In this edition of Spirit In Action, our guest-host is Mark Leach and he talks about the weakening of the Endangered Species Act, why we should support the International Criminal Court, why and how young people should know how to seek conscientious objector status, why this is actually a good time to prepare for a career in public service, why he’s optimistic, and an original piece of research linking corruption with income disparity.

Mark Leach is guest-host for today's episode, sharing portions from his weekly radio show, Ecotopia Soon! Mark is a retired conservation biologist, activist, and a Quaker, and his perspective is that we are all in a leaky canoe together; we need to change our thinking to reach the safe shore of Ecotopia, where we treat Nature as our only life support system & we treat each other with respect.

Gary Eldred is a founder of The Prairie Enthusiasts, and he joins us today to talk about his newly released book, Healing Wounds: Giving Back to Nature.

Ecologist Huda Alkaff is a founding member and director of Wisconsin Green Muslims, a volunteer environmental justice group based in Milwaukee. She uses her advanced education and her Muslim faith to educate others and forge interfaith collaborations in the service of sustainability.

While there are many sources of info on urgent environmental threats and of technological methods of dealing with those threats, few books tackle the major underlying question of how can we make a sustainable life actually be sustainable for the individual. In A Sustainable Life, Douglas Gwyn examines the essential inner work and the myriad complexities of initiating and supporting the choices of living sustainably, mostly using Quaker experience & insights as guideposts to the process.

John Michael Greer is a prolific author writing on diverse topics like peak oil, nature-based economics and, of course, druidry, because he is the Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America. His knowledge is vast and his presentation makes even complex topics understandable and compelling. His books include The Ecotechnic Future: Envisioning a Post-Peak World and The Wealth of Nature: Economics as if survival Matter.

A visit the music of Walkin' Jim Stoltz, who died last year, guided by Leslie Stoltz, who was his wife, and John Gatchell, Conservation Director of the Montana Wilderness Association. Jim was co-founder of MUSE (Musicians United for a Sustainable Environment) and innumerable other organizations & efforts to preserve the wild places.

Singer/songwriter/activist Eileen McGann weaves powerful themes of healing the world through much of her music, embedded in a spiritual depth and consciousness. Care for the Earth & all its creatures, war, democracy, economic fairness and equality are just some of the concerns that Eileen sings compellingly about.

All the songs in this program are performed by Eileen McGann: