Wild Voices Project

Aidan Gallagher is a world-renowned actor and singer and also a UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador and one of the youngest ever Goodwill Ambassadors. You can find him at https://www.aidanrgallagher.com and http://www.twitter.com/aidanrgallagher. This episode and interview are brought to you (with our huge gratitude) by Kate on Conservation (http://www.twitter.comKateonConsrvation and http://www.kateonconservation.com), and was recorded at the Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference in London in 2018. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at http://www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

This episode is a conversation with James Glancy (https://www.jamesglancy.com/biography and https://twitter.com/jaglancy) who is a host of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, a conservationist who works with Veterans For Wildlife supporting the work of wildlife rangers in many African countries, and a former marine. In this conversation we talk about a childhood where he felt a passion for nature and picked up a love of diving, how his military expertise has translated into helping rangers defend some of the planet’s most endangered species, and what rewilding means to him. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

Welcome to another episode of the Wild Voices Project podcast with me, Matt Williams. It has been quite some time since I’ve published an episode - a new house, a new girlfriend, a new dog and a new baby mean that life has been somewhat busy in the past year. So I put the podcast on pause for a while. But we’re back - and to begin with it’s with some episodes recorded around a year ago. So in listening to this episode and some of the upcoming ones please bear in mind that they are around 12 months old and were recorded prior to the coronavirus epidemic. But I believe there’s still huge, timeless value in these conversations. I hope you and your loved ones are well during this strange and concerning time. Many of us are very privileged by having access to nature and the outdoors right now. And I recognise that both I, and many of my guests, fall into that category. I hope that hearing about wildlife and nature might also provide some solace during this time. This episode is a cracker - it’s with the so-called ‘godfather of biodiversity’ Professor Thomas Lovejoy. Thomas Lovejoy is a Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation, an expert on climate and biological dynamics in the Amazon, he was previously the biodiversity advisor to the World Bank, and is known for being the first person to coin the word ‘biodiversity’. In this episode, we discuss using high mist nets to catch spine-tailed swifts in the Amazon rainforest, the tipping points caused by fragmentation that could lead to irreversible dieback, and how he keeps his energy levels up for office work and advising decision-makers and achieves an emotional or professional reset at the start of each day. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

This episode of Wild Voices Project is a special one because I’m talking to Dr David Bullock, who is the National Trust’s Head of Habitat and Species Conservation. On 18 May 2019 David is retiring after over two decades at the Trust. During my first year at the National Trust he has been one of the amazing people who work for the Trust who has made it so enjoyable. He has taught me so much about ecology and wildlife during that time - he’s one of the most knowledgeable people I’ve ever met. He has been so supportive of me as a new person in the Trust and become a true friend. I’m sure I’m not alone within the Trust in saying that I will truly miss David - a person who is full of joy, passion and generosity and always willing to spend some time having a conversation over a coffee. So publishing this episode is a tribute to David. It’s my way of saying thank you. At the time of recording I didn’t know that David was going to be retiring. We open with David’s first encounter with “wildlife” - an unforgettable childhood tussle with a goat. We talk about kickstarting natural processes and how important the ‘climate of fear’ created by predators and carnivores can be for the wider ecosystems and landscapes. We talk about how the National Trust’s approach to looking after nature has changed, and we cover trendy beavers and the Lundy cabbage, and the cabbage’s endemic invertebrate, too. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

Scott Haber began as a bioengineering student, but transitioned into nature-based mindfulness practice after learning from a woman who was practising traditional Andean ways. Scott then received the Bonderman Fellowship which allowed him to visit traditional, nature-based cultures around the world and learn from them. He now undertakes a unique blend of shared interests, including writing, making films and taking photographs while also leading nature-based mindfulness classes and courses. He’s also practising environmental advocacy, particularly helping the Shuar community in Ecuador protect their land from petrochemical developments and exploitation. You can find Scott at his website (https://www.scotthaber.com/) and you can find out more about him and links to his work on the 'about’ page of his website (https://www.scotthaber.com/about-me/).

In May 2018 I was lucky enough to be able to join the Treshnish Isles Auk Ringing Group (http://tiarg.org/) on their trip to Lunga. This small, uninhabited island is part of the Treshnish Isles off the west coast of Scotland. But while no people live there, it’s full of thousands and thousands of seabirds. We were there to survey one seabird in particular: the Manx shearwater. The UK is home to 90% of the world population of ‘manxies’, as they’re also known. This episode is a bit different to normal. It captures some of the sounds of the island, and through conversations with the friends and teammates I worked with also gives an insight into the fieldwork we undertook. I’d like to say a huge thank you to Turus Mara (https://www.turusmara.com/ and https://twitter.com/Turus_Mara)), the boat company who got us to the islands. The Joint Nature Conservation Committee receive and analyse the data, as do Scottish Natural Heritage, who also cover some of the costs of the trip. And the Hebridean Trust own the islands and grant us access to them. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

Jo Roberts is Chief Executive of the Wilderness Foundation (https://www.wildernessfoundation.org.uk). She has served as its CEO since 2004. The Foundation works to transform the lives of young people from challenged and challenging backgrounds through wilderness experiences and thereby to demonstrate the value of wilderness. Jo and the Foundation run workshops, mentoring and expeditions at their base in Essex, in Scotland and in South Africa. Disclaimer: since I recorded this conversation with Jo I’ve become one of the Trustees of the Foundation. Jo grew up in South Africa and trained there as an anthropologist during the period of apartheid. We discuss her upbringing and her early love of wildlife and the outdoors. We talk about the skills she has developed through her experiences in the wilderness. And we talk about some of the questions and techniques she uses to support and challenge the young people she works with, in order to help to change or even radically transform their life paths. Jo is one of the most thoughtful and inspiring people I’ve had the chance to work with (and we have had the chance to work together on a number of projects over the past couple of years) and I’m looking forward to doing more with her and the Foundation in the years to come. I’m hoping, next year, to volunteer to help on one of the expeditions and combine my love of camping and Scotland with helping some of the young people and getting to know the organisation better. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

