Life Cycles w/ Renee Murphy, Pt. 1/2

On the latest episode of "Authenticated," Kate is joined by plant scientist and sustainability advocate Renee Murphy, who made a bold and integral career pivot from fashion to environmental science in her forties. They play with the application of the concept of personal circularity, especially focusing on where their expertise overlap: treating your life like a sustainable ecosystem where everything you allow into your "circle" either feeds or depletes you. Their conversation covers Renee's journey from feeling trapped in a toxic fashion industry to discovering her purpose through plants that can literally clean contaminated soil, drawing parallels between how we tend our environments and how we tend ourselves. Kate and Renee examine the intersection of ego and collaboration, question the pace of human versus environmental evolution, and shed light on why stepping away from what's familiar often requires the same conditions that help plants thrive: the right nutrients, proper support systems, and sometimes a willingness to be transplanted entirely. This first half of their conversation illuminates how viable sustainability starts with the building blocks of our daily choices and challenges the all too common marketed narrative led impulse to seek quick fixes rather than addressing root causes.

Renee Murphy: LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram 

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Kate McLeod          

Transcript

AUTHENTICATED EP. 21 PART 1/2- Renee Murphy

Kate McLeod: [00:00:00] Welcome to the latest episode of Authenticated with your host, Kate McLeod. I am intrigued by people, people watching. I love people learning. That's where I'm insatiably curious. I'm interested in the why and how of the creative minds pattern of thinking. The subtext to the creative thinker or in its more conscious and malleable form, the creative conscious.

Because when you are so clear on yourself via the triad of consciousnesses, then you become reflective to others. Meeting yourself is an infectious practice because what feels good is infectious and something I think we could all use a good dose of. So join me in conversations with a diverse arsenal of creative thinkers, from artists to entrepreneurs, to serial thinkers ready to optimize their creative conscious with me.

Self-made and self-proclaimed creative entrepreneur. Sounds hot, right? I.

Renee Murphy, welcome to the podcast.

renee murphy: Thank you.

Kate McLeod: I

renee murphy: to be here.

Kate McLeod: the more I keep reading about you [00:01:00] and seeing your work via social media or your presence on the Ted Talk stages.

Everything I'm learning about you, I'm just getting more and more inspired and more attuned to my environments. I feel like

renee murphy: Wow.

Kate McLeod: I

renee murphy: that. That that inspires me to keep going.

Kate McLeod: good. I'm glad a lot of people need to hear what you are doing. So why don't you tell listeners what it is that you're currently working on, and also how you arrived to where you are now.

renee murphy: Yeah, absolutely. My name is Renee Murphy. I, I've done a quite a big midlife pivot. I'd say in my forties. I was in the fashion industry. I had built a fashion company, you know, that's all I ever wanted to do as a child. But in my forties, I realized it was no longer a fit for me.

I was anxious all the time. You know, the industry felt extremely toxic to me. I mean, we all understand how unsustainable the fashion industry is, but I felt like I was selling the wrong message. And maybe now because I had kids that were growing up and a daughter who was watching me and, mimicking [00:02:00] everything that I did, I really understood that I was responsible for what I was teaching them.

And that even meant what I did for a living. You know, I found myself stressed all the time. And I didn't realize how that was affecting my family. my relationships were strained. And I really couldn't see myself spending another week in fashion Week going back and forth between LA and New York.

I just didn't see that as being sustainable for me. And without that daily inspiration, you know, running your own business, you need that to keep you going. You work so much and so hard. I realized I had to walk away I did that in my mid forties and thought to myself, well what am I gonna do now? So I thought, lemme go back to basics. What do I love? what I did love was all the time I was spending out in nature because I felt so much peace and balance and I was so inspired that nature was like this restorative [00:03:00] circle. no waste. You know, if you just think about the idea of a tree, it produces leaves that fall down to the ground, leaves turn into mulch. It protects the soil in the winter and the cold, the insects over winter in it. And then it turns into, you know, what, what will ultimately fertilize a nutrient provide nutrients for the soil. And then the tree continues to grow the next season. And it was this idea that I was so fascinated by this idea that if we could be more circular, that was such a better way to live. And I started understanding what I was surrounded by affected so much. Uh, This environment affected me so much. And so my thought was, I'm gonna go back to school learn more about plants. I knew I loved gardening. I knew I loved nature at this point. I just wasn't good at it.

Kate McLeod: Mm-hmm.

renee murphy: I went back to school and I was absolutely overjoyed every day going to school and learning about plants.

And [00:04:00] you know, thinking back now, I was, you know, mid forties in courses with 18 to 20 year olds. And, and I think most people would take that as like, I can't do that. And every day for me was a challenge. Challenging I thought, challenging my confidence, challenging what you think life is supposed to be and what you can and can't do at what age, you know, I think we all think when we hit our forties and fifties, like we're old and there isn't a full life ahead of you.

