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Climate Changed

Climate Changed

Written by: The BTS Center
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 Climate Changed is a podcast about spiritual leadership in a climate-changed world. Hosted by Nicole Diroff and Ben Yosua-Davis, Climate Changed features guests who deepen the conversation while also stirring the waters. The Climate Changed podcast is a project of The BTS Center.Copyright 2025 All rights reserved. Christianity Ministry & Evangelism Social Sciences Spirituality
Episodes
  • Convocation Stories Part 3: Confessions from the Mud: Eco-Anxiety and the Power of Surprise

    Convocation Stories Part 3: Confessions from the Mud: Eco-Anxiety and the Power of Surprise
    Feb 17 2026

    A special bonus episode mini-series from Climate Changed

    In the third of four installments of our special bonus mini-series, Climate Changed returns to the 2025 BTS Center Convocation. Over the last few weeks, we have heard from participants who “flipped the script”—stepping away from data and policy to share personal, lived experiences of the climate crisis. Peterson and Ben also break down the specific storytelling techniques—The Confession and The Twist—that make these narratives so effective, while storytelling coach Cheryl Hamilton and previous guest Tyler Mark Nelson return to discuss how one person’s story can “unlock” the stories of others. Links to Listen Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcasts Full show notes and all episodes: ClimateChangedPodcast.org Transcript

    Links to Listen

    • Listen on Spotify
    • Listen on Apple Podcasts
    • Full show notes and all episodes: ClimateChangedPodcast.org
    • Transcript
    About This Mini-Series: Convocation Stories

    At the 2025 BTS Center Convocation, participants were invited to share climate-centered stories grounded in their own lives. Working with coaches from Stellar Story Company, these storytellers moved beyond the "doom and gloom" binary to find humor, resilience, and spiritual insight in the face of a changing world.

    Meet the Storytellers

    Kate André serves as Pastor of the Mennonite Congregation of Boston and is the Mennonite/Anabaptist Chaplain at Harvard University. In her story, Kate uses the power of "confession" to admit that, despite her work in creation care, she wasn't always a nature lover. She takes us on a journey from the comfort of dark movie theaters to the muddy reality of planting hope, showing us that we don't have to be perfect environmentalists to do good work.

    Blair A. R. Nelsen is the Executive Director of Waterspirit and represents the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace at the United Nations. Bringing a global perspective from her time living in Venezuela and Brazil, Blair shares a story about seeking help for eco-anxiety. Expecting to find a room full of despairing peers, she instead encounters a "twist" that reveals the deep, intergenerational resilience found in community.

    Cheryl Hamilton is the Founder and Executive Director of Stellar Story Company. An award-winning communications expert, Cheryl has coached over 1,500 people from 80 countries. In this episode, she shares insights on how stories can lead to unexpected connections and richer conversations.

    Next Steps
    • Share this episode with a friend or your faith community. As Cheryl and Tyler remind us, "Stories unlock stories."
    • Tell your own story. You don't need a stage. Share a reflection on social media or record a voice memo for a friend.
    • Contact us. Share your reflections by email at podcast@thebtscenter.org or leave a voicemail at 207-200-6986.
    • Learn more about The BTS Center and upcoming programs at TheBTSCenter.org.
    • Explore storytelling coaching at StellarStory.com.
    Announcing Season Four of Climate Changed!

    Season Four is coming soon! We are thrilled to welcome incoming co-hosts Nicole Diroff and Autumn Brown, who will explore what it means to live, love, and lead with faith and imagination in a climate-changed world.

    Season Four Guests include:

    • Francis Weller: Author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow.
    • Norma Wong: Zen Master and leader at the Institute of Zen Studies.
    • Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner: Climate Change Chaplain.
    • Tory Stevens: Climate Narrative Project.
    • Katie Mears: Episcopal Relief & Development.

