How do sea stars move around? Why am I jealous of giant green anemones? When's the best time to go tide pooling? Why is life so hard in the in the place where the ocean meets the land? How have so many creatures adapted to thrive in this strange place where two worlds meet? Join me and Michelle Kunst as we explore the intertidal zone on the Northern California coast and discuss the incredible diversity of life that can be found there. Links: Trinidad Coastal Land Trust Seaweed with Allison Poklemba Orange Cup Coral California Deep-Sea Corals Southern California Tide Pools My website is golden ..read more

Do bats live close to my house? Why are they important? Do they have rabies? How can people help take care of urban wildlife? How can we involve more people in conservation and community science, particularly people from historically excluded groups? Come with me and Miguel Ordeñana to Griffith Park in Los Angeles, where we discuss all of this and so much more. Links: Bat Motherhood Benefits of Bats CDC Page on Human Rabies National Science Foundation STEM Diversity Report NHMLA's Community Science Projects LA Times article on lead removal project Jaguars and Obsession for Men My website is g ..read more

Have you ever wondered what kind of wildlife lives right in the middle of your city? Or why some animals thrive in cities while others don't? And how did a mountain lion end up in Los Angeles, anyway? Join me and Miguel Ordeñana, the scientist who discovered mountain lion P-22 living in Griffith Park in LA as we discuss these questions and so many more. Links: Keeping Cats Indoors Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing Safety in Mountain Lion Habitat P-22 sightings during my visit to LA P-22 Eulogy by Beth Pratt Friends of Griffith Park My website is www.goldenstatenaturalist.com Podcast merch! Y ..read more

Why are salmon important enough to merit two whole episodes? What are they up to when they're out in the ocean? What exactly is a keystone species? Should we bring grizzly bears back to California? What is a hatchery, and why are they so controversial? What does the gold rush have to do with salmon, and why does it still matter almost 200 years later?  Join me and Jason Fareira for the second part of our outing along the American River as we discuss all of these questions and more. Let Jason draw you in and share his expertise in the same way he draws a crowd everywhere he goes when he's ..read more

Ok, what's the deal with salmon? Why are they so vital to almost all of the organisms that live near their nesting grounds? What is a hatchery? Why are dams so controversial? What kinds of conditions do salmon need to thrive? How do these fish find their way back to the very rivers where they first hatched?  In this episode, I take a walk with naturalist and Fish and Wildlife employee Jason Fareira along the American River near the Nimbus Hatchery in Folsom, California. Jason introduces me to the basics of salmon reproduction, shows me how to look for signs of salmon nests (known as redds ..read more

Ever wondered how California was formed? Or why there's a mountain range on each side of the state with a big, flat valley in the middle? Or what makes the San Andreas fault so unique and so infamous? This episode will answer all of those questions and SO MANY MORE. Join Nate and I on a hike around Folsom Lake, where we checked out some very odd granodiorite and discussed everything from plate tectonics to earthquakes to the best places to see great geology all across the state.  This page from the National Park Service does an amazing job explaining transform plate boundaries and a ..read more

Indigenous people have lived in the place now known as California since time immemorial and are still here today. In this episode, join me and Frank Lake as we discuss mutualistic relationships between Indigenous Californians and the land, traditional burning, oak orchards, the powerful ways Indigenous and Western knowledges can come together, common misconceptions about pre-colonial California, reciprocity, and how we can move from a mental model of scarcity to cultivating a shared abundance that leaves no one behind.  Frank Lake California Indian History Curriculum Sue-Meg State Park ..read more

Have you ever noticed a bee that looked a little…different? Maybe it was a bit fuzzier than a typical honey bee, or maybe it was obsidian black, bright orange, startlingly large, or as tiny as a gnat. Chances are, if you’ve seen a bee meeting any of these descriptions, you observed one of Earth’s 20,000 species of native bees (with around 1,600 of those species living in California).  Join me and National Geographic Explorer, TEDx speaker, and community scientist Krystle Hickman as we head outside to find native bees and discuss the widely varied social lives of bees, bee architecture, wh ..read more

Author, artist, poet, and eco-philosopher Obi Kaufmann doesn't want to craft a better argument. He wants to tell a better story. But what does that kind of story look like? How do we begin to convey the incredible complexity of a place like California? How do we avoid unproductive divisiveness, embrace a better worldview, and move forward together in healing the land? Join me and Obi in a field of wildflowers on Mt. Diablo as we discuss humanity’s relationship with the earth, Mt. Diablo daisies, ways in which meaning is co-constructed, biodiversity, what a myth really is, very quiet lions, how ..read more

Happy New Year! ? This episode has a great story, so I added a new intro to tell you about it. Here are the links mentioned in the new intro! 7 Ways to Connect with Nature zine by Kate Rutter Find Kate on Instagram @katerutter. VALENTINES (Sorry for shouting. I'm SO excited about these.) Collab with six wonderful CA artists. Thank you for supporting me and CalWild by purchasing Valentines! Patreon. This is another great way to support your local indie podcaster, and patrons get 10% off of Valentines! Find me on Instagram @goldenstatenaturalist. My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com ..read more