Our Common Nature

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Episodes

Hawai‘i: Yo-Yo Ma and the Whales

Yo-Yo Ma has wanted to use his cello to communicate with whales for years. And, in Hawai’i he got a chance. With help from the Polyneisan Voyaging Society and hula master Snowbird Bento, Yo-Yo learns about the ancient art of Hawaiian chant, what one Hawaiian describes to him as their “contribution to the orchestra of the world.”

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Hawai‘i: Yo-Yo Ma on Moloka‘i

On the island of Molokaʻi in Hawaii, we trace the spiritual power of mana, from a sacred grove to the Kalaupapa colony, where music, story, and Yo-Yo Ma’s performance honor the resilience and memory of those who came before.

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West Virginia: Yo-Yo Ma and West Virginia Coal

West Virginia is defined by its beauty and its coal, two things that can work against each other. Yo-Yo Ma felt this as soon as stepped foot in its hills. This episode explores how music and poetry help process the emotions of a community besieged with disaster and held together by pride, duty, and love.

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Alaska: Yo-Yo Ma and the Gwich’in play for the salmon

This episode begins in Fairbanks, AK. Yo-Yo Ma is at a house concert with drag queen environmentalist Pattie Gonia, singer/songwriter Quinn Christopherson and Princess Daazhraii Johnson, a writer and filmmaker from the Gwich’in Nation. They were all performing to help their communities process the negative effects of climate change in Alaska.

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The Smokies: Mountains and Forgotten Family with Yo-Yo Ma

In the Great Smoky Mountains, traditions layer and intersect. Yo-Yo Ma believes that story and song can help us grapple with America’s complicated history. This episode highlights two stories of people who are reclaiming their connections to their homelands.

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About

When the world stopped in 2020, cellist Yo-Yo Ma started thinking about how music can reconnect people to nature. In this limited podcast series, Yo-Yo travels around the country to make music and meet people who have deep connections to the earth. Host Ana González joins him to uncover stories of the ways that culture binds us to nature, from Maine to Appalachia and Hawaii.

The result is a seven-episode series that fuses music, personal narratives, and local histories from across the United States. We travel into the world's largest cave to hear the Louisville symphony orchestra perform. In Hawai‘i, an elder says her “chants are our contribution to the human orchestra of the world.” And the Wabanaki teach us about their duty to welcome the sun each day in Maine. For Yo-Yo Ma, who has spent most of his career indoors, a connection to the natural world is “what doesn’t exist in my life, that I know is missing.” Our Common Nature helps to bridge the gap – for Yo-Yo and for all of us.

Our Common Nature is a production of WNYC and Sound Postings.