British writer Oliver Burkeman has investigated pretty much every productivity hack, mindfulness trick, list-making system and happiness boost we've ever been fed. He concludes, almost none work. Ha!I followed Oliver's column in The Guardian, which he wrote from his home in Brooklyn, New York, for about 10 years and he is definitely my favourite anti-self-help self-help writer!It's been a few years since his last book, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, and just as I found myself asking where Oliver Burkeman was at since quitting his popular column last year, I noticed he had a new book out that makes the startling point - we have a very short time on this planet, about Four Thousand Weeks (also the title of the book).  
This is the wild idea we discuss in this episode. Oliver asks life is short, so what are you going to do about it? 

Here are the references from our chat: 
The Pomodoro timer app here
https://zapier.com/blog/best-pomodoro-apps/ 
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman here
https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/1922147656/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=247&creative=1211&creativeASIN=1922147656&linkCode=as2&tag=sarahwilsonau-22&linkId=314bf030d7fd75b00831808ccfedfcfb 

Favourite Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here
https://www.listnr.com/podcasts/wild-with-sarah-wilson 
Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com
Get your copy of Sarah Wilson's book This One Wild and Precious Life: A hopeful path forward in a fractured world here
https://amzn.to/3vs3tf2 

Connect on Instagram: www.instagram.com/_sarahwilson_  

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Ahead of COP26, the most important climate conference of our times, I called out to listeners to ask me whatever is on their mind, or in the hearts, about the climate crisis we are living through.
My new producer Cassie (lives in Melbourne, interests include rock trivia, the beach and tea) chose some of your questions and played them to me cold. Me (interests include climate trivia!), well, I did my best to answer them based on my slightly obsessed layperson's knowledge and opinions. What is COP? What can I do to make a difference? How do I vote climate? It was pretty rapid-fire, but I promised to include back-up links and references here in the show notes. There are a few…knock yourselves out!

Favourite Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here
Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com
Get your copy of Sarah Wilson's book This One Wild and Precious Life: A hopeful path forward in a fractured world here

Connect on Instagram: www.instagram.com/_sarahwilson_  

What is COP26?
https://drawdown.org/solutions
Renewable energy is cheaper than running existing coal
Jobs in renewable energy
Savings in avoiding climate change
Markets moving economic costs, Australia's climate inaction
Lack of climate action cost over 50 years
Grattan report on gridlock records
https://iview.abc.net.au/show/big-deal
https://theyvoteforyou.org.au
Companies pledges to halve emissions by 2030

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Six months ago my friend linked me to an interview with British entrepreneur and troublemaking activist Clare Dubois because he reckoned “she talks your language, Sarah”. I was moved to my viscera from the moment she launched her gloriously, inspired riff.
Clare talks a profoundly wild idea that resonates for me:  We are about to send ourselves, as a species, extinct. No one is going to come and save us, but trees might just. 

Clare is a business coach and founder of the Treesisters reforestation charity and she now lives in California. She's a global leader in arguing that our salvation can be led by businesses embedding trees into every financial transaction. She argues that trees can fix many things... and can teach us how to be boldly human again.

Learn more about Treesisters: https://treesisters.org/ 

Favourite Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here
Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com
Get your copy of Sarah Wilson's book This One Wild and Precious Life: A hopeful path forward in a fractured world here

References from this episode:
The Overstory - Richard Powers here
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World - Peter Wohlleben here
Martin Luther King Jnr speech about staying awake for the revolution here

This episode covers some pretty heavy stuff around sexual abuse. If that's something you're not comfortable listening to, I recommend skipping ahead to around the 10 minute mark.

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British philosopher and environmentalist Timothy Morton is regarded as the most powerful figure in the contemporary art world. Tim - who goes by the pronoun “they" - has worked with Bjork, Jeff Bridges, Pharrell Williams, NASA and on Steve Coogan's series The Trip. They've also written more than 250 essays on ecology, Mary Shelley, gastronomy, Talking Heads, Heidegger and… concrete. They've also published 17 books; the latest is Hyposubjects: on becoming human. Me, I read Tim's work as a pleasurable brain sport and I draw on some of their ideas in my book ‘This One Wild and Precious Life', but Tim is also a deeply generous and compassionate human with an intimate understanding of why we struggle to solve the climate crisis and face our demise. We share our sadness around all this in this chat.
All of Tim's ideas are wild, so instead of focusing on one wild idea, I fired a bunch of questions, rapid fire.
My friends, be prepared for some genre-traversing calisthenics.
BTW I confess I struggled terribly with remembering Tim's correct pronoun in parts of the podcast. No disrespect is intended…change to language patterns can take time!

