Suzanne Simard is the forest ecologist who has proven, beyond doubt, that trees communicate with each other — that a forest is a single organism wired for wisdom and care. Simard found that the processes that make for a high-functioning forest mirror the maps of the human brain that we’re also just now drawing. All of this turns out to be catching up with intelligence long held in aboriginal science. She calls the mature hub trees in a forest “Mother Trees” — parenting, eldering, in a mode of mutuality and reciprocity, modeling what we also know to be true of genuinely flourishing human ecosystems.
Suzanne Simard is Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia. You can connect with her ongoing work at mothertreeproject.org. Her book is called, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
[Unedited] Avivah Zornberg with Krista Tippett
Eugene Peterson — Answering God
[Unedited] Eugene Peterson with Krista Tippett
Mary Oliver — “I got saved by the beauty of the world.”
[Unedited] Mary Oliver with Krista Tippett
BONUS: An Invitation from Pádraig and Krista
J. Drew Lanham – Pathfinding Through the Improbable
[Unedited] J. Drew Lanham with Krista Tippett
[Unedited] Kate DiCamillo with Krista Tippett
Mario Livio — Mathematics, Mystery, and the Universe
[Unedited] Mario Livio with Krista Tippett
“Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower” by Rainer Maria Rilke
Gal Beckerman — How Newness Enters the World
[Unedited] Gal Beckerman with Krista Tippett
Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman — Love Your Enemies? (Really?)
[Unedited] Sharon Salzberg and Robert Thurman with Krista Tippett
John O'Donohue – The Inner Landscape of Beauty
[Unedited] John O'Donohue with Krista Tippett
Trabian Shorters – A Cognitive Skill to Magnify Humanity
[Unedited] Trabian Shorters with Krista Tippett
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Baseball Tonight with Buster Olney
Selected Shorts
This American Life
The Frank Skinner Show
Judge John Hodgman