John Tweddle joins the Internet of Nature Podcast to share how the Natural History Museum in London turned five acres of ornamental lawn into a living laboratory for the future of urban nature.
From eDNA that uncovers invisible life to bioacoustic microphones that map the city’s soundscape, John and his team are reimagining what a museum can be: not just a keeper of fossils, but a sensor-rich, public-facing experiment in coexistence. We talk about the 2,000 species found in a single acre of soil, why “data alone will not help nature recover,” and how machine learning and citizen science can work hand in hand to monitor—and mend—the living city.
Along the way, we explore what it means to listen to landscapes, how five million visitors a year unknowingly become research participants, and why, as John says, “the Internet of Nature isn’t about more data, but connected data that works for nature.”
Recorded in the heart of Tilburg—a Dutch city that has transformed from one of Europe’s hottest urban heat islands into a showcase of regreening—this episode explores the hidden worlds that decide whether city trees live or die. Arborist and Senior Advisor Erwin van Herwijnen of New Urban Standard joins the Internet of Nature Podcast to talk about why soils matter more than species, and how climate-adaptive growing places can turn trees into the new sewer system.
We discuss why most city trees never make it past adolescence, why climate-ready trees won’t save us without climate-ready soils, and how stormwater makes or breaks survival. Erwin explains why tree professionals can’t afford to be “softies,” why spreadsheets might be the Lorax’s greatest ally, and how making civil engineers happy is the secret to long-lived urban forests.
Plus: the tragedy of cutting down trees before they reach maturity, what it takes to plant for 80 years instead of election cycles, and why, for Erwin, the city only truly comes alive when its people can sit in the shade of a tree.
Tim Christophersen joins the Internet of Nature Podcast to talk about his new book, Generation Restoration, and why nature isn’t a luxury—it’s our only home. From his first steps in the forest with his forester grandfather to leading the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, and now as VP of Climate Action at Salesforce, Tim shares why waiting for perfection paralyzes companies, what greenwashing gets wrong, and how corporate pledges can move from CSR to true business resilience.
We explore why our ecological crisis is rooted in a 300-year-old worldview, how oyster reefs once filtered New York Harbor daily (and could again), and why AI might help “make us all ecologists,” from smallholder farmers in Colombia to city dwellers identifying birdsong. Plus: the role of imagination in rewriting our relationship with nature, the personal challenge of writing a book with Jane Goodall’s final foreword, and why, as Tim says, “Nature is waiting. It’s time to come home.”
Thomas Crowther returns to the Internet of Nature Podcast to open Season 6 with a simple provocation: don’t maximize carbon—maximize life. We revisit the whirlwind after the “trillion trees” paper, the shift from monoculture planting to restoring Indigenous-led, locally stewarded ecosystems, and why climate action should feel joyful, not joyless. Tom shows how Restor lets anyone map a garden, pocket park, or farm—and why tens of thousands of urban projects already do. Plus: Costa Rica’s national bioacoustics study (soundscapes ~86% back toward intact forest), music that echoes nature, health links, policy lessons, and an update on his new Branch Foundation.
Dr. Nadina Galle is joined by Jad Daley, the 40th president and CEO of American Forests, the oldest forest conservation organization in the states, to discuss the unprecedented $1.5 billion federal investment for the U.S. Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program, how the investment will give priority to projects that benefit underserved communities, address extreme heat, and low-canopy populations, and how Jad and the team at American Forests have estimated that the cash influx, combined with matching contributions from funding recipients, could create thousands of jobs and help plant and protect 40 to 50 million trees nationwide. At the end of the episode, we wrap up with Ian Hanou, the founder and CEO of PlanIT Geo, to reflect on what Season 5 has taught us and to discuss what it means for the future of urban forestry.
This podcast episode is brought to you by PlanIT Geo.
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Dr. Nadina Galle is joined by Andy Lederer, Principal Arboriculture Officer for Oxfordshire County Council, to discuss how he got involved with trees despite growing up in North London, how data-driven decision-making is revolutionizing urban forestry, how his perspective on data has changed over his nearly two-decade-long career, how Andy has harnessed PlanIT Geo's tree inventory and asset management software in Oxfordshire County (UK), the surprising way his team of tree officers reacted to a new, data-driven approach, and what he hopes the future of data-driven urban forestry might look like.
This podcast episode is brought to you by PlanIT Geo.
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Dr. Nadina Galle is joined by Tom Ebeling, Community Arborist at Openlands, to discuss how we can ensure the trees that are planted today will still be there in 10, 20, 50, and 100 years' time, why urban tree mortality statistics are all over the map, and how Openlands' highly successful TreePlanters Grant and TreeKeeprs program may hold the secret to transforming tree-planting campaigns into tree-growing campaigns.
This podcast episode is brought to you by PlanIT Geo.
