This is Wild

While we work hard on season 2 of This Is Wild, we’re bringing you some special bonus content: the first episode of Good Nature with Megan Leslie, a new podcast from WWF-Canada. You can keep up with future episodes on Youtube, Instagram, or wherever you get your podcasts. To stay up to date on what’s going on at WWF-Canada, sign up for Living Planet News: https://wwf.ca/signup-for-living-planet-news/ Nature is in need right now. More than ever. But who is answering the call? Good people, that’s who. And there are more of them than you might think. That’s why Megan Leslie, WWF‑Canada’s president and CEO, is chatting with folks who are proving that hope for nature isn’t just alive — it’s thriving. On this podcast, Megan celebrates both the good we find in nature and the good‑natured people working to protect it, proving that real change is not only possible, it’s already happening. In the first episode of Good Nature, Megan sits down with Andy Ridley, the co‑founder of Earth Hour, just as the global movement marks its 20th anniversary. Andy reflects on how a simple idea — turning off the lights for one hour — sparked a worldwide expression of collective action. The conversation traces the evolution of the environmental movement over the past two decades and explores what Andy is working on now: protecting coral reefs by empowering everyday people to help monitor and restore them. From Earth Hour’s origins in Sydney Harbour to its little-known Toronto connection and eventual global ignition, this episode is a hopeful look at how creativity and shared purpose can help turn concern into action. Megan is also joined on this episode by WWF-Canada’s resident botanist, Ryan Godfrey, who answers her call on the orca phone to tell her something good about the weeds in your garden.

In the 1950s, scientists noticed a troubling trend: around the world, peregrine falcons were disappearing, and no one could figure out why. Revered for their admirable hunting skills and impossible speed, the potential loss of peregrine falcons was devastating to bird lovers everywhere. In this episode of This Is Wild, we’ll uncover how a powerful combination of amazing science, policy shifts and public outcry led to one of conservation’s biggest wildlife success stories. To learn more about peregrine falcons and DDT, you can go to www.wwf.ca/thisiswild. If you have any questions or suggestions for the show, you can email us at thisiswild@wwfcanada.org.

Every fall, monarch butterflies all across Canada start flying south. They travel thousands of kilometres, braving storms and food shortages, to make it to their wintering grounds in Michoacan, Mexico. In this episode of This Is Wild, we’ll meet the iconic little insects that make this extraordinary journey every year. From the monarchs’ remarkable navigation skills to the dangers that put their migration at risk, we’ll uncover what these fragile travellers reveal about the health of the natural world. To learn more about monarch butterflies, you can go to www.wwf.ca/thisiswild. If you have any questions or suggestions for the show, you can email us at thisiswild@wwfcanada.org.

For millennia, the members of Katzie First Nation have seen salmon as family. So in 2018, when a landslide put an already endangered population of Chinook salmon in grave danger, they knew it was time to act. In this episode of This Is Wild, host Ziya Tong tells the story of the salmon in B.C.’s Upper Pitt River. Once home to a thriving population of Pacific salmon, numbers have been declining in the area for decades. But how did we reach the point where one landslide can endanger an entire population? And how do we secure a brighter future for these remarkable fish? To learn more about Pacific salmon, you can go to www.wwf.ca/thisiswild. If you have any questions or suggestions for the show, you can email us at thisiswild@wwfcanada.org.