Have you noticed that podcasts that relate the stories of amazing achievements are almost always about men? The Wild Basil podcasts are helping to fill this chasm by bringing to you the stories of extraordinary women who have been hidden from history. Listen carefully and you will hear how they have struggled against colonial rule and apartheid in Southern Africa. Listen and you will marvel at how they have overcome many obstacles and transformed the landscape of conservation and biodiversity in their countries. The Wild Basil podcasts begin in the 1970s with Mozambique’s struggle for independence against Portuguese colonialism and takes us to the pristine region of Niassa that borders on Tanzania and Malawi, and then further south into the Chimanimani national park on the border with Zimbabwe. From there we travel with our heroes into Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola, Botswana, South Africa and end our journey back in Niassa. Here we learn how in the last 15 years, the devastation of widespread illegal poaching has been undermining the development of the park and how this was stopped. You will also discover how amazingly teddy bears and laughter might have made more inroads than many other community-based interventions on cohabitation.