This butterfly is excited to be speaking with Rebekah Braswell.

Rebekah is an innovative leader who pioneered the business case for nature-based solutions and persuaded early adopter corporations that approaching sustainability agendas through high-quality nature restoration is necessary and investible.

She is the CEO of Land Life. Before Land Life, Rebekah attended Oxford University and worked for a decade on economic development and food security. She brought her experience with the competing dynamics of land use and the environmental power/risk of business, building a model in which land ownership remained locally held and local communities were empowered custodians.

In this episode, you will hear about her work at Land Life, innovations in reforestation, forest fires, and more.

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The great music is credited to Pixabay.

This butterfly is excited to be speaking with Gina Bria.

Gina is an anthropologist and founder of the Hydration Foundation, recognized as a leading resource for hydration science and education. Named a Real World Scholar, she produced the first International Hydration Solution Summit and the TEDx talk: How to Grow Water: It’s not Only Blue: it’s Green. Bria is co-author of QUENCH: Your Five-Day Plan to Optimal Hydration, with Dr. Dana Cohen, MD, now in seven languages and recommended by the New York Times, Oprah’s O Magazine, NPR, and many other media sources. At the UN Conference on Water, she presented Emerging Water Science, and at COP28 Global Climate Conference spoke on the Role of Water in Soil for Climate Recovery. Her Rehydrate Our Thirsty Mother Earth Project was selected for the Buckminster Fuller Design Science Ten-Year Award to spread better water solutions. With her colleague and filmmaker, Maxi Cohen, she’s at work on a traveling Water Museum, called A Movement in Water, an immersive art and science exhibit, to raise reverence and understanding of our most precious material, and what all life is made from: water.

In this episode, you will hear about the new science of water (plasma), the role of water in climate mitigation, the secret of chia seeds, and more.

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The great music is credited to Pixabay.

This butterfly is excited to be speaking with Maxi Cohen.

Maxi is an award-winning artist and filmmaker based in New York City. Her films have played in movie theaters, in film festivals, and on television internationally. Her films, photographs, and multimedia installations have been exhibited internationally and are in the

permanent collections of numerous museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

Currently, she is making Ayahuasca Diaries, a feature documentary for the curious and well-seasoned. From what’s mind-boggling humanly possible, to how ayahuasca is changing world culture, it includes spiritual leaders from Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, and Colombia. Previously, she executive produced From Shock to Awe (about suicidal veterans recovering with ayahuasca and MDMA) and directed The Holy Give Me, about the Santo Daime.

For twenty-five years she has been filming and photographing bodies of water around the world from Argentina to Zambia, Antarctica to Iceland, Bali, Bosnia, Brazil, and onwards, resulting in video, video furniture, photographs, paintings, multimedia works, and mixed reality. In 2024, her exhibition, “The Poetry of Water” was featured at the Leila Heller Gallery in Dubai, the largest gallery in the UAE.

In this episode, you will hear about her multimedia art, Poetry of Water, Four Bodies of Water, the Amazon, her work on social justice, and more.

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The great music is credited to Pixabay.

This butterfly is excited to speak with Jeff DeQuattro, Director of Restoration, Gulf of Mexico.

“I love the Gulf of Mexico, from alligators in the wetlands and sunsets over the marshes to its salty air and the sight of blue crabs scampering over tidal oyster reefs. I love this place.”

TNC hired Jeff to manage a $3 million Recovery Act project to restore 1.5 miles of oyster reef in Mobile Bay, Alabama. Soon thereafter, he found himself leading TNC’s oil spill recovery efforts along Alabama’s coast. His role at TNC was then expanded to encompass other conservation and restoration activities along Alabama’s coast.

Before TNC, Jeff worked as an environmental consultant and stormwater professional for large industrial clients and developers throughout Alabama. He has also worked as a hazardous and non-hazardous waste broker, which included cleaning contaminated sites and oil spills.

Jeff, who earned a degree in environmental studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, says life on the Gulf has a “priceless quality that is unmatched in bounty and possibility. It’s not appreciated for the natural resources that sustain the livelihoods of not only Gulf Coast residents but much of the entire country as well. Who would have thought that it would take the largest environmental disaster in the United States; history for the Gulf to be recognized for its contributions? But hopefully, this disaster made us realize that by working together with a sustainable frame of mind, we can achieve a more resilient and more bountiful Gulf of Mexico that will continue to support the quality of life that is our home.”

