0:00

Hi, this is Chris Morgan. You're listening

0:02

to The Wild on KUOW.

0:04

Over the next hour, we're going to be playing past

0:07

episodes from our podcast. And

0:09

today, it's all about the power of spending

0:12

time out in nature, what it does

0:14

for your mind and body. It

0:16

feels like a topic that comes up a lot these

0:19

days as so many people are looking

0:21

for ways to clear the mind in our busy world.

0:24

And, wow, I think part of it

0:26

is because we've all been through a lot

0:29

since this podcast episode was released

0:31

in 2019. A devastating

0:34

global pandemic halted

0:36

all of us. COVID seemed to unearth

0:40

and accelerate the need for a bit

0:42

of nature for so many people. I

0:44

feel very fortunate. I love wild places

0:46

and I spend a lot of time in them, but it doesn't

0:48

have to be wilderness, as we'll hear. Sometimes

0:51

just sitting under a tree is enough to

0:54

reap the benefits of time outdoors.

0:57

So this episode is all about disengaging

0:59

and going out into natural spaces.

1:02

I join a therapist, a forest

1:04

therapist, and I have a conversation

1:07

with Florence Williams, who wrote the

1:09

book The Nature Fix. It's a fascinating

1:11

conversation and actually I think

1:13

about it all the time

1:14

when I'm out in the woods.

1:17

But I also think that we've got to be mindful of not

1:19

completely tuning out, you know. There's a world

1:21

around each of us with humans in

1:23

it and there's always a lot of important stuff

1:26

going on for us to be aware of. A

1:28

tricky balance sometimes, right? Ironically,

1:32

I like to think that quiet time in nature helps

1:34

to remind us that connecting with other

1:36

people is very important and

1:39

also good for your health. I always tell

1:41

my grown kids, don't forget, smile

1:43

at strangers. A note

1:46

about this episode, the original version of the podcast

1:48

included a quote from John Muir. We

1:51

decided to remove it after learning about

1:53

his past racist statements against

1:55

indigenous and black people. So

1:58

let's head out to a place outdoors.

1:59

near my home in Bellingham, Washington.

2:03

I'm in this little patch of forest near

2:06

my house and I come out here quite a bit to hike

2:08

and relax and just think, kind

2:10

of recalibrate. And recently I've

2:12

been thinking a lot about this magazine article

2:15

I read in a doctor's office. It was about six

2:17

years ago. I was bored in

2:19

the waiting room and so I picked up a magazine.

2:22

And the article, it was titled, Take

2:25

Two Hours of Pine Forest and Call

2:27

Me in the Morning. And it was all about

2:29

why we should be spending time in nature.

2:32

And it was a long article and I couldn't

2:34

wait to get out of my appointment to finish reading

2:36

it, which I did. And I sat there for

2:38

an extra 45 minutes. And I've

2:41

been thinking about that article ever since. Because

2:44

you know when you're out in the woods or

2:47

walking along a beach and you feel

2:49

healthier and happier

2:52

and more content, even maybe

2:54

more alert and more alive.

2:57

And I'd always wondered, why is that? I

3:00

knew I felt better in the woods, but this

3:02

article was suddenly telling me why. It

3:05

highlighted the benefits of nature

3:08

backed up by scientific proof. Nature

3:10

can lower your blood pressure, reduce

3:13

depression, help you sleep and

3:15

may even help fight cancer.

3:20

In KUOW in Seattle, I'm Chris

3:22

Morgan. Welcome to the wild.

3:42

Modern life, it demands

3:45

our attention. There's a

3:47

constant noisy flood of information. Our

3:55

jobs never seem to end. I work for myself.

3:58

I have a lot of different projects and I love them all. but

4:00

it can be stressful. There's constant phone

4:02

calls and texts, messages

4:04

from my producer badge for script updates.

4:08

Even life outside of work seems

4:11

to be more hectic these days. It

4:13

can all be too much sometimes. The

4:15

noise in our lives. So

4:18

that's why I come to this place a lot, my

4:21

forest. It's only about a 15 minute

4:23

drive from my office. So

4:26

I'm on this hiking trail. It's a three mile

4:28

loop and takes me about 60 minutes

4:31

to hike, but sometimes a lot longer.

4:34

It's really peaceful. This

4:36

trail, it's special to

4:38

me. It's my escape from everything

4:40

and everybody that demands my

4:42

time. My mates sometimes ask me if they

4:44

can join me and I say, nope, sorry, this is where I get

4:46

into the zone. Even my producer's

4:49

only here because he's the guy with the microphone, right Matt?

4:52

Nods. That article,

4:55

the one I read in the doctor's office was

4:57

a total page turner. One of the things it

4:59

talked about was the Japanese concept of

5:01

shinrin yoku, which literally

5:04

translates into forest bathing. The

5:07

Japanese actually came up with a term only in 1982, but

5:09

the ideas around shinrin yoku

5:13

are much older than that. They're inspired by ancient

5:16

Shinto and Buddhist practices.

5:18

There's this harrowing

5:20

Japanese term karushi,

5:23

which literally means death by overwork.

5:27

And it was getting so bad, the government wanted

5:29

a way to encourage their stressed out citizens

5:32

to take a walk in the woods, to relax

5:34

more. There were even official forest

5:36

therapy hiking trails in Japan. They

5:39

take this stuff really seriously. So

5:41

I wanted to learn more about this forest bathing.

5:43

So short of jumping on

5:45

a plane to Japan, I found a local forest

5:47

bathing therapist. This is the Pacific

5:50

Northwest after all. And the therapist's

5:52

name is Julie,

5:53

Julie Hep. I am a certified

5:56

forest therapy guide to the association

5:58

of nature and forest therapy.

