Speaker 1: Oh hey, it's still the guy at the falafel truck
Speaker 1: who gives you extra hummus, Ali Ward, And here is
Speaker 1: part two of one of my favorite episodes we've ever done.
Speaker 1: Here we are this is science based advice on how
Speaker 1: to balance your work with your real life, how to
Speaker 1: get your little sparkle back even when the world is
Speaker 1: raining turds. It's hobbies, pastimes, community, and according to this guest,
Speaker 1: the author of the book The Connection Cure, it's the
Speaker 1: prescriptive power of movement, nature, art, service, and belonging. And
Speaker 1: I couldn't put that whole thing in the subtitle. And
Speaker 1: if I just wrote social prescribing, you're like, I don't
Speaker 1: know what that is. So that's why it's why humans
Speaker 1: need hobbies. That's very much in a nutshell anyway to
Speaker 1: hear all the foundations, including the etymology and the history
Speaker 1: of this field, so many examples and papers, and why
Speaker 1: this guest doesn't like the title of her own book.
Speaker 1: You just hop your beautiful butt back to part one. Okay,
Speaker 1: start there, come meet us back here part two. So
Speaker 1: let's get to part two. But first, thank you patrons
Speaker 1: for supporting the show for as little as one dollar
Speaker 1: a month and submitting your questions. We couldn't do the
Speaker 1: show without you. Thanks to everyone walking around in Ologies
Speaker 1: merch we have some summer stuff like hats and even
Speaker 1: bathing suits.
Speaker 2: You can wear.
Speaker 1: Also, we have Smologies episodes for free in their own
Speaker 1: feed wherever you get podcasts. If you're looking for shorter,
Speaker 1: swear free episodes that are suitable for classrooms and people
Speaker 1: sensitive just swearing, those Smologies episodes linked in the show
Speaker 1: notes tell everyone also for free. Thank you for supporting
Speaker 1: Ologies by leaving reviews. They really matter. I read them
Speaker 1: all and then I pick one to spotlight as proof.
Speaker 1: And this week Live LW called Ologies your favorite scientists
Speaker 1: favorite science podcast, which means the world to me, And
Speaker 1: they said, this is a science podcast that all my
Speaker 1: fellow grad students listen to. I love the enthusiasm, the humor,
Speaker 1: the heartfelt moments, and you know I'm listening to those
Speaker 1: Spooktober episodes all year long. Thank you for that, LEVILW.
Speaker 1: It means a lot. Also, look up our Spooktoba episodes
Speaker 1: are so good. Okay Salu. Genealogy Part two it's all
Speaker 1: about social prescribing and so many occupational therapists by the
Speaker 1: way listen to part one and said that they were
Speaker 1: like screaming and just bellowing with joy. So here's a
Speaker 1: shout out to all the occupational therapists who know firsthand
Speaker 1: that this stuff works. So sit tight knit a scarf.
Speaker 1: Let's hear about forest bathing, taking life lessons from rehab,
Speaker 1: How privilege affects accessibility to hobbies, and what to do
Speaker 1: about that. Why I used to call all night writing
Speaker 1: sessions at the newspaper club Karashi. How to forest bathe
Speaker 1: most effectively, as researched by science. How capitalism literally kills us?
Speaker 1: How to figure out what lights you up? How to
Speaker 1: schedule time for hobbies if you have no time for hobbies,
Speaker 1: free stuff you can get to make you happier. What
Speaker 1: if social interaction gives you the willies? What if depression
Speaker 1: keeps you from doing the things that lift depression. How
Speaker 1: do you hang out in a culture that's so substance based?
Speaker 1: Is there any data to support chilling out? Where to
Speaker 1: volunteer to check off a lot of life improving boxes,
Speaker 1: if protesting is a good hobby? And once again, why
Speaker 1: a fuck you walk is an act of defiance with
Speaker 1: author journalist Deep Diver and absolutely lovely and altruistic person
Speaker 1: and Salue geneologist Julia Jules Hatts in this part two. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we ended part one right before we got to
Speaker 1: the Patreon questions, and she was down to clown a
Speaker 1: bit longer. So let's hear from patrons of the show
Speaker 1: who submitted their questions in advance. You can do that
Speaker 1: via patreon dot com slash ologies. You can join for
Speaker 1: as little as a dollar a month, and we also
Speaker 1: have options to leave voice questions so you can be like, hey,
Speaker 1: that's me, such as someone who calls themselves so many questions.
Speaker 2: First time question asker.
Speaker 3: Says, Hi, Ali and Julia, what are the homeworks of
Speaker 3: good activities for social prescriptions? Absolutely not going to be
Speaker 3: replacing the practitioners who should do actual prescribing for my
Speaker 3: family and friends, but have had some good intention suggestions
Speaker 3: backfire or just fall short. What was I missing in
Speaker 3: my suggestions that didn't actually reach the goal we had.
Speaker 1: Let's say someone has tried social subscribing and it didn't
Speaker 1: quite do it for them. Do you feel like it
Speaker 1: has to hit a couple of those buttons to maybe
Speaker 1: really gel or how do you find the right social
Speaker 1: prescribing that's going to work for you absolutely.
Speaker 2: So I think there's a couple of things there. Love
Speaker 2: these questions, so many questions, and I also think that
Speaker 2: are they suggestions or were they prescriptions. It's one thing
Speaker 2: to say, hey, you should volunteer more, you should exercise more.
Speaker 2: It's another to say, hey, there's one spot left in
Speaker 2: this you know eukulele class that meets on Wednesday nights,
Speaker 2: and I know that's when you have an early day,
Speaker 2: so it works for your schedule. I'm going to prescribe
Speaker 2: you a spot, and I'm going to check in and
Speaker 2: I'm going to follow up. And I vetted it right,
Speaker 2: and so what I should say also, And this is
Speaker 2: again where the US could learn a lot. But in
Speaker 2: the UK and other places that of social prescribing, there's
Speaker 2: a position called the link worker that's hired by the
Speaker 2: doctor's office or the therapist's office, whose job it is
Speaker 2: to actually spend a long time with the patients. Instead
Speaker 2: of fifteen minutes, they get sixty, get to know what
Speaker 2: really really matters to them. So the prescription is going
Speaker 2: to be much more specific in tailored to what matters
Speaker 2: to the person and then the rest of their time
Speaker 2: is spent vetting the groups in the community.
Speaker 1: Oh so there's literally a job when social prescribing is
Speaker 1: offered of a link worker who figures out what will
Speaker 1: be good for you and where and when it happens,
Speaker 1: and if it's actually good or reliable, that's usually part
Speaker 1: of the deal.
Speaker 2: So it might be for so many questions that they
Speaker 2: maybe suggest to a group, but you know that group
Speaker 2: kind of sucked, or that group maybe it didn't suck,
Speaker 2: but maybe it wasn't the right fit for the right person.
Speaker 2: And I also think, look, I know lots of things
Speaker 2: matter to people. So I think the more specific you
Speaker 2: can make the question making it you help people reflect
Speaker 2: on things they loved to do as a kid, things
Speaker 2: they would do if they had more time in their week,
Speaker 2: the last time they experienced awe. What's the thing that
Speaker 2: makes you light up when you talk about it. What's
Speaker 2: the thing that you could spend eight hours doing and
Speaker 2: there's absolutely no distraction in the world that could pull
Speaker 2: you from that. The more you can get closer to
Speaker 2: those kinds of what matters to you questions, and the
Speaker 2: more you can prescribe not suggest a specific activity that
Speaker 2: corresponds to it. I think you'll have more success.
Speaker 1: And a recent guide published by the Global Social Prescribing
Speaker 1: Alliance in conjunction with the World Health Organization, titled Social
Speaker 1: Prescribing Around the World, A World Map of Global Developments
Speaker 1: and Social Prescribing across different health system contexts, offers case
Speaker 1: studies for twenty four different countries from England to Canada, Portugal, India, Iran, Poland, Japan, USA,
Speaker 1: South Korea, Italy, Bunch more dozen something. And in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: we did an episode titled Field Trip, How to Change
Speaker 1: Your Life via the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: And it took me until this aside to realize that's
Speaker 1: exactly why volunteering at the museum did change my life.
Speaker 1: I was in an environment that thrilled me. I was
Speaker 1: being of service teaching random adults or school groups about
Speaker 1: bugs or coyote pelts. And I got to hang out
Speaker 1: in the morning meetings with other volunteers from retirees to
Speaker 1: grad students, and I even got some good walking around
Speaker 1: the halls and in the nature gardens there. And I'll
Speaker 1: link that episode in the show notes. But even years
Speaker 1: after I volunteered there, it continues to change my life
Speaker 1: every day this podcast wouldn't exist without that. It was
Speaker 1: inspired by the museum and I was able to fully
Speaker 1: return to my most authentic self. It was a huge,
Speaker 1: huge change in my life. So let me be a
Speaker 1: case study that this shit really does work. Figure out
Speaker 1: what lights you up? Get yourself there, like your life
Speaker 1: depends on it. It just might.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I was lucky at the time, though, to be freelance
Speaker 1: with a flexible schedule so I could accommodate one three
Speaker 1: hour window a week to go get paid zero dollars.
Speaker 1: Not everyone has that, And Theoklin asked about economic privilege
Speaker 1: when it comes to social prescribing, where as a Park says,
Speaker 1: I love this and I wish we didn't have to
Speaker 1: prescribe things that seem so inherently human, but asked how
Speaker 1: do you address patients' concerns around scarcity like scarcity of time, childcare, money, etc.
Speaker 1: And those thoughts were also on the minds of Chelsea
Speaker 1: and her dog Charlie and others. And what about barriers?
Speaker 1: Rachel Gothrie asked how do people overcome financial barriers or
Speaker 1: lack of leisure time to participate in social prescription. She's
Speaker 1: Munger asked what if you don't have time eating dog
Speaker 1: care for a living, wants to know how you can
Speaker 1: follow through and not have it interfere with work. And
Speaker 1: then also London Nowell asked, as a teacher in Spooney,
Speaker 1: I have very limited free time and limited energy. For
Speaker 1: more on Spoonis and chronic health conditions, you can see
Speaker 1: our recent two part long COVID episodes or our Disability
Speaker 1: Pride episode, which we will link in the show notes.
Speaker 1: David said, how what about if you're concerned about contagious
Speaker 1: diseases so overcoming these various barriers. I know those are
Speaker 1: different prongs.
Speaker 2: But yeah, well let's take time because that is the
Speaker 2: big one, right And that actually corresponds to a story
Speaker 2: from the book about this woman named Heather, lives in Vermont,
Speaker 2: working three jobs, is the primary caretaker for her grandmother.
Speaker 2: Is someone who has always loved being outside, but yet
Speaker 2: because of the stressors of her life, she's forced to
Speaker 2: spend most of it inside until she goes to her doctor.
Speaker 2: The doctor says, you know, we're running this pilot with
Speaker 2: this group come Alive outside. They host these awesome activities
Speaker 2: for people you know, deal like Heather was dealing with
Speaker 2: stress and all these kind of health issues, you know,
Speaker 2: can I prescribe you a spot in it? And at
Speaker 2: first Heather is thinking like, I don't have time for that,
Speaker 2: But then you know, when the doctor and when the
Speaker 2: research frames this as being in nature is actually something
Speaker 2: that restores your attention and can make you feel like
Speaker 2: you have more time, that totally changes it. And that
Speaker 2: was true for Heather.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: It's not like she could magically make her three jobs
Speaker 2: go away, it's not like she could stop being her
Speaker 2: grandmother's caregiver. But because those two hours a week that
Speaker 2: was a doctor prescribed activity, the same way we would
Speaker 2: be judicious about going to our therapy sessions. If we
Speaker 2: can have that sort of same level of seriousness and
Speaker 2: dedication paid to our social prescriptions, then I think people
Speaker 2: would find like Heather found that not only was there
Speaker 2: the two hours a week for it, but that it
Speaker 2: was something she wanted to put more into her schedule
Speaker 2: because again, the feelings of stress and burnout that so
Speaker 2: many of us are dealing with it. I would say
Speaker 2: for all of these five kinds of social prescriptions, but
Speaker 2: especially nature, this can make us feel like we have
Speaker 2: our time back.
Speaker 1: And again, those five facets are movement art, nature, service,
Speaker 1: and belonging.
Speaker 2: There's actually a really cool study related to this time points.
Speaker 2: There were these Japanese businessmen in the nineteen seventies and
Speaker 2: nineteen eighties who were severely, severely overworked. I mean they
Speaker 2: were working like seventy eighty hours a week. Reports of
Speaker 2: heart failure, reports of suicide, very tragically, all of this
Speaker 2: went up up up as their workload did.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 2: Actually, in this kind of wild government campaign as a
Speaker 2: public health thing, the government said, you know what, we
Speaker 2: need to do something about this chronic burnout stress there
Speaker 2: was a word for it, god else, and they said,
Speaker 2: we are going to prescribe you time in the We're
Speaker 2: gonna invest in this campaign called chinrin Yoku forest bathing,
Speaker 2: because we believe that you being in this forest environment
Speaker 2: is gonna reverse some of those stress responses. So they
Speaker 2: invested in this big time. They took these stressed out
Speaker 2: businessmen in Tokyo. Of course it was men at first,
Speaker 2: but then the women, and they found that just like
Speaker 2: a little bit of time in the forest dramatically reduced
Speaker 2: their blood pressure, dramatically increased their production of natural killer
Speaker 2: cells which go on to fight cancer. All of these
Speaker 2: sort of physiological markers of stress went down, down, down, down,
Speaker 2: down down. And when you do that, not only are
Speaker 2: you preventing heart disease mental health conditions down the line,
Speaker 2: but you're also giving those businessmen better tools to cope
Speaker 2: with their feelings of stress and burnout in the present.
Speaker 1: In her book, Julia details that later studies with different demographics,
Speaker 1: not just businessmen, showed forest bathers had other health gains
Speaker 1: like increased serotonin and lowered adrenaline and cortisol, which are
Speaker 1: stress hormones, as well as lower blood pressure and heart rate,
Speaker 1: and they reported less anxiety, depression, anger, fatigue, and confusion.
