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, whether or not honeybees are an invasive species, buzz pollination, where to find native bees near you, the potential of native bees in agriculture, and the importance of these beings not just to humans, but to entire ecosystems.

Follow Krystle @beesip on Instagram

Krystle's website

Native Bees of the Western United States (cards)

My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com

Find me on Instagram @goldenstatenaturalist

⁠Article⁠ on honey bee pollination outcomes compared with native bees.

The song is called "i dunno" by grapes, and the Creative Commons license can be found here.

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 we relate to place, and how telling a better story about this land we love, this place now known as California, might just help humans come together to care for it.

Links:

Obi's website

The California Field Atlas

See Obi speak

Heyday Membership (add the word GOLDEN to the "How did you find us" section to receive a free bandana designed by Obi!)

My website

Follow me on Instagram and Tiktok @goldenstatenaturalist

The song is called "i dunno" by grapes. The Creative Commons license can be found here.

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.

Patreon. This is a great way to support your local indie podcaster.

Find me on Instagram @goldenstatenaturalist.

My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com.

Have you ever wondered why we bring a toxic, parasitic plant indoors during the holidays...and then kiss under it? Or what ecological role this plant plays?

Come with me and Dr. Joshua Der as we discuss the ecological importance of mistletoe, its evolution, the vast array of wildlife it supports, and of course, the ancient folklore that led to all those stolen smooches.

Helpful Links:

Dr. Der's Publications

Mistletoe Folklore

My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com

Support GSN on Patreon.

Find me on Instagram and TikTok @goldenstatenaturalist

When was the last time you felt truly connected with a place? Was it somewhere rugged and wild, or was it on a leaf-strewn suburban block? What did you notice? What questions popped up in your mind? What gave you that sense of connection? 

In this episode, join me and Justin Garwood in a Northern California temperate rainforest as we discuss how each of us can connect more deeply with the natural world, glaciers in California, an abundance of tadpoles, when to go off trail (and when not to), and what it means to be a naturalist no matter where you may find yourself. 

Links:

Bird species name changes

The ten essentials

Grizzly Glacier

The Klamath Mountains: A Natural History

My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com

Support the show on Patreon 🙌🏻

You can find me @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram and TikTok

GSN Holiday Gift Guide

The song is called "i dunno" by grapes and can be found here.

The Klamath Mountains, straddling the California-Oregon border, are a hotspot for biodiversity. But what drives the species richness of the region? 

Come with me and Michael Kauffmann to a moss-covered edge of the Klamath mountains as we discuss ancient rocks, carnivorous plants, temperate rainforests, why people are a vital part of the story of place, and why the Klamath Mountains are bursting with a truly stunning array of beings and relationships. 

You can find Backcountry Press @backcountrypress on Instagram.

Serpentine Soils and Plant Adaptations

Geologists Protest Bill to Remove State Rock

My website is www.goldenstatenaturalist.com

You can find me on Instagram and TikTok @goldenstatenaturalist

You can support GSN on Patreon for just $4/month. Check it out at www.patreon.com/michellefullner.

Is seaweed a plant? Is it ok to eat straight out of the ocean? What kinds of creatures rely on seaweed? How does kelp fight climate change?

At the height of the last ice age, California condors could be found all across North America, and since time immemorial, these birds have held special cultural and spiritual significance for a number of Indigenous groups.

But by the late 1980's, the last wild condor had been captured and brought into a captive breeding program. They were extinct in the wild.

So what happened to these enormous scavengers to diminish their range so dramatically? How much progress has been made by the captive breeding programs? How is their cultural significance being honored today?

Join me and Tiana Williams-Claussen, Director of the Yurok Tribe Wildlife Department, as we discuss what makes condors unique, their cultural and spiritual significance to the Yurok People, and the incredible program that's brought the largest flying birds in North America back to their home in the redwoods for the first time in over a century.

Links!

Yurok Condor Program (learn, donate, and watch the condor cam!)

Yurok Ancestral Territory

Map of Yurok Lands

My website is: goldenstatenaturalist.com (find show merch and blog there!)

You can find me on Instagram or Tiktok @goldenstatenaturalist

The song is called "i dunno" by grapes and can be found here.

Have you ever wondered about things outside your window--the things that go bump in the night? Or, actually, things that flutter, flap, tread softly, swim, or bloom in the night? Because there’s a whole nocturnal world out there that most of us are missing, and it’s actually not as hard or as scary as we might think to go out and see it for ourselves. 

In this episode, switch on your headlamp, and come with me and Charles Hood to the Cosumnes River Preserve, where we discuss vampire bats, nocturnal ocean migrations, night-blooming native plants, potoos, moths with 13-inch tongues, and how to venture safely into the night so you can see all of this and more for yourself. 

And, if you celebrate, Happy Halloween!

Helpful Links:

Nocturnalia (Charles's new book!)

Cosumnes River Preserve

Sandhill Cranes

California Turkeys

My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com

You can find me on Instagram or TikTok @goldenstatenaturalist

The song is called "i dunno" by grapes, and you can find the Creative Commons License here.

When was the last time you looked closely at the living things right outside your front door? Have you ever gotten lost in a daisy, zoomed in on a burr clover, or watched a ladybug on a rose bush?

Join me and author-illustrator Marni Fylling as we take a walk to explore the nature in her neighborhood. Along the way, learn how you can connect more deeply with the nature where you live and even cultivate more habitat that can welcome a greater diversity and abundance of life in your own yard.

Helpful links:

Marni's Book

Benefits of Urban Trees

California Invasive Plant Council

Calscape.org (Learn which plants are native to your zipcode and their growing conditions)

Bloomcalifornia.org (Find native plant nurseries in your area)

Native Plant Finder (in case you don't live in California!)

My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com (Need a cozy sweatshirt?)

Support the show on Patreon (for real it helps so much!)

You can find me @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram and TikTok.

Marni is @marnifylling on Instagram.

The song is called "i dunno" by grapes. You can find the Creative Commons license here.