38. Celebrate Earth Day with a Climate Conversation

Michelle Walters 1:31

Welcome, you are here with me, Michelle Walters and my co host, Cinthia Varkevisser are to our episode today of mind power meets mystic. Today we are speaking to Lisa Yeager from climate conversations dotnet because Earth Day is coming up, and Lisa makes the perfect Earth Day guest Lisa Yeager is a project manager, improviser and informal educator. She recently pulled this eclectic background together as a sea change CEE change fellow with the North American Association for Environmental Education. The fellowship targeted the intersection of environmental education and civic and community engagement. Lisa holds an MBA and has over 20 years experience leading change initiatives as an internal and external consultant for government entities, higher education and nonprofit entities. A lifelong learner, she is completing a master's degree in biology focused on climate change engagement from Miami University's acclaimed project dragonfly program. Welcome my pal, Lisa Jaeger.

Lisa Yeager 2:46

So great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Michelle Walters 2:49

We're thrilled to have you here. And we're thrilled to be celebrating. Yes, coming up.

Cinthia Varkevisser 2:57

So Lisa, as a new friend, for me, I would love to know a little bit about how you got into climate conversations. Is it something that was a lifelong dream, something happened while you were in school that triggered this path. I would love to

Lisa Yeager 3:14

hear more. You bet. You know, it definitely emerged step by step or as improvisers like to say we sort of back into it and let things reveal themselves to us. So you know, really sort of grew out of, you know, the work that I was doing as a volunteer. You know, Michelle, in my introduction talked about me being an informal educator, what is that? What does that really mean? So in places like zoos, or aquariums, museums, you know, where there are folks like docents or people who are providing delivering education in these very informal environments, you know, our families are out, you know, having a good time, that's a really great opportunity to teach people about where they are, you know, the animals that they're seeing at the zoo, the environment and so forth. And, you know, one thing that I was learning about as I was entering into the master's program was just how ripe the environment is in these places to be talking about climate with people. And I also knew that wasn't happening, right. Like as a volunteer, I wasn't doing it. My fellow volunteers weren't doing it. And there's a lot of barriers, right, it's a bit of a taboo subject. And as an improviser, I knew intuitively and from my personal experience, that improvisation and the the tools that we use to teach people different skills could really be applied. And so that, you know, sort of laid the foundation for me to start working on this climate conversations initiative of using those tools to help train people and build competence and skills and capabilities in just talking about what could be a very contentious topic, but doing it effectively and in a way that's fun.

Cinthia Varkevisser 5:03

Thanks, I, the thing that I find really interesting is, you know, especially here in the Bay Area, the rain, the rain comes down, it pours it's hailing. And the thing that they say is climate change isn't real, then they roll their eyes. And then we talk about something else. So I would love to know, what what do you have to say about people who do that? Who eat like, that's, yeah, that's not that's not a start. It's just a something. So how would you encourage us to take that a little bit? little step further?

Lisa Yeager 5:39

Yeah, absolutely. So the first key, right is to get curious, right, and to listen to understand if somebody is, you know, rolling their eyes or saying to you outright, like, oh, it's not real. Oh, I'm curious about that, you know, tell me more, you know, what's, what's leading you to see that or to feel that way. And, you know, really taking the time to actually listen, and not worry about teaching or being right, or correcting anybody, but just being very present and listening and having an authentic conversation. And when people when you're, when you're being present with somebody, and, you know, they're hearing in that interchange that you maybe care about it, or see it a different way, they're going to be a little more receptive to that information.

Michelle Walters 6:34

Lisa, you talked about how you were volunteering at the zoo, and even at the zoo, where you might think that everybody's on board and recognizing the, the change of, of climate and what's going on here that actually, not everyone who comes to the zoo is, is at that frame of mind. And you shared once with me about kind of how how you are within this work, educating the sorts of people who work at the zoo, or the aquarium or those kinds of places to to open up those conversations starting by listening. But, but then then where do you go?

Lisa Yeager 7:15

Well, you know, in the series that we're have held together, there's sort of five, you know, different weeks and sets of skills, you know, that we work on. And so really, you know, in addition to sort of listening, you know, as I mentioned, earlier, my comments being present, right, and how to really cultivate those, those skills of being present. And you're making your partner look good, you know, so he about ways that you can enable that partner, you know, to, to shine and to find shared values, you know, what is it that you do have in common, and building from there and building from there together? Right? I think it's a, you've been really important in the work that I've done, both as a volunteer and in supporting my volunteer community, to not, you know, get get too concerned about small steps, in fact, to realize that those are, those are enough, and those are really impactful that they are planting those seeds, you know, just because you don't get a big aha, right in front of you, or the person doesn't, you know, say, Well, you've changed my mind, you know, that's okay. You know, they're, they're engaged in that conversation with you, if they're able to hear you, you know, in the setting, you know, that we're talking about in a zoo or something, you know, my, one of my main jobs is to make sure they're enjoying themselves, right. And so, you know, kind of just deciding the best ways to sort of sprinkling that in and trusting that the rest will, will come and grow from there.

