Explore every episode of the podcast Matthew Maran Podcast

Sarah Leen is a distinguished photographer, photo editor, and teacher who has made significant contributions to the field of visual storytelling. In 2013, she made history as the first female Director of Photography at National Geographic magazine.

Alexa Keefe is the senior photo editor for wildlife at National Geographic magazine, shaping the visual narrative for cross-platform stories related to conservation, natural history, and the intersection between humans and animals.

This week, I have the pleasure of hosting Chantelle Lindsay as my guest. Hailing from South London but with connections to Doncaster and Peterborough, Chantelle is a versatile wildlife conservationist and TV presenter.

No guest this week but I'm dialling in to let you all know I've set up a Patreon page for the podcast so if you'd like to support what I do please visit patreon.com/MatthewMaranPodcast and sign up as a paid member.

Kabir Kaul is a conservationist, writer and campaigner with a passion for London's biodiversity. Kabir has made it his mission to shed light on the often-overlooked green spaces and the remarkable wildlife that call London home. He has coined this ecosystem the 'Wild Side of London,' emphasising that it is the shared responsibility of every Londoner to safeguard this natural treasure.

Morgan Heim is a wildlife photojournalist and filmmaker who has dedicated her craft to capturing the intricate narratives of wildlife and human coexistence, both in her home country of the United States and abroad. Renowned for her profound storytelling abilities, Morgan combines captivating still photography with compelling video footage to bring a diverse array of stories to life.

Marcus Westberg is a photographer and writer dedicated to sharing diverse conservation narratives across Africa, Asia, and his native Sweden in Europe. His work has featured in publications such as the New York Times, Guardian, Geo, and Africa Geographic.

Peter Mather is a renowned Canadian photographer who has spent the last two decades capturing the stunning landscapes and unique wildlife of Canada's Yukon region. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Canadian Geographic, and numerous other publications, earning him recognition as one of the country's top wildlife photographers.

Doug is a professional conservation and wildlife photojournalist who focuses on Australian issues. He is a four-time finalist in the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the year and the inaugural winner of the WildScreen Panda Photo Story Awards and a Senior Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP)

Clay Bolt is a natural history and conservation photographer who specialises in photographing invertebrates. In his own words, Clay says, “my favourite subjects in the world are the little animals which most people ignore”. It was Clay’s obsession with bees that led him be a leading voice in the fight to protect the rust-patched bumble bee and as a result this species became America's first federally protected native bee in 2017.

Back on the podcast for second visit, Margot Raggett tells us about her latest book, Remembering Bears. Margot was a guest on this podcast four years ago so to find out more about her and the birth of this unique fundraising initiative head back to episode 12.

Charlie Hamilton James is a National Geographic Photographer who specialises in telling stories about conservation, natural history and anthropology. Charlie has been obsessed with wildlife ever since he was a kid and at the age of 7 he spent much of his childhood watching kingfishers. This obsession led him to photographing them when he was 13 and a few years later he working on David Attenborough’s Trials of Life as a camera assistant.

Will Burarrd-Lucas is a British wildlife photographer who specialises in capturing intimate portraits of some of Africa’s most charismatic and elusive species. His love for the natural world began at a young age after spending much of his childhood living in Tanzania in East Africa.

Kathy Moran recently retired as deputy director of photography for National Geographic Magazine after an incredible 40-year career. She was the first senior photo editor for natural history at the magazine editing over 350 terrestrial and underwater stories.

Suzi Eszterhas is an award-winning wildlife photographer who specialises in photographing newborn animals including elephants, cheetahs and sloths .

Georgina Steytler is a multi award winning wildlife photographer with a passion for birds, ethics and Conservation. After quitting her corporate job over 10 years ago Georgina began volunteering for Birdlife WA. Her rapid rise to becoming one of the most recognised bird photographer is extraordinary.

For more than 25 years Andy has photographed wildlife all over the world, capturing stunning shots of iconic species such as polar bears, tigers and mountain gorillas.

Hannah Stitfall is a wildlife producer, filmmaker and presenter. She has presented shows for BBC Earth, BBC Springwatch and BBC Radio Four.

Britta Jaschinski is a German photojournalist living in south London, England. After studying her BA in photography in south England she quickly gained notoriety scoring her first publishing deal with Phaidon.

Sandra Bartocha is a multi-award winning nature photographer living in Germany. She is a self-proclaimed lover of the seas and the trees, and of good coffee! Sandra gained notoriety for breaking the mould, using exquisite technique to capture trees, flowers and landscapes in beautiful colour and light in a unique style. She moved away the formulaic methods of pin-sharp, hallelujah light, landscape photography to focus on capturing the mood of a place, to evoke an emotional response and the results are breath taking.

Steve Backshall is a naturalist, author and presenter best know for BBC’s Deadly 60 – a programme aimed at young people that features Steve and his camera crew attempting to find the ‘most deadly’ animals in the world.

Chris Packham is a broadcaster, naturalist, writer, photographer, filmmaker, conservationist and campaigner. He presents BBC’s BAAFTA award winning Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch series and numerous other natural history documentaries for the BBC, National Geographic and The Discovery Channel.

Neil Aldridge is a conservationist and multi award-winning photographer with more than 35 awards in major international competitions. He lectures at the prestigious Marine and Natural History degree course at Falmouth University and has worked for several leading NGOs in the wildlife and environment sector.

Neil Aldridge is a conservationist and multi award-winning photographer with over 35 awards in major international competitions. He lectures at the prestigious Marine and Natural History degree course at Falmouth University and has worked for several leading NGOs in the wildlife and environment sector.

