CONNIE BARLOW is an acclaimed author of popular science books and articles, and developer of THE GREAT STORY website. Connie's most recent book, The Ghosts of Evolution (Basic Books), was Amazon.com's top-recommended science book for several months in 2001. Her previous books, Green Space, Green Time: The Way of Science (Copernicus Books), Evolution Extended: Biological Debates on the Meaning of Life (MIT Press), and From Gaia to Selfish Genes: Selected Writings in the Life Sciences, all explore the nexus of science, spirit, and meaning.
Barlow, an evolutionary humanist and Unitarian Universalist, is also a well-known developer of curricula for children's religious education that highlight our shared evolutionary story. Since 2002, she and her husband (Rev. Michael Dowd) have lived entirely on the road as "America's evolutionary evangelists" — which is also the title of the couple's occasional podcast. She posts videos on evolutionary themes on YouTube under the name "ghostsofevolution".
She is founding member and webmaster of Torreya Guardians, an internet community of botanists, naturalists, and others dedicated to ensuring the continuing persistence in the wild of America's most endangered conifer tree: Torreya taxifolia. In the 1990s she contributed articles to Wild Earth magazine toward encouraging others in conservation to develop "deep-time eyes" by way of learning the history of evolutionary change and paleoecological interactions — culminating in her contributions to "Pleistocene Rewilding" advocacy.
Media by Connie Barlow
Click for Topically Organized Lists of Connie's Publications
A contributed essay to the 2004 volume, Forest Canopies, edited by Bruce Rinker and Meg Lowman. Based on Connie's 2001 book, The Ghosts of Evolution. Full text.
"What is Native to the Land?", 2003
Cover story for the Fall 2003 issue of, Earth Matters, newsletter of the Northwest Earth Institute.
"Let There Be Sight! A Celebration of Convergence in Evolution", 2003
Annotated list of a wealth of examples in which evolution has brought forth the same form or function in life on multiple occasions and in distinct lineages. Full text.
"Anachronistic Fruits and the Ghosts Who Haunt Them", 2001
Based on Connie's 2001 book, The Ghosts of Evolution (Basic Books),
this 8-page article (with color illustrations) in Arnoldia 61(2): 14-21, examines the evidence that some fruits native to North America are ecologically out of step with time
— that is, they co-evolved to attract seed dispersers who went some 13,000
years ago (notably, mastodons and mammoths). Full
text in PDF.
"Ghost Stories From the Ice Age"Natural History, 2001
Another short magazine article on Connie's 2001 book. Full text in PDF
"Haunting the Wild Avocado"Wild Earth, 2000
Extract from chapter 1 of Connie's 2001 book, published in the Winter 2000/2001 issue. Full text in PDF
Click the VIDEO at right for a 5-minute, visually rich (and playful!) introduction to these concepts.
"Science Update: Rebirth of Philosophical Paleontology", Epic of Evolution Quarterly Fall 1998. PDF
"Open Systems Living in a Closed Biosphere: A New Paradox for the Gaia Debate" (with Tyler Volk), 1990, Biosystems 23(4):371-84. technical paper: Abstract
"The Torreya taxifolia USF&WS Recovery Plan Process:
An Opportunity to Shift to a Deep-Time Perspective of Native Habitat" 2010
comments submitted to USF&WS to advocate in behalf of adding "assisted migration" as a management strategy for the updated plan for recovery of this designated endangered species, in
PDF.
Connie's photoessay of her 7-week interaction with a "sacred site of the epic of evolution".
"Rewilding Torreya taxifolia: Reflections by Connie Barlow" 2008
August 2008 commentary on the historic "assisted migration" of 31 seedlings of this endangered plant to private lands in the mountains of North Carolina, by Torreya Guardians. Click for PDF.
"Rewilding Megafauna" an Interview with Connie Barlow (on www.actionbioscience.org) 2007
"TORREYA STATE PARK perches on the steep, sandy banks of the Apalachicola, where the river twists slowly through the Florida Panhandle toward the Gulf of Mexico. This is one of the most isolated spots in Florida, rich only in plant life and prisons, stupefyingly hot in summer and eerily quiet nearly all year round. Most park visitors are on their way somewhere else, and when Connie Barlow stopped here on a winter day in 1999, she was no exception . . . "
SEE ALSO Connie's eco-advocacy work in Audubon Magazine, May/June 2010, in an article titled "Guardian Angels."
