conscient podcast

The question the book asks is obviously transforming the system is not an individual task, it's a collective activity. But it still begs the question, if we're trying to contribute to that, what do we need to do? Not every four years when we vote, not every year when we go to a strategy workshop, but what do we do every day? And so the title is very straightforward: Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems. And that's the question the book is offering an answer to.

My second conversation with writer, facilitator and consultant Adam Kahane (the first was episode e...

To me, there's three key things and it's community, beauty and nature. I think if we connect with nature and if we produce beauty, that is something that we as humans I think is our biggest gift. And I'm not just talking about creating art : speaking beauty, listening to beauty, creating beauty, opening our hearts to beauty in community. Because if we don't have a sense of the other in ourselves, then we're lost, we cannot do it alone. And this has been proved forever. But I think if we have these three things, to me, as the kind of...

I love policy because it allows for surrealism, it allows for creativity, it allows for dancing, it allows for all the skills and disciplines and interests and tools that as artists we have gravitated towards. We need to enter it with both the courage and the fear that all bets are off, that the house is on fire, that the dominant narratives of - whether it's the Canadian provincial governments, the Canadian Federal Governments, the US Federal Governments - they are all bankrupt. They're all meaningless. Their stories don't appeal to people. They may still be in denial of that...

This is a special edition of conscient roundtable featuring Aaron Lui-Rosenbaum, Barry Truax, Jacek Smolicki (for more on Jacek’s work also see conscient e113 part 1 and e133 part 2)  Kathy Kennedy, Lindsey French, Natalie Dusek, Sabine Breitsameter (all see conscient e175) Vincent Andrisani and myself. We are part of the Sonic Research Group out of Simon Fraser University (for more from this group see episodes 157 and 170). This time our topic was ‘low technology’ or low tech in the sense of what do we do when we have less energy and technology, which is coming and how does it relate to our field of...

Artistic practice, cultural traditions, cultural practice, folk traditions… These are all places where we have where wisdoms that might otherwise have been lost have been protected, sheltered or found refuge. And like, artists have this like hoarding tendency sometimes, right? Like maybe not all artists, but a lot of us, you know, we look for, for these neglected things, the things that people don't care about so much. We make special or we keep special. And then it's through the artists right now, through the peoples who've kept the stories, kept the cultures, kept the artifacts or the practices that we...

The environmental issues currently at hand, including global warming, are related, but I believe that at their root lies the decline of our listening ability and the power of listening as humanity. This decline is not merely a matter of our listening ability weakening as we age, but rather it encompasses what we choose to listen to, how we perceive it, and all the various subjects of listening and methods of comprehension. I believe this decline is a collective issue for humanity, particularly in modern Western contexts where we have been taught that this is how to listen, especially in...

My advice to artists would be drop every garb that you have, drop every piece of knowledge that you think you have. Head to the jungles, head to the rural places. We are living in a time of crisis. We need artists more than the scientists. We need artists more than the healers. We need artists more than anything because arts connect everybody. We need songs, we need stories, we need pictures, we need circles, we need Ubuntu to prosper. Traditional Western ways of, colonized ways of working will not save us as a species. They're not going to help...

Alongside the responsibility of holding people accountable and calling out what they see as unjust, I think that there's also an element of hope with artists, even when we're maybe a little bit melancholic, or even when we're in heavier periods in our lives, the act of creating denotes hope, because why would you create something if you didn't believe that it was going to lead to something? Why would you put energy into something if you didn't hope that it would nurture either a change or a feeling of belonging or something that'll bring people together and that will...

If we start to pay attention to what we pay attention to then we start to naturally slow down. We disconnect from the urgency, the crisis, and we start to realize that care, and I don't just mean care for one another, although that's a piece of it, but care also for our surroundings, care for our time, care for those nearest to us. That is where it begins. That is valuable work that is not recognized. I think that is what we can do on a day-to-day basis. That over a long term becomes artistic practice and becomes culture.<...

Even being confronted with something that is weird or uncomfortable: it’s character growth. You have to ask the question: why is this person doing this weird thing? It's a good exercise in empathy, to be perfectly honest. Why is this person doing this thing? Why does that make me uncomfortable? What, what is it about my perception that has shaped this experience for me? I feel like those are really essential questions for us to be constantly asking ourselves, especially in an age where there's a lot of discord, a lot of dissent and a lot of disagreement. And th...

