Forest of Thought

How do we find ways of connecting to that which is sacred to us? Can we learn to listen for that which brings us into attunement with our deepest selves and the living world? And how do we discern between true spiritual insight and wishful thinking? In this conversation, eco-philosopher Per Ingvar Haukeland takes us on a journey that begins with his deep experiences of sacred connection to the tre...

How can myth and folklore help us find our way in the second half of life? What can we learn from the places we inhabit, and the stories that are rooted in the land? Dr. Sharon Blackie is an award-winning and internationally bestselling author, speaker and teacher. She’s a former neuroscientist and a psychologist with a background in mythology and folklore, and her work is focused on the mythic im...

The arrival of a new baby entails an opening between the worlds. It’s a liminal in–between space, where life is vulnerable until the baby has fully arrived and the window is safely closed. All over the world, people have developed traditions, rituals and practices to care for the new baby and parents during this special time, but many of those practices are being eroded and forgotten. The conversa...

What does it mean to say that a river is alive? And if a river is alive, could it have legal rights that protect it from abuse and exploitation? What kinds of practices could affirm our interconnectedness with the rest of the living world? Do our Western ideals of enlightenment need to be complemented by ideas of enlivenment? In this live podcast, writer Robert Macfarlane presents his book “Is a R...

Birth can be difficult to talk about, because it's so complex and paradoxical. It can be beautiful and traumatic, often at the same time; it’s intensely personal and highly political; it’s something extraordinary that is also entirely ordinary. You give birth to a baby and you also birth yourself as a mother. Another paradox is how birth has become much safer because of the advancements of modern...

What healing could be made possible if we began to work in ways that honoured our nervous systems? How could pleasure be a pathway to health? How can we have more true intimacy and eroticism in our lives? Kimberly Ann Johnson is a Sexological Bodyworker, Somatic Experiencing practitioner, yoga teacher, postpartum advocate, and single mom. Working hands-on in integrative women’s health and trauma r...

From menarche until menopause, women have a rhythmical companion, whose presence or absence tells us something about our bodies. The menstrual cycle is considered by many medical professionals to be the fifth vital sign, and just like our pulse or our blood pressure, it tells us something important about our health. And yet the general knowledge about the menstrual cycle, both in the medical commu...

A favorite conversation from the archives, with particular relevance for upcoming episodes! When our societies are faced with challenges we often call on science to provide us with the best course of action; we strive to make evidence-based decisions. But what assumptions are hiding behind this recipe for decision-making? And how can taking control of a situation reduce our capacity for responding...

What can we learn from plants?  In Western thinking, plants have usually been seen as the most lowly beings, fixed in one place and without capacity for thinking. But many cultures have known – and modern science is confirming – that plants carry their own kind of vibrant intelligence. They communicate, interpret and elaborate – could it be that we humans are more plant-like than we tend to believ...

If you’d prefer to watch the episode, it is available here on Youtube .  In 1962 , a young man named Satish Kumar set out with his friend Prabakhar Menon on a pilgrimage for peace that would take him around the world, forever changing the course of his life.  Later on, Satish dedicated himself to the work of making peace with nature,  as the editor of the ecological magazine Resurgence, and in hel...

As we are faced with multiplying crises, we often rush into trying to fix the world through words and busy action. What if an adequate response is to simply listen? What new worlds can be made, what wounds can be healed, through listening deeply? In this episode, Keri Facer returns to the podcast to explore the subtle art of listening. Keri is Professor of Educational and Social Futures at the Uni...

What could art making and aesthetics mean to us in these difficult times? Can we justify going off to paint or to spend time in nature when there is so much destruction going on in the world? Aesthetics is about opening up our senses to the world - but do we even want to stay sensitive when there is so much pain? How do we deal with that paradox?  Today’s episode is with artist and educator Jan va...

