Yolonda Youngs is an Associate Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at CSU San Bernardino and a dedicated scholar, teacher, researcher, and leader. Her expertise lies within national parks and protected areas, environmental policy, conservation of natural resources, and cultural landscapes. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Yolonda traces the idea of the Grand Canyon as an icon and the ways people came to know it through popular imagery and visual media. She reminds us of the shifting interplay between humans and their environments and how visual representations shape popular ideas and meanings about national parks and the American West.
Episode 132: Cynthia Jurs - Summoned By The Earth
Cynthia Jurs is a dharma teacher (Dharmacharya) in the Order of Interbeing of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, and in recognition of her dedication in carrying out the Earth Treasure Vase practice, she was made an honorary lama in the Vajrayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Cynthia recounts a fateful meeting with a venerated Lama in Nepal whose formidable assignment sent her on a thirty year pilgrimage into diverse communities and ecosystems with holy vessels to bring healing and protection to the earth.
Episode 131: Obi Kaufmann - The State of Fire
Obi Kaufmann is an American naturalist, writer, and illustrator. Among the books he has authored are The California Field Atlas, a guide to the state's ecology and geography, and most recently The State Of Fire - Why California Burns. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Kaufmann describes the ancient relationship between humans and fire as part of California's natural history, dispelling the widespread misinformation surrounding the nature and effects of large-scale wildfires, and placing them within a greater context as just one phase of the necessary natural cycles of ecosystems.
Episode 130: Alex Matthiessen - My Father and His Legacy
Peter Matthiessen (1927 – 2014) was an American novelist, naturalist, wilderness writer, environmental activist, and zen teacher whose works dealt with the destructive effects of encroaching technology on preindustrial cultures and the natural environment. He is the only American writer to win The National Book Award in both nonfiction (The Snow Leopard) and fiction (Shadow Country). In this episode of Nature Revisited we meet Peter's son Alex Matthiessen – a distinguished environmentalist in his own right – who offers rare insights into the well-traveled life, prolific works, and nature-steeped pursuits of one of the true "literary lions" of 20th Century American literature.
Episode 129: Gary Paul Nabhan - Desert Earth
Gary Paul Nabhan is an agricultural ecologist, ethnobotanist, and award-winning author whose work focuses primarily on the plants and cultures of the desert American Southwest, including the book The Nature of Desert Nature. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Gary re-introduces us to the possibilities of what a desert is and can be, challenging our traditional notions. Filled with sights, sounds, scents, and wildlife systems one wouldn't think possible, Gary reveals how the desert contains wisdom and teachings that are invaluable to humanity in the midst of our changing climate.
The Sonoran Desert
Episode 128: Paul Bierman - When The Ice Is Gone
Paul Bierman is professor of environmental science at the University of Vermont, where he develops methods to understand ice and date rocks. His findings have been published in Science and Nature and in his recent book When The Ice Is Gone. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Bierman reveals a startling discovery about Greenland's rapidly melting ice sheet - it has melted naturally before, hundreds of thousands of years ago... Changes in Greenland due to a warming earth are already reverberating around the world, and Bierman explains how losing Greenland's ice will catalyze devastating events if we don't change course and address climate change now.
Episode 127: Basil Camu - From Wasteland To Wonder
Basil Camu is the author of From Wasteland to Wonder and the co-founder of Leaf & Limb, a North Carolina tree care service founded by Basil's father in 1997. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Basil recounts how what began as a traditional blue collar tree removal business transformed- through hard work, research, and dedication- into a tree care and consulting enterprise with a mission to preserve, plant, and promote trees in a way that maximizes positive benefits for members of all ecosystems. By implementing ways to work with natural systems instead of against them, Leaf & Limb has developed a blueprint to increase the health and population of trees, and thus help address pressing environmental issues and begin restoring the balance of life on Earth.
Episode 126: Ben Goldfarb - Crossings
Ben Goldfarb is an independent conservation journalist and award-winning author of books that include Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Ben describes how roads have transformed our planet and disrupted the natural order of wildlife throughout the United States and around the world. As our planet’s road network continues to grow exponentially, the science of road ecology has become increasingly vital to the future of all living beings.