Speaker 1: And for more, you can see the twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: studies effects of forest environment on health promotion and disease prevention,
Speaker 1: which can help us understand the difference between just chilling
Speaker 1: in the woods versus forest bathing. They're kind of the same,
Speaker 1: but the latter is a little more immersive. So forest
Speaker 1: bathing at its best engages all your senses. In the
Speaker 1: paper details site green color, yellow color, and red color,
Speaker 1: forest landscape, hearing forest sounds, Listen to the birds singing
Speaker 1: and the breeze rustling in the leaves, touch touching trees,
Speaker 1: put your whole body in the forest atmosphere. It says
Speaker 1: taste involves eating foods and fruits from the forest or
Speaker 1: tasting the fresh air and smell which says special good
Speaker 1: smell fragrance from trees and flowers. And we also touch
Speaker 1: on the so many reasons to huff a tree in
Speaker 1: the dendrology episodes with j Casey Clapp and in the
Speaker 1: forest Entomology one with doctor Kristin Wickert. And we also
Speaker 1: have a bryology episode about moss with the actual doctor
Speaker 1: Robin Wallkimmerer, who is wonderful and holding those in the
Speaker 1: show notes, I am at this point very sold on
Speaker 1: never living my life without forest bathing. On the rag
Speaker 1: sign me up. I'm into it.
Speaker 2: Forest bathing. I love that.
Speaker 1: That's a term that is starting to catch on. Just
Speaker 1: kicking it in the forest. It needed its own term,
Speaker 1: It needed like a verb behind it. And Honeybear said,
Speaker 1: what about connecting with other nature beings? For example, I
Speaker 1: consider the forest to be one of my most supportive
Speaker 1: communities and feel deeply nourished by spending time with my
Speaker 1: tree friends. And then Kathleen Sach said that they've taken
Speaker 1: up wildlife photography and bird watching, and that day spent
Speaker 1: bird watching or really grounding, because it involves tuning into
Speaker 1: more than one sense at a time. You're using sight
Speaker 1: and sound. But we did have people too, you know,
Speaker 1: going through the social and community aspect of it. We
Speaker 1: had a ton of people self described very socially anxious
Speaker 1: scal Meghan Recliffe, Attie Cappello, Citi Bitpond, and Olive Wing.
Speaker 1: First time question askers words said, is there any difference
Speaker 1: in success rates for social prescribing for neurodivergent people versus
Speaker 1: neurotypical And they say someone with autism socializing can cause
Speaker 1: extreme stress and mental exhaustion. Is there right or wrong
Speaker 1: way to go about this technique as someone who's autistic
Speaker 1: to make it less stressful? And we had a ton
Speaker 1: of people Desert Paint Frog, Zach Everett, Peregrin Nova, Robin
Speaker 1: stonebo Susan g who asked, in Robin's words, do you
Speaker 1: have any tips for people who have a lot of
Speaker 1: anxiety around social situations or are introverts? So, yeah, let's
Speaker 1: say that hanging out with new people especially is like
Speaker 1: a lesson in sweaty palms and bubblegut.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, what do you do you are absolutely right to
Speaker 2: feel that way, and I'm so great for these questions because,
Speaker 2: let's be honest, you know, social prescribing not a great name,
Speaker 2: especially if your baseline is somebody who struggles with social anxiety.
Speaker 2: Like that sounds like hell. So what I would say
Speaker 2: is that I have a story to back this up.
Speaker 2: In the book, there was a man named Nick who
Speaker 2: dealt with social anxiety ADHD, identified as neurodivergent. If I
Speaker 2: had told him about there's a thing called social prescribing
Speaker 2: doctors or prescribing activities that promote connection, he would have said, hell, no,
Speaker 2: I'm so out, like as anybody would right that gives them,
Speaker 2: you know, palm sweats and all that stuff. What instead
Speaker 2: happened with Nick is that he happened to love fishing.
Speaker 2: Very solitary activity, very sort of peaceful activity. You know,
Speaker 2: not a lot of small talk going on in the pond.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you when when you're fishing, like you
Speaker 2: would be really focused on the water. And so Nick, organically,
Speaker 2: as somebody who loves fishing and would do this by
Speaker 2: himself in his spare free time, would go out there
Speaker 2: would fish, saw a group doing it, and the leader
Speaker 2: of that group eventually came up to Nick and said,
Speaker 2: you know, asked him very specific questions about fishing, which
Speaker 2: people with sort of neurodivergence they tend to love to
Speaker 2: talk about specific topics that are of interest to them.
Speaker 1: Wait, is this fucking play about us?
Speaker 2: Eventually Nick ends up joining this group. It's called Tackling Minds. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I know you'd love that pun.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Started by somebody who also identified sort of on the
Speaker 2: neuro divergent spectrum and really made it a place where
Speaker 2: nobody had to talk to each other. If you wanted
Speaker 2: to come and just post up with your rod and
Speaker 2: be silent the whole day, you could totally do that.
Speaker 2: And you know, ironically, in an episode about health, I'll
Speaker 2: say that when I went to visit this social prescription,
Speaker 2: they're all like smoking cigarettes, there are drinking pepsis out
Speaker 2: of the bottle, like not typically the things we associate
Speaker 2: with health. But for those people, because of the environment,
Speaker 2: it didn't encourage an authentic connection. It just encouraged people
Speaker 2: who happened to all love fishing to do it together.
Speaker 2: I think that is what really was effective for Nick,
Speaker 2: and is what I would say to listeners who might
Speaker 2: feel like this sounds really scary. I would say that
Speaker 2: there are lots of groups that are tailored to the
Speaker 2: interests and needs of people with different you know, connection preferences.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the idea of a quiet circle but you're all
Speaker 1: doing the same thing also sounds great. As someone who
Speaker 1: talks for a living, sometimes in social situations, I just
Speaker 1: want to sit there like a lump, absolutely, you know,
Speaker 1: just because I talk all day. I love talking all day.
Speaker 1: I love my job, but sometimes I just want to
Speaker 1: just kick it and not have to think of what
Speaker 1: I'm going to say.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's cool.
Speaker 1: That's also where it seems like a music group could
Speaker 1: be great because you're a moost to just make a
Speaker 1: music right.
