Wild Talk

Jainey Bavishi is the director of the New York City Mayor's Office of ​Climate Resiliency — overseeing more than $20 billion worth of investments to prepare New York City for the impacts of climate change. This includes bolstering the city’s coastline ​against coastal storms and high-tide flooding, preparing for intense rainstorms, and protecting New Yorkers against deadly heat waves. 

We met with Jainey the spring of 2021, well be...

The pandemic has created a tremendous amount of isolation and distance between people. While digital tools and ways of gathering have helped us stay somewhat connected, they lack the capacity to help us relax, have fun, build trust and rapport and get to know each other in our more full selves. 

Organizations are struggling to find ways to gather that feel safe and meet this moment which is leading us to a new normal. It can be imp...

As the country continues to grapple with the impact of racism in our communities, we wanted to understand how an institution like healthcare - which prides itself on scientific objectivity - was coming to terms with the impact racism has on doctors and patients alike. We reached out to Dr. Omolara Uwemedimo, a leading voice in advocating for black women physicians, to talk about her experiences as a doctor, as a patient and as a co...

Chloe Cockburn is a lawyer, an activist, and an organizer. She currently leads strategy on criminal justice reform for Open Philanthropy, a research and grant-making foundation that identifies giving opportunities, makes grants, and publishes its findings publicly. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, Chloe oversaw state policy reform efforts at the ACLU’s Campaign to End Mass Incarceration, and before that she worked with the Occup...

What can the wild world teach us about how to push through in tough times? And how can we use those lessons to help ourselves, and our kids, look towards a future none of us can yet define? In this episode, host Emily Kagan-Trenchard goes on a deeply personal journey to craft a new ritual for finding ways to keep going.

Starting from the Jewish tradition of eating apples dipped in honey, Emily explores the strange and beautiful way...

Dr. Sandeep Kapoor is a physician, a teacher, and healthcare innovator. As the Associate Vice President of Addiction Services for Northwell Health, he is on the frontlines of the fight against opioid addiction — at a time where substance use and abuse is on the rise. 

Dr. Kapoor has taken a different approach to this fight than many others — he’s starting with words. He trains clinicians on the power of language, how the terms we u...

In this short episode, co-host Jay Erickson explores the value of embracing winter. He explores how winters can show up for us as individuals, organizations and social movements through three separate conversations in the wild with Josh Viertel, co-founder of Harlem Valley Homestead; Chloe Cockburn, lead for social justice at Open Philanthropy; and Zainab Salbi, renowned humanitarian and founder of Women for Women International.   

Humanitarian, activist, writer and TV host Zainab Salbi has become a leading voice for women’s rights. A survivor of struggles both geopolitical and personal, Zainab has taken her hard-won insights about conflict and healing, and used that empathy to organize and inspire. Along the way, she’s developed a deep connection to the natural world, where she finds rich metaphors that inform her work.  

Zainab grew up in Iraq, in the sha...

Magic is sometimes said to be the only honest profession - the magician promises to deceive you, and then they do. But we love these slights of hand and fantastic illusions, even when we know we’re being fooled, because there is a joy in having our minds set off balance. They shake up our expectations of the way the world works and think differently about what’s possible. In this episode, Emily Kagan-Trenchard pulls apart a magic t...

What do forests, psychedelics, and breathing through one side of your nose all have in common? They’re good medicine, according to Dr. Julie Holland, for repairing our connection to ourselves, each other and to the wider world around us. Dr. Holland is a psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist who has spent a lot of time understanding what pulls our brains away from a shared reality, and what helps bring them back to reconnect.

We ta...

Introducing a new podcast: Wild Talk.

Wild Talk is a podcast recorded outdoors that explores what nature can teach us about navigating the unknown. By asking experts from far-flung disciplines to wander the world with them, Emily Kagan-Trenchard and Jay Erickson explore the relationship we have to the natural world, and how it might help us set the course through our uncertain times. 

No powerpoints, no business attire, no filte...