Under the Ginkgo Tree is a project of the Deignan Institute for Earth and Spirit. Rooted at Iona University, our aim is to cultivate conversations with eco-justice minded scholars and faith-based activists who are engaged in embodying integral ecology. In each episode, co-hosts Jim Robinson and Liam Myers facilitate reflection on our place in the wider web of life through conversations with guest speakers, embodied spiritual practices, and by identifying a particular plant on campus. Join us, Under the Ginkgo Tree!
Painting with the Spirit and Traveling for God, with Dimitri Kadiev
For this episode we welcome our dear friend, Dimitri Kadiev, to join us under the ginkgo. Dimitri sat with Liam at Maryhouse Catholic Worker in the East Village for an extended conversation. This was at the end of a great week spent with Liam and Jim, as well as over 100 students at Iona University, where he led a community mural project. Dimitri speaks of pilgrimage, epiphanies, and the artistic process. He shares insights into the possibility of living a radical, creative, Spirit-led life by telling us about his travels through the world.
3 Jul 2025
Learning the Rhythms of the Land and Growing Food to Give It Away, with Edgar Hayes and Ann Rader
Edgar Hayes and Ann Rader join us to speak about Freedom Farm, the community that they co-founded in 2006. Freedom Farm is “a faith-based organization based in Mount Hope, New York, that grows food to share with people who don’t have access to or can’t afford fresh produce.” They identify as a “gathering place for learning, healing, and reconnecting to this sacred earth, each other, and God.” Throughout our conversation, we get a sense of Edgar and Ann’s journey into this work. We discuss the spiritual and ethical commitments that inspire Freedom Farm. We also discuss the place of Freedom Farm in a wider web of communities and initiatives committed to spirituality, sustainability, and social justice.
Learn more about Freedom Farm at their website: https://www.freedomfarmcommunity.org/ (https://www.freedomfarmcommunity.org/)
25 May 2025
Loving the Least of These While Working for Justice with Martha Hennessy and Dr. Cornel West
Welcome back to Under the Ginkgo Tree. Today we revisit a panel conversation moderated by Liam at Maryhouse Catholic Worker with Martha Hennessy and Dr. Cornel West on May 1st, 2022. This conversation was a celebration of Mayday, which is known as the "birthday" of the CW movement. On this day in 1933, Dorothy and her friends went to Union Square to hand out the first edition of the newspaper.
In this episode, Jim and Liam frame the conversation by recalling their own shared connections with the Catholic Worker movement. We also lift up prayers for the late Pope Francis.
2 Apr 2025
Tracing the Black Mystical Tradition from Tubman to Thurman, with Jordan Jones
Join us for another conversation, Under the Ginkgo Tree, this time with Jordan Jones. Jordan is a minister, theologian, and community organizer. After he completes his Masters of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary this spring, he will continue his faith based organizing and his ministry at Metro Hope Church, a congregation in East Harlem.
In this episode, Jordan shares the wisdom of both Harriet Tubman and Howard Thurman. After escaping slavery, Tubman went on to save over 70 enslaved people on her "trips of mercy.” A leader and a mentor in the civil rights movement, Thurman was a visionary theologian, author, minister, and professor. Jordan considers both Tubman and Thurman to be mystics, and reflects on their crucial contributions to the movement for Black liberation. We also discuss the ways that both figures had an intimate relationship with the land, and we ponder how their witness can guide us in our current reality of ecological catastrophe.
19 Feb 2025
Telling the Story of the Universe, with Sam King.
On our first episode of Under the Ginkgo Tree, we are joined by Sam King. A graduate of Yale Divinity School, Sam serves as Director of Sustainability for the U.S. Marist school network and as Project Manager for the Journey of the Universe film and multimedia project. In his work, Sam engages with both the scientific story of the universe as well as the eco-spiritual wisdom of a range of religious traditions. Sam speaks with us about his alarm at the gravity of our eco-crisis as well as his commitment to working for a more just and sustainable future. He speaks of the wisdom that he finds in the 13.8-billion-year story of the universe, as well as his efforts to invite others into this story. Throughout our conversation, we sense Sam’s capacity for holding together an awareness of the vastness of the universe with a deep attunement to that which is particular, local, and immediately present.
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