Rebecca McMackin

Ecological horticulturist and garden designer who spent a decade as Director of Horticulture at Brooklyn Bridge Park, where she managed 85 acres using organic, habitat-focused practices. She writes, lectures, and teaches about ecological landscape management and pollination ecology.

Make Attention Capture Harder and Connection Easier

Author Catherine Price and horticulturist Rebecca McMackin argue that the obsession with productivity reflects a culture that makes attention capture and measurable output the default while treating play, friendship and contact with nature as indulgences. Price recommends changing those defaults by adding friction to compulsive phone use and protecting activities that need not produce anything, while McMackin makes the case for gardens and less-managed lawns as ways to relinquish control and make room for other life.

TEDSep 22, 202610 min read