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Rewildology

Brooke Mitchell

How do we bring wildlife back from the brink? What does it actually take to rewild a landscape? And where on Earth can you witness nature’s greatest comebacks in real time? Rewildology host Brooke Mitchell, conservation biologist and Jackson Wild finalist, travels the globe—both virtually and in person—to amplify the voices of scientists, storytellers, and conservationists restoring and rewilding our planet. Join the journey.

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20 episodes
Avg 41 min
English

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Episodes 20

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S3 · E225
June 9 · 33 min
The Long Game: Forging the Amazon's Next Chapter
In June 1992, 179 nations made two pledges that still shape every international conservation agreement today, and thirty years later, the world's most important climate conference was held inside a tropical rainforest. What happens in those halls matters—but so does everything that happens after. James Deutsch, CEO of Rainforest Trust, breaks down how a half-billion-dollar pledge helped catalyze the 30x30 target, why the Tropical Forests Forever Facility could fix a structural flaw in carbon fin
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S3 · E224
June 2 · 36 min
The New Economy: Making the Amazon Forest Worth More Standing
What does it take to make the Amazon worth more standing than gone? Not in theory—but in practice, on the ground, with real communities, real businesses, and real money. This episode of Rewilding Amazonia follows three people who have built economic models that answer that question from completely different angles.Eduardo Nycander founded Rainforest Expeditions in Peru's Tambopata region in 1989—a community ecotourism joint venture with the Ese'eja people that has proven a healthy forest is wort
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S3 · E223
May 26 · 41 min
Whose Forest? The Defenders of the Amazon
What does it cost to defend the Amazon? Not in dollars or hectares—but years spent in exile, family members taken in the night, court rulings that win on paper and go unenforced for nearly two decades. This episode of Rewilding Amazonia follows five people who have dedicated their lives to defending the Amazon. Daniel Aristizábal, PIACI Process Director at the Amazon Conservation Team, works to protect indigenous communities that have chosen isolation from the outside world—and explains how they
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S3 · E222
May 19 · 34 min
Rivers in the Sky: The Amazon's Tipping Point, Sentinel Dolphins & the Geothermal Deep
The Amazon isn't just a forest. It's three interconnected systems that have taken forty million years to build, and all of them are under pressure. In this episode of Rewilding Amazonia, I set out to understand how the Amazon functions—not as a place on a map, but as a living system where atmosphere, water, and deep earth are in constant conversation. Dr. Carlos Nobre, the Brazilian climate scientist who coined the concept of the Amazon's tipping point, explains how the forest engineers its own
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S3 · E221
May 12 · 30 min
Seeing the Invisible: Tracking Destruction, Measuring Recovery
The Amazon is one of the most remote places on Earth—and one of the most watched. In this episode of Rewilding Amazonia, I follow the people who have built new eyes to see what's happening inside a forest too vast, dangerous, and politically complicated for traditional monitoring to reach. Brian Hettler, Director of Mapping at the Amazon Conservation Team, has spent fourteen years using high-resolution satellite imagery to track illegal mining barges pushing into protected indigenous territories
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S3 · E220
May 5 · 32 min
The Severed Lifeline: Rebuilding a Fragmented Amazon
In this episode of Rewilding Amazonia, I follow the broken edges of the forest—the roads cutting through Indigenous territories, the degraded corridors between ecosystems, the unprotected landscapes sitting just outside national park boundaries—and the people stitching it back together. Juliana Martins, a road ecologist and PhD candidate at Imperial College London, has spent years working alongside the Waimiri-Atroari Indigenous community in the Brazilian Amazon, whose nightly closure of the BR-
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S3 · E219
April 28 · 33 min
