Earth to Humans

Already this summer we have experienced record-breaking heat waves.  As I prepare this episode for release on our nation’s independence day, it’s over 100 degrees where I live in Boise, Idaho.  Of course, every time I see news of record breaking temperatures I’m reminded of our rapidly changing climate - but these days I’m also reminded of something else.  The solar panels that were recently insta...

Today we are digging into our interview archives to explore a particularly bizarre and fascinating question - how can an endangered species recovery program assist in solving a missing-persons case?  The interviews that you’ll be hearing in today’s episode were recorded during production for my first film, Scavenger Hunt, an hour long documentary about California condor recovery and the issue of l...

Today’s guest on the show rode his bike over 2,000 miles from Canada to Mexico along the Pacific coast - carrying a trailer with a life-sized rhino behind him!  Matt Meyer is a South African safari guide who was inspired to take action to help protect declining rhino populations - and just this past week he completed what he calls the Rhino Ride! Join private conversations with top authors and acc...

Today’s guests on the show are working to empower local entrepreneurs and bring solar power to the Buffer Zone communities of Nepal.  Moira Hanes is the co-founder and board chair of Empowered by Light, and Anya Cherneff is the co-founder and executive director of Empower Generation.   These two organizations have come together to implement a project that will provide solar  power to ranger statio...

Today’s guest on the show is Monica Bond from the Wild Nature Institute.  Monica was one of our first guests on the podcast - she was featured in episode 6 of the show.  At that time we had recently completed two short films about the research and conservation work being conducted by the Wild Nature Institute in Tanzania - and we’ll get a quick update on these important conservation projects going...

In today’s show we are exploring and comparing the extinction crises experienced by two very different wildlife species - the California condor, and the vaquita. If you’ve been following the latest news about the vaquita, then you’ve probably already heard a number of comparisons between the situation faced by this small species of porpoise and that faced by the condor in the early 1980s.  A lot o...

Today we are bringing you a very special episode from Eyes on Conservation correspondent Kristin Tieche.  Some of you may recognize Kristin’s voice from the episode that we did on the March for Science - she was reporting from the San Francisco March for Science event in episode 119 of the show. As many of our listeners are likely aware, the following Saturday after the March for Science was anoth...

We’re taking this week off, but thought we’d dig into our archives and re-visit one of our most popular episodes of the show - episode 53 about the occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.  This interview with the conservation director of the Audubon Society of Portland, Bob Sallinger, was conducted back in January of 2016 while the occupation was still going on.  Bob put the situation in c...

Today’s guest on the show is Zak Smith from the Natural Resources Defense Council.  Zak is a Senior Attorney at NRDC, and has been running the group’s Marine Mammal Protection Project for the past 10 years.  Through this work, he has become deeply involved in efforts to save the vaquita from extinction. If you’re wondering what a vaquita is - it’s a small species of porpoise found in the northern...

Today on the podcast we are discussing a particularly interesting viral media story that I’m guessing a bunch of folks out there in the audience may have come across recently. Researchers Evan Buechley and Ethan Frehner recently published a scientific paper about an interesting and previously undocumented behavior of a very common species here in the North American West - the American badger.  Eva...

As many of our listeners are likely aware, we engaged in an experiment this past weekend and sent five EOC correspondents out to cover five different March for Science events all across the US.  Today’s episode is the end result of that experiment! The episode starts off in Washington, D.C. - the main event this past Saturday, Earth Day 2017.  The Washington, D.C. march was attended by tens of tho...

Today we are bringing you a special Earth Day bonus episode of the show! We have a lot going on this Earth Day - today marks the online release of our newest documentary film, Souls of the Vermilion Sea - about the struggle to save the vaquita from extinction.  We’re super excited to be releasing this new 30-min doc for free online streaming!  Click here to watch the film, or go to vaquitafilm.com...

Today’s guest on the show is Rosalyn LePier.  Rosalyn is an environmental historian, ethnobotanist, and indigenous writer.  She is a professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Montana, a research associate an the National Museum of Natural History, and is currently a visiting professor of Women’s studies, Environmental Studies and Native American religion at the Harvard Divinity Schoo...

