Episodes
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What makes California such a great spot for snake diversity? Where does antivenom come from, and why is it so expensive? Can you really inoculate yourself against snake venom? How did evolving alongside snakes impact who we are as humans today?
Join me and Michael Starkey, founder of Save the Snakes, as we get a close look at California snakes and then sit down to discuss bright blue snakes, snakes with legs, snake myths, evolutionary arms races, babysitter snakes, and how this diverse group of animals makes our lives better every single day.
Links:
Save the Snakes
Medicines derived from snake venom
GSN website
Get the GSN newsletter
Join the Patreon community
See GSN videos on Instagram
The song is called "i dunno" by grapes, and you can see the Creative Commons license here.
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How do sea stars move around? Why am I jealous of giant green anemones? When's the best time to go tide pooling? Why is life so hard in the in the place where the ocean meets the land? How have so many creatures adapted to thrive in this strange place where two worlds meet?
Join me and Michelle Kunst as we explore the intertidal zone on the Northern California coast and discuss the incredible diversity of life that can be found there.
Links:
Trinidad Coastal Land Trust
Seaweed with Allison Poklemba
Orange Cup Coral
California Deep-Sea Corals
Southern California Tide Pools
My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com
Follow me @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram and TikTok
The song is called "i dunno" by grapes and can be found here.
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Missing episodes?
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Indigenous people have lived in the place now known as California since time immemorial and are still here today.
In this episode, join me and Frank Lake as we discuss mutualistic relationships between Indigenous Californians and the land, traditional burning, oak orchards, the powerful ways Indigenous and Western knowledges can come together, common misconceptions about pre-colonial California, reciprocity, and how we can move from a mental model of scarcity to cultivating a shared abundance that leaves no one behind.
Links:
Frank Lake
California Indian History Curriculum
Sue-Meg State Park
Slavery in California
Lightning safety tips
My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com
Support GSN on Patreon
Follow me on Instagram
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Have you ever noticed a bee that looked a little…different? Maybe it was a bit fuzzier than a typical honey bee, or maybe it was obsidian black, bright orange, startlingly large, or as tiny as a gnat. Chances are, if you’ve seen a bee meeting any of these descriptions, you observed one of Earth’s 20,000 species of native bees (with around 1,600 of those species living in California).
Join me and National Geographic Explorer, TEDx speaker, and community scientist Krystle Hickman as we head outside to find native bees and discuss the widely varied social lives of bees, bee architecture, whether or not honeybees are an invasive species, buzz pollination, where to find native bees near you, the potential of native bees in agriculture, and the importance of these beings not just to humans, but to entire ecosystems.
Follow Krystle @beesip on Instagram
Krystle's website
Native Bees of the Western United States (cards)
My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com
Find me on Instagram @goldenstatenaturalist
Article on honey bee pollination outcomes compared with native bees.
The song is called "i dunno" by grapes, and the Creative Commons license can be found here.
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Author, artist, poet, and eco-philosopher Obi Kaufmann doesn't want to craft a better argument.
He wants to tell a better story.
But what does that kind of story look like? How do we begin to convey the incredible complexity of a place like California? How do we avoid unproductive divisiveness, embrace a better worldview, and move forward together in healing the land?
Join me and Obi in a field of wildflowers on Mt. Diablo as we discuss humanity’s relationship with the earth, Mt. Diablo daisies, ways in which meaning is co-constructed, biodiversity, what a myth really is, very quiet lions, how we relate to place, and how telling a better story about this land we love, this place now known as California, might just help humans come together to care for it.
Links:
Obi's website
The California Field Atlas
See Obi speak
Heyday Membership (add the word GOLDEN to the "How did you find us" section to receive a free bandana designed by Obi!)
My website
Follow me on Instagram and Tiktok @goldenstatenaturalist
The song is called "i dunno" by grapes. The Creative Commons license can be found here.
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Happy New Year! 🎉
This episode has a great story, so I added a new intro to tell you about it.