And I'm here to say like, life just keeps getting better for me. Uh. But I did take a random tourist trip to Houston, Texas and decided to go visit nasa. You know, I wasn't into space per se. It really was just let me pick a random thing to do. And the very last room talked about how had this natural, [00:05:00] natural ability to break down contamination or to uptake contamination and to clean soil because scientists were trying to figure out how to grow plants on Mars. And the Mars. Martian soil has perchlorate salt, which are toxic to humans, these plants have ability on earth to clean it. And it was like a thunderbolt. realized I was going to go be a plant scientist. And so within about a month or so, I targeted the schools I would attend. a counselor and I were calling the schools because it turns out you can't get two degrees, you also can't get a master's when you have an undergrad in business.

So it took a lot of hoop jumping. But nonetheless, I finally get accepted and got through my master's program and graduated in 2020, with a plant science degree. Very anticlimactic considering the time.

Kate McLeod: Yeah.

renee murphy: you know, agriculture was still an industry that was going, it was considered [00:06:00] you know, it was one of the industries that was not shut down.

So I went on to be the sales director at a native plant nursery. And again, I. Learning about how important native plants were to the environment and how we're losing our biodiversity because of the development and just putting in whatever plants home Depot was selling rather than the native plants that are there that have been aligned with species for, you know, hundreds of thousands of years.

They have developed a symbiotic relationship together. And when we remove those plants, we do a disservice to our insects. If you think about like the Monarch butterfly, and this is why we're losing the Monarch butterfly because their habitat is gone. So this was the industry I started within and started doing collaborative research on trees that we were trying to grow in the Salton Sea and the soil is very toxic there.

And I was posting my work on social media and was reached out to by somebody who had known me the past and we were in similar industries and they said, I used [00:07:00] to work with nasa, we use plants and microbes to clean up contamination. Tell me more about your research. 'cause we're in the same industry that was really the trajectory to my career.

I moved to the Bay area to work for this biotech company. So within gosh, so it was within seven months of getting outta grad school, I was working for a phyto remediation company, which was exactly what inspired me to go back to school. So here I am in the Bay Area, we have clients like NASA and you know Google, like in living my dream life with my dream job. And I think because I was in alignment. It felt like the universe was giving back to me what I was asking for, and I don't know how to explain it, but time, after time, after time, these opportunities would come to me that were truly magical. Like the opportunity. Speak to nasa, who gets to do that? Within the first couple months of working for a company, [00:08:00] who gets to go, you know, speak internationally, you know, and keynote for sustainability conferences when you've only been talking about work for a year. I mean, I have had such incredible opportunities and I feel like I owe it to stepping in my purpose and in my alignment and just being open to what was gonna come to me. And so. This is how I ended up here. I'm very focused on sustainability. I work within the remediation industry, so our space, we are cleaning up contamination. But we are one of the few companies that uses nature to clean up contamination. And I'm trying to push the boundaries on that to say it's not enough for us to just clean up contamination, but can we also leave the land? Can we bring in native vegetation? Can we also do some restoration while we're there too? And it's been working. We have clients coming to us asking for that. And it's so exciting to see that when most [00:09:00] people think that they can't make an impact on the world. 'cause for me, I wanted to save the world. I wanna save the environment. That's, that was the, you know, my pie in the sky goal. And to see that I am actually having little effects across the world. with my clients and when I go and speak at a conference and maybe open people's minds more to a different way of doing things versus, you know, digging and hauling contamination, I just feel that I'm in alignment with nature and I love that it brings me great joy.

Kate McLeod: I love what you say about a circular cycle because for me, something that. Is a pet peeve of mine is inefficiency. And you know, being efficient doesn't require the most energy ever. Right. And so when you talk about this cycle of some sort of self-sustaining plant or ecosystem or environment where it can provide what it needs at the same time of like alleviating some of this bad stuff that we as humans [00:10:00] have put on the earth, what is that circular cycle for you?

For you to be able to feed yourself, nurture yourself, give yourself what it is that you need in order to show up in your workspace like this to make these things happen?

renee murphy: You know, I think if you thought of your own personal world as a circle, this circle just keeps coming up as a theme for me and understanding that everything you allow into your circle, you know, we, we always target social media, but it isn't just social media. It's the people in your lives. It's the relationships that you have. it's where you live you know, what are you feeding yourself every day, even in the food that you eat, right? If we look at all of these things, as like inputs into our circle. Are the things that you're putting into your circle, feeding you, inspiring you, sustaining you? Is it building the circle that will continue to sustain you?

That is really the idea behind this message. And I think if [00:11:00] you constantly feed that circle with things that are not inspiring you energizing you, that you are full, you're full of stress, you're full of, it's really a toxic environment. You know, everything you're putting in to your circle if it's not good for you, it, it will eventually hurt you.

And we can't go into the world thinking we can change the world when. Our personal circle is a mess. And that was really the biggest transformation for me. It wasn't just my career choice or the way of life I was leading there, that it didn't feel sustainable. It was really my thinking about everything. When When I focused on my own circle, I started eating better. I saw that peace that I had in nature, so that made me want to walk every day because you know, it's a feedback loop. Everything's a feedback loop, which really, NASA [00:12:00] inspired a lot of this, right? Because you send anything into space, there can't be any waste.

