Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant shares her personal odyssey as a wildlife ecologist, conservation biologist and co-host of the famed TV nature show “Wild Kingdom.” As a scientist dedicated to

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant shares her personal odyssey as a wildlife ecologist, conservation biologist and co-host of the famed TV nature show “Wild Kingdom.” As a scientist dedicated to protecting and conserving the diversity of the web of life, she reminds us that, as human beings, we are part of nature. It’s all connected, and it’s high time to bring about peaceful coexistence, not only with nature, but with one another.


Rae Wynn-Grant, Ph.D., is a wildlife ecologist and conservation biologist, creator of the award-winning podcast “Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant,” co-host of Mutual of Omaha’s “Wild Kingdom,” and author of “Wild Life: Finding My Purpose in an Untamed World (https://zandoprojects.com/books/wildlife/) .”
Resources


Rae Wynn-Grant – Wild Life: How Personal Journeys are Essential to Sustainable Leadership in Environmental Science (https://bioneers.org/rae-wynn-grant-wild-life-personal-journeys-essential-sustainable-leadership-environmental-science-zstf2404/)  | Bioneers 2024 Keynote


Rae Wynn-Grant – Becoming a Wildlife Ecologist in a Rugged World (https://bioneers.org/test-rwg-excerpt-ze0z2404/)  | Excerpt from “Wild Life: Finding My Purpose in an Untamed World”
Credits



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Executive Producer: Kenny Ausubel


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Written by: Leo Hornak and Kenny Ausubel


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Senior Producer and Station Relations: Stephanie Welch


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Program Engineer and Music Supervisor: Emily Harris


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Producer: Teo Grossman


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Host and Consulting Producer: Neil Harvey


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Production Assistance: Leo Hornak and Monica Lopez







This is an episode of the Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature series. Visit the radio and podcast homepage (https://bioneers.org/bioneers-radio/)  to learn more.Saving Nature Means Saving Ourselves | Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant

As an artist, Austin Picinich, 19, believes art can be far more than something nice to look at. When combined with a community-focused purpose, art can have a much larger impact and inspire others

As an artist, Austin Picinich, 19, believes art can be far more than something nice to look at. When combined with a community-focused purpose, art can have a much larger impact and inspire others to make a difference. In 2021, Picinich created Save Our Salmon through Art (SOS), a nonprofit that creates public arts projects that educate, engage, and empower communities to be better stewards of local salmon-spawning streams. Many of Seattle’s urban streams are hidden under culverts, flowing below paved roads, which prevents salmon from returning to their natal streams to lay eggs. Picinich’s campaign was inspired in part by Juanita Creek, a stream less than a minute from his home where only three salmon return to spawn in 2021.

As part of this work, Picinich hosts interactive mural painting events. He designs, outlines, and color-codes salmon-themed murals onto blank walls. Then, during “SOS Community Days,” volunteers work with attendees, who each get their brush and cup of paint, to complete a mural. So far, Picinich has led nearly 750 volunteer painters in the Greater Seattle area. The events have had more than 3,000 attendees and raised more than $28,000 for stream restoration. In all, SOS has reached about 980,000 people through its awareness efforts.

Calling someone an “animal” means they’re less than human – not worthy of respect, rights, or even of life itself. But in truth -- and in biological fact -- human beings

Calling someone an “animal” means they’re less than human – not worthy of respect, rights, or even of life itself. But in truth -- and in biological fact -- human beings ARE animals. Scientists continue to find that intelligence and what we call “consciousness” appear to saturate all of nature. Clearly it’s high time to think differently about just what it means to be an animal. Can we know what it’s like to be other-than-human? How can we see into the minds of animals? Visionary naturalist, author and conservationist Carl Safina says that the first step is paying attention and observing. And, he suggests, if we had humility, we’d have everything.

Bioneers' co-founder and Chief Relationship Strategist Nina Simons traditionally sets the stage for each year’s conference, and does it again with sublime clarity and heart-warming passion,

Bioneers' co-founder and Chief Relationship Strategist Nina Simons traditionally sets the stage for each year’s conference, and does it again with sublime clarity and heart-warming passion, as she frames Bioneers’ history and its core values rooted in reverence for the natural world and biological and human diversity and stresses the need to balance the inner and outer in our quest to give birth to a new civilization based on relationships rather than the possession of things.

Learn more at http://www.bioneers.org

The “Rights of Nature” movement seeks to protect rivers, mountains, and entire ecosystems and the life forms supported within them by recognizing and enshrining their rights in formal

The “Rights of Nature” movement seeks to protect rivers, mountains, and entire ecosystems and the life forms supported within them by recognizing and enshrining their rights in formal legal codes and constitutions. This legal framework offers a radically different worldview from current legal premises. Instead of being seen as property, nature as a whole and its various components would be formally recognized to have inherent rights to exist, persist, flourish and evolve, and these would be protected under the law. For over 15 years, the Rights of Nature movement has caught fire across the U.S. and the rest of the world in some of the most and least expected places, from tribal lands to “progressive” cities, to coal country, to Latin American nations.

In this session, activist attorneys leading the movement in Indian Country and beyond update us on their successes and the challenges ahead. With: Frank Bibeau; Thomas Linzey; Samantha Skenandore. Moderated by Alexis Bunten.

Watch more videos from the 2022 conference at https://bioneers.org/conference-media/

The world-renowned National Geographic Explorer in Residence Enric Sala launched the National Geographic Pristine Seas project in 2008 to explore and help inspire the protection of the last wild

The world-renowned National Geographic Explorer in Residence Enric Sala launched the National Geographic Pristine Seas project in 2008 to explore and help inspire the protection of the last wild places in the ocean, an absolutely critical last-ditch effort to prevent the complete unraveling of global marine ecosystems. Made up of an extraordinary team of scientists, conservationists, filmmakers and policy experts, Pristine Seas has helped protect 6 million square kilometers of ocean habitat (more than twice the size of India!). Partnering with 122 different organizations and agencies across 23 countries, its work has inspired the establishment of some of the largest marine reserves in the world. Enric discusses the vital importance of healthy oceans to humanity’s future and what Pristine Seas hopes to accomplish in the years ahead.

Enric Sala, Ph.D., a former professor who quit academia to become a full-time conservationist as a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, founded and leads Pristine Seas, a project that combines exploration, research, and media to inspire leaders to protect the last wild places in the ocean. To date, Pristine Seas has helped create 25 of the largest marine reserves on the planet, covering an area of more than 6.5 million square kilometers. Sala, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, has, in the past 15 years, earned numerous prestigious awards and honors for his conservation work.

This talk was delivered at the 2022 Bioneers Conference. Learn more at http://www.bioneers.org

Nate Liebenberg, the co-founder of