Speaker 2: Your you can? Yeah, your you can.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's funny because obviously I'm sure that
Speaker 1: you get a lot of skepticism or people who we
Speaker 1: have a lot of questions of like, but really, because
Speaker 1: it seems like it can't be that simple, even though
Speaker 1: we can probably separate anthropologically, that yes, we did evolve
Speaker 1: to have these things give us some sort of chemical
Speaker 1: reward because they kept us alive. Right, And according to
Speaker 1: a twenty twenty two article from Harvard titled Power of
Speaker 1: Social interactions and the desire for connectedness, desire for connectedness,
Speaker 1: for connect connect and the desire for connectedness to empower
Speaker 1: health and wellness. Yes, humans quote are wired to connect
Speaker 1: and this connection affects our health. It says there is
Speaker 1: significant evidence that social support and feeling connected can help
Speaker 1: people maintain a healthy body composition, control blood sugars, improve
Speaker 1: cancer survival, decrease cardiovascular mortality, decrease depressive symptoms, mitigate PTSD,
Speaker 1: and improve overall mental health. And it says that the
Speaker 1: opposite of connection, which is social isolation, has a negative
Speaker 1: effec on health and can increase depressive symptoms as well
Speaker 1: as mortality. So prescribing social interactions and encouraging friendships has
Speaker 1: the potential to have a healing effect on patients, and
Speaker 1: social connection, they say, should be treated as a vital sign,
Speaker 1: much like physical activity. Now. Part of the chemistry behind
Speaker 1: this relates to oxytocin release, which is a bonding hormone
Speaker 1: and it works in concert with something called gabba inhibitory
Speaker 1: neurons to lower anxiety and up serotonin, which affects mood regulation,
Speaker 1: and it increases dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter involved in
Speaker 1: the reward system which creates feelings of pleasure and it
Speaker 1: helps executive function. Also, may I use this socide if
Speaker 1: I may, If I may? Two platform that taking smoke
Speaker 1: breaks like ten minutes once or twice a day to
Speaker 1: be outside and chat with people is probably very healthy,
Speaker 1: except for the smoking part. And I propose that we
Speaker 1: bring them back. But we call them apple gaps, or
Speaker 1: we call them fruit interludes, and nobody smokes, but we
Speaker 1: can fully normalize going downstairs or stepping outside to eat
Speaker 1: a small piece of fruit and chat with people, and
Speaker 1: then when you finish the fruit, you're back inside doing
Speaker 1: whatever you're doing. I'm currently obsessed with a variety of
Speaker 1: apple called rocket, which are very small, crunchy ones and
Speaker 1: they take like five to seven minutes to eat leisurely.
Speaker 1: And or more on how apple varieties are even made,
Speaker 1: which is fascinating. Trust me, we have a whole pomology
Speaker 1: episode if you don't believe me. But yes, apple gaps,
Speaker 1: fruit interludes, tiny apples, hang outside, chat with a stranger
Speaker 1: or a co worker. Tell your boss to get on
Speaker 1: my level. A few people asked about skepticism. Matt Herschel asked,
Speaker 1: is this hippie dippy or for real. Megan Morgan wanted
Speaker 1: to know, is social prescription a valid suggestion or is
Speaker 1: it a fad recommendation? How do scientists address that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great question, because again, even the name
Speaker 2: like social prescribing sounds little hippie tippy, sounds a little trendy,
Speaker 2: and sounds like hell for introverts especially. I think again,
Speaker 2: it comes down to looking at the strength of the
Speaker 2: evidence around prescribing these kinds of ingredients, around interventions with nature,
Speaker 2: around interventions with exercise, around interventions with art, the way
Speaker 2: that longitudinal studies tell us that service and belonging are
Speaker 2: extraordinarily powerful for our longevity. It's almost like we have
Speaker 2: to put the pieces together, because I do think, you know,
Speaker 2: it is easy to dismiss this as just another fad.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, I mean, I would love
Speaker 2: to see a study that says nature is bad for us.
Speaker 2: I would love to see a study that says engaging
Speaker 2: with the art worsens our health. In some ways, it's
Speaker 2: almost so obvious that it's hard to believe we're not
Speaker 2: doing it.
Speaker 1: I thought maybe it was goofy or hippie, but no,
Speaker 1: social prescribing is a term used globally with the World
Speaker 1: Health Organization. It's just new and we haven't heard much
Speaker 1: about it yet. Well it's not very new anthropolg and
Speaker 1: just know that this human behavior predates antibiotics and cardiac
Speaker 1: bypass surgery. But of course we don't just want one
Speaker 1: or the other.
Speaker 2: I think the problem becomes when we start to talk
Speaker 2: about this stuff as a replacement for other kinds of medicine,
Speaker 2: and that's absolutely not what I'm saying. What I'm saying
Speaker 2: is that this should be an option on the menu
Speaker 2: for people who are mildly curious about it. This is
Speaker 2: not about taking away any other options. But I do
Speaker 2: think it's going to take us a while until we
Speaker 2: have that really really golden, large scale sort of national
Speaker 2: pilot study data showing that, yeah, like this is legit,
Speaker 2: you know. Right now it's a lot of sort of
Speaker 2: piecing together the evidence around the many different aspects of.
Speaker 1: This, and you know, on this skepticism note, some people
Speaker 1: wanted to know the dangers. Kelly Shaver asked, how can
Speaker 1: social prescribing go wrong? What are the dangers? Prince Nocturnal
Speaker 1: wanted to know, how do we make sure that bipod
Speaker 1: disabled people trans people, women, et cetera feel safe in
Speaker 1: social activities, and how can we cultivate an environment in
Speaker 1: which the challenges of putting yourself out there as a
Speaker 1: marginalized person can be discussed. Jade Sullivan said many minority
Speaker 1: communities have a long standing tradition of caring for one
Speaker 1: on each other through mutual aid networks or alternative kinship.
Speaker 1: How to factors such as race and gender and sexuality
Speaker 1: and class influence that social connectedness. Is there a danger
Speaker 1: at all or what consideration should be given to people
Speaker 1: who are in minority communities?
Speaker 2: Yeah, hugely absolutely, And that's why you know, in the
Speaker 2: group I talk about, first of all, like the particular
Speaker 2: health consequences of racism of exclusion, to be systemically disconnected
Speaker 2: is horrible for our health, and so we need to
Speaker 2: take a lot of care when we're prescribing something that
Speaker 2: aims to reconnect. And that's why one of the groups
Speaker 2: I talk about this is in Toronto. It's called the
Speaker 2: Black Focused Social Prescribing Group. It's precisely r buy for
Speaker 2: and with black people, incorporating afrocentric healing principles, dance classes,
Speaker 2: cooking classes, play tickets, and it's also covering, transportation, food,
Speaker 2: all of the things that you know we might forget
Speaker 2: in our highly unequal society could prevent somebody from coming.
Speaker 2: So I think those are the dangers. Is one like
Speaker 2: not anticipating the very real economic barriers that people have.
Speaker 2: When social prescribing is done well, it does do this.
Speaker 2: When social prescribing is not done well, it doesn't. It's
Speaker 2: just you know, a prescription for a place and you're
Speaker 2: on your own to get there and oh, it's in
Speaker 2: the middle of your workday, too bad. That's when it's bad.
Speaker 2: I also think sort of safety and group belonging is huge.
Speaker 2: Like for this woman Victoria, who gets prescribed a spot
Speaker 2: in this black focused social prescribing group, getting to know
Speaker 2: other people in her community who had shared similar experiences
Speaker 2: to her, who could sort of relate on this unspoken
Speaker 2: level was hugely important. And so I think, just like
Speaker 2: considering the socioeconomic barriers is really really important when we
Speaker 2: talk about doing this systemically, it's also important. I think
Speaker 2: that we do this in partnership with the groups that
Speaker 2: already have this programming, ideally with a person such as
Speaker 2: a link worker, a community connector. In Singapore, they're called
Speaker 2: well being coaches, somebody whose job it is to a
Speaker 2: really get to know the person who's being offered the
Speaker 2: social prescription, and b to really get to know the community.
Speaker 2: Like if I prescribe my patient this, are they going
Speaker 2: to be the only black person or woman there? Anticipating
Speaker 2: concretely those kinds of things is really really important and
Speaker 2: if we don't, yeah, that's how it could go wrong.
