Listening to the Climate

An exciting innovation for 2022 – the Reading the Climate Book Group morphs into Listening to the Climate, a new podcast discussion group. The conversation will focus on poems included in Linda France’s In Our Element – a poet’s inquiry into climate change podcast, and issues arising from each episode. We will delve into the work of poets from all over the world, such as Jorie Graham, Inua Ellams, John Kinsella and Nancy Campbell.

In Our Element is a poet’s enquiry into climate change. In each episode, Linda France takes an element as a starting point to explore the complexity and challenges of this critical time we live in: Earth, Water, Fire and Air; with, from the Chinese tradition, Wood and Metal; as well as Space and Consciousness, elements that feature in some Buddhist practices.  Investigating these help us find common ground to deal with difficult subjects.  Is the climate crisis asking for radical system change and a change of hearts and minds?  Does it reflect a crisis of the imagination, of consciousness, of global ethics?  How might extracting, consuming, travelling and working less benefit our well-being as well as simply bringing down carbon emissions?

Across ten episodes, Linda France talks to activists, engineers, conservationists, academics, thinkers, poets and musicians around the world to hear their take on these questions. The Listening to the Climate discussion group will meet once a month, each time focusing on a different episode of the podcast, it’s themes and speakers. As well as poetry and reflections, there’ll be space to recommend other climate and ecology related podcasts you’ve enjoyed and your experience of moving between book and audio. We recommend that you listen to each podcast episode ahead of the corresponding meeting – they’re only 20 minutes long, so even the busiest folk can join!

The group will meet via Zoom every second Tuesday of the month at 6 – 7.30 pm, starting on Tuesday 8th February.

You can search for all the episodes of In Our Element on podcast apps such as Apple or Spotify, or listen to them below:

8th February – Episode 1: Introduction

8th March – Episode 2: Earth

12th April – Episode 3: Water

10th May – Episode 4: Fire

14th June – Episode 5: Air

12th July – Episode 6: Wood

9th August- Episode 7: Metal

13th September – Episode 8: Space

11th October – Episode 9: Consciousness

8th November – Episode 10: Regeneration

There are also full transcripts of the conversations and poems available here, as well as more info about the series. If you don’t have time to listen and read in advance, we’ll also share the poems during the session.

Read more about Linda France and her Climate Residency here.