Field producers for Assignment Earth arguably have the coolest job in the world. Reporter Rebecca Huntington blends exploring wild places, her favorite pastime, with storytelling to educate the general public on events and issues at the forefront of environmental conservation.

Born in Billings Montana, Rebecca, 38, now lives in Jackson, Wyoming. With a degree in Spanish and Journalism from the University of Montana and as a Ted Scripps fellow of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder she, brings a wealth of knowledge and training to her production work. Reporting for Assignment Earth since 2007 Rebecca connects with researchers and activists to offer viewers an on-the-ground perspective of efforts to protect and preserve the natural world.

What follows is a Q&A interview conducted for Assignment Earth

AE:

What made you decide to become a journalist?

Huntington:

While working on a story about a boarding school on the Blackfeet Indian reservation for the University of Montana’s innovative Native News Project, I realized I could be engaged in the moment and make a difference. The young girl I followed to school, who had been teased in the past, gained some new respect among some of her peers just by having a journalist follow her around for a day. Sometimes just being there is enough.

AE:

But why an environmental journalist?

Huntington:

My parents taught me to love the outdoors. I also love attempting to bridge the gap between what scientists know, what policymakers do and what the general public understands about being stewards of our environment.

AE:

Do you have a journalistic hero, a mentor, or anyone in particular who inspires your work?

Huntington:

Too many to name — but my first newspaper editor, Diane Pettit, would bring my stories back bleeding red with her editing mark-up and yet still leave me feeling inspired and even confident! She was a real teacher.

AE:

What is the most interesting story you’ve ever reported on?

Huntington:

A proposed copper mine in the cloud forest of Peru.  “Peruvians sue former British mining firm over shootings” for the London newspaper, The Independent, published May 9, 2010.

AE:

What is was it about Peru that made is this area so compelling?

Huntington:

You have world-class cultural and ecological resources overlapping with world-class minerals and oil and gas in a place that is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Tension is brewing given the weak environmental regulation; extreme gap between haves and have-nots (rural v. urban populations); and ever-increasing demand for resources ranging from copper to oil.

AE:

What are you working on now?

Huntington:

Zombie subdivisions and pikas.

AE:

Say what?

Huntington:

Zombie subdivisions — subdivisions that aren’t quite dead, but they’re the walking dead. We are looking at how one rural community in southern Idaho is coping with blight from the housing bubble that burst and has so many vacant lots, experts project it could take anywhere from 70 to 300 years to absorb them all. Some in this community are striving to be a case study for how to rein in rural sprawl and rebuild after the bust in a way that protects natural resources and amenities that could protect land values and attract buyers in the future.

AE:

And the pikas?

Huntington:

Separate story. How will climate change affect pikas, which already live at high elevations so can’t move much further up slope to escape the heat. Reporting from talus slopes in western Wyoming.

AE:

What is the most important thing you want people to know about you as a journalist?

Huntington:

Like the Assignment Earth series, I let the facts tell the stories and the viewers draw their own conclusions.

Known as one of the strongest sport climbers in world today, Chris Sharma continues to set the curve for aspiring and professional rock monkeys alike. Appearing in several feature films he first came to my attention back in 2007 during a pre-release screening of the movie King Lines. In this production from Sender Films Sharma introduced audiences to the emerging discipline of deep water soloing where climbers scale incredibly hard routes on rock faces high above ocean pools. In King Lines he works a particularly difficult problem whose crux is a 7-foot dyno to be stuck or risk a 60-foot fall to sea below.

Combining athleticism and a profound appreciation for the natural world Chris Sharma is a climber of both strength and grace that defines the lifestyle and passion of a man comfortable in the profession he loves.

See Chris Sharma in  Sender Film’s “First Ascent: The Series” available on DVD and online download in September

Music by Chad Farran and new contributing artist Erich Lenk

The Joy Trip Project is brought to you thanks to our  sponsor Patagonia. We don’t take money from just anyone. Sponsors of the Joy Trip Project support our mission of an active lifestyle through outdoor recreation and community involvement. Support us by supporting them. Find a link to their web sites on ours at JoyTripProject.com

Special social media coverage of the New River Rendezvous comes courtesy of Osprey, Prana, Trango, Sterling Rope, Evolv, Chaco, the New River Alliance of Climbers and Waterstone Outdoors.

