
Stories Sustain Us
Stories Sustain Us is a captivating program that delves into the inspiring stories of individuals who have dedicated themselves to making the world a better place. Hosted by Steven Schauer, each episode features conversations with guests from all walks of life who share their heartfelt tales of both hardships and triumphs on their extraordinary journeys to create a lasting positive impact on our planet.
Stories Sustain Us
Stories Sustain Us #49 - One Year of Stories Sustain Us: Healing, Hope, and Rebellion
Summary
Stories Sustain Us episode 49 is a special one-year anniversary episode where host Steven Schauer reflects on the powerful themes that emerged across the first 48 episodes. Through selected clips from past guests, Steven weaves together a narrative that reveals how sustainability is more than a goal—it’s a deeply human journey.
The episode is organized into three compelling themes:
1.From Trauma to Transformation – Personal healing as a foundation for global restoration.
2.Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things – Everyday individuals driving environmental and social change.
3.Restoration as Rebellion – Acts of sustainability that challenge the systems causing harm.
Featuring stories from Roy Hudgens, Chad Brown, Brad Perry, Dr. Tom Murphy, Ramandeep Najjar, Shaun Donovan, Suzanne Scott, Jenny Barlow, Jess Serrante, Kostantsa Rangelova, Brenda Geofrey, and Fritz Neumeyer, this retrospective celebrates a year of truth-telling, resilience, and collective hope.
Takeaways
•Healing is generative: Many changemakers began their sustainability work by first confronting and healing personal trauma.
•Anyone can lead: Real transformation often starts with ordinary people who act with purpose and persistence.
•Restoration is rebellion: Challenging ecological and social harm requires courage, innovation, and often a radical reimagining of what’s possible.
•Hope is action: From community-led land trusts in Scotland to solar engineering in Zanzibar, local victories inspire global hope.
🎙️ Stories Sustain Us is more than a podcast—it's a powerful platform that shares inspiring stories from people working to make the world a better place. Through honest, heartfelt conversations, host Steven Schauer explores the connections between people, planet, and purpose. From climate change and environmental justice to cultural preservation and human resilience, each episode aims to ignite meaningful action toward a more sustainable future.
🌍 Learn more about the podcast, explore past episodes, and discover how you can support storytelling that drives change at storiessustainus.com.
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💚 Your voice matters. Share the stories that move you—and help sustain us all.
Steven
What if the key to fixing our broken world wasn't just found in technology or policy, but in personal healing, everyday courage, and radical acts of restoration? This past year on Stories Sustain Us, I've had the privilege of hearing dozens of powerful stories from people across the globe who are doing just that, transforming personal pain into public purpose, turning local action into global hope.
and challenging broken systems by choosing to restore what's been damaged. Hey everybody, I'm Steven Schauer and welcome to a very special one year anniversary episode of Stories Sustain Us. Whether you've been with me from episode one or you're just tuning in now, thank you for joining this journey. To celebrate one year of Stories Sustain Us, I have two special episodes to share with you. Today's episode is a celebration and a reflection.
I'll be revisiting some of the most moving and meaningful moments from the past 48 episodes. Stories that show us how healing from trauma can lead to transformation, how ordinary people are doing extraordinary things, and how restoration itself is a bold form of rebellion. You'll hear from inspiring voices like youth activist Ramandeep Najjar, HIV AIDS advocate Roy Hudgens, conservation leader Suzanne Scott,
veteran and wilderness leader Chad Brown, indigenous conservationist Brad Perry, women's empowerment leader Brenda Geofrey, and many, many more. And be sure to stick around to the very end because I'll be revealing who's joining us next week as my special guest for episode number 50. She's an incredible person and a well-known climate scientist who will be helping us mark this one-year milestone in a very big way. So let's dive into this celebration of courage.
connection and possibility. Because when we choose to heal, act and restore, we aren't just surviving, we're rewriting the future. Here on Stories Sustain Us, where we are inspiring action through the power of storytelling.
Steven
The first theme I want to discuss in this special one-year anniversary episode is the theme from trauma to transformation. This is about how personal healing becomes the foundation for healing the world. I can relate to this theme, not just as host of this show, but on a personal level as well. I've shared before that I'm close to 20 years sober. My personal healing journey over the past two decades has undoubtedly become the foundation for my efforts to help bring about a better world for all.
