What, Who, and HOW? Your Questions Answered!

In this 10-Minute Tuesday episode of Animals, Nature, and You, host Rick Schwartz jumps into the "mailbag" to answers some listener questions. From favorite animals and conservation challenges to what podcasts he listens to. He shares personal stories, favorite species, and insights into staying motivated in the face of conservation setbacks.

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Podcasts Mentioned:
*Rossifari Podcast

All Creatures
That's So Wild
Just The Zoo of Us
Mothering Wildlife
Pangolin The Conservation Podcast
10% Happier
Radiolab
Buzzcast
*Honorable mention - I completely spaced mentioning Jon Rossi's podcast, Rossifari when listing off what is in my podcast library! Sorry Jon, you know I love your podcast!

Find Rick here:
ZoologyRick.com

Rick's social media stuff...
Instagram
YouTube
Facebook
Threads
BlueSky



Podcast Music: Positive Carefree Folk Pop
Artist: Burgberg
Used with Full Music Standard Lic.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Have you ever wondered what kind of podcast does a podcaster listen to? Or if someone has a favorite bird, do they also have a favorite mammal? Or is it the bird is their favorite animal and that's it? I say we find out. I'm Rick Schwartz, educator, public speaker, and all-around curious guy. Over the years, my curiosity and experiences, along with the many people I have worked with, revealed to me we all have a desire to feel connected to the natural world. You're listening to Animals, Nature and You, a podcast that explores a connection between animals, nature, and humans. A podcast that celebrates learning more, following our curiosity, and reconnecting with the natural world. Welcome to another 10-Minute Tuesday here in Animals, Nature and U. Of course, I'm your host, Rick Schwartz, and as always, I'm very glad you're here. I do want to tell you now, and I'll remind you at the end, this will be the last 10-minute Tuesday for probably two or three weeks. And I'll tell you at the end why that's the case. But nonetheless, this particular 10-minute Tuesday here on Animals Nature U is a jump into the mailbag. So if you don't know, if you're listening on a podcast player, well, the top link, the very first link in the show notes, is an opportunity for you to send in quote unquote fan mail. It is the way the podcast distribution system allows you to connect directly with me. Now, a lot of us are connected on social media, and that is absolutely fine. If you want to send questions or get in touch with me that way, all the social media links are down below, but I do know a lot of people don't do social media. So I set up the fan mail thing, and it's been fun. A lot of people have been communicating. The questions I will be reading today, I already made sure that people are fine with me mentioning their name or their initials and reading their question in this episode. Now, we don't do these very often. A lot of times, 10-minute Tuesday is a reflection back to something we've already talked about or something that's topical in the moment. But I thought today would be fun. We had some questions kind of in the backlog. So the very first question we're going to jump into, oh wait, before we jump into questions, if you haven't already, I gotta say this, be sure you hit subscribe or follow because we're still doing our Thursday episodes. If you aren't already subscribed or following, every Thursday we have an in-depth interview with some really cool people doing some awesome stuff. And then every Tuesday is a 10-minute Tuesday. Shy of the next few Tuesdays, I'm taking a pause, and I'll tell you why in just a minute. Okay, back to the mailbag. The very first question comes to us from JW. JW writes in, I have always been interested in what kind of a podcast a podcaster will listen to. Do you listen to the same genre in which you make your content, or is it something different? Easy enough. Yes, the answer is both. So a list, a brief list of some of the favorite ones I listen to. And I this isn't comprehensive because a lot of times I'll hit random search or shuffle, or it'll be a suggestion, I'll listen to it and I'll binge for a while. Other times I might go weeks without listening because I'm so busy doing work on my own podcast. But so you know, for your sake of knowledge, some of the wildlife and animal ones I enjoy listening to, uh, All Creatures Podcast, been around for a long time, great content, usually very in-depth, awesome guests, and sometimes they do some solo episodes as well. They'll do lookbacks too to older episodes, which I think is a lot of fun because sometimes they'll they'll put some more information, updated information that has become available since that. So All Creatures Podcast is one of my favorites. A local podcast here in San Diego called That's So Wild. I was actually a guest on that one not too long ago, so that's a fun one. Just the Zoo of Us also was a guest on that one, and always a lot of fun. Great conversations with Ellen when I had her on my podcast and I got to be on hers, but also they're just in general, the people she finds to talk to, the topics