Lost Together Podcast with Marika Heinrichs

This week our glossary entry is on Transformative Justice. Episode 3 of the podcast dives into learning to do conflict more skillfully and how this relates to a vision of community beyond punishment and isolation. If you haven’t listened yet to my conversation with Brook Thorndycraft on growing our capacity for conflict and why it’s important for our communities, movements, and the planet — you can go back and find it in episode 3: Between Collapse and Emergence: Learning from Conflict in Turbulent Times. We are an ad-free and member supported podcast. You can join us on Substack and pledge a monthly donation that helps us make Lost Together possible and sustainable. LINKS: https://transformharm.org/tj_resource/transformative-justice-a-brief-description/ https://transformharm.org/transformative-justice/ Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement The Wetiko Legal Principles: Cree and Anishinabek Responses to Violence and Victimization Lost Together is produced by Marika Heinrichs and Becca Rich. Our music is by Cristoffer Moe Ditlevsen, Mixed by SC Dillon. Sound Engineering and Editing by Marika Heinrichs. Get full access to Feet in the Butter at marikaheinrichs.substack.com/subscribe

"That sense that we can just dislike each other and then dispose of each other when it gets too hard is the thing that keeps us stuck in these old systems.” What if the problem isn’t conflict, but our inability to stay with it? With over 15 years of experience and a background in mediation (Q. Med), adult education (MA), and Somatic Experiencing (SEP), Brook bridges the gap between systemic change and the human nervous system. Through coaching, training, and custom change processes, they help organizations transform power dynamics, psychological safety, and conflict into sources of possibility. This episode explores why conflict is having a cultural “moment,” what actually happens in high-stakes relational breakdown, and why most of us were never taught the skills to navigate it. In this conversation, Brook Thorndycraft shares their path into conflict work through transformative justice, mediation, and somatic practice. At the core of this is a simple but challenging truth: we don’t get to get rid of each other. Learning how to stay, even when it’s hard, is essential to any future worth building. bigwaves.ca https://substack.com/@bigwavesbrook LINKS: Two Loops Model: complexsystemsframeworks.ca/framework/two-loop-model/ Deep Democracy: https://www.waterline.coop/ Hospicing Modernity by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira: decolonialfutures.net/hospicingmodernity/ Lost Together is produced by Marika Heinrichs and Becca Rich. Our music is by Cristoffer Moe Ditlevsen, Mixed by SC Dillon. Sound Engineering and Editing by Marika Heinrichs. Get full access to Feet in the Butter at marikaheinrichs.substack.com/subscribe

What does Land Back Mean? This week our glossary entry is on Land Back (with some thoughts on settler colonialism too). Episode 2 of the podcast explores the relationship between cultural reconnection and solidarity activism. We reflect on our relationship with land as both settlers and descendants of land-based traditions that were nearly lost. If you haven’t listened yet to my conversation with Ben Reid-Howells on how reconnecting with his Scottish roots was ignited by solidarity with Indigenous Resurgence on Tuttle Island, you can go back and find it in episode 2 Deep Roots: Showing up to Justice Work with Cultural Grounding. If you have suggestions or requests for future glossary entries, members can submit queries for our bonus Q+A episodes every month on Substack. Links: Land Back: A Yellowhead Institute Red Paper Rehearsals for Living On Settler Colonialism in Canada: Lands and Peoples Unsettling the Settler Within - Indian Residential Schools, Truth Telling, and Reconciliation in Canada Ancestral Embodiment Summer Audio Course Lost Together is produced by Marika Heinrichs and Becca Rich. Our music is by Cristoffer Moe Ditlevsen, Mixed by SC Dillon. Sound Engineering and Editing by Marika Heinrichs. Get full access to Feet in the Butter at marikaheinrichs.substack.com/subscribe

“Sometimes we don't know who we're from, what lands we're from, what culture we're from, what language we're from. But that culture, those ancestors, that language, know exactly who we are.” What happens when we try to do justice work without knowing who we are? Ben Reid-Howells is a Scottish-Canadian community organizer, educator, Gaelic language and culture learner, co-founder of the Centre of Resilience (Bihar, India); the "Vasudhaiva [VAH-SOO-DAY-VA] Ride" Transnational Project Series; and founding director of Deep Roots Alba, an initiative for cultural regeneration, decolonization, healing and solidarity rooted in Scotland and globally connected. Ben is also a musician, wood worker, and lives on the West Coast of Scotland. In this conversation, Ben shares his journey across continents, movements, and communities, and the turning point that shifted everything: being told to go find his own people. From Indigenous land defence movements to reconnecting with Gaelic language and land in Scotland, this is a story about moving from cultural emptiness to grounded belonging. We explore the relationship between ancestry and responsibility, the limits of guilt, and why reclaiming land-based culture is not separate from political work but essential to it. This conversation is about rebuilding cultural roots, holding complexity around whiteness and colonialism, and remembering ways of being that were never fully lost. https://www.benreidhowells.com/ https://www.instagram.com/deep.roots.alba RESOURCES Deep Roots Gatherings: https://deeprootsalba.org/ Resilient Floating Village Project: https://www.centreofresilience.org/floating-village-project Grassy Narrows: https://freegrassy.net/ Unist’ot’en Land Defense: https://unistoten.camp/ Tom Langhorne: www.youtube.com/FandabiDozi Lost Together is produced by Marika Heinrichs and Becca Rich. Our music is by Cristoffer Moe Ditlevsen, Mixed by SC Dillon. Sound Engineering and Editing by Marika Heinrichs. Get full access to Feet in the Butter at marikaheinrichs.substack.com/subscribe

