From John’s European travel journal,  March 2025.

Alcazar Real, Seville

 

 

Seville, Spain

After our wonderful experiences at the Goetheanum in Switzerland, Sheila and I went to Florence for a couple weeks and then onto Seville to satisfy Sheila’s growing interest in Flamenco music. With a concert every night for four nights in front row seats, my head is still ringing with the electrifying and exciting rhythms.

We took a guided tour of the Alcazar Real (Royal Palace). Our guide was a young historian who explained that for the Moors, who came from North Africa, it was common sense that plants and water cool the environment, so they incorporated large gardens with lots of flowing water and water fountains into the Palace. Which got me wondering – once again – how it came about that water and plants got totally left out of the standard climate change story.

Lisbon, Portugal
John Feldman at screening of Regenerating Life in Lisbon
From Seville, we took a bus to Lisbon where we were wonderfully hosted for four days by Patricia Azevedo da Silva. She is an active advocate and translator for the work of Lynn Margulis who had reached out to me with interest in Symbiotic Earth. Patricia’s translation of Gaia and Philosophy (Silver Press, 2023) by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan titled Gaia e Filosofia, (Fora de Jogo, 2025) is about to be published. It will be launched with a special event at Biblioteca Nacional in Lisbon on April 22, 2:30pm.
Patricia arranged for a screening of Regenerating Life at the Goethe Institute on March 2. The film was greatly appreciated.  During the Q&A, I spoke about the power of community gardens and the wonder of trees. I was approached by a man, Fred Dubee, who works with a Chinese NGO that has a pilot project in Africa to work with the farmers to regenerate the soils and rid themselves of the influences of the “green revolution.”
Patricia Azevedo da Silva, John Feldman and Sheila Silver at Cinema Ideal
On March 5, Lynn Margulis’ birthday, Symbiotic Earth was screened at Cinema Ideal (the oldest cinema in Lisbon) arranged for by Patricia. I hadn’t seen Symbiotic Earth for many years and was happy to see how much it is a precursor to Regenerating Life. The film looked fantastic on the big screen, and the audience was very involved. During the Q&A, there were several comments about the need for a cooperative empathetic worldview in today’s society. I was asked how making the film about Lynn had changed me. I replied that Lynn Margulis continues to profoundly influence my thoughts and my work, specifically, her admonition that science is about skepticism and that we must constantly re-examine our most treasured truths.
Antonio Vaz Puto and Sheila Silver in the community garden at University of Lisbon
The next day, Antonio Vaz Puto gave us a tour by of the community garden at University of Lisbon, HortaFCU, which was started by a handful of students on a scrap of land near a brick university science building. It was, at first, hard to get the University’s consent, but it was a success, and gradually the University gave them more and more land. Today it includes a Miyawaki Forest (the first in Europe) a greenhouse, a community vegetable garden, chickens, and a composting infrastructure for the entire University. All on zero budget.
Terra Laboratory of Instituto Superior de Agronomia, University of Lisbon
Patricia, Sheila, and I were guests of Terra laboratory of Instituto Superior de Agronomia of the University of Lisbon for a live video recording of a discussion between us and investigators from the University. I learned about the food shortages in tropical areas and the transition away from industrial agriculture. We spoke about communicating new ideas with film and music – getting audiences to that “ah-hah” moment through art. The enthusiasm for Regenerating Life was fantastic, “the film needs to be seen by everyone.”
One more outcome of the trip still awaited us. Fred Dubee is proposing that the film be translated and made available in China by China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation. Stay tuned on that one!
The community garden at the University of Lisbon