Biophilic Solutions: Nature Has the Answers

Latest Episodes:

The Campaign for Nature: Safeguarding Biodiversity with Brian O’Donnell Nov 01, 2022

Show notes

The world is losing its biodiversity at a rapid rate, due in large part to habitat loss caused by climate change. These dual threats pose serious risks to human health and wellbeing, particularly if global leaders fail to take meaningful and quick action. Our guest today is Brian O’Donnell, Director of the Campaign for Nature, an organization whose goal is to protect at least 30% of the world’s land and oceans by 2030. The Campaign for Nature works with scientists, environmentalists, and policymakers to advance solutions on a global scale. In this episode, we talk to Brian about why 30% is a benchmark number, why biodiversity loss is as great a threat to us as climate change, the highly significant Biodiversity Conference (COP15) which will take place in Montreal this December, and much more.

Show Notes

Campaign for Nature
30 x 30
Sign the 30 x 30 Petition
UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15)
Rodale Institute
New report shows why fighting climate change and nature loss must be interlinked (World Economic Forum)
Shifting to a Green Economy with Dr. Edward B. Barbier (Biophilic Solutions)
Can Organic Agriculture Feed the World? (Biophilic Solutions)

Key Words: Nature, Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Infrastructure, Government, Environment, Environmental Policy, COP15, Montreal, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Loss, Climate, Climate Change

Biophilic Solutions is available wherever you get podcasts. Please listen, follow, and give us a five-star review.
Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn and learn more on our website.
#NatureHasTheAnswers

Plant Based Snacks For A Healthy Planet with Eat the Change Co-founder Seth Goldman Oct 18, 2022

Show notes

One of our most effective tools for improving planetary health is the food we choose to eat. In environmental terms, a vegetarian diet is great and a vegan diet is even better. However, imagining that the bulk of the population will willingly shift to a vegan diet over the next few years seems pretty unlikely (to put it mildly). So, where does that leave us? In today’s episode, we’re joined by Eat the Change co-founder Seth Goldman to advocate for a plant-based approach to food and diet. In a plant-based model, vegetables, fruits, fungi, and legumes are the key players - but there’s not a single food group that’s entirely off-limits. In this episode, we chat about Seth’s line of delicious and healthy snacks made from back-to-basics ingredients like carrots and mushrooms, his background as an entrepreneur in the health food space, and why you can’t sacrifice taste if you want to change peoples’ eating habits.

Show Notes

Eat the Change
About Seth Goldman
PLNT Burger
Beyond Burger
Honest Tea
ETC Impact
Innovator’s Agenda: How We Approach Innovation at Eat the Change
Eat the Change on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook

Saving The World’s Quiet Places with Matt Mikkelsen Oct 04, 2022

Show notes

Natural places, untouched by man made noise pollution, are practically nonexistent in the modern world. Unfortunately, the lack of quiet in today’s world doesn’t bode well for our health; noise pollution is tied to an array of health problems like cardiovascular disease, anxiety, depression, and attention disorders. Our guest today, Matt Mikkelsen, is a sound engineer, audio recordist, and documentary filmmaker who also serves as the Executive Director of Wilderness Parks at Quiet Parks International, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to save quiet for the benefit of all life. Preserving these places for our own calm and respite - and for the biodiversity and habitats of other species - is absolutely vital. In this episode, we chat with Matt about his work governments all over the world, the importance of true listening, and finding hygge in the wilderness.

Show Notes

Key Words: Quiet, Silence, Wellness, Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Environment, Noise, Noise Pollution, Parks, State Parks, Park, Conservation, Land Conservation, Climate Change, Hygge

Restorative Spaces Inspired by Nature with Oliver Heath Sep 20, 2022

Show notes

Picture this: you’re at the office and you’re having a terrible day. We’ve all been there at one time or another. So … where do you go to cry? That is the question that designer Oliver Heath poses to all of his prospective clients. More often than not, the response he gets back is the bathroom. From Oliver’s perspective, this answer reflects a larger issue in the built environment, especially in the workplace: a lack of spaces specifically designed with restoration and wellbeing in mind. Oliver is the founder of Oliver Heath Design, an architecture and interior design practice that focuses on health and wellbeing in the built environment and he is one of the leading experts on biophilic design. In this episode, we chat with Oliver about his approach to nature-inspired spaces, the fascinating and approachable white papers he has co-authored with Interface, and why we need to design with individual needs in mind.

