Plants are our ancient teachers, whispering and nudging… if only we’d listen. Dr. Monica Gagliano is an evolutionary ecologist who has turned the green world into something wonderfully surprising. Her research reveals plants that listen, remember, make choices and even teach one another. Some can sense eclipses before they happen. Others communicate in ways we’re only just beginning to catch up with.

In 2008, Monica did something bold: she stepped out of academia and followed her curiosity into the forest, literally. Blending scientific experimentation with Amazonian plant ceremonies and the guidance of shamans, she helped spark the field now known as plant intelligence. Since then, her work has captured imaginations around the world, appearing in The New York Times and the National Geographic.

In this episode, we explore:

✦ Pushing back against the scientific status quo

✦ Letting nature show you what it knows

✦ Welcoming indigenous plant teachings into scientific practice

✦ Paying attention as a joyful act of devotion

Monica invites us into a playful and daring question: what do plants actually know… and what might they be trying to tell us?

Chapters

0:00 Intro: Science, wonder, and pushing boundaries

03:03 Initiation on the Great Barrier Reef

12:53 “Plants rescued the scientist in me”

20:57 Monica’s first experiments with plants

27:10 Bringing empathy into science

32:37 "More-than-human" is a place

37:33 It's the human that needs saving

42:44 Indigenous science and plant communication

50:54 The ancient tree that spoke to her

56:14 Trees synchronize during solar eclipse

01:03:51 Attention is the beginning of devotion

Follow Monica:

Website: https://www.monicagagliano.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_monicagagliano_

Follow Wonderstruck:

Website: https://wonderstruck.org

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@wonderstruckpod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wonderstruckpod

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wonderstruckpod

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wonderstruckpod

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6fS5boWGwYTShddG7SKlVw

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Vernon is a former priest turned psychotherapist who has spent the last 30 years exploring one central question: how do we find meaning in a secular age?

After a crisis of faith pulled him away from the Church’s inner sanctum in his youth, Mark turned to Plato and Jung in pursuit of a deeper understanding of purpose, connection, and the soul. Today, his writing bridges ancient philosophy, religion, and modern psychology, a powerful triad he also applies to his work as a therapist.

In this episode, we discuss:

✦ The overwhelm of conflicting meanings and remembering the sacred

✦ The spiritual thread connecting Dante, William Blake, and Jesus

✦ How wonder helps us access the divine

✦ Why psychotherapy is a path for ‘spiritual intelligence’

Mark's work invites us into the depths of wonder and spirituality as a necessity for the soul.

Chapters

0:00 Intro: The modern crisis of meaning

5:08 Psychotherapy and the vertical dimension of life

11:25 The cloud of unknowing and mystical experiences

18:19 Kairos time: Moments of spiritual significance

23:01 William Blake on joy and eternity

27:04 Death as a transcendent and transformative experience

33:08 Early Christianity's deeper mysteries and meanings

40:44 Humility as an expansive spiritual virtue

50:56 Owen Barfield and the evolution of consciousness

57:35 Ontological shocks and transformative experiences

1:02:41 Outro: The importance of sacred experiences

Follow Mark:

Website: https://www.markvernon.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/platospodcasts/?hl=en-gb

X: https://x.com/platospodcasts

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PlatosPodcasts

Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination: https://www.hurstpublishers.com/book/awake/

Follow Wonderstruck:

Website: https://wonderstruck.org

Newsletter: https://newsletter.wonderstruck.org

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@wonderstruckpod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wonderstruckpod/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wonderstruckpod

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wonderstruckpod

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6fS5boWGwYTShddG7SKlVw

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if the cracks in our world aren't flaws, but thresholds into the unknown? In this episode of Wonderstruck, we sit with philosopher, poet, and playful trickster Bayo Akomolafe. Bayo's vision invites us to linger in mystery rather than rush to solutions. He takes us into the unfolding terrain of post-activism, where possibility, not certainty, becomes our guide.

In this conversation, we explore:

✦ How physics becomes philosophy… and poetry offers a new way of seeing

✦ How AI unsettles our ideas of consciousness and what it means to be human

✦ His vision of an “autistic politics,” shaped by those who move differently through the world

✦ The role of sanctuary and sacred spaces in times of upheaval

This is less a conversation of answers than of reimagining; an invitation to pause, to listen otherwise, and to encounter the mystery shimmering inside the fractures of our time. In these transformational times, Bayo is a rare and radical voice, urging us to reimagine how we see the world.

This episode of Wonderstruck invites you into that space.

Chapters

0:00 Introduction

5:31 Autistic perception and expanded awareness

12:30 AI is redefining intelligence

18:58 The Ship of Theseus and posthumanism

25:50 A moment of wonder at the moon

40:00 Second sound and postactivism

55:38 Liminality and the Cracks

1:06:50 Death, Eshu and Jesus as trickster

1:14:51 Making sanctuary and examining life's glitches

Follow Bayo:

Website: https://www.bayoakomolafe.net/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bayoakomolafe/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bayoakomolafeampersand

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bayo.akomolafe/

Emergence Network: https://www.emergencenetwork.org/

Follow Wonderstruck:

Website: https://wonderstruck.org

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@wonderstruckpod

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wonderstruckpod/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@wonderstruckpod

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wonderstruckpod

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wonderstruck/id1671879661

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6fS5boWGwYTShddG7SKlVw

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.