So I have a deep appreciation for stories of personal transformation. On the show, Stories Sustain Us, I speak with my guests about their personal journeys. And many of my guests have opened up and shared about their personal challenges. When a guest goes really deep and speaks about their personal hardships and healing journeys, I'm truly grateful for their willingness to demonstrate that level of vulnerability. It's so important for us to talk about topics like mental and physical health.
racism, grief, social justice, so many other challenging topics. Yes, these can be difficult topics to speak about and listen to. But despite that difficulty, when we speak about these topics, we as individuals and collectively as a society, we can start to heal. In this first theme, From Trauma to Transformation, I explore how my guests most difficult personal struggles became
the catalyst for their greatest contributions to the world. Each story demonstrates that healing isn't just personal. It ripples outward to heal communities and ecosystems. What I discovered during this first year of stories to sustain us is that behind many great restoration stories is a personal story of someone who first had to restore themselves. For example, from episode 13, Roy Hudgens, a dear friend of mine, discussed living with HIV for more than 40 years now.
facing discrimination and losing his partner Rico to HIV AIDS back in the 90s. Throughout all of his personal healing journey, Roy has emerged as an advocate for HIV medication access and personal wellness. His survival through the initial years of the HIV AIDS epidemic has turned into an incredible life where he has a personal mission to help others not just survive, but to thrive. Let's listen to Roy's story. ⁓
Roy Hudgens
I don't know how it works, but I do know when the new drugs came out, first started working, every like $20,000 a month, you didn't have insurance. And then there were like $200 a pill. And so the more it worked, the more expensive it got. so know there's so many people that don't have access to it. So I don't know how this works, but I have a suspicion that when there's profits, there's delays.
Steven
So, wow.
Roy Hudgens
when things are, when drug companies are making money for us to be sick. Like, I don't know how that works, but I know that like the right legislation can take care of that. So I don't know how it works other than getting involved in like whatever it takes to push along without having these delays in research and distribution based on
Steven
Yeah
Roy Hudgens
what companies bottom line is. So there's a lot of money, a lot of money in the AIDS epidemic. so, but I don't know how it works.
Steven
So tell your Congress member, tell your Senator that federal support resources for AIDS legislation is something that is important to you. That's a call to action people can use is to take a stand, let their elected officials know that this is an important issue that needs financial resources so that everyone can get affordable access to drugs that will keep them alive.
Roy Hudgens
And there's more, I'm a very proud American, a military family, like I am very proud American, but we're one chunk of the globe. like, you know, we have to help everything. There's so many people that are not gonna get the drugs. you know, we're doing, we have so much resources. We should be sharing, that's what I'm saying.
Steven
Yeah,
Roy Hudgens
Let my pill in half and send it to Africa if I had to.
Steven
I'm grateful to know Roy and I'm so glad he came on the show to share his story. On episode 15, I had the pleasure of speaking with Chad Brown, someone who has faced racism and survived PTSD from military service and a suicide attempt before finding healing through fly fishing. That personal transformation led him to create Soul River Inc, bringing that same healing to veterans and youth through wilderness experiences. Chad also founded Love is King.
provide an opportunity for leaders who are Black, Indigenous, or other people of color to step into the realm of public land and freshwater conservation efforts, disrupting the historical system that kept these voices from being invited to spaces where the decisions were made about land, wildlife, and Indigenous conservation policies. Let's jump into Chad's story.
Chad Brown
And that's what inspired me to open up a new organization named Love is King. You know, and it's the Love is King is about creating safe spaces. It's about stepping in where we feel uncomfortable to make sure that person or that family can have that opportunity to create a beautiful moment in nature.
You know, it's stepping into the resistance of bigotry, ignorance, and racism. It's creating safe spaces. It's encouraging all people to move through nature and to explore nature and to enjoy nature. You know, so Love is King is, you know, it runs two programs and
And one program of Love is King is Operation Rome, which is the acronym of Rome is Rapid Ongoing Advanced Missions. And it's focused around working with BIPOC leaders between the ages of, I would say between the ages of 21 all the way up to like 70 years old.
Steven
Okay.
Chad Brown
You know, and it's tapping into each leader's experience as a leader of their profession and who they are. we take on our teams as a curated of a five man team. And in that five man team, it could be poets, doctors, attorneys, conservation folks. But what we are tapping into people who has an interest
in the conservation space, but don't know how to navigate and get into those conservation spaces. They have always been recreationists. And so we don't really push the recreation of the outdoors. By default, we are doing that automatically. what we are pushing is the encouragement of giving you an opportunity to step into these
very unique, precious, delicate, wild spaces, and to become a witness of that environment, and to become a witness and to engage with Indigenous communities. And when you become a witness to this, to this experience, and you're moving through these experiences, these experiences turns into a form of advocacy.
Right? You know, and so when you now become an advocate, when you tap into that experience, and you step into advocacy of this land and of this indigenous community, now we are able to redirect that to your profession as an influencer to the people that you are connected
Steven
Chad is now an award-winning filmmaker on top of all the amazing nonprofit work he does. I want to thank Chad for coming on the show to share his incredible story. Now let's turn to Brad Parry, who I had the honor of speaking with on episode 34. Brad spoke not only of his own personal healing journey, but also of that related to the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation. He shared with me about returning to the site of his people's greatest trauma.
the Bear River Massacre site in Utah, and their efforts to transform it from a place of pain into a place of healing through ecological restoration. Let's listen to Brad's heartfelt story about the transformation of the Bear River Massacre site.
