e204 sophie weider - hearing young voices through art

conscient podcast

• I'd like to use art more as a tool to get people thinking, get people involved, especially young people, and hopefully, help them process the emotions of climate change and move towards a space of action and hope. At least for me, as a young person, art felt like the way to have my voice be heard, and I hope to help other people experience that as well.

I first heard about Sophie Weider from an email she sent me on August 14th, 2024. With Sophie’s permission, here is an excerpt:

• My name is Sophie and I am a recent graduate from the Sustainability, Science, and Society Interfaculty Program at McGill University as well as an artist working to foster climate hope and inspire action through my work. I recently discovered the conscient podcast and have been absolutely hooked on it. It has been the most heartwarming, uplifting, and inspiring experience for me. Your empathy and care shows in the thoughtful questions you ask in your interviews. Thank you for creating this wonderful resource for us all to learn from and enjoy! I have been working in the intersection of the climate and arts spaces for some time and found it to be incredibly validating to hear the stories of so many amazing people doing similar work in your podcast episodes.

Now that’s very flattering and I appreciate the feedback. Sophie and I had coffee in Ottawa a few days later. We talked about the role of art in facilitating inclusive processes for envisioning a more just and sustainable future and Sophie mentioned some of the projects that she is involved with, including Zine for Hope a creative platform for youth to voice their perspectives on climate change and their hopes for a better future. And what is that better future? I ask myself everyday. It’s sometimes hard to imagine but Sophie believe in arts as a connector and I agree with her that :

• Something that I really think is valuable about art is that it doesn't hold one objective reality to be true, and instead it allows for multiple subjective perspectives to coexist. Because while it's valuable to have science that tells us the answers, it's sometimes hard to know that this is the answer and not this one, especially when it comes to more subjective experiences, like, how should we relate to our living environment? There are various different perspectives from western science to indigenous knowledge that we can learn from and I think that art can help us see all those things together at once and figure out our own perspectives based on that.

I invited Sophie to have a conversation with me as part of a series of with people in their 20’s, including e154 - the art of history and gaming with my son historian Riel Schryer (also my son), e200 maggie chang - the power of art with environmentalist, poet, writer, and artist maggie chang and the final episode of season 5, with earth systems scientist Clara Schryer (also my daughter). These four young people, and their peers, inspire and motivate me.

Sophie is also an artist who wrote and illustrated two children's books, ‘The Girl Who Saved a Tree’ (2018) and ‘Who?’ (2020) that explores environmental change and activism to inspire young people to become change-makers in their communities.

Sophie and I talked about who is an artist and what is art, which reminded me of my conversation with another Ottawa artist Barbara Cuerden in e167 barbara cuerden - tending the garden of art:

• The garden doesn't have to be something that's instrumental. It can be just a place where you sit, where you're thinking of growing something, you know, where the sun shines and where photosynthesis takes place and everything is sort of manifested through the sunlight and the water. It's a fantastic thing on its own without actually having to produce a lot of stuff.

Here’s an excerpt of what Sophie has to say about gardening as art :

• Isn't everyone an artist? Don't we all imagine and create in some way or another? You know, even, like, I like to think about gardening as an art. This summer, through my work, I worked with a non for profit called EnviroCentre, and we did a lot of gardening, a lot of planting and weeding of green spaces around the city. And I really think it's an art. You know, it involves creatively deciding where the plants are going to go, and it involves, you know, working with your hands to make something beautiful. And it involves a lot of thought and reflection. And I think that's what art is all about.

I was honoured that Sophie reached out to chat about our shared passion for art and ecology and was not surprised to hear that she was a top 25 environmentalists under 25 in 2021 of Starfish Canada, an organization that supports youth environmental change makers through storytelling and community.

Sophie recommends the following podcasts and music:

• Heart Gallery podcast by Rebeka Ryvola de Kremer
• solacene podcast
• Local Valley album by Jose Gonzalez

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END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020 on un-ceded Anishinaabe Algonquin territory (Ottawa). It’s my way to give back and be present.

In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and it's francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I publish a Substack newsletter called ‘a calm presence' which are 'short, practical essays about collapse acceptance, adaptation, response and art’. To subscribe (free of charge) see https://acalmpresence.substack.com. You'll also find a podcast version of each a calm presence posting on Substack or one your favorite podcast player.

Also, please note that a complete transcript of conscient podcast and balado conscient episodes from season 1 to 4 is available on the web version of this site (not available on podcast apps) here: https://conscient-podcast.simplecast.com/episodes.

Your feedback is always welcome at [e-mail] and/or on conscient podcast social media: Facebook, X, Instagram or Linkedin.

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible.

Claude Schryer

Latest update on July 20, 2024