Wild Connection

The Water Tree Way with Ruth Mendelson

My guest this week is composer, instrumentalist, producer, arranger, editor, and author Ruth Mendelson. She has written award-winning scores for film and television. She teaches at the Berklee College of music and she has written a fantastical, multi-dimensional, treasure hunt fairy tale for children of all ages called The Water Tree Way that will positively alter your trajectory through the world, pointing you towards joy, success and love.

We talk about her book, relationships, and how to find joy. To follow Ruth and get your copy of The Water Tree Way you can visit her website. 

You can also follow her on Twitter and Instagram

To follow us on social media visit @wildconnectpod  and @realDrJen for Twitter & @RealDrJen for Instagram and www.jenniferverdolin.com for more. Love the show or simply enjoyed this episode? Give us a like and share so others can find us too. 

Wild Connection is devoted to helping you live a better life by reconnecting with nature through conversations with scientists, filmmakers, authors, and conservationists around the world. We talk about all things wildlife, nature, science, and conservation. 

Eco-Distress and Social Prescribing with Dr. Katherine Kennet

This week we are continuing the conversation around some of the issues that came up and din't come up at COP26. My guest is Dr. Katherine Kennet, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and is who is also the social prescribing lead at the Royal College of Psychiatrists

Her and I talk about the psychological traumas associated with climate disasters and what we can expect in the future. We also chatted about what the UK is doing to pay attention to mental well-being, including social prescribing. To learn more about the position the Royal College of Psychiatrists is taking with respect to responding to climate change you can read more about that here. 

If you'd like to learn more about social prescribing, you can read more about it here. 

You can also keep up with Dr Kennet on Twitter @katherinekennet

To follow us on social media visit @wildconnectpod  and @realDrJen for Twitter & @RealDrJen for Instagram and www.jenniferverdolin.com for more. Love the show or simply enjoyed this episode? Give us a like and share so others can find us too. 

Wild Connection is devoted to helping you live a better life by reconnecting with nature through conversations with scientists, filmmakers, authors, and conservationists around the world. We talk about all things wildlife, nature, science, and conservation. 

 

Nature, Beauty, and Conservation with John de Graaf

Back from Glasgow after attending COP26. It was intense which is why I am devoting 2 weeks to talk about some of the things that came out of it. I also made a few key observations while there and one of them was that Glasgow needs to clean up it's act. Literally. Pick up your trash. 

My guest, filmmaker, community organizer and author John de Graaf and I talk about a few more things people can and should do. He’s been a passionate advocate for the environment, written books and made films like Affluenza that highlight how its our insatiable consumption that is destroying the planet and ourselves. 

We also talk about his latest film, a biopic on the late Stewart Udall. If you haven’t heard of Udall, he was many things, including a politician with guts who stood up for Indigenous communities, racial and social justice, and the environment. He paid for that commitment by never getting elected to office in his home state of Arizona ever again. The truth is we need more politicians with the guts to stand up for the issues he stood for and we need people smart enough to vote them into office. 

If you'd like to keep up to date with John you can follow him @JohndeGraaf on Twitter and check out his website for more on his books, films, and organizations:

https://www.johndegraaf.com

To support the film visit http://stewartudallfilm.org

To follow us on social media visit @wildconnectpod  and @realDrJen for Twitter & @RealDrJen for Instagram and www.jenniferverdolin.com for more. Love the show or simply enjoyed this episode? Give us a like and share so others can find us too. 

Wild Connection is devoted to helping you live a better life by reconnecting with nature through conversations with scientists, filmmakers, authors, and conservationists around the world. We talk about all things wildlife, nature, science, and conservation. 

The Call of the Trail with Claire Eckard

This week’s episode is all about horses. If we had to give a relationship status on horses, it might likely be “It’s complicated”.

Using advanced genetic techniques and analyses, Scientists found a signature genetic event 4000 years ago that revealed  that the ancestors of all modern horses were domesticated in what is now southern Russia. Scientists had been on this trail for a while and in 2016 a project known as Pegasus was launched to get to the bottom of it. What they have now pieced together is that humans started artificially breeding this horse and it was genetically unique from all other horses 4000 years ago. It only took 3000 years for this horse, our modern horses, to replace all other lineages across Europe and Asia. Generations later they were reintroduced to the Americas by the Spaniards, bringing horses back to their ancestral homelands. These descendants are what we today call mustangs.

Although bestselling author Claire Eckard wasn’t writing about mustangs in her new book Gallant: The Call of the Trail: Two horses, two people, one journey, it is the first a trilogy so you never know. This first one already went to #1 on the Amazon bestsellers list and that’s not too surprising because it’s a wonderful story. I caught up with Claire to talk about this beautiful book that explores the sometimes special relationship we humans have with our horses.  

