Earthaven Ecovillage Podcast

Early childhood educator Lia Grippo interviews storyteller Doug Elliott about his storytelling process. As an example, he shares the background for each of the verses from his iconic black snake song.

Mollie Curry moved to Earthaven in 1996, becoming one of the first village residents and getting involved in natural building. She’s taught natural building workshops since 1998, covering cob, plastering, straw bale, straw-clay, earthen paint, earthbag, and carpentry, as well as permaculture. Mollie has been involved in many of the natural building projects at Earthaven, as well as teaching and doing projects in other locations, which has informed her building experience.  Mollie Curry shares what she learned in her nearly three decades of experience designing and building natural buildings at Earthaven and around the country.

In this podcast, Kaitlin Ilya Wolf discusses how creating a cycle of annual seasonal rituals helps Earthaven ecovillagers sink into the cycles around us and within us to become a part of this land. She then shares the parts of a ritual, challenges of facilitating ritual at Earthaven, and offers tips for rituals for people who don’t have a community or piece of land to connect with.

Doug Elliott is a naturalist, herbalist, storyteller, basket maker, back-country guide, philosopher, and harmonica wizard. For many years made his living as a traveling herbalist, gathering and selling herbs, teas, and remedies. Doug currently lives in Rutherford County, near Earthaven Ecovillage. Doug shares his early mentor experience while growing up in an estuary of the Chesapeake Bay. Later he moved to North Carolina as part of the back-to-the-land movement, learning from old timers. Along the way, he shares how shoestrings made from groundhog led to him meeting his wife and how important it is to help older people be who they are.

Swami Ravi Rudra Bharati, formerly known as Dr. Rudolph Valentine, has been very committed to the integration of Eastern thought, particularly yoga and tantra, and permaculture, and all that implies, as well as it relates to healing. Swami Ravi shares his background as a physician and holistic healer of Ayurvedic medicine in clinics in India and the US. During his medical career, he studied tantra, which he began teaching after retiring from medicine. In 2004, he moved to Earthaven, continued teaching, and developed the Dancing Shiva retreat center.  Most of the conversation explores a holistic view of soil health, plant health, the health of people and the planet, including the implications and challenges for healing the people and Gaia.