"Bring Torreya taxifolia North — Now" 2005
Essay co-authored with Paul S. Martin and published in the Winter 2005 issue of Wild Earth, in PDF.
"Forests in Peril: Book Review", 2004
Review of book by Hazel Delcourt, published in Winter 2004 issue of Wild Earth magazine. Full text.
"Goodbye Eternal Frontier", 2002 (10 pages)
Published in the Summer 2002 issue of Wild Earth magazine, this article is grounded on the 2001 book by Tim Flannery, The Eternal Frontier. It presents the 65 million year deep time story of the North American Continent, questioning what it means to be native to this continent: spiritual implications and practical recommendations for conservation biology. PDF.
"Trees Who Remember", 2001 (5 pages)
Published in Trees for Life Engagement Calendar, 2001. Retyped for online publishing in 2010, with lots of photos added (including photos of Connie's mentor Paul Martin and memorabilia from the "Mammoth Memorial Service" that the two conjured up together and held at the Mammoth Site in Hot Spring SD, 1999. PDF.
"Aldo and Me", September 2000.
5-minute VIDEO (left) of Connie reading Leopold's "On a Monument to a Pigeon" at the Passenger Pigeon Monument in Wisconsin.
36 minute AUDIO of Connie reciting four items in honor of evolutionary ecologist Aldo Leopold (who envisioned the first designated wilderness in the world: the Gila. In September 2000, Connie sat on a log in the West Fork of the Gila and recited into a tape recorder 4 parts: (1) in-the-moment observations of the immediate surrounds, (2) "We Live in a Mythic Time": unpublished advocacy piece in behalf of the newly rewilded Mexican Gray Wolf (submitted to the Silver City Daily Press), (3) Connie's favorite excerpts from Aldo's A Sand County Almanac, and (4) Connie reciting the essay she wrote for the Trees for Life annual engagement calendar (published 2001, see above).
"Rewilding for Evolution" Wild Earth, 1999
An essay in support of Paul Martin's proposal to "Bring Back the Elephants" to North America, published in the same (Spring) issue. This essay also appears in an anthology of essays, Wild Earth, published by Milkweed Press in 2002. PDF
"Re-Storying Biodiversity by Way of Science"Wild Earth, 1997
More extracts from Connie's 1997 book, published in the Spring issue. PDF
"Because It Is My Religion"Wild Earth, 1996
Extracts from Connie's 1997 book, Green Space, Green Time, published in the Fall issue. PDF
a now-classic text in religious naturalism, featuring the evolutionary and ecological sciences
VIDEO: "Your Brain's Creation Story"
In August 2009, Connie Barlow (with Michael Dowd) were theme speakers at a Unitarian Universalist summer camp in Puget Sound, Washington. Connie took the lead in the illustrated presentation on the practical lessons and uses of evolutionary brain science for improving our lives — and for provisioning children and teens with an evolutionary perspective that can help them make better choices and develop healthy habits, despite having inherited "mismatched instincts" that pose challenges in modern-day life.
Click LEFT for 54-minute VIDEO. (Double click to access the YouTube page, where you can click on "More info" and thereby see a complete table of contents of topics covered.)
In August 2011, Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd gave twinned theme talks at two events in the American West: "Evolutionize Your Life" (by Michael) and "Evolutionize Your Death and Legacy" (by Connie). Inspired by the audience response and poignant storytelling that ensued, Connie wrote a call-to-action in essay form, urging her boomer generation to transform the debilitating and financially untenable death-denial that pervades American culture — largely because of literalist Christianity that interprets death as "the enemy."
Composed as a critique of Dale McGowan's invited lecture at the annual gathering of Unitarian Universalists nationwide (in June), Connie calls for a reassessment of the way kids in religious liberally families and institutions are taught "religion". Our postmodern celebration of diversity and advocacy of free choice actually means we deny our children a basic human requirement: "a coherent cosmology (creation story / worldview) through which to enjoy and securely navigate the years of childhood wonder, learning, and innocence." (posted July 2010)
"We Are Stardust: The Epic of Evolution in Children's Religious Education" 2009
"Evolution Now: A Manifesto for Our UU Congregations" 2008
Sermon delivered by Connie Barlow on 8/31/08 at Cedar Lane Untarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, Maryland. Click here for PDF or mp3 AUDIO.
