Earlier this month, NEI had the priviledge of hosting the students and staff of Santa Fe College's Zoo Technology Program for an all-day field trip to our home base facility (aka "The Ranch) in Winter Haven, FL, and leave it to us to find a way to turn it into a podcast. This week's episode is the Q&A panel that Chris hosted, featuring Steve Martin, Clarie Santiago, Brad Moore, DonnaSue Evans, and Sage Treloar answering questions from our visitors. We covered a lot in just about 30 minutes, and despite some challenges with the recorded audio we think there's a little something in here for everyone.

If you have a shout-out you’d like us to share, a question or a topic you’d like us to discuss, or a suggestion for a guest we should have on the show, let us know at podcast@naturalencounters.com!

With Ari away at the IAATE Midyear Meeting, Chris is joined by fellow ABMA Board Member and animal behavior podcaster, Shane Gorbett, to attempt to answer this question: how do we define a "modern zookeeper"?

If you have a shout-out you’d like us to share, a question or a topic you’d like us to discuss, or a suggestion for a guest we should have on the show, let us know at podcast@naturalencounters.com!

Well, this one is certainly a blast from the past! On this episode, we are extremely excited to welcome journalist and author, Amy Sutherland! Chris first met Amy 21 years ago (!) when she came to spend time with him and his classmates at Moorpark College's (then-named) Exotic Animal Training and Management Program (aka "EATM") to do research for what would become a book about the program (Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched: Life and Lessons at the World's Premier School for Exotic Animal Trainers). A few years later, this lead to a widely-acclaimed New York Times article about how Amy applied the animal training principles she'd learned to her husband, which shortly thereafter lead to another amazing book about the power of using good operant conditioning techniques with the fellow humans in our lives (What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage: Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers). We had a great time catching up with Amy to chat about what it was like getting a crash course in "our world," getting her perspective on the importance of what we do, and asking us some great questions about our hopes for the future of the field.

Shout outs in this episode: NEI's own, Steve Martin!

If you have a shout-out you’d like us to share, a question or a topic you’d like us to discuss, or a suggestion for a guest we should have on the show, let us know at podcast@naturalencounters.com!

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