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In Our Nature
Why do we feel so overwhelmed, anxious, disconnected and lost...and what does that have to do with what's happening on our planet?
This show explores the hidden connections and deeper patterns that are forming our inner struggles and the wider crises unfolding around us. From mental health to ecological collapse, productivity culture to planetary grief, from burnout to reconnection, join me to poke around in the stories, systems and patterns shaping this extraordinary time...
...and then let's riff on what becomes possible when we stop pretending it’s fine and feel the feels.
Your host is me: Siobhán Friel. I'm a mental health practitioner, a Work That Reconnects facilitator and I was probably a lavender plant in a past life.
This podcast offers a way to make sense of your inner and outer world, especially if you were shaped by capitalism (like me) and not by a lineage of ecological literacy, love and wisdom.
You haven't missed the boat. There are many boats and this is one. Get in.
Episodes
102 episodes
🏕️ Back in 2026: Gone Bush 🏞️
Gone Bush is a legitimate phrase (and complete sentence) in Aotearoa New Zealand. The In Our Nature podcast will be back for another season in 2026. If you want the usual extra, winding context about this choice and what it...
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Introducing: In Our Nature
Absolutely everything is interconnected in astonishing dynamic ways that we are only beginning to understand. The In Our Nature explores these connections, along with the unseen but profoundly influential currents, systems, cycles, patterns, st...
"All Of This" (gestures around wildly) "Is Not in Our Nature"
Welcome to the first episode of In Our Nature, where we explore the invisible forces, currents and stories shaping our inner and outer worlds.In the episode today: - An intro to the pod, the questions we will ask and how it (an...
Imagination, Stories & Systems: The Forces Shaping These Times with Sarah Patterson of Common Earth
Looking for fascinating insights into the intersection of human behaviour and our planetary predicament? Curious about the connection between our stories and our systems? This one’s for you.My guest is Sarah Patterson: President of Co...
Why Are We Pretending Normal Life Is Fine When It’s Actually Very Unnatural and Weird?
This episode discusses lying in the foetal position in a dark room and the desire to drink gin during the day while hiding under a duvet. Can you relate? ‘Normal’ life has become rather peculiar, what with all of the ecosystem-destr...
This Myth About Human Nature Is Making Us Feel Anxious & Worthless (Oh, And Completely Wrecking Our Planet)
Today we are poking at the slimy, damaging myth of Homo Economicus—the cold, self-interested, rational creature that modern economics says we all are. This story has shaped our minds, relationships, structures, behaviours and planet...
You Have a Radically Powerful (But Highly Misunderstood) Gift That Can Transform Your Experience of a World in Chaos
Ok, you want to know what your radically powerful (but highly misunderstood) gift that can transform your experience of a world in chaos is without listening to the whole epiosde? It's GRATITUDE. ...And if that feels like a disappo...
What a Weird Coincidence That Both Our Mental Health and the Earth’s Systems Are More Fragile Than Ever (It’s Like We Are Intimately Connected or Something)
You know how we humans can fall apart or lose our sh*t when under too much pressure, stress, or neglect? Ever noticed that that’s what’s happening to our planet, too? The effects of biodiversity loss and climate breakdow...
What Happens When the Space We Need for Our Mental Wellbeing Is Being Sold off to the Highest Bidder?
If you feel like your mind, car, house, desk, local supermarket and —everywhere, actually, come to think of it— is chaotic, cluttered, full and busy… …you aren’t imagining it. This one’s for you. Today we’re...
Why You Never, Ever Feel Good Enough (Even Though You Are Somewhat Amazing)
We’re poking our sticky fingers into the feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy that so many of us carry. Why do we think we’re not enough? Where do these thoughts come from? Why are they so persistent and stick around, no matter how 'good' w...
Is It in Our Nature To Be Restless, Unsettled and Anxious?
This episode is a re-release from season one that traces a familiar experience: feeling anxious and restless even when there’s ‘nothing to worry about’. Like when one is hiking in the beautiful mountains with a month off work (me).Origin...
