Show Notes
We’re exploring the parts of our world that require us to look a little deeper. From the depths of our oceans to the canopies that grace our skylines, we’ll be venturing into unfamiliar pockets of nature with the people who have carved a life out of choosing to study the things that many of us can’t see.
First up, we meet Matthew Doogue who finds solace in capturing small things. He tells us how photographing the tiniest creatures has helped him find a greater sense of happiness.
We also travel to the bottom of the ocean, and discover how even in the most extreme environments fragments of life persist. What can this alien environment teach us about life’s limits and extraordinary capabilities?
And finally we head upwards into the canopies of trees with ecologist Nalini Nadkarni. She invites us to to experience canopy life, and reflects upon what it can teach us about relationships and recovery.
Thank you for listening to another series of the BBC Earth podcast.
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More from BBC Earth Podcast
The show takes a spooky turn as we go on a ghost hunt through the natural world. Sebastian shares his adventures finding fossils – the traces of animals that once lived, and Rutendo talks about her experiences in The Cradle of Humankind, the South African UNESCO World Heritage site containing early human fossils.
The difference between order and chaos can depend on your perspective. The systems and processes that drive the natural world might seem random in close-up, whether it’s an ant wandering around near its nest, or a wildebeest charging through the water. But if you zoom out, you can see how these small activities combine to form part of a bigger picture.
Sebastian is not afraid to admit that he lacks natural rhythm. But Rutendo thinks he’s too hard on himself – perhaps the world is just out of sync with him. Besides, every living thing is built upon natural rhythms, from our response to night and day, to the beating of our hearts.
In an age of individualism, sometimes we are more connected than we think. And the same is true for everything on the planet. Rutendo and Sebastian explore the question of how and why we define an individual, a colony, or a group, across the animal kingdom.
It’s a scary world out there, as we explore how everything on the planet – from humankind to glaciers – must be able to respond to threat in order to survive. Sebastian surprises Rutendo with a story of the time he lived in Japan and took up fencing, occasionally finding himself at the wrong end of a sword.