Every, there's this loop, this circular loop. And so much of my life was like that. So my kids were feeling the stress from me because I was stressed from my job or the way I handled my job. Yet you can go linear and just be mad at your kids rather than understanding that you were a part of that, that got you to that place. And so again, when I started changing and when I started taking better care of myself, so did my kids, I was a direct role model to that. I can't explain it any other way, but just seeing how I role modeled my life, I think you can tell your kids everything. Do this, do that, do that. But if they don't see you living it, I mean, come on. it, it's really in, in seeing the benefits to what you're [00:13:00] doing and, learning how to control my emotional baggage and. Everything that I was doing that was toxic and this took a long period of time. I mean, it is hard to change bad habits that you have and it takes time. But what I did find that the more habits you changed, then you could change even more. Almost like like you think about like a food web, like you learn that in biology and how everything is interconnected. The more things you change, the faster things change around that. and so it got easier and easier and easier for me to be more sustainable. Like I realized that we consume so much and we have way more than we need. As Americans and having European parents, that was something that came up all the time growing up, you know, back to school shopping. No, I couldn't have all the clothes that my American friends could have. Like, why did we need all of that? I, I think there's a lot more of a sustainability focus. in different countries. And as [00:14:00] Americans, we think that we're gonna fill the hole that's inside of us with buying all the things and bringing all the things into our house like somehow without all those things we're lacking.

And coming from a strong marketing background, I mean, that's so transparent in marketing and what it is teaching us how we're supposed to live. And none of those things will make you happy. the more I eliminated from my home, the more I stopped shopping, actually felt happier. And budget, my wallet was happier. you, you know, that, that's the beauty of that is, is these sustainable ways of living really ultimately on your budget is, probably the best thing you could do for yourself. So, you know, there's kind of a little selfish reason behind that too. but again, these behaviors, started changing the behaviors of my daughter. In fact, one of the coolest things that happened recently is she plans her birthday party like six months in advance, like she is

Kate McLeod: Ugh. I love that.

renee murphy: birthday. her birthday came up and she had a whole [00:15:00] theme. She wanted this fairy, party. She showed me these Pinterest pictures of these beautiful and, out in this nature scene.

And I, you know, first thing I'm thinking is, what's that gonna cost? but all she wanted was help in a couple things. She wanted me to make some cupcakes and to be there and help that day and great. what she did was absolutely incredible. And the pictures are incredible. We live next to this beautiful lake with a green lawn. We carried over pallets. To be the table. She covered it with lace that she got for like a dollar at the thrift store. All of the decor and the table settings were things that were from the thrift store, but it looked incredible. You know, the glasses were all, mismatched jars. all the food was brought, like potluck style.

One of the girls even made homemade sourdough bread. So here as college students, you know, it was budget friendly. they all brought their own cushions from home, like from their patio cushions so that they could put those around the table. And the pictures are stunning, [00:16:00] very much like that Pinterest photo.

But it was completely sustainable. We even returned the pallets back to the construction site that we borrowed them from, and she had this beautiful party. And I think the most blessed part about that was, living more sustainably inspired that for her. But because she couldn't just go pay for it, it forced her to be creative. And I think that's what made me the, you know, fashion designing artist that I was as a kid was because my parents weren't willing to just pay for what I wanted. I had to be able to create it. it made her more creative and create this beautiful party and brought out the artist in her because what people would say she was lacking, lacking the funds, lacking the parents who would just give it to her. It forced her to become or to be creative. And I think that's the best part about this is, is we think because we have quick access to things, that somehow that makes us better or more because of it. I mean, how many very [00:17:00] wealthy people do you know are saving the world?

Kate McLeod: I mean not many and, and I think something you're illuminating for me is that consumerism doesn't have to be exclusively transactional. Consuming means to have your decision. Result in you taking something in. That's a thought, that's food. That's the scenery that you see during the day and how it's gonna influence you moving forward.

You talk about your daughter and I think of the next generation and I think, okay, so how are we going to make this idea of sustainability, of this idea of not being so consumer driven? When you have a phone at your fingertips and you have all this social media, how are we going to make it an attractive lifestyle for them?

Because if it didn't work,

renee murphy: can we make

Kate McLeod: go.

renee murphy: sexy?

Kate McLeod: How do you make sustainability sexy? Exactly. I know. Um, How do you make sustainability sexy? I think you have such a beautiful approach to it by talking about the [00:18:00] environment. I. Your environment it coming from a place of you and not from a place of like, okay, so how do we preserve this tree in its natural habitat?

How do we get the monarch butterflies to remain here and still thrive and multiply, and we continue to have them here? It's more foundational than that. It's, well, don't you want a world where there are these beautiful, gorgeous colors that have two matching wings, but no one is ever alike? You know, don't you want to see this kind of beautiful singularity in nature?

And I think a lot of it has to do with recognizing that we are nature too.

renee murphy: We are.

Kate McLeod: And yes, and your, TED talks illuminated that for me too. I'm like, no wonder. And I'm wondering too, what your thoughts are on your ego or what your relationship is to your ego, because you seem to have. No problem in this beautiful way, just saying, all right, well, let's go.

