FRUITFUL CONVERGENCE, A CONVERSATION with DAVID GEORGE HASKELL
So many details make up the nature of a place: the geology, the hydrology, the climate, and the plants of the place – which are often dictated by the PLACE of a place, meaning its actual position on the planet. And while I think most of us know this instinctively, the soundscape of a place is another of our gardens’ signatures.
David George Haskell is a perfect example of a cultivator of place through deep observation & research. His love of the world’s intricacies is a delight, and he joins Cultivating Place for a generous conversation this week to explore the arc of his research and writing, understood through the lens of his title: Sounds Wild and Broken.
Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution’s Creativity, and the crisis of Sensory Extinction, brought the importance of caring for the soundscape of our places home to me in a moving and visceral way, and I will never again listen to or hear my place as I did before.
David is also a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for his gorgeous works of nature-based non-fiction, which include: The Forest Unseen (Viking Press, Penguin Random House 2012), The Songs of Trees (Viking Press, Penguin Random House 2017), Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree (Hachette 2021), and Sounds Wild and Broken (Viking Press, Penguin Random House 2022). And his most recent from Viking Press; How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature's Revolutionaries.
You might never hear your garden, or the world, the same again.
Listen in this week!
Follow David online:
and on Instagram:
All photos courtesy of David George Haskell; All rights reserved.
If you enjoyed this program, you might also enjoy these
JOIN US again next week: The so-called Cherokee Rose, has nothing to do with the Cherokee people, and is in fact not native to the US let alone the State of Georgia. Next week, Cultivating Place is joined by Cherokee Elder, Tony Harris, whose Cherokee Garden in his people’s original homelands, grows a garden that helps set the record straight. Join us! That's right here, next week. Listen in!
Cultivating Place is made possible in part by listeners like you and by generous support
from
in honor of Bailey Shaw
supporting initiatives that empower women and help preserve the planet through the intersection of environmental advocacy, social justice, and creativity.
Thinking out loud this week...
Hey, it's Jennifer—
Joyful learning – greater awareness of our planet mates, animal and vegetative….David George Haskell reminds us what learning should be based on, and why we love life – despite being deeply paradoxical and deeply creative.
Let us all be joyfully humbled with and by our caring cultivation of place…let us all allow our curiosity and our places be the teachers we might have needed, and the ones our children and communities need.
Reading Sounds Wild and Broken again now, for our Cultivating Place Communing Book Club reminded me to listen more carefully, and in fact inspired me to craft my 100 Days in Place project this year around trying to listen for, to hear, and know by heart the sonic personality of my place: the creek, the weather and the day moving through the canyon the sounds of birds, trees, of rocks, of walking. A time stamped aural history of my place. And intimacy I am enjoying…
I am agreeing to what David George Haskell invites us all to in the coming segment, give yourself the gift of listening deeply and paying attention closely to the world around us….
WAYS TO SUPPORT CULTIVATING PLACE
Cultivating Place is a co-production of North State Public Radio, licensed to Chico State Enterprises. Cultivating Place is made possible in part listeners just like you through the support button at the top right-hand corner of every page at Cultivating Place.org
The CP team includes producer and engineer Matt Fidler, with weekly tech and web support from Angel Huracha, weekly communications support by Sheila Stern and Carley Bruckner, and regular hosting by Founder, Jennifer Jewell, as well as Abra Lee in Atlanta, Georgia, and Ben Futa in South Bend, Indiana. We’re based on the traditional and present homelands of the Mechoopda Indian Tribe of the Chico Rancheria. Original theme music is by Ma Muse..
SHARE the podcast with friends: If you enjoy these conversations about these things we love and which connect us, please share them forward with others. Thank you in advance!
RATE the podcast on iTunes: Or wherever you get your podcast feed: Please submit a ranking and a review of the program on Itunes! To do so follow this link: iTunes Review and Rate (once there, click View In Itunes and go to Ratings and Reviews)
DONATE: Cultivating Place is a listener-supported co-production of North State Public Radio. To make your listener contribution – please click the donate button below. Thank you in advance for your help making these valuable conversations grow.
Or, make checks payable to: Cultivating Place Foundation EIN #33-1665277
PO Box 37
Durham, CA 95938
Comments