Biophilic Solutions: Nature Has the Answers

In this episode, we explore a question that feels more urgent than ever: what if healing ourselves and healing the planet are deeply interconnected?

Monica is joined by author Lindsay Branham, whose book Heartwood: The Wisdom and Healing Kinship of Trees chronicles her personal journey through chronic illness and toward a deeper relationship with the natural world. Guest co-host Florence Williams, bestselling author of The Nature Fi...

On this episode of Biophilic Solutions, Monica Olsen is joined by wildlife conservationist and author Beth Pratt alongside special guest co-host Tim Beatley for a conversation about urban wildlife, national parks, and the future of conservation in our cities.

As California Regional Executive Director for the National Wildlife Federation, Beth shares the story behind the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in Los Angeles, the cultural...

Cancer Alley, an 85-mile stretch along the Mississippi River in Louisiana, has become shorthand for one of the most urgent environmental justice crises in the United States. Lined with more than a hundred petrochemical plants, it’s often talked about in terms of statistics and headlines. But in the new podcast The Corridor, those abstractions start to fall away, revealing something much more human: the lived experiences, hist...

Climate change can feel overwhelming, especially for those already deeply attuned to the natural world. Alongside that awareness often comes anxiety, grief, and a lingering question: how do we move from overwhelm to action?

In this episode, we’re joined by climate leader and author Dr. Katharine Wilkinson to explore her fantastic new book Climate Wayfinding. In it, Katharine offers a hopeful framework for navigating climate em...

As we welcome a new season of Biophilic Solutions, we’re also sharing a bittersweet farewell to our wonderful co-host, Jennifer Walsh. From the very beginning, Jennifer has brought a thoughtful, grounded perspective to nearly every conversation, drawing on her work as a business leader and expert on biophilia. 

The silver lining is that she’s stepping away precisely because her message is resonating. From speaking e...

Is it important to understand the cultural context of a place? And how can landscape architects help us feel more connected to the natural world? This week, we’re revisiting our most popular episode ever, a thoughtful, wide-ranging conversation with Alfie Vick on Native American ethnobotany, environmental ethics, and the delicate balance between wildness and order.

Alfie is the Georgia Power Professor of Environmental Ethics a...

Today, we’re revisiting a favorite from the Biophilic Solutions archive: a thoughtful conversation on beauty, the brain, and our relationship to nature with Anjan Chatterjee. In this episode, we explore whether our aesthetic preferences are culturally shaped or more universal, why nature brings deep calm to some people while evoking unease in others, and how researchers are beginning to measure the real cognitive and emotiona...

We’re excited to bring back a favorite conversation from 2021 with the incomparable Florence Williams. Florence is, of course, the acclaimed author of The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, a book that beautifully explores the science behind nature’s profound effect on our minds, bodies, and sense of connection. It’s biophilia in its purest form.

In this episode, we dive into the...

As we gear up to launch another season of incredible guest interviews we’re revisiting a few of our most beloved episodes, starting with the fabulous Doug Tallamy.

Over the course of his career, Doug has become a leading voice helping people understand why native plants matter and how simple and accessible it can be to support biodiversity right in your backyard. In this conversation, we talk about the power of keystone specie...

In a world where many of us feel increasingly disconnected from the Earth and from one another, author Lyanda Lynn Haupt offers us a way back. Through her blend of science, nature, and spiritual insight, she invites us to slow down, pay attention, and rediscover the wildness of everyday life. Her award-winning book Rooted explores what it means to cultivate inner wisdom and a deep sense of belonging with the natural world, no matte...

What does it mean to truly love the natural world? And what happens when we start listening deeply to it? In this episode, we sit down with author and activist Maria Rodale to explore the themes in her latest book, Love, Nature, Magic: Shamanic Journeys into the Heart of My Garden.

A lifelong advocate for organic living and regenerative agriculture, Maria has carried forward her family’s legacy as the former CEO and Chairman o...

We think a lot about how people make us feel, but what about the places we spend our time in? In this episode, we explore how architecture and design influence our physical and mental well-being, from hospitals and workplaces to the spaces we move through every day.

Our guest, Tye Farrow, is a world-renowned architect and pioneer at the intersection of neuroscience and design. His new book, Constructing Health: How the Built Environ...

In a time of deep political division and environmental crisis, what would it look like to design a democracy that’s truly in harmony with the natural world?

In this episode, we revisit a powerful 2022 conversation with David Orr, Professor of Practice at Arizona State University, editor of Democracy in a Hotter Time, and one of the leading voices at the intersection of ecology, education, and politics.

Orr challenges us to thin...

Modern life often leaves us on the treadmill of constant striving, chasing markers of success that don’t necessarily bring fulfillment. But what happens when you step off that treadmill and reimagine what’s possible?

Our guest this week, Steve Nygren, did exactly that. As the founder and visionary behind Serenbe, a biophilic community just outside Atlanta, Steve has spent decades exploring how the places we live can bett...

Regenerative agriculture isn’t new. To quote today’s guest, it’s an “exciting old thing.” Yet in the modern world, this ancient, innate wisdom often feels forgotten, and the consequences show up in our food system, in our health, and in the climate. At its core, the challenge isn’t just about farming practices, it’s about how we see ourselves in relation to the land.

In this episode, Monica ...

When was the last time you really experienced nighttime? In our modern world of glowing screens, bright porch lights, and 24/7 brightness, true darkness has become rare. Yet nighttime holds a mystery and magic all its own, inviting us to slow down, tune into natural rhythms, and rediscover the awe that’s right outside our doors.

In this episode, Monica sits down with New York Times bestselling author Leigh Ann Henion, whose la...

This week on Biophilic Solutions, we’re bringing you something a little different (yet very close to home). While Serenbe isn’t the main focus of this podcast, it is where Monica lives and works, and it’s one of the most vibrant examples of biophilic community in action.

In anticipation of his forthcoming book, Start In Your Own Backyard: Transforming Where We Live with Radical Common Sense, Serenbe founder Steve N...

This week, we’re joined by Amy Martin, host of the Peabody Award-winning podcast Threshold, for a conversation that spans everything from the hidden harms of noise pollution and ecological grief to imagining a future free from the looming threat of climate change. Amy brings a thoughtful, poetic lens to the climate conversation, reminding us of the urgency of the moment, the profound beauty of the world we’re trying to ...

What if we told you that simple, meaningful action starting today can help protect the world’s oceans?

In this hopeful and eye-opening episode, Monica sits down with Katie Day, Senior Manager of Science and Policy at the Surfrider Foundation, to talk about the practical steps we can all take to safeguard our oceans and coral reefs. Katie breaks down how interconnected threats—like plastic pollution and harmful sunscreen ...