The Kerulos Center for Nonviolence

Living One
Engagement

Living One opens horizons with innovative webinars, experiential courses, engagement in community, and individual mentorships that move ideas into action to bring us into alignment with Earth and Animal values and ethos.

Since 2018, Living One has hosted speakers from around the world cross-cutting diverse perspectives and weaving the ecological with the spiritual and scientific in a blend of embodied practice and philosophical understanding. Each year we offer three series of webinars, each focused on a specific theme. Alongside the webinars, we offer mentorships and companion courses with curated materials and experiential exercises to deepen learning and cultivate community. Scroll down to see ongoing webinars.

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Webinars are free and courses are offered on a sliding-scale. Access to courses and offerings will never be denied based on financial constraints. Please contact us at contact@kerulos.org to discuss your needs.

Katie Holten, Forest, 2019-2020, ink on paper. © Katie Holten. The “Forest” drawing by Katie Holten was created in collaboration with the poet Forrest Gander and originally commissioned for and published in Emergence Magazine. Reproduced here courtesy of the artist.

Our Hosts

Olivia Crossman
Isabella Clarke

Living One Philosophy

Living One aims to dissolve binary barriers and hierarchies of human/Animal, Nature/culture, Wild, domestic, mind/body, living/nonliving.

All, regardless of background, are offered inspiration and community to support Plant and Animal liberation and compassionate relationship with all Earth-beings.

We encourage a nuanced approach to each subject, exploring complexity and variability where learning engages different perspectives and independent thinking.

We understand that each subject, series, and speaker, while connected in the web of wisdom-seeking, represents a part of the full picture. We accept, with humility, the mystery and uncertainty that remains. 

Each series features a range of speakers and audience members coming from different nations, cultures, perspectives, religions, and standpoints.

We seek to see connections not divisions between the academic and the spiritual, Traditional Knowledge and Western Science, learned disciplines and intuitive understandings, the material and the contemplative.

We invite all species to converse, connect and act for

Earth revitalization.

Face to Face with Elephants

November 7, 2025 - December 19, 2025

Beginning November 7th, this special Living One series celebrates Elephants as individuals in discussion with diverse insightful speakers who describe a particular Elephant they have known and the psychological depths they witnessed and travelled together. In these unique discussions, we are plunged into human and Elephant psyches and the transformative journey they experienced when living and connecting beyond species bounds. Join us for this special and exciting gathering.

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Webinar Schedule

Born and educated in the U.S.A., Cynthia Moss moved to Africa in 1968 and she has lived and worked for wildlife there ever since. Her involvement with elephants began in Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania where she worked with Iain Douglas-Hamilton on his pioneering elephant study. In 1972, with Harvey Croze, she started the Amboseli Elephant Research Project (AERP) in Kenya, which she continues to direct. Her studies have concentrated on the distribution, demography, population dynamics, social organization and behavior of the Amboseli elephants. In 2001 she created the Amboseli Trust for Elephants in both Kenya and the USA. Her present activities include: overall direction of ATE which includes: research and monitoring; training elephant researchers from African elephant range states; outreach to the Maasai community in Amboseli; disseminating scientific results; networking with other elephant scientists and conservation in Africa and Asia; and promoting public awareness by writing popular articles and books and by making films about elephants. Moss is the author of four books: Portraits in the Wild (University of Chicago Press); Elephant Memories (University of Chicago Press); Echo of the Elephants (William Morrow); Little Big Ears (Simon & Schuster); and co-author with Laurence Pringle of Elephant Woman (Atheneum). She has written numerous popular and scientific articles and has made four award-winning TV documentaries about elephants.

View Cynthia’s webinar recording here.

G. A. Bradshaw is the founder and director of The Kerulos Center for Nonviolence (www.kerulos.org). She was the first scientist to diagnose Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) in free-living Elephants, and subsequently Orcas, Bears, Chimpanzees, and Pumas, which launched the field of trans-species psychology. She holds doctorate degrees in ecology and psychology, and a master’s in geophysics and was a Fellow at the National Science Foundation National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. She is a certified mindfulness and meditation teacher. Her books include the Pulitzer-nominated Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us about Humanity; Carnivore Minds: Who These Fearsome Beings Really Are; Talking with Bears: Conversations with Charlie Russell and The Evolved Nest: Nature’s Way of Raising Families and Creating Connected Communities. She is the primary carer for rescued colonized Animals including disabled endangered Tortoises and Wildlife at Grace Village, Oregon, USA.
 
