It's the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris.

Hey, hey, I'm here with a special mini-sode today, short, informative, straight to the point, but also, I hope, fun and interesting.

We're talking about the massive psychological and physiological benefits of being in nature.

I will say right from the outset here that personally I've always had a little bit of a bad attitude about nature, which I know sounds ridiculous, but hear me out on this.

My parents were recovering hippies, and they dragged my brother and me on these camping trips all over America when I was little, and I did not really enjoy those camping trips.

And so I've never really, until recently, made nature part of my self-care regime.

One thing that changed my mind is the fact that the data is overwhelming. Nature impacts your mood.

It has a whole long list of positive benefits for your nervous system and even changes how you are

with other people. In fact, as you'll hear my guest say, nature is health care.

Think about that. Nature is health care.

Speaking of my guest, his name is Dacker Keltner.

He's a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley, who has over 200 scientific publications

and six books, including Born to Be Good, The Power Paradox, and Aw, the new science of everyday wonder

and how it can transform your life. He also hosts his own podcast called The Science of Happiness.

This is the first of a three-part series we're doing on the benefits of spending time outside.

Today, we're going to talk about how nature impacts sleep, cognition, memory, your

nervous system, and your relationships. Next week, we're going to address the 80% of Americans

who live in urban areas. How do you derive all of these benefits if you live in a city? We'll

talk about that. And in week three, we're going to take a deep dive on the science of walking.

Before we get into it, though, I want to take a moment to thank

our friends over at Columbia Sportswear for sponsoring today's episode as somebody who has

become a recent convert to spending time outside. I know how challenging it can be when the

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