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Golden State Naturalist

A love letter to California's ecological past, present, and future.

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Recent Episodes

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Fire in Built Environments (Special Episode: LA Fires) with Alexandra Syphard
Jan. 16, 2025

Fire in Built Environments (Special Episode: LA Fires) with Alexandra Syphard

Join me and Dr. Alexandra Syphard as we discuss what makes some neighborhoods more fire prone than others, the Santa Ana Winds, defensible space, the massive differences between fires in forested Northern California and shru…
Urban Canyons with Michelle Thompson
Dec. 19, 2024

Urban Canyons with Michelle Thompson

Flying over San Diego, you can see them: Fingers of green extending through neighborhoods all across the city. San Diego’s urban canyon’s serve as refuges for people and wildlife alike, but they’re also often isolated island…
Keystone Plants with Doug Tallamy
Dec. 5, 2024

Keystone Plants with Doug Tallamy

What do oak trees, goldenrod, willows, and ceanothus all have in common? They all belong to the group of roughly 14% of plants supporting 90% of caterpillar species. In other words, they’re all keystone plants. Join me and D…
Burrowing Owls with Phil Unitt
Nov. 22, 2024

Burrowing Owls with Phil Unitt

What do fake rattlesnakes, California ground squirrels, odd eye bones, bubonic plague, bizarre choices in home decor, and regurgitated mouse bones have to do with burrowing owls? Join me and Phil Unitt as we venture into an …
Sea Level Rise and the California Coast: Imagining a Better Future with Rosanna Xia
Oct. 31, 2024

Sea Level Rise and the California Coast: Imagining a Better Future with Rosanna Xia

The sea is rising, and I have a lot of questions. Questions about sand movement, seawalls, nature-based climate solutions, ecosystem engineer plants, sand dunes, climate literature, and how we can harness the power of our co…
BONUS: Leave the Leaves with David Mizejewski
Oct. 18, 2024

BONUS: Leave the Leaves with David Mizejewski

It's fall! And all around the country, tidy piles of raked leaves rest on the corners of lawns, ready to be bagged up and thrown away. But throwing away leaves means throwing away free mulch and fertilizer. It also means thr…
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Recent Blog Posts

🦋 The bad news that might be good news

How saving the monarch could help save us, too  When I walked into the Pacific Grove Monarch Sanctuary one fall day two years ago, I didn’t see a single butterfly. At least not at first. The low wooden fence, Monterey pines, towering euc…

📚 Books by GSN Guests

This week, a listener asked me to put together a list of books by podcast guests. Since most of us listen to podcasts when our hands are busy folding towels, drying dishes, or gripping the wheel of a car, this struck me as a great idea. By the tim…

🏔 A keystone in thin air

Or how I found love at 9,500 feet Two weeks ago, hiking around Mammoth Lakes in the Eastern Sierra with my family, I encountered the whitebark pine for the first time I can remember. The tree was so omnipresent that my chance encounters with it th…
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About the Host

Michelle Fullner

Host

Michelle Fullner is an educator, California Naturalist, parent of two woodland sprite daughters, and host of the Golden State Naturalist podcast, which is now ranked in the top 1% of podcasts globally. Michelle holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Comparative Literature from San Jose State University and a Master’s in English: Composition and Rhetoric, from California State University, Sacramento. As an educator, she taught middle and high school English in California public schools for ten years before transitioning to her life as a full-time admirer of acorns, California newts, redwood sorrel, and tide pools.

Michelle has reached millions of people with her content (social media and podcast) and is available for public speaking engagements and consultation regarding science communication and social media optimization for nature-related organizations. Please use the website contact form to reach out.