The Galactic Cow: Conversations about teaching, the Universe, and everything
Have you ever imagined what role teaching and learning could play in the evolution of our species? Or how teaching and learning might change as we change, or reflect changes we need to make? If these questions resonate with you, or make you curious or excited, we want you to start conversations where you are too! In Season 1, we're going to explore how teaching, learning, and education might transform to reflect our changing needs as humans, and how we exist together.
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Public Love in Education
07/17/2025
Public Love in Education
If you are an educator, chances are things are feeling pretty grim. And honestly, the educational landscape IS bleak right now, but don't lose hope - this is the time for us to put our imaginations into overdrive and consider what comes next. In this episode, Dr. Pui-Yan Lam joins me to pull on some of last season's conversational threads about love in education, and what the presence of love in the classroom means. Join us for a deep discussion about love in education, what the absence of love has created, and how love as a common good might change education. References Daniels, Em (2022) Show Notes theme music: composed and performed by (, , ) thanks friend! editing & production: emareena (who is relieved this is mostly listenable) logo: emareena, who loves Galactica very much website: galacticcow.com and, occasionally, on
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Kindness, Learning, and Higher Ed
07/02/2025
Kindness, Learning, and Higher Ed
Seeking or offering kindness in higher ed can feel, at best, incredibly risky. But for those of us feeling despondent about teaching and learning in such unkind spaces, Dr. Cate Denial has words of wisdom and encouragement. Kindness is a missing element in almost every area of higher ed, but turning toward each other, imagining and creating different experiences of teaching and learning, is one way we counter that unkindness. References , (2024) , Emergent Strategy (2017) and Holding Change (2021) , What It Takes to Heal (2025) Show Notes theme music: composed and performed by (, , ) thanks friend! editing & production: emareena (who is relieved this is mostly listenable) logo: emareena, who loves Galactica very much website: and occasionally
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Welcome to Season 2: Our Relationship with Learning
06/25/2025
Welcome to Season 2: Our Relationship with Learning
If you are interested in our relationship to learning, and how that relationship impacts our lives, and humanity as a whole, this is the podcast for you! This season, emareena hosts a series of educators and practitioners in talking about our relationship with learning, and how it impacts our lives. The conversations dig into so many juicy questions, including "What is generosity in teaching?" "What are trauma-responsive principles in education?" "Why does accountability matter for educators?" "What is the most difficult aspect of practicing kindness in higher ed?" "Why is higher ed is such an unkind place?" What are your thoughts on these questions? What questions do you have about our relationship to learning? How it impacts who we are as humans? Let me know in the comments and I'll pick a few to talk about later in the season. As always, Galactica and I will be dreaming with you in the stars.
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Liminal Spaces: Teaching to Transgress
05/24/2024
Liminal Spaces: Teaching to Transgress
In Fall 2023, I gave a talk at the second annual Higher Ed in Prison conference organized by the Tennessee Board of Regents, as part of their work with the Tenneesee Higher Education in Prison Initiative. This was the first keynote I gave outside of the Pacific Northwest region and I thoroughly appreciate the experience. I am learning that each time I am asked to stretch into something new or unfamiliar, my work gets stronger. I understand it better, how it connects in so many unexpected and unexplored directions. We are bound by our unresolved trauma, our untended grief, in so many ways. We are also bound by joy, love, creative endeavor, and care. A spiritual teacher once said told me that the constant tension between the One and the Many is a Divine Dichotomy and that feels truer and truer everyday. I often wonder if balancing our connections between joy and anguish are also part of that Divine Dichotomy. Connecting in only one way or the other denies us the full experience of our humanity, but honoring them equally can seem an impossibility. We spent the majority of our time in a short workshop, so I’ve included only my opening and closing remarks. As this was a conference about higher ed in prison, my talk was directed to corrections educators, and currently and formerly incarcerated scholars and teachers, but its message is applicable in all learning spaces.