The Ghost Forest: Bringing Wildlife Back from the Brink
What is required to bring wildlife back to the Amazon, and can species that have vanished from depleted forests return? In this episode of Rewilding Amazonia, I investigate the crisis of defaunation: the slow, invisible emptying of the Amazon's wildlife that leaves forests standing but ecologically hollow. Scientists estimate that between 350,000 and 1.25 million animals are trafficked in Peru alone every year, with official figures capturing as little as three percent of the actual trade. Throu
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S3 · E218
April 28 · 25 min
The Pattern: Tracing the Amazon's History
I started this investigation with two questions: What does it actually take to rewild the Amazon, and who are the people dedicating their lives to protecting this globally significant biome? What I discovered traces back centuries—from ancient Indigenous civilizations that managed the forest for 11,000 years to the catastrophic diseases that killed 90% of the Amazon's population after European contact. This episode follows a repeating pattern: extraction booms that devastate ecosystems, followed
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April 21 · 2 min
Rewilding Amazonia | Official Trailer
What does it actually take to rewild the Amazon, and who are the people making it happen? Rewilding Amazonia is an eight-part investigative documentary podcast series that goes beyond the headlines to find the scientists, tribal leaders, land defenders, and community organizers across six countries who are doing the work regardless of the threats. The story is more complicated—and more extraordinary—than you might imagine. Episodes drop every Tuesday beginning April 28, 2026. CREDITSExecutive Pr
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#217
January 20 · 1 hr 10 min
#217 | The Great Plains Comeback: Inside America's Largest Rewilding Project with Daniel Kinka, PhD
When Lewis and Clark traveled the Missouri River in the early 1800s, they encountered bison herds stretching to the horizon, grizzly bears roaming the plains, and wildlife in numbers that seemed endless—but just 100 years later, it was nearly all gone. In this episode, Brooke sits down with Dr. Danny Kinka, Director of Rewilding at American Prairie, to explore the science behind the largest landscape rewilding project in the continental United States. American Prairie is working to restore 5,000
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#216
Dec 31, 2025 · 1 hr 23 min
#216 | Nature Happy Hour #4: Goodbye 2025, Sea Turtles, Wetlands & Ocean Protection
Join Brooke and Charles for their end-of-year Nature Coffee Hour as they reflect on 2025's biggest conservation moments! They swap their usual evening beers for morning caffeine and dive into the stories that shaped this year: green sea turtles downlisted from endangered to least concern, Florida's record-breaking leatherback nesting season, the troubling rollback of U.S. wetland protections, Ecuadorian fishing communities protecting mangroves from industrial shrimp farms, and the historic High
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#215
Nov 25, 2025 · 48 min
#215 | Life Overlooked: Protecting California’s Mojave Desert with Natalie Cibel & Coral Carson
In this inbetweenersode, Brooke sits down with Natalie Cibel and Coral Carson from Planet People Podcast to explore the Mojave Desert—part of California's overlooked "desert heart". Discover the surprising Raven-Tortoise-Human conflict threatening desert wildlife, the complex relationship between renewable energy development and habitat conservation, and innovative solutions like laser technology and captive breeding programs saving desert tortoises. Learn about pressing challenges including off
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#214
Oct 1, 2025 · 59 min
#214 | Illuminating Coexistence: The Blink+A Story with Nicolás Lagos and Javiera de la Fuente
Join host Brooke Mitchell as she speaks with puma researcher Nicolas Lagos and conservation technologist Javiera de la Fuente about revolutionizing human-wildlife coexistence with Blink+A, an innovative deterrent device combining flashing lights, sounds, and IoT connectivity to protect livestock and carnivores. From selling a wildlife photography book to fund their idea to testing weatherproof devices across ranches from the US to Saudi Arabia, this unlikely collaboration between a Patagonian fi
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#213
Jul 29, 2025 · 1 hr 25 min
