Trauma + Curiosity with Tyler Thrasher
About the Episode
Behind all the plant rants and dressing up like monstera and pretending to be a fern on social media, Tyler Thrasher has been through more than his fair share of pain. After a childhood of abuse and the sudden and shocking fire that destroyed Tyler and his wife Molly’s home a few years ago, you’d think Tyler might have given up on the inherent goodness of existence. But a wild outpouring of generosity that helped his family survive tragedy turned his perspective completely around.
And through that perspective shift, he knew he owed a karmic debt to return the generosity in kind. Now, Tyler uses his creativity as a platform to support others who have escaped trauma. And it’s those connections—between creativity, curiosity, and trauma—that Tyler and I explore today. Whether we explore our own internal world as we seek inner safety in a world filled with chaos, or turn outward onto the page, or into the lab, or down through ancient caves as a way to escape the turmoil around us, trauma’s imprints have a way of cultivatting our curiosity in one way or another.
Episode Details
About Tyler (he/him)
Tyler Thrasher is an artist, scientist, and plant lover. With an undying love for nature and its respective curiosities, there are few things his brain isn’t obsessing over. Between his pursuits to crystallize the world, opalize everything, and hunt down some of the realm’s most unique plants, his passion to combine art and science every step of the way is his fire and fuel. Chances are if you catch Tyler at a party, he’ll talk your ear off about exploring caves, growing minerals in his lab, playing Dungeons and Dragons, hybridizing new plants, electronic music, grappling with and overcoming trauma, and just how amazingly beautiful and mysterious this whole wide universe is. When he's not spending time crystallizing insects, you can find him in the greenhouse hybridizing plants, cultivating mutations, or screaming into the existential void.
What We Discuss
Our shared love of Sophia Bush.
How art and curiosity and sleeping in a greenhouse as a child was whimsical, but more often served as an escape from trauma Tyler was facing at home.
How going through trauma doesn’t mean you’ll never heal.
How going through a house fire changed Tyler’s mind about the inherent goodness of people, which eventually led to using his art to pay back a karmic debt of generosity.
How Tyler sees his work as a dance back and forth with the universe—which is really just himself—where he gives a little and then the universe gives a little.
The racism of growing up and still living in Tulsa and how art has always been an escape from that.
How systems teach us racism and all of the micro aggressions that feed into Tyler’s desire to give and support Black causes.
Not needing a degree to do science or call yourself a scientist.
Social anxiety, mental health, and how to cope.
Jealousy and scarcity in the art world.
Getting off of social media, stopping comparison, and getting into nature when you feel stuck.
Being exactly who you are and taking up space because there will always be people who hate what you do.
Sources Mentioned
If you don’t know Sophia Bush, my forever crush, you can find her on Instagram here.
Read up on the Tulsa Race Massacre.
All of Tyler’s merch, including the Grow a Damn Journal and his new pressed flower notebook—which is gorgeous!—can be found here. But I’d specifically like to point out his “Hands Off” t-shirt, where 100% of profits made will go to support Youth Services of Tulsa, which helps kids who have survived trauma and abuse.
My friend, Brenton Weyi, who told me about Nathan Myhrvold.
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Credits
Audio engineering by the team at Upfire Digital.
All of my music is provided by the in-house musicians at Slip.stream.
Coming soon, hopefully! Would you be willing to help? Email me at brandi@thisplusthat.com!