In this special Spirit in Action episode, guest-host Nicole Diroff welcomes Dr. Shanon Shah, Director of Faith for the Climate, for a conversation that weaves together faith, identity, and the urgent call for climate justice. A queer Muslim scholar, journalist, and advocate, Shanon shares how his lived experience and academic insight converge in powerful ways to challenge systems of oppression and invite communities into courageous collective action. He is Senior Deputy Editor of Critical Muslim, and Tutor in Islam at University of London Worldwide. Follow Shanon via the Muslim Institute.

The episode includes a grounding musical performance of “The Seed” by composer and music leader Pax Ressler, a reminder of the role of creativity, community, and hope as we navigate climate disruption.

We welcome back Kora Feder, who was with us back in April of 2019, a year before COVID so radically altered the world. In the interim period, Kora migrated to a few different states, gradually incubating songs, until she released here new album, Some Kind of Truth, this past spring. She's been a fan & favorite at the Kerrville Folk Festival & the Strawberry Music Festival, among others, where she so eloquently shares her heart's truth. Kora Feder now joins us from her new home in Detroit, MI.

Past/present religious/spiritual influences: Meditation, Jewish, Non-affiliated

All featured music is written & performed by Kora Feder:

A dive deep into the analysis and understanding of why & how evil is done in the world - not theologically, but behaviorally - with our guest Elizabeth Minnich, author of The Evil of Banality – On the Life and Death Importance of Thinking. Instead of focusing on the figureheads of evil, like Hitler, we'll be looking to understand, and maybe change, the common people who go along with and make great evils possible, trying to see also why & how people can do that for great good. Among Elizabeth's credentials are her title as a Distinguished Fellow for the American Association of Colleges and Universities and her position as a former professor of moral philosophy at Queens University.

Jan Spencer is guest-host today for the sixth time, sharing an episode of Creating A Preferred Future, equipping us further in anticipation of changes we need for a better future. Jan explains why anyone interested in emergency preparedness can "graduate" to an interest in paradigm shift and moving towards sustainability. Preparedness for unplanned disruption is a very prudent idea. Current trends in economics, social well-being, the environment are all on the descent and more consumer culture will only make what we already see worse in many ways. The logical goal of preparedness is sustainability.

Today for Spirit in Action we welcome back Pamela Boyce Simms of Singularity Botanicals. In 2017 we visited with her about Evolutionary Cultural Design, and in 2019 the topic was the African Diaspora Plant Medicine Project. She did further innovation & healing during COVID and since, when she's been assembling a project around several different health concerns, including prostate cancer and brain issues. A part big part of her work has been to bring together diverse resources to study and handle these health challenges.

Today's guest-host, Peterson Toscano, brings deep riches from his occasional podcast called Bubble and Squeak. There is deep encounter & meaning in this episode, wrestling with stories, overtones of stories, & personal resurrection of Lazarus in the Bible, and recovering from conversion therapy in reality, a recovery of oneself through true unbinding. Peterson starts with Father James Martin, SJ, whose book Come Forth: The Promise of Jesus’s Greatest Miracle explores the spiritual and emotional depth of the Lazarus story.

Our guest-hosts today are Peterson Toscano & Elise Silvestra of Citizen's Climate Radio, bringing together voices exploring how emotional honesty, sound, and art can open pathways from climate despair to collective action. Guests include Kate Schapira, a writer and educator from Rhode Island who has run the Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth, inviting people to share their fears and hopes about the climate crisis since 2014. Kate's new book is Lessons from the Climate Anxiety Counseling Booth.

Today's Song of the Soul guest brings us a special gift today in the form of the mountain dulcimer, too little heard from current music scenes. Heidi Muller's first instrument was the guitar, she's become a special friend, performer, & teacher, of the dulcimer. Heidi has lived East Coast and West Coast, she been great-big-city urban, and tiny village in the country rural, but through it all, her music has kept flowing, now in partnership with Bob Webb. Heidi & Bob live in rural Northeast Oregon.

Past/present religious/spiritual influences: Methodist, Nazarene, Center for Spiritual Living, Buddhism

All featured music is written & performed by Heidi Muller, unless otherwise noted:

Cassiopeia - from Dulcimer Moon, performed with Bob Webb

President Trump has been wreaking havoc in so many corners of our country, including the disruption caused by his executive order to dismantle all DEI (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion) programs throughout the country. Harvard has been the most prominent school to refuse the order, causing joy & celebration among many. Today we're talking with John Bach about Harvard's policies and ethics from his perspective as a Harvard chaplain. As a Quaker, John's credentials are experiential instead of academic or educational, including his work with the Civil Rights movement, his time in prison as a draft refuser, and his work as a house painter. John is also author of Short Time: A Season’s Prison Journal, around John's short stint in prison for civil disobedience.

Past/present religious/spiritual influences: UCC, Quaker

I first interviewed Tim Case early in 2024, after the release of his Great Big Moon EP, a reemergence of his music after more than a decade on the back-burner, but then he turned right around and released his new album, House of Mirrors, just recently. Before leaving Madison, Tim was on the cusp of music success as part of Ghost Town Council, but now he performs mostly solo, though also collaborating with Songa (Mario & Sherry Friedel), and with members of the Chippewa Valley Songwriter Circle, among others. Tim's musical quest is for truth, accessed through heart-opening music & he does it well.