5:59

Julie goes by the pronoun they I meet

6:02

up with them and in a small forest on Bainbridge

6:04

Island just west of downtown Seattle And

6:07

before our actual forest therapy session gets

6:09

started we get onto the topic of local

6:11

birds Julie suddenly belts out

6:13

the best barred owl call for me

6:20

Who

6:23

sounds for you what is it who cooks

6:25

for who cooks for who who

6:27

cooks for who that's how they describe the barred owl Julie's

6:30

type of forest therapy is inspired by

6:32

these ideas of Shinrin Yoku They

6:35

believe that this practice is based on old

6:38

foundations, but it's kind of a new awakening

6:40

of this ancient idea I

6:42

mean forest therapy really is a way to

6:45

build connection and reciprocity

6:48

meaning really just connection

6:51

and interaction and Sort

6:53

of ways to show gratitude

6:55

Julie told me about an experience

6:57

they had while training to become a forest

7:00

therapist in the forest where we were

7:02

There were oak trees which I consider one

7:05

is one of my soul trees I feel

7:07

like I can talk to them easier

7:10

than perhaps other trees

7:17

Julie had been thinking a lot

7:19

about Questions around their

7:21

identity at the time

7:23

and then I asked the tree

7:25

am I going to be okay?

7:27

with all these things that I'm wondering and

7:30

about and with and

7:32

I I

7:33

Heard in

7:35

some capacity just or

7:37

felt heard and felt perhaps

7:39

just like an overwhelming sense

7:41

of love This

7:44

being and just

7:46

Like I heard like

7:48

Yeah, yeah

7:51

Julie's gonna walk me through a regular

7:53

forest therapy session They

7:55

say it should allow all my senses

7:58

to take in this forest not

8:00

quite sure what to expect.

8:01

The experience is up to you. I'm just

8:04

here to

8:05

open up the door. I see. It's like

8:07

a drink session in some ways. Hmm,

8:09

kind of, yeah. I like that analogy

8:12

a little bit. Yeah. So this

8:15

space that we're in right now... Do

8:18

you

8:18

want for this? Oh yeah.

8:21

Human creation time over. I mean,

8:22

that's important too. Everything moves

8:25

and... Yeah. For a reason. Yeah.

8:29

Hi friends. Yeah.

8:32

So I think me

8:34

touching different things... Let's wait for this guy to go over,

8:36

yeah, because we won't be able to use it. We want

8:38

to feel like we're in the woods without... Yeah, I

8:40

mean, as much as possible. Yeah.

8:43

The plane doesn't seem to bother Julie at all.

8:46

Then we begin the session.

8:48

And so just to

8:50

start us off, I want to invite you just

8:52

to notice all these different beings

8:55

that are around us today. We're

8:56

facing each other, standing

8:58

about six feet apart. I'm

9:00

going to invite

9:02

you to go ahead and close your eyes if

9:04

you feel invited to.

9:07

And again, taking a couple deep breaths in...

9:19

Julie starts to give me instructions to kind

9:22

of engage all my senses with the world around

9:24

me. And I'm totally in. Julie

9:28

asks me to pay special attention to what I

9:30

smell. And we'd literally pick up dirt

9:33

off the forest floor so we can feel the

9:35

forest.

9:36

Julie even invites me to... Open my mouth so

9:39

we can taste the forest too. Opening

9:41

up your mouth in different directions

9:43

and closing it slowly, tasting

9:46

different places.

9:50

Perhaps you're feeling a little playful and want to

9:52

stick your tongue in.

9:54

I feel a bit ridiculous standing there,

9:56

mouth open, tongue out, trying to taste the

9:58

forest, trying not to laugh.

9:59

But

10:01

it also gets me thinking. Julie

10:04

goes on.

10:05

In a moment to imagine almost as

10:07

if you were a tree. Without

10:10

yourself

10:12

to perhaps grow roots into

10:14

this ground.

10:15

The therapy steps continue, but I'm finding

10:18

it hard to concentrate. There's a noise

10:20

from a nearby road and construction

10:22

work that really doesn't help.

10:24

And I would like to

10:26

invite you to open your eyes slowly.

10:29

Carefully.

10:31

And then to acknowledge this thing,

10:33

whatever it is, whatever it might be.

10:36

As if it was your first time seeing it.

10:40

Or knowing it. Whenever

10:44

you're ready, you may open up your eyes.

10:47

I open my eyes and right behind me is this

10:49

giant fir tree. It

10:52

was like seeing an old friend you haven't seen in

10:54

years. And Julie

10:56

invites me to talk about what else I've

10:58

noticed about my surroundings. I'm

11:01

noticing how loud human beings

11:04

are. And

11:06

how I'm trying to block it out. And

11:08

I was drawn to that direction over there because

11:10

it was away from the sounds of people. And it was nice,

11:13

it was calming. Never

11:15

turn off the human noise.

11:16

That's something you made me think

11:18

about. I have a hard time with that. It kind

11:21

of, it ruins it. Whenever I go into

11:23

the woods, I want somewhere silent, away from any human

11:25

sound, even a dog barking that we could hear there. And

11:27

you made me think differently about it. Immediately, as soon as

11:29

we were on this trail, you were like, no, that's part of it. Even

11:32

the plane flying over, you know, it's part of it. There are other

11:34

beings, right? True. So it's

11:36

a different way of looking at it. Yeah, welcome

11:38

to forest therapy. So

11:42

interesting to see it in practice. Experiencing

11:46

the Sajili was definitely one way of approaching

11:48

time of nature. Give me some things to think

11:50

about. Even though it was a little bit sedentary

11:53

for me. It's almost

11:55

like becoming a kid again.

11:59

Being in. and around nature gives

12:02

us that sense

12:02

of wonder.