 
Dr. Sandra L. Bloom is a Board-Certified psychiatrist, graduate of Temple University School of Medicine and currently Associate Professor, Health Management and Policy at the Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University (www.sandrabloom.com). She is also the Founder of Creating Presence, an online organizational approach for creating trauma-informed systems.
In extending her work to include an online delivery program for Leaders, Clinicians, Direct Service Staff, and Indirect Service Staff called Creating Presence, Dr. Bloom hopes to make the innovative approach to service delivery known as “trauma-informed” and “trauma-responsive” more available and cost effective.
From 1980-2001, Dr. Bloom served as Founder and Executive Director of the Sanctuary programs, inpatient psychiatric programs for the treatment of trauma-related emotional disorders and during those years was also President of the Alliance for Creative Development, a multidisciplinary outpatient practice group. Dr. Bloom is recognized nationally and internationally as the founder of the Sanctuary Model. Between 2005 and 2016 over 350 social service, juvenile justice and mental health organizations were trained in the Sanctuary Model.
Dr. Bloom is a Past-President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and author or co-author of a series of books on trauma-informed care: Creating Sanctuary: Toward the Evolution of Sane Societies published in 1997 with a second edition in 2013; Destroying Sanctuary: The Crisis in Human Delivery Service Systems published by Oxford University Press in 2010 and Restoring Sanctuary: A New Operating System for Trauma-Informed Systems of Care, published by Oxford University Press in 2013.
She is currently co-chairing a new national organization, CTIPP – The Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice whose goal is to advocate for public policies and programs at the federal, state, local and tribal levels that incorporate up-to-date scientific findings regarding the relationship between trauma across the lifespan and many social and health problems. Since 2012, Dr. Bloom has also served as Co-chair for the Philadelphia ACEs Task Force. Sandy is also c-founder in collaboration with The Kerulos Center for Nonviolence of Creating Presence with Nature.

Deke Weaver’s multidisciplinary work has been presented in venues such as PBS, Sundance Film Festival, Channel 4/U.K., New York Video Festival at Lincoln Center, Chicago Humanities Festival, Berlin Video Festival, The Moth, 21c Museum Hotels, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, livestock pavilions, backyard sheds, forests, prairies, night clubs and living rooms. A Guggenheim Fellow and Creative Capital grantee, Weaver is currently a professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign with appointments in the School of Art & Design, the Department of Theater, the Department of Dance, and faculty affiliation with the Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies. unreliablebestiary.org

Scott carries a lifetime of experience, working both with and for captive elephants for over 30 years. He is a leading expert in natural habitat elephant sanctuary development and operation, and the co-founder of two elephant sanctuaries: The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee and the first and only sanctuary in South America, Elephant Sanctuary Brazil. Utilizing his strong aptitude for design and construction, complemented by his knowledge and comprehension of the physical and emotional needs of captive elephants, Scott has pioneered progressive elephant captive care for emotionally and physically abused elephants desperately in need of a second chance. Scott’s provable record is a testament to the fact that elephants can recover from the harsh traumas of captivity if given respect, space, compassionate care, and the companionship of other elephants that so many have never known.

Katherine worked at The Elephant Sanctuary for 6 years, participating in the direct daily care of up to 9 elephants residing on 2,200 acres. Acting as lead caregiver and veterinary liaison, Katherine was responsible for the training and supervision of 5 employees, liaised with three veterinarians with medical supervision of 15 resident elephants and oversight of daily care, observation, and management of up to 8 resident elephants. Katherine arrived to the Sanctuary with more than 15 years of experience as a veterinary technician, practicing in all realms including orthopedics, emergency care, holistic medicine, and wildlife.

For over thirty years, Michele Franko has worked in multiple Animal advocacy-related venues including Animal care, welfare and shelters, thoroughbred Horse racing and sport Horse breeding farms, veterinary assistance, and Wildlife rescue and rehabilitation. The past fifteen years, Michele has served as a carer for rescued Elephants in sanctuary. Her work and expertise have also brought her outside the U.S. to work with severely traumatized Elephants in India and South Africa. She approaches Elephant care and understanding through a trauma-informed lens focusing on individuality, well-being, understanding and self-discovery  to help facilitate their healing.

