From a young age, Rachel Graham was interested in all kinds of marginalized animals, from snakes to bats. But when she went on a dive trip and experienced a real-life sharknado, it became clear that her future would be inextricably tied to sharks. This marked the beginning of her quest to change people’s mindsets about these fascinating and threatened creatu ... Show More
Sep 16
64 Butterflies: The Day Behind the Day
Lea Korsgaard felt a tug toward the natural world and followed it, setting out to find all 64 species of butterfly in her native Denmark. What began as an impulse became a consuming quest that transformed her understanding of nature, mortality, grief, and joy. In this episode, Le ... Show More
58m 44s
Sep 2
Arguing With the Wind: A Spiritual Journey in Wilderness
As a teenager, Walt McLaughlin told his parents he'd been talking to God in the woods, and he ended up in a psychiatric ward on Thorazine. Years later a philosophy degree had done nothing to assuage his existential anxiety, so he hitchhiked west — and eventually flew alone into A ... Show More
58m 40s
Jan 2023
How Sharks Devoured My Career
When Nat Geo Explorer Gibbs Kuguru was in college, he found himself trying to choose between two terrifying futures: going free diving with sharks off the coast of South Africa or, even scarier, studying for the MCAT. Since then, he’s become devoted to sharks. His genetic researc ... Show More
27m 55s
Jun 2025
Taylor Cunningham: Shamu Dreams, Underwater Photography, and Swimming with the Sharks
Send us Fan MailTaylor Cunningham is a trained marine biologist and shark diver. Growing up ten minutes from Sea World shaped what she wanted to do in life– and that was to train Shamu. In this episode, we dive into the controversy around aquariums and animals in captivity, the i ... Show More
1h 28m