Something Different This Way Comes
Artist Residency by Heather McLeod
Artist-in-Residence Statement
Something Different This Way Comes began when my children asked me: what is being done to solve
the climate crisis? What solutions can we see in action here in Thunder Bay? My answers were so
hollow, so shockingly empty of science and context and actual information, that my researcher,
journalist and storytelling soul was sparked into action. I fell deep into climate anxiety, sleepless and
spinning. Then I started getting up when the anxiety woke me and appeasing it with research. I built a
library of hope. Until I was teetering on top of heaps of information and ideas, and realized it was time
to give it all a voice.
The podcast's first joy for me was as an excuse to pick up the phone and call people whose expertise and
insight I thirsted for, seeking comfort in all that has been done I had not heard about, and inspiration for
what more we might do here. It felt so good to exercise my interviewing skills again. I picked up my
guitar and improvised a few lines to be a theme song, the odd hook to act as segue. That felt good too,
an old friend too long out of my arms. I kicked my kids out of their bedroom and draped their bunkbeds
in blankets to be my recording studio. Season one: the Lay of This Land launched last Spring with an
episode a week through May and June. I returned in October with Season two: What Good Looks Like,
adding an original song to each episode and making more room for my own voice. Season three:
Imagining the Kindness Economy will launch in April 2023 at www.SomethingDifferentThisWayComes.ca and podcast providers everywhere.
Each episode is a discovery and an encouragement. I leap around in my heaps of information to connect context, precedents and science. I think deeply about questions I want to ask and whom to ask them of,then lean in close to listen and respond. Climate Change makes a village of our planet - all relying on thesame air, soil, water and weather. And in this village of a planet one person can feel small and unremarkable. The seeds of this crisis are social and psychological - what values and assumptions we build our systems on, what we hope for and imagine. But all that we have built we can renovate and reimagine. We have such potential - as individuals and with our communities. This podcast is a spinning of that wooly potential into a string to lead us through this labyrinth of changes imposed and chosen. Something different this way comes - let's reach into this opportunity to make differences we welcome.
the climate crisis? What solutions can we see in action here in Thunder Bay? My answers were so
hollow, so shockingly empty of science and context and actual information, that my researcher,
journalist and storytelling soul was sparked into action. I fell deep into climate anxiety, sleepless and
spinning. Then I started getting up when the anxiety woke me and appeasing it with research. I built a
library of hope. Until I was teetering on top of heaps of information and ideas, and realized it was time
to give it all a voice.
The podcast's first joy for me was as an excuse to pick up the phone and call people whose expertise and
insight I thirsted for, seeking comfort in all that has been done I had not heard about, and inspiration for
what more we might do here. It felt so good to exercise my interviewing skills again. I picked up my
guitar and improvised a few lines to be a theme song, the odd hook to act as segue. That felt good too,
an old friend too long out of my arms. I kicked my kids out of their bedroom and draped their bunkbeds
in blankets to be my recording studio. Season one: the Lay of This Land launched last Spring with an
episode a week through May and June. I returned in October with Season two: What Good Looks Like,
adding an original song to each episode and making more room for my own voice. Season three:
Imagining the Kindness Economy will launch in April 2023 at www.SomethingDifferentThisWayComes.ca and podcast providers everywhere.
Each episode is a discovery and an encouragement. I leap around in my heaps of information to connect context, precedents and science. I think deeply about questions I want to ask and whom to ask them of,then lean in close to listen and respond. Climate Change makes a village of our planet - all relying on thesame air, soil, water and weather. And in this village of a planet one person can feel small and unremarkable. The seeds of this crisis are social and psychological - what values and assumptions we build our systems on, what we hope for and imagine. But all that we have built we can renovate and reimagine. We have such potential - as individuals and with our communities. This podcast is a spinning of that wooly potential into a string to lead us through this labyrinth of changes imposed and chosen. Something different this way comes - let's reach into this opportunity to make differences we welcome.
Listen
Go to www.SomethingDifferentThisWayComes.ca for transcripts, lyrics and more. Use this menu to help
you decide which episode you wish to serve yourself today.
Go to www.SomethingDifferentThisWayComes.ca for transcripts, lyrics and more. Use this menu to help
you decide which episode you wish to serve yourself today.
Season One: The Lay of This Land
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1: Genesis with Ben & Sam.
