examples like Elmore Mountain Bread,  American New Stone Mills with grains grown in Vermont and food equity focused programs like "The Approachable Loaf”  

[22:42]-relationship to culture and place, breads and grains originating from all over the world