Emily Mott (http://www.emilymott.com) is a photographer and environmental activist. She was educated at The Putney School, Dartmouth College and Art Center College of Design. In New York City she worked as a pastry chef and book reviewer before turning to photography. Among her clients have been Rolling Stone magazine, the New Yorker, the Telegraph, Waitrose, Ikea, British Airways and many others. In 2013 Complex.com named her as one of the 25 best travel photographers in the world. She does pro bono photography work for Friends without Borders, Portsmouth Bangali Community Association and the Rural Refugee Network among others. She lives on a farm in West Sussex with her husband, two children, eight chickens and a cat. Emily has also been an instrumental figure in the local activist movement to save Markwells Wood from fossil fuel exploration (https://www.markwellswoodwatch.org/). In this conversation we cover her photography work and her approach to documenting beautiful landscapes and environmental destruction, including in Borneo. We also go into some detail about the risks that fracking poses to our countryside and environment, the planning regulations that apply to it and the tactics that Emily and her fellow activists have used in their local campaign. You can contact Emily at emily@emilymott.com. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

This conversation is with Teleri Fielden (@TeleriFielden), the National Trust and Welsh Young Farmers scholar at Llyndy Isaf farm in Snowdonia. Teleri was recently featured on the BBC’s Snowdonia Shepherdess programme. She looks after a farm on the slopes of the Welsh mountains in Snowdonia. And in this conversation tells us about her experience in this landscape and how farming cattle and sheep can be beneficial for wildlife and conservation. Teleri’s interest in farming and the outdoors comes from spending time as a child on her grandfather’s farm. She tells us how that turned into her opportunity to take on the scholarship at Llyndy for three years. She also talks about some of her encounters with wildlife in the landscape. And she tells us how skills from marketing roles have helped her in her farming career to date. This is a very special episode of the Wild Voices Project podcast in collaboration with the Meet the Farmers podcast (http://thinkingcountry.com/meet-the-farmers-podcast) presented by Ben Eagle (@benjy_eagle). The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

Lizzie Daly (http://www.lizziedalywildlife.com/) is a wildlife filmmaker and presenter. You can find her on twitter @_LizzieDaly and her youtube channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC20DGpTHgqDlgctp6jDkmZg. Lizzie is a biologist and broadcaster, a wildlife filmmaker both in front of and behind the camera for BBC Earth Unplugged, CBeebies and NatGeo Kids. She’s also the founder of the “Do You Suck” plastic waste campaign in five UK cities. I met Lizzie at BBC Countryfile Live over the summer and her passion and energy shone through during her talk on stage. I was really lucky to have the chance to speak to her earlier this year at Cardiff public library. In this conversation we discuss how her early persistence to succeed academically translated into determination to succeed in wildlife filmmaking. We cover the role that technology has played in helping her to develop films for herself and build her career from scratch. We talk about her passion for African elephants and for British wildlife, and share our respective views on puffins and other seabirds. And Lizzie also describes how a past mistake (or what seemed like a mistake at the time during an audition) set her up for future success. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitcher.

This is a conversation recorded by Kate Snowdon (https://kateonconservation.com/ and https://twitter.com/KateConsrvation ). Tania Esteban (https://www.treproductions.co.uk/ is a bilingual wildlife filmmaker and researcher who has worked with the BBC on various films, including Big Cats, which was her first break into the BBC. She has worked as a researcher on big titles such as Wild Cities and on digital projects for Our Planet, Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II. Kate talks to Tania about this experience so far, and her own film A Lion’s Tale, which is about the Born Free Foundation, and how this ties in with wider issues of the illegal wildlife trade. We hear Tania’s tips for making it as a wildlife filmmaker, who to find a niche in terms of style and technology – she shares her story of why she focussed on drones and their applications for both conservation research and wildlife filmmaking. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitchr. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

We live in a era of disconnection from our direct experiences of life - from ourselves, from each other and from the natural world we're all integrally part of. Why? Because in the Western world in particular, we've chosen to 'develop our minds' so much that our habitual mode of being ("autopilot mode") is lost in the individual and collective thoughts and narratives of our conscious minds -without even being aware of it. This had led us to become significantly disconnected from our bodies and senses, from our direct experience and ultimately from nature within us and around us. We have forgotten how to pay attention and listen to nature - which we all have an innate bond with. According to Claire Thompson, author and explorer of mindfulness and nature (http://mindfulness-of-nature.com/ and https://twitter.com/NatureMindful, this disconnection is the root cause of most of the unnecessary suffering and problems which we face in the world today. Mindfulness is about becoming aware of all the different aspects of our experience of aliveness in an open, compassionate and non-judgmental way. This awareness gives us the choice as to which parts of our experience we tune into. Claire believes that a world that is more mindful of nature will be happier, more peaceful and on the road to sustainability - it's time to bring our awareness back to nature! In this conversation, Claire covers how simple practices like finding a ‘sit spot’ can help us to develop a mindful approach to the natural world and in turn to the rest of our lives. Taking this more mindful approach to life can help us to deal with challenging situations and become more aware of our emotional reactions and where they come from. We are part of nature and nature is part of us, so Claire sees it as common sense for us to undertake mindfulness in a natural setting since it heightens our senses and perception. Practising mindfulness can also be a great way to see wildlife and to enter a state of stillness that encourages it to become more confiding and come closer. Claire also describes how she fell in love with Central and South America, and explains how she has left her day job in order to move there this winter to lead workshops and retreats where she hopes to inspire many more to reconnect with the natural world - through mindfulness meditations, discussions, games, hikes and shared experiences of the wilderness in beautiful places. And she explains the linkages between mindful experiences of nature and our motivation to protect things that we love. In turn, she explains that mindful experiences of nature might be able to help us conserve and restore it. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitchr. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

