WorldWild Podcast
Episode 50 26th June 2020
Being a People with Mark Lewis & David Benjamin Blower
Mark Lewis and David Benjamin Blower both return to the WorldWild Podcast on episode 50 to discuss wild food culture in the Native American communities such as the Paipai, how stories can effect change, and what lessons the UK can take for (re-)building a culture of wild food. In effect: how to be a people.
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Conservation can only go so far - and what comes after is how we bring ourselves more in line with nature's ways, how we find the centre from which to grow out from, and what new ways of being we may unearth on our own land - a land we have long been 'spectators' of, which is now calling out for this new story...
'If I’m lost I ask for help. Right now you guys are lost, so you’re asking me for help. England can’t find its way, even though it’s got all that reed mace...'
- Mark Lewis / ep.50
About Mark Lewis
About David Benjamin Blower
Mark Lewis is a forager, wild food teacher and former professor, of Paipai heritage. He runs a market stand called ‘Chmachyakyakya Kurikui: 8000-year Crops: Ancient-Future Foods Remembered’ and runs Cactus Calls the Rain: The Foragers’ Club. Mark has been foraging in the desert and mountains of the Southwestern USA for a long time. The Sonora Desert in Arizona which he harvests from is in itself home to 2000-plus edible plants. He also helps to organise the Annual Prickly Pear Festival in Superior, AZ, which brings together communities from around the desert in a celebration of wild food and culture.
David Benjamin Blower is a musician, poet, theologian, writer, and podcaster on the popular Nomad Podcast. His most recent album is called We Really Existed and We Really Did This which he describes as a ‘poetic folk odyssey...between a dying past and very worrying future’. It is a work that engages with lamentation, regret, and wonder. He has toured and spoken around the country with the intent to create spaces to build awareness, tell stories, and see possible futures. He lives in Birmingham, UK and publishes his Soil Journal which keeps people up-to-date with what he’s doing.
Further reading
> See more from David Benjamin Blower and his music...
> If you'd like to hear more from Mark, you can send him an email at manujib@yahoo.com.
About the show
We offer a series of conversations to tap into the wildness within ourselves and to uncover what is possible when we do. It is our hope that through the WorldWild Podcast we can contribute to the revitalisation of wild food culture and conversation around the world.
Through people who know their landscapes intimately, we gather the threads to weave a rich tapestry. Piece by piece the vision of a wilder world comes into view. The wild embrace of nature welcomes us back and offers us a seat at the table. A feast, no less!
Coming soon...
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