I was born into a world where many of the things that are most important to me, like art, beauty, relationships, embodied experience, love, and the sacred, are not really considered very important to our understanding of the cosmos. They are thought of as ‘extra fluff’ rather than being at the core of our existence and reality. One of the thinkers who has tried to create a science more attuned to...

Is it possible to look clear-eyed at the enormous challenges we’re facing today, and still do something practical and creative in the face of that? What happens when we engage with nature and people in an embodied way, rather than through their representations in statistics and media? And how do we stand up for what we believe in without falling into the dehumanising tribalism of us versus them? A...

Why is there so much beauty in the natural world? What can we learn from jamming with the more-than-human? Join interspecies musician David Rothenberg and myself as we explore these questions and experience some bird-bug-clarinet collaboration, perched on a hillside outside of LA. David Rothenberg is a musician, composer and professor of philosophy and music, with a longtime interest in understand...

What are the underlying patterns of thought that have led our civilization into its current crises? And how might we begin to tell a different story, one that would allow both humans and the more-than-human to thrive? In this episode, I speak to author Jeremy Lent. In his wide-ranging book The Patterning Instinct , Jeremy identifies the root metaphors that different cultures have used to construct...

Many cultures maintain that we are not born human but that we may become fully human through cultivation and care. Could it be that our destructive tendencies are not because of our human-ness, but rather due to a lack of it? If so: where and how can we cultivate our humanity? All species play their part in the living web – what role might we humans have to play in this unfolding drama? Mikael Kur...

Caroline Ross has spent decades being immersed in Daoism, art, crafting and foraging (and spent 10 years touring with her rock band). Today, her practice weaves these diverse threads together into a philosophy of life centred on embodied living, exploring the Way (in the Daoist sense of the word) and making art as if the Earth mattered.  Caroline Ross is an  artist, craftswoman , writer and  T’ai...

Forest of Thought episodes are back! And over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing three public conversations that were recorded 2023-2024 as part of a series of events exploring the concept of ‘life-force’.  We begin with philosopher Jeremy Naydler, delving into the question of how we may cultivate the human in a time of intelligent machines:  “Advanced technologies and artificial intelligence are...

In this episode I speak to writer and filmmaker Sarah Thomas. Her memoir, The Raven’s Nest, is a meditation on her time spent in Iceland, and explores how identity and language are interwoven with landscape and ecology. What does it mean to fall in love with a place, with its human and non-human inhabitants?  And how may we each do our little part in mending the world?  Sarah Thomas is a writer, d...

How are our modern ways of thinking and being different from those of ancient peoples? When did logic and rational thinking become ‘common sense’, instead of just one of the many ways we may contemplate life’s important questions? And how is our consciousness and presence in the world altered as we become evermore enmeshed in advanced technologies? Ingrid speaks to philosopher-gardener Jeremy Nayd...

It’s been said that it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism and our modern way of life. Why is it so hard for us to cultivate our imagination and to imagine that things might be different? What becomes possible if communities harness the power of imagination in building a more beautiful world? In this episode I speak to Rob Hopkins, writer and co-founder of the Trans...

How might the use of voice and song be an unexpectedly powerful way to access our deeper selves? In this episode I speak to Briony Greenhill, an incredible musician who uses collaborative improvisation as a way to connect and heal. Briony also generously shares her personal experiences and the philosophy of life that she has come to through her work. Briony Greenhill is an artist, teacher and chan...

In what ways might the roots of the internet actually stretch back much further than we think? Does the internet enhance or distort our humanness? How is our deepening entanglement with algorithms shaping how we think and what we pay attention to? Justin E. H. Smith is a professor at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the Université Paris Cité, and is a writer of both non-ficti...

How do we manifest the world we would like to see? How are art and activism connected to things like magic and ritual? How does being rooted in a place help us defend it? In this episode I visit Isa Fremeaux at the ZAD ( zone à defendre) in Brittany, France, where an unlikely alliance of local residents and activists succeeded in stopping the building of a planned airport. Isa shares her experienc...