Diogo Veríssimo (https://www.diogoverissimo.com and @verissimodiogo) is a social scientist focussing on how marketing and insights into human behaviour can help us to tackle conservation issues, particularly human-wildlife conflict and the illegal trade in wildlife. He’s an Oxford Martin Fellow, part of the Oxford Martin programme on the illegal wildlife trade. In 2016 he was given the Young Professional Award by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Commission of Education and Communication and in 2017 he received the Early Career Conservationist Award from the Society for Conservation Biology. In this conversation he tells us how tripping over a fossil was how he stumbled into an interest in the natural world. And he tells us how he realised that nature conservation is fundamentally dependent on human actions and interactions with the natural world. And then Diogo explains how social marketing and influencing human behaviour can help us to protect wildlife, creating incentives rather than imposing rules and regulations. This marketing can take the form of focusing on charismatic umbrella species that are particularly appealing but which are connected to others. Diogo also tells us about the Lost and Found project he founded, about species previously thought to have gone extinct that have been rediscovered. And he also tells us about setting up ‘I Fucking Love Biodiversity’ (https://www.facebook.com/Ilovebiodiversity/ and The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitchr. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

Dr Sharon Blackie (@sharonblackie and www.sharonblackie.net) is a psychologist and mythologist and presenter of The Hedge School podcast (www.thehedgeschool.org/) on the theme of a new folk culture. She’s also an award-winning writer of several books including ‘The Enchanted Life’, ‘If Women Rose Rooted’ and ‘The Long Delirious Burning Blue’. We talk about Sharon’s realisation that she was unhappy in a corporate role working in London that was affecting her mental wellbeing. Her mother’s move to a tiny cottage in rural Wales spurred her to uphaul her life and reconnect with nature. We explore the impacts on our natural world of the unhappiness and disconnection that so many of us, including Sharon, have felt. The conversation also touches on how a rootedness in place, tradition, nature and the feminine can help to heal both ourselves and the natural world. In Sharon’s view, western philosophy has played a significant role in the ‘disenchantment’ with the natural world that we suffer from today. Sharon shares the beautiful story of the mythical selkies, half-woman half-seal, that she explains can help us to understand the importance of female intuition and wisdom. And I think Sharon’s explanation of this story is emblematic of her wider ability in this episode to tell beautiful and allegorical stories and anecdotes that contain powerful lessons about our connection to the natural world. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. You can find us online at www.wildvoicesproject.org and @WildVoicesProj on twitter. And you can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and Stitchr. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

This episode is a special compilation for the best bits from the People’s Walk for Wildlife on 22 September 2018. Thank you so much to Chris Packham for organising this amazing event. In order of appearance, you’ll hear from: Chris Packham Kate Snowdon Mike Dilger Caroline Mead Stephen Moss Beth Aucott Bill Oddie Pete Cooper Danny Heptinstall Mike McCarthy Kate Jennings Guy Shrubsole and Louisa Casson Georgia Locock Melanie Coath Martin Harper Charley Miller The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

Benedict Allen (benedictallen.com) is one of the world’s foremost explorers. You can follow him on twitter @benedictallen. He’s the writer of a plethora of books, including ‘Into the Crocodile Nest: A Journey Inside New Guinea’, ‘Hunting the Gugu’, ‘Into the Abyss’, ‘Edge of Blue Heaven: A Journey Through Mongolia’, ‘The Skeleton Coast: Journey Through the Namib Desert’, ‘Mad White Giant’, and presenter of six BBC television series. He’s the only person to have crossed the full width of the Gobi desert alone except for camels. He’s well known for his technique of immersing himself with indigenous communities and avoiding taking technology with him on expedition. He has survived many near-death experiences, including sewing up his own chest-wound with his boot-mending kit after being abandoned by his guides in Sumatra. In this episode we discuss his inspiration from his air pilot father, how he developed the mental and physical resilience to go on months-long solo expeditions in his 20s. He describes enduring brutal initiation ceremonies in Papua New Guinea with the crocodile cult, that involved being beaten every day five times a day with bamboo blades, a ceremony that no outsider had before experienced; encountering snakes in the Mongolian desert. And we talk about how exploration can help us understand the current mass extinction of wildlife we are experiencing and causing. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

Steph West (@BatGirlSteph78) is UK Biodiversity Training Manager at the Natural History Museum. In this episode I got a fascinating behind the scenes look at the work the NHM does but that you may not have heard about: training the next generation of specialist ecologists (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/take-part/identification-trainers-for-the-future.html) and helping to conserve the world’s wildlife, as well as preserving specimens of dead animals and lost species. I also learn about Steph’s early fascination with bats. And she tells us that the skills she developed in the financial sector translate directly across to her career in conservation. Steph also shares her view on what it’s like to work at the Museum, as well as telling us about how and where specimens are stored and some of her favourites, including the mysterious ‘spirit birds’. You can read more about Steph at this link: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/departments-and-staff/staff-directory/stephanie-west.html The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

Mercy Kariuki is Local Engagement and Empowerment Coordinator for BirdLife Africa. She tells the story of how she fell in love with the birds of her home country, Kenya and how she developed her leadership skills through setting up an environmental group at her school. Mercy also explains the community projects that she helps to coordinate in order to create habitat for bird species in a range of African countries. And she discusses why she thinks conservation needs more women leaders, and the lessons she has drawn from the women who have inspired her. Mercy also tells us about Njabini Wool Crafters (NWC) which is a youth-led, conservation focused co-op that aims at building an economically viable organisation while at the same time driving conservation of the Kinangop Plateau Grasslands, home to the critically endangered Sharpe's Longclaw bird species. NWC provides training and skills development in the areas of wool product design, spinning and weaving to young people in the Kinangop area and works closely with farmers to enhance their income from sheep farming. You can find out more about the projects here https://www.rufford.org/projects/mercy_kariuki and here http://www.nwc.co.ke/index.php. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

