The Holy Wild with Victoria Loorz

In this conversation, Victoria Loorz speaks with Daniel Cooperrider, writer, ecotheologian, and pastor of Flicker Wild Church in Madison, Wisconsin, and author of Speak with the Earth and It Will Teach You and the forthcoming Live Each Season as It Passes. Daniel reflects on what he calls his lifelong “ecological conversion” and on the growing Wild Church movement, which is reimagining wild spiritual with community through outdoor gatherings rooted in the land, the seasons, and relationship with the more than human world.
Together, they explore what it means to practice a “liturgy of the land” through outdoor spiritual community, seasonal ritual, and what Daniel calls “campsite thinking,” a way of gathering that embraces impermanence and presence rather than institutional permanence. The dialogue also reflects on earth empathy, mortality, and how sacred practices like communion and baptism might be reimagined through deeper relationship with water, landscape, and place, inviting us to rediscover our place within a living Earth.

Connect with Daniel:
Personal Website: danielcooperrider.com
Flicker WC Website: flickerwildchurch.org
Instagram: @greatlakeswanderers
First book: Speak with the Earth and It Will Teach You: A Field Guide to the Bible
Next book (Pre-Order, 1 May 2026 Release): Live Each Season as It Passes
Mentioned in the episode:
Holy Wisdom Monastery Website: holywisdommonastery.org
Book: The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
Book: Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard
Book: The Overstory by Richard Powers
Book: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Connect with the Center:
Website: wildspirituality.earth
Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
Email: [email protected]
Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality
Timestamps:
00:00 — Introduction
05:09 — Interview Begins
06:37 — Daniel’s Ecological Conversion
08:58 — Inviting In Daniel’s Neighbors
10:14 — Hearing the Call of Seasonality
14:06 — Welcoming Victoria’s Neighbors
14:46 — Flicker Wild Church
15:51 — Cathedral and Campsite Thinking
19:39 — Holding Space with Mortality
23:32 — Availing and Allying
27:10 — Kinship All the Way Up and All the Way Down
27:47 — Midroll: Wild Church Network
28:41 — The Waves of Possibility
31:52 — Ancient Wisdoms Integrating with Technology
35:14 — Finding and Becoming Indigenous
38:28 — Re-Story-ing Our Place
42:45 — Engaging the Rituals of Aliveness
46:01 — A Sabbatical of Water Spirituality
49:02 — Closing
50:48 — Wild Invitation
52:58 — Credits

In this conversation, Victoria Loorz speaks with legal scholar César Rodríguez-Garavito, founding director of MOTH (More Than Human Life) at NYU School of Law and a leading voice in multispecies justice. César has led landmark climate change, rights of nature, and Indigenous rights cases, including serving on the Science Panel for the Amazon and as an expert witness before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Together, they delve into César’s collaboration with Project CETI, which uses AI and non invasive technologies to study sperm whale communication. They explore the audacious possibility that whales might one day be heard in court not as property or evidence, but as subjects with legally recognized voices and interests. At its core, this dialogue is about dismantling human supremacy, crafting ethical guardrails for emerging technologies, and midwifing a shift from dominance to kinship.

Connect with Cesar:
Website: mothlife.org
Podcast: Crossing The River
Mentioned in the episode:
Ecology Law Quarterly Journal (2025 Publication): What if We Understood What Animals Are Saying?: The Legal Impact of AI-Assisted Studies of Animal Communication
Organization: CETI
NYU Article: Marine Biologists Are Using AI to Decode Whale Speech. NYU Law Scholars Are Exploring What That Means for Animals’ Legal Rights
The New Yorker Article: Can We Talk To Whales?Plus: The New Yorker Companion Video

NYU Article: MOTH Unveils New Framework for Nonhuman Animal Communication Technologies
PEPP (Prepare, Engage, Prevent, Protect) Framework: Nonhuman Animal Communication Technologies
City of Ojai Ordinance No. 940
Book: An Immense World - How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong
Connect with the Center:
Website: wildspirituality.earth
Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
Email: [email protected]
Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality
Timestamps:
00:00 – Introduction
07:35 – Interview Begins
08:16 – Formed By Columbia
10:52 – Spiritual Formation
11:50 – Learning the Language of Sperm Whales
14:44 – Expanding The Understanding of More Than Human
18:41 – Letting the Whales Testify For Themselves
21:17 – The Birthing Rings of Sperm Whales
26:28 – Gentle Technology and Ethical Guidelines
32:19 – Imagining the Future of Multispecies Justice
38:59 – How To Connect
41:45 – Wild Invitation
43:37 – Credits

In this conversation, Victoria Loorz connects with speaker, writer, and mentor Mac Macartney, founder of Embercombe, a UK educational charity and 50-acre retreat and rewilding site dedicated to the flourishing future of all species. In Victoria’s words, Mac is one of our generation’s true elders. He speaks from decades of lived apprenticeship, shaped by not fitting the dominant culture, by failure that became a gift, and by a lifelong search for home. His voice carries the embodied wisdom of someone who has moved through exile, betrayal, and the seduction of power, and chosen integrity.
Mac reflects on decades of learning and on the unlearning required to remember the value of the miracle we were born into. He speaks of decency over brilliance, of integrity in the face of power, and of offering one’s gifts for the sake of future generations. At its heart, this is a conversation about integrity, about remaining in the field as long as one is able, and about creating places where there is no hiding truth.

