birthday fundraiser for the Ground Shots Podcast!

Hey ya'll, Kelly here. I'm about to have my 37th birthday coming up on Feb 4 and I'd love to raise $1,500 forthe Ground Shots Podcast by my birthday, to help fund and support the project.

I've been running the Ground Shots Podcast since 2018, when I did my first interview May of that year with Samuel Bautisto Lazo sitting on a fallen Ponderosa Pine log, at sunset by Lake Concow in the Sierra foothills of California. The next year, that whole site burned in the Camp Fire. A few years ago I went back and that log we sat on which started it all, it still remained and did not burn in the fire. The Trilliums still came up in the woods even though the whole forest was scorched. Things cycle back eventually.

The podcast has been an experimental project of capturing 'snapshots' of time and place and tendrils of connection, and those tendrils root into the 'ground' or the land as a central theme, no matter what direction the podcast takes. The ground or the land is the thread that connects and weaves a web between every art piece, basket, food forest, tended biscuitroot or long walk. A ground shot is like a snapshot of the land, of a story in the land, a person's journey with the land, and all the cultural minucia that is found in between. The project is an exploration of the philosophy of ecology, where different focuses can take up space for awhile, painting over time, lots of lenses to consider. The land has many stories, and the aim of the project has been to uncover different layers, pair relevant music with many of the conversations, point listeners towards furthering their exploration of the stories or convos by including extensive show notes in many of the episodes. The ecosystem of the podcast is also a community of seeds planted outwards, and only time can tell what the seeds germinate.

As the main host of the podcast, I have taken the project traveling with me, housesitting, staying put for a bit in little towns across the country, staying in my home town, a remote backcountry camp at 12,000 ft on a thru hike in Colorado, farms I have visited over the years, in an outdoor kitchen on Kaua'i, and all kinds of other various locations.

I have yet to get a grant for the podcast due to the interdisciplinary nature of the project, where ecology is the main theme, but we aren't just talking to scientists or about plants every time, but also getting into the philosophy of our language to talk about each other and 'nature,' the religious-cultural influences on how we see landscapes, artists and their modern motivations, how trauma is connected to land connection, wild-tending as a lifeway and more. And without grant funding, the podcast has been mainly listener-funded or personally funded through various mediums like Patreon, Substack, and most recently some small support comes from affiliate marketing with a seed company. As a lo-fi project with little outside funding and little staff other than me, Kelly and sometimes guest co-hosts - all the work of the project is on me.

The project has often included photo diaries from visits with the people and places where the interviews take place, as another form of a 'ground shot' to capture the scene for you to learn from. I'd love to pick that piece of it back up again more - and any fundraising support helps to pay for that work to happen.

I'd love to expand the project and be able to garner creative, journalistic and technical help in the future.

I have thought about doing a gofundme or fundraiser campaign(s) for the podcast for awhile, which I've never done, and finally thought- what better time than for my 37th birthday.

I recently published a substack piece on some of the overhead breakdown of the podcast if you're interested in seeing what costs go into making it.

If you're been touched by, inspired by or learned something from the podcast over the years, as a show of gratitude, consider donating to the fundraiser to cover some of the costs of the project in this new year.

I'm starting the goal at $1,500 to begin with even though the overhead for the year is much more - and if we surpass that, great!

Thank so much ya'll,

Kelly