This past week has been a particularly noteworthy one for podcasts about nature and natural history books, as well as about a particularly interesting nature-themed map.

Mongabay podcast – host Mike DiGirolamo interviews author Alan Weisman about his most recent book Hope Dies Last; Visionary People Across the World, Fighting to Find Us a Future (Penguin Random House).

BBC Countryfile‘s The Plodcast – host Kevin Parr takes a walk along the Dorset coast with Nick Jubber, author of the recently published book Monsterland; A Journey Around the World’s Dark Imagination (Scribe) and has a nice chat about – what else – “frightening beasts.”

Science Friday podcast – In “How The Moon Transformed Life On Earth,” host Ira Flatow and guest host Sophie Bushwick talk with science journalist Rebecca Boyle about her recently published book Our Moon: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed The Planet, Guided Evolution, And Made Us Who We Are (Penguin Random House).

Princeton University Press‘ Ideas podcast – In this episode, Carrie Lynn Evans held a particularly interesting, informative, and wide-ranging interview with Prof. Margaret C. Jacob about her 2019 book The Secular Enlightenment (Princeton University Press). Admittedly, this is a much more expansive subject than natural philosophy and natural history, but as it touches upon the development of such matters and is such a well-written book I deemed it meriting inclusion here.

Oculi Mundi What’s Your Map podcast – In “Wild, Native, Extant – Exploring Emotional Geography with Anton Thomas,” host Prof. Jerry Brotton interviews artist Anton Thomas about his remarkable Wild World map.

And as I neglected to publish a Noteworthy Podcasts list last week (sorry about that), in the 30 July 2025 episode of the London Review of Book‘s LRB podcast episode “Close Readings: ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley,” Adam Thirlwell and Marina Warner discuss the history, plot, and legacy of one of the greatest science fiction as well as science fiction novels of all time.

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