Dr Frank Ashwood talks to us about his new book The World Beneath Our Feet – The Hidden Life of Soil and Why It Matters to Us All. He guides us through a safari of life in the soil, touching upon species of mite that have been exclusively female for hundreds of millions of years, how an earthworm experiences its world, and how you don’t need to travel to the ends of the earth to discover new species. All you need to do is look down.

Bio:

Dr Frank Ashwood is a soil ecologist and macrophotographer, specialising in soil invertebrates. He is a Lecturer of Ecology and Entomology at Lincoln University in New Zealand, and received his PhD from University of Lancashire in 2016. Frank has previously worked as a scientist for Forest Research, part of the British Government’s Forestry Commission. He is Associate Editor of the New Zealand Journal of Zoology and member of the Royal Society of Biology. Frank has appeared on the BBC Earth Podcast, BBC Breakfast, ABC Landline, and his soil animal photography has been featured in the Guardian and the New York Times, and has been exhibited internationally.

Plant Kingdom is hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

21 Frank Ashwood: The Hidden Life of Soil

From her Future Reefs lab at the University Technology Sydney, coral reef expert Dr Emma Camp looks at how science can help restore and future proof Australia’s threatened coral reefs. With a practice founded in conservation and community collaboration we spoke about the world of coral – their ecology, reef restoration and her search for naturally heat tolerant super corals.

Bio:

Associate Professor Emma Camp is a marine biologist and the Team Leader of the Future Reefs Team at the University of Technology Sydney. Her teams research ranges from organism scale molecular signatures to broad scale ecological interactions, and specialise in advancing technical solutions to help preserve and re-build healthy reefs. In 2018, Emma co-Founded Coral Nurture Program, a science-tourism partnership to repopulate corals on the Great Barrier Reef. She is a leading coral expert, with her research recognised through numerous awards, including being names a 2024 World Economic Forum Young leader, the 2021 Macquarie University Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher and in 2020 was named a Next Generation Leader by Time Magazine.

Hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

20 Emma Camp: Vital reefs

Biologist Dr Leonora Bittleston takes us into the mysterious world of the phyllosphere – the micro world upon leaf and plant surfaces. We discuss her research on plant-microbe interactions, looking at case studies of the sage brush steppe ecosystem and the fascinating miniature worlds of carnivorous pitcher plants. She shares how even the smallest organisms on our planet can be a force of nature.

Bio:

Leonora Bittleston is an Associate Professor at Boise State University. She is fascinated by the complex interactions that form between very different kinds of organisms, and among microbes and plants in particular. Her research aims to learn more about life on our planet, taking into account the interconnectedness of ecosystem processes, communities, and species. Previously, Leonora was a James S. McDonnell Postdoctoral Fellow in Complex Systems at MIT. She earned her PhD from the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and her BS from U.C. Berkeley.

Hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

19 Leonora Bittleston: The world on a leaf

Author Barbara Allen discusses her work Lost Animals, Disappearing Worlds (Reaktion Books, 2025). Through her style of writing animal biography, Allen creates space to honour and memorialise extinct animals. We discuss the tragic tales of the passenger pigeon, St Helena’s earwig, dusky seaside sparrow and thylacine. She recreates their presence and world through story.

Bio:

Barbara Allen was a nurse, then a school teacher, before studying to become an ordained minister in the Uniting Church in Australia. She has always been passionate about animals. Her previous books include Lost Animals, Disappearing Worlds, Pigeon, Animals in Religion, Pelican and Broken Heart, Shared Heart, Healing Heart, a book about pet loss. She has been a minister in parishes, schools and aged care facilities. Barbara helped develop Australia’s first animal chaplaincy program at the Lort Smith Animal Hospital, in Melbourne. Recently widowed, she combines locum ministry with her writing ministry. She shares her home with her animal family: Harry, an elderly blind dog, Leaf an elderly cat, and several white doves.

Hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

18 Barbara Allen: Lost Animals, Disappearing Worlds

Palaeontologist and curator of the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum Dr Emily Bamforth uses fossils to recreate ancient worlds, painting a vivid picture of Alberta’s polar dinosaurs of 65 million years ago. She shares her philosophy of deep time, her interest in evolutionary ‘failed experiments’, and how the study of ancient life has shaped her unique perspective.

Bio:

Dr Emily Bamforth is the Curator of the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum in Alberta, Canada. She completed a BSc with Specialisation in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Alberta, which sparked a fascination in the origins of multicellular life on Earth. She went on to do a MSc degree at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario under Dr Guy Narbonne. Her fieldwork in Mistaken Point, Newfoundland explored fossils of the oldest complex multicellular life on the planet, from which she described three new species. Returning to her first love (dinosaurs), Dr Bamforth completed a PhD at McGill University in Montreal under Dr Hans Larsson, with a thesis based on the dinosaur mass extinction in Saskatchewan. After graduating in 2014, she went on to work as a palaeontologist with the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, where her research focused on Late Cretaceous and early Cenozoic paleoecology and paleobotany, as well as mass extinction. She began as Curator of the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum in 2022, where her work focuses on late Cretaceous paleoecosystems with an emphasis on understanding the relationships between paleoclimate, paleobotany and dinosaur ecology. Dr Bamforth is an adjunct professor in the University of Alberta’s Department of Biological Sciences and the University of Saskatchewan’s Geological Sciences Department. In her free time, Dr Bamforth enjoys hiking, photography and singing in choirs.

Plant Kingdom is hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

17 Emily Bamforth: Canada's polar dinosaurs

Researcher, artist and author Dr Josh Wodak shares insights from his new book Petrified: Living during a rupture of life on Earth. In our conversation, we spoke about deep time, extinction and life on our volatile planet. Spanning 65 million years we cover the climate crisis, asteroid impacts, volcanoes and how pop culture can help us cope and make sense of it all.

Bio:

Dr Joshua Wodak is an artist, writer, and Senior Lecturer at the School of Arts, Western Sydney University. His lyrical, playful, and deadly serious work explores ideas about the unfolding rupture of life on Earth (climate crisis, Anthropocene, Sixth Extinction Event et. al.) in the context of this planet’s propensity to constantly unleash its own crises, time, and time again. That is: how to live on an inherently unstable Earth, and in an inherently catastrophic cosmos. His first book is ‘Petrified: Living During a Rupture of Life on Earth’, published in the Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies series by Heidelberg University (De Gruyter, 2025).

Get Petrified: Living During a Rupture of Life on Earth here: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111382937/html 

Plant Kingdom is hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur. Post-production on this episode was completed on Worimi country as part of the Gunyah Artist Residency Program.

16: Josh Wodak: Think like a volcano

Entomologist and author Dr Barrett Klein discusses cultural entomology – the study of how insects have shaped and influenced human culture and society. Taking us through the archaeological record, Klein discusses curious objects including a 3700 year old lice comb; ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics depicting apiculture; and a small paleolithic carving of a cave cricket. He also shares his research into honeybee society, insect sleep and what future insect industries may look like.

Bio:

Dr Barrett Klein is the author of The Insect Epiphany: How our six legged allies shape human culture [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/barrett-klein/the-insect-epiphany/9781643263908/?lens=timber-press]. His research investigates mysteries of sleep in societies of insects, creates entomo-art, and is ever on the search for curious connections that bind our lives with our six-legged allies. Barrett studied entomology at Cornell University and the University of Arizona, fabricated natural history exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History, worked with honey bees for his PhD at the University of Texas at Austin, and spearheaded the Pupating Lab at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse. He celebrates biodiversity and the intersection of science and art, and believes fully that embracing the beauty of insects can transform our lives and our world.

Hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

15 Barrett Klein: Insect Epiphany

Astrobiologist and science communicator Dr Luke Steller journeys deep into the primordial soup to discuss the enigma of Earth’s first life. In our conversation, we discuss what early life could have looked like 3 billion years ago, how scientists read the fossil and rock record, and what life might look like elsewhere in our universe.