Speaker 1: I know we're talking too about it in more of
Speaker 1: an official setting, But let's say that you don't have
Speaker 1: the resources to maybe have someone facilitate this for you.
Speaker 1: What are some things that you suggest, like even if
Speaker 1: you just want to fire off a list of some
Speaker 1: things that people can start to look into on their
Speaker 1: own if they don't have like a liaison who's finding
Speaker 1: them a class now man dirty dy style.
Speaker 2: Beck, Yeah, I'm so glad you asked that question, because absolutely,
Speaker 2: we don't have to wait for healthcare. I mean, ideally
Speaker 2: we should. Healthcare should be doing this. And how great
Speaker 2: would it be if our insurance companies and our doctors
Speaker 2: prescribed this as easily as they prescribed everything else. The
Speaker 2: reality is we're not there yet, so what can we
Speaker 2: do in the meantime? This was the focus of Part
Speaker 2: three and of my website Social Prescribing dot Co, which
Speaker 2: is basically a catalog of free or very low cost
Speaker 2: donation based groups that people can proscribe themselves spots in
Speaker 2: in the meantime cool I would say a great place
Speaker 2: to start is in your local parks department. They have
Speaker 2: so much unbelievable programming, very often free. Same with our libraries.
Speaker 2: Our libraries are amazing. These are these master connectors. And god,
Speaker 2: I'm so hopeful for a future where healthcare can actually
Speaker 2: like create some revenue for the amazing services that they do.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, prescribe yourself. Where I live in New York,
Speaker 2: there's something called Culture Pass, which also gives you free
Speaker 2: access to museums and art institutions just by having a
Speaker 2: New York City Library card. And then there's so many
Speaker 2: nonprofits around the country that are trying to do you know,
Speaker 2: more running groups, more storytelling groups, opportunities to volunteer. Also
Speaker 2: check out that website for questions you can ask on
Speaker 2: where to begin, like even thinking about what is the
Speaker 2: ideal social prescription for me?
Speaker 1: So yes again, her website is social Prescribing dot Co
Speaker 1: and we're putting so many links to these studies on
Speaker 1: our website at aliwar dot com slash ologies slash salue genology,
Speaker 1: both of which are linked in the show notes. In
Speaker 1: case you're right now riding a horse with no pen.
Speaker 1: A few people asked maybe the social prescription involves critters
Speaker 1: honey Bear, Lisa Gorman, earliv Grammo Kin, Rena Peregrine, and
Speaker 1: Julia Taylor. Julia Taylor asked, is horse therapy a thing
Speaker 1: for real? Prescribing people to hang out with horses? Honeybear
Speaker 1: wants to know does the prescription need to be with
Speaker 1: other humans or does connecting with animals, companions or otherwise
Speaker 1: compare in terms of efficiency. Raina asked about emotional support animals.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think animals. And again this goes back
Speaker 2: to the research showing about how much our bodies just
Speaker 2: relax when we're in nature. Animals absolutely need to be
Speaker 2: and are part of social prescribing. In fact, I know
Speaker 2: a doctor in Canada who literally prescribes her patients visits
Speaker 2: to you know, dog shelters and dog rescue communities and
Speaker 2: volunteering with dogs. Absolutely, that is so so real, And
Speaker 2: even when it's not like a specific prescription for that,
Speaker 2: when for example, in Australia, there's a really big initiative
Speaker 2: right now to prescribe nature to people who are lonely.
Speaker 1: And this is orchestrated by some of the researchers behind
Speaker 1: the twenty four paper Connecting through Nature, a systematic review
Speaker 1: of the effectiveness of nature based social prescribing practices to
Speaker 1: combat loneliness.
Speaker 2: And part of the like sort of course in this
Speaker 2: prescription is going on sniff walks, is literally like walking
Speaker 2: through an open field and smelling the different trees and critters.
Speaker 2: Another one, a huge one, is bird watching in Australia.
Speaker 2: It's also bat watching and part of forest bathing too.
Speaker 2: As some of your listeners have said and we talked
Speaker 2: about earlier, is about engaging with all five senses in
Speaker 2: a natural environment, and so that might include noticing critters
Speaker 2: you may not have noticed before. So I think they're
Speaker 2: absolutely a key, key part of what matters to us
Speaker 2: and of what makes us healthy. Like it's not a
Speaker 2: coincidence that we all love dogs and you know the
Speaker 2: little inner alley warchild and us like loved exploring bugs
Speaker 2: in an open field. There's something very primal and real
Speaker 2: about that in our physiol life physiology.
Speaker 1: I mean just they definitely take you out of the
Speaker 1: sometimes main character syndrome that we might have where we
Speaker 1: are starring in a tragedy. They take you out of
Speaker 1: this sort of sollipsism that depression can create. Gat people.
Speaker 1: I see you lizard parents out there. I love you,
Speaker 1: be watchers, keep at it. We have episodes where all
Speaker 1: those critters we're going to link them in the show notes.
Speaker 1: But also we have our recent Ethnosciology episode about why
Speaker 1: humans love dogs the most because they're the best. I
Speaker 1: had a question about this, and Lizzy also asked, is
Speaker 1: someone with anxiety that I'm finally treating after a long
Speaker 1: battle against myself to getting the help I needed. I've
Speaker 1: found that a combination of medication and therapy has been
Speaker 1: most effective, and asked, essentially, what is the push that
Speaker 1: usually gets people to consider it as a first step?
Speaker 1: And I wanted to ask a little bit about medication
Speaker 1: in conjunction with social prescribing because as someone with anxiety
Speaker 1: and who's medicated, I know that coming off of it
Speaker 1: can be absolutely rough. Or I have friends you know
Speaker 1: who have bipolar disorder who say just opting for something
Speaker 1: like social prescribing could be detrimental. How do you make
Speaker 1: sure that people don't take themselves off something that they
Speaker 1: really need.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a great question, and I would say oftentimes
Speaker 2: this was true for about half of the people I
Speaker 2: interviewed in the book. It is conjunction, right, So I
Speaker 2: can't say at enough times that this is not aiming
Speaker 2: to replace medication. So it's not just like, all right,
Speaker 2: you know, time to cut you off the meds and
Speaker 2: I'm going to prescribe an art class now, like absolutely not.
Speaker 2: I would recommend actually trying them both in conjunction and
Speaker 2: then seeing right, because I do think oftentimes it is
Speaker 2: that first step that's really really hard. The trained healthcare
Speaker 2: professional will be the best person to judge. Is the
Speaker 2: social prescription sort of the first line here? Or is
Speaker 2: it medication first? Or is it both? It's going to
Speaker 2: depend on a lot of factors. But I would say
Speaker 2: that not doing anything drastic to your sort of health
Speaker 2: recipe while you're also trying a social prescription is probably
Speaker 2: a good idea, right. It's probably best to keep like
Speaker 2: all the other variables as constant as possible, and I
Speaker 2: think it can vary. I mean, for people like Amanda,
Speaker 2: she was able to go after her swimming lesson prescription
Speaker 2: from the maximum dose of SSRIs to the minimum. She's
Speaker 2: still on them in part because of some of the
Speaker 2: reasons you describe. It can be really, really tough to
Speaker 2: get off, and she still feels like she needs them
Speaker 2: for her full health to be optimal. And that's great,
Speaker 2: Like that's what we want, you know. The goal of this,
Speaker 2: again is not to get anybody off any kind of medication.
