Dreading Nature

Out There

Willow Belden

Wilderness, Sports, Nature, Science

4.6 • 608 Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2015

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Tranquility; meditation; serenity. These are words that many of us might use to describe what we feel when we’re in the woods. But for Tiara Lin, a different word comes to mind: terror. Since she was a teen, Tiara has had botanophobia—a crippling fear of plants. Most people laugh in disbelief when she first tells them that such a phobia exists. But the laughter stops when they see her dissolve into panic near a tree, or when they hear that she has broken up with boyfriends for sending her flowers.

On this episode, reporter Chelsea Davis brings us Tiara’s story. It’s a story about a fear so powerful that it disrupts how you function in society. And it’s a story about the struggle to overcome that fear – to experience nature the way others do.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, I'm Willow Belden, and you're listening to Out There.
0:20.5	This is a podcast about the outdoors, from your Willow Belden, and you're listening to Out There.
0:30.2	This is a podcast about the outdoors, from your window box and garden, to the fields on the edge of town, to the forests, prairies, seashores, and wilderness.
0:38.6	On the show, we explore our relationship with nature, through stories, interviews, essays, and even some fiction. We travel around the U.S. and the world with tales of love and heartbreak, passion and
0:43.5	adversity, desperation, and triumph. Ever since humans have lived in cities, we've fantasized about leaving those cities,
1:11.6	about packing up and heading out for the wilderness, even if just for a short while.
1:16.6	As far back as the ancient Romans, poets like Virgil seem to just sense that nature is therapeutic.
1:23.6	And even today, when so many of us live in big cities, that urge to heal ourselves with the outdoors remains a powerful need.
1:32.3	Just look at the Blockbuster 2014 movie Wild.
1:36.3	The protagonist, Cheryl Strad, describes her trek along the Pacific Crest Trail as a kind of extended rehab.
1:43.3	How about you? Why are you here?
1:47.0	I don't know.
1:48.0	I just need to find something in myself, you know.
1:52.0	I think the trail is good for that.
1:54.0	I mean, look, this has the power to fill you up again if you let it.
2:04.3	But what if nature had the opposite effect on you?
2:07.9	What if being around plants made your skin crawl?
2:12.6	Today's episode of Out There is about a woman who has botanophobia,
2:16.6	which is just what it sounds like. A Fear of Plants.
2:19.4	Reporter Chelsea Davis has the story.
2:20.9	That's right.
2:23.0	A fear of plants.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Willow Belden, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Willow Belden and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.