Threshold Conversations | The Language of the Living World with Robert Macfarlane

How does the language we use affect our relationships with the rest of the living world? And what if by shifting the way we speak and write, we can open ourselves to more ways of thinking, to other ways of being? What if we thought of a river or a mountain as a “who” instead of a “what”?

Robert Macfarlane is a Professor of Literature and the Environmental Humanities at the University of Cambridge. In his book Underland, published in 2019, he writes “words are world-makers and language is one of the great geological forces of the Anthropocene.” He has continued his pursuit of language that animates rather than deadens in subsequent books, including Is a River Alive? and most recently, The Book of Birds: A Field Guide to Wonder and Loss. In this conversation, Robert and Amy think together about words and metaphors that bring us more fully into relation with the world around us, and how these semantic choices might shape our collective future.

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Credits: Threshold Conversations is produced by Sam Moore. Our music is by Todd Sickafoose. Amy Martin is our host and executive producer. This episode was released in collaboration with Orion Magazine.

Resources and Links:

Robert’s books

A few of Robert’s pieces in Orion

The Silent Planet, the musical piece Robert mentions, by Delia Stevens and Will Pound

Mentioned in this episode:

Announcing...Threshold Live!

Join us in Missoula, Montana on October 17 for a sonic exploration of the more-than-human world. Find out more and get tickets at https://www.thresholdpodcast.org/threshold-live