The Wild Life

The Earth has ended before. Five times in the last half-billion years, life on this planet has been nearly wiped clean—reset by asteroid impacts, volcanic winters, and cataclysms we can barely imagine. And now? We’re living through number six. The difference? This one’s caused by us. But buried in those ancient endings are stories—lessons about resilience, adaptation, and the strange, beautiful cr...

Meet the aye-aye ( Daubentonia madagascariensis ), a creature so strange that early scientists couldn’t even decide if it was a rodent, a squirrel, or… something entirely new. Native to Madagascar and the largest nocturnal primate in the world, the aye-aye sports perpetually growing teeth, a bat-like ear for echolocation, and a freakishly long, bony middle finger that can hook grubs from deep insi...

Meet the world’s largest rodent—the capybara ( Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris ), a creature so wonderfully chill it makes a golden retriever look high-strung. In this episode, we dive beyond the memesto explore what makes capybaras such an evolutionary success story. We’ll talk: Why “semi-aquatic social loaf of bread” might be the perfect lifestyle Their remarkable teeth, digestive superpowers… and yes...

Hey everyone! I have some news to share 😊 Field Guide of Wonder—my social media video series— is getting a podcast companion! And here is the first episode! It'll be short, spectacular stories of the weirdest, wildest, most wonderful creatures on earth, in a format that hopefully gives these animals more room to stretch their wings, claws, pseudopods, or whatever it is they’ve got.⁠ It’ll be bite...

Hey everyone! I’m really excited to share with you all my conversation with the thoughtful and inspiring Alexa Pavan, aka @GoGreenWithAlexa. We dive into everything from accessible sustainability and composting, to coral bleaching, water bottles, and beach cleanups. It’s a chat about progress over perfection, the importance of small, everyday actions, and finding hope in the face of big, global ch...

What happens when you follow curiosity wherever it leads? In this episode of The Wild Life , I’m joined by Emily Hunter —a passionate environmental science educator, interpretation specialist, bushwalk guide, and nature communicator currently living and working along Australia’s Ningaloo Reef. Emily shares her journey from being a "tree hugger" kid in Idaho to becoming a globe-trotting interpreter...

What do a gaur, an aardvark, a flattened musk turtle, and a Matschie’s tree kangaroo have in common? They’ve all been photographed beautifully, reverently, and intentionally by my next guest—wildlife and zoo photographer Jay Meredith. In this episode, Jay shares the story behind his incredible project, The Animal Archives, documenting over 1,000 animal species across accredited zoos, aquariums, an...

Today is  #WorldOceansDay  and I’m feeling a whole lot of things. Wonder. Grief. Hope. Determination. The ocean isn’t just a place to visit. It’s not just a good backdrop for photos. It’s breath. It’s mystery. It’s the engine of life on Earth. And right now? It needs us. This isn’t a doom post. It’s a love letter. To the sea slugs and phytoplankton. To coral metropolises and whales that...

What if the key to understanding our future was hidden in the teeth of creatures that lived millions of years ago? In this episode, we dive into the world of dental microwear with paleontologist Andrew Schwartz (@eyesonthedirt), who takes us from the fossil beds of ancient Wyoming to the jungles of Costa Rica and the highlands of the Wari Empire. Along the way, we uncover how past climate shifts r...

Giant river otters are social, intelligent, and deeply connected to the health of their ecosystems—but what happens when their food supply starts to dwindle? In this episode of The Wild Life , we’re joined by Katherine Foree, a researcher studying how these apex predators use their habitat in the Madre de Dios region of Peru. With a Fulbright grant supporting both her research and cultural exchang...

Joining The Wild Life today is Dylan Beckham! She spent two years as a zookeeper caring for all sorts of exotics, including reptiles, invertebrates, fish, emus, wallabies, genets and Eurasian harvest mice. As a herpetology enthusiast, she was surprised to find it was the mice that stole her heart. This led to the development of her independent research project investigating their nesting behaviors...

Where there's smoke, there's fire. But when that fire tears through a landscape, what happens next? Today, we dive into the world of pyrophytic ecosystems—those that not only survive but thrive on fire. Our guide on today's journey is Ross Barreto, a master's student studying native plant population dynamics and spatial ecology. He's also an Urban Forester and likes to experiment with native plant...