she dives into, the research that she does, it is always a good time. Recently I interviewed Elizabeth from Mothering Wildlife. And although I am not a mom, I am a parent, and although I'm no longer directly working with a zoo, I spent most of my career working in the zoo world or zoo adjacent world, and it's all content that I can relate to, and it just feels like hanging out with old friends. So another great one, too, in that same world. I don't know if you remember. Way back at the beginning of the season, I interviewed Jack. Jack is the host of the uh Penguin, the Conservation Podcast. He hasn't put out new episodes recently, but if you have never listened to his stuff, go back, make sure you subscribe and follow. So when he puts out new content, you can listen to it and go back and enjoy the stuff he's done in the past. It's all great stuff. He's been doing that for a long time as well. Now, the other genre that I listen to, sometimes self-help, uh 10% happier is one of my favorite ones in that realm. I also like Radio Lab for good storytelling and editing. They do so much editing and you can over-edit, but they do a really good job, I think, editing just this layering of story. And it's always so inspiring to go, oh, that's what you can do with an audio-only sort of system, if you will, or medium, I guess would be the word I'm looking for. And then one of my top favorite ones for learning more and staying on top of what's happening in podcasting is BuzzCast, put out by Buzz Sprout, who's who I use to host. Now, none of this is sponsored, no one's asking me to do this. This is just honestly who what's in my library right now of my podcast player to answer JW's question. Moving on to the next question, because we want to keep this to 10 minutes or at least as close to it as possible. Michelle asked, when it comes to conservation, it seems like we are an ongoing uphill battle, in your honest opinion. Do you think we can really make a difference? Michelle, I feel you. Yes. Um, it is hard. And here in the United States, where I am, the loosening of restrictions and laws that protect natural spaces and wildlife, and therefore a lot of the work around conservation, it just seems to be crumbling right now. And it's it's it is really hard. And there are moments where it just feels like what are we even doing? But soon after that, I find myself inspired by somebody who's choosing to take action. I'm inspired by someone who's sharing inspiring facts and information. I'm inspired by my child's generation looking forward to having a world and a life and a of of nature and wildlife that exists today in their future as well. And I look back then in my own childhood and what it was like growing up knowing that pandas were endangered and tigers were endangered and whales were endangered and all of that. I don't think we will ever get to the point. Well, let me just say this. I would be pleasantly surprised if we ever get to the point where we can say, Well, we did it. We have found a sustainable balance that humans can live on this planet and wildlife and natural spaces are protected. I would love to see that day. I would be pleasantly surprised. In the meantime, though, uh, there are enough people out there who are not aware of what's going on per se, because we have our day-to-day routines and things that are immediately important in front of us that we don't necessarily have the opportunity to see beyond that. We also have people out there who are looking to exploit and take advantage of as much as possible of wildlife, of people, of opportunities to make money. And so we can get very tied up in a lot of that. It is an uphill battle. I completely agree, Michelle. But yes, I do believe we make a difference. I've been fortunate enough to talk to enough people on this podcast and earlier in my career doing other things that I know every little bit helps and every little bit that pushes back against. It ebbs and flows. And when we see a problem, someone's inspired to try and make a difference, and they can get some people to help them, support them, and they make a difference. We had recently uh Leaf Cox on. He started off just with being inspired by orangutans and being in their space with them as a caretaker and then doing work in the field and then garnering support and fundraising, and then he he spun off also the Tiger Project, the Elephant Project, the Forest for the People project. And these entities are making a difference. And it started with one man's idea, one man saying, Hey, this needs to change. And you look at Jane Goodall and all that she did. And you can look at what she saw across her lifetime and go, Well, yeah, it seemed to be a big fight, and she needed more people supporting and helping, but she did it. It was her idea, it was her passion, her love for observation, her knowledge, her science, her sheer will of existing and knowing this is important. So I see things like that and I know we can make a difference. It's a matter of us prioritizing to to take action. And yes, there's the act locally no, yes, think globally, act locally, but there's also ways to support those acting globally or