Social media is a vibrant exchange of ideas.  Join the conversation by becoming engaged.  Send us an email to info@Joy Trip Project.com. Or find us on Facebook or Twitter

A pediatric oncologist who specializes in the treatment of heart disease, spine disease and cancer, Dr. Hodes compassionately practices medicine at Mother Theresa’s Mission in Ethiopia. Caring for sick and destitute children in one of the most impoverished regions of the world he’s also the subject of a new book and a film for HBO called “Making the Crooked Straight.”

I met Dr. Hodes last year at the 2009 Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride Colorado. At an event packed with adventure movies and travel logs from around the world “Making the Crooked Straight” was a stand out favorite taking the top prize for best film and a cash award of $5,000.

Immediately after the closing ceremonies Dr. Hodes shared with me his story and few pictures of the children whose lives he saved.

Making the Crooked Straight – MF09 Trailer from Mountainfilm in Telluride on Vimeo.

Music this week by the Ahn Trio and new contributing artist John Common & Blinding Flashes of Light.

This podcast is brought to you thank to generous support of our sponsors Recreational Equipment Inc. REI and Patagonia. We don’t take money from just anyone. Sponsors of the Joy Trip Project support our mission of an active lifestyle through outdoor recreation and community involvement. Support us by supporting them.

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast help spread the word by posting a link to it on your Facebook page. Or send it as a tweet to your followers on Twitter. Social media is vibrant exchange of ideas join the conversation by becoming engage. Post your comments the Joy Trip Project blog or send us an email to info@Joy Trip Project.com.

Share your stories. share your passion for outdoor recreation, environmental conservation, acts of charitable giving, and practices of sustainable living. You just might inspire our next Joy Trip together. But most of all don’t forget to tell your friends. Until next time take care.

From a very young age  Pico Iyer has had a close personal relationship with one of the worlds great spiritual and political leaders. In 1960 his father a professor of philosophy and a student of world religions was among first westerns to seek an audience with the Dalai Lama.  Traveling from his home in England Iyer’s father journeyed  back to his native India to meet the Dalai Lama then around the age of 24.  In their conversations the Tibetan Buddhist ruler in exile and Iyer’s father discussed ancient mystic wisdom that had been unavailable to the outside world for centuries. And with the exchange of a single simple gift, they also established a connection between the Dalai Lama and Iyer that now spans almost 50 years.

“At the end of his conversation with the Dalai Lama in 1960 he said ‘I have this little three year-old boy back in England and he was already quite interested in the story of your dramatic flight from Tibet into India’,” Iyer said.  “And so the Dalai Lama, with his great gift for the perfect gesture found a photo of himself when he was 5 years old and sent it to me. And so from the time I was three I had this photo of this little boy, 5 years old, already ruling 6 million people. I didn’t understand who or what the Dalai Lama was. But I could make a contact with this little boy sitting in this place. And I could see all the responsibility he had. So in that sense I grew up with the image of the Dalai Lama and stories of the Dalai Lama from the time I was a little boy.”

From the gift of that photograph to their first meeting years later Iyer and the Dalai Lama have been become good friends. And through the course of his career as a journalist Iyer has cultivated a deep insight to the philosophy that has guided the Dalai Lama toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict between China and Tibet. In his new book The Open Road: The Global Journey of the 14^th Dalai Lama Iyer shares his view of the spiritual and political path we all take to find peace in our lives and the world in which we live.

Music by Jake Shimabukru

This recording from season 1 of the Joy Trip Project was originally brought to you thank to a generous grant from KEEN Footwear. Also thanks to our current sponsors, Recreational Equipment Inc, REI and Patagonia. We don’t take money from just anyone. Sponsors of the Joy Trip Project support our mission of an active lifestyle through outdoor recreation and community involvement. Support us by supporting them. Find links to their web sites on ours at JoyTripProject.com

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast help spread the word by posting a link to it on your Facebook page. Or send it as a tweet to your followers on Twitter. Social media is vibrant exchange of ideas join the conversation by becoming engage. Post your comments the Joy Trip Project blog or send us an email to info@Joy Trip Project.com.