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Building Emerging Consciousness Cultures
08/07/2023
Building Emerging Consciousness Cultures
Welcome to Episode 8, the final epsiode of Season 1! Our hope this season has been to start a different conversation about what learning and teaching might be, and we think that is happening. But as often as we say we don't have any 'final' answers, we also want to know how practitioners apply these ideas to how they already teach, or bring them in as fresh perspectives. This episode features our interview with Omar Marquez, a sociologist, tenured faculty at Everett Community College, and a good friend. Most of the episode is Omar answering our prompts, so we've included the time codes & questions so you can listen to the bits that you find most intriguing. We hope you find the interview as compelling as we did, and that you'll join us for Season 2. Until then, joyous learning ♥ Interview questions & time codes 10:11 - 20:47 Why do you consider language so critical in building classroom culture? How does language help or obstruct learning? 22:18 - 37:06 Why is bringing our own full selves into the classroom so important? How does it impact our relationship with students and their relationships with each other? How does being our full selves help us engage with complexity? 38:12 - 48:15 How do you approach teaching meaning making & building connection, for both yourself and your students? References Our main influence in this episode is , author of (our favorite of his books), and our guide in the work of somatic abolition, embodiment, and . We didn't do a full episode on Resmaa's work this season but it is in the plan for Season 2. Resmaa's work on culture building and somatic abolition have influenced us both deeply, and we consider our work an effort to bring these practices into learning and teaching. We agree with Resmaa that , but for the good of the world. Production theme music: composed and performed by (on the interwebs , , ) thanks friend! writing: ambar & emareena editing & production: (who is relieved this is mostly listenable) artwork: emareena, who loves Galactica very much, and will be occasionally posting on
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Grief Changes Everything
07/18/2023
Grief Changes Everything
Of all of the topics we considered for this first season, grief was not one of them. It didn't become a contender until a few days before we started prepping the episode. The Abolition X pod had been in the back of my mind all season and it would not go away, so I asked ambar if we could talk about grief, instead of the topic we had on deck. We started researching and writing, and the episode just...took us over. Grief in education is almost entirely unexplored, but it inhabits the space completely, and that includes our bodies, hearts, and minds. Neither of us had any idea the episode would be as powerful for us as it was, and it is our hope that you will share that experience with us. References pod: , and pod: both with Richie Reseda We’re using the chapter “To Give Your Hands to Freedom, First Give Them to Grief” by Malkia Devich-Cyril, from () Finally, we have been touching the edges of , and Safety (), curated by by Cara Page and Erica Woodland. Ambar called in Aurora Levins Morales’ forward and it’s fire. Production theme music: composed and performed by (on the interwebs , , ) thanks friend! writing: ambar & emareena editing & production: (who is relieved this is mostly listenable) artwork: emareena, who loves Galactica very much, and will be occasionally posting on
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Embodied Love in Teaching
06/29/2023
Embodied Love in Teaching
Are you feeling alone and isolated at the front of your classroom? Disconnected from your students, your colleagues, maybe even yourself? Teaching has become a pretty isolated place and connecting with students feels more and more difficult. But what if we could have a practical conversation about love in education? How would bringing love and compassion to the front and center of teaching and learning transform our experience and education itself? Join us as we relisten to with in and with on the (E32) for their guidance on love, vulnerability, risk, and change. Additional References , using our voice & our love are those weapons. bell hooks: and Solomon Burke, Production theme music: composed and performed by (on the interwebs , , ) thanks friend! editing & production: emareena (who is relieved this is mostly listenable) artwork: also emareena, who loves Galactica very much, and will be occasionally posting on
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Boundaries, Embodiment, and Expansion
06/14/2023
Boundaries, Embodiment, and Expansion
We are finally dropping an episode about the thing no one wants to talk about - boundaries in teaching! If you are like me, boundaries are confusing enough in my personal life, let alone in the classroom, and there is almost ZERO info on setting boundaries in higher ed (or really any classrooms)! As teachers, we are constantly being bombarded by demands to set better boundaries or to not be so rigid, and it can bring up issues of shame and feeling not enough. Join us as we relisten to one of most popular episodes, Boundaried in Love, with . Prentis is one of our emerging consciousness leaders in embodiment and somatics work, visioning, and facilitation. A collection of their work can , and their . We don't have a magical solution, but we are offering a different way to think about boundaries, as well as some starting points to consider, so give us a listen and let us know what you think. References Emergent Strategy podcast, Daniel Lim “” Alexis Shevrin “ adrienne maree brown “” Production theme music: composed and performed by (on the interwebs , , ) thanks friend! editing & production: emareena (who is relieved this is mostly listenable) artwork: also emareena, who loves Galactica very much, and will be occasionally posting on
