16 episodes
Curious Planet Jacqueline Comito
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- Science
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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Curious Planet explores how our experiences in nature connect us to our own stories, emotions, sense of place, and desire to belong—and how this captivating kinship might invigorate us to save the home we live and rely on.
Cultural and spiritual traditions worldwide find their roots in reverence for the natural world. Moments of wonder in nature have inspired poets and writers, inventors and scientists, artists and adventurers throughout history.
Curious Planet is hosted by anthropologist Jacqueline Comito, who has introduced many of these concepts in presentations to conservation professionals and environmentalists in Iowa and across the country. Each episode continues the conversation about engaging wonderment to heal and protect the environment.
Show Host and Producer: Jacqueline Comito
Editor: Tina Kirstukas
Audio Engineer: Nathan Stevenson
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Curiosity, Not Conviction
Host Jacqueline Comito opens our conversation about engaging wonderment to heal and protect the environment— with a little help from some apes.
Mentioned in today’s episode:
Jane Goodall, October 1960, from Jane (documentary film), National Geographic, 2017. https://films.nationalgeographic.com/jane-the-moviePierre Boulle, La Planète des Singes, published in the United States as Planet of the Apes, 1963.Planet of the Apes (film), Twentieth Century Fox, 1968.“Go Ape!” television spot, 1974. http://space1970.blogspot.com/2012/07/planet-of-apes-go-ape-marathon.htmlGus Speth, It’s Already Tomorrow: Poems by Gus Speth, Shires Press, 2020.Ronald Rolheiser, The Holy Longing, 1999. -
Hope is Remembering the Future
How can we have hope in a world that sometimes feels like a hot mess? Watching the seasons change in the backyard with a new puppy, we consider the real question: “How can we not?”
Mentioned in today’s episode:
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Social Good Summit 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiZduBO2bQM Jane Goodall, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, Thorndike Press, 2021. George Steiner, “Remembering the Future,” Remembrance Sunday 1989 address, King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. First published in Cambridge Review. Reprinted in Theology, November 1990, Volume 93, Issue 756, pp. 437-444.Iowa Learning Farms, https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/Iowa Learning Farms Virtual Field Day, A Vision for Iowa: Growing Food for People through Diversified Agriculture Systems, https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/resources/field-day-diverse-ag-systemsNew Voices in Water Quality in Iowa, https://newvoicesinwater.org/Water Rocks!, https://www.waterrocks.org/Water Rocks! Earth Day Poetry Slam, https://www.waterrocks.org/poetryDallas Whitefield, Water tank, 2022Summer Awad, Confluence, 2022DK, Swimming pools, 2022 -
Thank You for Your Song
We begin on the Hawaiian island of Molokai, then travel to places of lived experience and spaces of sensed experience.
Mentioned in today’s episode:
Joyful Hearts, Seasons of PrayerJ. E. Malpas, Place and Experience: A Philosophical Topography, Cambridge University Press, 1999, page 176.Ilia Delio, Compassion: Living in the Spirit of St. Francis, St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2011.Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods, Algonquin Books, 2008.Wallace “J.” Nichols, Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected and Better at What You Do, Little, Brown, 2014.Angela Hanscom, Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children, New Harbinger Publications, 2016. -
Imagine That
The Virgin Mary Tree of Polk City, Iowa, inspires us to imagine and improvise as we engage with the world around us.
Mentioned in today’s episode:
The Virgin Mary Tree of Polk City on the Roadside America website, https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/45877Lawrence Buell, The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture, Belknap Press, 1995.Stephen T. Asma, The Evolution of Imagination, University of Chicago Press, 2017.Luca Tateo, A Theory of Imagining, Knowing, and Understanding, Springer, 2020.Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Macmillan and Co., 1872. “What Life Means to Albert Einstein,” George Sylvester Viereck, Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929. https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/wp-content/uploads/satevepost/what_life_means_to_einstein.pdf -
Curious Coyote
We find wild curiosity on a series of walks with dog Charlie through a local urban trail.
Mentioned in today’s episode:
Meister Eckhart, The Essential Sermons, Paulist Press, 1981. -
Gifts of Gratitude
We flunk a gratitude challenge, and decide to try again in collaboration with a backyard barred owl.
Mentioned in today’s episode:
Robert A. Emmons, Gratitude Works! A 21-Day Program for Creating Emotional Prosperity, Jossey-Bass, 2013.Angeles Arrien, Living in Gratitude: A Journey That Will Change Your Life, Sounds True, 2011.Louise Hay, Gratitude: A Way of Life, Hay House Inc., 1996.Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough, “Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2003, Vol. 84, No. 2, pp. 377-389.Monica Bartlett and David DeSteno, “Gratitude and Prosocial Behavior: Helping When It Costs You,” Psychological Science, 2006, Vol. 17., Issue. 4, pp. 319–325.Christina Armenta and Sonja Lyubomirsky, “How Gratitude Motivates Us to Become Better People,” Greater Good, May 23,2017, https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how gratitude motivates us to become better people