Hunters have historically been leading conservation efforts, going back to Teddy Roosevelt, who was himself an avid hunter and huge proponent of the protection of wildlife and wildlife habitat. This merger of hunting and conservation persists today. Matt Podolsky spoke with Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s Chief Conservation Officer Blake Henning about the organizations efforts to maintain the North American Wildlife Conservation Model, recognizing that fish and wildlife belong to all Americans, ...
Mar 14, 2018•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Matt Podolsky and Sean Bogle are down in Mexico filming another installment of the Vaquita story and want to take listeners with them to hear what's happening in San Felipe in real time. And, a lot is happening. In this first entry, Matt and Sean tell you more about what they anticipate is in store for this adventure. We'll add updates to the diary as they become available, so stay tuned for more installments. Join private conversations with top authors and access exclusive bonus content...
Mar 12, 2018•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Lily Raff McCaulou was raised on the East coast as an environmentalist and an animal lover. Although she was a meat-eater, she’d grown up learning that harming animals was wrong. After moving to central Oregon for a reporting job in her early twenties, she began spending weekends fly-fishing and weekdays interviewing hunters for articles and realizing her perception of hunters wasn’t accurate. She met many whose connection to animals and the environment ran deeper than even her own. So, she emba...
Mar 07, 2018•2 hr 42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we pause for a moment, to talk directly to you, our listeners. Matt podolsky and I are working on developing new shows and new show ideas and these discussions always find their way back to one very basic, but crucially important question: “What do listeners want?” Rather than continue talking among ourselves, we wanted to include you in on these discussions, fill you in on our thinking about the show and figure out ways to connect better with you and to connect our listeners with one ano...
Feb 28, 2018•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Although other states have proposed removing controversial topics, such as climate change, from their state science standards, Idaho is the only state in the country whose legislature has actually voted in favor of such an action. The debate over what kids in Idaho should be taught has been going on for 3 years now and will likely come to a head this week as the Idaho Senate Education Committee is set to make a final decision. Matt Podolsky spoke with Rialin Flores, from Conservation Voters for ...
Feb 21, 2018•2 hr 30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Valentine’s Day. A day where we celebrate love in all its many forms. In keeping with the holiday's theme of romantic love and the art of courtship, complete with candy hearts and flying babies slinging arrows, we take a moment to celebrate a slightly different version of this same story. After all, much of the brilliant beauty in nature exists because attracting another is a critical component to a species survival. It’s the reason birds sing, flowers bloom and, as Matt Podolsky explains, C...
Feb 14, 2018•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s guest is river explorer and conservationist Mike Fiebig, who is the Associate Director of the Northern Rockies Office of American Rivers. The lines of Mike’s personal and professional passion for wild rivers and wild places have blurred and he is about to embark on an adventure in advocacy. He and his wife Jenny are taking a human-powered, source-to-sea river trip on the Green and Colorado, from the crest of the Wind River Range (from the Mammoth Glacier) in WY to the Gulf of California ...
Feb 07, 2018•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast On today's episode we discuss a truly unique swath of public land - the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area. This jewel of the National Conservation Lands system is just south of Boise, and this year it’s celebrating 25 years since it’s designation. We talked with two individuals who are playing crucial roles in the continued management and conservation of the NCA, Amanda Hoffman is the NCA manager for the BLM, and Steve Alsup is the president of the Birds of P...
Jan 31, 2018•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Amy Martin is the Founder and Producer of Threshold, one of the most binge-worthy podcasts of 2017. In its first season, listeners were taken to the intersection of nature and humanity on the complex issue of re-wilding bison in the West, diving in deep and revealing the issue in entirely new ways. With Season 2 in the works, EOC producer Matt Podolsky, caught up with Amy to discuss the inspiration behind this captivating show. Join private conversations with top authors and access exclusive bon...
Jan 17, 2018•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast We have covered the events of Standing Rock in many ways, interviewing filmmakers, historians rally marchers, and water protectors on the front lines. But today you will hear from a woman who’s music has cemented a moment in history and created a reverberation of action on a global scale. Raye Zaragoza is a young, multi-talented activist at the forefront of the movement for indigenous rights and environmental justice. Her music has redefined the “protest song” and sparked meaningful dialogue aro...
