Thursday, March 26th
Western science has long resisted and even ridiculed the idea that our planet is alive, but many scientists now recognize that Earth and life continually coevolve and that, together, they form a single, interconnected, living system. Ferris Jabr, NYT bestselling author and one of our most celebrated scientific writers, will explain how, over billions of years, microbes, plants, fungi, and animals radically altered the continents, oceans, and atmosphere, transforming what was once a lump of orbiting rock into our cosmic oasis. Life breathed oxygen into the atmosphere, dyed the sky blue, made fire possible, converted barren crust into fertile soil, and perhaps even helped construct the continents. Over time, life became critical to the planet’s capacity to regulate its climate and maintain balance. Life is Earth and Earth is life.
March 26th | 9:15 am to 9:36 am | Zellerbach Hall
Ferris Jabr
Bestselling Author and NY Times Magazine Writer
Ferris Jabr, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, is the author of the bestselling Becoming Earth, which reviewers have described as an “infectiously poetic” “masterwork” that “earns its place alongside the best of today’s essential popular science books.” Ferris has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and Scientific American and has received fellowships and grants from Yale, MIT, UC Berkeley, the Pulitzer Center, and the Whiting Foundation. His work has been anthologized in four editions of The Best American Science and Nature Writing series.
Bioneers is delighted to bring together three visionary thinkers from very different fields but all at the cutting edge of our understanding of life on our planet. Ferris Jabr, bestselling author of one of the most masterful books of scientific journalism in years, Becoming Earth, has elevated the discourse surrounding the Gaia Hypothesis to a higher octave, elucidating Earth’s dynamic, self-regulating systems continuously transformed by biological processes. Jeannette Armstrong, a traditional knowledge-keeper of the Okanagan Nation and Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Okanagan Philosophy at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, will bring an indispensable, foundational Indigenous perspective. And world-renowned Forest Ecologist Suzanne Simard, a groundbreaking figure in the study of plant communication and intelligence, author of the highly influential, bestselling Finding the Mother Tree, is just now releasing her newest book, When the Forest Breathes. They will share their insights into how life shapes Earth and explore humanity’s immense responsibility to secure the vitality of the planet, especially in light of what First Peoples have long known and what modern science is discovering about the profound interconnectedness of all life and the myriad intelligences that permeate our world.
March 26th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm
Panelists
Ferris Jabr
Bestselling Author and NY Times Magazine Writer
Ferris Jabr, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, is the author of the bestselling Becoming Earth, which reviewers have described as an “infectiously poetic” “masterwork” that “earns its place alongside the best of today’s essential popular science books.” Ferris has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and Scientific American and has received fellowships and grants from Yale, MIT, UC Berkeley, the Pulitzer Center, and the Whiting Foundation. His work has been anthologized in four editions of The Best American Science and Nature Writing series.
Suzanne Simard
Project Lead | Mother Tree Project and Program
Suzanne Simard, Ph.D., is a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia and leads the Mother Tree Project and Program. Her research—showing that forests are cooperative, connected networks—has revolutionized forest ecology. Her TED Talk has reached millions, and her bestselling book Finding the Mother Tree continues to capture global interest. Named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2024, she champions regenerative forestry rooted in Indigenous knowledge.
Jeannette Armstrong
Associate Professor | University of British Columbia Okanagan
Bio coming soon.
Friday, March 27th
3:00 pm: Extraordinary Explorations in Interspecies Exchange
Hosted by the Bioneers newsletter, Earthlings
A great deal of research has in the last few decades demolished the long dominant view that humans were the sole proprietors of intelligence and shown that the entire web of life engages in adaptive decision-making, something Indigenous people around the world have long known. Building on that work, some bold innovators have been finding a variety of fascinating ways to document and engage with the intelligence that permeates the natural world. This session, hosted by Earthlings, Bioneers’ biweekly newsletter, explores that intelligence and tracks new discoveries about the “more-than-human” realms and our ever-evolving interactions with other sentient life, three groundbreaking figures, working in very different ways, share their extraordinary journeys and projects observing and engaging with some of our animal kin. With: Elodie Freymann, Ph.D.,a primatologist, botanist, social anthropologist, filmmaker, and conservation activist, who has done cutting-edge research on how wild chimpanzees self-medicate with medicinal plants; Garth Stevenson, musician/composer known for creating music in direct communion with the natural world, including, famously, with whales; and world-renowned neuroscientist Gül Dölen, currently at the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, who has done cutting-edge research on the only known social species of octopus to further our understanding of the evolution of sociality. Hosted by: J.P. Harpignies, Bioneers Senior Producer.
March 27th | 3:00 pm to 4:15 pm
Panelists
Elodie Freymann
Primatologist, Botanist, Social Anthropologist, and Conservation Activist
Elodie Freymann, Ph.D., a primatologist, botanist, social anthropologist, filmmaker, scientific illustrator, and conservation activist, recently attracted global attention with her groundbreaking research on how wild chimpanzees in Uganda's Budongo Forest self-medicate with medicinal plants and how that use overlaps with local traditional healers’ pharmacopeias. She is now following up that research with the first systematic study of non-human self-medication in the Peruvian Amazon. Much of Elodie’s work blends the worlds of science and art to document how people interact and co-exist with the flora and fauna around them and how anthropogenic disturbances are disrupting these symbiotic relationships. She has received several awards for her work and is a Fellow at both The Explorers Club and The Linnean Society.
