Talking Trump vs. science, facts and the planet with Dr. Andrew Rosenberg.  The former director of the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists and former director of NOAA on Project 2025, popping social media bubbles and why it is so friggin’ important that Americans vote… And not for Trump. “Whatever your issue is, should you be concerned? Yes! …This is not a time to sit it out.” On Project 2025: “It’s worse than you think it is. No matter how bad you think it is, it’s worse.”

Shownotes:

4:11 Andrew Rosenberg explains what the Union of Concerned Scientists is concerned about and how the focus shifted from weapons to using science to spin for politicians.

7:00 “Everyone will ask what are you concerned about… until Mr. Trump was elected and then nobody needed to ask that question anymore because it was pretty obvious what we were concerned about.”

8:00 Trump’s wasn’t the first administration to distort facts. “Everything that was talked about the facts became whatever Mr. Trump said they were at any given moment and that was not the same thing from one moment to the next. And in our current presidential campaign that’d gotten even worse.”

8:52 The futility of fact-checking when “everybody’s in their little bubbles in the social media age.”

11:06 Why the Trump administration kept losing their challenges in court and how Project 2025 will stop the courts from ignoring laws.

11:51 “We also leaned into the ideas that scientists can and should be much more active in the political process.” And the resistance to that…

16:45 How to challenge lies. What works, what doesn’t and why. “We’re not going to turn everybody into scientists.”

22:07 The impact of COVID and isolation on fact based reality.

23:10 “Anybody can say anything on social media.”

28:45 On Project 2025: “It’s worse than you think it is. No matter how bad you think it is, it’s worse.”

33:41 “President Trump was frustrated that people didn’t just do what he wanted.” ‘cause laws and consciences…

35:20 “It’s 900 pages long and covers every agency.” The end of NOAA… the end of science and research… and privatizing the weather service and…. yeahh it’s worse…

37:00 Everybody becomes a political appointee…  You’re fired! “You would choose people based on their loyalty, not their expertise.”

39:15 Sharpiegate! How Trump moved a hurricane – so he could send money to a state he liked.

43:25 You can imagine what it will be like if he’s back in office. It wll be worse… things will get a lot worse.”

44:00 “There’s no tethering to facts at all… it’s just whatever he happens to think about it at a given time.

48:04 BC water moving to California?

49:00 “I don’t believe he understands the sovereignty of other nations. Or cares.”

55:00 What you can do…

51:25 “Whatever your issue is, should you be concerned? Yes!”

51:52 “This is not a time to sit it out.”

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.

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Andrew Lewin
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Andrew Lewin – host of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast – on teaching the world about oceans, myth-busting fake facts and falling for the oceans from his home in Ontario. “This is what people should be talking about.”

Shownotes:

3:25 How Andrew Lewin fell for the oceans and marine biology.

5:18 The first time Andrew saw a whale.

6:47 Finding Flipper and falling for dolphins. “You have this sense of awe when you look at dolphins.” Can dolphins be, um, jerks?

8:45 Talking orcas – including the orcas who eat great white sharks.

11:20 The origin of How to Protect the Oceans podcast and the mission to educate.

17:20  “My why is just change somebody’s life.”

18:52 The challenge of fighting fake facts and junk science. “The goal is to inform.”

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Sixteen-year-old Hawaiian environmental activist Rylee Brooke hasn’t just been fighting for the environment – and the rights of keiki (young people) – since the age of eight, she’s teaching other young people and adults how to make change and make laws. Adventures in changing things locally and globally, making the case for Vote 16 and proving that young people can do pretty much anything – including inspiring law-makers to do better.

Shownotes:

3:30 Meet Rylee Brooke. “I kind of grew up doing community service.”

7:12 Starting “The Plastics Project” and sparking youth-run beach clean-ups at age eight.

8:20 How 15 kids clean up 500 pounds of plastic. In one day!

10:20 The power of social media. And the local grapevine.

12:45 Learning to create law – and teaching young people how to create laws. “I got into writing my own bills…”

15:40 “I was asked to be part of the first youth-led conservation case… I was one of the thirteen plaintiffs on that.”

20:00  Vote 16 and the fight to lower the voting age in Hawaii and throughout the US.

22:08 Shark diving with Ocean Ramsey.

23:23  “I think just a kid coming in to speak is really powerful.” On getting comfortable talking to politicians and crowds.

28:24 Advice for other young people and, really, everyone. “It’s really figuring out what you’re passionate about.”

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.
Rylee Brooke
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Sy Montgomery (author: Soul of an Octopus) and Warren Carlyle (founder of OctoNation) on friendly octopuses, the Mayor of Octopus City, and their top octopus secrets from their new book Secrets of the Octopus that accompanies the National Geographic TV series. Second of a two-part interview about the wild world of octopuses! “We’re in the age of octopus,” Sy Montgomery.

Shownotes:

2:28  How the books Secrets of the Octopus and Soul of the Octopus informed the TV series and vice versa.

4:10 How OctoNation raised the profile of octopus photographers and vice versa.

7:02 Favourite octopus secrets – more social than anyone imagines. “They certainly are not all solitary”.

8:30 Octopolis & Octlantis and the Mayor of Octopus City.

9:02 Octopus hunting with other species.

11:15 “I’m taking my vitamins because I want to be on this planet to learn more secrets of the octopus.” Sy Montgomery.

11:25 The tiny hairy octopus aka the Chewboctopus!

12:49  Hanging out with a hippo. “I always felt that animals were my people… I’ve always felt more at home with animals than with people.” Sy Montgomery.

14:54 Meeting an octopus at age 7 – Warren.

16:00 “We’re just a blip on the radar of life compared to the octopus.” Warren Carlyle.

17:54 The first time Sy saw an octopus.

18:25 “This is someone. It’s not someTHING. It’s someONE. And they are as curious about you as you are about them.” Sy Montgomery.

21:15 Sy Montgomery on meeting Athena the octopus.

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Warren Carlyle & Sy Montgomery.
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Sy Montgomery (Soul of an Octopus) and Warren Carlyle (founder of OctoNation) on octopuses taking over the media, the origins of OctoNation, why octopuses needed a publicist and some of the secrets of octopus from their new book Secrets of the Octopus that accompanies the National Geographic TV series. First of a two-part interview about all things octopus!

Shownotes:

0:01 Meet author Sy Montgomery.

0:13 Meet Warren Carlyle “the PR agent for the octopus.”

3:50 How Sy met Warren.

4:25 Warren’s journey from high fashion to the deep ocean.

5:32 The origins of OctoNation: “When the Beyonce of octopus people tells you to do something, you just do it.” – Warren Carlyle

6:41 Octopus used to be monsters!

10:06 “It’s the golden age for octopus appreciation. For octopus research. And I think this is a great opportunity for the ocean in general. What better ambassador can you imagine than somebody who’s got the equivalent of nine brains and eight arms.” – Sy Montgomery.

