In the small village of Bermatingen, Germany, I sat down to talk with a young man named Immanuel Kögler, who had attended my house concert at Matthieu and Isabel’s the previous night. In our far reaching conversation about music, technology, and society, I learned something about Immanuel’s childhood that may have contributed to the beautiful quality of wonder and openness that radiates from him.

There’s some rumbling breeze on the microphone at the beginning, but it soon gives way to birdsong. And the episode is long; if you need to listen in two sittings, there’s a natural break at 36:00. But it’s really worth it to get to the end, so be sure to come back!

EPISODE 3: Music, Technology, and Society

In order to solve the climate crisis, we must now start acting together, not just doing good deeds individually. Recognizing this, the global Transition Towns movement (Transition for short) seeks to rally entire towns and neighborhoods around the cause of environmental, social, and economic sustainability. In 2012, I did a musical tour of Transition Towns, and in 2016, gave a concert at the home of Rob Hopkins, the movement’s founder, in Totnes, England.

On my current tour, I returned to Totnes to explore with Hopkins the relationship between music and activism. Our conversation was short (33 minutes), but full of inspiring ideas about how rehumanizing music can help rehumanize our world.

EPISODE 4: Music and Activism—A Conversation with Rob Hopkins, Founder of Transition Towns

EPISODE 5: Make Our Own Culture—A Conversation with Elizabeth Simpson

In 2011, I organized my first tour of in-home cultural gatherings. In over sixty living rooms, kitchens, and bedrooms across nine countries, there were concerts, salons, potluck dinners, theater performances, poetry readings, singalongs, kids’ events, jam sessions, cooking workshops, and music classes. I called it the “Make Our Own Culture Tour.”

That journey provided inspiration for the three annual Toronto Festivals of House Culture. I define House Culture as the act of taking things we normally do alone, online, or at commercial venues, and instead doing them together, face-to-face, and at each other’s homes. Homes provide a special intimacy for creative gatherings, but there are many ways and places we can take culture into our own hands and remake it to meet our true needs.

One of the most accomplished instigators of home events and other DIY culture I know is the grassroots activist and community builder Elizabeth Simpson. In this conversation, she shares much wisdom about how any of us can create (and sustain) empowering cultural happenings in our own communities. The episode focuses especially on the weekly in-home dance parties she founded in 2018. 

Let’s reclaim music and dancing from corporate venues and media conglomerates! For more on Beth’s projects, visit:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/cudancefloor/and 
https://kam.illinois.edu/event/we-wanna-woke-community-justice-song-circle, 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XMrO_-JudMuBgN6bei8i4i8-i8VDFMej/view, and 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/wewannawoke, 
or contact her directly: elizacorps@gmail.com

EPISODE 5: Make Our Own Culture, a Conversation with Elizabeth Simpson

I filmed myself reading the last main chapter in my forthcoming book "Eating Music: Ten Ways to Reverse the Commodification of Music and Restore its Sacred Place in Our Lives." The chapter is called Respect, and it's about ways we can have a more respectful relationship with music. I did the reading in six parts. Here is the first part, audio only. It has three sections: Stories of Respect, Fun, and Spirit.

To watch or download the video versions of all six parts of the chapter, go to https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1x4e4N9uY6kVS_grW42eZC14k_bvXrgu7?usp=sharing

Respect Part 1: Stories Of Respect. Fun. Spirit.

This is the home of my Rehumanize Music podcast, a series of conversations I'll have during my spring 2019 Rehumanize Music Tour, about the place of music in our lives. To subscribe, email me: pianotroubadour@gmail.com. I'll send you a link for each new episode. There won't be more than ten over the spring, and you can opt out at any time. I'll be visiting some very interesting people——such as Rob Hopkins (founder of the Transition Towns movement), Carl Honoré (leading proponent of the global Slow movement), and Matt Sage (founder of Oxford's Catweazle Club)——and talking with them about the role of music in healthy lives and communities. I'll also be asking people everywhere I go about their media consumption habits and how we can all discover a more meaningful and fulfilling relationship to music amidst our overwhelmingly fast, consumerist, globalized, digitized culture. To be part of an online conversation about the topic, join facebook.com/groups/rehumanizemusic. Thanks! - Michael Holt

Rehumanize Music Podcast