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Climate Changed

Climate Changed

By: The BTS Center
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Climate Changed explores spiritual leadership and imagination in a climate-changed world. Join hosts Rev. Nicole Diroff and Autumn Brown (from the hit podcast How to Survive the End of the World) as they talk with artists, healers, and frontline leaders who deepen the conversation and stir the waters. A project of The BTS Center.

Copyright 2025 All rights reserved. Christianity Spirituality
Episodes
  • What do disasters reveal about human nature? Katie Mears + Autumn Brown

    What do disasters reveal about human nature? Katie Mears + Autumn Brown
    Jun 9 2026
    Autumn Brown speaks with Katie Mears, Senior Technical Specialist for U.S. Disaster and Climate Risk at Episcopal Relief & Development. Katie has spent nearly 20 years working with communities as they prepare for, respond to, recover from, and adapt to disasters. Together, Autumn and Katie explore what faithful disaster response looks like in a climate-changed world. They discuss climate mobility, housing justice, land grief, queer and immigrant vulnerability, and the need for faith communities to move beyond climate mitigation alone. Katie invites us to see disaster work not only as logistics, but as a spiritual practice rooted in dignity, welcome, agency, and love. Grounding Practice This episode begins with a reading from Rebecca Solnit’s book A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster. Solnit writes about the courage, mutual aid, generosity, and imagination that often emerge in the aftermath of catastrophe. The Practice: As you listen, notice what rises in you when you hear the idea that “the possibility of paradise is already within us as a default setting.” Where have you seen people become more open-hearted, resourceful, or generous in a time of crisis? Key Themes and Conversations Climate Mobility and the Language of Displacement: Katie explains why people who move after climate-related disasters may not call themselves “climate refugees,” even when they understand that climate change shaped the conditions that forced them to move. Safe, Sanitary, Secure — and Chosen: Disaster recovery often focuses on stable housing, but Katie adds an essential fourth word: chosen. True recovery must include agency and the ability to make meaningful decisions about one’s future. Adaptation as Faithful Practice: Katie notes that many faith communities focus on mitigation — solar panels, electric vehicle chargers, insulation — but fewer talk about adaptation. Even if emissions stopped tomorrow, the world has already changed, and communities need to adjust to that reality. Housing as Climate Ministry: Katie argues that affordable housing is one of the most important climate actions faith communities can take. As people move away from higher-risk areas, housing pressure can increase in the places receiving them, creating cycles of climate gentrification and displacement. Welcome Without Control: Katie invites faith communities to offer real welcome while respecting the choices displaced people make. The goal is not to persuade someone to stay, return, or move on, but to expand the menu of choices available to them. Queer, Immigrant, and Othered Communities in Disaster Response: Katie and Autumn discuss how official disaster systems often assume a straight, married, property-owning household model. Disasters can “turn up the volume” on existing exclusion, but they can also create openings for new forms of solidarity. Next Steps Autumn and Nicole remind listeners that the next steps help us bring imagination into practical reality. The change we need cannot happen alone. It has to grow in the community. Notice the actual hazards in your place. Katie Mears invites listeners to begin close to home. What are the things that cause harm to people’s living and working conditions where you are? They may not be the dramatic disasters that make national news. They might be flooding, extreme heat, apartment fires, unsafe housing, power outages, food insecurity, wildfire smoke, or rising housing costs. Then ask: What gifts do you, and the communities you are part of, already have that could be brought to bear in that situation? Disaster response is not only about who has a generator or who fits an official emergency checklist. It can include people who cook, organize, drive, translate, make phone calls, offer space, know the neighbors, care for children, repair things, pray, listen, or help people feel less alone. Explore your community’s disaster preparedness. If you belong to a faith community, ask what disaster preparedness efforts are already in place. Does your congregation have a plan? A phone tree? A communication strategy? A way to check on vulnerable members? Nicole points listeners toward the United Church of Christ’s Disaster Preparedness Guide for Local Churches: A Workbook, and encourages people to look for similar resources from their own denomination or tradition. Resource: United Church of Christ Preparedness Resources https://www.ucc.org/disaster_index/disaster_resources/ Listen to stories of displacement. Autumn invites listeners, especially those who offer spiritual care, to speak with someone who has experienced uprooting. This might be someone displaced by weather, housing costs, evacuation, or the loss of stable housing. Listen without trying to fix the story or the conditions. The act of witnessing can be the beginning of rebuilding community. Invite stories in your wider network. If you are active on social media, consider asking people to ...
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    45 mins
  • How do we find our way back to "Source"? A conversation with Autumn Brown and Nicole Diroff on the wisdom of Zen Master Norma Wong

