De-extinction! You probably saw the headlines - big, splashy statements about bringing the dire wolf - the ancient wolf species - back from the dead. But are they really back?

Dr. Helen Pilcher says no. She’s an author, science communicator and an expert on genetically modified wildlife. And she joins me to make sense of this controversial idea of “editing” the genes of animals.

It’s a heated conversation in the scientific community. Because it's not just about bringing back animals from the dead, it's about changing the genetic makeup of animals that still exist. 

Today, we’ll dive into the pros and cons of modifying wildlife and the ethics behind changing the very DNA of a wild animal.

Enjoy BONUS CONTENT and help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by joining THE WILD Patreon community at www.patreon.com/chrismorganwildlife and you can donate to KUOW at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Matt Martin and Lucy Soucek, and edited by Jim Gates. Writing by Christopher Preston. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

Follow us on Instagram @chrismorganwildlife and @thewildpod for more adventures and behind the scenes action!

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/c/ChrisMorganWildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I drive across the mountains and forests to a small corner of Washington state, where there's a group of ranchers from the Kalispel Tribe of Indians. They’re known as ‘The Buffalo Boys.’

Generations ago, members of the tribe would migrate hundreds of miles to the great plains to hunt buffalo. There were millions of buffalo until white settlers hunted them to near extinction, and the Kalispel were pushed from their land.

But now, they have a herd of their own.

On today’s episode, I visit the Buffalo Boys and their herd of buffalo to tell the story of how they got these buffalo, and what they’re doing to make sure that this magnificent creature will forever be a part of their lives.

My huge thanks to the Kalispel for their warm hospitality. 

Enjoy BONUS CONTENT and help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by joining THE WILD Patreon community at www.patreon.com/chrismorganwildlife and you can donate to KUOW at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Matt Martin and Lucy Soucek, and edited by Jim Gates. Writing by Christopher Preston. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

Follow us on Instagram @chrismorganwildlife and @thewildpod for more adventures and behind the scenes action!

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/c/ChrisMorganWildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Animals and music? What a tantalizing mix! In a fascinating conversation with scientist and musician Dr. Diego Ellis Soto we learn about the way animals move - through music. When animals swarm, mill, or migrate, patterns are revealed. Soto explains that animals all prefer to move together with proper space, time, and direction....just like harmony in music.

Soto’s work combines his academic work and his passion for music to create a fresh look at how we should think about nature in motion. It is a way to express complex data about animal movement in a way that is easy for people to understand. And that can be a powerful tool to inspire conservation.

This episode might just make you think very differently about how you look at, or maybe hear, nature and its creatures.

If you’d like to learn more about Diego’s work, I recommend you watch this lecture he gave as part of Yale University’s Franke Program for Science and Humanity. 

Enjoy BONUS CONTENT and help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by joining THE WILD Patreon community at www.patreon.com/chrismorganwildlife  and you can donate to KUOW at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

Follow us on Instagram @chrismorganwildlife and @thewildpod for more adventures and behind the scenes action!

THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Matt Martin and Lucy Soucek, and edited by Jim Gates. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/c/ChrisMorganWildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There was a time when the existence of the giant panda was nothing more than legend. A fairytale to those in the western world. Whispers of a black and white beast echoed around the early 1900s.

In this episode, my conversation mixes three of my favorite things - bears, mystery, and adventure as I hear an incredible story that Dr Nathalia Holt tells in her book The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers’ Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda. But this story is about way more than just two brothers’ dangerous search for a mystery species in a strange part of the world. It’s also about the moment in history when humans began to understand their real impact on the natural world. A realization that led to the birth of the modern conservation movement. Oh, and there might be some Himalayan bandits and bone-chilling blizzards along the way!

Enjoy BONUS CONTENT and help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by joining THE WILD Patreon community at www.patreon.com/chrismorganwildlife and you can donate to KUOW at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Matt Martin and Lucy Soucek, and edited by Jim Gates. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

Follow us on Instagram @chrismorganwildlife and @thewildpod for more adventures and behind the scenes action!

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/c/ChrisMorganWildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Humpback whales in the Salish Sea have a complicated history. They were hunted to near extinction a century ago, with whalers turning some of the largest creatures on Earth into buckets of oil, slabs of meat, tubs of cheap margarine and fertilizer. These coastal waters were emptied of these magnificent creatures who once called them home. 

But now, in an amazing turn of events, Humpback whales have started to come back. And what they’ve found is a whole new world of dangers.

On today’s episode, I’m out at sea off the coast of Vancouver with scientists on a high speed chase for answers. Why are they coming back? And are they here to stay? Some groundbreaking research techniques might tell us.

• Check out our eDNA episode about the groundbreaking things scientists are using it for
• Whale Report app for reporting Humpback whales in the Salish Sea
• Marine Education and Research Society's Whale-Safe Boating course
• Listen to more whales around the Salish Sea

Enjoy BONUS CONTENT and help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by joining THE WILD Patreon community at www.patreon.com/chrismorganwildlife and you can donate to KUOW at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Matt Martin and Lucy Soucek and edited by Jim Gates. Writing by Christopher Preston. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

Photo Credit: Ocean Wise. Photo Taken Under DFO Permit MML-18, BCZ0180 "Monarch"

Follow us on Instagram @chrismorganwildlife and @thewildpod for more adventures and behind the scenes action!