Brad Parry
animals and birds and fish and everything coming back to the area is a huge goal of ours. And so we just really want it to make a place that's sacred. I mean, it's already sacred, but we want that reverence there where you show up and you're like, this is a, this is a place. And, you know, we'll have grow our own medicine plants and things we use for ceremony, our own food plants. We're going to have our own little nursery there where we teach.
Steven
Yeah.
Brad Parry
kids or the elders teach kids, this is how you use this plant for, you know, cuts and abrasions, or this is how you use eye wash and this is how you make this and just really try to make it cultural enough to where we can go there and have teaching moments and that our kids will grow up doing that. so Beaver Creek was renamed Battle Creek. you know, I don't know.
You know, people keep asking me, are you guys going to change it back? I'm like, I don't think we get to change the size, decide the name of that river. hopefully, you know, cause beavers and other thing would be bringing back.
Steven
Yeah, it'd be nice if it could go back, right.
Brad Parry
Yeah, so we'll be doing all those things. And so it's just a full restoration of the land where if you saw it in 2018 and you came now, you'd be like, oh, don't, it's not recognizable. And hopefully by 2035, you're like, this is places that completely different.
Steven
That's exciting that you're already that that far along. know, cause restoration projects as from personal experience, I know take decades to, to get done, not only just the restoration part, but then take decades beyond that for the full grow out of everything you're planning. So this is a, you know, a multi decade process that you're in the early stages on and to, hear that you're already that far along is really positive. And that's really exciting.
So, and I understand in addition to the teaching at the nursery that I see somewhere that there's plans for an interpretive center or cultural center as well or...
Brad Parry
We really like that, you know. It's hard to find government funding for a building like that or that size. But we're constantly trying to raise money and people can donate. It's fully like we've done.
mostly the hard work, getting it designed and getting all the permits and having all of those things. It's shovel ready, ready to be built. It's just when the pandemic hit and concrete and steel and wood all went up and prior to we got to wait. So we're planning that because we want to plan a center where you can come and learn not only about the Bear River Massacre, but more about the tribe because
You know, the Bear River Master doesn't define us. It's a point in history. Perfect. But learn about what we did before and learn about what we did after. And, we talked to locals and we're like, hey, we know you guys arrived here early and you took over like, you know, we want this to be an evolving or revolving museum. We don't want you to come once and have seen everything. Like we want to invite you to come and present your pioneer history here at our center.
Steven
Yeah.
Brad Parry
Just kind of give the community a chance to feel like, this is ours too.
Steven
A true historical cultural center that honors the indigenous history, but the more modern history as well is what I'm hearing you say. Yeah, that's wonderful. Yeah.
Brad Parry
So yeah, just be a good way for people to come and just see, you know, like since we don't have reservation, you know, our people are scattered. so you usually go to like the reservation, you have these buildings that these office buildings, they just have tons and tons of artifacts. Our artifacts are with our people. And so it'd be a good chance to have people donate and then they can explain what it is, how their grandfather
just want to make it really personal and so just people can show up and see, okay, that's what that is. And, you know, learn a little bit more about us other than the masacre.
Steven
The restoration work Brad is leading at the Bear River Massacre site is still underway. If you want to support this ecosystem restoration project, please be sure to visit the website for the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation at nwbshoshone.com. Now let's turn to Dr. Thomas Murphy, who I spoke with in episode 42. Tom's story is going to round up today's first theme, From Trauma to Transformation.
When Tom dropped out of art school struggling with depression, he found healing in forest restoration volunteer work. This opened doors to his professional career where he now uses that experience to help his students with mental health struggles while researching how restored woodlands can provide flood protection and other sustainability benefits for entire communities. Here's Tom's story.
Dr. Thomas Murphy
It's good to talk about that. And yeah, and it's part of my story. yeah, I had this crisis, early 20s. It was a crisis point. And luckily, it was a turning point as well for my life and my pathway moving forward. it meant that I got some help, some mental health intervention. got some...
some medication and my, it was a, I can always remember it was spring of 2012 and spring is a wonderful time of year and I could feel my mind and vision clearing and becoming a bit more coherent but also more hopeful about the future. So I was in a
One of the things I did as part of that recovery, suppose, was I started volunteering at a local wildlife trust. There's a charity in the UK called the Wildlife Trust. So I basically did some volunteering and it was enough to take me outside into the woodlands with a small group of people doing very simple things. I mean, that's sort of why
Yeah, definitely why I mentioned that period because it gave me actual real resilience tools. I'd always been a willful person, but it actually gave me real resilience to say, you know, I'm going to I can get through a lot. can do this, Tom. You can really sort of, yeah, make a do what you want to do in life. And if you put hard work in.
