Tree Speech
Dori Robinson, Jonathan Zautner, Alight Theater Guild
Recent Episodes
It’s Giving Tree Week! Listen to our highly-anticipated episode focused on the nostalgic and controversial Shel Silverstein book, THE GIVING TREE, which has been questioned by many since its premiere 60 years ago.
In this episode, we share a brand new audio narrative written by playwright, actor, and advocate Jamie Roach, who felt compelled to examine, explore, and celebrate the classic book by continuing the story where the original leaves off. Join us to listen to this beautiful, thought-provoking, and new story!
The actors include Laurine Towler and Richard Brundage with Jamie Roach as Narrator. Music, Sound Design and Editing by Jonathan Zautner.
Robin Wall Kimmerer essay link: "Returning the Gift".
This week’s episode was recorded and produced in Massachusetts on the native lands of the Wabanaki Confederacy, Pennacook, Massa-adchu-es-et (Massachusett), and Pawtucket, and in Wisconsin on the lands of the Ho-Chunk, Potawatomi and Menomonee people. Tree Speech is produced by Alight Theater, and produced and co-written by Jonathan Zautner who is also the sound editor and designer for this episode.
To learn more about our podcast and episodes, please visit treespeechpodcast.com and consider supporting us through our Patreon - every contribution supports our production, and we’ll be giving gifts of gratitude to patrons of all levels. Please also consider passing the word, and rate and review us on Apple podcasts. Every kind word helps.
Today’s guest, John Philip Newell, is an internationally acclaimed teacher, speaker, and author of several books, including Sacred Earth Sacred Soul, and his latest book entitled The Great Search, which examines the lives of several prophetic figures whose work and lives showed that to live in relation to what is deepest in us is to live in relation to the ground from which we and all things have come.
John Philip Newell is a Celtic teacher and author of spirituality who calls the modern world to reawaken to the sacredness of Earth and every human being.
In 2016 Newell began the Earth & Soul initiative and teaches regularly in the United States and Canada as well as leading international pilgrimage weeks on Iona in the Western Isles of Scotland.
His PhD is from the University of Edinburgh and he has authored over fifteen books, including his award-winning publication, Sacred Earth Sacred Soul, which was the 2022 Gold Winner of the Nautilus Book Award for Spirituality and Religious Thought of the West. His new book, also with HarperOne (and published in the UK by Wild Goose), is The Great Search (August 2024), in which he looks at the great spiritual yearnings of humanity today in the context of the decline of religion as we have known it.
Newell speaks of himself as ‘a wandering teacher’ following the ancient path of many lone teachers before him in the Celtic world, ‘wandering Scots’ (or scotus vagans as they were called) seeking the wellbeing of the world. He has been described as having ‘the heart of a Celtic bard and the mind of a Celtic scholar’, combining in his teachings the poetic and the intellectual, the head as well as the heart, and spiritual awareness as well as political and ecological concern. His writings have been translated into seven languages. In 2020 he relinquished his ordination as a minister of the Church of Scotland as no longer reflecting the heart of his belief in the sacredness of Earth and every human being. He continues, however, to see himself as ‘a grateful son of the Christian household’ seeking to be in relationship with the wisdom of humanity’s other great spiritual traditions.
To learn more about our podcast and episodes, please visit treespeechpodcast.com and consider supporting us through our Patreon - every contribution supports our production, and we’ll be giving gifts of gratitude to patrons of all levels. Please also consider passing the word, and rate and review us on Apple podcasts. Every kind word helps.
Gather round the campfire for a very special, supernatural episode. We have spooky, mysterious tree tales from around the world to get you into the halloween spirit! Listen now, if you dare!
Special thanks to Cheryl Mullings, Charles Linshaw, Corey Roberts, and Emerald Forcier for joining our episode today. Learn more about Cheryl at https://cherylmullings.workbooklive.com/, Charles at: https://www.charleslinshaw.com, Corey at https://coreymroberts.weebly.com, and Emerald at https://www.penobscotbayestate.com.