    How do we find our way back to "Source"? A conversation with Autumn Brown and Nicole Diroff on the wisdom of Zen Master Norma Wong
    May 19 2026

    In this companion episode, hosts Autumn Brown and Nicole Diroff sit down to reflect on the deep, ancestral wisdom shared by Zen Master Norma Wong in our previous episode. How do we move from the "terrifying" experience of systemic collapse into a place of collective resilience? Autumn and Nicole dive into the somatic and spiritual shifts required to live and lead in this time-place of collapse.

    Notable Quote:

    "If we are tapped into source and source reveals this great grand interconnectedness, there starts to surface these things that compel us... my experience says open yourself to it." — Nicole Diroff

    Episode Summary: Following Autumn's conversation with Norma Wong, Nicole and Autumn process the heavy yet hopeful themes of "source ways," the breakdown of Western "individualism," and the necessity of accompaniment. Nicole shares a vulnerable story of navigating a moment of crisis, illustrating how our nervous systems respond to collapse and how we can find our way back to resonance through collective "beingness" rather than just "doingness."

    Key Themes and Conversations:

    • Processing the "Slipstream": Nicole and Autumn discuss the somatic experience of living through the "polycrisis" and the importance of recognizing our own nervous system's response to systemic duress.
    • Breaking the Construct of Individualism: A reflection on how Western "hyper-individualism" creates a sense of isolation during crisis and the invitation to return to a more foundational "source way" of being.
    • Accompaniment in Action: Nicole shares a powerful personal narrative about witnessing a high-stress incident and how it served as a microcosm for the larger systemic "breakdowns" we are all witnessing.
    • Source vs. Strategy: Discussing why spiritual leadership requires being "tapped into source" before jumping into strategy, allowing our actions to be guided by a deep sense of interconnectedness.

    Next Steps & Practice:

    • Somatic Check-In: When you feel the "panic" of collapse—whether in a personal crisis or global news—take a moment to notice where that feeling lives in your body. Practice the "Breath of Resonance" discussed in Episode 5.
    • Identify Your "Source Way": Reflect on the practices that help you feel connected to the whole of life. Is it singing? Storytelling? Silence? Find one way to prioritize that "beingness" this week.
    • Practice Radical Presence: Look for a moment this week where you can offer presence rather than a solution. How does it change the energy of the interaction when the relationship is the first response?

    People and Resources Mentioned:

    • Norma Wong, Zen Master and teacher.
    • Who We Are Becoming Matters by Norma Wong (North Atlantic Books).
    • The BTS Center

    Connect With Us: What stirred for you in this conversation? We love to hear your voices and reflections.

    • Email: podcast@thebtscenter.org
    • Voice Message: 207-200-6986
    • Video: Watch full-length video episodes and find bonus material on The BTS Center’s YouTube channel.
    • Website: Visit www.climatechangedpodcast.org for transcripts and discussion guides.

    Blessing: May you be fed, may you be watered. May you grow towards the sun. Feel held in love, worthy of love.

