In the final episode of ‘The Root of the Matter’, JC takes us to the least human habitat of all – the wasteland. It’s a space which often fills us with a sense of foreboding and yet, these places teach us some of the most profound lessons about the plant world and our relationship to it:

Author of Islands of Abandonment: Life in the post-human landscape, Cal Flyn, shows us how wastelands can demonstrate nature’s resilience in the most hostile of situations.

Artist and writer James Bridle explains how  plants force us to fundamentally rethink our ideas about intelligence beyond the human. 

And Tiokasin Ghosthorse, a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation of South Dakota, and founder of First Voices Radio, talks to us about the need to fundamentally change our language if we are to de-centre the human and heal our relationship with the earth. 

Presented by JC Niala

Lead Produced by Alannah Chance

Produced by Mae-Li Evans

Music and sound design by Alice Boyd

Artwork by Faye Heller

The Root of the Matter is a Reduced Listening production for Wellcome Collection.

You can find the full transcript for this episode, and much more, on the Wellcome Collection website: The Root of the Matter | Wellcome Collection