Stone and Signal – Episode 5: Storytelling as Resistance
Released in conjunction with Banned Books Week.

Not all resistance looks like protest. Sometimes, it looks like a story whispered in the margins—a banned book passed hand to hand, a truth spoken when the room falls quiet.

In this episode of Stone and Signal, author and hermit storyteller Lawrence Nault explores how storytelling becomes an act of defiance in a world that rewards silence and obedience. From oral traditions that survived colonization to independent authors pushing back against algorithmic erasure, this episode traces how words have always been more than art—they’re a way of remembering, resisting, and rebuilding.

Through reflection and soundscape, Nault considers:
• Why every story carries a worldview—and why silence is never neutral.
• How independent publishing keeps difficult, necessary voices alive.
• The new frontiers of censorship, from AI mimicry to algorithmic invisibility.
• The sacred work of holding space—for youth, for marginalized creators, for truth itself.

Released during Banned Books Week, this conversation asks what it really means to defend the freedom to read, write, and imagine. Not just by keeping books on shelves, but by refusing to let systems decide which stories are worth hearing.

Because stories don’t just entertain—they remember what the world tries to forget.

If you’ve ever felt your voice pushed to the edge, this episode is a reminder:
You don’t need permission to speak.
You don’t need a platform to begin.
Resistance doesn’t always roar—sometimes it whispers through the pages that survived the fire.

About the Series:
Stone and Signal is a quiet space for reflection at the intersection of storytelling, solitude, and resistance. Each episode blends narrative, ambient sound, and philosophical insight to explore how we stay human in an age of distraction and control. Created and narrated by Lawrence Nault, Canadian author of The Life of Phi, Fingerprints in the Water, and the Draconim and MacIver Kids series, the podcast stands as a form of creative resilience—proof that stories still matter, and still endure.

What if youth isn’t just a phase, but a frequency? A force that doesn’t ask for permission to rise?

In this episode of Stone and Signal, Lawrence Nault reflects on the power of youth as leaders—not future leaders, but leaders now. Through quiet storytelling, original writing, and personal insight, we explore how young people are not only resisting collapse, but reimagining what’s possible.

From climate strikes and land defense to art, memory, and digital movements, Generation Wild asks: What does it mean to truly empower youth—not with symbolic gestures, but with real space, trust, and power?

This episode is for those still brave enough to hope, still listening for change, and still willing to be shaped by the generation rising.

🎧 Transcript and companion essay available on the blog: https://mountainthermit.blogspot.com/
📚 Explore the Draconim YA series: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CYCRB867
💛 Support the podcast by sharing, subscribing, or buying a book.

In this quieter, slower episode of Stone and Signal, host Lawrence Nault steps away from narrative and into the elemental language of poetry. Against a backdrop of ambient sound, he shares original poems—fragments of memory, resistance, grief, and joy—that invite stillness in a world that moves too fast. From the dreamscapes of twilight to the stubborn battle between life and time, this episode is a meditation on what endures. A signal cast softly, for those who still know how to listen.

What if the stories we tell weren’t just entertainment—but anchors? Maps? Seeds?

In this deeply personal and poetic episode of Stone and Signal, host Lawrence Nault explores the power of storytelling in times of collapse—when facts aren’t enough and the ground beneath us feels uncertain.

Through quiet reflection and lyrical narration, Lawrence asks: Why do we still tell stories when the world is burning? What can fiction offer in the face of real-world crisis? And how do stories help us hold grief, memory, and hope—without turning away from the truth?

He draws from his own work—novels that blend speculative fiction with ecological urgency, including Rephlexions, Inversion, and the Draconim series, where dragon-bonded teens stand at the frontlines of environmental collapse. He shares how these stories emerged not from escapism, but from ache—from moments of despair and clarity sparked by news headlines, by youth-led climate movements, by the ocean’s silent witness.

“Stories let us wrap grief in language. They let us speak of longing without always naming it. They allow us to imagine what could be—while still honoring what’s already been lost.”

In the age of noise and scroll, Stone and Signal doesn’t shout. It listens. It invites. It remembers. This episode is for those who feel overwhelmed by facts but are still searching for meaning. For those who believe in quiet resistance. For anyone who needs to feel less alone.

You’ll hear about:

• Why facts aren’t enough—and why stories still move us.

• The emotional intelligence of fiction and poetry.

• Writing as an act of witness in a world unraveling.

• The role of youth and intergenerational memory in Lawrence’s Draconim series.

• The voice of water in The Life of Phi—an observer of human folly and persistence.

• The quiet, radical power of stories that wait instead of chase.

This episode closes with a reflection voiced by water itself—spoken poetry drawn from The Life of Phi. A reminder that even as we rush to understand, there are older intelligences listening. And some stories, like rivers, are meant to flow through us, not be held.

If the world feels too loud... if the facts feel like too much—or not enough—maybe what you need isn’t more information. Maybe it’s a story.

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✨ Listen. Breathe. Feel your way forward.
📚 Explore Lawrence’s books at lawrencenault.me
📝 Read essays, poems, and transcripts via the Journal tab.
📩 Share this with someone who needs a pause. Or a path.

—

🎧 Stone and Signal is a narrative podcast at the intersection of climate, technology, consciousness, and memory. It doesn’t chase trends. It waits for those who listen.

🕊️ Until next time, may your signal find the stones that hold it.

Stone and Signal – Episode 1: Listening to the Quiet
A podcast for the ones who still listen.

In this first episode, I invite you into the space behind the noise. The place where stories begin—not with answers, but with breath. Stone and Signal was born out of tension: between technology and nature, between silence and performance, between the desire to speak and the exhaustion of being seen.

This isn’t a podcast for the algorithm. It’s a slow offering. A quiet resistance.

I talk about what led me here—years of writing fiction and poetry in a world that often demands speed and spectacle. I share my discomfort with social media, my search for authenticity, and the struggle to use a voice that isn’t shaped by expectation. I speak about living close to the land in the Badlands of Alberta, about grief and youth and AI and solitude. I speak about the noise outside and the noise within—and what it takes to hear something real again.

And I read a poem.
It’s called Layers of Becoming.
It’s about digging down beneath the layers we’ve built up—pain, performance, fatigue, joy—and trying to find something true before time runs out.

This episode is for anyone who feels disconnected from their voice. For anyone burned out by the need to be visible. For anyone wondering where meaning went, and how to find it again.

What to Expect in this Episode:
– A reflection on voice, identity, and digital noise
– Thoughts on storytelling as presence, not performance
– A personal meditation on AI, authenticity, and creative resistance
– A poem about peeling back the layers we live under
– A quiet invitation to pause, breathe, and return to your own rhythm

This podcast is created and narrated by Lawrence Nault, an author, poet, and documentary storyteller whose work explores the intersections of environment, identity, and technology. His fiction often focuses on environment, AI, youth, dragons, collapse, and the fragile threads of hope that still run between us.

You won’t find ads or urgency here.
You’ll find stories. Stillness. Signals sent out slow, in hopes they find someone ready to hear.

Read the full transcript: https://mountainthermit.blogspot.com/
Support the podcast by exploring my books: https://lawrencenault.me/Works/books.htm
Blog & journal: https://mountainthermit.blogspot.com/

Thank you for listening.
Until next time, may your signal find the stones that hold it.