Louie Psihoyos is a Greek-American filmmaker, photographer and director. He began his career as one of the first new photographers that National Geographic had hired in several years. He is perhaps best known as the Director of The Cove, about the slaughter of dolphins in Japan, which won an Oscar in 2010. He has also made the film Racing Extinction, about the sixth global mass extinction. And he’s currently working on The Gamechangers with James Cameron, a film about vegan super athletes due out later this year. He’s also the Founder and Chief Executive of the Oceanic Preservation Society which works to bring together artists and activists to protect the oceans and the planet. In the course of this conversation we talk about how Louie pioneered a new form of environmental journalism when he was at National Geographic, how a chance meeting with Stephen Spielberg, and a passion for dinosaurs, ignited an interest in extinction, and why he believes that a plant-based diet is the best for our health, our wallets and the planet. This is a fascinating conversation with one of the world’s leading environmental filmmakers and advocates. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

Dr James Borrell (@James_Borrell) is a conservationist, explorer, scientist and communicator. He describes himself as a conservation biologist who has been involved in expeditions and fieldwork around the world. His main interests are the impacts of habitat fragmentation and of climate change on species. He’s known for his uncompromising and challenging attitude towards conservation orthodoxies and practices. You can read many of his opinions on conservation on the blog on his website (http://www.jamesborrell.com/). And you can watch his brilliant TEDx talk on optimism in conservation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lJg4GEjj6M. During this episode we cover why optimism plays such an important role in his conservation outlook, why James thinks we shouldn’t be spending our money and time trying to protect wildlife in the UK. He reminisces about his early expeditions to Madagascar and talks about the important role expeditions and exploring can play in forming new conservationists and he explains why he thinks more healthy disagreement is what’s needed to help secure environmental progress. James is one of the most well-rounded guests I’ve had the pleasure to interview and this is a really good conversation. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

This conversation was recorded by Kate Snowdon (https://kateonconservation.com/ and @KateConsrvation) and kindly shared with the Wild Voices Project podcast. It’s a conversation with the renowned international conservationist Dr Jane Goodall. Jane is best known for her work studying chimps in Gombi which she did predominantly with National Geographic in the 1960s. She was the first person to observe chimps in the wild using tools which redefined the way we saw chimps, and humans in relation to them. Kate was lucky enough to talk to Jane about her time in Gombi, as well as about Roots & Shoots (https://www.rootsnshoots.org.uk/), which is a major part of Jane Goodall’s life today. She works with education groups across the globe in over 100 countries to put together projects and programmes related to the environment, people and wildlife. This conversation was recorded at the 2017 global Roots & Shoots summit. A huge thanks to Kate for sharing this audio with us, and it’s likely that Kate will be bringing us a few more interviews in the future. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited to ‘curate the BBC’s Tweet of the Week’ archive. This meant I was given the chance to introduce the Tweet of the Day (daily birdsong) on BBC Radio 4 for two weeks. This was an incredible opportunity and I’d like to say a big thank you to Andrew Dawes, the Tweet of the Week producer, who invited me. This episode is a little behind the scenes glance at my day at BBC Radio Bristol. I managed to record a conversation with Andrew, a seasoned natural history producer, as well as with Emily Knight (@EmilyPKnight) and Becky Ripley (@Becky_Ripley), the presenters of the amazing Blue Planet II podcast. The Blue Planet II podcast is incredibly informative and fun and well worth having a listen to. You can hear the podcasts of my Tweet of the Week here (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p068w3tf) and here (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p069jt4n) on the BBC website. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

In this conversation I talk to Ashley Bell (@AshMichaelBell), actress and director of a new film about the plight of the Asian elephant. We discuss the little-known story of the threats to Asian elephants, whose numbers are far fewer than those of the African elephant. Ashley talks about the process of producing the film and working with renowned Asian conservationist Lek Chailert, and she also explains what lessons and techniques she took from her work in horror movies into producing an environmental documentary. Ashley Bell is a film, television and theatre actress. She won an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in The Last Exorcism as well as an MTV Movie Award. Ashley wrote, directed and produced the feature-length documentary Love and Bananas: An Elephant Story (http://loveandbananas.com/ or @LoveandBananas), and she’s a US Ambassador for Cruelty Free International. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

This conversation is with scientist and primate expert Erin Kane (@Diana_monkey). In the course of this podcast we talk about Erin’s work on Diana monkeys in Côte d’Ivoire and her work on orangutans in Borneo. We discuss her research findings on monkeys, collecting poo samples and how dancing helped her build up confidence for fieldwork. We also cover the cognitive load and impact of sexual harassment faced by many women in the scientific setting and in fieldwork settings. Erin Kane (https://erinelizkane.net/) is a postdoctoral research associate at Boston University, working with Dr. Cheryl Knott on a project examining life history influences on orangutan feeding ecology in Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, with an emphasis on nutritional and endocrine analysis. She completed her PhD at Ohio State University in 2017. Her dissertation examined the social, ecological, and reproductive consequences of seasonal changes in food availability for Diana monkeys living in Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire. She is broadly interested in understanding primate responses to fluctuating food availability, particularly from socioecological, endocrine, and morphological perspectives. She also aims to make anthropology and primatology more inclusive and accessible sciences for a diverse group of scientists. When Erin isn't in a rain forest chasing primates and collecting their urine and feces, she loves taking ballet and spending time with her fantastic cat, Triceratops. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

