Hello, everyone, and welcome to talk nerdy.

Today is Monday, March 10th, 2025, and I'm the host of the show, Dr. Kara, Santa Maria.

I am just getting over COVID, so I'm a little

bit sniffly. I apologize if you can hear it in my voice. That is why, but I'm feeling much,

much better. I'm finally testing negative. I have emerged into the world again after many,

many days of being trapped inside of my house. So I'm appreciative of that.

I'm appreciative that I've gotten better. And I'm appreciative that my infection was not too bad

due to the wonder of vaccines. Thank you, science. Before we get into this week's episode,

I do want to thank those of you who make Talk Nerdy possible. Remember, this show is and will always be 100% free to download, and we keep it going

due to the support from individuals just like you.

If you would like to pledge your support on an episodic basis, all you've got to do is visit

patreon.com slash Talk Nerdy.

I highly recommend using the browser-based version of the website instead of

subscribing through an app on your phone. I'm not going to say who, but one of the big phone

manufacturers who has their own app store has decided to take a whopping cut every time you do

that. So you can get around that by just subscribing through

the website version. All right, this week's top patrons include Anu Baravage, Daniel Lang, David J.E. Smith,

Mary Neva, Brian Holden, David Compton, Gabriel F. Haramillo, Joe Wilkinson, Joseph Lemore,

Pasquale Jalati, Rika Maharaj, and Ulrika Hagman. Thank you all so, so very much.

All right, let's get into it. So this week I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Lauren E. Oaks. She's a conservation scientist and, of course, a science writer. She's held various appointments at Stanford University over many, many years as a researcher,

a lecturer, and an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Earth System Science.

Her previous book was called In Search of the Canary Tree,

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