In this one-year anniversary episode of The Holy Wild, Victoria Loorz is joined by producer Stephen Henning for a reflective conversation marking the close of Season One and the threshold of what’s next. Together, they revisit the heart of the podcast, sacred conversation as a living practice, and explore how a year of dialogue has deepened their understanding of relationship with the more-than-human world. Along the way, they reflect on the challenge of language itself, and how learning to speak, however imperfectly, about encounters with the holy and the wild is part of restoring those relationships.

The conversation then explores the Seminary of the Wild and the invitation it offers, not as a program to complete, but as a container for transformation through practice, community, and deepening relationship with place. Victoria and Stephen create space for discernment, exploring what it means to feel the pull toward this work, what it asks of those who say yes, and how to recognize whether this is the right season to step more fully into a life shaped by the holy and the wild.

Connect with the Center:

• Website: wildspirituality.earth
• Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
• Email: hello@wildspirituality.earth
• Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
• Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality

Timestamps:

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:34 Welcoming in Our Neighbors
• 5:08 Reflecting on Season 1
• 11:27 Languaging About Language
• 20:39 Seminary of the Wild
• 25:24 Midroll
• 25:57 Rhythms of the Seminary
• 34:09 Discerning the Call of the Holy Wild
• 40:23 Stephen’s Dream of White Crow
• 53:07 Sacred Invitation
• 54:32 Credits

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: hello@wildspirituality.earth
• 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: hello@wildspirituality.earth
• 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