Dr Richard Benwell (@RSBenwell) is a policy advisor at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He’s former Head of Government Affairs for the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust (which is the role he was in at the time of this interview). In this conversation we discuss how we can restore our waterways to good health, why regulation, policy and legislation are so important for our wildlife, how Brexit can be an opportunity to increase environmental protection and his advice on the skills that are needed for a career in environmental politics. Richard is a good friend and we’ve worked together over a number of years, particularly when we were both working at the RSPB. So it was really good fun to interview him for the podcast. He’s one of the most eloquent, well-informed and friendly people I know in the environmental movement. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

Hannah Fraser is the world’s leading underwater dancer and mermaid. Hannah uses her incredible abilities to create breathtaking photos and videos drawing attention to the plight of marine wildlife. In fact Hannah Fraser (or Hannah Mermaid (@HannahMermaid) as she also likes to be called) created the vocation of 'freelance mermaid' and has been featured worldwide for her underwater ocean conservation and performance art, creating her own spectacular tails, performing for film, music videos, campaigns, photo shoots, public speaking events, festivals & environmental actions. She swims with sharks, whales dolphins, seals, turtles, rays and more in the open ocean. Hannah can hold her breath for minutes at a time and freedive to depths of over 50 feet. She broke records as the first person to dance with Tiger Sharks on the ocean floor with no scuba or snorkel gear, and was part of an activist group who paddled out to protect dolphins from slaughter in the academy award winning film ’The Cove’. She has worked with my previous guest, Shawn Heinrichs (underwater cameraman and photographer) and together they released a short film called Mantas Last Dance that propelled Manta rays into the public eye and helped pass a law to protect mantas worldwide. She is an advocate for ocean protection, female empowerment, animal conservation and universal love! In this incredible conversation we talk about where her passion for the oceans stems from, how she thinks we can reconnect with marine wildlife and of course she describes some of her incredible experiences dancing underwater with humpback whales, tiger sharks and manta rays. You can find more about Hannah at her website www.hannahmermaid.com. Here are just a few of her incredible videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHY1gYZdyy0 (TEDx talk) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Epc6v9Z5A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG1dzH_VFzY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q250FnLH74M The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

Joe Harkness (@birdtherapy) is a birdwatcher and blogger who focuses on the benefits of birdwatching for mental health. He runs the Bird Therapy blog (birdtherapy.blog) sharing these stories, and is currently fundraising to get his book on this topic published (unbound.com/books/bird-therapy). This is a hugely powerful and important conversation about a tough topic that doesn’t get enough coverage. And I’m so grateful that Joe is taking it on in such a public and bold way. I’ve had personal experience of mental health issues and so it was a huge privilege to speak to Joe, whose writing I’ve been following for a few years. I’m really proud to publish this conversation with him. In this conversation, which is gritty, raw and honest, we cover Joe’s battles with drugs and depression and he talks about his attempts to take his own life. And we also cover some amazing, beautiful and hilarious stories about birdwatching, and how rediscovering this passion helped him at one of his lowest moments. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

This is a special episode of the podcast to coincide with International Dawn Chorus Day, which is celebrated in over 80 countries worldwide and has been running since the 1980s. It brings people together to listen to one of the most amazing spectacles in the natural world - the cacophony of birdsong at this time of year. This episode is a short recording of a walk I did on this morning in early May, covering some of the birds I can hear at my local nature reserve. If you’re interested in hearing the dawn chorus, then you can go out and find it in your local garden, park, nature reserve or woodland. If you’d like to learn about birdsong or do it as part of a group then lots of organisations run birdsong and dawn chorus events, like the National Trust, the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts. As I promised during the episode, here are a few of the birds I heard and some of the more common ones you might hear if you go out and listen for yourself: Blackcap https://bit.ly/2IgiD0J Goldcrest https://bit.ly/2FNrfXm Chiffchaff https://bit.ly/2HRYYFb Song thrush https://bit.ly/2JSyfog Blackbird https://bit.ly/2rnbH8l Cuckoo https://bit.ly/2JXoZiG Willow warbler https://bit.ly/2FNNtbY Great tit https://bit.ly/2FLDcwU Skylark https://bit.ly/2rmhRWs Robin https://bit.ly/2rpVyOI Whitethroat https://bit.ly/2jySSe3 The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

Lucy Purdy (@loosepea) is editor of Positive News (@PositiveNewsUK), a magazine that publishes ‘constructive journalism’ – good journalism about good things. She is originally from Shropshire but has lived in London for more than 10 years. Previously, she was a freelance journalist, writing about nature connection and other topics for the likes of Guardian Sustainable Business, The Simple Things magazine, Oh Comely magazine, the New Statesman and various gardening titles. She is passionate about growing food and about composting, and loves spending time in nature, running and making things. If you visit the Positive News website you can read some of the articles, subscribe or donate. In this conversation we cover the power of positive journalism to change people’s media diets as well as to inspire them to take action. Lucy describes the lengths she will go to in order to achieve the perfect compost mix, and we discuss the important relationship between nature and the language we use to describe it. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

Sean Conway (@Conway_Sean) is an endurance adventurer who, among other things, has cycled, swum and run the length of Great Britain in a triathlon of incredible feats. His books, Lands End to John O’Groats, Hell and High Water, and Running Britain, each tell the tale of these three journeys. Sean previously attempted to cycle around the world but was knocked off his bike. I managed to record this episode in a short few days between the publication of his latest book, Running Britain, and his departure to set a new record for cycling 8000 miles across Europe. You can follow this latest adventure at www.yellowjersey.co.uk. Sean is a truly inspirational human being who has helped me to push past some of my own self-imposed boundaries in my walking and particularly my running. As well as this, his books are infused with a genuine connection to the landscape and wildlife that make up the British countryside. He grew up in Zimbabwe where his father was a game ranger and experienced a childhood full of wildlife like rhinos. This appreciation for wilderness and wildlife has clearly stayed with him to this day, not just in his adventuring but also in his descriptions of encounters with pods of dolphins or being awoken in his tent by birdsong. In this conversation we discuss Sean’s appreciation for Britain’s countryside and landscapes, his refined skill for growing an amazing beard, and where he finds the strength to push through the most challenging parts of his adventures. And he shares his perspective on how anyone can make their life more adventurous through day to day decisions. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

