We’re Not Separate from Nature, We’re Made of It: An Honest Conversation About Soil, Carbon, and the Future of Humanity with Paul Hawken

Dhru Purohit Show

Dhru Purohit

Medicine, Health & Fitness, Alternative Health

4.7 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2025

⏱️ 137 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode is brought to you by Bon Charge, Pique Life, and BiOptimizers. When we think about carbon, we often associate it with pollution, greenhouse gases, and climate change. But carbon is not the enemy—it's the essential building block of life. From the soil beneath our feet to the air we breathe, carbon plays a central role in the biosphere. The real issue lies not with carbon itself, but with how human systems have disrupted its natural balance. Today on The Dhru Purohit Show, Dhru sits down with environmentalist and author Paul Hawken to unpack the deeper story of carbon—its vital role in life, its misrepresentation in climate discourse, and its power to connect all living systems. Drawing from his new book Carbon: The Book of Life, Paul explains why regeneration, not just sustainability, is key. He also shares how we can restore our relationship with the Earth by embracing Indigenous wisdom, ecological thinking, and a shift from extraction to restoration, reminding us that healing the planet starts with rethinking our values. Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, and bestselling author who advises governments and business leaders on climate and ecological regeneration. He’s written nine books with six national and New York Times bestsellers. He founded both Project Drawdown and Project Regeneration, which created the world’s largest network of solutions to the climate crisis. His newest book is Carbon: The Book of Life. Tune in to this powerful conversation to discover how rethinking carbon could help us heal our planet—and ourselves. In this episode, Dhru and Paul dive into: Carbon as the foundation of life (00:40) The vilification of carbon from an environmental perspective—and the secrets it holds (3:05) Dissolving the human–nature divide and reconnecting with the natural world (11:20) The message behind Claire Davis' food experiment with infants (17:40) How awareness and communication with nature could help shift humanity (25:13) Balancing human wants versus needs (35:43) The idea that Earth has a form of awareness (46:59) Challenging the idea that human existence is a plight on the planet (1:03:23) The limits of technology in healing the Earth—and how it has improved human life (1:10:53) Carbon sequestration through regenerative agriculture (1:15:42) Rethinking the phrase “growth is good” in the context of nature, humans, and technology (1:21:33) The impact of outcome-focused living and raising awareness about health (1:31:03) Reevaluating infant formula and banning pharmaceutical ads—genuine progress or public deception? (1:37:43) The future of agriculture: banning chemicals, pesticides, and harmful toxins in America (1:42:43) There is a solution, a path to change—and we are part of it (1:48:43) The need for community, the power of connection, and our role in making life better (2:02:13) Also mentioned in this episode: Paul’s Book - Carbon: The Book of Life Project Drawdown Restor Eco Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? Abundance For more on Paul, follow him on Instagram and his Website. This episode is brought to you by Bon Charge, Pique, and BiOptimizers. Right now, Bon Charge is offering my community 15% off; just go to boncharge.com/DHRU and use coupon code DHRU to save 15%. Right now, Pique Life is offering 20% off the Pu’er fermented black and green teas. Plus, you’ll get a free beaker and frother when you go to piquelife.com/dhru. Go to bioptimizers.com/dhru now and enter promo code DHRU10 to get 10% off any order of Sleep Breakthrough and find out this month’s gift with purchase. Sign up for Dhru’s Try This Newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Paul Hawkin, an absolute pleasure to have you on the podcast. Carbon is often vilified.
0:07.0	It's seen as this culprit of climate change. It's an us versus them mentality, and it's either
0:16.4	you are against carbon or you're for environmentalism, right?
0:23.7	You're either with us or against us, as George Bush famously said.
0:27.5	But you've described it not as this villain, but as this animating force of life.
0:35.1	Why is it so important for us to change this story and this relationship that we have
0:40.7	with this molecule that's the foundation to life? Because it is the foundation for life. Exactly right.
0:48.7	And we see carbon as an element and we were taught that in high school science, of course, and we can measure and look at it
0:56.9	that way. But what we've done is basically objectify it and make it a thing when, in fact, there's
1:06.1	1.2 trillion molecules in every cell of our body. And so we're looking at it with the same mindset
1:13.6	that caused the problem of global warming, which is to objectify the living world, and to
1:19.9	objectify and make other the causes and to create an economy that's all about self and grasping and getting and taking and extraction
1:32.0	and concentration and not about community, which is all life arises from community, and not out of
1:39.4	respect, not out of compassion, not out of kindness, not out of a sense of connectedness, which is
1:44.6	we're inseparably connected.
1:46.8	It's just our minds that have, you know, sort of diluted us in, of course, all our media
1:52.0	and social media and everything that we are individuals.
1:56.8	You know, the only individuals in the world are in comic books and westerns.
2:01.9	There is no such thing as an individual.
2:05.1	And yes, we have a distinct mind, and we can think things that are very peculiar to us and not anybody else,
2:11.7	and we can connect that, and we have extraordinary language to do that with.
2:15.2	But that doesn't mean biologically we're individuals or we're separate.
	...

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