12:10

But it still made me wonder what's really

12:12

going on, what's really going on with our minds

12:14

and even our bodies when we experience

12:16

the outdoors. We'll

12:19

look at scientific evidence that shows

12:21

time spent in nature can actually physically

12:23

improve your health in some pretty incredible

12:25

ways. We'll get into that after the break.

12:30

So, I'm

12:44

looking to dive into even more fascinating

12:46

stories, then check out Missing Pages,

12:49

the award-winning podcast praised as

12:51

a must-listen by New York Magazine

12:54

and the Washington Post. In the brand

12:56

new season, hosted by me and

12:58

PR Books critic Beth Ann Patrick, we

13:00

uncover the biggest and sometimes

13:03

messiest tales from the book world, with

13:05

the help of special guests like best-selling

13:07

author Jodie Picot. Hear about

13:09

litigious werewolf fan fiction, the

13:12

rise of book bands, and so much more.

13:14

Don't miss it. Listen to Missing Pages

13:17

wherever you get podcasts.

13:22

The idea that spending time in

13:24

nature or forest bathing makes

13:26

us feel better might seem obvious,

13:29

but I wanted to know how nature affects us

13:31

physiologically. What is exposure

13:34

to nature doing to us on a cellular

13:36

level? I kept thinking

13:38

about that outside magazine article,

13:41

the one I read so many years ago in my doctor's

13:43

waiting room, and it turns out the

13:45

author, Florence Williams, has

13:47

expanded that article into a book.

13:50

It's called The Nature Fix. So

13:52

I decided to get in touch with her.

14:00

Florence had a lot of the same questions

14:02

as me and she spent time

14:04

in Tokyo observing researchers measuring

14:07

the effects of nature on the body.

14:09

So what they found is that even after, and this is sort

14:11

of remarkable, after just 15 minutes

14:14

of, you know, what they call forest bathing, even

14:17

after just 15 minutes of that they were finding

14:19

this reduction in heart rate, drop

14:21

in blood pressure, drop

14:23

in stress hormones like cortisol, some

14:26

different wave, sort of brain wave patterns.

14:29

You know, when I first heard this I was a little bit skeptical because

14:31

I thought, well, sure, you know, people are just,

14:33

they're outside and they're moving.

14:35

Moving and getting a bit of exercise.

14:38

That would make anybody feel better, right? But

14:40

these Japanese researchers controlled for that

14:43

by also sending people to walk around urban

14:45

areas for the same mileage and the same

14:47

amount of time.

14:48

And they really only saw these sort of

14:51

well-being effects in the forest

14:53

walkers. So it was kind of intriguing to

14:55

me.

14:56

And how are they actually measuring the physiological

14:58

changes? How are they measuring cortisol,

15:01

for example?

15:02

So with the cortisol, they have these

15:04

sort of very fat kind of Q-tips

15:07

that you suck on for a while. And

15:09

they, you know, they get some saliva in

15:11

that and they can have that analyzed pretty

15:13

quickly for cortisol levels. And

15:16

then there are other machines they use

15:18

to monitor things like heart rate variability.

15:22

And that measure is actually sort of the difference between

15:24

your heartbeats. I can tell how quickly

15:26

you're responding to stress actually in real

15:28

time. And then, you know, basically

15:31

pulse monitors. There was a

15:33

gizm later that they can put on your head

15:35

to measure some frontal cortex

15:37

stuff. But at the same time, they

15:39

have these pretty well-established measures

15:42

in the field of psychology that are just questionnaires.

15:45

How would you rate your sense of frustration

15:47

right now? How would you rate your anxiety?

15:50

How would you rate your sort of mood? And

15:53

those are pretty well-established. And what they find

15:55

in those questionnaires is that it really seems

15:57

to correlate, again, to this walk in nature.

16:00

but not so much

16:01

the walk in the middle of the city. One

16:03

of the researchers in Japan looking into this

16:05

idea of forest bathing is named

16:08

Cheng Li. He's looking at how

16:10

spending time in nature can improve our

16:12

immune system and killer T-cells.

16:15

Killer T-cells are really important for fighting

16:17

things like cancer and various infections. And

16:20

he's been specifically focused on

16:23

these aerosols from the

16:25

trees called phytoncides. And

16:27

these are chemicals that are sort of emitted from

16:29

trees. I guess they're

16:32

especially sort of potent and maybe useful

16:34

from some of these evergreen trees that they

16:36

have in Japan, like these hanoki cypress

16:38

trees. It's a combination of these compounds

16:41

like limonene that

16:44

smell wonderful. They sort of smell like Christmas tree

16:46

meets vapor rub. I can describe it. It's

16:49

that kind of invigorating smell when you go

16:51

into the woods. And what he found is

16:53

that after we're exposed to these special

16:56

substances and compounds, we make more

16:59

killer T-cells, actually boost our

17:01

immune cells. And that boost

17:04

remains quite high for seven days after

17:06

a visit to a forest.

17:08

You'd be proud to know I've got a little vial

17:10

of hanoki cypress oil on my bedside table.

17:13

Thanks to you. Thanks for my... I

17:16

should have bought stock in hanoki cypress oil.

17:18

Yes. Not too late. Wow,

17:21

a simple walk through the woods is actually

17:23

increasing our immunity and

17:25

may even help to fight cancer.

17:29

Dr. Lee, who has been studying this, suggests

17:31

that everybody should spend time outside

17:33

at least once a week, you know, get

17:35

that high boost in immune cells.

17:37

But even just once a month might really

17:39

help you out.

17:41

And it's not just the fight-on sides that we

17:43

can benefit from in the woods. There's a lot

17:45

of biodiversity in the forest, micro

17:47

bacteria. And Florence says this exposure

17:50

to a variety of bacteria during a walk

17:52

can be a good thing, too.