I guess I was wrong in that. As a mother, as a professional, as all these things, you're, you seem to have a very symbiotic relationship with [00:19:00] your ego.

renee murphy: I, you know, I can't believe you asked me this question because, I'm working on this talk that I'm giving on sustainability and last night I was thinking a lot about this with ego. You know, this idea that we are, oh, okay. Let me, let me start with this. I, yeah. As a fashion

Kate McLeod: Please.

renee murphy: are led by ego. Uh, Was so much ego. Sometimes I don't even know how I, could get into rooms sometimes and that ego caused a lot of problems. working in a startup and there's so few of us, and you have to have a lot of very strong-willed people, I think, to grow and organize and create a company. But we all have a lot of egos, and I think it caused a lot of problems in the beginning because we all had our own way of doing things, our own ideas, or what we were taught at school and what we were taught in the workplace, and then coming together it seemed very Competitive at first [00:20:00] and me coming in again with the least experience out of everybody, but having a lot of experience in how to market myself and how to put myself out there for opportunities.

I mean, that creates, think, some strife there. and it wasn't until I think we realized that we, know, in a way we are so interconnected and that together we are going to be so much more successful than we are as individuals and, working together for many years now. We just, were so blessed to work so well together now, and I think it required us to all check our egos

Kate McLeod: Yeah.

renee murphy: and, and it's embarrassing to admit that, when you see, wow, that was my ego that really messed that up, or. As Americans, we are very driven as individuals. Me, me, me, what is it for me? But I have realized that the more I give and give to my community and through, gardening and teaching, I've had so many [00:21:00] opportunities, to do this. But the more I give to my community, it all just comes back to me in bigger opportunities, in gratefulness, in good about myself. So even though I'm trying to stay away from my ego and again, just focus on, giving and contributing as a community and being interconnected and thinking about how can, you know, this is a really great, practice is the days that you don't feel good or you feel depressed and you don't wanna do anything, reach out to someone and tell them how great they were in this meeting or something they said was really inspiring.

Do that to like three people. attitude and your motivation changes immediately through

Kate McLeod: Yeah.

renee murphy: And nothing has to come back to you, but there's something about that giving that, comes back to you in a way that just fills you back up again. No amount of buying right things or, taking this great vacation is going to do that [00:22:00] for you.

That's all fleeting. But I have felt so much more joy in being a part of my community here in the town that I live in through just. courses to people and teaching people how to better their environment and seeing those lights go on, like, I really can make a difference just in my own backyard. That has just given me so much that I do realize that, you know, gosh, you've got to step away from your ego.

Kate McLeod: Mm-hmm.

renee murphy: the more of these lessons that I learn in my older age, seem to line up biblically really with, the lessons that they teach in the Bible, they really just line right up with those lessons.

And, I think spiritually I've kind of done this through my whole life and

Kate McLeod: Yeah.

renee murphy: feel myself more seeing that there is, this creator, This universe that we're all a part of, and when we don't see ourselves as part of nature, that's where everything goes wrong.

Kate McLeod: Because it's denying that we are nature. It's [00:23:00] denying that this is the habitat that allowed us to be built up, that we are destroying, I don't care if it's subconscious or conscious level. I mean, that has to impact the people who are walking around, seeing their environment around them that they know is required to sustain their own life depleting.

renee murphy: Yeah. Like, I mean, if you think about like you know, research I've been reading this really great book on trees and forest and know, a tree by itself thrive

Kate McLeod: Hmm.

renee murphy: when you look at trees in the forest and they examine their root systems. They are all interconnected. And they share resources.

They warn each other of incoming danger. they allow other trees can change chemically inside to ward off, insects that are preying on them based on the signals they get from the trees around them,

Kate McLeod: Mm.

renee murphy: that they save resources that stumps will still be living because they're still being fed by the trees around them. if you think about that as your, your family network [00:24:00] and your community, that we do have to take care and feed each other and being out on our own, you can't accomplish as much on your own as you can if you have that group atmosphere with, again, within your corporate structure, if you guys are fighting against each other or trying to one up each other because of the, again, that ego you will not be as successful individuals will be, but as a team, you will not be able to achieve. these goals together. if you don't see that interconnected within each other, you know, I like to say like everybody is a special unicorn.

Kate McLeod: Mm-hmm.

renee murphy: all have these little qualities make us really special and really unique. And if I were to pick your brain, you probably have some skills that I would wish I had, and if I connected with you, you would make me so much better and I could learn from you vice versa.

I have special skills that you don't have, and together we're so much more powerful than we are as [00:25:00] individuals.

Kate McLeod: Well, yeah, just training your brain to see the similarities as opposed to the differences, a huge problem. Society I think comes from traditional education. We are all taught in traditional education systems from preschool up until higher education, whether that be college or further beyond that, or even till high school.

it all happens in this group setting, but you're all competing against each other. There's a valid Victorian, at the end of the day, it's a grade that you're graded on we all have those nightmare stories where we did some group project where we were the only ones who did it, and then, you know, they got the grade too.

