In this episode, Dr. Ted Auch, the Great Lakes Program Coordinator for the Fractracker Alliance interviews Ms. Michelle Niujhuis, author of "Beloved Beasts - Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction." Niujhuis' book is a critical history of the modern conservation movement. It was named one of the best books of 2021 by the Chicago Tribune, Smithsonian, Booklist, and other publications.

Niujhuis is a project editor at The Atlantic, where she edits features for the Planet section and a series called Life Up Close, and she's a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. Her writing has also appeared in publications including National Geographic and the New York Times Magazine, and she's proud to be a longtime contributing editor of High Country News, a scrappy institution that produces some of the finest journalism in the American West. Niujhuis is the co-editor of The Science Writers’ Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Pitch, Publish and Prosper in the Digital Age, published by Da Capo Press, and the author of The Science Writers’ Essay Handbook: How to Craft Compelling True Stories in Any Medium.


In this discussion, Niujhuis explains how she came to write "Beloved Beasts," how she evolved from being a field biologist to becoming a journalist covering issues relating to science and conservation, the politics behind conservation - particularly in the American West, and how the conservation movement has evolved over time.