Show Notes

Design a healthy home: 100 ways to transform your space for physical and mental wellbeing by Oliver Heath
Oliver Heath Design
Biophilic Design Courses from Oliver Heath Design
Whitepapers, Reports & Guides (Oliver Heath Design x Interface)
Interface
14 Patterns of Biophilic Design (Terrapin Bright Green)
Exploring the Nature Pyramid by Tim Beatley (The Nature of Cities)
Oliver Heath Design Instagram
Oliver Heath Design Twitter
Oliver Heath Design Facebook

Key Words: Nature, Design, Interior Design, Architecture, Sensory Experience, Biophilic, Biophilic Design, Biophilia, Restorative, Attention Restoration Therapy, Wellness, Wellbeing, Built Environment, Office, Work, Covid-19

Shifting to a Green Economy with Dr. Edward B. Barbier Sep 06, 2022

Show notes

This week we’re diving into environmental economics, specifically how global economies can start valuing nature and shift to a model that is greener, more inclusive, and more democratic. Have you ever wondered why many environmentally damaging industries receive government subsidies while natural raw materials are treated like inexhaustible resources? What about businesses who maintain the status quo even though their bottom line would benefit from incorporating more sustainable practices? We’re tackling all of this and much more with economist Edward B. Barbier.

Dr. Barbier is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Economics at Colorado State University, where his main expertise is in environmental and resource economics as well as international environmental policy. He has served as a consultant and policy analyst for a variety of national, international and non-governmental agencies, including many UN organizations and the World Bank. His latest book, Economics for a Fragile Planet, provides solutions and action items for building a green economy.

Show Notes

Edward B. Barbier
Economics for a Fragile Planet by Edward B. Barbier
A New Blueprint for a Green Economy by Edward B. Barbier and Anil Markandya
Paris Climate Agreement
Adopt a carbon tax to protect tropical forests (Nature)
The Water Paradox: Overcoming the Global Crisis in Water Management by Edward B. Barbier
Several states will follow California’s lead in banning gas-powered car sales by 2035 (The Hill)
Inflation Reduction Act
How to Help People in Jackson, MS Right Now (The Cut)

Key Words: Nature, Climate, Climate Change, Economy, Economic Systems, Fossil Fuels, Fossil Fuel Industry, Emissions, Democracy, Deforestation, Natural Resources, Sustainability, Environment, Environmental Policy

Native Plants, Wildness, and Landscape Architecture with Dr. Alfred Vick Aug 23, 2022

Show notes

Is it important to know the cultural context of a place? How do landscape architects help connect us to nature? This week we’re talking all about Native American ethnobotany, environmental ethics, and finding the right balance between wildness and order with Dr. Alfred “Alfie” Vick, the Georgia Power Professor of Environmental Ethics at the University of Georgia and Director of the Environmental Ethics Certificate Program. With Alfie as our guide, we explore the cross-section of landscape architecture and Native American studies, the changes he’s observed in the fields of landscape architecture and biophilic design, and he even reveals a hot tip for combating poison ivy naturally.

Show Notes

UGA Environmental Ethics Program
About Alfie Vick
The Experience of Nature: A Psychological Perspective by Rachel Kaplan and Stephen Kaplan
Los Angeles River Revitalization Project
Flight Path and Lost Waters with Urban Designer Hannah Palmer (Biophilic Solutions Podcast)
State Botanical Gardens of Georgia - UGA

Key Words: Native American, Indigenous Wisdom, Plants, Botany, Ethnobotany, Landscape Architecture, Landscape, Environment, Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Climate, Climate Change, UGA, Serenbe

Rethinking Housing with ‘Brave New Home’ Author Diana Lind Aug 09, 2022

Show notes

This week, we’re exploring the rise of the single-family home and its many pitfalls, including the isolation brought on by large homes on expansive plots of land, exclusionary zoning that exacerbates social issues, and environmental factors like resource-intensive turf grass, massive energy usage for few people, and the necessity of cars. Luckily, however, new trends in housing are reshaping the way we live - from co-living spaces with shared utilities, resources, and perks to chic tiny homes to eco-conscious villages like Serenbe that encourage community, wellness, and biophilia.

Our guest is Diana Lind, author of ‘Brave New Home', which investigates how the single-family home became synonymous with the American Dream before delving into the paradigm shifts making housing more accessible and environmentally aware. Diana is a writer and urban policy specialist whose writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Architectural Record and Next City, where she also served as Executive Director and Editor in Chief. Currently, she is the incoming Communications & Publications Director for the Penn Institute for Urban Research.

