The Wild Idea Podcast
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Autumn Gillard & Steve Bloch: Tribal Voices and the Fight to Save Grand Staircase-Escalante
Autumn Gillard and Steve Bloch discuss the cultural, scientific, and legal battle to protect Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument from Congressional rollback.
Dalton George: The Hellbender, The High Country, and the Fight to Keep Appalachia Wild
Organizing, advocacy, and the kind of power that's still available to regular people when they decide to use it. Dalton George is the mayor of Boone, North Carolina and the national organizing director for the Endangered Species Coalition. He came up through community...
Jessica Howell-Edwards & Dani Purvis: Fighting for the Wild Soul of Cumberland Island
What makes this Georgia barrier island so extraordinary and what forces are working to reshape it. Cumberland Island National Seashore is one of the most ecologically rich and historically layered landscapes on the American East Coast, and it faces a pivotal moment....
Dr. Erica Smithwick: Fire, Climate, and Forest Resilience in the East
Dr. Erica Smithwick discusses wildfire regimes in eastern forests, the newly formed Eastern Fire Network, and how communities can build climate resilience.
Dr. William Keeton: Carbon, Complexity, and the Future of Old Growth
Dr. William Keeton on what old-growth actually means, why eastern forests store more carbon than most realize, and what protecting what’s left requires.
The Past, Present and Future of The Roadless Rule
In this webinar replay hosted by The Wild Idea Podcast, a panel of leading experts examines the history, science, tribal implications, and future of the 2001 Roadless Rule as the current administration moves toward rescission.
Trust for Public Land: Why Every Child Deserves Green Time
In this episode, Bill and Anders sit down with two researchers and advocates who are reshaping how we think about nature and public health: Dr. Carrie Besnette Hauser, President and CEO of the Trust for Public Land, and Dr. Pooja Tandon, a pediatrician and researcher at Seattle Children’s Hospital who also serves as a senior scientist with TPL. Together they bring a rare combination of policy reach and clinical grounding to one of the most urgent questions facing American families: how do we make sure every child has meaningful access to the outdoors?
Tim Mahoney: The Irish Wilderness and the Art of Passing a Bill
Conservation strategist Tim Mahoney walks through the Irish Wilderness campaign, revealing how wilderness bills are actually won in Congress.
Terry Tempest Williams: Wildness, Ancestors, and the Holy Ordinary
Terry Tempest Williams joins The Wild Idea to explore hope, grief, ancestors, and the sacred work of loving wild places in uncertain times.
Cole Mannix: Working Land Stewardship and Food Systems
In this milestone 50th episode of The Wild Idea, Bill and Anders sit down in Helena, Montana, with rancher and entrepreneur Cole Mannix to explore the intersection of land stewardship, regenerative agriculture, and food system reform. Cole is a founding member of the rancher-owned Old Salt Co-op, an ambitious effort to create an alternative marketplace that reconnects producers, consumers, and landscapes across the American West. At its core, this episode asks: What would a food system look like if it truly supported stewardship? How do we balance wild lands and working lands? And how can everyday choices help build a more resilient, place-based economy?
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What is The Wild Idea?
Humans have been part of Earth’s natural cycle for 300,000 years, with brains much the same as ours for the past 100,000 or so. What’s evolved isn’t our biology but how we understand our place in the natural world. As small populations grew into communities and then into societies, we created cultural, religious, and legal frameworks to help explain and define our connection to the rest of life on Earth.
