THE SPACESHIP EARTH PODCAST

Dan Burgess

We live on a life giving rock called Earth hurtling through space. Like a spaceship, we have a finite amount of supplies with an intelligent operating system, called nature, which keeps everything replenished as long as we all respect and participate wisely. In this podcast I’m in conversations with humans involved in regenerating life, Shifting consciousness and re-imagining how we can live more beautifully and peacefully. I talk with artists, writers, activists, designers, adventurers, healers, farmers, creative mavericks and more. Their stories invite us to participate in the co-creation of life sustaining cultures. In service to life. Becoming crew on Spaceship Earth. becomingcrew.substack.com

  1. Jun 21

    Earth Sessions: Dan Solo | Into the Solstice

    Sol-stice Sun stands still. The longest day. The shortest night. here’s an Earth Sessions mix from me inspired by dancing at sunrise and sunsets. or as Bucky Fuller put it… Sun-sight and sun-eclipse As the sun isn’t moving But we of course are on Spaceship Earth. Gratitude to all the artists and producers for creating these tracks. Full tracklist on https://www.thespaceship.earth/podcast Listen on Apple Podcasts, substack and Souncloud Enjoy Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 18m

  2. Jun 16

    Episode 116: Zofia Page, Hamish Evans & Dan Burgess | The Power of Pilgrimage | We Are Avon

    This episode was a live panel recording from the We Are Avon community gathering in May.  If you're a regular listener, you'll know about place-based initiative and bioregional project, We Are Avon, based in the Avon Valley in the West of England, where I live. A movement working to regenerate the landscapes, rivers, and communities of the Avon catchment. This conversation is an exploration around the power of pilgrimage, the ancient practice of walking land and rivers as a way to connect us back to self, each other, and the landscapes we're part of. I hosted special guest, Zofia Page, Executive director and Co-founder of Friends of the River Medway, an innovative non-profit restoring the river while reconnecting people to it as a living presence. Her work weaves together ecological action; the Rights of Nature movement; and a renewed, enchanted relationship with the more-than-human world. Over six years, she has brought the Medway from background to foreground through conservation, citizen science, advocacy, art, storytelling, and ceremony. Her vision found its fullest expression in the River Medway Pilgrimage, a pioneering source-to-sea journey that led to two councils acknowledging the Rights of the River Medway. Alongside Zofia was Hamish Evans, Regenerative Farmer of Middle Ground Growers, River Pilgrim, prefigurative activist, and co-director of We Are Avon. This was a beautiful conversation with two extraordinary young change-makers who carry incredible vision, wisdom, humility and dedication to our home planet. In a time where mainstream reality is falling apart rapidly, perhaps these ancient practices of walking the land, moving through landscapes together in community might offer us different perspectives, deeper connections, and other ways of seeing this moment and the future that we're being invited into co-creating. The We Are Avon pilgrimage is this solstice weekend 20-21st June. The Medway pilgrimage is 18th to the 27th of July. Everyone is welcome to walk as much or as little as you like, links below, there are river movements rising like springs all over the UK. Find one near you and find out what's yours to do. LINKS We Are Avon pilgrimage River Medway Pilgrimage Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 22m

  3. May 28

    Episode 115: Dan Burgess | Rambling in the Ghostwoods

    In this solo offering nested with the Hazels on Ghostwood Down - I’m rambling on: * Relationality, mystery, place and local participation. * Spaces for sanctuary and falling apart. * Regeneration through transformation and the deeper shifts required in times of unraveling and overwhelm. This is not reflections about fixing the world through better ideas, but about changing the way we relate - to ourselves, to one another and to the living, more-than-human world around us. What if regeneration is not just about solutions but also about consciousness, presence, attention and participation? What if the future asks us not just to think differently, but to be differently? Becoming-with-life. This offering was created among ancient Hazel trees on Ghostwood Down. There’s Hazel wisdom in ere. Guest conversations returning soon. But until then I hope you enjoy my ramblings. Links Famous for Five Miles Community Solo June 26th/28th We Are Avon Join the Avon Pilgrimage 20/21 June Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 6m