Talking with my sons about our hopes and dreams for a carbon-balanced Thunder Bay where everyone is safe, secure and equally included. Inspired by the Drawdown Project. 2. Tips for Change Makers with Erin Beagle Erin Beagle founded and heads Roots to Harvest / Roots Food ... She shares tips on gathering people together to make good things happen, daring to do what needs doing, and how healing hurts builds community wealth. 3. Food Futures with Brendan Grant of Sleepy G Farm. How easily Thunder Bay could grow all the food we need, the secret to sustainable food production, and some myth busting. 4. The Pen is Mightier - Provincial Election Thoughts. Facing the crisis of autonomy in our economy. Being a Stewart on a living planet (not a passenger on a dying one). Talking to candidates about efficient, effective leadership. 5. The People in your Neighbourhood - with Charla Robinson. The heroism of truly local commerce: meeting neighbourhood needs with compassion and care. The stage is set for local businesses to boom - spotlighting the opportunity for us all. 6. Greening City with Summer Stevenson Thunder Bay could be a leader in addressing the Climate Crisis. A tour of what's been done, what's next and what more could follow. The seeds are planted: gardeners needed. 7. Times Change with Muriel Squires (and Ben, Sam & Arno) Muriel brings eight decades of perspective to her art, her values, and her expectations. The changes she has weathered brings hope to my family and my heart. Science is wonderful! 8. Getting to Know Home with Ledah McKellar Ledah led Lakehead University's year of Climate Action. We talk about being settlers, truth and reconciliation, and finding the courage to have faith in our planetary future. I cry. 9. Being Ancestors with Betty Carpick (plus season wrap with Ben & Sam) Betty is an artist who walks her talk, and is so clear and compelling in her hopes for our community and our planet. We are all ancestors - our choices matter. She (and the whole season) get my family facing our future eagerly. |
Ben and Sam summer 2020
Brendan Grant and Marcelle Paulin of Sleepy G Farm in Pass Lake, Ontario
Ben in front of steam-era farm machinery in 2021
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Charla Robinson of the Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce
Summer Stevenson
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Ledah McKellar, Sustainability Coordinator at Lakehead University
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Muriel Squires is a quilter and fabric artist in Thunder Bay, Ontario
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Betty Carpick is a land-based artist, educator and environmentalist
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Season Two: What Good Looks Like
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1. Less mowing, more growing: Ground Level Lessons
A trip West through my family's settler past illustrates how systems that aim to win are inferior to those that aim to solve. Real success is sustainable, not colonial or combatitive. And we can do better. 2. Save the Mothers & Methane Counterspun Phil McGuire lived his whole live by the mouth of the Sturgeon river. He is a hunter, a berry-picker, an Elder, a fisherman and a gardener. He counsels to save the mothers of all our relations to replenish the wild and rebuild our true wealth and security. Then I serve an impromptu counterspin to some Fossil Fuel Industry workers over lunch. 3. Count me in - Capital and income How our economy actually works, how it was built, and what needs to change for it to actually achieve its goals. A lot of context, a bit of Billie Holiday and the Bible, and a vision of shifting our systems from colonial to kind. 4. The Places You& I'll Go with Paul Berger A pragmatic first hand account of hybrid then electric vehicle ownership in Thunder Bay with Paul (a dedicated civic action leader and climate action educator) - leads to a conversation about the four keys to happiness: connection, action, learning and giving. 5. All Bring Our All - non-binary thinkings How to be more like water (less like a light switch). We are tempted to use binary thinking to protect ourselves from changes we fear: true & false, right & wrong... the power of non-binary thinking & truly addressing your biases. 6. The Paulo Friere Two-Step with Dr. Fay Martin Community development is the only way to get out of the mess we're in. My Mom introduces me to what Paulo Friere and Saul Alinksy can teach about building neighbourhood resilience, community autonomy and fruitful connections. 7. Love Love Hive Mind - bite size revolutions Examples of the Paulo Friere two-step in action around the world and in Thunder Bay. Building our hives, pollinating our fields of influence, and seeding necessary change as both followers and leaders. 8. Caterpillar Fears & Lake Superior Love with Rod Steward Rod heals Lake Superior, that is his academic work. He shares the successes achieved and those wanting only for volunteers to make them happen. We contemplate the generosity of water to and through us, and I cry in the face of it. 9. Do What You Can Do - solar power, heat pumps and wind A pragmatic and Northwestern Ontario specific introduction to how to wean building energy use off fossil fuels and the grid, and the funding that might help you finance it. With some equally pragmatic blues. 10. Season Finale - summary in song All nine songs composed and recorded for this season, stitched together with a little more precedent, inspiration and ideas to feed both hope and action. |
Following my family through the mustard field en route to the Martin homestead in Cadillac Saskatchewan August 2022
Phil McGuire on the shore of Lake Superior
Volunteering At Grain Elevator Days September 2022
Paul Berger and his library of hope at Lakehead University September 2022
With Ben and Sam on top of the Sleeping Giant
Driving the neighbour’s cattle home August 2022
Rob Stewart With the lungs & life blood of the Lake Superior basin in his Lakehead University office
Ben & Sam behind our house with the wood they helped split and stack to heat our house this winter.
With the Six String Nation Guitar April 2007
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Bio
Heather McLeod is a singer-songwriter with six albums and a few film scores. She was a CBC radio host & is an award winning documentary journalist as well as the author of the children book Kiss Me! (I'm a Prince!). Heather works full time as Certified Financial Planner. She and her family keep bees, grow food and pasture their neighbour's cows at their home in Thunder Bay. In the early mornings, weekend afternoons and the occasional stolen hour, Heather writes, produces, composes and hosts the podcast Something Different This Way Comes.
Acknowledgement
I first acknowledge that Something Different This Way Comes is rooted in and made on the traditional
land of the Anishnaabe of Fort William First Nation and the Metis People. Thank you for the generations
without count of care for and relationship with this place that has made it such a beautiful and generous
home. I am humbled, honoured and grateful. I thank my family for giving me the inspiration, the space
and time to do this podcast, and for supporting me with such love, grace and generosity. Thank you
David Gutnick for conversations that were pivotal in shaping and sparking this podcast . I celebrate the
skill and artistry my niece Leea McKay gives Something Different This Way Comes as the graphic
designer of the website & curator of the show’s online presence, as well as the person who chose the
title from all those I brainstormed. Thank you Bill Martin for your generous responses to every single
episode, for sharing your own Climate Action adventures with me, for being the podcast's first sponsor,
and for challenging me to bring my songwriting to the show. Thank you to Paulina Sameshima and
Tashya Orasi of Lakehead University Integrated Arts Gallery for this opportunity and your work in
making this audio art sing in these visual mediums. How wonderful it is to be recognised for this work
and in this way. And thank you to every guest and listener, from the bottom of my heart.
-Heather McLeod