Always Be Birdin' – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome back to the Always Be Birdin' Podcast!

We're sliding into Season 3 with self proclaimed Cemetery Birder, Danielle Belleny, as we celebrate her new book, This Is A Book For People Who Love Birds. Recently published, This Is A Book For People Who Love Birds is a short but sweet introduction to the world of birds and birding. Intended for those who don't realize they love birds yet and those who have just begun their journey, Danielle does a brilliant job of taking big scientific and social ideas and packing them in a way that is easy to digest and super fun to read!

Join us as we discuss different aspects of the book and celebrate Danielle for this huge accomplishment.

Follow us on social media (listed below) for a chance to win a free copy of the This Is A Book For People Who Love Birds, Always Be Birdin' stickers and select items from Bird Collective. 

--

Where to buy This Is A Book For People Who Love Birds:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=this+is+a+book+for+people+who+love+birds&crid=U4GA2628BG20&sprefix=%2Caps%2C126&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_2_0_recent

Danielle Belleny Socials:

IG https://www.instagram.com/bellzisbirding/?hl=en

Follow Always Be Birdin':

IGhttps://www.instagram.com/alwaysbebirdin_podcast/?hl=en

Last week I had my first ever live recording and today I have the absolute honor to bring you an interview with National Geographic Explorer and Storyteller, MIT Fellow and scuba diver, Tara Roberts. We discuss her recently released podcast, Into the Depths, where we as the listeners get to follow Tara as she works with fellow Black divers through Diving with a Purpose as they search for and help document sunken ships that carried enslaved African and were a part of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Tara talks with me about her experiences in making this podcast, what inspired her to learn how to dive and how that ultimately lead her down this deeply personal journey of identity through history and what it means to connect with our ancestors as well as descendants that are all around us today. This episode is personal to me as a mixed race Black woman in America. I was holding back tears for parts of this interview and am in awe of Tara's journey and her mission to bring the work of these Black scuba divers to the surface (no pun) and work to re-tell the stories of our ancestors and us as descendants.

Follow the podcast on IG : https://www.instagram.com/intothedepths_podcast/

Listen to Into the Depths here : https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-depths/id1604457921?ign-itscg=80085&ign-itsct=pod_show_natgeo_intothedepths

Read about it here : https://www.nationalgeographic.com/impact/article/tara-roberts-diving-with-a-purpose

Watch it here : https://youtu.be/u6KR7Y6tRkY

Check out the work of Diving with a Purpose : https://divingwithapurpose.org

--

Follow Always Be Birdin' on IG : https://www.instagram.com/alwaysbebirdin_podcast/?hl=en

Donate : https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AlwaysBeBirdin

Today I have the pleasure of chatting with Courtney Akinosho, Founder and CEO of Black Girls Bird, a wonderful organization whose mission is to provide Black and Indigenous non-men of all ages access to nature while promoting holistic well-being utilizing the joy of birding and photography. Courtney opens up about the origin of her organization, why it is so deeply important to her and we can take pain and turn it into positivity. Day 5 of Black Birders Week centers safety in the outdoors for Black people. Courtney and I speak candidly, openly and deeply about how nature is often weaponized by white men, white women and Black men and how we can't have the conversation about safety in the outdoors without centering Black women's experiences and voices and what it looks like to truly have the conversation in a deep and meaningful way without hiding and tiptoeing around the true dangers outside. 

Be sure to visit https://blackgirlsbird.org/

and follow Courtney at https://www.instagram.com/blackgirlwwings/

--

Don't forget to donate at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AlwaysBeBirdin

to keep the podcast running and help to ensure I can pay the Black, Indigenous and People of Color that share their stories with you. 

Follow at https://www.instagram.com/alwaysbebirdin_podcast/

We are celebrating day 4 of Black Birders Week 2021 and my guest today is Indigo Goodson. Indigo stay in da flow in her ever present social media where she shares her birding stories and advocacy for the Black community. Join us as we talk anti-conformity through fashion in birding, finding joy in the little-big moments out in the field and why it's imperative to listen to the black experience and hold it valid despite differing experiences.

Follow her on IG at https://www.instagram.com/indigoindaflow/

and read her latest article with Medium here https://medium.com/nappy-head-club/i-flew-across-the-globe-to-finally-blend-in-f227466d0b5d

--

Don't forget to donate at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AlwaysBeBirdin

to keep the podcast running and help to ensure I can pay the Black, Indigenous and People of Color that share their stories with you. 

