RW

Robin Wall Kimmerer

Things Robin Says on Podcasts

Where to Find Them

Robin Wall Kimmerer writes The Nature Of with Willow Defebaugh . They have also been a guest on The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens , The AskNature Podcast , Bridging The Chat , Plant People and Hourglass: United Way of King County .

Recently: “Earth's Oldest Teachers: How to Live Well on Earth with Robin Wall Kimmerer” on The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens (October 2026); “Step Into an Enchanted Forest With Robin Wall Kimmerer, Giuliana Furci, and More” on The Nature Of with Willow Defebaugh (October 2026); “A Conversation with Robin Wall Kimmerer” on Bridging The Chat (June 2026); “Robin Wall Kimmerer” on The AskNature Podcast (June 2026); “Moss with Robin Wall Kimmerer” on Plant People (February 2026); “Robin Wall Kimmerer: The Land Loves You Back” on The Nature Of with Willow Defebaugh (December 2025).

What They Said

“If you never take the first one, you'll never take the last. ... And oftentimes people will say, like, oh, well, that's fine for Native people because you inherited those ways of being. I'm sorry, but ethics don't come with a chromosome. They come with relationship, attention to your teacher, to the land.” — Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens

Nate Hagens asked whether wisdom in Indigenous cultures is tied to restraint. Kimmerer described the "honorable harvest," including the rule never to take the first one you find, as a concrete conservation ethic that anyone can learn by paying attention to the consequences of taking too much.

The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens · 2026-10-21 Permalink → Listen →
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens Around 33:12 into the episode
Speaker 1

Yes, exactly.

Speaker 2

I forgot who told me, but wisdom in many different indigenous cultures is correlated with restraint. There's a high correlation there. Does that rhyme with what you just said?

Speaker 1

…as you see them, you can take them. Oh, you pay them the respect by waiting. And it's inherent conservation ethic. If you never take the first one, you'll never take the last. Do we start to understand why 80% of the world's biodiversity is in Indigenous homelands? We do governed by such rules. Yeah. These are very concrete, actionable ethics. And we say then, well, where did they come from? And oftentimes people will say, like, oh, well, that's fine for Native people because you inherited those ways of being. I'm sorry, but ethics don't come with a chromosome. They come with relationship, attention to your teacher, to the land. Where did the honorable harvest come from? Why is it almost universal? It comes from recognizing your mistakes. We're all human people. Haven't we all taken too much at some point? And then we pay attention to the consequences.

Speaker 2

And if we look at all the elders of your tribe and others, well, all tribes, we have a pattern recognition of all the historical mistakes. And that is knowledge that's passed down over time. Well, this segues with my work, which is the entire progress illusion isn't because of technology and money…

Speaker 1

Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, when that notion of learning from your mistakes requires humility. It requires wisdom, right? It requires, or at least is embedded in this kentric worldview that says it's not all about me. It's about all my relatives as well. Those are sacred words. We say…

Speaker 2

So before we sat down, you told me that your tribe, Potawatomi, had a prophecy or stories about when there would be, I forgot the words you used, a great simplification and the things that would need to be done, like some advice.

Speaker names from our own diarization · position estimated from where the line sits in the episode