The Nature Of with Willow Defebaugh

Latest Episodes:

Giuliana Furci Is Your Guide to the Enchanting World of Fungi Mar 31, 2026

Show notes

Beneath our feet, fungi connect forests, turn death into life, and quietly sustain the world we live in. Mycologist Giuliana Furci has spent decades studying and sensing into them. In this conversation, she invites us to see life differently, not as separate individuals, but as a web of relationships that holds everything together. Together with Willow, she reflects on how learning to notice fungi can open our eyes to the hidden collaborations that make life on Earth possible.

For more about Giuliana Furci: https://giulianafurci.com/

For more about the Fungi Foundation: https://www.ffungi.org/

Saving the World's Fungi, Might Save Us, Too: https://atmos.earth/science-and-nature/saving-the-worlds-fungi-might-save-us-too/

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Uncovering the Holy Ordinary with Terry Tempest Williams Mar 17, 2026

Show notes

Note: This episode includes a brief mention of death by suicide. Please take care while listening.

Willow sits down with award-winning author Terry Tempest Williams to explore the spiritual dimensions of attention, climate change, and our relationship with the living world. Together, Willow and Terry look at what it means to live with our eyes open in a time of unraveling and revealing. From a desert ant carrying a single blossom across the sand to the story of a beloved oak tree lost at the Harvard Divinity School, they reflect on mysticism, grace, and the quiet practice of noticing. If attention is a form of prayer, then perhaps the work of our time is learning how to see. This conversation is an invitation to meet the holy ordinary as it finds us: what Terry calls The Glorians.

For more about Terry Tempest Williams: http://www.terrytempestwilliams.com/

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Suzanne Simard: How to Be a Mother Tree Mar 03, 2026

Show notes

What if the forest is not scenery, but kin? In this episode of The Nature Of, Willow speaks with forest ecologist, Suzanne Simard, about the hidden networks that connect trees beneath our feet and what those relationships reveal about our own. Drawing from decades of research and her new book When the Forest Breathes, Suzanne reflects on mother trees, shared breath, and the responsibility of caring for forests in a time when they desperately need us—and we need them.

On the Mother Tree Project: https://mothertreeproject.org/

On Family Trees: https://atmos.earth/art-and-culture/suzanne-simard-finding-mother-tree-book-interview/

On Loving Nature: https://atmos.earth/ecological-wisdom/ecology-love-relationships/

On When The Forest Breathes: https://suzannesimard.com/when-the-forest-breathes/

For more on Suzanne Simard: https://suzannesimard.com/

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Death Doula Alua Arthur: Dying Is the Secret to Living Feb 17, 2026

Show notes

What if remembering we will die is what teaches us how to live? In this episode of The Nature Of, Willow is joined by death doula and New York Times bestselling author, Alua Arthur, to explore how reflecting on our mortality can reshape the way we live. Together, they consider what shifts when we stop looking away, and how that awareness can deepen love and bring our choices into focus. This conversation is a meditation on grief, transformation, and the fierce tenderness of being alive for a limited time.

On Living Like a Death Doula: https://atmos.earth/ecological-wisdom/death-doula-alua-arthur/

On Matters of Life and Death: https://atmos.earth/ecological-wisdom/matters-of-life-and-death/

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Elizabeth Kolbert: Why Wonder Is Still Worth Searching For Feb 03, 2026

Show notes

This week on The Nature Of, Willow speaks with Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author Elizabeth Kolbert about what it means to bear witness to a changing world. Drawing from her new book Life on a Little-Known Planet and her landmark work The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth reflects on climate change, biodiversity loss, and the emotional weight of documenting both. She shares stories from the field, from melting ice in Greenland to scientists racing to catalog disappearing species, and considers the role of journalism in a time when attention feels scarce and the stakes feel enormous. This conversation explores curiosity, responsibility, and the power of paying attention, even when the truth feels heavy.

For more about Elizabeth Kolbert: https://elizabethkolbert.com/

On Holding Onto Awe Amid Biodiversity Loss: https://atmos.earth/science-and-nature/elizabeth-kolbert-and-craig-foster-holding-onto-awe-amid-biodiversity-loss/

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Stories from the Deep with Cristina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen Jan 20, 2026

Show notes

What does it cost to truly document the natural world, and why do some people keep returning even when the risk is real? In this episode of The Nature Of, Willow sits down with renowned conservation photographers Cristina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen, whose lives and love story have unfolded at the edge of danger, from plane crashes and near-drownings to an encounter with a whale that nearly turned fatal. Together, they reflect on what it means to document the natural world with intimacy rather than distance, and why storytelling, vulnerability, and reverence are essential tools in the fight for our planet. This is a conversation about risk, devotion, and hope, about falling in love with each other, with the ocean, and with a living world worth protecting.