Steven
So that wraps up today's first theme, From Trauma to Transformation. These stories remind us that sometimes we have to heal ourselves before we can begin to heal the world. But when we do, that healing becomes exponential. And that's when the second theme of today's show can emerge. The second theme I noticed from my guest this year on Stories Sustain Us is the power of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
This is how everyday individuals create massive environmental and social impact. This theme celebrates how regular people, students, community members, civil servants, can create transformational change when they act with purpose and persistence and in collaboration with others. The first year of Stories at Sustain Us has proved without a doubt that you don't need a cape to be a hero. Some of our most impactful change makers started as ordinary people
who simply decided to act. And this theme started to take shape early on in the show's history. In episode three, I was blown away by the then 19 year old Ramandeep Najjar, who went from growing up near Birmingham in the Midlands of the UK to founding the Hedgehog Society at her university and joining several national UK conservation teams, proving that age is no barrier to environmental leadership. Here's Raman's story.
Ramandeep Najjar
me was really great as well just to find like young people who were wanting to use their voice to make a difference. since then, like 12 of us from that film project are now working on a new project, which is a youth nature podcast, because we found each other through that project. And we were first originally a bit worried, like, how will we actually get funding to actually make this happen? And then
In April, another organization in the UK called the Woodlands Trust, they have a competition which is called Igniting Innovation where they, any young people who've got any sort of like startup projects that they need funding for, you can apply and you can enter this competition. And then in April, the final short selected few will then pitch their ideas to a few of their judges. And then it's like, it was kind of like Dragon's Den, you're like,
Can we have this money? This is what we bring. Please, please let
Steven
I think it's a similar show called Shark Tank in the US, think, where you're pitching your ideas to some folks who will support you or not support you depending on your
Ramandeep Najjar
Luckily for us, because it was a pot of money and there were six groups, we all knew that we were going to get some funding, but what we were thinking for was the level of funding. And then they also, they pay you up with a mentor. So they were really sweet, actually. We were all very nervous, like, we've got a little cue cards, like, how are we going to approach this? But together, once we all like, when we all have that same vision or same passion or same direction we want to go in, think it just
came out and then in the end we now from there got £4,000 funding and we've now just launched our website.
Steven
Ramandeep is still crushing it. I'm connected with her on LinkedIn and I'm constantly impressed by all she's accomplishing. I have hope for the future in part because I know she's not alone. There are young people all over the world like Raman who are working to make the world a better place for all. Raman Deep and all the other young advocates I've come across are truly an inspiration to me. Another person who inspires me is Shaun Donovan, who shared his story on episode 10.
which is still the most downloaded Stories Sustain Us episode. He started out as a Marine fisheries observer and became the leader of the first ever freshwater muscle reintroduction project in Texas. Proving ecosystem restoration works in America's seventh largest city in one of the nation's most politically red leaning States. I'm proud to have worked with Shaun and I'm grateful he came on stories sustain us to talk about the successful ecosystem restoration story.
he helped develop and implement. Here's Shaun's story.
Shaun Donovan
So we've worked with Fish and Wildlife Service now for seven years, six or seven years to develop those techniques. And this year, we're finally, we did a kind of a media event in May for the mussel release. And our staff is actually going out the third week of July this year to go and release the first cohort of mussels into the river. It's yellow sand shells and it's the first mussel reintroduction in the state of Texas.
super proud of them, couldn't be happier. then just yesterday, so July 11th, time, Austin Davis, who's now our project manager, came over and told me for the first time ever, we have all four species in these things called grow all baskets. So we've always had these bottlenecks with these species and some are hard to propagate and we produced than others. And for the first time ever now, as of yesterday, we have each one of those species in grow baskets and grow baskets are kind of the point where they're like past that main bottleneck.
Yeah, we had another milestone just yesterday and it's very actively happening. We're super, super excited. We're to have about 4000 muscles go on the next week. Can we expect to have some more cohorts later this year? September, October, November this year, we'll be putting other species in more than the first species yellow sand shot in the river. So really, really cool time for the project.
Steven
Since episode 10 aired, success of the ecosystem restoration work led by Shaun continues. He recently traveled to South Korea to share this success story at an international conference, demonstrating the world is still learning about and learning from the incredible urban ecosystem restoration work being accomplished in San Antonio. Speaking of San Antonio, one of my favorite conversations this past year was with my former boss and mentor, Suzanne Scott. In episode 12,
Suzanne shares about her humble beginnings on San Antonio's South Side to rising in her career to lead the nature conservancy in Texas. This is where she's responsible for protecting over 1 million acres of land while navigating complex political landscapes in Texas. Let's jump into Suzanne's story here on Stories Sustain Us.
Suzanne Scott
So since then, the Nature Conservancy came out with what we call our 2030 goals, and it's setting pretty aggressive goals in areas of land, water, coast, and climate. So now we have these big goals, and people could come to the TNC website and sort of learn more about the specific targets. But for the sake of this, it's allowed land protection and land improvement, water protection, water improvement.
coastal protection, coastal improvement, fisheries, all of that. And then of course, climate mitigation and adaptation, so both trying to reduce carbon emissions, but also adapting to the changes of climate. So there's goals and objectives in all of those spaces, just audacious goals. And there's a lot of, even within the Nature Conservancy, people that felt like these goals were just unattainable.
Steven
That's going to be right.
