Thresholds Podcast

Sophie is a writer based in the Hudson Valley, who focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling and ecology. In this vulnerable and personal discussion, John and Sophie reflect on initiations. Traditionally, initiations mark passage between life stages. Yet if we are continuously passing through lessons changes, are a few ceremonies spaced throughout one’s life enough? Sophie offers other perspectives on the topic, drawing from an affinity with the patterns of the natural world. Sophie explores Intersectional spaces, as mycelia does, and how death and decay as necessary bio functions which are key to linking us to truth of inter-connectivity, physically and mythically. As of this recording, she is seriously ill and so on the front line of creating cultural space for being with breakdown/death/decomposition. Sophie’s website:https://sophiestrand.com/

In this frank in-person talk, Mr Jenkinson speaks about grief, responsibility, and what it is to be trustworthy. Recorded on Canada’s truth and reconciliation day, intended to repair relations between settlers and First Nations People, this talk is a reflection on the significance of the passage of settlers from Europe to what's often called North America. Mr. Jenkinson’s perspective is informed by years of palliative care work, or what you might call being a grief walker. He is the founder and main instructor at  The Orphan Wisdom School, and a tender of the untended rite of passage between Europe and North America, work that is both personal and transpersonal. Stephen's website: http://www.orphanwisdom.com

On our inaugural episode of the Thresholds Podcast, I interview Leah Abramson on the eve of her mutli-disciplinary live-show, Songs for a Lost Pod - weaving Ancestral Healing and Orca Whale magic - relating the plight of the Orca whale with her own journey of Ancestral recovery.  We had a wonderful conversation - enjoy! Songs For a Lost Pod is a multi-disciplinary show that combines scientific research, orca vocalizations turned into beats, and the impacts of intergenerational trauma on families. Told from the perspective of various whale species, as well as their human counterparts, Songs For a Lost Pod uses music, storytelling and shadow puppetry to juxtapose cetacean histories with one family's experience of surviving the Holocaust. Leah Abramson is fascinated by orcas (killer whales). By their language, their movements and migrations, and their role in the marine ecosystem of the Pacific Northwest. She’s created an album and a stage show rooted in her relationship with orcas, with music based on the rhythms of their speech, an act of theater and environmental activism.  We humans can communicate with other beings on this planet. We can go beyond the confines of our own species, beyond the incestuous myopia caused by species-centred immaturity, and be bridges of communication. It is both a physical and mystical process. Living here in the Pacific Northwest, home of many orcas, it’s clear they have much to teach. You can find out more about Leah’s work on her website, and listen to the album she co-created with the orcas. https://www.leahabramson.com/ -- Leah Abramson is a singer, songwriter, writer and composer, whose work explores vocal harmonies, soundscapes, and the intersection of humanity and the environment. After touring internationally with indie rock and folk bands for many years, as well as her band, The Abramson Singers, she released the album and comic book, Songs For a Lost Pod, in 2017, which debuts as an interdisciplinary stage show this May. Along with her MFA in Creative Writing from UBC, Leah has studied classical music at Capilano University, and traditional Appalachian balladry. Leah is currently composing for two musicals: Mermaid Spring, an interdisciplinary musical by Barbara Adler and Kyla Gardiner about live mermaid shows in Florida, and A Night with Fern & Kelby, a psychedelic performance set in 1973.