Kai Wright is a gardener, but chances are good you know him as a Peabody Award-winning host, editor, and longtime journalist whose work explores the intersection of history, power, and the evolving American identity. He is co-host of The Guardian’s new video podcast: Stateside with Kai and Carter, a current events program "striving to make sense of it all." Kai’s home garden in Newburgh, NY helps ground him in all that sense-making. In between his journalism posts on Instagra

For the next conversation in our intermittent series on what regenerative cultivation looks like in our world-at many levels–Cultivating Place is speaking this week with Dr. Garrett Liles, cofounder and faculty affiliate of The Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient Systems at California State University, Chico. The Center is all about caring cultivation of place, understanding and supporting better systems, and training the next generation in this ethos and its p

To welcome October, this week on Cultivating Place, host Ben Futa is in conversation with Colleen Raney of Washington State’s Songbird Seed Company and Diadem Flower Company. Colleen is the founder of Songbird Seed Co., a seed company devoted to the cultivation and preservation of exceptional sweet peas. What started as a personal fascination with the sweet pea, became a deeper study of their history, varieties, cultivation, and extraordinary diversity. Today, Colleen grows h

Happy Autumn! Cultivating Place is proud to launch an occasional series from host Abra Lee, delving into our Garden past in order to more fully understand and illuminate our Garden present and future. Sometimes we have to look back to grow forward! This week, Abra shares with Jennifer Jewell her passion and admiration for, as well as research into, an intrepid and unflagging cultivator of place from our past in Virginia’s Tidewater Region: Asa Sims. A businessman, educator, f

To “leave the land better than we found it,” should be the ethic of all Gardeners. It is the North Star ethic of regenerative and organic farming leaders: Lundberg Family Rice. Third- and fourth-generation stewards of rice, land, and planet, Bryce and Brita Lundberg join Cultivating Place this week to share why, and all that grows from that single dedication. With the Autumnal Equinox upon us, I am reminded: If there is one thing the daily, monthly, and annual cycles of days,

Flowers, who doesn’t love them. And in the seedy season, who doesn’t love saving their seeds? This week, Cultivating Place Host Jennifer Jewell revisits a favorite conversation with crowd-favorite, Erin Benzakein of Floret, in celebration of Floret’s new book: Bloom to Seed! Enjoy... Erin Benzakein of Floret Flower Farm needs little introduction to most garden minded listeners. She has been so instrumental is cultivating a flower-farmer and flower-farming economy in our count

As the season begins to show signs of turning its next page, Cultivating Place host Ben Futa heads to Vermont! This week he's in conversation with David Jacques, also known by the internet persona "Davey Wavey". David is the owner of Frog Meadow Bed & Breakfast, a retreat for men in southern Vermont. For nearly 20 years, David has been pursuing his passion for gardening while serving an audience (online and in place) of primarily gay men. In their conversation this week, they

Whitney Jaye is a florist, flower farmer, and the creative force behind Sunbird Flowers, based in Decatur, Georgia, and providing sustainably grown, beautifully curated flowers for the Atlanta area. Seeing her work through the lens of Black Southern folkways that (re)center agrarianism, and through the ancestral memories and practices of coastal Carolinian culture, Whitney Jaye’s work sits at the intersection of land care, history, and building community through flowers. Thi

First – a welcoming shout-out to two new public radio stations in the Cultivating Place ecosystem: KHNS in Haines, Alaska and WTXK in Texarkana, Texas – welcome to this growing family. Now, you may have heard of Alcatraz as an iconic site of incarceration, THE ROCK, and you may very well have heard of the Gardens of Alcatraz, historic but also constantly evolving cultivated spaces on Alcatraz Island. More than a century in the creating, from military personnel and their famil

There are established Garden Societies and then there are new garden societies. At THE NEW GARDEN SOCIETY, the very name invites us to consider how gardens, and access to garden spaces and acts of gardening, can actually transform society writ large. I like it. This week, I am in conversation with two members of the Boston-based New Garden Society, who seek to expand green industry opportunities for their incarcerated and formerly incarcerated neighbors. They believe in the t

All history reminds us that we are all history in the making. Garden history specifically reminds us that we as gardeners, our gardens, our gardening, and how our culture tends to and stewards land, are all that, too. What is the historical context of gardens in this moment-especially given some of the changes and impacts on national or public shared landscapes? What does garden history specifically teach us about this moment? This week Cultivating Place Host Ben Futa is in c

At the height of summer, we head to the "Mile-High City" of Denver, Colorado to think more about Cultivating Place at elevation: human-made and natural elevations, in the service of people and their places. We’re in conversation with Professor Jennifer Bousselot, who leads the Green Roof and Urban Agriculture Program, growing food for people and pollinators, at Colorado State University. This program and its team are dedicated to researching how the world can better integrate

Allen Bush is an esteemed plantsman and lifelong advocate for the joy of gardening. He joins Cultivating Place Host Abra Lee in conversation this week to share more. From his work with Jelitto Perennial Seeds, to his decades sharing rich garden stories as a Garden Rant writer, Allen’s life and work invite us to look more closely at the remarkable diversity of plants and the endless opportunities they offer for curiosity, discovery, and connection. Through decades of sharing p

What does accessibility mean in the garden? In a public garden? Reeves-Reed Arboretum in Summit NJ, an historic estate and garden, has been considering these questions intensely. How to increase accessibility for visitors and yet maintain the equally important sense of being in and with nature. One result of their thoughtful deliberations is their Path For All, which opened in May of 2026. Three members of their team join Jennifer Jewell this week to share more about their 13

Planting design is an essential skill in garden design writ large, for the health and beauty of a site–functionally, environmentally, and psychologically. Andrew Fisher Tomlin is widely acknowledged as leading the development of a distinct professional career path in planting design through his own work and as a Director of Environmental Design at the London College of Garden Design in London and Melbourne. There, he has mentored some of the most exciting new designers coming

Cultivating Place well so often comes down to sharing the abundance of growing from a place of love, from a strong sense of community, and an equally grounded sense of home. Susan Greutman is the founder and owner of Sunchoke Farms, an urban homestead-turned-family farm in South Bend, Indiana, growing chemical-free produce on formerly vacant city lots. Susan has been farming since 2018 and also happens to be growing right in Ben Futa and Botany's neighborhood. Their conversat

Amanda Hannah is the Director of Botanical Garden Horticulture at Holden Forests & Gardens in Cleveland, Ohio. Amanda’s path into horticulture has taken her from the agricultural landscapes of Idaho and Utah to studying in Argentina, living in Seattle, and moving through the Longwood Fellows Program. This week, Amanda and Cultivating Place Host, Abra Lee, dive into plants, the role of public gardens, conservation, and how following an unexpected passion can transform the cour

We are finally at peak daylight and the Summer Solstice–which officially takes place June 21st this year. Summer speaks of garden parties and holidays at the beach, or lake, by rivers, or in the mountains. Summer speaks directly to our connection to the wild places we love and perhaps long for– and which, through our gardens, can be right here at home…SummerHome Garden in Denver, CO, is a playful and powerful twist on how our gardens can be our summer homes. Do you have a sum

The conservation of biodiversity writ large is directly tied to the conservation of native bees: crucial pollinators in our cultivated and wildland ecosystems across most regions of the world. This week, we look forward to International Pollinator Week, which always falls in the third week of June (tied to the Summer solstice), in conversation with Krystle Hickman, an award-winning conservation photographer, author, artist and National Geographic Explorer. Her passion is nat

What makes a place a place, versus just any space? Tyler Kanczuzewski is a sustainability advocate and the founder and owner of ReGen South Bend, an incremental development and community catalyst company based in the Near Northwest Neighborhood of South Bend, Indiana. Tyler brings business leadership, logistics, resiliency, and community experience to his work alongside neighbors to transform space into place, in order to cultivate people and their places well. Tyler joins Cu