Tag

Birds

Conservation, Humor, Memoir, Nature, Non Fiction, Wildlife

Feb 11: Return of the Osprey with NYT Bestselling Author David Gessner

February 11, 2026

“Where is home? And how do we get there?“

Return of the Osprey with David Gessner

Celebrating the 25th Anniversary Edition of Return of the Osprey: A Season of Flight and Wonder.

David Gessner writes with passion, humor, and a reverence for the natural world that spills into our conversation about Return of the Osprey: A Season of Flight and Wonder.

We discuss David’s personal journey as he immersed himself for an entire nesting season in the lives of Cape Cod’s ospreys. Why did they almost become extinct? How did conservation efforts revive them? And what currently threatens their existence?

We learn what did David Gessner discovered about these beautiful creatures – and himself. And how, with so much research and studying, he approached writing Return of the Osprey: A Season of Flight and Wonder.

Meet David Gessner

David Gessner is a professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine, Ecotone. His writing has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, Outside, Sierra, Audubon, Orion, and many other publications. Awards include a Pushcart Prize and the John Burroughs Award for Best Nature Essay for his essay Learning to Surf. He’s also won the Association for Study of Literature and the Environment’s award for best book of creative writing, and the Reed Award for Best Book on the Southern Environment. In 2017 he hosted the National Geographic Explorer show, The Call of the Wild. He’s the author of 14 books that blend a love of nature, humor, memoir, and environmentalism, including the New York Times bestselling, All the Wild That Remains, Return of the Osprey, Sick of Nature and Leave It As It Is.

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Conservation, Nature, Non Fiction, Science

Jun 11: Grass Isn’t Greener with Danae Wolfe

June 11, 2025

Bringing Nature to Your Own Backyard

Grass Isn’t Greener with author Danae Wolfe

Photographer and conservationist Danae Wolfe loves bugs – but it wasn’t love at first sight for her. Today we talk about her beautiful new book Grass Isn’t Greener: The Everyday Conservationist’s Guide to Bringing Nature to Your Yard.

Danae shares small, simple changes that can make your garden less work for you and more inviting for butterflies, birds, and wildlife – as well as better for our environment.

We discuss the benefits of ditching your lawnmower and rewilding that perfect patch of green grass that turns out to be “not so green“, after all. How to create a quick and easy butterfly puddle station. And why invasive plants might be more of a problem than you think.

Meet Danae Wolfe

Danae Wolfe is a macro photographer and conservation educator. In 2015 she founded Chasing Bugs and teaches others about the beauty, diversity, and importance of insects and spiders through photography, public speaking, and writing. Danae’s work has been featured in various outlets including CNN, The American Gardener magazine, and Nature Conservancy magazine. In 2022 Danae received the Garden Communicators International Emergent Communicator award. Danae Wolfe’s new book – full of color photos and quick, easy ways to support nature and rewilding – is Grass Isn’t Greener: The Everyday Conservationist’s Guide to Bringing Nature to Your Yard.

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Conservation, Environment, Humor, Non Fiction, Travel & Adventure, Women's Issues

MAR 19: National Geographic’s Birds of the Photo Ark & In the Praise of Difficult Women

March 9, 2018

Noah Strycker joins Vicki to discuss his work with renowned photographer Joel Sartore in Birds of the Photo Ark … a beautiful keepsake book published by National Geographic to celebrate “The Year of the Bird”.  In 2015, Noah set a world record by traveling to 41 countries and documenting 6,042 bird species. But it’s not just about monitoring and counting the number of species, he says, it’s as much about adventure and how travel expands your outlook on life.

Noah is a writer, photographer, bird man, and four-time author, including Birds of the Photo Ark. As an on-board ornithologist for expeditions to Antarctica and the high Arctic, he has traveled to Earth’s polar regions more than 30 times.

Joel is an award-winning photographer, speaker, author, teacher, conservationist, National Geographic fellow, and regular contributor to National Geographic magazine. He specializes in documenting endangered species and landscapes around the world. 

Also today, fellow National Geographic writer Karen Karbo joins us to discuss her latest book, In the Praise of Difficult Women: Life Lessons from 29 Heroines who Dared to Break the Rules.  From Frida Kahlo and Elizabeth Taylor to Nora Ephron, Carrie Fisher, and Lena Dunham, this witty narrative explores what we can learn from the imperfect and extraordinary legacies of 29 iconic women who forged their own unique paths in the world.

Karen has supported herself as a writer since the days when novels were saved on floppy discs and manuscripts were copied at Kinkos and FedExed overnight to New York editors.  She is the author of multiple novels, works of creative non-fiction, and a memoir.

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