NDN Science Show

Tim Ryan is an expert on heritage skills, tool making, and the history of intermontane tribes of the Northwestern United States. He's currently the Department Head of Cultural and Language Studies (CALS) Program at Salish Kootenai College where he teaches classes on Indigenous STEM. tim_ryan@skc.edu ~ Like this show? Leave us a review here... even one sentence helps! And if you leave your Twitter handle we'll be sure to thank you personally! You can also Support the Show on PayPal.

Although a difficult topic to talk about, we both realized that thanatology was important enough to do an entire episode on. This field of study is associated with a wide variety of disciplines that include everything from sociology and anthropology to medical professions like working as a mortician or a medical examiner for a police department. In this episode, we go over the history of thanatology, some of the dominant philosophies, and our own opinions on this important but seldomly discussed field of study. ~ Links and Resources: Chapple, H. S., Bouton, B. L., Chow, A. Y. M., Gilbert, K. R., Kosminsky, P., Moore, J., et al. (2017). The body of knowledge in thanatology: an outline. Death Stud. 41, 118–125. doi: 10.1080/07481187.2016.1231000 Chen, S.-C. (2009). The fusion of life and health-spiritual education. Natl. Educ. 50, 7–13. Chen, S.-C. (2012). Oriental humanities, mindfulness and life education. Paper Presented at the Life Education Symposium (Taipei: IEEE). Chen, S.-C. (2013). Overview and reflection on the 20-year national education life education curriculum. Natl. Educ. 53, 1–6. doi: 10.1054/nedt.2000.0850 Fonseca, Luciana & Testoni, Ines. (2011). The Emergence of Thanatology and Current Practice in Death Education. Omega. 64. 157-69. 10.2190/OM.64.2.d. Chakhssi, F., Kraiss, J.T., Sommers-Spijkerman, M. et al. The effect of positive psychology interventions on well-being and distress in clinical samples with psychiatric or somatic disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Psychiatry 18, 211 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1739-2 Hampton M, Baydala A, Bourassa C, et al. Completing the Circle: Elders Speak about End-Of-Life Care with Aboriginal Families in Canada. Journal of Palliative Care. 2010;26(1):6-14. doi:10.1177/082585971002600103 Kastenbaum R. Reconstructing Death in Postmodern Society. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying. 1993;27(1):75-89. doi:10.2190/P4XJ-EGNE-E157-G3QN Lea Waters, Sara B. Algoe, Jane Dutton, Robert Emmons, Barbara L. Fredrickson, Emily Heaphy, Judith T. Moskowitz, Kristin Neff, Ryan Niemiec, Cynthia Pury & Michael Steger (2022) Positive psychology in a pandemic: buffering, bolstering, and building mental health, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 17:3, 303-323, DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2021.1871945 Lee, J. E., & Person, N. (n.d.). Tips for teaching a death and dying undergraduate course. https://www.apadivisions.org. Retrieved December 2, 2022, from https://www.apadivisions.org/division-20/publications/newsletters/adult-development/2021/10/facing-death Meagher, D. J., and Balk, D. E. (eds) (2013). Handbook of Thanatology. London: Routledge. Phan HP, Ngu BH, Chen SC, Wu L, Lin WW, Hsu CS. Introducing the Study of Life and Death Education to Support the Importance of Positive Psychology: An Integrated Model of Philosophical Beliefs, Religious Faith, and Spirituality. Front Psychol. 2020 Oct 8;11:580186. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.580186. PMID: 33117246; PMCID: PMC7578223. Straka TM, Mischo M, Petrick KJS, Kowarik I. Urban Cemeteries as Shared Habitats for People and Nature: Reasons for Visit, Comforting Experiences of Nature, and Preferences for Cultural and Natural Features. Land. 2022; 11(8):1237. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11081237 Doka, K. J. (2013). “Historical and contemporary perspectives on dying,” in Handbook of Thanatology: The Essential Body of Knowledge for the Study of Death, Dying, and Bereavement, eds D. E. Balk and D. K. Meagher (London, UK: Routledge...

This is a recording from the Montana Environmental Educators Association 2020 Annual Conference, where we presented to a group of educators across Montana who were interested in learning about ethnobotany. We went over definitions, our perspectives, and some practical tips that we thought were important to understand. And we thought this would be a good time to share this as a podcast since the seasons are changing and a lot of people just finished having big dinners with lots of delicious foods, including plants. Enjoy! ~ Like this show? Leave us a review here... even one sentence helps! And if you leave your Twitter handle we'll be sure to thank you personally! You can also Support the Show on PayPal.

