Introducing "So I Decided" The Podcast

Listen to the full episode on Spotify

In this first episode of So I Decided: Elspeth introduces the show, herself, and what's to come.

So I Decided can be found at www.soidecidedpodcast.com and on Instagram @soidecidedpodcast

So I Decided is recorded on Lenapehoking, the traditional homeland of the Lenape people.

TRANSCRIPTION

Hi, and welcome.

This is So I Decided, a show about changemakers who found their way through landscape architecture and design to make a positive impact on the world around them.

Thank you so much for being here for the very first episode. I'm Elspeth, and in this episode, I want to introduce the show, Who I Am and What You Can Expect.

There's still a lot under construction, but it felt really important to get on here, to break the ice, and so I am deciding to record something even if it feels a bit unpolished.


This show was recorded from Brooklyn, New York, which is situated on Lenapehoking, the traditional homeland of the Lenape people. I recognize myself as a guest on this land and acknowledge the connection and wisdom held by its original people and the original stewards of this land.

This is a podcast about landscape architecture, and I am hoping to include more indigenous perspectives on the show, and I'll be looking to consult with others on how to better integrate these perspectives into the show.

So very broadly, I'd like to start by talking about what landscape architecture is and what it means to have a career in it. Landscape architects are planners and designers working mainly in the outdoor environment. That means that they use building material and living material as a medium in their work. Landscape architects are uniquely positioned between the environmental and social sciences, are creatively and technically skilled, and have the ability to communicate and share their ideas with public stakeholders and private clients. And they do this through public consultation, reports and presentations, drawings, models, and many other creative ways.

Landscape architects must be culturally and socially aware and are often working at the intersect of some of the most important challenges of our time, including climate change, racial inequality in cities, urbanization, remediation of disturbed sites, preserving natural resources, commemorative landscapes. I could go on, but I think that landscape architects have the ability to make small and large impacts on some of the, like I said, biggest and most current challenges in our world today.

The title So I Decided was inspired by the ways that people speak when they tell their personal story. The show will feature people who've engaged with the field of landscape architecture to take creative action in their life. So that could be whether working in the field or having studied or moved through it or connecting with it in one way or another.

I'm super excited to share all of the different ways that people have taken inspiration from the field of landscape architecture. And I'll be telling you more about myself in a few minutes, but just to briefly provide some highlights.

I studied landscape architecture at the University of Toronto Daniels Faculty and worked as a designer in New York for the past few years. I was inspired to make this podcast in hopes of creating transparency around trajectories in landscape architecture because I recently experienced my own career transition and I had a difficult time finding information that felt relevant.

I think I'm not alone, for those of us that have worked in landscape architecture, that it's a field that has the potential to be greatly misunderstood. Personally, I've had people assuming that I'm a gardener, that I'm an architect, or perhaps I'm a landscaper, when I think that the landscape architect does have the abilities to sort of perform some of these duties and act in these ways, but they also possess a lot more specialized knowledge.

Landscape architecture is an incredibly broad field, which I believe sets people up to enter many different kinds of employment scenarios. And I'm not just saying that based on my personal experience! It seems to me that the skill set and experience of the landscape architect, you know, add to that architect's, perhaps even urban designers, can be seen as niche and are perhaps less marketable or understood as they relate to other kinds of industries.

In my opinion, I think that these individuals have extensive training with an incredible set of skills that could transfer quite easily between different kinds of jobs or settings or scenarios.

The sort of mission of this show is to share stories and promote more innovation in how people use and gain inspiration from landscape architecture to explore making an impact in their community. The podcast will illuminate that not all people who study landscape architecture follow a traditional route to practice or academics, and that not everyone who's making an impact on the field studied it while in school.

