Thank you for sharing this update, though I'm so sorry to hear you've been through a difficult birth and your son's life had a terrifying start. I wish health and healing for you both. And thank you for holding our hands and opening up space for reflection and essential conversations amidst such big challenges, both personal and global. You're a bright light!!
So sweet of you Kim, thank you! And thank you for keeping us focused on all the feasible things we can do to make the situation better as we go through these changes <3
Hi Britt, Margherita Pevere writing. We met at your book presentation for the Finnish Bioart Society in Helsinki a few winters ago.
Congratulation for your bold and insightful work, as always!
I have been working on climate change and environmental disruption since many years through my art and research. As a child-free adult, my thoughts are for the many young fellow humans that surround me. In recent times I started addressing parenting friends about their thoughts and feelings in regards to climate change. I offered them my listening ear for their feelings and also my literacy on the matter. The majority of them said that it feels faraway. When asked if they ever address the topic with fellow parents, the answer was the same. Someone also reacted in a protective way and said I was a bringer of misfortune. I believe in the power of art and activism and science and frankness and trust the conversation spurred some reflections in them, yet no one touched the topic again - they probably needs time. In the podcast it would be of help to unpack these different perspectives.
I wish you all the best for your work and the new critter!
Hi Margherita, nice to see you here! I'm not surprised that you were met with those parents' defensive responses, but you're definitely not a bringer of misfortune, rather you're just opening up space for difficult conversations which we need to do much more often. Thanks for going there with folks, it isn't easy to be received with those walls.
Dear Britt - what I really like about your posts is how articulate & humane they are, like we are together & you are speaking rather than writing - keep it up i 2022! love/David Bryson, MD (Yale '63)
Welcome back! Glad you are exploring a podcast. Not too many that go deeper beyond climate impacts but there some great ones out there too. As a podcast creator I think the hardest part is starting and just putting it out there. It has been stressful at times to feel like I have to create content but also incredibly therapeutic to be able to say what’s on my mind and “figure out” topics that I would otherwise ruminate on for too long.
Thank you! Ah yes, that feeling is familiar. I got my start in media by making radio shows and podcasts many years back but I've taken a break from it recently. There are lots of climate ones to choose from these days, and hopefully we'll learn a bit more about what kinds of climate psych podcasts folks want to hear to add to the pile.
Welcome back. I've been aware and terrified of climate change since 1975. I chose not to have children then. I want to talk of CC because I am afraid. Most people I meet don't want to talk of it because they are too afraid. It's too dismal a subject, too overwhelming to consider. You suggest talking at the holidays. How do you get past the inertia? I'm a trained biologist. The only people I've met willing to talk, were two other biologists I ran into this summer, two professors from UC Davis at a campground. Then I hear worse stories than I had read about. CC is happening much faster than the predictions, and now having impacts in the biome. How do you get people past the terror to talk? I really feel like it's too damn late.
These questions are so important, and I'll revisit them in a future post. Stay tuned! In the meantime, this post relates to the idea of talking with others about difficult climate truths, though not in the exact way you've asked https://gendread.substack.com/p/the-trick-to-helping-people-process
Dec 23, 2021·edited Dec 23, 2021Liked by Gen Dread
I'm a new mom myself and find so many of my own emotions in your words. It's scary but comforting to know I'm not alone in them. Sending best wishes to you and your little one.
Thank you, and sending you all the best with your bundle too <3 There's lots of us out there who are concerned, surrounded by a sea of normative parents who think it is no big deal!
Welcome back Britt, I missed you and your wisdom!
Thank you for sharing this update, though I'm so sorry to hear you've been through a difficult birth and your son's life had a terrifying start. I wish health and healing for you both. And thank you for holding our hands and opening up space for reflection and essential conversations amidst such big challenges, both personal and global. You're a bright light!!
So sweet of you Kim, thank you! And thank you for keeping us focused on all the feasible things we can do to make the situation better as we go through these changes <3
Hi Britt, Margherita Pevere writing. We met at your book presentation for the Finnish Bioart Society in Helsinki a few winters ago.
Congratulation for your bold and insightful work, as always!
I have been working on climate change and environmental disruption since many years through my art and research. As a child-free adult, my thoughts are for the many young fellow humans that surround me. In recent times I started addressing parenting friends about their thoughts and feelings in regards to climate change. I offered them my listening ear for their feelings and also my literacy on the matter. The majority of them said that it feels faraway. When asked if they ever address the topic with fellow parents, the answer was the same. Someone also reacted in a protective way and said I was a bringer of misfortune. I believe in the power of art and activism and science and frankness and trust the conversation spurred some reflections in them, yet no one touched the topic again - they probably needs time. In the podcast it would be of help to unpack these different perspectives.
I wish you all the best for your work and the new critter!
Hi Margherita, nice to see you here! I'm not surprised that you were met with those parents' defensive responses, but you're definitely not a bringer of misfortune, rather you're just opening up space for difficult conversations which we need to do much more often. Thanks for going there with folks, it isn't easy to be received with those walls.
Dear Britt - what I really like about your posts is how articulate & humane they are, like we are together & you are speaking rather than writing - keep it up i 2022! love/David Bryson, MD (Yale '63)
How nice, thanks David!
Welcome back! Glad you are exploring a podcast. Not too many that go deeper beyond climate impacts but there some great ones out there too. As a podcast creator I think the hardest part is starting and just putting it out there. It has been stressful at times to feel like I have to create content but also incredibly therapeutic to be able to say what’s on my mind and “figure out” topics that I would otherwise ruminate on for too long.
Thank you! Ah yes, that feeling is familiar. I got my start in media by making radio shows and podcasts many years back but I've taken a break from it recently. There are lots of climate ones to choose from these days, and hopefully we'll learn a bit more about what kinds of climate psych podcasts folks want to hear to add to the pile.
Welcome back. I've been aware and terrified of climate change since 1975. I chose not to have children then. I want to talk of CC because I am afraid. Most people I meet don't want to talk of it because they are too afraid. It's too dismal a subject, too overwhelming to consider. You suggest talking at the holidays. How do you get past the inertia? I'm a trained biologist. The only people I've met willing to talk, were two other biologists I ran into this summer, two professors from UC Davis at a campground. Then I hear worse stories than I had read about. CC is happening much faster than the predictions, and now having impacts in the biome. How do you get people past the terror to talk? I really feel like it's too damn late.
These questions are so important, and I'll revisit them in a future post. Stay tuned! In the meantime, this post relates to the idea of talking with others about difficult climate truths, though not in the exact way you've asked https://gendread.substack.com/p/the-trick-to-helping-people-process
I'm a new mom myself and find so many of my own emotions in your words. It's scary but comforting to know I'm not alone in them. Sending best wishes to you and your little one.
Thank you, and sending you all the best with your bundle too <3 There's lots of us out there who are concerned, surrounded by a sea of normative parents who think it is no big deal!
welcome back. we missed you.
Aw thanks Claude