What does Regeneration mean? Welcome to our first glossary episode! There are so many words and terms that we use in the field of somatics, social justice, and the politicized healing sphere that we don’t always have the same understandings around, or take the time to really explain. This can both lead to misunderstandings, and a kind of gatekeeping. I want the kind of brave conversations we’re having here to feel open and invitational so, the Lost Together Glossary was born! Each week between our interview episodes we’ll share a word or term from our previous conversation and spend some time breaking it down, meditating on its various meanings, and I’ll share a bit about my relationship with the word or term. Think of it less as a dictionary, and more as a living document of shared language — one that is always evolving. If you have suggestions or requests for future glossary entries, paid subscribers can submit queries for our bonus Q+A episodes every month on Substack: marikaheinrichs.substack.com/ If you haven't listened yet to my conversation with Nisha and Lua on how they are practicing Regeneration in real time, you can go back and find it in last weeks' episode. This week our first glossary entry is on Regeneration. I hope you enjoy! Further Reading: Towards a deeper, reciprocal relationship with the planet Nisha Poulose Rooted in Wisdom Lua Couto Anthology of Regenerative Futures Get full access to Feet in the Butter at marikaheinrichs.substack.com/subscribe

“When we are together, there is me, there is her, and there is a third person, there’s our relationship and we are trying to know it better each time we meet.” This weeks’ guests are Luana Couto and Nisha Mary Poulose. Lua is a researcher, educator and storyteller from the Brazilian Amazon. Her work lives where ancestral knowledge meets futures thinking. She partners with Purpy and Futuro Possivel to bring regenerative practices into organizations and communities worldwide. Nisha is an architect and bioregional planner with a passion for socio-ecological transformation and regenerative systems. She is the founder of Woven Design Collaborative—a firm that designs, strategises and weaves at the confluence of human habitat, planning, and the environment.  This conversation explores the deep and often messy connection between land and relationship. Lua and Nisha share their journeys, practices, and perspectives on healing, trauma, and collective transformation. You’ll hear us refer to a retreat. We spent a week together in Italy alongside other teachers including Bayo Akómoláfé, Laura Peña Zaneta, and a group of climate justice activists and artists from the global south, practicing embodying regeneration in real time. You’ll also hear the impacts of some powerful weather on the quality of audio in a couple of places. Luana Couto: instagram.com/souluacouto Nisha Poulose: wovendesigncollaborative.com RESOURCES: https://unearthodox.org/2025/02/towards-a-deeper-reciprocal-relationship-with-the-planet/ https://futuropossivel.com.br/ wovendesigncollaborative.com Lost Together is produced by Marika Heinrichs and Becca Rich. Our music is by Cristoffer Moe Ditlevsen, Mixed by SC Dillon. Sound Engineering and Editing by Marika Heinrichs. Get full access to Feet in the Butter at marikaheinrichs.substack.com/subscribe

Marika Heinrichs is a somatics practitioner, therapist, writer, organizer, and facilitator. For over 20 years she has been learning and experimenting at the intersection of healing and social change. In conversation with friends, mentors, and collaborators, Lost Together explores the wisdom that the unknown has to offer us alongside grounded, practical tools for cultivating strong relationships with each other and our more-than-human kin in the midst of uncertainty and change. From climate crisis to childhood trauma, we are a culture focused on solutions. A fear of uncertainty in our relationships, work, and movements cuts us off from our wisest, most creative, and visionary potential. When our bodies struggle to stay with the unknown, our reflex is often to grasp for power and control. Lost Together asks the question: What would become possible if we responded to the political and ecological crises of our times through the lens of relationship rather than individual protection? What if we stopped trying to find solutions, and started trying to find each other? If these are questions you find yourself drawn to, we hope you’ll listen and join the conversation on Substack: marikaheinrichs.substack.com/ Lost Together is produced by Marika Heinrichs and Becca Rich. Our music is by Cristoffer Moe Ditlevsen, Mixed by SC Dillon. Sound Engineering and Editing by Marika Heinrichs. Get full access to Feet in the Butter at marikaheinrichs.substack.com/subscribe