Episode 125: Boyce Upholt - The Great River
Boyce Upholt is a “nature critic” and author whose writing explores the relationship between humans and the natural world, especially in the U.S. South. Originally from Connecticut, Upholt moved to the Mississippi Delta in 2009, where he discovered an unexpected wilderness amid an agricultural empire: the Mississippi River. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Boyce describes the natural and human histories of the wild and unruly Mississippi River and the centuries of human efforts to control it. Ambitious and sometimes contentious programs of engineering -- government-built levees, jetties, dikes, and dams -- has not only damaged once-vibrant ecosystems but may not work much longer.
Episode 124: Nadina Galle - The Nature of Our Cities
Nadina Galle is an ecological engineer and technologist dedicated to working with urban ecologists and planners to apply current and developing technologies to improve urban ecosystems for future generations. Best known for her pioneering work on the "Internet of Nature" (IoN), a global movement that harnesses emerging technologies to create nature-rich communities, she is also the author of the book The Nature of Our Cities. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Nadina discusses how her cross-cultural background informed her passion for nature and career pursuits, as well as some of the ways innovators from around the world are integrating urban nature with emerging technologies to protect our cities from the effects of climate change, while raising awareness and a sense of stewardship of nature within the population.
Episode 123: Craig Kauffman - Rights of Nature
Craig Kauffman is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Oregon, and a member of the United Nations Knowledge Network on Harmony with Nature. He is also the co-author of the book The Politics of Rights of Nature - Strategies for Building a More Sustainable Future. With the window of opportunity to take meaningful action on climate change and mass extinction closing, more and more communities, organizations, and governments around the world are calling for Rights of Nature (RoN) to be legally recognized. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Craig discusses how these Rights of Nature laws are helping to reframe our perspective of the rights of the natural world, and transforming governance to address environmental crises through more ecologically sustainable approaches to development.
Episode 122: Yolonda Youngs - Our National Parks
Yolonda Youngs is an Associate Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at CSU San Bernardino and a dedicated scholar, teacher, researcher, and leader. Her scholarly expertise lies within national parks and protected areas, environmental justice, conservation of natural resources, environmental policy, cultural landscapes, and more. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Yolonda discusses all things National Parks including how they help shape our relationship to nature and the environment, the geographic and environmental principles they represent, their wide variety, the people and programs in place to maintain them, and the challenges they face for the future.
Episode 121: Zoë Schlanger - The Light Eaters
Zoë Schlanger is a staff writer at the Atlantic and an award-winning journalist covering science, health and the environment. Her recent book The Light Eaters is a narrative investigation into the new science of plant intelligence and sentience. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Zoë discusses eye-opening facts about the life of plants and their ingenious biological methods of adaptation and survival. From their ability to communicate, recognize their kin and behave socially, react to sounds, and morph their bodies to blend into their surroundings, plants display an extraordinary system of intelligence that challenges us to rethink the role of plants—and our own place—in the natural world.
Episode 120: Douglas H. Chadwick - The Wolverine
Douglas H. Chadwick is an American wildlife biologist, author, photographer and frequent National Geographic contributor. He is the author of 14 books including The Wolverine Way and more than 200 articles on wildlife and wild places. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Douglas talks about his experiences with wolverines and the Glacier Wolverine Project, a 5-year study to uncover key missing information about the wolverine's habitat, social structure and mating habits. From dealing with blizzards, grizzlies, sheer mountain walls, and other daily challenges to survival, he and a team of volunteers tracked this elusive species to better understand it and the forces that threaten its future.
Episode 119: Greg Sarris - The Forgetters
Greg Sarris is an author, professor, and is the Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and the current Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. In this episode of Nature Revisited, Greg discusses his latest work, The Forgetters, a richly beautiful story cycle about remembering our shared histories and repairing the world. Recounting his early years, to discovering his native american heritage, Greg explains how stories and language are what makes us human, and how the lessons contained in the the stories of our indigenous ancestors contain the blueprints for a survivable future through a reconnection with nature and each other.