Shawn Heinrichs (@shawnheinrichs) is an Emmy-award winning cinematographer, photographer and underwater diver. Since transitioning out of a career in the finance industry he has become a champion for the oceans. He has been involved in notable conservation successes, not least of which the listing of manta rays as a scheduled species under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species. His images and videos have featured in news and media outlets the world over. He has gone to extreme lengths, going undercover to document the illegal trade in marine species, and you can see this in the film Racing Extinction. while also creating incredibly beautiful underwater videos of dancers interacting with species like whale sharks that have gone viral. It really is worth checking out these videos here, here and here. Shawn is also the Founder of Blue Sphere Foundation (@bluespherefdn) which is working to safeguard the planet’s oceans. You can see more of his videos on his youtube channel. In this conversation we talk about his childhood in South Africa where he developed his passion for wildlife, that transition from finance to becoming an ocean champion, the role that diet plays in his physical and mental health, depression, his engagement with local communities, and he recounts the amazing story of an intimate encounter with a baby humpback whale. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

Joshua Styles is an incredible young man. Before he even graduated from university he had a job with an ecological consultancy firm. He has been taken on as a volunteer botanical recorder by several of the environmental NGOs in his local area. And he’s the founder of the North West Rare Plants Initiative (http://nwrpi.weebly.com/) which is his effort to recover and restore plants and flowers in the northwest of England. He does this primarily by identifying suitable sites and cultivating specimens at home for introduction. But he has been growing his own plants at home since around the age of seven or eight, and he developed incredible botanical expertise as a teenager. At his university he was awarded for designing the campus’s first ever biodiversity action plan. So, our conversation covers not only his favourite plants and landscapes for finding them, but we also discuss what he thinks drives him to be such an accomplished self-starter and expert botanist. You can find out more about Joshua by following him @Joshual951. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals. Find out more about us at wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

John B Weller and Cassandra Brooks are a married couple based in Boulder, Colorado. Cassandra Brooks is an incoming Assistant Professor in Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. She’s worked in marine science and public outreach for twenty years, with the last 13 years largely centered on the remote reaches of Antarctica. She recently completed her PhD at Stanford University studying international ocean policy, with a focus on marine protection in the Antarctic. During her previous graduate work at Moss Landing Marine Labs, she studied Antarctic toothfish in the Ross Sea, a population that supports the most remote fishery on Earth. Cassandra was formally trained as a Science Communicator through the University of California Santa Cruz and has published more than 150 articles and multi-media stories about marine science and the environment. She has also worked with international non-profits to produce media promoting policy designed to protect ecologically important regions of the globe while writing policy reports to identify important areas for marine protection in the Antarctic and elsewhere. She currently contributes to National Geographic’s Ocean Views blog while working as a science advisor for international conservation organisations. John Weller is a partner with organizations that fight for marine protections around the world. After graduating from Stanford in Economics, he achieved critical acclaim as a writer and photographer. An impassioned observer of nature, he followed a path through the Colorado desert to the waters of the Antarctic, and has been working on Ross Sea conservation as a SeaWeb Fellow since 2005. After four trips to the Ross Sea, including three months of diving under the ice as a guest of the United States Antarctic Program, Weller compiled a library of Ross Sea photographs that has been published in dozens of magazines; used by conservation organisations to publicize the Ross Sea all over the world; and showcased at the 2009, 2011, and 2013 Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings. He produced many short films, has an upcoming book, and has worked closely with scientists, policy-makers, and conservation organizations invested in the Ross Sea. John co-founded The Last Ocean project to campaign for the protection of the Ross Sea, which Cassandra also became involved in. In our conversation they describe the incredible story of their campaigning work over many years to seek strong protection for one of the remotest and most pristine marine habitats on Earth. We cover learning to deep sea dive, why toothfish are some of the most interesting marine creatures out there, how to prepare equipment for an Antarctic trip, John’s underwater discovery about how Weddell seals stun their prey, and how you get 24 nations plus the EU (including China, Russia and the US) into a room to negotiate together. And of course we find out whether they were successful in getting global protection for this incredible place. This is one of the longer, maybe the longest, conversation I’ve recorded so far. But it is rich in detailed descriptions of the Antarctic landscape, tips on photographing in extreme environments and analysis and background on how to run an international nature conservation campaign. Image by John B Weller.

Tiffany Francis is an author and artist specialising in nature, wildlife and the outdoors. In a few days’ time her new and first book, Food you can Forage, is being published. In this episode you can get a sneak preview of an excerpt that Tiff reads aloud. Last year she was the winner of an episode of Kirsty’s Handmade Christmas on Channel 4 and when she’s not out foraging for seaweed and spotting amazing birds, she’s likely to be at home in her kitchen cooking up beautiful cakes or concocting homemade alcohol. In this conversation we talk about Tiff’s love of foraging food and why she thinks it’s something anyone can have a go at, her writing process and how she secured a book deal, and her transition in recent days to being full time freelance/self-employed. You can find out more about Tiff at tiffanyimogen.com or @tiffins11 on Twitter. She’ll soon be opening an Etsy shop too where you can buy her artwork.