So it's like, I don't really think that the training as well as far as education goes, and us first getting our initial exposure into what might pique our interests for the rest of our careers. I don't think it's happening in an environment that is actually saying work together. It's better because I can tell you now, after identifying that I required as much unlearning as I did, learning through all my education, is collaboration's the best thing.

You and I talking, realizing [00:26:00] how many crossovers we had between sustainability, environment, science performance too, your success has led you to be on these stages where now you are. Sharing your research, but through yourself as a vessel while you are performing because it also is educational.

You wanna keep someone's attention by being entertaining, an environmental scientist and an actor coming together, I could really see like

renee murphy: Do you see?

Kate McLeod: a lot crossover.

renee murphy: do you see how you could, you could really help me in my craft with that? And I can't just go up on stage and just start talking about science. In fact, when I gave my initial draft to the TEDx team, they, and, and again, I applied to be in the science segment. I was not applying to be in the motivational space. so I applied the science segment and they, they ask you to, you know, write up your speech and, and it's done after you're accepted. So it's not something it's done in advance. So I did, and they got on the call with me and they're like, this is not what we expected from [00:27:00] you. And I said, but why? This is the science.

And they're like, this is not the story that people want to hear. Like, what makes someone go from fashion to science? And they're like, is this really what's in your heart? We wanna hear what is in your heart. you know, they were right

Kate McLeod: Yeah.

renee murphy: the first thing I wrote and the nine drafts that came out very different. And I felt like I gave, and this is might be a weird parallel, but I felt like I gave birth on stage,

Kate McLeod: Mm.

renee murphy: professionally and with my ideas that the level of exhaustion, but rebirth that happened that day was unlike anything I've ever felt. I knew, again, yes, I am a scientist, but there's also. Another path I have to go on because I have something to say and, I don't know how many people out there [00:28:00] feel that urgency to need to spread that message. But I feel like that urgency is there and I want to talk more about it.

Kate McLeod: Yeah.

renee murphy: And I think I want people to see how much, you know, nature and this idea of circularity and sustainability can affect everything that you do in your life for the better.

Kate McLeod: Yeah, and from my vantage point in the entertainment field, I would venture to say that the first couple drafts were probably all about external and not about internal.

renee murphy: A hundred percent.

Kate McLeod: And,

There wasn't 

renee murphy: anything internal in there.

Kate McLeod: and that can be the problem with performance and with really getting people to care is because you can tell them all the information.

I get so excited to tell people information that I've learned, but then I realize that it's me regurgitating and subconsciously feeling responsible for my own impact, responsible for how someone receives the information [00:29:00] I'm trying to give them when I actually am a better performer when I alleviate.

Myself of that made up rule that I am somehow required to be in charge of all of that You mentioned. A lot of different, what I would call evidence, whether it be internal or external of like you seeing, okay, so I need to make this career move for myself, for my soul, for all of this.

And you see your impact in the world, whether it's your gardening at home, or whether it's you going to do this big sustainability, talk to corporations to say like, Hey, environment matters so much. We need to talk about your own,

renee murphy: Mm-hmm.

Kate McLeod: locally and then go globally for you guys You see the impacts on your daughter. What is the difference between your tangible and your intangible evidence 

renee murphy: You know whenever we give these you know, Ted Talks and different keynotes, always ask you to back it up with scientific evidence. you could read about it, but until you actually experience it, I think that's when it makes the [00:30:00] impact. But there was this study I came across that was done in Stanford, of which they asked two groups of people, one group of people to walk through Palo Alto, which is a lovely town, but it's an

Kate McLeod: Yeah.

renee murphy: to walk through that town daily and they would record their number of ruminations.

So this is this idea of like this negative thoughts that we have that circle over and over and over. And especially in women, we will do this

Kate McLeod: Yeah.

renee murphy: of times a day.

Kate McLeod: It's our brains trying to solve a problem, right?

renee murphy: And, and circling, circling, circling, circling. And this negative thought that ultimately they think affects, overall depression and, and other things.

But, so they asked half the group of people to walk through the urban area and record these ruminating thoughts, and then ask people to walk through a nature reserve record the same thoughts, the number of ruminations. And what they found was, we all know walking is very helpful for us, but it was being in [00:31:00] nature that people actually saw the decrease in the ruminating thoughts significantly more so than just walking through, you know, the nice town of Palo Alto. So that was a great study, but that's what actually happened to me. And what actually made me change my career ultimately, because I could see the balance and the joy and the negative thoughts would go away. And then I would start thinking of what was around me and, looking closer at plants and their life cycles and to the frogs, it different thoughts.

Right?

Kate McLeod: Yes.

renee murphy: I would be working in New York, I would go to, you know, central Park. It was not the same thing. But felt myself just screaming inside, wanting to get out of the urban areas. I was just craving the way I felt when I was in nature. So that meant, it, it, it took that study and I said, well, when I read that [00:32:00] study later, I said, well, of course now it makes sense. But I think our intuition, the way our body feels around things tells us so much about what's right and what's wrong for us. 