Too big,
Suzanne Scott
Big and you know the future will tell. Hi right right and so. So then we started connecting the dots between what we were doing in Texas up to these 2030 goals so that's sort of been our focus over the last few years is really making sure that all the work that we do we can we can track our results to these outcomes that we're trying to achieve so really in the work that we're doing that this this organization.
Steven
hi, yeah.
Suzanne Scott
has been focused a lot on land protection. We have just celebrated this year our millionth acre milestone. We have protected acres in Texas. And for a state that has a lot of public land already, some folks may say a million acres, really, you're celebrating a million acres. But in Texas, that is hard because over 95 % of the state is privately owned.
Steven
It's a huge deal.
Suzanne Scott
And when you're talking about land protection in the state of Texas, you're talking about individual, working with individual landowners and trying to figure out and encouraging them to protect their land. And that is something that this Nature Conservancy chapter has done just incredibly well over time. We've done it in several ways. We do conservation easements on people's property. So you go to a private property owner and you say, what do you want?
this property to become and many of them have a conservation ethic. They want to protect the land because they see the wildlife, the water, value of the land and the landscape.
Steven
Generational ownership for lot of those ranchers and farmers as well.
Suzanne Scott
Exactly. And
they, you they want to protect that.
Steven
I learned so much from Suzanne over the years. I'm so grateful for the time I spent working for her and for our continued friendship. The final guest in this second theme, the power of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, is Jenny Barlow, who I spoke with on episode 26. Jenny grew up in Sunderland, an industrial city in England. She is now the manager of one of Scotland's most transformative community land buyouts and restoration projects.
helping a community raise 6 million pounds to create the incredible Terrace Valley Nature Reserve. Let's hear more about Jenny's story.
Jenny Barlow
It's like such a big change and like only 3 % of the land in Scotland is owned by communities. That's where, yeah, it was a little over. 3%. So hopefully we've helped to like shift that little figure at like, you know, it might be like, however much it shifted it, but you know, we, we're helping to.
I think what it does is, especially with a project, mean the pressure sometimes is huge to be like, we've got to keep making this a success, but we will. Because I do believe it's grounded on the right things and it's grounded in the right place. But I think it's that thing that like, it can show the impact that communities can have if you're given the chance, fair policies, the means to be able to
have democratic kind of ownership and management of assets like land, like land assets, buildings. And I think some of the solutions that we can look at probably we're less bound. You know, we can be a lot more responsive and the things that we can share can be a very, very like responsive to local needs. And I think that's the thing that's, that's the biggest opportunity. then, I don't know, once you start to
come into this field and look at who owns land, who has a say, how do people have a say over the land that's around them? Like who owns it? Who's benefiting from it? You realize that there's an awful lot of power bound up in who owns land. And I think certainly, you know, well, it definitely in, well, Scotland and absolutely in England, there's a lot of sort of historic inequality in that. then that's still manifested today. And who owns the and who has power.
There's a lot so you know a community having sort of you know the ownership and the sale for that a 10 and a half thousand acre piece of land is no small thing. It comes with a lot of responsibility but hopefully we're showing you know the benefits of what you know what can be achieved when communities own facility you know for well can own buildings land but for us you know it's land and buildings.
It's an incredible, it's incredible. hopefully, I mean, we've benefited a lot by with land reform legislation that's been put in, in Scotland to deal with these kinds of historic injustices over land. So we've benefited an awful lot. And I think probably with, you know, without access to some of the things that have been put forward as part of land reform in Scotland, it would have been a lot harder to achieve what we've done.
Steven
That concludes today's second theme, the power of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. These stories prove that extraordinary change begins with ordinary people who refuse to accept the status quo. They show us that we all have the power to create change we want to see. And speaking of refusing to accept the status quo, the final theme in today's one year anniversary special episode is restoration as rebellion.
Healing damage systems, whether ecological, social, or economic, directly challenges the power structures that cause the harm. Over the past year of Stories Sustain Us, I've come to see that sustainability isn't just about preservation. It's an act of defiance. Every effort to restore what's been broken pushes back against the very systems that caused the damage in the first place. Restoration is rebellion.
prime example of this is in episode 25 where I spoke with Jess Serrante. Jess honed her activism skills while on staff at organizations like Greenpeace and Rainforest Action Network and worked with groups like Sunrise Movement and the Extinction Rebellion. Her friendship with Joanna Macy, which is on beautiful display in their podcast, We Are the Great Turning, is what caught my attention. I'm grateful Jess joined my show and shared about how deep time and love for the world
can guide our actions in the climate crisis and about how the spiral of hope encourages continuous growth and action in service of what we love. Let's listen to Jess's story.
Jess Serrante
I think the way that she arranged to spiral is genius. and I have come to deeply trust it over the years that I've known her and practice and practice this work. And especially through the creation of this podcast to just get that one of the easiest ways that I could describe the spiral is emotional alchemy.
Like it's just the natural way that our emotions fully expressed transform. So we start with gratitude. We have to start somewhere.
