Metra: A Climate Revolution with Songs

Feel free to read the below instead of listening if you prefer:
Hey there Metra listeners – this is just a quick quality control check from your friendly neighborhood podcaster.

This afternoon we realized that the version of today’s episode playing on Apple Podcasts was published in mono—much to the chagrin of Ned, who so painstakingly crafted the mix and mastering of all these songs in stereo. As far as we can tell, no other platforms were affected. After some troubleshooting, it looks like we’ve gotten Apple to re-publish the episode in stereo as of about 7:30 this evening, March 11th. So, if you are an Apple Podcasts listener and you downloaded the episode earlier today, you can access the stereo version by clicking “Remove download” and then re-downloading the episode. If you like.

We hope this won’t happen again! It does make us look forward to the full album release on Bandcamp later this spring—where we’ll have total control of the sound and promise you a gorgeous listening experience.

Thanks for listening.

Big news, Metra compatriots! 
We are thrilled to share that, later this spring, MythMakers Media will release Metra - The Cast Album!
Support the creation of the album, and get access to upcoming bonus materials, at ko-fi.com/metrathemusical 
In the meantime, you can be the first to hear the newly remixed and remastered songs, from the comfort of your podcast feed. We're sharing them as they're finished--here's batch 1 of 3!
Songs:
"Welcome From the Nymphs"
"Back to the Past"
"Cori, Come Near"
"Cascade"
"Reporting for Duty"
"Take a Bite"
“Change the Myth”
“Sam and the Whale”
“A Nymphian Interlude”
“Diane’s Theme”
Music and Lyrics by Ned Hartford
Produced by MythMakers Media
Featuring: Jeannette Bayardelle, Cherrye J. Davis, Alia Munsch, Cristina Obando Sanchez, Sierra Rein, Stephanie Bacastow, Matthew Trumbull, Corey Allen, Stephanie Willing, and Luke Wyngarden
Sound Editing and Design; Instrumentation Arranged and Performed; Vocals Arranged; and all Audio Produced, Engineered, and Mixed by Ned Hartford
Check out our website for ways to join the climate movement: metrathemusical.com/do-something
Look out this spring for info on the Bandcamp release, including special bonus features.
Happy Listening!

Hey, Metra listeners! We're so pleased to bring you this conversation that Metra co-creators Ned and Emily recently had with Bill Cleveland on the Art is Change podcast. We talk about the 7-year journey to create the show, our approach to tackling climate catastrophe as a subject matter, the power of music, and much more. Bill is a stellar interviewer, and he also weaves the show through with other delightful pieces of art and inspiration. We hope you'll enjoy!

What if a Musical Could Help us Tell the Truth About Climate Change?

In this episode, Bill Cleveland sits down with theater director Emily Hartford and composer–storyteller Ned Hardford to explore Metra: A Climate Revolution with Songs—a nine-episode musical audio drama that reimagines an ancient Greek myth as a near-future climate story.
What starts as a conversation about craft opens into deeper territory: imagination as resistance, music as pedagogy, and why genuinely new stories don’t come from algorithms—they come from people doing long, human work together.
In it, we explore three big questions at the heart of Metra and the moment we’re living in now:
How music, story, and the human voice reach places that facts, lectures, and policy arguments can’t
What it looks like to tell a climate story without fear-mongering or “disaster porn,”
How artists can build work that others can actually use,—turning art-making into cultural infrastructure rather than a one-off production.
Listen in to discover how art, music, and story can help us practice a different future—and why Metra just might be the kind of narrative infrastructure we need right now.
Art is Change website

Tom hears from an old friend and proposes a way forward.

Check out our website for ways to join the climate movement: metrathemusical.com/do-something
In particular, we recommend the book, Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua
 
Support Metra at ko-fi.com/metrathemusical
 
 
Follow the show:
https://pod.link/1843713183
IG and Bluesky:  @metrathemusical
metrathemusical.com

Listeners, if you're enjoying Metra's take on storytelling-meets-collective action: have we got a show for you. We're thrilled to recommend a non-fiction podcast this week: one that weaves revolutionary stories from real-world justice movements--

What do a textile worker in Delhi, a student in a Palestinian refugee camp, and a farmworker in 1960s California have in common? In the midst of their struggle for freedom, they all turned to theatre.

Performing the Revolution is a limited-series podcast that knits these powerful stories together to create a global narrative featuring artists who put everything on the line in the struggle for justice. The series starts in New Delhi, India following Jana Natya Manch (Janam), a 50-year-old street theatre company that performs for India’s working class. It then moves to The Freedom Theatre in The West Bank – where kids fight to define who they are and what they dream about amidst a decades-long occupation – and on to El Teatro Campesino’s legacy of agitating during the historic California grape strikes.
Here is Episode 1; find all the episodes wherever you get podcasts.
https://www.radicalevolution.org/performing-the-revolution