The Understory - a podcast where nature restoration gets real

Everyone agrees the climate movement needs young people, and everyone agrees the next generation will live with the consequences. So why do the rooms where the decisions get made still look the way they do? In this episode, recorded live at London Climate Action Week, hosts Dr. Sweta Chakraborty and Jad Daley dig into an uncomfortable irony — a gathering of tens of thousands convened to solve the...

Everyone agrees reforestation needs to scale, and everyone agrees private capital has to be part of the answer. So why is it still so hard? In this episode, hosts Dr. Sweta Chakraborty and Jad Daley dig into the gap between what corporate buyers and investors require and what the communities actually stewarding the land can offer — and what it takes to build a bridge that works for both sides. The...

Earth Day started in 1970 with twenty million Americans, a bipartisan coalition, and no carbon agenda. It gave us the EPA, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act. So why does it feel like the environmental movement has spent the last two decades narrowing — not expanding? Recorded live at EarthX in Dallas on Earth Day 2026, this episode brings together some of the most credible voices in...

The Understory is a podcast about restoration where practitioners can real talk — no polished conference-stage performances, no organizational spin, just honest conversation about what's working, what isn't, and what it will actually take to reforest the world the right way.

What if everything we're doing to restore the world's forests is missing the point? At every COP, every Climate Week, every major nature summit — the panels are the same, the talking points are the same, and the hard questions never get asked. In this first episode, Jad Daly and Sweta Chakraborty introduces The Understory: a podcast built for the people who are ready to talk about what&#39...