17:53

These are things that humans evolved with. We

17:56

evolved with exposures to all these bacteria,

17:58

and these bacteria may also... also help us

18:00

fight illness or fight worse bacteria. The

18:05

more biodiversity we can expose ourselves

18:07

to, the better, and that's part of

18:09

this hygiene hypothesis, where kids who

18:11

grow up on farms or in rural

18:14

areas have fewer

18:16

cases of asthma and allergies and things like

18:18

that. So I think that's another intriguing

18:21

possibility. And I think the science isn't

18:23

really totally resolved on

18:25

this issue, there's still a lot to be done.

18:27

This idea that nature is

18:30

medicine may be starting to catch on.

18:32

A few doctors, both in Japan

18:35

and America, have already started to

18:37

prescribe patients nature and

18:39

time outside. And the research

18:42

doesn't just stop at improving the health of our

18:44

physical bodies. Nature can

18:46

actually help us get along better.

18:49

It can make us better people.

18:50

So there's been some really interesting new

18:53

work on the science of awe, A-W-E,

18:55

awe. And

18:58

that when we're in the presence of something

19:00

sort of beautiful and mysterious, like

19:03

an incredible sunset, looking

19:05

at a mountaintop, or even just something as simple

19:08

as a butterfly kind of surprising

19:10

us in our path, it pulls

19:12

us out of our own heads and makes

19:14

us feel like we're part of something larger, which

19:17

seems like a sort of obvious thing to say. But it

19:19

turns out that that concept

19:22

of being pulled out of ourselves is

19:24

really, really important to our sense of well-being

19:27

and to our psychology. And

19:29

if you think about it, it's not something that we really

19:31

experience very often in these

19:33

lives, where we live sort of isolated

19:36

and indoors. Maybe we

19:38

see a cool video on Facebook

19:40

or something. But in

19:43

general, we're not exposed to the kind

19:45

of awe found in nature that we

19:47

were in a more primitive life when

19:50

we really lived outside. So I was

19:52

really interested in exploring this idea of

19:54

how in some ways wilderness

19:57

is actually good for civilization. Because

20:00

it makes us feel like we are part of a community,

20:03

that we have a responsibility to each other.

20:06

And studies have shown this, that even

20:08

in a lab after looking at photographs

20:11

of like a waterfall or of

20:13

a whale, that we behave in

20:15

ways that are more generous to other people.

20:18

There's certain ways that the researchers have a measuring

20:20

sort of altruism. And it

20:22

seems like it's really partly impacted by

20:25

this feeling of awe.

20:32

After my conversation with Florence Williams,

20:34

I have a greater appreciation

20:37

for Julie Hap, the forest

20:39

bather. Maybe smelling

20:41

the dirt and tasting the forest

20:44

isn't such a crazy idea. And for Julie,

20:46

spending time in nature is a religious

20:49

experience.

20:50

And I feel like the

20:53

forest is my church in

20:56

a little bit of a way. You know, I come

20:58

here to pay

21:00

honor or worship, whatever you want to call

21:02

it, the beings that are there

21:05

and commune with them and learn with

21:07

them. I feel like that's sort

21:09

of a religious practice.

21:12

I can relate

21:14

to that. I have a forest that

21:16

I go on regularly near home. And

21:19

that's the way I feel about it. It's my cathedral I'm walking

21:21

into.

21:29

And I'm here now in my cathedral,

21:32

in my happy place in the woods. It's

21:35

nature that connects us all, every one of us. It's

21:37

nature we're from. We

21:40

were wild and there's a big part of us that

21:43

I think still is wild, a bigger part than

21:45

we might imagine in this crazy

21:47

world we've built around ourselves. Scratch

21:50

away at the surface and we're all just

21:52

hairless apes after all. But

21:55

I'm hoping that even us hairless apes remember

21:58

that nature can change us. And

22:00

it can change society for the better.

22:03

And in return, society should take

22:05

care of nature too. What a great

22:07

relationship that could be. And

22:10

perhaps it all just starts with

22:13

a walk in the woods.

22:18

Well my fellow hairless apes, I

22:20

hope that episode gave you some inspiration

22:23

about awe and altruism

22:25

and connection. I

22:29

love Florence's line that wilderness is

22:31

part of civilization. There's

22:33

more of the wilds with Chris Morgan coming up, and

22:36

a different look at pausing, assessing

22:38

and connecting through a search for

22:40

absolute silence among the

22:42

mossy trees deep in an Olympic National

22:45

Park forest. Stick with us. We'll

22:47

be right

22:48

back.

22:49

Welcome back. I'm Chris Morgan.

22:51

Over this hour I'm sharing episodes

22:53

of our podcast The Wild, and today's

22:56

episodes are especially poignant I think because

22:59

when we started The Wild we set out

23:01

not just to tell fascinating stories

23:03

but to help reconnect listeners

23:05

with nature. For this next

23:07

episode I join two people

23:10

who are searching for the quietest places

23:12

in the world. Places that are

23:14

important for people. Yes, research

23:17

has shown that over time noise pollution

23:19

increases the likelihood of things like heart

23:22

attacks, diabetes and depression.

23:25

But also these places, quiet

23:27

places, are critical to nature

23:29

itself. You might have heard

23:31

about how the din of the shipping industry

23:34

and underwater mining can cause

23:36

mass strandings in dolphins and whales for

23:38

example. But did you also know that

23:41

traffic noise could increase the heart

23:43

rate of caterpillars? And

23:45

birds and frogs have changed their

23:48

calls so they can be heard in noisy

23:50

habitats. There are so

23:52

many reasons to seek silence, and

23:54

we start with a man who's been doing just

23:56

that for over 40 years and

23:59

talking to people. people about saving

24:01

silence. He even founded an organization

24:04

called Quiet Parks International. I

24:07

love this episode from our podcast and

24:09

I hope you do too. I

24:11

left my home in Bellingham, Washington this morning.

