Robin Wall Kimmerer: What Does the Earth Ask of You Today?

March 24, 2026

Robin Wall Kimmerer: What Does the Earth Ask of You Today?

Robin Wall Kimmerer — March 24, 2026


Something shifts when you encounter Robin Wall Kimmerer’s work. The food in your bowl starts to look different. The tree at the corner of your block becomes something more than scenery. The world, quite suddenly, feels alive with relationship.

This is how her writing impacted Tami, and this week Tami and Robin—botanist, MacArthur Fellow, National Humanities Medal recipient, enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and author of the beloved Braiding Sweetgrass—talk about what it means to move through the world not as a consumer of natural resources, but as a participant in a web of living gifts.

Join Tami and Robin to explore:

  • Why Robin calls this moment in history “the Age of Remembering”—and what humanity is being called to reclaim
  • The profound difference between a commodity and a gift, and how that shift in perception changes everything
  • Brain chauvinism—why we’ve dismissed the intelligence of plants, rocks, and the more-than-human world, and what science is now revealing
  • The landmark sweetgrass experiment that proved humans can be partners to plants, not just threats
  • How to practice reciprocity with the earth, from small daily acts to systemic advocacy
  • Plant Baby Plant—Robin’s new movement offering a counter-narrative to extraction culture
  • How to hold grief, outrage, and love for the living world simultaneously—without surrendering to despair

In a time when the relationship between humans and the earth feels broken, Robin Wall Kimmerer offers something rare: a vision of healing rooted in science, indigenous wisdom, and the simple, radical act of giving your gifts back to the world.

Learn more about Robin Wall Kimmerer:
robinwallkimmerer.com
https://www.instagram.com/robinwallkimmerer/
plantbabyplant.com

This conversation offers genuine transmission—not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together. Originally aired on Sounds True One.

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Also By Author

The Point of Insight | Giving Back

What happens when a book doesn’t just inform you, but transmits something to you?

Welcome to The Point of Insight, a new monthly segment of Insights at the Edge where Tami Simon speaks directly to listeners about an insight that has stayed with her, often sparked by a conversation from the show’s archive. In this first episode, Tami reflects on preparing to interview ethnobotanist and Braiding Sweetgrass author Robin Wall Kimmerer, a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. While reading Kimmerer’s work, Tami describes receiving what she calls a transmission, a sudden, embodied recognition of how generously the natural world gives to us, and how rarely we pause to receive it.

Join Tami to explore:

  • What a transmission is, drawn from her background in meditation and Tibetan Buddhist teachings
  • The point of reciprocity—what shifts when we truly feel how much the natural world gives us
  • Why gratitude naturally moves us toward wanting to give something back
  • A story from teacher Malidoma Somé about speaking directly to the trees
  • What it means to move from an extractive mindset to one of recognition and care toward the living world around us

This is an intimate, unscripted reflection, not a scripted teaching, but Tami thinking out loud about a moment that changed her, and an invitation for you to notice what the natural world may be offering you, too.

Listen now, and consider: what is being given to you, and what might you give back?

Find the original interview with Robin Wall Kimmerer here. 

Robin Wall Kimmerer: What Does the Earth Ask of You To...


Something shifts when you encounter Robin Wall Kimmerer’s work. The food in your bowl starts to look different. The tree at the corner of your block becomes something more than scenery. The world, quite suddenly, feels alive with relationship.

This is how her writing impacted Tami, and this week Tami and Robin—botanist, MacArthur Fellow, National Humanities Medal recipient, enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and author of the beloved Braiding Sweetgrass—talk about what it means to move through the world not as a consumer of natural resources, but as a participant in a web of living gifts.

Join Tami and Robin to explore:

  • Why Robin calls this moment in history “the Age of Remembering”—and what humanity is being called to reclaim
  • The profound difference between a commodity and a gift, and how that shift in perception changes everything
  • Brain chauvinism—why we’ve dismissed the intelligence of plants, rocks, and the more-than-human world, and what science is now revealing
  • The landmark sweetgrass experiment that proved humans can be partners to plants, not just threats
  • How to practice reciprocity with the earth, from small daily acts to systemic advocacy
  • Plant Baby Plant—Robin’s new movement offering a counter-narrative to extraction culture
  • How to hold grief, outrage, and love for the living world simultaneously—without surrendering to despair

In a time when the relationship between humans and the earth feels broken, Robin Wall Kimmerer offers something rare: a vision of healing rooted in science, indigenous wisdom, and the simple, radical act of giving your gifts back to the world.

Learn more about Robin Wall Kimmerer:
robinwallkimmerer.com
https://www.instagram.com/robinwallkimmerer/
plantbabyplant.com

This conversation offers genuine transmission—not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together. Originally aired on Sounds True One.

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