What Humans Can Learn From Trees (Encore)

The Science of Happiness

PRX and Greater Good Science Center

Science, Social Sciences

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Trees aren’t just competing for sunlight and soil—they’re also looking out for one another. Scientist Suzanne Simard reveals the unexpected ways trees communicate, share resources, and support us.

Summary: We dive into what we can learn from the neural networks of forests, evolution and cooperation, and how trees are a fundamental solution to the climate crises we are facing today with ecologist Suzanne Simard. She also shares her forest gratitude practice and invites us to reflect on what it means to feel a sense of belonging in the forest.

How To Do This Practice:

Go to a forest or natural space, ideally near yew trees or other trees you feel connected to.
Sit quietly, even if you're tired or unwell, and allow yourself to simply be there.
Acknowledge the presence and life of the trees around you.
Offer your gratitude to the trees—for their medicine, their strength, or simply their being.
If you're with loved ones, invite them to join in the gratitude.
Feel the connection between yourself, the trees, and your companions.
Return to this practice as often as you can, letting the forest remind you that you're not alone.

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Today’s Guests:

DR. SUZANNE SIMARD is a professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia and the author of Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.

Read her book here: https://tinyurl.com/bdfy463z

Related The Science of Happiness episodes:

How Water Heals: https://tinyurl.com/utuhrnh3

Experience Nature Wherever You Are, with Dacher (Encore): https://tinyurl.com/aj34s585

The Healing Effects of Experiencing Wildlife: https://tinyurl.com/49pkk6eu

Related Happiness Breaks:

How To Ground Yourself in Nature: https://tinyurl.com/25ftdxpm

Pause to Look at the Sky: https://tinyurl.com/4jttkbw3

A Walking Meditation: https://tinyurl.com/mwbsen7a

Tell us about your experience connecting with nature. Email us at [email protected] or follow on Instagram @HappinessPod.

Help us share The Science of Happiness! Leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts and share this link with someone who might like the show: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

Transcription: https://tinyurl.com/yvrd9jje

Transcript

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0:00.0	How much awe and wonder do you experience in your life?
0:03.6	From the John Templeton Foundation, our sponsors at the Science of Happiness,
0:07.3	the Templeton Ideas Podcast, explores the most awe-inspiring ideas in our world
0:12.4	with the people who investigate them.
0:15.0	Host Tom Burnett sits down with inspiring thinkers like Alison Gopnik, David Brooks,
0:20.2	Tyler Cowens, and Gretchen Rubin
0:22.4	to discuss how their investigations have transformed their lives and how they may transform yours.
0:29.2	Learn more at templeton.org slash podcast.
0:43.6	I had breast cancer and it was in my lymphatic system, so I had to go through a pretty strong regimen of chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
0:48.7	I think anybody who gets a life-threatening disease like cancer, it's a very fearful time of your life.
0:55.8	You know, it's learning how much it's spread.
0:58.8	And I remember one day saying to my doctor,
1:01.7	I says, I can't do this anymore.
1:03.3	You know, I just, I couldn't get off the couch.
1:05.6	I couldn't do anything.
1:08.0	And I got to that point where I understood, you know, why end of life is the end of life, right?
1:15.6	It's really hard to carry on sometimes.
1:17.6	And my doctor, Dr. Malpas, said to me, he said,
1:20.6	Suzanne, just hang on because this next drug, you'll feel better.
1:24.6	And that was taxol, pathotaxil, which is derived from the Pacific
1:29.6	U-Tree. And these trees grow all around me in the forests around me. And so then I started it,
1:37.0	and I did start to feel better. At the same time, I was making friends with my other chemo buddies.
	...

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