You can get a copy here

 

And if you want to support an organization doing something to help wild mustangs check out the Mustangs of America Foundation

http://www.mustangsofamericafoundation.org

 

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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

 

The Spectacular Not Spooky Aye-Aye with Drs. Tim Sefczek and Ed Louis

Happy Halloween. After speaking with cultural and conservation ornithologist, J Drew Lanham about the how certain birds are abused and targeted because of the way they look, in our conversation starlings and cormorants specifically, it occurred to me that halloween was the perfect opportunity to talk about this more and give some animals a re-brand. And since Friday the 29th was World Lemur Day, I have two, yes two special guest this week to help us better appreciate one special lemur. The lemur that needs a makeover is the aye-aye.

nomis-simon, CC BY 2.0

My first guest is Dr. Tim Sefczek and he is a conservation geneticist currently a postdoc at the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. He got us started in learning about lemurs and what makes the aye-aye so darn special. The I catch up wit Dr. Ed Louis to find out more about lemurs, aye-ayes and the conservation work he is spearheading. He is the Director of Conservation Genetics at the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium (OHDZA) and the general director and founder of the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership (MBP). 

To find out more you can visit:

https://www.omahazoo.com

https://madagascarpartnership.org

Follow MBP and OHDZA on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madagascarpartnership/

Twitter: @MBPartnership

Instagram: @madagascarpartnership

The theme here is that there are things to admire in other species and just because they look different doesn’t mean they possess dark qualities. That goes for people too, my friends. And let’s face it to other species I am sure that we look awfully weird, walking up right, weak, slow runners, unable to do much except talk a lot and break things like the planet. And yet they find a way to accept us. Something we could learn a bit more about.

If you are enjoying 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. Follow the show on Twitter: @WildConnectPod and you can follow me on 

Twitter and Instagram: @realdrjen

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/RealDrJen

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

 

In the Thicket with J Drew Lanham

This week I’m thrilled to introduce you to a spectacular scientist, author, poet, and well...human. J Drew Lanham is a professor of cultural and conservation ornithology at Clemsen University, he’s a poet laureate of his home county Edgefield, and the author of two books The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature and Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts

Check out this link to order his books and to read some of his poetry. 
To keep up with Drew on Twitter follow him @wildandincolor

Drew grew up in rural South Carolina where his parents, biology teachers, and his grandmother brimming with ecological knowledge nurtured his passion and curiosity about wildlife and nature. Although he has an unbridled passion for birds, his love of wildlife extends beyond birds. In this episode we talk about everything from how living a mediocre life doesn't serve us (or the world) to the challenges and risk he's faced as a black man out in nature. He uses his work and writings to invite people into the thicket, to see the world and other animals from a different perspective, and in doing so, expand ones empathy for those that are seemingly different.

We wind our way through to how honoring places and landscapes should include all the people, all the history. He expresses so eloquently how without recognition there cannot be reconciliation and without reconciliation there cannot be a rebirth into a new dawn.

Our conversation turns toward how our aggression towards certain species is rooted in cultural narratives, including racism. We revile some species and revere others simply for the way they look. This reveals something about who we are, where we are, and how far from where we need to go to create meaningful change on this planet. Change in how we treat each other and change in how we treat other animals. 

Tune in next week as I pick up this thread and welcome you to revise your perception of some of the most "frightening" "freakish", "ghoulish" animals out there and unpack the history behind how they got their bad reputations. 

If you are enjoying 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. Follow the show on Twitter: @WildConnectPod and you can follow me on 

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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

 

Change Makers with Rono Chonginio

The Queen of England on a hot mic uttered the words many of us who care about this planet, the lives of others, including other species, feel: It’s really irritating when they talk and don’t do. I would suggest it is more than irritating. ThenPrince William admonished the uber billionaires selling tickets to the edge of space for throwing their money up in the air instead of putting it to use on the ground. Prince William is putting his money where his mouth is. With the Earthshot prize 5 winners announced later today Sunday Oct 17th he is focused on solutions. And he is calling on everyone to raise their ambition. 

Rono Chonginio is doing just that. As a journalist, storyteller, and founder of Youthbase  he is telling the stories of people from his community and young people working to create solutions. 

You can follow Rono and the stories he is telling on

Twitter: @ronochonginio 

Instagram: @ronochonginio

YouTube

You too have a story and you write that story every day with every action you take. There is always a narrative, the question is who is authoring yours? We interfere with the lives of other species, changing their story from one of potential to one of tragedy and we do this every single day. Many of us have experienced this ourselves. And that is why stories connect us. Be part of the story of what happens. If you are already a change-maker I would love to hear from you. If you are part of the do nothing brigade letting everyone else dictate your story and the story of our future, well maybe you can be inspired to take more positive action.

 Follow the show on Twitter: @WildConnectPod and you can follow me on 

Twitter and Instagram: @realdrjen

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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

Ode to the Extinct

Last week the USFWS released the list of 22 extinct US species and for a minute it was all everyone talked about. The ivory billed woodpecker was on the list having worked its way through the laborious US system of classifying a species as extinct after last being seen and filmed in 1935. Here is link to a video of what it looked like. 

In total 23 species were on that list. It included 11 birds, eight freshwater mussels, two fish, a bat and a plant. Yes, plants go extinct too. Here is the official list.

