Tommy’s Book Recommendations

With their return to Germany, wolves leave traces in personal feelings, rural landscapes and political arenas. Thorsten Gieser explores affects, emotions and atmospheres in the emerging human-wolf coexistence. Bridging anthropology and ethology, he literally follows wolves’ tracks to trace their affective agency in more-than-human society. His nuanced analysis shows how wolves move, irritate and excite us, answering: What does it feel like to coexist with these large predators?

🎧 Listen: 198: Living with Wolves – The Complete Guide to Coexistence

This book investigates a vital and controversial question for conservation and rewilding in Britain and Ireland: could and should we learn to live with lynx, wolves and bears again? We travel back in time, around the world and into the future to explore this contested topic. The author delves deep into the human psyche, considering not only his own mixed feelings about large carnivore reintroductions but also why people have such polarised perspectives on top predators.

🎧 Listen: 197: Living with Lynx – Conversation with Jonny Hanson

The term rewilding has become part of the common vernacular and with it has come a lot of misunderstanding and even misuse. This has led to a great many misconceptions about what the word actually means. Great Misconceptions brings together different writers, with different experiences, exploring some of those misconceptions, misunderstandings and myths when it comes to what rewilding means to them.

🎧 Listen: 191: Rewilding Myths and Misconceptions with Ian Parsons

In this book, author Lynne Sedgmore integrates presence, climate activism, and the alleviation of climate anxiety in an innovative and unique synthesis and new term – Presence Activism. By offering a profound solution with new perspectives, Presence Activism: A Profound Antidote to Climate Anxiety is steeped in a presence that moves activism beyond metaphors of war, enemies, and destruction, as well as the illusion of separation, into the visceral knowing of presence and interconnection.

🎧 Listen: 189: Climate Anxiety and Presence Activism with Lynne Sedgmore

All life on Earth has the right to exist, but as we teeter on the verge of a sixth extinction this book discusses why biodiversity matters and why we should care if species go extinct.
We are witnessing the largest and fastest rate of extinction in the history of the planet. While the concept of rights is a human one, all plants and animals strive to survive, and this book argues for their rights to continue doing so without being driven into premature extinction by human actions.

🎧 Listen: 178: Why Biodiversity Matters with Nigel Dudley

The Magic Rock is a self-help book focused on spending time in nature to improve mental health, well-being, leadership, relationships, and creativity. The author demonstrates that technology overuse has contributed to a mental health crisis, leading to issues like anxiety, depression, and sleep disruption. Spending time outdoors will counteract these effects by reducing stress, fostering mindfulness, and facilitating human connection.

🎧 Listen: 172: Antidote to Screen Addiction with Emanuel Rose

If you’re yearning for tales about adventure and fun on the open sea, look no further!

The crew welcomes you aboard the Twister, one of the finest fishing vessels in the Gulf of Mexico, as the search is on for the big ones that legends are made of. Blue marlin, yellowfin tuna, swordfish, and more are waiting to be caught, just so long as Bob and his friends have the strength to reel them in.

🎧 Listen: 165: Flicker in the Water with Bob Gonzalez

Picture a hunter. Who comes to mind? Millionaire playboys or big truck owning folks? Maybe so, but there’s more to it. Because if you love nature, value sustainability, abhor the pollution and inhumanity of factory farms, you could be a hunter in the making. And if you’ve never even considered hunting, The Shotgun Conservationist reveals all the reasons you should. Brant MacDuff makes us rethink who hunts and why. Growing up an animal lover with no hunting background, MacDuff himself would seem an unlikely advocate.

🎧 Listen: 164: Shotgun Conservationist with Brant MacDuff

In this informed, incisive and passionate commentary on the state of nature and conservation, Mark Avery reflects on our relationship with the wildlife around us. From the cats that pass through his garden to the chronic decline of farmland wildlife, from the Pasqueflowers he visits every spring to the proportion of national income devoted to saving nature – everything is connected, and everything is considered.

📖 Read: Mark Avery’s Reflections – A Book Review