So I think we need to start doing that in our everyday lives. Where is your family happy? What is it that you guys are doing together? You know, versus when, when things aren't going right, like sit back and observe. Just like in nature, you have to sit and observe what is going on. And when you

Kate McLeod: Hmm.

renee murphy: that, can start to see the differences, what's going right, what's going wrong, and then be more intentional in the future. And that has been a big part, I think, of all of this. And even trying to be more sustainable is intentional about what we do. Creating systems that work for ourselves, work for our family. we know these things keep us happy and healthy, [00:33:00] set up systems to support that.

Kate McLeod: Yeah.

renee murphy: That's how we create that circle. But if you're in a disorganized home, a disorganized office, how are your systems supporting the things that keep you happy, healthy, and grounded? If you know you're happier when you're in a smaller town, then move there.

Kate McLeod: Yeah.

renee murphy: not oak trees. We are not forced to stay in one place forever. If there are people. Or circumstances or communities in your world that don't inspire you and feed you when you know they're toxic to you? Change them. I think we get caught up in this, well, I, I can't change this friendship because we've been friends for so long,

Kate McLeod: Yeah.

renee murphy: but you know, again, it, it, I relate everything back to nature and I apologize for that. But

Kate McLeod: Don't please.

renee murphy: um, Plants are just there for a season. They, they bloom. It's, it's a beautiful time together. And, and then they go away. And, you know, sometimes things aren't meant for [00:34:00] us forever.

Kate McLeod: Mm-hmm.

renee murphy: relationships aren't meant for us forever. And that's okay. That's a beautiful part about nature. We aren't stuck where we are. You can change your environment. You aren't stuck doing things the same old way because society told you to. You can change that. The relationships that aren't working for you, the job that's not working for you, the career you chose at the age of 44 you can change all of those things. It, it's not easy,

Kate McLeod: No, and and you saying all this, I am curious what your thoughts are on this because I wonder sometimes too, you have the pace of evolution of the human and you have the pace of the evolution of the environment. And I wonder sometimes with city living if I am evolving to not require nature as much or if the evolution I'm experiencing is actually requiring me to need more.

Because returning to it, for me, my walks in the [00:35:00] morning, they make time slow down and. My brain turns to evidence of living evidence of growth, evidence of these things that I'm seeing in real time in front of me with the trees or the bushes, or even just like the grass around me in New York. Do you think that there is a different pace of evolution between humans and the environment, or do you think that they're com they're in tune and rely on the other?

renee murphy: Oh, wow. You know, that's a really good question. I feel like you know, I mean, humans have not been around for a very long time,

Kate McLeod: No.

renee murphy: right? And how do we fit into nature? And, when we fight nature as much as we have, like we built these cities, I mean if you think about like Los Angeles, it's an interesting history there.

They really struggled to control nature there. It flooded uncontrollably all the time. You know, heavy [00:36:00] drought. never intended to have the city be the size that it is in fact, to make that city work, they had to bring all the water from Owens Valley and Northern California, and other locations to bring enough water to support the growth of Los Angeles. In fact even the Hollywood sign used to say Hollywood Land, and it was a marketing attempt to bring people to move there. But all of the water was brought to this area that humans should have never been. So we had to change everything. Uh, We had to manage the way the water came in and out in order to control the floods other, otherwise it would just wipe communities out, right? Why do we build that way? Why don't we look at how we are supposed to be a part of nature? And I'm not saying that we should be in the forest, in little tents and

Kate McLeod: No.

renee murphy: and sing kumbaya, so much of the way we build is against nature. And there are beautiful [00:37:00]examples all over the world of

Kate McLeod: Mm-hmm.

renee murphy: that have tried to be more embracing of nature and use as systems to, clean the water systems, clean the waterways, build green roofs to cool the cities, bring in more trees, remove what, what were previous streets and turn them into pedestrian nature areas for the people within the community. we need more of that. need more thinkers, designers, engineers, city planners, urban development understand that we need nature. It is a part of us. We will be happier people, healthier people, if we can incorporate that all together. Hope to see that in the future. Unfortunately, I, I don't know if it'll go in that direction.

I think it's gonna require a lot of education. but you definitely see, like in in the space that I'm in, I'm in the environmental space. can see the younger people coming out of school and they have these newer, fresher ideas and they wanna make change. And then, you know, they run up against a wall when they join the industry of [00:38:00] the way things have always been done.

Kate McLeod: the way that things have always been done. It's like, is that not any clue enough? You talk about how different the generations are and the generational divide is, and how different of experiences that we're having. Okay, so why has a thing that has been here forever.