Follow at https://www.instagram.com/alwaysbebirdin_podcast/

In celebration of Black Birders Week and the many identities and activities in the birding world, I chat with Day Scott. Day is a celebrated bird photographer, writer and naturalist. Today we chat about nature in LA, why it's important to show up differently for bipoc youth in the outdoors, traumatic brain injuries and the joy and the pain that Day has found in utilizing birds for healing. 

Be sure to visit Day's website here https://www.thewildernessgoddess.com/

and follow her on IG at https://www.instagram.com/thewildernessgoddess/

--

Don't forget to donate at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AlwaysBeBirdin

to keep the podcast running and help to ensure I can pay the Black, Indigenous and People of Color that share their stories with you. 

Follow at https://www.instagram.com/alwaysbebirdin_podcast/

We're kicking off Black Birders Week 2021 with a good friend of mine, Alex Bailey. Alex is the Founder and Board President of a wonderful organization called Black Outside Inc. based in San Antonio, Texas dedicated to setting up black youth in the outdoors where they can connect to nature and their culture in a safe and fun way. Join us as we adventure down memory lane of our college years together, how we found ourselves in the outdoor world and how the freedom of birds elicits the joy in birding for black folks. 

Be sure to visit https://www.blackoutside.org/

and follow them on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/blackoutside_inc/

--

Don't forget to donate at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AlwaysBeBirdin

to keep the podcast running and help to ensure I can pay the Black, Indigenous and People of Color that share their stories with you. 

Follow at https://www.instagram.com/alwaysbebirdin_podcast/

Today I sit down with Raquel Velez, founder and CEO of Alpine Parrot, a company who's mission is to celebrate larger bodies in the outdoors. This celebration is done specifically through providing hiking pants that are comfortable and useful for bodies that aren't represented or thought about in the outdoor apparel world. Raquel and I dig into the falsity of the term obese, how health and fatness do not go together and how dangerous of an idea this can be for BIPOC folks in the outdoors. We also talk about the Kea, the worlds only alpine parrot and why it's the inspiration for the company's name. Join us and visit AlpineParrot.com to contribute to the now live Kickstarter campaign. 

https://alpineparrot.com/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/alpineparrot/ponderosa-pants-hiking-pants-made-for-womens-sizes-14-24

https://www.instagram.com/alpineparrot/

--

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AlwaysBeBirdin

https://www.instagram.com/alwaysbebirdin_podcast/

Yamina Nater-Otero is the newly appointed secretary for Amplify The Future and I can personally attest to how lucky they are to have her on board! Her passion and drive for uplifting, supporting and educating BIPOC youth is unmatched. Today, we dig into what it really means to be a birder and what the act of birding can look like versus what it's historically been painted as having to look like.  We talk a lot about how great today's youth are and how important it is for them to realize the wonder of the natural world that is directly around them. Join us! 

Check out Yamina's written works: 

https://ny.audubon.org/news/what-does-%E2%80%9Coutdoorsy%E2%80%9D-look

https://ny.audubon.org/news/latinx-heritage-month-para-las-aves

---

Follow me on IG @alwaysbebirdin_podcast

Donate at buymeacoffee.com/alwaysbebirdin

Today I sit down with Orietta Estrada and Tykee James who are the Co-Chairs for Amplify The Future and The Black And Latinx Birders Scholarship. These two are powerhouses in their own right but, together, they have created something that is a force in the birding and outdoor worlds. Join us as we dig into where Amplify The Future is headed, how to apply for the scholarship and what it really means to have an organization that is for BIPOC, by BIPOC and why it is so important in an age where DEI work is a trending hashtag instead of a core value. 

Check out Amplify The Future here: https://amplifythefuture.org/

IG & Twitter: @birdersfund  

--

Follow me on IG @alwaysbebirdin_podcast

Donate here : buymeacoffee.com/alwaysbebirdin

Another double Creature Feature with two of my all time favorite birds, the Double-crested Cormorant and European Starling. I feature them today not only for their beauty and wildly amazing adaptations, but for their history and stories as birds thriving despite a level of human hatred that should be deeply concerning to any birder lover. In this episode I also only begin to touch on the ways in which these two birds are examples of how racism shows up in birding and goes way beyond what black, indigenous and brown folks have to deal with in the field, but that the act of birding is literally done through a racist lens. It surely doesn't have to be this way. So, don't hate the player, hate the game. 

Remember to donate to https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AlwaysBeBirdin 50% of the proceeds go to my BIPOC guests. 

Check out the article "9 New Revelations for the Black American Bird Watcher" by J. Drew Lanham https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/05/nine-new-revelations-for-the-black-american-bird-watcher

The racist article that National Audubon still has on their website https://www.audubon.org/news/the-killing-warden