24:14

I jumped on my motorcycle and headed off

24:16

down the busy highway. Took

24:18

a ferry to Port Townsend to

24:20

get to this meeting. I'm

24:26

in this old building. I'm

24:28

here to meet a man named Gordon

24:31

Hempton.

24:34

He seems to think that Gordon's

24:37

one of the officers at the office

24:39

at a squeaky floorboard. It's

24:42

fitting because Gordon is a man obsessed

24:44

with silence. The card

24:46

on his office door says the sound tracker.

24:49

As soon as I meet him I know we're going to get along.

24:53

Hello! Hey! You look like a mountain man.

24:58

I'm great. Gordon, nice to meet you. He's

25:01

surprisingly larger than life for a fellow who likes

25:03

a little peace and quiet. Gordon

25:06

calls himself the sound tracker because

25:08

he's made a career out of recording the

25:10

sounds of nature.

25:13

For decades he searched out the

25:15

quietest locations on Earth to record

25:17

them without any noise pollution. In

25:20

the world we live in today, finding a place without

25:22

human-made noise takes a lot of persistence.

25:25

Today would take four or five weeks

25:27

of search right now to locate

25:30

a new quiet place to record,

25:33

of which if done correctly

25:37

it would then take maybe three

25:39

or four days to record. And

25:42

after

25:43

those three to four days

25:45

of recording, if I came out with 15 minutes

25:49

of pure nature, that

25:52

would be a gold mine.

26:02

That's a pack of coyotes, one of

26:04

Gordon's favourite recordings.

26:11

Film productions and even video

26:13

game companies then buy recordings

26:15

from Gordon. That's the practical side of his life.

26:18

We've all got to pay the bills. But

26:20

recording nature and finding silence

26:24

is much more than just a way to make money

26:26

for him.

26:27

His passion

26:28

is listening.

26:30

Really listening.

26:32

In fact, Gordon believes that listening

26:35

is fundamental to the survival of

26:37

all animal life on Earth.

26:39

Every animal species has the

26:41

ability to hear. Not

26:43

every animal species has the ability to

26:46

see. That is a defining sense.

26:49

We have eyelids.

26:50

Eyes are an affordable luxury

26:52

that when you've seen enough, either

26:55

turn away or close your eyes. Gordon

26:57

preaches the benefits of quiet, noise-free

27:00

locations. We need quiet

27:02

places to fall back in love with

27:04

Earth. But

27:05

Gordon wasn't always into listening. He

27:07

told me he was called to this passion on

27:09

his way to start grad school. He

27:11

was driving across the country when he started

27:14

to get sleepy. As a young student,

27:16

he wasn't about to pay for a hotel, so he just threw

27:18

his sleeping bag out in a field.

27:20

A thunderstorm rolled over me and

27:23

I just for

27:26

some reason listened to it completely for

27:28

the first time. And

27:34

then I didn't move. I just listened

27:36

and heard the echoes and I heard the whole valley

27:38

and the clouds and everything revealed

27:41

to me. And then when it was over, I only

27:44

had one question is, how

27:46

could I be 27 years old and have

27:49

never listened before?

28:06

Gordon dropped out of school and started

28:09

working as a bike messenger in Seattle.

28:11

He'd make trips out to the forest and mountains to

28:14

record and slowly he built

28:16

up his reputation and his career. He

28:19

now travelled the world recording

28:21

sound. He even won an Emmy for his

28:23

work.

28:24

Now Gordon is in his sixties and

28:26

he's become an advocate for quiet places.

28:29

You know it was a job made for me and

28:31

I was made for it except for the fact

28:33

that I've been losing my

28:36

hearing pretty steadily. How's

28:38

that felt?

28:40

Just give me a moment. Complicated.

28:53

It's hard to breathe.

28:57

Because there's

29:00

so much history not only in

29:02

just the shock of losing my hearing but all

29:05

the changes of life.

29:10

But also Chris there's

29:14

immense love and gratitude because

29:18

I would probably still be working

29:22

alone today if

29:24

I didn't lose my hearing.

29:27

It amazes me how people can see

29:29

a silver lining sometimes. This

29:32

silver lining came in the form of a

29:34

tall, energetic, 24 year

29:37

old named Matt. Matt Mikkelsen.

29:40

Matt was an audio engineering student in upstate

29:42

New York when a friend told him about Gordon's

29:45

work and he was instantly curious so

29:47

Matt decided to send Gordon an email. And

29:50

I said hey what you do sounds

29:52

really cool. I'd love to hear more about

29:54

it. And he responded. Gordon went out

29:56

on a limb and invited Matt out to Washington

29:59

State to meet. And now, they've

30:01

been working together for six years as partners

30:03

in this work. Matt

30:05

has long hair and a beard. They give him kind

30:08

of a Viking look. It's easy to see

30:10

how Gordon fell for his energy. But

30:13

it goes way beyond that. Gordon

30:16

refers to Matt as his hearing aid.

30:19

Matt can hear a lot of the high frequency sounds

30:22

that Gordon can't anymore.

30:24

What did you say a few weeks ago? You said that

30:26

you're hearing impaired and I'm

30:28

listening impaired. And so together we

30:31

make a really great team. No, together

30:33

we make a whole person a Matt. A

30:35

whole person. Not

30:38

a good team. A

30:40

beautiful pairing, I gotta say. And

30:43

in person, it's lovely to see. There's such

30:45

great energy. It's like a father and

30:47

son relationship between these two. And

30:50

Gordon is preparing Matt to continue

30:53

his work. I've passed

30:55

the baton and now I'm behind

30:57

Matt, pushing his back the best I

30:59

can so he can keep up the

31:02

speed I've been trying to carry. And I'm currently

31:04

fumbling the baton and it's up in the air and I'm trying

31:06

to re-catch it again and you're behind me. Just keep pushing. You

31:08

know, I can't even see. All I see is your back. I'm

31:12

just still pushing. Yep. You

31:15

are in need. Matt is going to be my guide

31:17

for the next few days on my trip into the wilderness.