Why would we assume that that would still be working?

renee murphy: Right, right. Why are we so afraid of change? And that is a big thing that I've realized that people are so afraid to change. When I, when I left my career, everyone in fashion was like, what are you doing? You can't do this. You can't just change your career. And I had to take a step back and say, okay, these are my friends, but I do need to take a season where I step back from this

Kate McLeod: Hmm.

renee murphy: not afraid of the move I'm about to make. You're afraid. So your fears are, are now being put on me. not afraid. I, I just, I knew. I was doing [00:39:00] the right thing. I didn't know what it was yet. We were gonna discover that, but I knew it was right because I could feel it every time I

Kate McLeod: Yeah.

renee murphy: in that direction. Although I was scared, I could still feel that it was the right thing to be doing,

it took months, sometimes even years, but I'd have an old friend call me from the fashion industry and say, I don't know what you're doing, standing in a field of cabbage, but you look so happy.

Kate McLeod: And isn't that worth more value? Like you, you people have to see the value in that. I'm gonna relate this back to plants now. 

renee murphy: Go

for it 

Kate McLeod: The plant has to have the right conditions in order to bloom. Correct.

renee murphy: right. Right.

So 

Kate McLeod: wouldn't humans too, like we need to water ourselves. We need certain vitamins, especially vitamin D.

We need exercise. we know all these things about ourselves. We know our brains wash themselves at night, and the reason we have to move and feel better after we do is because it helps our body process those toxins out of our brains. It's this attunement to [00:40:00] environment and to the self that I think is such a powerful message.

'cause if you look around and see a plant wilting, I hope that would remind you to give it the sustenance that it needs, but also maybe take a step back and say, Ooh, this is a really good reminder right now for me to ask myself if I have the nutrients that I need right now to stand up straight.

renee murphy: and how many people do you know that wanna just instantly take the pill to fix it?

Kate McLeod: Mm-hmm.

Where if 

renee murphy: you really step back, everything's caused by the basic building blocks kind of being out of balance. Everything's outta balance. I think like this whole like jump for everyone to get on, on, you know, GLP once and like Ozempic, it's like went from here to here, but did you do everything in between? first Did you get all the building blocks corrected and fixed

Kate McLeod: Mm-hmm.

before 

renee murphy: you went to that next step? and people will get upset when they hear that, but it's the truth with everything. most of our issues are caused by the building blocks just being out of [00:41:00] balance. people always say, I have a brown thumb, I, you know, I killed my houseplant, you know, as soon as I brought it home and well, did you know how to take care of it? Well, no. And I'm like, well, you, when these houseplant are grown, first of all they come from countries that are nothing like. You know our weather, So you're taking like a plant that's from Thailand. Think about the humidity level, different nutrients. And then you bring the house plant home and you set it in front of a sunny hot window with no humidity and then you start overwatering it.

Maybe nothing like it's supposed to be treated. We didn't take the time to figure out how does this plant really need to be cared for? Can I set up the building blocks to be similar to how it's used to be treated? And you know, it came out of a greenhouse with perfect conditions and then you brought it home.

So

Kate McLeod: Mm-hmm.

renee murphy: is stressful. Yeah. Everything in life is like that. It, this, your car is not working because, you put oil in the car? Is there [00:42:00] gas in the car? Like basic things, you know, our computer's not working. What's wrong? You know,

Kate McLeod: Yeah.

renee murphy: usually attribute it to like the three most basic things. Everything in our life is that way. We are healthy when we have our building blocks set up and when we just try to fix it a pill, we are not fixing what's wrong. as Americans, is our thinking because we've been marketed to somebody is making money on the back end of this if they can control our behavior. So we have to learn to control our behavior, understand that we are being marketed to, behave a certain way because it keeps us in an unhealthy cycle. So it's up

Kate McLeod: The,

renee murphy: to control that circle and what comes in and out of our circle we wanna ultimately be like the best version of ourselves.

Kate McLeod: I think a lot of that has to do with building an environment that'll help support you in believing your own decisions and believing your own instincts [00:43:00] in order for you to make progress moving in a different direction if you're not happy, where you are.

renee murphy: Right, right.

Kate McLeod: in one of your, TED Talks, you talked about end of fight booster shots to amp up, like.

If nature's process and just now you were talking a bit about modern medicine, and I was so taken by that idea of basically amplifying the natural powers of a tree or some sort of natural resource. does a treatment like that similar to like modern medicine, does it make us lean too much on it or, let me rephrase that.

The way modern medicine, if we use modern medicine to help us with something, or it can sometimes become a crutch for people and they're no longer self-sufficient in that way anymore because they have this external thing that fixes the internal thing. If you were to do things like that in nature, like give them these big shots, these big boosts of their own power and essentially supercharge them, does that.

Degrade [00:44:00] the integrity of what they're able to do normally on their own.

renee murphy: So, hey I like that you brought this up. So what, what we are basically giving and plants is an inoculation. And I think I related it to like a booster because I thought that would be easier to understand. Inoculation is a big word. Um.

Kate McLeod: I understood booster, so.

renee murphy: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and you know, sometimes I try to very simplify the science so it gets you excited and you wanna learn more. so what we do is we inoculate trees with microbes that naturally occurring within trees. So we haven't given them anything that we've created how we do in, in, in modern medicine. So there is that difference are giving them. So if you think about like your, the, the gut bacteria in your gut, you have a certain, amount of gut bacteria. Some people get their gut bacteria depleted because of the foods they've been eating, and they're not feeding the right microbes. [00:45:00] They start having gut problems. so people might take, you know, prebiotics, probiotics, try and encourage that growth. So we are doing a similar idea. So these microbes exist in nature and exist within that tree

Kate McLeod: Mm-hmm.

renee murphy: if we were to do an analysis. But what we're doing is giving more of it.

