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Rainforest Expert Rhett Ayers Butler on Connection, Awe & Action
October 6, 2025
Step into the Amazon rainforest with environmental journalist Rhett Ayers Butler, founder of Mongabay, as he shares a lifetime of lessons about connection, resilience, and the hidden systems that sustain life.
This episode of Resilience Gone Wild blends vivid storytelling with science to reveal how the smallest sparks of awe, whether a frog’s call, a monkey’s leap, or a single seed, can ignite powerful change in both ecosystems and human communities.
What You’ll Learn:
- How rainforest biodiversity regulates climate, stores carbon, and supports human health.
- The origin story of Mongabay and how one child’s love for frogs grew into a global conservation network.
- Why storytelling creates deeper engagement than data alone, and how emotional connection drives action.
- Lessons from rainforest communities on balance, restraint, and interdependence.
- Practical ways to apply systems thinking to daily choices, from the coffee you drink to the products you buy.
Episode Highlights:
- 02:35 – Immersive sensory journey through the Amazon rainforest’s hidden rhythms.
- 11:42 – Rhett’s childhood fascination with frogs sparks a lifelong mission for conservation.
- 19:58 – The founding of Mongabay and the power of digital storytelling to drive global impact.
- 27:16 – How a single investigative report in Gabon changed national policy on forest rights.
- 34:03 – Encounters with manta rays, orangutans, and other species that reveal animal intelligence and resilience.
- 40:25 – Soundscape science: using bioacoustics to measure ecosystem health and biodiversity.
- 44:10 – The resilience lesson, how small personal actions ripple outward like seeds in a rainforest.
Meet the Guest:
Rhett Ayers Butler is an award-winning environmental journalist and the founder of Mongabay, a leading platform for global conservation news. His work bridges science, storytelling, and community action to protect the world’s most threatened ecosystems.
Tools, Frameworks, or Strategies Mentioned:
- Soundscape monitoring and bioacoustic analysis to track biodiversity.
- Solutions journalism as a framework for inspiring action through hopeful narratives.
- Community-driven conservation models that scale from local victories to global impact.
Closing Insight:
“Resilience grows when small sparks of wonder connect into something larger. Each story, each action, each choice becomes part of the living system that sustains us all.”
Connect with Rhett Ayers Butler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhettayersbutler/
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