13:00 Octopuses can give themselves manicures… we kind of laid the red carpet for “My Octopus Teacher.”

14:57 The impact of OctoNation. “Appreciation for the octopus has just exploded.”

16:00 Sy: “They are not some slimy gross monster. They are super smart. They are superheroes with superpowers. And yet they are enough like us that you can be friends with an octopus.”

18:45 Sy: “We’re in the age of octopus.”

18:50 Warren: “The way that I view Sy… Sy has this insatiable desire to hang out with animals all the time… All OctoNation is is really a reflection of Sy’s light.”

23:47 The blanket octopus!

28:08 Connecting with National Geographic.

32:10 Octopus have their own hunting fish the way humans have hunting dogs!

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Warren Carlyle & Sy Montgomery.
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NOAA scientists Kim Parsons & Tom Jefferson on orca species, orca survival, orca scat, really old whales, the return of harbour porpoises, the fight for vaquitas and so much more in the second part of a special two-part episode on the two soon-to-be official species of orcas who call the Salish Sea home.

Shownotes:

2:29 The challenge of naming new animals… scientific names, the names we use and the politics of naming. Yes, we’re sticking with Residents & Bigg’s.

5:15 How many orca species are there? The challenges of collecting data.

7:01 The genetic challenges facing the southern resident orcas.

10:09 Not enough J-pod baby-daddies.

12:32 “I think we need some optimism here…” a happy story about harbour porpoises. “There may be hope for this species after all. We know what the problems are… if we can make enough compromises in our own behaviour to reduce those threats, I think there’s good reason for being optimistic that the future of southern resident killer whales can still look quite bright.”

14:50 Biological and chronological ages.

19:30 The latest on the vanishing vaquitas – the most endangered marine mammal in the world. Are there only 10 left? “As long as there’s one male and one female left in the population there’s a chance for them to survive.”

23:20 Talking poop about orcas. And orca poop. “I spent a lot of time working with killer whale poop… I’ve collected a lot of poop in my time.”

24:55 Is there another orca species in Alaska? Probably! How many species are there? “We may be looking at six or maybe eight species… maybe more.”

26:58 Improvements in understanding orca health and their environments.

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Kim Parsons from NOAA.
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NOAA scientists Kim Parsons & Tom Jefferson on killer whale science, killer whales versus orcas, orcas versus dolphins, how science becomes official, the challenges of translating science to civilians and so much more in the first of a special two-part episode on the two soon to be official species of orcas who call the Salish Sea home.

Shownotes:

3:45 Meet marine mammal biologist, Tom Jefferson.

4:21 Meet molecular geneticist, Kim Parsons.

5:10 Orcas or killer whales? And how to pronounce orcinus orca.

6:35 Orcas vs. whales/dolphins vs. Delphinidae and confusion over “common names.”

10:35 Talking taxonomy: splitting orca populations into two species.

12:55 Exploring orca genetics.

17:38 What’s in a name? Taxonomists reviewing splitting up species. And making the species designation official. Ish.

20:10 How to tell the difference between types of orcas.

24:31 Early observations of killer whales and how and why they got their names.

26:16 Naming the two orcas – the scientific names and the names we’ll all use…

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.
Tom Jefferson from NOAA.
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Eco-pirate Paul Watson talks about taking on whalers in Iceland and Japan, splitting with the Sea Shepherd, launching an eco-church and what the hell just happened in his world with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young (author of Sharks Forever & Orcas Everywhere). “We’re ecologically ignorant. And unless we learn to educate ourselves, we’re not going to survive.”

Shownotes:

4:45 Paul Watson on how he landed in Paris and why he’s only working with Sea Shepherd France & Brazil.

5:40  “They said I was too controversial. Too confrontational.”

9:20 On being an international fugitive. And the disappearance of his Interpol Red Notice.

19:00 “We’ll rebuild it.” On the split with Sea Shepherd Global, his new boat and the dangers of sponsors.

21:40 On radically retiring Sea Shepherd vessels.

22:18 “The three most valuable things – courage and imagination and passion.”

22:30 What’s in a name? Neptune’s Pirates, Neptune’s Navy and The Captain Paul Watson Foundation

23:43 Taking action in Iceland and saving whales by taking on “modern Ahab” Kristján Loftsson. “I’m not really concerned about getting arrested.” Why he’d like to be arrested in Iceland.

28:14 Chasing super-trawlers and the importance of saving krill.

30:30 The return of Japanese whalers – with a new factory ship. And preparing to take on a faster ship.

33:45 Shifting baselines and rebranding fish like pollock becoming artificial crab. “Who wants to buy a toothfish… It all comes down to marketing.”

35:10 “We’re overfishing the ocean.” The need for a 75 year moratorium on mechanized fishing.

35:40 The fight for phytoplankton. “If phytoplankton disappear from the ocean, we die… The ocean dies, we die.”

37:15 “We’re ecologically ignorant. And unless we learn to educate ourselves, we’re not going to survive.”

38:20 Founding the Church of Biocentrism and the dangers of anthropocentrism.

45:30 “We can’t have a viewpoint that it was all created for us and we’re the only species that matters.”

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Captain Paul Watson in his natural habitat!
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Author, broadcaster and activist Melody Horrill (The Dolphin Who Saved Me) talks about saving the Port River dolphins and how a dolphin named Jock saved her with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young (author of Sharks Forever & Orcas Everywhere). “Dolphins do have a special place in our hearts… They help us connect to the water and the natural world.”

Shownotes:

5:10 Meet the Port River dolphins. And find out why they’re in trouble.

10:20 “I made it my single-minded mission to let everyone know in South Australia that these dolphins existed. They’re here.”

11:10 “They do have a special place in our hearts… They help us connect I think to the water and the natural world.”

11:50 On the Port River becoming a dolphin sanctuary and how her documentary helped change minds and laws.

15:23 Is the sanctuary really dolphin-friendly?

15:46 The first time she saw a dolphin.

16:51 Meeting Jock.

19:35 “Little did I know at that time that Jock would end up being my best friend. And lead me out of a place that I didn’t think was possible. Immediately I just felt this connection to this solitary dolphin. He was by himself… he just seemed adrift and alone. So from my perspective it was this instant recognition of another being that I felt compassion for and a connection with.”

22:20 “He accepted me in a way that I’d never been accepted in my life before.”

24:20 “He taught me a lot about forgiveness.”

25:07 “He forced me to live in the moment… we’re not feeding him, we’re not enticing him. There’s no other reason for him to hang out with me other than he just wants to. How mind-blowing is that?… It made me realize love was possible.”

26:00 Helping Jock meet and interact with other dolphins. “He taught me about courage.”

29:59 “We really tried to keep his friendliness quiet.” Jock following her boat.

32:34 Connecting with Jane Goodall and the Jane Goodall Institute.

