Forces for Nature

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! Did you know that most of the food crops we eat are reliant on pollinators to reproduce? Fruits, vegetables, nuts, even the food fed to cattle, sheep, and pigs, need pollinators such as bees. Unfortunately, there have been staggering declines in bee population numbers over the past couple of decades that have the potential for d...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! Sharks have a bad rep. But Tadzio Bervoets is here to tell us why our fear should be replaced with respect and intrigue instead. These animals are keystone species that, if removed, can cause a cascading negative effect on the entire ocean ecosystem and human livelihoods- and it's already been witnessed in some places. We t...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! The connection of how consumerism impacts the environment may not always be so clear. However, when you take a moment to think about how and what products are made of, and what their life cycle may be, a very discouraging picture can start to emerge. And, to find what is and isn't "good" can be quite overwhelming...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show!  *This episode originally aired in May 2021. You can find an update from Julio at 24:44. Today's guest is Julio Prieto. He's an Ecuadorian lawyer working with the Union of People Affected by Texaco, the organization otherwise known as UDAPT. He has been a key player in one of the most well-known battles for environment...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show!  Have you ever watched a documentary that made you want to do something about what you were seeing? But then, after the credits, life takes back over and that inspiration quickly fades. It happens to all of us. But today's guest, Andrea Walji, is going to introduce us to a new streaming platform that lets you take action as...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! Did you know that over 100k animals still suffer and die each year due to the testing of chemicals used to make mascara, shampoo, and other cosmetics despite there being more effective non-animal testing methods available? This antiquated practice is still legal in 4 out of 5 countries but today's guest, Aviva Vetter, is pa...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! Climate change and environmental protection haven't always been as politicized as they are today. And, unfortunately, in being so, progress on these fronts gets hindered. Chris Barnard is helping to change that. He's the Policy Director at The Conservation Coalition, a group founded by political conservatives working t...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! More and more scientific studies are showing that protecting healthy soils, or regenerating degraded ones, is key to not only slowing down climate change but can actually help reverse it. This is in addition to greater water retention capabilities (aka flood and drought resistance), protection from erosion, and the ability to pr...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! David Mizejewski, a naturalist, author, and television presenter with the National Wildlife Federation, shares how our gardens can be key to helping reverse the dramatic wildlife declines the world is experiencing. We talk about current misconceptions around yards and gardens, how they may be unintentionally barren of the benefi...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! When a scabies outbreak in a gorilla population in Uganda was attributed to the hygiene habits of nearby local communities, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka knew that she would have to find creative ways to ensure that these magnificent animals and surrounding communities can co-exist. As a response, she created the NGO, Conservation...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! As this crazy year comes to an end, we celebrate the forces for nature that were featured this past season and offered rays of hope in otherwise dark times.   Season 2 coming in February 2021!  Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for updates on more wins our guests from this past season achieved as well as more ideas on how you,...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! This is our most action-packed episode to date! Today's guest is Brandon Schauer. He's the Senior VP of Rare's Make it Personal program, an initiative aimed at encouraging climate-friendly behaviors. Through their research, they have found the top seven behaviors that, if only 10% of Americans adopted, would put t...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! Did you know that there is a little one-pound monkey in the forests of Colombia that looks like Albert Einstein? Many people didn't know that either. But, today's guest, Rosamira Guillen, is changing that. She's the Executive Director of Proyecto Titi, working for the past decade to protect Cotton Top Tamarins. An...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! The U.S. Amendments to the Constitution protect, for example, your freedom of religion, your freedom of speech, your right to vote. But it doesn't state that you have a right to clean air, water, and a healthy environment. U.S. citizens actually have more of a right to own a gun than to have the water coming out of their fa...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! Have you ever felt that you, alone, don't have the power to make a difference? Now, what if you had thousands, or millions, of people join you? Would you feel more impactful then? Nina Jackel uses the culmination of everyone's one voice to make a tangible difference for animals all over the world. Her organization, Lad...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! There are only four large-scale temperate grasslands left in the world whose protection would conserve a fully functioning ecosystem. However, undertaking a conservation effort of that size could be immensely daunting and difficult. Today’s guests welcome that challenge. Sean Gerrity is the founder of the American Prairie Reserv...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show!  Did you know that there is a small, hairy rhino species in Sumatra? Or a rhino species in Java that lives in the shadow of an active volcano? I sit down with Nina Fascione, the Executive Director of the International Rhino Foundation, and we talk about these special animals, their plight, and how, despite their dire population...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! World-renowned ecologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, Dr. Enric Sala, founded and leads Nat Geo’s Pristine Seas, a project that combines exploration, research, and media to inspire country leaders to protect the last wild places in the ocean. Today, we talk about how some ocean species can act as our N95 masks,...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! The guiding principle of environmental justice is that everyone, regardless of race, color, national origin, or income is entitled to equal protection from environmental harms and risks. However, statistics clearly show that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) disproportionately bear the impacts of climate change, fro...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! It is suspected that a wildlife market in China was ground zero for the Covid19 outbreak, but why? How did that happen? How has it happened in the past and why will it inevitably happen again unless we make some important changes? I talk about all of this with today's guest, Onkuri Majumdar of the organization Freeland. She...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! The effects of Covid19 have been far-reaching and unexpected. With the sudden stop of international tourism to Africa, vast wilderness areas that would normally have a reliable presence of tourists and workers, have been left vacant. This vacancy, and its negative economic consequences, have left these areas vulnerable to wildli...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! Did you know that at their current rate of decline, lions can become extinct in our lifetime?! With many of them living outside of protected areas, conservation solutions have to involve the people they live among. Today's guest is Resson Kantai Duff, the Deputy Director of Ewaso Lions based in Northern Kenya. The mission o...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! Have you ever stopped to wonder why an organization who, let's say, works to protect animals may still serve (other) animals at their events? There's a disconnect there that today's guest, Deva Holub, is working to adjust. She helps to run Animal Place's Food for Thought program whose aim is to help nonprofit...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! Did you know that only 10% of all plastic that's ever been produced has been recycled?!* And that just 60% of communities in the U.S. have access to curbside recycling pick-up?** Our waste is a huge problem but, today's guest, Ryan Hickman, is determined to be part of the solution. At just 10 years old (yes, you read t...

Send Crystal a text letting her know what you thought about the show! Is there a way to feed millions and support economies without the severe environmental footprint left behind by conventional agricultural practices? There is! Regenerative agriculture is a growing movement and it includes practices such as agroforestry and silvopastoral systems- basically, food that's grown and animals rais...