Wild Connection

Wildlife Divas with Lisa Randolph

Hi everyone and welcome back to Wild Connection the Podcast. As many of you know I am coming to you live from Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda where I am currently a Fulbright Scholar. Part of my Fulbright was creating a special series voices of Uganda. 

My guest today is Lisa Randolph, author of a marvelous book, The Wildlife Divas Adventure Team: Saving the Endangered Mountain Gorilla. You can keep up with Lisa and the Wildlife Divas on her website and purchase a coy on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. You can also connect with her on Facebook  Instagram Twitter or LinkedIn

If you are digging the show, give it a like and share it with your friends. You can follow me on Twitter @realdrJen and the show @wildconnectpod

Walking with Gorillas with Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka

This week’s guest is Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka. She is the founder of Conservation Through Public Health, the author of a new book, Walking With Gorillas: The Journey of an African Wildlife Vet, and currently a finalist for the Indianapolis Prize.

In this episode we talk about her work with the endangered mountain gorillas, her book, which details her journey, and what the future holds for this species. 

For more information on book events check out the latest newsletter.

If you are digging the show subscribe and share it so others can enjoy it too. You can follow the show on Itunes, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Also follow the show on Twitter: @WildConnectPod

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There is also a YouTube Channel where you can find a range of videos, some of them tied to podcast episodes. More are on the way so subscribe to Wild Connection TV

Listening to Salmon with Ken Whelan

My guest this week is Ken Whelan, the Research Director for the Atlantic Salmon Trust. Not only is the work he and others doing revealing just how special salmon are, but his love of fish and commitment to reconnecting communities with the nature all around them is work that we need more of. As you’ll hear, we met at COP26 under a sea of salmon. Enjoy!

 

If you want to keep up with Ken you can follow him @kenwhelan0451

You can check out his website and all the courses he is running here and explore all of the incredible work going on at the Atlantic Salmon Trust. 

You can subscribe to the show on Itunes, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Also follow the show on Twitter: @WildConnectPod

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The Mind of a Bee with Lars Chittka

Bees are having a heyday at the moment. I think many of us spent part of our time fascinated by bees and the other part terrified of getting stung. We definitely love the products that bees make, from honey and propolis to many of the fruits and vegetables you find in the supermarket. But bees are so much more than that. My guest this week is Lars Chittka, a Professor in Sensory and Behavioral Ecology, Queen Mary University of London. And he’s written a marvelous book, The Mind of a Bee, detailing the complex and intricate inner lives of bees.

To keep up with lars check out his website here

and you can also follow him on Twitter @LChittka

To get your copy of the Mind of a Bee head over to Princeton University Press

You can subscribe to the show on Itunes, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Also follow the show on Twitter: @WildConnectPod

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Molecules and Madness with Sara Manning Peskin

Not too long ago actor Bruce Willis was in the news. He is suffering from aphasia. Generally this is a loss of language due to some kind of injury to the brain. But there are many different types of aphasia. For example, in wernicke’s aphasia people can produce language but have an impairment in understanding words spoken to them. The types of injuries that cause aphasias  can be strok, traumatic injury to the brain, infection, tumors, and of course proteins that attack the brain. This week's guest Dr. Sara Manning Peskin, neurologist and author of A Molecule Away from Madness: Tales of the hijacked brain knows all about how proteins, big and small, can wreak havoc on an otherwise beautiful mind.

You can keep up with Sara here: 

https://saramanningpeskin.com

And check out an article written by Schneider Williams about Lewy Body Disease :The terrorist inside my husband's brain

 

If you want to know more about LBD or support research head to the Lewy Body Dementia Fund

You can subscribe to the show on Itunes, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Also follow the show on Twitter: @WildConnectPod

You can also follow me on 

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All Creatures Weird and Dangerous with Timm Otterson

My guest this week is all about the enchanted. Today I am talking to author and veterinarian Timm Otterson with an interest in wildlife conservation. He’s on today to tell us about his new book All Creatures Weird and Dangerous. It’s an autobiography of sorts that brings to life some of the animals that have remained in the shadows as legends and myths. Our conversation goes deeper than that though and reminds us that our past was far more enchanted and connected than our present.