Jo-Anne McArthur is a multi award-winning photographer, author and speaker. She specialises in photographing the ‘invisible animals’ - the animals we eat, wear, test on and confine, yet rarely see. Over the past 20 years Jo has worked tirelessly to shine a light on the suffering of billions of animals exploited for human consumption. Her investigative work has seen her travel to more than 60 countries where she has documented wide ranging subjects from puppy mills and circuses, to fur farms and bull fighting.

Jo-Anne McArthur is a multi award-winning photographer, author and speaker. She specialises in photographing the ‘invisible animals’ - the animals we eat, wear, test on and confine, yet rarely see. Over the past 20 years Jo has worked tirelessly to shine a light on the suffering of billions of animals exploited for human consumption. Her investigative work has seen her travel to more than 60 countries where she has documented wide ranging subjects from puppy mills and circuses, to fur farms and bull fighting.

After nine years working as the Senior Picture Editor at National Geographic Kids magazine Karine Aigner ventured into the world of freelance photography. Drawing on her wealth of knowledge as an editor, Karine’s body of work is powerful, varied and tells creative stories with her images with a focus on animals and their relationships with humans.

Roxy - AKA ‘Roxy The Zoologist’ - is a wildlife biologist, photographer, activist, filmmaker, and presenter. After graduating with a first class honours in Zoology, Roxy landed a ‘dream’ job as a wildlife guide in the west of Scotland. Things didn’t turn out as planned but this didn’t stop her pursuing her dream of creating visual content, using both moving and still images to tell stories about protecting animals and their habitats.

Staffan is a founding member of the Wild Wonders of Europe – an initiative that celebrates Europe’s natural wonders through photographic exhibitions, books and printed media. It started 11 years ago and became one of the biggest conservation communication initiatives in the world. To date, the project can boast reaching 800 million people worldwide with incredible images ranging from Scandanavian wolves to sperm whales in the Azores.

Bertie is a wildlife filmmaker, photographer and presenter who at the age of 25 already has three online series under his belt for National Geographic as well as presenting his work to huge audiences on the National Geographic Live tour across North America. He has filmed extensively for the BBC including their landmark series Planet Earth 2, Wild Cities and Seven Worlds, One Planet.

After graduating with a Masters in Environmental Technology from Imperial College, London, Josh Kempinski’s career in conservation has seen him work in countries including Liberia, Mozambique, Greece, Belize, Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam. He has worked on a number of projects fulfilling a variety of roles as a Field Conservation Advisor, Protected Area Management Specialist and a Senior REDD+ Specialist.

After running a successful PR agency in London, Margot Raggett’s career took a new direction as she followed her passion for wildlife photography. A regular visitor to Kenya, in east Africa, her interest in photography, which began as a hobby, quickly flourished into a full time career. Margot now produces high quality images that are published worldwide. She is a category winner in the prestigious Nature’s Best Photography Awards and a regular ‘Photographer in Residence’ at Entim camp in the Maasai Mara, leading photographic tours there and elsewhere in Kenya.

My guest today is Pete Cairns. Pete is a professional photographer and the founding director of The Wild Media Foundation, a social enterprise, which includes initiatives such as SCOTLAND: the Big Picture – an organisation that informs, inspires and influences fresh thinking around the potential for a wilder Scotland. He also co-founded the Wild Wonders of Europe project, which brought together 70 of the continent’s most talented nature photographers and sent them on 145 assignments across 48 European countries to gather more than 200,000 stunning images, showcasing Europe’s rich diversity and to promote conservation as a force for good.

Jasper is a multi award-winning photographer based in the Netherlands. After numerous outdoor trips with his parents who were keen hikers and nature lovers, Jasper began photographing at an early age. He studied biology to gain a better understanding of the subjects he wanted to photograph and at the age of 20 he tried his luck in a Dutch photography competition, entering the professional award as an amateur and duly won it. Fast forward nearly 20 years and Jasper’s images have been published worldwide in Geo, Smithsonian and National Geographic Magazines and his photo stories have been awarded recently in the World Press Photo Awards and the Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

Stephanie Foote is a wildlife photographer and videographer with a first class degree in Natural History Photography. Based in the historic city of Cambridge, Stephanie hopes to bridge the gap between the science and arts, using her camera as a tool to bring people closer to nature and highlight the threats to wildlife and habitats around the world.

Andy Parkinson is one of Europe’s most awarded wildlife photographers, with over 100 awarded images across the major nature photography competitions. He was the overall winner of the Bird Photographer of the Year on 2016 and the most successful photographer in the history of the British Wildlife Photography Awards. He has three awards in each of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year and European Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Andy is also a feature contributor to National Geographic and his work is widely published in magazines such as Terre Sauvage, Geo and BBC Wildlife.

London born, Bristol based photographer Sam Hobson began his career in photography studying for a wildlife photography degree in Blackpool. The city, not exactly renowned for it's exotic wildlife, was an inspiration for Sam and he set about working with what he had in terms of basic equipment and subject matter.

Helen Gilks has been working in the field of natural history images for over 30 years. Her career began researching and editing children's natural before working briefly as an assistant editor on BBC Wildlife Magazine. In 1984 Helen took on the management of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competiton and Exhibitions, jointly organised by the Magazine and the Natural History Museum, London. Ten years later she was asked to set up a stills photo library for the BBC Natural History Unit and in 2002 took over the library – now Nature Picture Library – as her own business.