I’ll Go If You Go Podcast

In the Season 5 finale, host Monica Carcamo‑Binetti returns to the redwoods to revisit a tree she considers a friend. She reflects on connection and gratitude, inviting listeners to say hello to a tree and to remember that we are never alone. Monica revisits the voices and stories from earlier episodes, weaving them into a warm moment of reflection on our relationships with the natural world and w...

In the seventh episode of Season 5, host Monica Carcamo-Binetti heads into the Santa Cruz Mountains to record on location at San Vicente Redwoods. She is joined by Sempervirens Fund natural resource manager Beatrix Jiménez-Helsley. Beatrix’s path into land stewardship began with a spark of awe for the redwoods’ cousin, the Giant Sequoias. That early wonder shaped her career dedicated to tending fo...

In the sixth episode of Season 5, Monica travels to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park to meet with two crew members of the trail crew who work on one of Big Sur’s most beloved trails. She sits down with Riley Dunn and Margarita Munguia of the California State Parks Trail Crew, who worked on the complex repair of the Pfeiffer Falls Bridge after a massive redwood tree damaged it during a storm in 2023. To...

Episode Description: In the fifth episode of Season 5, Monica sits down with Dr. David Rebanal, associate professor of public health at San Francisco State University, and Rizelle Jugarap, a master’s student researcher at San Francisco State. Together, they share insight from the Reclaiming Nature project. The project is a study that brought young people from Black, Latine, and Filipinx communitie...

In the fourth episode of season 5, Monica sits down with Daisy Prado, community organizer and founder of City Gurlz Hike. City Gurlz Hike is a collective that creates spaces for Black, Latina, Indigenous women and non-binary folks to feel at home on the trails across San Francisco. Through the support of a single Mom who made sure Daisy had the chance to explore, volunteer, and ask questions, Dais...

In the third episode of Season 5, host Monica Carcamo-Binetti settles into the Save the Redwoods League office on a chilly San Francisco morning with guest Rahsaan McFarland II. Rahsaan is a Stanford undergraduate, artist, photographer, and emerging science communicator whose early encounters with coast redwoods opened a path toward environmental justice. Rahsaan co-founded Nurtured by Nature to h...

In the second episode of Season 5, host Monica Carcamo-Binetti heads out into the field to kick-off California State Parks Week beneath the soaring redwoods of Samuel P. Taylor State Park. This is the 4th year of celebration and the first time in a redwood park!  Guided by this year’s tagline “This Is Where You Live”, Monica captures stories from District Superintendent Maria Mowrey, Interpreter K...

In the first episode of season 5, we celebrate transitions, transformations, and the quiet power of standing among ancient trees. Former host Emily Harwitz returns to pass the mic to new host Monica Carcamo-Binetti , a longtime advocate for nature connection and co-Founder of Bay Area GalVentures . Together they explore how the redwoods shape us, and how being outdoors can clear our minds, rest ou...

In this twelfth episode, host Emily Harwitz takes a closer look at the fuel that drives conservation. Funding, of course, is essential, and two of the main sources of conservation funding are government agencies and philanthropy. Today’s guests—Ben Friedman and Geenah Leslie—are experts in those areas, from the state and federal levels to the local level. They’re also experts at cultivating relati...

In this eleventh episode, host Emily Harwitz takes a closer look at career development programs specifically designed to give young people work experience in park and public land jobs. Many guests this season found their jobs in conservation by following wending paths toward their love for nature—and through a little bit of serendipity. That’s true for Alfonso Orozco who, guided by his own experie...

In this tenth episode, host Emily Harwitz talks outreach and engagement—for nature and adventure—in a double-feature with Xiomara Batin, Outreach and Marketing Manager at GirlVentures, and Erika Granadino, Community Engagement Coordinator for the North Coast Redwoods District. How do you get people to come outside if they’ve never done it before? Hint: it starts with meeting peop...

In this ninth episode, host Emily Harwitz ventures to Butano State Park to ask artist, educator, and naturalist Elexis Padrón: What is art? How can art help us connect with nature? And what role can artists play in conservation? As Elexis puts it, art is a way of seeing that can help us foster our relationships with nature. Art can be a way to help people not just see and value, but love this worl...

In this eighth episode, host Emily Harwitz heads to a redwoods preserve in Napa County to explore the work of stewardship—or, the next stage of conservation after a piece of land is protected. Conservation doesn’t end with a legal transaction! Just as nature is constantly changing, so, too, are the needs of the land, and it’s the work of stewardship to keep the land healthy. It’s a dynamic field o...

