Shannon Trimboli
Like many of you, I love learning about our native plants, pollinators, wildlife, and local ecology. Often, I satisfy that love of learning through reading, but I can’t always have my nose stuffed in a book. Recently, I started listening to podcasts as another way to satisfy my love of learning.
Podcasts are great because I can listen to them in the car, while I’m doing household chores, while I’m planting seeds for the upcoming nursery season, and so on. Given my interests, my podcast searches naturally centered on those related to native plants, gardening for pollinators and wildlife, and general ecology with an emphasis on Kentucky or nearby areas. My top three favorites are In Defense of Plants, From the Woods Kentucky, and PolliNation.
In Defense of Plants
In Defense of Plants is produced by Matt Candeias, a PhD student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who enjoys sharing his love of all things related to botany and plants. This is, by far, my favorite podcast. Matt invites a wide variety of scientists, botanists, and plant conservationists to the program to discuss their work and their findings in a very down-to-earth manner. It’s like being invited to sit down at a table and geek out about botany, plants in general, and the newest scientific findings. I find the conversations fascinating and always learn something new.
http://www.indefenseofplants.com/podcast/
From the Woods Kentucky
From the Woods Kentucky is produced through the University of Kentucky’s Department of Forestry and Natural Resources. (If you’re in the Lexington area, you can listen to it on the radio.) Co-hosts Renee Williams and Laura Lhotka invite a number of our state’s educators, resource managers, and other experts to discuss Kentucky’s forests and related resources. Topics vary from Kentucky’s rare plants, to horse logging, to resources for managing private lands, to a diverse array of other subjects. I really enjoy the Kentucky focus and the fact that many of the programs have a very applied nature with information that private landowners can use on their own properties. Most of their programs provide information that is relevant across the state; however, they do have a few programs focused on Lexington-based resources and events. I understand why they include those programs, but I tend to skip over them because I don’t live near Lexington.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/from-the-woods-kentucky/id1446908745
PolliNation
PolliNation is produced out of Oregon State University and is part of their OSU Pollinator Health Program. This podcast covers a variety of bee and pollinator habitat related topics, which is something I am very interested in. However, the podcast obviously has a very Pacific Northwest slant. I enjoy listening to it, but not nearly as much as I like the previous two podcasts. I really wish there was a pollinator podcast that focused more on the eastern U.S.
http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/pollinationpodcast/
Although these are my current favorites, I’m sure there are other great ones that I haven’t found yet. I’d be interested in learning about your favorite podcasts too and suggest we continue this discussion on the Kentucky Native Plant Society’s Facebook page. What are your favorite native plant and ecology related podcasts? Why?
Shannon Trimboli is a beekeeper, wildlife biologist, author, and public speaker. She owns Busy Bee Nursery, which specializes in plants (mostly species native to Kentucky) for honey bees, native pollinators, and wildlife conservation. In 2018, her first book, Plants Honey Bees Use in the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys, was published. Shannon also writes a weekly blog called Kentucky Pollinators and Backyard Wildlife, which features profiles of pollinators and wildlife, tips for attracting pollinators and wildlife, highlights of different plants for pollinators and wildlife, and life on the farm and nursery.