Show Notes

Brave New Home: Our Future in Smarter, Simpler, Happier Housing by Diana Lind
About Diana Lind
Against the White Picket Fence (New York Times)
WATCH: Five Things Diana Lind taught us about housing (Philadelphia Citizen)
Ideas We Should Steal: Treat Homelessness as a Health Issue by Diana Lind (The Philadelphia Citizen)

Key Words: Urban Policy, Urban Planning, Housing, Housing Crisis, Biophilia, Biophilic Design, Wellness, Health, Zoning Laws, Suburban, Suburbia, Tiny Home, Environment, Climate Change, Climate Policy

Silence, Awe, and Being Present with 'Golden' Authors Leigh Marz & Justin Zorn Jul 26, 2022

Show notes

What is the deepest silence you’ve ever known? That’s the key question posed by Leigh Marz and Justin Zorn in their new book, Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise. For Justin and Leigh, silence means many things beyond the literal absence of noise. Silence can be found in moments of calm, moments of awe, and self-transcendent experiences like witnessing a birth or death. When we venture out into nature, we hear nature’s sounds all around us but the feeling of calm and tranquility gives us the quiet contemplation we desperately need. In today’s episode of Biophilic Solutions, we chat with Justin & Leigh about the incessant noise and pace of modern life, finding silence to foster greater connection to the world and to each other, and why true silence is completely different for everyone.

Show Notes

Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise by Justin Zorn & Leigh Marz
How to Build a Culture that Honors Quiet Time (Harvard Business Review)
The Busier You Are, The More You Need Quiet Time (Harvard Business Review)
Is noise bad for us? The authors of ‘Golden’ on why silence is good for your brain (Salon)
A new book considers what silence is and how it can enrich us (Boston Globe)
Astrea Stategies

Key Words: Silence, Quiet, Nature, Biophilia, Focus, Attention, Technology, Meditation, Mindfulness, Wellness, Activism

The Highway of the Future with The Ray’s Allie Kelly Jul 12, 2022

Show notes

This week on Biophilic Solutions, we’re talking all things highway transportation. Transportation infrastructure is one of the most damaging systems on the planet, both in terms of human safety and environmental impact. What solutions could we possibly employ to transform highways, making them safer, more efficient, and carbon neutral? It may seem like a pipe dream, but many solutions are right at our fingertips.

Our guest is Allie Kelly, Executive Director of The Ray, a stretch of highway in southern Georgia that acts as a living laboratory for some of the most innovative ideas in transportation. Imagine the impact of installing solar panels on unutilized right of ways, replacing resource-intensive turf grass with pollinator plants, or even being able to charge your electric vehicle by simply driving over pavement embedded with solar-powered cells? These examples barely scratch the surface of all the incredible work that’s happening at The Ray. Listen in and learn about how The Ray is revolutionizing a notoriously inefficient system to create a zero impact, zero waste, and zero death highway of the future.

Show Notes

The Ray
Allie Kelly, Executive Director of The Ray
Technology: The Ray Today
Technology: Launching Soon
Technology: Down The Road
How 3 Technologies will revolutionize roads and highways (TEDxAtlanta)
Fact Sheet: Biden Administration Advances Expansion & Modernization of the Electric Grid (The White House)

Key Words: Transportation, Department of Transportation, Highway, Technology, Energy, Clean Energy, Solar, Solar Power, Right of Way Solar, Electric Vehicle, EV, biodiversity, pollinator, biophilia, nature, net zero, carbon neutral, climate change, climate solutions, carbon emissions, renewable energy, infrastructure, highway infrastructure

The Ultimate Biophilic Summer Reading List Jun 21, 2022

Show notes

This week, Monica and Jennifer are sharing their top picks for the ultimate biophilic summer reading list! Whether you’re just starting out on your biophilic journey or are a seasoned pro looking to expand your knowledge, there is something for everyone to enjoy (ideally poolside, beachside, or on your favorite park bench). Themes include connecting to nature through mindful walking (no surprise there!), working to combat the climate crisis through thoughtful action, and tips for simply slowing down in a fast-paced world.

Show Notes

Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change by George Marshall
The Electricity of Every Living Thing: A Woman’s Walk in the Wild to Find Her Way Home by Katherine May
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention – and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari
Why we can’t pay attention anymore (Vox Conversations)
Johann Hari On Why You Can’t Pay Attention (& How to Reclaim Focus) (Rich Roll)
Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise by Justin Zorn and Leigh Marz
All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson
Why Are Climate Justice & Racial Justice Inextricably Linked? (Biophilic Solutions)
Telling Stories to Save the Earth: Dr. Katharine Wilkinson & Mary Annaise Heglar (Serenbe Stories)
HEATED from Emily Atkin (Substack)
Walk Your Way Calm by Jennifer Walsh

Key Words: nature, summer reading, reading list, nature books, biophilia, biophilic, biophilic design, climate change, climate, climate crisis, focus, attention, attention span, attention deficit, technology, tech, tech and society, environment, race and ethnicity

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Biophilic Solutions: Nature Has the Answers

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected