Cultivating Conservation

Ethical Lens's. Navigating morality in wildlife photography and film making with Megan Hockin-Bennett, Natasha Garritty and Ryan Tidman.  This week’s episode is a little different in format. Last week I hosted the first ever Coastal Insights. Over a year ago I had an idea. To bring science, conservation, creativity and community together. To have everyone under the one roof to present, listen, ins...

Gorillas are among the most recognizable of the large charismatic mammals, but climate change and poaching has brought them to the brink of extinction. Greg Cummings was the executive director of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund for seventeen years. He shares his fascinating experiences as a “wildlife Robin Hood”—raising money from the rich and famous and redistributing it to endangered gorillas and t...

Dr Christy Hehir is an environmental psychologist with a PhD on how tourism can better aid conservation. Christy is passionate about understanding how tourists engage with the natural world and the long-term impacts tourism can have on individuals’ subsequent pro-environmental behaviour towards our planet’s sustainability. Committed to science communication, Christy was recently awarded a fellowsh...

Patrica Sims is a Director, Writer and Producer specializing in documenting threatened wildlife and is fascinated by the connection between humans and nature. From the arctic to the tropics, from the land to the sea. A true documentarian, Patricia has spent her life embedded within communities that live in close proximity with the natural world and her goal is to bring a global awareness to threat...

Tiare Boyes is an underwater camera operator, photographer, commercial diver and ocean plastics artist. Growing up on the coast of BC raised by a family of fishermen, her life has always revolved around the ocean; understanding how we can be good neighbors to our marine cousins, as well as sharing the incredible beauty and amazing underwater life with others in an enjoyable and educational manner...

Host, Megan Hockin-Bennett takes a break from interviews to talk about the podcast, what it has meant for her so far and the huge ripples it's making in her life swell as others! 

Finlay Pringle is a marine conservationist, climate change activist, Sea Shepherd shark ambassador and alongside his family has collected nearly 10,000KG of trash from the shorelines of his home in Scotland. But most importantly, at the age of 16, right now he is trying to complete his exams so he can once again focus his efforts on saving the planet!  At the age of nine, Finlay was in love with s...

Lauren Plummer is the director of Green Threads Cornwall. A slow fashion market dedicated to connecting local communities to second hand clothing and promoting past loved items. She lives in Cornwall with her Husband Martin and her son Orlando. Lauren is passionate about empowering communites to adopt a slower and simpler life for the sake of our children and out planet.

Lindsey Raven Emrich is vetrineray nurse, yoga teacher, green living inspiration and my first and formost, my sister! She lives in a small town in rural England and dedicates every spare moment she can trying to inspire people to make a differance. Whether its orginizing litter picks in her local community or combating waste in the vetrineray industry, Lindsey is the true definition of a conservat...

Executive president and co-founder of Born Free foundation Will Travers is an internationally renowned wildlife expert who has dedicated his life to wildlife protection, conservation, advocacy and policy. His passion for wildlife was ignited at an early age when  he lived in Kenya while his parents, Dame Virginia McKenna and the late Bill Travers MBE, made the award-winning film Born Free (1966). ...

Rob Lott is a marine mammal scientist and currently works as a policy manager and orca programme lead for Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), an international charity which campaigns to see a world where every whale and dolphin is safe and free. Based in the UK, Rob works on WDC’s anti-captivity programme, addressing the issue of the live captures of cetaceans in Russia and Japan, as well as imp...

Aged 13 I picked up a book in my school library. Listening to whales by Alexandra Morton. It changed my life, It brought me to British Columbia and it brought me to Alex!   Alexandra Morton settled in a remote area of the BC coast in 1984 to study orca vocalizations.  When impact of the industrial salmon farms flooding into the area became apparent, Morton began a 35-year effort to convince govern...

Dear friend and fellow film maker Sam Rose Phillips is a photographer, documentary filmmaker, and poet based in Yuułuʔiłʔatḥ Territory, what is currently known as Ucluelet, British Columbia. She focuses her lens on human-wildlife stories and their significance to coastal communities. Sam specializes in off-grid, remote storytelling from land and on the water, spending the first 5 years of her care...

For episode one I simply had to sit down with my best friend and biggest inspiration! Growing up in far north Queensland Shari had an interesting start to life tree planting with her mother. Now is a traditional sailor and rigger, participated in numerous Sea Shepard Society Campaigns, made a documentary about captive orca Morgan and we have spent the last 7 summers volunteering together at OrcaLa...