The Wild Idea Podcast
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Chris Wood: Why We Have The Roadless Rule (Redux)
In this special remastered conversation, The Wild Idea revisits a timely and essential discussion about one of America’s most important conservation tools: the Roadless Rule. As the rule approaches its 25th anniversary, hosts Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds reintroduce listeners to Chris Wood, President and CEO of Trout Unlimited and one of the primary architects of the original 2001 Roadless Rule. This conversation offers critical context for understanding what’s at stake today and serves as a reminder that America’s public lands belong to all of us. This conversation kicks off Roadless Month on The Wild Idea, setting the stage for stories from across the country about the landscapes, communities, and cultures shaped by roadless public lands.
Michelle Fullner: Setting Resolutions with the Host of the Golden State Naturalist Podcast
As the year comes to a close, Bill Hodge and Anders Reynolds are joined by Michelle Fullner, host of the Golden State Naturalist podcast, for a reflective and wide-ranging conversation about growth, attention, storytelling, and intention. Listen in for a thoughtful meditation on why the stories we tell matter, how we show up for them, and what it means to move forward with intention in an uncertain time.
Sarah Francisco: From Working Lands to Wild Lands in the Southern Appalachians
Sarah Francisco, Virginia State Director of the Southern Environmental Law Center, joins The Wild Idea for a wide-ranging conversation about place, promise, and the long arc of public lands conservation in the southern Appalachians. Growing up on a Christmas tree farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley gave Sarah an early understanding of how deeply people’s lives are tied to land — both the challenges of working landscapes and the deep affection they inspire.
We talk about how those early experiences shaped her career in environmental law and advocacy, and how they continue to inform her work protecting national forests across Virginia and the broader Appalachian region.
“Good News” Returns With Good Tidings
Anne Robinson returns to The Wild Idea after completing her seven-month through hike of the Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to the summit of Katahdin. Picking up where we left off at the halfway point in Harpers Ferry, Anne reflects on what the second half of the trail revealed — about endurance, fear, community, and the layered human stories embedded in places many of us think of as “wild.”
Martha Williams: The Long Term View on Species Recovery
Martha Williams, former Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, joins us for a grounded conversation about what it really takes to care for wildlife over time. Drawing on decades of experience at both the state and federal level, Martha talks about stewardship, coexistence, and the responsibility that comes with living alongside wild species.
Chris Eyer: Muledragger
Wilderness packer and saddle maker Chris Eyer joins us for the first time, and it feels like talking with a friend who lives right up against the wild edge of Montana. Chris walks us through the places that shaped him and how he found his way from Southern California trail work to a life built around horses, mules, and the Bob Marshall Wilderness. It’s an easy, grounded conversation with someone who carries a deep connection to the places he loves.
Ben Goldfarb: Paving Paradise – How Roads Reshape the Wild
Environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb joins us for a wide-open conversation about how roads shape wildlife, ecosystems, and the public lands we depend on. Ben breaks down the stuff most of us never think about, like how tire dust kills salmon or how road noise stresses out songbirds. He also shares what pulled him into road ecology in the first place and how he tells big, complicated stories in a way that still leaves you feeling hopeful.
Grounded in Traditions: The Ties That Connect Us
This week ushers in “The Holidays”, the time of year that chaos and connection reign supreme. Today we’ve invited our friends to share the stories and moments they return to every year, the ones that ground them in place and bring them closer to the people they love. We hope you enjoy these stories as much as we did.
American Prairie, Part Two – A Wilder Future
In this second half of our American Prairie series, we sit down with CEO Alison Fox and Director of Rewilding Danny Kinka to look at what the project has become and where it’s headed. Our conversation today leaves us thinking about what it takes to hold a landscape this big together. How do you grow trust across fence lines. What does it mean to welcome visitors into a place that still feels wild. How does a project keep expanding while staying rooted in local communities. And what happens when a bold idea becomes a living, changing ecosystem guided by the people who call it home.
American Prairie, Part One – Wild on Purpose
In this first of a two-part conversation about American Prairie, we talk with founder Sean Gerrity about what inspired him to take on one of the largest conservation projects in North America. Sean shares how a lifetime spent outdoors and a background in business led him to the idea of rewilding millions of acres of Montana grasslands.
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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.