Bio:

Dr. Luke Steller is a researcher in the field of astrobiology, the study of how life began on Earth and where it might exist elsewhere in the universe. His research consists of exploring the ancient hot springs of the Pilbara region in Western Australia, on Nyamal Country, where some of the oldest evidence for life on Earth are found. By studying the ancient environment in which this early life was found and conducting experiments that simulate early Earth conditions, Luke explores how simple chemical systems, like RNA and proto-cells, could have evolved into life. He has a PhD in geology from the University of New South Wales.

Hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

14 Luke Steller: Primordial soup

Dr Eddie Game is the Lead Scientist & Director of Conservation for The Nature Conservancy’s Asia Pacific region. In our conversation, he discusses conservation as a collaboration with community, and his pioneering works into acoustic ecology – the study of the biology of natural soundscapes. He shares his field work in Papua New Guinea and Borneo, what a healthy jungle sounds like, and what it’s like waking up to the calls of gibbons.

Bio:

Eddie Game is the Lead Scientist & Director of Conservation for The Nature Conservancy’s Asia Pacific region, responsible for ensuring that the Conservancy remains a world leader in making science-based conservation decisions. He has had the privilege of working on conservation in over 20 countries. Eddie and his team have been enthusiastic adopters of ecoacoustics, developing partnerships that bring together cutting-edge academic research with real-world applications in countries including, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Myanmar, Australia, and Gabon. He has published more than 75 papers on aspects of conservation science and climate change, alongside his book Conservation Planning: Informed Decisions for a Healthier Planet [http://www.amazon.com/Conservation-Planning-Informed-Decisions-Healthier/dp/1936221519], co-authored with Craig Groves.

Hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

Additional Sound Credits:

Borneo Jungle - Day by RTB45 -- https://freesound.org/s/253291/ -- License: Attribution 4.0; Gibbons-Kao Yai National Park.wav by RTB45 -- https://freesound.org/s/147958/ -- License: Attribution 4.0; bat.wav by tomschuetz -- https://freesound.org/s/635147/ -- License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 ; 210504 American Robin, dawn song close, roof, urban residential, TORONTO 5am.wav by TRP -- https://freesound.org/s/616969/ -- License: Creative Commons 0; Scpsea (Scp Xqy18) Blowing by ShangASDFGuy123 -- https://freesound.org/s/712560/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

13 Eddie Game: Ecoacoustics

Associate Professor Dr Jenny Mortimer discusses plants as a technology, and how she applies genetic engineering as a tool to solve wicked problems of sustainability in agricultural and pharmaceutical production. Her lab uses synthetic biology to develop new crops in controlled growth environments – including plants for space settlement as part of the newly formed ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space.

BIO:

Jenny Mortimer is Associate Professor of Plant Synthetic Biology in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide. She is also an Affiliate Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. After completing her PhD at Cambridge University, she began exploring how engineering the plant cell wall could deliver sustainable and economically viable biofuels. At Adelaide, her group is using synthetic biology to develop new crops for food and materials production in controlled growth environments – including for Space settlement, as part of the newly formed ARC Centre of Excellence Plants for Space (P4S). She is active in outreach and education, and collaborates with  media, schools and museums. She is a handling editor for the prestigious journals Plant Cell Physiology and The Plant Journal.

Plant Kingdom is hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz with music by Carl Didur.

12 Jenny Mortimer: Plants in space

Catherine Polcz (@cliviapolcz) · Zencastr

Catherine Polcz (@cliviapolcz)

Plant Kingdom is a conversation series about plants, nature and environment featuring scientists, artists, researchers, writers and healers.

We release two conversations each month, and hear from people who have an intimacy with plants and nature. We discuss their work, stories and reflections from the field.

We record in Sydney, Australia on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and pay respect to their elders - past, present and future.

Hosted and produced by Catherine Polcz. Our music is by Carl Didur.

Visit us at plantkingdom.earth