We Are The Great Turning

Special Episode: Outrage + Optimism

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 15:00:53 +0000

Since we’ve just completed the release of our 10-part series, We Are the Great Turning, we wanted to introduce you to another podcast with a spirit similar to ours: Outrage + Optimism.

The episode we’re going to play for you is called “Our Story of Nature: From Rupture to Reconnection.” It’s the first in a miniseries that shines a light on our relationship to the rest of nature. Remembering our place in the web of life is an essential part of building the Great Turning.

Be sure to subscribe to their podcast, and give them a follow on social media @outrageoptimism.

Now that this season of We Are the Great Turning is over, naturally, the question that’s emerging is … “What’s next?” As we consider whether to do a second season, we’d love to hear more about what you got from the first. What impact has it had in your life, and what might you love to hear from us next? Send us an email or a voice note at greatturning@soundstrue.com or send Jess a DM on Instagram @jess_serrante.

Ep 10 Bonus: The Shambala Warrior Prophecy

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 15:05:33 +0000

In Episode 10, “We Are the Great Turning,” Joanna shares a story called the “Shambala Warrior Prophecy,” which was told to her by her friend, Tibetan Monk Chogyal Rinpoche. Joanna was tasked with teaching this prophecy in the West, and it’s one of her most famous teachings.

We wanted to separate the story from Episode 10 so that you can come back to the story again and again, whenever you need the inspiration and wisdom it offers. Here is Joanna telling the Shambhala Warrior Prophecy.

We recommend starting a podcast club with friends or family to do these practices together. Links and assets to help prompt reflection and build community can be found with every episode on WeAreTheGreatTurning.com.

Ep 10 Bonus: Callings and Resources

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 15:02:12 +0000

This bonus episode will support you to take the main insights from Episode 10, “We Are the Great Turning,” deeper into your life.

Jess will guide you through an adaptation of the Work That Reconnects exercise called “Callings and Resources.” In it, you and a friend will take turns interviewing each other. You’ll name a contribution you’d like to make in service of the Great Turning, take inventory of the resources you have and need to achieve your goal, and clarify the small next steps you can take.

All you’ll need for this bonus exercise is paper and pen, or a digital notes app, and a place where you can get comfortable, share freely, and listen carefully.

Ep 10: We Are the Great Turning

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 15:00:38 +0000

As this journey around the spiral comes to a close, Jess brings us back to the table with Joanna for one last profound conversation. Joanna shares an ancient Tibetan prophecy, “The Coming of the Kingdom of Shambhala,” which shows us that the way we build the Great Turning is through compassion and insight into the radical interdependence of all things.

Jess reflects on the transformative experience of making this podcast, and Joanna expresses deep love and belief in Jess and her generation, urging us to draw upon ancestral wisdom and “the web of connections” to sustain them through the challenges ahead.

In this episode:

The Shambhala Prophecy tells us to act with compassion and insight into the radical interdependence of all things
Joanna’s teachings, love, and mentorship will remain an enduring source of strength and guidance for Jess and so many others
As the spiral of the Work That Reconnects comes to a close, the greater work of the Great Turning continues, carried forward by each person who has been touched by these conversations
Bonus Exercise: The Shambala Warrior Prophecy
Bonus Exercise: Callings and Resources

Ep 9 Bonus: The Bodhisattva Check-In

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 14:00:46 +0000

This bonus episode will support you to take the main insights from Episode 9: “Live the Questions Now” deeper into your life.

Jess will guide you through an adaptation of the Work That Reconnects exercise called “The Bodhisattva Check-In.” In Buddhism, the bodhisattva is the archetype of the compassionate person who devotes themself to collective well-being.

In this exercise, you will be invited to use your imagination to “step in” to each of the circumstances of your life in order to make the contribution to the Great Turning that is yours to make.

All you’ll need for this bonus exercise is enough space to take slow meditative steps in a straight line or in a circle. A living room or a yard are great. If you don’t want to or can’t walk, there will be instructions on how to do this without moving. You’ll need a total of 20 minutes, including time after the recording has ended.

Ep 9: Live the Questions Now

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 14:00:41 +0000

When it comes to building the Great Turning, it’s natural to have questions: What is my individual role in it all? How do we win? Who do we fight? While Jess wrestles with her desire for a “prescription” of what to do, Joanna invites us to “live the questions” instead. In this episode, we learn about the three dimensions of the Great Turning and the way forward: community, relationship, and solidarity.

In this episode:

There are no perfect road maps, but if we come together in courage and community, the way will emerge
The climate crisis is not just an environmental issue but a spiritual crisis of disconnection
Bonus Exercise: The Bodhisattva Check-In

Ep 8: Eros and Thanatos

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 15:00:21 +0000

This episode explores the powerful role of Eros (sensual love) and Thanatos (death) in fueling our connection to the world as we contribute to the Great Turning. Joanna and Jess discuss how we might learn to see our world as our lover (and as our self), the gifts of cultivating a sensual connection with the world, and how facing mortality can make the gift of being alive feel even more precious. They also reflect on the closeness of Joanna’s own death, which Joanna sees as “going home” to rejoin the cycle of life.

In this episode:

Using our love and awareness of impermanence as fuel for activism
Discovering ways to truly feel interconnected with all life through sensual presence
Reflections on mortality and our place in the cycle of life

Ep 7 Bonus: Seventh Generation Exercise

Thu, 30 May 2024 17:22:43 +0000

This bonus episode will support you to take the main insights from Episode 7: “We Are a Part of a River of Time” deeper into your life.

Jess will guide you through an adaptation of the Work That Reconnects exercise called “The Seventh Generation,” which she talks about in Episode 7. We recommend listening to the episode before doing this bonus. In this exercise, you will be invited to use your imagination and do some creative, guided role-playing with a friend, where one of you will speak as yourself, and the other will speak as a future being.

