Will Freund is a conservation biologist, educator, and storyteller living in the coastal Southeastern United States. His intimate knowledge of the region's waterways inspired a deep curiosity and empathy of the people and animal life who call this part of the world home.  In order to better understand the realities of the local impacts of climate change throughout the region, Will set out on a grand adventure up the Intracoastal Waterway on his sailing kayak, determined to foster understanding through in-person conversations. Often, those conversations did not start with climate change and often did not overtly name climate change but they consistently featured local people witnessing big changes to their communities and who were worried about what those changes meant for their children and grandchildren.   Will represents a new wave of young storytellers, focused on the realities of ordinary people facing extraordinary changes worldwide. He believes in the power of empathy and dignity as a means of building lasting connections that can create lasting impacts. You can follow Climate Kayak and Conversation through Will's website and social media channels, and upcoming documentary film. Show Notes:Guest - Will FreundHost - Grey GowderMusic (via Epidemic Sound) - "Deep in the Blue" (Instrumental Version)  by Ingrid WittPhoto courtesy of Alex Grodkiewicz on Unsplash.Produced by Lugus Films Media

Mark Haver is a young ocean leader and policy advisor. As the chair of the Sustainable Ocean Alliance's Youth Policy Advisory Council, Mark was tasked with guiding the creation of SOA's Global Blue New Deal. The Global Blue New Deal is a comprehensive document penned by young leaders from around the world and developed by a community of young professionals representing 38 countries. The document's creators seek to outline the key challenges to ocean health and climate stability while also proposing focus areas for interventions and regenerative action and policy at all governance scales.  After a rigorous review process, Mark presented the Global Blue New Deal at COP26 in Glasgow as a means of increasing understanding among leaders and delegates about the ocean-climate nexus and how vital the ocean will be to a resilient future for our planet. Mark joins us in this interview to put the Global Blue New Deal into context through what was achieved at COP26 and what work remains. His message walks a fine line of outrage and optimism, often identifying solutions that must be embraced regardless of action by the world's leaders. The knowledge, technology, and solutions needed to solve climate change already exist, but the disinclination of those in power to act increasingly threatens the future of the communities that they represent.  The most important takeaway from this conversation is that Mark and other young people like him are motivated, highly capable, and are united by a core certainty that they "are guided by truth and that truth is science". While they may not want to be the sole reason for hope for the planet, they are driven by a sense of stewardship that people of all ages should embrace. This episode of the Enduring Curiosity Podcast is sponsored by Enduring Curiosity, in association with the Sustainable Ocean Alliance and Sustainable Ocean Alliance - Charleston hub.Show Notes:Guest - Mark HaverHost - Grey GowderMusic (via Epidemic Sound) - "Deep in the Blue" (Instrumental Version)  by Ingrid WittPhoto courtesy of Secret Travel Guide on Unsplash.Produced by Lugus Films Media

Skye Steritz is the co-founder and President of Noble Ocean Farms  in Cordova, Alaska. Ever since she began scuba diving at age 12, Skye has been enchanted by the sea. She loves being below the surface, gazing up at golden columns of sunlight cascading through the water. Her deep connection to the water greatly influenced her path. Skye’s environmental activism began in college. She volunteered in Ghana and served as an environmental educator in California and Alaska before joining Dune Lankard's Eyak Preservation Council and then Native Conservancy. Now through Noble Ocean Farms and her work as an advocate and elementary school educator, Skye pursues two of her great passions: social justice and habitat preservation. She holds two Master of Science degrees in Water Resources Policy and Management, and a Master of Art in Water Cooperation and Diplomacy. Skye and her partner in business and life, Sean Den Adel, founded their regenerative kelp farm with the intention of strengthening food security for their regional communities through nutrient-rich kelp products while also enhancing the marine biodiversity of the Prince William Sound through habitat creation and restoration. They see their kelp farm as a small part of a global effort to restore the ocean’s health and heal the communities most directly connected to the ocean. As ocean farmers and educators, Skye and Sean hope to inspire a new generation of maritime food producers and empower young stewards throughout their region.   Kelp farms like Noble Ocean Farms can be transformative for a region. Kelp is a keystone species that provides vital habitat and food for many species of mammals, fish, crustaceans, and sea birds. By farming kelp, Skye and Sean are also creating nurseries for juvenile salmon and herring. Salmon smolts rely on the safety of kelp in their journeys from their natal rivers to the open ocean.Kelp also chemically transforms the waters around them, purifying and alkalizing the water by sequestering dissolved carbon and creating oxygen-rich pockets. Kelp that will be harvested during the spring can then become human superfoods, low-methane animal feed, alternative biofuels, and material composites for bioplastics. Noble Ocean Farms will enhance rural Alaskans’ access to healthy foods by providing kelp. By embracing the regenerative potential of natural systems, kelp farmers can help heal the disastrous effects of over a century of extractive economics.  This episode of the Enduring Curiosity Podcast is sponsored by Enduring Curiosity, in association with the Sustainable Ocean Alliance - Charleston and the CityCraft Foundation.Show Notes:Guest - Skye SteritzHost - Grey GowderMusic (via Epidemic Sound) - "Deep in the Blue" (Instrumental Version)  by Ingrid WittPhoto courtesy of Eiko JonesProduced by Lugus Films Media

