Theory of Water: World-Making with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

What can we learn from water? In this live conversation from Tidelands in Seattle, Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer, musician, and scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson joins All My Relations to discuss her new book Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead , our second selection for the All My Relations Book Club. Leanne invites us to listen to water as both teacher and theorist, “Water changes forms from a solid to a liquid to a gas. It expands our understanding of time. It always escapes the container, and it connects us all.” Instead of centering land as the primary orientation point, she turns to water to imagine how we might build beyond the limits of the present. Together we explore grief, creation stories, Indigenous resurgence, and the difficult work of world-making in a time shaped by colonialism, racial capitalism, and ecological crisis. As Leanne reminds us, “Listening to water and thinking through world making means that we have to collaborate with each other… building against this present moment. That’s a struggle, but it’s a relational struggle to give birth to something different.” At its heart, this conversation asks what it means to create futures rooted in Indigenous intelligence, care, and responsibility—and what water might already be teaching us about how to begin. A/V Production by Francisco “Pancho” Sánchez @videosdelsancho Music by Mato Wayuhi @matowayuhi Produced by Matika Wilbur @matikawilbur Episode Artwork by Kitana Marie @creatortwahna Video Edit/Social Media by Mandy Yeahpau @dontguacbloc Text us your thoughts! Support the show

You can listen to Theory of Water: World-Making with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Theory of Water: World-Making with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is an episode from All My Relations Podcast by Matika Wilbur & Temryss Lane.

This episode is 44:50 long.

This episode was published on Mar 11, 2026.

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