This is Empire's Life Kit. I'm Andrew Limbong. The Thaw has arrived at leaves here in Baltimore,

where I am at the time of this taping. The days are getting longer, the cold is subsiding,

and we are fast approaching that perfect date weather, that miscongeniality weather,

you know, when it's not too hot, not too cold. Which is to say, it is the perfect time to get

outside and see something new. And you don't have to go far. Today's episode is all about how to

pay attention to your usual surroundings with some fresh eyes. We have a natural curiosity,

and it's just, you know, unfortunate that the structures of life and, and, you know,

many different factors kind of cover over that, and you have to find ways of rehabilitating it.

That's Jenny Odell, previous guest at the pod, Avid Birdwatcher, and author of the book How to Do Nothing.

In this episode of Life Kit, she's going to be our guide to finding some new things in old spaces.

It's easy to take for granted the stuff that's around you. You know, that park down the street,

that weird looking building a few blocks from work, that bench underneath that tree where you

ate a sandwich once. Really paying attention to these things is probably something you only do

when a friend visits from out of town, and you play tourists in your own town with them.

But it's important to try and incorporate that energy into your everyday life. It is,

after all, the ecosystem you inhabit. Just like those dioramas in science class,

everything in an ecosystem affects everything else, including you. Here's Odell reading from her book

How to Do Nothing. It's a bit like falling in love. That terrifying realization that your fate

is linked to someone else's, that you are no longer your own. But isn't that closer to the truth

anyway? Our fates are linked to each other, to the places where we are, and everyone and everything

that lives in them. How much more real my responsibility feels when I think about it this way.

This is more than just an abstract understanding that our survival is threatened by global warming,

...