Part of the answer to that question lies in the arts and culture understanding the role it can have in a time of collapse or crisis, and to understand that itself is not in crisis. I think that's a big point because we hear a lot right now around the crisis that is happening in cultural institutions and in the arts. And in fact, the crisis that is happening is in our world, right? It's an ecological crisis, it's a world order crisis, it's a humanitarian crisis. The arts themselves have a lot to contribute to these moments in terms...

How can we reciprocate since the world keeps us alive on the one hand, and on the other hand, all these things, birds and you name it, right? Fish and moose and beaver, these are things we love. So, if this is the world we love, we're going to have feelings about how we might want to do positive things to keep this world we love as nurtured as possible. And we also hopefully want to ask, how do we keep our own ability to be alive and thrive here as humans?

Sarah Peebles is a Toronto-based installation artist...

There are a lot of people that don't have the kind of talent that you do, Claude, or for that matter, I do and they have voices, but you can't hear them. So our job in the art world, I would say, is to amplify those voices in a way that's comprehensive and understandable by the folks who should be paying attention to what's going on around them and not talking at people. So my complaint these days at the art world is we're just talking at people, we're not listening to them. And if we did listen to them...

The role of artists is the role of dreaming. I've worked as a poet, as a multimedia artist, sound artist, storyteller. I think we hold the capacity to shape the narratives that build our present, our future, reshape the narratives that inform our past. I still believe in that role. I do believe that we have a call to work on the episteme, this epistemological call, this call to investigate the ideas, the words and the shapes that build our relationships. I think if we can do that alone, dreaming of a new reality, dreaming of futurities, dreaming of dialogue… I...

In a time when it's easy to become defeated, when one can succumb to despair and negativity, a question I use when I reflect on the state of the world right now is what gives me energy, what animates my imagination, and what do I need to defend in that context? So many, many questions. A lot of self-reflection, but then reaching out, looking for colleagues, for spiritual strengthening, for courage.

This is my second conversation with arts producer, choreographer, teacher and mentor Judith Marcuse, who among other things is the founder of Judith Marcuse Projects and the International...

This is a special edition of conscient roundtable featuring Lara Felsing, Adrian Avendaño, Hildegard Westerkamp, Toni-Leah C. Yake as part of the Listening in Relation gathering at Emily Carr University of Art and Design on March 21-23, 2025 on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, also known as Vancouver. Warm thanks to Julie  Andreyev of Emily Carr University, Barbara Adler of The Only Animal, the Canadian Association for Sound Ecology (CASE), Raphael Zen (who is a guest on conscient e228), and all the roundtable pa...

This is a conscient podcast update. It's June 28, 2025, and I'll erase this bonus episode message in about a week. 

I wanted to give listeners a heads up of what's happening with this sixth season of conscient podcast. I was away in India and Japan for a month where I recorded two new episodes but I didn't promote any and so there's a big backlog of really exciting content coming up in the next, I'd say two, three weeks : one every day or two.

So I wanted to give you a heads up. That's a pretty i...

The first thing that comes to mind is my young activist in me that says, of course, let's just fight. Let's just do what we can to speak out against, be revolutionary, be, you know, like we were when we were young in the 60s, 70s. Now I think that my response is to stop and to slow down and to do some deep listening and some meditation and to ground myself because I don't know what to do at this point in time, at all.

My second conscient conversation with composer and acoustic ecologist Hildegard Westerkamp. The first...

The approach of the Canadian Centre for Food & Ecology (CCFE) is what has been so attractive to me. It's a conviction around joyful, immersive experience and it starts with the conviction that until someone has experienced the sensory joy of experiencing food in a new way, there's little interest in understanding the facts or the cognitive issues surrounding our food system. One can focus on that which is the problem, and it truly is a problem, but way more compelling, way more attractive, is to think about food through the lens of it as a solution that invites people in.

I think there's a lot of roles for art generally, and one of my favorite ones is kind of imagining that art helps you imagine, even if it has nothing to do with it. It helps. You can be a springboard to help you dream and stuff like that. The project that we're going to talk about today has a lot more to do with the kind of solace or companionship or remembering melancholy, maybe. Although I think it's also about joy and surprise so there's a few levels of which I guess are all things that you hope to...

