Learning from Nature: The Biomimicry Podcast with Lily Urmann

Paying attention to the wild world is a radical act of connection that is needed now more than ever. Join naturalist, educator, and author Thomas Fleischner as he breaks down how the practice of natural history serves as the essential bedrock for biomimicry. Drawing from insights in his new book, Astonished by Beauty: A Field Guide to the Practice of Paying Attention, Tom explores how cultivating presence, staying open to wonder, and honing keen observation can spark our imagination, and thus more life-friendly design. Listen in for a timely conversation on why falling back in love with our living planet is a vital step toward protecting and healing it. 
Purchase Astonished by Beauty: A Field Guide to the Practice of Paying Attention from Torrey House Press. 
Attend a book event in the Fall.
Sponsored by Learn Biomimicry.

Curious about how nature can solve our biggest design challenges? Start your education today. Use code LEARNINGFROMNATURE to save:

20% off the Biomimicry Short Course Set
5% off the Biomimicry Practitioner & Biomimicry Educator Programs

Expand your mind with free resources from the Learn Biomimicry Blog: Discover the 50 Best Biomimicry Examples, explore Biophilic Design, or learn about Patterns in Nature.
Grab some Learning from Nature merch including shirts and sweatshirts.

Learning from Nature audio editing by Pine Peak Productions.

How can billions of years of biological evolution help us navigate today's complex cultural and social crises? In this episode, we sit down with Toby Herzlich, the founder of Biomimicry for Social Innovation and a path-builder in transformative leadership. While biomimicry is often celebrated for inspiring sleek architecture and sustainable materials, Toby invites us to look deeper: what can living systems teach us about building life-friendly human organizations, communities, and movements?
In a moment marked by polarization and rapid systemic change, relying on rigid, top-down models simply isn't working. Toby shares how nature’s core operating principles like decentralized networks, community ecology, mutualism, and regenerative feedback loops offer a blueprint for resilient social innovation.
Explore The Nature of Trust Toolkit, and register for The Nature of Trust Co-Lab. 
Sponsored by Learn Biomimicry.

Curious about how nature can solve our biggest design challenges? Start your education today. Use code LEARNINGFROMNATURE to save:

20% off the Biomimicry Short Course Set
5% off the Biomimicry Practitioner & Biomimicry Educator Programs

Expand your mind with free resources from the Learn Biomimicry Blog: Discover the 50 Best Biomimicry Examples, explore Biophilic Design, or learn about Patterns in Nature.
Grab some Learning from Nature merch including shirts and sweatshirts.

Learning from Nature audio editing by Pine Peak Productions.

What if your organization could function as effectively and sustainably as a healthy ecosystem? We explore this question with Ines Garcia, an agile coach, circular economy expert, and author of Nature's Blueprint for Business: Harnessing the Hidden Power of Edges. Listen in and delve into Ines's professional path, the practical application of nature's principles in organizational design, and how shifting from rigid structures to collaborating in "the edges" (the permeable zones where different systems meet) can foster resilience and innovation. Together, let's figure out how to cultivate organizational spaces that embrace the wisdom nature has evolved over 3.8 billion years. 

Sponsored by Learn Biomimicry.

Curious about how nature can solve our biggest design challenges? Start your education today. Use code LEARNINGFROMNATURE to save:

20% off the Biomimicry Short Course Set
5% off the Biomimicry Practitioner & Biomimicry Educator Programs

Expand your mind with free resources from the Learn Biomimicry Blog: Discover the 50 Best Biomimicry Examples, explore Biophilic Design, or learn about Patterns in Nature.
Grab some Learning from Nature merch including shirts and sweatshirts.

Learning from Nature audio editing by Pine Peak Productions.

In this episode, we dive into a surprising but essential topic for a life-friendly future: trade networks and resource sharing. Guest Rana Hajirasouli, circular-economy innovator and founder of the climate-tech startup The Surpluss, explains how nature’s systems can inspire smarter, more collaborative ways for industries to reduce waste, strengthen supply chains, and unlock new forms of value.
With experience spanning marine conservation, international law, and manufacturing (as well as recognition from the World Economic Forum and UAE’s Future 100), Rana brings a sharp, systems-level perspective to what circularity can look like in practice. From industrial symbiosis to resource sovereignty, she breaks down how we can redesign our networks the way nature does: with efficiency, reciprocity, and resilience at the core. Tune in for a compelling conversation about what’s possible when we rethink how we share.
Learn more about The Surpluss. 
Note: Host Lily Urmann is welcoming the newest biomimic in January, and will be on maternity leave until June 2026. 
Sponsored by Learn Biomimicry.

Curious about how nature can solve our biggest design challenges? Start your education today. Use code LEARNINGFROMNATURE to save:

20% off the Biomimicry Short Course Set
5% off the Biomimicry Practitioner & Biomimicry Educator Programs

Expand your mind with free resources from the Learn Biomimicry Blog: Discover the 50 Best Biomimicry Examples, explore Biophilic Design, or learn about Patterns in Nature.
Grab some Learning from Nature merch including shirts and sweatshirts.

Learning from Nature audio editing by Pine Peak Productions.

How might emergent strategies of group dynamics in nature inform our own technology and design?
In this episode, Dr. Iain Couzin, Director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and one of the world’s leading researchers on collective motion in animals, explores how nature’s systems -- from swarming locusts and murmurations of starlings to schooling fish -- coordinate complex group behaviors without centralized control, and what these patterns can teach us about designing human systems that are more adaptive, resilient, and cooperative. Dr. Couzin shares insights from decades of research on how simple rules at the individual level can create intelligent, emergent behaviors at scale; offering powerful inspiration for rethinking collaboration, innovation, and decision-making in our own organizations and societies.
This Critical Mast episode is part of a community podcasting experiment on the phenomenon of masting— when trees mysteriously synchronize to produce massive seed crops all at once. In my conversation with Dr. Couzin, we will look beyond the forest to another kind of synchronization: the elegant intelligence of swarming life. Listen to the other episodes below or available on the Spotify Playlist here.
Outside/In
Future Ecologies
Golden State Naturalist 
Jumpstart Nature
Nature's Archive

Sponsored by Learn Biomimicry.

Curious about how nature can solve our biggest design challenges? Start your education today. Use code LEARNINGFROMNATURE to save:

20% off the Biomimicry Short Course Set
5% off the Biomimicry Practitioner & Biomimicry Educator Programs

Expand your mind with free resources from the Learn Biomimicry Blog: Discover the 50 Best Biomimicry Examples, explore Biophilic Design, or learn about Patterns in Nature.
Grab some Learning from Nature merch including shirts and sweatshirts.

Learning from Nature audio editing by Pine Peak Productions.