What if it doesn’t get better anytime soon? • Francis Weller + Autumn Brown

In this episode of Climate Changed, Autumn Brown speaks with psychotherapist, writer, and soul activist Francis Weller about grief, ritual, imagination, and what he calls “the long dark.”

Francis invites us to consider that the climate-changed world is not a short crisis with a quick resolution. It is a generational passage that asks for patience, restraint, communal care, ritual imagination, and the courage to see with “a dark-adapted eye.”

Before the conversation, Autumn shares a short speculative story called “Island,” opening a doorway into questions of land, belonging, migration, silence, and longing.

Together, Autumn and Francis explore why grief and imagination belong together, why sorrow was never meant to be carried alone, and why communities need ritual ground where anguish, rage, shame, and heartbreak can be held. Francis also speaks to spiritual leaders about slowing down, warming the ritual field, and creating spaces where people can be changed rather than merely comforted.

The conversation turns toward friendship as essential medicine. In a time marked by overwhelm and uncertainty, Francis reminds us that we do not mature alone. We need friends, elders, ritual, ancestors, community, and the living earth.

Guest: Francis Weller https://www.francisweller.net/

Climate Changed Podcast: https://climatechangedpodcast.org/

The BTS Center: https://thebtscenter.org/

Contact: podcast@thebtscenter.org