Prior to her work with Elephants, Michele served as a California State Humane Officer investigating criminal Animal cruelty which included active rescues of Animals in distress and crisis. Her responsibilities included monitoring and inspections of treatment of Animals in circuses and rodeos. Having studied psychology and criminal justice and served in the investigation and subsequent prosecution of many cases of violence against Animals, Michele began formal studies in trauma and trauma healing as work as an intern with The Kerulos Center for Nonviolence where she became a member of the Stewardship council in 2009.

Elke Riesterer was born in southern Germany, and immigrated to the US in 1983. She is a Certified Massage Therapist and registered Jin Shin Do Practitioner with the broad experience of having worked with humans and Animals for over 30 years. She has volunteered as an all-species Body Therapist at the Oakland, California, USA, Zoo since 1997 and uses a combination of body-centered therapies including her most favored modality the Tellington Touch (TTouch™). In general, her work centers around the complex well-being issues of Elephants worldwide with an emphasis on helping heal symptoms of PTSD. Besides Elephants, Elke works with Aldabra Tortoises, Monitor Lizards, Snakes and Giraffes, and Sea Life including Dolphins and Sea Lions. Elke has lectured and traveled extensively and in particular, visited Africa multiple times to provide healing touch for residents at the Elephant and Rhino Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya, Lilayi Elephant Nursery in Lusaka, Zambia, and Asian Elephants in Thailand and India. In addition to many exotic species, Elke also enjoys working with Horses, Dogs and other home animals. Her work has appeared in numerous articles and radio and television programs. Elke is also the co-founder of World Elephant Alliance.

Therese Lilliesköld is an anthrozoologist, an author and currently a PhD-student. Her research is centrered around questions of knowledge; of more-than-human animals as knowledge-bearers and possible decision makers in societal planning as well as on human knowledge production behind decisions affecting other animals. Her previous work has been within animal protection with a wide range of topics; from the link between violence towards humans and other animals, to trauma and the emotional life of companion animals.

One of her books, When Elephants Dream, is published in Swedish but has recently been translated to English. It is a memoir about the time Therese spent as a caretaker of young, traumatized elephants in Thailand. The bond she developed with an elephant who died at a young age taught her about their capacities for strong emotions, grief as well as their spiritual abilities. Therese is an ambassadour for elephants for World Animal Protection Sweden.

David Ebert, a retired lawyer, founded Weeping Elephant Project in 2025 as a means of more fully devoting himself to reducing the suffering of elephants. WEP is a continuation and expansion of his work on behalf of captive elephants in the US over the past decade.

Weeping Elephant Project’s goals include educating the public to what they are not seeing when they attend circuses, visit zoos and participate in other events that display and degrade elephants. Through the Weeping Elephant Project’s podcast, David seeks to help elephant organizations and advocates reach a wider audience and serve as a resource for those interested in understanding more about the plight of captive elephants and the unseen awfulness to which they’re subjected. The podcast features interviews with the extraordinary advocates and organizations pursuing elephant protection to help raise their profile and bring more attention and funding to their remarkable work.

David is also the Co-Founder, President Emeritus, and a former board member of Animal Defense Partnership, which provides legal services exclusively to animal protection nonprofits, entirely without charge. ADP now represents 350+ clients working in the US as well as US-based organizations advocating for change in other parts of the world. In 2024, ADP provided $2.1 million in billable legal services to its clients, for free.

Ms. Suparna Baksi Ganguly, Hon. President and Co-Founder Trustee, Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation Center (WRRC) & Co-Founder Trustee, Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA)

Has been actively involved in Animal welfare for the past three and a half decades. She has published, authored and co-authored nearly 40 – 50 books and Reports on captive elephants’ management in India by drawing reference to their condition in various States in India. She has been a Member of the Task Force of Wild and Captive Elephants that was formed by the Ministry of Forests and Environment in the year 2010. She was also a Member of the Zoo Committee for the Appraisal of the Elephants in Zoos by the Central Zoo Authority of India, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. She was a co-opted member of the Animal Welfare Board of India from 2010-2013, and a Member of the Animal Welfare Board of Karnataka when it was started in the year 2003. In the year 2016, she was among the first recipients of the Nari Shakti Puraskar Award given by the then Hon’ble President of India, Sri. Pranab Mukherjee. In the same year, she received the Namma Bangalore Award in the Citizens category as well as the Pride of Karnataka Award in the field of Social Work. In the year 2017, she received the FICCI Woman Achievement Award for contribution to Animals and Environment.

In 2022, she initiated the first Elephant Care Facility for ailing elephants in a public-private partnership model in Karnataka. The facility houses many elephants from private ownerships which need expert veterinary support and upkeep. The facility is funded by philanthropists and private donors.

