Press & Writing on Why We Need to Be Wild
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Returning to the wilder environment we evolved in, even temporarily, resets our mental compass. April 14. 2024.
You didn’t evolve to live in this techno-industrialised world. Find health and happiness by embracing your wild nature. A guide to being a Homo sapiens in the 21st century.
"I studied with artisans, wildlife trackers, botanists and indigenous folks, just trying to learn how i could have a more nature integrated life," Kraft explained.
When overwhelmed by the stressors of modern existence, who hasn’t wished to return to a simpler time? Berkeley’s Jessica Carew Kraft actually took that step, exploring a Paleolithic lifestyle in her book…
Jessica spoke to the spiritual community of Auburn, California about her book, rewilding, and why leaf blowers are the bane of suburban existence ;).
Novelist Julia Scheeres conducted this interview covering why Jessica left her marriage, moved to the Sierra Foothills and what she recommends anyone can do to start rewilding.
While being fully immersed in the world of tech, Jessica realized that happiness and health don’t lie in digital solutions. In this episode, we talk about how rewilding challenges the status quo and that our greatest act of reciprocity might be something completely different than what you think it is. November 24, 2023.
Tim has transformed his life and is now dedicated to helping folks become self-reliant with his wide knowledge of the gear, tools, and repaired-ness needed to gain more autonomy, joy, and effectiveness in daily life. We spoke about my book and how the original human STEM can also empower us to become more self-sufficient, bad-ass, and ready for whatever's coming in the future.
Clay and Luke talk to Jessica Carew Kraft, author of Why We Need to be Wild. Jessica has drastically changed her life in research of ancient and forgotten skills. Tired of being caught in the modern pitfalls of fast paced modern life, she decided to make a change and learn the ways of our ancestors.
“We were not creating a better world through technology,” Kraft said on a recent afternoon at Remillard Park in Berkeley, where she still spends time after moving to a home in the Sierra foothills in 2021. “It wasn’t actually creating the healthy, happy future, but rather people on screens getting sicker, which was where I found myself.”
The Rewilding Podcast: Our conversation ranged from what taking rewilding ideas to the “mainstream” might look like, dissecting some larger trends with rewilding themes, taking a look at rewilding through the lens of motherhood, and much more.
Even if we just come one step closer to the ways humans used to live, we will be reminded how we are nature and we belong to it. The further we walk away from our inherent pull towards nature, the further we fall into the pit of stress and dis-ease. We cannot forget who we are. Jessica helps remind us of the way back home.
I spoke with Meg Carney from the Outdoor Minimalist podcast about the appeal of living with less, the essential practice of escaping into the woods(!) and the link between microbiome gut health, mood, and sunshine. Listen/watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC5MWHOtGc4
Melachot U’Vrachot may be the first event in American Jewish history that gathered Jews in one spot to do the melachot as they were originally categorized. And it was the first explicitly Jewish primitive skills gathering. While some melachot, like baking challah, are still widely practiced today, over the course of four days, participants also processed animals, made shofars, built friction fires, and practiced the original, ancient form of scribal arts.
Do you feel like your working life goes against a lot of your natural instincts? To be outside when you want to, to get exercise, fresh air, sunshine, time with family and friends, and enough sleep? Here's how I dealt with that feeling. Check out my Q & A with the Boulder Book Store.
Kraft found paleolithic habits, skills and “lifeways,” based on a hunter-gatherer history that began about 300,000 years ago, provided a more appealing, healthier alternative to the contemporary life she was living.
While the idea of sourcing all our meals from nature and creating our own tools may seem unrealistic and absurd for most people, I have spent the last five years with people doing just that. I realized that learning these skills is crucial to healthy human development and beneficial for our children and families.
In this episode, we explore the profound call to immerse ourselves in nature and acquire ancient skills that have sustained humanity for generations. Jessica begins by shedding light on her awakening to the disparity between the promises of Silicon Valley technology and the harsh reality of an overwhelmed, stressed, and disconnected society. The allure of screens and gadgets has drawn us away from our innate human nature—observing, connecting, and using all our senses. Join us in this enlightening conversation as we rediscover our primal roots and embrace the endless wonders of the natural world.
We spoke about rewilding our lives while living in techno-utopia, how to integrate wild food into your diet, how nature is the center of a better life, why Californians spend all their time inside when they don’t need to, and transitions in motherhood.
Human rewilding — a return to the hunter-gatherer lifestyle — could help us address the impending threat of global climate change and future pandemics. If human rewilding is to work, foragers have to respect the lands by planting back, providing a positive benefit to ecosystems. The rewilding movement must take its cues from the time-tested wisdom of primal cultures.
“Jessica’s book deeply affected me, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to speak with her about her process of untangling herself from the high-stress, app-addled culture of technology work. I hope her story can inspire others, including myself, to find ways to disconnect from the digital and reconnect with our true nature – getting as wild as we can manage in this world. After all, nature is basically the original form of technology, and probably still the best.” August 24, 2023.
I discussed my book and my experiences with wilderness education programs, along with the human affinity for life and natural settings (biophilia) and the crisis in our culture due to nature separation. August 23, 2023.
For Shepherd.com, a book recommendation platform, I selected five books for your post-collapse library. The secret to mastering your apocalypse experience is to think of it not as surviving, but as thriving—in the way that humans did for over 300,000 years as hunter-gatherers. August 25, 2023.
In Episode 29, we interview Jessica Carew Kraft about her deeply engrossing debut book that chronicles her journey from surviving the tech world to embracing the ancestral skills community that has allowed her to finally thrive. If you’ve ever watched an episode of “Alone,” your curiosity might have been piqued about the people who have the skills not only to survive, but to thrive in the wild. August 22, 2023.
Jessica shares 5 key insights from her new book, Why We Need to Be Wild: One Woman’s Quest for Ancient Human Answers to 21st Century Problems. Listen to the audio version—read by Jessica herself—in the Next Big Idea App. Next Big Idea is a curated list of new books selected by Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, and Adam Grant.
Could paleolithic wisdom solve our 21st century problems? Jessica Carew Kraft took her family on a journey to find out. The author of "Why We Need to Be Wild" joined us to share her story. Jessica was joined by her daughters Simone (13) and Lazarre (10) Elias.
John Zerzan is the long-time anarchist author and anti-civilization advocate who hosts a weekly radio show on KWVA University of Oregon radio, 88.1 FM. I spoke with him about Why We Need to Be Wild, my publishing journey, my next book ideas, and why rewilding presents hopeful answers to our 21st century dilemmas. August 15, 2023.
I spoke with Tony Jones of the Reverend Hunter podcast about what it means for a species to be successful, the rewilding movement, living like the Pleistocene, being called by ancestral wisdom, converting to Judaism then away from it, the importance of social ties, when kids discover the wonder, how the whole idea of the world is a little absurd, Rod Carew, and more.