For The Wild

Ayana and Andrea discuss a myriad of topics ranging from the importance of an intelligence-led approach to combating wildlife crime, how wildlife crime impacts local and global economies, the geography of trafficking, the socio-political realities that necessitate poaching and trafficking, and the grave danger posed by an increased militarization of conservation.Support the show

Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a one-woman force of regeneration of the biosphere! A botanist, medical biochemist and self-defined "renegade scientist," she brings together ethnobotany, horticulture, spirituality and alternative medicine to reveal a path toward better stewardship of the natural world. Her ambitious Bioplan invites ordinary people to develop a new relationship with nature...Support the show

Charles Eisenstein and Ian MacKenzie join Ayana to discuss what features are inherently built into this money system, how economics does not have to be a merciless system, the importance of universal basic income, what it looks like to step into gift giving, and how we can hold healthy boundaries in the process.Support the show

In this conversation with Ayana and Dr. Jackson, we learn how glacial retreat is impacting communities, the connection between extractive tourism, extractive science, and glaciers, why it matters that the majority of glaciology has been produced by white men, and the ways in which polar and mountain explorations have furthered colonial, capitalist, and imperialist projects. Support the show

Whether or not you are directly engaged in movement building or are an organizer, this is an episode you will not want to miss. Joshua, BJ, and Michael weave strategy on handling disappointment and harm, stepping into our power, and the politics of collapse and rebirth. Support the show

This powerful conversation spans many topics, from the deep wounds of violence and war to the pertinence of moving beyond sensational rhetoric around caravans and the border wall. Ada reminds us that food sovereignty is at the foundation of liberation and thriving communities. Support the show

In January 2019, For The Wild was honored to attend the annual Sundance Film Festival, facilitating our social justice and environmental film, press junket liaising with filmmakers and other amazing influential folks who work with visual storytelling to share about the critical issues of our time. Support the show

Eriel articulates how narratives that surround the developments at Unist’ot’en Camp show how colonization has deeply warped our perspective on who gets labeled the heroes and villains. While the state continues to prioritize the protection and expansion of infrastructure over people, we must encourage each other to see with clear vision where the true threat lies. Support the show

Dr. Nobre clarifies the complexities surrounding the driving factors of deforestation and savannization. Additionally, Ayana and Dr. Nobre discuss the margins of safety that must be implemented, the simultaneous rise of nationalism and the ramifications of climate change, and the possibility of a third way outside the realms of the preservation/consumption...Support the show

Subhankar calls us to find our connection with the Near North while clarifying many misconceptions about the current status of the Refuge and the history of extraction in Alaska.Support the show

Join Ayana this week in conversation with Camila Thorndike as we learn how the tax code can address societal ills, the difference between cap and trade and carbon tax, how policy arrangements reflect our values, and how we can create a price on carbon that is inclusive, progressive, and benefit communities that are often exploited by the so-called green market.Support the show

Join Ayana and Dr. Laurance in conversation about the future of old growth forests, the many impacts of climate destabilization and drought, the dangers of positive feedback, and how infrastructure development is both driving and worsening climate chaos.Support the show

Join us in conversation as we dedicate this week to exploring ancestral legacies around birthing, how we can invest in reproductive rights outside of the current hetero-patriarchal capitalist white supremacist system, the womb space as a place of creation, and birthing support as a human right.Support the show

Join Ayana in conversation with So and Pinar as they explore how tracking and trailing answer the call of our ancestral bodies and the land, what deep intimacy with the more than human world looks like, how place-based skills are tools of liberation, and how to heal community.Support the show

We’ve been combing through the archives and crafting this very special episode for the community that has rallied around us these past few years. Today’s episode highlights some of the many conversations we keep present in heart and mind.Support the show

Toxic masculinity, settler colonialism, and white supremacy are impelling us to a point of no return. If you are coming to this conversation as an environmental advocate, understand that in order to shift our relationship from that of domination over “nature” to one of reciprocity and understanding of the ecosystem we are apart of, we must examine our values with one another. Support the show

Join us as Ayana and John explore topics of ecological identity, embodied wisdom, moving beyond the individual, the tenets of Deep Ecology, and the Rainforest Information Centre’s recent work in Ecuador with the Los Cedros Biological Reserve.Support the show