How do we restore our connection with nature? Because I think that part of the crisis that we're in, especially with the climate, stems from the fact that we've been disconnected from our relationship to nature. And so how do we restore that? How do we get back in touch with non-human beings? You know, with these trees in front of us here we're standing in High Park, and with the trees and with the waters and the lakes, whatever natural environment we're in, how do we. And how can we. And is it even possible? I guess the question...

This bonus episode is a narration of my a calm presence posting called 'a sense of communion'. See the 'Transcript' tab of this episode for the original text. 

*

END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Hey conscient listeners, 

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020 on un-ceded Anishinaabe Algonquin territory (Ottawa). 

It’s my way to give back.

In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and its francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I I publish free ‘a calm presence' Substack see...

People maybe are used to being bombarded at this point with the news of what's happening. And that's the reality. And we need to face that. I think alongside that, we need to make moments of grounding, of rootedness and remembering our real belonging to this earth. Because without that, we don't quite have the energy. I think we're really zapped of that based from stress or from what we're hearing. It is oppressive to hear what's happening and to experience it for those of us who are experiencing that and have been. I guess for me, that's really what...

What is art? What is art anyway? It's a new term, really. I think we need to go a little bit beyond that. I think of myself as a sound practitioner, so what can I offer? If someone has a visual acuity, if someone has acuity with body and movement and voice, you know, what is it that we can do in our communities to help people to listen, to be in their bodies, to breathe?

My conversation withcomposer, sound artist, media artist and facilitator Tina Pearson, whose work explores nuanced sonic investigations of perception, presence and place. suggests we...

Here is a narration of my latest ‘a calm presence’, inspired by this quote from Indy Johar’s May 12th, 2025 Substack posting, The Stickiness of Want  - And the Systemic Amnesia Behind It :

This posting was written while traveling in India and Japan in April and May of 2025.

The narrated version was recorded in one take on May 21, 2025 on the streets of Hakone-Yumoto, Japan with the Haya...

Radical engagement with the system doesn't mean participating in that system, distractedly resigned, knowing it all hierarchically at arm's length, with arms crossed, superficially, impatiently. Saying take it or leave means taking part in it alertly, with hope and curiosity, horizontally, leaning forward, hands on, digging deep, persisting, and above all, reciprocally and relationally. So that's the core idea of radical engagement and Claude, that's how I experience your way of being in the world.

My conversation with writer, facilitator and consultant and many other hats Adam Kahane, which took place on April 8, 2025, on the very day of the l...

This posting was written and recorded while on a trip to northern India. It explores the inter-relations of culture and climate. The audio version is fun because of the soundscapes of Delhi in the background (car horns, bird song, sweeping of leaves, music, etc)

It features excerpts from my comments to the Create Canada project which is important given its potential to deepen conversations about the role of culture as Canada faces existential threats from the regime of our southern neighbour.

I did not agree with all their postings but I saw merit in their...

Hey there faithful, brave and patient conscient podcast listeners, 

Welcome to the 3rd conscient roundtable. Live radio style again. First take, only take, kind of thing so please bear with me. This is an exciting and unique episode coming up, with an international scope. 

It was recorded on Thursday, March 20, 2025 on Zoom with participants Kashee in India, Shaun and Marcela in Ireland (though Marcela is originally from Venezuela), Greg in the United States and myself in Vancouver. So the five of us chatted for over an hour. 

At the beginning, you’ll hear me ack...

What can I do to support the grieving? There's so much to grieve. Whether we think about the crisis of climate, whether we think about the political crises, the issue of displacement, which is around the world. Forced displacement, such a huge crisis. How do we manifest the kinds of spaces that people need to be able to individually and collectively get in touch with how they're feeling and do it in such a way that opens the possibility for what you're talking about with the renewal, or, you know, a post traumatic growth, if you will. And in my...

this moment in canadian culture

reflections on conscient e214 roundtable – this moment in canadian culture 

Note: you can read the original posting on my a calm presence Substack here.

Also see the Transcript of this episode for the complete posting. 

Big thanks to all roundtable participants, Robin Sokoloski, Annette Hegel, Jai Djwa, Owais Lightwala, SGS, also known as Sarah Garton Stanley, Max Wyman and Chris Creighton-Kelly for taking the time to share their thoughts and to you for listening and considering what ‘this moment in canadian culture’ means to you. 

*

END...

Hey there faithful and brave conscient listeners, 

Welcome to the second conscient roundtable conversation. This one was recorded on Sunday, March 16, 2025 in Vancouver. In a minute you’ll hear an acknowledgement about the original stewards of these lands followed by a minute of silent contemplation.

