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.

Coast redwood trees reside in a category all their own. Not only are these the tallest trees in the world, but they grow in unique ecosystems–quiet, foggy places with ferns and redwood sorrel spilling everywhere you look onto the trail.

In these forests, the sound of running water is never far away, and the redwoods themselves are by far the most prominent tree species, the warm hue of their bark dominating the landscape as they tower over the evergreen huckleberries and red-flowering currants below.

In this episode, join me and edutainer and lifelong conservationist Griff Griffith as we discuss marbled murrelets, the overstory and the understory, dinosaurs in the redwoods, stump sprouting, surprising historical champions of the redwoods, the wood wide web, and of course these iconic trees of California themselves.

Links:

Redwoods Rising

Redwood Facts

Laura Mahan

What is old growth?

Find Griff on Facebook or TikTok @Griffwild, and find his work for Redwoods Rising @RedwoodsRising on the same platforms.

Go for a walk with Griff!

You can find me @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram and TikTok.

My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com

GSN Merch

The theme song is called "i dunno" by grapes. You can find the link to that song and the creative commons license here.

Have you ever looked at a piece of art that altered your perspective? Or one that challenged your thinking? Or maybe you’ve studied a piece that taught you something new.

How can art impact conservation efforts? How can it help break generational cycles of disconnectedness from the natural world? Why does art matter in a time of rapidly changing climate and habitat loss? 

Join me and artist/scientific illustrator Jane Kim in the Ink Dwell Studio as we discuss nature blindness, the importance of place-based art, western monarch butterflies, endangered frogs, the purpose of murals, intergenerational relationships with the earth, and how both viewing and creating art can change the way we look at the world and the kinds of choices we make going forward. 

Ink Dwell (You can also find Jane on Instagram @inkdwell)

Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter

Golden State Naturalist (my website)

Podcast Merch

You can find me @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram and TikTok

Podcast art by Danza Davis, @danzadavis on Instagram.

The song is called "i dunno" by grapes. You can find it here.

Have you ever wondered if the plants growing along your favorite trail or outside your door are edible? Or what kinds of flavors might not be available at the grocery store?

Many of us aren't familiar with the tastes of the places where we live, even though there are wild foods growing all around us. Join me and author, educator, and forager Mia Andler on a walk beside the Truckee River to learn about the wild foods of California and beyond.

Links:

Mia's website

Mia's Books

California's Forgotten Pine Nuts

Pine Needle Tea

Support Golden State Naturalist on Patreon!

My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com

You can find me @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram and TikTok.

The theme song is called "i dunno" by grapes. You can find the song and creative commons license here.

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 goldenstatenaturalist.com

Merch

You can find me @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram and TikTok

The theme song is called "i dunno" by grapes, and you can find it here.

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!

You can find me @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram or TikTok

The theme song is called "i dunno" by grapes.

Hey friends!

There's sooo much going on with the pod, so I wanted to check in and give you a quick update, including a little about the upcoming episode on urban ecology and some exciting interviews coming up for Season 3! I'll be back with a full episode soon!

In the meantime, check out any past episodes you may have missed, revisit a favorite, or just get some sun on your skin! See you soon!

You can find me on Instagram and TikTok @goldenstatenaturalist

My website is www.goldenstatenaturalist.com

You can find Golden State Naturalist merch here.

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