WildKingdom & The Map of Dreams Podcast

From near bankruptcy to Britain’s rewilding revolution, Charlie Burrell reveals to Hugh Somerleyton, how letting nature lead at Knepp reshaped farming, food and the future of the countryside. Charlie inherited the 3,500-acre estate from his grandparents in the 1980’s and is the inspiration behind the Knepp Wildland Project. Having run Knepp Home Farm for 20 years, Charlie had a dramatic change of...

From Montana’s vast grasslands to Indigenous-led restoration, Danny Kinka reveals to Hugh Somerleyton how bison, beavers and bold storytelling are reshaping the American Prairie, and why rewilding is as much about culture as it is about wildlife. Dr Daniel Kinka is the Director of Rewilding at American Prairie, an extraordinary project in eastern Montana working to create the largest nature reserv...

Joost & Johan, Dutch rewilding pioneers, reveal to Hugh Somerleyton their radical plan to bring back the lost Dalmatian pelican to the Netherlands and even potentially Great Britain, a spectacular “aqua wolf” that could transform our wetlands forever. In this episode, Hugh is joined remotely by two of the people at the heart of one of the most ambitious rewilding stories in Europe, the effort...

Nuclear and nature collide as Julia Pyke of Sizewell C makes the provocative case to Hugh Somerleyton that big energy can mean big nature, and that Britain’s most controversial power project could power 7% of the UK, while restoring more land than it takes. As the founding Joint Managing Director of Sizewell C, Julia Pyke spent nearly a decade making the case that major infrastructure and genuine...

From Vogue to viral activism, Fleur Britten joins Hugh Somerleyton lakeside to expose fashion’s greenwashing, champion cool climate action, and ask whether making sustainability sexy is the key to saving nature. Journalist, author and self-described "eco nag", Fleur Britten spent fifteen years as Senior Features Editor at Sunday Times Style before going freelance, where she now writes widely on su...

From furniture heir to Highland rewilding pioneer, Paul Lister reveals why bringing wolves back to Scotland, rethinking meat and even shrinking the human footprint may be the boldest hope we have for saving nature. Conservationist, philanthropist and founder of The European Nature Trust, Paul Lister has spent over two decades transforming Alladale Wilderness Reserve, a 23,000-acre estate in the Sc...

Episode 1: Tony Juniper In this debut episode of Wild Kingdom & The Map of Dreams, Hugh Somerleyton sits down with Tony Juniper, Chair of Natural England, to explore how bold leadership, rewilding, and radical optimism can help us restore nature and reimagine the future of Britain. One of Britain's most distinguished environmentalists, Tony Juniper CBE has spent more than four decades at the f...

Wild Kingdom and The Map of Dreams is a brand-new podcast hosted by Hugh Somerleyton, founder of the wildlife charity WildEast. At its heart is the Map of Dreams, a living record of extraordinary people doing ordinary things to restore the natural world and sharing their vision for what a wilder future might look like. The ambition is bold but simple: to restore 20% of the United Kingdom back to n...