Share your stories. share your passion for outdoor recreation, environmental conservation, acts of charitable giving, and practices of sustainable living. You just might inspire our next Joy Trip together. But most of all don’t forget to tell your friends. Until next time take care.

I don’t know about you. But I’ve got a hard time getting motivated, especially when it comes to doing something hard, something that might take a lot of time, cost a bit of money or might even be a little scary. Life’s journey can be tough enough just trying to get by making it from day to the next. But every once in a while, someone comes along that prompts you to action. They get you psyched up and excited because you can see they’re going places and the next thing you know it you get swept up in the momentum and just like your own life’s journey heads in a whole new direction. You follow that person right a new road of adventure. Last fall I met a guy just like that.

Now before get the wrong idea, I didn’t get on the back of that bicycle. I can tell you that had I me this guy riding down the coast of California I would have climbed aboard in a second. Dominic Gill was one a one of a few dozen movie producers I met during the 2009 Banff Film Festival. His documentary called Take A Seat follows his two-year journey by tandem bicycle over 20,000 mile of open road. Asking total strangers to pedal behind him on what his calls the stoker seat his travels brought a fresh sense of adventure into hearts and minds of everyone he met or who tagged along for the ride.

Music this week by the band Trees On Fire

Special thanks to the New Belgium Brewing Company for underwriting travel expenses to Banff that made this podcast possible. Also thanks to our sponsors, Recreational Equipment Inc, REI and Patagonia. We don’t take money from just anyone. Sponsors of the Joy Trip Project support our mission of an active lifestyle through outdoor recreation and community involvement. Support us by supporting them.

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast help spread the word by posting a link to it on your Facebook page. Or send it as a tweet to your followers on Twitter. Social media is vibrant exchange of ideas join the conversation by becoming engage. Post your comments the Joy Trip Project blog or send us an email to info@Joy Trip Project.com.

Share your stories. share your passion for outdoor recreation, environmental conservation, acts of charitable giving, and practices of sustainable living. You just might inspire our next Joy Trip together. But most of all don’t forget to tell your friends. Until next time take care.

Racism is a word that seldom comes up in a discussion of environmental protection. Clean air, water and soil are universal human values that transcend ethnic identity or the color of one’s skin. But in metropolitan centers around the United States minority communities are being inundated with a disproportionate burden of pollution. Industrial waste, municipal garbage and sewage treatment plants are routinely deposited in areas predominately populated by low income African Americans and Hispanics.

In 1988 a community organizer named Peggy Shepard was asked to help address concerns around the creation of one such sewage treatment plant. A facility built in the New York City burrow of Harlem.

” It’s interesting how you can walk by things everyday or they can be in your community and it just never registers what they are,” Shepard said. “And so we began to organize around getting people jobs there because we thought that was the issue. But once it fully began operating we realized that emissions and odors were making people sick. And we began an eight-year organizing campaign to get the city to fix the plant and we were successful.”

By bringing people in the community together Shepherd’s organization compelled the City of New York to commit $55 million to clean up the facility. They were also successful in creating environmental safety policies that would prevent further contamination at this and other sites in the future. With a lawsuit settlement of $1.1million Shepherd create a new organization called West Harlem Environmental Action Inc. And today known as WEACT the group fights to prevent minority communities from suffering illness and premature death due to acts of environmental injustice.

“When we look at the glaring health disparities that we have between communities you’ve got to wonder about the contributing factors to that illness and excess mortality,” Shepard said. “And we believe that it’s housing conditions and the desperate burden of pollution.”

For those of us who care deeply about protecting the environment we should take a real close around at the world in which live. Clean air, water and soil aren’t only at risk in the distant wild and scenic places of our national parks, but in the spaces where we work, play and make our homes. And in these places segments of our society, often still segregated by race are being unfairly targeted with more than their share of our pollution. We’re not just talking about environmental protection. The issue now is environmental justice. In this edition of the Joy Trip Project we talk to Peggy Shepard the executive director of West Harlem Environmental Action Inc.

Music this week by Brett Dennen

Thanks to our sponsors, Recreational Equipment Inc, REI and Patagonia. We don’t take money from just anyone. Sponsors of the Joy Trip Project support our mission of an active lifestyle through outdoor recreation and community involvement. Support us by supporting them.

