Talking Naturally

In Episode 18 we have two interviews. The first was recorded just before Christmas in North Wales with the ebullient trio of Iolo Williams, Alan Davies, and Ruth Miller (all three former RSPB employees, incidentally, but now better known for Springwatch, The Biggest Twitch, and talking from the heart). The second is a discussion with the BTO's Dr Sam Franks on the urgent need to raise funds for researching into just why our Curlews are disappearing. Yes, the Curlew, as familiar as, well, Turtle Doves and Cuckoos - which just about says it all really...'.

A look back at 2015 - not easy to compile really as since we launched Talking Naturally in late May we've uploaded almost 20 hours of discussion and chat, some of it serious, some of it more light-hearted. We've talked with a wide range of authors, activists, scientists and experts - many of whom describe themselves as 'ordinary people' - and covered everything from the badger cull, driven grouse shooting, and saving pilot whales, to pesticide overuse, what MEPs actually do, raptor persecution, and walking, kayaking and cycling for turtle doves. Here are a selection of conversations based loosely around the theme of 'Inspiration' - something hopefully to inspire us as we make our way into 2016'.

In this episode we talk with Molly Smith Cato, the first Green MEP for the South West of England, who talks a huge amount of sense about green politics and activism, and with Graham Jones, the RSPB's Area Conservation Manager for the Northwest of England, which includes the Forest of Bowland and it's vanishing raptors.'.

TN 15 features a full-length interview with one of the finest British nature writers working today - Patrick Barkham, Guardian journalist and author of three beautifully-written and thoughtful books: The Butterfly Isles, Badgerlands, and the recently published Coastlines, which a review in The Times described as 'Real, proper, close-to-poetry literature.'.

This time around we're looking at Turtle Doves, a bird that spends less than half of its life in the UK but is embedded in our culture, a bird that would have been familiar to any birder just thirty or forty years ago but which has declined so rapidly that just last week it was formally reclassified by the IUCN as Vulnerable to Extinction in the medium-term. Having declined by 90% in the UK since the 1970s, the species has gone into freefall in the past decade, with numbers falling by a further 77%. Is it too late to save a beloved summer visitor? Of course not. We have interviews with RSPB, BTO, and Dove Step 'Turtle Dove Hero' Jonny Rankin.

In this episode of TN we're looking at pesticides, strong poisons that are sprayed in ever-increasing amounts - literally millions of tonnes annually - over the food we eat, the grass we walk and play on, and even - if we follow the lead of actors pretending to be gardeners or proud home-owners - on the driveways we park our cars on. Poisons that - despite friendly reassurances from the chemical industry that 'If used correctly, pesticides should not pose a risk to the health of people' kill far more than the 'weeds' or insect 'pests' that they supposedly target and are soaking into every part of our environment: perhaps the best known example of this is the cocktail of chemicals found in the body fat of Arctic Polar bears more than a decade ago. We speak to Dave Goulson, Professor Of Biology (Evolution, Behaviour and Environment) at University of Sussex. And also Nick Mole, Policy Officer Pesticide Action Network UK

We're back with what seems to be an unfortunate theme - attempts to control wildlife. We're talking with Paul Walton, Head of Habitats and Species for RSPB Scotland, on proposals by the Scottish government to allow up 30% of the Greenland-breeding Barnacle Geese wintering on Islay to be shot. Next we talk with Alyx Elliott, the UK Head of Programmes and Campaigns at World Animal Protection, on Wildlife Crime Awareness Week an initiative in collaboration with Crimestoppers aiming get more people aware of wildlife crime, a high percentage of which is committed during efforts to control wildlife. And lastly an interview that we'd planned to use in our badger podcasts: a chat with Tom Quinn, Director of Campaigns at the League Against Cruel Sports on whether he thinks the badger cull - designed to control badger numbers - is politically motivated.

In this two-part episode the theme's as solid as a badger's hindquarters, as clear as the stripes on a badger's face, and as focussed as a badger sat in front of a pile of peanuts...yep, it's about badgers.We've made this podcast to celebrate badgers, as our contribution to National Badger Day (October 6th), and hopefully to give an alternative view of the badger cull. In Part One Charlie goes out on a wounded badger patrol in Gloucestershire with GABS, and talks with veterinarian Mark Jones, Programme Manager at the Born Free Foundation. In Part Two he's outside again, this time with members of the Somerset Badger Patrol, and then finishes with a talk with Dominic Dyer, chief-executive of the Badger Trust.

In this two-part episode the theme's as solid as a badger's hindquarters, as clear as the stripes on a badger's face, and as focussed as a badger sat in front of a pile of peanuts...yep, it's about badgers.We've made this podcast to celebrate badgers, as our contribution to National Badger Day (October 6th), and hopefully to give an alternative view of the badger cull. In Part One Charlie goes out on a wounded badger patrol in Gloucestershire with GABS, and talks with veterinarian Mark Jones, Programme Manager at the Born Free Foundation. In Part Two he's outside again, this time with members of the Somerset Badger Patrol, and then finishes with a talk with Dominic Dyer, chief-executive of the Badger Trust.

In episode 10 we have three very different interviews. First up is Rosie Kunneke, who is a Land Team Leader with Sea Shepherd discussing the grindadrap, or Pilot Whale hunt, in the Faroe Islands; second is the RSPB's Chris Bowden talking about Asia's vultures and the catastrophic impacts of Diclofenac; and last but by no means least etc is Steve Micklewhite, outgoing chief-executive of BirdLife Malta on why he's leaving BLM and his reflections on the referendum on spring hunting that took place earlier this year.