  4. Apr 2

    Earth Sessions: Springing | Dan Solo

    A new Earth Sessions mix from me: Springing To mark the light returning, the sun rising, warmth, blossoms popping, life coming back, possibility… love. A mix of vinyl and digital spanning 30 years - deep, housey, organic, trippy, vibey, and lively. I hope it makes you move wherever you are. With gratitude to the wonderful artists, producers and labels for these creations Tracklist via the Spaceship Earth Listen on Soundcloud, Apple Podcast and Substack Let’s stay together Let’s dance. Peace and Out Dan Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 5m

  5. Mar 13

    Episode 114: Dan Burgess | Rambling in the Ghostwoods

    We are kicking the podcast off this year with a warm spring offering from Dan and a few Willow trees up at Ghostwood Down. ‘Ghostwood Down?’ You may be wondering - where is that… what is that? Well, we welcome you friend Up into the hills surrounding Bath. There rests a magical Ghostwood - a land which was once the place of a great forest A land riddled with scars, gold dust, earnest joy and deep sorrow. On this land we are slowly nurturing a return to woodland, while honouring the place as it is now. The ghost of a wood. Hence Ghostwood. And as it is downland , well… you guessed it... Ghostwood Down. Anyway enough of my attempts to ramble lets get into the real ramble. Today’s episode is a little unusual. Unusual you may ask? Thank god I hear you say - ‘that’s why I am bloody subscribed to this podcast. Because the world… Well, the world is a little more than unusual, it’s quite frankly insane. Insanity is kind of why Dan has chosen to make this episode. The rigidness and immediacy that feels expected of us to make sense of the world around us and in us is so ludicrous that often we feel like we don’t have the words to express them. And that’s where Rambling comes in. Rambling almost has a negative connection… To ramble is to be indecisive. To ramble is to not know what you’re talking about. To ramble is not know. But, what if that’s what we need in these times? To not know? So, if you’ve read this far, go give Dan a listen - you may be surprised by how infectious the ramble can be. Rambling on: Rambling as social technology Ghostwood Down  - place of intergenerational regeneration Exhaustion of life within collapsing modernity Psychopathic war mongering leaders Tuning into Hedge Media ‘Unhoming’ - hat tip @Ece Temelkuran A politics of care and community Belonging Liminal spaces for creativity and connection Willow trees Enjoy Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

    51 min

  6. Feb 27

    Chris Hines | Birthing Surfers Against Sewage

    I originally recorded this episode with Chris Hines, EP 17, seven years ago in 2019. I’ve decided to repost it now. This week in the UK we had the launch of the Channel 4 real life drama series - Dirty Business A three part doc-drama based on a decade-long investigation into England’s water companies, it follows the story of two unlikely citizen detectives who notice that the fish in their local river are dying and are determined to find out why. Telling the real stories of whistleblowers and victims who believe their lives have been destroyed after encountering sewage polluted water, Dirty Business is a factual drama investigating one of the biggest corporate scandals in British history. And it is well worth a watch. It also features Chris Hines (through an actor) - surfer, environmentalist, sustainability innovator who over 35 years ago co-founded environmental surf charity Surfers Against Sewage in Cornwall UK. Their work has been pivotal over the years in connecting the s**t and pollution in the British seas and rivers to the gross negligence of the privatised water companies, extractive economics and short term politics. This conversation I hosted with Chris in Dublin back in 2019 explores that journey, what was happening at that time in the early 90’s and what drove Chris and fellow founders to build out this movement despite having no real idea what they were up against and with absolutely no resources. But this is a story to inspire all of us, that if you care enough about something then go and make stuff happen. It’s worth a listen in my view because it’s more relevant today for those who are feeling outrage and fury about all manner of things around them and want to do something about it. How with no resources and getting creative and working with your community extraordinary things can and do happen. Chris is wise, humble, a true elder. Let me know what you receive if you listen and do share with others that might appreciate it LINKS A Grain of Sand Surfers Against Sewage Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