31:20

My guide to find silence. We're

31:24

headed to a place Gordon named One Square

31:26

Inch of Silence. It's

31:28

in the Ho Rain Forest, an Olympic National

31:31

Park in western Washington state, a

31:33

place where sea meets mountains

31:36

meets forest. But

31:38

before we leave the town of Port Townsend, Gordon

31:41

has some parting words. He

31:43

tells me that I can learn things

31:45

from the silence.

31:47

Silence definitely is

31:49

the

31:50

think tank of the soul. It

31:54

takes us to a very deep

31:56

place in our lives, but now we don't need to be afraid. You

32:00

need to answer silence. You

32:02

can just be with silence.

32:06

Spend some time with silence and you can carry

32:08

on a conversation with it.

32:24

So much noise is about humans getting

32:26

from A to B. Transportation.

32:30

We're a loud species.

32:33

And Gordon and Matt have rules for what

32:35

qualifies as a quiet place. The

32:38

place has to be free of noise for 15 minutes.

32:41

And that 15 minute window has to occur

32:43

in a certain period of time. That period

32:46

starts one hour before sunrise

32:48

and ends two hours after sunset.

32:52

15 minutes of silence over the course of a whole day

32:55

doesn't sound that hard to find. But

32:58

there are only about a dozen places in the

33:00

lower 48 that meet that standard.

33:03

It's very uncommon to find places

33:06

that are far away from roads. Even more than a

33:08

quarter mile away from a road is really special.

33:12

And the places that we're going and one square inch of silence

33:14

is the road that leads to it

33:16

is 20 miles long off the highway.

33:19

And then we're going to hike 3 to 5 miles in.

33:21

So we're going to be miles away from the nearest road,

33:24

which is really a unique perspective. So then we're

33:26

cutting out road noise and the only thing we have

33:28

to worry about is air traffic. So we'll

33:30

hear some air traffic but we won't hear any road noise, which

33:32

is really amazing.

33:33

Our destination, one square inch of

33:35

silence. That might sound strange,

33:38

kind of small, but that's part of Gordon's

33:40

strategy. In order to keep

33:42

this one square inch silent, you

33:45

really have to keep noise pollution away

33:47

for miles in all directions. So

33:50

if you preserve this one square inch,

33:52

you're actually creating a much bigger area

33:54

of silence, all radiating from this

33:56

one spot.

33:59

I'm anxious.

33:59

get to the forest, but Matt wants

34:02

me to hear something else first. Alright,

34:04

here we go. He takes me to

34:06

the beach.

34:09

Rialto Beach. It's stunning. It

34:11

stretches for miles. It's a pretty

34:13

wild scene jumbled with giant logs

34:15

that have been thrashed by the waves. Matt

34:19

starts setting up a crazy looking microphone.

34:22

And so you can see, as I

34:24

pull back the cover here, there's

34:26

eight microphones in this array. And

34:29

he sets it up on a tripod on the beach. Okay,

34:31

tell me what I'm gonna... Tell me what's happening

34:34

here. Yeah, so essentially I just want you

34:36

to be able to listen to how sensitive this microphone

34:38

is. He's also got one of those fluffy

34:40

wind coverings on it, so it looks like a giant

34:43

skunk or something. And then

34:45

he hands me the headphones. So,

34:48

here you go. And if it's too loud or anything, let

34:50

me know. Can I wait for a wave?

34:52

Absolutely. Hey, listen for a while.

34:57

Oh

35:09

my god, that's awesome.

35:19

Our brains do an amazing job of like masking

35:22

different sounds and kind of affecting our hearing. And

35:24

so when you start listening to a microphone, through

35:27

a microphone, you start listening to nature sounds,

35:29

the experience becomes totally different because

35:32

you cut out the equation of your brain masking

35:34

information. So you start picking up on things

35:36

that you really

35:37

don't usually hear. Wow,

35:47

it's almost like you've never heard of waves before.

35:50

That's exactly how I feel. And that feeling

35:52

doesn't go away. You know, for me, every

35:54

time I start to listen through a microphone, I feel

35:56

like I've never heard that sound before.

36:11

I'm listening

36:12

to this right now. It is so incredibly

36:14

noisy, but it's beautiful noise,

36:17

right? So how do you define

36:19

the difference between somewhere that's quiet and somewhere

36:22

that's noisy in terms

36:24

of your work, the natural sound

36:26

versus human sound? What's the... Because

36:30

I mean, some people might think that we're trying to go and find

36:32

silence, and it's definitely not silent here. What's

36:35

the difference? Yeah. So we talk about natural

36:37

silence. We're going to talk about natural silence

36:39

a lot. Natural silence doesn't mean quiet.

36:42

Quiet and natural silence are two different things. Natural

36:45

silence means the lack of noise,

36:48

whereas when you talk about quiet or silence,

36:50

we're talking about a lack of sound. And

36:53

when you say it's so noisy, it's

36:56

so loud. Look at what you mean. It's

36:58

a whole vocabulary you've got to be careful with.

37:01

Yeah, because it becomes very confusing very quickly

37:03

when you're talking with people. But sound

37:06

and noise, for me the difference is that noise

37:08

is undesirable. Sound is

37:10

desirable. We

37:25

leave the beach behind. It's

37:28

time to continue on. It's time to head

37:30

into the rainforest to prepare for our

37:32

day tomorrow.