For this exercise, you’ll need a friend and a place that is quiet enough for you to sit face-to-face and talk freely.

Ep 7: We Are a Part of a River of Time

Thu, 30 May 2024 15:00:35 +0000

Jess and Joanna explore the third phase of the spiral: Seeing with New Eyes. In this part of the spiral, the fog of our pain begins to lift off, and what comes in its place is a feeling of greater connection and belonging. Jess and Joanna talk about Deep Time, a way of understanding ourselves as a part of a long lineage of human and planetary history, and how our imaginations are an essential tool for “plugging back in” to the great web of life we’re a part of.

In this episode:

Discovering ways to truly feel our interconnection with all life, and how that profound reconnection transforms us
Deep Time—slowing down and discovering a broader sense of ourselves in the world
“Plugging in” to our part in the web of life to fuel our own work for the Great Turning
Bonus Exercise: The Seventh Generation—connecting with those who came before and those who will come after us

Ep 6: The H-Word

Thu, 23 May 2024 14:30:35 +0000

When it comes to the state of our world, the concept of hope can feel elusive. Joanna teaches Jess that the future may be uncertain, but that means that there’s still room for something beautiful to happen. This episode offers insights into embracing uncertainty, cultivating joyousness, and understanding the intricate interplay between hope, courage, and action.

In this episode:

“Active hope” is about acting in service of the future we hope for
Whenever Jess asks about hope, Joanna talks instead about courage
When hope eludes us, courage and our devotion to life remain steadfast

Ep 5 Bonus: Breathing Through

Thu, 16 May 2024 14:30:48 +0000

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 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 overwhelmed. All you’ll need for this bonus exercise is a place where you can close your eyes and relax.

Ep 5: This Pain Is Not for Nothing

Thu, 16 May 2024 14:30:46 +0000

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 strength and beauty that can be found when we honor our pain.

Trigger Warning: In this episode, we discuss suicide.

In this episode:

When it feels like our pain could swallow us whole, it helps to remember that all feelings come and go
Desperation can take us to dark places, but we are more than our despair
Numbness—Jess opens up about her familiar tactic for escaping pain
Our pain becomes sacred when we allow it to deepen our connection with the world
Bonus Exercise: Breathing Through

Ep 4 Bonus: Breathing Through

Wed, 15 May 2024 14:51:35 +0000

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 overwhelmed. All you’ll need for this bonus exercise is a place where you can close your eyes and relax.

Ep 4: There Is No Future if We Go Numb

Thu, 09 May 2024 18:00:57 +0000

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 present with these feelings—feelings that can give rise to determination, courage, and recommitment to our shared purpose.

In this episode:

As the news of the Willow Project breaks, Joanna flows through outrage and sorrow
The second step on the spiral: what does it mean to honor our pain, and how do we do it?
Bonus Exercise: Breathing Through

Ep 3 Bonus: Lovingkindness Meditation

Thu, 02 May 2024 14:57:31 +0000

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 our gratitude and love for our world.

All you need to do this bonus exercise is a quiet place where you can meditate. We hope you’ll do this exercise with someone else, so that you can talk together about your experience after you finish.

Ep 3: We Begin with Gratitude

Thu, 02 May 2024 14:50:53 +0000

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 necessary to speak our darkest thoughts out loud
How to follow our fear and pain into a state of profound gratitude
The spiral of the Work That Reconnects: gratitude, honoring our pain, seeing with new eyes, and going forth
Bonus Exercise: “Gratitude Meditation”—the first stage on the spiral

Ep 2 Bonus: Envisioning the Great Turning

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 16:17:37 +0000

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-sustaining society.

We need inspiring visions for the kind of world we want to live in that can motivate us, move us to action, and so that we know what it looks like to succeed. So, in this bonus episode, we’re going to envision, in detail, what the world might be like if the Great Turning really were the predominant story of our time.

All you need is a quiet place where you can sit and close your eyes. We hope you’ll do this exercise with someone else, so that you can talk together about your experience after you finish. It might also help to have something to write with and on.

Ep 2: The Three Stories of Our Time

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 02:07:13 +0000

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 society. The stakes are high, the outcome uncertain. This conversation invites you to devote yourself to the Great Turning even as you grasp the truth in all three stories.

In this episode:

Three outlooks on these times: Business as Usual, the Great Unraveling, and the Great Turning
What’s behind all three—how they affect us in conscious and unconscious ways
What the Great Turning means, and how to devote yourself to it
Bonus Exercise: Envisioning the Great Turning

Ep 1 Bonus: Open Sentences

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 17:18:22 +0000

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 listen carefully to one another. If that’s not possible and you want to try this alone, you can answer out loud or write the questions in a journal.

The prompts for this exercise are:

Some things I love about being alive on earth today are…
What breaks my heart about living on earth in this time is…
If I withhold my feelings about what’s happening in the world right now, I do so because…
What keeps me going when the world breaks my heart is…

Ep 1: Love and Loss

Wed, 17 Apr 2024 15:55:16 +0000

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 join them at Joanna’s kitchen table, and invited into a deeper sense of your belonging and love for our world.

In this episode:

How to connect with the great possibilities that still exist for us even in these precarious times Joanna reflects on her awakening of environmental consciousness
Jess reflects on how meeting Joanna changed her life
Love, laughter, heartbreak, and the Work That Reconnects
Bonus Exercise: “Open Sentences”—a practice for partners

We Are The Great Turning Podcast Teaser

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 11:34:18 +0000

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.

Join us on April 22 for the first of 10 episodes of this powerful and transformative new podcast.