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I have gained quite a number of new followers for this website in the last week. Also many new email list subscribers. So I am finally going to post an update here. Being a podcaster, one feels like you've said it all in the episodes already. But one of my friends said that I should write here about behind the scenes stuff and that, in fact, people will actually want to hear about it. So...I will go with that.
It's 11:47 PM on September 6th 2021 and I am in standing at my workstation in the darkness, only lit by the large screens in front of me. Those screens are currently filled with all the renditions of Photoshop images I have been working on for posting for this new episode. So my face is currently glowing red from a red cartoon salmon outline with the words "No A La Salmonicultura" placed inside of it. One of the primary calling cards of the Sin Azul No Hay Verde effort to ban open net salmon farming in Argentina. It's pictured above in my final cover art.
I talk a lot about Restorying ourselves in my podcasts. This is based on the thoughts of Thomas Berry. But I only learned of it through author Martin Lee Mueller, who is featured also in these casts. I also learned about via Eric McDuffie, from Episode 2. But my point is this...the two women I interview in Episode 5, they exemplify the restorying I have been pondering. Rethinking their place in the natural world led to a ban on an industry that is unprecedented. They placed pristine waters first and foremost. Profit wasn't the center of their story. And to be blunt, I really fucking love that. That's the direction we have to be heading into, the one where the ecosystem comes first. That's where I want to live. And that is the fundamental reason I do this work.
I can't lie though. I am not just altruistic. I do love nature and the planet but that's not why I do Salmonfolk. Salmon got ahold of me. That's the easiest way to put it. They feel like my family. I have no explanation for this. It's just patently true. Through Chief Ernest Alfred of the Namgis, to Adam Olsen of the Tsartlip, when they looked me in the eye and talked about salmon being their relatives and not just fish...I just knew it to be true. And salmon are relatives of people all around the world. Breaking this down, if you are not inclined to think of salmon as your literal relative...you can think of it as literal in a different way...do you relate to salmon...do salmon relate to you? The fact is that if you eat salmon, you relate to it. If you think about salmon at all then you relate to them. Salmon relate to you every single day...they are trying to give back to the planet every single day by just doing what they naturally are trying to do.
Ah man, you got me monologuing again. I was supposed to write about the behind the scenes stuff. lol...ah well.
Behind the scenes I am writing this in a house in disarray. I am a full time caretaker for my father. We are selling his home. He is moving to a retirement community. Doing this podcast has come out of an abundance of a need to find a way to give back to the world while doing 24/7 caretaking for the last 2 years. My mapping project came about as my mom was laying in her bed, 15' away from me, dying of cancer. It was a very dark time. And I needed something positive to focus on. My mapping work led me to talking to open net salmon farm fighters around the world...that led to interviews and podcasting suddenly became the best way to share the knowledge. The house gets listed in about 24 hours. As I was completing Episode 5 I was doing so after moving furniture everywhere, looking for rentals in another part of the state, trying to clean the house, trying to stay sane, trying to raise funds for Salmonfolk to continue past Episode 5. I threw this short video together on Saturday towards that end...just wearing my double bagged eyes. I don't know which I needed more...donations or sleep. Rewatching the video, I think I needed sleep more.
So yes. I am hiatus after Episode 5 to deal with the move and funding challenges. And then after that I will buckle down to try to focus on funding. I personally feel that the work that I am doing is important, but that's only because I am talking to people who are doing important work. What they do is worth hearing about. Regardless, between the mapping and podcasting, I think this is the kind of work that should be funded so that someone can keep the work moving forward in the way that I do it. Also I just really enjoy this work and so the goal is to make it a full time paid thing if possible. And if not...then I'll still do it for free, it will just happen a lot slower.
Well that's all I got for now folks. I really hope you enjoy the first 5 Episodes. There are the culmination of 3 years of planning and dreaming. There is SO much more to come! Please share the pods. Share the knowledge that it's a very good thing to stop eating open net farmed salmon.
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