Listening Deeply in a Climate-Changed World with Peterson Toscano

Grounding: How do you stay grounded when facing climate chaos? For many, the journey begins with listening.

This episode opens with Jessica David reflecting on how grounding practices can help us remain present and compassionate in a world shaped by climate disruption. She’s joined by podcast producer and longtime BTS Center collaborator Peterson Toscano, who invites listeners into an immersive sonic experience. Through a guided soundscape meditation, Peterson helps us attune our ears — and our hearts — to the world around us.

Main Practice: In this practice-based episode, Peterson shares his love of sound and his approach to listening as a grounding ritual. He encourages us to let go of labeling, to listen without judgment, and to experience sound as connection — to place, to others, and ourselves. By tuning in to the textures and rhythms of daily life, we can awaken to the more-than-human world and our role within it.

Key themes include:

• Reframing “background noise” as presence and meaning
• Listening as an act of compassion and embodied awareness
• How recording sound (even casually) heightens attention
• Soundscapes as spiritual companions

This episode features a short soundscape, recorded and led by Peterson, to help listeners practice listening deeply. Whether you’re familiar with contemplative practices or new to them, this is an invitation to pause, notice, and reconnect. 

For the best experience, we recommend using headphones or earbuds. 

Next Steps: Try your own soundscape meditation — no fancy equipment required. Sit still and listen. Or take a gentle walk with your phone’s voice memo app.

Share your experience with us: Email: [e-mail] Text or Call: 207-200-6986

Explore additional grounding practices in the upcoming episodes with Madeline Bugeau-Heartt and Jessica David.

Meet the Guest: Peterson Toscano is a performance artist, climate communicator, and the producer of the Climate Changed podcast. He brings playfulness, vulnerability, and storytelling to conversations about faith and climate. Through sound, satire, and personal narrative, he helps listeners discover unexpected ways to connect with the climate-changed world. Listen to more experiments with sound on Peterson’s personal podcast, Bubble and Squeak.

This episode is part of our Behind the Scenes edition — a mini-series offering spiritual and embodied practices from The BTS Center’s team. Learn more at: thebtscenter.org

Episode Transcript

>> Jessica David (00:00):
I'm Jessica David, a Harvard Divinity School student

(00:03):
and an intern at the BTS center.
And this is the climate change podcast
behind the Scenes Edition.
Hello, friends. I need to know,
how do you stay grounded when it comes to our climate
catastrophe, especially when you're feeling
overwhelmed, bewildered, and dispirited by

(00:23):
it? In the next few episodes of our behind
the Scenes Edition, we'll be guided through a
contemplative or embodied practice
developed and delivered to you with love by a member
of our team. In this
episode, our producer, Peterson Toscano is
going to guide us through a practice.

(00:49):
So welcome Peterson, on the other side of the
microphone today.
So before we get into the specifics, tell
me, what were your intentions for this practice?

>> Peterson Toscano (01:02):
When I thought about this question, I thought about like, someone
getting married and asking for someone's hand in
marriage and the parents saying, and what are your
intentions? But actually
it's not very far off. It does, right? But
it's not far off. My intention with this practice is to help
listeners deepen their relationship with the
world of sound.

>> Jessica David (01:24):
Mhm.

>> Peterson Toscano (01:25):
And all the sounds around them. And
not just hear, but to really
listen. I feel that so much of what we
call background noise is actually alive
with meaning, motion, and presence,
but we tune it out and we have to actually,
our brains have to do that so we can
function. I live in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, and

(01:47):
when I talk about the trains that interrupt my recording
sessions, people often say, wow, I don't even
notice the train anymore. They've blocked
it out. So my goal is to invite us back into
that awareness, to step outside of ourselves for a moment
and immerse in a sonic world we're part
of but rarely attend to.

>> Jessica David (02:08):
Oh, uh. As someone who also lives near the train tracks, I
have to say I have really loved that because
the train doesn't come by here that often.
And so it's enough that that when it happens, I
notice it and it's just this little moment of, oh,
something is happening. These people are going by my. By
my house on their way to and from somewhere.

>> Peterson Toscano (02:28):
And depending on the time of year and the
weather, sometimes the train sounds closer
than it is. And I actually live in an old railroad station
where a train doesn't come by, but I think of it as like a ghost
train coming by because it sounds so close
sometimes.

>> Jessica David (02:43):
Oh, no way. We're going to have to talk about that.
I have many questions. So what guidance would you offer
me and the listeners before we get started with
your practice?

>> Peterson Toscano (02:53):
Hmm. Mhm.
Okay. I would Say, let go of any
expectations of understanding what you
hear. You don't have to say like, that's a, that,
that's a. That. You may identify it, it just may be a
weird noise. Just listen. And then
as you're listening, I'm gonna encourage you to notice where
the sounds are showing up. Are they on your left,

(03:14):
on your right, behind you? As
you listen, your ear can actually pick out the
location. If it's close, if it's far,
you'll listen for rhythm, texture, any
patterns. And you're not trying to actually
solve anything. This isn't about mindfulness in the sense
of clearing your mind. It's about filling your
mind with sound. So let it wash

(03:37):
over you. Let it surprise you. Listen with
curiosity, okay?

>> Jessica David (03:42):
All right, listeners, here we go.

