Amy Chan
Amy Chan is the Founder of Renew Breakup Bootcamp, a retreat that takes a scientific and spiritual approach to heal the heart. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of Heart Hackers Club - an online magazine that focuses on the psychology behind love, lust, and desire. The Observer calls her "A relationship expert whose work is like that of a scientific Carrie Bradshaw" and her company has been featured across national media including Good Morning America, Vogue, Glamour, Nightline, and the front page of The New York Times. Her book, Breakup Bootcamp - The Science of Rewiring Your Heart, published by Harper Collins is available now.
3 words to describe Nature?
Peace. Love. Beauty
3 things Nature taught you?
Presence
Curiosity
Everything is connected
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Lynn Valley hiking trail
Clayoquot Sound
Dunton Hot Springs
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Small, yet expansive
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Grateful to be visiting
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Amazed
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Reborn. Hopeful.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Scared
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Cautious
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Ocean
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
7
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
The forest was my playground. I would make forts, play in the dirt, dig holes, collect branches, and didn't have a worry in the world. The forest was vast, so it scared me, yet excited me, and sometimes when I dared, I'd go deeper inside. But as I grew up, I started to worry about dirtying my clothes and focused on getting good grades and working. I started to lose touch with nature. I'm still on a journey of connecting back to that girl that once played in the forest, not afraid to get dirt on her hands, and adventure into the great unknown.
Erik Nissen Johansen
Erik Nissen Johansen is the founder and creative director of global award-winning hospitality design studio Stylt in Gothenburg, Sweden. For more than 25 years, Stylt has combined concept development, interior architecture, design, and branding to create unique hospitality experiences for clients all over the world, including more than 400 restaurants and 250 hotels: the Pater Noster Lighthouse and the Niehku Mountain Villa in Sweden, the ANDAZ by Hyatt in Dubai, the 25h hotels in Düsseldorf, Copenhagen and Melbourne, the Downtown Camper by Scandic in Stockholm, the Smoki Moto JW Marriott in Dubai, the LEGO House in Billund, the Huus hotel in Gstaad, the Lydmar in Stockholm, the Spedition hotel in Switzerland, the Klaus K hotel in Helsinki, the Well Spa in Oslo, Le Rouge in Stockholm, Le Pain Français in Gothenburg, Creekside Villa in Canmore Canada, and the Stenungsbaden Yacht Club in Gothenburg.
Under Erik’s leadership, Stylt has won several awards: Global UNESCO Prix Versailles for Best Hotel Interior (twice), National Geographic Traveller Big Sleep Awards (twice), several AHEAD awards, Best New Boutique Hotel in the World, IH&P Award for Worlds Best SPA design and many more.
3 words to describe Nature?
Calm. Enchanting. Enriching
3 things Nature taught you?
Be humble
Be respectful
Feel alive
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The Solomon Sea
West Sweden Archipelago
The Norwegian Fjords
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Creative
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Alive
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Rejuvenating
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Stunning
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Majestic
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Captivating
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Ocean
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
The first time I tried snorkel gear, I was 4, a new world opened up in the Oslo fjord.
Dana Cowin
Dana Cowin is an evangelist of good food and good people, coach for creatives, former longtime Editor in Chief of Food & Wine Magazine, host of podcast Speaking Broadly, and creator of Giving Broadly, a website to highlight products (aka good food) by women entrepreneurs (aka good people) that make our lives more delicious.
3 words to describe Nature?
Spirit. Respite. Beauty
3 things Nature taught you?
Nature's design is more creative than human design.
Nature teaches resilience. It just never gives up.
Nature teaches that death is a transformation.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
The brambles in Central Park, NYC.
The ocean beside my childhood house in Florida
The sanctuary trails in upstate NY
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Awe. The relentless water breathing its way to the sand and receding is extraordinary.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Spritely. I love looking at the light, rocks, movement.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Never seen a volcano!
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
At peace with beginnings and endings that are grounded in time passing and color changing.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Like burrowing, getting cozy, being still, listening to the future or past that the sound represents
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Cold, even if I'm not experiencing the wind. I shudder at the thought.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Meadows and fields
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
I was caught outside a riptide in the ocean in Florida and a bystander rescued me. I'm forever in awe of the power of the ocean to nurture and destroy...and the kindness of strangers to change lives with simple acts of generosity.
Theo Jansen
Theo Jansen is a Dutch artist known for his kinetic sculptures. In 1990, he began building large mechanisms out of PVC that are able to move on their own and, collectively, are entitled, Strandbeest. His animated works are intended to be a fusion of art and engineering. He has said that "The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds." A 2016 episode of The Simpsons, "The Nightmare After Krustmas", featured the Strandbeest and Jansen. He provided the voice for his cartoon character. The Strandbeest have been shown all over the world including at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Science Museum Kaohsiung in Taiwan, at Art Basel in Miami, at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts, the Espacio Fundación Telefónica in Peru, the Exploratorium in San Francisco, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Saporro Art Museum in Japan, the Frankfurter Kunstverein in Germany, the ArtScience Museum in Singapore, the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan. You can watch his TED talk here.
3 words to describe Nature?
Sea. Sand. Dunes
3 things Nature taught you?
Modesty
Awareness
Beauty
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Sea
Beach
Dunes
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Being born again. A deep contact with our existence. I am amazed that we exist. I am amazed that I myself exist. That I landed in the body of an ape. I am an ape. And I look through this ape's eyes to the world.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Like I can breath
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
I don’t feel anything
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
I always turn my head away from the sun. I want to look at the landscape which is lighted by the sun with that orange light. I never understand why people spoil their eyes looking at the sunset.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Excited
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Warm in my bed. Reading a book with the curtains closed. Lovely!
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Of course, I am an ocean person!
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
When I was a small boy I remember I was throwing a wooden shoe in the sea. And every time it was being brought back by the waves. At one moment it didn’t come back because it was behind the waves. Then I went into the sea with my clothes on. It was in the winter season. My body felt the cold water. And I felt very excited. This contact with the sea.