EP 53: Author and Teacher Dr. John Hausdoerffer on Deepening Our Connection With the More-Than-Human World

This week, I had the true honor of speaking with Dr. John Hausdoerffer. Doctor Hausdoerffer is an envionmental philosopher, author, teacher and Dean of the Clark School of Environment & Sustainability at Western Colorado University. He has written and co-edited titles such as Catlin's Lament, Wildness, What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be?.

Most recently, he was the co-editor of Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations, a five volume series published by the Center for Humans and Nature that explores our deep interconnections with the living world. Along with his two co-editors Gavin Van Horn and my personal hero Robin Wall Kimmerer, the series contains essays, interviews, poetry, and stories of solidarity about how we can deepen our care and respect for the plants, animals, rivers, mountains, and others who live with us in this tangle of relations. In this conversation we discuss: the importance of language when it comes to understanding our connection to the earth; what John’s shift was like from an academic relationship to the wild to one that’s rooted in personal practice; why disconnection in all its forms creates a spiritual danger; how we can begin to shift from an extractive perspective to one that mutualistic; and what it means to “go kinning.”

This conversation was one of my favorite to date. It was such a joy and honor to chat with Dr. Hausdoerffer and I can’t wait for you to hear and learn from him.

“There is wildness accessible everywhere in the sense that we are surrounded by living, thriving, self-organizing beings.” – Dr. John Hausdoerffer x Our Nature

“I see connectivity as a synonym for spirituality.” – Dr. John Hausdoerffer x Our Nature

“For me, a spiritual journey would be a reconnection with myself as a moral agent – as one who can conceive and care for the complexity of the world that sustains me, and understand the implications of each of my choices for that world.” – Dr. John Hausdoerffer x Our Nature

“If we want kinship with the greater-than-human world, we need human kinship that is formed on and through the land to get us there.” – Dr. Hausdoerffer x Our Nature

Resources

Show Notes

  • John’s relationship to nature as a child

  • The importance of language when it comes to understanding our connection to the earth

  • Why you don’t need to be physically close to where we traditionally consider natural spaces to be close to wildness

  • What John’s shift was like from an academic relationship to the wild to one that’s rooted in personal practice

  • What’s helped to ease John’s depression

  • Why disconnection in all its forms creates a spiritual danger

  • The lessons we can learn from Douglass Fir Trees

  • How to understand kinship as a verb

  • What inspired the Kinship series and a breakdown of each of the five volumes

  • How we can begin to shift from an extractive perspective to one that mutualistic

  • Why it’s important to ask: what are the cultural keystones of where we live

  • The definition of a keystone species

  • Why reduce, reuse, recycle is a limiting narrative and what should replace it

  • How language can be used to connect us or as a tool for exploitation

  • What it means to “go kinning” - how to ground kinship in practice

  • John shares a reading from Kinship

  • The last five questions

The Last Five Questions

  1. What is your favorite place in nature?

    Quebec, mossy clearing near my uncle’s A-frame.

  2. What is the animal, mineral or plant that resonates with you the most?

    Dog.

  3. What is one thing we can do right now to connect with the natural world and bring more harmony into our lives?

    Go outside, close your eyes, breathe and name every sound you hear.

  4. What’s the greatest lesson nature has taught you?

    That I am a lot smaller than I was taught to think I am.

  5. Nature brings me…Connection with people and places that show me my best self

Connect with Dr. John Hausdoerffer:

Connect with Our Nature Podcast:

Gratitude List: This podcast would not be possible without the group of talented individuals below. I offer them my sincerest thanks and love.

episodesAlyssa Benjaminkinship, indigenous wisdom