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The Nature Of with Willow Defebaugh

Maria Popova on Turning Matter Into Meaning

5/12/202650 min

How do we stay open amid uncertainty? In this episode, Willow sits down with Maria Popova, writer and founder of The Marginalian, for a conversation about meaning, wonder, and the unknown. They explore Maria’s idea that “selfing” sits at the root of much of our suffering and how wonder can be an antidote. Moving between the scientific and poetic, the historical and the personal, they trace surprising connections across time in Maria’s new book, Traversal. This conversation is an invitation to loosen our grip on certainty and let ourselves be astonished by the marvels of existence.

For more about Maria Popova and The Marginalian: https://www.themarginalian.org

For Reweaving the Rainbow: https://substack.com/@reweavingtherainbow

Reweaving the Rainbow: Science, Poetry, and the Magic of Nature: https://atmos.earth/ecological-wisdom/reweaving-the-rainbow/

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Clips

Wonder As Antidote To Selfing
Identities Are Least True
Volcano That Made Bicycles
Science Prevails Despite Power
Making Meaning From Matter
Poetry As Trojan Horse
Prufrock In A Cafe
From Disillusion To Discovery
“Malicious Because Miserable”
Read To Feel Less Alone

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Maria Popova· Guest0:00

    [birds chirping] We are matter trembling with the longing for meaning. And whether we know it or not, we're constantly making it with every little choice. Everything we do is an attempt at meaning.

  2. Willow Defebaugh· Host0:20

    When I first met Maria Popova, neither of us knew who the other was, but we knew that we wanted to be friends. In getting to know her over the past six months or so, I have discovered one of the most brilliant minds on planet Earth. You may have encountered her words through The Marginalian, formerly known as Brain Pickings, which reflects a 20-year quest and a search for meaning. Maria and I have built a friendship on a shared love of science and poetry, the through line of which is wonder.

  3. Maria Popova· Guest0:59

    We use science to find the truth, and we use poetry to give the truth meaning. And neither can really... We can't really be fully alive without these two wings of, of, of life.

  4. Willow Defebaugh· Host1:11

    [gentle music] I'm Lola Okefenba, and this is The Nature of, where we look to the nature of our world for wisdom and ideas that change the way we live, and this week's conversation with Maria Popova is full of them. We dig into her new book, Traversal,

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