Every once in a while, I have the honor to interview someone who’s not only an expert in their field—and it is invariably a VERY interesting field—but who is also a great speaker, a great person, and someone who truly knows how to tell a story, which, anyone who knows me knows that I place a very high value on that. Such is the case with Mike Isham. Mike is a farmer, and while he does a lot of traditional farming things, he is also a premier maple syrup producer. I’m willing to bet you don’t know just how complicated—and fascinating—the process is that converts maple sap to maple syrup. Well, you’re about to find out.

Not too long ago, Gary Kessler and I sat down to chat about the idea that when knowledge is shared widely and broadly within an organization, the organization is better prepared to respond to unexpected events.

One of those unexpected events, of course, is a cyberattack. As networks and computing resources became more pervasive, and as they went from being technical curiosities to strongholds of intelligence, money, and competitive information, they also became targets.

In response, organizations began to appear, charged with creating coordinated defenses against these attacks.

But there’s more to the story, much of it historical, and all of it interesting.

Take a walk through Mud Pond, a nature refuge near my home in Vermont, and listen to the voices of the forest.

Over the course of the last year or so, I've worked with a range of diverse organizations to develop a sense of what the future of work looks like, given that there are as many opinions about the topic as there are people thinking about it. In this episode, I consolidate much of the research I’ve done and present it in a series of scenarios that lay out where the world of work is going. My thoughts include work models, the evolving relationship between employer and employee, the role of technology, and the need to create balance between work and life. There are some surprises here—hope you find it helpful.

Chris Helzer is the Director of Science for The Nature Conservancy in Nebraska. He spends a lot of his time focused on prairie management and conservation, sharing what he learns with public and private landowners. But as Chris observes during the program, prairies are seen by many as a place to “drive through on the road to someplace interesting.” In fact, that’s profoundly wrong. Not only are prairies every bit as interesting as forests or coral reefs—and in many ways, more so—they play a huge role in protecting the overall ecosystemic health of North America.

I think we’ve all had the experience of running across a childhood toy, or a photograph, or having a conversation with a childhood friend who makes you think of ANOTHER childhood friend who hasn’t popped into your head in a long time. That happened to me recently, and after a bit of sleuthing, I found him, and we reconnected after 55 years. Ed Cotham is a really interesting guy for a lot of reasons—one of which is that he wrote the very first book about the history and meaning of Juneteenth. But that’s just the beginning of his story. Have a listen.

To say that Jacob traveled to Create Voices of a Flyway is kind of like saying that David Attenborough is a newscaster. One of the largest bird migration routes in North America is the Mississippi Flyway, which the Audubon Society describes as a “river of birds.” Every year, more than a billion birds make the round-trip journey from their breeding grounds in Canada and the northern US to their winter habitats along the Gulf of Mexico and in Central and South America.

As he made his way from Louisiana northward, Jacob’s conversations with the people he met along the way shattered stereotypes left and right. For more than two months, he traveled along the Mississippi flyway, interviewing oil workers, commercial fishing crews, ornithologists, farmers, environmentalists, Wildlife and Fisheries employees, conservation land managers, scientists, concerned citizens, Audubon volunteers, and dozens of others. All had a story to tell, but one theme stood out: they all agreed that we have a collective responsibility to balance our impact as a species with the needs of the natural world. But he didn’t go on the journey to advocate: he went to listen.

Mark Brennan is a great example of someone whose non-linear career has been catalyzed by passion and curiosity and a love of the natural world. Mark’s a Nova Scotia-based artist, a painter, but he’s also an equally gifted wildlife sound recordist, a photographer, and a videographer, and, as you’ll soon hear, sometimes he’s all of them at the same time. You can find his work in all its beautiful forms at MarkBrennanFineArt.ca.

I was sitting with my three-year-old grandson the other day, coloring with Crayons. It was great fun, and brought back a flood of childhood memories. As I sat there, the names of the colors I loved came back: Cornflower. Red-orange. Burnt orange. Burnt sienna. My mind started to wander, and soon I was deep into curiosity-driven research about colors, how they’re formulated, and how we see them. I discovered some amazing facts. Enjoy the episode. Oh—if you get a chance, check out this site: www.crayola.com/explore-colors.

What do reading, cattle, telephones, railroads, and barbed wire have in common? They were the basis for one of the most important elements of modern telephone systems in the United States in the late 19th century. This is really interesting—enjoy!