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast help spread the word by posting a link to it on your Facebook page. Or send it as a tweet to your followers on Twitter. Social media is vibrant exchange of ideas join the conversation by becoming engage. Post your comments the Joy Trip Project blog or send us an email to info@Joy Trip Project.com.

Share your stories. Share your passion for outdoor recreation, environmental conservation, acts of charitable giving, and practices of sustainable living. You just might inspire our next Joy Trip together. But most of all don’t forget to tell your friends. Until next time take care.

]]> http://joytripproject.org/blog/2010/02/09/environmental-justice/feed/ 0 An interview with Peggy Shepard executive director of West Harlem Environmental Action Inc. - Racism is a word that seldom comes up in a discussion of environmental protection. Clean air, water and soil are universal human values that transcend ethnic... An interview with Peggy Shepard executive director of West Harlem Environmental Action Inc. Racism is a word that seldom comes up in a discussion of environmental protection. Clean air, water and soil are universal human values that transcend ethnic identity or the color of one’s skin. But in metropolitan centers around the United States minority communities are being inundated with a disproportionate burden of pollution. Industrial waste, municipal garbage and sewage treatment plants are routinely deposited in areas predominately populated by low income African Americans and Hispanics. In 1988 a community organizer named Peggy Shepard was asked to help address concerns around the creation of one such sewage treatment plant. A facility built in the New York City burrow of Harlem. ” It’s interesting how you can walk by things everyday or they can be in your community and it just never registers what they are," Shepard said. "And so we began to organize around getting people jobs there because we thought that was the issue. But once it fully began operating we realized that emissions and odors were making people sick. And we began an eight-year organizing campaign to get the city to fix the plant and we were successful." By bringing people in the community together Shepherd’s organization compelled the City of New York to commit $55 million to clean up the facility. They were also successful in creating environmental safety policies that would prevent further contamination at this and other sites in the future. With a lawsuit settlement of $1.1million Shepherd create a new organization called West Harlem Environmental Action Inc. And today known as WEACT the group fights to prevent minority communities from suffering illness and premature death due to acts of environmental injustice. "When we look at the glaring health disparities that we have between communities you’ve got to wonder about the contributing factors to that illness and excess mortality," Shepard said. "And we believe that it’s housing conditions and the desperate burden of pollution." For those of us who care deeply about protecting the environment we should take a real close around at the world in which live. Clean air, water and soil aren’t only at risk in the distant wild and scenic places of our national parks, but in the spaces where we work, play and make our homes. And in these places segments of our society, often still segregated by race are being unfairly targeted with more than their share of our pollution. We’re not just talking about environmental protection. The issue now is environmental justice. In this edition of the Joy Trip Project we talk to Peggy Shepard the executive director of West Harlem Environmental Action Inc. Music this week by Brett Dennen Thanks to our sponsors, Recreational Equipment Inc, REI and Patagonia. We don’t take money from just anyone. Sponsors of the Joy Trip Project support our mission of an active lifestyle through outdoor recreation and community involvement. Support us by supporting them. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast help spread the word by posting a link to it on your Facebook page. Or send it as a tweet to your followers on Twitter. Social media is vibrant exchange of ideas join the conversation by becoming engage. Post your comments the Joy Trip Project blog or send us an email to info@Joy Trip Project.com. Share your stories. Share your passion for outdoor recreation, environmental conservation, acts of charitable giving, and practices of sustainable living. You just might inspire our next Joy Trip together. But most of all don’t forget to tell your friends. Until next time take care. James Edward Mills clean 16:21 http://joytripproject.org/blog/2010/02/01/the-season/ http://joytripproject.org/blog/2010/02/01/the-season/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:00:09 +0000 joytripproject http://joytripproject.org/blog/?p=2483 An interview with adventure filmmaker Bryan Smith

It’s been more than a month since the last podcast. Thanks to everyone for all the emails and Facebook messages asking for the next edition. After an action packed first season of production, the realities of life came crashing down like a devastating wave. The recession of 2009 made times a bit tough. Simply put the project was placed indefinite hold while I scrambled together a few odd writing jobs through the end of December and all of January. I had to work to make enough cash to pay our property tax bill. I’m happy to say that I recently wrote a fat check to city of Madison and now the project is back on track.