This episode is a recording with my good friend Crista Valentino, Founder and Director of CoalitionWILD. In this conversation we cover learning the tactics of patience and listening, how to build a global network of peers who can support you - both for personal benefit and as an organisation aiming to create environmental change. We also talk about failures that Crista feels have helped set her up for future success and she shares an incredible story about a young man who travels on his own, from India to Spain, leaving his country for the first ever time, and is now tackling the illegal wildlife trade and inspiring other young people around the world. We discuss the right questions to ask before setting out on a new project, and why we don’t necessarily need more environmentalists or scientists in order to save the world. CoalitionWILD is a global initiative working to connect and equip the world's young change makers to create a wilder world. Crista's professional focus is on developing ways to accelerate projects that support a better future for the planet and integrate a new generation of voices into the environmental movement. You can find out more at www.CoalitionWILD.org or twitter.com/CoalitionWILD and you can apply to become one of CoalitionWILD’s 2018 global ambassadors by visiting CoalitionWILD.org/ambassador (the deadline is 28 February 2018). You can contact Crista at crista@coalitionwild.org and in Crista’s own words, there are so many ways to get involved and they never turn anyone away.

This conversation is with my good friend Carolyn Thompson. I was lucky enough to spend six of my 12 months living in the Indonesian jungle with Caz. We had many a wonderful day together searching for orangutans or following red langur monkeys for hours at a time (wading our way through the waist deep mud and finding plenty of ways to trip or slip over). In this conversation we talk about fieldwork mistakes that she has learned from, writing children’s books to inspire conservation, becoming a PhD student without being a natural scientist, and how she has crowd-funded her own PhD to the tune of over £17,000. Carolyn is a British-Swiss primatologist who grew up in Scotland, Indonesia and Norway. She has spent the past 10 years working in the field of wild primate behaviour and implications for conservation. The majority of her research has focused on Asian primates, with the exception of lemurs in Madagascar. She is currently studying towards a doctorate degree at University College London and the Zoological Society of London, focusing on critically endangered gibbon decline. In her spare time she is a keen author and writes children's books to support conservation efforts and raise important awareness about threatened species. You can support Carolyn’s PhD research on the newly discovered "Skywalker" hoolock gibbon here: https://www.gofundme.com/skywalkergibbonresearch (which features amazing graphic design by http://www.davemccall.co.uk/). You can find out more about Carolyn on her website (https://www.thompsoncarolyn.com/) or on Twitter @gibbonresearch or on Instagram at gibbonresearch.

Dr Michelle LaRue is a research ecologist at the University of Minnesota. She’s a fascinating and inspiring conservationist who has developed innovative approaches, travelled the world and taken her conservation science communications to an extremely impressive level. Michelle focuses on interdisciplinary tools, such as GIS (geographic information system) mapping and high-resolution satellite imagery, to study spatial and population dynamics of penguins, seals, cougars, and polar bears - species facing substantial conservation challenges as both the physical and social environments change across the world. She’s also a science communicator and believes that making science accessible through approachability as a speaker is key to public engagement and science comprehension. In this episode we cover her amazing wildlife experiences in the Antarctic and some of the lessons she has learned from mistakes or failures on fieldwork. We discuss the innovative techniques she has been using to study Weddell seals and penguin species in the Antarctic and what her research is revealing about the drivers of change we’re seeing in their populations. And she shares some of her tactics and techniques for undertaking science communications, including how to prepare for giving presentations. You can find more about Michelle at drmichellelarue.com (spell it out), follow her on twitter.com/drmichellelarue and she also created the popular #CougarorNot hashtag which runs every Friday and I strongly recommend checking out (this is because she is also the Executive Director of the Cougar Network (www.cougarnet.org) in the US which we cover in the episode as well). And if you’d like to help Michelle with her research then you can do so from your very own home. Visit www.tomnod.com (spell it out) to help her search satellite imagery of the Antarctic for traces of Weddell seals, and contribute to our growing understanding of where they are (and aren’t) found. You may also want to watch Michelle’s talks at Ideacity (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enFjxbqQovk&t=1s) and the Earth Optimism Summit (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rf5wJ2S898c).

Isla Hodgson is a zoologist working towards a PhD in conservation, studying the conflict between raptors and grouse moor management in Scotland. She is also a keen communicator, working as a freelance researcher for the BBC, and has just written her first book – Hidden Nature – which is all about British wildlife and where to find it, based on her blog www.wherethewildthingslive.co.uk. Isla is also the associate director for the UK’s youth nature network A Focus On Nature (AFON), which aims to bring together and support young people with an interest in the natural world. In this conversation we discuss the role of bravery, particularly for women, in the conservation sector, how she has built trust with communities who often have reason to mistrust conservationists, and her process and routine for writing a book at the same time as doing a PhD.

This episode is a best of, in which I’ve picked out some of my favourite parts of the conversations I had in 2017. In the following order (just so as you know who is speaking) I speak to Jonny Rankin, turtle dove pilgrim, about using wildlife to achieve personal and physical change; author Stephen Moss covers some of his most special birding memories; Dame Fiona Reynolds talks about the importance of beauty in making conservation happen; Debbie Pain and then Annette Fayet talk about the power of science to help us unlock undiscovered secrets in the natural world; Paul Rosolie describes why he wanted to travel unaccompanied into the uncharted depths of the Peruvian rainforest; Alan Rabinowitz recalls his childhood promise (now fulfilled many times over) to save big cats; wildlife photographer Tom Mason talks about how to set yourself apart as an artist; my grandfather, Tony Paine, describes an idyllic childhood in the countryside while Britain fought the Second World War; Ben Eagle and Pete Cooper talk with me about the hot topic of raptor persecution; and finally Chloe Revill describes how her immersive Change in Nature retreats help people reconnect with nature and might even motivate them to do more to save it. I’ve already got some very exciting conversations planned for 2018, so I really hope that you keep listening. Thank you so much if you’ve listened in 2017. But for the next few days have a restful holiday period and I hope you manage to fit in some wild time outdoors with your loved ones.