>> Peterson Toscano (03:44):
Here we go.
Okay, listener, if you really want to discover
the world of sound around you, start

(04:06):
recording a podcast. Because
suddenly you hear everything. You
realize how loud your world is. Every random
sound, small, loud, that's in your house, in
your neighborhood, even in your own body.
Suddenly you're so aware of that.
When I travel, I take

(04:26):
photos. Of course, I love taking photos. But I also take
audio recordings and I call them
sound slices. And I use these
at the end of my show called Bubble and Squeak.
And through this practice, I've discovered
something really important. The, ah, world is
definitely full of sounds, more than I expected.

(04:47):
And some of these delight me. Others
annoy the heck out of me, or they used
to. At first I just wanted to record
pristine nature sounds. You know, birds,
winds in the trees, maybe some water
flowing gently in the distance. But then

(05:19):
I'm like, that's not what I was going for. And I thought,
they're ruining it. They're ruining this moment. Let me start over.
I'll cut that out. But I've learned to
let that go and to listen with
different ears. These, uh, sounds are
part of the tapestry.
Every time and place has its own specific

(05:40):
soundscape. And most sounds
I hear represent life,
represent a living being, even the man
made ones. There's a driver in that truck,
person who installed that humming air conditioner.
We're all nature. We fill the
world with sound. I'm going to share

(06:01):
one of my sound slices with you. While you listen. I invite you
to notice what you hear in your right ear,
your left ear, which sounds are nearer,
which are farther away. Can you pick out individual
sounds then let them just weave
together? Notice how they create a
kind of sonic quilt, a collective

(06:22):
experience. Right now. Just put
all your attention into listening.

(06:49):
It

(07:13):
m.
It's

(07:34):
M. Mhm.

(08:38):
It's

(09:10):
Sam.
M,

(09:40):
M,

(10:22):
M,

(10:43):
M.

>> Jessica David (11:19):
Peterson said this was fascinating. I know that this is
just a taste. What else could
we do to ground ourselves, uh, in this, in this
work?

>> Peterson Toscano (11:32):
Yeah. Well, this is an easy one because you
can take it with you and do it on your own. You definitely
don't need a fancy setup. You can record
on your phone. You don't have to record, but I actually encourage
you to consider recording because as soon
as you start recording, I don't know what it is, you just started
noticing more. So just turn it

(11:52):
on, sit still for a few minutes, or walk
gently or wherever you are. And it could
be during a walk, a commute, even while you're
cooking. Just a moment, but you're
paying attention to the sound. If you're driving, please also
pay attention to driving. And, uh, what's nice is you
can then listen back and you'll almost always hear

(12:13):
something you missed the first time. Or
you'll notice patterns in a way you didn't notice the first
time. It's a way of returning, of
noticing what we usually overlook.
And the more you practice, the more you'll start to
hear the world differently. You'll be able to
differentiate where the sounds are coming from
and how far away, and you'll open

(12:35):
up your heart. Is the, uh, goal to listen more fully
and more compassionately?
So the call to action, I
guess, or inaction, is to take a
moment to listen to the world around you, to the
voices, human and non human speaking.
Rustling, humming. Life

(12:55):
abounds in every creak, clank,
chirp and sigh.

>> Jessica David (13:01):
Beautiful. Lovely.
This is a hard practice for me, I think, because
I am, as I admitted in
the first episode, I'm someone who
lives in my head and lives in words.
And so
listening requires letting go of

(13:22):
words and letting go of the
sense that I can control the sounds
I'm hearing or I can label them neatly.
But you also, you miss so many things
when you're caught up in the words
and what you're really inviting us into. I think Peterson
is taking that all

(13:44):
in, whatever it is.

>> Peterson Toscano (13:46):
Yeah. And as we've talked about already in the first episode, and
I imagine Madeline will talk about in the
next one, it is an embodied practice because
our ears are part of our bodies and physical things
happen when we hear. And we can even
feel it in our bodies if, uh, sounds are loud
enough. For sure.

>> Jessica David (14:06):
Yeah. And I think we feel ourselves
differently too. We experience ourselves and our place
in this. You use the word soundscape, which I
love now we're part of this bigger. This bigger,
bigger, bigger, expanding place.

>> Peterson Toscano (14:21):
Yeah.

>> Jessica David (14:22):
Thank you.

>> Peterson Toscano (14:22):
Yeah, you're very welcome. Thank you for the chance to share this. I
love, I love sound and so I love sharing
sounds that I have found through the years.

>> Jessica David (14:31):
Well, thank you, Peterson, and, uh, thanks for all your
work on the podcast. Of course.
Listeners, it's your turn now. What did you
think? Tell us about your experience
with this listening soundscape
practice or any other practice that brings
you strength and peace. Email

(14:52):
us@, uh,
podcasthebtscenter.org
that address again is
podcastabtscenter.org
or you can leave a voicemail at
207-200-6986.
Again, that's
207-200-6986.

(15:17):
You can also text that number
207-2006.
However you do it, we would love to hear from you.
For more on this and any other episodes,
please visit climate changed
podcast, uh.org that
website again is climate changed

(15:39):
podcast.org thank you for listening to the
Climate Change Podcast behind the Scenes edition
with me, Jessica David. Coming up in our
next episode, Madeline Bugeau Hart is
going to join us with another practice. Special
thanks to Peterson for guiding us through today's practice
and producing this episode and all of

(16:00):
the work on, um, climate change. Thanks to
Nicole Deeroff, uh, for your assistance and support.
Climate Changed Podcast is a project of the
BTS center in beautiful Portland, Maine.
Learn about the many resources we offer along with
our in person and online programs. Visit

(16:21):
our website,
vbtscenter.org
that's vbtscenter.org
Take Good Care, my friends.