Her ongoing work with domestic and wild animals continues with CUPA and WRRC, which includes handling cruelty cases, legal interventions and collaborating with animal welfare groups in India and abroad.

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Webinar Recordings

November 14, 2025

Scott carries a lifetime of experience, working both with and for captive elephants for over 30 years. He is a leading expert in natural habitat elephant sanctuary development and operation, and the co-founder of two elephant sanctuaries: The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee and the first and only sanctuary in South America, Elephant Sanctuary Brazil. Utilizing his strong aptitude for design and construction, complemented by his knowledge and comprehension of the physical and emotional needs of captive elephants, Scott has pioneered progressive elephant captive care for emotionally and physically abused elephants desperately in need of a second chance. Scott’s provable record is a testament to the fact that elephants can recover from the harsh traumas of captivity if given respect, space, compassionate care, and the companionship of other elephants that so many have never known.

Katherine worked at The Elephant Sanctuary for 6 years, participating in the direct daily care of up to 9 elephants residing on 2,200 acres. Acting as lead caregiver and veterinary liaison, Katherine was responsible for the training and supervision of 5 employees, liaised with three veterinarians with medical supervision of 15 resident elephants and oversight of daily care, observation, and management of up to 8 resident elephants. Katherine arrived to the Sanctuary with more than 15 years of experience as a veterinary technician, practicing in all realms including orthopedics, emergency care, holistic medicine, and wildlife.

November 14, 2025

Deke Weaver’s multidisciplinary work has been presented in venues such as PBS, Sundance Film Festival, Channel 4/U.K., New York Video Festival at Lincoln Center, Chicago Humanities Festival, Berlin Video Festival, The Moth, 21c Museum Hotels, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, livestock pavilions, backyard sheds, forests, prairies, night clubs and living rooms. A Guggenheim Fellow and Creative Capital grantee, Weaver is currently a professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign with appointments in the School of Art & Design, the Department of Theater, the Department of Dance, and faculty affiliation with the Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies. unreliablebestiary.org

November 7, 2025

G. A. Bradshaw is the founder and director of The Kerulos Center for Nonviolence (www.kerulos.org). She was the first scientist to diagnose Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) in free-living Elephants, and subsequently Orcas, Bears, Chimpanzees, and Pumas, which launched the field of trans-species psychology. She holds doctorate degrees in ecology and psychology, and a master’s in geophysics and was a Fellow at the National Science Foundation National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis. She is a certified mindfulness and meditation teacher. Her books include the Pulitzer-nominated Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us about Humanity; Carnivore Minds: Who These Fearsome Beings Really Are; Talking with Bears: Conversations with Charlie Russell and The Evolved Nest: Nature’s Way of Raising Families and Creating Connected Communities. She is the primary carer for rescued colonized Animals including disabled endangered Tortoises and Wildlife at Grace Village, Oregon, USA.

Dr. Sandra L. Bloom is a Board-Certified psychiatrist, graduate of Temple University School of Medicine and currently Associate Professor, Health Management and Policy at theDornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University. For the past thirty years, Dr. Bloom has done pioneering work in the field of traumatic stress studies and is a past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Dr. Bloom originated and has writtenthree books about the Sanctuary Model and in 2020 introduced a new, online organizational approach called Creating Presence (https://www.creatingpresence.net).

November 1, 2025

Born and educated in the U.S.A., Cynthia Moss moved to Africa in 1968 and she has lived and worked for wildlife there ever since. Her involvement with elephants began in Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania where she worked with Iain Douglas-Hamilton on his pioneering elephant study. In 1972, with Harvey Croze, she started the Amboseli Elephant Research Project (AERP) in Kenya, which she continues to direct. Her studies have concentrated on the distribution, demography, population dynamics, social organization and behavior of the Amboseli elephants. In 2001 she created the Amboseli Trust for Elephants in both Kenya and the USA. Her present activities include: overall direction of ATE which includes: research and monitoring; training elephant researchers from African elephant range states; outreach to the Maasai community in Amboseli; disseminating scientific results; networking with other elephant scientists and conservation in Africa and Asia; and promoting public awareness by writing popular articles and books and by making films about elephants. Moss is the author of four books: Portraits in the Wild (University of Chicago Press); Elephant Memories (University of Chicago Press); Echo of the Elephants (William Morrow); Little Big Ears (Simon & Schuster); and co-author with Laurence Pringle of Elephant Woman (Atheneum). She has written numerous popular and scientific articles and has made four award-winning TV documentaries about elephants.