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Melody Horrill with the perfect beach book!
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Author and marine conservation biologist David Shiffman (Why Sharks Matter) talks about Sharkweek, Sharknados, megalodon myths, Jaws and junk science with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young (author of Sharks Forever & Big Sharks, Small World). “More people are bitten by other people on the New York city subway system every year than are bitten by sharks in the whole world… but whenever any shark gives someone side eye anywhere in the world, it’s headline news everywhere in the world.”

Shownotes:

4:10 “Jaws has had a really transformative impact. For sharks mostly bad.” How Jaws changed everything for sharks and meeting Richard Dreyfuss. “The movie is just so good.”

5:05 “It’s really changed the world. Before Jaws came out most people really didn’t think about sharks at all.”

5:56 “Spielberg has a lot to answer for here.”

6:23 The Jaws Effect. “It refers to how fictional portrayals of a real world issue can affect how people really think about that issue. In reality.”

7:36 Watching The Shark is Broken – the Jaws play – on Broadway!

10:14 On the impact of Sharknado! “I love those goofy, bad shark movies… there are two kinds of shark movies – there are bad shark movies and there’s Jaws.” And how Sharknado funded his PhD work.

13:18 “It’s just frigging weird how much this goofy Saturday night basic cable movie has escaped its cage and entered the cultural zeitgeist.”

13:44 “Here’s a crazy story for you…” How Sharknado may have launched Donald Trump’s political career.

16:04 On being Sharkweek’s number one critic “I’m very critical of the dumpster fire of nonsense and lies that they show every year.”

17:33 “I could rant about how bad Sharkweek is… forever.” And how Sharkweek does nothing to help sharks. “Sharkweek and I are not besties.”

17:48 There are more dudes named Mike on Sharkweek than there are women… even though in real life 60% of shark experts are women.

19:37 Great white sharks are mentioned in 40% of newspaper stories about endangered sharks – even though they’re not one of the most endangered species… All anyone wants to talk or write about… great white sharks.

21:00 Getting people to care about the bigger picture…”One thing that does change people’s minds is “yes, and…””

25:44 Talking 24 and sharks. “All of the species of sharks in the world combined have killed a lot fewer people than Jack Bauer has killed on-screen. Not even counting his off-screen exploits.”

26:34 “More people are bitten by other people on the New York city subway system every year than are bitten by sharks in the whole world… but whenever any shark gives someone side eye anywhere in the world, it’s headline news everywhere in the world.”

27:46 “Seeing a shark swimming close to the beach is not news. That’s where they’re supposed to be.”

28:00 A toy story – myth busting a fake goblin shark.

31:18 The megalodon conspiracy! “They were very cool – but they’ve been extinct for millions of years.”

33:38 The importance of public science engagement.

34:54 A new treaty that may help save sharks – and other species.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.
David Shiffman and friends…
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Filmmaker Gloria Pancrazi (Coextinction) talks with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young about red herrings, fishy fish farms, whale watching, whale saving and Coextinction. “Orcas are telling us something. They’re showing us something. You can learn a lot about the things we’ve got to do in the world right now by looking at these orcas.”

Shownotes:

3:35 Meet Gloria Pancrazi and how the story of love for orcas turned into a mission to save the southern resident orcas.

6:12 “A lot of politicians like to blame whale watchers because then they can accept a pipeline that’s going to increase tanker traffic by seven- fold… you can go on and on about the impact of the Trans Mountain pipeline and how it’s going to impact southern resident orcas.”

8:38 “One of the biggest points of the movie is that everything is connected… it’s hard to pick one big issue.”

11:50 “It always fascinated us how the orcas are telling us something. They’s showing us something. You can learn a lot about the things we’ve got to do in the world right now by looking at these orcas.”

13:18 “They are each other’s home and we’re destroying that home.”

13:38 The first time she saw a whale:

15:35 Working for Cetus’s Straitwatch program in Canada and SoundWatch in the US and the challenges of keeping orcas safe from small boats.

22:04 Visiting OrcaLab. “It’s magical up there.”

25:28 The impacts of colonization and colonial trauma.

27:50 Where and how to see Coextinction.

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Cephalopod expert Danna Staaf (author of The Lady and the Octopus and Monarchs of the Sea) talks with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young about the alien world of octopuses, the secret lives of squid and her two new books Nursery Earth: The Wondrous Lives of Baby Animals and the Extraordinary Ways They Shape Our World and The Lives of Octopuses and Their Relatives: A Natural History of Cephalopods. “They are definitely our fellow earthlings and some of the oddest ones we share the planet with.”

Shownotes:

3:20 Meet Danna Staaf. “They are extremely intelligent animals with extremely short life-spans.”

6:12 Meet Danna Staaf’s first pet octopus – Serendipity.

12:32 “There’s this tension between the alien and the familiar in them.” And octopus decor…

13:50 “They are definitely our fellow earthlings and some of the oddest ones we share the planet with.”

15:49 How and why cephalopods lost their shells.

22:15 The difference between octopus and squid. “Squid basically evolved for swimming and for speed.”

25:10 “Cephalopods are amazing.”

27:13 “These are real animals that inspired a lot of myths and legends.”

28:35 “Squid are like the protein bars of the oceans.”

31:30 Squid squads!

32:36 Baby animals doot doot doot doot – Danna Staff’s new baby book!

34:31 “At any given moment, most of the animals on earth are babies… I find all of them to be adorable in their own ways.”

41:20 Her favourite odd octopus facts… donut brains!

42:17 “I love asking what if questions about nature and about science.”

44:20 How humans are threatening octopuses and the health of the oceans.

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Danna Staff Author Photo_credit Josh Weaver
Danna Staff Author Photo – credit Josh Weaver
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Jason Colby (author of Orca: How We Came to Know and Love the Ocean’s Greatest Predator) talks with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young about the capture of Toki/Tokitae/Lolita/Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut and how Penn Cove almost ended the southern resident orcas and was the beginning of the end of the capture era. “It’s worth remembering that the argument at the time, if there could have been a debate at the time, it was really between whale catching and whale shooting, not whale catching and whale watching.”

Shownotes:

0:00 The voice of Toki.

4:08 Jason Colby on writing the book – or at least a very long chapter of his book – on Penn Cove.

6:05 “They eventually capture virtually all of these orcas behind nets. They estimate at the time around 90 individuals… The estimates vary but almost certainly the entire population of the Southern residents.”

7:43 “It’s worth remembering that the argument at the time, if there could have been a debate at the time, it was really between whale catching and whale shooting, not whale catching and whale watching.”

8:50 “Once they rounded them up, 90 to 100 animals, if Ted Griffin and his company would have wanted to and would have had the market to sell all 90 of them they could have done that. If they had wanted to shoot them all in the nets, they could have done that. There may have been a firearms violation, but there would be no sort of conservation law violation.”

10:30 “This must have been horrifically traumatic for these pods to be torn apart.”

11:20 How activists trying to free the orcas accidentally kill four baby orcas.

12:20 Hiding the bodies… “Whether it was illegal or not, it looks like a murder scene.”