Connect with Mac:
Website: macmacartney.com
Talk Video: The Children's Fire
Mentioned in the episode:
Organization: The Earth Elders theearthelders.org
Connect with the Center:
Website: wildspirituality.earth
Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
Email: [email protected]
Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality
Timestamps:
00:00 – Introduction
05:15 – Interview Begins
12:09 – Embercombe
18:57 – Finding the Teachings We Need
24:30 – Letting the Gurus Go
26:58 – The Cycles of Human Becoming
29:53 – Born Into Cosmic Ceremony
32:14 – The Grief of Worldview Shifts
34:48 – Visited by Earth Elders
40:22 – A Benediction for Being Human
44:11 – Wild Invitation
46:12 – Credits

In this conversation, Victoria Loorz is joined by Barnaby Steel, artist and co-founder of Marshmallow Laser Feast, an experiential art collective devoted to awakening the senses and expanding perception through multisensory exhibits. Together, they explore how art, science, and imagination engage the illusion of separation, and how even controversial technologies like AI might be held in ways that deepen relationship rather than fragment it. In a time when technology often distracts and numbs, the conversation asks a different question: what if our tools could help us remember how to sense, feel, and belong in relationship?
Barnaby reflects on the roots of his creative life, shaped by deep observation, risk, and a willingness to let go. He shares stories about the collaborative experiences created when artists work with advanced technologies to translate scientific insight into lived experiences that extend our senses beyond their usual limits and inviting a felt experience of interconnection with breath, trees, sound, and the human body. Weaving themes of perception, ritual, grief, and awe, the episode considers immersive art as a modern rite of passage, not as an escape from the world, but as a return to it with softened defenses and renewed devotion to relationship.

Connect with Barnaby:
Website: marshmallowlaserfeast.com
Instagram: @marshmallowlaserfeast
LinkedIn: @marshmallowlaserfeast
Newsletter Signup: mailchi.mp/marshmallowlaserfeast/newsletter-signup
Mentioned in the episode:
Book: Existence, A Story by David Hinton
Video: Richard Feynman's story of "What's the name of a bird?"
White Mirror - The Sensory Wellness Agency Website: whitemirror.studio
Video: Samuel Barber - Adagio for Strings
Connect with the Center:
Website: wildspirituality.earth
Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
Email: [email protected]
Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality
Timestamps:
00:00 — Introduction
06:57 — Interview Begins
08:24 — The Land That Raised Barnaby
11:17 — Existence Tissue
15:19 — Marshmallow Laser Feast
23:01 — Physical Reality Is Spiritual Reality
32:51 — How Experience Shifts Us
37:34 — Caring for Self Is Caring for All
41:40 — Virtual Reality & Expanding Empathy
45:56 — Changing Perception
49:26 — Patterns of Consciousness
53:19 — Falling in Love
57:11 — A Wild Invitation
58:58 — Credits

In this conversation, Victoria Loorz is joined by Rachel Fleming, climate scientist, former Environment Agency policy advisor, writer, educator, and part of the Animate Earth founding circle. Together they explore modern animism, the remembering of the “common wild tongue,” and what it means to rebuild intimacy with a living, intelligent world. Rachel shares her journey bridging climate science, holistic ecology, and spiritual practice, reflecting on the limits of purely technical or policy-based responses to ecological collapse. Through stories of place, trees, and faithful return, the conversation traces the long human exile from belonging and the quiet emergence of a different way of being human rooted in listening, love, and relationship. Weaving themes of grief, beauty, ancestral memory, and hope, this episode invites listeners to remember that transformation rarely begins with grand solutions, but with simple, devoted acts of attention that restore our capacity to speak with and listen to the living world.

Connect with Rachel:
Website: animate-earth.org
Substack: The Common Wild Tongue
Mentioned in the episode:
Stephan Harding pioneering Holistic Science
Colin Campbell: colincampbell.co.za
Monica Gagliano: monicagagliano.com
Anna Breytenbach: animalspirit.org
Oxford Real Farming Conference: orfc.org.uk
Nathanial Hughs & The School of Intuitive Herbalism: schoolofintuitiveherbalism.weedsintheheart.org.uk
Patrick MacManaway-The Land Whisperer: patrickmacmanaway.com
Dr. Lyla June Johnson: lylajune.com
Connect with the Center:
Website: wildspirituality.earth
Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
Email: [email protected]
Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality
Timestamps:
07:26 – Interview begins with invocation
10:18 – The mountain that raised Rachel
14:37 – How Rachel comes to this work through science
19:57 – Holistic science
21:33 – Animate Earth
25:59 – The common wild tongue
31:10 – Bridging “woo”
35:09 – It is actually simple
38:20 – Evolution is a spiral
42:49 – The importance of subtle work
44:48 – Needed medicine
47:19 – Interconnection goes so deep
48:42 – The heart field
51:55 – Neighbor ash tree
55:38 – Rachel’s work
57:54 – Invitation to advocacy
59:53 – Credits