Garth Stevenson
Musician and Composer
Garth Stevenson, a highly accomplished double bassist and composer especially known for creating music in direct communion with the natural world, traveled to Antarctica with the legendary biologist Dr. Roger Payne in 2010 to study whale communication and was able to imitate those calls on his double bass, attracting a dozen sei whales to their icebreaker. He has continued that work, most recently during a 2025 trip to Baja, Mexico to play for humpback whales, an extraordinary episode that was captured on film by National Geographic director Andy Mann.
Gül Dölen
Professor | UC Berkeley
Gül Dölen, Ph.D., is a Professor and the Bob & Renee Parsons Endowed Chair in the Department of Neuroscience, and Department of Psychology, the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley. Dr Dölen, who has won many prestigious awards for her teaching and research, also maintains an Adjunct Professorship in Neuroscience and Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
J.P. Harpignies
Senior Producer | Bioneers
J.P. Harpignies, Bioneers Senior Producer, affiliated with Bioneers since 1990, is a Brooklyn, NYC-based consultant, conference producer, copy-editor and writer. A former Program Director at the New York Open Center and a senior review team member for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge from 2010 to 2017, he has authored or edited several books, including Political Ecosystems, Delusions of Normality, Visionary Plant Consciousness, and, most recently, Animal Encounters.
Whales hold deep significance for a number of Indigenous cultures. They are often revered as spirits, ancestors, and relatives who hold wisdom to care for the oceans and for humans. As some whale species have become critically endangered due to hunting, noise pollution, and climate change, Indigenous Peoples around the world are fighting to defend them through both traditional and novel means. In this panel, we will hear from Indigenous leaders fighting to protect whales. Topics include: the cultural and spiritual foundations of these movements; ways that Indigenous and Western sciences are being applied in tandem; and legal mechanisms rooted in Indigenous principles to protect whales. Moderated by Alexis Bunten (Yupu’ik/Unangan), Co-Director of the Bioneers Indigeneity Program. With: Chair of the Ngātiwai Trust Board, Aperahama Edwards (Ngātiwai); Shane Weeks (Shinnecock) co-founder and Director of Research and Education at the Metoac Indigenous Collective.
March 27th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm
Panelists
Aperahama Edwards
Māori Leader, Theologian and Indigenous Rights Advocate
Aperahama Edwards is a Māori (of the Ngātiwai tribe) leader, theologian, and Indigenous rights advocate whose work is grounded in Māori knowledge, practices and worldviews that recognize the living personhood of the natural world and that reframe environmental protection as a relationship of kinship and obligation rather than ownership, challenging extractive systems and advocating Indigenous-led guardianship. A champion for the Māori language and its revitalization, he is also a strong advocate for the Māori-led declaration affirming whales as sentient ancestors with inherent rights.
Shane Weeks
Co-Founder and Director of Research and Education | Metoac Indigenous Collective
Shane Weeks, a proud member of the Shinnecock Nation, located in Southampton, New York, represents his people in a number of capacities, as an author, traditional singer and dancer, cultural consultant, artist, and member of several local boards and committees. The owner of Ohke Creations, a candle and jewelry business, he is also co-founder and Director of Research and Education at the Metoac Indigenous Collective, an intertribal organization focused on cultural preservation, and was a recipient of a Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023. As an artist, Shane works in many different mediums and collaborates with Indigenous communities from around the world.
Alexis Bunten
Co-Director, Indigeneity Program | Bioneers
Alexis Bunten, Ph.D., (Aleut/Yup’ik), Co-Director of Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program, has been a researcher, media-maker, manager, consultant, and curriculum developer for organizations including the Sealaska Heritage Institute, Alaska Native Heritage Center, and the FrameWorks Institute. She has published widely about Indigenous and environmental issues, and is the author of So, how long have you been Native?: Life as an Alaska Native Tour Guide.
Saturday, March 28th
Plants are our relatives, invaluable allies in sustaining our physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing, but the Indigenous care and use of plants has been severely disrupted by cultural appropriation, corporatization, and ecocide that violate plants’ protocols, rights, and life-cycles. In this session, cultural practitioners will discuss the protection of herbal medical traditions in the face of these challenges; explain how cultural practices have been passed down and revitalized to uphold our sacred relationships with plants; and share protocols of respect and reciprocity we should use whenever we grow, harvest and utilize plants. Moderated by Nazshonnii Brown-Almaweri, Program Manager in the Bioneers Indigeneity Program. With: Leah Mata Fragua; Jessie Rouse Whipple; Other TBA.
March 28th | 4:45 pm to 6:00 pm
Panelists
Nazshonnii Brown-Almaweri
Program Manager, Indigeneity Program | Bioneers
Nazshonnii Brown-Almaweri, Program Manager for Bioneers’ Indigeneity Program, is a West Oakland-based STEAM educator who advocates for exposure and opportunities for historically excluded people, especially Black and Native youth. She has provided many middle and high school students with the space to learn about STEAM at the intersection of ancestral knowledge and their lived experiences and has worked to help Oakland youth thrive in disciplines such as engineering. Nazshonnii is also a farmer connected to the Gill Tract Community Farm in Albany and was previously a STEM tutor, media educator, and youth program assistant for the American Indian Child Resource Center.
Leah Mata Fragua
Bio coming soon.
Jessie Rouse Whipple
Bio coming soon.