"A Place at the Podium" 2008
Guest blog by Connie Barlow on Michael Dowd's, Thank God for Evolution website, responding to the 2008 North Carolina U.S. Senate race, in which one candidate posted a negative campaign ad that implied her rival was an atheist.
"Leaving a Legacy: Proposal for a New Health Insurance Program" 2008
GOAL: to create a new governmental or nonprofit, voluntary group Health
Insurance policy that (1) honors death as a natural / sacred part of the life
process, and (2) distributes the financial savings thus accrued between
group members (80%) and charities chosen by the dying or their guardians
(20%). Click for PDF.
"Zoey 101, Brain Science 101" 2007
Guest blog by Connie Barlow on Michael Dowd's, Thank God for Evolution website, that focused on the pregnancy scandal of teen TV star Jamie Lynn Spears, as a current event platform for appreciating the practical benefits (self-understanding, compassion) for promoting an understanding of the ongoing discoveries of evolutionary brain science and evolutionary psychology.
"Even The Heavens Are Not Immortal" 2005
Interview by Craig Hamilton of Connie Barlow in the Fall 2005 issue of What Is Enlightenment? magazine. PDF
LEFT: 10-minute YouTube Video of the conclusion to Connie Barlow's "Death Through Deep-Time Eyes" presentation in Ashland OR, 2009.
"Death As Natural and Generative in the Cosmos", 2004
Text (and chart) used in public presentations to show how, in the last 500 years, discoveries by geographers, geologists, paleontologists, evolutionary biologists, cell biologists, astronomers and astrophysicists have demonstrated that death is not just something that happens to individual plants and animals but also is a natural and creative process affecting mountains, seaways, continents, species, and even stars and galaxies). Full text
"Garden of Eden on Your Dinner Plate?", 2004
Essay published in the Spring 2004 issue of EarthLight, in
PDF.
"Stardust: Toward a New Periodic Table of Elements", revised 2004
Written for this website, and to support the "We Are Made of Stardust" ritual also on this website, this document provides an easy introduction to the broad outlines and fascinating details of how the various chemical elements were created in different kinds of stars. Full text or in PDF.
Photo-Essays of Connie's pilgrimages to SACRED SITES OF THE EPIC OF EVOLUTION
LEFT: 3-minute YouTube Music Video Sing-Along (with displayed lyrics) of Connie Barlow singing her stardust song, "In the Beginning"
RIGHT: "Deep Time Eyes" interview of Connie by Craig Hamilton
"An Immense Journey: Religious Naturalism and the Great Story", 2003
Written for this website, this personal essay shows how the Great Story can enrich the experience of religious naturalism. Exemplars of this tradition include Julian Huxley, Aldo Leopold, Loren Eiseley, and Annie Dillard. in PDF or on-screen. You can also listen online to a 36 minute AUDIO of Connie reading an early version of this essay, "Loren and Me", outdoors in the Gila Wilderness (in September 2000). The audio begins with night sounds, followed by Connie reciting extracts from Loren Eiseley's essay, "The Judgment of the Birds" (published in his book, The Immense Journey). The final segment is Connie reading her memoir essay, "Loren and Me," which was written soon after (and which describes) her solo visioning experience in the Gila Wilderness in July 2000. That audio memoir also describes the climax of a previous solo experience in the Gila Wilderness that occurred in July 1997. Both of those experiences took place off-trail in the backcountry of the Little Creek Watershed.
"The Epic of Evolution"Earth Matters (Northwest Earth Institute), 1999
2-page adaptation of Connie's 1997 book, Green Space, Green Time, published in the Spring issue.
