“A fascinating look at why human beings have a powerful mental, spiritual, and physical need for the natural world.”
The Midtown Scholar Bookstore is pleased to welcome author Lucy Jones for a live-stream discussion on her new work, LOSING EDEN: Our Fundamental Need for the Natural World and Its Ability to Heal Body and Soul. Jones will be in conversation with science journalist Michelle Nijhuis.
This event is free and open to the public, with registration. Book sales are encouraged through the Midtown Scholar Bookstore.
Lucy Jones interweaves her deeply personal story of recovery from addiction and depression with that of discovering the natural world and how it aided and enlivened her progress, giving her a renewed sense of belonging and purpose.
Jones writes of the intersection of science, wellness, and the environment, and reveals that in the last decade, scientists have begun to formulate theories of why people feel better after a walk in the woods and an experience with the natural world. She describes the recent data that supports evidence of biological and neurological responses: the lowering of cortisol (released in response to stress), the boost in cortical attention control that helps us to concentrate and subdues mental fatigue, and the increase in activity in the parasympathetic nervous system, slowing the heart and allowing the body to rest.
About the Authors:
Lucy Jones was born in Cambridge, England, and educated at University College London. She has written extensively on culture, science and nature. Her articles have been published on BBC Earth and in The Sunday Times, The Guardian and the New Statesman. Her first book, Foxes Unearthed, received the Society of Authors’ Roger Deakin Award. Jones lives in Hampshire, England.
Michelle Nijhuis is a project editor at the Atlantic, a contributing editor at High Country News, and an award-winning reporter whose work has been published in National Geographic and the New York Times Magazine. She is coeditor of The Science Writers’ Handbook and lives in White Salmon, Washington.