#213 | How Indigenous Wisdom and Modern Science Are Revolutionizing Amazon Rainforest Conservation with Rosa Espinoza, PhD (Inbetweenersode #2)
Join host Brooke Mitchell for an incredible conversation with Dr. Rosa Espinoza, PhD scientist and author of "The Spirit of the Rainforest: How Indigenous Wisdom and Scientific Curiosity Reconnects Us to the Natural World." Rosa shares her groundbreaking Amazon rainforest research, including her discovery of stingless bees as Earth's oldest pollinators (80 million years old) and their medicinal honey properties used in COVID-19 treatment by indigenous communities. Learn how traditional indigenou
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#212
Jul 23, 2025 · 1 hr 8 min
#212 | Patagonia Update: Helicopter Discoveries and Conservation Breakthroughs with Cristian Saucedo (Inbetweenersode #1)
Join me, Brooke Mitchell, for an exciting conservation update from Chile's Route of Parks of Patagonia with Rewilding Chile's Wildlife Director Cristian Saucedo. Discover the dramatic helicopter discovery of 10 endangered huemul deer at Cape Froward, southern river otter (huillín) sightings in coastal areas, the first international Darwin's rhea translocation between Argentina and Chile, Andean condor rehabilitation successes, and groundbreaking puma coexistence research. This Inbetweenersode pr
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S2 · E211
Jun 10, 2025 · 21 min
Where Hope Flourishes: The Promise of Patagonia's Route of Parks
In this powerful finale, I reveal the five revolutionary conservation principles that make Chile's Route of Parks a global blueprint for planetary healing. From tracking pumas with scientist Nicolás Lagos in Torres del Paine to discovering endangered huemul deer in a Patagonian snowstorm, this 1,700-mile conservation corridor spanning 17 national parks is transforming wildlife conservation and climate action. Learn why temperate rainforests store three times more carbon than the Amazon, explore
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S2 · E210
Jun 3, 2025 · 32 min
Where Ice Meets Sky: Patagonia's Vanishing Glaciers
Experience the stunning yet sobering reality of Patagonia's vanishing glaciers as I soar over Chile's massive ice fields and uncover groundbreaking climate research with Chilean glaciologist Dr. Ines Dussaillant. In this urgent episode, I explore the Northern and Southern Patagonian Ice Fields - covering over 16,500 square kilometers and representing the largest temperate ice masses in the Southern Hemisphere. Discover the alarming reality that five of the last six years have broken records for
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S2 · E209
May 27, 2025 · 27 min
Where Ranches Rewild: From Estancia to Patagonia National Park
Venture into Chile's Patagonia National Park, where I witnessed one of conservation's most inspiring comeback stories—the Darwin's rhea (Rhea pennata) rescued from the brink of local extinction. In this captivating episode, I explore the remote Aysén region and meet Alejandra Saavedra, who has dedicated eight years to bringing these remarkable flightless birds back from just 22 individuals to over 70 and counting. Journey with me through the ethereal marble caves of General Carrera Lake, across
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S2 · E208
May 20, 2025 · 29 min
Where Ancient Trees Stand: The Forests of Pumalín
Journey with me deep into Pumalín Douglas Tompkins National Park, the ecological crown jewel of Chile's Route of Parks, where I stood in awe before ancient Alerce trees (Fitzroya cupressoides) that have thrived for over 3,000 years. In this immersive episode, I explore one of Earth's most pristine temperate rainforests, spanning nearly one million acres and storing an estimated 229.3 million metric tonnes of carbon. Witness the remarkable conservation legacy of Douglas Tompkins, founder of The N
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S2 · E207
May 13, 2025 · 29 min
Where Waters Gather: The Hidden Wetlands of Northern Patagonia
In this episode of Rewildology, I explore the overlooked wetlands and sunken forests that form the northern gateway to Chile's Route of Parks in the rainy Maullín River Basin. Alongside Fernando, Andres, and David from Fundación Legado Chile, I track the elusive southern river otter (huillín) - an endangered species with only 15 individuals remaining in the entire 85-kilometer watershed. Through camera traps and conservation strategies, we discover how invasive American mink threaten this fragil
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Showing 1–20 of 20 episodes