Jonathan DeLong is the Co-Founder of Alameda, California's REAP Center (Regeneration, Education, Aquaculture, Permaculture), a non-profit that supports healthy soil and the movement transitioning tillage and monoculture land to permaculture practices. Through a combination of community building and education, Jonathan and his team seek to incubate and accelerate emergent technologies that will promote soil health and thus healthy communities. By using the REAP center as both a testing bed and proof of concept for high- and low-tech solutions, Jonathan hopes to influence policy and guide financial models in ways that will create regenerative and just transitions for communities across the country.Jonathan's work is directly aligned with at least 7 of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals to create greater community resilience through restoring soil health, promoting biodiversity, restoring the hydrological systems of the Center's location, creating locally-sourced food for food security, and providing a safe and engaging location for community members of all ages to enjoy. If you want to learn more about the REAP Center and if you are interested in volunteering at the Center, click here. This episode of the Enduring Curiosity Podcast is sponsored by Enduring Curiosity, in association with the Sustainable Ocean Alliance - Charleston and the CityCraft Foundation.REAP Center Linkshttps://reapcenter.org/https://www.instagram.com/thereapcenter/https://www.facebook.com/TheREAPCenter/https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanbdelong/https://twitter.com/JonathanDeLong https://www.facebook.com/Jonathan.B.DeLong/ Additional Resourceshttps://www.fsb-tcfd.org/https://tnfd.global/https://bionutrient.org/https://biomimicry.org/https://kisstheground.com/https://www.bfi.org/https://www.sunrisemovement.org/Show Notes:Guest - Jonathan DeLongHost - Grey GowderMusic (via Epidemic Sound) - "Deep in the Blue" (Instrumental Version)  by Ingrid WittPhoto courtesy of Gabriel Jimenez on UnsplashProduced by Lugus Films Media

Andrew Wunderley is the Executive Director of the Charleston Waterkeeper. He is an avid swimmer, surfer, and advocate for local waterways. He earned his JD cum laude at the Charleston School of Law and his Masters of Science in Environmental Policy at the College of Charleston. Andrew serves as the eyes, ears, and voice of his local waterways. He is the Charleston Waterkeeper.Part of the Charleston Waterkeeper's mission is to stand for clean, healthy water and give their local waterways a voice. They are watchdogs, defenders, and stewards for both the natural systems and the communities that depend on them. They rely on a broad coalition of citizen scientists, community partners, and conservation collaborators to work towards a cleaner, healthier, and more vibrant future for life in their watershed.  To get more involved with Charleston Waterkeeper as a volunteer in their creek sweeps, oyster reef planting, spartina grass planting, or other opportunities to work to rebuild the Lowcountry, check out their upcoming schedule of events. This episode of the Enduring Curiosity Podcast is sponsored by Enduring Curiosity, in association with the Sustainable Ocean Alliance - Charleston and the CityCraft Foundation. Show Notes:Guest - Andrew WunderleyHost - Grey GowderMusic (via Epidemic Sound) - "Deep in the Blue" (Instrumental Version)  by Ingrid WittPhoto courtesy of Delaney Boyd on UnsplashProduced by Lugus Films Media

Laura Cantral is the Executive Director of the Coastal Conservation League, and has previously served as the Director of the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative at the Meridian Institute, the Associate Director of the US Commission on Ocean Policy, and as the Senior Policy Analyst for the Governor of Florida's Ocean Policy Committee. Part of Laura's mission with the Coastal Conservation League is to build partnerships to advance environmental policy at the international, national, regional, and local levels, while approaching the diverse range of challenges facing the Southeast from a multi-disciplinary and collaborative perspective. In this week's interview, Grey and Laura discuss an exciting proposed protection of up to 1 million acres of salt marsh from North Carolina to North Florida led by SERPASS and the importance of community "stakeholders" in protecting, preserving, and restoring vital coastal natural systems. The core theme of their conversation is balance, no matter whether that balance is in humanity's relations with the natural world or in strategies to manage the needs of human communities while addressing the health of neighboring ecosystems.  They also discuss the exciting work being done in the Southeast like the protection of seabird and migratory bird habitat on Deveaux Bank and Crab Bank, a commitment to citizen science through Charleston Waterkeeper, and the difference between "green infrastructure" and "gray infrastructure" through the lens of Charleston's Dutch Dialogues and the ongoing debate over how Charleston and other cities will mitigate sea level rise. This episode of the Enduring Curiosity Podcast is sponsored by Enduring Curiosity, in association with the CityCraft Foundation.Show Notes:Guest - Laura CantralHost - Grey GowderMusic (via Epidemic Sound) - "Deep in the Blue" (Instrumental Version)  by Ingrid WittPhoto courtesy of Brian Sumner on UnsplashProduced by Lugus Films Media