Michelle Walters 8:50

Well, that makes perfect sense. So Lisa, I know you're not doing this alone. You want to tell us a little bit about the partners that you're working with? And what what they bring to your triad or your I'm not sure what you call yourselves. I'd now like

Lisa Yeager 9:06

to call ourselves a triad. We'd like to say that this work happened because a scientist, an improviser, and a project manager went into a bar and climate conversations is what came out, right. So we met, you know, through a conference and stayed in touch and this sort of grew quite organically, you know, we started with smaller workshops, but really the fact that you know, we have very seasoned one of each of those things, right, like so our scientist in the equation, you know, she leads a consultancy with land and to has done a lot of work with land Trust's and conservation organizations. So that's both a lot of science work and policy work, strategy and you know, bringing people along, and the improviser, you know, ran a theatre company. for over 20 years, and is very skilled in sort of presence and engagement, she's also happens to be, you know, a professor at a couple of universities and teaches communication skills. And then, you know, I'm that project manager, you know, the business person looking at, like, how can we weave this all together? And build, you know, build and scale, you know, the work that we're doing?

Michelle Walters: 10:26

Excellent. And what are, what are the stated objectives of your group?

Lisa Yeager: 10:34

Well, you know, we're growing and involving them, right, as we go, you know, our first objective was to put out this five week series, we've certainly all done done things like this before and in different contexts, but, but bringing our unique skills together, and sort of seeing what would happen putting it out in the world, we thought, gosh, you know, maybe we'll get a couple people, you know, we'll get 10 people, and maybe a couple of them will be people we don't know. And that's okay, we want to test this out. And we're going to learn and get a lot of feedback in the process. But we put put it out in the world and did some marketing through listservs. And through our own, personal, you know, email lists, and we got about 30 people who signed out, when it was really a wonderful cohort, very diverse, you know, I think we ranged in size, ranged in age, from people who are in their 20s, to their 80s. You know, we had people from the East Coast to the West Coast, it was all North America based. And then people from very different professions and backgrounds, from those folks in those informal learning environments, who Land Trust and conservation organizations, there were, like, you know, several people from a state health organization and a couple of guys from their churches, Sustainability Committee, you know, so it was quite a wide ranging group. And they really all showed up very authentically, and we're willing to do a lot to engage and play together and work very, in a very focused way in the smaller groups to build those skills and practice.

Michelle Walters: 12:21

Sounds like fun, I want to remind all of our listeners that you are listening today to mind power meets mystic, I'm Michelle the mind power, the hypnotist of the group, Cynthia of archivists are my co host is our mystic. And we are speaking today with Lisa Jaeger from climate conversations. So, Lisa, I helped you with some of the imagery associated with your brand. And we had a fun time looking for people that would represent the tone and image of what you wanted to create with climate conversations, meaning people doing silly things. And people sort of being being pulled into directions, they didn't expect to have these conversations. And I know, Cynthia looked at this, and she's like, Oh, I get that. And so I thought, you know, it'd be kind of fun to hear from you a little bit about kind of how that improv that silly side is, is helpful to getting people in the right state of mind, to be open to more listening, more friend making more, because it's such a problem right now, the division is such a problem. And I look at what you're doing and going, well, this is kind of anti division, this is great.