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Bodies, Shame, and Learning
05/23/2023
Bodies, Shame, and Learning
Are you tired of being a brain in a jar? A content dispensary? Do you long for a different way to teach and learn, one that welcomes and embraces you and your students in all your full, radiant humanity? We want that too! In this episode, emareena & ambar discuss radical self love and how its presence could transform our experience of teaching and learning. What do you think would change if we embraced the necessity of radical self love as educators? Reference material Unlocking Us, with Sonja Renee Taylor: Unlocking Us, with Tarana Burke: Offline with Jon Favreau: Additional good stuffs: Sonja Renee Taylor: and quote on bodily hierarchy and white women Tarana Burke: Laura Bates: Dr. Carey Yazeed: Ginwright, S. (2022). . CA: North Atlantic Books. Just because: Lizzo Production theme music: composed and performed by (on the interwebs , , ) thanks friend! editing & production: emareena (who is relieved this is mostly listenable) artwork: also emareena, who loves Galactica very much, and will be occasionally posting on
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Nothing Changes Until We Change
05/03/2023
Nothing Changes Until We Change
Welcome to our first relisten pod! We're not quite exaggerating when we say we kind of started this podcast so we could relisten to some of our favorite and most influential thinkers, dreamers, and visionaries, and adrienne maree brown was always going to be first ♥ In this episode, we discuss two of her interviews and how her work applies to transforming teaching and learning. Join us and explore your own vision for a new way to learn and teach. Pod relistens: , S1E2 “” and “” Grace Lee Boggs and Find adrienne Book Reference: O’Neil, Cathy. (2016) Production theme music: composed and performed by (on the interwebs , , ) thanks friend! editing & production: emareena (who is relieved this is mostly listenable) artwork: also emareena, who loves Galactica very much, and will be occasionally posting on
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Moving With Hope
04/18/2023
Moving With Hope
This is our second episode talking about language and the last before we start our podcast relisten series. This week, we're discussing ability to learn, change/transformation, and practice, connecting all of these our hope for creating a new vision of teaching and learning. We know part of that work is a different way to relate to education, and that can’t happen without a reshaping of how we vision, define, and embody teaching and learning. We’re watching our systems dis-integrate, K-12, higher ed, and beyond, which means we have an opportunity to reimagine and create a system of education that is adaptable/flexible enough to reflect rapid changes in culture and society, able to provide equitable access to all learners, and balanced across learning, content, integration, collaboration, and growth If you like what you hear, make sure to Like, Subscribe, and Share. Find emareena on and . Books we referenced “Awe” () “e” () "" () "Emergent Strategy" () theme music: composed and performed by (, , ) thanks friend! editing & production: emareena (who is relieved this is mostly listenable) artwork: emareena, who loves Galactica very much, and will be occasionally posting on
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Begin at the Beginning
04/04/2023
Begin at the Beginning
Welcome to our first full episode! For this ep, our guiding questions are "How are we defining ‘teaching & learning’? How are they different from (organized) education?" In this episode, we're discussing how we define organized education, teaching, learning, and emerging consciousness. Talking about new ideas means new language, or old language used in new ways! If you like what you hear, make sure to Like, Subscribe, and Share. References “All that you touch, you change All that you change, changes you The only lasting truth is change god is change” ~ Octavia Butler “” "The principles of emergent strategy include: fractal adaptation interdependence and decentralization nonlinear and iterative change transformative justice and resilience creating more possibilities" ~adrienne maree brown “” Production theme music: composed and performed by (on the interwebs , , ) thanks friend! writing: emareena & ambar editing & production: emareena (who is relieved this is mostly listenable) artwork: also emareena, who loves Galactica very much, and will be occasionally posting on
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Meet the Galactic Cow ♥
03/20/2023
Meet the Galactic Cow ♥
we recorded this mini-episode to answer the question "why are we here?" but only for the podcast, not to cause an existential crisis! we liked the idea of introducing ourselves separately, so here we are - it was just that simple. emareena and ambar are both adult educators and are interested in how teaching and learning need to grow and expand, just as humanity needs to grow and evolve. we started our work together as part of a state-wide diversity and equity collective, and have been moving together in that space for several years. we discovered a mutual fascination with , justice, tending relationship, liberation, bell hooks, paulo friere, and joy in teaching and learning. galactic cow is a place for us to bring these ideas and more into practice, as a way to fundamentally reshape learning and teaching. references: emareena's book "" (first book about the impacts of trauma and adult learning and the first guide to teaching in prison), and the . here's the card, Dream Wide Awake (#31), and its explanation: theme music: composed and performed by (, , ) thanks friend! editing & production: emareena (who is relieved this is mostly listenable) logo: emareena, who loves Galactica very much, and will be occasionally posting on
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