As he freely admits in the trailer to his new podcast, Our Common Nature, Yo-Yo Ma isn’t the outdoorsy type. “I like to pretend that I am!” he tells co-host Ana González in the podcast trailer. In Our Common Nature, Ma and Gonzalez experience some of America’s great landscapes together in their bid, González explains, “to find that connection to nature that so many of us are missing.” For this EP, released as a companion to the podcast, Ma has gathered together some of his friends to present three evocative pieces of new music. First, Ma and an Icelandic vocal group perform Viktor Orri Árnason’s beautiful Earth Hymn (Live from Snæfellsnes), a warning of melting glaciers told through ancient Icelandic poetry. In his deeply personal duet for cello and solo voice, The Mill (Grinds My Bones), Eric Mingus draws listeners into the complicated family narratives of the Great Smoky Mountains. Finally, we hear Yo-Yo Ma and Jennifer Kreisberg’s poignant naká·yè·ʔr sihskę̀·nęʔ (may it be that you have peace), a hope for a future where humanity and nature co-exist in harmony. You can find Our Common Nature on Apple Podcasts.