    Make sure you are subscribed so you don’t miss the Season Four premiere!
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    35 mins
  • Flipping the Script: Loons, Butterflies, and the Courage to Begin Again

    Flipping the Script: Loons, Butterflies, and the Courage to Begin Again
    Jan 20 2026
    In this second bonus episode from Climate Changed, we return to the 2025 BTS Center Convocation, where participants were invited to flip the script—shifting climate conversations away from data and debate and toward lived experience, spiritual insight, and imagination. Co-hosts Peterson Toscano and Ben Yosua-Davis introduce two deeply personal stories from members of the BTS Center community: Tyler Mark Nelson and David Arfa. Their stories explore mental health, vocation, migration, lineage, wonder, and responsibility in a climate-changed world—offering listeners not solutions, but companionship, honesty, and renewed attention to the wisdom of place. About This Mini-Series: Convocation Stories At the 2025 BTS Center Convocation, participants were invited to share climate-centered stories grounded in their own lives—stories shaped by courage, vulnerability, and spiritual practice. Rather than expert lectures or policy analysis, these stories center on imagination, grief, hope, and relationships. In this mini-series, Peterson Toscano and Ben Yosua-Davis share two of those stories in each episode, offering listeners a glimpse of how ordinary people are integrating climate concern with faith, creativity, and daily life. These episodes are especially suited for seasons when exhaustion, uncertainty, and longing coexist—and when stories can help us breathe again. How These Stories Were Made: The Story-Making Process To bring these stories to life with care and craft, The BTS Center partnered with Stellar Story Company. Months before Convocation, community members were invited to submit story “seedlings” connected to the Convocation theme. From more than twenty proposals, seven storytellers were selected. Each storyteller worked closely with an experienced storytelling coach over several months, meeting multiple times to shape, revise, and rehearse their narratives. The goal was not polished performance for its own sake, but faithful storytelling—stories lovingly and prayerfully crafted for a shared community. As Associate Director Nicole Diroff explains in the episode, this process was itself an act of “flipping the script”: centering voices from within the community and trusting that lived experience can open pathways to courage and connection. Stories in This Episode “Teach Me the Ways of the Loon” – Tyler Mark Nelson Tyler Mark Nelson begins his story seated on a warm rock along the north shore of Lake Superior—a place he returns to when his mental health falters, and his vocational path feels uncertain. Living with long-term depression and anxiety, Tyler finds himself one year away from graduating from Yale Divinity School and questioning everything. As he watches loons dive and resurface in the cold inland sea, Tyler recalls another moment years earlier when he stood at this same shoreline after dropping out of college. The loons become unexpected spiritual companions, offering a metaphor for nourishment, patience, and survival beneath the surface. A simple prayer—“God, teach me the ways of the loon”—marks a turning point. Tyler does not emerge with easy answers or dramatic healing, but with breath, presence, and a renewed commitment to care for his body, spirit, and community. His story reframes vocation not as certainty or ordination, but as learning how to swim alongside others in deep water. Tyler Mark Nelson Tyler Mark Nelson is a community educator, ecotheologian, activist, and artist. He currently serves as a Research Associate with the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology and is involved in projects exploring kinship and public ritual in a time of planetary crisis. Raised in Minnesota, Tyler’s work is deeply shaped by place, contemplative practice, and the more-than-human world. “What Migrations Have You Been On?” – David Arfa David Arfa’s story begins with a childhood encounter with a snake in a Detroit backyard—an early moment of exhilaration and curiosity rather than fear. As David studies ecology, wrestles with family expectations, and searches for spiritual grounding, he finds unexpected resonance in Jewish ritual, prayer, and lineage. A formative experience with monarch butterflies in California—hundreds falling frozen from eucalyptus trees and lifted back into flight by human breath—becomes a moment of awe and ethical clarity. Weaving together migration stories of butterflies, ancestors leaving Warsaw, and his own vocational journey, David invites listeners to consider what migrations—spiritual, emotional, generational—have made their own lives possible. His story holds wonder and responsibility together, asking what we are creating now that may not come to fruition for generations. David Arfa coordinates bereavement services and offers grief counseling at Baystate Hospice. A storyteller and educator rooted in Jewish tradition, David’s work weaves together ecological awareness, spiritual lineage, and narrative as tools for ...
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    32 mins
  • Convocation Stories, Part One: Walking for Peace, Listening for Song