2025 Theme

Seeing the Unseen: Restoration Through Re-Enchantment

2025 Living One conversations discuss paths of engaged, ensouled activism and practice which redirect humanity into alignment with Nature. Drawing from multiple perspectives, our speakers delve into the unseen, non-material, and less-than-obvious dimensions of life which have been dismissed and excised from mainstream reality. This long-standing parsing of wholeness is a major contributor to the destruction of the planet. Join us to hear how the dissolution of dualism and subsequent embrace of nonduality is integral to Plant and Animal liberation and to our own re-enchantment.

Series One: Attending to the More-Than-Human World

February 14th - March 28th 2025

This first series, Attending to the More-Than-Human World, explores the ethics of attention –why it matters when we unhook our minds and attention from human privilege and ground in the perspectives of Animals, Plants, Rivers, Seas, Forests. Six incisive thinkers discuss ways to pay deep and loving attention to Animals and Plants. Through various approaches – empathy, shared embodiment, animism and holism – they offer thoughtful and practical guidance on how the well-being and self-determination of our fellow earth-beings can be supported and revitalized.

Please visit our Series One page or our YouTube channel to view all webinar recordings for this series!

Series One
YouTube

Series Two: Encounters with the Unseen

May 9th - June 20th 2025

Encounters with the Unseen delves into the critical ethical and ontological dimensions emerging from nonduality and our existence in a world of persons in which only a small number are human.

Journey with us into unseen territories and discover how this deeper understanding can expand and restore wholeness and connection with the vitality of our living cosmos. 

Please visit our Series Two page or our YouTube channel to view all webinar recordings for this series!

Series Two
YouTube

Join us for our companion course for this second series, Encountering the Unseen.

Everyone who would like to engage more deeply is welcome!

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Series Three: A Re-Enchanted World

August 22nd - October 10th 2025

This third series of conversations, A Re-enchanted World, continues exploration into “unseen” worlds. The mercantile, capitalist, realist-Cartesian paradigm has supported scientific, technological, and industrial advances, but stripped our psyches and imaginations – even our very perceptions and understanding – of the richly entangled, convivially connected nature of life on our living planet. You are invited to join conversations with people who have shed their cultural blinkers and experience the wonder of existence.

Join us for our companion course for this third series, A Re-Enchanted World.

Everyone who would like to engage more deeply is welcome!

Learn More

Webinar Recordings

October 10, 2025

Dr. Jack Hunter is an anthropologist exploring the borderlands of consciousness, religion, ecology and the paranormal. He is an Honorary Research Fellow with the Alister Hardy Religious Experience Research Centre, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and a tutor at the Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture, University of Wales Trinity Saint David. He teaches on the MA in Ecology and Spirituality and the MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology. He is also a tutor for the Alef Trust on their MSc in Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology, where he teaches on the ‘Approaches to Consciousness’ module. He is the author of Manifesting Spirits (2020), Spirits, Gods and Magic (2020), Ecology and Spirituality (2023), and The Folklore of the Tanat Valley (2025). He is the  editor of Deep Weird (2023), Greening the Paranormal (2019) and Damned Facts (2016), and co-editor of Talking With the Spirits (2014), Mattering the Invisible (2021), Folklore, People and Place (2023) and Sacred Geography (2024). He lives in the hills of Mid-Wales with his family.

October 3, 2025

David George Haskell’s book How Flowers Made our World: Revolutions of Beauty, Cooperation, and Illusion will be published in spring 2026. He is a biologist and writer whose previous books, The Forest Unseen, The Songs of Trees, Thirteen Ways to Smell a Tree, and Sounds Wild and Broken have received many awards, including twice being finalists for a Pulitzer Prize. He has also written essays and multimedia projects for Emergence Magazine, The New York Times, and other publications. In 2024, the American Academy of Arts and Letters granted him an Award in Literature. Haskell’s college classes have received national attention for the innovative ways they combine action in the community with contemplative practice. Haskell lives in Atlanta, Georgia. https://dghaskell.com/.

September 26, 2025

Philip Carr-Gomm trained in psychotherapy for adults at The Institute of Psychosynthesis, in play therapy for children with Dr Rachel Pinney, and in Sophrology. Philip studied Druidry as a spiritual path with Ross Nichols, the founder of The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids and led the Order until June 2020. Since then, having worked for the Synthesis Institute, he is now involved in the work of the ACER Integration programme and the Sophrology Institute. In recent years he has also pursued his interest in spiritual practices by training to be a teacher of Yoga Nidra and Mindfulness Meditation, and has created an online school, The Art of Living Well, to offer courses that combine psychological and spiritual understanding.

