In this episode of Inner Nature,  we join Lyla June Johnston and Riane Eisler. Their conversation takes us across the globe and throughout the annals of time, from a deeply ancient, harmonious, Neolithic settlement to the devastation of Nazi Europe, and from the pre-colonial mound-building societies of the Muskogee right up to present day. Throughout, they contrast systems of partnership, kinship, love, care, and humility vs. those of domination, violence, oppression, hierarchy, and hubris. They invite us to consider how a culture’s perceptions of gender parallel its regard for the environment. And they urge us to examine our lineages of trauma and to look to the past to understand what is possible for our future.

Lyla June and Riane both discuss and exemplify profound love and spiritual courage in this conversation, providing a model and foundation for re-building societies based on respect among genders, between species, and for the living land that sustains us.

 

About Lyla June and Riane

 

 

 

Lyla June Johnston is an Indigenous musician, scholar, and community organizer of Diné, Cheyenne, and European descent. Lyla recently earned her PhD from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, studying how pre-colonial Indigenous Nations designed abundant food systems for both human and animal life.

 

Riane Eisler, JD, PhD(h), is the recipient of many honors, such as the Distinguished Peace Leadership Award earlier given to the Dalai Lama, and internationally known for her groundbreaking contributions as a systems scientist, futurist, and cultural historian. She is author of many books, including The Chalice and the Blade, now in its 57th US printing and 27 foreign editions, The Real Wealth of Nations, hailed by Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu as "a template for the better world we have been so urgently seeking," and Nurturing Our Humanity, Oxford University Press, 2019, co-authored with Douglas P. Fry.  
Eisler’s innovative whole-systems research offers new perspectives and practical tools for constructing a less violent, more egalitarian, gender-balanced, and sustainable future. Eisler is President of the Center for Partnership Systems, which provides practical applications of her work, and Editor in Chief of the online Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies published at the University of Minnesota. She keynotes conferences worldwide, has taught at many universities, has written hundreds of articles and contributions to both scholarly and popular books, pioneered the application of human rights standards to women and children, and consults to businesses and governments on the partnership model introduced by her work. For more information, see www.rianeeisler.com and www.centerforpartnership.org