This is Your Brain On Nature with Dr. David Strayer
Cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Strayer shares the science behind how nature impacts stress, attention, and creativity
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Show Notes
When I first delved into nature research, it wasn’t long before I came across the name, Dr. David Strayer, our guest today on the latest episode of Nature Junkie Radio. What stood out to me was that his curiosity to understand the neuroscience of nature connection was informed by his direct experiences while river rafting, deeply immersed in nature. He felt what Edward Abbey felt in Desert Solitaire, but then he took it to the next level to help us understand the science of our brains on nature.
Dr. Strayer is a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Utah and part of a group of scientists in the emerging field of environmental neuroscience. He’s published numerous papers on how nature affects our attention, cognition, and creativity, but he doesn’t take the typical approach. Many of Dr. Strayer’s studies are actually conducted in the wild, which is much harder than you think.
Dr. Strayer joined me from a place near the water in Port Townsend Washington while I was at home in San Diego. We talked about the white water rafting experiences that drove his scientific curiosity about nature, overcoming the challenges of the early days of doing research in the wild, Attention Restoration Theory, Stress Recovery Theory, The 3-day effect, virtual reality nature vs. real life nature, fractals, forest bathing, and more. This one’s for those of you who like to dive below the surface level understanding of nature connection.
If you find anything in this episode helpful or inspiring, please share it with a friend so we can bend the algorithms toward nature. Thanks!
Episode Links
Dr. David Strayer at The University of Utah
The Nature Fix by Florence Williams
The 3-Day Effect audiobook by Florence Williams
Connect with Nature Junkie
Substack: https://naturejunkie.substack.com/
Website: www.naturejunkielife.com
Hosted by Jeff Johnson
Podcast cover art by Ahab Nimry
Outro music by Tyler Johnson
Editing by Aashish M.