How Plants Hijack Your Brain's Reward System (In a Good Way): A Neuroscientist's Take on Houseplant Addiction: Best of Growing Joy Replay
Growing Joy with Plants - Wellness Rooted in Nature, Houseplants, Gardening and Plant Care
Maria Failla- Happy Plant Lady and Author of Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness
4.8 • 883 Ratings
🗓️ 31 July 2025
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s episode is about exactly what the title says: our brains… on plants, and what happens in our brains when we become plant people. When I was starting to move from plant killer to crazy plant lady, I noticed there were a few months at the beginning of my plant collection where I felt like the love for plants kind of took over my life. I was constantly buying new plants, going to plant shops, and researching plants on the internet. I was having so much fun with this new hobby, but for a moment, it felt like I couldn’t stop. Billy had to have a little intervention with me to slow me down and make sure we had the space and knowledge of the plants we already had. With his help (or maybe insistence), I put myself on a plant pause, which helped snap me out of that obsessive moment. But I’ve always thought about that particular phase in my life when I couldn’t stop.
Enter Dr. Caitlin Vander Weele, the answer to my “plant-iest” and “expert-iest” of dreams. Caitlin is not only an awesome listener of Growing Joy but also a neuroscientist and author with over 10 years of expertise in understanding how emotions and brain chemistry influence decision-making. She is also the founder of Interstellate, a movement that blends science and art with visual imagery to promote science education. Caitlin is really, really smart. And she is also a crazy plant lady, and this conversation blew my mind.
In this episode, we learn:
- How Caitlin became a crazy plant lady
- Maria gets real with Caitlin and explains the addictive behaviors she experienced early into plant parenthood.
- Caitlin breaks down what exactly was happening in Maria’s brain in those first few months of buying as many plants as possible
- What causes our brain to release dopamine and what it is
- What compulsive behavior is
- What our brain on dopamine does
- What neurotransmitters, synapses and receptors are
- The difference between endorphins and dopamine
- Why we feel bonded to our plants: enter oxytocin
- How these things are measured in our brains
- 4 phases of compulsive behaviors to look out for
- How to cope with compulsive urges when growing your urban jungle
Looking for more reasons to justify your plant addiction?
Check out the full show notes and blog to learn how your brain responds to plant care!
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | What if I told you that your love for houseplants is literally rewiring your brain as we speak? |
| 0:06.0 | Today's episode of the podcast dives into the science and the why behind the famous phrase. |
| 0:11.2 | Plants make people happy and my garden is my therapy. |
| 0:14.7 | So when I first started collecting plants eight years ago, my addiction to plants came on so strong. |
| 0:19.8 | Within three months, I went from literally having zero |
| 0:22.5 | plants in my home to having 60 plants. And I hit this moment where I really struggled to slow down |
| 0:27.5 | and to stop buying. It got a little compulsive. There was just this part of my heart, or really my brain, |
| 0:33.3 | that lit up and I couldn't handle my love for plants that was like exploding out of me. |
| 0:38.7 | And there was a little obsession. And I know a lot of us go through that moment where our plant |
| 0:43.9 | love turns into a bit of an obsession. So today, we are re-reasing one of my favorite interviews |
| 0:50.3 | ever conducted on Growing Joy with Plants. It is one of the most talked about, |
| 0:55.3 | one of the most commented episodes I have ever done with neuroscientist, Dr. Caitlin M. Vanderweil |
| 1:01.3 | all about your brain on plants. And what literally happens to our brain as we fall in love |
| 1:07.5 | with plants so deeply as so many of us have. The conversation is fascinating. |
| 1:13.7 | Re-listening to it, I did this interview in 2018, and I was wondering if it would still stay |
| 1:18.9 | relevant and plant friends. It is still so relevant so many years later. I am so excited to |
| 1:24.6 | reshare it with you in this Best of Growing Joy series that we're bringing you |
| 1:29.3 | to the podcast where we're re-releasing the Golden Oldies. |
| 1:32.8 | Now, the small disclaimer with this episode, Plant Friends, is this episode was conducted |
| 1:37.7 | in 2018 when I was a baby podcaster, any baby interviewer, you might notice I sound a little |
| 1:43.2 | different. |
| 1:43.8 | I'm definitely more rambly |
... |
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