Golden State Naturalist – Details, episodes & analysis

Are coastal wetlands the same thing as estuaries? What about salt marshes? How can some plants grow in saltwater? Can I use them to salt my french fries? What’s an endangered river? Why do some birds build floating nests? Why should I visit nature that’s close to home? 

Join me and Empress Holliday as we explore the Tijuana Estuary to admire plants, gush over birds, and discuss everything from blue carbon to baby halibut.

Helpful Links:

⁠Divided Together Podcast⁠

⁠Tijuana Estuary (TRNERR) ⁠

⁠Endangered River⁠

⁠San Diego Coastkeeper⁠

You can find me on Instagram ⁠@goldenstatenaturalist⁠

My website is ⁠goldenstatenaturalist.com⁠

Support GSN on ⁠Patreon⁠ (and be first to know about Cafe Ohlone tickets!)

The song is called "i dunno" by grapes and can be found ⁠here⁠. 

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.

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: @backcountrypress Dandelion Herbal Center IG: @dandelionherbalcenter Beach wheelchairs California Marine Protected Areas Anticancer Effects of Seaweed-Derived Bioactive Compounds Understanding Blue Carbon My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com Support 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.