Hello, Nature Podcast Review

The Pitch:

The story of America’s National Parks through BIPOC voices.

The Product:

Misha Euceph is a big deal in the world of podcasting. Besides being a producer of podcasts from the likes of BOTH of the Obamas — not to mention Bruce Springsteen — she is the Founder and CEO of a production company, a host, and all-round creative powerhouse who has been featured in all of your favourite media outlets.

It seems like the only place you couldn’t find Misha was in a National Park as, by her own admission, she didn’t even know about them until she was 21. (To be fair, she didn’t grow up in America). But she has definitely made up for lost time during the making of Hello, Nature.

I’m from an area of Ireland so rural that “the middle of nowhere” was a landmark on the way to my house. I grew up amongst sprawling, wild farmlands, with dense thickets of shrubs lining the stoney, grassy roads, while evergreen forests enveloped our property on 2 sides. I am most at peace in nature, despite the fact I am currently in a densely populated city on the other side of the Atlantic.

All that is to say, that parks — national or otherwise — hold a special place in my heart. But I have never really dipped my hiking boots into the plentiful waters of wildlife and outdoors podcasts. The irony is that Misha’s podcast came to my attention via Great Pods, while I was in Bottomless Lakes State Park, New Mexico. (The lakes and surrounds are beautiful by the way, even if the name is the type of false advertising that Lionel Hutz might take a case against.)

Speaking of false advertising, very early into episode 1 Misha notes that she (and we) have learned that America (and let’s face it, most countries) have a little trouble with history, and honesty about that history. So she’s here to ask if the story of national parks is true, and are they really for everyone?

If this type of questioning turns you off then you should firstly do some thinking about the world and your place in it, but secondly don’t worry! Just as The Bechdel Cast will ask tough questions about the history of film with tongues firmly in cheeks, Hello, Nature is a wildly entertaining excursion into National Parks, with the enthusiasm and energy of…