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Resilient by Nature Podcast

Welcome to Resilient by Nature – a new podcast from The Resilience Institute that brings powerful stories of people and place to the forefront of the climate conversation. Each episode highlights how communities are rising to meet the challenges of our changing world with creativity and courage. Season 1 is off to a story-rich start, offering listeners a compelling blend of lived experience, Indigenous knowledge, climate science, and local innovation. 

Listen and learn about the creative people, unique climate issues, and innovative thinking that builds climate resilience.

Click below to listen or subscribe to the podcast on your favourite streaming platform.

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Latest Episodes

Eight Days Rain for the Nama People

This episode brings these worlds together: the scientist and the storyteller, the measurable and the mythical. Through the work of two researchers—separated by half a century but connected by the same stretch of desert—we glimpse how resilience is written not only in data, but in the imagination of those who call the desert home.

Libby’s Story – A Plume of Black Smoke

This episode features excerpts from an interview with Libby Elliot, former fire fighter turned social worker. You’ll hear what it was like to be firefighter during one of the worst fire seasons in Canadian history, and how those firefighters reacted when their own homes burn down, too. From lived experience, Libby answers the question – what does resilience really mean when faced with disaster?

Ayo, It’s Possible – Sweetgrass & Piikani Youth Perspectives

Hear from Thomas Peters, a Piikani youth with big dreams and a deep connection to the land. This episode explores the use of Sweetgrass in the Piikani community, Indigenous youth leadership, and environmental collaboration.

Bison and Climate Change

Meet Mitchel Janvier, a young Indigenous leader from Anzac, Alberta, and bison expert Wes Olson. Their insights into bison ecology and climate change weave a moving narrative of reconnection, stewardship, and hope for the future.

Fire and Ice

Journey to the Wood Buffalo Region of northeastern Alberta, where residents reflect on the aftermath of the devastating Horse River Fire. Learn how TRI’s Fire & Ice program helped a small community cohort heal, reconnect, and build resilience through shared experience.

To Sponsor a Podcast Episode contact outreach@resilienceinstitute.ca
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Laura Stewart

Board Member

Laura Stewart is the Community Wildfire Resilience Coordinator with Forsite Fire, supporting communities across Canada with wildfire risk assessments, mitigation planning, and program delivery. She has more than a decade of experience advancing wildfire resilience at Indigenous, municipal, provincial/territorial, and national levels. Previously, Laura served nearly eleven years as Alberta’s Provincial FireSmart Specialist, leading community, WUI, neighbourhood, and Home Ignition Zone programs, coordinating funding, and partnering with communities and fire services across the province. She has also served as Board Chair with both the Partners in Protection Association (FireSmart Canada) and the Community Wildfire Resilience Association of Alberta.

 

Sara Walsh, PhD

Board Member

Sara Walsh, PhD, is a disaster risk reduction and climate resilience specialist with more than 15 years of experience spanning Canada, Nepal, the Middle East, and North Africa. Until November 2025, she served as Thematic Lead for Climate and Resilience with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), where she supported Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to strengthen their climate and risk reduction work across the region. Sara currently works as a freelance consultant with the United Nations, governments, and humanitarian organizations on recovery, risk governance, and community-based resilience. She teaches at a Canadian university and holds a PhD in Disaster Risk Reduction. Her work emphasizes anticipatory action, equity, and bridging research with practice to shape more resilient and sustainable futures.

Alison Criscitiello

Board Member

Alison Criscitiello, PhD, is an ice core scientist and high-altitude mountaineer who explores the history of climate and sea ice in polar and high-alpine regions using ice core chemistry. Alison’s work also focuses on environmental contaminant histories in ice cores from the Canadian high Arctic and the water towers of the Canadian Rockies. In 2010, she led the first all-women’s ascent of Lingsarmo, a 22,818-foot peak in the Indian Himalaya. Alison has earned three American Alpine Club (AAC) climbing awards, the John Lauchlan and Mugs Stump alpine climbing awards, as well as the first Ph.D. in Glaciology ever conferred by MIT. She is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab at the University of Alberta. She is the co-founder of Girls on Ice Canada.