Mongabay Newscast26 Aug 2025

Tales of wonder in an age of extinction with author Natalie Kyriacou

On this episode of the Newscast we take a look at Natalie Kyriacou's widely praised new book, Nature's Last Dance: Tales of Wonder in an Age of Extinction, whose high-profile fans, like Paris climate agreement architect Christiana Figueres, call it a "lyrical call to awaken our love for the wild before the music stops."

Kyriacou, the founder of the environmental organization My Green World, shares her aim of the book, her thoughts on real solutions to our ecological problems, what she wishes more people understood about nature, and why they need to fall in love with it.

"If there's one simple thing that we can do, it is to just step outside and feel that wonder and look up and appreciate it … if we are going to protect nature, to protect something, you need to fall in love with it."

Always honest and often humorous, this deeply researched volume clearly outlines the economic, political and cultural drivers of our most significant ecological problems, and what the reader can do to effect meaningful change.

Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.

Image Credit: Natalie Kyriacou. Photo by Chloe Paul.

Timecodes

(00:00) Making nature mainstream

(04:28) Challenging bias about nature

(12:38) Stories of recovery

(16:23) How we all depend on nature

(21:55) Porches and peacocks

(27:03) Your actions are a vote

(35:18) Inspiration from Costa Rica

(38:55) Lessons from the Montreal Protocol

(45:08) To protect it, you have to love it

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