Birdwatching with Sean Bean, wild beekeeping in the Macedonian mountains, energy-saving AI hacks and the secret life of trees…the latest edition of our NATURAL THINKING playlist is packed with motivating reads, listens and watches to inspire a deeper connection with the natural world – and ideas, tips and actions to help protect it.
1. Travel to Honeyland
For a hit of immersive armchair travel with profound ecological learnings, watch Honeyland.
This unique, Oscar-nominated documentary follows Europe’s last wild beekeeper, Hatidze Muratova, as her ancient methods and nature-respecting sustainable ethos (“half for them [the bees], half for me”) clash with new, disruptive neighbours in the remote Macedonian mountains. What unfolds is a poetically told cautionary tale of the hazards of exploiting natural resources, the conflict between tradition and modernity and the delicate balance between humans and our environment.
2. Become Sustainable(ish)
Find achievable ideas for a more planet-friendly existence at Sustainable(ish), “the home of easy, everyday sustainability for the #imperfectlygreen”.
Sparked by author Jen Gale’s transformative experience of a year spent buying nothing new, Sustainable(ish) started as a blog and has since grown to include guidebooks and a popular podcast. Tune in for positive, practical, expert-led advice on everything from sustainable weddings to climate action for small businesses, composting tips and reducing your pet’s carbon pawprint, and feel empowered – without any hint of eco-guilt.
3. Get into birding
When was the last time you stopped for a moment, looked up and listened out for birdlife?
“In a busy world, birdwatching is a great way to connect with nature and relax,” says Sean Bean – the Game of Thrones star who lends his soothing Yorkshire lilt and infectious love of birds to hosting the award-winning podcast and YouTube channel, Get Birding. “When you're birdwatching, everything else floats away. It keeps you sane.” And the stats back up Bean’s experience: 91% of UK adults say seeing birds and hearing birdsong has a positive impact on their mental health and wellbeing.
Every episode has something enlightening to offer – from tips on joining the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch to the hidden beauty and benefits of birdsong – but we think this countdown of 5 of Britain’s most beloved birds is a great way to join the birding flock:
4. Discover The Genius of Trees
After a scorching summer of devastating wildfires, tree science consultant Harriet Rix offers a hopeful account of trees as awe-inspiring agents of reinvention, capable of shaping entire ecosystems and creating fertile ground from seemingly barren landscapes.
From the extraordinary measures some tree species have taken to spread their seeds – poisoning smaller and less useful mammals and attracting long-distance-spanning large primates – to the potent terpenes emitted by other trees to generate rain, settle down (ideally in view of some rustling leaves) and discover the true genius of trees.
5. Be impolite to AI
While the most environmentally-friendly (if increasingly difficult) approach to AI is arguably to ignore it completely, being rude to it might be the next best option.
In a recent study, UN researchers urged AI users to be less polite to save energy. If we cut out all the pleases, thank-yous and other unnecessary niceties from our AI prompts, the researchers calculated that we could save up to 98 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year – or enough to power an incredible 31,000 UK homes.
6. Find out what’s Costing the Earth
Uncover fresh ideas from the sharpest minds working toward a cleaner, greener planet in this insightful BBC podcast. Whether you want to learn how to rewild your garden from ‘Wilding’ author Isabella Tree, the true cost of making your home more energy-efficient, how to be a more sustainable parent, or what measures cities need to take to tackle rising urban temperatures and stay habitable, Costing the Earth offers a well-researched and balanced window onto the most pressing environmental issues of the day.
7. Feel the Groundswell
Use a rainy day to dig into the inspiring regenerative agriculture movement that’s steadily reshaping our relationship to Earth with this powerful new documentary. Travelling across five continents and narrated by Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson, this award-winning film (and third chapter in the trilogy previously featuring Kiss the Ground and Common Ground) reveals how farmers, scientists and change-makers are using regenerative agriculture management practices to restore the planet one acre at a time.
Moved by this film? Why not try swapping a few items in your weekly basket for organic alternatives, and support independent farmers outside the big supermarkets by shopping for local, sustainably grown produce? To unearth more on this topic, take a look at our Natural Thinking / 06 playlist, which gathers some of our favourite films, listens and books on organic, regenerative and agroecological themes.
8. Look to The Serviceberry for an alternative to overconsumption
In this heartening vision of an ecologically inspired alternative to consumerism and “gross overconsumption”, author Robin Wall Kimmerer asks what we can learn from Indigenous wisdom and nature to reimagine our economy, how we want to live and what we value most.
Using her local, native Serviceberry trees (a blossoming tree that freely gifts an abundance of sweet, juicy berries to meet others’ needs and ensure its own survival), Kimmerer shows us a different, nature-aligned system based on reciprocity, interconnectedness, replenishment and gratitude. “In a gift economy,” she writes, “wealth is understood as having enough to share. [...] Status is determined not by how much one accumulates, but by how much one gives away. [...] A gift economy nurtures the community bonds that enhance mutual wellbeing; the economic unit is “we” rather than “I,” as all flourishing is mutual.”
At just 105 pages, this is a bite-sized read, but one whose ideas will stay with you.