This week’s episode was recorded and produced in Massachusetts on the native lands of the Wabanaki Confederacy, Pennacook, Massa-adchu-es-et (Massachusett), and Pawtucket, in Wisconsin on the lands of the Ho-chunk, Potawatomi, and Menominee people, and in Maine on the lands of the Pernobscott tribes.
Tree Speech is produced, co-written and edited by Jonathan Zautner with Alight Theater Guild.
Learn more about the podcast at: www.treespeechpodcast.com, and IG: treespeechpodcast
This June, to celebrate Pride, we are excited to discuss the queerness of trees and nature, and how queer ecology contains the solutions to reversing climate change and living in harmony with our natural environments. We have an inspiring interview with walking artist and pedestrian dignity advocate, artist and author Jonathon Stalls, and we’ll examine the history of the first gay liberationist environmentalist group and how trees were the reason the group was formed.
This week’s episode was written and recorded in Massachusetts on the native lands of the Wabanaki Confederacy, Pennacook, Massa-adchu-es-et (Massachusett), and Pawtucket people, and in New York on the land of the Lenapee tribes, and Denver on the traditional territory of the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Peoples.
Tree Speech is co-written, edited, and produced by Jonathan Zautner and we thank Alight Theatre Guild for their support.
Jonathon Stalls (he/his🏳️🌈) is a Multidisciplinary Walking Artist, who, in 2010, spent 242 days walking across the U.S. and continues to move alongside a wide variety of people and landscapes for days, weeks, or months at a time.
His first book, WALK - Slow Down, Wake Up & Connect at 1-3 Miles Per Hour (North Atlantic Books) was released in August of 2022 and is available nearly everywhere books (+ audiobooks) are sold.
He also started/co-created Walk2Connect (now a program of America Walks) in 2012, the Pedestrian Dignity project in 2016, and attended the Living School for Action and Contemplation from 2015-2017. He resides in Denver, CO with his husband, Ben.
Jonathon Stall's instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intrinsicpaths
Intrinsic Paths website: https://www.intrinsicpaths.com/
To learn more about our podcast and episodes, please visit treespeechpodcast.com and consider supporting us through our Patreon - every contribution supports our production, and we’ll be giving gifts of gratitude to patrons of all levels. Please also consider passing the word, and rate and review us on Apple podcasts. Every kind word helps.
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 film captures an inside look at the frustrations of residents of the historically Black Lawrence Crossley Tract neighborhood, who are cut off from the glitz and glamour of Palm Springs, CA due to the planting of 60-foot tamarisk trees that overshadow their community and are viewed as a symbol of segregation.
Racist Trees is streaming for free on Pbs.org and the PBS app through April 20th, 2024, and will be available on PBS Passport after that date. We highly recommend that you check it out and would love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected] with your thoughts.
We are so thankful to our guest Sara Newens and Mina T. Son for joining us today.
Sara Newens is an award-winning filmmaker and editor based in LA who has received Primetime Emmy Award nominations for her work on Pretty Baby: Brook Shields and Allen v. Farrow and served as editor and writer for the documentary, On the Record.
Mina T. Son is a Korean-American filmmaker based in LA whose films have screened at film festivals and museums, including the National Gallery of Art, Margaret Mead, Traverse City and Cinequest. With Sara, she has directed Top Spin, streamed on Netflix, and Racist Trees through their company, Wild Pair Films, and is in post-production on a longitudinal documentary about Japan’s 2011 tsunami.
This week’s episode was written and recorded in Massachusetts on the native lands of the Wabanaki Confederacy, Pennacook, Massa-adchu-es-et (Massachusett), and Pawtucket people, and in New York on the land of the Lenapee tribes, as well as in San Francisco on the lands of the Ohlone, Ramaytush, and Muwekma tribes, and Maryland on the Piscataway people. Tree Speech is co-written, edited, and produced by Jonathan Zautner and we thank Alight Theatre Guild for their support.
To learn more about our podcast and episodes, please visit treespeechpodcast.com and consider supporting us through our Patreon - every contribution supports our production, and we’ll be giving gifts of gratitude to patrons of all levels. Please also consider passing the word, and rate and review us on Apple podcasts. Every kind word helps.