In Episode 10 - last episode of the first season - join me in conversation with Lisel Alamilla, an award winning conservation leader passionate about bringing about positive change for people and biodiversity in her home country of Belize. Lisel is a change maker to her core, with immeasurable passion for her homeland and an incredibly generous heart.

Lisel has worn many hats through her career, working in international and local conservation organisations, as well as in the Government of Belize following her appointment as Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Sustainable Development back in 2012. Today, she leads from behind the scenes supporting others as they speak out and act in support of biodiversity and people in Belize.

In this conversation we chat about her time in government and how she handled the transition from working in the NGO sector, advocating for change from outside of government, to becoming a decision-maker within it. We talk about taking brave decisions, turning to nature to restore our wellbeing and consider what it will take to bring people together to find solutions to some of the complex challenges facing people, land and biodiversity.

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Follow Unearthing Wild Wonders on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred platform of choice. If you enjoy it please consider leaving a review and rating and perhaps share it with a friend who would enjoy it too.

Mentions and resources

Ya'axché Conservation Trust

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Instagram @nickyjenner_hawksdawn

Website and newsletter www.hawksdawn.co.uk

Music © Rachel Catherine: linktr.ee/rachelmusic

In Episode 9, I’m joined by Shaza Khan, Montessori educator, creative and mother, nature writer and poet, and a beautiful soul with immense wisdom to share. Shaza studied Literature and Art in college but was encouraged to pursue business, and so began her career in telecom and database administration.

When the opportunity to study and work in education arose, Shaza embraced it and became a Montessori teacher, teaching children aged 2-12 years both in Pakistan and in Canada where she lived, worked and raised her young family for over a decade.

Shaza has since returned to Pakistan and following major shifts in her personal life has embraced nature writing, poetry and a closer relationship with the natural world. However, this has not come easy, as there remain many barriers to nature connection for women living in Pakistan.

In this episode we talk about nature-based learning and the ways in which this helps soothe, nurture and spark curiosity in children. We also explore some of the barriers to developing a relationship with the natural world for women and girls living in Pakistan. The tangled web of constraints that prevent many women from spending time alone out in the natural world and the barriers that continue to prevent women from contemplating the pursuit of nature-based careers.

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You can follow ‘Unearthing Wild Wonders’ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred platform of choice. If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review and perhaps share it with a friend who you think will enjoy it too.

Mentions and resources

Kathryn Aalto's creative non-fiction courses: https://kathrynaalto.com/

Connect with Shaza

Instagram: @migrainemuse

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Instagram: @nickyjenner_hawksdawn Website and newsletter: www.hawksdawn.co.uk

Music © Rachel Catherine: linktr.ee/rachelmusic

In Episode 8, join me in conversation with conservation scientist Dr. Bárbara Goettsch from Mexico. Barbara has a background in botany, a PhD in Ecology and Conservation Biology from the University of Sheffield and is co-chair of the IUCN Special Survival Commission Cactus and Succulent Plants Specialist Group. Bárbara is also a mum, a biodancer and a therapeutic masseuse.

In this episode Bárbara invites us into her world, the vast and diverse desert ecosystems that host such rich biodiversity, and she takes us behind the scenes of the IUCN Red List for threatened species assessment process. We talk desert fog, climate change and what it feels like to meet some of the iconic cactus species she has studied in the wild for the first time.

We chat about the importance of human connection in catalysing conservation action, Bárbara's passion for dance, and how we can embrace both science and our own spirituality in an ever deepening relationship and understanding of the natural world.

I hope this conversation inspires you and sparks your curiosity to discover more about these remarkable desert ecosystems and the wondrous plants that have evolved to thrive in such extreme environments.

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You can follow Unearthing Wild Wonders on your preferred platform of choice and if you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a rating, a review or perhaps share it with a friend who you think will enjoy it too.