September 12, 2025

Erik Jampa Andersson, MA, is an environmental historian, teacher, and the author of Unseen Beings: How We Forgot the World is More Than Human (Hay House UK, 2023). With a twenty-year background in Tibetan studies, his current research focuses on animistic philosophies and the critical intersection of ecology, spirituality, and health in a more-than-human world. His research also extends into the field of Tolkien studies, where he explores critical ecological and animistic themes in J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythopoeic corpus. Erik holds an MA in History from Goldsmiths, University of London, and is a graduate of the Shang Shung Institute School of Tibetan Medicine. 

September 5, 2025

Patrick Curry is a writer and scholar living in London. He holds a PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science from University College London and has been a Lecturer at the universities of Kent and Bath Spa. He is the author of Defending Middle-Earth: Tolkien, Myth and Modernity (2004), Ecological Ethics (2017), Enchantment: Wonder in Modern Life (2019) and most recently Art and Enchantment: How Wonder Works (2023).  He is also Editor-in Chief of The Ecological Citizen (http://www.ecologicalcitizen.net/). More information can be found on www.patrickcurry.co.uk.

August 29th, 2025

Harry Wels calls himself a ‘multispecies organizational ethnographer’ and is Associate Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the African Studies Centre Leiden at Leiden University and Extra Ordinary professor at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa at the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies. He has this idea that there is no time to waste to keep on studying and reflecting on our multispecies entanglements and share and discuss his thoughts about this with students and colleagues. Many of his reflections are about learning what to unlearn in terms of assumptions, biases, prejudices, convictions, reflexes, impulses, beliefs, habits, lifestyles, manhood, relations, morality, ideas about right and wrong, and what not.

Saskia Stehouwer (Alkmaar, the Netherlands, 1975) studied Dutch and English literature at the University of Amsterdam. Saskia’s first volume of poetry, entitled wachtkamers (waiting rooms) was published by Marmer Publishers in October 2014 and received the prestigious C. Buddingh’-prize for poetry in 2015. Her second book, vrije uitloop (free range) was published in October 2016. In 2019, Saskia published the compostable poetry book bindweefsel (connective tissue) which was handwritten on homemade paper from kitchen scraps and plants. The book can be thrown on the compost heap after reading so that it can return to the cycle of nature. A translation of the book is underway.  Saskia is one of the founders and core members of the Klimaatdichters (Climate poets), a collective of over 250 Dutch and Flemish poets who use their words to raise awareness around climate issues. Her most recent book of poetry is called wonen op de rand van het wonder (living on the edge of the miracle, Marmer 2023). 

August 22nd, 2025

Brooke William’s life has been one of adventure and wilderness exploration. His conservation career spans forty years. His most recent book is  Encountering Dragonfly, Notes on the Practice of Re-Enchantment. He’s now documenting his quest to know how the planet can make the best use of him. He believes that the length of the past equals the length of the future. He lives near Moab, Utah with the writer, Terry Tempest Williams and two cats, where they watch the light and wait for rain. 

2025 Special Guests

David B. Morris is a writer and scholar. The Culture of Pain (1991) won a PEN prize, initiating a trilogy with Illness and Culture in the Postmodern Age (1998) and Eros and Illness (2019). He has held a Guggenheim Fellowship, co-founded the Taos Writing Retreat for Health Professionals, and maintains an international reputation in pain medicine. His narrative nonfiction includes Earth Warrior(1995), recounting an anti-driftnet campaign with environmental activist Paul Watson; Civil War Duet (2020), a dialogue with his great grandfather who fought with the 101st Ohio Infantry; and Wanderers: Literature, Culture and the Open Road (2022). His most recent book (coming soon) is Ten Thousand Central Parks: A Climate-Change Parable.

Tiant Mitchell is a Psychology Department Peer Assistant in a State Prison in Western Pennsylvania where he teaches cognitive behavior therapy-based classes and Suicide Prevention. He is the author of several book and associated programs including Felons-R-Fathers2: Parenting Outreach Program and Fatherhood Training System. The Correctional Solutions Institute and Freedom Consultation Group, LLC which he developed while in prison, trains other incarcerated men how to be exceptional fathers from prison.

Watch our fist conversation with Mitch here.

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