Episode 18 - Rewriting Wildness

What does wildness mean to us - and what should it mean? What can wildness mean when it is defined not by a few people, but rewritten for all of us?

This episode of Reseed revisits the history of conservation to explore its dark corners, going beyond nipping off the buds and leaves to dig at its roots, unearthing information about those who are credited with founding Western conservation. Deconstructing nice and lovely platitudes can unearth real truths, to first feel the despair of unlearning and then create a better way. A new conservation can be inclusive and accessible to all people while also protecting ecosystems and animals, like birds.  

Guest J. Drew Lanham is an ornithologist, wildlife ecologist, poet, professor, author, and lover of birds. He is the author of Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts and The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature, which received the Reed Award from the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Southern Book Prize, and was a finalist for the John Burroughs Medal. He has published essays and poetry in publications including Orion and Audubon, as well as in several anthologies. An Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Master Teacher at Clemson University, he and his family live in the Upstate of South Carolina.

Poetry, birds, soil, conservation, and deep questions braid together in this thoughtful and lyrical conversation, which looks at how care for humans, nature, and animals are all connected and embedded into our humanity.