If you want to keep up with Timm's adventures and order a copy of his book you can visit his website: https://www.timmotterson.com

You can also follow him on Instagram @timmotterson

You can subscribe to the show on Itunes, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Also follow the show on Twitter: @WildConnectPod

You can also follow me on 

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The Animal Crisis with Alice Crary and Lori Gruen

In March of this year The UK government declared that lobsters, crabs, octopuses and related species will be included under the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill. This means that they can finally get  legal protection that protects them from practices like being boiled alive and having the tendons of their pincers cut. All I can say is if you need a law to stop you from engaging in such horrific practices….shame on you.  

Today my guests are two renowned philosophers, Alice Crary and Lori Gruen who have published a new book called Animal Crisis: A New Critical Theory.

Among other important issues they tackle, they invite us to rethink and recalibrate our relationship with other species. Incidentally, hey have a chapter on Octopuses and discuss the film My Octopus Teacher. Personally I was not a fan of the film. However, it put octopuses on the mental map of people. At the same time, many of those same people will happily eat octopuses while raving about the film. This is the depth of our cognitive dissonance when it comes to connecting with individual animals while purchasing a meal made of the very same species. OK, I’m not the philosopher, they are. 

If you want to connect Lori Gruen you can check out her website: http://www.lorigruen.com  where you will find tons of videos, her other books, and interviews. You can also follow her on Twitter @last1000chimps. To keep up with Alice Crary you can visit her website: https://alicecrary.com and check out her other books and links to other interviews. 

You can follow the show on Itunes, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Also follow the show on Twitter: @WildConnectPod

You can also follow me on 

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Into the Wild with Brooke Williams

Hi Everyone, welcome back to a new episode of Wild Connection. You may have noticed there was a short break and that is because I had some traveling to do. I also have some big news that is going to impact the podcast. I will be going to Uganda, to a place called Bwindi Impenetrable Forest soon and I am hoping to bring you new episodes from there. If people in the communities are willing to share their stories and experiences then you will get to hear them. So please support the podcast and spread the word if you are enjoying it. 

This week’s guest is pretty special. Brooke Williams has spent the last thirty years advocating for wilderness. He is the author of four books, including Halflives: Reconciling Work and Wildness. And when he’s not writing books he’s teaching courses and spending time in the desert in Utah, where he lives. You may think the desert has no seasons, but Brooke will be quick to tell you this isn’t true and if you slow down enough you can witness the changing tides out in the desert. But those tides are changing. There is more heat, more fire, more floods. I connected with Brooke to talk about his latest book Mary Jane Wild: Two walks and a Rant. As you will hear, he is inviting you into his experience. 

You can pick up a copy of his latest book 

on Amazon or you may just find it in a local bookstore. Let's support those local bookstores. 

Speaking of support...

You can follow the show on Itunes, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Also follow the show on Twitter: @WildConnectPod

You can also follow me on 

Twitter: @realdrjen

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Warming Up with Dr. Hans Rocha IJzerman

Summer is starting and things are heating up. And in some places temperature is exceeding human capacity for existence. What you may not realize is it is a lot harder to cool down than to warm up. And warming up is something that gets at the heart of human social behavior.

Here to explain more about what this means is Dr. Hans Ijzerman. He is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Universitét Grenoble Alpes and a junior member of the The Institut Universitaire de France. And he wrote a fascinating book, Heartwarming: How Our Inner Thermostat Made Us Human.

We also get a sneak peek into how he and his lab are expanding their research into how temperature is influenced by culture, behavior, and biology.

To keep up with Hans you can follow him on Twitter @hansijzerman and follow what his lab is doing at corelab.io

You can follow the show on Itunes, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Also follow the show on Twitter: @WildConnectPod

You can also follow me on 

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Earth Day 2022

To celebrate Earth Day 2022 I am replaying my interview with author Nathaniel Popkin. We talk about his book,  To Reach the Spring: From Complicity to Consciousness in the Age of the Eco-Crisis, that was released in 2021.

In our conversation we talk about environmental advocacy, the inequality of influence, decolonization, and integration of the messiness of nature back into our lives. 

If you want to cnnect with Nathaniel check out his website, reach out on twitter @NathanielPopkin and get a copy of his new book, To Reach the Spring

If you are digging the show subscribe and share it so others can enjoy it too. You can follow the show on Itunes, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Also follow the show on Twitter: @WildConnectPod

You can also follow me on 

Twitter: @realdrjen

Instagram: @readrjen

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