Steven
Yeah.
Jess Serrante
And it matters. We step into the spiral because we have work to do in the world, because we have a vision for some alternate future that we long for and, and gratitude, being present to the gifts of our lives, to why we're so grateful to be alive on earth today. You know, we've, the people that we love.
the animals that we love, the places that have fortified us, the fact that I've got, you know, two functional hands and eyes and feet that carry me through my day, like, that there's still so much to be grateful for. And you can feel it, right? Even just like invoking those simple things, I felt this like warmth come through my body, like, it's fortified.
Steven
Yeah, gratitude is a superpower.
Jess Serrante
and how much we have to love and how much we have to fight for. And Joanna often says that love is the other side of the coin of our pain for the world. So it's because we love so much that we have so much heartbreak. it's this beautiful interplay where gratitude and what it creates in us together and also what it creates in...
Steven
Yeah.
Jess Serrante
in community, right? Like the energetic space that it creates when we're with others, buoys us and makes it possible for us to go into the heartbreaking depth of our pain for the world. And also they're an interplay because we grieve, we pain for what we love.
Steven
Yeah. Right. Yeah.
So as I gathered from the show and from personal experience, I'm a big believer in everything that I heard on the show about the importance of having a safe space and someone that you can trust to talk with about the things that are, you know, painful in your life, the fears and the anxieties and the things that make you angry. those are human emotions that we're going to experience and to be able to honor them.
as a gift of the human experience. And then, you know, going into step three of this spiral, if I'm understanding it right then, is through this honoring of this grief or loss or whatever the discomfort or the uncomfortable feeling may be, through honoring it and acknowledging it, then some clarity comes. It seems like that's where you get these new eyes. And tell us a little bit about
that that's kind of in a you know the next step of the process of the spiral.
Jess Serrante
So, 1st, let me put my computer in. sorry. Notice that bar going down to the corner.
Steven
and what we want to do what you do soon
Jess Serrante
Yeah, so.
Our pain. Oftentimes when people talk about pain and climate, they talk about grief. But I think it's also important for us to talk about rage and for us about fear. As well as, emptiness and numbness. Yeah. So, and, you know, I talk about numbness a lot because I think in this particular moment in
time or for my, I don't know if this is true for everybody, but it's definitely true for a lot of my friends that like being of a social media generation and so bombarded with information all the time that we unplug. Just, you know, disassociate this association. think for a lot of us is one of the ways that we cope with this. But so honoring all pain is about speaking the truth of those feelings.
Steven
Yeah.
Jess Serrante
And, you know, and, and just letting them be like not needing to change them, which was a huge lesson for me because I also, um, like come from, like get shit done people, you know, like there's a problem. If you take a deep breath and you get in and you, and you start solving. Yeah. And I'm so grateful to come from. Sure.
Steven
Yeah.
Jess Serrante
And one of the things that I've had to learn is to slow down enough to actually be with the pain before problem solving when possible because there's a lot of wisdom to be found in those feelings. But so to answer your question, when we slow down and we really be with it and we really honor those feelings,
the alchemical thing that tends to happen is that it brings us back around to a sense of our interbeing. Like I can feel that like I'm in, I'm so heartbroken about what's happening and like, wow, isn't it extraordinary to be here? And our, isn't, isn't this happening in my body because I belong.
to this community because that person who is oppressed or harmed in whatever way is not separate from me, right? If I'm heartbreaking for someone else.
And another thing that the grieving does or that happens in seeing with new eyes that I think is really important in this time is also seeing the dominant systems for what they are.
Steven
If you haven't already, you have to check out Jess's podcast. We are the great turning. It's really one of the best podcasts I've ever listened to. Jess and Joanne go into great detail about many of the topics Jess touched on when I spoke with her here on my show. Check it out. You won't be disappointed. Here's another example of restoration is rebellion. In episode 35, I was really moved by Kostantsa Rangelova and her belief in the clean energy transition.
Kostantsa grew up experiencing power outages in post-communist Bulgaria and now works to prove that clean energy flexibility can make renewable power more reliable than fossil fuels, challenging the entire foundation of the energy status quo. Here's Kostantsa's story.
Kostantsa Rangelova
I would say get informed and demand that the clean energy transition happens because this is what makes electricity cheaper. But also we talked so much about geopolitics. Like if you want locally produced energy, is the way and this is the way for you to have clean and cheap electricity. You don't have to import gas from certain countries.
Steven
Yeah, those guys.
Kostantsa Rangelova
Yeah, exactly. basically, this is a transition to a much safer, cleaner energy system. demanding that this happens and keeping pressure on policymakers to not succumb to all these populist narratives that can sometimes derail the
throughout the transition and slow it down because actually it is like what we have seen in Ember is that it has the transition has reached this critical point where it is now unstoppable. countries across the world are switching to win and solo because they are cheap, not just because it's simple, like random policy decision. so many more countries are also trying to do that as well. they're growing like these are the fastest sources in terms of like growth.
like wind and solar growing more than any other source of electricity globally for many years already. And this is where the world is going. It cannot be stopped. Some countries could possibly slow it down, but it will not stop from a global perspective. basically keeping that in mind would be very, important.
