Professor Fred Provenza is the legendary behavioural ecologist and author who revolutionised how we understand the nature of animal health and intelligence, and its connection to our human health and intelligence. But what really blew Fred away on his journey was what he talked about in this part of our conversation a few years ago, on the capacity of all beings to innately know and select the food and nutrition they need. 

Welcome to the 6th edition of Vignettes from the Source, the new short-form series featuring some of the unforgettable, transformative and often inexplicable moments my guests have shared over the years.

I initially went in to just grab the 14 minutes you’ll hear first. But when listening back, I couldn’t stop it running till another 10 minutes had ticked along – after I’d asked Fred how all his health findings relate to planetary health too. 

And all this was prompted because it happened to come up in conversation yesterday, as I was sitting with another legendary former guest on this podcast, Paul Hawken, back here in California (where our American journey began, and where it’s now ending). And a listener from Pennsylvania also just contacted Fred about it. So I thought, why not bring it up again here too?

If you’d like to hear or revisit this conversation in full, head to episode 123 – ‘The Wisdom Body a paradigm change in animal, human and planetary health’ (there are a bunch of links in those show notes too, including to Fred’s masterful book, ‘Nourishment: What Animals Can Teach Us About Rediscovering Our Nutritional Wisdom’).

There were actually two parts to episode 123, by the way. And there’s another unforgettable section in part 2. But that’s for another day. 

For now, I hope you enjoy revisiting this one with Fred Provenza, a man who has come to shine a light not only on the extraordinary regenerative capacities of nature, including humans, but how regenerating all human systems stems from the wisdom of our bodies.

Chapter markers & transcript.

Originally recorded 8 June 2022.

Music:

Regeneration, by Amelia Barden.

The RegenNarration playlist, music chosen by guests.

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