INSIDE AND OUTSIDE: Nature + Pop Culture News with Jessica Murnane · Jessica Murnane

Explaining Prospect + Refuge Theory + How To Find The Best Books + The Cazalet Chronicles with Emily Fiffer (Writer and Founder of Botanica)

·52 min·3 clips

Emily recommends The Cazalet Chronicles, a four-book series by Elizabeth Jane Howard that spans two world wars.

1. Inside and Outside: Nature + Pop Culture News with Jessica Murnane centers this conversation on Emily Pfeiffer’s relationship to nature and books. 2. Jessica Murnane is the host, and Emily Pfeiffer is the guest as owner of Botanica in Los Angeles and writer of Read, Eat, Repeat. 3. The episode asks how walking, light, and reading shape Emily Pfeiffer’s daily life and taste. 4. Jessica says her own gardening helps with chronic illness, including endometriosis and adenomyosis, because movement offsets the sitting required by editing, invoicing, pitching, and scheduling. 5. Emily says nature is often solitary for her, and she takes multiple trips a year to Stinson Beach and Bolinas. 6. On those trips, she walks on the beach and hikes with no music, no podcasts, and no other inputs. 7. Emily says most of her walking is alone, but she also uses walks with friends as a way to have rich conversations. 8. She says some friends now default to suggesting a walk, which has led to more 7 a.m. plans and fewer evening meetups. 9. Emily describes growing up in a tiny suburb of Chicago where neighborhood kids played soccer, kickball, basketball, and baseball outdoors all the time. 10. She says outdoor sports trips, including Outward Bound and backpacking in Yosemite, were part of her younger years before outdoor exploring faded in Chicago. 11. Emily says moving to California in 2015 changed everything overnight, and she felt happy as soon as she closed the car door after driving across the country. 12. She says LA lets her recapture the childhood thrill of accomplishing something outside, especially when she reaches the top of the same hike and takes a photo every time. 13. Emily says walking and hiking help her think, process good and bad events, and stay in her body while hearing footsteps and birds. 14. Jessica brings up large breasts, and Emily says she did not develop until late high school, wore two sports bras, and felt limited while running and playing sports. 15. Emily says she got a breast reduction between high school and college and still thinks about another one because her breasts grew again. 16. Jessica introduces prospect-refuge theory from Jay Appleton, describing the appeal of spaces that allow both prospect and refuge. 17. Emily connects that idea to Botanica’s renovation, including the open ceiling, wall of windows, back patio, and heavy use of light and plants. 18. Jessica and Emily also discuss biophilia, with Jessica describing it as a desire to connect with light, air, water, and plants. 19. Listeners who like nature writing, restaurant design, and book recommendations from Emily Pfeiffer will likely enjoy this episode. 20. Listeners who want a fast, tightly edited, topic-specific conversation may skip it.

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