Milo Putnam spent a decade as the public face of a zoo. He wrote the scripts, managed the tours, went live on camera. Then he watched three elephants die at the facility he worked for. And realized he couldn't keep being the spokesperson for something he no longer believed in.

That reckoning became Laro — a media company dedicated to cutting through the greenwashing that plagues wildlife tourism. Today, Milo is an Ambassador and Mentor at the Conscious Travel Foundation and a communications manager at Re:wild. He's been featured in Vox calling out the buzzwords operators use to make tourists feel good while animals pay the price.

In this conversation, we explore what it actually takes to tell ethical wildlife tourism from exploitation, how to vet an experience before you book, and why words like "rescue" and "sanctuary" can mean absolutely nothing. We talk about the moments when speaking up mid-trip is the hardest — and why doing it anyway matters. We talk about what it means to travel as a gay man in places where that can be illegal. And we end with a game that reveals Milo's ultimate wildlife bucket list.

🎙️ Back to 2050 is a podcast about the people building a better world, one bold idea at a time.

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