Kate McLeod: Okay.

renee murphy: are we giving more of those bacteria is because those bacteria are especially, at breaking down contamination because they've evolved to do that. So if you could imagine being at a site that maybe had that was contaminated with oil, most things would die. But maybe you observed a tree that was thriving and you might ask yourself as a scientist, why is that tree thriving there? Because they're microbes. evolved to break down oil and oil or oil hydrocarbons, we call them to specifically use that as their food source. So these microbes live within the plant tissues, which is why they're called endophytes, just meaning [00:46:00] endo inside plant, inside the plant. they were to break down that contaminant. Scientists were able to pull those microbes out of the tree bring 'em into the lab, characterize them, test them to make sure, yes, in fact, these, microbes are the ones that prefer oil as their source, as their food source. And then multiply them, no, again, no genetic modification, just multiplying them and then we can put 'em back in the tree. So if that is their preferred food source, this hydrocarbon product, once that product is gone, those populations die off. Just like in any situation without food populations die back.

Kate McLeod: Mm-hmm.

renee murphy: that's what we are doing. But the beauty of these microbes is they allow the tree to be able to process nitrogen within the air, fixed nitrogen in the air.

So they're less reliant on needing to get their nutrients from the ground. So

Kate McLeod: Okay.

renee murphy: [00:47:00] to deal with harsher conditions and put on more biomass. And, we've done many studies with this where you can see side by side, this is the tree on the contaminated site. It's struggling, it's turning yellow.

It can't put on biomass, it's going to die.

Kate McLeod: Mm-hmm.

renee murphy: and then the trees that have been inoculated with the microbes they're thriving and ultimately breaking down contamination into non-toxic products. Which is beautiful. the tree's already doing, but when an area becomes too toxic, cannot, so the microbes are just basically giving them, you know, some superpower.

Kate McLeod: Is there any cellular memory that the plants keep and so when they produce other plants or offspring of their own, that there is cellular memory of any of that, whether that's negative impact or artificial help through I natural substances.

renee murphy: You know, that is a really great question [00:48:00] and certainly would be very interesting to study. Our understanding is that and the way we certain species, we are taking apart of one mother tree. So say for example, we have a tree that is, and, and this is done all through agriculture.

This is nothing new. Um, Is how we come up with, you know, the tastiest corn. You know, the

Kate McLeod: Mm-hmm.

renee murphy: is identifying well this corn tastes better. We are going to want to focus on this one particular corn. So we also have specialized tree species that might be salt and boron tolerant. those are very effective when we're going into a site that has those conditions.

'cause it's

Kate McLeod: Mm-hmm.

renee murphy: for trees to establish in sites with those contamination, those certain, compounds. So we can put a specialized tree species there and it is propagated from a certain stock over and over and over and over again. Because again, we want to maintain those [00:49:00] characteristics through, Generation to generation. So we are planting those trees and then again, giving them that extra boost. And that's how we're able to create this nature based solution that breaks down the contamination. would be fascinating to understand what the differences are on a cellular level, but that would take, mean, this

Kate McLeod: long.

renee murphy: that we have right now is based on three decades of research a scientist, the University of Washington, Dr.

Sharon Doty. these scientists are looking at one specific thing over and over and over and over time in order to categorize these endophytes, I mean, imagine how many thousands different bacteria her team had to look at to find the ones that could do this work. 

Kate McLeod: Only three decades.

renee murphy: it's well, and it's incredible.

I. What comes out of academia and research and there's so much incredible work being done. But how do we get that out into the public to actually test [00:50:00] and see if it works? Can we

Kate McLeod: Mm-hmm.

renee murphy: it and we have commercialized it, which took a whole different company to be able to do that, right?

Like academia, they're only doing research. They're not taking that research and moving it out into the commercial field where we can actually use it. And there's a big disconnect, which I think is where I've had a good, opportunity or found kind of a niche for myself, is talk about the science in a way that people can understand and get them excited.

'cause I think we all love science. Who

Kate McLeod: Yeah,

renee murphy: science

Kate McLeod: well we are science.

renee murphy: We, yeah. And we love it. We love it when we're kids. We love it as adults, as long as we can understand it. So when we speak to a level of where we consider everyone to be a PhD, lose everyone. so we're not spreading the word. And if we're only spreading research in the same silos, you know, we, we go to conferences, but how does that out to the mainstream world? 

Kate McLeod: And that's the latest [00:51:00] I'm honored to have been part of your thinking sphere today. Feel free to share, like, and subscribe on this platform or follow and participate on any of my social media platforms. If this practice intrigues you as much as it does me, then join us in the ME three community where we will work directly and you'll curate a mindful method of thinking to define your own creative conscious.

Thanks for listening to the latest episode of Authenticated. I love that you're here.