Sara Hendren — Our Bodies, Aliveness, and the Built World

On Being with Krista Tippett

On Being Studios

Society, Spirituality, Society & Culture, Sociology, Culture, Science, Religion & Spirituality, Krista Tippett, Social Sciences, On Being, Arts

4.7 • 10.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2023

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Our built world is designed around something called "normal," and yet every single one of our bodies is mysterious, and constantly adapting for better or worse — and always, always changing. This is a fact so ordinary — and yet not something most of us routinely pause to know and to ponder and work with. But Sara Hendren has made it her passion, bringing to it her varied vocations and gifts: being a painter and loving how art reveals truth not by way of simplicity, but by juxtaposition; teaching design to engineering students; parenting three beloved children, one of whom has Down syndrome. This is a conversation that will have you moving through the world both marveling at the ordinary adaptations that bodies make and asking, in Sara's words, "restless and generative questions": of why we organize the physical world as though vulnerability and needs for assistance are not commonplace — indeed salutary — forms of experience that reveal the genius of what being human is all about.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for on-being with Krista Tippett comes from the Fetser Institute.
0:04.0	Fetser supports a movement of organizations that are applying spiritual solutions to society's toughest problems.
0:10.0	Learn more at fetetser.org.
0:16.0	Here is a sentence I love from Sarah Hendron.
0:21.0	Bodies are soft flesh in a world of machinery, and that can be a beautiful match or an experience that's full of hurdles.
0:26.9	This is a fact so ordinary, and yet not something we routinely pause to know and to ponder and work with.
0:35.0	That our built world is designed around something called normal,
0:40.0	and yet every single one of our bodies is mysterious and constantly adapting for better or worse and always, always changing.
0:50.2	Sarah is one of those people who has taken in the convergence of her gifts and her life to
0:56.2	possess a singular vocation and vantage point on the world.
1:01.3	Being a painter and loving how art reveals truth not by way of simplicity, but by
1:06.5	juxtaposition. Teaching design to engineering students, parenting three beloved children, one of whom has Down syndrome.
1:17.0	This is a conversation that will have you walking through the world, both marveling at the ordinary adaptations that bodies make and asking in
1:26.6	Sarah's words restless and generative questions of why we organize the physical world as though vulnerability and needs for assistance are not commonplace,
1:39.0	indeed salutary forms of experience that reveal the genius of what being human is all about.
1:47.0	I'm Krista Tippett and this is on being. and design at Northeastern University in Boston.
1:55.0	Sarah Hendron is an associate professor in the College of Arts, Media, and Design
2:02.0	at Northeastern University in Boston.
2:05.0	She previously spent nine years teaching at Olin College of Engineering.
2:09.5	Her book is What Can a Body Do?
2:12.4	How We Meet The Built World. is what kind of body do, how we meet the built world.
2:17.6	Krista?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

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