Emergence Magazine Podcast Learning to Listen to Plants – A Conversation with Monica Gagliano
Jan 13, 2026
Monica Gagliano, research scientist exploring plant cognition and communication, shares how plants taught her to listen through visions, experiments, and reciprocal practice. She discusses shifting scientific assumptions, plant-guided experiments in the Amazon, bioelectric forest synchrony, and learning unknowing and trust as methods for relating with plants.
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Asking Animal Questions Of Plants Reveals New Capacities
- Monica approached plant questions usually asked of animals: Do plants learn, remember, communicate, or listen? and found these questions reveal overlooked capacities.
- Not being trained as a plant biologist made her willing to ask controversial questions that plant-focused fields had avoided.
Detachment In Western Science Is A Colonial Pattern
- Western science's enforced detachment suppressed relational ways of knowing; indigenous practices treat asking permission and reciprocity as routine.
- Monica frames this detachment as colonialized mind that displaced older, relational knowledge systems.
Experiment Designed By Plants Revealed In A Diary Vision
- Monica received detailed experimental instructions in dreams and diary visions that told her exact setup for a pea experiment, including pipe sizes and plant choices.
- After nearly dismantling the setup, a moment of slowed attention revealed the plants were performing exactly as the instructions predicted, overturning her expectations.