14:20 Is Toki really L Pod or did she learn how to speak L Pod from Hugo in Miami?

20:04 “It was a generational loss.”

21:20 “If Griffin had done what the fisherman who was helping him demanded – which is to sell all of them all – you could have seen the entire population of Southern residents extinguished before we had even identified them scientifically as a population.”

23:00 How to help orcas today and the problems humans are creating for orcas today.

26:04 Toki talks.

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Jason Colby from Mark Leiren-Young’s award-winning documentary The Hundred Year-Old Whale
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Howard Garrett (Orca Network) remembering the southern resident orca Toki/Tokitae/Lolita/Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut and his nearly thirty year fight to bring Toki home to the Salish Sea. “Toki’s legacy is building, building, building by the day… She wasn’t just a circus animal. She was a member of the southern residents.”

Shownotes:

0:00 The voice of Toki.
4:57 How Howard started fighting to bring Toki home

7:50 “I really feel like she would have thrived and been thrilled and so relieved to be in her familiar waters.”

14:16 A superpod wake for Toki?

15:55 The Lummi Nation’s fight for Toki.

20:05  The origins of Toki’s names and becoming Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut.

21:44 “Her tank violated the very dismal standard of the animal welfare act…”

30:15 Getting the news that she was gone.

34:00 Toki’s legacy.

43:00 Toki speaks.

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Howard Garrett at a marine conference in Vancouver in 2017
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Author and biologist Rowena Rae on swimming with salmon, threats to this essential species and their incredible resilience with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young. “Salmon can thrive if we just give them a chance… if people would just get out of the way, they can thrive”.

Shownotes:

3:54 On becoming a biologist and leaving biology for writing.
7:12 Introducing young readers to the story of Rachel Carson.

9:20 Introducing Rachel Carson and the importance of Silent Spring.

12:20 Swimming with salmon.

14:07 Keystone species and why they matter.

19:oo  Humans Vs. Salmon; almost everything eats salmon  — salmon as “eco-system engineers”.

23:44 How to save Chinook salmon.

26:09 The fish farm jail-break in Washington State.

28:50 On the resilience of nature and salmon, and why to have hope. “They’re tenacious, they hang on … salmon can thrive if we just give them a chance”.

31:30 How we can help salmon.

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Rowena Rae – author of Salmon: Swimming for Survival

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Shark expert Alessandro De Maddalena talks with Skaana host Mark Leiren-Young about hunting for the perfect shark photo, the two orcas who are hunting great white sharks in South African waters, what makes great whites great and so much more! “The reason I love sharks is that they are a perfect art form. I consider Mother Nature the greatest artist.”

Shownotes:

4:22 How Alessandro De Maddalena fell for sharks as a kid and why sharks are cooler than dinosaurs.
9:00 Why he thinks the great white is great: “the first time I was watching a great white underwater it was magic… The reason I love sharks is that they are a perfect art form. I consider Mother Nature the greatest artist.”
13:10 Perfect predators and perfect book titles.
17:01 How little sharks care about humans. “Sharks care very little about humans. In most cases they don’t care at all.”
21:40 “The fear was born with Jaws…”
27:50 “People like to be afraid. People like monsters. People also like to create monsters.”
28:44 Leading Great White Shark expeditions.
33:40 His three best moments with sharks.
37:15 The truth behind the orcas attacking sharks in South Africa. No they are not a major threat to the great white shark population!
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Alessandro De Maddalena

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Alessandro De Maddalena image – featured in Mark Leiren-Young’s book Sharks Forever

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT: https://www.yammagazine.com/multi-talented-writer-mark-leiren-young-dives-into-the-world-of-sharks/

“The National Post once described Mark Leiren-Young as someone with a background in pretty much everything.

That’s fairly accurate.

Leiren-Young is a playwright, author, screenwriter, novelist, journalist, editor, podcaster, producer, director, documentarian, comedy performer, satirist, memoirist, university lecturer, occasional actor and full-time environmentalist.” -David Lennam, Yam Magazine.

Skaana (@Skaanapod) host Mark Leiren-Young (@LeirenYoung) shares the introduction and opening chapter of his new book Sharks Forever: The Mystery and History of the Planet’s Perfect Predator published by Orca Book Publishers (@orcabook).  “If you swim in the ocean every day for 100 years, you are more likely to be struck by lightning than swallowed by a shark.” – Mark Leiren-Young from Chapter 1, Sharks Forever.

 

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.

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Show notes:

0:00 – Intro
0:00 – Introduction to Sharks Forever
0:00 – Chapter 1: Sharks Forever

Skaana (@Skaanapod) host Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung) talks sharks, Sharkwater (@teamsharkwater) and politics with Joseph Planta (@Planta) on a special shared episode with Planta On the Line @TheCommentary.ca


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Show notes:

00:21 Introduction
2:51 Joseph Planta introduces Mark Leiren-Young.
4:00 Why Sharks Forever is dedicated to Rob Stewart and meeting Rob in Barcelona
10:45 Why I call sharks “the perfect predator.” “They are eating machines… they look devastating and awesome when you see them hunting.”
12:40 The impact of Jaws “What is baffling to me is that this one movie – released in 1976 – completely defined the way humans see sharks…. every time somebody saw a shark it was reported as if aliens invaded.”
16:41 “One moose hit one person in Jasper? ‘We’re going to shoot every moose in Jasper!’ That is the approach to sharks. And I wish I put that analogy in the book… the government does not go, “it’s time for a war on moose.” You get a bear bite you don’t go after every bear.”
17:20 “We’re not food to them. We’re a lousy food source.”
18:00 “Sharks just look scary to us – something about them hits us on a primal level.”
21:18 Shark personalities and shark friendships.
23:40 The dangers of anthropodenial and the term’s creator, Frans de Waal.  “When you tickle a monkey it laughs.”
25:47 “Everything is now eating plastics… humans don’t share. Humans just are not good at sharing.”
26:30 “The more environmental stuff that I do, the more astonished I am by nature.”
28:10 “There are almost always sharks fairly close to shore… they’re everywhere. We’ve all been really close to sharks if we’ve been in the water.”
30:00 “Roughly five people are killed by sharks each year… falling bookshelves definitely kill more people each year than sharks. TVs falling on people. Just pick the most random thing and they are all more dangerous than sharks.”
31:10 Running for Saanich council. Why I ran for political office.
36:08 “Joseph – you’re an essential service.”

Director Josh Zeman (@joshzeman)  on the quest for the loneliest whale in the world and shifting his focus from human mysteries to marine mysteries with his movie, The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52.  “Just when you think you’ve had too much devil-worshipping and serial killers, you go and you spend a day working on whales and everything’s okay again.”

