Two Friends, at 35 and 95, Confront Loss and Find Hope

Death, Sex & Money

Slate Podcasts

Business, Health & Fitness, Society & Culture, Careers, Relationships, Sexuality

4.6 • 7.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2024

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Climate activists Jess Serrante and Joanna Macy are 60 years apart. They’re also close friends who’ve been sharing stories and commiserating about the state of the world for the past 10 years. When Jess experienced a crisis and started questioning whether her activism was really effective, Joanna provided a framework that changed everything. In this episode, Anna talks to Jess about what she’s learned from Joanna about aging, activism, and managing the emotional ups and downs of caring about the world. You can listen to Jess and Joanna’s podcast, We Are the Great Turning, here or wherever you listen to podcasts. Artist Autumn Leiker is mentioned in the episode, and you can learn more about her work here. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. Death, Sex & Money is now produced by Slate! To support us and our colleagues, please sign up for our membership program, Slate Plus! Members get ad-free podcasts, bonus content on lots of Slate shows, and full access to all the articles on Slate.com. Sign up today at slate.com/dsmplus. And if you’re new to the show, welcome. We’re so glad you’re here. Find us and follow us on Instagram and you can find Anna’s newsletter at annasale.substack.com. Our new email address, where you can reach us with voice memos, pep talks, questions, critiques, is [email protected]. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi Jess Sorrente.
0:02.0	Hi Anna Sam.
0:04.0	I think we met in the fall of 2022, is that right?
0:10.0	That's right.
0:11.0	And we met through a mutual friend and you came to my house for dinner and you were going to make
0:18.9	a podcast and you were really...
0:21.3	You were really excited about it.
0:25.0	And then I feel like it was not long after that dinner that I got a text that was like,
0:29.0	can we go for a walk and talk about podcasting?
0:41.0	So Jess and I went on a bunch of walks over the next year as she made a new audio series called We Are the Great Turning.
0:43.8	In it, Jess has these incredible conversations
0:47.3	with her friend Joanna Macy, a Buddhist scholar
0:50.6	and systems theorist. I sat in on some of the early episode edits with Jess. And today
0:56.5	we're going to share some of what she made with Joanna because it's a remarkable portrait of a friendship that has also transformed the way I think about
1:06.3	the challenges in our world and how each of us can better serve it.
1:10.9	The podcast series is about the emotional work that's part of looking straight at the crises facing us and the world,
1:17.0	whether economic or environmental or both, and think of it like a different sort of five stages of grief.
1:24.4	What Joanna offers is a roadmap for all the feelings that can come up
1:29.8	when you fully commit to being honest, clear,
1:33.9	and in relationship with how the status quo
1:37.0	is not nearly good enough.
1:39.6	Joanna Macy is now 95 years old and retired from public life. So it's through these
	...

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