Happy New Year! We're glad to be back. On today's podcast, we have a conversation about a concept called Seasonal Rounds. This idea is something expressed in one form or another by all humans and even people in the cities can't escape it. The changes we've observed in the seasons are one of the biggest influences we have upon any changes in our behavior so we thought it would be fun to explore it NDN Science Style... We dive into this topic with our own stories from Montana and discuss some of the science that surrounds this idea, and we even get into what this idea looked like for ancient Greeks. ~ Links & Resources: The Reason for the Seasons Wim Hof Berkes Diagram on page 1257 Toasted Sister Podcast ~ Like this show? Leave us a review here... even one sentence helps! And if you leave your Twitter handle we'll be sure to thank you personally! You can also Support the Show on PayPal.

This event was so epic! It's almost impossible for us to truly wrap our minds around but we do our best on today's episode. Although there have been other events of comparable size, this was potentially the largest flood event in Earth's history. The only other event that's potentially larger happened in Siberia. This "lake" carved a path through the Rocky Mountains that still frames the landscape around places like Missoula and Camas Prairie, MT. Enjoy! ~ Links & Resources: Red Earth, White Lies by Vine Deloria Jr Ice Age Flood Institute Floodscapes Map Explore Ice-Age Floods and Glacial Features - An Interactive Map Montana Natural History Center Mystery of the Megaflood on Nova Post-Glacial Radiocarbon Ages for the Southern Cordilleran Ice Sheet Glacial Lake Missoula Documentary 1 Glacial Lake Missoula Documentary 2 ~ Like this show? Leave us a review here... even one sentence helps! And if you leave your Twitter handle we'll be sure to thank you personally! You can also Support the Show on PayPal.

We realized that we needed to do a bit of an update about where we've been over the last year and although we meant to keep it short, we started talking politics... you know how that goes. We talked about life, love, and sadness. We share about what we've been up to and where we're going, and then we went down the political rabbit hole for about twenty minutes. Enjoy! ~ Like this show? Leave us a review here... even one sentence helps! And if you leave your Twitter handle we'll be sure to thank you personally! You can also Support the Show on PayPal.

This is a special Halloween episode, where Annie's father Gene Sorrell shares his spooky stories on cryptids and ghosts. The topic of this episode is just looking at mythical creatures and beings from a cultural historic cryptozoological worldview. There are many indigenous people that have passed down stories over many generations. The episode will give a brief overview to help listeners learn about the science that they may have never heard about. Main Ideas: - Definitions for Cryptozoology, cryptid, and pseudoscience - Cryptozoology: Real Science or Pseudoscience? - Annie's Father's stories on Bigfoot, Mermaids, and Ghosts - Tah-tah-kle-ah - Cannibal Dwarves - Yara-ma-yha-who ~ Links & Resources: www.moderncryptozoology.wordpress.com/category/annotated-bibliography Peter Dendle (2006) Cryptozoology in the Medieval and Modern Worlds, Folklore, 117:2, 190-206, DOI: 10.1080/00155870600707888 www.legendsofamerica.com/teihiihan-cannibals www.deliriumsrealm.com/yaramayhawho www.ratthaus.net/hftp/tag/tah-tah-kle-ah ~ Like this show? Leave us a review here… even one sentence helps! And if you leave your Twitter handle we’ll be sure to thank you personally! You can also Support the Show on PayPal.

Today we had Neil Patterson Jr. on the show. Although Annie wasn't able to be there, it was a lot of fun and we're glad to be able to highlight Neil and his story. He's done all sorts of things and has experienced a lot in his life. He went from only wanting to hunt and fish to teaching about Indigenous issues and traditional ecological knowledge in a university setting. Neil's had quite the journey and continues to contribute to academia, to science, and to a vision for better futures for all people. Here are some of the ideas we talk about: - Neil's love for the outdoors and damming streams as a kid - How he found his way to college and the role of family encouragement - The differences between technologies and their effects on people - His adventures toward becoming a teacher and mentor - The challenges inherent in multiculturalism - Some of the biggest/hardest realizations that led to learning ~ Links and Resources: National Film Board of Canada The Ecology and History of Onondaga Laken (a talk by Neil at the Skä-noñh Center) Northville-Placid Trail Robert Griffing Painting ~ Like this show? Leave us a review here... even one sentence helps! And if you leave your Twitter handle we'll be sure to thank you personally! You can also Support the Show on PayPal.

