The Holy Wild with Victoria Loorz

In this conversation, Victoria Loorz is joined by Rachel Fleming, climate scientist, former Environment Agency policy advisor, writer, educator, and part of the Animate Earth founding circle. Together they explore modern animism, the remembering of the “common wild tongue,” and what it means to rebuild intimacy with a living, intelligent world. Rachel shares her journey bridging climate science, holistic ecology, and spiritual practice, reflecting on the limits of purely technical or policy-based responses to ecological collapse. Through stories of place, trees, and faithful return, the conversation traces the long human exile from belonging and the quiet emergence of a different way of being human rooted in listening, love, and relationship. Weaving themes of grief, beauty, ancestral memory, and hope, this episode invites listeners to remember that transformation rarely begins with grand solutions, but with simple, devoted acts of attention that restore our capacity to speak with and listen to the living world.

Connect with Rachel:
Website: animate-earth.org
Substack: The Common Wild Tongue
Mentioned in the episode:
Stephan Harding pioneering Holistic Science
Colin Campbell: colincampbell.co.za
Monica Gagliano: monicagagliano.com
Anna Breytenbach: animalspirit.org
Oxford Real Farming Conference: orfc.org.uk
Nathanial Hughs & The School of Intuitive Herbalism: schoolofintuitiveherbalism.weedsintheheart.org.uk
Patrick MacManaway-The Land Whisperer: patrickmacmanaway.com
Dr. Lyla June Johnson: lylajune.com
Connect with the Center:
Website: wildspirituality.earth
Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
Email: [email protected]
Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality
Timestamps:
07:26 – Interview begins with invocation
10:18 – The mountain that raised Rachel
14:37 – How Rachel comes to this work through science
19:57 – Holistic science
21:33 – Animate Earth
25:59 – The common wild tongue
31:10 – Bridging “woo”
35:09 – It is actually simple
38:20 – Evolution is a spiral
42:49 – The importance of subtle work
44:48 – Needed medicine
47:19 – Interconnection goes so deep
48:42 – The heart field
51:55 – Neighbor ash tree
55:38 – Rachel’s work
57:54 – Invitation to advocacy
59:53 – Credits

In this conversation, Debra Rienstra, PhD, author of Refugia Faith and professor of English at Calvin University, joins Victoria Loorz to explore refugia, a biological term for small pockets of life that survive widespread environmental stress and become sources of regeneration after collapse. Debra invites us to imagine these protected pockets are also in our communities as forms of sanctuary amid increasingly uninhabitable social, spiritual, and ecological conditions. Together, they reflect on how small gatherings rooted in love for the land can counter paralysis in the face of global crisis and rewild our sense of vocation and voice. They explore the spiritual risk of loving places we may not own or keep, while naming how restoration begins through intimate, connected acts of care that allow life to persist and return.

Connect with Debra:
Website: debrarienstra.com
Book: Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth
Newsletter: refugianewsletter.substack.com
Upcoming Book: Refugia Church (January 2027)
Mentioned in the episode:
Book: Great Tide Rising: Towards Clarity and Moral Courage in a time of Planetary Change by Kathleen Dean Moore
Organization: blackchurchfoodsecurity.net
Book: Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization by Bill McKibben
Encyclical Letter Laudato Si' of the Holy Father Francis on Care For Our Common Home
Encyclical Letter Fratelli Tutti of the Holy Father Francis on Fraternity and Social Friendship
Connect with the Center:
Website: wildspirituality.earth
Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
Email: [email protected]
Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality
Timestamps:
00:00 — Introduction
03:48 — Refugia
08:58 — Finding My Small Work
11:44 — Deciding the Work Based on Context
14:33 — Examples of Human Refugia
20:21 — From Passivity to Citizenship
24:21 — Loving Places That Are Only Yours for a Time
29:36 — Choosing to Belong
31:59 — Grieving Reality Together
34:18 — Mitigation and Adaptation
40:02 — A Kalo Farmer in Relationship With the Land
43:04 — The Book of Nature & Pantheism Paranoia
46:30 — The Wild Edge
50:03 — Wild Invitation
53:24 — Credits

In this conversation, author of Earth and Soul: Reconnecting Amid Climate Chaos, speaker, retreat leader and longtime spiritual formation guide Leah Rampy joins Victoria Loorz to explore spirituality as a lived relationship to the natural world—where trees are kin, not symbols, and reciprocity replaces extraction. Leah reflects on her journey from corporate life into a decolonizing spirituality & leadership rooted in ecological belonging, sharing stories of black walnut trees, Wild Church as a practice of community and communion, and the slow unlayering of protective armor. Together, they reflect on how awe and grief must be held together, how the deepest forms of communion exceed language, and how remembering ourselves as part of a living, interwoven world can restore wholeness in a time of collective unraveling.

