Biophilia, with Lauren Hall Ruddell

02/22/24 • 43 min

Frazzled? Go for a walk in the woods. It'll calm you down, fill your nose with lovely smells, and reset your eyes to room temperature. But why? According to today's guest, humans evolved to need to chill out in natural environments. It gives us nice chemicals like serotonin, is good for long term mental health, and generally resets our stress alarms. This is the idea of Biophilia, and it's rather nice.
Joining Dave this episode is Dr Lauren Hall Ruddell - a journalist and naturalist who has spent many years thinking about the restorative power of being in nature. We talk about all things biophilic, and how losing the nature we evolved to need is one of the biggest tragedies of the climate crisis.
The opening poem thingy is an extract from "A Transparent Eyeball" by Ralph Waldo Emerson, read by Ruth Everett.
Owl noises:
-- 08:43 - Attention Restoration Theory - a fascinating, still-developing field which posits that being in nature can restore your, well, attention.
-- 12:12 - Default Mode Network - the surprisingly large amount of brain activity that goes on when you're not thinking about anything in particular. -- 18:53 - Savannah Theory crops up in this interesting article about why so many companies put pot plants all over their offices.
-- 19:40 - Cows face north!
Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency. Contact the show: @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].
Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.
The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter. Original music by me too.
Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.

Recharge with David Ko
Recharge with David Ko is a 5-part limited podcast series premiering in May to...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Recharge with David Ko
Recharge with David Ko is a 5-part limited podcast series premiering in May to...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Previous Episode

(Dis)trusting Climate Science, with Laur Hesse Fisher

Some people think climate science is made up. This annoys other people. But calling each other dullards is unhelpful, and it misses the deeper questions. What determines who and what we trust, including science? And what can be done to make people and politics - particularly, Lord help us all, American politics - a bit less squabbly about it all?
Joining Dave this episode is Laur Hesse Fisher, programme director for MIT's Environmental Solutions Initiative. Laur's an expert in climate science communications that bridge political divides, which sounds like a very useful person to be. She's also the host of TILClimate. Listen. It's good.
Owl noises:
-- 15:22: Elke U Weber's 2006 paper on psychological distancing is here.
-- 16:25: Far be it from me to blow my own trumpet, but I once interviewed that Katharine Hayhoe on Sustainababble...
-- 32:38: Find out more about Americans being alarmed about climate change, via Yale.
-- 34:37: Your political identity is a form of group attachment, it says here.
-- 38:16: ... Toot toot! And here's my Sustainababble interview with the fabulous Naomi Oreskes.
-- 43:47: important, un-great news: the Gen Z gender / ideological gap.
Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency. Contact the show: @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].
Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.
The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter. Original music by me too.
Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.

Recharge with David Ko
Recharge with David Ko is a 5-part limited podcast series premiering in May to...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Next Episode

Success, with Simon Mundie

So much of our silly short lives is spent chasing after trophies or money or glory. Success!
But it's never really enough. We just want more trophies and more more money and one day we die and so does everything else, the end. As a culture, we've got success wrong.
Today's guest says we should instead see success as learning to lose ourselves in things - whether that's playing the piano, or sport, or listening to jolly interesting podcasts. Pursuing, and cherishing, a flow state - the only state in which we are truly contented. And perhaps if we all did that a bit more, we might bugger up the planet a little less.
Simon Mundie is a BBC sports reporter, host of the magnificent The Life Lessons Podcast, and author of the new book Champion Thinking: How to Find Success Without Losing Yourself. He's had just about every sports star you can think of on his show, and has learned more than just one book's worth of wisdom about what success really means, from those who've chased it, won it, and lost it.
Owl noises:
-- 12:48 - you can find Simon's episode with Caitlin Jenner here, and here's some words about it.
-- 21:14 - Goldie Sayers chucks it long.
-- 44:17 - Dacher Keltner's stuff on awe. I'll get him on here one day.
Your Brain on Climate is a podcast about human psychology vs the climate crisis: what we think, why we think it, and how it all adds up to a planet-sized emergency. Contact the show: @brainclimate on Twitter, or [email protected].
Support the show on Patreon: www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate.
The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell, who you can find @powellds on Twitter. Original music by me too.
Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.