Earth to Humans Earth to Humans Podcast

I’m super excited to bring you this bonus episode of the podcast! We’re still a few months away from launching our new season of Earth to Humans - that will happen in April for Earth Week - but I wanted to feature this conservation with the director of our latest Wild Lens Collective co-production, Children of the Wolves.



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As 2023 comes to a close, our Earth to Humans team took a look back at some of the episodes that were the most meaningful to us.
We closed out our end-of-the-year roundtable conversation with a discussion about COP28. All of us agreed that just about everything that we’ve been hearing coming out of the COP thus far has been deeply disheartening - we struggled to find any kind of positive message. This is the balancing act that we play here on Earth to Humans on a regular basis - we yearn to tell hopeful stories, but refuse to peddle false hope. The situations surrounding COP28 and our continued struggle to make progress on climate is the reality that we live in, and we’ll continue to seek out stories that highlight this struggle.
This is the final episode of this season of Earth to Humans. We’ll be back with new episodes in mid April of 2024 - just in time for Earth Day.



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As of September 10, 2023, there have been 9,614 civilian deaths reported in Ukraine since Russia’s latest invasion began on February 24, 2022. And in Gaza, the latest numbers of civilian casualties in just over a month are estimated to be over 13,000. These scenes of unfathomable death and destruction have displaced millions, breaking apart families and disjointing entire communities; ripples that will have lasting effects for years to come.
But there is also a quieter victim of these wars. The land, the water, the plants, animals and fungi that call those places home. I have been thinking a lot about how these conflicts are impacting the ecosystems within them and I wanted to talk to somebody about it.
And that’s how I found Oleksiy.   


As a Ukrainian scientist, Oleksiy knows better than most, how these wars shape and change not only people, but amphibians, insects and birds. I asked Oleksiy about his life and work before the war, the idyllic lands he once explored, and also life after, the bombing, the militarization of the world around him and an ongoing race to save invaluable data sets before they’re lost forever. He’s smart, he’s candid, and he has a lot to say.

Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group


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There are lots of amazing stories about the early days of the Appalachian Trail, but none match the story of Grandma Gatewood. In 1955, Gatewood set out to hike the entire Appalachian Trail. She was 67 years old at the time. She began her hike in secret - she didn’t want her children to know what she was doing because she knew they’d try to stop her. But news of her trek traveled fast, and by the time she was a few months into her hike, she had become a national celebrity. When she finished her hike she appeared on the Tonight Show and had stories featured about her in magazines and newspapers across the country.
For many Americans at the time, hearing news stories about Grandma Gatewood was their first exposure to the Appalachian Trail. The trail had been completed in the 1930s, but had been in left unmaintained during World War II, and by the 1950s it was in danger of being lost to obscurity. Gatewood awakened the public consciousness to this unique footpath, ensuring that it would receive the recognition and protection that it deserved.
Gatewood hiked the entire Appalachian Trail not just once, but three times. She became a fixture of the long distance hiking community in the 1950s and 60s, and has long been considered a legend of the Appalachian Trail. But until Ben Montgomery’s book was published, very little was known about her life before her Appalachian Trail thru-hike. Her motivation to hike the trail was largely a mystery.
Montgomery’s research and conversations with family members revealed that Gatewood’s husband was an long-time abuser. Her ambition to hike over 2,000 miles along the Appalachian Trail was in part a reaction to decades of physical abuse and suffering. This added a layer to Gatewood’s story that hadn’t yet been told, and it brought her motivation into clearer focus.


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Having moved to Scotland very recently, I’ve been really keen to get started on telling some stories from this amazing country. As some of you who are keen listeners to the podcast will already know, I love a good bit of folklore, especially when it relates to landscapes and relationships with nature. So, it’s only natural that my first episode from here was with Folklore Scotland.
It also just so happened to fall on Halloween and, seeing as the origins of the holiday are very much engrained in Gaelic and Celtic history, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to talk about all the sinister creatures that contribute to some of the absolute best folk stories that Scotland has to offer. Think vampires, water monsters, witches, evil fairies…these stories have it all. So if you wanted some spooky stories this Halloween, you’ve come to the right place.
Artwork by Jasmine Hortop
During the episode, we discuss Beira, Queen of winter and creator of Scotland’s hills and mountains in great detail - you can find out more about her and the other characters we discuss on the Folklore Scotland website. We also discuss the fearsome baobhan sith, who I made a special request for this week’s artwork to be centred on. Baobhan sith are said to be extremely attractive women who hate all creatures apart from deer, therefore they hate deer hunters the most. As the story goes, they’ll enchant deer hunters with their beauty before…I’m not going to ruin the episode for you so you’ll have to listen and find out!
We mention a Robert Burns classic poem which is all about witches, and is also very much a lesson in not catcalling! I’d never heard it before and as soon as I’d finished the episode I went to read it, and instantly wanted to share it as part of the show notes. It’s incredibly long, so if you want the full version you can check it out here, but here’s a wee excerpt as a taster…
Ah, Tam! ah, Tam! thou'll get thy fairin!
In hell they'll roast thee like a herrin!
In vain thy Kate awaits thy comin!
Kate soon will be a woefu' woman!
Now, do thy speedy utmost, Meg,
And win the key-stane of the brig:
There at them thou thy tail may toss,
A running stream they dare na cross.
But ere the key-stane she could make,
The fient a tail she had to shake!
For Nannie far before the rest,
Hard upon noble Maggie prest,
And flew at Tam wi' furious ettle;
But little wist she Maggie's mettle—
Ae spring brought aff her master hale
But left behind her ain grey tail:
The carlin claught her by the rump,
And left poor Maggie scarce a stump.
         Now, wha this tale o' truth shall read,
Ilk man and mother's son, take heed,
Whene'er to drink you are inclin'd,
Or cutty-sarks run in your mind,
Think, ye may buy the joys o'er dear,
Remember Tam o' Shanter's mear.
If you love this episode as much as me and want MORE Scottish folktales, check out Folklore Scotland’s podcasts and website.


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“Patient Zero”, Taylor Quimby’s podcast series about Lyme disease, takes a deep dive into the complexity surrounding this disease. He explores the origin of Lyme, and how some of the earliest Lyme patients took matters into their own hands, becoming citizen scientists and advocates for the health of their community. He also explores the controversy in the medical community surrounding Lyme’s long-term symptoms, and how bad actors are taking advantage of patients that have lost hope.
Central to this story, however, is how human behavior has facilitated the spread of Lyme disease. Climate change has increased the range of the ticks that carry the disease, and increased development has created new habitat for mice, another vector for Lyme.
There is hope on the horizon however - we discussed with Taylor some of the similarities between COVID and Lyme disease, and how the lessons that we’ve learned from COVID could lead to new breakthroughs in our fight against Lyme. Of course, no scientific breakthrough will change the most basic preventative measure that one can take to prevent a Lyme infection - wearing your socks over your pants!
-Matt Podolsky


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