Bryan Smith

I’ve learned a lot through that first season. With the collapse of traditional media, as newspapers and magazine continue to fold up under the weight of an antiquated model of communication, I’ve discovered that this form of storytelling, sharing music, art and adventure online is the wave of the future. With many creative souls out there building new high quality content for Internet there’s no shortage of great stories to tell. If you’ve been following along on the blog and on Facebook, you’ll know that I’ve been more than a little busy still traveling and finding new subjects to share with you. And in the process I’ve become thoroughly inspired by the work of many others who are pushing the boundaries of creative expression as they explore the heights and depths of the human spirit.

You’ve heard me mention my friend Fitz Cahall. He’s the creator of my favorite podcast The Dirtbag Diaries. Fitz has new project that recently posted the Internet, a series of short films that depict the lives of adventurers chasing their passion through course of a year, a season.

I connected with Fitz toward the end of last year during the Banff Mountain Film Festival. There I saw the premiere edition of the 22 part film series The Season. It’s an exciting yet, moderately paced thoughtful contemplation on what motivates ordinary people who do exceptional things in the outdoors. At the Banff Centre for mountain culture, in Alberta Canada, I also met Fitz’s partner co-producer and director of the Season Bryan Smith.

Produced exclusively for distribution online, the Season brings Internet adventure storytelling to a new level. Directed by Bryan Smith this new film series illustrates the narrative behind the lives of people like each of us who aspire to lead a rich live in adventure.

The Season Trailer from Fitz Cahall on Vimeo.

The Season produced by Bryan Smith and Fitz Cahall premieres online at www.theseasontv.com.

Music this week by Jake Shimabukuro.

Special thanks to the New Belgium Brewing Company for underwriting travel expenses to Banff that made this podcast possible. Also thanks to our sponsors, Recreational Equipment Inc, REI and Patagonia. We don’t take money from just anyone. Sponsors of the Joy Trip Project support our mission of an active lifestyle through outdoor recreation and community involvement. Support us by supporting them.

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast help spread the word by posting a link to it on your Facebook page. Or send it as a tweet to your followers on Twitter. Social media is vibrant exchange of ideas join the conversation by becoming engage. Post your comments the Joy Trip Project blog or send us an email to info@Joy Trip Project.com.

Share your stories. share your passion for outdoor recreation, environmental conservation, acts of charitable giving, and practices of sustainable living. You just might inspire our next Joy Trip together. But most of all don’t forget to tell your friends. Until next time take care.

An interview with urban revitalization strategist Majora Carter

JTP:

Delegates from about 190 countries are gathering over the next two weeks at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Although this is a landmark event, the largest meeting ever to discuss the environmental future of our planet. I’m a little concerned that we may not be talking about the most important issues.

The other night on NPR David Kestenbaum reported on the first day of the conference. In his report on All Things Considered he said everyone pretty much agrees that we have to do something about climate change. But how I see it where the problem lies is that the delegates also seem to share the same disagreements

NPR:

In fact most of the disagreements, they’re all about money. Developing countries like Bolivia are arguing “Hey The global warming problem? you in the developed world made it. So to solve it you’re going to have to give us money to adapt and to keep our emissions down as we grow.

JTP:

The industrial growth that caused the climate change crisis in the first place will apparently continue. You see it seems that the Copenhagen delegates are really only arguing about who gets to continue to pollute the atmosphere with carbon gas emissions and how much. The conversation so far seems to be relegated to trading carbon credits for cash so the developing world can continue to build factories and produce consumer goods. But at what cost? What about the environment? And what about millions of disenfranchised people in the U.S. and around the world that will be most directly impacted as our planet’s climate continues to change in the wake of human progress?

I won’t be attending the conference in Copenhagen. But a few weeks ago I did attend the Breaking the Color Barrier to the Great Outdoors conference in Atlanta. A few hundred African American Environmentalist gathered to talk among other things about the role people of color can play in protecting the natural world. There I met Majora Carter, the 2005 winner of the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant. She received $500,000 to developed her ideas on creating sustainable urban communities. And while we didn’t talk about Copenhagen in particular Carter has a rather unique perspective how best to curb some of the social effects of Climate Change.