Connect with Leah:
Website: leahmoranrampy.com
Book: Earth and Soul
Book: Discovering the Spiritual Wisdom of Trees
Mentioned in the episode:
Shalem Institute
Connect with the Center:
Website: wildspirituality.earth
Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
Email: [email protected]
Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality
Timestamps:
00:00 — Introduction
02:57 — Interview begins
04:36 — Leah’s background
07:30 — A calling to educate
11:38 — The power of storytelling
13:20 — The black walnut tree
17:05 — Decolonizing the soul
20:33 — Communication in community
23:26 — Seeking to know how we cause harm
27:05 — Bearing witness
28:39 — Church of the Wild: Two Rivers
33:59 — Love beyond words
35:08 — Communion
37:26 — Trees as ancient teachers of life
41:34 — Giving and receiving
46:33 — A wandering invitation
48:38 — Credits

In this conversation, Certified Soul Level Animal Communicators and grief-intuitive coaches from The Animal Communication Collective (ACC)—Julie Hirt, Karen Dendy Smith, and Meredith Tollison—offer a vivid picture of animal communication as a soul-to-soul exchange that restores trust, deepens wholeness, and opens doorways to healing and transformation. They demystify why losing an animal often breaks us open more than losing a human, explore how animals help surface grief we have long buried, and share stories from clients who continue receiving guidance through images, humor, sensations, and inner knowing even after their animals have crossed the veil. The trio also reflect on how each of them slowly found their way back to the sacred after religious trauma, supported by magnolia trees, ocean wind, and the quiet companionship of the animals who stayed close to them. You can hear more from Julie, Karen, and Meredith on their own podcast, The Animal Communication podcast. 

Connect with The Animal Communicators:
Website: animalcommunicationcollective.com
Podcast: theanimalcommunicationpodcast.com
Julie: juliehirt-intuitive.com
Karen: karendendysmith.com
Meredith: meredithtollison.com
Mentioned in the episode:
Book: All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
Book: Opal- The Journal of an Understanding Heart by Opal Whiteley
Figure: Anna Breytenbach @ animalspirit.org
Connect with the Center:
Website: wildspirituality.earth
Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
Email: [email protected]
Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality
Timestamps:
00:00 — Introduction
05:32 — Interview begins
06:23 — Introducing Julie
06:51 — Introducing Karen
07:45 — Introducing Meredith
08:28 — Unconditional love & authenticity
13:33 — Julie’s grief origins
16:02 — Karen’s grief origins
17:41 — Meredith’s grief origins
19:21 — Grief unlocked by companion animals
22:34 — The felt sense of animals in spirit
26:27 — The claires / intuitive senses
30:48 — Accessing the sacred
31:38 — Julie’s spiritual upbringing
34:29 — Karen’s spiritual upbringing
36:13 — Meredith’s spiritual upbringing
38:21 — Reconnecting words
41:34 — Why grief feels different with animals
43:37 — Loss rituals
44:44 — The “placeness” of animals
54:38 — The animal communication collective
56:43 — Wild invitation
58:09 — Credits

In this conversation with Victoria Loorz, Randy Woodley shares stories from his Cherokee lineage, his mother’s deep communion with plants and animals, and his decades of land based ministry at Eloheh Farm. Together they explore why many today stand on the "inside and outside edges" of the Christian story, the collapse of institutional religion, and how Creator often works through seasons of chaos. Woodley describes this era as a time of composting, where old systems break down so more relational and grounded ways of being can emerge. He invites listeners to let go of rigid categories and doctrines and return to what he calls our original human vocation: co-sustaining the community of creation through simple acts of love, reciprocity, and right relationship, where meals become communion, tending becomes prayer, and all beings are kin.
Rev. Dr. Randy Woodley, Ph.D., is a farmer, activist scholar, speaker, teacher, and Indigenous wisdom keeper whose work spans spirituality, justice, culture, racial diversity, regenerative farming, and our relationship with the Earth. 

Connect with Randy: 
Book: Becoming Rooted: One Hundred Days of Reconnecting with Sacred Earth
Book: How Western Christian Got It Wrong (Forthcoming)
Substack: @rwoodley7
Personal Website: randywoodley.com
Eloheh Website: eloheh.org
Mentioned in the episode:
Documentary: The Year The Earth Changed
Connect with the Center:
Website: wildspirituality.earth
Victoria's Website: victorialoorz.com
Email: [email protected]
Linktree: linktr.ee/ctrforwildspirituality
Instagram: @center_for_wild_spirituality
Timestamps:
00:00 – Introduction
06:35 – Interview Starts
08:14 – The Land Who Raised Randy
10:08 – Academy Experience
11:53 – Eloheh
12:50 – Bridging Across the Edges
15:09 – Widespread Abandonment of Institutionalized Western Religion
19:05 – Replacing the Programs with Relationship
23:56 – Co-Sustainers
27:06 – Finding New Language
31:15 – Becoming Rooted
35:33 – Repairing the Separations
37:57 – Seeds Are Our Treasure
39:29 – The War on Indigenous Lands
41:58 – Create Human Rights for the Earth
43:40 – Sacred Clowns
46:14 – Sacred Invitation