150. Kris Tompkins: Conservation, Leadership and Legacy

In this landmark 150th episode, Sue Stockdale talks to Kris Tompkins, one of the world's most prolific conservation philanthropists.  Kris shares a powerful, personal perspective on what drives her and urges listeners to ditch the myth of individual powerlessness: “The excuse that ‘I’m just one person’ - that’s the weakest, nonsensical excuse there is. One person, it does matter.”

In the conversation, Tompkins reflects on how her business experience helped shape a vision for nature conservation at scale, highlighting themes of risk-taking, leadership, and the power of direct engagement. She reminds us that the gritty, uncomfortable days in nature often leave the strongest impressions: “I like people being miserable in the national parks - those are the days we remember.”


About Kris Tompkins

Kris Tompkins is the president and co-founder of Tompkins Conservation, and former CEO of Patagonia, Inc. For three decades, she has committed to protecting and restoring wild beauty and biodiversity by creating national parks, inspiring activism, and fostering economic vitality as a result of conservation. Kris and her husband, Doug Tompkins have protected over 15 million acres of parklands in Chile and Argentina through Tompkins Conservation and its partners, making them among the most successful national park oriented philanthropists in history.

Kris served as Patron for Protected Areas for the UN Environmental Programme from 2018 to 2022. The recipient of numerous honours, she was the first conservationist to be awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. Her 2020 TED talk "Lets make the earth wild again" has over two million views.  

Find out more about Kris Tompkins and the work of Tompkins Conservation : Rewilding Argentina : Rewilding Chile :Trailer for National Geographic documentary - Wild Life 

Time Stamps

01:57 Developing a passion for nature 
04:29 Challenges and Triumphs in Conservation
11:25 Building Teams and Collaborative Efforts
27:34 The Role of Technology in Conservation
31:22 Reflecting on Successes and Lessons Learned
34:24 Inspiration and Call to Action

Key Quotes

•  I'm actually inspired and motivated probably more by grief and a kind of yearning, than I am by something that's fabulous and positive.
•  You can't fall in love with something you don't know.
•  I like people being miserable in the national parks as those are the days we remember- the days you were freezing.
• The excuse that “I’m just one person”. That's the weakest, nonsensical excuse there is. One person, it does matter.
• People have to decide that they want to participate in something more than what they currently have in their daily life. They see what's going on in the outside world and they want to do something. And that's a decision. And that's probably the most difficult step of all.
•  There are people working for nature who need what you're good at. It's the wilfulness that people get stuck on. 

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