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Show notes:

0:00 – intro
4:37 – There once was a film in Nantucket. . .
6:20 – Working on a whaling ship at age 14.
9:47 – “It was such a cool story that interconnected science and legend and naval stuff. It was such a fascinating journey.”
13:38 – “There’s a mystery here for us to solve.”
13:55 – The first time he saw a whale.
17:18 – Looking at loneliness and why this story became a phenomenon.
19:28 – Explaining the idea of 52 Hertz.
23:12 – Moving from true crime to the mystery of 52 Blue.
24:50 – Catching fire on Kickstarter
28:52 – “Just when you think you’ve had too much devil-worshipping and serial killers you go and you spend a day working on whales and everything’s okay again.”
29:33 – “Understand what your consumerism does.”

Sea Shepherd Captain, Paul Watson (@CaptPaulWatson), talks with Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung) about getting political, remembering Rob Stewart, saving salmon with Alexandra Morton and the Sea Shepherd Navy! Part two of our special two-part interview.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.

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Excerpts from Orcapedia by Paul Watson and Tiffany Humphrey

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Sea Shepherd Global

Sea Shepherd Legal

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Time Codes

    • 03:08 Running for public office. 
    • 03:38 “I did it primarily for the platform that it provided.”
    • 04:09 The Green Party trying to kick him out as a candidate.
    • 05:08 On the Sea Shepherd’s policy of “aggressive nonviolence.”
    • 08:29 On the Sea Shepherd going from outlaw to law enforcement.
    • 08:54 “We uphold international conservation maritime law.”
    • 11:47 The impact of Rob Stewart and his documentary, Sharkwater
    • 15:01 “The camera’s the most powerful weapon that’s ever been invented. It changes things. It can change society.”
    • 15:35 Operation Virus Hunter and working with Alexandra Morton to help save the salmon in the Salish Sea.
    • 19:02 Saving the vaquita.
    • 22:52 The Sea Shepherd’s current campaigns.
    • 23:45 The size of the Sea Shepherd navy
    • 24:14 “Everybody can do something.”
    • 27:00 Mark Leiren-Young performs Operation Dessert Storm live in Victoria in 2018 – music by Mike McCormick from The Arrogant Worms

Sea Shepherd Captain, Paul Watson (@CaptPaulWatson), talks with Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung) about Seaspiracy, life as an outlaw and as a movie star, the impact of Covid on life in the oceans and whether whales are more intelligent than we are.

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.

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Berke Breathed’s original drawing of Opus, the Penguin – used to illustrate Mark Leiren-Young’s poem Operation Dessert Storm in the Sea Shepherd newsletter.

Excerpts from Orcapedia

Mentioned Episodes:

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Sea Shepherd Global

Sea Shepherd Legal

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TIME CODES

  • 4:38– How Covid has effected the Sea Shepherd and the oceans
  • 4:52– “There has been an increase in poaching.”
  • 6:52– His new book, Orcapedia
  • 7:10– “What we’re talking about here is an international slave trade where the orcas are the new slaves.”
  • 8:36– “The orcas in captivity have names and therefore we tend to relate to them more so than the ones that are in the wild.”
  • 10:13– Tilikum’s story
  • 13:41– How Watson fell for whales.
  • 13:58– “To me whales are highly intelligent, very social, self-aware sentient beings and I think, in many cases, they’re probably more intelligent than we are.”
  • 17:20–  The backlash to Seaspiracy
  • 17:30– “The fishing industry’s very powerful and they throw a lot of money into their PR machines.”
  • 20:55–   “What we really need is a tuna-free tuna.”
  • 21:12–   “You can find scientists who will defend any side of an argument. I call them “biostitutes,” when they’re working for the industry.”
  • 23:36– “A good percentage of the fishing industry is strictly, completely illegal – unregulated and uncontrolled.”
  • 27:10– How his movie Watson happened.
  • 29:04– Selling his life story – a lot.

Killer whales hunting on land? Josh McInnis (scientist) and Justine Buckmaster (naturalist) on their wild discovery that some Salish Sea orcas are hunting seals on the shores of Protection Island and how orcas continue to surprise us.

Skaana shares stories about oceans, eco-ethics and the environment.
Photo credits: Justine Buckmaster

Photo credits: Justine Buckmaster

 

Josh McInnes is a marine ecologist and masters candidate at the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries Marine Mammal Research Unit. Josh grew up on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.  For over a decade Josh has studied the ecology and behaviour of transient (Bigg’s) killer whales along the Pacific Coast, but has also traveled to remote locations off British Columbia, Washington State, Alaska, California, Australia, and Antarctica to study marine mammal populations.

Justine Buckmaster is a certified Marine Naturalist currently working at Puget Sound Express. She has been working in the Salish Sea region for over ten years as a guide and educator on whale watching ecotours. Justine works with local marine mammal researchers by providing digital photos and sightings data from her encounters to record proof of presence and unique behaviors of the marine mammal species and populations of the Salish Sea. Justine was raised in southern Washington State near the Columbia River and currently resides in the town of Mukilteo in northern Puget Sound.

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Timecodes

  • 0:00– Intro
  • 4:18– Killer whales hunting on land? Josh McInnis (scientist) and Justine Buckmaster (naturalist) on their wild discovery that some Salish Sea orcas are hunting seals on the shores of Protection Island and how orcas continue to surprise us.
  • 6:52 Discovering Bigg’s orcas who hunt on land.
  • 14:02– “This is something that maybe is brand new to these animals (Josh McInnes)”
  • 14:40– Josh McInnes on meeting rare Gerlache Orcas in Antarctica.
  • 15:01– “It’s kind of surprising that the killer whales are much more maneuverable than the penguins are.”  (Josh McInnes)
  • 19:34– “Seeing transient orcas hunt is always just a awesome” (Justine Buckmaster)
  • 21:30– “I think orcas are basically the epitome of what we are as a species and intelligence or smarter than us.” (Josh McInnes)
  • 27:09  “They’re spectacular animals and I don’t think we’re going to stop learning about them any time soon. (Josh McInnes)”

Eco-warrior, Alexandra Morton, on her fight to save wild salmon, being gaslit by the Canadian government and her adventures in Green politics. She also dares people to sue her over her essential new book Not On My Watch:  How a renegade whale biologist took on governments and industry to save wild salmon.

“The salmon farming industry is harming wild salmon, is harming whales, is causing algae blooms and really needs to be controlled.”

Skaana shares stories about oceans, eco-ethics and the environment.

Join the Pod…… https://www.patreon.com/skaana

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Skaana on Medium…. orcatales.com
Our Latest Orca Videos… jpod.news

Facebook…….…..facebook.com/skaanapod
Twitter…………… twitter.com/leirenyoung
Instagram…..…….instagram.com/skaanapod

 

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Significant Quotes:

“The salmon farming industry is harming wild salmon, is harming whales, is causing algae blooms and really needs to be controlled. I mean, at first I thought they just had to get off the wild salmon migration routes, but now I realize they just have to get out of the ocean completely, and if they want to continue, build a tank and get in it and operate from there.”(8:18)


“Doing all this damage was part of how they were making such a phenomenal amount of money. It’s really insidious.” (12:38)


“I cannot believe I have spent my whole adult life fighting salmon farms. It just seems ridiculous. But when I look at it from a global perspective I realize I’m part of a huge army across the planet that is trying to protect life on earth.” (12:55)


“When you have a corporation involved, they don’t really care how many fish there are. They just want that share price to go up. And so this is deadly, because it really is a cancer model. They need to grow, they need to grow, they need to grow, with no mind to the fact that they’re killing the very body that they’re in, which in this case is the ocean. I mean, they’re going to kill themselves off. They are killing themselves off in the process of following their business plan. It’s really deranged. It doesn’t make sense and it has to stop.”  (15:31)


“Nobody wants to buy fish that have killed off whales, never mind everything else.” (19:00)

 

“There’s nobody whose position in DFO is the health of wild salmon. There’s no director of wild salmon.” (24:48)


“We have the biggest salmon run in the world on the verge of extinction.” (29:29)


“I saw grizzly bears that no longer looked like Grizzly bears… they were emaciated.” (33:14)


Alexandra: I have to wonder at some level in government are people saying, “Oh my God, those fish… What?!  They’re still coming back? There’s still 20 of them?! Gosh darn it.” I don’t know. I don’t think people, I don’t think some level of government wants wild salmon at all.

Mark: That just gave me chills because I found myself asking the same question about the Southern residents.

Alexandra: I bet you do. Yep..

Mark: I feel like there are people in the federal government, you are going “Damn, there’s still 74 of them…. “

Alexandra: Yeah, and they’re having babies. ” (36:07)


“The salmon actually have the whole mating thing down. They can handle that.”  (42:30)


“And for the first time last spring, I set my big net and pulled it in and looked at the fish and, oh my gosh, they were fat and sassy. They were sparkly, blues and silvers, deep jet black eyes, not the cloudy film they get when they go by the farms and it was a feeling in my heart that I just really had to sort of stand back a minute and be like, what is that feeling? It was joy. It felt like my heart was ringing.” (48:00)

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launch of Operation Virus Hunter

Launch of Operation Virus Hunter (2016) Photo credits: Mark Leiren-Young

Timecodes

  • 0:00– Alexandra Morton – introduction
  • 1:40Mark’s welcome
  • 6:30Alexandra’s new book, “Not on My Watch
  • 8:18– “The salmon farming industry is harming wild salmon, is harming whales, is causing algae blooms and really needs to be controlled. I mean, at first I thought they just had to get off the wild salmon migration routes, but now I realize they just have to get out of the ocean completely, and if they want to continue, build a tank and get in it and operate from there.”
  • 9:37– The impact of fish farms
  • 12:38– “Doing all this damage was part of how they were making such a phenomenal amount of money. It’s really insidious.”
  • 14:33– Alexandra’s political adventure – running for the BC Green party
  • 15:31– “When you have a corporation involved, they don’t really care how many fish there are. They just want that share price to go up. And so this is deadly, because it really is a cancer model. They need to grow, they need to grow, they need to grow, with no mind to the fact that they’re killing the very body that they’re in, which in this case is the ocean. I mean, they’re going to kill themselves off. They are killing themselves off in the process of following their business plan. It’s really deranged. It doesn’t make sense and it has to stop.”
  • 19:00– “Nobody wants to buy fish that have killed off whales, never mind everything else.”
  • 22:14– Mark and Alexandra discuss their adventures with Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans
  • 24:48– “There’s nobody whose position in DFO is the health of wild salmon. There’s no director of wild salmon.”
  • 29:29– “We have the biggest salmon run in the world on the verge of extinction.”
  • 33:14– “I saw grizzly bears that no longer looked like Grizzly bears… they were emaciated.”
  • 36:07– “Alexandra: I have to wonder at some level in government are people saying, “Oh my God, those fish… What?!  They’re still coming back? There’s still 20 of them?! Gosh darn it.” I don’t know. I don’t think people, I don’t think some level of government wants wild salmon at all. Mark: That just gave me chills because I found myself asking the same question about the Southern residents. Alexandra: I bet you do. Yep.. Mark: I feel like there are people in the federal government, you are going “Damn, there’s still 74 of them…. ” Alexandra: Yeah, and they’re having babies. “
  • 42:30– “The salmon actually have the whole mating thing down. They can handle that.” 
  • 42:35– Wild salmon breeding
  • 48:00– “And for the first time last spring, I set my big net and pulled it in and looked at the fish and, oh my gosh, they were fat and sassy. They were sparkly, blues and silvers, deep jet black eyes, not the cloudy film they get when they go by the farms and it was a feeling in my heart that I just really had to sort of stand back a minute and be like, what is that feeling? It was joy. It felt like my heart was ringing.”
  • 50:21– Mark’s conclusion

Gavin Hanke Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Royal BC Museum (@RoyalBCMuseum) on the life, death and anatomy of Rhapsody – the skeletal star of the museum’s fantastic exhibit Orcas: Our Shared Future #RBCMOrcas – which is open until 2022 before touring the world (and was written by Skaana host, Mark Leiren-Young @leirenyoung).

Rhapsody Orca Breaching

Rhapsody (J32). Credit: Josh McInnes

Skaana connects you to stories about oceans, eco-ethics and the environment.

Images of Skaana peeps with the skeleton of Rhapsody.

Photos by Rayne Ellycrys Benu

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• The Killer Whale Who Changed the World… amzn.to/2pRNU1q 
• Orcas Everywhere… orcaseverywhere.com
• Paint the Ocean You Wish to See with Rayne Ellycrys Benu…. digital-enlightenment.net

Significant Quotes:

  • “This is a typical skeleton and it’s in beautiful shape… Rhapsody here, she was in the prime of her life… She was basically perfect.” (10:09)
  • “It’s kind of like LEGO, but with a real, with a real animal, it was, it was a lot of fun to put one together.” (12:24)
  • “Anyone thinking a museum job is nine to five and you go home and forget about it, it’s not the way museum work is. You’re always on. You’re always thinking about it and you’re not. I make the joke that these things aren’t getting any deader, but we don’t want them to degrade. We want these specimens here for thousands of years. As long as humans exists, we want these specimens available for research and study and the older they get, the more value that the valuable they become, because you can’t go back in time to collect a killer whale from 2014. This is now a time capsule. So the one neat thing about a museum is you can go back in time in a sense and handle specimens from the 1800’s. Nowhere else can you do that. No one else preserves the actual physical evidence from the past. And that’s the beauty of museum work.” (15:41)
  • “I think anyone who works at a museum also has a very supportive spouse because sometimes you come home, like, if I’ve been moving whales, I will come home smelling like whale fat..” (18:02)

 

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https://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/
https://www.facebook.com/RoyalBCMuseum
• Twitter @RoyalBCMuseum
• instagram royalbcmuseum
#RBCMOrcas

Skaana visits Rhapsody @ the Royal BC Museum Photo Credits: Rayne Ellycrys Benu

Timecodes

  • 0:00– Assembling Rhapsody’s skeleton with Gavin Hanke 
  • 1:50– Mark’s Welcome. Start of the Skaana Podcast
  • 5:37– Start of the interview. Orca anatomy.
  • 6:47– The story of Rhapsody.
  • 10:05– Explaining Rhapsody’s skeleton.
  • 10:27– “Rhapsody here, she was in the prime of her life. Her skeleton’s in beautiful shape. No deformities, as far as I can tell, she was basically perfect. Her teeth are really nice. They’re not really all that worn. Um, but yeah, the animal’s very, it doesn’t look all that complex when you’ve got it all laid out on a floor.”
  • 12:24– “It’s kind of like Lego, but with a real, with a real animal, it was, it was a lot of fun to put one together.”
  • 13:59– Care and cleaning of marine skeletons.
  • 16:15– This is now a time capsule. One neat thing about a museum is you can go back in time in a sense and handle specimens from the 1800’s. Nowhere else can you do that. No one else preserves the actual physical evidence from the past. And that’s the beauty of museum work.”
  • 16:55– What it’s like to work at the museum
  • 18:02– “I think anyone who works at a museum also has a very supportive spouse because sometimes you come home, like, if I’ve been moving whales, I will come home smelling like whale fat.”
  • 25:31– Secret treasures of the Royal BC Museum
  • 27:22– Message from Mark Leiren-Young for our Patreons. Support independent coverage of issues facing the Southern Resident Orcas at www.patreon.com/mobydoll

 

Filmmaker, Julia Barnes, on the dirty secrets of clean energy, how electric cars are running over the oceans and her new documentary Bright Green Lies – debuting online April 22 (Earth Day), 2021 https://www.brightgreenlies.com/

Skaana connects you to stories about oceans, eco-ethics and the environment.

Books on Amazon

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Information on Julia Barnes and Deep Sea Mining

Trailer for Bright Green Lies

Timecodes

  • 0:00– Hello from Julia Barnes
  • 1:01– Mark’s welcome. Start of the Skaana Podcast
  • 3:51– Start of the interview. Discussing Julia’s upcoming documentary Bright Green Lies and where the idea for the documentary came from.
  • 6:30– About false solutions that are promoted by Bright Green Environmentalism.
  • 7:51– About Biomass. The dangers of wood waste and clear cutting.
  • 10:05– Solar, wind and hydro power lies
  • 13:34– How Julia Barnes got interested in filmmaking and her connection to Rob Stewart.
  • 20:33– About being uncomfortable in a room with David Suzuki
  • 24:41– Deep sea mining for electric cars…. “They’re calling it the largest mining operation in history. That’s about to begin. There should terrify everybody.”
  • 37:39– “We should be furious that the movement has been so co-opted and it is at this point, a betrayal of the natural world.”
  • 39:15– The displacement paradox
  • 40:10– There is no such thing as green industrial energy
  • 45:26– Experiences with whales while filming Sea of Life
  • 47:09– “My advice is learn as much as you can about what’s happening and get started right away.”
  • 48:02– Message from Mark Leiren-Young for our Patreons. Support independent coverage of issues facing the Southern Resident Orcas at www.patreon.com/mobydoll
  • 52:25 – Trailer for Bright Green Lies

Carl Safina (@carlsafina) author of Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace talks about the culture of animals, the worlds of whale and sharing the planet -with @Skaanapod host Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung).

Skaana connects you to stories about oceans, eco-ethics and the environment.

Information on Carl Safina

Books on Amazon

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Music:

Timecodes

  • 0:00– Intro
  • 03:40– How Carl Safina is doing and where he’s at in the world of COVID.
  • 08:27– Discussing his latest book Becoming Wild and cultures in other animal species.
  • 11:12– “There are only two animals in the world who are currently known, who are able to tell when they are meeting a complete stranger.”
  • 16:07– What exactly is culture?
  • 22:48– Discussing the complexities of Orca communication and the mystery of their “sound making”.
  • 31:06– Animals and careers? “What else do animals do besides make a living?”
  • 35:53– Carl Safina’s least favourite whale names.
  • 45:20– Discussing Tahlequah and her tour of grief. The affect she had on the world.
  • 49:00– “In law, the only living thing that cannot be legally owned…is a human being.” Discussing animals and personhood.
  • 56:47– The Safina Centre and their mission.
  • 1:04:15– “Feather, Fur & Fin” by Danny Michel

Skaana guests Erich Hoyt, Robbie Bond, Joel Bakan, Carl Safina, Julia Barnes, Marc Bekoff & the Skaana team share our wishes for a very new New Year in 2021.

Skaana connects you to stories about oceans, eco-ethics and the environment.

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Song Information

  • 0:00– Intro
  • 2:34– Wishes for 2021 from our guests and the Skaana team
  • 12:25– A big thanks to all our Patreon supporters
  • 16:12– Info on our SOCAN license and Mark’s farewell to 2020

Michael Moore (@MMFlint) on Canada, inspiration and capitalism in this flashback interview from the start of the Obama era with Skaana (@skaanapod) host Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung). 

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Support Michael Moore:

Books on Amazon

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· The Killer Whale Who Changed the World  

· Orcas Everywhere

Music:

Timecodes

  • 0:00– Intro
  • 3:16– Sitting down for a slice of pizza with Michael Moore.
  • 4:48– “I’m inspired by a lot of things and I see a lot of good that’s going on.”
  • 5:51– The value of people’s work.
  • 7:00– “If I’m a citizen of a democracy, it means I’m a political activist automatically.”
  • 7:46– The power of movies and how they should be seen.
  • 10:21– What he wants Americans to do.
  • 12:09– Is he scared of haters?
  • 16:30– How he keeps his sense of humour or, since he’s American, sense of humour.
  • 17:20– His Canadian content.
  • 21:18– “Land of Greed” by Miss Emily

Anthropologist/author Wade Davis (@authorwadedavis) on optimism, decency, public service and saving America with Skaana (@skaanapod) host Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung). Part two of our special two-part election edition of Skaana featuring National Geographic’s Explorer-in-Residence and author of Magdalena: River of Dreams.

“Whatever happens in November, it won’t mean the end of this incredible schism between the two halves of the American reality.” – Wade Davis

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For more about Wade Davis and his work:

USA Voter Information: https://www.usa.gov/voting

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 Music:

Wille Thrasher- “Wolves Don’t Live By the Rules”

Timecodes

  • 0:00– Intro
  • 04:29– How Wade Davis maintains hope
  • 05:08– “I’m always optimistic because I think pessimism is an indulgence.”
  • 06:22– Discussing the American military
  • 08:05– Factual divisions in America and the role of media
  • 10:17– “The end of America, the unraveling of America is no time to gloat. It’s no time for celebration. You should always remember that the military and industrial might of America literally saved civilization in the lifetime of my father.”
  • 13:26– Discussing gun control
  • 17:06– “America always swings between the wild extremes of the human heart and soul and spirit.”
  • 19:31– The evolution of how we consume news reports, and the role this plays.
  • 22:05– The fault in American democracy
  • 24:31– “40% of Americans feel so left out of what America’s become and is becoming that they simply don’t believe what is in front of them. The truth has lost all currency
  • 28:23– Discussing Trump and the environment
  • 30:14– “You know, the deeper thing that COVID has shown us is that we’re biological beings on a living planet.”
  • 34:03 – “You don’t vote your grievances, indulging your own indignations. The vote is something more serious than that. It’s a vote as to the destiny of your country.”
  • 35:56– Discussing rivers being granted personhood status and the river Magdalena
  • 40:27– “We need to change the way that we view our place on the planet. We are not apart from nature. We are a part of nature. And if COVID isn’t going to teach us that, COVID is going to teach us nothing.”
  • 42:38– “Wolves Don’t Live by the Rules” by Willie Thrasher

 

Anthropologist/author Wade Davis @authorwadedavis talks about wading into US politics to warn about the end of the American era & the Trump virus with Skaana (@skaanapod) host Mark Leiren-Young (@leirenyoung). A special two-part election edition of Skaana featuring National Geographic’s Explorer in Residence, the real-life Indiana Jones. For links on how/where to vote visit our show notes.

“America was the land of Walt Whitman and the Grateful Dead. Abraham Lincoln couldn’t tell a lie. The current president cannot recognize the truth. If Lincoln called for charity for all and malice toward none, this dark troll of a buffoon advocates malice towards all and charity for none.” -Wade Davis

Skaana connects you to stories about oceans, eco-ethics and the environment.

For more about Wade Davis and his work:

USA Voter Information: https://www.usa.gov/voting

Books on Amazon

**Amazon links are affiliate links and support our podcast, thanks for clicking!

 Music:

Timecodes

  • 0:00– Intro
  • 05:30– Discussing life during the pandemic
  • 07:06– “I travel in pursuit of stories. I’m a storyteller.”
  • 08:30– How the Rolling Stones article took off
  • 10:52– “Holding the mirror” to America’s face to see how far they’ve fallen
  • 13:33– “Every kingdom is born to die.”
  • 15:00 How Wade Davis’s father-in-law almost became Richard Nixon’s Vice President
  • 18:56– “COVID reminds us of a number of things. First of all, we’re living biological beings on a biological planet. Our lives were brought to a standstill by a parasite 10,000 times smaller than a grain of salt that commandeered the mechanisms of reproduction of ourselves. Forcing us to create it, not us.”
  • 20:45– Discussing the US’s WWII production records
  • 22:40– “Since 1970, China’s never been at war and America has never been at peace.”
  • 25:10– America’s income disparity
  • 28:03– I would argue that advocates for a wall are committing treason
  • 28:05– “Treason is also the acts that betrayal the very essence of your own country.”
  • 32:02– When you look at americans who deny the science… until… the fortitude to defeat it…
  • 33:10– Discussing the 2016 election
  • 36:17– That is a psychotic act… ending on chapel of the nation
  • 36:20– Americans viewing the federal government as a core problem
  • 40:00– Wade Davis’s own experience with the Canadian health care system
  • 42:10– Canadian patriotism and what sets Canada apart from the USA
  • 45:23– “Autumn in New York” by Diana Krall

Join Skaana Host Mark Leiren-Young for the 2020 Victoria Book Prizes Gala!

Mark has been nominated for a City of Victoria Children’s Book Prize and would like to invite you all to join in the online gala happening this year to celebrate! 

“Join us for a free online event celebrating our region’s finest authors. CBC Radio’s Gregor Craigie will host the gala in a new format, but it will still include readings by shortlisted authors and the awarding of the Victoria Book Prizes. Please register to attend using the link below.”

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/2020-victoria-book-prizes-tickets-119106748491

For more information go to the the Victoria Book Prize website http://victoriabookprizes.ca/

or the Facebook event HERE

Skaana (skaanapod) host Mark Leiren-Young (leirenyoung) talks Tahlequah and expectant southern resident orcas on the Adam Stirling Show (Adam_Stirling) on CFAX radio (@cfax1070).
“This was the story that captured the imagination of the entire world” – Mark Leiren-Young

Skaana connects you to stories about oceans, eco-ethics and the environment.

Skaana home….. skaana.org
“Your Magical Week” – meditation with Rayne Benu…. digital-enlightenment.net
Twitter…………… https://twitter.com/skaanapod
The Killer Whale Who Changed the World… http://amzn.to/2pRNU1q 

Photo by SR3 and NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in 2019 and SR3 and SEA in 2020, collected under NMFS research permit 19091

Support Mark Leiren-Young

Books on Amazon

**Amazon links are affiliate links and support our podcast, thanks for clicking!

Music:

Ken Dunn – Tahlequah
Robert Bateman
“A lot of doing art, and I guess anything, is perspiration rather than inspiration.”

“All little kids like art and nature. I’ve never met a little kid who doesn’t like art and nature. But most normal human beings grow up around the age of 12 and go on to more grown up things. And I just have not grown up yet.”

“If you’ve got an eye for it, nature is everywhere.”

“One of my missions in life is to get more kids out into nature.”

“A lot of doing art, and I guess anything, is perspiration rather than inspiration.”

“Mostly I just paint things that I love.”

“It’s a great benefit to be out into nature and paying attention to, well, one of the ways I put it, it’s kind of an unselfishness. Becoming involved and very interested in lives that are nothing to do with your life, but you become absorbed by these other lives and maybe you get into conservation and helping them and that sort of thing.”

“I would do an abstract painting and I would look at it and it was fun doing it. And then I would say is that all there is, was not very challenging, just slapping on paint.”

“I think fossil fuels should be left in the ground and we should be putting our money and our interests into an alternative power, wind and water.”

“I think fossil fuels should be left in the ground and we should be putting our. Our money and our interests into a alternative power, wind and water.”

The BC Maritime Museum launched a new series of “Nautical Nights” with Skaana host, award winning author and filmmaker Mark Leiren-Young , talking about the secret origins of The Killer Whale Who Changed the World and his documentary The-Hundred-Year-Old Whale which premieres this month at Planet in Focus in Toronto.

 

Skaana podcasts connect you to news and experts and their discussions about environments, oceans, and orcas.

You can use the affiliate links below to support the pod.

Join the Pod…… https://www.patreon.com/skaana

Skaana home….. skaana.org

Facebook……….. https://www.facebook.com/skaanapod/

Twitter…………… https://twitter.com/leirenyoung

The Killer Whale Who Changed the World…. http://amzn.to/2pRNU1q

 

Also, here’s our video invitation to the Planet in Focus Film Festival.

Music:

“Tell It Like It Is” by Lindi Ortega
https://www.lindiortega.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watchv=7kQin6Qhi_U