Speaker 2: It's just to help them feel healthier where they're at,
Speaker 2: with whatever their lives are and their current sort of health.
Speaker 1: Recipe is Yeah, speaking of recipe and ingestibles, Matt Soccato
Speaker 1: of Woodstock, Georgia wanted to know. Okay, we'll hear what
Speaker 1: patron Matt asked in just a second, but first love
Speaker 1: to throw some money at a good cause selected by Julia,
Speaker 1: who chose Grow NYC, which was born in the spirit
Speaker 1: of the first Earth Day and their mission is to
Speaker 1: empower all New Yorkers with equitable access to fresh, locally
Speaker 1: grown food, neighborhood green spaces, and care for the environment.
Speaker 1: And Julia says it, Grow NYC puts out free horticultural
Speaker 1: education and field trips. They invest in green spaces so
Speaker 1: that more people, regardless of income or where you live,
Speaker 1: can have access to these medicines, and we will link
Speaker 1: them in the show notes. And thank you to Julia
Speaker 1: for the suggestion and sponsors for making it possible to
Speaker 1: support them. Okay, back to your questions. On deck is
Speaker 1: patron Matt, who left us an audio message which you
Speaker 1: can too by joining patronicom Sashologies. Okay, so what say you,
Speaker 1: Matt Soicado from woods Dock, Georgia.
Speaker 4: How successful are prescribed activities? I once heard of somebody
Speaker 4: prescribed to run three miles a day and eventually that
Speaker 4: did lead to success. My dad is also prescribed one
Speaker 4: glass of red wine a day, which I do find interesting.
Speaker 4: Thanks Ali, thank you my.
Speaker 1: Pleasure, and Sam Warner for some question. Asker said, if
Speaker 1: we live in a place where the choice of non
Speaker 1: drinking social activities are pretty slim, how can we change that?
Speaker 1: Brendan and Ashley, I thought, had a great question, how
Speaker 1: do social prescribers react to the gradual decline in third
Speaker 1: spaces that previously encouraged integration? And h asked if this
Speaker 1: is kind of like the role of a sponsor in
Speaker 1: AA and OOTHER twelve step groups when they tell you
Speaker 1: to do service work, and I'm wondering how substances maybe
Speaker 1: have replaced this kind of social prescribing. Going to a
Speaker 1: pub or a bar is maybe where you had an
Speaker 1: activity in common, but maybe the activity ultimately left you
Speaker 1: a little bit.
Speaker 2: More depressed the next day.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, how does this intersect with that?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I'll tell you a really funny story. I love
Speaker 2: all these questions. I was on a roadship recently with
Speaker 2: two of my girlfriends, one of whom grew up in Mexico,
Speaker 2: another who grew up like me in the United States.
Speaker 2: We were like in the backseat, me and my friend
Speaker 2: from the US pegging out on oreos, Like, God, I
Speaker 2: love oreos. I could eat this whole sleeve right now.
Speaker 2: My friend Ari, who grew up in Mexico, said, really,
Speaker 2: you know, and she's a therapist, by the way. She's like,
Speaker 2: that's interesting, Like I love, you know, fried foods, I
Speaker 2: love nachos, but like, I've never had a sweet tooth.
Speaker 2: Why is that? And eventually, on this very long road trip,
Speaker 2: we came to realize that part of the reason we
Speaker 2: love oreos is because of our first memories with them.
Speaker 2: Out of sleepover with your friends, kind of figuring out
Speaker 2: who you are whereas Ari she associates sleepovers with having
Speaker 2: nachos and popcorns. That seems like such a tangent, but
Speaker 2: I think it speaks to this point about substances and
Speaker 2: third spaces Right now in our culture, it kind of
Speaker 2: sucks that to get the benefits of being in a
Speaker 2: place with people getting to know new people, well, we
Speaker 2: also have to like order a drink or order the
Speaker 2: food or do this thing that a like might not
Speaker 2: be accessible to people and be to your point, might
Speaker 2: come with all of these other health detriments down the line.
Speaker 2: So what I love about social prescribing is it say,
Speaker 2: let's isolate, let's take away the substances and just focus
Speaker 2: on the space or the activity. And it's very real.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think there's a reason why we're all
Speaker 2: talking about third spaces as a culture right now because
Speaker 2: they're in decline. They've never been more important as we're
Speaker 2: seeing rising rates of loneliness and self reported isolation. That
Speaker 2: community center that teaches art classes on Thursday nights, it's
Speaker 2: not just a nice to have. It's not just going
Speaker 2: to have to be supported by donations or the people
Speaker 2: who can afford classes. We can actually do this through healthcare,
Speaker 2: so that the insurer is actually reimbursing for the class
Speaker 2: the same way we would reimburse and cover for other
Speaker 2: kinds of drugs. So that to me is really really exciting.
Speaker 2: But I think this is what I try to do
Speaker 2: in Part three. There has to be this cultural revolution
Speaker 2: too that we want this. I've seen the way that
Speaker 2: there have been a rise in non alcoholic drinks or
Speaker 2: really intentional spaces and communities that meet for the sake
Speaker 2: of meeting and it's not built around alcohol or a substance.
Speaker 2: I think the rise of that speaks to our sort
Speaker 2: of cultural demand for we've had it. We know that
Speaker 2: buying stuff and continuing to sort of like socialize in
Speaker 2: the places we've been conditioned to. It's not cut to
Speaker 2: get any more. What else you got for that? What
Speaker 2: else you got for us? And that's really exciting to me.
Speaker 1: So demanding more community spaces and activities so we're not
Speaker 1: just spending one hundred and twenty dollars going out to
Speaker 1: dinner to shout over loud music. Let's riot in favor
Speaker 1: of this. All those who are with me say, twice
Speaker 1: monthly crafternoon with nice strangers or friends twice a monthly
Speaker 1: craft Anon with nice strangers or friends, although craft supplies
Speaker 1: can also be have it for me. Did you ever
Speaker 1: study any rehabs when you were doing this, any kind
Speaker 1: of like daily activities or weekly activities.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the twelve step question, I forgot to address that,
Speaker 2: and that's related to the rehab. I love that I
Speaker 2: have a friend actually who's in AA right now and
Speaker 2: really resonated with this book because it's really about the
Speaker 2: what matters to you question. It's amazing how so many
Speaker 2: different disciplines rehabs, you know, centers have all kind of
Speaker 2: congregated their philosophy and curriculum around this idea. Yeah, let's
Speaker 2: focus on the things and the people and environments that
Speaker 2: make you feel the healthiest, that make you feel like
Speaker 2: the person that you are, that understand that this thing
Speaker 2: that you're going through right now, nothing is broken in you,
Speaker 2: right You are not just the product of this disease
Speaker 2: or this or this hardship. There's also all these other
Speaker 2: things about you, and so kind of, like Docsov says
Speaker 2: on the Dolerology episode, all of these sort of rehabs
Speaker 2: and therapy programs and orientations related to social prescribing really
Speaker 2: come down to asking that question, what can we do
Speaker 2: to build your health plate, what would make you feel healthy?
