The Power of Place-Based Storytelling: Imagining Climate Possibilities in Your Community with Autumn Leiker

Climate Shifted

In this episode of Climate Shifted, host Eva Frye speaks with Autumn Leiker, a designer and climate artivist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. While many climate stories are doom-and-gloom, Autumn decided to ask their community a different question: considering the realities of the climate crisis, what world do you actually want to live in? This simple but powerful question became Into the Unknown Together, a beautiful anthology of stories, recipes, and art from the people of New Mexico. This work is powerful because when we get out of the limiting fear mindset and into creative ideation, when we imagine the world we do want, we actually start to build it.

Autumn had never published a book or run a contest before—but they showed that any of us can create something meaningful in our own communities.

Discover why listening matters more than telling, how stories are humanity's most powerful tool for creating change, and the practical steps any of us can take to inspire climate imagination in our own communities. Because when we tell new stories about our climate future, we imagine the pathways for living into them.

FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE

Key Topics Covered

The Power of Place-Based, Community Storytelling

• Why stories are humanity's tool for creating change and new worlds
• How climate stories can move beyond apocalyptic doom to inspire imagination
• Making abstract climate issues personally relevant through place-based narratives
• The role of artists and storytellers as "new world midwives"

Building Climate Imagination

• Moving from "what we don't want" to "what we do want" in climate futures
• Why utopian thinking isn't the goal—complex, realistic visions are
• Balancing grief and joy in climate work
• Processing the full spectrum of climate emotions through creative expression

Community-Centered Approach

• How Autumn approached their project as an anthropologist and listener
• The importance of amplifying local voices rather than imposing outside ideas
• Creating space for diverse perspectives and first-time contributors
• Building projects that reflect the actual ecology and culture of a place

Practical Project Building

• How to start a community storytelling project from scratch
• Navigating grants, outreach, and building without institutional backing
• The power of commissioning alongside open submissions
• Making projects accessible and beautiful to draw people in

Standout Quotes

"We are the storytelling animal... Everything is a story that someone has imagined, so the world that we're living in today and all the systems that we are living in, for better or worse, they are all something that someone imagined at some point."

"When writers create new stories, they open up pathways that we can also live into... it is how we can create new worlds."

"If we don't try to start imagining what we do want and then how to get there, then it's never going to happen."

"Being on the right side of history doesn't necessarily mean we're going to make it... but I want to be on the right side of things, and I want to help others engage with that as well."

"I so want more people to do this. Please take the idea, do whatever you want with it, change it, do it in your communities."

Featured Resources

Autumn's Project:

• Into the Unknown Together - Climate anthology for and by the people of New Mexico
• Autumn's Portfolio - Design and climate storytelling work

Influences & Inspiration:

• Adrienne Maree Brown - Visionary fiction author and activist who inspired the project
• Jamie Figueroa's "Prophecies of Possibility" for Emergence Magazine
• Anonymous Was A Woman Environmental Art Grant - Funded the project

Essential Reading Mentioned:

• Ursula K. Le Guin - Science fiction author who explored creating new worlds and systems
• Robin Wall Kimmerer - Blends science with indigenous wisdom (highly recommended in audiobook)
• David Abrams - "The Spell of the Sensuous" on animism and written language
• Norma Wong - Activist and community organizer

Organizations & Collaborators Mentioned

• Emergence Magazine - Featured Jamie Figueroa's essay referenced in the book
• Zoe Young - Writer and collaborator who keeps Autumn going in this work
• Local New Mexico libraries - Recipients of free book copies
• Community contributors - Over 100 submissions from local residents

Key Themes Explored

Grief and Joy as Climate Tools

• How our capacity for joy maps directly to our ability to feel grief
• Processing climate emotions without getting stuck in fear or bypassing to optimism
• Creating space for the full spectrum of human experience in climate work

Place-Based Climate Action

• Why local, ecological storytelling resonates more than abstract global messaging
• Understanding your community before trying to create change
• The importance of being "people of our ecologies" in climate adaptation

Creative Climate Communication

• Listen before creating anything, and amplify local voices
• Use beauty and curiosity to draw people into difficult conversations
• Create accessible entry points through diverse formats (stories, recipes, art, poetry)

Juicy Bits: Key Takeaways for Climate Communicators

1. Listen first, create second - Spend time understanding your community before launching any project
2. You don't need permission - Autumn had no experience but started anyway and created something beautiful
3. Embrace emotional complexity - Hold space for grief, hope, anger, and joy simultaneously
4. Make it local and personal - Place-based storytelling works because it speaks to people's actual lives
5. Stories create pathways - When we imagine better futures, we make them more possible
6. Focus on what you want - Move from fighting against to building toward
7. Process matters as much as output - How you treat contributors becomes part of world-building

Call to Action

Which story or voice does your community need to hear? What world are you helping them imagine?

Support Autumn's Work:

• Purchase "Into the Unknown Together" at intotheunknowntogether.com
• Request a free copy for your community organization
• Adapt their model for your own place-based storytelling project

Connect with Climate Shifted:

• Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts
• Follow @climateshifted on all social media platforms
• Share this episode with anyone interested in creative climate communication
• Consider supporting our volunteer team through Substack for Episode Insight Digests

Credits

• Executive Producer & Host: Eva Frye
• Technical Producer: Mateus Salgado
• Audio Engineer: Gianna Scioletti
• Project Management: Sarah Clayton
• Advisers: Ryan Shuken, Ashley Chapman, Chris Clark