Mentions and resources

IUCN SSC Cactus and Succulent Plants Specialist Group (website)

⁠IUCN SSC Cactus and Succulent Plant Specialist Group ⁠ (instagram)

Elevated extinction risk of cacti under climate change

Biodanza UK

Connect with Bárbara

Linked In

Instagram @barbara_goettsch

Follow Nicky

Instagram: @nickyjenner_hawksdawn where you can also see pictures of some of the cactus species mentioned.

Website and newsletter: www.hawksdawn.co.uk

Music © Rachel Catherine: linktr.ee/rachelmusic

In Episode 7, I’m joined by Marian Boswall, a leading landscape architect and horticulturist whose work has regeneration, connectivity, kinship and kindness at its core.

Through her design practice Marian creates safe havens – from gardens to vast rural landscapes – in partnership with the land and its human and more than human inhabitants. Marian’s beautiful book, Sustainable Garden, was shortlisted for garden book of the year and her new book, The Kindest Garden, will be published in February 2025.

In this episode, Marian shares precious moments and major life events that have shaped her relationship with the natural world and her route to creating sustainable gardens and regenerative landscapes. We explore the immense life force that exists beneath our feet, what we’ve been doing to the soil, and simple ways that we can take better care of the earth.

We talk about listening, trust and gratitude as foundations for living more in tune with the land and life around us and Marian shares encounters with beavers, bees and so much more. We chat about invisibility as a superpower, too, both in our relationship with the human and more-than-human world.

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You can follow ‘Unearthing Wild Wonders’ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred platform of choice.

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review and perhaps share it with a friend who you think will enjoy it too.

Connect with Marian

Website: marianboswall.com

Instagram @marianboswall

Mentions and resources

42 Acres

National Trust

Beaver Trust

Bee Kind Hives

Davies White Ltd

Hannah Ritchie's Substack

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Instagram @nickyjenner_hawksdawn

Sign up for my newsletter at www.hawksdawn.co.uk

Music © Rachel Catherine: linktr.ee/rachelmusic

In Episode 6, I’m joined by Silke Tyler, a master healer and hypnotherapist, spiritual teacher and mentor to women around the around, an artist and a passionate gardener. Silke joins me for this conversation from her home in Tennessee and we talk about the things we sense but may lack the insight and language to understand and articulate.

We explore energetics and the different ways in which energy flows in the earth, water and air are constantly influencing the physical forms we see and interact with. How the lunar cycles affect where the energy is in the plants we grow, eat and live alongside, and how by tuning into these natural rhythms of the earth we can enrich both our inner and outer worlds. We talk about the spiritual realms too, faeries and devas of the land, and Silke shares her understanding of these intangible realms.

It is a conversation that stretched by thinking to its edges. On the one hand, challenging the way I understand the world which is grounded more in ecology and conservation science than in energetics and spirituality. At the same time, it's a conversation that resonates deeply with my lived experience. And we can always hold both - the things we know in one way or another, alongside those we can perhaps sense but not necessarily evidence or understand.

Talking with Silke was a joy and I hope that you too embrace this conversation with an open heart and mind, connect with what resonates for you and allow other ways of seeing the world to filter into view. Whether you carry them with you or let them go is of course always up to you.

Follow the show

You can follow ‘Unearthing Wild Wonders’ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred platform of choice.

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review and perhaps share it with a friend who you think will enjoy it too.

Connect with Silke

Website: https://www.thequantumweaver.com

Instagram @thequantumweaver

Follow Nicky:

Instagram @nickyjenner_hawksdawn

Website to sign up for my biweekly newsletter: www.hawksdawn.co.uk

Music © Rachel Catherine: linktr.ee/rachelmusic

In Episode 5 join me in conversation with Emma Dyke, a wellbeing coach, home educator, carer and mum of two teenage children, who loves running her wellbeing workshops, supporting people to explore what they love and how to weave those things into everyday life.

Emma shares the journey she has been on in recent years to discover who she really is and how she has started to live life more intentionally through the things that matter most to her. Connecting with nature is one those things and we chat about cultivating a relationship with the natural world in adulthood and the many ways in which this has become an essential part of Emma’s everyday, a pathway to joy and an adventure full of learning, discovery, fun, creativity and connection that has enriched life for her and her family.

