Maren Morgan and Jake Marquez are on a journey to find the truth and the root of connectedness through their film, podcast series, and future book - Death in the Garden. In this episode, we unpack a lot of the stories, mythologies, narratives, and perhaps truths of what it means to be human. At the beginning, Jake and Maren lead us through the garden whether they are the physical gardens we tend, Eden, or our conception of utopia. In those gardens, they touch on concepts like consciousness, order, chaos, nature, agriculture, and beyond. Underpinning those conversations are questions like: what is the human role with earth? In a time when misanthropy runs rampant, how do we reclaim our place in the garden with the rise of AI and the machine? We unpack Jake and Maren’s past and history with food, with veganism, and whether or not eating meat imbues us with more aliveness and a sense of the sacredness of relationships. But there is no food without death and so next we unpack death and what it means to practice dying, to try to control death, to accept death, and to look at death not as an end, but as an alchemical space of transformation. Jake weaves in our own more recent mythologies, and how Harry Potter and Star Wars have become a part of our narratives around death.

We also talk about:

• Intimacy with food
• the Hero’s Journey
• and so much more!

Timestamps: 

00:07:24: the Death in the Garden Project and Being ‘In Process’

00:17:52: Heterodox Thinking and Developing a Compass for Truth

00:25:21: “The Garden”

00:48:46: Misanthropy + Our Human Relationship to Earth

01:06:49: Jake + Maren’s Backstories // the Hero’s Journey

01:18:14: Death in Our Current Culture

01:31:47: Practicing Dying 

01:46:51: Intimacy with Food 

02:08:46: the Latent Villain Archetype and Controlling Death: Darth Vader meets Voldemort

02:21:40: Support the Film

Find Jake and Maren:

Substack

Death in the Garden Film + Podcast

IG: @deathinthegarden

Jake IG: @arqetype.media

Maren IG: @onyxmoonlight

Selected Works from Jake and Maren:

The Terrible and the Tantalizing Essay

We Are Only Passing Through Essay

Resources Mentioned:

Daniel Quinn

The Wild Edge of Sorrow by Frances Weller

Where is the Edge of Me? By Nora Bateson 

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Fall of Civilization Podcast

Current Discounts for MBS listeners:

• 15% off Farm True ghee and body care products using code: KATEKAV15
• 20% off Home of Wool using code KATEKAVANAUGH for 10% off
• 15% off Bon Charge blue light blocking gear using code: MINDBODYSOIL15

Join the Ground Work Collective:

Find a Farm: nearhome.groundworkcollective.com

Find Kate: @kate_kavanaugh

More: groundworkcollective.com

Podcast disclaimer can be found by visiting: groundworkcollective.com/disclaimer