In today's episode, we talk about those words that have some sting to them. You know those words... the ones that get us cringing or offended when someone mentions them. Well, we talk about a few of the ones we've explored or experienced over the years. We also talk about how we respond to these words and how their meanings can differ. Here are some of the main ideas we talk about: - Indigifact about the Declaration of Independence - Controversial words and their definitions - How do we react and respond to these words ~ Links & Resources: Declaration of Independence Online Dictionary Online Etymology Dictionary ~ Like this show? Leave us a review here... even one sentence helps! And if you leave your Twitter handle we'll be sure to thank you personally! You can also Support the Show on PayPal.

We're back! And to get back in the groove, we decided to do another episode on the topic of Being Indigenous in the Modern World (#BIMW). This is a big topic and we bounce around to different topics a lot, but that's a part of why it's so fun to record these episodes. Enjoy! Here are some of the main ideas we talk about: - IndigiFact about How Cats Land on Their Feet - Updates on why we took a month off - What makes this topic so broad/wide-reaching - Sustainable/Renewable/Clean/Green Energy - Some Ideas to Be Indigenous in the Modern World ~ Links & Resources: How do cats land on their feet? Links: 1, 2, 3, 4 Do toilets spin in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere? Links: 1, 2 Are cats good mousers? Links: 1, 2, 3 Ecological complexity, fuzzy logic, and holism in indigenous knowledge Jaden Smith's Water Filter & Food Truck Zealandia ~ Like this show? Leave us a review here... even one sentence helps! And if you leave your Twitter handle we'll be sure to thank you personally! You can also Support the Show on PayPal

Ethnobotany can be looked at in different ways. On one hand, it describes the people-plant relationships that Indigenous cultures have always relied on. And on the other, it can be seen as the discipline within science that studies these relationships, plant biology, and their stories. In this episode, we dive into definitions, and some history, and we even talk about aliens a little bit. We also go over why we think this is an important topic and how we view plant relationships. Here are some of the main ideas we talk about: - Definitions of botany and ethnobotany - Differences between botany and ethnobotany - The history of ethnobotany - Our perspectives on plant relations - Seasonality and Gratitude ~ Links & Resources: Cryptozoology Merriam-Webster Definitions of Botany and Ethnobotany Ethnobotany History Egyptian Ethnobotany Pregnancy Tests Lavender and Xenoestrogens Hippocrates, Aldo Leopold, & Native Pragmatism Camas and Bitterroot Witness to Injustice Blanket Exercise Support the show by rockin' a shirt or a hoodie for the Being Indigenous in the Modern World (#BIMW) Merchandise Campaign. ~ Like this show? Leave us a review here... even one word or one sentence helps! And if you leave your Twitter handle we'll be sure to thank you personally!

This is a recording of the live stream we did at SUNY-ESF for a class called Indigenous Issues in the Environment. The topic of this episode is Traditional Ecological Knowledge, also known as TEK. We start off by going over definitions of TEK, then we share our personal experience with it and how this idea has shaped our views as scientists. We also ask the students to define TEK and explore this in different contexts by asking the students questions and sharing some of the principles. Enjoy! Here are some of the main points we went over: - Definitions of TEK - Worldviews and Social Systems - The Challenge of Defining Words - Convergence of knowledge systems - Healing, Restoring and Connecting to Land - Indigenous Research Agenda ~ Links & Resources: TEK Definition (Berkes 1992) Worldview Diagram Worldview Definition (Vidal 2008) Native Pragmatism Decolonizing Methodologies Wisdom Sits in Places ~ Like this show? Leave us a review here... even one word or one sentence helps! And if you leave your Twitter handle we'll be sure to thank you personally!

Kaya DeerInWater is a close friend of ours and we’re excited to finally have him on the show. He’s the other member of our graduate cohort and we’ve wanted to have him on the show for over a year now. Kaya’s a dedicated and loving family man, he’s a brilliant botanist in the making, and he has a lot of knowledge about ecological restoration. Some of the main things we talk about today are: - Kaya’s childhood, his connection to culture, and academic background - How he got from California to graduate school in New York - Some of the challenges he faced doing his research - Where his love for plants started and made its way into his work - The usefulness of his research for other Indigenous communities - His children and the legacy he wants to leave them - Kaya’s 3 tips for being Indigenous in the modern world ~ Links & Resources: Bob Marshall Info: Source 1, Source 2, Source 3 ~ Like this show? Leave us a review here... even one word or one sentence helps! And if you leave your Twitter handle we'll be sure to thank you personally!