Here are the links mentioned in the new intro!
7 Ways to Connect with Nature zine by Kate Rutter
Find Kate on Instagram @katerutter.
Patreon. This is a great way to support your local indie podcaster.
Find me on Instagram @goldenstatenaturalist.
My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com.
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Have you ever wondered why we bring a toxic, parasitic plant indoors during the holidays...and then kiss under it? Or what ecological role this plant plays?
Come with me and Dr. Joshua Der as we discuss the ecological importance of mistletoe, its evolution, the vast array of wildlife it supports, and of course, the ancient folklore that led to all those stolen smooches.
Helpful Links:
Dr. Der's Publications
Mistletoe Folklore
My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com
Support GSN on Patreon.
Find me on Instagram and TikTok @goldenstatenaturalist
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When was the last time you felt truly connected with a place? Was it somewhere rugged and wild, or was it on a leaf-strewn suburban block? What did you notice? What questions popped up in your mind? What gave you that sense of connection?
In this episode, join me and Justin Garwood in a Northern California temperate rainforest as we discuss how each of us can connect more deeply with the natural world, glaciers in California, an abundance of tadpoles, when to go off trail (and when not to), and what it means to be a naturalist no matter where you may find yourself.
Links:
Bird species name changes
The ten essentials
Grizzly Glacier
The Klamath Mountains: A Natural History
My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com
Support the show on Patreon 🙌🏻
You can find me @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram and TikTok
GSN Holiday Gift Guide
The song is called "i dunno" by grapes and can be found here.
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The Klamath Mountains, straddling the California-Oregon border, are a hotspot for biodiversity. But what drives the species richness of the region?
Come with me and Michael Kauffmann to a moss-covered edge of the Klamath mountains as we discuss ancient rocks, carnivorous plants, temperate rainforests, why people are a vital part of the story of place, and why the Klamath Mountains are bursting with a truly stunning array of beings and relationships.
You can find Backcountry Press @backcountrypress on Instagram.
Serpentine Soils and Plant Adaptations
Geologists Protest Bill to Remove State Rock
My website is www.goldenstatenaturalist.com
You can find me on Instagram and TikTok @goldenstatenaturalist
You can support GSN on Patreon for just $4/month. Check it out at www.patreon.com/michellefullner.
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Is seaweed a plant? Is it ok to eat straight out of the ocean? What kinds of creatures rely on seaweed? How does kelp fight climate change? Join me and Allison Poklemba on the Humboldt coast as we descend into the intertidal zone to taste seaweed fresh from the ocean and discuss all of the questions above and more. Helpful Links: Allison's Seaweed Resources Backcountry Press Instagram: @backcountrypressDandelion Herbal Center IG: @dandelionherbalcenterBeach wheelchairsCalifornia Marine Protected Areas Anticancer Effects of Seaweed-Derived Bioactive Compounds Understanding Blue CarbonMy website is goldenstatenaturalist.comSupport GSN on Patreon! I'm @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram and Tiktok. The song is called "i dunno" by grapes. You can find the creative commons license here.
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At the height of the last ice age, California condors could be found all across North America, and since time immemorial, these birds have held special cultural and spiritual significance for a number of Indigenous groups.
But by the late 1980's, the last wild condor had been captured and brought into a captive breeding program. They were extinct in the wild.
So what happened to these enormous scavengers to diminish their range so dramatically? How much progress has been made by the captive breeding programs? How is their cultural significance being honored today?
Join me and Tiana Williams-Claussen, Director of the Yurok Tribe Wildlife Department, as we discuss what makes condors unique, their cultural and spiritual significance to the Yurok People, and the incredible program that's brought the largest flying birds in North America back to their home in the redwoods for the first time in over a century.
Links!
Yurok Condor Program (learn, donate, and watch the condor cam!)
Yurok Ancestral Territory
Map of Yurok Lands
My website is: goldenstatenaturalist.com (find show merch and blog there!)
