Ep. 161 : Approaching Nonhuman Ontologies with Dr. Sarah Abbott

If you have listened to the show in the past you’ll know that I am interested in interspecies communication. Usually I focus on animals, especially birds and bird language. Dr. Sarah Abbott is also interested in interspecies communication, and recently completed her doctoral research project with a focus on communication between humans and trees. I thought this was exciting, so I had to find out more. We shared about what we knew about how trees communicate with each other, and how they might communicate with people. We talked about indigenous technologies for use around interspecies connections and if there were ways for settlers to take off the blinders we have practice the skills she outlines, with some interesting conclusions. Dr. Abbott and I spent a couple of hours just “webbing it out”, wondering for answers; it was a non-linear conversation, echoing miles of mycelial threads searching out nutrients in the dirt beneath the perceived forest… just the right way to talk about talking with the trees. More reading: Approaching Nonhuman Ontologies: Trees, Communication, and Qualitative Inquiry Sarah Abbott’s website