More info on Timothy Morton and purchase Hyposubjects: on becoming human: ecologywithoutnature.blogspot.com
Read Pessimism of the Intellect Optimism of the Will: www.centreforoptimism.com/Pessimism-of-the-Intellect-Optimism-of-the-Will
The George Carlin skit referred to:www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c
I write about Timothy in my book 'This One Wild and Precious Life' available:
www.sarahwilson.com/books

Favourite Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here
Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com

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Tara June Winch is the Miles Franklin winning author of The Yield and a proud Wiradjuri woman.

I reached out to her after seeing her speak on an emotional, all-female panel at the Sydney Writer's Festival earlier this year where she  brought the room to tears with her confronting and - to my mind - true comments about Australian identity; "being Aussie is a mental health crisis”.

In this conversation we explore accessing mania as part of the creative process, not having to be broken to be creative, questioning identity and we break down the real meaning of being Australian.

Tara is currently living in France working on her next book, unable to return to Australia due to the pandemic. We have been emailing each other - pen pal-style since our chat!

Get a copy of Yield by Tara June Winch here
More info on Tara June Winch: https://www.tarajunewinch.com/

Favourite Wild with Sarah Wilson on the LiSTNR app here
Find out more about Sarah Wilson: www.sarahwilson.com

Tara June Winch's book recommendations from this episode:
Too Much Lip, Melissa Lucashenko
Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray: River of Dreams  Anita Heiss
After Story, Larissa Behrendt
Ghost River, Tony Birch
How To Make A Basket, Jazz Money

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Dr Jud Brewer is a New York-based surfer (yep!) and psychiatrist and neuroscientist specialising in habit change and he's helped thousands of people quit smoking and overcome binge eating. But his latest research treats anxiety like it's any other habit.

I reached out to him because I'd tried out his technique and it worked…substituting fretting for curiosity as a meta approach to life!

In this chat we unpack one of my own gnarly, ugly anxious thoughts (bit exposing!) using Jud's three-step solution (his alternative to willpowering our way through) and he gives practical advice for how we can all be more curious about our anxiety. 

Try it!

Studies and books and things we mention:

Jud's latest book is called Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind and it's out now.

Read more about the Harvard study which found we spend 47% of the day ruminating: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/11/wandering-mind-not-a-happy-mind/

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I discovered Jill's story in her viral TED Talk from 2008 (it became the most watched TED talk ever!) in which the brain scientist describes watching the left side of her brain deteriorate over the course of four hours on the morning of her stroke and how she used her right brain to stay present and get help.

I was transfixed. Ever since I've wondered, what ever happened to Jill Bolte Taylor? Did she go back to normal? Is she still living in her right brain and able to experience the “oneness” that spiritualists and quantum physicists can only point to? If so, is she lonely?

In this chat we get into her how stroke stripped her of her relationships and emotions, understanding the power of each hemisphere of the brain and techniques we can all use to go right and be legitimately and neuroscientifically wilder!

Jill's latest book is Whole Brain Living: The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life.

Her first book was My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey.

Watch her TED Talk here.

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Producer Lindsey volleys me with VMs from listeners. I answer off the cuff.

What's good about having anxiety? Who do I vote for the climate in elections? How do you live with bipolar?

For part two of this special Ask Me Anything episode Sarah answers your questions about her own wild ways of living. In this episode Sarah shares her experience living with anxiety and bipolar disorder, voting for the climate and being excited about the future in spite of uncertainty and fear.

To hear more questions and answers from Sarah, listen to "Ask Me Anything - Part 1".

To hear more of Sarah's wild ideas, you can join her in her Wild & Precious Tour around Australia in February 2022. Book tickets now via www.livenation.com.au.

Follow Sarah on Instagram @_sarahwilson_

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Producer Lindsey volleys me with VMs from listeners. I answer off the cuff.

How do I raise my kids as conscious consumers? What do you think happens when we die?

For this special Ask Me Anything episode Sarah turned the tables on herself and asked for your questions about her own wild ideas and ways of living differently. In this episode Sarah opens up about her meditation practice, solo hiking and remaining confident in herself and her beliefs.

To hear more of Sarah's wild ideas, you can join her in her Wild & Precious Tour around Australia in February 2022. Book tickets now via www.livenation.com.au.

Follow Sarah on Instagram @_sarahwilson_

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Tim  trained with the Vedic tradition and has taught meditation to elite athletes, jail inmates, billionaires and kids for more than 20 years. And me.

Tim has been part of my spiritual journey for 12 years and has guided me on my career, love life and various calamities. We meet for coffee and peanut butter toast most weeks…this episode we bring a recorder and discuss: trusting in the logic of the universe (the wild idea for the week) and how (and why) we should render ourselves choiceless (it's the ultimate freedom!). We also talk about the brilliance that is the movie Groundhog Day.

Tim makes regular appearance in Sarah's book First We Make The Beast Beautiful and helped her with her “path forward” in her latest book This One Wild & Precious Life. It's a pivotal moment about a third of the way in.

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