This conversation is with two close friends of mine, Peter Cooper and Ben Eagle. They’re both members of the A Focus on Nature Committee, the youth nature network, which is how we became friends. They’re also amazing young leaders in the conservation sector in their own right. Ben is a young farmer and conservationist whose blog thinkingcountry.com was shortlisted at last year’s national blog awards. Ben also runs his own podcast called meet the farmer. Pete is a nature writer and conservationist, a specialist in mammals. And you can find his writing at petecooperwildlife.com and he’s also recently begun his own podcast about rewilding.

These two were staying with me a few nights ago and so we decided to try a new feature that I’m loosely calling “beer and biodiversity”. In our conversation we cover a huge range of topics including the need for young farmers and young conservationists to work together more, the recent news on the dramatic decline in insects and the joys of running your own podcast. We hope you enjoy this and apologies if the conversation gets slightly more random and slurred as the night and the beer draw on.

The Wild Voices Project podcast tells the stories of people saving nature. We are part of WILDVoices media, a global production team bridging emerging storytellers with aspiring environmental professionals.  Find out more about us at  wildvoicesproject.org. Learn more about the global community at wild-voices.org