work your way into a position of acting globally as well. There are a lot of things we can do, and I think we should keep doing it. It's important work, and it is an uphill battle, but I don't think it's a battle that we will lose unless we just get to indifference. And so whatever it is you need to do to take care of yourself to make it through the tough times, I think that's a very important. You can pause, you can take a break, you can step away, but it's not quitting or giving up unless you never ever come back to it. So that's that's a little something to leave you with on that one. And our last question for our little jump into the mailbag here and reading some fan mail, we have Craig H. Craig asked, I know your favorite mammal is the bintrong, but I'm more of a bird guy. Do you have a favorite bird? And no judgment if it's not a raven. Okay. Well, uh, ravens are up there with my favorite. I'm fascinated by them. We have several that live in my area. I enjoy watching them play and spar and set up their territories and just having a good time. They are truly fascinating birds, but I I I'm I've only worked with one in my career, and as much as I did love that bird, I did not spend a lot of time as a caretaker, so I didn't really get to know the individual. And for me, when it comes to favorites, it's usually based on a relationship I had with an individual. So my it's hard for me to pick just one because of that. I've worked with so many birds, mammals, and reptiles across my career. Very first bird that stole my heart was a turkey vulture named Puppy at Moore Park College. He's still alive, he's still up there. I met him when I was a college student. Very first bird that I really had a strong relationship with that was built on time and trust and then getting to know each other at levels where you're reading body language on a subtle level. And just the acceptance by him, the gentleness he showed as even a a bird who can tear apart meat and bones. Uh just just a great, great bird. I also got to work with a pygmy falcon who if you've never seen a pygmy falcon, you got if you Google it even, it's not, it doesn't even show very well, honestly, because it looks like you're looking at a regular size falcon. But we're talking about 78 to 80 grams at the most, even down to 70 grams, depending on when male or female. Very small bird. And yet they have the the bird of prey beak, the bird of prey talons, the bird of prey attitude, but they're they're wee little birds. And she was just a treat uh to not only be accepted by her, but then have that relationship with her. There's also been uh a couple different Laura Keats I've worked with that have just immediately had this great bond. A couple Amazon parrots. There was a hyacinth macaw I worked with once that was just a big love, um, a couple different cockatoos. So yeah, so the answer is no. I don't have, I mean, I guess I would default a turkey vulture, honestly. There's something special in my heart for for the relationship I had with puppies. So I don't, I'm clearly the answer is uh unclear. Yes, there's a favorite species, but also then there's a bunch of second place ones. Okay, so at that point I'm rambling and I think we're well over the 10 minutes. So let's wrap this up. Like I mentioned at the top of the 10 Minute Tuesday, this will be the last 10-minute Tuesday for probably two to three weeks. And the reason being is I'm moving. Now, I've recorded enough episodes of the Thursday interviews that those will still keep coming out, and I should be able to jump into doing interviews from the new location and keep them coming out on time. I need the time that I use to edit and produce these 10-minute Tuesdays, though, to pack things up to move and unpack. We are taking a little bit of a pause here on our 10-minute Tuesdays, but again, I want to encourage you to subscribe or follow if you haven't already, so you don't miss any of the 10-minute Tuesdays when they come back on. You can catch everything on YouTube or your podcast player. If for any reason you want to learn more about the podcast I mentioned in this episode, I'll have links down below or at least a list of that. That list will be down below if I can't get all the links for their shows. And last but not least, if you want to get a hold of me, my website, zoologyrick.com, is linked down below. Again, if you're watching on YouTube or listening on Podcast Player, that link should be there. And then, of course, all of my social media, Zoology Rick, you can find that down below as well. So I have to say sincerely thank you very much for joining me on this Curious Odyssey we call Animals Nature and You. It has been a lot of fun. We are about halfway through the season because we're halfway through the year. And again, just a little pause on the 10 minute Tuesdays. I know they're popular. A lot of people do enjoy them. We'll be bringing them back. In fact, I bought one already uh outlined for naked mole rats because a new study has come out about them and it's fascinating stuff. I mean, they're fascinating, anyways. Okay, I'm getting distracted. I'm gonna wrap this up. Have a good one, everybody.