Voices of Wilderness

Guilt-messaging. Be honest: does it actually work? Or does it just push us further away from the very issues we care about? We kind of already know the answer. So anyway, here we are. Same messaging, same results. Things aren’t changing, and they have to. So what works?In this episode, Jackie meets Mark Aink, who spent years building up big brands through his agency, then pivoted to focusing on sustainable brands, until he realized that it still wasn’t enough.Change needs governments, voters, consumers, and new communities built around the transition. So he co-founded Decade of Action, which gave rise to We Are the ReGeneration, connecting Indigenous knowledge, science, regenerative agriculture, creativity, and environmental activism to support regeneration, regrowth, and reconnection.Together, they get into his story, his work on cultural shift, how you sell a vision, what makes people join a movement, and how to step away from guilt-messaging toward beauty, longing, and connection.To help Jackie answer a very important question: if a more sustainable world requires a cultural shift, how do we get people to jump on the bandwagon with us? How do we make people long for a regenerative world?Before listening to the episode, please consider supporting our work at WILD, which allows us to dedicate time to creating these conversations for you.Follow #VoW on Instagram & SubstackHosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

If conservation is a long, complex journey, why do we keep trying to tell it as though there's a quick and simple answer?Conservation is rarely a straight path. It takes time, involves countless people, and often asks us to work towards a future we may never see ourselves. Yet we keep looking for quick fixes and simple answers to deeply intricate problems.Aiita calls this the Conservationist’s Dilemma–the subject of his new writing endeavour.In this episode, Jackie meets Aiita Joshua Apamaku, a wildlife biologist, National Geographic Explorer from Uganda, and Co-Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Wilderness Specialist Group. His work brings together science, storytelling, and more inclusive approaches to conservation.Together, they explore how to bring stories into policy spaces, communicate without losing people in jargon, and embrace conservation as a long-term process rather than a search for quick fixes.What would happen if we started telling a different kind of story?Before listening to the episode, please consider supporting our work at WILD, which allows us to dedicate time to creating these conversations for you.Follow #VoW on Instagram & SubstackHosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

How many people have felt stuck, even afraid, after hearing apocalyptic climate stories and messages over and over again? It’s hard when so much of the media focuses on the doom and gloom.Because what happens when there is so much good work being done for the planet—work that deserves to be seen, work that could bring people together and inspire action—but we don’t know how to make those stories cut through? Especially in a world where our attention spans seem to be getting shorter, and the noise keeps getting louder.In this episode, Jackie meets Tom Lovett. Tom is a communications professional with a background in cultural anthropology and the exploration of human-nature relations. He’s a firm believer in the power of positive storytelling. He doesn’t look away from the weight of today’s interconnected crises, but he’s convinced that real change is already happening—it just needs the right storytellers to find it and share it.Together, in this episode, they dive into how to cut through the noise, how to create hopeful communications, the power of slow storytelling, how to bring people together, and how to tell stories that inspire action. Tom responds to Jackie’s first question:How do we move beyond apocalyptic climate stories?Before listening to the episode, please consider supporting our work at WILD, which allows us to dedicate time to creating these conversations for you.Follow #VoW on Instagram & SubstackHosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

First episode next week!Before listening to the episode, please consider supporting our work at WILD, which allows us to dedicate time to creating these conversations for you.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Viviana Solange Yanez Gomez is the force behind 18,000 Trees in Ecuador, a country famous for its incredible biodiversity, cities, and landscapes.Although Viviana grew up surrounded by nature–hiking mountains and forests, she simultaneously watched these ecosystems get damaged. That early experience sparked her path toward conservation.After graduation, she worked in environmental education with children on Ecuador’s coast, learning firsthand the power of community-driven solutions.Today, she leads 18000 Trees, 18000 Puembeños, a community-led urban reforestation project in Puembo, Quito. Their goal? To plant 18,000 trees–one for every resident–over six years, restoring ecosystems, creating habitats, reconnecting green spaces, and building climate resilience. By linking parks, ravines, and neighborhoods through bio-corridors, the project boosts biodiversity, cleans air and water, and even cools the city. And it’s all rooted in community work, youth and women engagement, and environmental education.Viviana is also an alum of CoalitionWILD’s EXCELerator FLEX program. With applications for the 2026 EXCELerator program opening on October 27th and running through November 24th, we thought there couldn’t be a better time to sit down and chat with such an inspiring individual. For those who don’t know, the EXCELerator program is a six-month intensive program that trains emerging conservation leaders to turn ideas into real-world action projects.Before listening to the episode, please consider supporting our work at WILD.org, which allows us to dedicate time to creating these conversations for you.Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.