41 | Marcia Bjornerud | Fathoming Deep Time: Belonging Within the Slow Story of Earth
“Fathoming deep time is arguably geology’s single greatest contribution to humanity.”
Here is an audio version.
A video version can be found below.
Marcia offers a wondrous window into deep time—a perspective that expands our sense of belonging within Earth’s long, layered story. As a geologist, she helps us see beyond the narrow bandwidth of the present into the slow, enduring processes that shape Life on our precious planet.
We explore how timefulness—attuning to Earth’s vast cycles and rhythms—offers perspective, responsibility, and even solace. Marcia reflects on the cultural denial of time, or chronophobia, and invites us to place ourselves more honestly as part of Earth’s ancient presence.
From the microbial worlds of the Proterozoic to the super-slow cycles of water that reach into Earth’s interior, Marcia helps us remember the unseen and essential patterns that sustain Life. We also touch on the Gaia Hypothesis, the illusion of space colonization, and the humble messiness of real science.
At its heart, this conversation is an invitation to live with reverence, humility, and awareness of deep time—and the deep future to come.
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Thematic Show Notes
Deep Time & Belonging:
What it means to fathom deep time
Shifting perception through the lens of geologic time
“Our own lifespans are tiny slices of the time that the Earth has experienced”
Letting ourselves “bleed into the continuity of things” as a source of solace
Transcendent moments with rocks and landscapes as portals into deep time
Chronophobia & Time-Denial in Modernity:
The narcissistic “now” and its cultural consequences
The refusal to think long-term and the lessons of the geologic record
Time avoidance as a deeply rooted pattern in Western culture
How attention and novelty shape our sense of time across life stages
Timefulness & Humility:
The past as present: “The infrastructure of the planet is what has happened in the past”
The Proterozoic period as a lesson in sustainability: 3 billion years of microbial life
The 100-million-year water cycle and the unseen “housekeeping” of the Earth
Observational science vs. controlled science: how messiness leads to humility
The Gaia Hypothesis as mainstream geoscience: rock, life, air, and water in constant conversation
Geologic Futures & Earth Citizenship:
Why geologists need to speak more about the geologic future
The absurdity of space colonization and the ignorance it reveals
“My hope for humanity is that we will finally learn just to be ordinary Earth citizens”
The heart’s capacity to feel deep time: integrating intellect and emotion in wise policy
Key Reflections:
“Fathoming deep time is arguably geology’s single greatest contribution to humanity.”
“Antipathy toward time clouds personal and collective thinking.”
“We live in geologic time, too, so there’ll be a geologic future as well.”