Updated: October 16, 2026 In Season 4, one of our guests was psychotherapist Francis Weller. He’s a renowned and once-trusted practitioner who deepened our understanding of grief and collective healing. Our podcast team is now aware that Francis also abused his power and position to take advantage of students and clients. Becoming more human in a more-than-human world includes acting with integrity and honoring each others’ wholeness. We lament Francis’ pattern of abusive behavior, and we recommit to examining our own power and privilege as providers of spiritual care. On October 15, 2026, we shared a piece on our Substack with reflection questions that invite spiritual leaders to examine their own relationship to accountability and power. You can find that atsubstack.com/@thebtscenter.

What if it doesn’t get better anytime soon? • Francis Weller + Autumn Brown

In this episode of Climate Changed, Autumn Brown speaks with psychotherapist, writer, and soul activist Francis Weller about grief, ritual, imagination, and what he calls “the long dark.”

Francis invites us to consider that the climate-changed world is not a short crisis with a quick resolution. It is a generational passage that asks for patience, restraint, communal care, ritual imagination, and the courage to see with “a dark-adapted eye.”

Before the conversation, Autumn shares a short speculative story called “Island,” opening a doorway into questions of land, belonging, migration, silence, and longing.

Together, Autumn and Francis explore why grief and imagination belong together, why sorrow was never meant to be carried alone, and why communities need ritual ground where anguish, rage, shame, and heartbreak can be held. Francis also speaks to spiritual leaders about slowing down, warming the ritual field, and creating spaces where people can be changed rather than merely comforted.

The conversation turns toward friendship as essential medicine. In a time marked by overwhelm and uncertainty, Francis reminds us that we do not mature alone. We need friends, elders, ritual, ancestors, community, and the living earth.

Guest: Francis Weller https://www.francisweller.net/

Climate Changed Podcast: https://climatechangedpodcast.org/

The BTS Center: https://thebtscenter.org/

Contact: podcast@thebtscenter.org