    Coming Up Next: Join us next week for a conversation with Katie Mears as we explore how we communicate risk and build collective solutions in a changing world.
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    35 mins
  • What constitutes "human beingness" during ecological crisis? • Zen Master & Teacher Norma Wong + Autumn Brown

    What constitutes "human beingness" during ecological crisis? • Zen Master & Teacher Norma Wong + Autumn Brown
    May 12 2026

    In a time of "polycrisis" and systemic collapse, it is easy to feel unmoored by the intensity of the "slipstream". In this episode, Autumn Brown sits down with Zen Master and Native Hawaiian teacher Norma Wong to explore a different way of being. Together, they discuss the move from individual leadership to collective accompaniment, the importance of reconnecting to our "source ways," and how imagining a future is not a theoretical exercise but the necessary work of the present moment.

    Grounding Practice

    To help us settle into the space of this conversation, we begin with a musical grounding from Pax Ressler, a queer, non-binary artist, composer, and friend of The BTS Center. Their song, "Woven Together," is a sonic invitation to feel into the very interconnectedness—the kakou—that Norma Wong describes.

    • The Practice: As you listen, allow the music to help you transition from the frantic "doingness" of your day into a state of presence. Let the lyrics remind you that we are part of a larger fabric of life, heart, and mind, woven into the future we are currently creating.

    Key Themes and Conversations:

    • Beyond Individual Leadership: Moving from the Western construct of the singular leader to kakou—an accumulated, experiential way of being in tangible cohesion with all beings.
    • Accompaniment as a Natural State: Recognizing that our time is brief and shifting our daily behavior toward being a good guest and steward of the universe.
    • The Slipstream and Systems Collapse: Understanding that in a "polycrisis," systems can only react rather than respond, necessitating a shift toward reconstituting human beingness at the community level.
    • The "Source Way" vs. The "Cultural Way": Distinguishing between the cultural practices we can relearn and the deeper "source way" of being that ties us to all of indigeneity and to the earth itself.
    • Imagination as Practical Work: Using storytelling and visioning to immediately implement the systems we will need, such as native plant nurseries for rebuilding after a disaster.
    • Breathing as Community Practice: A grounding exercise in resonance and nervous system regulation.

    Next Steps & Practice:

    • The 80-10-10 Rule: Inspired by Sherri Mitchell's work, consider how you distribute your energy. Invest 10% in looking at what needs to change, 10% in holding back the tide of harm, and the final 80% in creating a reality that offers compassion, safety, equality, and sustainability for all.
    • Practice Accompaniment: Identify a person or group in your community who needs presence rather than advice. Whether it is a family facing economic hardship or someone navigating a recent loss, let the relationship be the first response and let that connection guide what you do next.
    • Ancestral Legacy: Reflect on what you are doing today that serves the "time beyond the collapse." How are you practicing being a good ancestor right now?

    People and Resources Mentioned:

    • Norma Wong, Zen Master, teacher, and author.
    • Who We Are Becoming Matters by Norma Wong (North Atlantic Books, released Feb 2026).
    • Pax Ressler, musician and composer of the song "Woven Together" featured in this episode.
    • Sherri Mitchell, indigenous leader and attorney (referenced in the song and next steps).

    Guest Bio: Norma Ryuko Kaweloku Wong Roshi is a Native Hawaiian and Haka Zen teacher. She serves as the Abbot of Enko Inn, an independent branch temple of Daihonzen Chozenji. An 86th-generation Zen Master, she has spent over 40 years applying Zen and indigenous values to transformational change. Her career has spanned community work, the Hawaii state legislature, and policy strategy, including leading negotiations over Native Hawaiian land and water rights . Today, she brings grounded wisdom to global ecological and spiritual crises.

    Connect With Us:

    We would love to hear what reflections are surfacing for you.

    • Email: podcast@thebtscenter.org
    • Voice Message: 207-200-6986
    • Video: Find full-length video episodes and bonus clips on The BTS Center’s YouTube channel.

    Blessing: May you be fed, may you be watered. May you grow towards the sun. Feel held in love, worthy of love.
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    49 mins
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