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Dr. Nadina Galle is joined by Brett KenCairn, the City of Boulder’s Senior Policy Advisor for Climate Action and the city’s Natural Climate Solutions team lead, to discuss the vital link between municipal climate change policy and urban forestry policy, how they complement each other to achieve sustainable urban forest planning, and why most city governments haven’t yet connected the dots – at least not all the way. This podcast episode is brought to you by PlanIT Geo. Follow Nadina and the Internet of Nature Podcast on all social platforms: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/internetofnature_ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadinagalle/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/earthtonadina
This week, Dr. Nadina Galle is joined by Leslie Berckes, Executive Director of the Society of Municipal Arborists (SMA), to discuss the skilled labor shortage in arboriculture and urban forestry, her experience igniting passion in young minds to participate in tree planting and tree care at Trees Forever, her groundbreaking vision to build a sustainable urban forestry workforce, and practical career tips for entering the field of tree care. This podcast episode is brought to you by PlanIT Geo. Follow Nadina and the Internet of Nature Podcast on all social platforms: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/internetofnature LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadinagalle Twitter: https://twitter.com/earthtonadina
Dr. Nadina Galle is joined by Vivek Shandas, Professor of Climate Adaptation at Portland State University and founder of CAPA Strategies, a global climate consulting firm, to discuss how urban forestry can revolutionize the way we think about promoting health and wellness, why it's different from the traditional "ecosystem service" model, and how it can appeal to non-traditional stakeholders, such as general physicians, health departments, educators, and the wider community.
This podcast episode is brought to you by PlanIT Geo.
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Dr. Nadina Galle is joined by Alex Hancock, urban forestry consultant at PlanIT Geo, to discuss private tree ordinances, a hot regulatory topic as municipalities work to protect and manage trees on private land, how emerging technologies may offer new solutions, and the ethical line between using technology to help with management while also respecting citizens' rights.
This podcast episode is brought to you by PlanIT Geo.
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Dr. Nadina Galle is joined by Tobin Mitnick, actor, comedian, and naturalist, widely known on social media as @jewslovetrees, to discuss "treefluencers", a new breed of social media influencers that use trees as their subject matter of choice, how his widely popular @jewslovetrees account has garnered over 500,000 followers, the need for new, effective leadership in urban forestry, and how pioneering "treefluencers" like Tobin play a critical role in elevating awareness towards the many wonders of trees. This podcast episode is brought to you by PlanIT Geo. Follow Nadina and the Internet of Nature Podcast on all social platforms:
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Dr. Nadina Galle is joined by Dan Lambe, CEO at Arbor Day Foundation, to discuss Dan's start in trees and urban forestry, the history of Arbor Day and the Arbor Day Foundation, the world’s best urban forests, what we can learn from the most successful examples around the world, Dan's favorite urban forest, and how new forms of data and technology play a critical role in the protection of urban forests.
This podcast episode is brought to you by PlanIT Geo.
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Dr. Nadina Galle is joined by Ian Hanou, Founder & CEO at PlanIT Geo, to introduce Season 5 of the Internet of Nature Podcast, taking listeners on a journey through the current state of urban forestry, its prospects for growth in 2023 and beyond, the most pressing issues affecting urban forestry today, and introducing listeners to the topics and guests they can expect on Season 5 of the show. This podcast episode is brought to you by PlanIT Geo. Follow Nadina and the Internet of Nature Podcast on all social platforms: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/internetofnature_ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadinagalle/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/earthtonadina
Dr. Nadina Galle is joined by Richard Louv, best known as the author of Last Child in the Woods, The Nature Principle, Our Wild Calling, and more, and founder of the Children and Nature Network, to discuss his 2005 bestseller that coined the phrase nature-deficit disorder, how his work sparked an international movement to examine the health benefits of spending time outdoors, why politics should keep its hands off nature, why rewilding cities is crucial to humanity’s future, why he’s not “anti-tech”, despite constantly being labeled as such, and why something special happens when we connect with wild animals.
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Dr. Nadina Galle is joined by Max Lerner, director of the Emerging Technologies team at the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation and founder of GROW (Green Revitalization Outreach Workforce) Externships, to discuss his upbringing in New York City, how he cultivated his love for nature, his decades of experience developing green roofs and urban farms, how his passion for technology led him to establish NYC Parks’ Emerging Tech team, how it grew to a think tank of over a 100 scientific visionaries, and his commitment to educating the green professionals of the future through innovative externships abroad.
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Dr. Nadina Galle is joined by Giulio Boccaletti, author, scientist, and co-founder of Chloris Geospatial, to discuss his unconventional career path, from physicist to climate scientist to McKinsey partner to The Nature Conservancy’s chief strategy officer to writing his new book, Water: A Biography, we discuss his views on using technology as a force for good, especially for resource management, if we should take up biodiversity in the constitution, the danger of making environmentalism political, and why humanity must fundamentally change its relationship with nature.
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Dr. Nadina Galle is joined by Monica Olsen and Jennifer Walsh, creators of the Biophilic Solutions Podcast, to discuss what connecting to nature means to them, how biophilic design can unlock an alternative method of suburban development like the Serenbe community near Atlanta, Georgia, how the pandemic changed people’s relationship with the natural world, and the technologies working to connect people to nature that they’re most excited about.
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Dr. Nadina Galle is joined by Dr. Robert Zarr, board-certified pediatrician, founder, and medical director of Park Rx America (PRA), to discuss how seeing Richard Louv speak on his book, Last Child in the Woods, changed the course of his medical practice, why and how he prescribes nature to his young patients and their families, how technology can make nature-rich areas accessible to all, and why spending time in and around nature is the single most important first step to improving both human and planetary health.
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Dr. Nadina Galle is joined by Tim Beatley, Professor of Sustainable Communities at the University of Virginia and founder of “Biophilic Cities” to discuss why being in nature must be a daily, easy practice, his efforts to make every city in the world a “biophilic” one, fascinating stories of rewilding in cities, from the world’s largest urban bat colony in Austin to the world’s largest roost of swifts in a Portland elementary school, and how nature is all around us, if only we open our eyes.
This podcast episode was brought to you by The Nature Conservancy's global coalition — Nature4Climate.
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