37:41

We're settled at Camp, just inside

37:43

the National Park. The tents are set up now, and

37:45

we're right by this beautiful creek. And there's some

37:48

smaller mountains all around with deep

37:51

green forest. And every mile

37:53

is getting kind of quieter,

37:55

getting closer to the silence that

37:58

we're looking for. We're

38:00

going to go in even deeper tomorrow, on foot. I

38:03

can't wait.

38:11

Great, so here we

38:13

are at the entrance to the Ho

38:15

River Trail. Birds

38:19

are just waking up.

38:22

How long is it now?

38:23

Six. Sixteen. Yeah.

38:26

Yep. Just starting to come alive in these

38:29

last five, six minutes. Yep.

38:32

I can't wait to get in there. We

38:38

head off down the trail and

38:40

the birdsong just comes alive.

38:49

And somehow it sounds

38:51

different. And really,

38:54

like, you can hear how lively all

38:56

the birdsong is right now. They have a

38:58

lot to say. It's like their first communication

39:00

of the day. They're just waking up. So

39:03

even if you don't know exactly what species of bird

39:05

it is or exactly what the call is, it

39:07

has this energy to it that we don't get

39:10

at any other time other than dawn. The

39:13

whole rainforest is an otherworldly

39:16

place. Deep green moss

39:18

hangs off the branches of the trees that

39:20

grow out at odd angles. The

39:23

forest looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss

39:25

book. It's easier to picture Sasquatch

39:27

when you're in a forest like this.

39:29

Especially when it looks

39:31

so much like Sasquatch.

39:35

Just then, a tiny wren flies

39:37

down and lands on a branch about three

39:39

feet away from us and just lets

39:41

it all out.

39:47

If you took like a three-year-old's fist and

39:50

balled it up, that's about the size of it. So

39:53

small.

39:55

I read once that pound for pound these guys

39:57

belt out, a song that is ten

39:59

times louder.

39:59

than a rooster for their size. Pretty

40:03

impressive. Its surroundings

40:05

make this tiny bird with a big voice even

40:07

more impressive. Giant Sitka

40:10

spruce trees that are over 800 years old and seven

40:12

feet thick.

40:15

Succulent ferns and huge

40:17

big leaf maples. Picture yourself

40:19

walking into Jurassic Park. The

40:22

place is just dripping with prehistoric

40:24

life. These ferns and

40:26

trees are found in fossils, the

40:29

same fossils

40:29

as dinosaurs.

40:32

But even death deep in the forest we still

40:34

aren't clear of human-made noise. Underneath

40:36

the singing birds and drizzle of rain

40:39

we can still hear a hum coming from the visitor

40:41

center half a mile away. So

40:44

we're out of sight of the visitor center

40:47

but you can still hear that hum as you listen

40:51

very faintly.

40:55

Some metal can engage our distance from

40:58

the last noise collision that

41:00

enters this place. It can

41:02

permanently hear. Let's

41:05

get away from it.

41:10

As the birds sing over the hum of

41:12

the human noise behind us it makes

41:14

me think about the impact that noise must have

41:17

on them and all wildlife. As

41:20

we walk down the trail we hear something.

41:25

Did you hear that? Is it spruce

41:27

grouse? Yeah.

41:30

Grouse have a very low

41:33

deep core. That

41:39

low human hum from the visitor center

41:41

probably affects the spruce grouse more than any

41:43

other bird we've heard. Every

41:45

bird species communicates on its

41:47

own frequency. Think about it like tuning

41:50

your radio into a particular station. Different

41:52

bird species have different frequencies

41:55

so they don't have to compete for the airwaves

41:57

to be heard. So

41:59

frisbee.

41:59

species like the grouse, it's really advantageous for

42:02

them because none of the other birds want

42:04

to be singing that low, so the grouse just has

42:06

all that clear room, but that's also

42:08

why the grouse is so subject

42:10

to, you know, issues from noise pollution.

42:13

So that hum from the visitor centre can

42:15

really cause a bit of a headache for the

42:17

grouse.

42:19

With the birds as our soundtrack, we push deeper

42:21

into silent country, but we aren't

42:23

making it anywhere very quickly. Turns

42:26

out, listening to all this cool stuff can

42:28

take some time. Yeah, so we've

42:30

gone 0.9 miles in about

42:33

an hour and 15 minutes, which just

42:35

tells you what our pace is.

42:37

And it's

42:39

not a bad thing, I think if anything it's a good

42:41

thing. Maybe we'll

42:42

pick it up like just a little bit. It

42:46

is actually hard for me to go this slow. I'm

42:48

used to just getting to my destination, but

42:50

I'm really enjoying this. Being

42:53

here with Matt in the forest, it's forcing

42:55

me to slow down and I

42:57

almost feel like if I was blindfolded it

42:59

wouldn't matter, because today isn't

43:01

about what I can see, it's about

43:04

being acutely aware of every single

43:06

little sound. Another

43:10

hour goes by and we haven't heard a single

43:12

human noise since the hum of the visitor centre

43:15

faded away.

43:16

I

43:18

can finally hear myself breathe.

43:21

And this weird kind of transition

43:23

from one world to another starts

43:26

to happen.

43:31

We come around a slow bend in the trail

43:33

and Matt stops, and kind

43:36

of gestures at something with this proud

43:38

smile. In front of us, about 20

43:40

yards away, is a big tree. His

43:42

trunk makes a hole like a

43:45

big pair of bow legs. Wow.

43:48

Yeah. What an entryway. It

43:50

really is. Where do you go in?

43:52

Where do you think you go

43:54

in? Through that? No. I'd like to get to be true.

43:56

Oh my God, that is magic. Yeah. A

43:58

forest.

43:59

points to the hole in the tree. This

44:02

is the entrance. The entrance

44:04

to one square inch of silence.