These Little Thoughts Are Keeping Us Away From Peace & Clarity (And They Aren’t Even Ours)
Today we’re exploring the thought patterns that keep us stuck in cycles of overwhelm, guilt, and inaction, and that block change, prevent peace and clarity, and deny us the spaciousness we desperately need in our lives. But these th...
Why We Need The Anxious, Overwhelmed, Sensitive Overthinkers. Right Now. Exactly As You Are. Please Come
If you relate to being anxious, sensitive, easily overwhelmed or always overthinking every darn thing....this is my call to you.Today we're exploring how these profoundly pathologised traits are, actually, exactly what the worl...
The Profound Gifts That Only Collapse & Breaking Down Can Reveal
Join me for part two of our conversation on collapse, unravelling and breakdown. It’s way better than it sounds, promise. This one has gifts and treasures! But, it also has some hard stuff, so listen only if you feel up to it. Incl...
What Happens When Our Spiritual Grounding & Our Meaning-Making Frameworks for Life Stop...Helping?
Nice to see you, but this is a non-episode so don’t get too comfy. I'm calling on your input around a theme that’s come up in our recent episodes: what happens when your usual ways of grounding yourself, like your spiritual, philoso...
That Mean Voice In Your Head Is Not You. It's Just a Goblin
You know that inner voice that tells you you’re lazy, unlovable, unproductive, failing in life, worthless and ugly? Many of us listen to that inner voice, taking it very personally and thinking there's a lot of truth behind the yell...
Why You Might Be Feeling a Bit Crazy: The Maddening Paradoxes of our Time
If you feel like you’re quietly losing your mind while the world carries on like everything’s normal, then I have good news: You are not only quite sane indeed but pretty amazing. Let’s be friends. In this episode, I roll out the pi...
Are You Feeling Your Feelings … or THINKING Your Feelings? (And Why Your Answer Really Matters)
Most of the people I work with think they know how to feel their feelings. They are feeling their feelings all the time, they tell me. But many of them are wrong. Are you wrong? I was totally wrong. Because many of us ar...
The Transformative, Luminous Power of Honouring Our Pain: with Kathleen Rude & The Work That Reconnects
Today I'm joined by the wise, kind and amazing Kathleen Rude — a long-time facilitator of The Work That Reconnects among many other roles and passions — to talk about the incredible alchemical magic of honouring our pain.&nb...
Feeling Stuck? It’s Because One of Your Most Crucial Human Skills Is Going Extinct
Another title for this pod could be: "My clients are complaining that I don't fix them fast enough"Today we're poking around how our click-and-collect, same day delivery, frenetic consumer mindset has infiltrated everything, including ho...
Where I Explain Our Worsening Mental Health to My Friends’ Dog
Today is a bit different. My original pod is delayed so I'm reading part of a resource I use in one of my classes, there's also an adapted version on my website.Join me as, during a walk with Bella the dog, we look at:The pro...
How to Explain Your Terrible Sense of Fear & Dread to Someone Who Really Doesn’t Seem to Care
My normal pod workflow is still interrupted by the demands of …well…being an earthling in these times trying to serve people outside of the normative economic rules while also staying rested and fed? As such, in today’s episode I’m ...
An Update For These Extraordinarily Precarious Times
Offered as a companion episode to the just-released "Shedding the Stories That No Longer Make Sense...
Shedding the Stories That No Longer Make Sense (Even When It's Hard & Lonely)
In a horrifying-but-necessary act of intimacy, I am inviting you to join me on a journey of shedding in today’s episodeNature shows us that death is food. Decay is enrichment for what’s next. What is dying in...
When the Western Model of Mental Health Is the Problem (& What Animism & Myth Have to Say About Anxiety)
The prevailing Western approach to mental health often treats anxiety, grief, sadness, despair and other challenges as individual problems to be fixed (by you!) and ignores the larger systems we exist within.But how's that going? Tak...