Robin Wall Kimmerer: What is nature teaching us that we’re too distracted to see?
Shownotes
What is nature trying to teach us that we’re too distracted to notice?
Botanist and author Robin Wall Kimmerer joins Vivek for a conversation about slowing down and paying attention to the living world around us. She invites us to see the land as “not something but someone.” Robin is a scientist, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and the author of the beloved bestsellers Braiding Sweetgrass, Gathering Moss, and The Serviceberry. For decades she has helped people see nature through both science and Indigenous wisdom.
In this episode:
- Why we feel more alive and at ease in nature, and what gets in the way
- How our phones and busy lives pull our attention away from the world around us
- What changes when you think of the land as a “someone” instead of a “something”
- How we started treating land as property instead of home
- Making room for both science and the sacred in how we see the world
- Why a “gift economy” can shift our ways of consumption
- How everyday giving, like bringing soup to a neighbor, can help ease loneliness
- What success looks like when it’s about meaning rather than wealth or status
- The poems and places Robin turns to when she needs hope
- A closing reading of Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese”
We want to hear from you: What’s something nature has taught you about how to live a more meaningful life? Leave us a message at 1-833-74-HUMAN (1-833-744-8626) or email [email protected].
About Dr. Vivek Murthy, your host
Substack vivekmurthy.substack.com/