You can find me on Instagram or Tiktok @goldenstatenaturalist
The song is called "i dunno" by grapes and can be found here.
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Have you ever wondered about things outside your window--the things that go bump in the night? Or, actually, things that flutter, flap, tread softly, swim, or bloom in the night? Because there’s a whole nocturnal world out there that most of us are missing, and it’s actually not as hard or as scary as we might think to go out and see it for ourselves.
In this episode, switch on your headlamp, and come with me and Charles Hood to the Cosumnes River Preserve, where we discuss vampire bats, nocturnal ocean migrations, night-blooming native plants, potoos, moths with 13-inch tongues, and how to venture safely into the night so you can see all of this and more for yourself.
And, if you celebrate, Happy Halloween!
Helpful Links:
Nocturnalia (Charles's new book!)
Cosumnes River Preserve
Sandhill Cranes
California Turkeys
My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com
You can find me on Instagram or TikTok @goldenstatenaturalist
The song is called "i dunno" by grapes, and you can find the Creative Commons License here.
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When was the last time you looked closely at the living things right outside your front door? Have you ever gotten lost in a daisy, zoomed in on a burr clover, or watched a ladybug on a rose bush?
Join me and author-illustrator Marni Fylling as we take a walk to explore the nature in her neighborhood. Along the way, learn how you can connect more deeply with the nature where you live and even cultivate more habitat that can welcome a greater diversity and abundance of life in your own yard.
Helpful links:
Marni's Book
Benefits of Urban Trees
California Invasive Plant Council
Calscape.org (Learn which plants are native to your zipcode and their growing conditions)
Bloomcalifornia.org (Find native plant nurseries in your area)
Native Plant Finder (in case you don't live in California!)
My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com (Need a cozy sweatshirt?)
Support the show on Patreon (for real it helps so much!)
You can find me @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram and TikTok.
Marni is @marnifylling on Instagram.
The song is called "i dunno" by grapes. You can find the Creative Commons license here.
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Coast redwood trees reside in a category all their own. Not only are these the tallest trees in the world, but they grow in unique ecosystems–quiet, foggy places with ferns and redwood sorrel spilling everywhere you look onto the trail.
In these forests, the sound of running water is never far away, and the redwoods themselves are by far the most prominent tree species, the warm hue of their bark dominating the landscape as they tower over the evergreen huckleberries and red-flowering currants below.
In this episode, join me and edutainer and lifelong conservationist Griff Griffith as we discuss marbled murrelets, the overstory and the understory, dinosaurs in the redwoods, stump sprouting, surprising historical champions of the redwoods, the wood wide web, and of course these iconic trees of California themselves.
Links:
Redwoods Rising
Redwood Facts
Laura Mahan
What is old growth?
Find Griff on Facebook or TikTok @Griffwild, and find his work for Redwoods Rising @RedwoodsRising on the same platforms.
Go for a walk with Griff!
You can find me @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram and TikTok.
My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com
GSN Merch
The theme song is called "i dunno" by grapes. You can find the link to that song and the creative commons license here.
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Have you ever looked at a piece of art that altered your perspective? Or one that challenged your thinking? Or maybe you’ve studied a piece that taught you something new.
How can art impact conservation efforts? How can it help break generational cycles of disconnectedness from the natural world? Why does art matter in a time of rapidly changing climate and habitat loss?
Join me and artist/scientific illustrator Jane Kim in the Ink Dwell Studio as we discuss nature blindness, the importance of place-based art, western monarch butterflies, endangered frogs, the purpose of murals, intergenerational relationships with the earth, and how both viewing and creating art can change the way we look at the world and the kinds of choices we make going forward.
Ink Dwell (You can also find Jane on Instagram @inkdwell)
Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter
Golden State Naturalist (my website)
Podcast Merch
You can find me @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram and TikTok
Podcast art by Danza Davis, @danzadavis on Instagram.
The song is called "i dunno" by grapes. You can find it here.
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Have you ever wondered if the plants growing along your favorite trail or outside your door are edible? Or what kinds of flavors might not be available at the grocery store?