This conversation is with my good friend and wildlife photographer, Tom Mason. We cover not only some of the specifics about techniques and equipment he uses but also his strategies for learning his art of photography and how Tom plans projects and delivers incredible wildlife photos that stand out from what you might have seen elsewhere. Tom’s approach to learning from masters of other artistic fields and for building a personal brand for his work is also I think really useful for anyone else interested in developing their photography. Having worked on numerous assignments both in the UK and overseas, at just the age of 23, he is also a regular contributor to numerous publications such as BBC Wildlife Magazine, Practical Photography and numerous other titles. He is a well known blogger for Wex Photographic, writing articles and presenting a range of videos for their YouTube channel. He is a regular lecturer, having presented at the Birdfair, Photography Show and Scottish Nature Photography festival as well as for numerous organisations and educational institutions. His images have been awarded internationally, recently gaining a Highly commended in the National Geographic Por el Planeta prize. Tom has a huge passion for the environment and sharing the stories of the natural world through photography, hoping to positively engage people in order to help protect wildlife for the future. As a instructor his aims are to help you focus your photographic vision, to aid you in developing your own style, showcasing a range of techniques to equip you with the abilities to come home with a collection of shots you’ll be proud of. You can see more from Tom’s work on his website www.tommasonphoto.com Tom runs a YouTube Channel where he shares his tips and skills to help others improve their wildlife photography, as well as taking people behind the scenes within his own work. www.youtube.com/tommasonphoto. He is on Twitter @TomMasonPhoto and on Instagram with the same handle.

Chloe Revill is the co-founder of Change in Nature (http://www.changeinnature.org), an organisation that helps people to ‘unwind, reconnect and come alive’ in nature. In this incredible conversation with Chloe we talk about her career working in Government and at the United Nations level on climate change, helping to amplify the voices of small island states and developing countries whose very existence is being put at risk. We talk through the pivot her career took, after a year spent travelling through Africa and spending one week running a camp with 12 bushmen in the Bwabwata National Park in Namibia. We move onto the decision to set up Change in Nature, why she believes this organisation to give people a radical reconnection with nature is so needed, and the skills training she went through in order to be able to ready to begin facilitating retreats for people. And our conversation turns to the magic and wonder she helps people to experience, sharing a feeling that she also experienced during her own childhood growing up on a farm in southern Spain. This is an utterly fascinating conversation and Chloe’s training to tell stories and hold a space for dialogue comes across over the course of this enchanting episode.

Anthony V Paine is a man who has been an inspiration to me from a very early age. In this episode I speak to my grandfather about his childhood growing up in the countryside while experiencing the rationing that was part of the Second World War. From egg-collecting to den-building he recalls an English childhood in the 1930s and 40s. And we cover his fears for the future of the environment, his passion for walking on the hills and growing his own vegetables, as well as how he helped to inspire my own childhood love of wildlife. I hope you enjoy these tales from my grandfather.

This conversation is with two close friends of mine, Peter Cooper and Ben Eagle. They're both members of the A Focus on Nature Committee, the youth nature network, which is how we became friends. They're also amazing young leaders in the conservation sector in their own right. Ben is a young farmer and conservationist whose blog thinkingcountry.com was shortlisted at last year's national blog awards. Ben also runs his own podcast called meet the farmer. Pete is a nature writer and conservationist, a specialist in mammals. And you can find his writing at petecooperwildlife.com and he's also recently begun his own podcast about rewilding. These two were staying with me a few nights ago and so we decided to try a new feature that I'm loosely calling beer and biodiversity. In our conversation we cover a huge range of topics including the need for young farmers and young conservationists to work together more, the recent news on the dramatic decline in insects and the joys of running your own podcast. We hope you enjoy this and apologies if the conversation gets slightly more random and slurred as the night and the beer draw on. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals.  Find out more about us at  wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org.

This conversation is with Dr Alan Rabinowitz, Chief Scientist of Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organisation. Dr Rabinowitz has been dubbed by Time magazine "the Indiana Jones of conservation", although as you’ll hear, that’s not how he’d like to be remembered. He has been instrumental in the creation of some of the world’s largest protected zones for big cats, as well as writing a dozen or so books documenting his work and adventures. We talk about his childhood love of big cats, he explains his views on the links between apex predators and diseases such as SARS and Ebola, and he talks about his new project, Journey of the Jaguar, travelling down the spine of the jaguar’s range across two continents and through 18 countries. He’s done all this and so much more whilst having overcome a severe stutter as a child and despite a diagnosis with leukaemia in 2002. He is one of the world’s leading conservationists and it was a huge privilege to speak to him. The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals.  Find out more about us at  wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org

This conversation is with Paul Rosolie, explorer and naturalist, author of 'Mother of God: one man's journey to the uncharted depths of the Amazon rainforest'. We talk about Paul's childhood love of wildlife and his struggles with the education system, his workout regime for staying in shape for the jungle, his state of mind when he ventures on solo expeditions and very close-up encounters with big cats and giant anacondas, as well as his views on the future of conservation. Find out more about Paul at paulrosolie.com.

Wild Voices: The power of science in conservation, Debbie Pain by Matt Williams

Wild Voices: Charting new frontiers in seabird science, Dr Annette Fayet by Matt Williams

Wild Voices: The case for beauty in our lives, Dame Fiona Reynolds by Matt Williams

Wild Voices: Turtle dove pilgrim, Jonny Rankin by Matt Williams

Wild Voices: Things are better than they were, Stephen Moss by Matt Williams

Wild Voices: Making nature as popular as parkrun, Pamela Abbott by Matt Williams