Welcome to The Wild Life! On today's episode, we have a fascinating guest: wildlife cinematographer Jake Davis. Jake’s career began by focusing on the wildlife of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Growing up, he spent his summers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the Teton Range's jagged peaks and abundant wildlife fostered a deep love for nature and a desire to share and preserve it. Today, while...

In this episode of The Wild Life, animal welfare scientist Maggie Herskowitz helps us navigate the tangled webs society has woven around the treatment of animals, both wild and domestic. Gray areas, moral calculations, trophy hunting, industrial-scale fishing and livestock, and the emerging field of conservation ethics. Our conversation spans a range of topics including sloth bears, baby chicks, w...

The world is full of science and, in turn, scientists, and not enough people who truly have that spark for communicating all of that discovery and wonder to the rest of the world. People like today's guest—Dr Carly Anne York (@BiologyCarly). She's an Associate Professor at Lenoir-Rhyne University, an Animal Physiologist, a Science Communicator, and an Author. Today, science communication, children...

Welcome to The Wild Life, the podcast where we explore the wonders of the natural world and the science that helps us understand it. In this episode, we have an extraordinary guest: Aidan Branney. When we first recorded this interview nearly a year ago, Aidan was working as the large carnivore scientific aid for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Today, he’s a Presidential Research Fe...

17 years ago, I was a 14 year old attending Connor Middle School in Hebron, Kentucky. Small little town, just across the Ohio River. In 2018, I moved away, back down to Houston, TX. But in the few years I was there, I met and became friends with some of the most amazing people, most of which I lost contact with over the years Then one day, sometime last year or so, a familiar name popped up on my...

From their three hearts to their ability to transform and communicate, discover the extraordinary world of octopuses with host Devon Bowker and special guest Sy Montgomery, the "octopus whisperer" herself, and octopus expert Warren Carlyle, founder of OctoNation®. In a new adventure, Secrets of the Octopus, they dive deep into the secrets of the ocean's most enigmatic creatures, exploring the late...

In this episode, Devon (@devonthenatureguy) sits down with Lauren Jackson (@lauren.queenofthewild on Instagram and HERp_trap_queen on TikTok) to chat about becoming a wildlife tech, woodpeckers, federal jobs, the friction of private land, scicomm and education, battles big and small, and above all else, love for the world around us. Support the show at www.patreon.com/thewildlife for as little as...

Today’s episode, social media SciComm, all things cephalopod, their super cool brains, their mind-blowing camouflage, RNA editing, peculiar romances, underappreciated "living fossils", and why octopuses are most definitely not aliens. All with special guest Meg Mindlin, Octopus Biologist Meg's Website Save the Ocean, Save the World Hoodie Meg's Sticker Club Support The Wild Life

In this episode, I sit down with Eric Eaton, author of Insectpedia: a Brief Compendium of Insect Lore , Wasps: The Astonishing Diversity of a Misunderstood Insect , and more! Wasps are far more diverse than the familiar yellowjackets and hornets that harass picnickers and build nests under the eaves of our homes. These amazing, mostly solitary creatures thrive in nearly every habitat on Earth, and...

This episode, which originally aired on March 24 2018, takes us all the way from Copenhagen to the rainforest of South America, from the belly of the beast to its excrement, as we explore nature’s Vampires. Our guest is Dr Marie Lisandra Zepeda Mendoza, who had recently finished her postdoc in Copenhagen, Denmark and whose recently published research on vampire bats and how they survive on such a...

Sharks are in the water. But is the ocean shark-infested, or shark-depleted? I sat down to talk with Dr Alexandra McInturf to find out. Learn more about Alexandra and her work Papers Referenced: Half a Century of Global Decline in Sharks and Rays Half a century of rising extinction risk of coral reef sharks and rays Global catches, exploitation rates, and rebuilding options for sharks Bycatch Solu...

Another stroll down memory lane as I revisit the second-ever guest episode of The Wild Life, Myth-Understood: Busting Bat Myths and Mistruths with Liz Dengate from March 6th of 2018. If you'd like to support the creation of this show, the blog, and my science communication efforts on social media, you can do so for as little as $1 per month at www.patreon.com/thewildlife This week we focus on an a...

This was the first ever episode of The Wild Life back in 2017, and it was never supposed to happen. That's right, The Wild Life, as a podcast, was an accident. The result of a series of unfortunate events. But that's life, isn't it? It happens in the most unexpected of ways. I never imagined that this is where I would be today, and I'm so incredibly grateful for the experience and all those who ha...