In this seventh episode, host Emily Harwitz delves into the world of fire adaptation and resilience across California with a double feature: Katie Low , fire ecologist and Statewide Coordinator for UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network, and Saul Tejeda , an Assistant Captain on the Yosemite Wildland Fire Module with over a decade of experience on the fireline. This episode goes broad a...

In this sixth episode, host Emily Harwitz travels to the Sierra Nevada mountain range (figuratively) with guest Neida Rodriguez , a rising forestry student at Cal Poly Humboldt and this year’s Giant Sequoia Forest Fellow. There’s only one species of the biggest tree on Earth—giant sequoias—and it’s a special treat to hear from Neida herself about what it’s like to work among giants and what stewar...

In this fifth episode, host Emily Harwitz chats with Kyle Buchanan and Karla Jovel about Interpretation—the kind that blends science, art, and storytelling in the outdoors to help park visitors appreciate the natural and cultural histories of the places they love. We also get an inside look at the new and exciting project called Forests for All that’s bringing local communities out into Redwood Na...

In this fourth episode, host Emily Harwitz chats with Daniela Peña Corvillon about her work as a water architect, a term she coined while studying landscape architecture and realizing that water is the foundation for life in any landscape. Where water flows, life grows, and water always finds a way. Redwood ecosystems are a great example of that, like at one of Daniela’s favorite projects, the ‘O...

In this third episode, host Emily Harwitz chats with José Juan Rodriguez and Verenice Sanchez about doing aquatic restoration in old growth redwood forests. Growing up in big cities, neither of them thought they’d one day be snorkeling beneath the redwoods or trekking along creeks to collect eDNA samples. But since then, they’ve followed their passions for nature and, after some surprising turns,...

In Season 4, we’re exploring the different kinds of jobs you can do in the redwood and redwoods parks. In this second episode, host Emily Harwitz chats with Francisco Saavedra about forestry, how his Yurok heritage informs his forestry practice, who the redwoods are to him, and what he hopes to accomplish as a Guardian of the Redwoods.  Francisco Antonio Saavedra Jr. is a proud, federally enrolled...

Welcome to Season 4! This season, we’re exploring the different kinds of jobs you can do in the redwood and redwoods parks. In this first episode, producer and host of season 1, Leslie Parra,  interviews the current host Emily Harwitz. They talk about Emily’s love for nature, what she does for work when she’s not hosting I’ll Go If You Go , and how she’s approached her career in science and enviro...

In Episode 6, the final episode of Season 3, host Emily Harwitz talks to Agnes Vianzon (she/they), the founder and Executive Director of Eastern Sierra Conservation Corps (ESCC) and a first-generation, queer filipinx. They founded ESCC in 2017, starting with an initial all-women crew, and the organization has served over 100 alumni and counting. ESCC is changing the demographics of outdoor steward...

In episode 5, host Emily Harwitz chats with Michelle Warren, the Vice President and Co-founder of Black Girls Trekkin Inc. (BGT). BGT is a Los Angeles based 501c3 nonprofit for Black women who choose to opt outside. BGT seeks to inspire and empower Black women to spend time outdoors, appreciate nature, and protect it. BGT is building a community that will show the world that Black women are a stro...

Episode 4’s guest is Max Sovine (they/them). Max works at Queer LifeSpace, a San Francisco-based non-profit providing mental health services for the queer community, where they just launched the new project Outlandish! which will bring queer youth out into awesome parks and recreational areas in the Bay Area. Max has a master’s degree in Ecology, Spirituality, and Religion from the California Inst...

Episode 3’s guest is Kathryn Luna who builds community and partnerships at the outdoors retailer Mountain Hardwear. She’s also on the Board of Directors at GirlVentures, a non-profit that inspires girls to lead through outdoor adventure, inner discovery, and collective action. Host Emily Harwitz talks to Kathryn about her relationship to the outdoors, including: starting young, the safety of explo...

In episode 2, Host Emily Harwitz chats with Monica Binetti and Erin Closmore about how they started the hiking community Bay Area Galventures, beginning with Monica overcoming her fear of the outdoors and her dear friend Erin moving back to the Bay Area. Amongst the redwood trees, Monica has discovered that she is more than her corporate job, 2 kids, and busy city life—she is connected to herself...