We are all members of communities, of cities, of places, of teams. And I'm really excited to open up this discussion about landscape architecture. This field that I've just described can be perceived or misunderstood as exclusive or niche. And I'm looking forward to opening that up more, talking to people who have engaged with it in different kinds of ways and hope to share all of those ways that people are building upon their experience and engagements with this super broad and powerful area, which I think has such a wide range of possibilities and how it's used in the world. And hearing about their ways of thinking like a landscape architect and how that's helped them to meet their goals and has benefited all kinds of experiences and different roles that they've held.

This show benefited from an annual grant from the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation, or LACF. Thank you so much to the LACF for supporting this project.

I would also like to personally thank my longtime mentors, Fadi Masoud and Brenda Webster, who supported this project through their letters of recommendation. And another big shout out to a friend, Ryan Hana, who is a host of the Winged Wheel podcast. He helped me get set up and the reason why I could even record this podcast today. Thank you so much. If you're interested in hockey and the Detroit Red Wings, please check out the Winged Wheel podcast.

To tell you a little bit more about myself and my background, I'm from just outside of Toronto, Canada. I graduated from my master's program in landscape architecture in 2020, worked remotely during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then moved here to New York in 2021. I've worked on some really exciting projects in the field of landscape architecture and had the great opportunity to learn from some leaders in the field. I'm sincerely grateful to all of my past and current teachers, mentors, managers and peers. When I was in practice and no longer part of an academic institution, I felt a bit disconnected. Because I'm the kind of person who really feeds off of exchange and personal dialogue and making connections with different kinds of people, I feel like that brings me closer to my purpose. It brings me joy and it's one of the reasons I got into this field in the first place, which I recognize are completely different for each person. So I made a really difficult decision last fall to leave my role as a designer because I felt it was important for me to explore the different ways that I could be creative, but in the ways that felt best for me. So I'm now pursuing a career path that's focused on business development, marketing and storytelling, focusing on landscape projects and pursuits. And with the generous support of the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation, I am super honored and humbled to be creating this podcast to share with you. And I couldn't be more excited to build this platform and hear from people who are engaging with this incredible, multifaceted field in the ways that feel best for them.

I also want to take an important moment to acknowledge my unearned advantage in society. I recognize the privilege that I have relative to my own neighbors and community members as a white person living in Brooklyn. On this podcast, I will be conducting interviews and I would like to include and prioritize the integration of diverse perspectives and stories.

If you're interested in joining this podcast and have something to share relative to some of the topics we discussed, please get in touch with me. You can write to me at soidecidedpodcast.com, our website, which is still also a little bit under construction. Apologies. Or you can find me on Instagram at So I Decided Podcast. I would be super excited and happy to hear from you. Thank you.

I'm also going to be providing written transcripts of each podcast episode on the website, soidecidedpodcast.com, which I hope to eventually provide in English and French. If you have suggestions on how this podcast could do even better, please write to me. Thank you so much.

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Here we have a break. This is a space during the podcast where we could consider a sponsorship announcement from a like-minded company.

If you or your company are interested in sponsoring So I Decided, please reach out. Like I just said, we have big aspirations and would like to increase the accessibility of this show as much as possible. This requires compensation for the great people who can translate or provide different kinds of consultation. If you want to support that initiative and the show, we would love to hear from you. Thank you so much.
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Okay, we're back. I hope you enjoyed that fascinating break announcement.

And it's finally time to wrap up. So what else can you expect from So I Decided?

As you've already heard, we are supported from the LACF, so you can expect stories from mostly Canadian designers and landscape architects about how they are working to expand the possibilities of the field, make positive changes in their community, and how they got to where they're at.

This podcast is meant to feel curious and be open and feature short conversations and dialogue with people making an impact on the field. If you're interested in getting involved with So I Decided as a guest, sponsor, consultant, or otherwise, please get in touch with us.

Thank you so much for being here. I am thrilled and humbled to be producing this show. Thank you again to the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation. I am looking forward to growing and expanding this platform and very eager to introduce you to our first guest.

More to come soon.

Take care.

Bye.