Speaker 2: There's sort of like the categorical things like social connection
Speaker 2: and a sense of purpose, but then there's like the
Speaker 2: specific things like ukulele classes and bird watching and you know,
Speaker 2: volunteering to teach young kids about bugs. I mean, what
Speaker 2: are the things that make you feel like you are
Speaker 2: who you are that should be considered medicine.
Speaker 1: Also, I do want to give a shout out to
Speaker 1: rehabs because they are living in the future, which, as
Speaker 1: it turns out, is also our evolutionary past. So most
Speaker 1: rehabilitation facilities or even outpatient intensive care use these ways
Speaker 1: of social prescribing in conjunction with tailored medications to help
Speaker 1: people break out of an addiction cycle or recover from
Speaker 1: mental health episodes. So what is on the daily schedule
Speaker 1: at rehab? It turns out regular exercise, community activities, art therapy, yoga,
Speaker 1: music therapy, equine therapies, learning new skills and taking classes,
Speaker 1: group therapy sessions, exploring some new hobbies to replace cravings
Speaker 1: or compulsions, and helping others process trauma by sharing your
Speaker 1: own journeys. So all of these are proven ways to
Speaker 1: build confidence and connect with others and understand ourselves more deeply.
Speaker 1: So if these are tried and true strategies to help
Speaker 1: people completely change their lives, sometimes from rock bottom, it's
Speaker 1: worth a shot for getting through a tough breakup or
Speaker 1: grief or loneliness. On the topic, last question from listeners,
Speaker 1: a lot of people asked about practitioners. Janet wanted to
Speaker 1: know who is the person or people that are prescribing.
Speaker 1: Christine Wenzel wants to know. As a young professional in
Speaker 1: the nonprofit space, I'm curious about how one becomes a
Speaker 1: social prescriber. Is it doctors or is there a growing
Speaker 1: practice of social prescriber consultants. Laurie Anderson first time question
Speaker 1: ask wants to know if you work alongside medical doctors,
Speaker 1: you more independent pop e Dog, Marianna Oliver, az An
Speaker 1: Earl Grahmlkin also asked who's doing it?
Speaker 2: Where do you do it?
Speaker 1: How do you do it?
Speaker 2: Yay, I'm so glad you asked, because I can plug
Speaker 2: is amazing nonprofit grassroots group called Social Prescribing USA that's
Speaker 2: trying to build this exact network. So to the questions, yes,
Speaker 2: there are doctors doing this. I just came from Utah
Speaker 2: where there's a group of forty therapists doing this. In
Speaker 2: Vermont they're doing this, and community health centers social workers
Speaker 2: are doing this. Here in New York City. The movement
Speaker 2: is growing, and like most great social movements, it started
Speaker 2: and sustained by people who just really care. You know,
Speaker 2: nobody who's doing this is getting any extra kickbacks or
Speaker 2: fees for doing social prescribing. They're doing it because they
Speaker 2: really believe in the science and that this is what's
Speaker 2: best for their patients. So if you want to learn more,
Speaker 2: you should check out the work of Social Prescribing USA.
Speaker 2: They have these monthly calls where doctors and therapists and
Speaker 2: social workers and community health workers are all getting together
Speaker 2: and like talking the plan, like how are we going
Speaker 2: to do this? How are we going to spread this?
Speaker 2: That would be my advice to get involved. As well
Speaker 2: as on Social Prescribing dot Co, you know, there are
Speaker 2: more local groups that you might be interested in getting
Speaker 2: involved in, as well as checking out all the science
Speaker 2: that supports this.
Speaker 1: Social Prescribing USA has a whole page dedicated to an
Speaker 1: evidence library and another detailing global social prescribing efforts. Plus
Speaker 1: a bunch of resources. So that's Social Prescribing USA dot
Speaker 1: com and we'll link it on our website at Aliwaard
Speaker 1: dot com. Slash ologies, slash value geneology. Do you think
Speaker 1: getting involved in any protests does that counter Is it
Speaker 1: two high stakes if you're making protest art, if you're
Speaker 1: getting together with people who have a common cause, or
Speaker 1: is that too stressful in and of itself that that's
Speaker 1: like a separate thing.
Speaker 2: God, I love that question, and I mean with everything,
Speaker 2: it depends for me. I think that a protest would
Speaker 2: have a lot of appealing elements of a social prescription
Speaker 2: because it's service, because it's belonging, and because it's art.
Speaker 2: It is meaning making from the collective helplessness that we
Speaker 2: feel when we do nothing with that, when that stays
Speaker 2: in our bodies, and when we're just forced to like
Speaker 2: confront that on our media feeds. That's really bad. You know,
Speaker 2: it keeps us up at night, it disrupts our sleep,
Speaker 2: it makes us more physically tense, we're in a more
Speaker 2: negative mood. But by protesting, I think probably outside, probably
Speaker 2: with neighbors that you haven't met before, probably some beautiful,
Speaker 2: meaningful discussion of like what it means to be a
Speaker 2: human and why you're there. That kind of meaning making
Speaker 2: I think is extremely benefit Not I think I know
Speaker 2: is extremely beneficis for our help. There's a wild study
Speaker 2: that shows people who have a sense of purpose later
Speaker 2: in life literally live longer than those.
Speaker 1: Who don't in case you want to do that live longer.
Speaker 2: So I think that trickles down to all of us
Speaker 2: as well. If we spend our time instead of just
Speaker 2: consuming and accepting the sort of horrific things we're dealing with,
Speaker 2: that's going to affect our health negatively. But if we
Speaker 2: can protest and do something about it in community, that's
Speaker 2: going to help us feel better. But basically with protesting,
Speaker 2: like I think there's a reason why that's been around
Speaker 2: as a form of meaning making for such a long time.
Speaker 1: And so many things to choose from get yourself some
Speaker 1: cardboard march to a march, make some friends, and I know,
Speaker 1: things to rally against our obummer. But one of my
Speaker 1: last questions, what's the hardest thing about writing the book
Speaker 1: or social prescribing or just tackling the topic or in general.
Speaker 2: The hardest thing I think is that I that there's
Speaker 2: only twenty four hours in a day, like, Yeah, I
Speaker 2: really believe that right now in history, we are so
Speaker 2: right for this. And if I wish that we had
Speaker 2: more time to really understand this. I wish there were
Speaker 2: more time for doctors to learn about this. I wish
Speaker 2: there was more money for you know, healthcare practices, to
Speaker 2: invest in link workers, to invest in community groups that
Speaker 2: are doing the work. So I think the hardest part
Speaker 2: is trying to understand what do we do with the
Speaker 2: limited amount of time. And that's what's kind of beautiful
Speaker 2: about having written this book and sort of being in
Speaker 2: this space like this isn't me, I'm just reporting it.
Speaker 2: It's on everyone else to sort of take this up.
Speaker 2: And you know, I'm trying to be as useful as
Speaker 2: possible as I can, but God, sometimes I just wish
Speaker 2: that I had nine clones running around.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm sure that this will inspire a lot of
Speaker 1: people to look into this and get involved, so you know,
Speaker 1: at least nine people are probably going to steer their
Speaker 1: boat toward.
Speaker 2: This well, and that kind of leads me to the
Speaker 2: best thing about this, which is that I get emails
Speaker 2: all the time from people who've read this and are like,
Speaker 2: I want to help, you know, I'm a librarian. What
Speaker 2: can I do? I am recently widowed and I really
Speaker 2: believe in this, but I don't know where to begin.