    58 min

  7. Jan 27

    Earth Sessions: Into the Dark 2026

    In the last few years I’ve been recording DJ mixes at particular moments in the Earth cycle and putting them out on the podcast - Earth sessions - they are a way for me to mark the season, the moment in the year and how it makes me feel and how it makes me want to move through electronic and dance music. This is a new one. A live mix to honour this darker time of the year, and the darker times unfolding on Spaceship Earth. Recorded in my kitchen on a Friday night after a long walk in the woods. I wanted to start slow and ambient, to acknowledge the slower liminal space of winter and gradually pick up the pace. This was a mix of vinyl and digital - spanning 30 years of releases. From ambient electronica, early rave inspired house, breakbeat, melodic techno, tech house and some progressive bits. Respect to all the artists and producers for these sonic offerings. I hope the mix moves you in some way Movement, dancing and connection is a way through these unravelling darker times. We must stay together. Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

    1h 45m

  8. 12/19/2025

    Episode 113: Sam Crosby | Returning to Myth, Wisdom and Eldership

    Right then, this is our final episode of this year. But first up to say a big hearty thank you to all who have listened, shared and supported the podcast this year. To all the guests who’ve joined the rambling - respect for your time, wisdom and open-ness. And to my podcast crew who help make this a reality - Charlie Shread, Seemah Nahome-Burgess and Fin Burgess. And a massive shout out to those who subscribe with a monthly payment to this project. So to Episode 113… My guest, Sam Crosby, is an oral storyteller and myth-informed guide whose work braids together story, psyche, ancestry, eldership and the living Earth. This episode was recorded around the fire at Ghost Wood Down - two men sitting in the half-light, speaking honestly about what it is to search for meaning in a world that feels increasingly senseless. Across two hours we wandered, wondered, and returned again and again to the mythic ground beneath our feet - the place modernity keeps trying to concrete over. But there were core themes and patterns we were carrying throughout: 1. Myth as orientation, not entertainment Myth isn’t a story about long ago - it’s a technology for staying human in ambiguous, unraveling times. We kept returning to myth as a compass when the rational mind fails. 2. Eldership vs.“Oldership” A core wound: we’ve lost the adults who know how to hold the whole. Modernity extends lifespans but not wisdom.Sam goes deep into the distinction between age and elderhood - and the hunger for guidance that can hold complexity without collapsing into certainty. 3. The mythic roots of the AI moment What if the crisis with AI is not technological — it is mythic.Humanity is generating intelligence way faster than it is generating wisdom. Our conversation suggests AI as a kind of mirror, revealing our disconnection from story, meaning and long arcs of time. 4. The crisis beneath the crisis: meaninglessness What makes these times unbearable is not the data - it’s the absence of orientation. Sam repeatedly speaks to the human need for story, ritual and shared containers of meaning. 5. Rites of Passage & thresholds One of our deepest shared passions: Cultures that lack thresholds create perpetual adolescence.This is why the absence of elders is so severe — there is no one to midwife beginnings or endings. 6. Stories as living beings Sam treats stories as alive, with their own agency. This shifts storytelling from performance to participation - a relational act where story chooses the teller and carrier. 7. The danger of speed & the loss of the underworld Modernity has flattened the vertical dimensions of being -no descent, no soul work, no underworld, no mysteries. We point toward slowness, ambiguity, and unknowing as necessary conditions for true wisdom to spread. Sam is a wonderful human who speaks beautifully with great humility, courage, and imagination, and is doing really extraordinary work, especially the project on rekindling cultures of eldership, which we speak to at length here and I link to in the show notes below. LINK Sam’s work Eldership Manifesto Into the Dark from Becomin Crew- Register by 9th January Get full access to Becoming Crew at becomingcrew.substack.com/subscribe

    2h 17m
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Ratings & Reviews

4.9
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

We live on a life giving rock called Earth hurtling through space. Like a spaceship, we have a finite amount of supplies with an intelligent operating system, called nature, which keeps everything replenished as long as we all respect and participate wisely. In this podcast I’m in conversations with humans involved in regenerating life, Shifting consciousness and re-imagining how we can live more beautifully and peacefully. I talk with artists, writers, activists, designers, adventurers, healers, farmers, creative mavericks and more. Their stories invite us to participate in the co-creation of life sustaining cultures. In service to life. Becoming crew on Spaceship Earth. becomingcrew.substack.com

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