Dec 06, 2017•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, our host Matt Podolsky interviews CEO and founder of ReAgency Science Communication, Jayde Lovell. Jayde and her team host the YouTube series, SciQ, where they try and bridge the gap between difficult science and the public by making their content engaging, informative and relatable. Their belief in spreading scientific literacy has led them to a partnership with The Young Turks Network and placed their platform on a wider scope covering politics and hot-button scientific issues. Join pri...
Oct 18, 2017•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week’s guest is Laird Lucas, the executive director for Advocates for the West, a non-profit environmental law firm that has dedicated itself to protecting our most valuable and vulnerable natural resource: Mother Nature. Their team is a roaring voice and strong ally in the environmental movement, and their strides in land and wildlife protections across the country and beyond, have paved the way for improved laws and legislation in favor of conservation efforts. Join private conversations ...
Oct 11, 2017•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast So I’m guessing that folks have started to notice that we’ve been lagging behind on our typical weekly release schedule with the show. We are going through a bit of a transition period with the show, and with Wild Lens as a whole - in fact one facet of this transition will be discussed in detail on today’s episode. But regarding the podcast - I just want to assure you that we aren’t going anywhere - we are planning lots of exciting interviews for the coming months and will be back to our weekly ...
Oct 04, 2017•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Katelyn Spradley and Kat Cannell recently undertook a fascinating journey - all in the name of protecting endangered salmon. These two women tracked the path of salmon migration on horseback, traveling from the Pacific coast all the way to the remote mountains of central Idaho. Join private conversations with top authors and access exclusive bonus content! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Get full access to Earth to Humans Podcast's Substack at earthtohumanspodcast.su...
Sep 06, 2017•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s guest, Marcus Eriksen, founded an organization tasked with addressing the many pervasive threats that plastics pose to wildlife and ecosystems all around the globe. The issue of plastic pollution in our oceans has been getting more and more attention recently, and the 5 Gyres Institute has been at the forefront of this movement for almost a decade. This unique organization was launched back in 2008 with a research voyage across the Pacific Ocean, which was conducted on a small raft made ...
Aug 16, 2017•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we are discussing a truly unique and fascinating project that has been implemented in Scotland, called Project Wolf. Now despite the title, this is not an actual wolf re-introduction project. Although the organization managing the project, Trees for Life, is interested in eventually re-introducing wolves in Scotland, they recognize this to be a long-term goal. So in the meantime, they have organized human wolf packs. These are small groups of people tasked with wandering through the Scotti...
Jul 19, 2017•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Many of our listeners are likely aware that this past Saturday was International Save the Vaquita Day, and we spent a lot of time putting together a very special city-wide event here in Boise, ID where I reside. Our partners for this event included the Mexican Consulate Office here in Boise, the Discovery Center of Idaho, JUMP Boise, the Aquarium of Boise, and local Mexican restaurant El Gallo Giro. We held screenings of our film, Souls of the Vermilion Sea, gave presentations about the vaquita,...
Jul 12, 2017•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Already this summer we have experienced record-breaking heat waves. As I prepare this episode for release on our nation’s independence day, it’s over 100 degrees where I live in Boise, Idaho. Of course, every time I see news of record breaking temperatures I’m reminded of our rapidly changing climate - but these days I’m also reminded of something else. The solar panels that were recently installed on my roof. Long hot days mean that those panels are generating more energy - actually more than w...
Jul 05, 2017•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we are digging into our interview archives to explore a particularly bizarre and fascinating question - how can an endangered species recovery program assist in solving a missing-persons case? The interviews that you’ll be hearing in today’s episode were recorded during production for my first film, Scavenger Hunt, an hour long documentary about California condor recovery and the issue of lead poisoning from spent ammunition. In addition to former condor recovery program field manager Eddi...
Jun 28, 2017•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s guest on the show rode his bike over 2,000 miles from Canada to Mexico along the Pacific coast - carrying a trailer with a life-sized rhino behind him! Matt Meyer is a South African safari guide who was inspired to take action to help protect declining rhino populations - and just this past week he completed what he calls the Rhino Ride! Join private conversations with top authors and access exclusive bonus content! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Get full ac...