Lisa Yeager: 13:51

Right? Absolutely. You know, there's one of our modules is all about empathy, right, and some of the activities and games and things that we can do to sort of build those muscles, right. And so, you know, in one particular activity, for example, we have people, you know, speak to somebody from, you know, 500 years ago, and describe to them what is a car, you know, and helping to get them to understand, so that's a game, you know, but that really, you know, helps them that they make a very clear and obvious translation from that activity into, you know, the conversations they're trying to have, across difference, right. And somebody that Cynthia was saying earlier, well, I don't think that's real, right. And so really, you know, being able to understand and ask questions and draw that person into dialogue with you, is something that you definitely have to do if you're trying to talk to somebody from 500 years ago about a car right because how in the world that you're going to help them understand what this thing is. So you ask them, you gotta get very curious and ask them questions you know about, well, how do you get around? Right? How do you move around. And so we have this thing that helps you move around, right and based on, you know, taking on those different roles and testing that out, that helps to build those muscles in a, in a really playful way. And sometimes, you know, our triad, as you say, we were talking about one point in that we were having a conversation, and one of us said, like, it's really great to make this fun. And so I don't, I don't know how I feel about, you know, making climate change fun. And that maybe that was going too far. And I think the very next day, I had been at our local zoo and doing some of these things in person, which was really great. And the one of the directors had walked by the room in which we had people playing an activity where they were enacting different components have a sort of diorama, if you will, of like, let's paint a picture of, you know, what are elements in climate change? And, you know, one, one man is like, Well, I'm a melting glacier, you know, he's acting that out, and somebody else is the polar bear swimming around, and the whole room is, is laughing, and you know, that that director from the zoo was like, Oh, this is so great, because we're, by making it fun, you're really helping people get it, you know, in a way that, you know, he had never seen before. And this is somebody that, you know, works actively in the in the realm of engagement and climate change communication. So a lot of people are getting pretty, pretty jazzed about what we're what we're trying out.

Cinthia Varkevisser: 16:36

I love that so much. You know, what I love the most is when you couldn't improv, I don't do improv. But I've had the opportunity to go through some of the exercises, and they're amazing, they're fun. And what I find happens is that the more I laugh, the more open I am to having a serious conversation, the more open I am to being honest, you know, it just really opens up my heart a lot. And I'm curious to know, how deep have these conversations have gone for you so that you have this really fun, I don't even like calling it silly, because silly is very important. But you're going from this very fun aspect where people are, are opening up and getting vulnerable, and then going into talks. So I'd love to hear how the, you know, the dynamics have been for you.

Lisa Yeager: 17:30

Yeah, I mean, a lot of times with the folks who have been through our training, you know, the, because the training is taking place, over a series of weeks, they have the opportunity, and we tasked them right with taking this into their world, right, and making it real and coming back. So the dynamic, certainly when we're working together as a cohort is, you know, we're sort of moving back and forth very fluidly between that fun space, and then very intentionally debriefing and, you know, bringing the intellectual side of things together and connecting all of those dots. So that's, that's definitely something that we're, we're bringing forward with the folks that we're engaging with.

Michelle Walters: 18:15

I know I'm the mind power part of this equation. But the other thing that I am observing is that some of the exercises you're having people do are very much putting their body into new positions. They're physically enacting what these things are. And Cynthia can be sort of more of a body person than me, but there's something I think elemental about taking this conversation out of just an intellectual conversation, and moving it into to actual positioning of your body or changing the shape of your face or whatever it might be that that by integrating this on a physical body level. It it also helps to open the conversation. Open the mind.

Lisa Yeager: 19:10

Yeah, absolutely. And we focus a lot very intentionally on on that embodiment piece, you know, and making sure that we're bringing it in sort of at the right cadence, right. And on the, you know, the mind depart and where I thought you might be headed. You know, one thing we were very thoughtful about during this series was making sure that we got some good data about, you know, how did this go? What did people learn? And are they better equipped, you know, now that they've been through the class, and one of another colleague, who is one of the she's a committee member for the American Evaluation Association, which goes around at a lot of these informal institutions and very intentionally sort of measures, you know, outcome. She was really curious about this and asked us to write up and share some of those results and impacts as part of their earthquake blog post series. And so she, you know, also was seeing you know how this is a unique way of kind of applying and measuring and getting some specific outcomes. But yeah, the embodiment pieces is key to all of that.

Michelle Walters: 20:23

Have you been on the local news yet? I think you should be.

Lisa Yeager: 20:27

I think we should be too, but not yet. I think that needs to come up next.

Cinthia Varkevisser: 20:34

I would love to know if you've had a chance to reach schools, if you're going into corporations, where where is sea change going with this claim of conversations?

Lisa Yeager: 20:46

Yeah, so we're growing right? We're actually forming a broader coalition called Yes, on nature. And looking at where we can make you have some bespoke offerings. So to speak in some, some of the aquariums and zoos, you know, that we've served. Also, you know, some there's like a Earth, Jan is an organization that does, I think, a lot of sustainability work. And they've asked us to think about coming in and working with them, and their company, you know, other people in their company, besides the folks who just attended, you know, our series. So we're really doing a lot of planning and focusing on, you know, kind of where would be the most strategic places for us to go go in next and to partner you know, to sort of grow, grow from where we've been.

