When Billy Talen puts on his big hair, a clerical collar, & his brightly-colored blazer, he becomes Rev. Billy & The Church of Stop Shopping, raising spirits & a holy ruckus for the Earth in myriad ways. With creativity, humor, & grim seriousness, Billy, Savitri D, & the other members of the Stop Shopping Choir put their bodies & voices on the line for issues like racism, police brutality, consumerism, Monsanto, Standing Rock or many other things. For 18 years they have been interceding for the Earth & Justice with Creative Resistance, Direct Action, & Spiritual Trespassing in NYC & beyond

Those of you who regularly listen to this podcast know that when addressing climate change, we believe in the power of art. Artists take on a unique role in helping the public better understand the many issues connected to climate change. They also play an important part in helping us process our strong emotions about our rapidly changing world. 

Mary Ann Percy has found essence in nature since she was a child, expecting that work in ecology was to be her path. Alas, defeated by chemistry, she looked to Spirit for clarity about the work she was intended to do. With a leading into work with palliative care and hospice volunteer training, she works as Kulshan Cares. Her training in dealing with health & illness challenges and life transitions further prepared her to facilitate Joanna Macy's The Work That Reconnects. Mary Ann serves the Circle of Life through writing, training, & growth through Quaker Earthcare Witness and other groups, Quaker and non-Quaker.

A look at some of the finalists of the Songs for Social Change contest in 2019, artists with a variety of styles & themes, all about change for the better. With reggae, electronica, rock, & folk, 6 different artists share their various soulful songs, working for a better world, with first prize going to Mary Lou Fulton for Not Going Back. Contest judge Ed Glassman walks us through the organization and the songs. Songs can be submitted for the coming year before December 1st, either via SonicBids.com, or on the RAWA.com website.

Sparky Rucker was introduced to the music of the civil rights movement when his mother took him to his first march at the age of 14, but he was already steeped in the music of the era in the black Pentecostal church of his youth and the distinctive Appalachian culture of Eastern Tennessee. Sparky Rucker has woven together music, activism, history and culture for more than 5 decades, raising and inspiring spirits everywhere. Listen to our interview with his wife Rhonda back on August 28, 2016.

Carl Magruder, born in 1969, multiracial, & growing up around Berkeley, is a real child of the 60's, complete with his TheEarthQuaker email identity. Along the way he got schooled by Spirit, led to seminary, & into his current work as a palliative care chaplain. Carl Magruder sees wide and deep, & brings forth the words to excite healing energy for the Earth & humans, around race, and between peoples.

Joe Newberry has a wonderful voice, and writes tunes & lyrics to enrich that wonderful voice to the point of sublime. Writing music that tends toward old-timey, bluegrass, spirituals, torch songs, & more beyond that, Joe's songs draw deeply on the Missouri of his youth and the North Carolina of his adulthood. Renowned for his clawhammer banjo playing, Joe has won multiple awards from the IBMA, and was a frequent performer on A Prairie Home Companion. He performed with the Red Clay Ramblers, Big Medicine, and in duos with Mike Compton and April Verch, among others.

Guest-host Peterson Toscano of Citizens Climate Radio brings inspiration & joy to today's program, visiting with Hannah Pickard from NNOCCI, Sean Dague from Citizens Climate Lobby, Environmental Health Expert Dr. Natasha DeJarnett, Jennie Carlisle and Laura England from the Climate Stories Collaborative at Appalachian State University, and Violet Kitchen, artist and illustrator of The 100% Solution: A Plan for Solving Climate Change.

Though Rick Ruskin has a voice sometimes reminiscent of James Taylor, with all the enchantment that implies, and though he's got a lot of wonderful lyrics & tunes, the way that Rick most distinctively shines is through his magic on the guitar. Born and raised around Detroit, Michigan, migrating to California in the late 1960's, and having played for years with prominent artists like Olivia Newton John & Jackie DeShannon, Rick Ruskin has been located in Seattle for the past few decades in a home complete with an excellent recording studio plus a drum kit for creativity, exercise and therapy.

Mark Neumann was a Franciscan brother for 20 years, including 6 years working as a medical missionary in Zaire, now called the Congo. After a total of 35 years as a pediatrician, he is making his 1st run for office, in the Democratic primary for Wisconsin's 3rd district in the US House of Representatives, currently occupied by Ron Kind. As a world-healer and a people-healer, he is now seeking to further heal our country as a politician.