    Convocation Stories, Part One: Walking for Peace, Listening for Song
    Dec 16 2025
    In this special bonus mini-series, Climate Changed returns to the 2025 BTS Center Convocation, where participants “flipped the script” and stepped forward to share climate-centered personal stories—not lectures, not data, not policy, but lived experience. Co-hosts Peterson Toscano and Ben Yosua-Davis introduce two powerful stories of walking, vision, and spiritual practice from BTS Center community members June Zellers and the Rev. Sara Hayman. About This Mini-Series: Convocation Stories At the 2025 BTS Center Convocation, participants were invited to share climate-centered stories grounded in their own lives—stories shaped by imagination, vulnerability, and courage. In this mini-series, Peterson Toscano and Ben Yosua-Davis share two of those stories in each episode, offering listeners a glimpse of how ordinary people are integrating climate concern with spiritual practice, community, and daily life. This end-of-year series is designed for a season when many of us are carrying questions about justice, the environment, and the future of our climate-changed world. Reflection, exhaustion, hope, and uncertainty often intermingle. These stories offer a companion for that moment, reminding us that one of the most powerful tools we have is our own voice and our own lived experience. How These Stories Were Made: The Story-Making Process To bring these stories to life with care and craft, The BTS Center partnered with Stellar Story Company. Months before Convocation, the BTS Center staff invited participants to propose story “seedlings” connected to the Convocation theme. More than twenty community members responded. From those proposals, seven storytellers were selected. Each worked with an experienced storytelling coach from Stellar Story Company over several months, meeting in multiple sessions to develop, revise, and rehearse their stories. Together they shaped deeply personal narratives—rooted in faith, place, and embodied experience—designed to be shared in a plenary setting rather than as expert lectures. As Associate Director Nicole Diroff explains in the episode, the intention was to “flip the script”: to center not headline keynotes, but the voices of people sitting at the tables, taking the leap to tell stories they had “lovingly, prayerfully crafted” for this community. The hope is that these stories will not only move listeners but also spark new stories in all of us. Stories in This Episode “When the Earth Sings” – A Vision Quest with June Zellers Attorney and long-time BTS Center participant June Zellers takes us back 32 years to Eagle Song Camp in western Montana, where she joined 27 women and Indigenous teacher Brooke Medicine Eagle for a three-week physical and spiritual training culminating in a two-day vision quest. Sitting within a carefully prepared medicine circle on a grassy mountainside, June seeks “soul-level answers” to why her outwardly successful law career feels so soul-crushing. What follows is a night of galloping horses, a mountain lion stalking a fellow participant, and the unsettling choice to break the rules in order to move toward another’s distress. The second morning, as she wakes, June hears what she can only describe as the earth itself singing—a three-syllable chant carried first by stillness, then by warm rain, and finally by a brook she has crossed many times before. Tone-deaf and unable to reproduce the melody, she nonetheless carries this silent chant as a mantra through decades of difficulty, sorrow, and grief, a reminder that “regardless of my circumstances, the spirit of life is so incredibly joyful. And my soul, our souls, are designed to be radiant.” “Walking for Peace and Friendship” – A Long Walk with Rev. Sara Hayman The Rev. Sara Hayman, minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ellsworth, Maine, describes how intentional walking has become a primary way she gets grounded amidst overlapping crises, ministry demands, and the weight of liberal religious leadership. From the Camino de Santiago in Spain (500 miles, no blisters—though bedbugs made an appearance) to the wild coasts of Newfoundland and a sheep-covered Dingle Peninsula in Ireland, walking renews her spirit. It reconnects her to land, ancestors, and gratitude. When Penobscot spiritual leader and activist Sherri Mitchell invites her to help organize a “Journey for Peace and Friendship”—an 82-mile, eight-day prayer walk from Indian Island (Penobscot Reservation) to the State House in Augusta—Sara says yes without asking her congregation’s permission. Alongside Wabanaki leaders and a diverse group of walkers, she experiences ceremony, risk, hostility from passing traffic, unexpected welcome (church bells, homemade chocolate-zucchini muffins, cold sparkling water), and the daily discipline of simply putting one foot in front of the other. On the State House steps, exhausted and unprepared with formal remarks, she finds herself moved into...
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    35 mins
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