Steven
Perfect. I appreciate that message of encouragement and hope because you can get lost in the news sometimes and not recognize that reality that the world is moving forward. This transition is happening and it is unstoppable as you said, because it's going to happen. It is happening and it needs to happen. So I'm so grateful for Kostantsa and others like her who are proving that we can change from the fossil fuel energy system
to a more sustainable energy system. Kostantsa's story gave me some hope for a better future for all. And another guest who gave me hope for a better future for all by demonstrating the theme of restoration as rebellion is Brenda Geofrey from episode 39. Brenda's work training rural women as solar engineers challenges traditional gender roles while proving renewable energy can often work better than centralized system in rural areas.
Let's travel over to Zanzibar to learn more about Brenda's story.
Brenda Geofrey
We have a lot of success with the
Steven
Yeah,
I'm sure. you share one? Please, please.
Brenda Geofrey
one of the mama, her name is Fatima Juma Hagi. She's 58 currently. she went to India in the first batch. So she's from one of, you know, we are living in the big island, but again, there are small, small islands as well inside the big island. So she lives in one of the small island called Panza in Pemba Island. And when she went to India.
A family approved of her and all that and then. She came back with equipment. She electrified the whole village. One day we went to visit her and everybody treats her like a. Like she's a Queen, you know that's how everybody feel like, you know, so we actually did one of the successful stories because she was featured in the Dubai Expo.
Steven
you
Brenda Geofrey
documentary where we opportunity, the theme of the opportunity. So she took opportunity to go to India and now she changed the whole life of the villages. We interviewed students who used to get burned because they'll be studying in the evening, fall asleep and then they catch fires and they are all burned. We interviewed fishermen. It's an island, so a lot of people are into fishing.
Steven
no.
Brenda Geofrey
Fishermen who used to complain that they will come home from fishing 3 AM to AM to find that everything smell like kerosene when they're cleaning up their fish and the next day nobody will sell it. We interviewed some villagers who used to have snake bites because at night when it's 6 nobody do anything. The committee like the day and at 6 PM. No.
Steven
Yeah.
Brenda Geofrey
We interviewed shopkeepers who say they open up their shops at 7 a.m. close before 6 before dark because if they have to sell full come. It's like a probability it's already that everywhere nobody wants to go outside because of a lot of snake bites. Who would want to come? But again, if I stay longer miss I have to sell everything with the kerosene lamp in my hand.
Steven
Right.
Brenda Geofrey
And then I'm selling sweets. I'm selling food things. Again, that's already a problem. So sometimes you don't see that. But those are the things you can actually see from the villages. Again, with Manga Fatima herself, she's now a role model. She actually told us one day that even my kids and my grandkids are looking at me as a role model. Like my grandmother is going up on the roof, putting the panel.
I want to do more than her before in her time when she was growing up. didn't have any role model. For her, was seeing your mother washing dishes, cleaning every day. Every day. don't see it. So for her, she's happy now that even the fact that her kids want to achieve more than what she has achieved.
Steven
The work Brenda is doing in Tanzania is truly transformative, proving once again that educating women and girls is a powerful catalyst for positive global change, impacting not only their individual lives, but also their families, communities, and the world at large. If you want to support Brenda's work, please visit barefootcollege-zanzebar.org. The final guest I'm highlighting in this third theme of Restoration as Rebellion is Fritz Neumeyer, who I did a two-parter with in episodes 44 and 45. Fritz and his organization, Oceans 2050, are rebelling against the decades-old conservation mindset of protect what's left by proving we can actually restore ocean abundance, shifting from a scarcity thinking to an abundance reality. Let's listen to Fritz's inspiring story here on Stories Sustain Us.
Fritz Neumeyer
you know, let's stay in Florida where you've got places with the highest density of real estate value in the world, right? That's a really important thing.
Steven
Yeah, they're already seeing flooding and sunny day flooding. call it in Fort Lauderdale because the high tides are already flooding neighborhoods without rain.
Fritz Neumeyer
Yeah, and that's a real, right? What the fires, the fires of California are the floods of Florida, right? That's a real economic thing here. So long story short, whichever way you want to look at it, right? Like a flourishing reef and an ecosystem that delivers all of that gives all of us what we want, whether we want it for an experience and the ideology and because we think life is sacred and should be there and humans shouldn't kill it because, you know,
Steven
Absolutely.
Fritz Neumeyer
from a scriptures perspective or from like the most liberal and progressive whatever perspective.
Steven
It's a hard economic dollar perspective, right? Or for the guy who calculates
Fritz Neumeyer
It's the same resource. if, like, that's the great news. If we can leave ideology aside and stop fighting over that you should be wanting that there because of what I think is the reason it should be there. And let's be honest here, the people who, so it's our camp who puts the ideological pressure cramps on, right? It's like, we're the ones who come in and- Often times, yeah. ...doctor and be like, you need your, you know, the fish is sacred because it's beautiful. you know, the birds can't...