44:07

First, I think it's worth acknowledging that

44:09

we're on the ancestral land of the Hoh tribe,

44:13

and they've used this area for

44:16

as long as we have record of, to

44:19

gather and to hunt, to fish salmon,

44:23

and they've been amazing stewards of the land.

44:26

Before we step through the magic portal, Matt

44:29

tells us the most important rule. No

44:32

talking. And feel

44:34

free to do whatever feels good. If

44:36

you want to

44:37

lay down, close your eyes. If you

44:39

want to sit on the log, if you want to stand, whatever

44:43

you feel like doing. Obviously we should

44:45

make sure our cell phones are silent so we don't have any beeping

44:48

stuff. We take off our packs and

44:50

Matt steps through the tree. I

44:53

follow behind him, a big smile on my face.

44:55

I can't quite believe I've been sucked into this.

44:58

I feel like a giddy eight year old stepping into

45:00

Narnia.

45:02

I come out the other side of the tree and

45:05

step carefully around twigs and branches

45:07

so I don't make a noise. And

45:09

two or three minutes later, we arrive.

45:13

Silence. I

45:16

settle in, sitting on the moss where

45:18

I can lean against a huge old tree

45:21

that's lying on the ground. It looks like it's been there a

45:23

thousand years. I'm

45:25

completely in the mode now. I clear

45:28

my mind and I pretend that

45:30

I'm here in this very spot 10,000 years ago.

45:32

And I'm

45:35

gone.

45:37

For the next hour I tune into every

45:40

living sound.

46:10

I walk back to the trail, makes

46:13

me really aware that I'm

46:16

now on a return journey, leaving

46:18

this silent place that nature

46:20

has preserved. And

46:22

it seemed right to leave, to leave it to

46:24

the birds and other wildlife. I

46:29

step back through the tree.

46:54

I have always noticed that it's so

46:56

hard to then break the funds and come out of that

47:09

place.

47:10

It

47:12

really seems like Chris came out

47:16

very overwhelmed and

47:18

not necessarily in a bad way. We will find out

47:20

more, but

47:20

it's not uncommon. That took me a reaction. It's like I can't talk right

47:22

now. I need to sit with this. Yeah, it's really power.

47:25

You want things to get better with you in union with the people

47:27

that playmen..

47:34

And

47:57

one passed away a year ago this week. I

48:04

have to make sure that

48:06

when the forest emerged

48:08

she'd have to be in love with you. She

48:14

would have, my mum would have loved

48:17

this place,

48:18

like all of us.

48:20

The silence of the wild is something perhaps

48:22

we all need once in a while.

48:28

I think we as humans evolved

48:31

to be in quiet and

48:33

in nature and being

48:36

in a place like this, to me it feels like

48:38

home. I get the same feeling

48:40

when I return home and

48:43

hug my mum and dad or just

48:45

that

48:46

total, yeah, just

48:49

that little thing. Nothing

48:52

is really wrong in a way. The

48:55

things that are wrong are okay,

48:57

they're solvable.

48:58

Everything is okay.

49:04

Everything is okay. Nature's

49:07

way of reminding us that

49:09

maybe silence is the think tank

49:12

of the soul. The

49:22

sound of birds chirping.

49:44

Wow, the think tank of the soul.

49:46

I've stayed in close touch

49:48

with Gordon Hempton. I could listen to him all day.

49:52

He just has such a poetic way of

49:54

describing nature and life.

49:57

It's moving to listen to that podcast episode.

50:00

from 2019 and think

50:02

about the world we entered after

50:04

it came out. And to think about my

50:07

mum too, the person in my life who

50:09

really encouraged me to immerse in nature.

50:12

We've done four of these wild specials on air

50:14

now and we may do more. I'd

50:16

love to hear what you think. Did you enjoy them? What

50:19

other kinds of stories would you like to hear from me

50:21

and the team? We are all ears.

50:24

You can drop us a line at thewild at kuw.org.

50:29

In the meantime, you can find more episodes

50:31

of our podcast, The Wild with Chris Morgan,

50:33

at kuw.org, Apple Podcasts,

50:36

Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

50:39

We promise to take you to wondrous places

50:42

to meet really fascinating wild

50:44

animals and people with stories

50:46

you'll hopefully want to tell your friends.

50:55

The Wild is a production of KUW in Seattle

50:58

and me, Chris Morgan, with support from

51:00

Wildlife Media. Our producers are

51:02

Matt Martin and Lucy Suchek. Jim

51:04

Gates is our editor. This broadcast

51:06

version is produced by Brandy Forwood.

51:09

A very special thank you for their kind financial

51:11

support to Jillian Scott Walker, Rose

51:14

Letwin, Ellen Ferguson, Anna

51:16

Kimball, John Taylor, Paul Lister,

51:18

Bob Yelolis, Barbara Stolman, Julian

51:21

John Hanson, and Annie Mize. Our

51:23

production team includes Paul Bikess, Juan

51:26

Pablo Chiquiza, April Craig, Michaela

51:28

Gianotti-Boyle, Tatiana Latre,

51:31

Cara McDermott, Darcy Riggins-Schmidt,

51:33

and Brendan Sweeney. Our theme music

51:35

is by Michael Parker. I'm Chris Morgan.

51:38

Take good care of yourselves and each other and

51:41

nature, our life support system.

51:44

Thanks so much for listening.

51:55

Did you know you are physically

51:57

adapting to all your swiping

51:59

scrolls?

51:59

rolling and tapping.

52:01

We're changing our bodies and

52:04

what they're able to do through our habits.

52:06

NPR's Body Electric, a

52:09

special interactive series investigating

52:11

how to fix the relationship between

52:13

our tech and our health. Listen

52:15

in the TED Radio Hour feed wherever you get

52:18

your podcasts.