Dr. Leslie Sautter is an associate professor of Marine Geology and Paleoceanography at the College of Charleston and specializes in the development and implementation of multi-beam sonar deep-sea mapping to study and characterize seafloor habitat and ecosystems. She also works to advance programs to engage students in real-world research programs at sea.She joins us to celebrate World Oceans Week by sharing the vast amount of discovery left to be done in our ocean. By likening the dawn of deep-ocean discovery to the early days of space exploration, Dr. Sautter charts an exciting course for aspiring oceanographers, marine biologists, and marine geologists in search of adventure and the chance to see the previously unseen. To get a preview of some of the remarkable findings she and her colleagues are making, check out NOAA's Ocean Explorer website and take a few moments to watch this remarkable footage from their submersible. This episode of the Enduring Curiosity Podcast is sponsored by Enduring Curiosity, in association with the CityCraft Foundation.Show Notes:Guest - Dr. Leslie SautterHost - Grey GowderMusic (via Epidemic Sound) - "Deep in the Blue" (Instrumental Version)  by Ingrid WittPhoto courtesy of Brooke et al. 2005, NOAA-OER Florida Deep Corals.Produced by Lugus Films Media

Rick Crawford is the founder of Emerger Strategies, a sustainable business consultancy whose mission is to solve the climate crisis by helping its clients go Zero Waste & Carbon Neutral, and of the Fly Fishing Climate Alliance whose members are committed to going Carbon Neutral by 2030. Rick joins us to discuss environmental ethics in business and the importance of stewardship.This episode of the Enduring Curiosity Podcast is sponsored by Enduring Curiosity, in association with the CityCraft Foundation and Solutions Journal.Show Notes:Guest - Rick CrawfordHost - Grey GowderMusic (via Epidemic Sound) - "Deep in the Blue" (Instrumental Version)  by Ingrid Witt Photo by Dash Kadam on UnsplashProduced by Lugus Films Media

Eugenia Barroca embodies the power and passion of young people in the fight to save the oceans and reverse climate change. She is a marine biologist, Young Ocean Leader, Sustainable Ocean Alliance Lusophone and Europe Regional Representative, and former Portuguese Delegate at World Oceans Day Youth Advisory Council.She is a passionate optimist and fierce advocate for ocean conservation. Her love of Marine Biology comes from her desire to understand the complex interconnectedness of marine ecosystems in order to promote effective and regenerative means of restoring a healthy ocean. Through her work, she crafts initiatives to link governments, citizens, corporations, non-governmental organizations, and scientific groups to collaboratively and holistically restore natural balance through the pillars of ocean literacy and advocacy.This episode of the Enduring Curiosity Podcast is sponsored by Enduring Curiosity, in association with the CityCraft Foundation and Solutions Journal.Show Notes:Guest - Eugénia BarrocaHost - Grey GowderMusic (via Epidemic Sound) - "Deep in the Blue" (Instrumental Version)  by Ingrid Witt Produced by Lugus Films Media

John Knott is an internationally recognized leader in urban regeneration and sustainability. Mr. Knott is a recognized thought leader and keynote speaker who joins us to discuss sustainable community development, regenerative economies, and the restoration of the economic, environmental, and social health of cities through the CityCraft process.Mr. Knott has been recognized as an influential leader in molding the nation’s sustainable development movement through cross-sector integration strategies at innovative development projects like Dewees and Noisette. For Earth Week, we sat down with John (virtually) to discuss John's philosophy on "Healing the Garden" to restore the world through systems thinking, ethical planning, and the importance of re-learning what our ancestors once knew about humanity's place within the natural world. Through a multi-disciplinary discussion of human ecosystems, social systems, economic principles, and ecology, John lays out clear and attainable mechanisms by which communities can evolve to ensure a more resilient and regenerative future. The premier episode of the Enduring Curiosity Podcast is sponsored by Enduring Curiosity, in association with the CityCraft Foundation and Solutions Journal. Show Notes:Guest - John KnottHost - Grey GowderMusic (via Epidemic Sound) - "Deep in the Blue" (Instrumental Version)  by Ingrid Witt Produced by Lugus Films Media