The Huge Impact of Environmental Neuroscience: Effective Ways to Grow Attention and Cognition with Dr. Marc Berman

Raising Good Humans

Voicing Change Media

Education, Kids & Family, Parenting

4.7 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today’s episode, I sit down with Dr. Marc Berman, the pioneer of environmental neuroscience, to explore the surprising science behind how nature enhances cognitive, physical, and social wellbeing. We dive into how spending time in nature—whether it’s a walk in the park or simply looking at nature photos—can boost attention, memory, and mood. Dr. Berman also shares practical tips for how to incorporate nature’s benefits into your daily routine, even if you don't have easy access to green spaces. Buy his book NATURE & MIND HERE! I WROTE MY FIRST BOOK! Order your copy of The Five Principles of Parenting: Your Essential Guide to Raising Good Humans Here: https://bit.ly/3rMLMsL Subscribe to my free newsletter for parenting tips delivered straight to your inbox: draliza.substack.com Follow me on Instagram for more: @raisinggoodhumanspodcast Sponsors: Visit resortpass.com/humans and use code humans at checkout for $20 off your first purchase. Bobbie: Bobbie is offering an additional 10% off on your purchase with the code:humans, visit hibobbie.com BetterHelp: Our listeners get 10% off their first month at BetterHelp.com/HUMANS Kiwico: Get up to 50% off your first crate at kiwico.com, promo code RGH Outschool: If you want to try Outschool, you can now get up to $20 off your child's’ first class or tutoring session for a limited time. This exclusive discount is only available when you go to Outschool.com/HUMAN Great Wolf Lodge: Book your stay today at GreatWolf.com and strengthen the pack! Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode. Produced by Dear Media. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The following podcast is a Dear Media production.
0:10.4	Welcome to Raising Good Humans podcast. I'm Dr. Elisa Pressman, and today we are talking about nature and the mind.
0:18.8	The science of how nature improves cognitive, physical, and social well-being.
0:23.6	I have Dr. Mark Berman, who created the entire field of environmental neuroscience.
0:30.8	He uses science to show that spending time in natural environments can ultimately boost
0:35.5	our ability to direct attention. It's actually kind of staggering
0:39.5	a 20% improvement in attention-related abilities from integrating nature into your day-to-day.
0:46.8	So how that is practically applied is a big part of this conversation and solutions beyond
0:53.5	just taking a beautiful hike because not all of us
0:57.1	can do that every day. In fact, I was really surprised and delighted to hear that though it is not
1:03.7	going to have as much of an impact, even looking at beautiful pictures of nature and having
1:09.8	plants in your house can have an impact on
1:12.9	your brain. We've never talked about on Raising Good Humans podcast, what is environmental
1:20.2	neuroscience and how does it help us? So environmental neuroscience is a field that sort of combines
1:27.4	environmental psychology and cognitive neuroscience
1:31.1	and really focuses on how the external physical environment can actually impact brain and behavior.
1:38.2	And I think a lot of us sort of underestimate how powerful the physical environment can be on our behavior and
1:46.9	on our brain functioning. As humans, we have so much control over the physical environment
1:51.8	that I think we often kind of forget that the physical environment actually can have a very
1:58.6	profound impact on our behavior. So in environmental neuroscience, we're
2:02.8	really trying to understand how different physical environments impact brain and behavior,
2:08.5	what aspects of the physical environment impact brain and behavior. And then, you know,
	...

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