Natural Connection
Indigenous wisdom, modern technology and the awe of Nature: a conversation with the intoxicating Joycelyn Longdon
I’m sharing an interview I wrote for this week, with the quite extraordinary Joycelyn Longdon. Joycelyn is studying for a pHD at Cambridge in AI and the environment, having completed a degree in astrophysics. But climate justice is what drives her.
As a second generation British Ghanaian, Joycelyn makes frequent visits to Ghana to visit family, and also the forest where she is running her PhD in bio acoustics. Indigenous wisdom, modern technology and experiencing awe in nature are the three threads she weaves together in her work, and it is a quite intoxicating mix.
I first met Joycelyn preparing for a panel for Country & Townhouse’s Journey to Zero event at the end of last year, when she told me about a book she was writing, Natural Connection. It sounded fascinating, and I made her promise to share it with me as soon as it was ready. She sent me an early copy and I read it in a day. I couldn’t put it down.
Very generously, Joycelyn gave me a morning recently to discuss the book in more detail. Her network and the voices she includes in the book include Robert MacFarlane (Is A River Alive?), the Natural History Museum’s Miranda Lowe, author and ‘wild mind’ Katherine May and activist Rebecca Solnit. These are the Original Gangstas of Nature thinking!
If you care about nature, systems and wisdom, you will drink up this book. You can read my interview with Joycelyn below on the (new) Brimm website here.