Cristina Mittermeier Reflects on Her Life Underwater: https://atmos.earth/science-and-nature/cristina-mittermeier-ocean-conservation/

60 Seconds On Earth with Cristina Mittermeier: https://atmos.earth/art-and-culture/60-seconds-on-earth-with-cristina-mittermeier/

Behind the Lens: https://atmos.earth/art-and-culture/behind-the-shot-nature-photography/

Thin Ice: https://atmos.earth/climate-solutions/antarctica-conservation-campaign/

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Baratunde Thurston on Natural vs. Artificial Intelligence Jan 06, 2026

Show notes

What does it mean to live in right relationship with intelligence, human, more than human, and now artificial? In this episode of The Nature Of, Willow sits down with writer, storyteller, and Life With Machines host Baratunde Thurston to explore the complicated emotions many of us are carrying about AI, from fear and overwhelm to curiosity and cautious hope. Together, they reflect on what it means to encounter a technology that feels less like a tool and more like a presence, one that may soon live alongside us as collaborator, colleague, or even neighbor, while tracing unexpected connections between artificial intelligence and natural intelligence, creativity and extraction, domination and relationship. If you are navigating your own boundaries, questions, or ambivalence around AI, this conversation is an invitation to slow down, embrace nuance, and stay in dialogue with each other, with nature, and with what is emerging.

For more about Baratunde Thurston: https://www.baratunde.com/

To watch Life With Machines: https://www.lifewithmachines.media/

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Robin Wall Kimmerer: The Land Loves You Back Dec 16, 2025

Show notes

In this week’s episode of The Nature Of, Willow sits down with Robin Wall Kimmerer, beloved scientist, author of Braiding Sweetgrass, and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. They explore the shift from learning about to learning from nature, understanding that the land loves us back, and her new initiative Plant Baby Plant. Robin invites us to step back into belonging, and to see the natural world not as something separate from us, but as a generous teacher offering guidance every single day. This conversation is full of wonder and clarity, and it just might change the way you walk outside.

On Embracing the More-Than-Human Through Law and Language: https://atmos.earth/ecological-wisdom/embracing-the-more-than-human-through-law-and-language/

On Why The World Needs Spiritual Ecology: https://atmos.earth/ecological-wisdom/why-the-world-needs-spiritual-ecology/

Find out more about Plant Baby Plant: https://plantbabyplant.com/

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Roxane Gay: How Feminism Grows From Here Dec 02, 2025

Show notes

Movements evolve the way ecosystems do—through tension, adaptation, and collective resilience. In this episode, Willow is joined by writer and cultural critic Roxane Gay to explore the shifting landscape of feminism. Together, they revisit the ideas at the heart of Bad Feminist, question what’s really in crisis, and trace the possibilities that emerge when we stop ceding ground and begin tending to a broader, more interconnected ecosystem of care. This conversation invites us to imagine feminism as a living practice—one that grows with us, holds us accountable, and makes room for all of our complexity as we work toward a more generous future.

For Roxane Gay's substack: https://audacity.substack.com/

On Reproductive Choice: https://atmos.earth/political-landscapes/when-the-world-is-on-fire-what-does-reproductive-choice-really-mean/

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Kate Marvel Will Change How You Feel About Planet Earth Nov 18, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, host Willow Defebaugh is joined by renowned climate scientist and writer Kate Marvel for a conversation about her book, Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet. With poetic insight and scientific precision, Marvel reframes climate change not just as a planetary emergency, but as an emotional experience, one that demands our full humanity. Together, they explore how feelings like wonder, anger, grief, and love can become tools for engagement rather than paralysis, and what it means to hold both scientific truth and emotional complexity in a time of profound transformation.

For more about Kate Marvel and her book Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet: https://www.marvelclimate.com/

On Climate Science: https://atmos.earth/ecological-wisdom/the-emotional-whiplash-of-a-climate-scientist/

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