As dead as they seem, tree stumps are hubs of life and relationships. From stumps to snags, deadwood provides habitat for rodents, falcons, insects, and even humans! Stumps hold together the forest floor, give hunting perches to birds of prey in flatlands, prevent erosion and the encroachment of invasive species, usher in sunlight, provide nutrients, can be wells of renewable fuel, and hold onto stories human beings might have forgotten. Without these ghosts of trees past, nothing would be the same. Scottish author, artist and lover of tree stumps, Dr. Amanda Thomson, leads host Lulu Miller on a “tour de stumps,” a journey across space and time to learn about some of the most magical stumps on the planet. We learn  how these overlooked dead things actually sustain the living.

For more, check out:

• Bob Dolgan’s documentary about Tyler Funk and “The Magic Stump.”
• Amanda Thomson’s book “Belonging: Natural histories of place, identity and home.”

Dr. Amanda Thomson is a writer and visual artist from Scotland. Her work is rooted in the Scottish highlands, where she is at her happiest, and surrounds notions of home, movements, migrations, landscapes and the natural world. She originally trained as a printmaker at the Glasgow School of Art, and life came full circle as she’s now a lecturer there. More degrees include a master of fine arts, a masters in sociology and social and economic history, and a PhD in interdisciplinary arts practice. Her first book was called A Scots Dictionary of Nature. Her most recent book is called belonging: natural histories of place, identity, and home and is shortlisted for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing in 2023.

To learn more about the show, listen to music, and dig deeper into the stories you hear on Terrestrials with activities you can do at home or in the classroom on our website, Terrestrialspodcast.org.
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Terrestrials was created by Lulu Miller with WNYC Studios. This episode was produced by Ana González, Mira Burt-Wintonick, Alan Goffinski, Joe Plourde and Lulu Miller, with help from Tanya Chawla, Sarah Sandbach and Valentina Powers. Fact checking by Natalie Middleton. Transcription by Caleb Codding. 

Our advisors are Ana Luz Porzecanski, Andy J. Pizza, Anil Lewis, Dominique Shabazz, Liza Demby, Princess Daazhraii Johnson and Tara Welty.

Support for Terrestrials also comes from the Simons Foundation, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, The Kalliopeia Foundation, and the John Templeton Foundation.