Xeno

About Jessica J. LeeJessica J. Lee is a British-Canadian-Taiwanese author, environmental historian, and winner of the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction, the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature, a Banff Mountain Book Award, and the RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writer Award. She is the author of three books of nature writing, Turning, Two Trees Make a Forest, and Dispersals, the children’s book A Garden Called Home, and co-editor of the essay collection Dog Hearted. She has a PhD in Environmental History and Aesthetics. Jessica is the founding editor of The Willowherb Review. Jessica’s latest book, Dispersals was shortlisted for the 2024 Wainwright Prize for nature writing.In this episode, we discuss Lee’s new book Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging, and how we might challenge our notions and language around plants to craft a more capacious sense of belonging to encompass multicultural, migrant identities. We reflect on how the stories of plants’ movement might reflect our own more complicated stories of belonging across borders.Follow JessicaIG: @jessicajleeX: @jessicajleehttps://www.jessicajleewrites.com/ PC: Image is by Ricardo RivasPlease rate + review us on Spotify! Follow us on Instagram @xeno_pod and subscribe at xenocast.org.

About Aniefiok Ekpoudom:Aniefiok ‘Neef’ Ekpoudom is a writer and storyteller from South London whose work documents community and culture in contemporary Britain. His debut book Where We Come From: Rap Home and Hope in Modern Britain is a social history of British Rap. It was released via Faber & Faber in January 2024. As a journalist, he writes long-form essays and profiles for The Guardian, GQ and more. From charting a history of Black Football culture in South London to mapping the forces of migration and music that formed J Hus, his writing weaves social, cultural and narrative history to explore the current, lived realities of peoples across the UK.Summary:In this episode, we discuss the social history of Britain through the lens of British rap with a focus on South London, Wales and the West Midlands; migration, music and belonging through the lens of the Windrush generation; resilience, adversity and hope in the UK rap scene; community through pirate radio; how British rap reshapes and remakes a sense of home and belonging for Black British communities back then and today; vulnerability through music and mental health; the importance of diverse social archives; the importance of creativity in crafting a deeper sense of belonging; and how the music gives us hope.References:Where We Come From: Rap, Home and Hope in Modern Britain by Aniefiok EkpoudomBeloved by Toni Morrison Follow Aniefiok:Website: https://aniefiokekpoudom.com/IG: @AniefiokekpX: @AniefiokEkpCreditsPhoto of Aniefiok by BlaowOur theme music is by Alix Julian EdwardsOur branding is by Somewhere Off Grid

About Stephanie Sy-QuiaStephanie Sy-Quia is a writer, teacher, and printmaker. She was born in 1995 in California and currently lives in London. Her debut, Amnion, was published by Granta Poetry in 2021. Her writing has appeared in the FT Weekend, the TLS, the Economist, the Guardian, and TANK. She is a Ledbury Poetry Critic. In 2023, she guest curated Ledbury Poetry Festival.SummaryIn this episode, we delve into Stephanie's debut book Amnion, mixed identities, embodied writing, family histories, ambient language, the power of language and resistance against translation, gender, classism and racism, education and privilege, girlhood in boarding school, liberation through writing and relationships as a mixed person, self-exoticisation and fetishization, Philippine history, and the amniotic borders and boundaries we must all cross toward self-empowerment, wisdom and liberation, among other topics.ReferencesAmnion by Stephanie Sy-Quia (Granta Poetry)Ambient Language by Stephanie Sy-QuiaFollow Stephanie:IG: @c_est_qui77X: @snsyquiaCreditsPC: Image by Alex Sy-Quia

About Sam Johnson-Schlee:Sam Johnson-Schlee is an academic and writer living by the sea in North Essex. Sam is the author of Living Rooms, published by Peninsula Press. He writes non-fiction and memoir about the politics and culture of everyday life. He is interested in how paying attention to familiar objects and practices can open up new perspectives on the world we live in, and also writes a newsletter on Substack called Sifting and Sorting: a series about digitising his late father’s collection of over two thousand CDs and an occasional series of personal essays about the music.Summary:In this episode, we discuss the politics of the home and the interior, what it would mean to ‘abolish the family’, the privatisation and atomisation of domestic life, rentier capitalism, nature connection and domestic spaces, radical connection and collective living, the value of public space, how the interior influences public life, what it would mean to re-imagine our domestic lives and more topics.References:Living Rooms by Sam Johnson-SchleeAbolish the Family: A Manifesto for Care and Liberation by Sophie LewisThey Call It Love: The Politics of Emotional Life by Alva GotbyStrayed Homes: Cultural Histories of the Domestic in Public by Edwina AttleeFollow Sam:IG: @snfschleeX: @SNFSchleeSubstack: @siftingandsortingCredits:Image of Sam by Kenza Barton-SchleeOur theme music is by Alix Julian EdwardsOur design is by Somewhere Off Grid

