In a conversation from 2019, bestselling author Robin Wall Kimmerer discusses the role of ceremony in our lives, and how to celebrate reciprocal relationships with the natural world.
Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, was first published nearly a decade ago—but in 2020, the book made the New York Times best-seller lists, propelled mainly by word of mouth. The book explores the lessons and gifts that the natural world, especially plants, have to offer to people. Kimmerer writes that improving our relationship with nature requires the acknowledgment and celebration of a reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. “I think we can care better for one another, for the land, and in fact we can do better science when we consider all of these streams of evidence, and assumptions, about the living world,” says Kimmerer.
Kimmerer is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. In this SciFri Book Club discussion, recorded before a live Zoom audience, she discusses the book, the role of ceremony in our lives, and the challenge of addressing ecological issues such as exotic species within a reciprocal framework.
This segment, originally from 2022, was re-aired this week.
To stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters. Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.
652: 2023’s Best Science Books For Kids
649: How AI Chatbots Can Reinforce Racial Bias In Medicine
651: An Exoplanet Where It Rains Sand
648: Ask A Chef: How Can I Use Science To Make Thanksgiving Tastier?
645: Monumental And Invisible: How Infrastructure Works
647: Everything You Never Knew About Squash And Pumpkins
644: How A University Is Adjusting One Year After ChatGPT
646: Euclid Telescope’s First Images | A Black Hole That Came From Gas
642: How Five Elements Define Life On Earth
639: Climate Future Exhibit | Oregon's Proposed Fish Vacuum
641: How A Deaf Advisory Group Is Changing Healthcare
643: 40 Years Of Sounding The Alarm On Nuclear Winter
640: CRISPR-Based Sickle Cell Treatment | Pain Tolerance From Neanderthals
637: How Poisons Have Shaped Life On Earth
635: Placenta Research May Help Explain Pregnancy Loss
634: A Common Cold Medicine Ingredient Doesn’t Work. What Now?
633: Diving Into Elon Musk’s Mind
636: RSV Drug Shortage & Beech Leaf Disease
632: Unlocking The Mysteries Of A Metal-Rich Asteroid
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Just Dumb Enough Podcast
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL