The Wild with Chris Morgan

I dial into the wood wide web to understand how trees communicate.

Consider supporting The Wild by making a financial gift. Find out more information at our donation page. When you walk through a forest and enjoy the beauty of the trees towering above, there is a giant social network pulsing just below your feet. Underneath the surface lives an extensive network of roots that trees use to communicate with one another, share nutrients to other sick and struggling trees and even alert fellow trees of danger. In this episode I’ll dive deep into the secret world below the forest floor and learn about the largest communications network in the world: the wood wide web.

Richard Louv writes about intimacy, but not in the way you might picture it. He says to stave off loneliness, tap into the "whisper of our fellow creatures."

Consider supporting The Wild by making a financial gift. Find out more information at our donation page. As our society moved from the Industrial Revolution to the Information Age we now live in a time of constant interruption. In spite of social media and advances in communications, studies have shown that our society is becoming more lonely than in previous generations. It is something author Richard Louv calls “species loneliness” in his book Our Wild Calling. In this episode I talk with Richard about the transformative powers of connecting with animals and how these bonds can benefit our mental, physical and spiritual health.

Almost 30 years after an act of Congress called for the Elwha dams to come down, the ecosystem is recovering. Species are returning and staying.

Consider supporting The Wild by making a financial gift. Find out more information on our donation page. When the Elwha dam was completed in 1913, it brought hydroelectricity and economic progress to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state at a steep environmental cost: destroying ancient salmon runs and the historic fisheries of Lower Elwha Klallam tribe. Five years after two dams on the Elwha were removed, something extraordinary happened: The ecosystem began to repair itself - rewilding itself before our very eyes.

It's a beautiful, still arctic morning about 600 miles from the North Pole. And there is a polar bear right over my shoulder.

Considering supporting The Wild by making a financial gift. Find out more information on our donation page. This summer, I returned to the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, famous for polar bears, walruses and migratory birds. It’s been 13 years since I’ve last visited the islands and I’m excited - but apprehensive - about what I might find. We’ll explore how this delicate arctic ecosystem works and the future of this beautiful corner of the north.

Ecologist and award-winning filmmaker Chris Morgan kicks off season 2 with more adventures in the wild.

Ecologist and award-winning filmmaker Chris Morgan kicks off Season 2 with more adventures in the wild. He takes listeners across the Pacific Northwest and around the world to explore wildlife, the complex web of ecosystems they inhabit, and the colorful human characters that know these places and species best.

On Friday, October 14, we gathered to enjoy eight stories presented in front of a live audience at Seattle's McCaw Hall.

Earlier this fall, we did a stories from the wild event in Seattle. Just to give you all a little background on how this night came together. We were finishing up the first season of THE WILD this summer and we wanted to do something fun and get people together. So we decided to put on a storytelling event. We put out a call on social media and to our friends and asked people to volunteer and send us their stories. They auditioned, and we worked with them to edit their stories. All the people you are about to hear from have worked really hard to prepare, and share their experiences of the wild with us, to connect with us. Sometimes in some very personal ways. The night was a great success. I had a ton of fun. It was great for me just to sit back and listen to a few stories instead of always telling them. We’ve broken the show up into two parts. This is the second half of the event. If you missed the first half, it is available in your podcast feed now. And if this has made you think about your own experiences in the wild we’d love to hear about it. We are planning to do another storytelling event later in the Spring. You can submit your story at KUOW.org/thewild or email us at thewild@kuow.org. **

Earlier this fall, we did a stories from the wild event in Seattle. Just to give you all a little background on how this night came together. We were finishing up the first season of THE WILD this summer and we wanted to do something fun and get people together. So we decided to put on a storytelling event. We put out a call on social media and to our friends and asked people to volunteer and send us their stories. They auditioned, and we worked with them to edit their stories. All the people you are about to hear from have worked really hard to prepare, and share their experiences of the wild with us, to connect with us. Sometimes in some very personal ways. The night was a great success. I had a ton of fun. It was great for me just to sit back and listen to a few stories instead of always telling them. We’ve broken the show up into two parts. I hope you enjoy this first half and look for part 2 also in your podcast feed. If this has made you think about your own experiences in the wild we’d love to hear about it. We are planning to do another storytelling event later in the Spring. You can submit your story at KUOW.org/thewild or email us at thewild@kuow.org. 

I talk to a sound tracker who encourages us to find a quiet place and really listen.

Gordon Hempton has spent his entire career trying to answer that question. You may remember Gordon from our earlier episode about searching for silence. We headed out to the wilderness of the Olympic Peninsula, to the Hoh Rainforest, looking for what Gordon calls One Square Inch of Silence. Gordon refers to himself as The Sound Tracker. He travels the world looking for natural soundscapes that are free from human-caused sounds. His hope is to draw attention to these areas and keep them free from noise pollution. I talked to Gordon for well over an hour for that earlier episode. He said a lot. Much more than we could include in the original show.  So we decided to include some of that interview with Gordon in a special bonus episode of The Wild. In it Gordon shares what it means to him to listen. To truly and completely open your ears to the world. Now, I have a special request for this episode.  We are going to play you a few of Gordon’s field recordings. But I don’t want you to just hear them...I want you to listen to them. Here’s the request part...grab a pair of headphones and find a quiet place where you can focus….and for the next 10 minutes let yourself melt into the sounds of nature. A special thanks to Gordon Hempton and Matt Mikkelson who made these recordings possible. You can learn more about their work at Quiet Parks International.