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/c/ChrisMorganWildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Happy holidays! Thanks for tuning into THE WILD. I’m so glad you’re here. 

THE WILD team is hard at work on some more brand-new episodes that will come out in the new year. But for now, I want to revisit a very popular episode from last season that I think is perfect for this busy time of holiday travel. 

It’s a conversation I had with author Ben Goldfarb about roads and their impact on pretty much everything in the natural world. 

So, if you’re piling into the car to get to the airport, or taking a road trip to visit your friends and family, give a listen to this episode. I bet it’ll get you thinking differently about America’s roads.

We'll be back in your feed in a few weeks. Have a happy and safe holiday season!

GUEST:
Ben Goldfarb, is an award-winning environmental journalist and author of Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet

Enjoy BONUS CONTENT and help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by joining THE WILD Patreon community at www.patreon.com/chrismorganwildlife and you can donate to KUOW at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

Follow us on Instagram @chrismorganwildlife and @thewildpod for more adventures and behind the scenes action!

THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Matt Martin and Lucy Soucek, and edited by Jim Gates. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/c/ChrisMorganWildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bear attacks in Japan have been in the news a lot recently. There have been over 220 attacks so far this year, and a record 13 people dead. 

Why is this happening? And what can be done about it? There’s a lot of information out there, and it’s hard to separate fact from fiction when it comes to conflicts with wildlife.

So I made two quick phone calls: one to a reporter from The New York Times and another to a Japanese bear biologist to figure out what’s really going on.

Guests:
Javier C. Hernández, Tokyo Bureau Chief for the New York Times
Masahiro (Masa) Ohnishi, Principle Research Scientist at the Wildlife Management Office in Japan

Enjoy BONUS CONTENT and help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by joining THE WILD Patreon community at www.patreon.com/chrismorganwildlife  and you can donate to KUOW at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

Follow us on Instagram @chrismorganwildlife and @thewildpod for more adventures and behind the scenes action!

THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Matt Martin and Lucy Soucek, and edited by Jim Gates. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/c/ChrisMorganWildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

JAWS can only mean one thing! The movie that forever changed how we feel about sharks. It did me, that’s for sure. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the movie, we thought it might be time to help separate fact from fiction in a fun way……by playing audio clips from the movie and having a real shark expert react to them and tell us the truth about how dangerous they are, how sharks really think, why there’s been a surge in sightings in recent years, and so much more. Spoiler alert: you may or may not sleep better after this episode.

Join me as I “dive deep” on sharks with Amani Webber-Schultz.

And revisit our conversation with Dr. Rachel Graham on how to love a shark

Enjoy BONUS CONTENT and help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by joining THE WILD Patreon community at www.patreon.com/chrismorganwildlife  and you can donate to KUOW at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Matt Martin and Lucy Soucek, and edited by Jim Gates. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

Follow us on Instagram @chrismorganwildlife and @thewildpod for more adventures and behind the scenes action!

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/c/ChrisMorganWildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Life is earth, animated.” When I heard this statement for the first time it made me think about my relationship to our planet differently. That all life on earth is part of a giant feedback loop, a process of self-creation that has been ongoing for billions of years.

This is the idea that Ferris Jabr explores in his book, Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life. Jabr traveled the world to find examples of this creation: from climbing a colossal tower over the Amazon to tunneling a mile underground towards the core of the earth. Ferris now believes that life doesn’t just exist on this planet, but that the planet itself is alive.

Enjoy BONUS CONTENT and help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by joining THE WILD Patreon community at www.patreon.com/chrismorganwildlife  and you can donate to KUOW at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Matt Martin and Lucy Soucek, and edited by Jim Gates. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

Follow us on Instagram @chrismorganwildlife and @thewildpod for more adventures and behind the scenes action!

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/c/ChrisMorganWildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is not an easy story to tell. In the town where I live, Bellingham, Washington, there’s a beautiful urban creek. It flows just four miles from a lake, through a city park, down through the town to the sea. But in the summer of 1999, disaster struck. A gasoline pipeline ruptured, causing an explosion. Young lives were lost, and the creek and the ecosystems around it were obliterated. 

But amid the destruction, amid all the loss, the creek found a way to find life again. And the people of Bellingham somehow found a way to move forward. 

This is a story about the strength of the human spirit and how a community, a creek, and the once-thriving forest that it passed through began to recover after losing so much. 

We would like to dedicate this episode to the memory of Liam Wood, Wade King and Stephen Tsiorvas. Our hearts go out to their families.

Enjoy BONUS CONTENT and help us continue to create this special immersive storytelling by joining THE WILD Patreon community at www.patreon.com/chrismorganwildlife and you can donate to KUOW at kuow.org/donate/thewild. Thank you.

THE WILD is a production of KUOW in Seattle in partnership with Chris Morgan Wildlife and Wildlife Media. It is produced by Matt Martin and Lucy Soucek, and edited by Jim Gates. It is hosted, produced and written by Chris Morgan. Fact checking by Apryle Craig. Our theme music is by Michael Parker.

We'll be back in your feed in two weeks on December 2. Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday!

Follow us on Instagram @chrismorganwildlife and @thewildpod for more adventures and behind the scenes action.

Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/c/ChrisMorganWildlife

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.