Mattias Olsson interviews Stephen Jenkinson
Orphan Wisdom Sessions

You can still sign up and receive the recording from July 20th, plus receive access to view:

Mix Tape #1: Mystery/ Religion/ Jesus

 

The live interview event plus all three Mix Tapes are available here:

 

Scriptorium Lineage Membership

The Scriptorium is an online platform that houses Stephen Jenkinson’s collected works in a Library, and a place where we host online classes. It is also a place to connect with other people through the Colloquium. By becoming a Lineage Member of The Scriptorium you will have access to talks available nowhere else, be able to hear unpublished recordings and read transcriptions of those talks as well as being able to listen in on Orphan Wisdom School sessions. If you are already a Lineage Member, you will have access to all three Mix Tape sessions after the live event on the 20th.

Lineage Members

Campfire Stories Patreon

Patreon supporters of Campfire Stories will have access to all three Mix Tape sessions. There’s other great rewards for being a member here too. Read more about Campfire Stories here: https://www.campfire-stories.org/ 

Mattias Olsson’s Patreon Page

 

 

Mix Tape Trilogy

 

Mix Tape #1: Mystery/Religion/Jesus
An intimate interview with author Stephen Jenkinson exploring some of the deep mysteries of our existence, and the early role of religion in human life. Throw in a few reflections on the historic Jesus figure, as well as the “Sunday schooled” version he’s been turned into. A deep wondering aloud touching on wisdom, mortality, and the stories we live by.

“Self determination ends where your fate begins.”
“It is easy to be driven to madness by awe and wonder.”

 

Mix Tape #2: Soil/Grief/Tools/Machines
An intimate interview with author Stephen Jenkinson, exploring how our relationship to the land mirrors our capacity to grieve. The conversation also delves into the distinction between cultured and civilized peoples: where tools extend the hand in reverence to limits, and machines extend the will in defiance of them.

“Animism isn’t an attitude”.
“Life is life taking. And death is life giving”.
“Find an elegant way to negotiate
your relationship with defeat. That’s farming”.

 

Mix Tape #3: Prayer/Language/Clearcutting
In this profound session, author Stephen Jenkinson reflects on how prayer must reckon with its recipient – not as an infinite giver, but as something that might be diminished by what we ask of it. On the topic of clearcutting, Jenkinson is asked to wonder about our departure from the ethic of the honorable harvest, which once prevailed.

“Don’t take the first, don’t take the last,
don’t take more than you need”.
“Most hungers aren’t hungers. They’re anxieties”. 

 

 

In September 2024, documentary filmmaker Mattias Olsson visited Stephen Jenkinson and Nathalie Roy at the Orphan Wisdom Farm in Ontario, Canada, to shoot the short film Murmurings of the Land. During his four days at the farm he conducted several interviews with Jenkinson. From these he drew the storyline for the film, with its four chapters “Prayer”, “Doing”, “Harvest” and “Crisis” (as well as an epilogue). But with each interview over an hour long, there were a lot of other topics investigated too. We’re now pleased to make the Orphan Wisdom Sessions available, with three 60 minute episodes comprising all of the material that couldn’t fit in the film.

“I’ve been documented a time or two. A lot of what I said ended up on the proverbial cutting room floor. Fair enough. I wasn’t making the movie. I was submitting to it. But it does leave me wondering from time to time: I wonder what’s in there. I wonder if it stands on its own, minus the story line.”
~ Stephen Jenkinson

 

 

Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW
~ Culture activist, worker, author ~

Stephen has taught internationally and is the creator of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded with his wife Nathalie Roy in 2010. The School convened semi-annually in Deacon, Ontario, Canada’s Gulf Islands, and in northern Europe.

He has Master’s degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work).

Apprenticed to a master storyteller when a young man, he worked extensively with dying people and their families, is former programme director in a major Canadian hospital, and former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school.

He is also a sculptor and traditional canoe builder whose house won a Governor General’s Award for architecture.

Since co-founding the Nights of Grief and Mystery with singer/ songwriter Gregory Hoskins in 2015, he has toured this musical/ tent show revival/ storytelling/ ceremony of a show across North America, U.K. and Europe, Australia and New Zealand. They released their Nights of Grief & Mystery album in 2017, and at the end of 2020 released two new records: Dark Roads (live work) and Rough Gods(studio work).

He is the author of Matrimony: Ritual, Culture and the Heart’s Work (2025) A Generation’s Worth: Spirit Work While the Crisis Reigns (2021), Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble (2018), the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (2015), Homecoming: The Haiku Sessions (a live teaching from 2013), How it All Could Be: A workbook for dying people and those who love them (2009), Angel and Executioner: Grief and the Love of Life (a live teaching from 2009), and Money and The Soul’s Desires: A Meditation (2002). He is a contributing author to Palliative Care: Core Skills and Clinical Competencies (2007).

Stephen Jenkinson is also the subject of the feature length documentary film Griefwalker (National Film Board of Canada, 2008, dir. Tim Wilson), a portrait of his work with dying people, Lost Nation Road, (2019, dir. Ian Mackenzie), a shorter documentary on the crafting of the Nights of Grief and Mystery tours , and Murmurings of the Land (2025, dir. Mattias Olsson), a portrait of his land-based life.

 

Mattias Olsson
~ Swedish documentary filmmaker ~

Founder of Campfire Stories, a film platform dedicated to narratives that inspire ecological balance and human sanity. With a background as a still photographer in New York for 13 years, Olsson transitioned to filmmaking upon returning to Sweden in 2007, producing five films for Swedish television (SVT) and now over 20 films for Campfire Stories. His notable works include “Once Upon a Forest”, a poetic exploration of the Swedish forests and their threatened future, and “Imprint”, a personal journey exploring individual and collective actions towards sustainability. Olsson’s storytelling emphasizes localism, often highlighting projects and individuals within his own community to showcase ecological alternatives and solutions. Beyond filmmaking, he is an enthusiastic hobby-farmer, cherishing the simple life in the Swedish countryside where he enjoys gardening, particularly growing tomatoes and chilies.

 

 

“The older I get, the more I’m willing to credit myself with hitting the mark most of the time.”
~ Stephen Jenkinson