Today’s guest on the show is Annette Berkovits, an author and educator focused on wildlife conservation who has written the new book, Confessions of an Accidental Zoo Curator. We talked with Annette about her path towards becoming a key architect of what has now become a worldwide standard for wildlife and conservation education programs.  Annette worked for three decades with the Wildlife Conserv...

Today's guest on the show is Beth Pratt, who is the California Director for the National Wildlife Federation.  Beth has spearheaded the #SaveLACougars campaign, and has helped raise a lot of awareness for mountain lion research.  We are particularly interested in hearing about the new proposed wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon in Southern California, which Beth has been involved with. Join p...

Today's guest on the show is writer and activist Kimberly Fanshier.  Kimberly seeks to use writing and critical reading as community building, anti-oppressive tools.  Her research interests revolve around place-based rhetorics: Kimberly writes about wolves in Oregon, pop country radio, internet comment sections, and frontier violence to unpack the discourses of belonging, home, identity, and b...

Today we are revisiting the issue of lead poisoning in wildlife.  This is a topic that I’ve spent quite a bit of time investigating, as it was central to the story behind my first film, Scavenger Hunt - which was about the connections between California condor conservation efforts and the issue of lead poisoning from spent ammunition. This issue has been in the headlines recently - the Obama admin...

This week we are bringing you a very special episode of the Eyes on Conservation podcast - this is about as close to a live show as we've gotten.  Today's episode was recorded just a few hours before being released - and we recorded it on location in San Felipe, Mexico where fellow EOC co-host Sean Bogle and I are engaged in a series of community screenings of our new film Souls of the Ver...

I am extremely excited to announce that we have added a fresh component to the EOC marque that embraces all art forms in how these diverse creative mediums can convey conservation information.  All of us respond differently to a variety of media.  Some us connect with video and radio, while others may connect to paintings, song, or dance.  It is important that the issues, actions, and efforts that...

Today’s guest on the show is Fitz Cahall.  Fitz is a podcaster, filmmaker and storyteller at Duct Tape Then Beer.  He is the producer and host of the Dirtbag Diaries, one of the most popular podcast series focused on outdoor adventure, and he’s also the director of the new film, Paul’s Boots. I had a lot of fun talking with Fitz - there aren’t too many other people out there that share my same pas...

Today we are bringing you a panel discussion focused on conservation oriented filmmaking in Idaho.  We put together a panel of Boise-based filmmakers who are screening films at this year’s Les Bois Film Festival - an event that Wild Lens actually helped found.  This is the second year that we are co-hosting Les Bois Film Festival alongside the Land Trust of the Treasure Valley, and we’re extremely...

Today’s guest on the show is Dr. Frances Gulland, senior scientist at the Marine Mammal Center, and a member of the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita.  This committee is composed of the world’s top vaquita experts, and they just released a new report which contains some shocking revelations. Before we jump into our interview with Frances however, I’m going to check in with EO...

On today’s show we are joined by Sarah Kaizar, an amazing artist out of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Sarah’s work first caught my attention when I was browsing the internet for Christmas gifts, and I stumbled upon a series of recycled notebooks featuring endangered toads. Toads being among some of my favorite animals, I had to check out more of her work and was so glad I did. The series we will foc...

Today’s guest on the show is Deia Schlosberg.  Deia is an extremely talented filmmaker, who was unexpectedly arrested after documenting a civil disobedience action in Northern North Dakota back in October of 2016. There was a wave of arrests of journalists working to document pipeline protests in the fall of 2016, but Deia’s arrest really shook the filmmaking world because she was charged with thr...

Todays guest on the show is Rob Gay - a paleontologist, biologist, educator, and author. Rob and I worked together as condor field biologists in Northern Arizona and Southern Utah almost 10 years ago now, and when I found out that Rob had played an important role in the recent designation of Bears Ears National Monument, I reached out to see if he’d be willing to share his story. I’m super excited...