The Nature Of with Willow Defebaugh Robert Macfarlane on Embracing Flow and Letting Rivers Heal Us
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Nov 4, 2025 
In this engaging conversation, celebrated nature writer Robert Macfarlane explores the profound connection between humans and rivers. He shares insights from his book, discussing the idea of rivers as living entities and how language shapes our perception of nature. Macfarlane emphasizes the importance of seeing ourselves as part of the flow of life and reflects on the healing power of water. He also touches on ecological rights, storytelling through law, and the need to reconnect with our personal and cultural river narratives.
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Language Shapes Liveliness
- Grammar shapes perception: English treats rivers as nouns and can enforce deanimation of nature.
- Turning 'river' from noun into verb reorients ethics, law, and imagination toward liveliness.
Shift Language To Expand Ethics
- Shift your language: use 'who' for rivers and consider treating them as persons to widen ethical categories.
- Enlarge 'person' beyond human to open shared moral and legal spaces with nonhuman life.
Law Can Recognize Rivers' Rights
- Rights of Nature gives rivers legal subjectivity, rooted in ancient cosmovisions but forming new law.
- The Ecuador Los Cedros ruling used constitutional nature-rights to halt destructive mining, showing legal imagination's power.