JPG Image
"The Way of Science and the Epic of Evolution" UU World, 1998
Extracts from Connie's 1997 book, Green Space, Green Time: The Way of Science, published as the cover story for the Unitarian Universalists magazine (Nov/Dec). Full text in PDF
"The Way of Science"The Humanist, 1998
More extracts from Connie's 1997 book, published in the member magazine of The Humanist Society (Mar/Apr). Full text in PDF
"Evolution and the AAAS"Science and Spirit, 1998
A report of the 1997 "Epic of Evolution Conference" held in Chicago and sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Full text in PDF
"Classic Quotations on the Epic of Evolution"Epic of Evolution, 1998
Fifty inspiring quotations, ranging from Charles Darwin and Maria Montessori to Carl Sagan and Loren Eiseley, to Brian Swimme and Ursula Goodenough. Full text in PDF
Extracts from Connie's 1997 book, Green Space, Green Time, published in the Fall issue. Full text in PDF
"A Jostling on the Shelves"Teilhard Perspective, 1996
A sample of a book review column Connie contributed for several years. Full text in PDF
"Clouds and the Crystal Bell"unpublished, 1998
Reflections on a natural death and hospice. Full text in PDF. NOTE: The "Clouds" stress-reduction audio mentioned in this text is available through www.NewHealthVisions.com.
"Remember Who You Are: Living a Mythic Life" (children's curriculum) 2009
12-part curriculum for assisting middle school youth in the life passage from childhood ("Explorers in the Garden") to early adolescence ("Thespians at the Oasis"), which uses the understandings drawn from the 2008 book by Bill Plotkin, Nature and the Human Soul, and using scene-by-scene the Disney movie The Lion King as a beloved bridge and focus for the middle school mindset. Overview and full curriculum available for free viewing and downloand.
"Tree Talks About Death" (children's story) 2009
This story is a non-picture book, designed to be read interactively to a child (ages 6 through 11, along with any post-teen, playful adult). The goal is to meaningfully and memorably convey a mythic tale through which the deep understandings, thanks to the scientific worldview, of the creative role that death plays at all scales of the cosmos can be grasped by both head and heart. Download in PDF. Click here to listen to free online AUDIO of Connie reading aloud this story.
"The River of Life" (children's curriculum) - a.k.a "Ancestor's Tale" 2009
From 2006 - 2009, this program created by Connie (but grounded in the evolutionary data offered by Richard Dawkins in his 2004 book, Ancestor's Tale) was the primary kids program she delivered personally at more than 40 church and private school settings. In November 2009, she made the entire curriculum available online for free download. See VIDEO below of Connie presenting this program to kids in 2011.
"12-Part Stardust Curriculum for Children" 2007
80-page PDF of lesson plans for teaching elementary-age children our relationship to stars and the Universe.
Click on image left to watch Part 1 of a (two-part) 90-minute VIDEO of Connie presenting "Ancestor's Tale for Kids" to a mixed-age group of children in 2011 at a Unitarian Universalist church in Georgia, USA.
After the video starts playing, we recommend you click on the YouTube button in the lower-right part of the picture screen. That will take you to the video's full YouTube page. From there, you can read the long text caption that summarizes the highlights. On the YouTube page, click on the gray "Show more" directly below the truncated text.
Notice that the text summary includes a full TABLE OF CONTENTS with linked timestops (in blue), which you can click to advance instantly to that portion of the video.
The Part 2 VIDEO of Ancestor's Tale for Kids opens at confluence #11. Two minutes into that program a child asks why some people don't believe in evolution. Watch Connie's imaginative response!
LEFT: Connie with Montessori children in Houston, 2005,
leading the "We Are Stardust" glitter ritual/song. RIGHT: Telling the story of North America using Connie's Great Story Beads.
"From Stardust to Us", The Spiral, 2001
A PDF Report (co-written with children's book author Jennifer Morgan) of guiding children at "The Walk Through Time" exhibit (March issue).
Advance the video at right to 1:00 minute into the program for a sample reading from Connie's chapter.
"Evolution Now: A Manifesto for Our UU Congregations"
, sermon by Connie Barlow delivered August 2008 - a plea for Unitarian Universalists (and other liberal religious folk) to ensure that we give our children a coherent, inspiring creation story to guide their lives and love for all of creation. Click to listen online or read in PDF.
Composed as a critique of Dale McGowan's invited lecture at the annual gathering of Unitarian Universalists nationwide (in June), Connie calls for a reassessment of the way kids in religious liberally families and institutions are taught "religion". Our postmodern celebration of diversity and advocacy of free choice actually means we deny our children a basic human requirement: "a coherent cosmology (creation story / worldview) through which to enjoy and securely navigate the years of childhood wonder, learning, and innocence." (posted July 2010)