Carter:

The McArthur Foundation dubbed me an urban revitalization strategist. Which I love, because of the work that I did around pioneering one of the first green jobs training systems in the country, really doing community based, led project development in one of the poorest congressional districts in the country that’s also one of the most environmentally challenged. And the idea was that you can do development that met both the environmental as well as economic needs of a very poor communities and give them the tools they need to enjoy it and be a part of its development.

JTP:

The environmental issues that our planet faces aren’t limited to carbon emissions. Though green houses gases are indeed the primary cause of global warming it’s the institutions and practices of human behavior that create them. Carter believes that we need to develop community based initiatives that produce green jobs and allow ordinary people take an active part in the cessation carbon emitting industries.     In order to make lasting change in the fight again climate change we have to rethink how we develop and live in our urban centers. And for many communities around world that’s going to mean taking a hard look at issues of social justice, how we treat the urban poor as well as racial and ethnic minorities. I’m James Mills and you’re listening to The Joy Trip Project.

JTP:

There are many, many challenges that are involved in doing any kind of development in urban areas. Especially those areas where you’ve had a tremendous amount of disinvestment that started at a very high level that lead to the displacement of people or the development of lost of noxious facilities in a community or manufacturing or jobs leaving a particular area. So when you couple all of that, lack of opportunities with a more degraded landscape, then you will layer in things like public health problems and crime and lack of educational attainment. When you put those things together, yes you do have a particular slew of problems that are exacerbated by the fact that people feel powerless because of all these things that have been heaped upon them.  So given that you know you got the fact that you’ve got people from the outside going “Oh! That’s a poor community and the don’t know any better.” And then you also have people on the inside feeling that they don’t deserve any better.  That is not an easy place to work. It’s just not. And unfortunately there’re a lot of places like that in the world.

JTP:

But here we are. We find ourselves doing the work of creating environmental strategies. And in a lot of ways working toward issues of social justice where the environment is a direct result of inequality, in a lot of ways racially, socially economically for sure. How are African-Americans in particular impact in the type of work that you’re doing and hopefully aiming to correct.

Carter:

The current state of the environment is a direct result of inequality, absolutely. The fact that public policy will look at a poor community, a poor community of color or any color frankly and see that, that would be a perfectly appropriate place to put some of the most toxic industries ever. And yes black people disproportionately in this country are the recipients of things like that. We are, poor black communities in particular.  So it affects everything. It affects public health. It affects education. It affects the kinds of jobs that we’d like to have or not have. It affects the incarceration rates. It affects how people view themselves within the context of being an American. It affects their self esteem. You name it. It affects it.  So that’s an issue we have to deal with.

JTP:

People how find themselves in urban centers where their health and wellbeing is being impacted by their environment don’t always have the opportunity to think about recreation in an environmental standpoint. How do people of color find themselves enjoying the outdoors when they have so many other things to deal with.

Carter:

There have been studies that show when people come in contact with nature that things improve for them. In particular, one of the most famous ones that I know about was done at the University of Illinois. They looked at Cabrini Green, one of the most notorious housing projects in the world as far as I know. They noticed that kids and families that lived near just a cluster of spindly little urban street trees that the test scores for those kids went up, that the self esteem rates for little girls also went up, which was evidenced in the fact that there was less teenage pregnancy amongst those young women. That there was less crime in those neighborhoods because people were outside more enjoying each other and their community more. So when folks tell me that there is this disconnect between people… especially the inner city poor and the environment, I say it’s because it’s not there. Because the second you build it, people start to respond it. For example, I spearheaded the development of one the first waterfront parks in our community.  People are different when they are there, because it’s going trees, it’s got grass, it’s got the waterfront there that like beacons to them. And you automatically become a different person when you’re there. You feel it. You k now that you’re in a safer space. So for all sorts of reason, not just the mental health and wellbeing but the other pieces you need that kind of environment in order to help us deal with some of the climate challenges that we’re experiencing right now. And I think people connecting, the idea that you can even in an urban area there actually does need to be nature we’ll actually help make the transition for them to understand the value of our public lands in terms of how that is also protecting us, that those natural resources they are carbon sinks. They do actually absorb storm water. They do all these things that are protective of the cities and our regions. So we need to be real mindful.