Join us to learn about what happens in a post fire habitat, why fire is an ecological treasure, not a disaster, how significantly climate change will impact wildfires, and why both politicians and the United States Forest Service have a vested interest in spreading misinformation when it comes to forest management.Support the show

This week we interview Reverend M. Kalani Souza, a gifted storyteller, singer, songwriter, musician, performer, poet, philosopher, priest, political satirist, and peacemaker. Join us in conversation as Ayana and Kalani discuss an “all hands on deck approach” to addressing human behavior and developing personal preparedness.Support the show

Queen Quet and the Gullah/Geechee nation are an exemplary vision of resilience in an age of deterioration, holding on to spirit and hope amidst. Facing the onslaught of colonial terrorism towards both Black and Indigenous lives, Queen Quet's vision is lighting the way forward in troubled times.Support the show

Since 2013, the Nonhuman Rights Project has filed lawsuits on behalf of non-human animals in captivity – including four chimpanzees and three elephants, so far – seeking a writ of habeas corpus. The organization is fighting for the autonomy of our more than human kin as we face the need for multi species liberation.Support the show

This week we are joined by Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas, a globally renowned anthropologist, conservationist, and orangutan researcher. She has been researching and working with wild and wild-born ex-captive orangutans for nearly half a century.Support the show

Ben Goldfarb is an independent environmental journalist based in Spokane, Washington, whose writing has appeared in publications such as Mother Jones, Science, The Guardian, and High Country News. He is the author of Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter.Support the show

Dr. Russo and the Lummi people believe that Tahlequah carried her baby on the tour of grief because she knows we are watching. The display of her dead offspring in this way was an intentional act– not only an act of grieving, but intended to stir an empathetic reaction from those who live above the water.Support the show

Elizabeth Fournier, affectionately called ‘The Green Reaper,’ is the author of The Green Burial Guidebook: Everything You Need to Plan an Affordable, Environmentally Friendly Burial. Support the show

Heather Milton-Lightening has seventeen years of organizing experience from local issues to international campaigns. Among other topics, Ayana and Heather discuss truth and reconciliation, true ally-ship, the commonality of Trump and Trudeau and reflections from Standing Rock.Support the show

This week’s conversation is with Nnimmo Bassey, an inspirationally committed Nigerian activist, who is fighting the global petrol military complex to reveal the full ecological and human horrors of oil production.Support the show

Steven and Ayana explore the ideas of co-creative integrated polyculture, living reciprocally with the land, autonomous evolution of nature, invasive species, and the origins of our food and medicine plants. Steven has more than thirty years experience living co-creatively with the Earth, practicing traditional living skills of growing food, building and healing.Support the show

This conversation between Ayana and Leah confronts us with harsh realities of injustice, simultaneously speaking of healing, possibility, and reconciliation. We must acknowledge the current state of our food system. Land and food sovereignty are essential to liberation. By re-evaluating our relationship with land and agency, we can fix the problems of our food system and heal our communities...Support the show

Ron Finley is an artist, farmer and visionary who “envisions a world where gardening is gangsta, where cool kids know their nutrition and where communities embrace the act of growing, knowing and sharing the best of the earth’s fresh-grown food.” In this episode Ron asks us to inquire about our socialization, our indoctrination into a capitalistic system of values that perpetuate unwellness...Support the show

Stephen Harrod Buhner is the earth speaking on behalf of themselves. He beautifully and scientifically challenges us to give ourselves fully and humbly in our relationships with our more than human elders and kin, he asks us to walk our talk when it comes to unlearning human supremacy and civilized consumptive conditioning through relationship to plants.Support the show

In an age of natural exploitation and capitalism, under the westward expansion of the settler colonial mindset, we have veered far off the path of right relations. Severance from seven generations thinking has left a falsehood of limitlessness, and we stand at at a critical crossroads for all life on Earth...Support the show

Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation is a mother, scientist and writer, a Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY, and the founding Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. Support the show

Dune Lankard has made a living demonstration of resource conservation over exploitation as better economics ~ to continue to catch fish means preserving what gives fish life. We cannot continue stealing from the future, and the bad economics of doing so are swiftly coming home to roost in climate change, environmental degradation, and the collapse of resources. Support the show

