Episode 5 | A Conversation with Jaime González

We are so lucky to know incredible people. I hope you heard Barry’s song last week and Casey’s poem. This week, we are joined by Jaime González, an environmental educator and conservationist. He is in a field directly impacted by some of the cuts to funding and personnel in the last weeks, yet he continues to try to navigate the space with an open mind. Jaime is a bridge builder, someone interested in finding common ground. The most basic shared aspect of our humanity is that we share this planet, we breathe the same air, and on any given Sunday, you will find an incredible cross section of Houston’s diverse population using our public parks. He gives us some great perspective on how the divisiveness we face gets in the way of connecting across shared values. He also encourages us to consider ourselves as part of the natural world, such that we realize the impact of everything we do on everyone and everything around us. We are connected to a much more extensive biodiversity network than our human selves. For Jaime, conservation work is rooted in science, personal values, and spirituality. It is about so much more than just the self. The undoing of certain groups and policies will have long-term impacts…and we can still keep doing small repeatable acts in accordance with our values. We are so grateful to Jaime for joining us.