You know, the great migration really I think messed with I think black people in particular minds a bit on some level. You were part of the south and it was an agrarian society and you had to move up north to make it big and so you left all that behind. And I think it’s been generations of people who have been taught to believe that the land is something that we should not fully embrace as a part of ourselves. And I think we are reaping, reaping all the awfulness that comes from separating ourselves from your environment.

JTP:

Is it safe to suggest or even assume that these urban communities can be gateways to the global preservation of wild and scenic places?

Carter:

Hey have to think of our urban areas as gateways to our more natural areas because frankly 70 percent of our world’s populations is going to b in cities not too far in the distant future. So we have to help people live more sustainably and have the opportunities to do so in the urban areas as we help them understand the value of protecting our wild natural places as well for all the environmental services that they provide to the planet, air quality, all those wonderful things.  So given all that we need to be real clear about how we’re helping educate our people because, because it is absolutely an education, communications, PR, marketing campaigns. It’s all that and then some.

JTP

You can learn more about Majora Carter and her work as an urban revitalization strategist online at majoracartergroup.com. For the Joy Trip Project, this is James Mills.

New music this week by Teresa James & the Rhythm Tramps

The Joy Trip Project is brought to you thank to generous support of our sponsors Recreational Equipment Inc. and Patagonia. We don’t take money from just anyone. Sponsors of the Joy Trip Project support our mission of an active lifestyle through outdoor recreation and community involvement. Support us by supporting them. Find links to their web sites on ours at JoyTripProject.com.

Thanks for listening. But you know we want to hear from you so please drops us message by email at info@joytripproject.com. Or find us on Facebook. Share your pictures, your stories, share your passions for outdoor recreation, environmental conservation, acts of charitable giving, and practices of sustainable living. You just might inspire our next Joy Trip together. But most of all don’t forget to tell your friends.

We’ve explored much of the modern world. Today very little is left to tempt the imagination. We’ve succeeded in climbing the highest mountains. We’ve traveled to the depths of the ocean. There’s not much of our planet that we haven’t seen. It would seem then now that what remains of adventure, at least on earth, isn’t to discover where human beings have yet to go but instead where we’ve been.

A new film by produced in cooperation PBS and National Geographic takes a look at the discovery and exploration of an ancient civilization. The new film The Secrets of Shangri-La: Quest for Secret Caves premiered at the 2009 Banff Mountain Film Festival.  In this edition of The Joy Trip Project producer and professional mountain guide Peter Athans takes us on an amazing journey to reveal the great mysteries of a long-ago culture once forgotten.

New music this week by Chad Farran from his album Another Ride. Find his online at www.chadfarran.com.

This podcast is brought to you thank to generous support of our sponsors Recreational Equipment Inc. REI and Patagonia. Special thanks to the New Belgium Brewing Company for underwriting in part travel expenses to Banff to make this edition possible. We don’t take money from just anyone. Sponsors of the Joy Trip Project support our mission of an active lifestyle through outdoor recreation and community involvement. Support us by supporting them.

There’s a good chance that you’re one of those creative types. I’ll bet you’re the kind of person who derives a great deal of satisfaction from what you can make or do with your hands. You might play an instrument or you draw or maybe you like sing. And sometimes while you’re cooking I imagine you’ve been known to dance a little to the music on your CD player while you stir a pot of spaghetti sauce.

And if don’t have one those jobs where paint, design clothes or build models, or even if you do in spare time you probably like to hike or climb or maybe mountain bike. All these are the many things we do express ourselves, how we perform to show the world who we really are.

Knowing how to express yourself is an incredible gift and a talent Carr Hagerman learned to develop at early age.When he was 14 Carr started working as a street performer at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Using improvisational comedy and a host of characters he played off the energy of the crowds he entertained to create something special out of nothing but human interaction.

Today Hagerman is the creative director for Ontend Creative Partners, a corporate consultation firm, and he uses his experiences as street performer to change how people in the professional world think about the whimsical spirit of playful creativity. He’s also the co-author of the book “Top Performer: A bold approach to sales and service.” I had the pleasure of meeting Hagerman a few months ago at the Outdoor Retailers Summer Market in Salt Lake City Utah. In this interview he shares some pretty amazing ideas on the serious business of play.

Music this week by Cirque Du Soleil is from the album and show Alegria.

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