In this episode, you will hear about his work at the Gulf of Mexico, oil spills, the value of oyster reefs, community involvement, youth, and more.

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The great music is credited to Pixabay.

This butterfly is excited to be speaking with Shubber Ali.

Shubber Ali is the CEO of Garden for Wildlife, a program that began within the National Wildlife Federation. Shubber has spent the last three decades helping companies in the consulting and software industries solve problems through innovation. It was while Shubber was one of Accenture’s Global Leads for Digital Innovation that he worked with the NWF to launch Garden for Wildlife as its own for-profit e-commerce company.

Garden for Wildlife allows people to make a difference for the environment by shipping plants native to their zip code that support local wildlife. Their team of experts has thoughtfully utilized 50 years of experience, science, and data to curate plant collections that support wildlife and benefit local ecosystems in every season. And for every plant GFW sells, they reserve one plant for donation to a community garden or public space.

Shubber is incredibly passionate about innovation, nature, and wildlife, and is on a mission to get as many people as possible to help save the planet, yard by yard. In 2023, GFW shipped over 62,000 plants across 38 states and 2,900+ cities in America.

In this episode, you will hear about his journey, rain-friendly gardens, what’s the value of buying native species, our lawns, pollinators, and more.

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Books:

Nature's Best Hope - Doug Tallamy

The Nature Fix - Florence Williams

Last Child in the Woods - Richard Louv

Links:

Buying Native Plants for your own yard - https://gardenforwildlife.com/

Fundraising platform signup - https://content.gardenforwildlife.com/fundraising

Native Plant Finder (NWF) - https://nativeplantfinder.nwf.org/

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The great music is credited to Pixabay.

This butterfly is excited to be speaking with Devan Schowe.

Devan works as a Campaigns Associate for the wildlife conservation and animal welfare organization, Born Free USA, to fight against the exploitation of wild animals in captivity. 

Prior to her current position with the organization, she worked for several years as a Primate Caregiver and Veterinary Assistant at the Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary in South Texas. In her current position, she researches and writes reports on target issues including the private trade of wild animals, wild animals in captivity, the effects of social media on wild animals, the fur trade, and trapping. She increases public awareness of these issues by campaigning on various platforms, including social media, blog posts, and podcasts.

Devan holds an MSc in Primate Conservation from Oxford Brookes University.

In this episode, you will hear about her work at Born Free USA, their different initiatives to help wildlife in captivity, “Compassionate Conservation”, and more.

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The great music is credited to Pixabay.

This butterfly is excited to be speaking with Alexandre Karim Howard.

Karim, is a Swiss-born entrepreneur, with a track record of scaling early-stage startups to become unicorns. Drawing from this experience, he is passionately dedicated to delivering quality products that address vital challenges, particularly in the field of regenerative agriculture.

After a year of hands-on farming experience across Europe, he recognized the pressing need for practical and inclusive solutions that align with nature and cater to all communities. 

Karim is committed to leveraging his expertise to scale regenerative solutions, driven by the desire to solve problems that genuinely matter.

In this episode, you will hear about regenerative agriculture - issues and how we can scale it, the role of AI, and more.

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The great music is credited to Pixabay.

This butterfly is excited to be speaking with Clara Botto.

Clara has been engaged with sustainable development at a grassroots and international level, from arts to politics, for the past 8 years. She is currently developing the initiative SRM Youth Watch, which is looking into the governance of climate-altering technologies called Solar Radiation Modification (SRM), campaigns with World’s Youth for Climate Justice seeking an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice on the climate crisis as a human rights issue, is a New European Voice on Existential Risk with the European Leadership Network and is the Science-Policy Thematic Facilitator of the Major Group of Children and Youth to UNEP.

She holds an MSc in International Development and Public Policy, having written her thesis as a public policy case study of deep-sea mining in Portugal, and a BSc in Business with a focus on Creative Economy and Marketing, where she researched sustainable fashion and the universities’ lack of preparation to equip youth for sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro.

In this episode, you will hear about SRM policies, youth involvement in climate justice, and more.

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The great music is credited to Pixabay.