Favianna invites us to explore the wisdom of nature and Earth relations as a lens through which to envision an alternative to the current immigration crisis. As climate change advances, the consequence of human migration will only become more pressing, Favianna invites us to explore the freedom in recognizing this beyond the extractive economical box.Support the show

This week we are rejoined by Zayaan Khan to discuss water scarcity in South Africa. Local communities are experiencing a threshold being reached; a point of no return at which culture can change rapidly. Suddenly people become accustomed to the unthinkable —no showering! no laundry!— and they begin to ask, how could we have ever been so wasteful, so indulgent...Support the show

Through discussion with Zayaan, we trace the ways that the white colonization of South Africa not only destroyed the complexities of the human-to-land relationship, but also continues to ignore the intricacies and connectivity of the landscape, leading to today’s dire drought. Further, we learn how South Africa is still living within the echo chamber of a shockingly repressive colonial system...Support the show

We are living through a time when there are more people, more creatures, more plants, more cultures, dying than ever before. The debts of generations past have accrued to us, but not the wisdom. Our inheritance of obligation, of reciprocity, has been broken and we are left with what is dying, but without any understanding of how to be with it...Support the show

At the heart of Emergent Strategy is moving towards life and learning from the wisdom of nature to drive our social movements. Emergent Strategy asks us to think about spirituality and transformative justice as central to the resilient future we are imagining together. Support the show

Jacinda Mack, leader of First Nations Women Advocating Responsible Mining is a mother, water protector and Indigenous woman striving to promote environmentally sound mining exploration and development processes that respect First Nations rights and grant them full participation. Support the show

This week on For The Wild podcast we are joined by Tom Goldtooth, an Indigenous rights leader in the climate and environmental justice movement. He advocates for building healthy and sustainable Indigenous communities based on traditional knowledge foundations, and works within tribal governments to develop Indigenous-based environmental protection infrastructures.Support the show

This week, we speak with Ron Finley, an artist, designer and a South LA "gangsta" gardener who made the change he wanted to see in his own neighborhood. Together, we learn about how people power and community agitation can facilitate change. Support the show

This week’s episode centers around the devastating impacts of salmon farming on the Pacific coast of British Columbia. This week’s guest, Alexandra Morton, is an expert in salmon farming and the viruses perpetuated by this destructive aquaculture practice– she has written 26 papers on the topic alone and is a leader in the movement to halt salmon farming off the coast of British Columbia.Support the show

This week we’re joined by Ian McAllister, co-founder and Executive Director of Pacific Wild, a non-profit located in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest. McAllister is committed to defending wildlife and their habitat on Canada’s Pacific Coast. Support the show

Ulrich is a German ecologist and conservationist who has been living in Vienna, Austria for 29 years. He worked for the World Wildlife Fund Austria for more than 17 years until 2007, being primarily concerned with river conservation and restoration. He has been campaigning internationally against the construction of hydropower plants, such as dams along the Danube and the Ilisu Dam project... Support the show

Malik Kenyatta Yakini is an activist and educator who is committed to freedom and justice for humanity. Yakini is co-founder and Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN). DBCFSN operates a seven-acre urban farm and is spearheading the opening of a co-op grocery store in Detroit’s North End. Support the show

Jurek is one of the activists camped out with Camp of the Forest-a non-hierarchic, grassroots, no-logo camp based on equality. Theirs is a movement for everyone: “It’s not a movement of some radical fighters. It’s not a movement of young men or young women or any specific social, economical, age group, or gender group. It’s open for anyone, from any country around the world, who wants to come...Support the show

This week’s interview is with Jeremy Lent, an author whose writings investigate the patterns of thought that have led our civilization to its current crisis of sustainability. His book, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning, published last year, explores the way humans have made meaning from the cosmos from hunter-gatherer times to the present day.Support the show

This week we are honored to host activist, farmer and educator, Leah Penniman. Leah lives in steadfast dedication to her mission of weaving the vast and vital threads of honoring heritage, building relationship to land and ending racism and injustice in the food system.Support the show

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