Michelle Walters: 21:41

So if you were looking for other kinds of partners, what kind of other partners might you be still looking for, in case they listen to our podcasts? And they knows I should give you a call?

Lisa Yeager: 21:53

Right? Well, the thing that's really interesting about what we're doing, of course, it applies to climate, right. And so any Oregon innovation that's working in that space, and any any organization that is, you know, helping to do, you know, activism in that space, or build resilience and build community, certainly any of those, but as you mentioned earlier, right? This is a big problem, just being able to come together and, and talk and have civic conversations and move forward together, gaining strength across France, right, instead of being polarized, because we need all those different perspectives and variation. And that's what gets us to a better place but we're sometimes losing sight of that by being so polarized. So really any organization that's facing that, you know, would really benefit I think, from the work that we're doing and we'd be really interested in finding opportunities to partner and offer those those kinds of learning opportunities.

Michelle Walters: 23:00

set by the business person you sound greatly so have you given any thought personally to how you might be celebrating Earth Day this year?

Lisa Yeager: 23:12

Oh, gosh. Well, somewhat on the heels of Earth Day, there's going to be a really low tide and I have been one of my buy things and all of my not spare time that I own. But one of the things that I do is with the Seattle Aquarium, I've been doing a lot of work as a beach naturalist and being out on beaches at low tide and you know, exploring that that other world that's right there for those of us who are coastal right. And so, I'm going to take some some time off and we've got our recently renovated vintage VW campervan. And we are going to go out to the Olympic Peninsula and celebrate Earth Day by visiting with some of the critters that are there in the intertidal zone. Oh, Lisa, this

Michelle Walters: 24:02

is Mike makes me jealous of not living in Seattle man and makes me jealous of not having if you never campervan, which is Cynthia knows is now a new consideration. So that sounds like a fabulous way to celebrate Earth Day. Cynthia, do you have other questions?

Cinthia Varkevisser: 24:19

Yeah. Because of Earth Day coming up. What would you suggest some of the people who really don't think about Earth day to celebrate the thing that we hear is planted tree or you know, and that's, that can be overwhelming for some of the city dwellers. So what other suggestions I mean, going to the good to the tables, so exciting. And I thought, Oh, that's a that's a really good one. What other suggestions do you have?

Lisa Yeager: 24:47

Well, they're asking the climate conversations lady. Exactly. I would have and so my radical suggestion but this is backed up by the Chief Scientist for the day Sure conservancy Catherine. Hey, oh, who wrote an amazing book, you should have her as a podcast guest on on climate conversations her his book is called saving us. But have a conversation, right? Something that you're wanting to be thoughtful about, and maybe that you don't even know anything about write, like, just bring it up. Maybe it's not climate, you know, maybe it's about biodiversity, maybe it's about sustainability. Maybe it's about local foods, and your farmers market, any of that stuff fits within the umbrella of an Earth Day conversation in my book and those conversations, I mean, think about it, you know, in terms of what's taking up mind space, and that mindshare, right? And building, focus and the things that we care about and are spending our time on. That's, that's impactful. Those small conversations are more impactful than we think that's why we do what we did with climate conversation. So I would encourage everybody for Earth Day to have a conversation about something that resonates with you about the environment. Oh, love it.

Michelle Walters: 26:11

It's fantastic. Lisa, as usual, full of amazing good, simple advice. So is your next program put together yet? Lisa? Is that still kind of coming together?

Lisa Yeager: 26:25

We are going to offer the program again in the fall. We haven't landed the final series yet. But we are getting people lined up for the waitlist and making sure you can get information. So we'd love to entertain your questions or get you signed up if this is something you might be curious about.

Michelle Walters: 26:44

And can people do that on your website?

Lisa Yeager: 26:48

Yes, there is on the climate conversations dotnet website there's a page on the training series and you can click a button to reach us and get signed up.

Michelle Walters: 27:00

Fantastic. Lisa, thank you so much for being our guest today on mind power meets mystic this has been great and now everybody has an idea of what to do for Earth Day and most people have no idea what they were going to do for Earth Day so that's great.

Lisa Yeager: 27:17

Excellent. Well, it's been a joy talking with you about it. This has been really fun.

Cinthia Varkevisser: 27:22

Thank you. You've been listening to mine power meets mystic with my friend my power Michelle Walters and me Cinthia Varkevisser, we have had a lovely time speaking with Lisa Jaeger with of climate conversations.net. Please follow us. Listen to us. Tell your pals because these podcasts are amazing.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai