Podcast Series

Language Keepers

In Episode One of “Language Keepers”, we are introduced to the language revitalization efforts of the Tolowa Dee-ni’, Karuk, Wukchumni and Kawaiisu Indigenous communities. Through their experiences, we examine the colonizing histories that brought Indigenous languages to the brink of disappearance and the struggle for cultural survival in America today.

Podcast Series

Language Keepers

Episode Two brings us to the redwood forests of Northern California, home to Loren Bommelyn, the sole remaining fluent speaker of the Tolowa Dee-ni’ language. Tolowa, like other Indigenous languages, is interwoven with the ecosystem where it came into being and thus holds the traditional ecological knowledge of the Tolowa people. Along with many Native communities, the Bommelyn family is grappling with what is at stake—for their children, for their culture, and for the land itself—if they lose their language.

Podcast Series

Language Keepers

Episode Three explores efforts to revitalize the Karuk language, which is deeply tied to the Klamath River in Northern California. Just as a river is dependent on an unobstructed flow to remain healthy, a language depends on healthy connections and transmissions between generations of speakers. Karuk language keepers Maymi Preston-Donahue, Phil Albers, and Julian Lang are working to fill generational gaps in the transmission of Karuk.

Podcast Series

Language Keepers

Episode Four brings us to the home of Marie Wilcox—the last fluent speaker of the Wukchumni language and the creator of the only Wukchumni dictionary. Younger generations of language learners often rely on both fluent elders and physical resources: Marie’s dictionary has been an inspiration to four generations of her family and to Indigenous communities around the world.

Podcast Series

Language Keepers

For many Indigenous communities, the effort to document and learn from as many last speakers as possible is a race against time. In Episode Five we meet Julie Girado Turner, who, for nearly two decades, has been documenting and recording her father and aunt, the last fluent speakers of the Kawaiisu language.

Podcast Series

Language Keepers

To conclude the series, we explore the rapid rate of language loss occurring around the world and hear from speakers of endangered languages who are increasingly resisting predictions of extinction. We revisit the keepers of the Tolowa Dee-ni’, Karuk, Wukchumni, and Kawaiisu languages, who offer their thoughts, prayers, and hopes for the future of their languages and for the generations that will come after them.

Featured Stories

The Atomic Tree

The Atomic Tree is a virtual reality journey into the memories of a 400-year-old Japanese white pine bonsai that survived the atomic blast in Hiroshima.

Featured Stories

Shikoku Pilgrimage

A route of eighty-eight Buddhist temples in Japan, the Shikoku Pilgrimage takes modern-day pilgrims across an ancient, storied landscape, inviting us to reflect on the relevance of the spiritual quest today.

Featured Stories

Language Keepers

Losing a language means more than the disappearance of words. This six-part film and multimedia experience follows four Indigenous communities who are revitalizing their languages and cultures.

Featured Stories

Seasons of the Monastic Table

Inspired by monastic cuisine, this cookbook honors the seasons with twenty-eight recipes to celebrate spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

Featured Stories

Forest

In this multimedia piece, poet Forrest Gander and artist Katie Holten collaborate to evoke a language of the redwood forests of Northern California. Forrest’s words are translated into an alphabet of sprouting seeds and growing spores.

Featured Stories

Papas Nativas

Following a month-long journey through the Andes Mountains in Peru, this multimedia travelogue explores the flavors, varieties, and cultural significance of Peru’s native potatoes, papas nativas.

Practices

Being with the Dark

In five steps, this practice invites you to immerse yourself in nightfall. Whether you live in the city or in a place where the outdoors is more accessible, this practice is a guide for settling into the expansive wonder of the dark.

Practices

The Aromas of Trees: Five Practices

Aroma is the primary language of trees. They talk with molecules, conspiring with one another, beckoning fungi, scolding insects, and whispering to microbes.

Practices

Five Practices for Listening to the Language of Birds

Created by David G. Haskell, these practices invite you to open yourself up to the sensory experience of listening to bird language.

Practices

Arriving with Every Step

This pilgrimage practice invites you to embark on a journey to a sacred site, beginning where you are and arriving with every step.

Practices

Listening For Silence

What is at stake in a world where silence has gone extinct?