Normally, conscient roundtables feature a group of artists and cultural workers talking about their passions, fears and dreams and, in fact, we did do this, but this was a special episode of the conscient podcast : e216 in memoriam tracey friesen. Tracey left us on January 6, 2025 at age 58.

Who was Tr...

I would say that while there's absolutely no question that we're in a crisis, there's no question about multi crisis. I'm not sure we're in the state of collapse. And I think that methodology, that vision, that understanding of the world can lead to... You were talking about it a few minutes ago, doom scrolling and just doom. I find that that can create a lot of inertia in people, a lot of hopelessness and pessimism. I have a colleague in the US, Arlene Goldbard, and she's quoting (Antonio) Gramsci and she says, ‘pessimism of the intellect, but optimism of the...

I think, as has already been mentioned by a number of you, that we need to slow down, not speed up. This is a moment for really slow thinking and to be listening and to be doing deep listening. I like this concept that we use, again in Primary Colours. Instead of thinking of outreach and trying to convince people and tell them about how great the arts are, we need to do in-reach, we need to go into communities and listen to people, go where people are and understand what it is they understand about their cultures, plural. And...

The arts have that capacity to be powerful broadcasters, conveyors of messages, invitations to celebration, reflection, storytelling, narrative building and so on. There's a vital role here for the arts. But like the rest of society, frankly, whether it's the banking system or government we're simply not doing it well enough that we could say we're satisfied with how much is happening and everything's going to be okay. It's not. If we just stopped now, chaos and worse are due. It's not to say that we can hold up the arts and say, if only you were doing your job...

There's been a real lack of positive action and response from the arts community to these existential questions that confront us. And I really wonder whether that's not because they're simply bewildered by what's been going on. They're terrified, most of them. A lot of the conversation that goes on that I'm aware of has to do with the precariousness of existence for the artist. There is no there's no solid ground for them to work on when there's no money. So they're afraid to rock the boat, one thing. But they do tend to talk in circles without ever...

I think there is a responsibility we have as artists to relate to our artistry responsibly. And that has to do with sensing into our artistic sensibility as a medicine or a gift that we were given to come into this embodiment, to become the people that we are and share this medicine with the people in our community around us. And I think it's about asking the question, what is a medicine that I can bring? Not from a place of heroism, not from a place of saviorism, but from a place of genuinely, honestly inquiring, asking what is...

Hey there

Welcome to the first conscient roundtable conversation recorded on Saturday March 1, 2025 in Tiohtià:ke (also known as Montreal). 

This episode features local artists, activists and cultural workers Alyssa Scott, Devon Hardy, Jimmy Ung, Katrine Claassens, Sophie Weider, Sébastian Méric de Bellefon and myself (I’m actually from Ottawa) talking about our passions, fears and dreams and engaging in some playful banter, though, I have to say, this group had some pretty serious issues on their minds.

Do you know any art and science jokes? 

Our conversation lasted 91 minutes and is p...

I think that the first thing artists have to do is to start telling the truth. You know, just like climate change five or six years ago, you just didn't really want to talk about it. You got shunned in polite company if you talked about it. Now we have the c word, right? We've got collapse. But the conversation hasn't started yet. And I think just broadly speaking, the artistic community… The best of the artistic community, has always been on the edge, right? The social edge. Pushing, complaining, challenging, resisting…

Robert R. Janes

My conversation with...

I’ve been (earnestly) taking courses, workshops and seminars these last few years, while producing over 300 podcasts about art and ecology, as my way of helping future generations prepare for what we are leaving them. 

My most recent learning and unlearning exercise is Surviving the Future: The Deeper Dive 2025, a 10 week course inspired by the work of British ecologist David Fleming. 

I wrote about the first three weeks of the course in prepare, bend, sustain posting (also available in audio). So this is part 2 of 2. 

Surviving the Future has been very influential in my life. <...

Note: to read this posting on a calm presence see a conscient rethink

a conscient rethink

What needs to be said? Who needs to say it? Who wants to hear it? How does it help? 

February 16th, 2025, on the unceded lands of the Algonquin-Anishinaabe people.

I started publishing the conscient podcast and balado conscient in May of 2020. 

My goal was to ‘explore art and the ecological crisis as a learning and unlearning journey’. 

At that time I believed that ‘the arts and culture could play a critical...