It takes a long time because it is hard to prove a negative. This wasn't the case for the Northern white rhino, extinct in 2018 with the death of the last male- Sudan. This is the inspiration behind the artwork for this week's podcast. The art was done by the amazing Kry Hookuh and I am lucky she is able to create such magnificent pieces for the podcast. You can follow her on Instagram @kryshookuh and you can check out her website at: https://www.kryshookuhdoodles.com

A United Nations report estimates that over 1 million species, that's basically all the described species, are at risk for extinction in the next few decades. Humanity is failing. When you ask people if they like animals a lot of people say oooh I love animals. Heck most of the students in my classes say how much they love animals. However, much like our famous love of dogs, when we look at how we act I don’t think we love animals very much at all. It is the ultimate abusive relationship and we are the abusers. A common theme in abusive relationships is that while the abuser is being abusive they keep asserting how much they love you. That's our real relationship with other animals. We can change it though. We created it and we can undo it.

Do something to better the lives of other species. That's the message of this week's episode.

You can follow the show on Itunes, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts.Share it with others too so they can find it.  Follow the show on Twitter: @WildConnectPod and you can follow me on 

Twitter and Instagram: @realdrjen

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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

 

 

 

Truth Lies and Consequences with Lee McIntyre

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but there is a lot going on in the world and a lot of misinformation being spread. This past week YouTube committed to removing anything containing anti vaccine misinformation. That includes anything related to vaccines causing autism, which they don’t, cancer, which they don't, microchips, which they don’t have, and so on. In an unprecedented step they also committed to terminating the accounts of anti-vaccine influencers that spread this type of false information. It is timely because Youtube came up in this week’s episode. In a time of mistrust, misinformation, and propaganda, we need voices of truth, voices of clarity, and voices of reason to cut through all the noise. One of those voices is that of this week's guest Lee McIntyre (insert credentials). He's a research fellow at the Center for Philosophy and Science at Boston University and he is the author of the new book: How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason

 You can find this latest book and his others by visiting his website:  leemcintyrebooks.com

You can also follow him on Twitter @LeeCMcIntyre

How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason. It is among other things a guide to how all of us, not just scientists, can tackle the machine of deception and obfuscation of facts. And we need this help. On Tuesday September 28th a man in Illinois died after a month-long battle with...rabies. I know you probably thought I was going to say covid, but no rabies. He had an interaction with a bat and was bitten. He refused the post exposure treatment when offered, which led to what must have been an excruciating and horrible death. It was the first time someone died of rabies since 1954. The treatment he refiused was a combination of human rabies immune globulin, basically an antibody cocktail and a series of rabies vaccine shots (3 of them). Three shots is also how many you need to pre-protect yourself. There was no information on why he refused treatment. All the chatter I have heard has been about anti-vaxx and its important to consider that we don’t actually know why he refused. The reason I bring this up is not because the treatment costs a ridiculous 10K with insurance in most places in the the US while it is $20 per does in Mozambique, for example. I bring it up because a new MRNA rabies vaccines was in human clinical trials in 2017. Rabies, though rare was chosen as the first virus to test the new MRNA technology for a few reasons. According to Dr Armbuster and colleagues, 1) the virus was well understood so they knew exactly what to target, 2) we have had an effective vaccine for a while now so there was great baseline data to compare the new vaccine with the old one, 2) trials in mice and pigs showed good results 3) and most people hadn’t been exposed to rabies so they could get clean responses. I’ve got a link to the paper below. The point is that by the time the covid vaccine was underway we had already had several years of human clinical trials on the safety of mrna vaccine for rabies, of course. Yet that was not the conversation we were all having about how lucky we were that scientists had been trying to solve a problem- cheap safe, non-needle deliverable vaccines for rabies and because of that we were ready to move on using the same technology for a new virus. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6963972/

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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

 

For the Love of K9s with John-Tyler Binfet

Hi Everyone and welcome back to Wild Connection: The Podcast. This week’s episode is pretty special because we are talking about how service animals not only improve well-being but sometimes they save our lives by the love, kindness, compassion, and attentiveness they give us. One thing that came up in the episode that I have not spoken about is the loss of my support, my family,  my beloved companion, best friend, my joy and my breath for 18 years, Senor Antonio Buttones. I’m not ready to talk a whole bunch about him or the loss, but I do want to acknowledge that the love we share with other animals can open us up to connecting with others. And that is the focus of this week’s episode. 

This week's guest Dr. John Tyler Binfet, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. His research looks at understanding the benefits of canine-assisted intervention using certified therapy dogs in young children, young adults, and well also the rest of us! He's the founder of B.A.R.K- Building Academic Retention through K’9s and the Director of the Center for Mindful Engagement.

You can find information on the B.A.R.K. program here: https://bark.ok.ubc.ca

The Center for Mindful engagement here: https://education.ok.ubc.ca/research-partnerships/centre-for-mindful-engagement/

Dr. John-Tyler Binfet 's website is: https://education.ok.ubc.ca/about/contact/john-tyler-binfet/

You can keep up with him and the B.A.R.K program on Twitter @kindnessprof and @barkubc

If you are enjoying 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. Follow the show on Twitter: @WildConnectPod and you can follow me on 

Twitter and Instagram: @realdrjen

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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