Yes, the Other-Than-Humans that we share the world with are always acting on us! In fact, it seems that our connection to our own lives arises out of how we are affected by our environment. "Affective participation is what connects us to the world...without affect there is no connection" says researcher Dr. Lena Gan, who shares her insights on how entangled we are with all of the elements in our environment, and how affected we are (or could be!) by the plants, animals, and things that we share our lives with. In this conversation with Dr. Gan and wonder researcher David Mattson, we discuss the potential for affective encounters with the other-than-humans in our lives on the levels of both personal well-being and societal change; how the perception of the flow of time and how (and what) we remember can change when we engage in this way of dialoging with our environment; and some practices for encouraging more personal availability for affective encounters in every day life.

Dr. Lena Gan: https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/individuals/lena-gan
Possibility Studies Network: https://www.possibilitystudies.net/
Sarah: https://www.humhealing.com/

Creativity is generally seen as something that humans do to the things in their environment. But what if creativity is really a process where every thing in the environment is an acting agent equal to, and entangled with, the human agent? In this episode Possibility Studies Network member, Professor Pamela Burnard of the University of Cambridge in the UK, shares her insights on how the environment and every thing in it is always acting on us to inform our every creative act. She begins with her own beginnings, and the gift of landing into a family that couldn't place expectations on this unexpected child! Her availability to be acted upon by the world around her, and to respond to it's urgings (rather than to the urgings of familial and cultural "habitus"), comes through in her presence here. So as you listen do be as available as you can be, so that Pam's words can act upon you.

Prof Pamela Burnard: https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/people/staff/burnard/. pab61(at)cam.ac.uk
Possibility Studies Network: https://www.possibilitystudies.net/
Sarah: https://www.humhealing.com/

Who doesn't love a happy accident!? Serendipity is the unexpected thing that happens in the space between you and the world, that you have the ability to notice and take action on. In a time of many great global challenges when collectively we need all the help we can get, is there a way for each of us to intentionally create more serendipitous opportunity from seeming mishaps? In this conversation, serendipity researcher Wendy Ross shares her thoughts on the roles of wisdom & skill, cultivated mess, attunement to the environment, time & perspective, risking failure AND having the practical and emotional resources to be able to absorb that failure, in the manifestation of the positive phenomenon that is serendipity.

Possibility Studies Network online conference January 20/21 https://www.possibilitystudies.net/2025-online
More on Wendy https://www.wendyamross.co.uk/ and https://www.londonmet.ac.uk/profiles/staff/wendy-ross/
More on Sarah https://www.humhealing.com/