Many of us aren't familiar with the tastes of the places where we live, even though there are wild foods growing all around us. Join me and author, educator, and forager Mia Andler on a walk beside the Truckee River to learn about the wild foods of California and beyond.
Links:
Mia's website
Mia's Books
California's Forgotten Pine Nuts
Pine Needle Tea
Support Golden State Naturalist on Patreon!
My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com
You can find me @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram and TikTok.
The theme song is called "i dunno" by grapes. You can find the song and creative commons license here.
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Do bats live close to my house? Why are they important? Do they have rabies? How can people help take care of urban wildlife? How can we involve more people in conservation and community science, particularly people from historically excluded groups? Come with me and Miguel Ordeñana to Griffith Park in Los Angeles, where we discuss all of this and so much more.
Links:
Bat Motherhood
Benefits of Bats
CDC Page on Human Rabies
National Science Foundation STEM Diversity Report
NHMLA's Community Science Projects
LA Times article on lead removal project
Jaguars and Obsession for Men
My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com
Merch
You can find me @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram and TikTok
The theme song is called "i dunno" by grapes, and you can find it here.
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Have you ever wondered what kind of wildlife lives right in the middle of your city? Or why some animals thrive in cities while others don't? And how did a mountain lion end up in Los Angeles, anyway? Join me and Miguel Ordeñana, the scientist who discovered mountain lion P-22 living in Griffith Park in LA as we discuss these questions and so many more.
Links:
Keeping Cats Indoors
Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing
Safety in Mountain Lion Habitat
P-22 sightings during my visit to LA
P-22 Eulogy by Beth Pratt
Friends of Griffith Park
My website is www.goldenstatenaturalist.com
Podcast merch!
You can find me @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram or TikTok
The theme song is called "i dunno" by grapes.
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Have you ever wanted to grow your own native plants? Where can you get California native seeds? Should you sow them directly in the ground or start them in pots? Is there anything you should do to the seeds before planting them? What time of year should they be planted? How should the soil be prepared? What are some common mistakes to avoid? What are some good plants to start with? Is this the end of the lawn as we know it?
Join me and restoration ecologist Dr. Julia Michaels as we explore Hedgerow Farms, which grows native wildflower and grass seed for ecological restoration projects. In the first half of the episode, learn how native seed is produced on a large scale at the farm, and in the second half, find out how you can use native seeds to grow thriving native plants and increase the biodiversity of your own backyard.
Special thanks to Alejandro Garcia, Jeff Quiter, and Manolo Sanchez for taking the time to show me around the farm!
Links:
Hedgerow Farms: So much California native seed!
Bloom California: Find a local native plant nursery.
Calscape: California native plant landscaping tool.
Calflora: Database providing information on California native plants in the wild.
Research on wild seeds becoming domesticated over time.
Lost Beneath Lake Berryessa: More information on the Monticello Dam and the town of Monticello! Also photos by Dorothea Lange.
My website is www.goldenstatenaturalist.com
You can find me on Instagram and TikTok @goldenstatenaturalist.
Patreon support helps a ton! Check out the perks here: www.patreon.com/michellefullner
The theme song is called "i dunno" by grapes, and you can find it here.
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What is an amphibian, anyway? Are they leading double lives? What's the difference between a newt and a salamander? A frog and a toad? What kinds of amphibians live in California? Why are California newts so toxic? How do they always, always find their way home?
Join me and Gary Bucciarelli as we explore a stream in the Santa Monica Mountains, finding plentiful frogs and newts as we discuss the questions above and many more.
Links:
Map of Amphibian Diversity
Arboreal Salamanders
California Herps
Gary's Website
Gary's email address is [email protected]
You can find me @goldenstatenaturalist on Instagram and TikTok.
My website is www.goldenstatenaturalist.com
Your support on Patreon is so appreciated!
The theme song is called "i dunno" by grapes, and you can find the Creative Commons License here.
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