Jun 21, 2017•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s guests on the show are working to empower local entrepreneurs and bring solar power to the Buffer Zone communities of Nepal. Moira Hanes is the co-founder and board chair of Empowered by Light, and Anya Cherneff is the co-founder and executive director of Empower Generation. These two organizations have come together to implement a project that will provide solar power to ranger stations within Chitwan National Park in Nepal. These rangers are on the front lines of protecting wildlife fr...
Jun 14, 2017•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s guest on the show is Monica Bond from the Wild Nature Institute. Monica was one of our first guests on the podcast - she was featured in episode 6 of the show. At that time we had recently completed two short films about the research and conservation work being conducted by the Wild Nature Institute in Tanzania - and we’ll get a quick update on these important conservation projects going on in East Africa before delving into the main topic of today’s conversation - the ecological importa...
Jun 07, 2017•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast In today’s show we are exploring and comparing the extinction crises experienced by two very different wildlife species - the California condor, and the vaquita. If you’ve been following the latest news about the vaquita, then you’ve probably already heard a number of comparisons between the situation faced by this small species of porpoise and that faced by the condor in the early 1980s. A lot of folks have been drawing this comparison between these two high profile endangered species issues - ...
May 31, 2017•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we are bringing you a very special episode from Eyes on Conservation correspondent Kristin Tieche. Some of you may recognize Kristin’s voice from the episode that we did on the March for Science - she was reporting from the San Francisco March for Science event in episode 119 of the show. As many of our listeners are likely aware, the following Saturday after the March for Science was another day of action - the People’s Climate March. Kristin didn't just participate in this march - sh...
May 24, 2017•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’re taking this week off, but thought we’d dig into our archives and re-visit one of our most popular episodes of the show - episode 53 about the occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. This interview with the conservation director of the Audubon Society of Portland, Bob Sallinger, was conducted back in January of 2016 while the occupation was still going on. Bob put the situation in context by providing some important historical background on the refuge, which was created back in 1908...
May 17, 2017•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s guest on the show is Zak Smith from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Zak is a Senior Attorney at NRDC, and has been running the group’s Marine Mammal Protection Project for the past 10 years. Through this work, he has become deeply involved in efforts to save the vaquita from extinction. If you’re wondering what a vaquita is - it’s a small species of porpoise found in the northern Gulf of California, and is considered to be the world’s most endangered marine mammal with fewer than ...
May 10, 2017•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today on the podcast we are discussing a particularly interesting viral media story that I’m guessing a bunch of folks out there in the audience may have come across recently. Researchers Evan Buechley and Ethan Frehner recently published a scientific paper about an interesting and previously undocumented behavior of a very common species here in the North American West - the American badger. Evan and Ethan captured time-lapse footage showing a badger bury an entire cow carcass. Now not only did...
May 03, 2017•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast As many of our listeners are likely aware, we engaged in an experiment this past weekend and sent five EOC correspondents out to cover five different March for Science events all across the US. Today’s episode is the end result of that experiment! The episode starts off in Washington, D.C. - the main event this past Saturday, Earth Day 2017. The Washington, D.C. march was attended by tens of thousands of people, and featured a number of prominent speakers. Although many scientific issues were ra...
Apr 26, 2017•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we are bringing you a special Earth Day bonus episode of the show! We have a lot going on this Earth Day - today marks the online release of our newest documentary film, Souls of the Vermilion Sea - about the struggle to save the vaquita from extinction. We’re super excited to be releasing this new 30-min doc for free online streaming! Click here to watch the film, or go to vaquitafilm.com . We are celebrating this online release with today’s bonus episode of the show, in which we are feat...
Apr 22, 2017•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today’s guest on the show is Rosalyn LePier. Rosalyn is an environmental historian, ethnobotanist, and indigenous writer. She is a professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Montana, a research associate an the National Museum of Natural History, and is currently a visiting professor of Women’s studies, Environmental Studies and Native American religion at the Harvard Divinity School at Harvard University. She is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe and also identifies as Métis...
Apr 19, 2017•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
