Key Themes and Conversations:

Charity vs. solidarity: The conversation contrasts a charity model (asking “what can I give?”) with a solidarity model (asking “how can I accompany?”). The latter recognizes shared vulnerability rather than positioning one group as a savior and another as an object of saving.

Agency and self-determined relocation: Drawing on Colette Pichon Battle’s work, Autumn and Nicole talk about what real choice and self-governance in moving look like, rather than having relocation imposed on displaced people by disaster, agencies, or “climate gentrification.”

The limits of language: Both hosts wrestle with how terms like “climate refugee” can fail to carry meaning for the people they’re meant to describe, and how English may lack words for experiences that are simultaneously devastating and transformative.

Disaster as both rupture and opportunity: Referencing Rebecca Solnit’s essays, Autumn and Nicole reframe the aftermath of disaster not as a descent into chaos but as a space where mutual care and “temporarily autonomous zones” of community often emerge before institutional authority asserts itself.

Practicing democracy in community: The hosts discuss how skills for collective decision-making (used in church business meetings, for instance) are the same skills needed to navigate displacement and welcome with integrity, especially given many people’s limited experience with direct (vs. representational) democracy.

Public ritual and witnessing: The episode closes on Katie Mears’ idea of “witnessing high tides” as a spiritual practice, exploring how rituals of attention and grief toward the more-than-human world can cultivate the heart alignment needed to sustain this work.

Next Steps:

Autumn and Nicole remind listeners that the next steps help us bring imagination into practical reality. The change we need cannot happen alone. It has to grow in community.

Notice the actual hazards in your place.
Katie Mears invites listeners to begin close to home. What are the things that cause harm to people’s living and working conditions where you are? They may not be the dramatic disasters that make national news. They might be flooding, extreme heat, apartment fires, unsafe housing, power outages, food insecurity, wildfire smoke, or rising housing costs.

Then ask: What gifts do you, and the communities you are part of, already have that could be brought to bear in that situation? Disaster response is not only about who has a generator or who fits an official emergency checklist. It can include people who cook, organize, drive, translate, make phone calls, offer space, know the neighbors, care for children, repair things, pray, listen, or help people feel less alone.

Explore your community’s disaster preparedness.
If you belong to a faith community, ask what disaster preparedness efforts are already in place. Does your congregation have a plan? A phone tree? A communication strategy? A way to check on vulnerable members? Nicole points listeners toward the United Church of Christ’s Disaster Preparedness Guide for Local Churches: A Workbook, and encourages people to look for similar resources from their own denomination or tradition.

Resource: United Church of Christ Preparedness Resources
https://www.ucc.org/disaster_index/disaster_resources/

Listen to stories of displacement.
Autumn invites listeners, especially those who offer spiritual care, to speak with someone who has experienced uprooting. This might be someone displaced by weather, housing costs, evacuation, or the loss of stable housing. Listen without trying to fix the story or the conditions. The act of witnessing can be the beginning of rebuilding community.

Invite stories in your wider network.
If you are active on social media, consider asking people to share with you their stories of displacement or uprooting. Invite face-to-face conversation when possible. Practice accompaniment: receive the story, honor the person, and resist the urge to rush toward solutions.

Share what you discover.
Autumn and Nicole would love to hear what you are practicing, noticing, or learning.

Email: podcast@thebtscenter.org
Voice Message: 207-200-6986

People and resources mentioned:

Books

• A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster — Rebecca Solnit
• The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis — Amitav Ghosh
• What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures — Ayana Elizabeth Johnson The BTS Center did a book study around this collection of essays, interviews, art, poetry, and visions of possible climate futures.
• Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean — Jonathan White This book Nicole mentioned combines tidal science, travel, history, spirituality, and reflections on sea-level rise.

Articles and Essays

• “Adaptation Through Shock” (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) — Katie Mears and Sarah Labowitz
  An article about how disaster recovery following Hurricanes Helene and Milton could support adaptation to new climate realities
• “Imagining a More Just World—Disaster Response in an Age of Climate Change” — Katie Mears A related reflection from Katie on climate adaptation, disaster response, and imagining more just futures
• Search Katie’s work at Episcopal Relief & Development

People and Organizations

• Colette Pichon Battle A Louisiana-based lawyer and climate justice organizer interviewed in What If We Get It Right? Nicole talked about Battle’s work on democracy, community agency, climate migration, and self-determined relocation.
• Taproot Earth The climate justice organization co-founded by Colette Pichon Battle. Its work centers frontline communities, self-determination, migration, climate reparations, and collective solutions.
• American Red Cross Immediate material disaster response

Disaster-Preparedness Tools

• Disaster Preparedness Guide for Local Churches: A Workbook — United Church of Christ A workbook for congregations that includes practical preparation such as communication plans and phone trees, as well as attention to emotional responses during disasters
• United Church of Christ Disaster Ministries The broader denominational resource for disaster preparation, response, recovery, and congregational support.
• NOAA Tide Predictions A U.S. resource for local tide predictions

Connect with us

What stirred you in this conversation? We love to hear your voices and reflections.

• Email: podcast@thebtscenter.org
• Voice Message: 207-200-6986
• Video: Find full-length video episodes and bonus clips on The BTS Center’s YouTube channel.
• Podcast Website: Visit www.climatechangedpodcast.org for transcripts and discussion guides.
• Learn more about The BTS Center: https://thebtscenter.org/

Blessing: May you feel the wind at your back, the ocean at your feet, as the hands of your ancestors — sometimes gently, sometimes firmly — guide you into the future.

Meet Our Guest

Katie Mears is the Senior Technical Specialist for U.S. Disaster and Climate Risk at Episcopal Relief & Development. They have worked in faith-based disaster response since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, supporting communities through disaster preparation, response, recovery, and adaptation.

Katie’s current work focuses on people-prioritized, climate-adaptive disaster response. They help faith communities and local partners address housing, displacement, climate risk, and the complex choices facing people whose lives and homes are disrupted by disaster.

Meet Our Host

Autumn Brown (she/her) is an artist, facilitator, mother, and theologian. The front woman of the eponymously named soul-pop band, AUTUMN, she is a queer, mixed-race Black woman, a gifted facilitator and orator, and a freedom worker who grounds her approach to building movements for liberation in her belief in the innate capacity for healing that emanates from the human heart.

Meet Our Co-Host

Rev. Nicole Diroff (she/her) is ordained in the United Church of Christ. She holds expertise in facilitation, data management, and strategic planning. Nicole is a certified Maine Master Naturalist, serves as Chair of the Spiritual Formation Committee at Williston-Immanuel United Church and is Co-Chair of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Committee for the Scarborough Public School District.

Meet Our Producer

After spending 17 years and over $30,000 on three continents attempting to “de-gay” himself through conversion therapy, Peterson Toscano came out a quirky queer Quaker concerned with human rights. He also produces other podcasts including Citizens Climate Radio, Bubble & Squeak, and the Bible Bash Podcast. Peterson has been featured in People Magazine, The Times of London, the Trya Banks Show, and NPR Morning Edition. He lives in Pretoria, South Africa with his husband, Glen Retief.