About Noreen Masud:Noreen Masud is a lecturer in twentieth-century literature at the University of Bristol, the author of A Flat Place, and an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker. She grew up in Lahore and Fife.Summary:In this episode, we dive into A Flat Place, the psychogeography of flat landscapes across Britain and Pakistan, kinship with non-human animals, more-than-human ethics, belonging and unbelonging in language, literature as home, C-PTSD and (dis)embodied writing, creativity and mental health, erasure of global majority and diaspora stories, colonialism, imperialism and trauma, among other topics.Resources:A Flat Place by Noreen MasudConnect with Noreen:X/Twitter: @NoreenMasudIG: @Noreen_MasudWebsite: noreenmasud.comCredits:Our theme music is by Alix Julian EdwardsOur brand design is by Somewhere Off Grid

Xeno podcast was founded and is hosted by Isabella McDonnell. Isabella shares a short message of gratitude, a peek into what's in store for the upcoming podcast episodes over this next year, and an exciting new community-based venture in the outdoors.Follow us on Instagram @xeno_pod and subscribe to our newsletter at xenocast.org.You can listen to all our episodes on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Please rate us and share a review of the podcast!To find out more about Roots of Belonging, follow us on Instagram @rootsofbelonging and subscribe to our Substack and newsletter at rootsofbelonging.org.

About Lawrence D'Silva:Lawrence D’Silva is an environmental scientist, nature presenter and filmmaker. From a safari Land Rover guide in southern Africa to working in environmental investment in London, nature has always been Lawrence's passion. He aims to entertain and inspire action and debate through film. Lawrence identifies as being mixed, with one side Welsh and the other South Indian, via Malawi. Lawrence grew up on tales of Malawi and India's Malabar coast and loves both places (as well as Britain). Both places are subject to intense environmental pressures that impact communities and nature alike.Summary:In this episode, we discuss colonialism, mixed heritage and British identity, class and race dynamics, our mixed experiences growing up, environmentalism, personal and embodied connection to place/landscapes, biodiversity and sustainability, self-exploration, rethinking personal belonging in the UK, intergenerational trauma, ancestral stories, and Family Constellations therapeutic practices.Resources:Late Light by Michael MalayThe In-Between World of Vikram Lall by M.G. VassanjiThe Salt Path by Raynor WinnConnect with Lawrence:IG: @nature_lawrenceWebsite: https://www.lawrencedsilva.com/X: @lawrence_dsilvaCredits:Image credit: @mixedracefacesOur theme music is by Alix Julian EdwardsThe Xeno brand is by Somewhere Off Grid

About Soraya Abdel-Hadi:Soraya Abdel-Hadi is an award-winning writer, co-active coach, speaker, host, facilitator, consultant, and the founder of the non-profit All the Elements CIC — a community working to increase diversity in the UK outdoors.Summary:In this episode, we explore nature connection, diversifying the outdoors industry, belonging in the outdoors, burnout, neurodivergence, finding your creative voice as a marginalised person, writing life and nature, activism, co-creating new ways of gathering and ecogrief.Connect with Soraya:Website: www.soraya.earth.com All the Elements CIC: www.allthelements.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sorayaearth?igSubstack: https://substack.com/@sorayaearth Resources:And a Dog Called Fig: Solitude, Connection, the Writing Life by Helen HumphreysWhip Smart: A Memoir by Melissa FebosBody Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa FebosThe War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield Big Magic by Elizabeth GilbertThe Artist's Way by Julia CameronCredits:Our theme music is by Alix Julian EdwardsThe Xeno brand is by Somewhere Off Grid