Speaker 2: But I have a lot of time on my hands.
Speaker 2: What can I do? We're starting to organize these like
Speaker 2: all hands meetings, talk about protest, getting those people to
Speaker 2: come together, talk about what can they do to actually
Speaker 2: implement something in their community. What can they do to
Speaker 2: you know, write to their politician or write to their
Speaker 2: healthcare providers and talk about this, because I think that's
Speaker 2: where it begins. We all just need to start talking
Speaker 2: about it. And what's great is that literally anyone can
Speaker 2: help with that, you know, and that it's fun. It's
Speaker 2: really really fun.
Speaker 1: Even forming a group, even if you've got a community
Speaker 1: and you know, tell anyone like we're playing kickball on
Speaker 1: Sunday afternoons or something, or you know, there's a run
Speaker 1: club in my neighborhood and I used to see them
Speaker 1: pass and there are maybe twenty people. There's like a
Speaker 1: hundred people in this run club that just go around
Speaker 1: my neighborhood. I see them on Thursday nights and they
Speaker 1: meet at the same place, and you know, I feel
Speaker 1: like there's a lot of that community based stuff that
Speaker 1: if you're looking to change your community but you're not
Speaker 1: sure how to start, Like what are you into and
Speaker 1: who else can you find that's into that too? You know,
Speaker 1: which is great?
Speaker 2: Exactly Gosh, I've seen that too. I'll just tell one
Speaker 2: quick example of my bird watching club. When it started,
Speaker 2: it was five people. It's grown to over one hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty people, and now they've had to add days. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like people want this, so it's like, let's give the
Speaker 2: people what they want, and let's get those healthcare dollars
Speaker 2: and resources involved to make it as easy and barrier
Speaker 2: free to people too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is great. This is so inspiring, and it's
Speaker 1: also really validating that the things that I think are treats,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't save them for treats. I shouldn't have to
Speaker 1: earn going on a walk. I shouldn't have to earn
Speaker 1: going to a class. I shouldn't have to have my
Speaker 1: life completely together before I can fit in something that
Speaker 1: is pleasurable, Like my life will be better if I
Speaker 1: just do that, you.
Speaker 2: Know, absolutely, And that's why I'm going to give this
Speaker 2: to you, and I want you to put it on
Speaker 2: your desk. I will. I love it listeners. I'm holding
Speaker 2: up Alli's tailor made social prescription with the ukulele and
Speaker 2: the bugs and the trees and Jared and the dog.
Speaker 2: I think that it's so important that we talk about
Speaker 2: this stuff as medicine, because it is. Nobody would say, oh,
Speaker 2: I'll take my blood pressure medication if I have time.
Speaker 2: So I think the more we can talk about this
Speaker 2: and treat it in our own lives as medicine, the
Speaker 2: more we can sort of be the change we want
Speaker 2: to see. I just really think that this can help
Speaker 2: so many people. I know that it has helped so
Speaker 2: many people, and I'm excited to see where it goes.
Speaker 1: I think everyone should save one of their prescription bottles
Speaker 1: and then just make little paper cut or make a
Speaker 1: diorama in it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh and do it as a group. That could
Speaker 2: be a fun thing. Socials for making we solved it.
Speaker 1: So once again, ask seal you geneological people sometimes basic questions.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they're not smart, and that's fine. Also, people fuck
Speaker 1: the system. Do the things that your ancestors evolved you
Speaker 1: to do. As I said last week, TV and scrolling
Speaker 1: steals your time and your life and your money. Pharmaceutical
Speaker 1: companies love it when you're sick and sad. There are
Speaker 1: people out there whose lives will be changed by hanging
Speaker 1: out and crafting or biking or fishing or chatting. This
Speaker 1: is the stuff that makes life easier and makes us
Speaker 1: stronger to get through the hard parts. And my boy,
Speaker 1: howdy are their hard parts. So take a fuck you walk,
Speaker 1: don't surrender your life to corporations, cut banks, text your crush,
Speaker 1: volunteer somewhere you selfishly love being, Join a club, start
Speaker 1: a club, thank us later. Thank Julia once again. Her
Speaker 1: book is a connection cure, and you can find her
Speaker 1: on Instagram at hotslots, which will link in the show notes.
Speaker 1: Along with grow yc. We have links to all the
Speaker 1: research we talked about on our website at aliwar dot com.
Speaker 1: Slash ologies slash sallya genology linked in the show notes.
Speaker 1: We are at ologies on Instagram and on Blue Sky.
Speaker 1: I'm at ali Ward with one L on both. Smologies
Speaker 1: are those kid friendly episodes and they are shorter. Wherever
Speaker 1: you find podcasts, they're in their own feed look for smologies.
Speaker 1: They're linked in the show notes too. You can find
Speaker 1: merch at ologiesmerch dot com. You can tag your photos
Speaker 1: ologies merch or tag us and we'll repost to you
Speaker 1: on Mondays. Thank you to Aaron Talbert, who Adminsiologies podcast
Speaker 1: Facebook group. Avelie Malik makes our professional transcripts Kelly R.
Speaker 1: Dwyer does the website. Noel Dilworth is our lovely scheduling producer.
Speaker 1: Susan Hale managing directs the whole shabang. Jake Chafee edits
Speaker 1: beautifully wonderful dude and lead editor. Captain of the editing
Speaker 1: ship is Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio. Nick Thorburn made
Speaker 1: the theme music. And if you stick around until the
Speaker 1: end of the episode, I tell you a secret. And
Speaker 1: this week is I went to the ukulele club. I went.
Speaker 1: I almost chickened out, and in fact I showed up
Speaker 1: an hour late because I almost didn't go. I was like,
Speaker 1: I didn't practice enough. I tuned my ukulele and it
Speaker 1: sounds amazing. This ukulele I bought for twenty dollars on Craigslist,
Speaker 1: like when people were still using pregslist. That's how long
Speaker 1: it had it. And it is a junk ukulele, but
Speaker 1: it is mine and I love it. And I went
Speaker 1: there and we were like fifteen twenty people. They all
Speaker 1: had their yukuleles. They were playing along to all kinds
Speaker 1: of pop hits from the eighties. It was amazing. I
Speaker 1: loved it. I will be back. And they say, even
Speaker 1: if you can't play along to all the chords, you
Speaker 1: could just sing in the back and pluck as you might. Anyway.
Speaker 2: It was so great and I'm really.
Speaker 1: Happy that Julia kind of cajrolled me into doing it,
Speaker 1: and it's a great thing to look forward to. So
Speaker 1: very excited. I will not be playing a ukulele concert
Speaker 1: anytime soon for any of you. I respect you too
Speaker 1: much to do that. But it is very fun and
Speaker 1: very cute, and also I love going on walks around
Speaker 1: the lake. So that has all changed our lives for
Speaker 1: the better. So get her book or just do her
Speaker 1: stuff that she told you to do in this and
Speaker 1: report back let me know how it's going.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: From a pacadermatology, homeology, rypdo zoology, lithology, technology, meteorology, paratology, anthology,
Speaker 1: seriology
Speaker 4: Selenology, mind yourself a hobby