I hope that you enjoy this conversation and that it inspires you to explore what matters to you and how you might deepen your connection with the natural world in your everyday.

Follow the show

You can follow ‘Unearthing Wild Wonders’ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred platform of choice. And if you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review and perhaps tell a friend who you think will enjoy it too.

Connect with Emma

Email: Emmadyke0@gmail.com

Mentions and resources

Julia Black’s Lights On Universe

Commit to Joy with Corinne Williams. Reach out to Corinne to find out more and for private sessions (with 20% off if you let her know you are connecting via the podcast). You can connect with Corinne here: corinne@committojoy.com

Follow Nicky:

Instagram: @nickyjenner_hawksdawn

To be the first to hear about future episodes and receive moments of wonder from the living world in your inbox sign up to my free biweekly newsletter at: www.hawksdawn.co.uk where you can also read more about Lights On Gardens, my monthly membership.

Music © Rachel Catherine: linktr.ee/rachelmusic

On Unearthing Wild Wonders this week, join me in conversation with Christa Avampato - a biomimicry scientist, entrepreneur and writer, based in New York. Christa combines business, storytelling, and science to build a better world for all beings. She is also a sustainability leader and product developer, host of the JoyProject podcast, and an award-winning author, launching her second novel 'Emerson Page and Where the Light Leads' in May this year.

In this episode we talk about finding home and belonging through a relationship with nature and the places that call to us. We explore the fascinating field of biomimicry, what we can learn from the natural world and how the most unlikely species have inspired phenomenal innovations that we now use in our daily lives.

Christa also shares her journey to overcome cancer, how she feels she needed to learn how to heal her own body in order to help heal the planet and how, whilst lying in a hospital bed seriously ill, she saw the immensity of the plastic waste challenge and was determined to do something about it.

I hope that you enjoy this conversation, learn something new and feel inspired to look at the natural world where you live in new ways.

Follow the show

You can follow ‘Unearthing Wild Wonders’ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred platform of choice.

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review and perhaps share it with a friend who you think will enjoy it too.

Mentions and resources

Beyond Plastics

Ask Nature

Christa’s JoyProject podcast

Connect with Christa

Website: https://christaavampato.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christarosenyc

Twitter: @christanyc

Follow Nicky

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nickyjenner_hawksdawn

Website and newsletter: www.hawksdawn.co.uk

Music © Rachel Catherine: linktr.ee/rachelmusic

In this episode I’m joined by Emily Cunningham, a multi-award-winning marine conservationist at the forefront of driving positive change for our ocean and for us all. Emily is passionate about bringing people together to explore solutions to some of the many pressing issues facing our ocean today.

Join me in conversation with Emily as she invites us to get to know the life that thrives under the surface of the sea, both here in the UK and further afield. She talks about her expedition to Antarctica and both the awe-inspiring nature of this iconic place and the stark signs of change she witnessed. We talk climate change, the urgent need for individual and collective action, and the things that bring her hope.

I hope this conversation brings you in closer connection with the ocean and that it inspires you to consider what you might do today to bring about a brighter tomorrow.

Follow the show:

You can follow ‘Unearthing Wild Wonders’ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your preferred platform of choice. If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a review and perhaps tell a friend who you think will enjoy it too.

Connect with Emily:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marinebiologylife/

Website: https://emilycunningham.co.uk

Twitter: @EG_Cunningham

Mentions and resources

Motion for the Ocean:

https://lgacoastalsig.com/motion-for-the-ocean/

https://oceanconservationtrust.org/ocean-advocacy/our-campaigns/call-a-motion-for-the-ocean/

Follow Nicky:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nickyjenner_hawksdawn

To be the first to hear about future episodes of the podcast and receive micro moments of wonder in your inbox sign up to my free biweekly newsletter at: www.hawksdawn.co.uk

Music © Rachel Catherine: linktr.ee/rachelmusic