And then it's the economists who are kind of like purpooing those idealists over in the corner. Right. So the real power is, hey, that reef delivers what you want, what I want, what they want, what the fishery, what the tax office wants, what the fishing license salaries. If we can get everyone together to connect these value streams, and if we can work with you over there on the insurance perspective to figure out how to finance this. And if these really smart economists over here can help us to better
account for and sort of value this coral reef as an asset, we'll treat it differently. We'll have smarter numbers about what economic impacts are because that ecological impacts are because we'll be able to translate ecological impacts into economy. And all of a sudden we have this representation of what we call mother nature in both accounting books, of our hearts in our... Yeah, and that's where it needs to be, right?
Steven
In our spreadsheets.
Steven
It brings us to the end of today's third and final theme, restoration as rebellion. I hope you heard what I heard in these clips. These stories show us that every act of restoration is also an act of rebellion, a refusal to accept that damage is permanent and a proof that different, better and more sustainable systems are possible. This is the main driver of Stories Sustain Us.
We can change our social and economic systems, creating a more sustainable world with benefits for all. We can do this if we work together.
Steven
What an incredible journey it's been revisiting some of the most powerful and moving moments from the first year of Stories Sustain Us. Today we explored stories of personal healing and resilience, the extraordinary impact of everyday people, and the idea that restoring what's been broken is, in itself, an act of rebellion. We heard from 12 incredible changemakers, people like Shaun Donovan, Jess Serrante, Jenny Barlow, Kostantsa Rangelova,
Dr. Thomas Murphy, Fritz Neumeyer, and many others. They all reminded us that the path to a more sustainable and just world often begins with personal transformation, courageous action, and a refusal to accept the status quo. I wanna take a moment to say thank you, not only to the 12 inspiring individuals featured in today's episode, but to every single guest who has joined me on the show over the past year. Each episode has been filled with heartfelt stories,
profound insights and unforgettable moments. Honestly, trying to select which clips to highlight for this special episode was incredibly difficult. So if you're just discovering the show or you've missed a few episodes, I encourage you to go back and listen or watch. Every episode has something amazing to offer. You know, as I was reflecting on today's three themes from Trauma to Transformation, Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things, and Restoration as Rebellion,
I reminded just how powerful storytelling really is. It reminds me that healing is possible, that we all have a role to play, and that change can start with the smallest act of restoration. So if today's episode moved you, I hope it also inspired you to take action. That action might look as something as simple as checking in on a neighbor. It might mean showing up at a local community meeting, advocating for renewable energy, supporting a local restoration project, or even just planting a tree.
Whatever it is, start where you are, use what you have, and do what you can. Your voice and your actions matter. Kindness, empathy, compassion, gratitude, courage, and love, these are our human superpowers with which we can truly transform the world. So please get involved, or small, in any way you can. The world needs you. And don't forget to join me again for the next new episode coming out on July 8th.
which will be the second part of our special one-year anniversary celebration. Now, it's usually at this point of the show is where I give you a little teaser about the next guest, but hey, this is a celebration, so let's go big. I am thrilled to announce that my guest for episode 50 is none other than Dr. Katharine Hayhoe. Dr. Hayhoe is one of the most respected and widely recognized climate scientists in the world.
She's a chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy, a distinguished professor of political science at Texas Tech University, and a leading voice in climate adaptation and communication. Her work includes contributions to multiple US national climate assessments, and she's advised communities and policymakers from California to Congress and all around the world. She's also the speaker of one of the most watched TED Talks on climate change. Her TED Talk for me,
It was one of the earliest inspirations for creating Stories Sustain Us. It was an absolute joy to speak with Dr. Hayhoe and to learn from her as she definitely explained the climate problem, the different climate solutions we have available to us, and a series of actions we all can take to help create a more sustainable world for all. So you're definitely going to want to catch the next episode of Stories Sustain Us on July 8th at storiessustainus.com, wherever you listen to podcasts and on YouTube.
Now, if you enjoyed this episode or any episode of Stories Sustain Us, there are a few ways you can support the show. First, like, subscribe, and share episodes with your family and friends. Leave a review or a comment letting me know what resonated with you. Your feedback truly means the world to me and it helps promote the show to others. And now, I'm excited to share a new way to support the show. If you'd like to help cover the costs of producing and promoting Stories Sustain Us, you can now visit the
page at storiessustainus.com and make a contribution. Whether your support is financial or simply spreading the word about the show, EveryBit helps keep Stories Sustainist going and growing. So I'm sincerely grateful for all the encouragement and support I've received during this first year. It's been an amazing ride so far and I feel like I'm just getting started. So thank you so much for being here with me today. Keep showing up. Keep speaking out.
and keep making the world a better place for all. Until next time, I'm Steven Schauer. Please take care of yourself and each other. Take care.